| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07974470B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing an image
Provided are an image processing method and apparatus capable of improving the result of segmenting an image and discriminatively determining the extent of processing the image. In the method, the extent of segmentation of the image is calculated; the result of segmentation is compensated for and the extent of processing the image is determined, based on the calculated extent of segmentation; and each region of the image is discriminatively processed according to the determined extent of processing. Accordingly, it is possible to improve the precision of the result of segmentation and continuously control the extent of discriminative processing around a complex image object. |
| US07974469B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and image processing program for superior image output
An image processing apparatus includes the following elements. An image data obtaining unit obtains image data. A sampling unit samples the image data. A statistic value determining unit determines a statistic value based on statistic information in a histogram with respect to a grayscale value of image data that is obtained by performing rough quantization and linear interpolation on the sampled image data. A correction-amount determining unit determines a correction amount to be used for image processing based on the statistic value. An image processing unit performs the image processing according to the correction amount. |
| US07974463B2 |
Compensating for distortion in digital images
Systems and methods using an unstructured pattern for three-dimensional model construction, such as may be used for processing images of documents are disclosed. The method generally includes projecting an unstructured infrared pattern onto a target object, capturing a pair of stereoscopic images of the pattern projected onto the target object, such as with infrared cameras, performing signal processing on the pair of stereoscopic images to cross-correlate portions of the stereoscopic images in order to identify corresponding portions in the stereoscopic images, and constructing a three-dimensional model of the target object. The three-dimensional model can be utilized to rectify, e.g., de-warp, an image of the target object, e.g., a page or both facing pages of a bound document. |
| US07974461B2 |
Method and apparatus for displaying a calculated geometric entity within one or more 3D rangefinder data sets
A method, computer program product, and apparatus for displaying a calculated geometric entity within at least one 3D range data set obtained using a 3D rangefinder device. At least a first 3D range data set is provided. Each 3D range data set is displayed as at least one displayed image. A calculated geometric entity selected from the group consisting of a vector, a surface, and a volume, is specified. The calculated geometric entity may be displayed merged within at least one displayed image. |
| US07974460B2 |
Method and system for three-dimensional obstacle mapping for navigation of autonomous vehicles
A method and system for obstacle mapping for navigation of an autonomous vehicle is disclosed. The method comprises providing an autonomous vehicle with an image capturing device, and focusing the image capturing device at a predetermined number of different specified distances to capture an image at each of the specified distances. The method further comprises identifying which regions in the captured images are in focus, and assigning a corresponding lens-focus distance to each of the regions that are in focus. A composite image is formed from the captured images, with each of the regions labeled with the corresponding lens-focus distance. A three-dimensional obstacle map is then produced from the composite image. The three-dimensional obstacle map has an x, y, z coordinate system, with x being proportional to pixel horizontal position, y being proportional to pixel vertical position, and z being the lens-focus distance. |
| US07974459B2 |
Apparatus and method for the automated marking of defects on webs of material
A system for the characterization of webs that permits the identification of anomalous regions on the web to be performed at a first time and place, and permits the localization and marking of actual defects to be performed at a second time and place. |
| US07974454B1 |
Capture control for in vivo camera
Systems and methods are provided for capture control of video data from a capsule camera system having an on-board storage or wireless transmission. The capsule camera system moves through the GI tract under the action of peristalsis and records images of the intestinal walls. For some periods of time, the capsule camera system may move very slowly and there are little differences in the image data between different frames. These frames can be designated for discard to conserve storage space or conserve power. A capsule control processing unit is incorporated to evaluate motion metric based on image data associated with a current frame and a previous frame. A decision is made based on a profile of the motion metric to select an operation mode from a group comprising Capture Mode and Conservation Mode. The capsule camera system is then operated according to the selected operation mode. |
| US07974452B2 |
Cell culture device, image processing device and cell detecting system
In a container of a cell culture device, a light source and a camera are arranged on both sides of an incubator, and the camera or incubator can be moved in relation to each other.An image of cells in the incubator is captured with a given focus.The medium, image density, and noise component of images captured while varying the focus of the camera have substantially similar pixel values.Consequently, by subjecting the data on the images captured with such different focuses to differential processing, only the cell portion can be extracted without being influenced by the color variation of the medium, the variation of the amount of light, the difference in brightness between the central and peripheral areas of the image, and the noise. |
| US07974448B2 |
Personal authentication system using biometrics information
A personal authentication system using biometrics information, which identifies or authenticates an individual by verifying to-be-verified biometrics characteristic data against previously registered biometrics characteristic data. The system includes a biometrics information inputting section having a function to acquire the to-be-verified biometrics information; a biometrics information converting section converting said to-be-verified biometrics information, acquired through said biometrics information inputting section, into a state to be acquired on a predetermined acquisition condition, said predetermined acquisition condition being a same condition under which the registered biometric information was acquired; and a biometrics characteristic data extracting section extracting to-be-verified biometrics characteristics data from the to-be-verified biometrics information obtained by the conversion in said biometrics information converting section. |
| US07974447B2 |
Image synthesizing device, image collation device using the same, image synthesizing method and program
An image synthesizing device for synthesizing a second image of an object in a predetermined illumination condition from a first image of the object includes an illumination condition estimation section for estimating an illumination condition from a luminance value of the first image, and a normal information estimation section estimates normal information containing a normal direction of the object, with regard to a predetermined pixel in the first image. An error component information estimation section estimates information of an error component in the predetermined illumination condition, an image synthesizing section synthesizes the second image of the object in the predetermined illumination condition, and the normal information estimation section estimates normal information of a predetermined pixel from information of a plurality of the pixels in the first image. |
| US07974444B2 |
Image processor and vehicle surrounding visual field support device
One camera having a horizontally wide view angle is installed at each of the left and right rear ends of a tractor. The visual field of the left camera includes the road surface located to the left side of the tractor and a trailer, and the like. The visual field of the right camera includes the road surface located to the right side of the tractor and the trailer, and the like. The left and right cameras have a common visual field at the rear side of the trailer. A panorama image obtained by synthesizing images respectively obtained by the left and right cameras is displayed on a display device located in the interior of the tractor. |
| US07974440B2 |
Use of statistical data in estimating an appearing-object
A person estimation device (10) includes an identification unit (200) for identifying a person in video. A person displayed in a smaller display area than the area defined by an identification enabled frame of the identification unit (200) is estimated by a CPU (110) in combination with the person identification by the identification unit (200). Here, statistic data concerning the person or the relationship between the persons is acquired from the statistic DB (20) and given as an estimation element. The person is estimated according to the estimation element. |
| US07974439B2 |
Embedding hidden auxiliary information in media
Methods and apparatus for steganographically embedding information in media signals (e.g., audio and video) are provided. One claim recites a method of enabling tracing of a media signal to a distribution point of the media signal, including: providing time and place information associated with the distribution point, the distribution point includes at least speakers to render the media signal to an assembled audience; utilizing a programmed electronic processor, embedding the time and place information in the media signal, such that the time and place information is imperceptibly distributed in the media signal, said embedding alters data representing audible portions of the media signal or alters data representing video picture elements of the media signal to convey the time and place information in the media signal; and at least the place information is recoverable from plural different portions of the media signal. Of course, other claims, combinations and features are also provided. |
| US07974438B2 |
Spatial data encoding and decoding
Methods and systems for spatial data encoding and decoding are described. A tile may be designated within a source frame. The tile may be divided into at least one bit area. A particular message bit value of a message may be accessed. A statistical property calculation may be performed on a pixel variable value of available pixels within the tile. A pixel variable value of pixels in the particular bit area of a target frame may be shifted to encode a particular message bit. A particular pixel variable value of a particular pixel of the plurality of pixels may be shifted by a shift value. The shift value may be in accordance with the statistical property calculation, the particular message bit value, and a particular modulation pattern value of the plurality of modulation pattern values for the particular pixel within the particular bit area. |
| US07974436B2 |
Methods, apparatus and programs for generating and utilizing content signatures
The present invention relates to deriving and/or utilizing content signatures. A content signature includes a representation of a content item, which is derived or calculated from the content item itself. One claim recites a method comprising: obtaining a content item; transforming the content item to obtain transform domain coefficients; applying Viterbi decoding to a set of the transform domain coefficients; and using a result of the Viterbi decoding as a content signature representing features or characteristics of the content item itself. Other claims and combinations are provided too. |
| US07974435B2 |
Pattern-based encoding and detection
A method and system for encoding a content signal having one or more content segments. The one or more content segments of the content signal are identifying or obtained. One or more encoded patterns are superimposed or inserted in a segment portion of at least one of the one or more content segments by use of an insertion method that renders the one or more encoded patterns substantially invisible within the content signal. A method for detecting an encoded message within an encoded content signal. A pattern format is identified in at least one of the content segments. One or more encoded patterns are extracted from the one or more pattern formatted identified content segments. The one or more encoded patterns are decoded. The encoded message decoded from the encoded content signal is utilized. |
| US07974426B2 |
IC chip type hearing aid module for mobile communication terminal
Disclosed is an IC chip type hearing aid module for use in a mobile communication terminal having a hearing aid circuit including: a first section having a resistor R1 and an inductor L1 which are connected in series on a first output line Receiver_P between the mobile communication terminal and an ear speaker; a second section having a resistor R4 and an inductor L2 which are connected in series on a second output line Receiver_N between the mobile communication terminal and the ear speaker; a third section having a resistor R2 and a capacitor C2 which are connected in series between an input terminal of the first section and an output terminal of the second section; and a fourth section having a resistor R3 and a capacitor C3 which are connected in series between an input terminal of the second section and an output terminal of the first section. |
| US07974422B1 |
System and method of adjusting the sound of multiple audio objects directed toward an audio output device
Embodiments of the present invention include methods and apparatuses for adjusting audio content when more multiple audio objects are directed toward a single audio output device. The amplitude, white noise content, and frequencies can be adjusted to enhance overall sound quality or make content of certain audio objects more intelligible. Audio objects are classified by a class category, by which they are can be assigned class specific processing. Audio objects classes can also have a rank. The rank of an audio objects class is used to give priority to or apply specific processing to audio objects sin the presence of other audio objects of different classes. |
| US07974420B2 |
Mixed audio separation apparatus
A mixed audio separation system (100) which separates a specific audio from among a mixed audio (S100) includes a local frequency information generation unit (105) which obtains pieces of local frequency information (S103) corresponding to local reference waveforms (S102), based on the local reference waveforms (S102) and an analysis waveform which is the waveform of the mixed audio (S100). Each of the local reference waveforms (S102) (i) constitutes a part of a reference waveform for analyzing a predetermined frequency, (ii) has a predetermined temporal/spatial resolution and (iii) includes at least one of an amplification spectrum and a phase spectrum in the predetermined frequency. The system includes: a specific audio's frequency feature value extraction unit (106) which performs pattern matching between a first set which is the pieces of local frequency information and a second set of pieces of frequency information (S103) of a predetermined specific audio, and extracts the first set of the pieces of local frequency information (S103), based on a result of the pattern matching; and an audio signal generation unit which generates a signal of the specific audio, based on the first set of the pieces of local frequency information (S103) extracted by the specific audio's frequency feature value extraction unit. |
| US07974419B2 |
Pop sound prevention module and speaker apparatus thereof
A pop sound prevention module and a speaker apparatus thereof are provided. The pop sound prevention module is used for preventing the speaker apparatus generating a pop sound when a power shuts down. The speaker apparatus includes an audio amplifier, an audio processor, the pop sound prevention module, and a loudspeaker. The audio processor is coupled to a first operation voltage. The audio amplifier is coupled to a second operation voltage. When the power shuts down, the pop sound prevention module outputs a mute control signal to the audio amplifier according to voltage difference between the first operation voltage and the second operation voltage. According to the mute control signal, the audio amplifier prevents the loudspeaker from generating a pop sound. |
| US07974415B2 |
System and method for updating keys used for public key cryptography
A provider system is disclosed for providing a sequence of public keys to a receiver system, wherein each public key of the sequence is related to a private key and is applicable for a public key cryptography procedure. The provider system can include a computing unit and a sending unit. The computing unit can be configured to generate the sequence of public keys and related keys and compute a plurality of data sets, where a data set of the plurality of data sets includes a public key and a proof value. The proof values can result from applying a hash function to a following data set that includes a further public key following in the sequence. The sending unit can be configured to provide the plurality of data to a receiver system. |
| US07974412B2 |
Communication system, transmission device, reception device, and communication scheme
A communication system includes a transmission device that transmits an information signal having information defined as a binary state value, the transmission device including a signal generation unit that generates an information decryption signal to transmit the information decryption signal together with the information signal, wherein the state value of the information decryption signal is unchanged when the state value of the information signal is changed, whereas the state value of the information decryption signal is changed when the state value of the information signal is unchanged; and a reception device that receives the information signal and the information decryption signal, the reception device including an information acquisition unit that acquires the state value of the information signal based on a changing timing of the state value of each of the information signal and the information decryption signal received. |
| US07974411B2 |
Method for protecting audio content
Techniques for protecting information in an audio file are provided. The techniques include obtaining an audio file, detecting information bearing one or more segments in a speech signal, wherein the information comprises information sought for protection, encrypting the information sought for protection by scrambling the one or more segments using a scrambling filter, and selectively decrypting an amount of the encrypted information, wherein the amount of the encrypted information to be decrypted depends on user access privilege, and wherein selectively decrypting the amount of the encrypted information protects said amount of the encrypted information. Techniques are also provided for protecting information in an audio file. |
| US07974397B2 |
Method and system for providing computer-network related information about a calling party
A method and system for providing computer-network related information about a calling party. First, the called party receives a telephone number of a calling party. The called party's customer premises equipment (CPE) or elements in a telephone network then use the telephone number to index a database, which contains combinations of telephone numbers and computer-network addresses. Once the calling party's computer-network address is retrieved, calling-party-customized information present at the computer-network location specified by the computer-network address can be sent to and displayed on the called party's CPE. Also, the calling party's telephone number can be sent to an application in the computer network, causing the calling-party-customized information to be automatically displayed on the called party's CPE. |
| US07974395B2 |
Detection of telephone number spoofing
An apparatus and method are disclosed that enables detecting the spoofing of a telephone number. To validate the identity of a calling terminal, some techniques in the prior art rely on exchanging data that only the legitimate calling system and the called system know about. In contrast, the illustrative embodiment of the present invention validates the identity of the calling terminal by assessing characteristics other than the calling terminal's telephone number, such as the telephone type and the signaling protocol. By using characteristics other than telephone number to validate the identity, the data-processing system of the illustrative embodiment makes it more difficult to spoof a legitimate telephone's number. |
| US07974392B2 |
System and method for personalized text-to-voice synthesis
A communication device and method are provided for audibly outputting a received text message to a user, the text message being received from a sender. A text message to present audibly is received. An output voice to present the text message is retrieved, wherein the output voice is synthesized using predefined voice characteristic information to represent the sender's voice. The output voice is used to audibly present the text message to the user. |
| US07974390B2 |
Method and system for transferring audio content to a telephone-switching system
A method and system for transferring audio content to a telephone-switching system is provided. The telephone-switching system receives the audio content from a source. Thereafter, the telephone-switching system authenticates the source. The telephone-switching system also authenticates the audio content. Thereafter, the telephone-switching system stores the audio content in a file directory of the telephone-switching system. |
| US07974389B2 |
Method of providing 911 service to a private branch exchange
A method of providing 911 service to a private branch exchange, includes grouping a plurality of private telephone numbers into a set. An outgoing telephone line for a 911 call is assigned to the set. A location information for the outgoing telephone line is input into a location database. |
| US07974386B2 |
Methods and systems for testing new network element failure rate
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for testing failure rate of newly installed network elements within a predetermined amount of time prior to customer use of the network elements are provided. An order report including information regarding one or more network elements is accessed, and based on the information provided by the orders report, a network element from the one or more network elements to be tested is determined. Information regarding the network element to be tested is retrieved from the orders report and included on a ticket created for the network element to be tested. The ticket created for the network element is then forwarded to a test device for testing of the network element associated with the forwarded ticket. |
| US07974384B2 |
X-ray tube having a ferrofluid seal and method of assembling same
An x-ray tube includes a vacuum enclosure, a shaft having a first end and a second end, a flange attached to the first end of the shaft, the flange having an outer perimeter, and a ferrofluid seal assembly having an inner bore, the inner bore having an outer perimeter smaller than the outer perimeter of the flange. The shaft is inserted through the bore of the ferrofluid seal assembly such that the ferrofluid seal assembly is positioned between the first end of the shaft and the second end of the shaft and such that the first end extends into the vacuum enclosure, and the ferrofluid seal is configured to fluidically seal the vacuum enclosure from an environment into which the second end of the shaft extends. |
| US07974383B2 |
System and method to maintain target material in ductile state
An x-ray tube includes a frame, an anode for generating x-rays disposed within the frame, a cathode disposed within the frame, where the cathode is configured to selectively emit an electron beam toward the anode, and at least one heating element disposed within the frame and configured to heat a portion of the anode. |
| US07974382B2 |
Radiographic imaging system, radiographic imaging device, control device, and radiographic imaging control method
There is provided a radiographic imaging system including: a radiographic imaging device including a generating section that captures a radiographic image expressed by irradiated radiation and generates image information expressing the captured radiographic image, and a first communication section that transmits, plural times and by wireless communication and even during a response wait time period, imaging start instructing information that instructs starting of imaging when preparations for capturing a radiographic image by the generating section have been completed; and a control device having a second communication section that can communicate by wireless communication with the first communication section, and a control section that controls a radiation irradiating section such that radiation is irradiated with respect to the radiographic imaging device in a case in which the second communication section receives any of the imaging start instructing information that are transmitted plural times from the first communication section. |
| US07974381B2 |
Systems, methods and apparatus for a mobile imaging system equipped with fuel cells
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments, a mobile imaging system includes one or more fuel cells. Some embodiments include further electric power sources, such as battery and/or an external AC power source. |
| US07974379B1 |
Metrology and registration system and method for laminography and tomography
A metrology system that uses an imaging system to monitor alignment features on the sample or sample holder of an X-ray laminography or tomography system. the metrology system has the capability to provide both sample shift and sample rotation movement data to a data acquisition system. These shift and rotation data can be used in alignment routines to produce 3D reconstructions from the X-ray images/projections. The metrology system is based on an imaging and focusing measurement of intrinsic feature of the sample or artificial features fabricated on the sample or sample holder. |
| US07974375B2 |
Linear phase detector and clock/data recovery circuit thereof
A linear phase detector includes an up/down pulse generator operating in response to received data signals and a recovered clock signal. The phase detector generates up and down pulses that have pulse widths proportional to the phase differences between transitions of the received data signals and edges of the recovered clock signal. By generating up and down pulses using a linear phase detector in proportion to a phase error, data signals are effectively recovered, even data signals with significant jitter. |
| US07974372B2 |
OFDM receiving method and receiving apparatus
Disclosed is an OFDM receiving apparatus for receiving a signal that has sustained inter-symbol interference owing to a delayed wave that exceeds a guard interval, eliminating at least inter-symbol interference from the receive signal and applying demodulation and decoding processing to the receive signal from which interference has been eliminated. A combination of number of iterations of the equalization processing for eliminating interference from a receive signal and for demodulating and decoding the receive signal and number of iterations for repeating the decoding in the decoding processing is changed over based upon the state of the propagation path, e.g., the SIR, which is the ratio of desired signal power to interference power. |
| US07974370B2 |
Parallel processing for single antenna interference cancellation
A system and method is disclosed for providing single antenna interference cancellation processing with minimum latency. Incoming data frames are processed to generate a plurality of parallel data streams which are then further processed using a parallel single antenna interference cancellation algorithm to reject the signals and to generate a data stream containing only the desired symbols. In various embodiments of the invention, the parallel data streams are processed using a parallel arithmetic logic unit that is capable of operating in single-cycle mode in response to a first control stream and a multi-cycle mode in response to a second control stream. Embodiments of the invention comprise a three port memory interface operable to receive the parallel data streams and to generate a virtual three-dimensional data structure therefrom. In some embodiments of the invention, the virtual three-dimensional data representation comprises a plurality of segmented matrices, with the segmented matrices comprising data corresponding to portions of the incoming data frames. Data elements within the individual segments of the virtual three dimensional data structure can be calculated using data elements contained in a predetermined row and predetermined column of a segment. |
| US07974366B2 |
Low-latency baseline-wander compensation systems and methods
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for detecting a signal to provide a detected data sequence, comprising providing a plurality of candidate data sequences, computing baseline wander estimates associated with respective ones of the candidate data sequences, comparing a signal to each of the respective ones of the candidate data sequences, wherein the comparisons are compensated by corresponding ones of the baseline wander estimates, and choosing, based on the comparisons, one of the plurality of candidate data sequences to be the detected data sequence. |
| US07974364B2 |
Doppler frequency estimation and adaptation for mobile multimedia multicast systems
A technique for Doppler frequency estimation and adaptation in a MediaFLO™ (Forward Link Only) receiver system includes receiving Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in the receiver, dividing a Doppler frequency range into N ranges corresponding to N interpolation filters; determining a correlation between two OFDM symbols separated by time; estimating a Doppler frequency by the correlation of OFDM symbols; determining a ratio of the correlation of OFDM symbols; comparing the determined ratio of the correlation of OFDM symbols with a look up table of α stored at a receiver to determine a corresponding Doppler frequency; mapping α ranges stored at the look up table to suitable interpolation filters; estimating an interpolation filter from the mapped α ranges mapped against determined α ratio; adapting Time Domain Interpolation (TDI) to the selected interpolation filter; and synchronizing receiver to the TDI filter. |
| US07974363B2 |
Receiver, receiving method, filter circuit, and control method
A receiver supporting a plurality of radio communication systems having different specifications includes a setting unit, a clock generation circuit, a voltage-current conversion amplifier, a switch, integrators, an AD conversion circuit, and a feedback circuit. The setting unit sets a value suitable for a carrier frequency used in one selected radio communication system. The clock generation circuit generates a first clock having a first frequency and a second clock having a second frequency. The conversion amplifier converts an input voltage signal into a current signal. The switch switches between connection and disconnection modes in accordance with the first clock to output the current signal. Each integrator operates in accordance with the second clock and includes two or more switched capacitor circuits and an operational amplifier. The AD conversion circuit converts a signal supplied from the preceding integrator into digital form. The feedback circuit operates in accordance with the second clock. |
| US07974362B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating a permutation for reverse link hopping in wireless communication system
A method and apparatus for generating a permutation for reverse link hopping is provided, comprising initializing permutation constants, determining a value for p such that i<2p wherein i is a value of a first counter, initializing a second counter j to ‘0’, setting x to i+1 wherein x is index of elements of an array A, clocking a Pseudo-noise (PN) register n times to generate a pseudorandom number, setting x to p Least Significant Bits (LSB) of the pseudorandom number, incrementing j by 1, determining if j is equal to 3 or x is less than or equal to i, determining if x is greater than i, setting x equal to x−i, swapping the ith and xth element in the array A, decrementing counter i by 1, and mapping a set of hop-ports to a set of sub-carriers based upon the generated hop-permutation. |
| US07974357B2 |
Method and device for carrying out flexible demodulation in an OFDM-CDMA system
This method for carrying out the flexible demodulation of data modulated following an amplitude modulation in quadrature is used in a communications system employing a code division multiple access technique (CDMA) and an optical frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) using non-binary spread codes. The invention includes steps for determining a simplified expression specific to the logarithm of the likelihood ratio. |
| US07974354B2 |
Peak-to-average-power-ratio reduction in communication systems
An adaptation apparatus for adapting an input signal, the input signal being digital in the frequency domain and having a peak-to-average-power-ratio in the time domain. The adaptation apparatus has an evaluation unit for evaluating the input signal and for providing an evaluation signal based on an optimization criterion. The adaptation apparatus further has a summing unit for adding the evaluation signal to the input signal in the frequency domain and for providing an output signal in the frequency domain having a lower peak-to-average-power-ratio in the time domain than the signal in the time domain. |
| US07974348B2 |
Two-wire serial handshaking communication interface and method thereof
A two-wire serial handshaking communication interface and a method thereof is provided for a transmission of a data bit representative between a first transmitting component and a second transmitting component, wherein the first transmitting component includes a first input/output unit and a second input/output unit and the second transmitting component has a third input/output unit and a fourth input/output unit, wherein the first input/output unit and the second input/output unit transmit a first signal through a first transmitting line electrically connected therebetween and the third input/output unit and the fourth input/output unit transmit a second signal transmitted through a second transmitting line electrically connected therebetween without strict constraint on communication timing. |
| US07974347B2 |
Automating interval selection based on range and size of display area
A mechanism for automatically determining an optimal temporal interval for displaying data is provided. The mechanism receives information indicating a temporal range. The mechanism determines the size of a display area in which data corresponding to the temporal range is to be displayed. The mechanism further determines, based at least partially upon the size of the display area, how many data display elements can be displayed within the first display area. The mechanism then determines, based at least partially upon the temporal range and how many data display elements can be displayed within the display area, a temporal interval by which the temporal range is to be divided for purposes of displaying the data corresponding to the temporal range. Each data display element corresponds to a particular instance of temporal interval. |
| US07974343B2 |
Entropy coding method for coding video prediction residual coefficients
The present invention provides an entropy coding method for coding video prediction residual coefficients, comprising the steps of: firstly, zig-zag scanning coefficients of blocks to be coded to form a sequence of (level, run) pairs; secondly, selecting a type of code table for coding a current image block to be coded according to a type of macro block; then switching and coding each (level, run) pair in the obtained sequence of (level, run) pairs with multiple tables, with the reverse zig-zag scanning order for the coding order of the pairs; at last, coding a flag of End of Block EOB with the current code table. The present invention of an entropy coding method for coding video prediction residual coefficients fully considers the context information and the rules of symbol's conditional probability distribution by designing different tables for different block types and different regions of level. The coding efficiency is improved and no impact to computational implementation complexity is involved. |
| US07974335B2 |
Apparatus for equalizing decision feedback based on channel properties change and method therefor
A decision feedback equalization apparatus includes a channel estimation unit estimating a channel on received signal based on the received signal and a training sequence; a channel matched filter maximizing SNR from the channel estimated by the channel estimation unit changing channel characteristics of the received signal; a noncausal filter approximating the changed channel; an equalizer input signal storage unit storing received symbols passed through the channel matched and the noncausal filters; a channel equalization unit performing a decision feedback equalization; a Trellis decoder detecting symbol from a channel-equalized signal; a mode selection unit selecting a specific mode; an error signal calculator comparing an output signal of the selected mode with an output signal of the channel equalization unit to calculate an error signal; and a tap coefficient updater updating tap coefficients to the channel equalization unit, an output signal from the storage unit, and an output signal from the Trellis decoder. |
| US07974333B2 |
Semiconductor apparatus and radio circuit apparatus using the same
A semiconductor apparatus includes a signal source 7 that outputs a signal of predetermined frequency, a frequency divider 15 that receives the output signal of the signal source and is capable of switching the output signal to two or more frequency division ratios, a delta-sigma modulator 16 that controls the frequency division ratio of the frequency divider, and a bandpass filter 17 that receives an output of the frequency divider. The frequency of the input signal of the frequency divider is divided by the frequency division ratio controlled by the delta-sigma modulator, and quantization noise appearing in the output of the frequency divider generated by the delta-sigma modulator is attenuated with the bandpass filter. The semiconductor apparatus easily can convert a signal output by a single signal source to a signal of predetermined frequency and supply a plurality of signals of predetermined frequency using a simple configuration with reduced chip size. |
| US07974332B2 |
High-frequency HomePNA
A network device includes a HomePNA modem and means for synchronizing its clock with clocks of other HomePNA modems in the network in order to communicate at a higher frequency band. In one embodiment, the synchronization is with pilot signals. In another, it is by correcting for clock differences. The upconversions may be via oversampling or via analog mixing. The downconversions may be via subsampling or via analog demixing. |
| US07974331B2 |
Rake receiver with individual finger compensator(s)
Rake receivers in code division multiple access (CDMA) telecommunication comprise fingers (1,2,3) with each finger processing signal components for a particular transmission path to be able to better synchronize with a RF signal received via different paths, and a combiner (4) for combining the results originating from said fingers, and a compensator in the form of a controlled oscillator in a feedback loop. By locating a finger compensator (20-25) in a finger, said finger can handle complex situations, like Doppler shifts under high-speed conditions. Preferably, most or all fingers each comprise such a finger compensator, in which case said feedback loop can be avoided. Such a finger compensator can be hardware, software or a mixture of both when comprising a filter (21) plus an amplitude normalizer (22) between two arithmetical modules (20,25) for multiplying an input symbol signal with a conjugated previous input symbol signal and an output symbol signal with a previous output symbol signal. |
| US07974329B2 |
Method and apparatus for timing estimation in a wireless communications system
A method for performing symbol timing estimation is disclosed herein. In one approach, the method includes defining a search space in a plurality of estimated magnitudes of channel taps; defining a search window in the search space; and locating a symbol timing estimate index in the search space corresponding to a maximum value of an energy of the plurality of estimated magnitudes of channel taps within the search window. A computer program product having code and a wireless communications apparatus for performing the method are also described herein. |
| US07974328B2 |
Surface-emission type semiconductor laser
The present invention provides a surface-emission type semiconductor laser wherein an effective length of a cavity is reduced, thereby enabling to realize a higher-speed direct modulation. In the surface-emission type semiconductor laser according to the present invention, when supposing the optical path length (L) of a resonator part relative to a lasing wavelength λ0 to be given as 0.9×λ0≦L≦1.1×λ0, and denoting the refractive indexes of a high refractive index layer and a low refractive index layer of a dielectric DBR by nH1 and nL1; the average refractive index within an optical path length λ0/4 in the semiconductor in contact with the dielectric DBR by nS1; and the refractive indexes of the high refractive index layer and the low refractive index layer of a semiconductor DBR by nH2 and nL2, respective materials to be used are selected so as to satisfy the following conditions (1) and (2): nH1>f(nS1)nL12+g(nS1)nL1+h(nS1), (1) where f(nS1)=0.0266 nS12−0.2407 nS1+0.6347; g(nS1)=−0.0508 nS12+0.4335 nS1−0.0085; and h(nS1)=0.0382 nS12−0.3194 nS1+0.7398, and nH2−nL2>0.4. (2) |
| US07974327B2 |
Surface emitting laser element array
A surface emitting laser element array comprises a plurality of surface emitting laser elements (15) on a same substrate (1) each comprising a mesa post formed of a laminated structure including an active layer (4) for reducing a crosstalk between the surface emitting laser elements constituting the surface emitting laser element array, and for improving a high speed response, wherein each of the surface emitting laser elements (15) comprises a first electrode (9), a second electrode (10) and a third electrode (11) that have a polarity different from that of the first electrode (9); the first electrode (9) is arranged on the mesa post; the second electrode (10) is arranged on one surface of the substrate (1) same as that of the first electrode (9); the third electrode (11) is arranged on the other surface of the substrate (1) opposite to that of the first electrode and the second electrode (9, 10) and is provided as a common electrode of the surface emitting laser elements (15); and an electric current is applied to the active layer (4) using the first electrode (9) and the second electrode (10). |
| US07974325B2 |
Methods and apparatus for generating terahertz radiation
Apparatus and methods for generating radiation via difference frequency generation (DFG). In one exemplary implementation, a quantum cascade laser (QCL) has a significant second-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(2)) integrated in an active region of the QCL. The QCL is configured to generate first radiation at a first frequency ω1, second radiation at a second frequency ω2, and third radiation at a third frequency ω3=ω1−ω2 based on difference frequency generation (DFG) arising from the non-linear susceptibility. In one aspect, the QCL may be configured to generate appreciable THz radiation at room temperature. |
| US07974321B2 |
Method and arrangement for stabilizing the average emitted radiation output of a pulsed radiation source
The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for stabilizing the average emitted radiation output of a pulsed radiation source. It is the object of the invention to find a novel possibility for stabilizing the average emitted radiation output of a pulsed radiation source which enables a reliable regulation even when there is no sufficiently reliable manipulated variable for influencing the emitted pulse energy (Ei). According to the invention, this object is met in that the individual pulse energy (Ei) of the current radiation pulse is measured, the deviation of the current individual pulse energy (Ei) from a previously determined target value (E0) is determined, and the pulse interval (Δti+1) preceding the triggering of the next radiation pulse is controlled depending on the magnitude of the deviation between the current individual pulse energy (Ei) and the target value (E0) of the pulse energy. |
| US07974320B2 |
Method for having laser light source in standby status
When the laser light source is caused to standby, the temperatures of semiconductor laser 1 and semiconductor laser 9 are changed by approximately 3° C. from the temperature when the laser light source is always being used. With a temperature change of approximately 3° C., the wavelengths of the laser light generated by semiconductor lasers 1 and 9 change approximately 0.3 nm. This change hardly has any effect at all on optical fiber amplifier 2 and optical fiber amplifier 10, but the conversion efficiencies at the respective wavelength conversion elements of the wavelength conversion optical system change, and, particularly, deep ultraviolet light is hardly generated at all any longer. Therefore, even while the laser light has been made incident to the wavelength conversion optical system, there is no longer damaging of the wavelength conversion elements. Therefore, it is possible to provide a laser light source standby method that is able to shorten the start up time of the laser light source. |
| US07974319B2 |
Spectrally tailored pulsed fiber laser oscillator
High power optical pulses generating methods and laser oscillators are provided. A light generating module generates seed optical pulses having predetermined optical characteristics. A spectrum tailoring module is then used to tailor the spectral profile of the optical pulses. The spectral tailoring module includes a phase modulator which imposes a time-dependent phase variation on the optical pulses. The activation of the phase modulator is synchronized with the passage of the optical pulse therethough, thereby efficiently reducing the RF power necessary to operate the device. |
| US07974318B2 |
Infra-red multi-wavelength laser source
The present invention relates in particular to the field of lasers and in particular to a laser source having a neodymium-doped crystal (2; 23) or fiber and pumpable by pumping means (3; 25) and a non-linear Raman effect converter stimulated in methane (4; 32), characterized in that the crystal (2; 23) or fiber pumped by said pumping means (3; 25) is able to emit a laser radiation at a wavelength between 1.31 and 1.36 μm and in that the Raman converter (4; 32) is able to convert the radiation generated by the crystal (2; 23) or by the fiber into at least one second radiation (7; 36) with a wavelength between 2 and 2.3 μm. |
| US07974312B2 |
Compressed medium access control (MAC) header structure for MAC overhead reduction in mobile worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) systems
A packet data structure comprising a compressed medium access control (MAC) header structure capable of significantly reducing MAC header overhead for small payload applications, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and interactive gaming and to increase the capacity of such applications. In various implementations, the packet data structure may be used in mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) systems designed to operate in accordance with the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) standards such as the 802.16e-2005 standard and/or the evolving IEEE 802.16m standard. Various embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07974305B2 |
Inband management for power over ethernet midspans using an embedded switch
Power over Ethernet (PoE) communication systems provide power and data communications over the same communications link, where a power source device (PSE) provides DC power (for example, 48 volts DC) to a powered device (PD). The DC power is transmitted simultaneously over the same communications medium with the high speed data from one node to the other node. For data-only switches (i.e. non-PoE), a midspan device is connected between the data-only switch and the PD devices so as to inject the DC power for the PD devices. The midspan device includes a combination data and management port that communicates both high speed data packets and management packets with the data-only switch. The combination data/management port obviates the need for a dedicated management port on both the midspan and the data-only switch. This eliminates the need to use an extra port on the data switch thus making better port utilization at the data switch as well as lowing the cost of the midspan. |
| US07974304B2 |
Out of band signaling enhancement for high speed serial driver
An integrated microelectronic serial driver is provided which is operable to transmit a differential pattern signal during a burst interval and a predetermined common mode voltage level during a second interval between adjacent burst intervals, the serial driver including at least one pre-driver and a driver coupled to an output of the pre-driver for transmitting the differential communication signal. A switching circuit is operable to switch the serial driver between a first power supply voltage level for the burst interval and the predetermined common mode voltage level, wherein the predetermined common mode voltage level is independent of variations in power supply voltage conditions and temperature conditions. |
| US07974302B2 |
Hybrid implicit token carrier sensing multiple access/collision avoidance protocol
Provided is a distributed and asynchronous implicit token carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol guaranteeing quality of service for both real time and non-real time traffic. The implicit token CSMA/CA protocol allocates a band in an entire bandwidth to voice traffic and allows the remaining bands to be used for data traffic. The implicit token CSMA/CA protocol includes applying a token passing protocol to transmit voice traffic in real time by having a band in an entire bandwidth allocated using a predetermined data frame and applying a CSMA/CA mechanism to transmit data traffic in non-real time by employing remaining bands not allocated to the voice traffic using another predetermined data frame. |
| US07974295B2 |
Optimized routing between communication networks
The invention provides a method and system for routing a message or a set of messages or a session from a first equipment connected or registered to a first network, to a second equipment connected or registered to a second network. The first network includes a network entity which checks requirements of the message or set of messages or session, and decides on the routing depending on the check result. The checked requirements may include media requirements of the message or set of messages or requested session. The checked requirements can also include QoS requirements of the message or set of messages or requested session. |
| US07974287B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing an audio signal
A method for processing an audio signal, comprising the steps of extracting an ancillary signal for generating the audio signal, an extension signal included in the ancillary signal, and header identification information indicating whether a header is included in the ancillary signal from a received bit stream, reading length information of the extension signal from the header if the header is included in the ancillary signal according to the header identification information, skipping decoding of the extension signal or not using a result of the decoding based on the length information, and generating the audio signal using the ancillary signal. Accordingly, in case of processing the audio signal by the present invention, it is able to reduce a corresponding load of operation to enable efficient processing and enhance a sound quality. |
| US07974285B2 |
Method and apparatus for identifying an egress point to a network location
A method of identifying an egress point to a network location in a data communications network comprising a plurality of nodes and links there between comprises the step, performed at the identifying node, of receiving a notification through the network advertising an adjacency to a network location. The method further comprises the steps, performed at the identifying node, of deriving from the notification adjacency information and identifying, from the adjacency information, the egress point. |
| US07974283B2 |
Method and apparatus of multicast service flow processing for headend cable modem
A method and apparatus of processing a multicast service flow for a headend cable modem is provided.The method of processing the multicast service flow includes: classifying an inputted multicast packet by a session; composing an internal header including multicast service flow information allocated to the classified session; and outputting an internal multicast packet including the internal header. |
| US07974272B2 |
Remote control of a switching node in a stack of switching nodes
A methods and apparatus for remote management of switching network nodes in a stack via in-band messaging are presented. Switching nodes in the stack default to reserved switching node identifiers and stacking ports default to a blocking state upon startup, restart, and reset. Each command frame received via a blocking state is forwarded to a command engine at each switching node and is acknowledged with the current switching node identifier. Each acknowledgement frame bearing the reserved network node identifier triggers configuration of the acknowledging switching node. Switching nodes and the management processor track interrupt state vectors regarding events. An interrupt acknowledgement process is employed to track raised interrupts. Configuration of switching node is performed via command frames transmitted by the management processor and destined to a command engine associated with the switching node. Services provided by the management processor are requested via control frames destined to the switching node to which the management processor is attached and destined to the management port thereof. The advantages are derived from engineered switching node deployments wherein an appropriate number of management processors, less than the number of switching nodes in the stack, are employed to provide services to corresponding switching nodes in the stack, based on processing, control, and configuration bandwidth requirements. The in-band configuration and control of the switching nodes in the stack reduce deployment, configuration, management, and maintenance overheads. |
| US07974266B2 |
Method and apparatus for classifying IP data
A method and methodology are provided for classifying Internet Protocol (IP) data in a packet switch network. Data may be received at a first node and classified based on source routing information of said data. The source routing information may be provided within LSRR/SSRR of IPv4 data or may be provided within a routing header of Ipv6 data. |
| US07974264B2 |
Method and a system for determining the spatial location of nodes in a wireless network
A method determines the propagation delays between nodes in a network, the network including a plurality of nodes. The method includes recording by each one of the nodes the transmission time of a beacon-signal respective of the one of the nodes and the reception times of other beacon-signals respective of other nodes. The beacon signal and the other beacon signals are transmitted according to a forward transmission sequence, a reverse transmission sequence is determined according to the forward transmission sequence. The procedure of recording for beacon signals is repeated and transmitted according to the reverse transmission sequence, and a propagation delay is determined between each pair of communicating nodes according to a forward propagation delay and a reverses propagation delay respective of the each of pair of communicating nodes. The forward propagation delay and the reverse propagation delay are determined according to the recorded times of transmissions and receptions of the beacon signals by the respective nodes. The pair of communicating nodes are defined as a pair of nodes that can receive transmissions of each other, and the time difference between transmissions of beacon signals respective of two nodes, during the forward transmission sequence, is substantially the same as the time difference between transmissions of the beacon signals respective of the two nodes, during the reverse transmission sequence. |
| US07974263B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving time information in mobile communication system
Provided is an apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving time information in a mobile communication system. In a method for calculating a current time in the mobile communication system, time information is received from a base station. Date information and parameters for calculation of time are obtained on the basis of the received time information. A lapse time length from a reference time is calculated on the basis of the parameters. A current time is calculated using the calculated lapse time length and the date information. The time information is periodically transmitted and received using the idle frame of an idle state and the stealing flag of a normal burst contained in a BCCH. |
| US07974262B2 |
Sample acquisition timing adjustment
A telecommunications network participant, comprising means for digitising, as a series of samples, a received signal containing a succession of symbols, means for measuring time misalignment between the symbols and the samples and means for applying a fractional delay to the positions of the samples to reduce the misalignment. |
| US07974261B2 |
Basestation methods and apparatus for supporting timing synchronization
A wireless terminal using OFDM signaling supporting both terrestrial and satellite base station connectivity operates using conventional access probe signaling in a first mode of operation to establish a timing synchronized wireless link with a terrestrial base station. In a second mode of operation, used to establish a timing synchronized wireless link with a satellite base station, a slightly modified access protocol is employed. The round trip signaling time and timing ambiguity between a wireless terminal and a satellite base station is substantially greater than with a terrestrial base station. The modified access protocol uses coding of access probe signals to uniquely identify a superslot index within a beaconslot. The modified protocol uses multiple access probes with different timing offsets to further resolve timing ambiguity and allows the satellite base station access monitoring interval to remain small in duration. Terrestrial base station location/connection information is used to estimate initial timing. |
| US07974260B2 |
Method of transmitting time-critical scheduling information between single network devices in a wireless network using slotted point-to-point links
Timing control information, especially scheduling information, is transmitted between single network devices in a wireless network. Timing control information is usually time-critical information since communication parameters may be changing rapidly in wireless networks. The invention provides a method to transmit the time-critical and up-to-date timing control information to a recipient just-in-time. |
| US07974258B2 |
Adaptive mode transmitter for PAPR reduction and link optimization
An adaptive mode transmitter enables either OFDMA or SC-FDMA modulation schemes to be used during transmission of a wireless signal, such as during mobile phone use. The modulation scheme is selected automatically, and is based on characteristics of the transmitting entity, such as bandwidth allocation, selected modulation order, and transmit power. |
| US07974257B2 |
Communications system using frame structure for different wireless communications protocols and related methods
A communications system may include a first wireless communications device communicating based upon a first wireless communications protocol, a second wireless communications device communicating based upon a second wireless communications protocol different from the first wireless communications protocol, and a wireless base station. The wireless base station may communicate with the first wireless communications device and the second wireless communications device based upon a frame structure. The frame structure may be defined by sub-carriers at respective different frequencies and symbols at respective different times. The frame structure may include a frame control header, a first frame portion for communicating with the first wireless communications device based upon the first wireless communications protocol, and a second frame portion for communicating with the second wireless communications device based upon the second wireless communications protocol. |
| US07974250B2 |
Power saving apparatus and method in a wireless communication system
A power saving apparatus and a method in a wireless communication system are provided. An Access Point (AP) buffers transmission frames for sleep-mode stations in a sleep-mode buffer. Upon wakeup from a sleep mode, a station sends a first control information frame indicating wakeup to the access point. The access point sends a second control information frame including a requested transmission length in response to the first control information frame to the station. The station generates a third control information frame, aggregates the third control information frame and user data frames to a first protocol data unit, and sends it to the AP. Then the AP generates a fourth control information frame, aggregates the fourth control information frame and buffered frames to a second protocol data unit, and sends it to the station. |
| US07974249B2 |
Virtual access point for configuration of a LAN
A technique is disclosed for setting up and configuring a LAN. More particularly, secure communications may be configured between an access point (AP) and a client device. Virtual AP technology is utilized to assist the configuration of the network. In particular, at least two wireless networks are provided in a single A, a configuration LAN and an operational LAN, by utilizing virtual AP technology. The configuration LAN is utilized to provide communication between the AP and the client devices that is related to network setup, configuration, modification, etc. and the operational LAN provides normal LAN data communication. The configuration LAN may be provided in a relatively insecure manner that eases setup of that communication channel and the operational LAN may be provided in a more fully secure communication channel. Different types of service set identifiers (SSIDs) may be provided for configuration LANs and operational LANs so as to more easily identify the type of LAN through its SSID. |
| US07974239B2 |
Generalized “evenly distributed MAS allocation” policy to support low-power UWB applications
In order that media access slots MAS are allocated based on minimum latency requirements of, for example, not less than 4 ms, or on a medium utilization efficiency or power consumption requirement for a minimum reservation block length, both high-efficiency and low-latency schemes (or category) need to coexist within a superframe with fair support given to both. The maximization of contiguous available MAS between low-latency and high-efficiency schemes ensures that power saving and overhead risk are minimized without compromising the support for low-latency applications. |
| US07974236B2 |
Approach for configuring Wi-Fi devices
According to an approach for configuring Wi-Fi devices, a wireless access point changes its mode of operation from a normal operating mode to a configuration operating mode to configure one or more Wi-Fi devices. When operating in the configuration operating mode, it is more difficult for an eavesdropper to intercept messages between the wireless access point and the Wi-Fi devices being configured. Upon completion of the configuration process, the wireless access point changes its mode of operation from the configuration operating mode back to the normal operating mode. This approach reduces the likelihood of an eavesdropper intercepting configuration messages exchanged between a wireless access point and one or more Wi-Fi devices during the configuration process. The approach also allows automated configuration of Wi-Fi devices and reduces the amount of user interaction required to configure Wi-Fi devices. |
| US07974234B2 |
Method of authenticating a mobile network node in establishing a peer-to-peer secure context between a pair of communicating mobile network nodes
Methods for authenticating peer mobile network nodes for establishing a secure peer-to-peer communications context in an ad-hoc network are presented. The methods include accessing wireless infrastructure network entities at low bandwidth and for a short time duration to obtain cryptographic information regarding a peer mobile network node for the purpose of establishing secure peer-to-peer communications therewith ad-hoc network. Having received cryptographic information regarding a peer mobile network node, the method further includes challenging the peer network node with a challenge phrase derived from the cryptographic information received, receiving a response, and establishing a secure communications context to the peer mobile network node based on the validity of the received response. Advantages are derived from addressing security threats encountered in provisioning ad-hoc networking, by leveraging wireless infrastructure network security architecture, exemplary deployed in UMTS/GSM infrastructure networks, enabling seamless mobile network node authentication through the existing UMTS and/or GSM authentication infrastructure, while pervasively communicating with peer mobile network nodes in an ad-hoc network. |
| US07974233B2 |
Systems and methods for transmitting and receiving data streams with feedback information over a lossy network
Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided to enhance transmitting and receiving video data streams with feedback information over a lossy and/or congested network. The systems, apparatus, and methods may optimize retransmission for lost packets or lost data frames. Optimizations are also provided to select reference frames in a data stream so that block errors are contained when RPS is used to encode data frames. Optimization in decoding may include reconstructing high-resolution data frames from low-resolution data frames. |
| US07974222B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing link-local IPv4 addressing across multiple interfaces of a network node
Embodiments of the present invention provide link-local IPv4 addressing across multiple interfaces of a network-node. During operation, the network-node broadcasts an address resolution protocol (ARP) request packet on multiple interfaces which asks for the hardware address of a network node whose link-local IPv4 address is Y. In response, the network-node receives an ARP-reply packet on an interface from a target network-node. If Y is present in the ARP cache and is associated with a different interface, the source network-node chooses a winner interface, and updates the ARP cache so that Y is associated with the winner interface. The network-node sends one or more contention-resolution packets on the loser interface to cause a loser network-node to choose another link-local IPv4 address for itself. |
| US07974215B1 |
System and method of network diagnosis
Embodiments provide systems and methods for diagnosing a network and identifying problems in a network which reduce the data transfer rate of data through the network. One embodiment of a method for network diagnosis may include infusing data into a network upstream and downstream of a portion of the network relative to a library drive, querying the drive at intervals over time for drive data to determine the data transfer rate at the drive and comparing the data transfer rate of the data infused upstream of the device or network portion with the data transfer rate of the data infused downstream of the device or network portion to determine throughput. By comparing the data transfer rate of data infused upstream and downstream of a network device or network portion, problem devices in a network may be identified. |
| US07974214B2 |
Method and apparatus for classifying traffic at transport layer
Provided is a method and apparatus for classifying applications in traffic easily and accurately by utilizing only statistical data of traffic at transport layer. A method of the present invention includes determining candidate applications by comparing at least one of smallest packet size, biggest packet size and average packet size of collected packets for a flow with corresponding reference data of potential applications; and comparing mode set of packet size for the collected packets with corresponding reference data of the candidate applications to identify the flow as an application which has identical elements in the same order, the number of the identical elements being equal to or more than a predetermined number. |
| US07974212B2 |
Determining quality monitoring alerts in unified communication systems
Performance of endpoints, client devices and servers within a communication system, is monitored by collecting call quality data from each endpoint. The collected metric data is retrieved periodically from a database, categorized based on endpoint location and metric type, and compared to predefined thresholds for different endpoint types, metric categories, and call configurations. If an alert condition is met indicating a problem with quality of experience in the system, an alert is issued to an administrator. |
| US07974204B2 |
Quality of service management for message flows across multiple middleware environments
A method of managing information system resources to provide a message flow having a consistent level of quality of service (QoS) within and across a plurality of interconnected middleware domains is described. The method includes receiving a QoS message from a first QoS manager expressing at least one QoS requirement, translating the at least one QoS requirement to at least one parameter specific to a messaging service that communicatively couples multiple middleware domains, creating a client connection between a first middleware domain and the messaging service for receiving the message flow, transmitting the QoS message to a second middleware domain, and creating a client connection between the messaging service and the second middleware domain for transmitting the message flow. |
| US07974201B1 |
Technique and apparatus for using node ID as virtual private network (VPN) identifiers
A technique is provided for managing VPN packet flows over shared access data networks. Each node in the shared access network typically has an identifier or ID associated with it which is used at a Head End of the shared access network to uniquely identify that particular node from the other nodes in the network. According to the technique of the present invention, the node ID may be used at the Head End of the network to identify not only the corresponding node, but also to identify any virtual private networks (VPNs) of which the corresponding node is a member. Using the technique of the present invention, nodes which are members of the same VPN within a shared access network may exchange packets in a manner which does not require the packets to be routed outside the shared access network. |
| US07974199B2 |
Adaptive bandwidth utilization for telemetered data
A method (400) for optimizing bandwidth utilization in a communications network (100). The communications network can include a data source (105) and a data client (110). Responsive to a measurement of at least one communication parameter (120) of a commutated bitstream (115) which is transmitted to the client, the data source can change a commutation format of the commutated bitstream. The communication parameters can include a data receive time (TRx), a data latency and/or an effective receive data rate (DEff) of the commutated bitstream. The communication parameters can be transmitted to the data source as telemetry. The change of commutation format can occur in an open systems interconnection (OSI) layer such as a session layer and/or a transport layer. |
| US07974197B2 |
Method of prioritizing user throughput and user throughput limits for best-effort application in cdma2000 1xEV-DO wireless communication system
The present invention provides a method implemented in a mobile unit configured to communicate with at least one base station over an uplink. The method includes receiving, at the mobile unit and from the base station, a first attribute indicative of a traffic-to-pilot power ratio and a second attribute indicative of a resource provision limit. The first attribute is formed based on a priority weight associated with best effort communication with the mobile unit. The second attribute is formed based on a maximum throughput associated with best effort communication with the mobile unit. The method also includes modifying an uplink transmission power based upon the first attribute and information indicative of congestion at the base station. |
| US07974195B2 |
Method and apparatus for network congestion control
The present invention is a delay based model and in fact uses queuing delay as a congestion measure, providing advantages over prior art loss based systems. One advantage is that queuing delay can be more accurately estimated than loss probability. This is because packet losses in networks with large bandwidth-delay product are rare events under TCP Reno and its variants (probability on the order 10−7 or smaller), and because loss samples provide coarser information than queuing delay samples. Indeed, measurements of delay are noisy, just as those of loss probability. Thus, another advantage of the present invention is that each measurement of queuing delay provides multi-bit information while each measurement of packet loss (whether a packet is lost) provides only one bit of information for the filtering of noise. This makes it easier for an equation-based implementation to stabilize a network into a steady state with a target fairness and high utilization. In addition, the dynamics of queuing delay provides scaling with respect to network capacity. This helps maintain stability as a network scales up in capacity. |
| US07974190B2 |
Dynamic queue memory allocation with flow control
A method in an Ethernet controller for allocating memory space in a buffer memory between a transmit queue (TXQ) and a receive queue (RXQ) includes allocating initial memory space in the buffer memory to the RXQ and the TXQ; defining a RXQ high watermark and a RXQ low watermark; receiving an ingress data frame; determining if a memory usage in the RXQ exceeds the RXQ high watermark; if the RXQ high watermark is not exceeded, storing the ingress data frame in the RXQ; if the RXQ high watermark is exceeded, determining if there are unused memory space in the TXQ; if there are no unused memory space in the TXQ, transmitting a pause frame to halt further ingress data frame; if there are unused memory space in the TXQ, allocating unused memory space in the TXQ to the RXQ; and storing the ingress data frame in the RXQ. |
| US07974185B2 |
Three fiber line switched ring
A 3 fiber line switched ring (3FLSR) provides protection for (optical) transmission networking wherein N nodes are connected via 3 lines (or optical fibers) in a ring topology. Two of the three fibers form a main transmission line and may transmit in one direction in the ring whereas the third might transmit in the opposite direction. This architecture of the 3FLSR provides a dual protection scheme, including a bi-directional line switching coupled with a unidirectional line switching. Traffic is categorized based on the level of protection available for the particular traffic type. The first two transmitting fibers form a bi-directional ring, carrying primary and secondary traffic which can survive 2 and 1 failures on the ring respectively. The third fiber may form a unidirectional ring, carrying additional traffic that can be pre-empted in case of multiple failures in the bi-directional ring. The 3FLSR enables reconfiguration of existing 2/4 fiber rings and conforms to applicable standards. |
| US07974184B2 |
Radio network system and control node switching method
A radio network system and a control node switching method which can improve a reliability of the whole network and improve a wording efficiency. The system includes at least one alternate control node which can be substituted form the control node. The alternate control node monitors an operating state in the control node and discriminates whether or not the operating state is abnormal. When the operating state is determined to be abnormal, the alternate control node sets its own address into a control node address. |
| US07974183B2 |
Method for restoration and normalization in a mesh network
The present invention is directed to methods for signaling that enable bandwidth reservation, path restoration, path normalization, and path removal in a mesh network that supports shared mesh restoration. |
| US07974182B2 |
Evaluating the position of a disturbance
The position of a disturbance on an optical link is evaluated, in particular where the disturbance is a time-varying disturbance. An optical time domain reflectometry technique is used in which a series of low coherence test pulses is launched by means of an optical pulse source into an the optical link, and the backscattered return signal is monitored. The test pulses pass through an unbalanced Mach Zhender interferometer with the result that for each test pulse, a pair of time-displaced pulse copies is launched onto the link. The backscattered return signal is passed through the same interferometer, which causes the pulse copies of each pair to become realigned and to interfere with one another. A time-varying disturbance is likely to affect each pulse copy of a pair differently. As a result, an abnormality such as a step is likely to occur in the backscattered signal. From the time position of an abnormality, the distance of the disturbance responsible is evaluated. |
| US07974176B2 |
Systems, methods and transceivers for wireless communications over discontiguous spectrum segments
Methods of transmitting a plurality of communications signals over a plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments in a frequency band include defining a plurality (NFFT) of orthogonal subcarriers across the frequency band, defining a plurality (N) of available physical subcarriers from among the orthogonal subcarriers. The available physical subcarriers are distributed among the plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments. The methods further include multiplexing the plurality of communications signals onto the plurality of available physical subcarriers. Multiplexing the plurality of communications signals onto the plurality of available physical subcarriers may include assigning the communications signals to respective ones of a plurality (N) of logical subcarriers, and mapping the plurality of logical subcarriers to corresponding ones of the plurality of available physical subcarriers. Related transmitters, receivers and communications systems are also disclosed. |
| US07974174B2 |
Transformer for determining the state of a variable resistive layer in a material stack
A method and an apparatus for detecting a number of variation in resistance within a material stack in response to a scanning and injection of a non-contacting electron stream into a material stack, the material stack having a first conductive contact layer, a variable resistive layer, a fixed resistive layer, and a second conductive contact layer, and the variations in resistance within the material stack being based on one of a plurality of resistive states of the variable resistive layer. The method also includes generating two magnetic fields within a transformer, the transformer being operatively coupled to the first and second conductive contact layers and generating a differential output signal within the transformer based on the two magnetic fields, the differential output signal being associated with one of the plurality of resistive states. |
| US07974173B2 |
Optical device for holographic recording or reading and method for controlling the same
An optical device for holographic recording or reading is provided and includes: a light emission unit that emits light to be irradiated on an optical recording medium, the light being recording or reading light; a first prism unit that moves in accordance with a moving speed of the optical recording medium and refracts the light to move the light irradiated on the optical recording medium over a distance in a moving direction of the optical recording medium so that the light is irradiated on substantially the same position on the optical recording medium for a period of time; and a second prism unit that moves in accordance with the moving speed of the first prism unit to compensate for an optical path length of the light. |
| US07974172B2 |
Optical pickup apparatus
An optical-pickup apparatus comprising: a laser-light source; a diffraction grating including first-and-second regions of periodic structures different in phase from each other and a third region whose periodic structure is different in phase from the first-and-second regions; an objective lens focusing main-and-sub-luminous fluxes generated by the diffraction grating on the same optical-disc track; and a photodetector to receive reflected light of the main-and-sub-luminous fluxes from an optical disc and output a detection signal for generating main-and-sub-push-pull signals, a relationship between an incident light width in the objective lens corresponding to the third region and pupil diameters of the objective lens corresponding to first-and-second wavelengths of laser lights being adjusted so that a ratio of minimum value to maximum value of a differential-push-pull-signal is at substantially 50% or more and a ratio of sub-push-pull-signal level to main-push-pull-signal level is at substantially 15% or more, in both cases of the laser lights. |
| US07974170B2 |
Application of wavelet transform filtering for processing data signals from optical data storage devices
An optical data recovery system including an optical receiver configured to receive light reflected from an optical medium and produce modulated data, a processing unit configured to transform the modulated data into a series of transform coefficients respectively identifying frequencies of the modulated data at respective times, and the processing unit is configured to identify from the series of transform coefficients defect coefficients associated with positions in the modulated data where the modulated data is corrupted. |
| US07974167B2 |
Optical disc apparatus, optical information equipment with the optical disc apparatus, and focusing control LSI in the optical disc apparatus
In the present invention, at the time of pulling a focus on an information recording surface of a disc, a focus servo is first pulled in a disc surface of the disc, and with the servo in a settled state, a driving signal necessary for following surface wobble is stored, and a focus is pulled in the information recording surface of the disc based upon a signal superimposed with the driving signal and a focus search driving signal. |
| US07974166B2 |
Information recording device and information recording method generating a copy preventing structure
User data is recorded onto a DVD by the incremental recording method and by using padding when closing a recording zone, read error data is recorded onto the DVD. The read error data is generated by making a sector error detection code or a PI/PO error correction code in the ECC block different from a correct value. |
| US07974163B2 |
Optical disk device
This optical disk device includes a read means which reads data from an optical disk upon which data is recorded at a variable bit rate for each sector. Moreover, this optical disk device includes a buffer memory which sequentially stores data which has been read by the read means, and a replay means which sequentially reads out and decodes data stored in the buffer memory, and replays that data. Furthermore, this optical disk device includes a control means which, when a command for special replay is issued, calculates the address of the sector currently being decoded by the replay means based upon the address of the sector currently being read by the read means, and upon the amount of data stored in the buffer memory. And the control means commands the read means to read out, from the optical disk, a sector to be jumped to. |
| US07974160B1 |
Plant gain calibration for an optical storage servo system
A gain calibration method for optical storage servo systems in which, plant gain calibration is used by injecting a reference sine wave r into an optical storage servo system, obtaining an effort signal m at the input of the servo plant and an error signal y at the output of the servo plant, using a DFT (Discrete Fourier Transformation) to translate the time domain signals m and y into frequency responses M and Y, calculating a Y-to-M ratio, and using the magnitude of the Y-to-M ratio as the plant gain K of the servo system. The servo system's sensor gain K1 at the outermost layer of a disk may be calibrated by, e.g., the conventional peak-to-peak measurement. Since K=K1·K2, the servo system's actuator gain K2 at the outermost layer of the disk may be obtained. Because the actuator gain K2 is the same for all layers of a disk, the variation of the sensor gain K1 at an inner layer may follow that of the plant gain K at that layer. Accordingly, the sensor gain K1 may be calibrated for each layer of a multilayer disk, and the calibration is independent from the compensator C. |
| US07974158B2 |
Optical disk and optical recording/reproducing device
A small-sized, large-capacity optical disk is provided which is superior in portability. The optical disk has a diameter less than 64 mm and a thickness less than 0.8 mm. Tracks are formed with a pitch less than 0.6 μm, and the record area is divided into a plurality of zones alone the radium. The optical disk can store more than 650 MB of compressed data. |
| US07974155B2 |
Satellite signal reception device, timekeeping device with a satellite signal reception device, and satellite signal reception method
A satellite signal reception device has a reception unit that receives satellite signals transmitted from a positioning information satellite, a timekeeping unit that keeps time internally, a power supply unit that supplies power at least to the reception unit, a correlation process unit that is disposed in the reception unit and has a plurality of correlators for determining a correlation with the satellite signal when receiving satellite signals, and a correlation process count determination unit that determines how many correlators to use when the reception unit receives the satellite. |
| US07974149B2 |
Thin-film memory system equipped with a thin-film address decoder and memory controller
An electronic system includes at least one reduced-complexity integrated circuit memory coupled to a memory controller. By reducing the complexity of each integrated circuit memory and concentrating the complexity within the memory controller, overall system costs may be greatly reduced and reliability improved. |
| US07974136B2 |
Method for erasing a flash memory cell or an array of such cells having improved erase coupling ratio
A flash memory cell is of the type having a substrate of a first conductivity type having a first region of a second conductivity type at a first end, and a second region of the second conductivity type at a second end, spaced apart from the first end, with a channel region between the first end and the second end. The flash memory cell has a plurality of stacked pairs of floating gates and control gates with the floating gates positioned over portions of the channel region and are insulated therefrom, and each control gate over a floating gate and insulated therefrom. The flash memory cell further has a plurality of erase gates over the channel region which are insulated therefrom, with an erase gate between each pair of stacked pair of floating gate and control gate. In a method of erasing the flash memory cell, a pulse of a first positive voltage is applied to alternating erase gates (“first alternating gates”). In addition, a ground voltage is applied to erase gates other than the first alternating gates (“second alternating gates”). In a second method to erase the flash memory cell, a pulse of a first positive voltage is applied to the first alternating gates and a negative voltage is applied to the second alternating gates and to all control gates. |
| US07974135B2 |
Non-volatile semiconductor memory device and erasing method thereof
A non-volatile semiconductor memory device including a NAND cell unit with a plurality of electrically rewritable and non-volatile memory cells connected in series, one end thereof being coupled to a bit line via a first select gate transistor while the other end is coupled to a source line via a second select gate transistor, wherein the memory device has an erase-verify mode for verifying an erase state of the memory cells in the NAND cell unit, the erase-verify mode including two verify-read operations adapted according to cell ranges to be erase-verified in the NAND cell unit. |
| US07974134B2 |
Voltage generator to compensate sense amplifier trip point over temperature in non-volatile memory
In a non-volatile memory system, a voltage generator provides a voltage to a gate of a voltage-setting transistor which is used in a sense circuit to set an initial voltage at a sense node. At the end of a sense period, a final voltage of the sense node is compared to a trip point, which is the threshold voltage of a voltage-sensing transistor. To account for temperature variations and manufacturing process variations, the voltage generator includes a transistor which is matched to the voltage-setting transistor, and a transistor which is matched to the voltage-sensing transistor. As a result, a voltage swing between the initial voltage and the trip point is constant, even as the initial voltage and trip point vary. In a particular implementation, the voltage generator uses a cascode current mirror circuit, and receives a reference current from a band gap voltage circuit. |
| US07974133B2 |
Robust sensing circuit and method
A sense amplifier is disclosed. One embodiment is a sensing circuit that includes a sensing device and a sense transistor coupled to the sensing device. A first switch that is coupled to the sense transistor and to the sensing device causes the sensing device to be charged to a first voltage that is a function of the threshold voltage of the sense transistor. One or more second switches that are coupled to the sensing device and to a target element. The second switches couple the sensing device to the target element to modify the first voltage on the sensing device and decouple the target element from the sensing device during a sense phase in which the modified first voltage is applied to the sense transistor. A condition of the target element is determined based on whether or not the sense transistor turns on in response to applying the modified first voltage to the sense transistor. |
| US07974129B2 |
Method and apparatus for programming flash memory
A method and apparatus that provides the ability to control programming pulses having different widths and/or voltages in a flash memory device. The widths and/or voltage levels of programming pulses are set to achieve programming of all memory cells of an array using a minimum number of programming pulses. |
| US07974124B2 |
Pointer based column selection techniques in non-volatile memories
Selecting circuits for columns of an array of memory cells are used to hold read data or write data of the memory cells. In a first set of embodiments, a shift register chain, having a stage for columns of the array, has the columns arranged in a loop. For example, every other column or column group could be assessed as the pointer moves in first direction across the array, with the other half of the columns being accessed as the pointer moves back in the other direction. Another set of embodiments divides the columns into two groups and uses a pair of interleaved pointers, one for each set of columns, clocked at half speed. To control the access of the two sets, each of which is connected to a corresponding intermediate data bus. The intermediate data buses are then attached to a combined data bus, clocked at full speed. |
| US07974123B2 |
Method using a synthetic molecular spring device in a system for dynamically controlling a system property and a corresponding system thereof
Using a synthetic molecular spring device in a system for dynamically controlling a system property, such as momentum, topography, and electronic behavior. System features (a) the synthetic molecular spring device having (i) at least one synthetic molecular assembly each featuring at least one chemical unit including at least one: (1) atom; (2) complexing group complexed to at least one atom; (3) axial ligand reversibly physicochemically paired with at least one complexed atom; and (4) substantially elastic molecular linker; and, (ii) an activating mechanism directed to at least one atom-axial ligand pair; and, (b) a selected unit operatively coupled to synthetic molecular assembly, and exhibiting the system property. Activating mechanism sends an activating signal to atom-axial ligand pairs, for physicochemically modifying atom-axial ligand pairs, thereby activating at least one cycle of spring-type elastic reversible transitions between contracted and expanded linear conformational states of substantially elastic molecular linkers, causing dynamically controllable change in the system property. |
| US07974118B2 |
Resistance variable memory device reducing word line voltage
A resistance variable memory device includes a memory cell array, a sense amplifier circuit, and a column selection circuit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of block units and a plurality of word line drivers, where each of the block units is connected between adjacent word line drivers and includes a plurality of memory blocks. The sense amplifier circuit includes a plurality of sense amplifier units, where each of the sense amplifier units provides a read current to a corresponding block unit and includes a plurality of sense amplifiers. The column selection circuit is connected between the memory cell array and the sense amplifier circuit and selects at least one of the plurality of memory blocks in response to a column selection signal to apply the read current from the sense amplifier circuit to the selected memory block. |
| US07974114B2 |
Memory cell arrangements
In an embodiment, a memory cell arrangement is provided. The memory cell arrangement may include a first memory cell and a second memory cell, a first source/drain line coupled to a first source/drain region of the first memory cell and a second source/drain line coupled to a second source/drain region of the first memory cell, and a third source/drain line coupled to a first source/drain region of the second memory cell and a fourth source/drain line coupled to a second source/drain region of the second memory cell, wherein the third source/drain line is disposed proximate to the second source/drain line, and wherein the third source/drain line is disposed in the same metallization level as the second source/drain line. |
| US07974113B2 |
Electric power unit for induction heating
Reverse conducting type semiconductor switches are arranged in a bride from, an energy storage capacitor is connected with its DC terminal to obtain a magnetic energy regeneration switch, and then an induction coil is connected to its AC terminal. An AC pulse current of variable frequency is obtained by applying a gate signal to the semiconductor switch to thereby turn it ON/OFF; since a voltage is generated automatically by regenerating magnetic energy, a DC power supply is connected to the opposite ends of the capacitor through a smoothing coil, thus injecting power. |
| US07974108B2 |
Synchronous rectifying circuit for offline power converter
A synchronous rectifying circuit is provided for power converter. An integrated synchronous rectifier has a rectifying terminal, a ground terminal a first input terminal and a second input terminal. The rectifying terminal is coupled to secondary side of a transformer. The ground terminal coupled to output of the power converter. A power transistor is connected between the rectifying terminal and the ground terminal. The first input terminal and the second input terminal are coupled to receive a pulse signal for turning on/off the power transistor. A pulse-signal generation circuit includes an input terminal coupled to receive the switching signal for switching the transformer of the power converter. A first output terminal and a second output terminal of the pulse-signal generation circuit generate the pulse signal. An isolation device is coupled between the first input terminal and the second input terminal, and the first output terminal and the second output terminal. |
| US07974103B2 |
LCD signal transfer members
A signal transfer member for a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus includes a power line for receiving power from an external source and for driving a semiconductor chip disposed on the transfer member or the display apparatus. The power line is bent so as to incorporate a serpentine structure, which enables the length of the power line to be easily adjusted and results in the line being longer than a power line formed with a relatively straight structure. Accordingly, the length of the power line can be adjusted to take into account the respective impedances of the chip and the external source so as to suppress electromagnetic waves in the power line. This prevents the creation of noise, distortion of signals, damage to the semiconductor chip, and disconnection of the input interconnection thereof that are caused by the electromagnetic waves, so that product yields are thereby improved. |
| US07974100B2 |
Retaining device for PCI card
A retaining device for a PCI card (30) includes a chassis (50), a retaining plate (20) configured for retaining the PCI card, and a mounting apparatus (10). The chassis has a rear wall (52). The rear wall has two clipping portions (526) and a perpendicular portion (52). The retaining plate includes an end (22) abutting on the perpendicular portion of the rear wall of the chassis. The mounting apparatus includes a mounting strip (11), and a mounting bracket (13) resisting on the end of the retaining plate. The mounting strip includes an elongated main body (12) with a handling portion (127) formed in the middle thereof and two arms (15) extending from two ends of the main body for engaging with the clipping portions respectively. The mounting strip abuts on the mounting bracket. |
| US07974099B2 |
Apparatus and methods for thermal management of light emitting diodes
An apparatus is disclosed that may include one or more printed circuit boards (PCBs) and an electronics package may be disposed about the first surface of one or more of the PCBs. The PCBs may include a metal layer and a core, and, in some aspects, may include multiple cores interposed between multiple metal layers, and in some embodiments a backplane may be disposed along the core(s). A plurality of PCB's may be set apart and connected by pins to dissipate heat from one PCB to another, and/or to convey electrical connectivity. Pins may be configured to pass through or into one or both the PCBs including the cores to conduct heat generated by the electronics package away for dispersion. In some embodiments, the pins may pass into the backplane. The apparatus may include LEDs, lights, computer devices, memories, telecommunications devices, or combinations of these. |
| US07974097B2 |
Printed circuit board and heat sink
A heat sink for a printed circuit board of power server includes at least one soldering portion. The heat sink is soldered to the printed circuit board at the soldering portion by a lead-free tin soldering process. A plurality of protruding structures protrudes from the soldering portion uniformly. The protruding structures are beneficial for getting a better soldering quality. |
| US07974094B2 |
Outside plant telecommunications cabinet direct air cooling system
An outdoor equipment cabinet includes a housing with an equipment compartment therein. An intake air vent and an exit air vent are formed in the housing. A fan is mounted within the housing for pulling air into the intake air vent, moving an air stream through the equipment compartment, and pushing air out of the exit air vent. A membrane is disposed adjacent the intake air vent. The membrane allows air to pass therethrough, but resists the passage of water and contaminants therethrough. In some embodiments, a baffling plate is disposed to direct the air stream within the equipment compartment, and/or the fan speed is controlled by a temperature sensor, and/or a clogging of the membrane is monitored and reported, and/or the intake air vent is located in a first door and the exit air vent is located in a second door of the cabinet. |
| US07974091B2 |
Handheld electronic device and hinge assembly
A hinge assembly for a handheld electronic device is provided. The hinge assembly includes a housing having a first portion and a second portion. The hinge assembly comprises a primary member structured to hingedly couple the first portion to the second portion and a secondary member coupled to, and generally pivotable about, the primary member. |
| US07974085B2 |
Foldable electronic device
A foldable electronic device includes a main body, a hollow cylindrical shaft, a cover and a flexible circuit element. The shaft defines a first shaft slot and a second shaft slot, the first and second shaft slots aligned apart and extending from a part of the shaft to one end of the shaft along a direction substantially parallel to an axis of the shaft. The cover is pivoted to the main body via the shaft. The flexible circuit element includes a driving portion fixed to the main body, a controlling portion fixed to the cover, and a connecting portion interconnecting the driving portion and the controlling portion. The connecting portion of the flexible circuit element enters the shaft via the first shaft slot, and passes through the second shaft slot to be out of the shaft. |
| US07974084B2 |
Multi-sectioned arms for portable electronic devices
Multi-sectioned arms are used as a basic mechanism for coupling the display and the base of a portable electronic device. With this mechanism, one single portable electronic device can support all of the following capabilities. The display can move continuously, relative to the back edge of the base, along any combination of up and down, left and right, and forward and backward directions. The display can be tilted up and down as well as sideways and also set to portrait and landscape orientations. The base can be tilted forward for typing comfort and better heat dispersion. There is also an anti-tipping mechanism. When the display is in conventional open or close positions, each arm can be folded and parked alongside, parallel to, and away from the edge of the base. The arms can be detached from the computer. The base and the display can overlay each other in four ways. |
| US07974083B2 |
Displaying apparatus
A displaying apparatus includes a displaying panel having a plane and being surrounded by an external margin of the displaying panel, with the plane comprising a central region closer to a center position of the displaying panel than the external margin and a peripheral region positioned between the external margin and the central region, and a support member supporting the displaying panel by having a first portion opposing the central region and a second portion opposing the peripheral region. In addition, an adhesive member is provided between the displaying panel and the support member, with the plane being bonded to the support member by the adhesive member, and a cushion material is provided between the displaying panel and the support member. The plane of the displaying panel is bonded to the first portion by the adhesive member only at its central region, and the cushion material is provided between the peripheral region of the plane and the second portion. |
| US07974082B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus includes a front plate and an elastic member fitted to the front plate along the periphery thereof. The elastic member is pressed against a bezel by a pressing metal part. The elastic member includes a hook-shaped portion and a projecting portion at the end faces thereof. The hook-shaped portion is engaged with an edge portion of the front plate so that the elastic member is prevented from falling off from the front plate. Therefore, it is not necessary to use an adhesive in the assembly process. |
| US07974081B2 |
Bag computer computing unit panel
The disclosed invention is a panel-like computer with physical and electrical connections enabling it to be connected to the interior front wall of a matching bag. The resulting bag computer may further includes: a bag with means to attach matching computer equipment components; a pivoting display panel located near the exterior top front of the bag front with its display facing away from the bag; a pivoting cover for the display panel; an optional input device, such as a keyboard, located near the exterior center of the bag front. The computing unit panel is mounted to the interior of the bag's front wall using a support structure which physically and electrically holds and aligns the bag and other computing equipment while forming a rigid front to assist storage of the exterior front mounted equipment. |
| US07974078B2 |
Electrical enclosure assembly having venting system
An electrical enclosure assembly is provided including a first enclosure and a second enclosure disposed within the first enclosure. The first enclosure having a plurality of walls defining an interior and an exterior with one of the walls including a first number of one way vents. The interior being substantially sealed from the exterior except at the first number of one way vents. The second enclosure having a plurality of walls defining an interior separate from the interior of the first enclosure. One of the plurality of walls of the second enclosure including a second number of one way vents. The interior of the second enclosure being substantially sealed from the interior of the first enclosure except at the second number of one way vents. |
| US07974077B2 |
Solid electrolytic capacitor
A solid electrolytic capacitor includes a capacitor element, an anode lead frame, a cathode lead frame, and a mold resin portion. The anode lead frame includes an anode terminal portion and a rising portion. The rising portion is formed integral with the anode terminal portion, and extends from the anode terminal portion through the mold resin portion toward the anode portion, and is connected to the anode portion. At the rising portion, a catching recess and a holding portion are formed and, in addition, a first slit is formed downward from the catching recess. Thus, a solid electrolytic capacitor allowing highly accurate and reliable attachment of the capacitor element to the lead frame without using any additional member is provided. |
| US07974075B2 |
Electrode of supercapacitor and method for manufacturing the same
A method for manufacturing an electrode of a supercapacitor is provided. First, a poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) fabric is provided. The PAN fabric includes a plurality of PAN fibers each having a diameter of about 50-500 nm. Then, the PAN fabric undergoes a heat treatment so that the PAN fibers are carbonized to form a carbon fiber textile. The carbon fiber fabric includes a plurality of carbon fibers each having a diameter of about 50-500 nm. The surface of each carbon fiber is nano-porous having a plurality of nano pores of about 1-50 nm in diameter. The total surface area of the nano pores account for about 85-95% of the total surface area of the carbon fibers. The carbon fiber fabric is then cut to acquire the electrode of the supercapacitor. |
| US07974069B2 |
Inductive and capacitive components integration structure
An inductive and capacitive components integration structure includes a magnetic core including a first and a second outer leg, and a third inner leg between the first and second outer legs, a first and a second winding respectively wound on the first and second outer legs, and a third winding wound on the third inner leg. The first and second windings are electrically coupled and comprise a first inductive winding. The first inductive winding does not generate any effective magnetic flux through the third inner leg. The third winding forms a second inductive winding. At least one of the first, second and third windings is a composite winding and comprises at least one embedded capacitor. |
| US07974065B2 |
Electric arc isolation structure for transformers
The present invention discloses an electric arc isolation structure for isolating an electric arc produced by an arc discharge at a transformer, and the transformer includes a primary side input electrode terminal and a secondary side high-voltage output terminal. The exterior of the transformer is covered by an insulating sheath, and the insulating sheath at least fully covers the secondary side high-voltage output terminal of the transformer. |
| US07974063B2 |
Hybrid surge protector for a network interface device
A hybrid surge protector for a network interface device (NID) is disclosed. The hybrid surge protector includes a fail-safe spring connected to the ground electrode of a three-electrode gas tube. Tabs on the fail-safe spring are held away from the gas-tube end electrodes by a fusible element. The hybrid surge protector also includes metal-oxide varistor elements (“MOVs”) in contact with the gas-tube end electrodes and with the ground electrode via an MOV spring. This arrangement provides for two initial paths to ground-one path from the gas-tube end electrodes to the ground electrode through the gas tube, and another from the gas-tube end electrodes to the ground electrode through the MOVs and the MOV spring. The dominant path to ground starts as the MOV ground path but switches to the gas-tube path as the gas tube becomes activated. Another path to ground via the fail-safe spring is also available should the gas tube overheat. A surge protection module that includes the hybrid surge protector is also disclosed. |
| US07974062B2 |
Internally overlapped conditioners
The application discloses novel internal structures of energy conditioners, assemblies of external structures of energy conditioners and mounting structure, and novel circuits including energy conditioners having A, B, and G master electrodes. |
| US07974061B2 |
Common gate connected high voltage transient blocking unit
When a series protective element such as a transient blocking unit (TBU) is used in combination with a shunt protective element such as a gas discharge tube (GDT), firing of the GDT can cause a transient having the potential to damage the TBU. This problem can be alleviated by placing a TBU core in series between depletion mode transistors having their gates connected. With this arrangement, the GDT transient causes a transient in the TBU circuit that has the effect of switching the transistors around the TBU hard off, thereby protecting the TBU from the GDT transient. |
| US07974057B2 |
Inrush current limiter device and power factor control (PFC) circuit having an improved inrush current limiter device
The present invention relates to an inrush current limiter device (4) for limiting inrushing current to a connectable load (3) comprising: at least one switchable IGBT-based limiter unit (5) for selectively limiting the inrushing current, having at least one current limiting conductor element for a limited leading of current and at least an IGBT-based switch (Q2), whereby the IGBT-based switch (Q2) is used as well as a controlled current limiter and as a by-pass element, and at least one control device (7) for controlling the IGBT-based switch (Q2), whereby the control device (7) comprises at least one IGBT-based switch supply (6) and means for realizing (8) a smooth flank of an output signal at the selected conductor element. |
| US07974054B2 |
Integrated circuit with electrostatic discharge protection circuit
An integrated circuit with an electrostatic discharge protection circuit includes a first power pad, a second power pad, at least a circuit module, and a power clamp circuit. The circuit module includes a signal pad, an internal circuit and a first bipolar transistor. A first parasitical resistance is coupled between a collector of the first bipolar transistor and the second power pad. There is at least a metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor and at least a first parasitical bipolar transistor included within the power clamp circuit. |
| US07974053B2 |
ESD protection circuit for differential I/O pair
An ESD protection circuit for a differential I/O pair is provided. The circuit includes an ESD detection circuit, a discharge device, and four diodes. The first diode is coupled between the first I/O pin and the discharge device in a forward direction toward the discharge device. The second diode is coupled between the second I/O pin and the discharge device in a forward direction toward the second I/O pin. The third diode is coupled between the discharge device and the positive power line in a forward direction toward the positive power line. The fourth diode is coupled between the discharge device and the negative power line in a forward direction toward the discharge device. Via an output end, the ESD detection circuit triggers the discharge device during ESD events. |
| US07974052B2 |
Method and apparatus for switched electrostatic discharge protection
One embodiment includes an integrated circuit including an input circuit, a first diode including a first anode and a first cathode, with the first cathode coupled to a first voltage, the first anode coupled to the input circuit at a node via a first mechanical switch, a second diode including a second anode and a second cathode, with the second cathode coupled to the node via a second mechanical switch, the second anode coupled to a ground and a resistor coupled to the input circuit between the integrated circuit and the node, wherein in a first mode of operating, the first mechanical switch and the second mechanical switch are conducting, and in a second mode of operating, the first and second mechanical switches are nonconducting. |
| US07974051B2 |
Integrated circuit device and electronic instrument
An interface circuit is provided between a first circuit block and a second circuit block that operates using a power supply system differing from that of the first circuit block. An electrostatic discharge protection circuit that include a PN diode and a diffused resistor is formed in order to prevent electrostatic discharge destruction of a gate insulating film of a transistor that forms the interface circuit. The electrostatic discharge protection circuit may be formed using the remaining basic cells of a gate array that forms the second circuit block. An electrostatic discharge protection circuit formed of a bidirectional diode may be connected between a first low-potential power supply and a second low-potential power supply. |
| US07974049B2 |
Over-current protection in linear regulators
An integrated circuit radio transceiver and method therefor includes a linear regulator an output transistor for producing a current into an output node of the regulator wherein an amplification block is operable to produce a bias signal to a gate terminal of the output transistor to operably bias the output transistor to produce the current into the output node of the regulator. A current steering amplification block is operably disposed to steer current in/out of the gate of the output transistor (depending on device type) based upon the current being conducted through the output node of the regulator exceeding a specified threshold. The current steering amplification block further includes a current sinking element operably disposed to sink a specified amount of current to define the specified threshold. |
| US07974046B2 |
Thin-film magnetic head with heating portion and protrusion adjustment portion, head gimbal assembly equipped head, magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus equipped HGA, and manufacturing method of head
The present invention provides a thin-film magnetic head which surely improves the writing and reading characteristic with reducing the flying height and surely handles the contact or collision with the magnetic recording medium.A thin-film magnetic head is provided, which includes, an substrate with ABS; a read or write head element provided on an element-formed surface of the substrate; at least one protrusion adjustment portion whose end reaches a slider end surface on the ABS side, which provides on an element-formed surface of the substrate; at least one heating portion provided rear at least one protrusion adjustment portion viewed from the slider end surface on the ABS side. |
| US07974042B2 |
Thin film device having lead conductor film
The present invention relates to a thin-film device whose bump has an improved surface property. A thin-film element of the thin-film device includes at least one of an electromagnetic conversion element, a passive element and an active element. A lead conductor film containing Cu as a main component is connected to the thin-film element. The lead conductor is provided with a bump. The bump includes a first conductor film and a second conductor film. The first conductor film is adhered onto the lead conductor film and is a Ta film or made of a material having a comparably fine crystal structure. The second conductor film is a plated film which is directly or indirectly formed on the first conductor film and contains Au as a main component. |
| US07974037B2 |
Techniques for providing DC-free detection of DC equalization target
A data storage device includes a first filter that generates a short DC equalization target in response to a read back signal generated from magnetic patterns that are recorded on a storage medium using perpendicular recording. The data storage device also includes a first detector that generates an output sequence in response to the short DC equalization target. The data storage device also includes a high pass filter that attenuates DC components of the short DC equalization target and that passes low frequency components of the short DC equalization target above a cutoff frequency to generate a filtered signal. The data storage device also includes a second detector that processes the output sequence in response to the filtered signal. |
| US07974035B2 |
Timing recovery optimization using disk clock
Timing recovery optimization using disk clock. A novel means is presented to perform and provide control of the sampling frequency of a signal that is read from a disk within a hard disk drive (HDD). Two separate, yet somewhat cooperating control loops are employed to provide feedback control of the sampling frequency of the signal that is read from disk. A timing recovery loop and a disk clock loop operate in conjunction with one another according to some desired manner (which can be predetermined or adaptive) to ensure that the sampling of the signal is performed to a very accurate degree. In one implementation, the timing recovery loop governs the sampling rate until the disk clock loop has locked, from which time either the disk clock loop govern the sampling or some combination of the signals provided from the two loops govern the sampling. |
| US07974031B2 |
Single-pass recording of multilevel patterned media
A method of performing data/information recording and retrieval utilizing a multilevel patterned magnetic medium, comprises providing a magnetic recording system including a read/write head and a multilevel patterned magnetic recording medium including a plurality of spaced apart data/information storage elements each comprising a stacked plurality n of magnetic recording cells with different magnetic properties and magnetically decoupled from overlying and/or underlying cells; providing relative movement between the write head and magnetic recording medium; and writing to the medium by supplying the write head with a modulated write current comprising a plurality n of pulses of different magnitudes while the head passes over each element, thereby applying n different magnetic field strengths to each element, such that the writing occurs in a single pass of the write head over each element. |
| US07974030B2 |
Systems and methods for dibit correction
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for providing a corrected dibit signal. As an example, various embodiments of the present invention provide dibit correction circuits. Such dibit correction circuits include a dibit sample buffer, a maximum sample detector circuit, a side sample detector circuit, and a dibit correction circuit. The dibit sample buffer includes a plurality of samples of an uncorrected dibit signal. The maximum sample detector circuit identifies a maximum sample of the plurality of samples of the uncorrected dibit signal, and the side sample detector circuit identifies a first side sample prior to the maximum sample on the uncorrected dibit signal and a second side sample following the maximum sample on the uncorrected dibit signal. The dibit correction circuit applies a correction factor calculated based at least in part on the maximum sample, the first side sample and the second side sample to at least a subset of the plurality of samples of the uncorrected dibit signals to yield a plurality of corrected dibit signals. |
| US07974025B2 |
Shape memory alloy actuation apparatus
A miniature camera lens actuation apparatus employs an SMA actuator comprising SMA wire to move a camera lens element. To provide autofocus, the SMA actuator is heated across its range of contraction and the resistance at which the focus is at an acceptable level is stored. To combat hysteresis, there is performed a flyback in which the SMA actuator is cooled, before heating the SMA actuator to the stored resistance. The stored resistance is adjusted to combat creep caused by non-linear heating of the SMA actuator. The SMA wire has conductive material extending along on a portion of the SMA wire which extends from a member connected to the SMA wire and being in electrical connection with the SMA wire in order to short out that portion of the SMA wire to reduce creep. Additional material is applied over the SMA wire and the member to reduce fatigue. |
| US07974013B2 |
Optical lens component
An optical lens component comprises a fixed diaphragm, a lens group and a filter. The lens group comprises a first, a second and a third lens which is coaxial and arranged successively from object to image. The fixed diaphragm is located on the front of the first lens and the filter is located on the back of the third lens. The first lens comprises a first surface and a second surface; the second lens comprises a third surface and a fourth surface; and the third lens comprises a fifth surface and a sixth surface. The above six surfaces are all aspheric surfaces. |
| US07974012B2 |
Zoom lens system, optical device with the zoom lens system, and method of manufacturing the zoom lens system
A zoom lens system has a front lens group and a rear lens group along the optical axis and in order from the object side. The rear lens group has a first lens unit having a positive refracting power, a second lens unit having a negative refracting power, and a third lens unit having a positive refracting power. Upon zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state, a space between the front lens group and the first lens unit varies, a space between the first lens unit and the second lens unit increases, and a space between the second lens unit and the third lens unit decreases. At least a part of the second lens unit is movable so as to have a component in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis. |
| US07974009B2 |
Image fluctuation correcting apparatus
An image fluctuation correcting apparatus rotates a first rotary apex angle prism held in a first prism holding member around a first shaft in a direction for canceling an amount of horizontal fluctuation by electromagnetic force generated between a first drive coil and a first magnet by flowing electric current in the first drive coil. Also, the image fluctuation correcting apparatus rotates a second rotary apex angle prism held in a second prism holding member around a second shaft, which is located 180-degree angle away from the first shaft, in a direction for canceling an amount of vertical fluctuation by electromagnetic force generated between a second drive coil and a second magnet by flowing electric current in the second drive coil. |
| US07974007B2 |
Display device
A display device comprising: a display cell including at least two color regions, each of the at least color regions including a right-eye pixel and a left-eye pixel corresponding to a right eye and a left eye of a viewer, respectively; and a lenticular cell including at least two lenses corresponding to the at least two color regions, wherein the at least two lenses having different focal lengths. |
| US07974005B2 |
Display screen for use in front projectors
A screen for use in image presentations comprises an array of transmissive elongated prisms. The screen is capable of delivering incident light, having an incident angle within a specific incident angle range, to the viewing area, while preventing ambient light, having an incident angle within another angle range, from being directed to the viewing area. According to one embodiment, in operation, the screen, an image source, and the viewing area are positioned such that the light from the image source is directed to the viewing area. |
| US07974002B2 |
System and method for managing system margin
An optical communication system is operable to communicate a plurality of wavelength signals at a bit rate of at least 9.5 gigabits per second over a multiple span communication link spanning at least 400 kilometers without optical regenerators. The plurality of wavelength signals include a bandwidth of more than 32 nanometers separated into at least 160 optical channels. The system includes a plurality of optical transmitters implementing a forward error correction (FEC) coding technique. The FEC encoded wavelength signals comprise a bit error rate of 10−09 or better after FEC decoding. The system also includes at least five (5) optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs), each coupled to one or more spans of the multiple span communication link. The system further includes a plurality of amplifiers each coupled to one or more spans of the communication link, at least a majority of the amplifiers comprise a distributed Raman amplification stage. |
| US07973997B2 |
Transparent structures
Transparent structures, electrochromic devices, and methods for making such structures/devices are provided. A transparent structure may include a transparent substrate having a plurality of micro- or nano-scale structures, at least one substance configured to block near-infrared or infrared radiation and partially cover at least substantial portions of the substrate and the plurality of micro- or nano-scale structures, and at least one photocatalyst configured to at least partially cover an outermost surface of the transparent structure. |
| US07973995B2 |
Designing the host of nano-structured optoelectronic devices to improve performance
A nanostructured optoelectronic device is provided which comprises a nanostructured material and a host material intermingled with the nanostructured material. The host material may have a higher index of refraction than the nanostructured material. The host material's index of refraction may be chosen to maximize the effective active area of the device. In an alternative embodiment, the host material comprises scattering centers or absorption/luminescence centers which absorb light and reemit the light at a different energy or both. |
| US07973992B2 |
Imaging device for avoidance of an obstacle or an optical phenomenon which distorts quality of image
A method for avoiding an obstacle or an image-quality-degrading optical phenomenon in an image recognition unit is provided. The method includes the steps of providing at least an optical shutter array in the image recognition unit, detecting the obstacle or the optical phenomenon, and closing the optical shutter that corresponds to the portion affected by the obstacle or the optical phenomenon. The method can be readily implemented even when the space for implementing the method is small, for example, in a small space in a camera currently in use, and driving power consumed in the method is small. In an image affected by an obstacle attached to a lens or a protective cover for the lens in an imaging device or an optical phenomenon produced by the lens or the protective cover for the lens in the imaging device, an imaging method and image processing are used to avoid the obstacle or the optical phenomenon produced by the lens or the protective cover for the lens in the imaging device without removing the obstacle or optical phenomenon itself. |
| US07973991B2 |
Oscillator device, optical deflector and driving signal generating method
An oscillator device includes an oscillation system 115 having a plurality of oscillators and a plurality of torsion springs, a supporting member for supporting the oscillation system 115, driving members 114 and 1152, a signal output device 121 and 122, and a drive control unit 101-113, 123 and 124, wherein the driving member drives the oscillation system 115 so that the oscillator provides oscillation presented by an equation including the sum of a plurality of periodic functions, wherein the signal output device produces a signal corresponding to the displacement of the oscillator, and wherein the drive control unit controls the driving member based on an output signal of the signal output device and by use of a driving signal which is expressed by an equation including the sum of a plurality of periodic functions, the drive control unit including a driving signal generation circuit 109 for generating a driving signal using a trigonometric function table 110. |
| US07973990B2 |
Optical scanning device, optical writing device, and image forming apparatus
An optical scanning device includes a first optical system for guiding light beams emitted from a plurality of light emitting units to an optical deflector, and a second optical system for focusing the light beams to optically scan a surface to be scanned. At least one of the first optical system and the second optical system includes a resin lens having a diffractive surface. The diffractive surface includes a diffractive portion and a refractive portion. A power of the diffractive portion and a power of the refractive portion cancel each other. |
| US07973988B2 |
Color image forming apparatus and control method thereof
In the present invention, an image determination processing unit detects an image characteristic for each pixel in cyan image data of image data subjected to a registration shift correction by one pixel by use of a profile characteristic. Each set of characteristic determination result information A to C is stored in a determination result storing unit, and a decoder determines whether or not to perform a registration shift correction less than one pixel according to the information A to C. For magenta, yellow, or black, an image edge simple determination processing unit and a screen image simple determination processing unit for each color detect the image characteristic for each pixel in a simplified manner. According to this detected characteristic determination result information, it is determined whether or not to perform the registration shift correction less than one pixel for magenta, yellow, or black. |
| US07973984B2 |
Image reading apparatus
An image reading apparatus includes an image reading unit that can move along a scanning direction, and reads primary image data from a medium arranged on a medium arrangement surface by moving the image reading unit from a home position to a sub-scanning direction. The image reading apparatus further includes a determining unit that determines the presence or absence of the medium on the medium arrangement surface based on determination image data that is different from primary image data, and read by the image reading unit at a determination position arranged between the home position and a reading-end position of the primary image data. |
| US07973975B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes an image input device to convert image data into uncompressed data of CMYK, a gradation processing device to perform a gradation process on the uncompressed data to generate a halftone image, a rearrangement determination device to determine necessity of rearrangement of pixels of the halftone image, a selector to select an output destination based on a rearrangement necessity determination result, a rearrangement device to rearrange the pixels by using a threshold table used at a time of execution of the gradation process of the halftone image, and a coding device to output data obtained by coding data of the halftone image. According to the image processing device, coding efficiency can be improved more than in the related art while a harmful effect (reduction in code amount) due to the rearrangement process is suppressed. |
| US07973973B2 |
Display device, display panel driver and method of driving display panel
An LCD device according to the present invention has: an LCD panel; an operation and correction circuit configured to perform a correction operation with respect to an input gray-scale data of a target frame image by using an arithmetic expression to generate an output gray-scale data; a data line driver configured to drive the LCD panel in accordance with the output gray-scale data; and a correction data calculation circuit configured to generate a correction data that specifies a relationship between the input gray-scale data and the output gray-scale data of the target frame image, depending on the input gray-scale data of the target frame image or an input gray-scale data of a precedent frame image followed by the target frame image. The operation and correction circuit determines coefficients of the arithmetic expression from the correction data. |
| US07973970B2 |
Preventing artifacts that may be produced when bottling PDL files converted from raster images
The present invention eliminates undesirable image defects caused during the preparation of pages for printing and folding, known as the bottling process. This is achieved by analyzing image characteristics, sorting out the image according to its characteristics, where necessary vectoring and editing the vectored characteristics, and finally completing the file conversion from a raster image to a Page Description Language (PDL) image. A first embodiment of the invention divides an image into small segments. A second embodiment of the invention enlarges existing image segments. A third embodiment of the invention enlarges existing image segments and sorts image segments according to their color attribute of transparency. A fourth embodiment of the invention divides a part of an image segment to small segments. |
| US07973969B2 |
Printing apparatus and method for controlling printing apparatus
The invention provides a printing apparatus that includes: a printing section; a display unit; a touch-sensitive panel that is overlaid on the display unit; a display controlling section; a three-primary-color correcting section that sets a corrected set of values that is recognized by the user as the apparent red, green, and blue base colors on the basis of a comparison made between the position of each of the red, green, and blue display cells that make up the red, green, and blue cell block and a touch position detected by the touch-sensitive panel, respectively; and a print controlling section that controls the printing section to print true red, green, and blue base colors as a color sample that is used when the three-primary-color correcting section performs correction. |
| US07973965B2 |
Digital camera with ink reservoir and ink reservoir information integrated circuit
A digital camera comprises an image sensor for sensing an image; a card reader configured to read a removable data card carrying distortion information; a printer configured to print a distorted image on print media, the printer including a replaceable print roll carrying both the print media and ink to be printed upon the print media; anda controller for controlling the communication of the distorted images to the printer. The print roll includes an ink reservoir section and the ink reservoir section includes a plurality of bladder type containers for storing respective types of ink. A cavity is provided in the ink reservoir section for receiving an integrated circuit device storing information associated with the print roll. |
| US07973962B2 |
Optimized printing of electronic documents
Approaches for the optimized printing of electronic documents are provided. The approaches are applicable to a wide variety of contexts and implementations and include generating an estimated processing time for an electronic document and reporting the estimated processing time back to a client device. Generating an estimated time to process includes processing at least a portion of the print data. Further, the approaches include re-ordering a processing queue based on the estimated processing time for the electronic document, and additionally based on an in-queue time for each print data in the processing queue. Further, any user-designated priority may be factored into the re-ordering of print data in the processing queue, or in the alternative, bypass the optimization process entirely. These approaches may be implemented on a printing device, a print server, a client device or any other device capable of utilizing these approaches. |
| US07973958B2 |
Image forming apparatus conducting an interpretation operation
An image forming apparatus for forming images by outputting plural image data in an order corresponding to an input order of plural input data is disclosed. The image forming apparatus includes a data receiving part for receiving the input data, a priority determining part for determining priority of outputting the input data, a PDL process part having plural PDL interpretation parts including at least first and second PDL interpretation parts for performing a PDL process on the input data, and a PDL control part for controlling each of the plural PDL interpretation parts, wherein when a subsequent input data is determined to have a priority higher than that of a prior input data in a case where the first PDL interpretation part is performing a first PDL process on the prior input data, the PDL control part is configured to stop the first PDL process and cause the second PDL interpretation part to perform a second PDL process on the subsequent input data. |
| US07973956B2 |
High speed printing method and apparatus
A high speed printing method and apparatus are provided, in which provided print data is rendered and a rendered result in response to a print request of the print data is transmitted, and an image of the rendered result is formed, wherein the rendering of the provided print data is performed by a host, and the forming of the image of the rendered result is performed by an image forming device connected to the host. Accordingly, a host performs pre-rendering before a print request is input, and when the print request is input, an image forming device receives the rendered result from the host and prints the rendered result. Thus, the image forming device can perform a printing job at a high speed regardless of the amount of print data. |
| US07973950B1 |
Image printing history
Methods, program products and systems for accepting a first request to print a first image, which includes image data, using first settings that specify one or more nondestructive first transformations of the first image data that creates a first appearance of the first image. In response to the first request, a first association between a time of the first request, the first image, and the first settings is stored. A second request to print a second image, which includes second image data, using second settings is accepted. The second settings specify one or more nondestructive second transformations of the second image data that create a second appearance of the second image. In response to the second request, a second association between a time of the second request, the second image, and the second settings is stored. |
| US07973948B2 |
Multifunction office device enabling input scanning before entering machine instructions
In operating a multifunction office apparatus, the apparatus including a user interface, an input scanner, and at least one of a printer, finisher, disc recorder, facsimile transmitter, network transmitter, or electronic mail transmitter, images from a document are recorded as image data in a memory. Simultaneous with the recording, instructions are accepted through the user interface for applying the image data to the multifunction office apparatus. |
| US07973944B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image processing apparatus, printing medium, image processing method and storage medium readable by computer
An image forming apparatus includes: a document image generating portion that generates a document image which is instructed to be printed; a code image generating portion that generates a code image indicating a position on a medium; an accepting portion that accepts information indicating at least one of a first mode and a second mode, wherein a print image including the document image and the code image being printed in the first mode and a print image including the code image but not including the document image being printed in the second mode, and a printing portion that prints the print image on the medium in the mode pointed by information that the accepting portion accepts. |
| US07973942B2 |
Optical displacement detection mechanism and surface information measurement device using the same
There is provided an optical displacement detection mechanism in which, even if a measurement object changes, a detection sensitivity and a ratio of a noise are adjustable without depending on optical characteristics such as reflectivity, or a shape and mechanical characteristics of a measurement object, an influence of a thermal deformation of the measurement object by an irradiated light to the measurement object can be made small, and a measurement accuracy can be ensured under optimum conditions. In an optical displacement detection mechanism comprising a light source irradiating a light to a cantilever becoming the measurement object, a light source drive circuit driving the light source, a photodetector receiving the light after irradiated to the cantilever from the light source to thereby detect an intensity of the light, and an amplifier amplifying a detection signal of the photodetector at a predetermined amplification rate, there is made such that, by providing a light intensity regulator and an amplification rate regulator, an irradiated light intensity to the cantilever and an amplification rate of the photodetector can be made variable. |
| US07973939B2 |
Differential-phase polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system
A differential-phase polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system includes a polarized heterodyne interferometer for generating a reference beam to be reflected by a movable mirror unit, and a signal beam to be reflected by an imaging plane in a specimen. The interferometer further generates a first electrical signal output corresponding to first linear polarized waves of the reference and signal beams, and a second electrical signal output corresponding to second linear polarized waves of the reference and signal beams. A differential amplifier receives the first and second electrical signal outputs, and generates a differential signal output therefrom. A data acquisition unit is used to measure amplitudes of the first and second electrical signal outputs and the differential signal output. A computing unit computes the amplitudes measured by the data acquisition unit to determine a reflectivity, a phase retardation, and a fast axis angle of the imaging plane in the specimen. |
| US07973928B2 |
Spectroscopic instrument, image producing device, spectroscopic method, and image producing method
The spectroscopic instrument includes a plurality of first lenses arranged one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally; an aperture opening provided near a focal plane of each of the plurality of first lenses; a spectroscopic unit that spectrally distribute the light that has passed through the aperture opening; and a light receiving unit that receives the light spectrally distributed by the spectroscopic unit. The image producing device includes: the spectroscopic instrument; an imaging unit that captures an image formed by an imaging optical system; and an image processing unit that acquires a lighting condition from a result of spectroscopy by the spectroscopic instrument and performs color conversion processing depending on the lighting condition on an image captured by the imaging unit. |
| US07973927B2 |
Two-photon microscope with spectral resolution
A microscope for generating an image of a sample, the microscope includes a light source for generating a pulsed light; a scanning mirror receiving the pulsed light and transmitting the pulsed light to the sample to be imaged causing the sample to emit energy; a dispersive element that receives the emitted energy from the sample, disperses the energy into its spectral elements and transmits the spectrally dispersed energy; and a camera that generates a spectrally resolved image of the sample based on the spectrally dispersed energy from the dispersive element. Also described is a method of generating spectrally resolved images of the sample. |
| US07973925B2 |
Apparatus for stabilizing mechanical, thermal, and optical properties and for reducing the fluorescence of biological samples for optical evaluation
An apparatus is presented in which a sample can be accurately repositioned in a spectroscopic and/or imaging apparatus upon multiple insertions, and where the apparatus can be worn by living subjects for extended periods of time. The apparatus additionally reduces the temperature increase and stabilizes the temperature of the sample upon irradiation with an optical source of excitation. Additionally, the apparatus stabilizes the pressure and critical optical properties of the sample and its interface with the apparatus. Alternatively or additionally, the apparatus can be used to alter and/or substantially reduce fluorescence from targeted fluorophores in the sample. |
| US07973923B2 |
Multi-port inline flow cell for use in monitoring multiple parameters in a sanitary process line
Inline flow cell for use in monitoring multiple parameters in a sanitary process line, comprising a body with opposing end walls, a flow passageway extending along an axis between the end walls, and a plurality of side walls disposed tangentially about the axis, inlet and outlet fittings communicating with the passageway at the ends of the body for connecting the flow cell in a sanitary process line with fluid in the line flowing through the passageway, and monitoring ports opening through more than two of the side walls for receiving sensors for monitoring multiple parameters in the fluid. |
| US07973921B2 |
Dynamic illumination in optical inspection systems
An optical inspection system or tool can be configured to inspect objects using dynamic illumination where one or more characteristics of the illumination is/are adjusted to meet the inspection needs of different areas. For example, the illumination intensity may be increased or decreased as the tool inspects areas of memory and periphery features in a wafer die. In some embodiments, the adjustment can be based on data obtained during a pre-inspection setup sequence in which images taken based on illumination with varying characteristics are evaluated for suitability in the remainder of the inspection process. |
| US07973920B2 |
Apparatus and method for inspecting defects
A defect inspection apparatus includes a movable stage for mounting a substrate having circuit patterns as an object of inspection, an irradiation optical system which irradiates a slit-shaped light beam from an oblique direction to the circuit patterns of the substrate, a detection optical system which includes an image sensor for receiving reflected/scattered light from the substrate by irradiation of the slit-shaped light beam and converting the received light into a signal, and an image processor which processes the signal. The irradiation optical system includes a cylindrical lens and a coherency reduction optical system, which receives the light beam and emits a plurality of slit-shaped light sub-beams which are spatially reduced in coherency in a light-converging direction of the cylindrical lens. The cylindrical lens focuses the plurality of slit-shaped light sub-beams into the slit-shaped light beam irradiated to the surface of the substrate. |
| US07973914B2 |
Physical quantity measuring apparatus utilizing optical frequency domain reflectometry and method for temperature and strain measurement using the apparatus
A physical quantity measuring apparatus utilizing optical frequency domain reflectometry includes a tunable laser; a first polarization maintaining fiber; a polarization maintaining coupler; a second polarization maintaining fiber; a third polarization maintaining fiber; a sensor consists of a fiber Bragg grating formed in a core of the third polarization maintaining fiber; a fourth polarization maintaining fiber; a photodiode detects Bragg reflected light from the sensor and reference light from the referential reflecting end; a controller that detects modulation of an interference intensity between the Bragg reflected light and the reference light; and an incidence part that inputs the measuring light, wherein the incidence part being provided on the first polarization maintaining fiber or on both the second polarization maintaining fiber and the third polarization maintaining fiber. |
| US07973913B2 |
Distance measurement apparatus and method
Emitting stripe pattern light, whose intensity changes periodically, onto a subject while shifting the phase of the pattern by π/2 from a reference phase of 0 until the phase is shifted one cycle to receive reflected light by an image sensor at each of phases 0, π/2, π, and 3π/2. From received light signals obtained at four phases, calculating a phase difference between the stripe pattern light and reflected light thereof with respect to each light receiving element to calculate distance information representing a distance to the subject based on the phase difference. In this case, the distance information is calculated only from a light receiving element having an absolute value of the difference between a first added signal of received light signals at 0 and π and a second added signal of received light signals at π/2 and 3π/2 smaller than a specific value. |
| US07973912B2 |
Binary modulation rangefinder
A method for evaluating distance from a first point to a second point. The method includes the steps of generating a periodic binary sequence, generating a harmonic modulation signal, generating a modulated light signal at a range finding device, wherein the modulated light signal is generated based upon the periodic binary sequence and the harmonic modulation signal, transmitting the modulated light signal from the first point toward an object at the second point, receiving a reflected light signal from the object, and determining a distance between the first point and the second point based upon a phase evaluation of periodic binary sequence and harmonic modulation signal of both the transmitted light signal and the received light signal. |
| US07973910B2 |
Stage apparatus and exposure apparatus
A stage apparatus includes: a moving stage, which moves along a movement plane; a first moving table, which holds a specimen while being able to move with respect to the moving stage; and a second moving table, which is provided on the moving stage and, when the first moving table has moved from a first position to a second position, is positioned at the first position. |
| US07973909B2 |
Method and apparatus for using a synchrotron as a source in extreme ultraviolet lithography
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method to facilitate using a synchrotron as a source in an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) system, wherein the synchrotron's energy decreases over time. The EUVL system can includes a stepper which uses a step-and-repeat process or a step-and-scan process to transfer patterns from a reticle onto a wafer. The wafer is desired to be exposed to a substantially constant dose. During operation, the system can measure a synchrotron current, and adjust the stepper's exposure duration or the stepper's scan speed based on the synchrotron current so that the wafer is exposed to the substantially constant dose. Note that using the synchrotron current to control the stepper can enable the EUVL system to expose the wafer to the substantially constant dose without using additional equipment to monitor the source's energy. |
| US07973907B2 |
Method for treating substrate, method for conveying substrate, and apparatus for conveying substrate
A method for treating a substrate before exposing the substrate to which a resist is applied, includes, rinsing the substrate to which a resist is applied, and holding the rinsed substrate in an atmosphere. The atmosphere substantially contains no moisture until conveying the substrate to an exposure apparatus. |
| US07973900B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
An array substrate of a liquid crystal display device includes an insulating substrate, a gate line extending in a first direction on the insulating substrate, a first insulation film which is disposed to cover the gate line, pixel electrodes which are disposed on the first insulation film in respective pixels, a source line which is disposed on the first insulation film and extends between the pixel electrodes along a second direction, a second insulation film which is disposed to cover the pixel electrode and the source line, and a common electrode which is disposed on the second insulation film in a manner to face the pixel electrode of each of the pixels and to face the gate line, and includes a slit which is opposed to the pixel electrode. |
| US07973899B2 |
Thin film transistor array panel with capacitive coupling between adjacent pixel areas
A thin film transistor array panel according to one embodiment of the invention comprises: first, second, and third pixel electrodes arranged sequentially, the second pixel electrode including first and second sub-pixel electrodes, the second pixel electrode occupying an area comprising a first area and a second area that is disposed closer to the third pixel electrode than the first area; first, second, and third thin film transistors connected to the first, the second, and the third pixel electrodes, respectively; first, second, and third gate lines connected to the first, the second, and the third thin film transistors, respectively; and a data line connected to the first, the second, and the third thin film transistors, wherein the second sub-pixel electrode is capacitively coupled to the third pixel electrode, and the second sub-pixel electrode is present in both the first and the second areas. |
| US07973893B2 |
Method of manufacturing a substrate for a liquid crystal display device
The present invention is a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, wherein light having an exposure energy is irradiated on the surface of a photo-sensitive resin layer having a predetermined film thickness, and a distribution of thermal deformation characteristics in the thickness direction (or the plane direction) of the photo-sensitive resin layer is formed, then heat treatment is performed to form random undulation (micro-grooves or micro-wrinkles) on the surface of the photo-sensitive resin layer. |
| US07973886B2 |
Four color liquid crystal display and panel therefor
Thin film transistors are formed on a lower substrate, and red, green, blue and transparent color filters are formed thereon. An organic insulating layer is formed on the color filters, and pixel electrodes are formed thereon. A black matrix and a common electrode are formed on an upper substrate facing the lower substrate. |
| US07973881B2 |
Plane light source apparatus and liquid crystal display apparatus
The present invention provides a plane light source apparatus includes a light guide plate having a flat face portion and an end face portion. A plurality of point light sources are disposed in an opposing relationship to the end face portion of the light guide plate. The light guide plate mixes light from the point light sources incoming from the end face portion thereof and emit the mixed light as illumination light from the flat face portion thereof. The point light sources are a combination of point light sources having chromaticities different from each other within a predetermined standard chromaticity range, and mix light from the point light sources so that the chromaticity of the resulting illumination light fits into a target chromaticity range which is narrower than the standard chromaticity range. |
| US07973875B2 |
Flat-panel display member and its manufacturing method and flat-panel display and its manufacturing method
The present invention relates to a flat-panel display member, including at least an anti-reflection layer, an electrically conductive layer and a transparent resin layer, having the anti-reflection layer disposed on a first face of the electrically conductive layer, and having the transparent resin layer disposed on a second face on the other side of the first face of the electrically conductive layer, wherein a peripheral portion of the above flat-panel display member has an electrode reaching the above electrically conductive layer or the above transparent resin layer from the outermost surface of said first face side. The present invention provides a flat-panel display member capable of being produced with good production efficiency and excellent in electromagnetic wave shielding performance and visibility, and its manufacturing method. |
| US07973872B2 |
Backlight unit and liquid crystal display using the same
A backlight unit that minimizes damage to an optical sheet due to external impacts, and a liquid crystal display employing the backlight unit are disclosed. The backlight unit comprises a light source unit comprising a plurality of light sources; a bottom cover that receives the light source unit and comprises a first protrusion; support sides fastened to both opened shorter sides of the bottom cover to support the light source unit and comprising a second protrusion; and an optical sheet unit disposed on the light source unit and comprising a first long hole in which the first protrusion is inserted and a second long hole in which the second protrusion is inserted, wherein the first and second long holes have a dumbbell shape in which the diameter of a curved portion is larger than the width of a linear portion through which the first and second protrusions pass. |
| US07973864B2 |
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display includes a substrate first and second gate lines; first and second data lines, a storage electrode line, a first thin film transistor having a control terminal connected to the first gate line and an input terminal connected to the first data line, a second thin film transistor having a control terminal connected to the first gate line and an input terminal connected to the first data line, a first sub-pixel electrode connected to the output terminal of the first thin film transistor, a second sub-pixel electrode connected to the output terminal of the second thin film transistor, a third thin film transistor having a control terminal connected to the second gate line and an input terminal connected to the first sub-pixel electrode, and a first capacitive conductor connected to the output terminal of the third thin film transistor and overlapping a portion of the storage electrode line to form a voltage reducing capacitor. |
| US07973863B2 |
Liquid crystal display apparatus
Disclosed herein is a liquid crystal display apparatus, including: a liquid crystal panel having a display region for displaying an image and having a plurality of pixels disposed in the region; and a pair of first and second polarizing plates provided in an opposing relationship to each other through the display region; the liquid crystal panel including a first substrate, a second substrate opposed in a spaced relationship to the first substrate, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by and between the first and second substrates and oriented. |
| US07973858B2 |
Reduced memory and bandwidth motion adaptive video deinterlacing
A method for reduced memory and bandwidth motion adaptive video deinterlacing is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating a frame by deinterlacing a current field in a first of a plurality of modes, (B) generating the frame by deinterlacing using both of the current field and an opposite-parity field in a second of the modes and (C) generating the frame be deinterlacing using all of the current field, the opposite-parity field and another field in a third of the modes, wherein the method uses at least two of the modes. |
| US07973856B2 |
Image-snapping device
An image snapping device includes a body, a support rod, an image-snapping module and an outer hollow cylinder. The support rod is pivotally connected to the body. The image-snapping module is pivotally connected to the support rod and has a camera rotatable relative to the support rod. The outer hollow cylinder houses the image snapping module and is rotatably connected with the image snapping module, wherein the outer hollow cylinder has multiple lenses, one of which the camera is selectively aligned with. |
| US07973855B2 |
Image shake correction apparatus and method
An image shake correction apparatus and method for reducing frictional loss when elements vibrate or slide by reducing a distance from a center of an image pickup device stage to a virtual line connecting a portion, to which a driving force generator applies a driving force, and a guide portion. A CCD image sensor converts light irradiated on a photographing surface into electric signals, a slider and a CCD base support the CCD image sensor and move the CCD image sensor with respect to the photographing surface, and piezoelectric actuator assemblies drive the slider and the CCD base, such that the virtual line connects a portion, to which the driving force of the driving force generator is applied, to the guide portion that extends along the photographing surface of the CCD image sensor. |
| US07973851B2 |
Auto-focus system
An auto-focus system comprising an AF area indicating device for indicating a range of an AF area in the shooting screen, an AF area changing device for changing a range of an AF area to be set in the focus controlling device to a range of an AF area indicated by the AF area indicating device, and a switching device for switching a change of a range of an AF area by the AF area changing device between possible and impossible, wherein the change at least relates to the location of an AF area, and wherein the switching device switches a change of a range of an AF area to impossible when the view finder controlling device has no function of displaying the AF area information on the view finder. |
| US07973850B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes a discriminating unit that discriminates a color component originating in an image structure in an image captured through an optical system from a color component attributable to a chromatic aberration of the optical system, and a correction unit that corrects the color component attributable to the chromatic aberration of the optical system based upon discrimination results provided by the discriminating unit. |
| US07973849B2 |
Image taking apparatus
An aspect of the present invention provides an image taking apparatus, comprising: a solid-state image sensor; and a taking lens including a lens barrel that houses a lens disposed in front of the solid-state image sensor, wherein a shielding member that blocks an electromagnetic wave radiated from the front surface of the solid-state image sensor is provided on an outer circumference of the lens barrel, and a metallic member electrically floating in the lens barrel is grounded. |
| US07973846B2 |
Digital image capture having an ultra-high dynamic range
An image capture method in a digital image sensor implements a continuous sampling technique with a massively parallel thermometer-code analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) technique to generate pixel data having an intrinsic to an ultra-high dynamic range. In one embodiment, the method includes, after an initial exposure period, sampling pixel intensity values at the pixel elements of an image sensor at multiple sampling intervals within a snapshot of a scene; providing an analog reference voltage corresponding to a decrementing digital count value; and comparing the pixel intensity values to the analog reference voltage at each of the multiple sampling intervals. If the pixel intensity value of a first pixel element is less than the analog reference voltage at a first exposure time, an output signal having a first value is generated and the digital count value is recorded as pixel data associated with the first pixel element. |
| US07973841B2 |
Photo sensor with a low-noise photo element, sub-linear response and global shutter
A photo sensor exhibiting low noise, low smear, low dark current, high dynamic range and global shutter functionality consists either of a pinned (or buried) photodiode or a photo-sensitive charge-coupled device, each with associated transfer gate, a sub-linear element, a shutter transistor, a reset circuit and a read-out circuit. Using two output paths global shutter and high speed operation are possible for the linear and the sub-linear output of the sensor. Because of its compact size, the photo sensor can be employed in one- and two-dimensional image sensors, fabricated with industry-standard CMOS and CCD technologies. |
| US07973835B2 |
Solid-state image pickup apparatus
This invention is to provide a solid-state image pickup apparatus including a photoelectric conversion unit (PD), transfer switch (MTX) for transferring signal charges from the photoelectric conversion unit, capacitance for holding the transferred signal charges, and amplification transistor (MSF) for outputting a signal corresponding to the signal charges held by the capacitance. The amplification transistor includes a capacitance unit (CFD) having the first capacitance value and an additive capacitance unit (Cox) for adding a capacitance to the capacitance unit to increase the first capacitance value and obtain the second capacitance value. A signal read-out from the amplification transistor has a first read-out mode in which a signal is read out while keeping the signal charges held by the capacitance unit and additive capacitance unit, and a second read-out mode in which a signal is read out while keeping the signal charges held by the capacitance unit. |
| US07973834B2 |
Electro-optical foveated imaging and tracking system
Conventional electro-optical imaging systems can not achieve wide field of view (FOV) and high spatial resolution imaging simultaneously due to format size limitations of image sensor arrays. To implement wide field of regard imaging with high resolution, mechanical scanning mechanisms are typically used. Still, sensor data processing and communication speed is constrained due to large amount of data if large format image sensor arrays are used. This invention describes an electro-optical imaging system that achieves wide FOV global imaging for suspect object detection and local high resolution for object recognition and tracking. It mimics foveated imaging property of human eyes. There is no mechanical scanning for changing the region of interest (ROI). Two relatively small format image sensor arrays are used to respectively acquire global low resolution image and local high resolution image. The ROI is detected and located by analysis of the global image. A lens array along with an electronically addressed switch array and a magnification lens is used to pick out and magnify the local image. The global image and local image are processed by the processor, and can be fused for display. Three embodiments of the invention are described. |
| US07973833B2 |
System for and method of taking image and computer program
In an image taking system such as digital camera, especially when a predetermined objective body such as a face is included, an objective body detecting portion detects a predetermined objective body from an image taken by the image taking system. A storage portion stores a detection history including a past result of detection of the objective body and a newest result of detection of the objective body. A determination portion refers to the detection history and determines whether the objective body is to be handled as detected in the image obtained newest. |
| US07973829B2 |
Image sensing apparatus, image sensing method, recording medium, and program for controlling exposure by correcting a brightness value when an optical filter is manually inserted
An object of the invention is to provide an image sensing apparatus capable of sensing an image in consideration of the influence of inserting/removing an optical filter, an image sensing method, a recording medium, and a program. To achieve this object, a brightness value calculation unit calculates the first brightness value representing the brightness of part or all of an object which is imaged on a CCD image sensing element. A brightness value correction unit calculates the second brightness value by correcting the first brightness value calculated by the brightness value calculation unit on the basis of the light reduction amount generated by inserting an ND filter. A system controller controls an optical system and signal processing in a DSP circuit by using the second brightness value calculated by the brightness value correction unit. |
| US07973826B2 |
Program creating and editing apparatus for image processing controller, and apparatus for editing image processing program executed in image processing controller
There is provided a program creation apparatus with improved operability in checking an operation of a created control program, including: a program generating section for acquiring a camera image from a camera based upon an image pick-up trigger signal, to extract a measurement result from the acquired camera image as a control program for the image processing controller; a simulation part for executing the control program; and a communication section for transferring the control program to the image processing controller, wherein the simulation part includes an offline simulation section for extracting a measurement result from a camera image previously held as a registration image, and an online simulation section for acquiring a camera image from the camera through the image processing controller when executing the control program, to extract the measurement result from the acquired camera image. |
| US07973824B2 |
Digital camera that uses object detection information at the time of shooting for processing image data after acquisition of an image
A digital camera includes an object detecting unit which analyzes an analysis target image including a through image data taken in from an image pickup device to compose a shot of an object, a shot image, or a reduced image, based on a feature appearing in an image representing a subject of shooting, and detects at least one main object captured in the analysis target image, a subject information extracting unit which extracts, for each image of object detected by the object detecting unit, subject information including a position in a screen corresponding to the analysis target image and its expansion, and a tag data writing unit which writes the subject information, as a part of tag data corresponding to the shot image, to a storage medium, thereby enabling use of the information acquired by object detection at the time of shooting, also after the acquisition of the image. |
| US07973821B2 |
Method for controlling masking block in monitoring camera
A method for controlling a masking block in a monitoring camera. The method adjusts the masking block to precisely hide an image of a subject with its position and size changed when a zoom magnification is changed under a state where the masking block is set. In addition, the method adjusts a masking block to precisely hide a changed image of a subject when the monitoring camera is rotated to change the position of the image of the subject. In addition, the method measures and corrects a distance between a center axis of a CCD and an optical axis of a lens if the two axes are not coincident with each other. In addition, the method corrects an offset occurring due to an incorrect coupling between the monitor camera and a pan/tilter. Furthermore, a method for setting a masking block when a remotely uncontrollable monitoring camera is used is disclosed. |
| US07973820B2 |
Motion detector and image capture device, interchangeable lens and camera system including the motion detector
The blurring caused by a tiny tremor movement is eliminated, which almost perfectly without being affected by intentional camera movement by distinguishing the unintentional tremor movement from other movements (or disturbances). A motion detector includes: a motion detecting section for detecting a movement of an image capture device and outputting a detection signal, of which the amplitude and frequency represent the movement; a motion signal generating section for generating a motion signal representing a physical quantity corresponding to the magnitude of the movement based on the detection signal; a notification signal generating section for generating a notification signal that marks start and end of a movement of the image capture device, which is a non-tremor movement, based on the detection signal that has been output; and a control section for controlling the motion signal generating section by reference to the notification signal such that an output of the motion signal is fixed at a predetermined one from the start through the end of the non-tremor movement. |
| US07973819B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining the position of a moving object, by using visible light communication
An apparatus for determining the present position of a vehicle, by utilizing a visible-light communication system. The apparatus uses a visible-light communication beacon and video data representing an image photographed by one camera. The beacon emits a visible optical signal, thus transmitting position data. The visible-light communication beacon comprises a road-illuminating lamp and a visible-light communication apparatus, both secured to a lamp post. The vehicle has the camera and a vehicle position determination apparatus. The vehicle position determination apparatus demodulates the visible optical signal, there restoring the position data, and calculates the present position of the vehicle from the position data. |
| US07973816B2 |
Mobile image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit which forms an image on a printing medium; a main body casing which accommodates the image forming unit; a feeding unit which feeds the stored medium to the image forming unit; and a rotation coupling unit which couples the feeding unit with the bottom surface of the main body casing to rotate at a predetermined angle with respect to the bottom surface of the main body casing. |
| US07973815B2 |
Method for controlling peel position in a printer
A method for maintaining a peel location and for peeling a layer of media from a surface in a thermal printer. An optical probe, that includes a light source and a photodetector, transmits light from the optical probe toward a first web. The web reflects a portion of the transmitted light onto the photodetector, which then outputs an electrical signal which is compared with a preselected signal level and the difference between them provides an indication as to how much adjustment the peel location requires. Adjusting the peel location may comprise changing environmental characteristics of the first web or the second web (surface) or adjusting a tension of the first or second web. The difference between the measured electrical signal levels is related to a physical distance of the first web from the desired peel location. |
| US07973814B2 |
Thermal transfer printer
A thermal transfer printer includes: a peeling roller which is disposed downstream of a printing position set between a thermal head and a platen roller and defines a peeling start position of an ink ribbon; and a tension plate which is disposed on a further downstream side than the peeling roller and slidably stretches the ink ribbon under a tension relative to the printing position, via the peeling roller. With a back tension being ensured by means of the tension plate to prevent slackness of the ink ribbon, the peeling roller performs peeling, thereby avoiding retention of dust or the like and the lowered quality of paper due to such retention. In this manner, problems such as wrinkles occurring with the ink ribbon are eliminated without damaging paper, and further, improvement of printing quality is compatible with that of paper quality, through a design based upon a mechanism concerning the occurrence of wrinkles. |
| US07973812B2 |
Thermal printer and method of controlling the same
Movement of platen rollers are started at a predetermined timing considering the distance from a paper sensor to thermal heads, and a paper feeding speed, so that the movement of the platen rollers is completed at the time when the thermal paper reaches the thermal heads. |
| US07973807B2 |
Snap to element analytical tool
An analytical tool for measuring spacing between elements in a web page is provided. In one implementation, the analytical tool identifies locations indicated on a web page and automatically determines one or more elements in proximity to those indicated locations. The analytical tool automatically identifies points on the determined elements associated with the indicated locations and calculates the distance between those points. The calculated distance is displayed on the web page. The automatically identified points and a graphical representation of a measuring ruler between the points may also be displayed to enhance usability. |
| US07973802B1 |
Optional color space conversion
An apparatus and method for converting color data from one color space to another color space. A driver determines that a set of shader program instructions perform a color conversion function and the set of shader program instructions are replaced with either a single shader program instruction or a flag is set within an existing shader program instruction to specify that output color data is represented in a nonlinear color format. The output color data is converted to the nonlinear color format prior to being stored in a frame buffer. Nonlinear color data read from the frame buffer is converted to a linear color format prior to shading, blending, or raster operations. |
| US07973797B2 |
Programmable blending in a graphics processing unit
Techniques for implementing blending equations for various blending modes with a base set of operations are described. Each blending equation may be decomposed into a sequence of operations. In one design, a device includes a processing unit that implements a set of operations for multiple blending modes and a storage unit that stores operands and results. The processing unit receives a sequence of instructions for a sequence of operations for a blending mode selected from the plurality of blending modes and executes each instruction in the sequence to perform blending in accordance with the selected blending mode. The processing unit may include (a) an ALU that performs at least one operation in the base set, e.g., a dot product, (b) a pre-formatting unit that performs gamma correction and alpha scaling of inbound color values, and (c) a post-formatting unit that performs gamma compression and alpha scaling of outbound color values. |
| US07973796B1 |
Natural framing system
In one embodiment, a method of displaying a representation of a frame includes identifying a molding type capable of being used in a frame. A set of digital images is obtained, wherein each one of the set of digital images represents molding of the molding type in a different one of a plurality of orientations. A representation of the frame is then displayed using the set of digital images. |
| US07973795B2 |
Image display system, image display apparatus, and image correction processing program
An image display system includes: an information processing apparatus that performs a predetermined image correcting process on image data; an image display apparatus that displays an image on the basis of the image data corrected by the information processing apparatus; and a signal transmitting member that connects the information processing apparatus and the image display apparatus and transmits signals therebetween. The information processing apparatus includes: a first image correction processing unit that performs a predetermined image correcting process on the image data; and a transmission data generating unit that compresses the image data corrected by the first image correction processing unit to generate transmission data to be transmitted to the image display apparatus through the signal transmitting member. The image display apparatus includes: an image generating unit that generates the image data on the basis of the transmission data generated by the transmission data generating unit; and a second image correction processing unit that performs at least one of a ghost correcting process and a cross talk correcting process on the image data. The first image correction processing unit performs image correcting processes other than the ghost correcting process and the cross talk correcting process performed by the second image correction processing unit. |
| US07973793B2 |
Scenario generation device, scenario generation method, and scenario generation program
There is provided a scenario generation device capable of automatically generating a scenario for generating an animation of rich expression desired by a user even from a text created by the user who has no special knowledge about creation of animation. In the device, a scenario generation unit generates a scenario from a text inputted by the user, and a scenario edition unit edits a scenario with information recalled from words in the generated scenario by using external information acquired by an external information acquisition unit. That is, the scenario generation device recognizes information to be added to the text created by the user and adds information to the scenario by using external information acquired from a device owned by the user and a device existing in a communicable range. Thus, even the user has no special knowledge, the user can generate a scenario for realizing animation of expression near to the user's intention. |
| US07973787B2 |
Method for picking on fused 3D volume rendered images and updating views
A method of point picking on a fused volume rendered view of multiple registered volumes having the following steps: selecting a rendered pixel, finding the projection ray through the rendered pixel, finding the intersection segment of the projection ray with the fused volume, traversing the intersection segment according to a traversing intersection point, calculating the intermediate fused volume rendered value at each traversing intersection point, evaluating a stop condition at each traversing intersection point leading to a final fused volume rendered value, outputting the coordinates of the traversing intersection point where the stop condition was reached as the picked point. |
| US07973786B2 |
System and method for managing interaction in a virtual environment
A first viewer (310) is activated to define and render a visualization of a first interactive virtual reality experience to a user. At least one first application (320, 330, 340) is selected for use with the first interactive virtual reality experience and at least one first event handler (321, 322, 323, 331, 341, 342) associated with the at least one first application is responsively activated. State information is responsively stored in the viewer concerning the objects in the virtual reality experience, the selected at least one first application (320, 330, 340) and the at least one first event handler (321, 322, 323, 331, 341, 342) in a memory. The first viewer (310), the at least one first application (320, 330, 340), and the at least one first event handler (321, 322, 323, 331, 341, 342) are then deactivated and a second viewer (350) associated with a second interactive virtual reality experience is activated. |
| US07973785B2 |
Control board and display apparatus having the same
In a control board and a display apparatus, the control board includes a timing controller, and first and second connectors. The timing controller receives a first external image control signal having one of a first and a second frequency, and selectively receives a second external image control signal having the first frequency when the first external image control signal has the first frequency. The timing controller selects one of the first and second frequencies based on the first and second external image control signals to output an image driving signal. The first connector connects the timing controller to an external video system to transfer the first external image control signal to the timing controller. The second connector connects the timing controller to the external video system to transfer the second external image control signal to the timing controller. Thus, the control board is commonly used in the first and second frequencies. |
| US07973783B2 |
Power circuit, display device and mobile terminal implementing a boosting circuit
A power circuit includes: a frequency dividing circuit dividing the frequency of a first signal to which a level shift processing has been applied; a boosting circuit boosting the voltage according to an output signal from the frequency dividing circuit or a second signal having a lower frequency than that of the first signal as a boosting pulse; a level shifter; and a switching unit. The switching unit obtains a boosted voltage output from the boosting circuit after a boosting operation, performed by the boosting circuit having received the second signal, inputs the boosted voltage output to the level shifter such that the level shifter can execute level conversion of the first signal, and stops the boosting operation performed according to the second signal, thereafter inputting the level-shifted first signal to the boosting circuit via the frequency dividing circuit to obtain a final boosted voltage. |
| US07973781B2 |
Image display device and projector
There is provided an image display device with a two-modulation optical system for displaying an image corresponding to input image signals. The image display device includes a first optical modulation element for turning on or off pixels every subfield in the unit of plane; and second optical modulation elements for displaying gradation of the pixels in the unit of line, the first optical modulation element and the second optical modulation element are arranged optically in series; a second optical modulation element drive unit for driving the second optical modulation elements in a line-sequential manner; and a first optical modulation element drive unit for generating a control signal for controlling the pixels in lines disposed to correspond to the unit of single or several lines of the line-sequential driving of the second modulation elements with a driving interval in the unit of single or several lines and controlling the first optical modulation element in synchronism with the unit of single or several lines. |
| US07973780B2 |
Electromagnetic interference prevention apparatus for flat panel display
An electromagnetic interference (EMI) prevention apparatus for a flat panel display which is capable of modulating the frequency of an input clock signal using a spread spectrum clocking method to increase the frequency of the clock signal and reduce the amplitude thereof so as to reduce EMI by a clock signal generated from a format converter of the flat panel display. The amount of electromagnetic energy radiated from a signal source of the flat panel display can be reduced to eradicate the root of an EMI problem, thus excluding the use of a conventional shielding plate device. |
| US07973776B2 |
System for interaction with computer software using handwritten strokes
A system for enabling user interaction with computer software which includes a computer system which transfers print data to a printer, the printer being responsive to the print data to print a form by printing information indicative of a text field coincident with coded data indicative of the text field, so that when a sensing device is moved in an operative position relative to the text field, the sensing device can sense the coincident coded data and generate the indicating data indicative of movement of the sensing device relative to the text field. The computer system uses the indicating data to determine movement of the sensing device relative to the text field and then perform an action associated with the text field based on the movement. The indicating data is indicative of a stroke which defines a sequence of sensing device positions determined from the sensed coded data. |
| US07973775B2 |
System for software interaction using handwritten signatures
A system for enabling user interaction with computer software which includes a printer for receiving print data, printing a form, using the print data, by printing information related to at least one text field coincident with coded data indicative of the text field, receiving indicating data from a sensing device and transferring the indicating data to a computer system to allow the interaction to be interpreted. The sensing device when moved relative to the text field senses the coded data and generates the indicating data using the sensed coded data to be indicative of the relative movement of the sensing device. The computer system determines a handwritten signature using the movement, determines a predetermined signature using a user identity, and verifies the user by comparing the signatures. |
| US07973772B2 |
Single piece top surface display layer and integrated front cover for an electronic device
A single-piece top surface display and integrated front cover for an electronic device. In one embodiment, the cover comprises a thin, flexible, transparent layer coupled with a supporting structure. The flexible layer is supported above a display screen which is coupled with pressure activated sensors located under the display screen. The cover is dust-free, waterproof, and has a flat outer surface that is free of any steps or indentations. Users input data by applying pressure on the cover which causes the display screen to deflect and activate the sensors. The pressure exerted on the sensors is triangulated to register the position of the user input. In another embodiment, the cover is transparent, rigid, and directly contacts the pressure activated sensors which are located in front of the display screen or in the housing behind it. When pressure is applied to the cover, the cover deflects and activates the sensors. In both embodiments, an accelerometer identifies valid input events. |
| US07973769B2 |
Localized haptic feedback
A surface for generating an isolated haptic feedback includes an isolated region having a perimeter and a gap surrounding the perimeter, with the gap separating the isolated region from the rest of the surface. The surface further includes a deformable sealing material that is filled within the gap. |
| US07973767B2 |
Manual pointing device for a computer system with inertial click-event detection and corresponding click-event detection method
A manual pointing device for a computer system, the device having at least one key that can be actuated manually by a user, and a click-event detection module coupled to the key for detecting actuation thereof. The click-event detection module is provided with an inertial sensor for detecting mechanical stresses generated by actuation of the key. |
| US07973766B2 |
Inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability and the operating method thereof
An inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability, structured with a gyroscope and an acceleration module capable of detecting accelerations of X, Y, Z axes defined by a 3-D Cartesian coordinates, which is operable either being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space. When the inertial input apparatus is being held to move and operate on a planar surface by a user, a two-dimensional detection mode is adopted thereby that the gyroscope is used for detection rotations of the inertial input apparatus caused by unconscious rolling motions of the user and thus compensating the erroneous rotations, by which the technical disadvantages of prior-art inertial input apparatuses equipped with only accelerometer can be overcame and thus control smoothness of using the input apparatus is enhanced. |
| US07973765B2 |
Handheld wireless communication device
A handheld wireless communication device configured to send and receive text messages. The device is hand cradleable with a body configured to be held in one hand by an operator during text entry. A display is located on a front face of the body and upon which information is displayed to the operator during text entry. A key field is also located on the front face of the body and that includes a plurality of alphanumeric input keys and menu keys. A trackball navigation tool is located on the front face of the body. The alphanumeric input keys include several alphabetic keys with letters arranged in a traditional (QWERTY), but non-ITU Standard E.161 telephone letter layout. A microprocessor is provided that receives operator commands from the keys and the trackball navigation tool and which affects corresponding changes to the display based on user input. |
| US07973763B2 |
Electronic devices with sensible orientation structures, and associated methods
An electronic device includes a faceplate having a faceplate surface and a display at or near the faceplate surface for providing content to a user. The electronic devices can also include an input device proximate to the display for accepting input from the user. The electronic devices can further include a sensible orientation structure carried by the faceplate and at a fixed relative position relative to the input device. The sensible orientation structure is configured to provide the user with positional feedback relative to the input device via touching. |
| US07973759B2 |
System and method for driving light emitters of backlight module using current mixing
A system and a method for driving light emitters of a liquid crystal display (LCD) backlight module is disclosed. The system drives the light emitters by supplying a constant current and a pulse width modulated current to an individual light emitter, the pulse width modulated current being determined in accordance with an optical output of the light emitter. Accordingly, the system can provide a desired amount of current to the light emitters, and individually control the optical output of the light emitters. |
| US07973758B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling display backlight according to statistic characteristic of pixel color values
An apparatus and method for display backlight control are disclosed. The method includes: finding statistics characteristics of pixels in a frame; using statistics characteristics to refer to a table for outputting representative gamma value; using a user setting value and representative gamma value for calculating a backlight setting range; starting from the user setting value, using a backlight adjusting value obtained from subtracting or adding a predetermined value from current backlight setting value to control a backlight module in each predetermined time period; using boundary value of the current backlight setting range as backlight adjusting value when the backlight adjusting value is beyond the backlight setting range; using current backlight adjusting value and user setting value to refer to an image compensation table for finding an image compensation value; performing compensation operations on input image data according to the backlight adjusting value and the user setting value of backlight luminance. |
| US07973756B2 |
Reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus and substrate for reflection type liquid crystal display
In order to provide a reflection type liquid crystal display apparatus where, even when the pixel size is small, the crosstalk between a signal line and an end of a capacitor can be decreased, thus resulting in a good output image, by forming a signal line 2 for transmitting an image signal to each pixel with a second metal layer, by placing a shield line 12 between a capacitor electrode 10 constituting a capacitor and the signal line 2 with a first metal layer, and by giving a fixed potential, shielding is provided to prevent occurrence of cross-talk. The capacitor is configured with a common electrode 11 and a capacitor electrode 10, having a diffusion layer formed on a semiconductor substrate. By placing the capacitor electrode having a diffusion layer formed on the semiconductor substrate and the common electrode having a fixed potential below the signal line, shielding is provided to prevent occurrence of cross-talk. |
| US07973752B2 |
Display apparatus
The present invention is so arranged as to include (a) gradation reference potential generating means including a group of output terminals whose voltages are determined in accordance with a voltage division ratio of one ladder resistor, so as to output gradation reference potentials, for example, of 1024, which is a 16 multiple of a required 64-gradations; (b) output terminal designating means including a memory for designating, among from the output terminals, an output terminal for each of the 64-gradations required, in accordance with the display modes; and (c) selecting means for selecting an output terminal that corresponds to an input gradation signal, among from the output terminals designated by the output terminal designating section, and for applying a voltage via the thus selected output terminal to a display screen. With this arrangement, it is possible to attain very similar gradient signal-brightness characteristics for respective display modes with high accuracy, in order to prevent a gradient display from being changed due to switchover of the display modes. |
| US07973749B2 |
Display device, terminal device, and display panel
A display device is composed of a light source device and a transmissive liquid crystal display panel, and the light source device is provided with a transparent/scattering switching element capable of switching between states in which incident light is transmitted or scattered. Pixels for displaying are disposed in the form of a matrix in the transmissive liquid crystal display panel, and the need for another power supply and signals for the transparent/scattering switching element is eliminated by driving the transparent/scattering switching element using the signals and power supply for driving the pixels. The drive power source of the transparent/scattering switching element for controlling scattering can be made smaller and less costly in a display device that is capable of switching the range of viewing angles. |
| US07973748B2 |
Datadriver and method for conducting driving current for an OLED display
A data driver for an OLED display has a resistor string, digital-to-analog converters and converting transistors. The resistor string provides a set of gamma voltages. Each of the digital-to-analog converters converts an input word into an output voltage selected from the gamma voltages. Each of the converting transistors conducts a driving current and having a gate-to-source voltage determined by the output voltage from one of the digital-to-analog converters. A method of data driving for an OLED display is also disclosed. |
| US07973743B2 |
Display panel, light emitting display device using the same, and driving method thereof
A light emitting display device including data lines, signal lines, pixel circuits, a data driver, and a precharger. Each pixel circuit includes a first switch, a transistor, a capacitor, and a light emitting element. The precharger supplies a precharge current of X times a data current to a corresponding data line in response to a control signal. When the first switch transmits the data current provided from the corresponding data line in response to a first level scan signal while the corresponding data line is precharged, a voltage corresponding to the data current is charged in the capacitor. A current corresponding to the charged voltage is supplied to the light emitting element through the transistor in response to a second level scan signal, and the light emitting element emits light. |
| US07973742B2 |
Method of driving field emission device (FED) and method of aging FED using the same
A method for driving a field emission device (FED) applies an alternating (AC) voltage as a driving voltage for emitting electrons in a field emission device comprising cathode electrode including an emitter and an anode electrode facing the cathode electrode. A method for aging an FED uses a constant voltage so that electrons cannot be emitted from the electron emission source, and an AC voltage so that electrons can be periodically emitted from the emitter when the FED is aged. |
| US07973741B2 |
Plasma display device and method for driving the same
When a discharge start voltage takes a normal value under the normal temperature, priming discharge starts at a time t1. In this case, at a time t3 that is later than the time t1 by a predetermined time t, a sustain driver control signal Ssud2 is raised to put a sustain electrode into the floating state to stop the priming discharge. When the discharge start voltage takes a higher value than usual under the high temperature, the priming discharge starts at a time t2. In this case, at a time t4 that is later than the time t2 by the predetermined time t, the sustain driver control signal Ssud2 is lowered to put the sustain electrode into the floating state to stop the priming discharge. With such a configuration, provided is a plasma display device capable of implementing excellent and stable display quality while maintaining constant, even if a discharge start voltage varies, the charge state in display cells after a priming period, and a drive method for such a plasma display device. |
| US07973736B2 |
Varying angle antenna for electromagnetic radiation dissipation device
The present invention is a varying angle antenna design to be used with an electromagnetic radiation dissipation device that reduces exposure to undesirable electromagnetic radiation. The dissipation device uses a varying angle antenna to capture radiation from an active emission source, such as a cellular telephone when it is transmitting. The device converts the captured radiation into an electric current and dissipates the collected current by spending it to operate a thermal, mechanical, or electrical device. The varying angle antenna is a printed circuit board trace antenna comprising a microstrip having several serially connected meandering segments. One or more meandering segments include 90-degree bends in the microstrip, and one or more meandering segments include bends of more and less than 90 degrees. Portions of the microstrip that are horizontally oriented are all parallel, while portions of the microstrip that are vertically oriented can be parallel or angled, depending on the bend angle. Additionally, near the center of the varying angle antenna, the microstrip segments are narrower than the microstrip segments near the ends of the antenna. In general, the meandering segments include varying angles, which maximizes the operation of the antenna for absorbing undesirable electromagnetic radiation from cellular telephones. |
| US07973735B2 |
Extendable swivel antenna
Disclosed is an extendable swivel antenna, specifically a swivel antenna with enhanced durability, which can prevent deformation of a hinge unit and an outermost antenna covering the hinge unit. The swivel antenna includes: a power feeding unit 110 electrically connected to a terminal 200; an antenna unit 120 for transmitting a radio wave received from an external to the power feeding unit 110, which is folded in multiple stages and can extend; and a hinge unit 130 for connecting between the power feeding unit 110 and the antenna unit 120 and for swiveling the antenna unit 120, wherein the hinge unit 130 includes an insertion portion 131 connected to the antenna unit 120, a recess portion 132 connected to the power feeding unit 110 and having a step portion 132s whose diameters of one side and the other side are different from each other, and a hinge pin 133 for fixing the an insertion portion 131 and the recess portion 132, wherein the antenna unit 120 includes a whip antenna 121 fixed to the insertion portion 131, one or more road antennas 122, 123, and 124 to be folded about the whip antenna 121, and wherein one side 132c of the recess portion 132 whose internal diameter is smaller than that of the other side 132d of the recess portion 132 is housed in the outermost road antenna 124 of the folding one or more road antennas 122, 123, and 124. |
| US07973728B2 |
Radio transceiver communicating in a plurality of frequency bands
The present invention relates generally to computer devices utilizing removably radio frequency communication devices used for transmitting and receiving information and more particularly to an improved apparatus for connecting an appropriate antenna to the radio frequency communication device using an antenna cap, and to an improved method and apparatus for connecting a communication card device such as a radio or modem to an appropriate antenna or telephone line. |
| US07973727B2 |
Mobile communication terminal
There is provided a mobile communication terminal including: a housing of the mobile communication terminal; a film type antenna provided on the surface of the housing; a printed circuit board disposed inside the housing; and a connector electrically connecting the film type antenna and the printed circuit board. |
| US07973724B2 |
Wireless chip and wireless device
The present invention discloses a wireless chip comprising a circuit layer above which a microstrip antenna is provided, and a wave-absorbing body is provided between the circuit layer and the microstrip antenna. Since the microstrip antenna is disposed above the circuit layer, the wave-absorbing body capable of absorbing energy is utilized to isolate the circuit from the antenna, and the metal film in the microstrip antenna functions not only as the RF ground of the antenna but also as a shield against any interference, it is possible to effectively address the problem of the antenna interfering with the circuit; by selecting the medium with suitable dielectric constant, the height of the chip can be prevented from being unduly increased, thereby ensuring that the chip and the wireless device using the same are both small in size. The present invention also discloses the wireless device containing the wireless chip. |
| US07973721B2 |
Mechanically integrated cable mesh antenna system
Embodiments of the invention generally provide a mechanically integrated cable mesh antenna system. One embodiment of a wireless access device for a network includes a housing having at least one rib, beam forming electronics supported by the housing, and at least one antenna for providing subscribers of the network with a connection to the network, where the antenna is formed on the rib. |
| US07973717B2 |
System and method for an integrated antenna in a cargo container monitoring and security system
A system and method for an antenna which is constructed into or conforming onto the roof or wall of a cargo container is provided. The antenna system may have multiple antennas for short range wireless, cellular, global positioning, or satellite built into a single functional element. The antenna system may utilize a patch or phased array design. The method of construction of the antenna system may as part of the container fabricated or installed at the factory, applied as an adhesive film kit, or applied as a successive spray coating and etching process. |
| US07973713B2 |
Element independent routerless beamforming
Described herein are systems and methods that eliminate the need for costly and complex switching networks for routing channelized data between antenna elements and beamformers. In one aspect, a beamforming system comprises a beamformer for each antenna element of an antenna array, in which the beamformers for the different antenna elements are arranged in parallel. The beamforming system also comprises a combiner that combines the outputs of the beamformers into a single beam. In one aspect, the beamformers of antenna elements that do not contribute to a desired beam output zeros to the combiner, which when added to the subbeams of the other beamformers have no affect of the final beam. In another aspect, operations (e.g., multiplication, memory reads) of each beamformer that does not contribute to a desired beam may be turned off to conserve power. |
| US07973712B2 |
Positioning device, electronic instrument, and storage medium storing program
A slice set for a specific period of time is acquired from a storage area of a memory which is a ring buffer while changing the read position, and the signal strength total value of each slice set is calculated. The signal strengths of the slices included in the maximum strength slice set and the signal strengths of the slices preceding or subsequent to the maximum strength slice set are calculated, and the final signal read position is determined based on a read offset of the maximum strength slice. A GPS satellite signal is acquired and tracked based on the slice read from the determined signal read position, and a specific positioning process is performed. |
| US07973702B2 |
Apparatus for position detection using multiple HCF transmissions
An apparatus a transmitter section, a receiver section, and a processing module. The transmitter section transmits a plurality of high carrier frequency beamformed signals in a loop manner until a desired number of signals has been transmitted. The receiver section receives the plurality of high carrier frequency beamformed signals and determines reception properties of the plurality of high carrier frequency beamformed signals. The processing module determines at least one of: reflection, absorption, refraction, and pass through based on the reception properties. The processing module then distinguishes an animate entity from an inanimate entity based on the at least one of the reflection, absorption, refraction, and pass through. The processing module then determines position of the animate entity within a given physical area. |
| US07973698B1 |
System and method for using a radar to estimate and compensate for atmospheric refraction
An aircraft weather radar system includes an input for receiving data associated with weather radar returns received by an antenna. The aircraft weather radar system further includes processing electronics for performing a routine to analyze radar returns associated with terrain. The processing electronics are configured to determine atmospheric refraction characteristics based on a range and/or an angle to terrain. The routine is based on the determination of atmospheric refraction characteristics. |
| US07973697B2 |
Surveillance systems and methods with subject-related screening
A surveillance system is disclosed. In some embodiments, the surveillance system may include at least one controller configured to receive information data from at least one upstream information source and to control operation of at least one controllable downstream information source based, at least in part, on the information data.A surveillance method also is disclosed. In some embodiments, the method may include analyzing screening data, obtaining information data, and reanalyzing the screening data based, at least in part, on the obtained information data. |
| US07973696B2 |
Thin film emitter-absorber apparatus and methods
Methods and apparatus for providing a tunable absorption-emission band in a wavelength selective device are disclosed. A device for selectively absorbing incident electromagnetic radiation includes an electrically conductive surface layer including an arrangement of multiple surface elements. The surface layer is disposed at a nonzero height above a continuous electrically conductive layer. An electrically isolating intermediate layer defines a first surface that is in communication with the electrically conductive surface layer. The continuous electrically conductive backing layer is provided in communication with a second surface of the electrically isolating intermediate layer. When combined with an infrared source, the wavelength selective device emits infrared radiation in at least one narrow band determined by a resonance of the device. In some embodiments, the device includes a control feature that allows the resonance to be selectively modified. The device has broad applications including gas detection devices and infrared imaging. |
| US07973695B2 |
Electronic apparatus, AD converter, and AD conversion method
An electronic apparatus includes: an AD conversion section that has a comparing section, which receives a reference signal whose level changes gradually from a reference signal generating section that generates the reference signal and which compares the reference signal with an analog signal to be processed, and a counter section, which receives a count clock for AD conversion and performs a count operation on the basis of a comparison result of the comparing section, and that acquires digital data of the signal to be processed on the basis of output data of the counter section; a count operation period control section that controls an operation period of the counter section in each processing period on the basis of the comparison result of the comparing section; and a driving control section that controls the reference signal generating section and the AD conversion section. |
| US07973687B2 |
Differential switch, D/A converter, semiconductor integrated circuit and communication apparatus
A differential switch circuit includes a first differential switch basic circuit (1) and a second differential switch basic circuit (2). The first differential switch basic circuit (1) has a first common source node (N1) shared by a plurality of transistors (TP121 and TP122), and the second differential switch basic circuit (2) has a second common source node (N2) shared by a plurality of transistors (TP131 and TP132). The first common source node (N1) and the second common source node (N2) are alternately reset to a predetermined voltage in each clock cycle. |
| US07973682B2 |
Configurations for data ports at digital interface for multiple data converters
A data converter includes N analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) to sample multiple analog signals in response to an input clock to produce N signal samples per sample period. For each sample period, the bits of the N signal samples are multiplexed to M sets of multiplexed bits where 1 |
| US07973680B2 |
Method and system for creating an in-memory physical dictionary for data compression
A system and computer readable storage medium for creating an in-memory physical dictionary for data compression are provided. A new heuristic is defined for converting each of a plurality of logical nodes into a corresponding physical node forming a plurality of physical nodes. Each of the physical nodes are placed into the physical dictionary while traversing the dictionary tree in descending visit count order. Each physical node is placed in its nearest ascendant's cache-line with sufficient space. If there is no space in any of the ascendant's cache-line, then the physical node is placed into a new cache-line, unless a pre-defined packing threshold has been reached, in which case the physical node is placed in the first available cache-line. |
| US07973678B2 |
Control of building systems based on the location and movement of a vehicle tracking device
A control for a system in a building. The control includes a tracking device, a controller, and a programmer. The tracking device is configured to travel with a vehicle and to determine where the tracking device is located. The controller is configured to be located in the building, to communicate with the tracking device, to communicate with the system in the building, to determine an event that should be executed based on information received from the tracking device and a programmed event trigger. The programmed event trigger includes a programmed location for the tracking device. The controller generates a command for the system in the building to execute the determined event. The programmer is configured to communicate with a user interface. The user interface includes an interactive map and one or more geographical boundary tools for creating one or more event triggers on the map. A user uses the user interface to program the event triggers. |
| US07973677B2 |
System and method for data transmission between at least one display screen and a client system
A system and a method for data transmission between at least one display screen and a remote client system. A first request to send a message via a first communication protocol is caused to be displayed on the display screen, and the message is transmitted to the remote client system via a second communication protocol. A control unit monitors the remote client system. The system induces the generation, and display on the display screen, of a request for confirmation of the first request, by the intermediary of a communication interface, which interface is designed to receive and generate messages in the first communication protocol, as well as to receive and generate messages suitable for being received by the control unit. |
| US07973675B2 |
Goal-driven inference engine for traffic intersection management
A system includes a plurality of sensors that provide information regarding instantaneous traffic conditions incident to an intersection. An inference engine of the system receives the sensor information and processes user-defined traffic control algorithms and weighted management parameters. Control signals are derived in accordance with the processing. Multi-state signaling devices are driven in accordance with the control signals so as to manage vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow at the intersection. Playback of historic traffic information permits analysis and verification of the traffic management strategies implemented by the system. |
| US07973671B2 |
Shear component breakage detection
A wireless breakage indicator for a shear pin having an axial bore. The indicator (10) comprises a stem (20) having a head (22) and a foot (24) at opposite ends thereof; a sleeve (32) around a portion of the stem between a first (28) and second (30) axial positions, the stem (20) and sleeve (32) adapted to be broken by the shear pin (12) in the event of its breakage; a spring (26) compressed between the head (22) of the stem (20) and a first end (34) of the sleeve (32); the foot (24) of the stem (20) being retained to the second end (36) of the sleeve (32). The breakage of the stem (20) frees the head (22) to be displaced by the spring (26) and indicate breakage of the shear pin (12). The indication can be direct, by visual inspection of the displaced head, or indirect by the displacement of the head activating a transmitter. |
| US07973666B2 |
Graphical patient movement monitor
A lack of patient movement monitor and method. The monitor and method patient support includes a plurality of sensors located beneath a patient support to determine movement of a patient. An alarm is activated when patient movement over time is determined to be lacking. |
| US07973663B2 |
Electronic article surveillance deactivator using visual pattern recognition system for triggering
A method, system and electronic article surveillance tag deactivator detect the presence of an electronic article surveillance tag within a deactivation zone. Video of an item within the deactivation zone is captured. The video is evaluated using a pattern recognition technique to determine the presence of an electronic article surveillance tag within the deactivation zone. The electronic article surveillance tag is deactivated. |
| US07973653B2 |
Vehicular abnormality notification system, method and apparatus, and vehicle-mounted apparatus
An apparatus, a method and a system of vehicle abnormality notification in which predetermined information is transmitted to a predetermined subject when an abnormality in the vehicle state is detected in a vehicle are constructed so that even when an abnormality in the vehicle state has been detected in the vehicle, the aforementioned predetermined information is not transmitted to the predetermined subject if the vehicle is in a predetermined area. |
| US07973651B2 |
Transmitter apparatus and system for remote signaling
An electronic system is described for controlling vehicle message lighting including turn and stop indicator signal lights, which system does not require any pre-existing wiring harness in either a towing vehicle 101 or any towed vehicle 104 to be in serviceable condition. In one embodiment the system implements a reliable wireless detection method based on feedback to confirm the state of operation of any such pre-existing “vehicle indication signal drive line” and includes a control apparatus that wirelessly transmits 230 instructions to at least one local receiver 150 controlling a number of message devices, including, but not limited to, vehicle indication signal lights. Another embodiment of the system bypasses any pre-existing wiring harness and permits the operator to manually over ride its detector. Advantageously, the portable control transmitter apparatus and each receiver apparatus 150 of the invented system are easily installed by a nontechnical person requiring minimal tooling and then operated by an unskilled user. |
| US07973647B2 |
Method and apparatus for remotely operating appliances from video interphones or shopping terminals
A method and apparatus for remotely operating at least one remote controlled appliance through a monitor station of a video interphone. The appliance itself being capable of operation by a remote control device. The monitor station includes a receiving input, a central processing unit, a memory, select keys and at least one output. The remote control device is used for generating a coded signal to the receiving input which filters the received coded signal for feeding a clean envelope of the coded signal to the central processing unit. The central processing unit processes the envelope and generates counted data pertaining to the envelope and indexes and stores the counted data into the memory. One of the select keys is assigned for retrieving and feeding the counted data to the output on the basis of the indexing. The output regenerates the coded signal for operating the appliance. |
| US07973645B1 |
RFID reader devices and methods thereof
Radio frequency identification (RFID) reader devices are disclosed. An RFID reader device of one aspect may include a radio frequency (RF) output port operable to allow a plurality of RFID antenna modules to be coupled with the RFID reader device. An RF signal generator of the device may be coupled with the RF output port. The RF signal generator may be operable to generate an RF signal and provide the RF signal to the RF output port. A select signal generator of the device may be operable to generate a select signal. The select signal may be operable to be output to select one or more of the plurality of RFID antenna modules. |
| US07973644B2 |
Systems and methods for RFID tag arbitration where RFID tags generate multiple random numbers for different arbitration sessions
An RFID (radio frequency identification device) tag comprising a processor; a memory configured to store an identification number that distinguishes the tag from other tags; a transponder coupled to the memory and the processor, the tag being configured to arbitrate by selecting a random number, in response to an inventory query from a reader, and to respond to the reader depending on the random number selected, the tag being further configured for multiple concurrent inventory session arbitrations with multiple readers by separately storing random numbers for respective inventory session arbitrations. RFID readers, systems, and methods are also provided. |
| US07973643B2 |
RFID readers transmitting preambles denoting data rate and methods
RFID readers transmit data to query tags at one or more data rates. Before transmitting data, the RFID readers also transmit special preambles that inform of the data rate that will be used for transmitting the data. The preambles have a call aspect and a rate aspect. The rate aspect has a feature substantially determined from a rate selected for transmitting the data. The feature may encode the rate indirectly or explicitly. The call aspect may be implemented by call transitions that define a timing, whose duration is independent of the selected rate. The duration may be advantageously set according to an assumed state of the RFID tag bandwidth filter. Therefore an RFID tag may use the call aspect of the preamble to prepare itself for receiving data, and the rate aspect to determine its rate of transmission for setting its filter bandwidth accordingly. |
| US07973640B2 |
Output management system, output management method, and output management program
An output management system includes a terminal device and an output device, wherein the output management system includes an area management device for managing an access of the user to an area in which the output device is located and a shutoff device for shutting off the access of the user to the area. The area management device has a storing unit for storing registered authentication data, an inputting unit for inputting input authenticated data, a checking unit for checking the input authenticated data and the registered authentication data, and a shutoff releasing unit for releasing the shutoff by the shutoff device when the input authenticated data and the registered authentication data conform to each other. |
| US07973637B2 |
MEMS device with bi-directional element
The present invention provides a bi-directional microelectromechanical element, a microelectromechanical switch including the bi-directional element, and a method to reduce mechanical creep in the bi-directional element. In one embodiment, the bi-directional microelectromechanical element includes a cold beam having a free end and a first end connected to a cold beam anchor. The cold beam anchor is attached to a substrate. A first beam pair is coupled to the cold beam by a free end tether and is configured to elongate when heated thereby to a greater temperature than a temperature of the cold beam. A second beam pair is located on an opposing side of the cold beam from the first beam pair and is coupled to the first beam pair and the cold beam by the free end tether. The second beam pair is configured to elongate when heated thereby to the greater temperature. |
| US07973634B2 |
Electronic component and method for fixing the same
Disclosed is an electronic component, especially a coil with a coil core, in which the turns of the coil winding are spaced apart from each other at least at one point in the longitudinal direction of the coil. A plastic retaining element which overlaps both the coil core and at least the two adjacent turns of the coil winding in a longitudinal direction is sprayed on in the area of said point, whereby a connection between the coil core and the coil winding is created at the same time. The retaining element can be sprayed around a closed circumference of the coil while covering only a portion of the coil in the longitudinal direction thereof. Preferably, the retaining element is placed approximately in the center relative to the longitudinal extension of the coil. |
| US07973632B2 |
Methods and apparatus for electromagnetic component
The invention comprises a power filtering method and apparatus. |
| US07973628B1 |
Methods and apparatus for electrical components
Methods and apparatus according to various aspects of the present invention may operate in conjunction with an inductor. For example, n inverter/converter system according to various aspects of the present invention may include an inductor comprising a substantially annular core and a winding. The inductor may be configured for high current applications and exhibit a permeability of less than thirteen delta Gauss per delta Oersted at a load of four hundred Oersteds. |
| US07973615B2 |
RF module
The present invention provides an RF module capable of converting electromagnetic waves in the TE mode to balanced electromagnetic waves in the TEM mode without adjustment and outputting the balanced electromagnetic waves while easily realizing miniaturization. The RF module includes: a waveguide in which a half-wavelength TE mode resonator is formed; an E plane coupling window formed in a wall portion orthogonal to an H plane out of wall portions constructing the TE mode resonator in the waveguide; an output line provided at the edge on the side of the wall portion parallel with the H plane on the E plane coupling window, and magnetically coupled to electromagnetic waves in the TE mode resonator; and another output line provided at the edge on the side of the wall portion parallel with the H plane in the E plane coupling window, and magnetically coupled to the electromagnetic waves. |
| US07973610B2 |
Surface mount crystal oscillator
An object of the invention is to provide a surface mount type crystal oscillator in which a probe can be easily brought into contact with a crystal inspection terminal. The surface mount type crystal oscillator is such that a crystal piece and an IC chip are housed within a container main body having a bottom wall and frame wall formed with laminated ceramics, and a communication terminal is provided on an outer side surface of the container main body. The communication terminal is provided so as to span from the outer side surface of the bottom wall to the outer bottom surface of the outer wall, the communication terminal is made the crystal inspection terminal, and the crystal piece and the IC chip are arranged in parallel on the inner bottom surface within the container main body. |
| US07973609B2 |
Digitally-controlled oscillator, frequency synthesizer and radio communication device
A frequency synthesizer includes a digitally-controlled oscillator and an oscillation frequency control unit. The digitally-controlled oscillator includes a loop-shaped transmission line path having an odd number of parallel portions in each of which two conductors are arranged in parallel to each other with a space therebetween, and an odd number of intersection portions in each of which two conductors intersect spatially, an active circuit coupled between the two conductors, and a first variable capacitance unit and a second variable capacitance unit. The oscillation frequency control unit includes a ΣΔ modulation circuit for subjecting to ΣΔ modulation a first control signal for switching a high capacitance state and a low capacitance state of a first variable capacitance element included in the first variable capacitance unit. |
| US07973608B2 |
Phase locked loop, semiconductor device, and wireless tag
An object is to provide a PLL having a wide operating range. Another object is to provide a semiconductor device or a wireless tag which has a wide operating range in a communication distance or temperature by incorporating such a PLL. The semiconductor device or the wireless tag includes a first divider circuit; a second divider circuit; a phase comparator circuit to which an output of the first divider circuit and an output of the second divider circuit are provided; a loop filter to which an output of the phase comparator circuit is supplied and in which a time constant is switched in accordance with an inputted signal; and a voltage controlled oscillator circuit to which an output of the loop filter is supplied and which supplies an output to the second divider circuit. |
| US07973606B2 |
Fractional-N frequency synthesizer and method thereof
The present relates to a fractional-N frequency synthesizer improving noise characteristics and a method thereof. The fractional-N frequency synthesizer includes a reference oscillator that generates a reference frequency signal; a sigma-delta modulator that generates a desired decimal value based on the reference frequency signal; a divider that divides a voltage controlled oscillation frequency signal; first to M phase/frequency detectors that detect a difference in phase and frequency between the reference frequency signal and the divided voltage controlled oscillation frequency signal; first to M charge pumps that are connected to each of the phase/frequency detectors in series and charges or pumps charge amount according to output signals from each of the phase/frequency detectors; a loop filter that controls the amount of supplied current based on output signals from the charge pumps to filter low-pass frequency components; and a voltage controlled oscillator that is oscillated in response to the output signal from the loop filter and generates voltage controlled oscillation frequency signals. |
| US07973604B2 |
Tunable multi frequency bands filter device
The present invention relates to a tunable filter device for providing a tunable band pass characteristics for the receive path of a multi-band front-end module. According to the invention is proposed, a distributed, wide-band amplifier with a low-frequency cut-off and a high-frequency cut-off in combination with a LCR network, of which wide-band amplifier the DC blocking capacitors define the low-frequency cut-off of the filter device, whilst the high-frequency cut-off is determined by the cut-off frequency of the artificial input and output transmission lines of the LCR network. In one embodiment, additional capacitors are coupled in parallel to the DC blocking capacitors of the LCR network, switchable by MOS transistors as switching elements. Accordingly, in a certain embodiment it is proposed to allow tuning of the low- and the high-frequency cut-off by programming with a digital control command. |
| US07973602B2 |
Variable gain amplifier
Various amplifier configurations having increased bandwidth, linearity, dynamic range, and less distortion are shown and disclosed. To increase bandwidth in a transimpedance amplifier, a replica circuit is created to replicate a degeneration resistance, or the resistance or value that relates to a feedback resistance. From the replica circuit, the replicated values are mirrored and processed to control a FET switch which modifies a degeneration resistance. The FET switch control signal is related to the feedback resistance and modifies the degeneration resistance to thereby maintain the product of the feedback resistance and the degeneration resistance as a constant. In another embodiment, a second switch controlled by an automatic gain control signal is established between a first stage amplifier and a second stage amplifier to improve dynamic range and bandwidth without degrading other amplifier specifications. |
| US07973600B2 |
Doherty power amplifier
The present invention relates to a power amplifier; and, more particularly, to a Doherty power amplifier. The power amplifier includes at least one carrier amplifier; at least one peaking amplifier arranged in parallel with the carrier amplifier in such a manner that the carrier amplifier and the peaking amplifier collectively operate as a Doherty amplifier; a plurality of input matching circuits, at least one of which is respectively connected to an input ends of the carrier amplifier and the peaking amplifier; at least one impedance control circuit, each of which is connected to an output end of each carrier amplifier for controlling a load line impedance of the said each carrier amplifier; at least one output matching circuit directly or indirectly connected to output ends of the impedance control circuit and the peaking amplifier; and at least one first delay circuit for matching delays between the carrier amplifier and the peaking amplifier. The present invention provides an improved Doherty power amplifier capable of achieving a further miniaturization and integration while maintaining an advantage in terms of efficiency and linearity of a Doherty power amplifier by employing an improved output and input matching method, and capable of operating more similar to the ideal operation of a Doherty power amplifier by applying an improved input power division method thereto. |
| US07973595B2 |
Power switch circuit
A power switch circuit includes a first switch transistor connected to a main power supply, which supplies a first voltage, a second switch transistor connected in series to the first switch transistor and to a backup power supply, which supplies a second voltage. A switch control unit controls activation and deactivation of the first and second switch transistors so that either one of a voltage corresponding to the first voltage and a voltage corresponding to the second voltage is selectively output to a connection node between the first and second transistors. The first switch transistor includes a first diode, which is formed so that a direction from the main power supply toward the connection node defines a forward direction, and a second diode, which is formed so that a direction from the connection node toward the backup power supply defines a forward direction. |
| US07973594B2 |
Power monitoring for optimizing operation of a circuit
An example method for optimizing power consumption of digital circuits using dynamic voltage and threshold scaling (DVTS) is provided. A propagation delay of a signal through a portion of the circuit is determined and if the propagation delay does not meet a specified delay requirement, then a supply voltage and/or threshold voltage of the circuit is adjusted. Subsequently, a power consumption level of the circuit is determined and compared to previous power consumption levels. The supply and/or threshold voltage of the circuit can be readjusted to enable the circuit to meet specified power consumption requirements and the specified delay requirement, for example. |
| US07973593B2 |
Reference voltage generation circuit and start-up control method therefor
To solve the problem of the conventional reference voltage generation circuit in that an output voltage exceeds a predetermined voltage value, there is provided a reference voltage generation circuit including: a voltage generation circuit provided between a first power supply and a second power supply, to output an output voltage to an output terminal; an auxiliary start-up circuit provided between the output terminal and the first power supply, to supply a voltage of the first power supply to the output terminal; and a control circuit that switches the auxiliary start-up circuit between an operating state and a non-operating state according to a value of a voltage at the output terminal. |
| US07973592B2 |
Charge pump with current based regulation
A charge pump system using a current based regulation method, in addition to the typical voltage based regulation methods is presented. The current flow in the charge pump is determined independently of the output voltage. By sensing the current going through the charge pump while its output is being regulated to the target level, the strength of charge pump can be dynamically adjusted in term of regulation level, branch assignment, clock frequency, clock amplitude, and so on. Indirectly sensing the current going through pump (not in serial with output stage to allow additional IR drop) will allow the pumps to have matrix of V and I to better adjust the charge pump parameters for current saving and ripple reduction. |
| US07973591B2 |
Internal voltage generation circuit with controlled enable pulse width
The internal voltage generation circuit includes an internal voltage enable signal generation unit generating an internal voltage enable signal whose enable pulse width is controlled according to an external voltage. An internal voltage generation unit generates an internal voltage corresponding to a reference voltage according to the internal voltage enable signal. The internal voltage generation circuit generates an internal voltage according to an internal voltage enable signal whose enable pulse width is controlled in response to an external voltage, and thus current consumption is improved, and the internal voltage generation circuit provides a stable internal voltage. |
| US07973589B2 |
Micro-controller-based electronic switch using a proximity detector to facilitate hands-free control of an AC device
This system is a no touch single pole single throw (spst) two wire electronic light switch that uses an Infrared Proximity Detector to create a working system designed to replace existing mechanical switches common in households. The use of a Micro Controller enables the system to adapt to different loads and load types while requiring a minimum number of parts to perform the necessary tasks. |
| US07973586B2 |
Sampling mixer, filter device, and radio device
A sampling mixer includes TAs (transconductance amplifiers), an in-phase mixer section connected to the TA and the TA, an opposite-phase mixer section connected in parallel with the in-phase mixer section, and a signal generator for generating a control signal for the in-phase mixer section and the opposite-phase mixer section respectively. The IIR filter using signals that underwent a current conversion by using the different transconductances is constructed, so that the filter characteristic can be designed by a weighting of the transconductance in addition to a capacitance ratio. As a result, the wide-band filter characteristic and the band-pass filter characteristic can be obtained, and deterioration of the receiving sensitivity can be suppressed by designing the filter characteristic suitable for the radio communication system. |
| US07973583B2 |
A/B-phase signal generator, RD converter and angle detection unit
An A/B-phase signal generator wherein an up/down count unit 52C counts up by an up-count command or counts down by a down-count command at fixed intervals, an angle comparison unit 51 compares the count result ACNT of up/down count unit 52C with an input rotation angle θ and generates a count request, which is an up-count request or a down-count request, a count request comparison unit 52B compares a previous count request with a next count request and generates an up-count command or a down-count command only when the previous count request and the next count request are both up-count requests or down-count requests, respectively, and an A/B-phase pulse generator 53 receives a least significant bit and a second least significant bit of up/down count unit 52C and generates and outputs an A-phase pulse signal and a B-phase pulse signal. |
| US07973582B2 |
Timing control circuit and semiconductor storage device
Disclosed is a timing control circuit which receives a first clock having a period T1 and a group of second clocks of L different phases (where L is a positive integer) spaced apart from each other at substantially equal intervals and which generates a fine timing signal delayed from the rising edge of the first clock by a delay td of approximately td=m·T1+n·(T2/L), where m and n are non-negative integers. The timing control circuit has a coarse delay circuit and a fine delay circuit. The coarse delay circuit counts the rising edges of the first clock after an activate signal is activated and generates a coarse timing signal delayed from the first clock by approximately m·T1. The fine delay circuit has a circuit which, after the activate signal is activated, detects a second clock, which has a rising edge that immediately follows the rising edge of the first clock, from among the group of L-phase second clocks. Using the edge-detection information, the fine delay circuit generates a fine timing signal for which the amount of delay from the coarse timing signal is approximately n·(T2/L). The values of m and n can be set by registers. |
| US07973576B2 |
Voltage controlled oscillators and phase-frequency locked loop circuit using the same
A voltage controlled oscillator comprising first and second differential delay cells. The first differential delay cell has a first control voltage input terminal. The second differential delay cell is coupled to the first differential delay cell in a loop and has a second control voltage input terminal. The second voltage input terminal is disconnected from the first voltage control input terminal. The first voltage control input terminal receives a first voltage signal, and the second voltage control input terminal receives a second voltage signal different from the first voltage signal. |
| US07973575B2 |
Programmable frequency divider and frequency dividing method thereof
A programmable frequency divider, which is a core module of a frequency synthesizer using a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) for generating very high frequencies, includes a divided clock generator dividing a frequency of an input clock signal Fin by a first divide ratio (N+1) or a second divide ratio N according to a divide ratio control signal MC to generate a plurality of divided clock signals Dout; a counting unit counting the number CNT of the plurality of divided clock signals Dout, by performing swallow mode counting and program mode counting sequentially on the plurality of divided clock signal Dout; a control signal generator generating the divide ratio control signal MC, using the number CNT of the plurality of divided clock signal Dout, a count S by the swallow mode counting and a count P by the program mode counting, the count P corresponding to a maximum of the number CNT, feeding the divide ratio control signal MC back to the divided clock generator, and generating a reset control signal RST for resetting the counting unit. |
| US07973574B2 |
Flip-flop, frequency divider and RF circuit having the same
A flip-flop, and a frequency divider and an RF circuit using the flip-flop. The frequency divider, which receives a first signal and generates a second signal by dividing a frequency of the first signal, including a plurality of flip-flops that each latch and output a signal based on the first signal; and at least one switch unit that is switched in response to a control signal to modify a signal transfer path between the plurality of the flip-flops, wherein a different number of flip-flops are activated in response to each first and second status of the control signal so that the frequency of the first signal is divided by different multiples. |
| US07973569B1 |
Offset calibration and precision hysteresis for a rail-rail comparator with large dynamic range
A rail-rail comparator having an input stage with independent positive and negative differential voltage offset compensation tracks changes in Gm (transconductance) of the input stage. By tracking the changes in Gm (transconductance) of the input stage, hysteresis of the rail-rail comparator becomes insensitive to the input common mode voltage. A two-stage rail-rail comparator may be used for adding hysteresis to a second stage. The first stage of the two-stage rail-rail comparator operates at substantially unity gain. The second stage of the two-stage rail-rail comparator operates as a regular high gain amplifier with hysteresis. Additional circuitry tracks the Gm (transconductance) change of the first stage to make the second stage hysteresis insensitive to the input common mode voltage at the first stage. This also makes it easier to create a programmable hysteresis that is accurate over all input voltage values. |
| US07973567B2 |
Apparatus for sensing an output current in a communications device
Power over Ethernet (PoE) communication systems provide power and data communications over the same communications link, where a power source device (PSE) provides DC power (for example, 48 volts DC) to a powered device (PD). The DC power is transmitted simultaneously over the same communications medium with the high speed data from one node to the other node. The PSE typically includes a controller that controls the DC power provided to the PD at the second node of the communications link. The PSE controller measures the voltage, current, and temperature of the outgoing and incoming DC supply lines to characterize the power requirements of the PD. The PSE controller includes a resistorless switch to measure the current. The resistorless switch includes a sense transistor and a current mirror to allowing the PSE controller to calculate the current based upon a replica current. |
| US07973566B2 |
Logic based on the evolution of nonlinear dynamical systems
A logic gate implements logical expressions. A least one logic gate input receives at least one input logic gate signal and at least one control signal. At least one output for produces a logic gate output signal. A nonlinear updater operates as a dynamically configurable element to produce a plurality of different logic gates as selected by the control signal. The nonlinear updater includes a nonlinear updater output. The nonlinear updater is configured to apply a nonlinear function to the input logic gate signal to produce the nonlinear updater output signal representing a logical expression being implemented by one of the plurality of different logic gates on the input logic gate signal. A comparator includes a comparator input that is adapted to receive a reference threshold value for producing the logical gate output signal based on a comparison of the nonlinear output signal to the reference threshold value. |
| US07973562B1 |
Universal sink/source I/O module for industrial controller
An I/O module for an industrial controller provides single terminal outputs that may either sink or source current. This capability is provided through the use of dedicated sourcing and sinking transistors connected to the terminal and controlled by lockout logic ensuring activation of only the appropriate transistor in the correct phasing for sinking or sourcing operation modes. |
| US07973559B2 |
Method for fabrication of a semiconductor element and structure thereof
Re-programmable antifuses and structures utilizing re-programmable antifuses are presented. Such structures include a configurable interconnect circuit having at least one re-programmable antifuse, wherein the at least one re-programmable antifuse is configured to be programmed to conduct by applying a first voltage across it and is configured to be re-programmed not to conduct by applying second voltage across it, wherein the second voltage is higher than the first voltage. Other embodiments of antifuses include an initializing step prior to programming. |
| US07973555B1 |
Configuration interface to stacked FPGA
A semiconductor device includes a field-programmable gate array (“FPGA”) die (202) having a frame address bus (604), a frame data bus (608), and a second integrated circuit (“IC”) die (204) attached to the FPGA die. An inter-chip frame address bus (605) couples at least low order frame address bits of a frame address of a frame between the FPGA die and the second IC die. The inter-chip frame address bus includes a first plurality of contacts (614) formed between the FPGA die and the second IC die. An inter-chip frame data bus couples frame data of the frame between the FPGA die and the second IC die. The inter-chip frame data bus includes a second plurality of contacts (616) formed between the FPGA die and the second IC die. |
| US07973553B1 |
Techniques for on-chip termination
A circuit includes first transistors and a comparator. The comparator compares a reference signal and a signal that is based on conductive states of the first transistors. A control circuit generates first control signals based on an output signal of the comparator. The conductive states of the first transistors are determined based on the first control signals. An arithmetic circuit performs an arithmetic function based on the first control signals and second control signals to generate calibration signals. Second transistors provide a termination impedance at an external terminal of the circuit that is based on the calibration signals. |
| US07973552B2 |
On-die terminators formed of coarse and fine resistors
An integrated circuit includes a semiconductor substrate; a first node; a second node; and a first plurality of resistors, each in a first plurality of resistor units. Each of the first plurality of resistor units includes a first end connected to the first node, and a second end connected to the second node. The integrated circuit further includes a second plurality of resistors, each in a second plurality of resistor units. Each of the second plurality of resistor units includes a first end connected to the first node, and a second end connected to the second node. The first plurality of resistors is formed of a first material. The second plurality of resistors is formed of a second material different from the first material. The integrated circuit further includes a switch in one of the first and the second plurality of resistor units and serially connected to a resistor. |
| US07973548B2 |
Semiconductor test equipment with concentric pogo towers
A semiconductor test equipment with concentric pogo towers is disclosed, which comprises a base, a tester head, an outer pogo tower, and an inner pogo tower. The inner pogo tower is concentrically received in the outer pogo tower, and a connecting slot of the inner pogo tower is correspondingly engaged with a connecting pin of the outer pogo tower. The outer pogo tower is fixed to the load board together with the inner pogo tower, whereby a plurality of outer pogo pins of the outer pogo tower and a plurality of inner pogo pins of the inner pogo tower are electrically connected to the load board respectively. Therefore, the present invention is capable of expanding the test specifications, but also to change rapidly from different test specifications through replacing a different probe card but without to modify any other hardware. |
| US07973547B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting a crack in a semiconductor wafer, and a wafer chuck
A method for detecting a crack in a semiconductor wafer, which includes an electrical device and a connecting pad electrically coupled with the electrical device, is described. The crack is detected by an acoustic detector being acoustically coupled to the semiconductor wafer during contacting the contacting pad with a probe. |
| US07973546B2 |
In-line electron beam test system
A method for testing a plurality of electronic devices formed on a large area substrate is described. In one embodiment, the method includes transferring a substrate on an end effector relative to a testing platform having a plurality of testing columns coupled thereto, the substrate having a plurality of electronic devices located thereon, and moving the substrate in a single directional axis relative to an optical axis of each of the plurality of testing columns, the single directional axis being substantially orthogonal to the optical axis to define a test area on the substrate, wherein the test area is configured to cover an entire length or an entire width of the substrate such that the testing columns are capable of testing the entire substrate as the substrate is moved through the test area. |
| US07973545B2 |
Time resolved radiation assisted device alteration
A method of time resolved radiation assisted device alteration testing of a semiconductor circuit which includes performing spatially resolved radiation assisted circuit testing on the semiconductor circuit while applying a test pattern to determine a pass-fail modulation location, asynchronously scanning the semiconductor circuit with radiation while repeatedly applying the test pattern and providing pass-fail results, combining corresponding pass-fail results provided during the asynchronously scanning to determine a shifted pass-fail modulation indication, determining time shift information between the pass-fail modulation location and the shifted pass-fail modulation indication, and identifying at least one of the test vectors based on the time shift information. The radiation may be a continuous wave laser beam. The time shift information may be determined by scanning an image, incorporating graphics into the image indicating the pass-fail modulation location and the shifted pass-fail modulation indication, and measuring a pixel shift on the scanned image. |
| US07973544B2 |
Thermal monitoring and management of integrated circuits
The invention, in one aspect, provides a semiconductor device (100), including transistors (105), dielectric layers (115, 120) located over the transistors (105), interconnects (122) formed within the dielectric layers (115, 120), and a test structure (130) located adjacent a hot-spot (125) of the semiconductor device (100) and configured to monitor a real-time operational parameter of at least one of the transistors (105) or interconnects (122). |
| US07973542B2 |
Methods and systems for guarding a charge transfer capacitance sensor for proximity detection
Methods, systems and devices are described for determining a measurable capacitance for proximity detection in a sensor having a plurality of sensing electrodes and at least one guarding electrode. A charge transfer process is executed for at least two executions. The charge transfer process includes applying a pre-determined voltage to at least one of the plurality of sensing electrodes using a first switch, applying a first guard voltage to the at least one guarding electrode using a second switch, sharing charge between the at least one of the plurality of sensing electrodes and a filter capacitance, and applying a second guard voltage different from the first guard voltage to the at least one guarding electrode. A voltage is measured on the filter capacitance for a number of measurements equal to at least one to produce at least one result to determine the measurable capacitance for proximity detection. |
| US07973540B2 |
Coupling loop and method of positioning coupling loop
A coupling loop or antenna is provided that can be used with a system that determines the resonant frequency of a sensor by adjusting the phase and frequency of an energizing signal until the frequency of the energizing signal matches the resonant frequency of the sensor. In one embodiment orientation features are provided for positioning the coupling loop relative to the sensor to maximize the coupling between the sensor and the coupling loop. |
| US07973536B2 |
Traveling wave based relay protection
An apparatus includes at least one Rogowski coil and a processor. The at least one Rogowski coil is positioned within an electrical power distribution network to detect a first traveling wave current caused by a fault on an electrical power transmission line of the network, generate a first signal indicative of detection of the first traveling wave, detect a second traveling wave current caused by the fault on the transmission line, and generate a second signal indicative of detection of the second traveling wave. The processor is adapted to receive the first signal and the second signal and to determine, based on the first signal and the second signal, where on the transmission line the fault occurred. |
| US07973533B2 |
In-circuit testing for integrity of solid-state switches
A switching and fault detection circuit comprises two controllable switches capable of coupling a power source to a load. A controller can control the switches and test them for faults, and a voltage sensor can read the output voltage going to the load. Dual-redundant switches and fault detection circuitry can provide correct operation if one should fail. Control and feedback logic can determine if each of the solid-state switches is operating correctly during the power-on and power-off cycles and can also check for a fail-open condition during normal operations. If it is determined that a solid switch has failed open or closed, a fault can be generated. |
| US07973532B2 |
Downhole spread spectrum induction instruments
A plurality of transmitters on a logging tool are activated simultaneously at substantially the same frequency. When the transmitter outputs are phase-modulated using a mutually orthogonal set of modulating functions, it is possible to recover, from the signal at each receiver, a response corresponding to each of the transmitters. |
| US07973523B2 |
Reverse current sensing regulator system and method
A reverse current sensing (RCS) regulator system and method is provided. One embodiment of the invention includes a RCS regulator system. The system comprises a RCS comparator that monitors a drain voltage of a LS FET and is configured to switch states at a zero crossing point to provide an indication of the start of a reverse current condition. The system further comprises a RCS evaluator that measures a drain voltage of the LS FET upon receiving an indication that the LS FET has been turned off by the driver logic circuit and adjusts an offset to the RCS comparator to adjust the trip point of the RCS comparator relative to the drain voltage if the measured drain voltage falls outside a predetermined threshold. |
| US07973520B2 |
Piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power apparatus and image forming apparatus
A piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power source apparatus to control an output voltage from a piezoelectric transformer to a load, and an image forming apparatus including the same, the piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power source apparatus including: an output voltage detection unit to compare the output voltage with an output control voltage, and to output a digital value according to the comparison; and a driving control unit to control a driving frequency and a duty rate of the piezoelectric transformer according to the digital value. Accordingly, the piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power source apparatus can stably perform frequency and duty rate control without experiencing an abnormal oscillation or uncontrollable state due to a manufacturing irregularity of particular components and/or a change in temperature, and a high voltage can be output within a short rise time. |
| US07973513B2 |
Systems and methods for ubiquitous charging
A device is provided that includes a battery, a positive node and a negative node and logic configured to send a first signal through the positive node into a charging surface; send a second signal through the negative node into the charging surface; receive current from the charging surface in response to the first and second signals; and charging the battery with the received current from the charging surface. |
| US07973509B2 |
Numerical controller having control mode switching function
A pulse distribution unit notifies a mode control/instruction unit of an output start signal. The mode control/instruction unit outputs a mode setting signal, a speed command signal, and a compensation pulse to an axis control unit. In a position control mode, the mode control/instruction unit continues outputting the speed command signal to the axis control unit until the mode control/instruction unit receives the output start signal from the pulse distribution unit, and stops, up receiving the output start signal, outputting the speed command signal. The compensation pulse is output to the axis control unit to cancel the difference between a spindle position and the position control start reference position of the spindle. The axis control unit adds the compensation pulse to the position command signal of the spindle output from the pulse distribution unit and outputs the result to a servo control unit. |
| US07973503B2 |
Motor system employing analog encoded hall effect sensor position information for reduced wiring
A system has a sensor assembly mounted adjacent to a moving magnetic member such as a motor rotor to sense its position. The sensor assembly includes Hall-effect sensors each having a binary output, configured such that distinct positions of the moving magnetic member correspond to distinct digital patterns of the outputs of the Hall-effect sensors. Encoding circuitry is coupled to the outputs of the Hall-effect sensors to generate a multi-valued analog output, distinct values of the multi-valued analog output representing corresponding distinct digital patterns of the outputs of the Hall-effect sensors. The encoding circuitry may employ a ladder network with weighted-value resistors contributing different components of an analog current sensed by the controller. The sensed current can be converted to digital position information using suitable analog-to-digital conversion circuitry. The multi-valued analog output can be conveyed on a single wire in contrast to the prior art which requires one wire per Hall-effect sensor. |
| US07973502B2 |
Drive unit and manufacturing method thereof
A drive unit includes a rotating electrical machine; a rotation sensor that detects a rotational position of a rotor of the rotating electrical machine, and a storage medium. In an inspecting step of measuring a counter electromotive force by mechanically driving the rotating electrical machine after the rotating electrical machine and the rotation sensor are assembled together, positional error information of the rotation sensor obtained based on information of the counter electromotive force and output information from the rotation sensor is stored in the storage medium. The storage medium is integrally provided to the drive unit in such a state that the storage medium is readable upon assembling a control device that controls the rotating electrical machine. |
| US07973500B2 |
Control apparatus for motor
A normal revolution number calculation unit calculates a normal revolution number of a driving motor generator in every control period, based on a signal from a rotational position sensor. A moving average calculation unit calculates a moving average revolution number of the normal revolution number given in every control period. A predicted revolution number calculation unit determines whether or not the revolution number of the motor generator is in an increasing state, from the locus of the moving average revolution number. Determining that the revolution number of the motor generator is in the increasing state, the predicted revolution number calculation unit calculates a predicted revolution number based on respective moving average revolution numbers in the present and preceding control periods. The calculated predicted revolution number is set to be used as a control revolution number and output to a motor control unit and a torque command calculation unit. |
| US07973493B2 |
Discharge lamp lighting device, and illuminating device
In order to enhance stability of a discharge lamp at the time of dimming lighting even in the case where a light output is lowered, a direct current superimposing circuit superimposes a direct current voltage on an alternating current voltage applied to a fluorescent lamp, and a dimming signal correction circuit receives a detection value of a direct current voltage detection circuit and a dimming signal that is from an outside, outputs a dimming signal higher in level than the dimming signal in the case where the detection value of the direct current voltage detection circuit exceeds a first threshold value, and decreases the level of the outputted dimming signal to the level of the inputted dimming signal in the case where the detection value of the direct current voltage detection circuit falls down below a second threshold value that is equal to or less than the first threshold value. Then, an amount of alternating current power supplied to the fluorescent lamp by an inverter circuit is increased and decreased in response to fluctuations of the level of the dimming signal outputted by the dimming signal correction circuit, whereby the fluorescent lamp is dimmed. |
| US07973485B1 |
Particle controller
A particle controller is disclosed. In some embodiments, a particle controller includes an input port configured to receive a particle stream and a set of cells configured to form a tube through which at least a portion of the particles comprising the particle stream are directed. In some such cases, each cell in the set of cells comprises at least a portion of a semiconductor die. |
| US07973484B2 |
Method and device for automatically switching to main beam
A main beam switching arrangement for a road vehicle has a lighting device switchable over main beam and dipped headlamps. A sensor device determines at least one ambient parameter, and a control unit with an activatable and deactivatable automatic function automatically switches over the lighting device as a function of the ambient parameter. An operator control unit generates switchover signals by an operator to manually bring about switching over the lighting device with priority. In each case, at least one change of state of the automatic function can be brought about by a first switchover signal for switching on continuous operation of the main beam that is not occurring at the time of signal generation. By way of a second switchover signal, continuous operation of the main beam, which is occurring at the time of signal generation, is switched off. |
| US07973482B2 |
High-pressure discharge lamp with halogens
A high-pressure discharge lamp with an axial symmetry axis and metal halogenide filling has electrodes with shafts designed as pins with a diameter of 0.5 to 1.15 mm. The halogen for the halogenide is composed of iodine and possibly bromine components, iodine being used alone or in combination with bromine, and the bromine/iodine atomic ratio amounting to maximum 2. |
| US07973480B2 |
High-pressure discharge lamp having an outer envelope arranged around a discharge vessel
A high-pressure discharge lamp has an outer envelope (1) in which a discharge vessel (11) is arranged. The discharge vessel encloses a discharge space (13) with an ionizable filling. The discharge vessel has two mutually opposed neck-shaped portions (2,3) through which current supply conductors (4,5) extend to a pair of electrodes (6,7) in the discharge space. A lamp base (8) of electrically insulating material supports the discharge vessel. The lamp base also supports the outer envelope (1). The outer envelope encloses the current supply conductors and is connected to the lamp base in a gas-tight manner. By controlling the atmosphere in the outer envelope, a simplified and compact high-pressure discharge lamp is provided with an accurate positioning of the discharge vessel with respect to the optical axis of the lighting system. The high-pressure discharge lamp can be suitably applied in an assembly with a reflector. |
| US07973478B2 |
Electrode rod holder in a high-pressure discharge lamp
The invention relates to an improved electrode rod (1) holder with the aid of a metal tube piece 5 and a metal plate 6 connected in a fixed manner to the metal tube piece for a mercury ultra-high pressure discharge lamp. |
| US07973470B2 |
Led device having improved color
A display device includes a substrate having at least one light-emitting element. The light-emitting element includes one electrically-continuous electrode formed over the substrate. A separator is located on the electrically-continuous electrode, dividing the electrically-continuous electrode into at least first and second separate electrode portions that remain electrically continuous. A transparent layer is located over the first electrode portion, while separated from the second electrode portion. A light-emitting layer is formed over the transparent layer and the second electrode portion. A second electrode is formed over the light-emitting layer. The first electrode portion, the transparent layer, the light-emitting layer, and the second electrode comprise a first optical cavity having a first optical path length. The second electrode portion, the light-emitting layer, and the second electrode comprise a second optical cavity having a second optical path length different from the first optical path length. |
| US07973467B2 |
Organic light emitting device
An organic light emitting device includes an electron transport layer including an electron transport material and a metallic compound represented by Formula 1: XaYb Formula 1: wherein X is an alkaline metal, an alkaline earth metal, or a transition metal, and Y is one of a Group 7 element and an organic group C1-C20, and a is an integer within the range of 1 to 3, and b is an integer within the range of 1 to 3. |
| US07973462B2 |
UV lamp with single plug
A UV lamp comprises: a bulb (2) containing a mixture of an inert gas and metallic halides; at least one first electrode (4) and one second (4) electrode associated with the bulb (2); a connector (6), coupled to the bulb (2) and having two thin metal plates (12a) protruding from a portion of said connector (6). Each flat thin plate (12a) is electrically connected to an electrode (4) and is spaced apart from the other thin plate (12a) by at least 20 mm. |
| US07973460B2 |
Composition for forming electron emitter, electron emitter formed using the composition, electron emission device having the emitter, and backlight unit having the emitter
A composition for forming an electron emitter, an electron emitter formed using the composition, and a backlight unit including the electron emitter, where dispersion of the electron emission material in the composition is increased, and the composition includes an electron emission material, a vehicle, and carbon-based filler particles. |
| US07973455B2 |
Ultrasonic sensor having stable anisotropy in directional properties
A case member of an ultrasonic sensor includes an outer case member having a substantially cylindrical shape with a bottom surface and an inner case member. Cutout portions having a predetermined size are arranged so as to face each other in a lower portion of a sidewall of the inner case member. The inner case member is made of a metal material having a density that is greater than that of the outer case member. Consequently, an elliptical vibrating-surface amplitude profile can be formed in a vibrating surface of the ultrasonic sensor, and an ultrasonic sensor having stable anisotropy in directional properties can be provided. Further, the ultrasonic sensor has a small amount of displacement of side vibration. |
| US07973452B2 |
Vibration actuator
A vibrator (3) is sandwiched between a base block (1) and a stator (2), and a substantially lower half of a substantially spherical rotor (6) is received in a recess (5) of the stator (2). A support member (7) is placed on an upper portion of the stator (2). A preload portion (10) is supported at an end of an angle portion (9) of the support member (7). A spherical member (11) rotatable about multiple axes of the preload portion (10) abuts against a top portion of the rotor (6) to apply a preload to the rotor (6). Driving the vibrator (3) rotates the rotor (6), whereby an output shaft (12) is moved between the preload portion (10) and an annular portion (8) of the support member (7) as a movable range. |
| US07973447B2 |
Electric motor
An electric motor 10 has a stator 14; a wound rotor 20, including a commutator 28; and brush gear for connecting the commutator to a source of electrical power. The brush gear has at least two cage brush assemblies 34. Each cage brush assembly 34 having a brush 40 for making sliding electrical contact with the commutator of the motor; a cage 50 for guiding the brush 40 along a path towards the commutator; and a spring 70 for resiliently urging the brush 40 along the path through the cage 50. The spring 70 is a constant force spring having two coiled end portions which engage the cage 50 at a commutator end portion. The cage 50 has two fingers about which the coiled end portions of the spring 70 locate. |
| US07973443B2 |
Magnetic field element
A magnetic field element includes magnetic field portions and a coupling portion and is rotatable on a rotation axis along a given direction. Each magnetic field portion includes a magnet and magnetic plates. The magnet includes first and second pole faces having different polarities from each other in the given direction. The magnetic-material plates are provided on the first and second pole faces. The magnetic field portions are annularly arranged along a circumferential direction around the rotation axis and spaced in the circumferential direction from one another. The coupling portion is made of a non-magnetic material and couples the magnetic field portions to one another. |
| US07973441B2 |
Magnetic gear
Embodiments of the present invention relate to magnetic gears comprising a pair of rotors magnetically coupled in a geared manner via a magnetic space harmonic generated as a consequence of varying an air gap between sets of permanent magnets. |
| US07973440B2 |
Oil-repellent film forming method, motor manufacturing method and motor
A method is for forming an oil-repellent film on a metallic part in a dynamic fluid pressure bearing mechanism used for a motor. The method includes applying a flowable oil-repellent agent on an application region of the metallic part; arranging an induction coil in the vicinity of the metallic part; and affixing the oil-repellent agent onto the metallic part by applying an induction heating to the metallic part by supplying an AC current with a frequency of about 5 to 100 kHz to the induction coil. Further, a motor includes a dynamic fluid pressure bearing mechanism including a metallic part on which an oil-repellent film is formed by the above method; a stator unit; and a rotor unit supported by the dynamic fluid pressure bearing mechanism in a manner rotatable with respect to the stator unit. |
| US07973439B2 |
Inverter-integrated electric compressor
Provided is an inverter-integrated electric compressor capable of reducing the size of an inverter accommodating section by modularizing a power circuit board and a control board and further reducing the size of an inverter device, as well as an accommodating section thereof, by improving the positional structure with respect to other electrical components. An inverter-integrated electric compressor including an inverter accommodating section provided on a periphery of a housing accommodating an inverter device includes an inverter module constructed by integrally modularizing a power circuit board and a control board, wherein attachment legs provided on both edges of at least one side surface of the inverter module protrude outward from a module main body, and the inverter module accommodates the inverter accommodating section with the attachment legs positioned in spaces at both ends of a glass-insulated terminal. |
| US07973433B2 |
Power electronics devices with integrated gate drive circuitry
A power switch apparatus includes a substrate; a semiconductor die mounted on the substrate and including power electronics circuitry for a high power, alternating current motor application; and gate drive circuitry mounted on the substrate and electrically coupled to the power electronics circuitry on the semiconductor die. |
| US07973432B2 |
Microscope system and control method for same
The microscope system comprises: an imaging apparatus used for picking up an image of a specimen; an electric unit; a control apparatus for controlling turning On and Off of the power supply to the electric unit; a storage apparatus storing the initialization requirement time of the electric unit; and a drive management arithmetic operation apparatus for calculating, on the basis of an image pickup interval and initialization requirement time, a clock time for controlling turning On/Off of the power supply to the electric unit. |
| US07973426B2 |
Personal protection control unit
A personal protection control unit, having an energy reserve which is charged by a battery voltage and supplies power to the control unit. In addition, a first voltage supply circuit is provided, down-converting the voltage of the reserve power in such a way that the first voltage supply circuit supplies several voltage levels for operation of the control unit. Finally, a second voltage supply circuit is also provided and is also connected to the energy reserve, supplying at least one additional voltage level to at least one transistor and to at least one voltage regulator via a resistive circuit. |
| US07973423B2 |
On-vehicle electric power source system
In an on-vehicle electric power source system, a power source control device is configured to supply an electric power from an electric power supply source to an actuator by means of a dual-circuit power supply line. The dual-circuit power supply line includes a bypass line and a charge-up line arranged in parallel with the bypass line. A first shut-off circuit is disposed in the bypass line. A booster circuit, an electricity storage device, and a second shut-off circuit are disposed in the charge-up line. The storage device is provided for storing an electric power boosted up by the booster circuit. Also provided is a control unit, which is configured to perform switching between an electric power supply through the bypass line and an electric power supply through the charge-up line by a changeover of a shutoff-circuit established/blocked state between the first and second shut-off circuits. |
| US07973419B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate, a p-type impurity diffusion layer formed on the semiconductor substrate, and Ni silicide formed on the diffusion layer, wherein an alignment mark for lithography is formed on the Ni silicide. |
| US07973418B2 |
Solder bump interconnect for improved mechanical and thermo-mechanical performance
An apparatus and method for a semiconductor package including a bump on input-output (IO) structure are disclosed involving a device pad, an under bump metal pad (UBM), a polymer, and a passivation layer. The shortest distance from the center of the device pad to its outer edge, and the shortest distance from the center of the UBM to its outer edge are in a ratio from 0.5:1 to 0.95:1. Also, the shortest distance from the center of the polymer to its outer edge, and the shortest distance from the center of the UBM to its outer edge are in a ratio from 0.35:1 to 0.85:1. Additionally, the shortest distance from the center of the passivation layer to its outer edge, and the shortest distance from the center of the UBM to its outer edge are in a ratio from 0.35:1 to 0.80:1. |
| US07973417B2 |
Integrated circuit and method of fabricating the same
An article including a substrate having a blind hole formed therein, wherein the blind hole is defined by a floor and a sidewall and a solder connection is provided. The solder connection may couple a first contact pad to a second contact pad. The first contact pad may cover a first field of the floor of the blind hole, and may also promote wetting of a solder material of the solder connection. Wetting may be impeded on a second field of the floor of the blind hole. The second contact pad may be arranged above a surface of a further substrate, wherein the surface of the further substrate may be oriented perpendicularly to the floor of the blind hole in the substrate. |
| US07973416B2 |
Thru silicon enabled die stacking scheme
A die to die bonding system and method includes an upper die having a front side, a back side, and a fully filled thru silicon via, a portion of the fully filled thru silicon via protruding from the back side of the upper die. A lower die includes a front side, a back side, and a partially filled thru silicon via formed to define a via opening exposed to the front side of the die, a portion of the partially filled thru silicon via protruding from the back side of the lower die. An interconnect bonds an outer surface of the protruding portion of the upper die thru silicon via with an inner surface of via opening in the lower die. |
| US07973414B2 |
Semiconductor package through-electrode suitable for a stacked semiconductor package and semiconductor package having the same
A semiconductor package including a through-electrode for stacked a semiconductor package and a semiconductor package having the same is disclosed. The semiconductor package through-electrode includes a first electrode having a recessed portion formed therein to pass through a semiconductor chip. A second electrode is disposed within the recess of the first electrode. The first electrode of the semiconductor package through-electrode includes a first metal having a first hardness, and a second electrode comprises a second metal having a second hardness lower than the first hardness. The through-electrode passes through the semiconductor chip body and may be formed with the first metal having the first hardness and/or a first melting point and the second metal having the second hardness and/or a second melting point which are lower than the first hardness and/or the first melting point. This through-electrode allows a plurality of semiconductor packages to be easily stacked. |
| US07973412B2 |
Semiconductor device using lead-free solder as die bonding material and die bonding material not containing lead
In a semiconductor device bonded to a motherboard with a bonding material having a melting point of 200° C. to 230° C., a bonding material 15 which is a die bonding material for bonding a semiconductor element 13 to a semiconductor substrate 11 is a Bi alloy containing 0.8 wt % to 10 wt % of Cu and 0.02 wt % to 0.2 wt % of Ge, so that the bonding material 15 for bonding the semiconductor element 13 to the semiconductor substrate 11 is not melted when the semiconductor device is bonded to the motherboard by reflowing. It is therefore possible to suppress poor connection on the semiconductor element 13, thereby securing the mountability and electrical reliability of the semiconductor device. |
| US07973409B2 |
Hybrid interconnect structure for performance improvement and reliability enhancement
The present invention provides an interconnect structure (of the single or dual damascene type) and a method of forming the same, in which a dense (i.e., non-porous) dielectric spacer is present on the sidewalls of a dielectric material. More specifically, the inventive structure includes a dielectric material having a conductive material embedded within at least one opening in the dielectric material, wherein the conductive material is laterally spaced apart from the dielectric material by a diffusion barrier, a dense dielectric spacer and, optionally, an air gap. The presence of the dense dielectric spacer results in a hybrid interconnect structure that has improved reliability and performance as compared with existing prior art interconnect structures which do not include such dense dielectric spacers. Moreover, the inventive hybrid interconnect structure provides for better process control which leads to the potential for high volume manufacturing. |
| US07973406B2 |
Bump-on-lead flip chip interconnection
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die with a plurality of bumps formed over the die. A substrate has a plurality of conductive traces formed on the substrate. Each trace has an interconnect site for mating to the bumps. The interconnect sites have parallel edges along a length of the conductive traces under the bumps from a plan view for increasing escape routing density. The bumps have a noncollapsible portion for attaching to a contact pad on the die and fusible portion for attaching to the interconnect site. The fusible portion melts at a temperature which avoids damage to the substrate during reflow. The noncollapsible portion includes lead solder, and fusible portion includes eutectic solder. The interconnect sites have a width which is less than 1.2 times a width of the conductive trace. Alternatively, the interconnect sites have a width which is less than one-half a diameter of the bump. |
| US07973404B2 |
Relay board provided in semiconductor device, semiconductor device, and manufacturing method of semiconductor device
A relay board provided in a semiconductor device, including an entire main surface that is made of a conductive material. The relay board may further include a substrate made of the same material as at least one semiconductor element provided in the semiconductor device. The main surface of the relay board may be formed at an upper part of the substrate. |
| US07973401B2 |
Stacked chip package with redistribution lines
A chip package comprises a first chip having a first side and a second side, wherein said first chip comprises a first pad, a first trace, a second pad and a first passivation layer at said first side thereof, an opening in said first passivation layer exposing said first pad, said first trace being over said first passivation layer, said first trace connecting said first pad to said second pad; a second chip having a first side and a second side, wherein said second chip comprises a first pad at said first side thereof, wherein said second side of said second chip is joined with said second side of side first chip; a substrate joined with said first side of said first chip or with said first side of said second chip; a first wirebonding wire connecting said second pad of said first chip and said substrate; and a second wirebonding wire connecting said first pad of said second chip and said substrate. |
| US07973400B2 |
Semiconductor package having improved heat spreading performance
A semiconductor package having a structure in which heat produced in the interior of the package is effectively spread to the outside of the package is provided. The semiconductor package includes one or more semiconductor chips, one or more substrates (PCBs) having the semiconductor chips respectively attached thereto, a plurality of conductive balls such as a plurality of solder balls to provide voltages and signals to the one or more semiconductor chips, and a heat sink positioned to spread heat produced in the interior of the package to the outside and directly connected to at least one of the plurality of solder balls. |
| US07973399B2 |
Embedded chip package
An embedded chip package includes a substrate, a semiconductor structure, an encapsulating material layer and a plurality of conductive vias. Herein the substrate includes at least a dielectric layer and at least a patterned circuit layer disposed on the dielectric layer. The semiconductor structure is disposed on the substrate and has a plurality of electrical bonding pads, and the electrical bonding pads contact the dielectric layer. The encapsulating material layer is disposed on the substrate and around the semiconductor structure. In addition, a plurality of conductive vias is disposed in the substrate to electrically connect the patterned circuit layer to the electrical bonding pads. |
| US07973398B2 |
Embedded chip package structure with chip support protruding section
An embedded chip package structure is proposed. The embedded chip package structure includes a supporting board with a protruding section, a semiconductor chip formed on the protruding section of the supporting board, a dielectric layer formed on the supporting board and the semiconductor chip, and a circuit layer formed on the dielectric layer. The circuit layer is electrically connected to electrode pads of the semiconductor chip via a plurality of conducting structures formed inside the dielectric layer such that the semiconductor chip can be electrically connected to an external element through the circuit layer. By varying the thicknesses of the protruding section, the dielectric layer and the supporting board, warpage of the package structure resulted from temperature change during the fabrication process can be prevented. |
| US07973395B2 |
Semiconductor device using lead frame
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor chip configured to process a signal in a radio frequency band; two conductive antenna connection pins connected with two external antenna conductors, respectively; an island for the semiconductor chip to be mounted thereon; a suspending pin connected with the island; and an antenna connection conductor configured to connect the two antenna connection pins without connection with the island and the suspending pin. A series connection of one of the two external antenna conductors, one of the two antenna connection pins, the antenna connection conductor section, the other of the two antenna connection pins and the other of the two external antenna conductors in this order, functions as an antenna by connecting the series connection with the semiconductor chip. |
| US07973391B2 |
Tapered dielectric and conductor structures and applications thereof
Disclosed are tapered dielectric and conductor structures which provide controlled impedance interconnection while signal conductor lines transition from finer pitches to coarser pitches thereby obviating electrical discontinuities generally associated with changes of circuit contact pitch. Also disclosed are methods for the construction of the devices and applications therefore. |
| US07973386B1 |
ESD protection bipolar device with internal avalanche diode
In a bipolar device an intrinsic Zener like diode is formed for controlling the triggering voltage and leakage current, the Zener-like diode being formed between the n-collector and the p-base, wherein the collector implant and base diffusion overlap at least partially. |
| US07973385B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device including a doped substrate of a first doping polarity and a doped semiconductor material of a second doping polarity. The semiconductor material is on, or in, the substrate, and the second doping polarity is opposite the first doping polarity such that the semiconductor material and the substrate form a diode. The semiconductor device further includes an inductor on or above the semiconductor material, and a pattern in the semiconductor material for reducing eddy currents. The pattern includes a doped semiconductor material of the first doping polarity and a least one trench within the doped semiconductor material of the first doping polarity, wherein, at least at a depth at which the trench is closest to the inductor, the doped semiconductor material of the first doping polarity fully surrounds the trench so that, at least at the depth, the trench does not touch the doped semiconductor material of the second doping polarity. |
| US07973375B2 |
Spin transistor and method of manufacturing same
The spin transistor in accordance with the present invention comprises a magnetoresistive element having a fixed layer, a free layer, and a semiconductor layer provided between the fixed layer and free layer; a source electrode layer electrically connected to one end face in a laminating direction of the magnetoresistive element; a drain electrode layer electrically connected to the other end face in the laminating direction of the magnetoresistive element; and a gate electrode layer laterally adjacent to the semiconductor layer through a gate insulating layer provided on a side face of the semiconductor layer. |
| US07973372B2 |
Semiconductor structure in which source and drain extensions of field-effect transistor are defined with different dopants
An insulated-gate field-effect transistor (100) provided along an upper surface of a semiconductor body contains a pair of source/drain zones (240 and 242) laterally separated by a channel zone (244). A gate electrode (262) overlies a gate dielectric layer (260) above the channel zone. Each source/drain zone includes a main portion (240M or 242M) and a more lightly doped lateral extension (240E or 242E) laterally continuous with the main portion and extending laterally under the gate electrode. The lateral extensions, which terminate the channel zone along the upper semiconductor surface, are respectively largely defined by a pair of semiconductor dopants of different atomic weights. With the transistor being an asymmetric device, the source/drain zones constitute a source and a drain. The lateral extension of the source is defined with dopant of higher atomic weight than the lateral extension of the drain. |
| US07973368B2 |
Semiconductor device with T-gate electrode
Provided are a semiconductor device with a T-gate electrode capable of improving stability and a high frequency characteristic of the semiconductor device by reducing source resistance, parasitic capacitance, and gate resistance and a method of fabricating the same. In the semiconductor device, in order to form source and drain electrodes and the T-gate electrode on a substrate, first and second protective layers constructed with silicon oxide layers or silicon nitride layers are formed on sides of a supporting part under a head part of the T-gate electrode, and the second protective layer constructed with a silicon oxide layer or silicon nitride layer is formed on sides of the source and drain electrodes. Accordingly, it is possible to protect an activated region of the semiconductor device and reduce gate-drain parasitic capacitance and gate-source parasitic capacitance. |
| US07973367B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
In order that a top surface of a gate electrode does not have sharp portions, ends of the top surface of the gate electrode are rounded before refractory metal is deposited for silicidation. This reduces intensive application of film stresses which are generated in heat treatment, enabling formation of a silicide layer with a uniform, sufficient thickness. |
| US07973366B2 |
Dual-gate, sonos, non-volatile memory cells and arrays thereof
Memory cells which include a semiconductor substrate having a source region and a drain region separated by a channel region; a charge-trapping structure disposed above the channel region of the semiconductor substrate; a first gate disposed above the charge-trapping structure and proximate to the source region; and a second gate disposed above the charge-trapping structure and proximate to the drain region; where the first gate and the second gate are separated by a first nanospace are provided, along with arrays including a plurality of such cells, methods of manufacturing such cells and methods of operating such cells. |
| US07973365B2 |
Integrated RF ESD protection for high frequency circuits
The invention relates to a high-frequency integrated circuit requiring ESD protection for a circuit node. One or more metallic layer is deposited within the integrated circuit and patterned to form a transmission line. The metallic layers are generally already present in the integrated circuit for signal routing. The transmission line is coupled between the circuit node and a terminal of an ESD protection device, with a transmission line return conductor coupled to a high-frequency ground. The transmission line is formed with an electrical length that transforms the impedance of the ESD protection device substantially into an open circuit at the circuit node at an operational frequency of the integrated circuit. The other terminal of the ESD protection device is coupled to the high-frequency ground. |
| US07973364B2 |
Method for forming a one-transistor memory cell and related structure
According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for fabricating a one-transistor memory cell includes forming an opening by removing a portion of a gate stack of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) device, where the SOI device is situated over a buried oxide layer. The method further includes forming a bottom gate of the one-transistor memory cell in a bulk substrate underlying the buried oxide layer. The method further includes forming a charge trapping region in the buried oxide layer. The charge trapping region is formed at an interface between a silicon layer underlying the gate stack and the buried oxide layer. The charge trapping region causes the one-transistor memory cell to have an increased sensing margin. The method further includes forming a top gate of the one-transistor memory cell in the opening. Also disclosed is an exemplary one-transistor memory cell fabricated utilizing the exemplary disclosed method. |
| US07973359B2 |
Semiconductor device with a charge carrier compensation structure and process
A semiconductor device with a charge carrier compensation structure. In one embodiment, the semiconductor device has a central cell field with a gate and source structure. At least one bond contact area is electrically coupled to the gate structure or the source structure. A capacitance-increasing field plate is electrically coupled to at least one of the near-surface bond contact areas. |
| US07973356B2 |
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory and method of manufacturing the same
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a first gate electrode formed on the semiconductor substrate through a gate insulating film; a second gate electrode formed in a side direction of the first gate electrode and electrically insulated from the first gate electrode; and an insulating film formed at least between the semiconductor substrate and the second gate electrode to trap electric charge, as an electric charge trapping film. The first gate electrode comprises a lower portion contacting the gate insulating film and an upper portion above the lower portion of the first gate electrode, and a distance between the upper portion of the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode is longer than a distance between the lower portion of the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode. |
| US07973349B2 |
Magnetic device having multilayered free ferromagnetic layer
Magnetic multilayer structures, such as magnetic or magnetoresistive tunnel junctions (MTJs) and spin valves, having a magnetic biasing layer formed next to and magnetically coupled to the free ferromagnetic layer to achieve a desired stability against fluctuations caused by, e.g., thermal fluctuations and astray fields. Stable MTJ cells with low aspect ratios can be fabricated using CMOS processing for, e.g., high-density MRAM memory devices and other devices, using the magnetic biasing layer. Such multilayer structures can be programmed using spin transfer induced switching by driving a write current perpendicular to the layers. Each free ferromagnetic layer can include two or more layers and may be a multilayered free ferromagnetic stack that includes first and second ferromagnetic layers and a non-magnetic spacer between the first and second ferromagnetic layers. |
| US07973341B2 |
Fuse of semiconductor device
A method for manufacturing a fuse of a semiconductor device comprises forming an island-type metal fuse in a region where a laser is irradiated, so that laser energy may not be dispersed in a fuse blowing process, thereby improving repair efficiency. |
| US07973340B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit with improved power supply system
Cells are formed on a substrate. First and second cell power wiring lines extend in a first direction on the substrate. First and second intermediate layer power wiring lines are formed on the first and second cell power lines. First upper layer power wiring lines are formed on the first and second intermediate layer power lines. The first upper layer power wiring lines extend in a second direction crossing the first direction at right angles. First contact members are formed between the first cell power lines and the first upper layer power lines. Second contact members are formed between the second cell power lines and the first upper layer power lines. The second contact members are arranged at positions shifted from a straight line which passes through the first contact members in the first direction and a straight line which passes through the first contact members in the second direction. |
| US07973337B2 |
Source/drain strained layers
A semiconductor device and method of manufacture thereof wherein a PMOS source/drain region of a transistor within the substrate includes a first strained layer in the PMOS source/drain region and a first capping layer in contact with the first strained layer. Further, the semiconductor device and method provide for an NMOS source/drain region of a transistor within the substrate including a second strained layer in the NMOS source/drain region and a second capping layer in contact with the second strained layer. |
| US07973327B2 |
Phosphor-converted LED
A light source and method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The light source includes a die, a light conversion component, and a scattering ring. The die emits light of a first wavelength through a top surface of the die and one or more side surfaces of the die, and is bonded to a mounting substrate. The light conversion component converts light of the first wavelength to light of a second wavelength, the light conversion component having a bottom surface bonded to the top surface of the die. The light conversion component has lateral dimensions such that a space exists around the die, the space being bounded by the substrate and the light conversion component. The scattering ring is positioned in the space such that a portion of the light emitted from the side surfaces of the die is scattered into the light conversion component. |
| US07973326B2 |
Semiconductor structure combination for epitaxy of semiconductor optoelectronic device
The invention discloses a semiconductor structure combination for the epitaxy of a semiconductor optoelectronic device and manufacture thereof. The semiconductor structure combination according to the invention includes a substrate and a semiconductor material. The substrate has an upper surface and a recess formed on the upper surface. The sidewalls of the recess provide a first site for the growth of a plurality of first epitaxial crystals of the semiconductor material toward a first preferred orientation. A bottom of the recess provides a second site for the growth of a second epitaxial crystal of the semiconductor material toward the first preferred orientation. Flat regions adjacent to the recess provide a third site for the growth of a third epitaxial crystal of the semiconductor material toward the first preferred orientation. |
| US07973322B2 |
Nitride semiconductor light emitting device and method for forming the same
An active layer 17 is provided so as to emit light having a light emission wavelength in the range of 440 to 550 nm. A first conduction type gallium nitride-based semiconductor region 13, the active layer 17, and a second conduction type gallium nitride-based semiconductor region 15 are disposed in a predetermined axis Ax direction. The active layer 17 includes a well layer composed of hexagonal InXGa1-XN (0.16≦X≦0.35, X: strained composition), and the indium composition X is represented by a strained composition. The a-plane of the hexagonal InXGa1-XN is aligned in the predetermined axis Ax direction. The thickness of the well layer is in the range of more than 2.5 nm to 10 nm. When the thickness of the well layer is set to 2.5 nm or more, a light emitting device having a light emission wavelength of 440 nm or more can be formed. |
| US07973317B2 |
Array substrate for liquid crystal display and method for fabricating the same
A method for fabricating an array substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) is provided. A semiconductor layer and a transparent lower electrode formed on a substrate is provided and covered by a first dielectric layer serving as a gate dielectric layer and a capacitor dielectric layer. A gate electrode and an upper electrode comprising a transparent electrode portion and a metal electrode portion are formed on the first dielectric layer and covered by a second dielectric layer. A source/drain electrode, a planarization layer, and a pixel electrode are sequentially formed on the second dielectric layer, in which the source/drain electrode is electrically connected to the semiconductor layer through the first and second dielectric layers and the pixel electrode is electrically connected to the source/drain electrode through the planarization layer. An array substrate for an LCD is also disclosed. |
| US07973316B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing semiconductor device
An object is to provide a semiconductor device which is not easily broken even if stressed externally and a method for manufacturing such a semiconductor device. A semiconductor device includes an element layer including a transistor in which a channel is formed in a semiconductor layer and insulating layers which are formed as an upper layer and a lower layer of the transistor respectively, and a plurality of projecting members provided at intervals of from 2 to 200 μm on a surface of the element layer. The longitudinal elastic modulus of the material for forming the plurality of projecting members is lower than that of the materials of the insulating layers. |
| US07973315B2 |
Thin film transistor, flat panel display device therewith, and method of manufacturing the thin film transistor
A thin film transistor that does not deform or exfoliate due to thermal or mechanical stress, a flat panel display having the same, and a method manufacturing the same, the thin film transistor including a substrate, a patterned buffer layer disposed on the substrate, a patterned active layer disposed on the buffer layer, a gate electrode insulated from the active layer, and a source electrode and a drain electrode that contact the active layer and are insulated from the gate electrode. |
| US07973314B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device has a first semiconductor layer including a first circuit, a second semiconductor layer disposed on the first semiconductor layer and having a second circuit, and a via extending through portions of the first and second semiconductor layers and by which the first and second circuits are electrically connected. One of the circuits is a logic circuit and the other of the circuits is a memory circuit. The semiconductor device is manufactured by fabricating transistors of the logic and memory circuits on respective substrates, stacking the substrates, and electrically connecting the logic and memory circuits with a via. |
| US07973313B2 |
Thin film integrated circuit device, IC label, container comprising the thin film integrated circuit, manufacturing method of the thin film integrated circuit device, manufacturing method of the container, and management method of product having the container
The present invention provides an ultrathin thin film integrated circuit and a thin film integrated circuit device including the thin film integrated circuit device. Accordingly, the design of a product is not spoilt while an integrated circuit formed from a silicon wafer, which is thick and produces irregularities on the surface of the product container. The thin film integrated circuit according to the present invention includes a semiconductor film as an active region (for example a channel region in a thin film transistor), unlike an integrated circuit formed from a conventional silicon wafer. The thin film integrated circuit according to the present invention is thin enough that the design is not spoilt even when a product such as a card or a container is equipped with the thin film integrated circuit. |
| US07973309B2 |
TEG pattern for detecting void in device isolation layer and method of forming the same
Provided is a test element group (TEG) pattern for detecting a void in a device isolation layer. The TEG pattern includes active regions which are parallel to each other and extend in a first direction, a device isolation layer that separates the active regions, a first contact that is formed across the device isolation layer and a first one of the active regions that contacts a surface of the device isolation layer, and a second contact that is formed across the device isolation layer and a second one of the active regions that contacts another surface of the device isolation layer. |
| US07973305B2 |
Thin film transistor
A thin film transistor includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, a semiconducting layer, and a gate electrode. The drain electrode is spaced from the source electrode. The semiconducting layer is connected to the source electrode and the drain electrode. The gate electrode is insulated from the source electrode, the drain electrode, and the semiconducting layer by an insulating layer. The semiconducting layer comprises at least two stacked carbon nanotube films, and each carbon nanotube film comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes primarily oriented along a same direction, and the carbon nanotubes in at least two adjacent carbon nanotube films are aligned along different directions. |
| US07973304B2 |
III-nitride semiconductor device
A III-nitride semiconductor device which includes a barrier body between the gate electrode and the gate dielectric thereof. |
| US07973302B2 |
Forming phase change memory cells
Small phase change memory cells may be formed by forming a segmented heater over a substrate. A stop layer may be formed over the heater layer and segmented with the heater layer. Then, sidewall spacers may be formed over the segmented heater to define an aperture between the sidewall spacers that may act as a mask for etching the stop layer over the segmented heater. As a result of the etching using the sidewall spacers as a mask, sublithographic pore may be formed over the heater. Phase change material may be formed within the pore. |
| US07973301B2 |
Low power phase change memory cell with large read signal
A memory cell includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and phase-change material including a first portion contacting the first electrode, a second portion contacting the second electrode, and a third portion between the first portion and the second portion. A width of the third portion is less than a width of the first portion and a width of the second portion. |
| US07973299B2 |
System and method for providing a suspended personal radiation protection system
A system for providing radiation protection is provided that includes a garment that contours to an operator's body. The garment protects the operator from radiation. The garment is supported by a suspension component that reduces a portion of weight of the garment for the operator, the garment including a belt, which includes a release mechanism that offers an entry into the garment. In more specific embodiments, the release mechanism is a quick release that allows the operator to disengage from the garment using a single hand movement. The belt can include at least one flexible joint. The belt opens to allow the operator to enter the garment, and the operator, in entering and exiting the garment, is able to limit his contact to components on or near a front of the garment such that the operator can operate the release mechanism for the garment without losing sterility. |
| US07973297B2 |
Electron beam writing method, fine pattern writing system, method for manufacturing uneven pattern carrying substrate, and method for manufacturing magnetic disk medium
When writing a hard disk pattern on a substrate applied with a resist by scanning an electron beam on the substrate while rotating a rotation stage, writing is started with respect to each radial direction position of each area based on a predetermined encoder pulse for each radial direction position among those generated according to the rotational angle of the rotation stage that occurs after a predefined encoder pulse that occurs ahead in a rotational direction of a radial direction position whose write start position in a circumferential direction in each area arrives first at the writing position as the rotation stage rotates and ahead of the write start position in the circumferential direction with respect to each radial direction position, and after a predetermined time from the predetermined encoder pulse. |
| US07973296B2 |
Electromagnetic systems with double-resonant spiral coil components
Spiral coils generate very powerful electromagnetic fields by operating with two different but simultaneous resonant behaviors. Quarter-wave resonance is established by adjusting the frequency (and wavelength) of a radiofrequency (RF) voltage source until the length of the spiral conductor is equal to ¼ of the wavelength of the alternating voltage. This generates an electromagnetic standing wave with at least one peak node and at least one null node. Inductive-capacitive (L/C) resonance is established by optimizing the thickness and width of the wire ribbon used to make the spiral coil. When inductance and capacitance are balanced, the current response will synchronize with the voltage input, creating in-phase behavior, minimal total impedance, and maximal power output. If two such coils are placed near each other, they will create an extremely powerful electromagnetic field between them, which can promote chemical and plasma reactions involving charged particles such as ions or plasma particles, possibly including nuclear fusion reactions. |
| US07973292B2 |
Neutralizer
A neutralizer 1 includes: a power supply circuit 11; an output controlling circuit 12 configured to convert a DC voltage generated by the power supply circuit 11 to a high-frequency voltage with frequency equal to or higher than an audible frequency, and thus to output the resultant high-frequency voltage alternately to two output lines at regular intervals; a transforming circuit 13 configured to raise the high-frequency voltage; a discharger 20 including 2n (n is an integer equal to one or more) discharge needles configured to output positive ions in response to application of a positive polarity voltage, and to output negative ions in response to application of a negative polarity voltage, the discharge needles being disposed while being divided into first and second groups each including n discharge needles; a polarity reversing circuit 14 configured to convert the high-frequency high voltage outputted from the transforming circuit 13, to two rectangular-wave DC high voltages with different polarities during a certain period, and to output the two DC high voltages respectively to the first and second groups in the discharger 20 while reversing the polarities of the two DC high voltages at regular intervals; and an air blower configured to blow air from a windward side of the discharger 20. |
| US07973291B2 |
Electronic apparatus
An electronic apparatus of the present invention includes an ion generator which generates ions in an atmosphere to remove chemical emission such as VOC and odor. The ion generator is arranged inside the duct which leads the chemical emission generated from the fixing unit to the discharge opening, and also generates positive ions and negative ions in the atmosphere, thereby can efficiently remove the chemical emission. With this arrangement, an electronic apparatus is realized which sufficiently suppresses the chemical emission such as VOC and odor, and is less likely to dirty the surroundings of the electronic apparatus such as the outer surface thereof and the walls surrounding the electronic apparatus. |
| US07973288B2 |
Energy detector and related apparatus
A method includes purposefully electromagnetically shielding a portable x-ray detector. |
| US07973283B2 |
Method for regulating scanning sample surface charge in continuous and leap-and-scan scanning mode imaging process
A method for regulating sample surface charge has been proposed in this invention. The processes of applying a charged particle beam to a first area and applying a flood energized beam gun with gaseous molecules to a second area are executed in the method when the sample is in both continuous and Leap & Scan movements. The second area is located at a predetermined distance from the first area behind or ahead of the first area being scanned with respect to the movement of the sample. Thus, the surface of the sample may be regulated. |
| US07973277B2 |
Driving a mass spectrometer ion trap or mass filter
A radio frequency (RF) drive system and method for driving the ion trap or mass filter of a mass spectrometer has a programmable RF frequency source coupled to a RF gain stage. The RF gain stage is transformer coupled to a tank circuit formed with the ion trap or mass filter. The power of the RF gain stage driving the ion trap or mass filter is measured using a sensing circuit and a power circuit. A feedback value is generated by the power circuit that is used to adjust the RF frequency source. The frequency of the RF frequency source is adjusted until the power of the RF gain stage is at a minimum level. The frequency value setting the minimum power is used to operate the RF drive system at the resonance frequency of the tank circuit formed with the transformer secondary inductance and the ion trap or mass filter capacitance. Driving a mass spectrometer mass selection element this way results in the lower power consumption, an inherently filtered clean drive signal, smaller size, and reduced electromagnetic emissions. |
| US07973276B2 |
Calibration method for video and radiation imagers
The relationship between the high energy radiation imager pixel (HERIP) coordinate and real-world x-coordinate is determined by a least square fit between the HERIP x-coordinate and the measured real-world x-coordinates of calibration markers that emit high energy radiation imager and reflect visible light. Upon calibration, a high energy radiation imager pixel position may be determined based on a real-world coordinate of a moving vehicle. Further, a scale parameter for said high energy radiation imager may be determined based on the real-world coordinate. The scale parameter depends on the y-coordinate of the moving vehicle as provided by a visible light camera. The high energy radiation imager may be employed to detect radiation from moving vehicles in multiple lanes, which correspondingly have different distances to the high energy radiation imager. |
| US07973275B2 |
Manipulation of objects in potential energy landscapes
Holographic optical traps using the forces exerted by computer-generated holograms to trap, move and otherwise transform mesoscopically textured materials. The efficacy of the present invention is based upon the quality and nature of the diffractive optical element used to create the traps and dynamically use them. Further a landscape of potential energy sites can be created and used to manipulate, sort and process objects. |
| US07973271B2 |
Solid-state image pickup device, method for manufacturing solid-state image pickup device, and camera
A solid-state image pickup device includes a plurality of pixels on a light-receiving surface, photodiodes disposed on the light-receiving surface of a semiconductor substrate while being partitioned on the pixel basis, signal transferring portions which are disposed on the semiconductor substrate and which read signal charges generated and stored in the photodiodes or voltages corresponding to the signal charges, insulating films disposed on the semiconductor substrate while covering the photodiodes, concave portions disposed in the insulating films, pad electrodes disposed on the insulating films, a passivation film which covers inner walls of the concave portions, which is disposed on the pad electrodes, and which has a refractive index higher than that of silicon oxide, and a core layer which is disposed on the passivation film while being filled in the concave portions and which has a refractive index higher than that of silicon oxide. |
| US07973270B1 |
Actuators for gun-fired projectiles and mortars
A projectile including: a shell; and a movable exterior surface of the shell, the movable exterior surface having one or more actuators for providing thrust to move the movable exterior surface from a first position to a second position. |
| US07973269B1 |
Actuators for gun-fired projectiles and mortars
A ring portion including: a ring body; and one or more actuators formed therein for providing thrust to a projectile and configured for fastening to a shell of an airborne device to form a portion of the shell. The airborne device can be a projectile. |
| US07973265B2 |
Coupled optical waveguide resonators with heaters for thermo-optic control of wavelength and compound filter shape
An integrated optical device is disclosed comprising a substrate, optical waveguide, and compound optical resonator having a temperature sensor, at least two coupled optical resonators, and a heater localized to each optical resonator. An optical input signal is coupled to one of the resonators making up the compound resonator to form an optical output signal. The center wavelength and shape of the output signal is optimized with a feedback loop using the temperature sensor to control the power dissipated in at least one of the localized heaters. The power dissipated in the remaining resonator heaters is set according to a predetermined function having as an input variable the power dissipated in the resonant heater under control of the said feedback loop. |
| US07973259B2 |
System for testing and sorting electronic components
A sorting system is provided for electronic components such as LED devices which includes a testing station for testing and determining a characteristic of each electronic component. A first tray has a plurality of receptacles for receiving tested electronic components and a second tray has more receptacles than the first tray for receiving tested electronic components. Electronic components comprising tested characteristics that occur with greater frequency are loaded into the receptacles of the first tray and electronic components comprising tested characteristics that occur with lower frequency are loaded into the receptacles of the second tray. |
| US07973258B2 |
High-tension electrostatic separator lifting electrode
A lifting electrode for a high-tension electrostatic separator. The high tension electrostatic separator having a rotating drum that is connected to ground and an ionizing electrode that generates a corona discharge of charged ions. The lifting electrode comprising a composite of a non-conductive polymer impregnated with conductive particles. |
| US07973249B2 |
Multilayer printed wiring board
A multilayer printed wiring board including insulating layers and conductor layers being stacked alternately on each other. The conductor layers are electrically connected to each other through viaholes formed in the insulating layers. Each of the viaholes is formed to bulge in a direction generally orthogonal to the direction of thickness of the insulating layer. The multilayer printed wiring board is to have electronic components such as a capacitor, IC and the like mounted on the surface layer thereof. |
| US07973244B2 |
Printed circuit board
A printed circuit board includes a base formed from a plurality of woven fibers, and signal traces laid on the base. Each of the signal traces includes at least a straight line segment. The signal traces are laid on the base in such a manner that the line segments of the signal traces mapped on the base cross the fibers at angles not equal to zero degrees. |
| US07973240B2 |
Cable jacket sealing, pressurization, and monitoring
An underwater power generating system includes an underwater power generating device, a closed nacelle and a connecting cable system that is provided with an open passage way extending there along that is sealed at one end to the interior of the closed nacelle. The cable system can be used in a number of ways, such as by having the second end being sealed, to prevent air from escaping the closed nacelle, or by having the second end connected to a source of positive pressure thereby permitting the cable to be sufficiently pressurized to provide a positive pressure internally within the closed nacelle that is at least slightly greater than the nacelle at depth pressure, and thus greater than water pressure acting on the exterior of the closed nacelle, to prevent water ingress within the nacelle, as well as to transmit power and/or other data between the nacelle and shore monitoring and control facilities. |
| US07973234B1 |
Strum input for a video game controller
A video game controller includes: a string instrument-shaped housing comprising a body portion and a neck portion, said body portion including a opening; a console interface for coupling with a game console; and a strum interface coupled to the console interface. The strum interface includes: a pin having a central portion and distal end portions; a pin support structure for supporting the distal end portions of the pin; a strum bar comprising a body portion rotatably coupled to the central portion of the pin and a flange portion protruding from the opening in the housing; a compressible liner provided between at least a portion of the strum bar and the pin; an upper button positioned adjacent the strum bar so as to be depressed when the strum bar is rotated in a first direction; and a lower button positioned adjacent the strum bar so as to be depressed when the strum bar is rotated in a second direction. |
| US07973230B2 |
Methods and systems for providing real-time feedback for karaoke
Systems and methods for providing real-time feedback to karaoke users are provided. The systems and methods for providing users with real-time feedback while they are singing karaoke generally relate to receiving the user's vocals, determining whether the user is singing on key/pitch and providing real-time feedback to the user while the karaoke song is being sung. The feedback will be positive feedback if user is on key/pitch and it will be negative feedback if user is off key/pitch. For example, the feedback signal if the user is singing too low can be an exaggerated low signal of the user's own voice. This will encourage the user to sing at a higher pitch. |
| US07973226B2 |
Vibrato retrofit string tension kit
A guitar sting tension device for an electrical guitar retrofitted with a vibrato unit to prohibit displacement of the strings on the bridge of the guitar consisting of a rotatable string retention bar, two rotatable connection arms, a pivotal anchor collar with recessed aperture; and a mounting adapter to affix the vibrato unit to the guitar. |
| US07973223B2 |
Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH614522
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH614522. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH614522, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH614522 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH614522. |
| US07973220B1 |
Soybean variety RJS46001
According to the invention, there is provided a novel soybean variety designated RJS46001. This invention thus relates to the seeds of soybean variety RJS46001, to the plants of soybean RJS46001 to plant parts of soybean variety RJS46001 and to methods for producing a soybean plant produced by crossing plants of the soybean variety RJS46001 with another soybean plant, using RJS46001 as either the male or the female parent. |
| US07973219B2 |
Method for producing transgenic plants resistant to weed control compounds which disrupt the porphyrin pathways of plants
Methods for producing a transgenic plant that is resistant to a weed control compound including introducing a nucleotide sequence encoding a coproporphyrinogen III oxidase of Escherichia coli into a plant cell, expressing the nucleotide sequence within the plant cell, and regenerating the plant cell into a transgenic plant and transgenic plants produced by such methods. Methods for controlling weeds including applying a weed control compound to an area containing transgenic plants containing a nucleotide sequence encoding a coproporphyrinogen III oxidase of Escherichia coli. Methods for selecting plants or plant cells resistant to a weed control compound including applying a weed control compound to transgenic plants or transgenic plant cells containing a nucleotide sequence encoding a coproporphyrinogen III oxidase of Escherichia coli. |
| US07973214B2 |
Designer organisms for photosynthetic production of ethanol from carbon dioxide and water
The present invention provides a revolutionary photosynthetic ethanol production technology based on designer transgenic plants, algae, or plant cells. The designer plants, designer algae, and designer plant cells are created such that the endogenous photosynthesis regulation mechanism is tamed, and the reducing power (NADPH) and energy (ATP) acquired from the photosynthetic water splitting and proton gradient-coupled electron transport process are used for immediate synthesis of ethanol (CH3CH2OH) directly from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). The ethanol production methods of the present invention completely eliminate the problem of recalcitrant lignocellulosics by bypassing the bottleneck problem of the biomass technology. The photosynthetic ethanol-production technology of the present invention is expected to have a much higher solar-to-ethanol energy-conversion efficiency than the current technology and could also help protect the Earth's environment from the dangerous accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. |
| US07973210B2 |
Methods for assisting caregivers in facilitating toilet training
A method for assisting a caregiver in determining when to select a next generation product for facilitating toilet training. The method includes the steps of providing information to a caregiver about a second absorbent product, such as a next generation product, while the caregiver is using a first absorbent product in conjunction with a child. The child, for instance, may not have started toilet training or may be in the process of toilet training. Based upon a behavioral or wetness characteristic of the child, recommendations are made to the caregiver when it is time to switch to the next generation product to facilitate toilet training. For instance, in one embodiment, the method may include comparing a wetness characteristic of the child with a readiness target. Once the readiness target is met, a recommendation may be made to the caregiver to switch to a product that includes a toilet training feature not present in the product currently being worn by the child. |
| US07973208B2 |
Enhancement of molecular sieve performance
A catalyst for converting methanol to light olefins and the process for making and using the catalyst are disclosed and claimed. SAPO-34 is a specific catalyst that benefits from its preparation in accordance with this invention. A seed material is used in making the catalyst that has a higher content of the EL metal than is found in the principal part of the catalyst. The molecular sieve has predominantly a roughly rectangular parallelepiped morphology crystal structure with a lower fault density and a better selectivity for light olefins. |
| US07973200B2 |
Patchoulol odorant
The invention relates to the use as perfuming ingredients of 8a-alkyl-perhydro-naphthalenol derivatives, to impart odor notes of the woody-earthy type. |
| US07973196B2 |
Asymmetric synthesis of (S)-(+)-3-(aminomethyl)-5-methylhexanoic acid
The invention encompasses processes for the synthesis of (S)-(+)-3-(aminomethyl)-5-methylhexanoic acid, (S)-Pregabalin, and intermediates of (S)-Pregabalin. |
| US07973188B2 |
Processes for the production of organometallic compounds
This invention relates to processes for the production of organometallic compounds represented by the formula M(L)3 wherein M is a Group VIII metal, e.g., ruthenium, and L is the same or different and represents a substituted or unsubstituted amidinato group or a substituted or unsubstituted amidinato-like group, which process comprises (i) reacting a substituted or unsubstituted metal source compound, e.g., ruthenium (II) compound, with a substituted or unsubstituted amidinate or amidinate-like compound in the presence of a solvent and under reaction conditions sufficient to produce a reaction mixture comprising said organometallic compound, e.g., ruthenium (III) compound, and (ii) separating said organometallic compound from said reaction mixture. The organometallic compounds are useful in semiconductor applications as chemical vapor or atomic layer deposition precursors for film depositions. |
| US07973187B2 |
Natural oil based halogenated compounds
Natural oil based halogenated compounds that are useful as flame retardants for polymeric materials, such as polyurethanes. Novel compositions of matter, novel processes for preparing such compositions of matter, and end use applications of the novel compositions of matter. The process comprises the reaction of natural oil hydroxylates with halogenated reactive materials such as halogenated anhydrides of organic acids or their esters in the presence of a titanium catalyst. |
| US07973186B1 |
Low molecular weight pigment dispersants for phase change ink
Disclosed is a compound of the formula or a mixture thereof; wherein R and R′ are the same or different, and wherein R and R′ are independently selected from an alkyl group, an arylalkyl group, or an alkylaryl group, wherein the alkyl group, the arylalkyl group, or the alkylaryl group has from about 18 to about 60 carbon atoms; and wherein m is an integer of from about 1 to about 30. |
| US07973181B2 |
Hydroxamic acid derivatives as inhibitors of HDAC enzymatic activity
Compounds of formula (I) are inhibitors of histone deacetylase activity, and are useful in the treatment of, for example, cancers: wherein Y1 is a bond, —(C═O)—, —S(O2)—, —C(═O)O—, —OC(═O)—, —(C═O)NR3—, —NR3(C═O)—, —S(O2)NR3—, —NR3S(O2)—, or —NR3(C═O)NR5—, wherein R3 and R5 are independently hydrogen or optionally substituted (C1-C6)alkyl, L1 is a divalent radical of formula -(Alk1)m(Q)n(Alk2)p wherein m, n, p, Alk1, Alk2 and Q are as defined in the claims; z is 0 or 1; A represents an optionally substituted mono-, bi— or tri-cyclic carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring system; -[Linker]- represents a divalent linker radical; R is a radical of formula (X) or (Y): wherein R1 is a carboxylic acid group (—COOH), or an ester group which is hydrolysable by one or more intracellular carboxylesterase enzymes to a carboxylic acid group; R4 is hydrogen; or optionally substituted C1-C6 alkyl, C3-C7cycloalkyl, aryl, aryl(C1-C6 alkyl)-, heteroaryl, heteroaryl(C1-C6 alkyl)-, —(C═O)R3, —(C═O)OR3, or —(C═O)NR3 wherein R3 is hydrogen or optionally substituted (C1-C6)alkyl, C3-C7 cycloalkyl, aryl, aryl(C1-C6 alkyl)-, heteroaryl, or heteroaryl(C1-C6 alkyl)-; R41 is hydrogen or optionally substituted C1-C6 alkyl; and B is a monocyclic heterocyclic ring of 5 or 6 ring atoms wherein R1 is linked to a ring carbon adjacent the ring nitrogen shown, and ring B is optionally fused to a second carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring of 5 or 6 ring atoms in which case the bond shown intersected by a wavy line may be from a ring atom in said second ring. |
| US07973175B2 |
Synthesis of renin inhibitors involving a cycloaddition reaction
The invention related to a novel process, novel process steps and novel intermediates useful in the synthesis of pharmaceutically active compounds, especially renin inhibitors, such as Aliskiren. Inter alia, the invention relates to a process for the manufacture of a compound of the formula III, wherein R, R1, and R′ are as defined in the specification, or a salt thereof, and a compound of formula IV wherein R, R1, R2 and R′ are as defined in the specification, and processes of manufacturing these. |
| US07973173B2 |
Process for the synthesis of an ACE inhibitor
A process for the synthesis of trandolapril which comprises condensing N—[I—(S)-ethoxycarbonyl-3-phenylpropyl]-L-alanine N-carboxyanhydride with trans octahydro-1H-indole-2-carboxylic acid in a first organic solvent comprising a water immiscible inert organic solvent and in the presence of a base, and isolating trandolapril from a second organic solvent. N-[1-(S)-ethoxycarbonyl-3-phenylpropyl]-L-alanine N-carboxyanhydride may also be condensed with (2S,3aR,7aS) octahydro-1H-indole-2-carboxylic acid in a first organic solvent and in the presence of a base, and trandolapril isolated. There is also provided a process for the resolution of racemic trans octahydro-1H-indole-2-carboxylc acid. |
| US07973170B2 |
N3 alkylated benzimidazole derivatives as MEK inhibitors
Disclosed are compounds of the Formula I and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and prodrugs thereof, wherein W, R1, R2, R7, R8, R9 and R10 are as defined in the specification. Such compounds are MEK inhibitors and useful in the treatment of hyperproliferative diseases, such as cancer and inflammation, in mammals. Also disclosed is a method of using such compounds in the treatment of hyperproliferative diseases in mammals, and pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds. |
| US07973169B2 |
Modulators of ATP-Binding Cassette transporters
The present invention relates to modulators of ATP-Binding Cassette (“ABC”) transporters or fragments thereof, including CF Transmembrane Regulator (“CFTR”), compositions thereof, and methods therewith. The present invention also relates to methods of treating ABC transporter mediated diseases using such modulators. |
| US07973167B2 |
Metal complex, light-emitting device and display
A novel luminescent metal complex comprises a composition of [(PtII)2(AuI)2(MI)2(L)8] where MI denotes AgI or CuI, and L denotes a structure represented by the formula (1) |
| US07973166B2 |
N-(2-aminophenyl)-4-[N-(pyridine-3-yl)-methoxycarbonyl-aminomethyl]-benzamide (MS-275) polymorph B
The crystalline Polymorph B of N-(2-aminophenyl)-4-[N-(pyridine-3-yl)methoxy-carbonyaminomethyl]benzamide (MS-275) of formula I is described, as well as the process for the production of said compound, and its use as a medicament for the treatment of selected diseases. |
| US07973158B2 |
Method of preparing benzoxazines
This invention relates to a novel synthesis for the preparation of benzoxazine components from phenolic components, aldehyde components, and amine components in a solvent other than toluene. |
| US07973154B2 |
Kits for diagnosis and monitoring of viral infection by analysis of viral transrenal nucleic acids in urine
The present invention relates to methods for diagnosis or monitoring of viral infection by detecting the presence of transrenal viral nucleic acids or nucleic acids of viral origin in urine sample, with or without isolation of nucleic acids from a urine sample. The analysis of the nucleic acids is performed through hybridization of the nucleic acids with specific probes, or through a chain amplification reaction with specific primers. The methods are applicable to all viral pathogenic agents, including RNA, DNA, episomal, or integrated viruses. |
| US07973149B2 |
PUFA polyketide synthase systems and uses thereof
The invention generally relates to polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) polyketide synthase (PKS) systems isolated from or derived from non-bacterial organisms, to homologues thereof, to isolated nucleic acid molecules and recombinant nucleic acid molecules encoding biologically active domains of such a PUFA PKS system, to genetically modified organisms comprising PUFA PKS systems, to methods of making and using such systems for the production of bioactive molecules of interest, and to novel methods for identifying new bacterial and non-bacterial microorganisms having such a PUFA PKS system. |
| US07973148B2 |
Crustacean expression vector
Methods and constructs for genetic manipulation of one or more of shrimp, shellfish, mollusks, and fish are disclosed. The nucleic acid construct includes a promoter and an internal ribosome entry site of an insect picomavirus, such as a cricket paralysis-like picomavirus. One or more open reading frames can be operably associated with one or both of the promoter and the internal ribosome entry site, and one or more proteins or protein subunits can be expressed upon introduction of the construct into a host cell, such as into a shrimp. Method for producing immortalized crustacean cell lines using enhancer elements derived from shrimp and/or shrimp viruses are also described. |
| US07973143B2 |
Sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase polypeptides, polynucleotides and modulating agents and methods of use therefor
Compositions, methods and kits for diagnosing and treating cancer are provided. Therapeutic compositions may comprise agents that modulate the expression or activity of a sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase (SPL). Such compositions may be administered to a mammal afflicted with cancer. Diagnostic methods and kits may employ an agent suitable for detecting alterations in endogenous SPL. Such methods and kits may be used to detect the presence of a cancer or to evaluate the prognosis of a known disease. SPL polypeptides, polynucleotides and antibodies are also provided. |
| US07973140B2 |
Antibodies directed to angiopoietin-2 and uses thereof
Antibodies directed to the antigen Ang-2 and uses of such antibodies are described. In particular, fully human monoclonal antibodies directed to the antigen Ang-2. Nucleotide sequences encoding, and amino acid sequences comprising, heavy and light chain immunoglobulin molecules, particularly sequences corresponding to contiguous heavy and light chain sequences spanning the framework regions and/or complementarity determining regions (CDR's), specifically from FR1 through FR4 or CDR1 through CDR3. Hybridomas or other cell lines expressing such immunoglobulin molecules and monoclonal antibodies. |
| US07973137B1 |
Cell compositions comprising molecular complexes that modify immune responses
Compositions comprising a cell in which a molecular complex with high affinity for its cognate ligand is bound to the surface of the cell are provided. To form the molecular complexes, extracellular domains of transmembrane heterodimeric proteins, particularly T cell receptor and major histocompatibility complex proteins, can be covalently linked to the heavy and light chains of immunoglobulin molecules. The molecular complexes can be used, inter alia, to detect and regulate antigen-specific T cells and as therapeutic agents for treating disorders involving immune system regulation, such as allergies, autoimmune diseases, tumors, infections, and transplant rejection. Optionally, identical antigenic peptides can be bound to each ligand binding site of a molecular complex. |
| US07973131B2 |
Extreme thermophile single-stranded DNA binding mutant protein, and nucleic acid isothermal amplification method of use thereof
The invention establishes a technology that allows non-specific amplification to be inhibited during nucleic acid amplification in an isothermal amplification reaction, such that the amplification efficiency is increased. The invention is a extreme thermophile single-stranded DNA binding mutant protein, having an amino acid sequence that expresses a function that can contribute to increasing an amplification efficiency of a template nucleic acid in an isothermal amplification reaction system that uses a strand displacement polymerase, and having in its amino acid sequence a mutation site where a mutation involving at least one of deletion, substitution, addition, and insertion of one or more amino acids in amino acid sequence of extreme thermophile single-stranded DNA binding protein has occurred, and a method of use thereof. |
| US07973128B2 |
Immunogenic polypeptide composed of tumor antigen-derived optimized cryptic peptides, and uses thereof
The present invention pertains to the field of anti-cancer vaccines. More particularly, the invention concerns an optimized polypeptide, which comprises three cryptic tumor peptides with enhanced immunogenicity and comprises the amino acids sequence YLQVNSLQTVYLEYRQVPVYLEEITGYL (SEQ ID NO. 2), for use in an anti-cancer vaccine. Nucleic acids encoding such a polypeptide, as well as complexes and dendritic cells engineered with this polypeptide or a nucleic acid encoding it, are also part of the invention. |
| US07973127B2 |
Method for producing polytetrafluoroethylene fine powder
The present invention provides a method for producing a polytetrafluoroethylene fine powder, which comprises emulsion polymerizing tetrafluoroethylene in the presence of an aqueous medium, a fluorinated surfactant and a radical polymerization initiator to produce an aqueous polytetrafluoroethylene emulsion, mixing and coagulating the aqueous emulsion to separate a polytetrafluoroethylene fine powder, and then drying the polytetrafluoroethylene fine powder in a wet state in an atmosphere containing ammonia. |
| US07973122B2 |
Polyamideimide compositions having multifunctional core structures
Polyamideimide coating compositions, including polyamideimide coating compositions suitable for magnet wire applications are described. Processes for preparing coating compositions, for coating articles such as magnet wire, and for curing coating compositions are also described. |
| US07973118B2 |
Ink receiving particles, method for producing the same, and curable resin dispersion composition
Ink receiving particles is provided. The ink receiving particles includes polymer particles, the polymer particles including a resin including an acidic group and a polyoxyethylene chain, the acidic group at least partially having a salt structure. |
| US07973116B2 |
Pyridyldiamido transition metal complexes, production and use thereof
Pyridyldiamido transition metal complexes are disclosed for use in alkene polymerization. The ligands are tridentate with an NNN configuration. The general formula is: where M, Z, Ln, Lw′, R1-R5, R10 and R11 are as defined in the specification. |
| US07973109B2 |
Crosslinked type layered metal phosphonate compound, production process therefor, non-crosslinked type layered metal phosphonate compound, production process therefor, as well as stock solution
A process for producing a crosslinked type or non-crosslinked type layered metal phosphonate compound including a reaction step of reacting two or more members selected from organic diphosphonic acids or monophosphonic acids, or derivatives thereof having predetermined conditions and a metal source capable of forming an ion of a hexacoordinate metal atom as a central atom (M) of a metal oxide octahedron upon reaction under the presence of a sulfuric acid catalyst, a crosslinked or non-crosslinked metal phosphonate compound obtained by the process, as well as a stock solution used for the synthesis of the crosslinked or non-crosslinked type layered metal phosphonate compound described above. |
| US07973106B2 |
Acrylate-based sound damping material and method of preparing same
A sound damping material for use in a sound damping laminate having one or more rigid layers, such as those used in the automotive industry. The sound damping material is preferably a viscoelastic material that damps or otherwise inhibits the transmission of vibrational or acoustical energy through the laminate, and also acts as an adhesive for bonding the rigid layers together. In its cured form, the sound damping material layer can include an acrylate-based polymer matrix, and one or more of the following components: a precipitated phase, a viscous phase, and miscellaneous constituents. The acrylate-based polymer matrix is the reaction product of at least one acrylate-based monomer, such as isobornyl acrylate. |
| US07973102B2 |
Resin composition and resin molded object
A resin composition which reduces hydrolysis thereof and reduces the color change thereof at the time of heating and a resin molded object which reduces hydrolysis thereof and reduces quality change of content therein are provided. The resin composition includes a resin and an organically modified layered silicate in which a substituted silyl group having a substituted or non-substituted alkyl group bonds to a layered silicate. The resin molded object is obtained by molding a resin composition including a resin and an organically modified layered silicate in which a substituted silyl group having a substituted or non-substituted alkyl group bonds to a layered silicate. |
| US07973098B2 |
Postal-compliant fluorescent inkjet papers, inks for preparing them and individualized postage stamps printed thereon
Described are new custom postage printing stocks, coating compositions, processes for preparing and utilizing these and resulting postage products. Disclosed ink formulations comprise: invisible fluorescent dye and/or pigment (preferably red-fluorescent dye), which is fluorescent in the range of 580 to 640 nm when illuminated with light at 254 nm; water-soluble binder; substrate penetrant, fluorescence stabilizer; substrate anticurl agent and water. The inks, when coated on substrates and dried, can improve the quality and color of images printed as compared to images printed without the aid of the invention. |
| US07973097B2 |
Ink jet pigment ink and ink set
An ink jet pigment ink containing water, a pigment, a water-soluble organic solvent and a graft copolymer, wherein the graft copolymer has a hydrophilic segment and a hydrophobic segment, the hydrophobic segment is being obtained by copolymerizing an anionic monomer and an aromatic monomer represented by the following formula (1), and the hydrophilic segment is being obtained by polymerizing an anionic monomer wherein Ar is an aromatic ring selected from a benzene ring, a condensed benzene ring and a hetero-aromatic ring, or a derivative thereof, R is H or CH3, and X is O or NH. |
| US07973096B2 |
Antimicrobial nanoparticles
A polymerizable composition, comprising a first component comprising a cationic nanoparticle comprising a covalently bonded ammonium group, and a second component comprising an anionic polyether compound is described. Either the first component further comprises an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable group, the second component further comprises an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable anion, or both. A method of making an article comprising applying the polymerizable composition to a surface of an article is also described. |
| US07973094B2 |
Laser irradiation of metal nanoparticle/polymer composite materials for chemical and physical transformations
A metal nanoparticle supported on or dispersed in a polymer is irradiated with photons from a laser source to address the nanoparticles. The polymer is transmissive to the photons and addressed nanoparticles transform the energy of the photon to heat which is transferred to a material in the vicinity of the nanoparticle. The locally heated material undergoes a physical or chemical transformation upon heating. The transformed material can be a material in the proximity of the metal nanoparticle supported polymer or metal nanoparticle/polymer composite. In this manner thermally induced physical or chemical transformations can be carried out in very small volumes of material without significant heating to the bulk of the material. |
| US07973092B2 |
PET bottle recycling
A method for reprocessing used PET bottles having the steps of shredding the bottles to form plastic flakes, sorting the plastic flakes according to at least one criterion into at least two partial quantities, and performing an individual processing treatment including a decontamination treatment. The device permits performing the method whereby it is possible to separate the plastic flakes produced from the threaded part of a PET bottle, these flakes being more difficult to purify, from the lighter plastic flakes from the wall of the bottle, which have a thin wall and are easier to purify, and treating them further in separate reprocessing steps. |
| US07973089B2 |
Membrane preparation method comprising the extrusion of a thermoplastic polymer bearing alkaline groupings
The invention relates to a process for the extrusion of thermoplastic polymers having alkaline ionic groups.The process consists in preparing a mixture composed of a thermoplastic polymer having alkaline ionic groups and a plasticizer, in extruding the mixture obtained to form a film; then in washing the film obtained in aqueous medium to remove said plasticizer(s). The plasticizer is chosen from non-volatile compounds which are stable with respect to the ionic groups of the polymer, which are soluble in water or in solvents that are miscible with water, said plasticizers being chosen from the compounds that react with the ionic group of the polymer via formation of a weak bond of the hydrogen bond-type, and the compounds that react with the ionic group of the polymer via formation of a strong bond, of the ionic bond-type. |
| US07973088B2 |
Polymer electrolyte membrane, method for producing the same, and proton conductivity evaluation method for polymer electrolyte membrane
The present invention provides a polymer electrolyte membrane with excellent proton conductivity in its thickness direction. Preferably, the polymer electrolyte membrane containing a polymer compound comprising an ionic segment having an ionic functional group and a nonionic segment having substantially no ionic functional group, and the phase containing ionic segments as a main component and the phase containing nonionic segments as a main component are phase-separated, and in the surface region thereof, the change in the amount of the ionic segment from the surface toward the interior substantially decreases monotonically. |
| US07973084B2 |
Molecular transporters based on alditol or inositol and processes for the preparation thereof
The inventive molecular transporter compound shows significantly high permeability through a biological membrane such as plasma membrane, nuclear membrane and blood-brain barrier, and accordingly, it can be effectively used in delivering various biologically active molecules, such as doxorubicin and paclitaxel to target cells. |
| US07973078B2 |
Sulfonamide compound or salt thereof
A compound that can be used as an agent for treating a disease associated with an EP1 receptor, in particular a lower urinary tract symptom. It was confirmed that a sulfonamide compound having an amide structure and characterized by a chemical structure in which a carbon atom in the amide bonds to the N atom in sulfonamide through lower alkylene, or a salt thereof, has a potent EP1 receptor antagonistic activity, accomplishing the present invention. Since the sulfonamide compound of the present invention or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof has a potent EP1 receptor antagonistic activity, it is useful as an agent for treating a disease associated with an EP1 receptor, in particular, a lower urinary tract symptom. |
| US07973076B2 |
Anti-tumor composition
The present invention provides compositions having, as active ingredients, a stilbene derivative and a platinum coordination compound which is highly efficacious and highly safe for treating tumors, particularly for the treatment of solid or malignant tumors and thus methods of cancer and tumor treatment using the composition are also provided. |
| US07973075B2 |
Kainate receptor-selective epimeric analogs of dysiherbaine
Disclosed are compounds, pharmaceutical compositions, methods of treatment, and methods for selectively antagonizing a GluR5 receptor, a GluR6 receptor, or both receptors. The pharmaceutical compositions include and the methods utilize compounds that are analogs and stereoisomers of dysiherbaine and neodysiherbaine which have specificity for kainate receptors. |
| US07973074B2 |
π-conjugated mono-, oligo- and polymeric compounds, and photovoltaic cells comprising them
Monomeric, oligomeric or polymeric compound corresponding to the following formula (I): in which: A represents an optionally substituted polycyclic group, the said polycyclic group comprising at least one group capable of making possible the attachment of a chromophoric group, X1 and X2, which are identical or different, each independently represent a group of formula (II): in which: B and D, which are identical or different, each independently represent an aromatic carbon ring or an aromatic heterocycle which is optionally substituted. Use of the said compound in an optoelectronic device, such as a photovoltaic cell, a field-effect transistor or an electrochemical sensor.Photovoltaic cell comprising an active layer comprising an electron donor composed of the said compound. |
| US07973073B2 |
Antidiabetic agent for control of diabetic hyperglycemia and diabetic complications
Described herein is a compound of Formula I, which is the metformin salt of the naturally occurring endogenous biological compound, (R)-(+) α lipoic acid, pharmaceutical compositions containing the compound of Formula I, and methods of treatment of diabetes or diabetic complications with the compound of Formula I. |
| US07973072B2 |
Substituted benzo-condensed cyclohexanone derivatives and the use thereof for medicament production
The invention relates to substituted benzo-condensed cyclohexanone derivatives, to a method for the production thereof, to medicaments containing said derivatives and to the use of the inventive compounds for producing medicaments. |
| US07973071B2 |
Substituted gamma lactams as therapeutic agents
A compound comprising or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, prodrug, or a metabolite thereof is disclosed herein. Y, A, and B are as described herein. Methods, compositions, and medicaments related to these compounds are also disclosed. |
| US07973069B2 |
Methods for treating hepatitis C
The present invention provides compounds, pharmaceutical compositions, and methods of using such compounds or compositions for treating infection by a virus, or for affecting viral IRES activity. |
| US07973067B2 |
Heterocyclic aspartyl protease inhibitors
Disclosed are compounds of the formula I or a stereoisomer, tautomer, or pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, wherein W is a bond, —C(═S)—, —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —C(═O)—, —O—, —C(R6)(R7)—, —N(R5)— or —C(═N(R5))—; X is —O—, —N(R5)— or —C(R6)(R7)—; provided that when X is —O—, U is not —O—, —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —C(═O)— or —C(═NR5)—; U is a bond, —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —C(O)—, —O—, —P(O)(OR15)—, —C(═NR5)—, —(C(R6)(R7))b— or —N(R5)—; wherein b is 1 or 2; provided that when W is —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —O—, or —N(R5)—, U is not —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —O—, or —N(R5)—; provided that when X is —N(R5)— and W is —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —O—, or —N(R5)—, then U is not a bond; and R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, and R7 are as defined in the specification; and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds of formula I. Also disclosed is the method of inhibiting aspartyl protease, and in particular, the methods of treating cardiovascular diseases, cognitive and neurodegenerative diseases, and the methods of inhibiting of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, plasmepins, cathepsin D and protozoal enzymes.Also disclosed are methods of treating cognitive or neurodegenerative diseases using the compounds of formula I in combination with a cholinesterase inhibitor or a muscarinic m1 agonist or m2 antagonist. |
| US07973065B2 |
Antimicrobial compounds
The compounds disclosed herein are isoxazole derivatives that are useful as antimicrobial compounds, particularly as anti-bacterial compounds. The disclosed methods comprise incubating at least two different substrates in the presence of at least one oxygenase to provide the disclosed compounds, or to prepare and identify compounds that have antimicrobial activity. |
| US07973063B2 |
Methods for activating PPAR gamma-type receptors
Novel biaromatic compounds having the following structural formula (I): are formulated into pharmaceutical compositions suited for administration in human or veterinary medicine, in particular in dermatology as well as in the fields of cardiovascular diseases, immune diseases and/or diseases related to the metabolism of lipids, or, alternatively, into cosmetic compositions. |
| US07973057B2 |
Thalidomide analogs
Thalidomide analogs that modulate tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) activity and angiogenesis are disclosed. In particularly disclosed embodiments, the thalidomide analogs are isosteric sulfur-containing analogs. Also disclosed are methods of treating a subject with the analogs. |
| US07973053B2 |
Nerve cell death inhibitor
The present invention provides a medicament exhibiting an excellent nerve cell death inhibitory action.The present invention relates to a nerve cell death inhibitor comprising a pitavastatin and donepezil or a salt thereof in combination. |
| US07973052B2 |
Compounds for the treatment of metabolic disorders
Agents useful for the treatment of various metabolic disorders, such as insulin resistance syndrome, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, fatty liver disease, cachexia, obesity, atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis are disclosed. wherein n is 1 or 2; m is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4; q is 0 or 1; t is 0 or 1; R2 is alkyl having from 1 to 3 carbon atoms; R3 is hydrogen, halo, alkyl having from 1 to 3 carbon atoms, or alkoxy having from 1 to 3 carbon atoms; A is phenyl, unsubstituted or substituted by 1 or 2 groups selected from: halo, alkyl having 1 or 2 carbon atoms, perfluoromethyl, alkoxy having 1 or 2 carbon atoms, and perfluoromethoxy; or cycloalkyl having from 3 to 6 ring carbon atoms wherein the cycloalkyl is unsubstituted or one or two ring carbons are independently mono-substituted by methyl or ethyl; or a 5 or 6 membered heteroaromatic ring having 1 or 2 ring heteroatoms selected from N, S and O and the heteroaromatic ring is covalently bound to the remainder of the compound of formula I by a ring carbon; and R1 is hydrogen or alkyl having 1 or 2 carbon atoms, provided that when m is 0 or 1, R1 is not hydrogen. Alternatively, when R1 is hydrogen, the biologically active agent can be a pharmaceutically acceptable salt of the compound of Formula I. |
| US07973051B2 |
Aminothiazoles as FBPase inhibitors for diabetes
Compounds of formula (I) as well as pharmaceutically acceptable salts and esters thereof, wherein R1 to R3 have the significance given in claim 1 and which can be used in the form of pharmaceutical compositions. |
| US07973043B2 |
Combination therapy for depression, prevention of suicide, and various medical and psychiatric conditions
The present invention relates to a new method of treatment for persons meeting diagnoses for major depressive disorder, or other unipolar (non-bipolar, non-psychotic and non-treatment resistant) depression. The method comprises administering a combination of two categories of drugs, antipsychotics or dopamine system stabilizers, in combination with a newer antidepressant such as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, as initial treatment or as soon as possible. The method targets the prevention of suicide, and provides other benefits including preventing disease progression development of tolerance toward the antidepressants. Another aspect of the invention relates to using the method for alleviating cognitive distortion and related functional impairment or health risks, and/or using the method for smoking cessation or nicotine withdrawal. |
| US07973030B2 |
Benzothiazepine and benzothiepine compounds
A pharmaceutical useful as a therapeutic agent and a preventive agent for hyperlipemia, and a pharmaceutical useful as a therapeutic agent and a preventive agent for hepatic disorders associated with cholestasis, particularly, primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, and a pharmaceutical useful as a therapeutic agent and a preventive agent for obesity, fatty liver and steatohepatitis are provided. A benzothiazepine or benzothiepine compound represented by the following formula (1A) having a thioamide bond and a quaternary ammonium substitutent: |
| US07973025B2 |
Compositions and methods of treating retinal disease
Compositions and methods for treating macular degeneration and other forms of retinal disease whose etiology involves the accumulation of A2E and/or lipofuscin, and, more specifically, for preventing the formation and/or accumulation of A2E are disclosed. |
| US07973024B2 |
24-sulfoximine vitamin D3 compounds
The present invention provides novel sulfoximine compounds, compositions comprising these compounds and methods of using these compounds as inhibitors of CYP24. In particular, the compounds of the invention are useful for treating diseases which benefit from a modulation of the levels of 1α,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3, for example, cell-proliferative disorders. |
| US07973022B2 |
Fluoroquinolone carboxylic acid salt compositions
The invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions that are a solution of a salt formed between a fluoroquinolone and a carboxylic acid, a cyclodextrin, and a pharmaceutically acceptable organic solvent and to methods of treating a condition in an animal by administering to an animal in need thereof the pharmaceutical composition of the invention. |
| US07973020B2 |
Compositions and methods for inhibiting expression of a gene from the ebola virus
The invention relates to a double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) for inhibiting the expression of a gene from the Ebola virus. |
| US07973019B1 |
Transferrin/transferrin receptor-mediated siRNA delivery
The invention provides interfering RNA molecule-ligand conjugates useful as a delivery system for delivering interfering RNA molecules to a cell in vitro or in vivo. The conjugates comprise a ligand that can bind to a transferrin receptor (TfR). Therapeutic uses for the conjugates are also provided. |
| US07973018B2 |
Cell cycle arrest and apoptosis
The HIV-1 accessory gene vpr encodes a conserved 96-amino acid protein that is necessary and sufficient for the HIV-1-induced block of cellular proliferation and induction of apoptosis. Expression of vpr in CD4+ lymphocytes results in G2 arrest, followed by apoptosis. ATR, as a cellular factor that mediates Vpr-induced cell cycle arrest, is required for activation of the Breast Cancer-Associated Protein-1 (BRCA1). In addition, the Growth Arrest and DNA Damage protein (GADD45) is upregulated by Vpr in an ATR-dependent manner. Posttranscriptional silencing of either ATR or GADD45 leads to nearly complete suppression of the pro-apoptotic and/or cell cycle arrest effect of Vpr. |
| US07973013B2 |
2'-fluoro substituted carba-nucleoside analogs for antiviral treatment
Provided are pyrrolo[1,2-f][1,2,4]triazinyl, imidazo[1,5-f][1,2,4]triazinyl, imidazo[1,2-f][1,2,4]triazinyl, and [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-f][1,2,4]triazinyl nucleosides, nucleoside phosphates and prodrugs thereof, wherein the 2′ position of the nucleoside sugar is substituted with halogen and carbon substitutents. The compounds, compositions, and methods provided are useful for the treatment of Flaviviridae virus infections, particularly hepatitis C infections caused by both wild type and mutant strains of HCV. |
| US07973009B2 |
Methods and compositions for the prevention and treatment of anemia
Methods for increasing and maintaining hematocrit in a mammal comprising administering a hyperglycosylated analog of erythropoietin are disclosed. An analog may be administered less frequently than an equivalent molar amount of recombinant human erythropoietin to obtain a comparable target hematocrit and treat anemia. Alternatively, a lower molar amount of a hyperglycosylated analog may be administered to obtain a comparable target hematocrit and treat anemia. Also disclosed are new hyperglycosylated erythropoietin analogs, methods of production of the analogs, and compositions comprising the analogs. |
| US07973008B2 |
Metal-binding compounds and uses therefor
The invention provides a method of reducing the damage done by reactive oxygen species (ROS) in an animal. The invention also provides a method of reducing the concentration of a metal in an animal. These methods comprise administering to the animal an effective amount of a metal-binding compound as further described in the application. The invention further provides a method of reducing the damage done by ROS to a cell, a tissue or an organ that has been removed from an animal. This method comprising contacting the cell, tissue or organ with a solution or medium containing an effective amount of a metal-binding compound of the invention. The invention further provides novel metal-binding compounds, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the metal-binding compounds, and kits comprising a container holding a metal-binding compound of the invention. |
| US07973006B2 |
Antibacterial agent based on fatty acid esters of hydroxy carboxylic acid acids
The present invention relates to an antibacterial composition based on a combination of fatty acid ester of fatty acid and hydroxy carboxylic acid with an antibacterial agent selected from polylysine, protamine, their salts and mixtures hereof. The hydroxy carboxylic acid may be present as acid in its free form, in its salt form and/or in its ester form.The present invention further is directed to the use of said composition as antibacterial agent against gram-negative bacteria in various products, applications and methods. Furthermore, the present invention is related to products comprising said antibacterial agent. |
| US07973004B2 |
Rheology modifier for aqueous surfactant-based formulations
The present invention relates to aqueous formulations useful in useful in personal care, oral care, household and institutional applications which contain polymers comprised of water soluble synthetic backbone with covalently connected hydrophobic ends can deliver ‘salt-like’ rheology to surfactant formulations containing surfactant concentrations at which thickening by salt is not effective. |
| US07973003B2 |
Laundry stain and soil pretreatment sheet
A laundry stain and soil pretreatment sheet including a water soluble or water dispersible carrier layer, preferably polyvinyl alcohol, a removable separator layer, and a layer of cleaning agent composition therebetween. The separator layer is removed, the composition layer is adhered to a stain on clothing, and the clothing is laundered to treat the stain. The carrier layer dissolves or disperses during the laundering. |
| US07972998B2 |
Dry blend fracturing fluid additives
A method and composition for crosslinking a polymer based fluid includes providing a dry blend of crosslinker and delay agent. The crosslinker and delay agent are mixed and granulated in a dry form prior to addition to the polymer fluid. |
| US07972997B2 |
Process for coating gravel pack sand with polymeric breaker
A process for making a coated substrate that includes treating a proppant with a coating agent, wherein the coating agent comprises at least one of monomeric alpha-hydroxycarboxylic acids, alpha-hydroxycarboxylic acid polymers, and combinations thereof, reacting the treated proppant to form a polymer coated proppant, and recovering the polymer coated proppant is disclosed. |
| US07972995B2 |
Drilling fluid additive containing heated syrup solids
A drilling fluid additive is provided and the additive consist of: syrup solids which are heated to evaporate water and then admixed with a liquid medium, and the syrup solids are derived from a group consisting essentially of agave syrup, barley syrup, sugar syrup, beets syrup, birch syrup, rice syrup, cane syrup, chocolate syrup, coconut syrup, corn syrup, date syrup, fruit syrup, golden syrup, high fructose corn syrup, karo syrup, citrus fruit syrup, maple syrup, molasses, Muscavado syrup, palm syrup, rice syrup, sorghum syrup, Turbinado syrup, vanilla syrup and mixtures and blends thereof. |
| US07972990B2 |
Process for recording into rewritable recording medium of non-contact type
In a process for recording into a rewritable recording medium of a non-contact type, when adjacent lines or adjacent overlapping lines are drawn by scanning the medium having a reversible heat sensitive color developing layer on a substrate with laser light and a second line 2 is drawn after a first line 1 is drawn, the time between the start of drawing 1 and the end of drawing 2 and/or the width of the overlapped portion r is controlled as the means for suppressing discoloration of the recorded lines by interference between heat remaining after 1 has been drawn and heat generated while 2 is drawn. When characters, bar codes, solid images or figures are drawn into a rewritable recording medium of the non-contact type by scanning with laser light, excellent readability and visibility of the bar codes can be obtained in recording a plurality of line elements. |
| US07972988B2 |
Electrocatalysts and processes for producing
Noble metal catalysts and methods for producing the catalysts are provided. The catalysts are useful in applications such as fuel cells. The catalysts exhibit reduced agglomeration of catalyst particles as compared to conventional noble metal catalysts. |
| US07972985B2 |
Nonwoven fabric and process of producing the same
A nonwoven fabric 10 has a first layer 1 containing crimped fibers 11. In the layer 1, the crimped fibers gather in parts to form a large number of fiber clusters 12 that are distributed all over the layer 1. The clusters 12 interconnect to each other to form a network structure in the layer 1. The nonwoven fabric 10 further has another fiber layer as a second layer 2 disposed on a side of the first layer 1. The two layers are partly joined at a large number of joints 3. The second layer 2 protrudes outwardly between the joints 3 to form a large number of protrusions 20. |
| US07972982B2 |
Aqueous dispersion of anionically modified polyurethane ureas for coating a sheet-form textile material
The invention relates to a method for coating sheet-form textile materials, in which there is applied to a sheet-form textile material an aqueous dispersion containing anionically modified polyurethane ureas comprising (A) aromatic diisocyanate, (B) polyether polyol having a mean molecular weight greater than 1500, (C) at least one compound containing from 1 to 2 isocyanate-reactive groups and at least one ionogenic group, (D) polyamine having a mean molecular weight of at least 32, and (E) water, wherein the mean total functionality of the isocyanate-reactive compounds B to D is from 1.85 to 2.2, the molar ratio of the isocyanate groups of component A to the isocyanate-reactive groups of components B to D is greater than 1, and the polyurethane ureas have a content of from 800 to 1500 mmol of urethane groups/kg of anionically modified polyurethane urea and a content of from 800 to 1800 mmol of urethane plus urea groups/kg of anionically modified polyurethane urea. |
| US07972978B2 |
Pretreatment processes within a batch ALD reactor
Embodiments of the invention provide methods for forming a hafnium material on a substrate within a processing chamber. In one embodiment, a method is provided which includes exposing the substrate within the processing chamber to a first oxidizing gas during a pretreatment process, exposing the substrate sequentially to a second oxidizing gas and a deposition gas during an atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycle, wherein the second oxidizing gas contains water and the deposition gas contains a hafnium amino compound, and repeating the ALD cycle to form a hafnium-containing layer having a thickness within a range from about 5 Å to about 300 Å. In one example, the first oxidizing gas contains an O3/O2 mixture having an ozone concentration within a range from about 5 atomic percent to about 30 atomic percent. |
| US07972975B2 |
Method for forming a dielectric film and novel precursors for implementing said method
The invention relates to dielectric layers with a low dielectric constant, said layers being used to separate metallic interconnections especially during the production of integrated circuit boards (in the BEOL part of the circuit). According to the invention, the dielectric layer comprises SiC and/or SiOC, and is obtained from at least one precursor comprising at least one —Si—Cn—Si chain where n=1. |
| US07972973B2 |
Method for forming silicon oxide film, plasma processing apparatus and storage medium
The present invention provides a method for forming a silicon oxide film, with a substantially uniform film thickness and without being so influenced by dense sites and scattered sites in a pattern provided on an object to be processed, while keeping advantageous points of a plasma oxidation process performed under a lower-pressure and lower-oxygen-concentration condition. In this method, plasma of a processing gas is applied to a surface of the object having a concavo-convex pattern, in a processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus, so as to oxidize silicon on the surface of the object, thereby forming the silicon oxide film. The plasma is generated under the condition that a ratio of oxygen in the processing gas is within a range of 0.1% to 10% and pressure is within a range of 0.133 Pa to 133.3 Pa. This plasma oxidation process is performed, with a plate, having a plurality of through-holes formed therein, being provided between a region for generating the plasma in the processing chamber and the object to be processed. |
| US07972971B2 |
Method for producing Si1-yGey based zones with different contents in Ge on a same substrate by condensation of germanium
The disclosure relates to a method for producing a microelectronic device including a plurality of Si1-yGey based semi-conducting zones (where 0 |
| US07972964B2 |
Semiconductor device with contact structure and manufacturing method thereof
A plurality of gate lines are formed on a substrate. After depositing a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer and a doped amorphous silicon layer are sequentially formed thereon. A lower insulating layer made of silicon nitride and an upper insulating layer made of a photosensitive organic material are deposited thereon after forming data lines and drain electrodes. The upper insulating layer is patterned to form an unevenness pattern on its surface and contact holes on the drain electrodes. The lower insulating layer is patterned together with the gate insulating layer using a photoresist pattern having apertures located in the contact holes to form other contact holes respectively exposing the drain electrodes, portions of the gate lines, and portions of the data lines. After forming transparent electrodes and contact assistants respectively connected to the drain electrodes and the gate and the data lines through the contact holes, reflecting electrodes having apertures are formed on the transparent electrodes. |
| US07972960B1 |
Method for manufacturing thin film
A method for manufacturing a thin film includes: applying a liquid to a surface of a processing target member having at least one of a trench and a concave portion. The liquid includes a solvent and at least one of fine particles of a metal, fine particles of a semiconductor, fine particles containing a metal oxide, and fine particles containing a semiconductor oxide. A first heat treatment is included for volatilizing the solvent of the liquid applied to the surface of the processing target member. The fine particles are remained on the surface of the processing target member. A second heat treatment is also included for heating the fine particles by using microwave irradiation. At least one of the trench and the concave portion is filled with the thin film containing the fine particles or a component of the fine particles. |
| US07972953B2 |
Pad structure for liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing thereof
A liquid crystal display has a pad structure. The pad structure includes at least one pad formed on a substrate, an insulating film formed on the pad, and at least one conductive layer connected to the pad through contact holes defined through the insulating film. The insulating film covers side surfaces of the pad and a portion of the substrate adjacent to the side surfaces of the pad. |
| US07972949B2 |
Electronic component and display device and a method of manufacturing the same
An electronic component or display device of the present invention can be provided by using a following pattern formation method. On a substrate treated with a first etching with a first resist pattern as a first mask, a second resist pattern is transfer-printed on the first resist patterns so as to partially overlap with the first resist pattern and partially extended from the first resist pattern. And then a second etching is performed by using the first resist pattern and the second resist pattern as a second mask. The first resist pattern and the second resist pattern are used for forming wirings and/or terminals, and the extended portion of the second resist pattern is used to make the wirings to have a cross section of a stair-like edge shape. |
| US07972945B2 |
Plasma doping apparatus and method, and method for manufacturing semiconductor device
A top plate, disposed on an upper portion of a vacuum container so as to face a substrate-placing area of a sample electrode, is provided with an impurity-containing film that contains an impurity, and is formed on a top plate peripheral edge portion area that is a face exposable to a plasma generated in the vacuum container, and is located on a peripheral edge of a top plate center portion area that faces the center portion of the substrate-placing area. |
| US07972938B2 |
Methods of splitting CdZnTe layers from CdZnTe substrates for the growth of HgCdTe
Methods of producing CdZnTe (CZT) layers for the epitaxial growth of HgCdTe thereon include implanting ions into a CZT substrate at a low temperature to form a damaged layer underneath a CZT surface layer, bonding a wafer to the CZT substrate about the CZT surface layer using a bonding material, and, annealing the CZT substrate for a time sufficient to facilitate the splitting of the CZT substrate at the damaged layer from the CZT surface layer. |