| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08087000B2 |
Synchronizing codes from multiple software configuration management systems
The invention is directed to synchronizing code from multiple Software Configuration Management (SCM) systems. A method according to an embodiment of the invention includes: obtaining source code from a foreign SCM system and a central SCM system; obtaining a list of files and directories from the foreign SCM system and the central SCM system; creating a batch file; iteratively verifying from the list of files and directories from the foreign SCM system source code whether each file is one of: a new directory, an existing directory, a new file, or an existing file; for each new file and new directory verified from the foreign SCM system, creating in the batch file a command to add the new directory or the new file to the central SCM system; and completing the batch file. Another embodiment includes merging files in the central SCM system. |
| US08086999B2 |
Automatic natural language translation during information transfer
Information elements are automatically translated during cutting-and-pasting in a destination first, source second sequence by receiving a user selection of insertion points in the contents of a destination computer resource, then receiving a user selection of one or more information elements, intercepting transfer of the information elements to the destination computer resource, determining which intercepted information elements are expressed in a natural language not matching a user-specified natural language, performing one or more natural language handling actions on the intercepted information elements which do not match the user specified natural language as defined by one or more natural language handling rules, and transferring translated information elements to the destination. |
| US08086997B2 |
Detecting aspectual behavior in unified modeling language artifacts
Illustrative embodiments disclose detecting aspectual behavior in unified modeling language artifacts. A computer represents static and dynamic properties of the unified modeling language artifacts in a set of production rules. The computer also creates a set of bit representations of method invocations found in the set of production rules and determines whether common sub-sequences exist in the set of bit representations. The computer identifies a set of aspects within the production rules responsive to a determination that the common sub-sequences exist. Finally, the computer modifies the unified modeling language artifacts. |
| US08086995B2 |
System and method for flexible visual representation of device fonts
A system and method for developing an application for execution on a target device is described. The system comprises: a processor and a memory for storing instructions and data to configure the processor to provide: a development platform interface for developing a presentation component for output by the target device to a user interface in accordance with a target device appearance definition; a plurality of development platform appearance definitions for configuring the appearance of output of the development platform interface; and a mapping mechanism for mapping between the target device appearance definition and a corresponding development platform appearance definition to simulate on the system the output of the presentation component by the target device. |
| US08086993B2 |
Sorting tables in a page based approach
A solution is proposed for reducing the response time of query submitted by a client to server and, at the same time optimizing the sorting time of the results. Some canonical sorting algorithms are conceived to produce the first sorted records as soon as possible even if the sort operation is not completed. Even if such kind of algorithms match the above described needs, they could become impracticable because of their computational complexity. On the other side, some other algorithms have a lower computational complexity but the sorted result can be available only after the last iteration when the algorithm has completed. The present invention provides an improved method which combines the advantages of both families of algorithms. |
| US08086991B1 |
Automatic creation of vias in electrical circuit design
This invention is directed to a methodology of creating and detecting crossings of conductive traces on different layers of an integrated circuit or a conducting trace over a device contact during a system. Values are stored by the system simulator corresponding to the galvanic potential or same “net,” and then by a set of rule based instructions the vias are automatically displayed, correct-by-construction, and via connections between the traces, or the trace and device contact, to short circuit the paths. The via structure will not be created if it will short-circuit a conducting trace not associated with the net in question. By connecting traces on different layers using automatically created via structures so as not to short circuit other net traces, errors are eliminated and design cycles reduced when compared to a manual design scheme of inserting via connections. There is a number of useful variations that can be applied to the via structure automatically created. There is also an interactive mode which allows the via to be easily resized by the use of familiar control handles. |
| US08086989B2 |
Structure for glitchless clock multiplexer optimized for synchronous and asynchronous clocks
A design structure for a circuit for switching clock signals with logic devices using a glitchless clock multiplexer optimized for synchronous and asynchronous clocks. The design structure comprises a circuit having an asynchronous clock group and one or more synchronous clock group(s). The asynchronous group comprises a plurality of high frequency glitchless control (HFGC) blocks for asynchronous clock sources. Each synchronous group comprises a plurality of HFGC blocks for synchronous clock sources. The circuit comprises a multiplexer for receiving delayed input clock signals from HFGC blocks for asynchronous clock sources and from HFGC blocks for synchronous clock sources. A switching latency (period in which no clock pulse appears at the final output of the circuit) from a first input clock signal belonging to a synchronous group to a second input clock signal belonging to the same synchronous group is one clock cycle or less of the second input clock signal. |
| US08086985B2 |
Automatic alignment of macro cells
In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes detecting a first pitch between at least two lines (e.g. a power line and a ground line) of a first reference macro. The method also includes generating a virtual grid based on the first pitch and aligning at least a second macro to the virtual grid. |
| US08086982B2 |
Methods and systems for reducing clock skew in a gated clock tree
Systems and methods for synthesizing a gated clock tree with reduced clock skew are provided. A gated clock tree circuit with reduced clock skew may include a clock source and edge-triggered state elements. A gated clock tree disposed between the clock source and state elements may include a level in which each logic gate has a common logic type. Logic gates in the gated clock tree may also be configured as logic-gate buffers. The logic gates may also be configured as NAND-gated equivalents. The clock signal distributed through the gated clock tree may drive both positive-edge-triggered and negative-edge-triggered state elements. |
| US08086978B2 |
Method and system for performing statistical leakage characterization, analysis, and modeling
A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for performing statistical leakage power characterization to estimate yield of a circuit in terms of leakage power. According to some approaches, this is performed with consideration of state correlation. |
| US08086977B2 |
Design Structure for switching digital circuit clock net driver without losing clock pulses
A system and method for switching digital circuit clock net driver without losing clock pulses is presented. A device uses glitchless clock selection logic, which includes an edge detector, to select a clock signal to provide to device circuitry based upon the device circuitry's performance requirements. When the rising edges of a first clock signal and a second clock signal align, the edge detector momentarily pulses a clock switch signal, which is used to clock in a clock selection signal to a multiplexer. As a result, when the clock selection signal is high, the device waits until the clock edges are aligned before switching clock signals. |
| US08086974B2 |
Structure for fractional-N phased-lock-loop (PLL) system
In one general embodiment, a hardware description language (HDL) design structure is encoded on a machine-readable data storage medium, said HDL design structure comprising elements that when processed in a computer-aided design system generates a machine-executable representation of a fractional-N phased-lock-loop (PLL) structure. The fractional-N PLL structure comprises a first circuit located on an integrated circuit, where the first circuit includes a voltage controlled oscillator for generating a periodic output signal, a phase detector for controlling the voltage controlled oscillator, a charge pump for modifying an input to the voltage controlled oscillator, a frequency divider in a feedback path for modifying a frequency of the output signal, a first multiplexer, and a first random number generator. The fractional-N phased-lock-loop (PLL) structure further comprises a second circuit including a second multiplexer and a second random number generator, wherein the second circuit is a programmable circuit located off the integrated circuit and coupled to the first circuit. A method in a computer-aided design system for generating a functional design model of a fractional-N phased-lock-loop (PLL) structure is provided in one embodiment. A design structure embodied in a machine readable medium for designing, manufacturing, or testing an integrated circuit is presented in another embodiment. |
| US08086970B2 |
Address range viewer
The exemplary embodiments provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for a graphical user interface for managing a plurality of internet protocol ranges. A plurality of internet protocol ranges are displayed in a control area. A user selects either a one-dimensional or a two-dimensional graphical representation of a portion of the plurality of internet protocol ranges. A visual representation of the internet address space of the plurality of internet protocol ranges is generated in a view manipulation component. A graphic display component displays the selected graphical representation of the portion of the plurality of internet protocol range. |
| US08086969B2 |
System and method for graphical user interface
The present invention provides a system and method (60) for providing a graphical user interface. The proposed method (60) for graphical user interface includes generating an application window (10) containing a plurality of controls (12-34). A first user input (64-72) is received for selecting an area (36) within the application window (10). A group of controls (18-34) are then identified, among the plurality of controls (12-34), which are included within the selected area (36). A second user input (76) is received to enter a value in one of the controls (18) in the identified group of controls (18-34). The same value is then updated in the remaining controls (20-34) in the identified group of controls. |
| US08086966B2 |
Electronic apparatus and method of initializing setting items thereof
An electronic apparatus is provided. The electronic apparatus is controlled by using parameters relating to a plurality of setting items, including: a specifying unit performing an operation of specifying a setting item out of the plurality of setting items; and a display processing unit displaying a numeric keypad to input a parameter relating to the specified setting item and an initialization icon to initialize the specified setting item on a graphical user interface screen. Further, the electronic apparatus includes: an initial value storing unit storing initial values set/changed regarding the plurality of setting items; and an initialization processing unit returning the parameter of the specified setting item to the initial value based on an operation of the initialization icon. |
| US08086964B2 |
Method and system for discovering and acting on tagged information in software artifacts
According to exemplary embodiments, a method and system are provided for discovering and acting on action tags within an artifact. Upon a determination that an artifact is attached to a document in a host application, an action tag processor is invoked. The action tag processor analyzes the artifact to discover action tags and properties associated with the action tags present in the artifact. Host application APIs are invoked to perform actions on the tags. The host applications processes the action tags according to a context of an application running on the host application. |
| US08086963B2 |
Inheritance model between masters, layouts and slides
An N-level inheritance model is provided to develop presentations. A hierarchical inheritance model includes master slides, custom layout slides, and slides including the material for the presentation. The inheritance model allows presentation authors to both define an overall look for the presentation as well as the ability to customize slide layouts individually. An author may create custom layouts that may be applied to a single slide as well as a set of slides. Properties that are defined at any level within the hierarchy may be inherited by the lower levels within the hierarchy. Each level within the presentation may also make an exception to an inherited property. |
| US08086961B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and computer program product
A preview creating unit creates a plurality of previews of an image corresponding to a plurality of preset values each indicating processing to be applied to the image. A display unit displays the previews in a selectable manner, and, upon receiving a signal indicating a preview selected from the previews displayed thereon, displays the selected preview. The preview creating unit updates, upon receiving input of setting for the selected preview, the selected preview based on the setting to create a new preview. The display unit displays the new preview. |
| US08086955B2 |
Methods and apparatus for modifying process control data
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for modifying process control data involve obtaining the process control data in an extensible markup language format, converting the process control data in the extensible markup language format to a second data format, and storing the process control data in a database. The process control data is subsequently edited by retrieving the process control data from the database, modifying the process control data, storing the modified process control data in the second data format in the database, converting the modified process control data from the second data format to the extensible markup language format, and storing the modified process control data in the extensible markup language format. |
| US08086950B2 |
Method and system for enhancing engineering information
A system and method for adding features to an electronic file is provided. The electronic file can be automatically examined to identify information that relates to features such as navigational aids or enhanced content. Certain information is defined to represent the navigational aids or enhanced content. When the information representing the navigational aid or enhanced content is located in the electronic file, the navigational aid or enhanced content is added to the electronic file. Bookmarks, internal links, web links, attachments, digital signatures and multimedia files are some examples of navigational aids and enhanced content that may be added to the electronic file, although other items may also be included. |
| US08086946B2 |
Methods and apparatus for optimizing responsiveness of portable documents
A system detects a requirement to obtain a first document by the computer system, the first document having a predefined format. The system identifies a sequence of portions of the first document to obtain based on analysis of the predefined format of the first document, and analysis of current operational parameters of the computer system. The system obtains a first portion of the document from the identified sequence, and then obtains successive portions of the first document in accordance with the identified sequence. |
| US08086945B1 |
Tensor product codes containing an iterative code
Systems and methods are provided for encoding a stream of datawords based on a tensor product code to provide a stream of codewords, and detecting and decoding a stream of received data based on a tensor product code to provide a decoded stream of data. In one aspect, the tensor product code is based on two codes including an inner code and an outer parity hiding code, where the outer parity hiding code is an iterative code. In certain embodiments, the outer parity hiding code is a Turbo code or a low density parity check (LDPC) code. |
| US08086940B2 |
Iterative decoding between turbo and RS decoders for improving bit error rate and packet error rate
A technique for iterative decoding between turbo and Reed Solomon (RS) decoders for improving bit error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER) in a receiver in a wireless communication system comprises receiving data samples comprising turbo encoded packets and RS code words at the receiver; decoding turbo encoded packets of the received data samples using a turbo decoder; decoding RS code words of the received data samples using a RS decoder; feeding the RS decoded data to turbo decoder to perform a plurality of iterations; and correcting data errors present in the received data samples. |
| US08086932B2 |
Apparatus and method for decoding low-density parity check code
There is provided with a decoding apparatus for decoding a low-density parity check code defined by a parity check matrix, includes: a first operation unit configured to carry out a row operation for each row of the parity check matrix; a calculation unit configured to calculate a reliability coefficient with respect to establishment of a parity check equation defined by said each row, respectively; a second operation unit configured to carry out a column operation for said each row; and a controller configured to iteratively execute one set which includes respective processing by the first operation unit, the calculation unit and the second operation unit and omit the processing by the first operation unit and the calculation unit for a row for which the reliability coefficient has satisfied a threshold. |
| US08086924B2 |
Implementing diagnosis of transitional scan chain defects using logic built in self test LBIST test patterns
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for implementing diagnostics of transitional scan chain defects using structural Logic Built In Self Test (LBIST) test patterns. A LBIST test pattern is applied to the device under test and multiple system clock sequences with variable loop control are applied in a passing operating region and scan data is unloaded. The LBIST test pattern is applied to the device under test and multiple system clock sequences with variable loop control are applied in a failing operating region for the device under test and scan data is unloaded. Then the unload data from the passing operating region and the failing operating region are compared. The identified latches having different results are identified as potential AC defective latches. The identified potential AC defective latches are sent to a Physical Failure Analysis system. |
| US08086921B2 |
System and method of clocking an IP core during a debugging operation
According to the invention, an IP core is clocked during a debugging operation by switching from the clock used for testing the device under test to a clock oscillator or any other free-running clock source. |
| US08086911B1 |
Method and apparatus for distributed reconstruct in a raid system
Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for distributing the reconstruction process of a failed storage device in an array of storage devices to storage systems in a storage system cluster (cluster). The inventive technique includes a storage system securing the array, decomposing the reconstruction process into a number of tasks, distributing each task to other storage system in the cluster, and reconstructing data using results of the tasks performed by the other storage systems. |
| US08086910B1 |
Monitoring software thread execution
The invention is directed to monitoring execution of software threads, particularly by detecting a lockup or stall in execution of a software thread and initiating a remedial action in response. Advantageously, some embodiments of the invention automatically detect a lockup or stall in execution of a software thread by periodically sampling information corresponding to the thread, and, in accordance with a determination made using the information, initiate an attempt to recover from such a condition in execution without the need for manual intervention. |
| US08086907B1 |
Systems and methods for network information collection
A network device may include logic configured to receive a problem report from a second network device, store and analyze data included in the problem report, filter data in the problem report to determine when the problem report is to be transmitted to a third network device, and transmit the problem report to the third network device when the filtering determines that the problem report is to be transmitted. |
| US08086906B2 |
Correlating hardware devices between local operating system and global management entity
A method and apparatus for correlating the identities of hardware devices, such as processors and memory controllers, between a local operating system and a global management entity is described. When the operating system detects a faulting device, the operating system generates a fault message and transmits the fault message to the global management entity. The global management entity determines the identity of the faulting device based on information contained in the fault message, selects an appropriate replacement device, changes a routing table to map to the replacement device to the identity of the faulting device, and transmits to the operating system a global identity of the replacement device. The operating system correlates the local identity of the replacement device with the global identity of the replacement device. |
| US08086905B2 |
Method of collecting information in system network
To quickly establish an inferring result when a problem is detected in an operation management system equipped with a rule-based inference processing function, there is provided a method of collecting information for managing a computer system equipped with a plurality of devices. The computer system holds rule for associating a plurality of events with a conclusion output when all of the plurality of events have been detected. The method includes: executing, at a first interval, polling to obtain information indicating whether each of the plurality of events has been detected; judging whether the plurality of events have been detected; and executing, upon judgment that at least one of the plurality of events has been detected and none of the remaining events have been detected, before execution of next polling at the first interval, polling to obtain information indicating whether at least one of the undetected remaining events has been detected. |
| US08086903B2 |
Method, apparatus, and computer program product for coordinating error reporting and reset utilizing an I/O adapter that supports virtualization
A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed in a shared processor data processing system for coordinating error reporting for and resetting of a physical I/O adapter that supports virtualization. The physical I/O adapter is virtualized by generating virtual I/O adapters that each represent a portion of the physical I/O adapter. Each one of the virtual I/O adapters is assigned to a different one of client logical partitions. A determination is made regarding whether the physical I/O adapter may have experienced an error. If the physical I/O adapter has experienced an error, all of the client logical partitions are notified about the error and a recovery of the physical I/O adapter is coordinated among all of the client logical partitions by waiting for each client logical partition to acknowledge the error notification before the physical I/O adapter is reset. |
| US08086901B2 |
Timer circuit and timer method
A timer circuit and a timer method are provided for a BIOS of an electronic device. The timer circuit includes a processing module, a setting module, and a display module. The processing module includes a microprocessor unit (MCU), a clock circuit 20, and a reset circuit. The timer circuit electronically connects with a debug card to measure a running time of a procedure of the BIOS of the electronic device. A timer result of the measurement is displayed on the display module. |
| US08086900B2 |
System, method and computer program product for testing a boot image
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for testing a boot image is disclosed. The method comprises creating a test boot image for a first logical partition, creating a second logical partition wherein the second logical partition is a duplicate of the first logical partition, initiating a boot sequence for the second logical partition using the test boot image, and returning a result of the boot sequence to a requestor. |
| US08086897B2 |
Model driven diagnostics system and methods thereof
A method to perform a diagnostic test in an integrated support platform having a plurality of services is disclosed. The method includes a process of building at least one or more knowledge model for each of the plurality of services in the integrated support platform. The process of building the knowledge model includes determining one or more failure(s) of each component and at least one associated symptom to identify the one or more failures and constructing a framework for the diagnostic test associated to the one or more failures. The framework comprising the diagnostic test may be created by at least one of an execution plan based on the most efficient path for determining the failure. The method further includes performing the diagnostic test for resolving one or more failures of each component by using the framework based on the built knowledge model for the plurality of services. |
| US08086894B1 |
Managing redundant network components
A method for managing redundant network components is disclosed. A network component operable to perform in an active mode is monitored. The network component is coupled to a mate network component through a communication network comprising a portion of an Internet network. An operating mode of the network component is determined. The mate network component is switched to perform in an active mode if the network component is not performing in an active mode. The network component and the mate network component communicate using an Internet protocol. |
| US08086889B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit device for scan testing
A scan chain group structure in which a group of scan chains formed for each clock tree system in an LSI is subjected to a reconnection process so that the scan chain group is not present across a plurality of clock distribution regions obtained by dividing the clock-supplied region of the clock tree of one system and that the connection distance thereof in the distribution region becomes short, a test clock input mechanism in which test clocks to be input to the distribution regions are independent sub-clock phases, and an on/off mechanism of the clocks to be input to the distribution regions are realized. Further, the scan-in/out and scan test performed at the same time are limited in one region or between single regions, and tests in all regions and between all regions are carried out by a plurality of times of test steps. |
| US08086888B2 |
Storage management server and storage configuration relocating method
A storage management server collects, stores and displays positions, temperatures and temperature threshold values of physical storage devices from a storage apparatus. It collects, stores and displays positions and power consumptions of variable factor generation sources which are factors that cause the physical storage devices to vary in operation environments, and also calculates the influenceability by variable factor generation sources against the physical storage devices and affected temperatures thereof. It compares the temperature of a given physical storage device to a temperature threshold value of this physical storage device or compares it to an affected temperature thereof due to the variable factor generation sources, thereby moving, for data transfer, an operation position of physical storage device based on a comparison result at such time. |
| US08086887B2 |
Apparatus, system and method for power management
An apparatus which communicates with another apparatus includes a control unit which monitors a power consumption of the apparatus, supplies a power to the another apparatus when the power consumption includes a surplus, and requests the another apparatus to supply the power when the power consumption includes a shortage, and an adjusting unit which adjusts the power consumption of the apparatus according to an operation of the control unit. |
| US08086886B2 |
Group power management of network devices
A method and apparatus for group power management of network devices. Some embodiments of an apparatus include a power management module, where the power management module is to transition the apparatus from a normal state to a low power state. The apparatus includes a wake module having a processor that remains active in the low power state, and a register to store a group address. The apparatus includes a network interface that is monitored by the processor in the low power state, where the processor detects a data packet identifying the group address at the network interface, and where the power management module returns the apparatus to the normal state upon detection of the data packet. |
| US08086883B2 |
Hardware driven processor state storage prior to entering a low power
A data processing apparatus includes a processor for processing data and having memory interface logic for controlling transfer of data to a memory. Also included is a memory for storing data processed by said processor. The processor is powered in a first domain and the memory is powered in a second domain. A system bus is coupled to the processor and the memory to transfer data therebetween in response to memory transfer requests. The processor is responsive to a low power request to enter a low power mode to control transfer of state data indicating a current state of the processor to the memory via the system bus using memory interface logic. The state data is sufficient to restore the processor to an equivalent program state following exit from the low power mode, store the state data in memory; and power down the first domain. |
| US08086881B2 |
Power control of secondary copy storage based on journal storage usage and accumulation speed rate
A second storage system comprises a restore control unit for controlling restoration processing, in which a data element in a journal stored in a journal storage area is written into a secondary logical volume, and a storage device control unit for controlling a storage device in the second storage system. The restore control unit is provided with a function for suspending the restoration processing. A first value indicating the usage condition of the journal storage area in the second storage system is obtained, and the restore control unit suspends the restoration processing in accordance with the obtained first value. The storage device control unit then executes power saving on a storage device relating to the secondary logical volume. |
| US08086879B2 |
Powering on devices via intermediate computing device
Methods and apparatus relating to powering on devices via an intermediate computing device are described. In an embodiment, a request for data by a first device may be detected at a second device. The second device may determine a third device that stores the requested data and cause it to be turned on if the third device is in a reduced power consumption state. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08086876B2 |
Static and dynamic power management for a memory subsystem
In one embodiment, an information handling system may include a processor, a power supply coupled to the processor, a memory device communicatively coupled to the processor, where the memory device may include (1) a plurality of memory modules, and (2) a memory extender configured to extend a communication bandwidth of the plurality of memory, and a controller coupled to the memory device. The controller may be configured to determine a status of the power supply and/or one or more of the memory modules, and based at least on the determined status, disable the memory extender. |
| US08086874B2 |
Method and system for controlling an array of point-of-load regulators and auxiliary devices
A power control system comprises at least one POL regulator, at least one auxiliary device, a serial data bus operatively connecting the POL regulator and the auxiliary device, and a system controller adapted to exchange digital data with the POL regulator and auxiliary device via the serial data bus. The auxiliary device may include a power regulation device, a switching device, a motor control device, a temperature control device, and/or a peripheral device. At least one auxiliary device controller may be operatively coupled between the auxiliary device and the serial data bus. The auxiliary device controller may be integrated with the system controller, or may be external to the system controller. The auxiliary device controller may further comprise at least one register adapted to store the programming data, with the programming data including at least one of turn-on delay, turn-off delay, polarity of input/output signals, fault configuration, and group membership. The auxiliary device controller may be further adapted to receive monitoring data from the auxiliary device, with the auxiliary device controller communicating the monitoring data to the system controller via the serial data bus. |
| US08086873B2 |
Method for controlling file access on computer systems
A method for controlling file access on computer systems is disclosed. Initially, a virtual machine manager (VMM) is provided in a computer system. In response to a write request, the VMM determines whether or not a location field is valid. If the location field is not valid, then the VMM writes the write request information to a storage device; but if the location field is valid, then the VMM encrypts the write request information before writing the write request information to the storage device. In response to a read request, the VMM again determines whether or not a location field is valid. If the location field is not valid, then the VMM sends the read request information to a read requester; but, if the location field is valid, then the VMM decrypts the read request information before sending the read request information to the read requester. |
| US08086868B2 |
Data communication method and system
Public-key cryptography is realized by means of PKI in which biometrics data, in which biological information of users is converted to numerical values, are used to authenticate users that transmit and receive data, and based on the biometrics data, identical secret keys (common secret keys) are generated in each of the user terminal devices that are used by the users without releasing the secret keys onto the network. |
| US08086866B2 |
Methods and apparatus for efficient computation of one-way chains in cryptographic applications
Techniques are disclosed for efficient computation of consecutive values of one-way chains and other one-way graphs in cryptographic applications. The one-way chain or graph may be a chain of length s having positions i=1, 2, . . . s each having a corresponding value νi associated therewith, wherein the value νi is given by νi=h(νi+1), for a given hash function or other one-way function h. An initial distribution of helper values may be stored for the one-way chain of length s, e.g., at positions given by i=2j for 0≦j≦log2 s. A given one of the output values νi at a current position in the one-way chain may be computed utilizing a first helper value previously stored for another position in the one-way chain between the current position and an endpoint of the chain. After computation of the given output value, the positions of the helper values are adjusted so as to facilitate computation of subsequent output values. Advantageously, a storage-computation product associated with generation of the output values of the one-way chain has a complexity O((log s)2). |
| US08086862B2 |
Program data file storage method in broadcast receiver and broadcast receiver
Conventionally, when the version of a program has been upgraded, the whole of a currently stored program needs to be deleted to be replaced by a new program, and authentication needs to be performed again on such new program when it is activated. However, since the whole of the program is required to be stored and authenticated even when only a part of such program has changed, it consumes time and leads to the decrease in responsiveness. In order to solve this problem, the present invention extracts a difference between a new program and a currently stored old program, when such new program is to be stored, and the new program is to be stored after authentication is performed only on such difference. |
| US08086861B2 |
Information processing terminal and status notification method
The present invention aims at providing an information processing terminal, a status notification system, and a status notification method that can protect both privacy and security when a status of the information processing terminal is notified to a server. An information processing terminal 10 has a disclosure/nondisclosure determination section 1001 that determines a notifiable server for each entry; a log concealing section 1002 that conceals an entry; a multi-log measurement section 1003 that commands to update hashes as to a plurality of parties; a log configuration section 1004 that configures a log directed at a notified party and that causes performance of signing action; a verification request section 1005 that requests verification; a policy storage section 1006 that stores a policy used for determining a party that can be notified; and a log storage section 1007 for storing the entry. The information processing terminal 10 commands accumulation, into a hash, of entries subjected to processing suitable for each notified party, such as concealing operation. |
| US08086859B2 |
Generation of electronic signatures
A generator uses a robust programming framework to create an electronic signature in association with a data item, wherein the electronic signature includes time stamps and/or countersignatures. The generator can create a signature object that computes a signature value of the electronic signature based on the data item. The generator also creates a signature timestamp object to obtain a timestamp of the signature value, wherein the timestamp is associated with the electronic signature. The generator can also invoke a countersignature service on the signature object to obtain a countersignature based on the signature value of the signature object, wherein the countersignature is associated with the electronic signature. |
| US08086856B2 |
Disabling on/off capacity on demand
Apparatus and article of manufacture for disabling on-demand access to computerized resources on a computerized apparatus are disclosed. The method comprises receiving a disablement code; validating the disablement code; and disabling an on-demand resource if the validating is successful, thereby rendering the disabled on-demand resource unavailable for use by users of the computerized apparatus, wherein the disabled on-demand resource is a hardware resource of the computerized apparatus. Another embodiment includes receiving a disablement code comprising encrypted data, validating the disablement code, disabling at least one on-demand resource if the validating is successful. The validating includes generating a first key using system information unique to the computerized apparatus; decrypting the encrypted data using a second key to produce decrypted data; encrypting a value to produce an encrypted value; decrypting the encrypted value to produce a decrypted value; and comparing the value to the decrypted value. |
| US08086844B2 |
Online trusted platform module
An online trusted platform module (TPM) in communication with a security module that can be located elsewhere in the network in a server machine. In an embodiment, the online TPM is connected directly to a network interface card (NIC) that is also resident at the client. This allows the online TPM to communicate directly to the network, and therefore to the security module (without having to deal with the TCP/IP stack at the client machine in some circumstances, e.g., the boot process). In an embodiment, the communications channel between the online TPM and the security module is implemented using the transport layer security (TLS) protocol. A secure boot process is performed in advance of security processing. Typical security processing includes receipt, by the online TPM, of one or more commands from an application. The online TPM then proxies out the commands to the security module. After the security module has completed its processing of the commands, results of the processing and any related status information is returned to the online TPM. |
| US08086838B2 |
Methods and systems for providing manufacturing mode detection and functionality in a UEFI BIOS
Methods and systems are described for managing manufacturing modes in a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) basic input output system (BIOS). The UEFI BIOS can include a PEI (pre-EFI) manufacturing mode driver, a PEI interface, PEI drivers, a DXE (driver execution environment) manufacturing mode driver, a DXE interface, DXE drivers, a SMM (system management mode) manufacturing mode driver, a SMM interface, and SMM drivers. Manufacturing mode data is stored and accessed through a PEI manufacturing mode driver, a DXE manufacturing mode driver, or a SMM manufacturing mode driver, and/or any combination thereof. The PEI interface is used to communicate manufacturing mode data between PEI drivers and the PEI manufacturing mode driver. The DXE interface is used to communicate manufacturing mode data between DXE drivers and the DXE manufacturing mode driver. And the SMM interface is used to communicate manufacturing mode data between SMM drivers and the SMM manufacturing mode driver. |
| US08086830B2 |
Arithmetic processing apparatus
An arithmetic processing apparatus capable of performing an arithmetic operation for generating a condition flag commonly referred to by using a condition flag generated on an arithmetic operation unit basis in as few steps as possible is provided. The arithmetic processing apparatus, which processes multiple data in parallel based on single instruction, includes: processing elements capable of performing a common arithmetic operation based on the evaluation result of the instruction stored in the instruction register; and a condition flag arithmetic operation unit capable of performing one of the logical operation and the comparison operation on the condition flag retained in each processing element, transferring the operation result to each processing element, and updating the condition flag based on the operation result. |
| US08086826B2 |
Dependency tracking for enabling successive processor instructions to issue
An information handling system includes a processor with an issue unit (IU) that may perform instruction dependency tracking for successive instruction issue operations. The IU maintains non-shifting issue queue (NSIQ) and shifting issue queue (SIQ) instructions along with relative instruction to instruction dependency information. A mapper maps queue position data for instructions that dispatch to issue queue locations within the IU. The IU may test an issuing producer instruction against consumer instructions in the IU for queue position (QPOS) and register tag (RTAG) matches. A matching consumer instruction may issue in a successive manner in the case of a queue position match or in a next processor cycle in the case of a register tag match. |
| US08086822B2 |
In-place shadow tables for virtualization
In a computing system having virtualization software including a guest operating system (OS), a method for providing page tables that includes: providing a guest page table used by the guest OS and a shadow page table used by the virtualization software wherein at least a portion of the guest page table and the shadow page table share computer memory. |
| US08086818B2 |
Storage apparatus and storage area allocation method
A storage apparatus is provided with a storage area for storing data sent from a host computer, and a virtual/logical volume to which a dynamically variable storage area is allocated from within the storage area, the volume being provided to the host computer, and this storage apparatus is configured to include: a pool area generation unit for generating a plurality of pool areas composed from the storage area; a setting unit for setting, for each of the plurality of pool areas generated by the pool area generation unit, an allocation unit size for allocating a storage area from within the storage area provided by the pool area to the virtual/logical volume; a selecting unit for selecting, when data to be stored in the storage area is sent from the host computer, a pool area from among the plurality of pool areas having the allocation unit size set by the setting unit, in accordance with the size of the sent data; and an allocation unit for allocating a storage area from within the storage area provided by the pool area selected by the selecting unit to the virtual/logical volume. |
| US08086817B2 |
Method and system for efficient retrieval of data of large or unknown length by a native application program
A method and system for efficient allocation of memory in database retrieval employs a technique which allocates a memory portion of a first size which may or may not be smaller than a data item to be retrieved from the database (such as a column which may be of indeterminate length). In that circumstance, a first FETCH, for example, an SQL FETCH, is followed by a new syntactical instruction, a FETCH CONTINUE, until all of the data item is retrieved. The FETCH CONTINUE may involve allocating memory portions of similar or different sizes to accommodate additional fetched portions, and may involve varying numbers of fetches. |
| US08086814B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit apparatus
A semiconductor integrated circuit apparatus includes a main clock generation circuit that generates a main clock signal, a plurality of function blocks, a clock generation circuit in the plurality of function blocks, and a phase locked loop circuit in the clock generation circuit. The phase locked loop circuit generates a clock signal in the plurality of function blocks, using the main clock signal from the main clock generation circuit. |
| US08086813B2 |
Synchronous memory read data capture
A method of snap-shot data training to determine the optimum timing of the DQS enable signal in a single read operation is provided. This is accomplished by first writing a Gray code count sequence into the memory and then reading it back in a single burst. The controller samples the read burst at a fixed interval from the time the command was issued to determine the loop-around delay. A simple truth table lookup determines the optimum DQS enable timing for normal reads. Advantageously, during normal read operations, the first positive edge of the enabled DQS signal is used to sample a counter that is enabled every time a command is issued. If the counter sample changes, indicating timing drift has occurred, the DQS enable signal can be adjusted to compensate for the drift and maintain a position centered in the DQS preamble. This technique can also be applied to a system that uses the iterative approach to determining DQS enable timing on power up. Another embodiment of the invention is a simple, low latency clock domain crossing circuit based on the DQS latched sample of the counter. |
| US08086812B2 |
Transceiver with latency alignment circuitry
In a transceiver system a first interface receives data from a first channel using a first clock signal and transmits data to the first channel using a second clock signal. A second interface receives data from a second channel using a third clock signal and transmits data to the second channel using a fourth clock signal. A re-timer re-times data received from the first channel using the first clock signal and retransmits the data to the second channel using the fourth clock signal. |
| US08086810B2 |
Rapid defragmentation of storage volumes
Various embodiments for rapid defragmentation of storage volumes in a computing environment are provided. A plurality of source data sets is copied from the fragmented storage volume to a plurality of target data sets on an additional storage volume. The plurality of source data sets is placed on the additional storage volume as the plurality of target data sets in an unfragmented order. A first volume serial number (VOLSER) of the fragmented storage volume is swapped with a second VOLSER of the additional storage volume. The fragmented storage volume is varied offline, and the additional storage volume is varied online. The computing environment recognizes the additional storage volume having the plurality of target data sets placed in the unfragmented order. |
| US08086808B2 |
Method and system for migration between physical and virtual systems
A method of migrating a computer system between a virtualized environment and a non-virtualized environment comprises configuring one or more storage volumes for a migration destination in a destination environment based on a migration request containing a backup requirement specifying one or more copy groups, each copy group including storage volumes that store data for at least one of a virtualized device and a non-virtualized device; converting and migrating data from a migration source in a source environment to the one or more configured storage volumes of the migration destination based on copy group information of the one or more copy groups, one of the source environment and the destination environment being a virtualized environment, and another of the source environment and the destination environment being a non-virtualized environment; and migrating backup unit/group information by replacing copy group information in the source environment with copy group information in the destination environment. |
| US08086807B2 |
Backup data management method in which differential copy time is taken into account
Provided is a computer system, comprising a storage system and a management computer. The management computer manages differential copy start times, differential data amounts of first pairs, and a data amount that can be copied in differential copy per unit time; identifies one of the first pairs for which the differential copy is to be started and a start time of the differential copy; subtracts the data amount of differential copy per unit time that is allocated to the identified one of the first pairs from a differential data amount of the identified first pairs; add the unit time to the identified start time; judges that the differential copy has been finished at a time when the subtracted differential data amount reaches zero or less; and calculates time zones in which the first pairs execute differential copy based on the time at which differential copy has been finished. |
| US08086805B2 |
Advanced contention detection
A multiple computer system is disclosed in which n computers (M1, M2 . . . Mn) each run a different portion of a single application program written to execute only on a single computer. The local memory of each computer is maintained substantially the same by updating all computers with every change made to addressed memory locations. Contention can arise when the same memory location is substantially simultaneously updated by two or more machines because of transmission delays and latency of the communications network interconnecting all the computers. Contention detection and resolution is disclosed. A count value (99) indicative of the cumulative number of times each memory location has been updated is utilized. Contention is indicated if the currently stored count value and the incoming updating count value are the same. A method of echo suppression and a method of echo rejection are disclosed. In particular incrementing the count value by two in the case of consecutive sequential transmission to the same memory location (D) is disclosed. |
| US08086804B2 |
Method and system for optimizing processor performance by regulating issue of pre-fetches to hot cache sets
A method for pre-fetching data. The method includes obtaining a pre-fetch request. The pre-fetch request identifies new data to pre-fetch from memory and store in a cache. The method further includes identifying a set in the cache to store the new data and identifying a value of a hotness indicator for the set. The hotness indicator value defines a number of replacements of at least one line in the set. The method further includes determining whether the value of the hotness indicator exceeds a predefined threshold, and storing the new data in the set when the value of the hotness indicator does not exceed the pre-defined threshold. |
| US08086803B2 |
Managing cache elements
A method for managing cache elements in an environment based on Common Information Model is described. Cache elements in the cache are associated with a time attribute and historical data. Cache elements having a time attribute lying in a certain range are polled for from the server and updated at predetermined time points. A new time attribute is calculated for each cache element based on its historical data and this new time attribute assists in adapting the polling frequency for the cache element to its importance and change characteristics. Asynchronous notifications from the server preempt the polling based on the time attribute for a cache element and instead, polling for the cache element is based on the asynchronous notification. A system for cache management includes a client and a server, the client having a cache that is managed based on each cache element's importance and change characteristics. |
| US08086799B2 |
Scalable deduplication of stored data
In a method and apparatus for scalable deduplication, a data set is partitioned into multiple logical partitions, where each partition can be deduplicated independently. Each data block of the data set is assigned to exactly one partition, so that any two or more data blocks that are duplicates of each are always be assigned to the same logical partition. A hash algorithm generates a fingerprint of each data block in the volume, and the fingerprints are subsequently used to detect possible duplicate data blocks as part of deduplication. In addition, the fingerprints are used to ensure that duplicate data blocks are sent to the same logical partition, prior to deduplication. A portion of the fingerprint of each data block is used as a partition identifier to determine the partition to which the data block should be assigned. Once blocks are assigned to partitions, deduplication can be done on partitions independently. |
| US08086798B2 |
Multimedia storage device
The present invention discloses a multimedia storage device comprising a cartridge and a loader. The cartridge connects to media devices of different formats, and the loader comprises a loading/ejecting device and connects to an external application device. The cartridge is loaded into and ejected out of the loader by the loading/ejecting device. When the cartridge is loaded into the loader, the external application device can play and access the files stored in media device. |
| US08086796B2 |
Storage system, load distribution management method, and storage medium
A host computer includes a virtual disk control part for controlling an input/output request into a virtual disk. A plurality of storage subsystems includes a load monitoring part for measuring a load on a physical disk by the input/output request and storing load information in a disk management table. The virtual disk control part identifies, upon receiving the input/output request into a not-ever-outputted space in a virtual disk, an appropriate logical disk on the virtual disk based on the load information in the disk management table, sends the input/output request to the storage subsystem having the identified logical disk, and updates, upon receiving a completion acknowledgement of the input/output request, the load information in the disk management table based on the load information in the logical disk map information table. |
| US08086781B2 |
Serial pass-through device
A host device and an accessory exchange information (e.g., commands and data) via an intermediate device. The host device and accessory can each connect to the intermediate device. The host device can exchange commands and data with the intermediate device, while the accessory device can serially exchange data with the intermediate device. The host device and the accessory can also “tunnel” information to each other through the intermediate device, by packaging the tunneled information as a payload of a command recognizable by the intermediate device; the intermediate device can repackage and forward the payload. In some embodiments, the intermediate device can control serial communication parameters between the intermediate device and the accessory in response to commands received from the host. |
| US08086779B2 |
Data recorder for multiple media formats
A data recorder includes an I/O port, a host processor and a cartridge including a media storage and a media processor connected to the media storage. The media processor includes media capability data which is specific to the media storage. A bus connector removable connects the cartridge to the recorder, and the media processor and the host processor are connected to the connector by a Pathway Bus. When the cartridge is connected to the connector, the media capability data is transmitted from the media processor to the host processor and the host processor communicates data with the media processor as a function of the received media capability data. |
| US08086776B2 |
Device for arbitrating bus accesses and method for controlling same
In an information-processing apparatus including a plurality of modules and a first arbiter which arbitrates bus-access requests of the plurality of modules, at least one of the plurality of modules includes a plurality of submodules and a second arbiter which arbitrates bus-access requests of the plurality of submodules and transmits at least one of the bus-access requests of the plurality of submodules to the first arbiter. The first arbiter gives priority to the module which transmits many bus-access requests, or the module which made a previous bus access, and limits the number of consecutive accesses made by the same module, so as to control the priority of accessing the bus by the plurality of modules. The second arbiter controls priority of accessing the bus by the plurality of submodules according to the free state of a buffer of each submodule, or the access type, whereby the bus-access requests made by the plurality of modules can be arbitrated, thus increasing bus-use efficiency. |
| US08086768B2 |
Storage system and control method of storage system
The storage system includes a first storage subsystem having a first logical volume to be accessed by a host computer, and a second storage subsystem connected to the first storage subsystem and having a second logical volume to be mapped to the first logical volume. The first storage subsystem includes a memory having definition information for defining a plurality of logical paths that transfer, to the second logical volume, I/O from the host computer to the first logical volume, and a transfer mode of the I/O to the plurality of logical paths. At least two or more logical paths among the plurality of logical paths are defined as active, and the controller transfers the I/O to the at least two or more logical paths set as active. |
| US08086767B2 |
Pin multiplexing
A semiconductor device coupled to input/output pins includes a first core to operate a first function and a second core to operate a second function. A multiplexer is arranged to set the input/output pins to the first function or to the second function, and an arbiter is configured to receive requests from the cores to use the input/output pins and to grant use of the input/output pins to a selected core. A register is arranged to store a value indicative of a delay to be applied by the arbiter when granting use of the input/output pins to the second core. |
| US08086764B2 |
Remote USB device usage system
In one embodiment of a remote USB device usage system, when there is a request to connect to a remote USB device from any one of a plurality of applications, a check is performed of whether or not another application is using the remote USB device. When no application is using the remote USB device, connection to the remote USB device is performed. When there is a request to disconnect from a remote USB device from any one of a plurality of applications, a check is performed of whether or not another application is using the remote USB device, if no application is using the remote USB device, disconnection from the remote USB device is performed. |
| US08086763B2 |
Changing class of device
A class changing apparatus includes a link unit configured to be linked with a client device to transmit and receive data. The class change apparatus also includes a storage unit configured to store apparatus information including class information of the client device. The class changing apparatus further includes a control unit coupled to the link unit and the storage unit and controlling operations of the class changing apparatus including a class changing operation, wherein the class change operation includes transmitting at least one command including a command for rebranching into the selected class to the client device through the link unit and registering class information as changed class information in the storage unit in response to detecting a class change request. |
| US08086761B2 |
SPI control device and method for accessing SPI slave devices using the same
A method for accessing serial peripheral interface (SPI) slave devices using an SPI control device determines an SPI slave device to be operated, sets an operation type of the determined SPI slave device, and further sets a clock rate, a clock phase, and a clock polarity of the determined SPI slave device. The method further generates a clock signal according to the clock rate, the clock phase, and the clock polarity of the determined SPI slave device, and performs a read operation or a write operation on the determined SPI slave device according to the clock signal. |
| US08086755B2 |
Distributed multicast system and method in a network
The invention provides multicast communication using distributed topologies in a network. The control nodes in the network build a distributed topology of processor nodes for providing multicast packet distribution. Multiple processor nodes in the network participate in the decisions regarding the forwarding of multicast packets as opposed to multicast communications being centralized in the control nodes. |
| US08086752B2 |
Systems and methods for synchronizing operations among a plurality of independently clocked digital data processing devices that independently source digital data
In a system for distributing data, distribution device is configured to distribute timestamp, offset and source location information for a digital data stream to an execution device, and the execution device is configured to seek digital data corresponding to the received information. The execution device is further configured to execute the digital data relative to a clock rate maintained by the distribution device. Related methods include receiving timestamp, offset and source location information for the digital data stream and seeking digital data corresponding to the received offset and source location information. |
| US08086749B2 |
Techniques for migrating a point to point protocol to a protocol for an access network
Techniques for managing a persistent session associated with a particular Media Access Control (MAC) include determining at a broadband remote access server whether an elapsed time since a data packet is received with the particular MAC address exceeds a threshold time. If so, then point-to-point protocol (PPP) control data is sent in a data link protocol payload that is encapsulated in a data packet with an Ethernet destination field that indicates the particular MAC address. The PPP control data indicates a request for an echo. It is determined whether a data packet with the particular MAC address in an Ethernet source field is received within a particular time interval. If not, then a session associated with the particular MAC address is terminated. These techniques allow PPP control plane functionality while utilizing IP over Ethernet for the data plane. |
| US08086748B2 |
Avoiding PPP time outs during IPCP negotiations
Methods and apparatus are presented for extending the protocol synchronization period between a PPP client and a PPP server, wherein the PPP server is located on a wireless communication device. In one aspect, the PPP server generates and sends an IPCP Configure-Nak message to the PPP client whenever the PPP client sends an IPCP Configure-Request message, wherein an arbitrary non-zero value is deliberately sent as the primary DNS address, the secondary DNS address, the primary WINS address, or the secondary WINS address is sent in the IPCP Configure-Nak message. The IP address is deliberately omitted from the IPCP Configure-Nak message. |
| US08086745B2 |
Graphical system and method for user authentication
System and method for graphical user authentication using compact collages of regions of images. Image corpus is constructed by selecting similar quality images and filtering to further homogenize image quality. Regions are detected within the images and scored according to similarity and neighborhood information. Regions with lower scores provide less information about other regions and are more secure secrets. During enrollment, user selects secret images; decoy images are chosen by the system accordingly. Regions from secret images are selected as secrets according to the scoring of regions and regions from decoy images are selected as decoys. A collage is formed with secrets and decoys. Compact rendering enhances security and is suitable for small displays of mobile devices. Several rounds of challenge, requiring identification of secrets, are presented to the user. User is authenticated if a certain number of correct identifications of secrets within a number of rounds are achieved. |
| US08086739B2 |
Method and system for monitoring virtual wires
In general, the invention relates to a method for monitoring virtual wires. The method includes selecting a first virtual wire to monitor, wherein the first virtual wire connects a first virtual network interface card (VNIC) located on a first computer to a second VNIC located on a second computer, where the first computer and the second computer are connected to a chassis, and where the first virtual wire is implemented by the chassis. The method further includes collecting usage statistics associated with the first virtual wire, and performing a first action using the collected usage statistics associated with the first virtual wire. |
| US08086734B2 |
Method of autonomic representative selection in local area networks
A method and apparatus for selecting a client computer as a relay server to rebroadcast common application information that is broadcast from a server system over a network. The client computer is selected randomly to rebroadcast the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) information received from the server system and client computers receiving the UDP information from another client computer relay server on the network do not rebroadcast the information. If the client computer selected to rebroadcast the common information fails to rebroadcast, another client computer is randomly selected as a relay server and takes over rebroadcasting the common information. |
| US08086733B2 |
Method and program for supporting setting of access management information
In order to limit host computers permitted to control a storage area from host computers, provided is a storage management computer coupled to one or more host computers for providing services and one or more storage systems, in which the storage management computer judges whether the host computer is permitted to control the storage area based on data indicating the configuration information of the storage system and service management information for managing the services provided by the host computers, and in case of which it is judged that the host computer is permitted to control the storage area, the storage management computer sets access control data to permit the host computer to control the storage area. |
| US08086731B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for collecting statistics of characteristic value with threshold
A method for collecting statistics of a characteristic value with a threshold includes: determining, according to a total threshold for a characteristic value whose statistic is to be collected, at least one sub-threshold corresponding to at least one application processing apparatus participating in statistic-collection; issuing the at least one sub-threshold respectively to the at least one application processing apparatus, notifying the at least one application processing apparatus to enter into a distributed statistic-collecting state; after receiving from anyone of the at least one application processing apparatus a notification which indicates that a current statistic value of the characteristic value of the application processing apparatus reaches a sub-threshold corresponding to the application processing apparatus, notifying the at least one application processing apparatus to enter into a centralized statistic-collecting state to collect statistics of the characteristic value in a centralized mode. |
| US08086730B2 |
Method and system for monitoring a workstation
A method and system for monitoring a workstation. The system includes a monitoring system for monitoring activity on a workstation and an analysis module for comparing a monitored activity to specified activities in a work profile. The system may include an alert generator for generating an alert if the monitored activity does not conform to the work profile. The work profile may be a user profile of specified activities allowed to be performed by a user, and/or a transaction profile of a sequence of specified activities to be performed in a transaction by a user. The monitoring system includes an inputs monitor for monitoring inputs by the user into the workstation, a screen monitor which extracts content from a screen display viewed by a user, and a physical presence monitor to determine if a user is at his workstation. |
| US08086726B2 |
XI monitoring in high load scenarios (monitoring cockpit)
A monitoring “cockpit” for a message exchange system is presented. In general, the monitoring cockpit provides a set of aggregated views in a graphical user interface that present a direct and intuitive overview of the entire message exchange system. These views provide information about the current state of the message exchange system, of the alerts that have occurred in the system, and of the current state of messaging with performance data of messaging included. From these views, a drilldown function is provided for more detailed views. The monitoring cockpit is designed as a central tool to quickly get an overview of the overall state of a productive message exchange system, allow a user to analyze problems in detail by navigating to the detailed status information, and repair problems by giving links to the appropriate message exchange configuration and administration tools. |
| US08086722B2 |
Techniques for measuring peer-to-peer (P2P) networks
Techniques for measuring Peer-To-Peer (P2P) networks are provided. P2P are initially seeded with links to feigned content. As a P2P participant accesses a link metrics are recorded about the P2P network being used by the participant. The metrics are used to form measurements to compare different P2P networks relative to one another. |
| US08086720B2 |
Performance reporting in a network environment
An example of a solution provided here comprises: collecting data from a plurality of probes, including at least one local probe and at least one remote probe; and reporting the data. For example, the reporting may comprise: reporting a first subset of the data that originated from a local probe; reporting a second subset of the data that originated from remote probes; and employing a similar reporting format for said first subset and said second subset. Thus comparison of data from a local probe and data from remote probes may be facilitated. Another example comprises: receiving data from at least one probe; comparing said data with at least one threshold value derived from a service level agreement; and outputting in a special mode any measured response time value that is greater than the corresponding threshold value. The following are provided: methods for performance reporting in a network environment, systems for executing such methods, and instructions on a computer-usable medium, for executing such methods. |
| US08086717B2 |
Presence information management system and presence information management server
When starting subscribe for acquiring presence information, there is no need of acquiring an identifier of the presentity or an identifier of the group, which have been conventionally indispensable. There is provided a state information management system including a management server for managing state information on a plurality of terminals. Instead of specifying a presentity, a condition of the presentity, such as a value of presence, is specified for subscribing. For example, when subscribe is established by specifying the identical current position as a condition, subscribe for the user matched with the condition is automatically started and the presence can be acquired. When the presence of a partner or user himself/herself is changed to a different value, the presentity is automatically changed. |
| US08086716B2 |
Methods and devices for managing multicast groups
A method for managing multicast traffic in a data network, and devices using said method. The hosts store for each multicast group an included source record and an excluded source record, and the network interfaces of the hosts send to the router a message containing information about the included source record and information about the excluded source record. The router also stores for each multicast group an included source record and an excluded source record, and updates them when it receives through its network interface a message from the hosts containing information about an included source list and/or information about an excluded source list. The devices are a router, host equipment and network equipment compatible with the method. |
| US08086714B2 |
Load balancing system
In a hierarchical load balancing system with each layer including one or more nodes, the load balancing information for all the nodes included in the hierarchical structure is collectively managed by any of the nodes. The load balancing information is defined as the information indicating any one of the number of the processes accepted and the number of the processes executed in the node to which the processing request is distributed, the connection status and the load condition of the node to which the processing request is distributed, and the load balancing manner carried out by the load balancing nodes. |
| US08086713B2 |
Determining a subscriber device has failed gracelessly without issuing a DHCP release message and automatically releasing resources reserved for the subscriber device within a broadband network upon determining that another subscriber device requesting the reservation of a network address has the same context information as the failed subscriber device
In general, techniques are described for automatically releasing network resources reserved for use by network devices within a network. In particular, a network device, such as a router, may include an interface card that receives a first and a second message from respective first and second client devices requesting reservation of network resources. The first message may include a first identifier, while the second message may include a second identifier. Both messages however may also include the same additional context information that identifies the same context in which the first client device operates. The router may include a control unit that determines whether the additional context information included within the first and second messages is the same. Based on a determination that this information is the same, the control unit may automatically release resources reserved for use by the first client device within the network. |
| US08086711B2 |
Threaded messaging in a computer storage system
In one embodiment, a method comprises, using at least one processor, controlling communication between Service Level Agreement (SLA) processes of an SLA services module and at least one I/O performance gateway; and using a thread pair associated with each of the at least one processors, processing inbound signals from the at least one I/O erformance atewa being sent to the SLA services module via an inbound thread, and processing outbound signals to the at least one I/O performance gateway received from the SLA services module via an outbound thread, wherein the inbound thread and the outbound thread operate asynchronously to provide non-blocking messaging. |
| US08086710B2 |
Identity migration apparatus and method
An identity migration program provides interfaces for a user to manage operations for migrating locally-managed identities to centrally-managed identities. The provided interfaces include a project management interface, an identity selection interface, a migration rule editor interface, and a project scheduling interface. In certain embodiments, the identity migration program includes a communication module that provides interfaces for managing communication between the identity migration program and locally-managed and centrally-managed servers. Interfaces may also be provided to manage identity group migration and migration error resolution. A migration process management interface enables the user to halt, roll back, or resume a migration project. |
| US08086707B2 |
Systems and methods for grid agent management
Systems and methods utilize directory services snap-ins to create, maintain, and interpret policies for controlling the execution of grid applications. |
| US08086703B2 |
Takeover processes in security network integrated with premise security system
An integrated security system is described comprising a gateway located at a first location. The gateway includes a takeover component that establishes a coupling with a first controller of a security system installed at the first location. The security system includes security system components coupled to the first controller. The takeover component automatically extracts security data of the security system from the first controller. The gateway automatically transfers the security data extracted from the controller to a second controller. The second controller is coupled to the security system components and replaces the first controller. |
| US08086701B2 |
Platform for managing and configuring network state
A network state platform for managing a network having a number of network nodes is disclosed. A user provides a policy layer a high level instruction indicative of the desired network performance. The policy layer parses the high level instruction to generate a number of configuration instructions for the network nodes. The network nodes provide data logs of their activity to a data layer that collates the logs into a single entry that is stored, and can be accessed by an observation layer. External applications interface with the observation layer to access the stored data and use this information to generate requests to change portions of the network configuration. These requests are provided to a control layer that converts the requests from the applications to a high level instruction that is then provided to the policy layer to implement. |
| US08086697B2 |
Techniques for displaying impressions in documents delivered over a computer network
In one embodiment, an impression to be displayed in a placement of a web page is selected from candidate impressions that may be displayed in the placement. The candidate impression may be chosen based on behavioral data and a placement identifier particularly identifying the placement. The behavioral data may include categories of websites visited by an end-user on the client computer. The candidate impressions may be in learning modes, and the impression displayed in the placement may be selected based on its learning mode and revenue generation capability. |
| US08086690B1 |
Determining geographical relevance of web documents
A geographic relevance component determines geographic relevance of web resources based on an analysis of data points that correspond to estimated physical locations of the IP addresses of a number of visitors to the web site. The geographic relevance component may additionally determine the probability that a particular user is within the geographical relevance corresponding to a web resource. |
| US08086678B2 |
Device centric controls for a device controlled through a web portal
A system controls computer network communication devices in a background session in accordance with a control database. The system includes a computer network communication device having a non-volatile memory containing a unique device identifier and a communication module for communicating with a control site, the communication module being configured to generate monitor messages containing the unique device identifier and data corresponding to entry of a command by a user and to parse command messages received from the control site, and a control site comprising a device database and a control database, the control site being configured to compare data in the monitor message to control data stored in the control database in response to the monitor message having a unique device identifier that is also stored in the device database. |
| US08086676B2 |
Contact aggregator
An integrated web-based communications service provides a content aggregator to simplify the task of managing personal, friends, family, and business contacts via a process of aggregation and consolidation into a central point. The content aggregator imports contacts from existing databases, harvests additional contact information, and maintain the contact information. |
| US08086672B2 |
When-free messaging
The present invention relates to systems and methods that mitigate the intrusiveness of communications between message senders and receivers while facilitating more courteous, seamless, and timely interactions. In one aspect, instant messaging and other forms of communications, such as push-to-talk voice communications, can be improved via employment of time-bounded policies and parameters. When-Free communications allows users to send When-Free messages, that act as near-instant messages that wait until a user or recipient is not in one of a list of states defined as busy or unavailable states. A sender can encode, with a quick gesture or via a standing profile, how long a message is to remain alive before being erased or retracted, or shifted to another communication modality. When-Free variants enable recipients to define policies for handling messages if unavailability persists beyond some time threshold, including the generation of automated responses and the shifting of instant messages to email communications, by moving the conversational thread to an email inbox for later review and response via email or to launch an instant message session that continues where the communication left off. |
| US08086670B1 |
System and methodology providing optimized data exchange with industrial controller
The present invention relates to a system and methodology facilitating network communications between an industrial control system and a client application that interacts with a plurality of data items on the control system. The client application initiates a request or query to the industrial control system for an identification of selected data items of interest. Based on information received in the request, an aggregation component can be constructed by the client, wherein names and buffer allocations relating to the data items of interest are provided. The aggregation component is then installed by the client and updated in the industrial control system, thus providing information access to the client application when fresh or updated information is desired. Information is accessed via a communications packet that is generated from the data items identified in the aggregation component. Information transmitted to the control system can also be optimized by identifying the information via handle identifiers that are employed in place of explicit reference or tag names. |
| US08086656B2 |
System and method for efficient basis conversion
This invention describes a method for evaluating a polynomial in an extension field FqM, wherein the method comprises the steps of partitioning the polynomial into a plurality of parts, each part is comprised of smaller polynomials using a q−th power operation in a field of characteristic q; and computing for each part components of q−th powers from components of smaller powers. A further embodiment of the invention provides for a method of converting a field element represented in terms of a first basis to its representation in a second basis, comprising the steps of partitioning a polynomial, being a polynomial in the second basis, into a plurality of parts, wherein each part is comprised of smaller polynomials using a q−th power operation in a field of characteristic q; evaluating the polynomial at a root thereof by computing for each part components of q−th powers from components of smaller powers; and evaluating the field element at the root of the polynomial. |
| US08086653B1 |
Conditional purchase offer management system
A conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system is disclosed for receiving CPOs from one or more customers, such as airline passengers, and for evaluating the received CPOs against a number of CPO rules defined by a plurality of sellers, such as airlines, to determine whether any seller is willing to accept a given CPO. A CPO is a binding offer containing one or more conditions submitted by a customer for purchase of an item, such as airline travel, at a customer-defined price. A CPO rule is a set of restrictions defined by a given seller, such as an airline, to define a combination of restrictions for which the seller is willing to accept a predefined price. The CPO rules may be securely stored by one or more servers. The CPO management system permits a seller to correct for forecasting errors, if necessary, or other competitive forces which have produced excess capacity, by providing inventory for sale to CPO customers. |
| US08086652B1 |
Storage system-based hole punching for reclaiming unused space from a data container
A system and method reclaims unused storage space from a data container, such as a logical unit number (LUN) of a storage system. In particular, a novel technique is provided that allows a storage system to reclaim storage space not used by a client file system for which the storage system maintains storage, without requiring assistance from the client file system to determine storage usage. In other words, storage system may independently reclaim storage space not used by the client file system, without that file system's intervention. |
| US08086649B1 |
Incremental association of metadata to production data
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates utilizing metadata appended to data related to an industrial automation environment with a controller that is associated with a hierarchically structured data model. An interface component can facilitate receipt of data associated with at least one of an instruction set, a configuration, and a collection. An append component can affix metadata to at least one of the instruction set, the configuration, and the collection, wherein the metadata conforms to a hierarchically structured data model. |
| US08086647B2 |
Sequenced modification of multiple entities based on an abstract data representation
The present invention is generally directed to a system, method and article of manufacture for modifying data represented abstractly through an abstraction model. In one embodiment, a data repository abstraction layer provides a logical view of an underlying data repository that is independent of the particular manner of data representation. A query abstraction layer is also provided and is based on the data repository abstraction layer. A runtime component performs transformation of an abstract query into a form that can be used against a particular physical data representation. The transformation includes ordering physical modification operations according to a physical entity relationships specification to ensure that the physical modification operations are executed in an appropriate order. |
| US08086643B1 |
Translation between product classification schemas
A schema translation tool (36) includes a mapping module (37) that receives information regarding a source schema (70) and a target schema (80). The source and target schemas (70, 80) each include a taxonomy that includes a hierarchy of classes (72, 82) into which products may be categorized. At least the source schema (70) further includes a product ontology, including one or more product attributes, that is associated with one or more of the classes (72). The mapping module (37) associates one or more source classes (72) of the source schema (70) with one or more target classes (82) of the target schema (80). The schema translation tool (36) further includes an ontology generation module (38) that generates a product ontology for each of the target classes (82) based on the product ontologies of the associated source classes (72). |
| US08086642B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for processing hierarchical data in disparate data repositories
An apparatus, system, and method is disclosed for receiving a hierarchical data structure, analyzing the hierarchical data structure to determine what actions are needed to correctly process the hierarchical data structure in a data repository, generating a hierarchical command structure comprising a series of repository-specific commands needed to interface with the data repository, and executing the repository-specific commands to process the hierarchical data structure with respect to the data repository. In selected embodiments, the hierarchical command structure is represented as a series of nodes including a parent node and at least one child node. |
| US08086635B1 |
Compliance monitoring
A managed service may include a device configured to receive a request for access information and to send the access information to a reviewer based on the request. The managed service may receive input information from the reviewer, where the input information reflects changes to the access information and may update the access information based on the input information. The managed service may produce a report related to the updated access information, where the report is configured to reflect actions performed by the reviewer with respect to the access information and where the reviewer's actions are related to a compliance policy. |
| US08086627B2 |
Software inventorying system for a shared file system
Efficiently performing a complete inventory of a shared file system is provided. A list of a set of shared file systems is sent from a configuration management agent to a central server, the list indicates which shared file systems are mounted by a computing device associated with the configuration management agent. Responsive to a notification from a central server indicating that a software inventory scan is to be performed by the configuration management agent, a software inventory scan of the one or more shared file systems is initiated. Results of the software inventory scan are uploaded to the central server and shared with other computing devices that mount the one or more shared file systems in the set of shared file systems. Thus, other the computing devices do not have to scan the one or more shared file systems to retrieve the results of the software inventory scan. |
| US08086622B2 |
Search engine using world map with whois database search restrictions
A search operation can implement a two step approach to provide geographically restricted and verified information to a user. First, high relevance search results are obtained by searching only in a specifically defined region. Second, the quality of the search results can be improved by performing contact address correlation. If the search server finds a reliable reference address in the search results these search results can be presented to the user after removing-search results not correlating well with legitimate and registered addresses. Therefore, the region-restricted presents only presents legitimate web pages or search results to a user. Thus, the region-restricted search operation improves quality and may minimize search time and reduce a huge volume of non-valued Internet traffic, which is likely to impair the overall performance and experience on the Internet. |
| US08086620B2 |
Inference of query relationships
Various example embodiments are provided for inferring relationships between queries. In an example, queries are related based on the identification of common terms between the queries. Another example is to relate queries based on the identification that the queries are associated with a single search session. |
| US08086617B2 |
Link analysis mapping program risk management
A method and system for managing risk by indicating links between one or more persons or entities which can include a process that gathers information about individuals and organizations into a computerized system where it can be analyzed to associate one or more individuals or organizations with links to other individuals or organizations. A user can designate a person or entity and the system will provide an indication of linkages associated with the designated person. Some embodiments can include a user specifying a particular type of link or limit links to a specified degree of separation between the designated person and any other person or entity. |
| US08086614B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating relevance-sensitive collation keys
A method and apparatus for generating collation keys that can be used by sorting methods so as to arrange a sequence of data objects in order of their semantic relevance to the user or their relevance to an operating context. The constituent data values of each data object are “weighted” according to semantic relevance and a composite collation key is generated that reflects the data object's overall relevance. |
| US08086611B2 |
Parametric analysis of media metadata
A method is disclosed that includes receiving a request to transmit a first multimedia file. The first multimedia file is associated with a first file descriptor. The method includes automatically generating a first generated content descriptor by analyzing the first multimedia file using a first set of analysis parameters. The method also includes comparing the first generated content descriptor to the first file descriptor and determining a first score based on a deviation of the first generated content descriptor from the first file descriptor. |
| US08086609B2 |
Graph caching
In a method and apparatus for analyzing nodes of a Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA), an accessibility ranking, based on a DFA graph geometrical configuration, may be determined in order to determine cacheable portions of the DFA graph in order to reduce the number of external memory accesses. A walker process may be configured to walk the graph in a graph cache as well as main memory. The graph may be generated in a manner allowing each arc to include information if the node it is pointing to is stored in the graph cache or in main memory. The walker may use this information to determine whether or not to access the next arc in the graph cache or in main memory. |
| US08086608B2 |
Management of resource identifiers
Method, system, and computer program product for managing resource identifiers are provided. The method provides for creating a hierarchical taxonomy for a plurality of resource identifiers, the hierarchical taxonomy being based on a plurality of tags and one or more hierarchical relationships among the plurality of tags, categorizing the plurality of resource identifiers in accordance with the hierarchical taxonomy, building a hierarchical view of the plurality of resource identifiers based on categorization of the plurality of resource identifiers in accordance with the hierarchical taxonomy, and displaying the hierarchical view of the plurality of resource identifiers. |
| US08086602B2 |
User interface methods and systems for selecting and presenting content based on user navigation and selection actions associated with the content
A user-interface method of selecting and presenting a collection of content items based on user navigation and selection actions associated with the content is provided. The method includes associating a relevance weight on a per user basis with content items to indicate a relative measure of likelihood that the user desires the content item. The method includes receiving a user's navigation and selections actions for identifying desired content items, and in response, adjusting the associated relevance weight of the selected content item and group of content items containing the selected item. The method includes, in response to subsequent user input, selecting and presenting a subset of content items and content groups to the user ordered by the adjusted associated relevance weights assigned to the content items and content groups. |
| US08086600B2 |
Interleaving search results
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for interleaving search results. A method includes presenting multiple first search results received from a first search engine. The first search results satisfy a search query directed to the first search engine and are presented in an order. A second search result from a second search engine is inserted at a position between two otherwise adjacent first search results. The second search result is received from a second search engine in response to the search query. |
| US08086595B2 |
Systems and methods for solving multiple interacting state-space search problems
A combinatorial search method and system is implemented in a computer control system for utilizing state-space planning of operations for multi-step production processes. The planner considers various possible combinations of actions, searching for one that correctly transforms the initial state of the object (or commodity) into the specified desired final state, where each combination of actions the planner considers is called a search node. Each node contains a plan representing a series of actions of a plurality of machines on a single object and also containing the predicted state of the object with those actions applied either forward or backward. The state of the object consists of the set of attributes of the object. The method and system include multiple individual state-space search operations having a plurality of nodes, at least some of the nodes include children, and the children of the nodes represent potential solutions to existing problems to be solved, and the multiple state-space search operations are linked into a single search tree. |
| US08086594B1 |
Bifurcated document relevance scoring
An information retrieval system uses phrases to index, retrieve, organize and describe documents. Phrases are extracted from the document collection. Documents are the indexed according to their included phrases, using phrase posting lists. The phrase posting lists are stored in an cluster of index servers. The phrase posting lists can be tiered into groups, and sharded into partitions. Phrases in a query are identified based on possible phrasifications. A query schedule based on the phrases is created from the phrases, and then optimized to reduce query processing and communication costs. The execution of the query schedule is managed to further reduce or eliminate query processing operations at various ones of the index servers. |
| US08086592B2 |
Apparatus and method for associating unstructured text with structured data
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive a semantic abstraction describing at least one underlying data source. The semantic abstraction includes at least one dimension with at least one dimension value. Unstructured text is parsed into parsed text units. A dimension value is matched to a parsed text unit to form matched content. An indication of the matched content is stored. |
| US08086587B2 |
Information processing apparatus, method, and program
An information processing apparatus searches search target frame images in video data to find a frame image matching a search query frame image. An extractor extracts characteristic quantities expressing the characteristics of respective images. A reliability judge judges the reliability of the values of each characteristic quantity in a characteristic quantity group extracted from the search query frame. If certain characteristic quantity values in the search query frame are judged to be of low reliability, the converter converts those values into predetermined values. Values are similarly converted for all search target frames. A comparer compares the converted characteristic quantities in the search query frame to the converted characteristic quantities in all search target frames. On the basis of the comparisons, a decision unit then chooses a search solution frame that matches the search query frame. In so doing, search processing robustness with respect to data variance is improved. |
| US08086586B2 |
Accessing a data structure
There is disclosed a method, apparatus, computer program and computer program product for facilitating access by an application to a data structure comprising a plurality of objects. A request is received from the application which initiates the return of the data structure. A handle is assigned to each of at least some of the plurality of objects. Objects in the data structure are retrieved and the application is informed of assigned handles thereby enabling the application to access retrieved objects. |
| US08086585B1 |
Access control to block storage devices for a shared disk based file system
For enhanced access control, a client includes a token in each read or write command sent to a block storage device. The block storage device evaluates the token to determine whether or not read or write access is permitted at a specified logical block address. For example, the token is included in the logical block address field of a SCSI read or write command. The client may compute the token as a function of the logical block address of a data block to be accessed, or a metadata server may include the token in each block address of each extent reported to the client in response to a metadata request. For enhanced security, the token also is a function of a client identifier, a logical unit number, and access rights of the client to a particular extent of file system data blocks. |
| US08086579B1 |
Semantic response to lock requests to reduce coherence overhead in multi-node systems
Techniques are provided for lock management. The techniques are based on an enhanced lock management system that generates a semantic response in response to lock requests for a resource. The semantic response communicates both the underlying cause blocking the request, and information that may be used by the requester to obtain notification of when the underlying cause should no longer lead to denial of the lock request. The semantic response may be generated by the master of the resource, who provides the semantic response to the local lock manager of the lock requester. The semantic response may be retained by the local lock manager so that the semantic response can be provided to subsequent lock requesters, without need for interacting with another lock manager on another node. |
| US08086576B2 |
Apparatus and system for reorganizing a set of database partitions
An apparatus and system are disclosed for reorganizing a set of database partitions based on a ranked set of database partitions. The apparatus includes an evaluation module to determine a fragmentation indicator for each database partition within a set of database partitions. A ranking module ranks the set of database partitions according to a rank criteria. The rank criteria includes, at a minimum, the fragmentation indicator. A reorganization module reorganizes a subset of the database partitions in the ranked set of database partitions. The subset is selected, at least in part, by a rank order for the ranked set of database partitions. The subset may be selected such that ranked database partitions satisfying a dynamic reorganization threshold are included in the subset. |
| US08086569B2 |
Asynchronous detection of local event based point-in-time state of local-copy in the remote-copy in a delta-set asynchronous remote replication
A storage system executes a delta set asynchronous remote replication protocol, wherein writes to a local copy are aggregated into delta sets during successive delta cycles. The delta sets are sent to a remote storage system to be written to a remote copy. Independent of the delta cycles, the local storage system receives a signal representing an external event. In response to receiving the signal, all writes just prior to and in accordance with the external event are posted to the local copy, the current delta set is ended, and a marker delta set is inserted in the delta set stream. The delta sets received at the remote storage system are monitored for the marker delta set. When the marker delta set is received, it is indicated that the remote copy is consistent with the local copy just prior to the external event at the local storage system. |
| US08086568B2 |
Peer to peer (P2P) concept query notification of available query augmentation within query results
Embodiments of the invention are generally related to data processing, and more specifically to retrieving results for a query from one or more devices coupled to a network. A first device may receive an abstract query including logical fields defined by a first data abstraction model and retrieve query results stored in the first device. The query may be sent to one or more other devices via the network. The one or more other devices may be configured to convert the abstract query to local abstract queries including logical fields defined in local data abstraction models. The local queries may be issued against local databases to retrieve additional results for the query. |
| US08086566B2 |
Transaction consistent content replication
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to methodologies, computer program products and systems for the support of content replication, wherein transaction-level data replication consistency is guaranteed. Further, the exemplary methodologies of the present invention can be implemented while incurring little or no additional I/O overhead. |
| US08086565B2 |
File system watcher in the presence of different file systems
The claimed subject matter is directed to a file system watcher in the presence of different file systems to allow synchronization of replicated files distributed among different file systems without compromising the features of each file system. To synchronize the distributed replications, a platform independent synchronization manager creates a file system watcher for each file system associated with a replication of the file. The file system watcher monitors each object for events affecting the object or the object's constituent files, such as creation, deletion, change and rename. Notifications are sent to the synchronization manager, which consolidates the modifications and updates a locally stored replication, if necessary. The synchronization manager then sends a notification of an update to all other synchronization managers for all replications of the distributed file or folder. Synchronization is complete when the nonconforming synchronization managers acquire a replication of the locally stored replication and update their respective objects to conform therewith. |
| US08086564B2 |
Techniques for the logical replication of high-level procedures
A method and system that annotates a redo log to provide information concerning the execution of a procedure at a primary database. The annotations include entry and exit markers that indicate the beginning and the end of the execution along with any arguments passed to the procedure, and whether the execution of the procedure was successful. At the standby database, these markers are used to create a logical transaction associated with the procedure. The operations performed by the procedure are grouped into individual transactions, and these individual transactions are grouped as belonging to the logical transaction. If the execution of the procedure was successful at the primary database, then the individual transactions are discarded, and the logical transaction is applied by executing the procedure at the standby database. If the execution of the procedure failed at the primary database, then the individual transactions and the logical transaction are discarded. |
| US08086563B2 |
Acquisition and particular association of data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user in connection with at least a particular item of an electronic message, and associating the data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with the particular item. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. |
| US08086561B2 |
Document searching system and document searching method
In a document searching system, a first storing apparatus, a second storing apparatus, and a document managing apparatus are connected to one another. The document managing apparatus stores structure information that shows a hierarchical structure regarding hierarchy positional relationships among the elements in the structured documents stored in the first and the second storing apparatuses. The document managing apparatus extracts an identical element that is a predetermined element in the structured documents stored in the second storing apparatus that matches the element in the structured documents stored in the first storing apparatus. The first storing apparatus stores the structured documents and conducts a search in the stored structured documents for one of the structured documents that contains the received identical element. The second storing apparatus conducts a search for one of the structured documents containing the identical element that matches the received text information. |
| US08086560B2 |
Schema mapping specification framework
A method, system and program product for specifying, in a schema mapping framework, a mapping between a source schema and a target schema. The source and target schemas are schemas included in respective groups of registered, heterogeneous schemas. The source and target schemas may be of different types. Serialized versions of the source and target schemas include source objects and target objects, respectively. A mapping model is serialized into mapping objects that include logical references representing the source objects and logical references representing the target objects. The logical references are resolved to the source objects and target objects, thereby storing pointers to the source objects and to the target objects. After resolving the logical references, the mapping model includes the logical references and the pointers to the source and target objects. |
| US08086559B2 |
Serving content-relevant advertisements with client-side device support
A client-side application (such as a browser, a browser plug-in, a browser toolbar plug-in, etc. on an end user's computer) is used to support the serving of content-relevant ads to the client device. The client-side application may provide such support by sending document information (such as a document identifier, document content, content relevance information, etc.) to a content ad server. The client-side application may also be used to combine content of the document and the content-relevant ads. For example, the client-side application may combine content of the document and the ads in a window (e.g., in a browser window), may provide the ads in a window above, below, adjacent to a document window, may provide the ads in “chrome” of the browser, etc. |
| US08086553B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing file systems and file-based data storage
Embodiments of the present invention can comprise systems and methods for managing filesystems and can provide a programmable filesystem with active rules and policies, an n-tier network filesystem, stack mounting, a union filesystem with write-through semantics, a filesystem middleware with selective delegation, a filesystem with a statistical warehouse and/or other management functionality. |
| US08086551B2 |
Electronic system with simulated sense perception and method of providing simulated sense perception
A method of providing sense perception to an electronic system includes capturing a plurality of data sets, each data set representing an observation of a scene from a different perspective, comparing the data sets to identify invariants in the data sets, comparing the invariants to identify objects including the invariants, comparing the identified invariants and objects to other identified invariants and objects to identify additional objects including invariants not yet included in previously identified objects, and outputting data indicative of the identified objects and invariants. The different perspectives can be temporal (e.g., time sequenced), positional (e.g., movement of sensors), etc. The data sets can include data indicative of optical images, sound, and/or any other type of sensory data. The invariants can be data representations of color patches in an optical image. The data sets can include data indicative of at least three different types of sense perceptions. |
| US08086548B2 |
Measuring document similarity by inferring evolution of documents through reuse of passage sequences
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for estimating document similarity. During operation, the system selects a collection of documents which includes a first set of passages, constructs a passage-sequence model based on the first set of passages, receives a new document which includes a second set of passages, and determines a sequence of operations associated with the new document in relation to the collection of documents based on the constructed passage-sequence model. |
| US08086545B2 |
Charging in a communication system
A method and a system for determining a charge for a communication in a communications network is provided. A message is received from a user equipment. The message comprises a payload and is addressed to a plurality of destinations. A first message is sent towards a destination of the plurality of destinations. The first message comprises the payload, a first charging identifier, and a second charging identifier. The first charging identifier is associated with the message and the second charging identifier is generated for the destination. A charging message is sent to a network node to charge an account of the user equipment. The charging message comprises the first charging identifier and the second charging identifier. |
| US08086542B2 |
System and method for promoting intellectual property
A method and system for the online promotion of intellectual property includes providing an Internet host station with at least one database that is connectable via the Internet to consumer stations and industry stations. The database includes a plurality of intellectual property items and a description of each intellectual property item. At least one of the intellectual property items is selected by a consumer station and the description associated with the selected intellectual property item is viewed at the consumer station. Portions of the description may be confidential and therefore not normally viewed at the consumer station. Feedback data is sent from the consumer station to the host station. The feedback data includes consumer opinion information of the selected intellectual property item based at least in part on the description of the selected intellectual property item. The feedback data is then accessed from an industry station to thereby determine the interest in the selected intellectual property item based on the consumer opinion. |
| US08086541B2 |
Systems and methods for generating advertiser recommendations from users of workflow software
A method for displaying targeted advertisements to users of workflow software, based on information corresponding to the workflow, the related industry, and the user of the workflow software includes: receiving, from an identified user, a request to display a step in a workflow, the workflow corresponding to a given industry; determining, based on (i) the identified user, (ii) the step in the workflow, and (iii) the corresponding industry, an advertisement to be displayed in conjunction with the step in the workflow; and transmitting, to the identified user, the requested workflow step and the determined advertisement. Corresponding systems are also described. |
| US08086538B2 |
Meeting usage of services in a environment
A solution for metering usage of services—for example, in a SOA Framework—is proposed. For this purpose, the submission of any invocation of a provider service by a consumer service is intercepted by a license manager; a corresponding request is then submitted to a dedicated licensing service, which returns an entitlement code when the consumer service is entitled to submit the service invocation. The service invocation is decorated with this entitlement code and actually submitted to the provider service. The (decorated) service invocation addressed to the provider service is likewise intercepted by another license manager; a request is then submitted to the licensing service for verifying the received entitlement code. The running of the provider service is then enabled only if the entitlement code is correct. |
| US08086526B2 |
Hybrid account
A system, according to one embodiment, includes a hybrid account provided by an issuer to a user, the hybrid account having a balance, the balance being either positive, zero, or negative; and a financial instrument including a hybrid card, the hybrid card providing access to the hybrid account, in which transactions using the hybrid card provide interchange income to the issuer, the issuer charges interest to the hybrid account when the balance is negative, and the issuer pays interest to the hybrid account when the balance is positive. |
| US08086524B1 |
Systems and methods for transaction processing and balance transfer processing
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer implemented method for transaction processing that includes: transacting for a first and a second transactions for at least one of: a purchase; and a cash advance; sending requests for authorization of the first and second transactions; declining, by a primary lender, the requests for authorization; evaluating the declined requests for authorization by a secondary lender; authorizing, by the secondary lender, the declined requests for authorization in the form of authorization approvals; communicating the authorization approvals by the primary lender; posting the transactions to a balance sheet of the secondary lender in the form of amounts due to the primary lender; funding the transactions by the primary lender; summing up one or more debits and one or more credits of the posted transactions of the secondary lender; and settling any amounts due between the primary and secondary lenders. |
| US08086520B2 |
Constraint satisfaction for solutions to an auction winner-determination problem
A set of solutions satisfying a constraint for an auction winner-determination problem are computed by generating a graph of paths, wherein each path represents a solution to the auction winner-determination problem that satisfies the constraint. |
| US08086519B2 |
System and method for facilitating a wireless financial transaction
A method for executing a wireless trade is provided that includes communicating with a handheld device via a wireless network and sending and receiving financial information to and from the handheld device. The financial information is associated with a trade that can be initiated by the handheld device. The method also includes authorizing the handheld device through location data, which is associated with a location of the handheld device, before executing the trade. |
| US08086518B1 |
Allotting an award volume in an auction
A method of allocating an award in an auction wherein an award for a given auction round is allocated amongst a plurality of highest ranked bidders is disclosed. The method allocates the award between at least the first and second bidders. The method includes conducting the auction and allocating the award between at least the first and second bidders in accordance with the rank of the bidders and a predetermined divisional arrangement. A system, an apparatus, and a bidding device that perform the method are also disclosed. |
| US08086517B2 |
System and method for constraining depletion amount in a defined time frame
Embodiments disclosed herein provide price protection on commodity purchases in which a consumer can select, accept, or otherwise agree to a depletion constraint on the consumption of the commodity thus purchased. Based on the agreed depletion constraint, a provider may adjust terms and/or the price of the price protection. In some embodiments, the depletion constraint can be time-based, quantity-based, value-based, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the depletion constraint can be linear. In some embodiments, a consumer may be required to purchase a certain amount of the commodity during a specified time frame. In some embodiments, the provider of the price protection may receive a payment from the consumer when the retail price of the commodity at the time of the purchase is below a specified floor price. In some embodiments, the commodity is motor fuel. |
| US08086516B2 |
Methods and systems for interest rate prediction
In one aspect, the invention comprises a computer-implemented method for predicting interest rates, comprising the steps of: electronically receiving data describing one or more Fed fund futures rates; electronically adjusting the data describing the one or more Fed fund futures rates to obtain adjusted data regarding the one or more Fed fund futures rates; and electronically determining data regarding one or more expected Fed fund target rates. In another aspect, the invention comprises a system for predicting interest rates, comprising: one or more processors operable to determine probability distribution data for one or more Eurodollar rates based on Eurodollar futures option data; one or more processors operable to link said probability distribution data for one or more Eurodollar rates to overnight forward Fed funds rate data; and one or more processors operable to link said forward Fed funds rate data to expected Fed funds rate data. |
| US08086514B2 |
Method and apparatus for rebalancing an investment portfolio using a portfolio investment system
A computer based portfolio manager system enables a user to create and manage a portfolio of investments. Users can create multiple sub-portfolios, termed folios, within their overall investment portfolio. Each of these folios can be created by the user or selected from multiple preset folios. One of the possible preset folios includes a manager's recommended folio. This folio is regularly updated, thereby indicating buy and sell recommendations of the manager. A user can balance his or her folio in accordance with the manager's revisions by investing additional capital in some securities and selling others. To prevent undesirable tax effects, a user can move securities from the manager's folio to a holding folio established by the user rather than selling the securities. This enables a user to maintain a folio in the proportions recommended by the manager. The system also enables the folio to be continually rebalanced, while avoiding undesirable tax effects. |
| US08086507B1 |
Method for administering finances via an electronic network
The present invention provides a method of administering finances via an electronic network. The administrator creates accounts for users that the administrator wants to oversee. The administrator can supply financial parameters to configure the accounts where such financial parameters might include the amount of a recurring weekly allowance payment, an account interest rate, a list of investment instruments that the user would be allowed to transact with. The administrator is able to set interest rates and other financial parameters at their discretion and not subject to prevailing market conditions. The system automatically updates the account to keep track of allowance and interest payments. The system allows the users and administrator to record financial transactions and keep track of and view the user's balance and holdings. |
| US08086501B2 |
Method and system for creative collaborative marketplaces
In an embodiment, a method of conducting a multi-level transaction includes receiving a primary call for proposals, receiving one or more primary bids by a computing system with respect to the primary call for proposals, receiving one or more secondary calls for proposals for each primary bid, receiving one or more secondary bids by a computing system with respect to the one or more secondary calls for proposals, automatically determining an estimate of a trustworthiness rating for each primary bid, receiving the selection of a primary bid based on the estimates of the trustworthiness rating, and displaying the selection of the primary bid. Each secondary call for proposals includes a job request associated with the primary bid. The estimate of the trustworthiness rating is based on a trustworthiness rating associated with the primary bid and one or more secondary bid trustworthiness ratings. |
| US08086499B2 |
Method and system for conducting an auction having a plurality of online bidders and site bidder
A method, system, server processing system and/or computer program product of conducting an auction having an online bidder and a site bidder, wherein a server processing system is in communication with a client processing system of the online bidder. The method includes: allowing the online bidder and/or site bidder to submit one or more bids prior to a first event, wherein a bid by a online bidder received by the server processing system is considered for acceptance prior to the first event; and in response to the first event: restricting, in the server processing system, a bid being accepted from the online bidder in the auction; and allowing a bid to be submitted by the site bidder in the auction. |
| US08086496B2 |
Aggregation of product data provided from external sources for presentation on an E-commerce website
Aggregation of product data provided from external sources of product data for presentation on an e-commerce website. A set of product data related to a product that is offered for sale in e-commerce is accessed and subjected to an aggregation process. The set of product data is mapped for aggregation with other sets of product data based on an existing mapping or on an absence of an existing mapping. Access is provided to an aggregated set of product data that includes the set of product data that is mapped for aggregation with other sets of product data, for presentation on an e-commerce website. |
| US08086495B2 |
Device and a method for ordering product at a premises via an integrated multimedia service system
A product ordering device provided at a digital home system at a user premises is disclosed. The digital home system comprises a user terminal and a gateway device within the premises. Occupants at the premises enjoy the product ordering service on an interactive user interface displayed via the user terminal. The gateway device is coupled for communication with the user terminal via a local area network, and for communication with a wide area network outside the premises; and the gateway device is configured for obtaining product data via the wide area network and providing the product data to the terminal for display on the display device. Upon placement of a product order by a user input through the terminal, the gateway device sends an order message outside of the integrated multimedia service system to request a corresponding vendor for the ordered product to deliver the ordered product at the premises. The product ordering service and the product data are provided and updated by a management server located outside of the premises. |
| US08086494B2 |
System and method for an electronic gift key
A system and method for a physically-based gift key enabling a purchaser to deliver a single, fully-integrated gift item to a recipient and including an electronic greeting card and store credits redeemable online is presented. The method includes the steps of activating a gift key, customizing an electronic greeting card associated with the gift key at a host site via physical or wireless linkage of a gift key to a first local computer, accessing the greeting card at the host site via linkage of the gift key to a second local computer, and redeeming a store credit associated with the gift key at a retail website accessible from the host site. The system includes a gift key and a host computer system directly or indirectly controlling a host site. The gift key has a housing, an integrated circuit within the housing, and a connector or wireless interface extending from the housing so as to allow linkage of the gift key with a computer remotely located with respect to the host and retailer sites. The local computer automatically launches a website at the host or retailer levels when the gift key is linked to the local computer. |
| US08086493B2 |
System and method for facilitating a financial transaction with a dynamically generated identifier
Instead of a PIN which is associated with an account and provides access to an account, a dynamically generated card identifier (dynamic CID) is used to verify that the consumer currently possesses the transaction card at the time of purchase and/or is the true card owner. At the time of purchase, a token generates a dynamic CID, which changes with each transaction. A consumer enters the dynamic CID into a pre-existing CID field in an electronic order form. The merchant then sends the dynamic CID to a card authorization system within an authorization request. The card authorization system issues a response to a merchant system via a pre-existing authorization message indicating that the transaction card and dynamic CID have been validated, thereby adjusting the fraud risk associated with the transaction. |
| US08086489B2 |
Method and apparatus to provide information and consumer-acceptable advertising via data communications clients
In a data communication system a SMS data communication client operates in known fashion. An additional communication channel is established and data being entered into the client is transmitted to a central server. At the server end the user is identified in a customer database which also stored a profile of the user. Information from an ad database is selected for transmission back to the client in dependence upon the data and profile. Where the information takes the form of advertising, it may be displayed by the client as a truncated indicator during message entry and a fuller composition with active links after sending is completed. |
| US08086476B2 |
Method for directed advertising and information distribution using a wireless communications network
A method of and system for directing targeted advertising or transmitting information to end users, using wireless or mobile media, including cellular media, is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method and system interconnects (a) advertisers or sponsors, (b) wireless device users (“system users”), and (c) wireless telecommunications companies (“telecoms”), via (d) an intermediary or “hub entity.” The hub entity maintains and controls computer operated software and data bases to direct specific advertising or information to targeted system users; collects subscription fees and distributes advertising fees; and determines the effectiveness of various advertising or information transmitted to specific system users. The method can further be customized for application as an information provider, alert notice or security warning system. In other embodiments the method and system may be applied to work with the membership of an organization, such as credit card companies' cardholders, an insurance companies' policy holders, employees, tenants, or other local, national, or world-wide groups or organizations. |
| US08086475B2 |
Investment insurance auctioning method and system thereof
A method for providing investment insurance, and a related system, for use in the insurance business of financial e-commerce provides a novel funding operation approach to investment insurance. The novel funding operation approach allows a user to select to expand credit, and increase return on investment, or select to deposit with zero risk. The system for investment insurance allows insurance companies to receive a surrender fee and eliminate interest risk, and the applicant may expand their credit to increase their return on investment for enhanced protection of their insurance policy. |
| US08086474B1 |
Managing insurance claim data
A method for managing insurance claim data involves identifying a first insurance claim data and a second insurance claim data using pattern recognition on multiple insurance claim data associated with an insured party, where the first insurance claim data and the second insurance claim data are associated with a single insurance claim associated with the insured party, where the second insurance claim data is later in time than the first insurance claim data, and where the second insurance claim data includes a modification of the single insurance claim relative to the first insurance claim data. The method further involves determining a financial responsibility of the insured party for the single insurance claim based on the second insurance claim data, and presenting the first insurance claim data, the second insurance claim data, and the financial responsibility in a graphical user interface (GUI). |
| US08086473B2 |
Method and system for managing operations and processes in healthcare delivery in a hospital
A method and system for managing healthcare delivery is presented. The method includes receiving data related to patients and the patients' scheduled procedures. Based on the data, a queue is generated for screening the patients. The patients are screened in accordance with the screening queue. Once screened, data related to tracking the patients is obtained. The tracking data is used to generate a tracking queue. The patients are tracked in relation to the tracking queue. |
| US08086471B2 |
Computer-implemented system and method for electronic medication administration records
A system for electronic medication administration records comprising a cart station located at a skilled nursing facility, administration web pages, and a healthcare server not located at the skilled nursing facility. The cart station utilizes a plan builder algorithm to build a plan for each patient based on data contained in the cart station database. The plan comprises a list of the patient's procedures for a given day and information indicating whether such procedures have been completed. The cart station utilizes a plan runner algorithm to maintain and update the plan for each patient. The administration web pages allow an administrator to manage utilization of the system. The healthcare server and the cart station utilize a synchronization algorithm to maintain accurate and timely data for all of the skilled nursing facilities that use the system. A method of maintaining electronic medication administration records using the system described above. |
| US08086470B2 |
System and method for monitoring medication prescriptions using biometric identification and verification
This invention is a system and method for a matching system that cross-references patients anonymously with doctors and pharmacies. The invention uses patient-unique biometrics, such as fingerprinting, retinal scanning, or another such unique identifier, for patient identification and verification without revealing a patient's name or other personal information. The system tracks patient prescriptions and produces alerts to indicate potential problems, such as drug interactions or possible fraudulent behavior. The system can produce a traceable paper trail, for investigation or prosecution, and protects the medical industry, patients, and the public from the consequences of doctor shopping. |
| US08086469B2 |
Pharmaceutical clearinghouse method and system
A pharmaceutical clearinghouse establishes relationships with a set of foundations and a set of pharmaceutical providers; in response to the clearinghouse receiving a patient request for a pharmaceutical from a foundation, the clearinghouse obtains a subsidy from at least one provider and directs the subsidy to the foundation. The subsidy can be cash, in-kind drug, or a combination thereof. |
| US08086465B2 |
Transform domain transcoding and decoding of audio data using integer-reversible modulated lapped transforms
A “STAC Codec” provides audio transcoding and decoding by processing an encoded audio signal using a backward-adaptive run-length Golomb-Rice (RLGR) decoder to recover transform coefficients of the encoded audio signal. The transform coefficients are then either transcoded in the transform domain to lossy or other formats, or decoded to the time domain by applying an inverse integer-reversible modulated lapped transform (MLT) to the recovered transform coefficients to recover an uncompressed time domain representation compressed audio signal. In additional embodiments, an inter-block spectral estimation and inverse data sorting strategy is used in recovering the transform coefficients from the encoded audio signal. In other embodiments, conversion from lossless encoding to near-lossless encoding is achieved by right-shifting recovered transform coefficients by some number of bits such that quantization errors are not perceived as distortion in the decoded audio signal, then re-encoding the right shifted transform coefficients. |
| US08086464B2 |
System for low-latency animation of talking heads
Methods and apparatus for rendering a talking head on a client device are disclosed. The client device has a client cache capable of storing audio/visual data associated with rendering the talking head. The method comprises storing sentences in a client cache of a client device that relate to bridging delays in a dialog, storing sentence templates to be used in dialogs, generating a talking head response to a user inquiry from the client device, and determining whether sentences or stored templates stored in the client cache relate to the talking head response. If the stored sentences or stored templates relate to the talking head response, the method comprises instructing the client device to use the appropriate stored sentence or template from the client cache to render at least a part of the talking head response and transmitting a portion of the talking head response not stored in the client cache, if any, to the client device to render a complete talking head response. If the client cache has no stored data associated with the talking head response, the method comprises transmitting the talking head response to be rendered on the client device. |
| US08086462B1 |
Automatic detection, summarization and reporting of business intelligence highlights from automated dialog systems
A method and system for reporting data from a spoken dialog service is disclosed. The method comprises extracting data regarding user dialogs using a dialog logging module in the spoken dialog service, analyzing the data to identify trends and reporting the trends. The data may be presented in a visual form for easier consumption. The method may also relate to identifying data within the control or outside the control of a service provider that is used to adjust the spoken dialog service to maximize customer retention. |
| US08086456B2 |
Methods and apparatus for rapid acoustic unit selection from a large speech corpus
A speech synthesis system can select recorded speech fragments, or acoustic units, from a very large database of acoustic units to produce artificial speech. The selected acoustic units are chosen to minimize a combination of target and concatenation costs for a given sentence. However, as concatenation costs, which are measures of the mismatch between sequential pairs of acoustic units, are expensive to compute, processing can be greatly reduced by pre-computing and caching the concatenation costs. Unfortunately, the number of possible sequential pairs of acoustic units makes such caching prohibitive. A method for constructing an efficient concatenation cost database is provided by synthesizing a large body of speech, identifying the acoustic unit sequential pairs generated and their respective concatenation costs. By constructing a concatenation cost database in this fashion, the processing power required at run-time is greatly reduced with negligible effect on speech quality. |
| US08086451B2 |
System for improving speech intelligibility through high frequency compression
A speech enhancement system that improves the intelligibility and the perceived quality of processed speech includes a frequency transformer and a spectral compressor. The frequency transformer converts speech signals from the time domain to the frequency domain. The spectral compressor compresses a pre-selected portion of the high frequency band and maps the compressed high frequency band to a lower band limited frequency range. |
| US08086450B2 |
Excitation vector generator, speech coder and speech decoder
A code excited linear prediction type speech coder, which includes a seed storage that stores seeds used as an initial state of oscillation, and an oscillator that generates different vector sequences in accordance with values of the seeds stored in the seed storage and outputs the vector sequences as excitation vectors. The speech coder also includes a linear predictive coding synthesis filter that receives, as input, the excitation vectors, which are the vector sequences generated in accordance with the values of the seeds, that synthesizes the excitation vectors, and that outputs a synthesized speech. |
| US08086449B2 |
Vocal fry detecting apparatus
A VF detecting apparatus capable of highly accurate vocal fry (VF) detection includes: a very-short-term peak detection processing unit framing a speech signal with a first frame of a first frame length and first frame shift amount and detecting each power peak; a short-term periodicity detecting unit framing the speech signal with a second frame of a second frame length longer than the first frame length and a second frame shift amount larger than the first frame length and determining presence/absence of periodicity in each of the resulting frame; a periodicity checking unit for detecting power peaks in those frames determined to have no periodicity, from among the detected power peaks; and a similarity checking unit for detecting, for each of the selected power peaks, neighboring power peaks having high cross-correlation and detecting the section therebetween as the VF section. |
| US08086448B1 |
Dynamic modification of a high-order perceptual attribute of an audio signal
Processing an audio signal associated with a sound recording made available to be rendered to an end user is disclosed. The audio signal is received. A high-order perceptual attribute of the audio signal as rendered is changed by modifying the audio signal. The modification may be based on real-time analysis of the audio signal. |
| US08086446B2 |
Method and apparatus for non-overlapped transforming of an audio signal, method and apparatus for adaptively encoding audio signal with the transforming, method and apparatus for inverse non-overlapped transforming of an audio signal, and method and apparatus for adaptively decoding audio signal with the inverse transforming
A method and apparatus for transforming an audio signal, a method and apparatus for adaptively encoding an audio signal, a method and apparatus for inversely transforming an audio signal, and a method and apparatus for adaptively decoding an audio signal. The method of transforming an audio signal includes determining a transform unit into which the audio signal in a time domain is to be transformed into an audio signal in a frequency domain, and transforming the audio signal into an audio signal in the frequency domain according to the determined transform units using a window coefficient other than 0. Accordingly, it is possible to minimize distortion of the audio signal when encoding the audio signal even at a high bit rate while increasing efficiency of compression. |
| US08086444B2 |
Method and system for grammar relaxation
The method and system for modifications of grammars presented in this invention applies to automatic speech recognition systems which take a spoken utterance as input and use a grammar to assign word sequence(s) and, possibly, one or more semantic interpretations to that utterance. One type of modification may take a form of reducing the importance of select grammar components based on the analysis of the occurrence of these components in the original grammar. Another type of modification may take form of adding new grammar components to the grammar of some semantic interpretations based on the analysis of the occurrence of these components in the select set of other semantic interpretations. Both modifications can be carried out either automatically or offered for validation. Some benefits of the presented method and system are: reduced effort for building grammars, improvement of recognition accuracy, automatic adaptation of dynamic grammars to the context. |
| US08086439B2 |
Translation of text into numbers
A text string representing a number in a specific language is converted to a text string by tokenizing the string, distributing the tokens across a multi-level data structure to find possible distributions, and analyzing the combinations to find a valid distribution. The valid distribution may be interpreted to yield a numerical value based on the data structure. The data structure may be readily developed for any language. |
| US08086434B2 |
Methods for optimal operation of light emitting diodes
LED illumination systems are formed with a suitable choice of LED and/or heatsink, such that an optimum operating power is identified using computer modeling for a desired output luminous flux, given the constraints of the rated power of the LED and the heatsink. |
| US08086427B2 |
Method and apparatus for the registration of 3D ear impression models
A method of designing hearing aid molds is disclosed whereby two shapes corresponding to graphical images of ear impressions are registered with each other to facilitate joint processing of the hearing aid design. In a first embodiment, a first graphical representation of a first ear impression is received and a feature, such as the aperture of the ear impression, is identified on that graphical model. A first vector is generated that represents the orientation and shape of that first feature. The three-dimensional translation and rotation of that first vector are determined that are necessary to align the first vector with a second vector representing the orientation and a shape of a feature, once again such as the aperture, of a second ear impression. In another embodiment, this alignment is then refined by minimizing the sum of the distances between points on the first and second graphical representations. |
| US08086426B2 |
Processing seismic data representing a physical system
A method of processing seismic data representing a physical system, the method comprising a difference between first and second seismic data representing the system in first and second states, respectively, and inverting the difference in accordance with a parameterized model of the physical system to obtain changes in the parameters of the model. |
| US08086419B2 |
Systems and methods for adding landmarks for visual simultaneous localization and mapping
The invention is related to methods and apparatus that use a visual sensor and dead reckoning sensors to process Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). These techniques can be used in robot navigation. Such visual techniques can be used to autonomously generate and update a map. Unlike with laser rangefinders, the visual techniques are practical in a wide range of applications and can be used in relatively dynamic environments, such as environments in which people move. One embodiment further uses multiple particles to maintain multiple hypotheses with respect to localization and mapping. One embodiment maintains the particles, thereby permitting the SLAM processes to be performed in software using microprocessor-based computer systems. |
| US08086414B2 |
Method and system for modeling cellular metabolism
This invention relates to methods and systems for in silico or bioinformatic modeling of cellular metabolism. The invention includes methods and systems for modeling cellular metabolism of an organism, comprising constructing a flux balance analysis model, and applying constraints to the flux balance analysis model, the constraints selected from the set consisting of: qualitative kinetic information constraints, qualitative regulatory information constraints, and differential DNA microarray experimental data constraints. In addition, the present invention provides for computational procedures for solving metabolic problems. |
| US08086406B2 |
Safety system for a means of transportation and a method relating to the same
In order to enhance a safety system, in particular an accident avoidance system for a means of transportation, in particular a motor vehicle, having at least one steering system and at least one brake system in such a way that an avoidance maneuver initiated by the operator of the means of transportation when approaching an obstacle is supported with respect to both the device and the method, thus preventing an accident through collision, the evaluation unit determines at least one driving variation, in particular at least one avoidance trajectory and/or at least one automatic emergency braking action from the data and information and when or after the operator of the means of transportation initiates a driving maneuver, in particular an avoidance maneuver or an emergency braking maneuver, the safety system, in particular the evaluation unit specifies, supports and/or suggests this driving maneuver in an optimized form, in particular in the form of an optimal avoidance trajectory or in the form of an automatic emergency braking. |
| US08086400B2 |
System and method for monitoring the security of participants in a rideshare environment
A system and method for monitoring the security of participants in a rideshare environment is provided. A rideshare transaction is monitored between two or more rideshare participants. At least one of the rideshare participants is associated with a rideshare participant device. A predetermined route for the rideshare transaction is identified. A location of the rideshare participant device is monitored. A security check is triggered when the rideshare participant device location is inconsistent with the predetermined route. |
| US08086398B2 |
Sending location information from within a communication application
A method in a wireless communications device for transmitting current location information representing a current location of the wireless communications device. The method entails, from within a communication application executing on a processor of the wireless communications device, causing the wireless communications device to obtain the current location information representing the current location of the wireless communications device, including the current location information in a communication generated from within the communication application, and transmitting the communication that includes the current location information. The method optionally entails a further step of performing a reverse look-up of GPS coordinates representing the current location to determine address information for including in the communication. Location information, such as maps or URLs to maps can be sent directly from an e-mail application or instant messenger without having to separately launch a mapping application. |
| US08086394B2 |
Providing traffic information including composite links
A method for processing traffic information includes receiving traffic information including a composite identifier enabling a determination of whether the received traffic information includes composite link information, a composite traffic status indicator revealing traffic status information corresponding to a composite link that includes at least first and second links, and at least first and second link identifiers respectively corresponding to the first and second links that are included within the composite link. The method also includes determining, based on the composite identifier, whether the received traffic information includes composite link information. The method further includes dependent upon whether the composite identifier enables a determination that the received traffic information includes composite link information, identifying the composite link among the received traffic data based on at least the first and second link identifiers, identifying the received composite traffic status indicator as composite traffic status information for the composite link, and enabling perception of an association between the received traffic status information and the composite link. |
| US08086393B2 |
Providing road information including vertex data for a link and using the same
A method of processing traffic information includes receiving link vertex information including a first identifier and vertex components that each reveal a position along a link. The first identifier enables a determination of a type of information that is included within the received link vertex information. The method also includes determining the type of information included within the received link vertex information based on the first identifier and identifying vertex components within the link vertex information only if the first identifier enables a determination that the received link vertex information includes at least one vertex component. |
| US08086390B2 |
Pumping loss reduction systems and methods
An engine control system comprises a base air per cylinder (APC) module, a catalyst temperature adjustment module, an ambient temperature adjustment module, and an APC adjustment module. The base APC module determines a base APC to reduce first engine pumping losses during a first deceleration fuel cutoff (DFCO) event relative to second engine pumping losses during a second DFCO event. The catalyst temperature adjustment module determines a catalyst temperature adjustment based on a catalyst temperature during the first DFCO event. The ambient temperature adjustment module determines an ambient temperature adjustment based on an ambient air temperature during the first DFCO event. The APC adjustment module selectively adjusts the base APC based on the catalyst temperature adjustment and the ambient temperature adjustment and controls at least one of the engine airflow actuators based on the adjusted base APC during the first DFCO event. |
| US08086388B2 |
Camshaft phasor synchronization system for an engine
A camshaft phasor control system for an engine includes a first camshaft position sensor that generates a first camshaft position signal based on a position of a first camshaft. A first summer generates a first error signal based on the first camshaft position signal and a first commanded position signal. A control module generates a raw duty cycle based on the first error signal. A second summer generates a modified duty cycle based on the raw duty cycle and a modifier. The control module generates the modifier based on the first error signal and speed of the first camshaft relative to a second camshaft. |
| US08086387B2 |
System and method of fuel system optimization
A method of optimizing a fuel system on a vehicle is provided. The fuel system includes a fuel tank configured to receive and contain a quantity of fuel, and the method includes determining a property associated with the quantity of fuel contained within the fuel system, comparing the determined property with a nominal value for that fuel property, and modifying at least one vehicle sub-system setting in response to the determined fuel property. |
| US08086385B2 |
Control apparatus for internal combustion engine
To provide a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine which can effectively utilize a scavenging effect while suppressing a torque difference in the internal combustion engine provided with a variable valve mechanism which makes a valve overlap period variable.When a scavenging effect utilization condition that the scavenging effect using exhaust pressure pulsation can be effectively utilized is established, a valve overlap period is set so as to overlap with a timing at which a trough of the exhaust pressure pulsation comes. In this occasion, a set value of the valve overlap period is limited such that an increase amount of a torque index value associated with the setting of valve overlap period does not exceed a predetermined permissible value. |
| US08086377B2 |
Suspension control apparatus
The present invention provides a suspension control apparatus capable of an excellent vibration control by a model thereof designed to incorporate nonlinearity and a time-lag element of a control damper. The present invention employs the backstepping method which is one of nonlinear control methods, and is designed so as to incorporate the nonlinearity of a damper 4. In addition, a nonlinear controller 5 uses a damping force Fu obtained by expressing the dynamics of a damping force characteristic variable portion [damping force Fu(v, i)] by a first-order lag system, so as to compensate the dynamics of the damper 4, whereby a control system is formed so as to incorporate the time-lag element of the control damper. As a result, it is possible to reduce time lag, and to practically adjust a control force according to the characteristics of the control damper. |
| US08086376B2 |
Vehicle rollover prediction with occupant restraint system activation
An automobile rollover prediction and restraint device deployment system comprises a plurality of automobile data sensors to generate a plurality of data signals, and a controller to receive the data signals and configured to deploy resettable and non-resettable restraint devices. The controller is configured to activate at least one resettable restraint device when one or more of the data signals exceed a first threshold, indicating that the vehicle is in a position or undergoing movement that indicates a potential for vehicle rollover, and to de-activate the at least one resettable restraint device when one or more of the data signals fall below the first threshold. |
| US08086375B2 |
Method for adjusting sensitivity of load detecting device of seat for a vehicle
A method for adjusting sensitivity of a load detecting device of a seat for a vehicle includes a seat assembling step for assembling the seat with plural load sensors assembled, a zero point adjusting step for obtaining a non-load output value by totaling output values of the load sensors when no load is applied on the seat and memorizing the non-load output value in a memory of a processing device, an adjusted output value calculating step for obtaining an adjusted output value by subtracting the non-load output value from a total of the output values of the load sensors when a predetermined load is applied on the seat, a trimming coefficient calculating step for calculating a trimming coefficient by dividing a designed output value by the adjusted output value, and a trimming coefficient memorizing step for memorizing the trimming coefficient in the memory of the processing device. |
| US08086369B2 |
Brake hold control device
A brake hold control device includes a brake actuator having an electromagnetic valve for holding braking force of a vehicle, two accelerator opening degree sensors for control and for defect detection that detect an accelerator opening degree, and a brake ECU that receives detection signals from the two accelerator opening degree sensors as input. The brake ECU releases braking force when predetermined held-brake release conditions, including accelerator opening degree conditions, for releasing a held brake are satisfied. The accelerator opening degree conditions for releasing a held brake are set such that both of the accelerator opening degrees corresponding to the detection signals from both of the two accelerator opening degree sensors are greater than a predetermined opening degree. |
| US08086359B2 |
Dynamic thermal load balancing
A method for improving thermal efficiency in one or more data centers includes measuring a temperature at one or more computing devices having allocated thereto one or more computing workloads and determining whether the measured temperature exceeds a predetermined temperature threshold. If the predetermined temperature threshold is exceeded, sufficient computing workloads are migrated to one or more alternate computing devices to reduce the temperature at one or more of the computing devices to less than or equal to said predetermined temperature threshold. In accomplishing the method, there is provided a data orchestrator configured at least for receiving data concerning the measured temperature, determining whether the measured temperature exceeds the predetermined temperature threshold, and migrating one or more of the computing workloads to one or more alternate computing devices. Computer systems and computer programs available as a download or on a computer-readable medium for installation according to the invention are provided. |
| US08086355B1 |
Method, a system, a computer-readable medium, and a power controlling apparatus for applying and distributing power
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to power management and the like, and more particularly, to an apparatus, a system, a method, and a computer-readable medium for providing power controlling functionality to generate configurable power signals and to deliver power during fault conditions. In at least some embodiments, a power control unit can generate power signals having configurable attributes as a function of a mode of operation, a fault type, and the like. |
| US08086354B2 |
Optimizing consumption of resources
Methods, systems and apparatus for optimizing consumption of one or more resources are presented. For example, a method may be implemented on a processor device and includes obtaining user preferences for the consumption of resources that include water and electricity, predicting the consumption of, and a first metric for the consumption of, the resources for each of a plurality of first time periods, determining a projected second metric for the consumption of the resources during a second time period according to the predicted consumption and the predicted first metric, and optimizing the consumption of the resources according to the projected second metric and the user preferences. The second time period includes the plurality of first time periods. The first metric is associated with the user preferences and at least one of the plurality of first time periods. The second metric indicates full or partial projected attainment of the preferences during the second time period. |
| US08086350B2 |
Dispenser and method for dispensing individual goods, in particular packages containing a medicament
Dispenser for dispensing individual goods, the dispenser comprising a containing space for holding an array of goods, a transport device for consecutively feeding a good from the array to a delivery member for dispensing one or more goods to a consumer, a reading device for reading data from a first good, a control unit connected to the reading unit for receiving data from the reading unit, the control unit being connected to a functional member and being adapted for changing the state of the functional member on the basis of the data received from the first good, characterised in that the data received from the first good includes information pertaining to one or more goods that are to be dispensed consecutively to the first good. |
| US08086349B2 |
Automated business system and method of vending and returning a consumer product
System and method of dispensing disc-based media and other consumer products. A user can interact with an automated business system to select disc-based media for rental and/or purchase. The automated business system can retrieve the selection from the interior of the automated business system and dispense the selection through a port to the user. The automated business system can retrieve the selection from the port in a return process. |
| US08086341B2 |
Control system and method for a modular manufacturing chain
A control system for a manufacturing chain having a plurality of modular manufacturing stations positioned in series includes a memory for storing a plurality of unique operation patterns thereon. The control system also includes at least one communications conduit for receiving a first position signal from a first position tracking device of each modular manufacturing station. A processor is configured to independently transmit at least one operation signal corresponding to one of the unique operation patterns to an article transportation device of each modular manufacturing station via the communications conduit based, at least in part, on the first position signal from each modular manufacturing station. The communications conduit further receives a second position signal from a second position tracking device of each modular manufacturing station. The processor is further configured to transmit an index signal to the article transportation device of each modular manufacturing station via the communications conduit based, at least in part, on the second position signal from each modular manufacturing station. |
| US08086339B2 |
Electronic device history record and product release system
A method for monitoring the manufacture of molded ophthalmic lenses is disclosed.The method monitors the occurrence of predetermined events and records such events in a device history record and a shadow table. |
| US08086336B2 |
Method for design and production of a custom-fit prosthesis
Systems and methods are provided for designing and producing a custom-fit prosthesis. According to one embodiment, a mold is produced from which a custom-fit implant may be directly or indirectly manufactured. Medical image data representing surrounding portions of a patient's anatomy to be repaired by surgical implantation of the custom-fit implant are received. Then, three-dimensional surface reconstruction is performed based on the medical image data. Next, the custom-fit implant is designed based on the three-dimensional surface reconstruction and a positive or negative representation of a two-part mold is created with a void in the shape of the custom-fit implant by subtracting a representation of the custom-fit implant from a representation of a mold. Finally, the two-part mold is output from which the custom-fit implant may be directly manufactured; or an implant is directly output. Alternatively, an intermediate mold is created from which a two-part mold may be directly manufactured. |
| US08086333B2 |
Reproducing apparatus, reproducing method, and reproducing program
A reproducing apparatus has: an accumulating unit in which a plurality of content data are accumulated; a storing unit for storing the data; a reproducing unit for reproducing the data read out of the storing unit; and a control unit for reading out predetermined portions of the content data accumulated in the accumulating unit from the accumulating unit on the basis of attribute information corresponding to the content data and allowing the read-out predetermined portions to be stored into the storing unit. |
| US08086328B2 |
Systems and methods for vibration rectification error reduction in closed-loop accelerometer systems
Systems and methods for controlling a closed-loop accelerometer system. A system includes an accelerometer with a driver that responds in a nonlinear manner and a rebalancing controller in signal communication with the driver. The rebalancing controller includes a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control portion having at least one variable gain component. A method includes sensing a movement of a proof mass, determining a static g field based on the sensed movement, setting at least one variable gain component of a PID controller based on the determined static g field, and rebalancing the proof mass using the PID controller. |
| US08086322B2 |
Method and means for electrical stimulation of cutaneous sensory receptors
Electrode plate comprising a stiff or flexible electrically non-conductive plate element having a front face and a rear face and a pattern of needle-like (NL) electrodes for electrical stimulation of cutaneous thin Aδ/C fibers and conductive plate (CP) electrodes for electrical stimulation cutaneous large Aβ fibers disposed on the front face. |
| US08086320B2 |
Wireless communication device with integrated defibrillator
A handheld wireless communication device having a defibrillator integrated therein to be employed in an emergency situation to supply electrical therapy to a victim who is experiencing cardiac distress. The defibrillator being powered by at least one thermally powered battery contained within the wireless communications device. The wireless communication device may also include a cardiac module which will determine whether the victim's heart beat has become irregular and whether defibrillation is necessary. The wireless communication device will guide the user through the use of the defibrillator/cardiac modules. The wireless device may also include a tracking unit that will provide the user's location and wireless two-way voice communication with emergency personnel upon activation of the defibrillator. |
| US08086318B2 |
Portable assemblies, systems, and methods for providing functional or therapeutic neurostimulation
Neurostimulation assemblies, systems, and methods make possible the providing of short-term therapy or diagnostic testing by providing electrical connections between muscles or nerves inside the body and stimulus generators or recording instruments mounted on the surface of the skin or carried outside the body. Neurostimulation assemblies, systems, and methods may include a carrier and a removable electronics pod, the electronics pod including stimulation generation circuitry, a power input bay to hold a disposable power source, and user interface components. The assemblies, systems, and methods are adapted to provide coordinated neurostimulation to multiple regions of the body. |
| US08086316B2 |
Wireless controlled neuromodulation system
An apparatus is disclosed for controlled neuromodulation. The apparatus includes a plurality of neural sensors, wherein each of the neural sensors is electrically connected to a separate signal conditioner. Each of the signal conditioners produces a neural sensor signal, which is analyzed by a separate threshold detector to produces a neural event signal when the neural sensor signal exceeds a threshold level associated with the threshold detector. Each of the threshold detectors is connected to a wireless transceiver and the wireless transceivers transmit the neural event signals to a processor. The processor analyzes the neural event signals and determines the presence or absence of a clinical brain state. The apparatus can be used to detect and control epileptic seizures. |
| US08086312B2 |
Capacitors for medical devices
The invention is directed to designs for capacitors of implantable medical devices (IMDs) such as implantable defibrillators, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, implantable pacemaker-cardioverter-defibrillators, and the like. The capacitor designs can reduce capacitor volume significantly and may also improve charge holding capacity relative to conventional capacitor designs. Moreover, since capacitors typically comprise a significant portion of the volume of an IMD, significant reductions in capacitor volume can likewise significantly reduce the size of the IMD. |
| US08086308B2 |
Implantable medical device for identifying and managing intrinsic reentrant tachycardia
An implantable medical device is provided that comprises a pulse generator that provides atrial and ventricular pacing pulses on demand. The pulse generator times delivery of the ventricular pacing pulses based on an AV pacing interval. The device also includes an AV hysteresis module that extends the AV interval from a base AV interval to an extended AV interval to promote intrinsic heart activity. A refractory module establishes a PVARP interval equal to base PVARP interval following at least one of the ventricular pacing pulses. The refractory module lengthens the PVARP interval by adding a PVARP extension to a base PVARP interval to provide an extended PVARP interval. The device further includes a reentrant conduction detector that identifies an intrinsic reentrant tachycardia having a retrograde P wave occurring during the PVARP extension, based on one or more of i) a retrograde P wave, ii) intrinsic R waves sensed over N cardiac cycles at an R to R interval above a rate threshold and iii) one or more of PR and RP intervals that exceed PR and RP thresholds. |
| US08086307B2 |
Terminating tachyarrhythmias
This disclosure is directed to techniques for treating tachyarrhythmias, such as atrial or ventricular fibrillation, in which a number of electrodes are employed to deliver electrical stimulation to a patient's heart in a manner designed to terminate the tachyarrhythmia episode. |
| US08086304B2 |
Physiologic signal processing to determine a cardiac condition
In a method for determining a cardiac condition, a sensed physiologic signal for a period of time including multiple cardiac cycles is received. Using the received physiologic data, a heart beat frequency to be used as a reference frequency is determined. A plurality of harmonics of the received physiologic signal is extracted based on the reference frequency, wherein the harmonics correspond to a plurality of alternans frequencies. Amplitudes of at least some of the extracted harmonics are determined, and are used to determine an alternans indicator value. |
| US08086300B2 |
ECG electrode contact quality measurement system
A system and method are provided for generating output signals indicative of contact quality of a plurality of electrodes coupled to a patient. A signal generator coupled to a reference electrode injects an alternating signal into the patient. A plurality of differential amplifiers, each coupled to a respective one of the plurality of electrodes to detect an input signal from the patient, are operable to output a respective output signal in response to a respective input signal. The output signal generated by the respective differential amplifier is indicative of contact quality for the respective electrode. |
| US08086297B2 |
Dark blood delayed enhancement magnetic resonance viability imaging techniques for assessing subendocardial infarcts
The technology herein provides a dark blood delayed enhancement technique that improves the visualization of subendocardial infarcts that may otherwise be disguised by the bright blood pool. The timed combination of a slice-selective and a non-selective preparation improves the infarct/blood contrast by decoupling their relaxation curves thereby nulling both the blood and the non-infarcted myocardium. This causes the infarct to be imaged bright and the blood and non-infarct to both be imaged dark. The slice-selective preparation occurs early enough in the cardiac cycle so that fresh blood can enter the imaged slice. |
| US08086295B2 |
Collapsible containment wall for imaging
A retractable containment wall separates an imaging suite into two sections: a “hot” or contaminated section and a “cold” or non-contaminated section. The wall includes a center portion and retractable peripheral portions. Each retractable portion is made up of several panels. Between panels, between a panel and a room wall, and between a panel and the center portion are tongue and groove seals that mate to form seals at seams in the wall when the wall is deployed. Guide pins propagate along a guide track to facilitate transition of the portions between deployed and retracted orientations. The center portion includes a tube that extends into the imaging region of a diagnostic imaging device located in the non-contaminated portion of the imaging suite. The subject is inserted into the tube in preparation for an imaging procedure. |
| US08086294B2 |
Unified probabilistic framework for predicting and detecting seizure onsets in the brain and multitherapeutic device
A method and system for assessing a quality of life index to adjust an implanted device to optimize patient-specific feature signals and treatment therapies. Accumulated energy of intracranial electroencephalogram (IEEG) signals is calculated over multiple data channels during seizures over a fixed time period. Accumulated energy of a treatment control is calculated over the multiple data channels over all times of activation of the implanted device over the fixed time period. The accumulated energy of both the IEEG signals and treatment control are weighted by seizure and treatment factors to determine a quality value for the fixed time period. A quality of life index is determined as a weighted average of current and previous quality values for a plurality of fixed time periods. |
| US08086290B2 |
Mobile phone with a sliding cradle for providing visual and acoustic convenience
A sliding cradle in a mobile terminal has a body housing, and a sliding and pivotable housing adapted to rest in a slanting position on the body housing after being slid on the body housing. The sliding cradle comprises a first member fastened to the body housing, a second member fastened to the sliding and pivotable housing, and a sliding guide part arranged between the first and second members to guide the sliding movement of the sliding and pivotable housing. The sliding guide part has a pivot for pivoting the second member apart from the first member. A fixture member is fastened to the first member to face the sliding guide part. A pivot control device is connected to the first and second members to substantially prevent the sliding and pivotable housing from pivoting during the sliding movement and to enable the sliding and pivotable housing to pivot upon completion of the sliding movement. |
| US08086285B2 |
Carrying cases having sound enhancing capability, for portable communication devices
Carrying cases are disclosed for portable communication devices such as iPhones and cell phones. There is a case housing for receiving a portable communication device therein, and a sound reflector linked to the housing so as to be movable between an extended position and a recessed position. The carrying case enables the device to be used as a speaker phone with enhanced sound quality, while still in the case. |
| US08086282B2 |
Apparatuses and a method for reducing peak power in a transmitter of telecommunications systems
The present invention relates to an apparatus (100), a base station (500) and a method for reducing peak power of an input signal (1) using successive processing stages (10). Each stage (10) comprises a peak finder (11) arranged to find at least one peak of the input signal (1) exceeding a threshold level, and to make a list (LO) comprising information on a number of the highest peaks or information on each peak; a peak selector (12) adapted to receive the list (LO) and to receive, from each preceding stage (10), a list (Li) with information on unreduced peaks and the stage number. The peak selector (12) further selects from all lists a peak (P) to be reduced and determines a fractional sample shift value (FSi) of the stage in which the selected peak was found. Each stage (10) further comprises a kernel selector that selects a kernel signal (Ki) that is fractionally sample shifted with the sum of all fractional shift values, starting from the shift value (FSi) up to the present stage. Each stage (10) also comprises a kernel manipulator (14) that manipulates the selected kernel signal based on information on the selected peak (P). Each stage (10) further comprises a combiner (15) that reduces the selected peak (P) by combining the manipulated kernel signal with a delayed version of the input signal (1). |
| US08086279B2 |
Handover of call serviced by modular ear-piece/microphone between servicing base portions
Handover of call serviced by modular ear-piece/microphone between servicing base portions is presented. A wireless headset includes wireless interface(s), earpiece, a microphone, processing module, and a user interface. The wireless interface(s) wirelessly couples the wireless headset to a base unit via a wireless personal area network (WPAN). The earpiece renders inbound portions of the service calls audible while the microphone is operable to produce the outbound portion of the call. Both the earpiece and microphone are communicatively coupled to the wireless interface(s). The processing module also coupled to the wireless interface(s) allows the wireless headset to initiate call functions between the wireless headset and a servicing network made available through the base unit, service a call and call control functions, and anchor the call to the wireless headset. The user interface in conjunction with the processing module allows the wireless headset to initiate commands and/or call control functions based upon user input. |
| US08086275B2 |
Alternative inputs of a mobile communications device
In an implementation, a mobile communications device includes a display device having touchscreen functionality, a keyboard having a plurality of physical keys that include a dedicated key and letter keys arranged according to a QWERTY layout, and one or more modules. The one or more modules are configured to output a user interface on the display device responsive to selection of the dedicated key, the user interface having a plurality of portions that are selectable via the touchscreen functionality to cause input of a respective one of a plurality of emoticons. |
| US08086271B2 |
Network architecture for mobile communication network with billing module for shared resources
A mobile communication network includes an antenna site shared by two or more telecommunications service providers. The antenna site includes a shared resource, such as an antenna, telecommunications equipment, or bandwidth, used by multiple service providers and connects to multiple signal processing centers, each of which belongs to one of the service providers. The signal processing centers may provide modulating signals to the antenna site to use in modulating a carrier. The antenna site may also direct received signals from mobile terminals to the signal processing center for the appropriate service provider. A billing module at the antenna site maintains an accounting of resources used by each service provider. |
| US08086268B2 |
Mobile communication terminal and method of controlling transmission characteristic thereof
A mobile communication terminal includes: a signal transmission section having a predetermined default value for a transmission characteristic; an antenna to be used at least by the signal transmission section; a separate circuit section sharing ground with the signal transmission section and the antenna, and being different from the signal transmission section; a monitoring section monitoring a change in a use state of the terminal related to the separate circuit section; and when the signal transmission section transmits a signal using the antenna, if the monitoring section detects a change in the use state of the terminal, a transmission-characteristic adjusting section adjusting a transmission characteristic of the signal transmission section from the default value to a characteristic optimized for the use state. |
| US08086267B2 |
System and method for provisioning a wireless networking connection
A vehicle communication system includes a processor that may query a wireless device to determine, among other things, a carrier identity. The carrier identity is the identity of the service provider for the wireless device. If the carrier identity is known, the processor may use a lookup table to determine an access phone number (APN) and a user name and password for provisioning a wireless internet connection through the wireless device. If the carrier identity is unknown, or if more than one APN and/or user name/password combination are associated with a given carrier, the processor is operable to perform a guess and check process to determine the appropriate provisioning information. |
| US08086266B2 |
Cell phone based MEMS fourier transform infrared (FTIR) gas sensors
A cell-phone based chemical sensor and communication/data management system has cell phones that are each provided with an integrated sensor (sensor enabled cell phone). Each cell phone comprises an infrared spectrometer for spectrally analyzing the ambient environment and a communication portion for communicating with the cellular phone network and transmitting data from the infrared spectrometer over the cellular network. These cell phones are linked to each other and a central server via the routing nodes of the cellular phone network. |
| US08086265B2 |
Mobile device interface and methods thereof
A mobile communication device is configured to sense a plurality of ambient characteristics using a plurality of sensors. In an embodiment, one or more of the plurality of sensors, such as microphone or camera, can be used for other functions of the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device adjusts one or more user interface characteristics of the mobile communication device based on the sensed plurality of ambient characteristics. The mobile communication device thereby provides for automatic adjustment of various user interface characteristics based on the ambient conditions of the environment around the mobile communication device. |
| US08086262B2 |
Information terminal device
To provide an information terminal device contributing to prevention of an operation not intended by a user. A communication management unit (512) of an SVG processing unit (510) displays an image (confirmation image) for requesting a user to perform a confirmation input to confirm whether to be connected to the network before performing network connection according to the definition of a link definition unit (630) in the SVG content (600). When the user rejects the network connection, the link defined by the link definition unit (630) is not referenced. On the other hand, when the user permits the network connection, the communication management unit (512) requests the data of the address defined by the link definition unit (630) from the HTTP server (10) or the like specified in the address. Upon reception of a response to this, a communication state display unit (513) displays the data reception state according to the report from a communication state report unit (121). |
| US08086254B2 |
System, method, and apparatus for using alternative numbers for routing voice calls and short messages in a communications network
A system, method and computer-readable medium for allowing the use of an alternative numbering plan for delivering short messages to mobile subscribers using the public mobile telephone network is provided. Users of an enterprise or other closed networks as well as users that are not part of a closed network may send short messages destined to members of an enterprise or closed network from their mobile or other devices associated with their subscription using an alternative enterprise directory number, such as the office number, instead of the mobile number, such that the alternative number will be presented at the destination device as the originating number. The recipient may respond to the message by addressing the response to the enterprise or closed network number, and the response may be delivered to the originator's mobile or other device associated with their subscription. |
| US08086253B1 |
Graphical mobile e-mail
A method for providing messaging-related information to a mobile device is discussed. The method includes receiving from the mobile device a request for messaging-related information, using the request to identify a device-type indication for the mobile device, identifying one or more presentation parameters for presenting the messaging-related content properly on the mobile device, and transmitting the messaging-related content to the mobile device in a format corresponding to the one or more parameters. |
| US08086252B2 |
Method and arrangement for locating a mobile terminal in a multicell radio arrangement
A method and system for locating a mobile terminal in a multicell radio system are provided. A plurality of radio base stations detect the field strength of a data transmission of the mobile terminal and the location of the mobile terminal is determined the values are provided. The mobile terminal is switched into an active state, then a plurality of the radio base stations are set to the radio channel used by the mobile terminal to be located, and the mobile terminal is prompted to emit a response message as a result of the communication of a test data transmission. The received field strength of the received response message is measured by the radio base stations and communicated to a central device, after which the location of the mobile terminal is determined by the central device on the basis of the measured values. |
| US08086250B2 |
Communications method
A method of 2-way data and voice communication with a user utilizing a portable device having a cellular transceiver module, a GPS module and an emergency call button is disclosed. The method includes determining whether the portable device is in proximity of the base station; powering down the GPS, placing the portable device into sleep mode and sending a signal to the base station indicating that said portable device is in proximity of the base station when the portable device is in proximity to the base station; and activating and fully powering the cellular transceiver module and activating and fully powering said GPS module when the portable device is not in proximity of said base station. When not in proximity, the method also includes collecting an initial GPS location data from the GPS module and storing the location data into a memory location; placing the GPS module into a lower power mode and fully powering the GPS module, acquiring and storing additional GPS location data only at specified intervals to conserve battery life while monitoring the cellular transceiver module for inquiries and monitoring the emergency call button for an emergency signal. Various other steps occur when the emergency button is depressed. |
| US08086248B2 |
Estimating location using multi-antenna radio receiver
Packets are periodically transmitted by a plurality of radio beacons deployed at known positions over a location estimation area. Monitoring is conducted for incoming packets. Upon receipt of a packet from a kth one of the beacons, received signal strength, RSSI, is measured at each of the antenna outputs, the packet is decoded to obtain the unique identifier and the unique sequence number, and the received signal strength at each of the antenna outputs is spatially averaged. The measuring, decoding, and spatial averaging are repeated for additional packets from the kth one of the beacons during a pre-defined time window T. The plurality of spatially averaged received signal strengths are temporally averaged over the pre-defined time window T, to obtain a spatially and temporally averaged value of received signal strength. The distance dk from the apparatus to the kth one of the beacons is approximated based on the spatially and temporally averaged value of received signal strength. The approximate distance dk is designated as {circumflex over (d)}k. This is repeated for the K beacons that have successfully transmitted packet(s) during the pre-defined time window, k=1 to K. The location of the object is estimated as an approximate intersection of spheres with radii {circumflex over (d)}k. Each sphere is centered at the known position of the kth one of the beacons. |
| US08086242B2 |
Method and system for adaptive allocation of feedback resources for CQI and transmit pre-coding
Aspects of a method and system for adaptive allocation of feedback resources for CQI and transmit pre-coding may include assigning a bandwidth and a feedback period to one or more CQI reporting units and a bandwidth and a feedback period to one or more PMI reporting units. One or more feedback messages may be generated based at least on channel state information associated with the bandwidth and the feedback period assigned to the one or more CQI reporting units and with the bandwidth and the feedback period assigned to the one or more PMI reporting units. The bandwidth and the feedback period of the CQI reporting units and/or the PMI reporting units may be adjusted dynamically and/or adaptively. Based on the channel state information or as a function of a feedback rate, the bandwidth and/or the feedback period may be assigned. |
| US08086239B2 |
Infrastructure for wireless telecommunication networks
A wireless network including a plurality of base stations operating at a public spectrum frequency, each base station capable of generating an adjustable size coverage area. Each base station utilizes dedicating channels for each user to permit avoidance of one or more sources of interference. A server supplies data to the base stations, and managing billing and access to the wireless network. A plurality of base stations employs transmissions in the unlicensed spectrum (i.e. 3.6 and 5.7 GHz in the US) for permitting flexibility in transmission power and additional subchannel/subcarrier interleaving capability for mitigating interference. |
| US08086236B2 |
Methods to configure proximity indication in wireless communications systems
A method and system configures proximity indication in a wireless device as part of a network handover procedure to handover the wireless device from a first radio access network (RAN) using a radio access technology (RAT) to a second RAN using a different RAT. The first RAN may use third generation (3G) wireless technology to initiate a process to hand over a wireless device to the second RAN, which utilizes long term evolution (LTE) technology. As part of the handover process, the second RAN generates a handover command message that additionally includes proximity indication configuration information to enable the wireless device to configure proximity indication reporting. The handover command message is sent through the first RAN to the wireless device, where the handover command message is utilized to configure proximity indication reporting and to perform the handover from the first RAN to the second RAN. |
| US08086232B2 |
Time synchronized wireless method and operations
A scanning method, computer readable medium, and device for suspending, during a first data scanning sequence including a plurality of discrete data scanning intervals, data scanning operations during at least one discrete data scanning interval chosen from the plurality of discrete data scanning intervals. A data transmission operation is performed during the at least one discrete data scanning interval. |
| US08086227B2 |
Collaboratively locating disconnected clients and rogue access points in a wireless network
Methods are described for using collaboration of neighboring wireless devices to enable location of disconnected wireless devices and rogue wireless access points. A central server computes the locations of the neighboring clients and uses those locations to estimate the location of a disconnected client. These techniques may take advantage of the beaconing and probing mechanisms of IEEE 802.11 to ensure that connected clients do not pay unnecessary overheads for detecting disconnected clients. Methods are also described for detecting and locating rogue devices by collaboratively collecting information from neighboring devices and comparing the information to a database. |
| US08086226B2 |
Method and system for a hosted mobile management service architecture
A hosted mobile management service is provided for enabling a user to access a centralized account through a web browser on a terminal in order to manage the user's media information, such as digital music and photos. Any modifications made by user through the web browser are transparently sent to the user's mobile device where a thin client application receives such modification information and interacts with the mobile device's file system to reconcile such modifications. |
| US08086223B2 |
Using proximity information to dynamically change greeting messages on a mobile telephony device
The present invention discloses a solution for delivering customized greeting messages to callers. In the solution, a call can be received from a remote device. A greeting message that is to be conveyed to the remote device due to a failure of a receiving party to answer the call can be determined. A set of devices proximate to a call receiving device can be identified. One of many different greeting messages can be determined based upon the identified set of proximate devices. The determined greeting message can be conveyed to the remote device. |
| US08086221B2 |
Authorizing an endpoint node for a communication service
A network system for authorizing an endpoint node for a communication service includes an operator network and an organization network. The operator network operates to perform a device authorization operation to authorize the endpoint node for a communication session. The organization network operates to facilitate a service authorization operation to authorize the endpoint node for the communication service of the communication session. |
| US08086220B2 |
Wireless communication device having short-distance wireless communications
In a communication of audio signals between first and second portable-telephone devices through a first portable-telephone base station, a second portable-telephone base station and a portable-telephone line network has been connected, IP addresses are exchanged. The IP addresses are required for communicating image data by first and second terminal adapters associated with the first and second portable-telephone devices respectively through an OCN. Image data is then transmitted to the IP addresses received in the communication through the OCN. |
| US08086217B1 |
System and method for providing wireless services within a wireless local area network
The invention provides a system and method for providing a temporary wireless service connection to one or more users within a wireless local area network. In-building services and Internet related services are provided to the users over their respective temporary wireless service connections. Each user is charged for their specific usage amounts which may be based on the number of packets transferred, the number of bytes transferred, the number of distinct transactions and/or the time period each user's temporary wireless service connection was active. |
| US08086216B2 |
Mobility aware policy and charging control in a wireless communication network
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for implementation in a policy control and charging rules functional entity in a wireless communication system. The method includes receiving, from at least one of a source policy and charging enforcement function in a source access network or a target policy and charging enforcement function in a target access network, information indicative of a mobile unit that has handed off from the source access network to the target access network. The method also includes establishing a first session for communicating policy and charging rules associated with the mobile unit. The first session is concurrent with a second session for communicating policy and charging rules associated with the mobile unit. The second session was previously established with the source policy and charging enforcement function in the source access network. The method further includes transmitting at least one policy and charging rule to the target policy and charging enforcement function using the first session. |
| US08086213B1 |
Circuits, architectures, apparatuses, systems, algorithms, methods, and software for wireless arbiter power saving
Circuits, architectures, systems, methods, algorithms, and software and/or firmware for arbitrating media access requests from multiple wireless communication protocol components. Exemplary circuits include a request processing circuit configured to set a positive media access grant output for a first one of the wireless component before entering a power saving mode of operation, determine a waking media access state of the first wireless component while exiting the power saving mode of operation, and process media access requests from the wireless components the waking media access state of the first wireless component. Embodiments of present invention advantageously provide for more reliable arbitration of media access requests from multiple wireless communication protocol components during and after power saving modes of operation. |
| US08086209B2 |
Method and apparatus for frequency mixing of radio frequency signals
A mixer such as an I/Q mixer, having an amplifier having first and second inputs and an output. The first input corresponding to, for example, an I input, and the second input corresponding to, for example, a Q input. The mixer also including a multiple way (M-way) switch having a single input in communication with the output of the amplifier; a frequency control input; and at least four outputs. The frequency control input is configured to receive a periodic signal, and the M-way switch is configured to switch a signal received on the single input to each of the at least four outputs at a switching frequency that is determined by the periodic signal. The M-way switch is operable to switch the input signal received on the single input to each of the at least four outputs in a serial fashion. |
| US08086205B2 |
Multimode receiver with active blocker suppression
Various embodiments of a wireless multimode receiver having an off-chip duplex filter associated with a multimode band, and a blocker cancellation circuit disposed on a semiconductor chip are described in the present disclosure. |
| US08086203B2 |
Method and system for wireless local area network (WLAN) phase shifter training
Aspects of a method and system for wireless local area network (WLAN) phase shifter training are presented. Aspect of the system may enable a receiving station, at which is located a plurality of receiving antennas, to estimate the relative phase at which each of the receiving antennas receives signals from a transmitting station. This process may be referred to as phase shifter training. After determining the relative phase for each of the receiving antennas, the receiving station may process received signals by phase shifting the signals received via each of the receiving antennas in accordance with the relative phase shifts determined during the phase shifter training process. Signals received via a selected one of the receiving antennas may be unshifted. The processed signals may be combined to generate a diversity reception signal. |
| US08086201B2 |
Diversity receiving device
A diversity receiving device includes two signal paths. Each path interfaces an antenna that receives a radio frequency signal and an amplifier that amplifies the received radio frequency signal. A variable signal level attenuator in each path attenuates the amplified signal and receives current from current sources. The current sources are coupled to the amplifiers through variable signal level attenuators. The variable signal level attenuators are in parallel with controllable bypass lines which comprise variable resistance elements. The two signal paths are combined into a common path. |
| US08086194B2 |
Communication apparatus
A communication apparatus has an A/D converter which converts an analog signal which was received, into a digital signal, a converter which converts a reception signal so as to enable handling of phase information, a carrier detector which detects presence or absence of the reception signal, a synchronous circuit which extract synchronization timing from the reception signal, an equalizer which corrects the reception signal so as to cancel influence of a transmission path, a channel estimator which estimates a state of a power line channel, and a decision unit which decides the reception signal, which was amended by the equalizer, by use of a threshold value. |
| US08086193B2 |
Method of configuring a multi-network terminal and an associated multi-network terminal
A method and apparatus are provided for configuring a multi-network telecommunications terminal, which communicates with a number of telecommunications networks offering a plurality of telecommunications services. The terminal includes a plurality of interfaces for accessing the services offered. When the terminal accesses one of the services offered, via one of the networks, the following steps are performed: a) determining the type of network with which the terminal is in the process of connecting, b) activating the access interface associated with the service which the terminal is intended to access, c) requesting, at the level of the activated access interface, configuration parameters which are dependent on the activated access interface and the network in the process of connection, d) extracting, at the level of a module for centralizing configuration parameters, the requested configuration parameters, e) obtaining, at level of the activated access interface, the extracted configuration parameters. |
| US08086191B2 |
Leakage power reduction apparatus
A circulator extracts a transmission signal sent from a transmitter to antenna via the circulator and a duplexer, reflected by an antenna, and returned via the duplexer to the transmitter side. The amplitude and phase of the extracted signal are adjusted by an amplitude-and-phase adjuster to generate an offset signal having the same amplitude and the opposite phase with respect to a leaking transmission signal included in a signal output from a third terminal of the duplexer when combined by a combiner. The offset signal is combined in the combiner with the leaking transmission signal included in the signal output from the third terminal of the duplexer to suppress the leaking transmission signal. |
| US08086186B2 |
Cognitive radio communication apparatus and method which adaptably controls sensing reference level
A cognitive radio communication apparatus and method which adaptably controls a sensing reference level based on a transmission power of a transmitter is provided. A cognitive radio communication apparatus includes a sensing reference level control unit to adaptably control a sensing reference level based on a transmission power of a secondary transmitter included in a secondary network, and a fast sensing unit to determine whether a signal received for a predetermined time period exists based on the controlled sensing reference level. |
| US08086185B2 |
Qualify method for shielding of transceiver RF block
A method is provided for inputting a signal that is modulated at a predetermined frequency to a receiver signal path of a radio subsystem and demodulating the signal at the predetermined frequency as it passes through the receiver signal path, measuring signal quality of the demodulated signal, and quantitatively assessing shielding of the radio subsystem with the measured signal. |
| US08086177B2 |
Communication device for a landborne vehicle
A communications system for land vehicles usable in the field of radio communications with any electronic data processing equipment connected to a mobile telecommunications network. The communications system enables the connection of a communication terminal (TP_i) to a mobile communications network (2) from a vehicle (1) of the kind including a local network (PAN) linked to the vehicle, and a server for connecting said local network to the communications network (GPRS, UMTS). The local network (3) provides a resource (Cext) for connecting a requesting communications terminal (TP_k) and the mobile communications network (2), and resources (Cint) for setting up a connection between two mobile terminals (TP_i, TP_j) connected to the local network (PAN) linked to the vehicle. |
| US08086176B2 |
Information processing apparatus, method, and program for performing near field communication with an external device
An information processing apparatus including a plurality of elements each configured to perform an independent process, a controller configured to control the plurality of elements, and a front end shared by the plurality of elements and configured to perform near field communication with an external device. At a time of activation, the controller allocates, to the plurality of elements, different time slots for communication. |
| US08086174B2 |
Short-range cellular booster
A repeater mediates traffic between a network transceiver and a user transceiver in a wireless communication system. The repeater comprises a network unit that maintains a network link with the network transceiver, a user unit that maintains a user link with the user transceiver, a two-way communication pathway between the network unit and the user unit; that facilitate the communication of signals between the network transceiver and the user transceiver in autonomous repeater hops between the network transceiver and the network unit, between the user transceiver and the user unit, and between the network unit and the user unit, and beam-formers respectively coupled to the network unit and the user unit and adapted to communicate signals in an operating frequency band of the network and user transceivers and to control effective radiated power. |
| US08086173B2 |
Method for implementing random access of new access node and communication system thereof
A method for implementing a random access of a new access node and a system thereof are provided, which belong to a wireless communication field, and enable the new access node within the coverage of relay stations to implement the random access. In the application, when the new access node is located within the coverage of the relay stations, each of the relay stations notifies an access request sent from the new access node to a synchronization station via a report message, and the synchronization station compares the access request forwarded by each of the relay stations and the access request received by itself from the same new access node, selects a station with the best signal quality of the received access request, and implements the access of the new access node in accordance with the types of selected station and the synchronization station itself. |
| US08086172B2 |
Provision of messaging services from a video messaging system for video compatible and non-video compatible equipment
A telecommunications system that supports the provision of video messaging, yet maintains compatibility and operation with user equipment that is not capable of processing, receiving or rendering video content. Based on the type of user equipment, as well as user selected options, network configurations and status, and class-of-service characteristics, the telecommunications systems can revise the manner in which content is provided to the user equipment. Variations in the content provision include providing synchronized audio and video content, audio content only, video content only, video content with closed-captioning and closed-captioning only. |
| US08086165B2 |
Bookbinding system and bookbinding apparatus
A bookbinding system includes an image forming apparatus and a bookbinding apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus. The bookbinding system includes an image forming unit to form an image on a recording sheet; a loading unit to load, as a bookblock stack, plural recording sheets on which images are formed; a bonding unit to form a booklet by bonding a cover with the bookblock stack; a setting unit to set a bookblock size, a cover size, and a finishing size; a cutting unit to cut the booklet bonded together with the cover into the finishing size; a stack thickness detection unit to detect a thickness of the bookblock stack; and a bookbinding permission/inhibition determination unit to determine permission/inhibition of a bookbinding operation based on a stack thickness detection result as well as the bookblock size, the cover size, and the finishing size set by the setting unit. |
| US08086163B2 |
Sheet transport apparatus, document reading apparatus, and image forming apparatus
One embodiment of a sheet transport apparatus is provided with a sheet transport path for transporting a sheet in a predetermined transport direction, a reflective type optical sensor in which light irradiated from a light-emitting portion to a transported sheet is reflected and reflected light from the sheet is received by a light-receiving portion to detect a presence/absence of the sheet, an irradiated light adjustment portion that adjusts a light amount of the light-emitting portion, a non-image region locating portion that detects an image state on a sheet to locate a non-image region of the sheet, and a control portion that adjusts the light amount of the light-emitting portion by controlling the irradiated light adjustment portion based on a measured value on the non-image region located by the non-image region locating portion. |
| US08086161B2 |
Image forming apparatus which forms a toner image on a recording medium with the use of color toner and transparent toner
An image forming apparatus includes a toner image forming unit for effecting an image forming operation to form toner image on a recording material, wherein the toner image comprises chromatic toner image components with different colors and a transparent toner image component overlaid thereon; a fixing unit for effecting a fixing operation to heat and fix the toner image on the recording material; a switching unit for switching, in accordance with information relating to a maximum toner amount per unit area in a zone in which the transparent toner component is present, operations to a mode in which the formation of the toner image is effected through a plurality of such image forming operations, and the fixing of the toner image is effected through a plurality of such fixing operations. |
| US08086160B2 |
Fixing apparatus, roller for the fixing apparatus, flexible sleeve for the fixing apparatus, and methods of manufacturing the roller for the fixing apparatus and the flexible sleeve for the fixing apparatus
A fixing roller has a base layer, a rubber layer formed on the base layer and a surface layer formed of a fluororesin tube, and a heater disposed inside the roller. The surface layer of the roller is formed by covering the fluororesin tube on the rubber layer in a condition where the fluororesin tube is pulled in a radial direction of the fluororesin tube, the fluororesin tube has an internal diameter less than an outer diameter of the roller and a thickness of 20 microns or smaller and a crystallization degree of the fluororesin tube being 50% or smaller. The roller is made by expanding the fluororesin tube is in a radial direction and drawing the fluororesin tube in a generatrix direction thereof, wherein a drawing ratio of the fluororesin tube in the drawing the fluororesin tube in the generatrix direction is 5% or smaller. |
| US08086159B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus including the fixing device
A fixing device and an image forming apparatus including the fixing device. The fixing device includes a heat source, an endless, flexible fixing member to fix a toner image by heating and melting the toner image onto a recording medium, a pressure member to press against the fixing member, a stationary facing member to face an inner surface of the fixing member and heat the fixing member while contacting the pressure member via the fixing member at a nip portion formed between the fixing member and the pressure member, and a reinforcement member to reinforce the facing member at the nip portion by contacting an inner surface of the facing member in a fixed manner. |
| US08086157B2 |
Image forming apparatus including storage device storing maximum length of transferring medium
An image forming apparatus includes a latent image forming part configured to form a latent image on an image carrier; a developing part configured to form a toner image by developing the latent image on the image carrier; a first transferring part configured to transfer the toner image on the image carrier to a surface of a transferring medium or a first intermediate transferring part; a second transferring part configured to transfer the toner image on the first intermediate transferring part onto a second intermediate transferring part; a third transferring part configured to transfer the toner image on the second intermediate transferring part onto a third intermediate transferring part; and a fourth transferring part configured to transfer the toner image on the third intermediate transferring part onto a rear surface of the transferring medium. |
| US08086156B2 |
Belt device and image forming apparatus
An endless belt member is suspended in a tensioned manner by a plurality of roller members including a drive roller and a drive motor drives the drive roller member so as to move the belt member in a predetermined direction of travel. A detecting unit detects an amount of displacement of the belt member in a widthwise direction of the belt member, and a correction unit that corrects displacement of the belt member in the widthwise direction. The correction unit corrects the displacement of the belt member in a widthwise direction based on data sampled by the detecting unit every time a drive signal is input to the drive motor a prescribed number of times. |
| US08086154B2 |
Nanomaterial heating element for fusing applications
In accordance with the invention, there are printing apparatuses and methods of forming an image. An exemplary printing apparatus can include a fuser subsystem including one or more light induced heating elements, each of the one or more light induced heating elements including plurality of nanomaterials, wherein the nanomaterials are selected from the group consisting of carbon nanotubes and metal nanoshells. The exemplary printing apparatus can also include one or more light sources disposed in close proximity to the one or more light induced heating elements, each of the one or more light sources having an emission in the absorption range of the plurality of nanomaterials and disposed to produce heat in the fuser subsystem by light absorption by the plurality of nanomaterials. |
| US08086151B2 |
Developing roller specific for mono-component developing apparatus
A mono-component developing apparatus including a developing roller which transports toner supported on an outer circumferential face of a center portion toward a developing area by rotating while frictionally sliding on a sealing member on each of two end portions. The developing roller includes surface processing areas having a spiral shape, placed on each of outer circumferential faces of the two end portions. An angle, made by a spiral direction of each surface processing area and the rotation direction, is an acute angle. The developing roller inhibits toner leakage, with the driving torque of the developing roller being only slightly increased. |
| US08086144B2 |
Developing apparatus and developer cartridge
A developing apparatus includes a developing roller and a feed roller accommodated in a developing chamber of a developing frame, a first agitating member accommodated in a storing chamber of the developing frame for agitating the developer by rotating in a prescribed rotational direction while moving the developer in the rotational direction, a second agitating member accommodated in a developer accommodation chamber of a developer cartridge, a wall portion provided between the storing chamber and the developer accommodation chamber and formed with an opening for circulating the developer between the storing chamber and the developer accommodation chamber to face the storing chamber on a position above the upper end portion of the feed roller, and a conveyance member arranged between the opening of the wall portion and the developer accommodation chamber for conveying the developer in an axial direction of the developing roller. |
| US08086142B2 |
Bias charge roller comprising overcoat layer
Disclosed are bias charge rollers having an overcoat layer. The overcoat layer comprises a phenolic resin and a conductive agent. The resulting bias charge rollers have reduced streaking and increased service lifetimes. |
| US08086136B2 |
Photoreceptor unit and image forming apparatus
A photoreceptor unit is inserted into an image forming apparatus in the predetermined insertion direction, and includes a photoreceptor, a light-shielding sheet covering a part of the photoreceptor on the front side in the insertion direction; a rigid cover made of resin and provided adjacent to the light-shielding sheet on the rear side in the insertion direction; and a cushioning member interposed between the rigid cover and the photoreceptor. The rigid cover has a length that allows the photoreceptor unit to be gripped at the rigid cover. The light-shielding sheet, the rigid cover and the cushioning member can be removed together from the photoreceptor. |
| US08086135B2 |
Developing apparatus, process cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus with movable developing roller shaft coupling member
A process cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The main assembly includes first and second transmitters, a cartridge positioner, a movable member, and a lock. The cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a developing roller, a drum coupler transmitting a first driving force to the drum of the mounted cartridge and a shaft coupler, transmitting a second driving force from the second transmitter with a deviation permitted between axes of the second transmitter and the roller. The shaft coupler includes an engager engaging the second transmitter and receiving the second driving force for the mounted cartridge. When the cartridge is moved by the movable member, the engager is positioned to the lock and the distance between the engager and roller axes is smaller when the cartridge is positioned to the positioner than when the engager is positioned by a cartridge holding portion. |
| US08086134B2 |
Developing unit including side seal member between end of developer carrier and housing
A developing unit is provided that includes a developer carrier; a housing; and a side sealing member disposed between an end part of the developer carrier and a portion of the housing adjacent to a supply port. The side sealing member includes an upstream side seal and a downstream side seal. The upstream side seal is configured to convey a developer on the upstream side seal in an oblique direction toward the supply port and the downstream side. The downstream side seal is configured to convey a developer on the downstream side seal in a direction toward the downstream side. |
| US08086132B2 |
Photoconductor unit with charge roll wiper for an image forming device
A charge roller wiper for photoconductor unit for forming a toner image in an image forming device. The photoconductor unit comprises a photoconductor drum, a charge roller and a first charge roller wiper. The photoconductor drum receives toner particles for forming the toner image that is transferred onto a media sheet. The charge roller charges the photoconductor drum. A first charge roller wiper is disposed substantially parallel to path along which the charge roller moves between a working position and a storage position. The first charge roller wiper is configured to peripherally contact and clean the charge roller when the charge roller assumes a working position. A second charge roller wiper may be provided adjacent the storage position and disposed substantially perpendicular to the first charge roller wiper and directly in the path along which the charge roller moves. |
| US08086124B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus including toner image forming means for forming a having chromatic toner image a transparent toner image; fixing means for heating and fixing the non-transparent toner image and the transparent toner image on recording material; glossiness detecting means for detecting a glossiness of an area in which the non-transparent toner image and the transparent toner image are overlaid and fixed; control means for controlling an amount of the transparent toner, per unit area, on the recording material on the basis of a result of detection by the detecting means. |
| US08086120B2 |
Method and apparatus for predicting blade life in an image production device
A method and apparatus for predicting blade life in an image production device is disclosed. The method may include retrieving a number of print starts, a number of print cycles, a wear rate for print starts, and a wear rate for print cycles from a memory, calculating wear of a cleaning blade based on the number of print starts, the number of print cycles, the wear rate for print starts, and the wear rate for print cycles, wherein the wear rate for print starts and the wear rate for print cycles are weighed differently, determining if the calculated wear of the cleaning blade exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein if it is determined that the calculated wear of the cleaning blade exceeds a predetermined threshold, sending a notification that the cleaning blade needs to be replaced. |
| US08086113B2 |
Optical receiver
An optical mixing part mixing a received optical signal and local oscillator light in at least two kinds of phases and extracting at least two-system optical signals corresponding to each light phase; a photoelectric conversion part converting the at least two-system optical signals obtained in the optical mixing part into electric analog signals; an analog-to-digital conversion part converting the electric analog signals into digital signals; and a control part processing the digital signals thereby detecting a light phase difference between the respective systems in the optical mixing part and supplying a signal for correcting the light phase between the systems to the optical mixing part to control the optical mixing part so that the light phase difference becomes to zero or close to a desired value when the light phase difference has a shift from the desired value. |
| US08086112B2 |
Optical signal processing circuit
An optical gate switch circuit includes: an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer having an optical path that outputs control light and probe light to a second optical directional coupler via a first optical directional coupler and an optical phase modulation element, and another optical path that connects a third optical directional coupler to which the probe light is input, to the second optical directional coupler via a variable optical attenuator and an optical phase shifter; and a bandpass filter connected to the second optical directional coupler. |
| US08086111B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling the optical output power of a laser in an optical transmitter (TX)
A semi-open feedback loop optical output power control apparatus and method are provided for use in an optical TX. The apparatus and method enable input data signals having content frequencies that are below the cutoff frequency of the optical output power monitoring and control feedback loop to be utilized. This is accomplished at least in part by opening and closing (i.e., is disabling and enabling) the feedback loop based on whether or not one or more transitions in the input data signal to the optical TX from a logic 0 to a logic 1, or vice versa, are detected within a predetermined timing interval. In addition, the apparatus and method provide these and other advantages without causing the optical TX to have an increased link startup settling time period. The feedback loop has a low pass filter (LPF) that has a selectable bandwidth. The bandwidth of the LPF is set to a high bandwidth at startup to enable shorter link startup settling time periods to be achieved by the TX and is set to a low bandwidth at a later time to enable the feedback loop to cause more accurate adjustments to the optical output power of the laser to achieve a better bit error rate (BER). |
| US08086110B2 |
Optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system including adaptive cross-talk cancellation
An optical communication system comprising a transmitter including a data register having a plurality of outputs, each output comprising a separate data channel, a plurality of signal processors, each signal processor corresponding to a data, a plurality of laser modules, each laser module coupled to an output of a corresponding signal processor, wherein each laser module modulates the modified signal from its corresponding data channel onto an optical carrier having a selected wavelength, and an optical multiplexer coupled to an output of all the laser modules. Each signal processor comprises a first input to receive a signal from the corresponding data channel and one or more additional inputs to receive a signal from one or more adjacent data channels, a control input to receive a control signal generated at a receiver based upon a monitored characteristic of the received signal from the corresponding data channel, and logic to modify a characteristic of the signal from the corresponding channel based upon the control signal and the signals from the one or more adjacent data channels. |
| US08086106B2 |
WDM optical transmission system and controlling method thereof
In the WDM optical transmission system, when performing a correction of a control target value of the total light intensity per one channel of the WDM light in each node on a transmission path, a correction value calculation section of each node determines the type of its own node, and if it corresponds to a node (for example, OADM node) that demultiplexes the WDM light into individual channels and performs a predetermined processing, performs correction of the control target value of the total light intensity according to a calculation expression with use of a noise cut ratio. The noise cut ratio is defined according to a filtering characteristic for when demultiplexing the WDM light into individual channels, so that the influence due to removal of the noise components distributed across the intermediate region of each channel due to filtering is reflected in the correction processing of the control target value of the total light intensity. |
| US08086101B2 |
Multi-city DWDM wavelength link architectures and methods for upgrading
A multi-city wavelength link architecture is used to distribute spectral bands received on input optical signals among output optical signals. Such an architecture may include an optical wavelength cross connect having multiple input ports, multiple output ports, and a wavelength routing element that selectively routes wavelength components between one optical signal and multiple optical signal. Such an optical wavelength cross connect will generally receive cross-connect-input optical signals at the input ports and transmit cross-connect-output optical signals from the output ports. Methods are used to increase the number of cities that may be accommodated by the architecture without disrupting through traffic between the existing cities. |
| US08086097B2 |
Optical apparatus including an image stabilizing apparatus
An image stabilizer includes: an optical system movable in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis (“orthogonal plane”) and correcting image blur; a movable member holding the optical system and movable relative to a fixed member in an orthogonal plane; a guide guiding the movable member while preventing from rotating in an orthogonal plane; three first balls rollably interposed between the fixed and guide members; two second balls rollably interposed between the guide and movable members; one third ball rollably interposed between the fixed and movable members; a biasing unit biasing the movable member toward the fixed member; and a drive unit driving the movable member relative to the fixed member in two directions perpendicular to the optical axis, wherein in an orthogonal plane, two of the first balls are rollable only in first direction; the second balls are rollable only in second direction different from the first direction. |
| US08086096B2 |
Shake correction device and imaging apparatus
A shake correction device includes: a first driving means for driving an imaging component, which is related with either an imaging optical system or an imaging device, in a first direction; a second driving means for driving the imaging component in a second direction which is different from the first direction; and a control means for correcting shake of the imaging apparatus by driving the imaging component on the basis of a detection result of the shake of the imaging apparatus, which is obtained by a shake detection means, using the first and second driving means, wherein the control means sequentially executes first return processing in the first direction using the first driving means and second return processing in the second direction using the second driving means when returning the imaging component to a reference position at a predetermined timing. |
| US08086092B2 |
Video image recording apparatus
A video image recording apparatus includes a network interface configured to receive video image data transmitted from an external device; a recording unit configured to record the video image data in a file; a determining unit configured to determine whether or not the external device can record the video image data on a recording medium of the external device; and a discontinuity detection unit configured to detect discontinuity of the video image data. If a record start instruction is detected and it is detected that the external device cannot record the video image data on the recording medium thereof, the recording unit starts a process of recording the video image data in the file. |
| US08086090B2 |
Recording medium and playback apparatus for selecting sub-picture data according to combination of aspect ratio of display screen and type of display mode
A multimedia optical disc for recording main video data which is composed of sets of frame data that is processed beforehand to allow compatibility with displays of a plurality of aspect ratios. The disc has a stream area storing streams made up of the main video data and a plurality of sets of sub-picture data, with each set of sub-picture data including a set of tel-op data and a set of coordinate information showing a display position of the set of tel-op data. The disc also includes a control area storing a plurality of pairings of a set of display mode information and a set of sub-picture indicating information. Each set of display mode information shows a species of display method according to which the frame data is to be processed for a case when the frame data decoded from the main video data is displayed at one of the plurality of aspect ratios. Each set of sub-picture indicating information shows a set of sub-picture data, out of the plurality of sets of sub-picture data in a same stream as the main video data, which includes a set of coordinate information which coincides with the species of display method shown by the display mode information. |
| US08086087B2 |
Information processing device and method, program, and recording medium
A player model (1) includes an output section (10) that reads out a source packet having a transport packet and arrival time stamp from TS1 and TS2 connected seamlessly to each other and outputs the transport packet according to the arrival time stamp, and a decoder (20) that decodes the transport packet. The output section (10) inputs the transport packet according to the arrival time stamp of the source packet to the decoder (20). The decoder (20) includes an audio buffer TBn having a capacity capable of buffering the audio data corresponding to the time required for inputting I picture, which is the first picture of TS2, to a video buffer TB1. |
| US08086082B2 |
Methods for mounting an electro-optical component in alignment with an optical element and related structures
Mounting an electro-optical component (1) on a carrier substrate (2) in an accurate position with respect to an optical element (6), the carrier substrate and the electro-optical component each being provided with at least one solder pad (3, 4). The solder pads are arranged such that, when said electro-optical component is soldered onto the pads, a force is generated that acts on the electro-optical component in a direction (x) towards the optical element, and the structure is designed to allow said electro-optical component to move laterally during soldering, such that it is brought into abutment with said optical element, thereby ensuring an accurate relative positioning between the electro-optical component and the optical element. |
| US08086080B2 |
Multiple function digital optical switch
A multiwavelength switch is provided. The switch includes at least one optical input for receiving an optical beam and at least two optical outputs. A dispersion element receives the optical beam from the optical input and spatially separates the optical beam into a plurality of wavelength components. A collimating element is provided for collimating the plurality of wavelength components. An actuatable optical arrangement receives the collimated plurality of wavelength components from the collimating element. The actuatable optical arrangement includes a digital micromirror device (DMD) from which at least one wavelength component is reflected at least twice before being directed to a selected one of optical outputs. |
| US08086079B2 |
Nanotube electronic device
An electrical device for the utilization of electromagnetic energy, the device comprising a substrate and an aligned array of electromagnetic energy responsive nanotubes supported by and extending through the substrate, which nanotubes are arranged to respond to electromagnetic energy. |
| US08086078B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device in which a signal electrode has a bent portion. Earth electrodes are formed with the signal electrode between. A width of a gap at the bent portion between the signal electrode and each earth electrode is narrower than a width of a gap at both ends of the bent portion between the signal electrode and each earth electrode. |
| US08086077B2 |
Method for storing and retrieving large images via DICOM
Systems and methods that acquire digital slides and other large images and store these images into commercially available PACS systems using DICOM-standard messaging are provided. A digital slide or other large two-dimensional image is acquired and each separate resolution level of the digital slide or large image is divided into a series of regions that are each identified as a DICOM image. All of the regions at the same resolution in the digital slide or other large image are collectively identified as a DICOM series. A plurality of DICOM series, representing multiple resolution levels in a digital slide are collectively identified and stored as a DICOM study. |
| US08086072B2 |
System and method for capturing adjacent images by utilizing a panorama mode
A system and method for capturing adjacent images includes an imaging device with a panorama manager that performs various procedures to manipulate one or more image parameters that correspond to adjacent frames of captured image data. An image-stitching software program may then produce a cohesive combined panorama image from the adjacent frames of image data by utilizing the manipulated image parameters. |
| US08086068B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing an indication of a level of distortion created by blocking artifacts
A method and apparatus are disclosed for providing an indication of a level of distortion created by blocking artifacts in an image comprising a plurality of pixels, the method comprising for each pixel in a first given direction, determining a corresponding gradient between the pixel and a neighboring pixel, for each pixel in the first direction, summing each of the corresponding determined gradient in a second direction to provide a plurality of gradient summing values, computing a level of distortion for each of at least one potential block size using at least one of the gradient summing values, determining an actual block size using the computed at least one level of distortion and providing the level of distortion corresponding to the determined actual block size. |
| US08086067B2 |
Noise cancellation
A technique for reducing noise in a digital video signal is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique involves receiving a digital signal. The digital signal can be filtered thereby generating a filtered signal. The digital signal and the filtered signal can be mixed according to a composite blend map thereby generating an optimized signal. The optimized signal can be provided as an output. |
| US08086066B2 |
Digitally-generated lighting for video conferencing applications
A method of improving the lighting conditions of a real scene or video sequence. Digitally generated light is added to a scene for video conferencing over telecommunication networks. A virtual illumination equation takes into account light attenuation, lambertian and specular reflection. An image of an object is captured, a virtual light source illuminates the object within the image. In addition, the object can be the head of the user. The position of the head of the user is dynamically tracked so that an three-dimensional model is generated which is representative of the head of the user. Synthetic light is applied to a position on the model to form an illuminated model. |
| US08086065B2 |
Apparatus and method for contrast enhancement
Apparatus and method for contrast enhancement are disclosed. An adjustable blending unit is utilized for adjustably blending a linear contrast function with a nonlinear contrast function, thereby resulting in an adjustable contrast curve. The nonlinear contrast function is adjustable by a blending parameter such that distance of the contrast curve to linear contrast curve may be changed. |
| US08086060B1 |
Systems and methods for three-dimensional enhancement of two-dimensional images
Systems and methods for three-dimensional enhancement of two dimensional images are disclosed. One method includes the steps of selecting a first selection and a second selection within an image, the image including a plurality of pixels; calculating a scaling factor for each pixel in a set of pixels in the image based at least in part on the first and second selections, the scaling factor indicating a relative depth of a pixel; applying a filter to the set of pixels, the filter including at least one filter difference for each pixel in the set of pixels; generating a modified image at least by modifying a pixel attribute for each pixel in the set of pixels based at least in part on the scaling factor and the filter difference; and outputting the modified image. |
| US08086059B2 |
Sub-raster registration using non-redundant overwriting
Sub-raster registration errors are compensated for through non-redundant overwriting. Data from adjacent rasters is written to a particular output raster so that the adjacent rasters share an influence at a point actually written to by a rendering device, thereby compensating for a sub-raster component of a registration error associated with writing to the particular point. If two writing passes per raster are used and the writing passes have equal influence (e.g., are written with equal power), then writing data from a first raster during a first pass and writing data from a second raster adjacent to the first raster during a second pass compensates for a sub-raster registration error of half a raster spacing. If two writing passes are associated with different influence (e.g., are written with ⅓ and ⅔ power respectively) and/or if additional writing passes are used, then addition sub-raster positions can be compensated for or emulated. |
| US08086052B2 |
Hybrid video compression method
The invention concerns a method for compressing a digitally coded video frame sequence. In the method, a given frame is divided into blocks, and the information content of selected blocks is modified, relying on information contained in a neighboring block or blocks (prediction), and the blocks are converted from spatial representation into frequency representation. The information content of the transformed blocks is encoded by arithmetic coding. The efficiency of the coding is improved by various methods, such as dynamically partitioning the blocks into sub-blocks, or performing a compressibility analysis is the blocks before carrying out further transformations. The entropy coding uses a neural network to determine the parameters of the arithmetic coding. The frames are dynamically re-scaled, depending on available bandwidth and quality of the coded image. |
| US08086049B2 |
Iterative fisher linear discriminant analysis
An exemplary method includes receiving an image data set that comprises a multidimensional property space and data classifiable into data classes, determining a projection vector for data of the data set wherein the projection vector maximizes a ratio of between-class scatter to within-class scatter, selecting a reference for the vector, projecting at least some of the data onto the vector, measuring distances from the reference to at least some of the data, classifying at least some of the data into data classes based on a nesting analysis of the distances, eliminating the classified data from the image data set to produce a modified image data set and deciding whether to determine another projection vector for the modified image data set. Various other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc, are also disclosed. |
| US08086044B2 |
Block-based iterative multi-pass data filling technique for compound document compression
A method and apparatus for data filling is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an image and a mask associated with the image and performing a block-based, iterative multi-pass data filling process to fill a layer as part of compound document compression. |
| US08086040B2 |
Text representation method and apparatus
A text-like data representation technique and a text-like data representation apparatus are disclosed that may: acquire image data from a scanned image; segment text regions from the image data; further extract each connected component in the text regions; form clusters based on the connected components; group each connected component in the text regions into one of the clusters with similar or identical characters; generate a high-resolution representative for each cluster; generate a vector representation for each high-resolution representative; and code the text as text data by associating each connected component with its vectorized high-resolution representative, and location in the document. |
| US08086035B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
When converting image data constituted by a plurality of objects to data for an output device, color appearances of object images specified as a same output color are set so as to not vary even when their respective background colors vary. A color appearance model forward conversion section uses forward conversion of a color appearance model to calculate target appearance colors, which are targets of appearances of objects based on color information of the objects. A surrounding adaptive background color obtaining section generates surrounding adaptive background colors based on pixels around a pixel of interest for object images that have undergone rendering. Then, output pixel values of the pixel of interest are calculated by a color appearance model reverse conversion section using reverse conversion of the color appearance model based on the target appearance color and the surrounding adaptive background colors. |
| US08086032B2 |
Image processing device, image processing method, and image pickup apparatus
An illumination component extractor is operable to extract an illumination component from input image data by: performing a smoothing process a certain number of times to generate a plurality of smooth image data having resolutions different from one another from the input image data, the smoothing process including an operation of filtering the input image data with use of a low-pass filter having a predetermined size and an operation of downsampling the filtered input image data; and performing an inverse-smoothing process a certain number of times, the inverse-smoothing process including an operation of replacing an edge portion of a smooth image data having a lower resolution with a smooth image data having a higher resolution, and an operation of upsampling the replaced smooth image data. The input image data is color image data which has been obtained by an image sensor including a number of pixels having different spectral sensitivities. |
| US08086029B1 |
Automatic image adjustment
Automatic image adjustment is described, including performing a principal component analysis (PCA) for a plurality of values to determine a principal component, normalizing the principal component to obtain a normalized principal component, and generating an image by mapping the plurality of values using the normalized principal component. |
| US08086025B2 |
Universal stereoscopic file format
Stereoscopic images may be represented in four coordinates where a first image is represented in three coordinates and a second image is represented of one coordinate. The brightness contrast is the property largely used in stereoscopic perception. The brightness and color of the first image is represented in three coordinates while the brightness of the second image is represented in the one coordinate. Color perception is dominated by the first image. A universal file format with four channels allows the stereoscopic images to be displayed as anaglyphs or as two full color images or as non-stereoscopic images. The anaglyphs may be rendered in three primary colors or four primary colors providing wide compatibility with traditional and specialized display apparatus. The universal file format facilitates methods to capture, display, convert, and communicate stereoscopic images. |
| US08086022B2 |
Electron beam inspection system and an image generation method for an electron beam inspection system
An inspection system uses a scanning electron microscope that detects a high-precision electron beam image, and at the same time removes restrictions for a low sampling rate. A sampled signal is obtained by sampling an analog brightness signal generated by a secondary electron detector at a predetermined sampling rate, and contiguous digital values contained in the sampled signal are added on an N by N digital value basis to generate a digital brightness signal whose frequency is equal to 1/N of the sampling frequency. Each, digital value contained in the digital brightness signal is divided by N to generate a digital signal made of digital values having a number of bits equal to that of the sampled signal and to generate an image signal in which each digital value of the digital signal forms one pixel data. |
| US08086021B2 |
Appearance inspection apparatus with scanning electron microscope and image data processing method using scanning electron microscope
The present invention provides an appearance inspection apparatus that allows a user to give precedence to either defect detection performance or throughput. The appearance inspection apparatus allows a user to select the frequency of a digital image signal or the ratio of the frequency of the digital image signal to a sampling rate. Further, a user is allowed to select either throughput improvement or S/N improvement to prioritize. |
| US08086019B2 |
Method of creating master data used for inspecting concave-convex figure
An image of respective figures is cut out by selecting a figure from tire CAD drawings, and an arranging position of the figure is set in accordance with a distance in a radial direction form a tire center and a deformed angle in a circumferential direction of the tire from a designated location, so that a height of respective regions of the cut-out image is set. Then, the cut-out image is transformed into an image having a gray scale in accordance with the height by using the height information of respective regions, and, at an arranging position of the figure, the image having a gray scale is sampled by a predetermined interval in a radial direction from a tire center and is sampled by a predetermined angle interval in a circumferential direction of the tire, so that master data are created by the image and a distance between intersecting points becomes equal. |
| US08086016B2 |
Apparatus, a method and software for analyzing a cell image
A cell image analysis apparatus and method for judging, quickly and with good reproducibility, the presence or absence of a membrane translocation reaction occurring in a cell owing to application of an arbitrary stimulus to the cell using a fluorescence microscope. The inventive apparatus has: an element acquiring as an image data a fluorescence microscopic image of a cell after the application of the stimulus; an element determining a region occupied by the cell in the fluorescence image of the cell; an element determining a contour line of the cell having a width of a predetermined number of pixels from a periphery of the region occupied by the cell; and an element judging the presence or absence of the membrane translocation reaction based on a brightness value on the contour line of the cell and a brightness value in an inside of the contour line of the cell. |
| US08086012B2 |
Methods and apparatus for determining body weight and fat content using computed tomography data
Methods and apparatus for determining body weight and fat content using computed tomography data are provided. One method includes acquiring a pre-scan image using a computed tomography imaging system and segmenting the pre-scan image into pixels representing imaged fat and pixels representing imaged tissue. The method further includes determining a lean body weight based on the segmented pixels representing imaged fat and imaged tissue. |
| US08086010B2 |
Medical image diagnosis apparatus and the control method thereof
Obtain a tomographic image of a patient table in advance in a state in which the object is not placed on the patient table. Obtain a tomographic image of the patient table with the object placed on the patient table. This tomographic image consists of an image of a patient table. The displacement calculation part determines the vertical displacement of images of the patient table in a non-loaded state and the tomographic image of the patient table in a loaded state. Meanwhile, markers are placed on the side of the patient table to indicate the displacement detecting position (reference position). The corrected image-forming part corrects the vertical positions of image data of the tomographic image in the loaded state based on the calculated displacement. |
| US08086005B2 |
Medical image processing apparatus and medical image processing method
A medical image processing apparatus of the present invention includes an edge extracting section that extracts edges of an inputted two-dimensional image, a three-dimensional-model estimating section that estimates a three-dimensional model on the basis of the two-dimensional image, a voxel extracting section that extracts, on the basis of positions of respective voxels, where the edges are present, a predetermined voxel group to be set as a calculation object of a shape feature value, a shape-feature-value calculating section that calculates the shape feature value for at least a part of voxels among the predetermined voxel group, a three-dimensional-shape extracting section that extracts a voxel group, a three-dimensional model of which is estimated as a predetermined shape, on the basis of the shape feature value, and a tuberal-shape detecting section that detects the voxel group as a voxel group forming a tuberal shape in the three-dimensional model of the living tissue. |
| US08086003B2 |
Method and magnetic resonance apparatus to acquire temporally successive image data sets
In a method and magnetic resonance apparatus for acquisition and processing of a series of temporally successive image data sets of the series of temporally successive image data sets is acquired by magnetic resonance technology, wherein k-space image data corresponding to each image data set are acquired, and for each image data set in the series, a determination is made, in at least one first part of that image data set, of a measure that characterizes a global image intensity value of that image data set. At least one second part of the image data sets is corrected using the determined measures and/or the determined measures are used in an evaluation of at least one third part of the image data sets. A temporal change of the global image intensity value in the series of temporally successive image data sets is compensated or taken into account in this manner. |
| US08085995B2 |
Identifying images using face recognition
A method includes identifying a named entity, retrieving images associated with the named entity, and using a face detection algorithm to perform face detection on the retrieved images to detect faces in the retrieved images. At least one representative face image from the retrieved images is identified, and the representative face image is used to identify one or more additional images representing the at least one named entity. |
| US08085992B1 |
Methods and systems for capturing biometric data
A method of capturing biometric data is provided that includes activating a security application in a device. The security application is activated by an operator of the device and is configured to cause the device to display an outline image. Moreover, the method includes displaying the outline image in a stationary position on a display of the device, positioning desired biometric data proximate the device such that the desired biometric data appears as a biometric image on the device display, and monitoring the outline and biometric images shown on the device display. Furthermore, the method includes positioning the device and the desired biometric data to better align the outline and biometric images when the outline and biometric images do not align and capturing the desired biometric data from an individual after approximately aligning the outline image with the biometric image. |
| US08085988B2 |
Apparatus and method for recognizing and determining a position
An apparatus for recognizing and determining the position of at least one teat of a milking animal includes a scanning head comprising a light source and a camera. The light source emits light into a region which is expected to contain a teat or teats and the camera captures images formed by the light. In a first scanning mode, the scanning head is moved from a low initial position upwards in a circular coil until the position of at least a first teat has been established. Thereafter, in a second scanning mode, the scanning head is moved upwards in a to circular coil until the positions of all teats have been established, or a predetermined time limit has elapsed during the scanning procedure. The coil traversed during the first scanning mode is wider than the coil traversed during the second scanning mode. |
| US08085984B2 |
Image recognizing apparatus and method, and position determining apparatus, vehicle controlling apparatus and navigation apparatus using the image recognizing apparatus or method
There is provided e.g. an image recognizing apparatus which can increase the recognition rate of the image of a recognition target even when the recognition rate in the image recognition operation would deteriorate otherwise due to inability of obtaining good image information on the recognition target, if the operation relied solely on picked up image information.The apparatus includes an image information obtaining section 3, an imaging position obtaining section 7, a land object information storing section 8, a land object information obtaining section 9 for obtaining, from the land object information storing section 8, the land object information on one or more land objects included within an imaging area of the image information, a determining section 15 for determining whether or not a plurality of recognition target land objects to be recognized are included within the imaging area of the image information, based on the obtained land object information and an image recognizing section 10 for recognizing an image of one recognition target land object, based on result of image recognition of another recognition target land object and on position relationship between the one recognition target land object and another recognition target land object based on the position information included in the land object information, if the determining section has determined that a plurality of recognition target land objects are included. |
| US08085981B2 |
Object perception method and a related perceiving device
The present invention relates to an object perception method, for use by a perceiving device that is adapted to perceive at least one object in an environment comprising a plurality of objects. Each object of the plurality of objects is adapted to provision meta-information characterizing the corresponding object. The perceiving device includes at least one object of the plurality of objects in a selection by varying a perspective of the object perceiving device. The perceiving device perceives this at least one object of the plurality of objects included in the selection and captures a representation of the at least one object included in said selection in a snapshot. The perceiving device further perceives meta-information corresponding to the at least one object in the selection and additionally the meta-information corresponding to the objects of said plurality of objects not included in the selection. The perceiving device then captures in the snapshot additionally to the representation of the at least one object included in the selection, the meta-information corresponding to the at least one object in the selection, said meta-information corresponding to said objects not included in said selection. |
| US08085978B2 |
Distributed decoding of digitally encoded media signals
Digital data is decoded from media signals (e.g., audio, images, video, etc.) using a distributed processing in which a first device receives and pre-processes the signal, and transmits it to a remote device for further decoding. One method pre-filters the media signal, leaving a residual from which digital data is decoded. Other arrangements progressively send portions of the signal for decoding operations. |
| US08085970B2 |
Speaker damper and speaker using the same
Speaker damper (12) used in a speaker including frame (5), magnetic circuit (1) coupled to frame (5), voice coil unit (2) inserted into magnetic gap (8) provided in magnetic circuit (1), and diaphragm (3) coupled to frame (5) and voice coil unit (2) at its outer and inner peripheral ends, respectively. Speaker damper (12) is coupled to voice coil unit (2) and frame (5) at its inner and outer peripheral ends, respectively, and has first supporting portion (10) having a first elastic modulus at its inner peripheral end and second supporting portion (11) having a second elastic modulus different from the first elastic modulus at the outer peripheral side of first supporting portion (10). This configuration can reduce the distortion of a speaker, even if the amplitude amount of voice coil unit (2) becomes large, and a large load is not applied to vibrating voice coil unit (2). |
| US08085967B2 |
Reversible speaker grill attachment
A loudspeaker having a speaker basket including a basket rim, a speaker mounting hole, and a coupling hole disposed through the basket rim. The loudspeaker includes a first grill coupling engaged with the coupling hole, as well as a grill removably attached to the basket rim via the first grill coupling. The grill defines a solid surface portion which completely covers the speaker mounting hole and the coupling hole. The first grill coupling is interposed between the basket rim and the grill. |
| US08085966B2 |
Combined headphone set and portable speaker assembly
A combined headphone set including a speaker assembly. The headphone set includes a headband having a speaker headphone on opposing ends of the headband. Each of the speaker headphones includes an exterior speaker for public listening and an interior speaker for personal listening by the user. One of the speaker headphones includes switching means for listening to the interior speaker or to the exterior speaker or to the interior and exterior speakers simultaneously from each of the speaker headphones. Each of the speaker headphones includes an audio signal wire connected from an output jack of an audio device to the speaker headphones. |
| US08085964B2 |
Apparatus and methods for generating pressure waves
Actuator apparatus for generating a physical effect, at least one attribute of which corresponds to at least one characteristic of a digital input signal sampled periodically in accordance with a clock, the apparatus comprising at least one array of moving elements each constrained to travel alternately back and forth along a respective axis in response to an alternating electromagnetic force applied to the array of moving elements, at least one latch operative to selectively latch at least one subset of said moving elements in at least on latching position there by to prevent the individual moving elements from responding to the electromagnetic force, an electromagnetic field control system operative to receive the clock and, accordingly, to control application of the electromagnetic force to the array of moving elements and a latch controller operative to receive the digital input signal and to control the latch accordingly. |
| US08085959B2 |
Hearing compensation system incorporating signal processing techniques
A hearing compensation system comprises a plurality of bandpass filters having an input connected to an input transducer and each bandpass filter having an output connected to the input of one of a plurality of multiplicative automatic gain control (MAGC) circuits whose outputs are summed together and connected to the input of an output transducer. The MAGC circuits attenuate acoustic signals having a constant background level without the loss of speech intelligibility. The identification of the background noise portion of the acoustic signal is made by the constancy of the envelope of the input signal in each of the several frequency bands. The background noise that will be suppressed includes multi-talker speech babble, fan noise, feedback whistle, florescent light hum, and white noise. For use in the consumer electronics field background acoustic noise may be sensed and used to adjust gain in the various MAGC circuits so as to improve a user's listening experience, whether the user is hearing impaired or not. |
| US08085955B2 |
Electromagnetic lever diaphragm audio transducer
A transducer including a frame and a panel disposed within the frame and coupled to the frame such that the panel may rotate relative to the frame about a rotational axis. The transducer includes an actuator positioned to engage the panel such that the panel rotates about the rotational axis. |
| US08085953B2 |
Audio-signal time-axis expansion/compression method and device
An audio-signal time-axis expansion/compression method for subjecting an audio signal to time-axis expansion/compression at a time domain includes the steps of: cross-fade-signal generating wherein a first period and a second period which are similar within the audio signal are employed to generate the cross-fade signal of the first period signal and the second period signal; correction-signal generating wherein the difference signal between the first period signal and the second period signal is subjected to time-axis reversal, and is multiplied with a window function to generate a correction signal; and connection-waveform generating wherein the cross-fade signal and the correction signal are added to generate a connection waveform for subjecting the audio signal to time-axis expansion/compression at the time domain. |
| US08085952B2 |
Combination equalizer and calibrator circuit assembly for audio system
A combination equalizer and calibrator circuit assembly includes a calibrator formed of a frequency control circuit, a signal generator, an amplifier circuit connected with a microphone, a compare circuit and a display circuit and connected to the front end of an equalizer set. Calibration is made through the calibrator prior to audio system reproduction, wherein the frequency control circuit provides a reference frequency and different test frequencies for causing the signal generator to generate respective sound signals for output through a speaker; the microphone picks up these sound signals for comparison with respective reference values by the compare circuit; and the display circuit displays the respective comparison results. By means of adjustment through respective adjust circuits, signals of test frequencies are standardized so that the music played through the audio system is well calibrated without sound spectrum distortion due to space or audio system discrepancy. |
| US08085950B2 |
Sound signal processing apparatus and sound signal processing method
A sound signal processing apparatus and a sound signal processing method divide an input signal into a low frequency signal output (11) and a high frequency signal output (10), and delay only the high frequency signal output (10), thereby reducing the temporal shift between the high frequency signal and the low frequency signal. Furthermore, correcting the phase of the low frequency signal output (11) in accordance with a change in phase due to the delay of the high frequency signal output (10) allows to prevent variation in frequency characteristics due to interference at the time of addition of the low frequency signal output (11) and the high frequency signal output (10). |
| US08085948B2 |
Noise reduction in a system
A system comprises a plurality of storage drives coupled to logic. The logic implements a noise-reducing feature selected from a group consisting of a first feature that limits system performance based on a level of ambient noise, a second feature that staggers access transactions among said storage drives, a third feature that staggers spin up among the storage drives, a fourth feature that at least partially cancels noise generated by the system, a fifth feature that limits fan speed, and combinations thereof. |
| US08085946B2 |
ANR analysis side-chain data support
An ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device and possibly within an ADC of the ANR circuit, feedback reference data, feedforward reference data and/or pass-through audio data is provided to a secondary downsampling (and/or decimating) filter and/or is provided to a calculating block (e.g., RMS or absolute calculation block) to derive side-chain data to be output by the ANR circuit to a processing device coupled to the ANR circuit to employ the side-chain data in an analysis related to the provision of feedback-based ANR, feedforward-based ANR and/or pass-through audio by the ANR circuit. |
| US08085943B2 |
Noise extractor system and method
A noise extraction method in which an environmental input which includes a noise indicia is selectively modified in accordance with an algorithm that includes one or more factors representing time response, amplitude of response, and error correction. The algorithm may also include thresholding, delay or convergence, among other techniques. |
| US08085942B2 |
Audio apparatus and method for use in proximity to a magnetic resonance imaging system
An apparatus and method for presenting high-quality auditory stimuli, receiving patient communication and providing noise cancellation within the environment of magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”) equipment. A microphone is positioned in a noise attenuated channel for recording of the patient's voice. A microphone is disposed outside of a noise attenuated channel to directly record the sounds of MRI equipment during its operation. The signals generated by the microphones are employed to reduce the output of noise generated by MRI equipment. |
| US08085940B2 |
Rebalancing of audio
Rebalancing of an audio signal refers to achieving a balance of perceived loudness, typically of right and left channels, given an unbalanced input. A flexible method to automatically rebalance an audio input signal is robust against noise in extreme cases through the individual channels combined in various ways as a function of the loudness ratio between input channels. |
| US08085939B2 |
Stereophonic sound reproduction system for compensating low frequency signal and method thereof
A stereophonic sound reproduction system for compensating a low frequency signal and a method thereof, wherein a mono component signal for compensating low frequency signals which are attenuated when removing a crosstalk of inputted left and right signals inputted is calculated using an average value between the left and right signals, left and right compensation gains which are inversely proportional to an absolute value of a power difference value between the first left and right signals, an amplitude of the calculated mono component signal is controlled according to the left and right compensation gains, and thereafter the mono component signal with the controlled amplitude is added to the left and right signals when removing the crosstalk, whereby the left and right signals from which the crosstalk is removed and to which the mono component signal is added are outputted through left and right speakers to thus prevent distortion of the low frequency signals of original stereophonic sound with maintaining a stereophonic sound effect. |
| US08085938B2 |
Secret information management scheme based on secret sharing scheme
In a secret information management system for managing a secret information of a user, the secret information is divided into a plurality of divided data by using a secret sharing scheme, such that the secret information can be recovered from a prescribed number of the divided data, and a part of the plurality of divided data is stored into a terminal of the user as user's divided data while a rest of the plurality of divided data are stored into one or more of deposit servers. Then, a plurality of re-divided data different from the plurality of divided data are generated, from a combination of the prescribed number of the divided data among the divided data stored in the deposit servers by using the secret sharing scheme, and a part of the plurality of re-divided data is stored into the terminal as newly generated user's divided data while a rest of the plurality of re-divided data are stored into the deposit servers as newly generated divided data. |
| US08085935B2 |
Embedding and extraction of information from an embedded content using replica modulation
Apparatus and methods are provided for embedding or embedding digital data into an analog host or cover signal. A distributed signal feature of the cover signal in a particular domain (time, frequency or space) is calculated and compared with a set of predefined quantization values corresponding to an information symbol to be encoded. The amount of change required to modify the signal feature to the determined target quantization value is calculated and the cover signal is modified accordingly to so change the feature value over a predefined interval. Information symbols are extracted by the opposite process. In one embodiment, the predefined value is a short term autocorrelation value of the cover signal. |
| US08085934B1 |
Reverse cryptographic key expansion
Apparatus having corresponding methods and computer programs comprise: a key input module to receive a first cryptographic key; and a reverse key expansion module to generate a second cryptographic key based on the first cryptographic key, wherein each of the first cryptographic key and the second cryptographic key comprises a plurality of words, and wherein the reverse key expansion module comprises a first word module to generate the first word of the second cryptographic key based on the first word of the first cryptographic key and the last two words of the first cryptographic key, and a remaining word module to generate the remaining words of the second cryptographic key, the remaining word module comprising at least one word module to generate a word of the second cryptographic key based on the corresponding word, and the immediately previous word, of the first cryptographic key. |
| US08085930B2 |
Communication system
A method for removing an echo component in a first signal received at an audio input device, said method comprising the steps of outputting a second signal from an audio output device, receiving at the audio input device the first signal wherein the echo component in the first signal is the result of the second signal traversing an echo path having a frequency response which defines the relationship between the echo component and the second signal; determining an echo path model indicating an estimate of the frequency response of the echo path; removing an estimate of the echo component from the first signal using the echo path model; detecting if the first signal is overloaded; and wherein if it is detected that the first signal is overloaded the step of determining an echo path model comprises determining an overload echo path model such that the estimate of the frequency response indicated by the overload echo path model is only allowed to increase over time regardless of whether the frequency response of the echo path is decreasing over time. |
| US08085927B2 |
Interactive voice response system with prioritized call monitoring
The present invention enables service agents in a call center to monitor portions of calls that are especially error-prone (e.g., automated speech recognition of an address, etc.), while portions of calls that are not error-prone occur without any human monitoring. An interactive voice response (IVR) system script (e.g., a VXML script, etc.) is divided into a plurality of independent dialog sequences, each of which is assigned a human-monitoring requirement that indicates whether (and optionally, to what degree) the dialog sequence requires monitoring by a service agent. In addition, instances of the dialog sequences in calls are prioritized based on an indication of caller intelligibility during (i) prior dialog sequences in the current call, and (ii) prior calls involving the same caller and/or the same contact identifier (e.g., telephone number, email address, Internet Protocol address, etc.). |
| US08085924B2 |
One number, intelligent call processing system
A one number, multi-application, intelligent call processing system provides service benefits to a caller, a servicing location and/or a vanity number advertiser during a call, parallel to the call and/or post call in an integrated common architecture. The system utilizes VRU technology in conjunction with the national telecommunications network connected via Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) to a virtual telephone number database containing a nationwide master list of telephone numbers with attribute data items associated by Spatial Key linkage to each telephone number. The process of the invention is initiated by a caller dialing a selected telephone number to request information and/or services. Based on the number dialed, a caller or network provided ten-digit telephone number and VRU prompted for and received caller input, the system retrieves the application requested data from the virtual telephone number database and provides it to the network. |
| US08085918B2 |
Communication terminal and method for answering incoming call
A communication terminal includes an alerting unit, a capturing unit, an identifying unit and a phone answering unit. The alerting unit is configured for generating an alert signal when the communication terminal has an incoming call. The capturing unit is configured for capturing consecutive images according to the alert signal from the alerting unit. The identifying unit is configured for identifying the captured consecutive images from the capturing unit, and determining whether the last captured image shows an image of an ear. The phone answering unit is configured for answering the incoming call according to a determination result of the identifying unit that the last captured image shows the image of the ear. |
| US08085915B2 |
System and method for spam detection
A voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) caller verification method includes generating a challenge to be sent to a VoIP caller which needs a response from the VoIP caller prior to accepting a VoIP call, wherein the challenge includes a test pattern crafted to create a greater load at a spammer VoIP caller as compared to a human VoIP caller. A response or lack thereof is determined from the VoIP caller, and the response is analyzed relative to an acceptable response to determine whether the VoIP caller is acceptable to communicate with. |
| US08085913B2 |
Mobile telephone services provided using pre-paid financial accounts
A method and system for providing telephone services. An exemplary system includes a financial account having at least one balance. Funds can be added to the balance of the account using a variety of deposit mechanisms. Similarly, the funds located in the account may be accessed using a variety of financial mechanisms, including a debit card, check, and the like. In addition, the funds located in the account may be accessed with a telephone, where transactions performed by the telephone, such as telephone calls, Internet access, and the like, are directly funded by the financial account. |
| US08085905B2 |
Multimedia emergency services
A system and method for remotely controlling one or more monitoring devices in a user's household in the event of emergency so as to more productively monitor the emergency situation on a real-time basis. The monitoring devices may include a number of multimedia instruments such as a telephone with an answering machine, a computer with a built-in digital camera, a video recording device, a cellular phone with an integrated digital camera, etc. An emergency service provider may remotely activate the monitoring devices in the user's vicinity upon receiving an emergency help request from the user, and receive the information sent by the monitoring devices to enable the service personnel to plan appropriate response to the emergency at hand. Such an arrangement allows for better monitoring of the user's vicinity in an emergency situation without the need for prolonged user participation in narrating or describing the emergency situation. |
| US08085903B2 |
Shutter mechanism for collimating X-rays
A shutter mechanism for collimating x-rays has two parallel drive shafts and two parallel guide shafts orthogonal to the drive shafts to define a rectangular aperture. Two flexible bands moving around a generally rectangular path about the aperture independently control the positions of each set of shutters. Two cams on the drive shafts control the positions of the flexible bands and shutters. A pair of transverse shutters made of an x-ray opaque material are held in sliding engagement between the drive shafts. One end of each transverse shutter is attached to the first flexible band adjacent to the drive shafts. Similarly, a pair of longitudinal shutters are held in sliding engagement between the drive shafts. One end of each longitudinal shutter is attached to the second flexible band adjacent to the guide shafts. |
| US08085898B2 |
Apparatus for bone density assessment and monitoring
The present invention relates to a dual energy X-ray apparatus and method for osteoporosis assessment and monitoring. The present invention takes a bone densitometry reading of a patient's wrist to assess osteoporosis and monitor bone loss condition by repeat measurements along with therapy. The bone densitometry system has an X-ray source, dual energy detectors, an arm-rest to place the patient's arm, a motion system to move the source-detector gantry along the patient's forearm, and a computer with a database to archive the wrist image, calculate the bone mineral density, maintain a history of patient information, and generate patient history reports. |
| US08085897B2 |
X-ray scanning system
An X-ray scanner comprises an array (12) of X-ray detectors (16) arranged in cylindrical configuration around an imaging volume (28), and a multi-focus X-ray source (20) which extends in a helical configuration around the outside of the detector array (12). A helical gap (24) in the detector array (12) allows X-rays from the source (20) to pass through the patient (26) in the imaging volume (28), and onto the detectors (16) on the opposite side of the scanner. The source (20) is controlled so that the X-rays are produced from a number of source points along the helical locus (23) to produce a tomographic image. As the patient is stationary and the source point varied electrically, the scanning rate is sufficient to produce a series of images which can be displayed as a real time three-dimensional video image. |
| US08085888B2 |
Method and system for determining an optimal or near optimal set of contexts by constructing a multi-directional context tree
In various embodiments of the present invention, optimal or near-optimal multidirectional context sets for a particular data-and/or-signal analysis or processing task are determined by selecting a maximum context size, generating a set of leaf nodes corresponding to those maximally sized contexts that occur in the data or signal to be processed or analyzed, and then building up and concurrently pruning, level by level, a multidirectional optimal context tree constructing one of potentially many optimal or near-optimal context trees in which leaf nodes represent the context of a near-optimal or optimal context set that may contain contexts of different sizes and geometries. Pruning is carried out using a problem-domain-related weighting function applicable to nodes and subtrees within the context tree. In one described embodiment, a bi-directional context tree suitable for a signal denoising application is constructed using, as the weighting function, an estimated loss function. |
| US08085886B2 |
Supression of unwanted signal elements by sinusoidal amplitude windowing
A method is provided for processing a signal containing regular or quasi-regular elements of unwanted signal. The method establishes timing characteristics of the unwanted signal elements in a portion of the signal. A time domain window function is generated using the established timing characteristics. The generated window function is applied to the signal portion to selectively reduce the amplitude of the unwanted signal elements relative to the amplitude of other elements of the signal. |
| US08085880B2 |
Amplitude monitor for high-speed signals
A serial communication system includes a receiver that incorporates an amplitude monitor, which may be used to set and maintain appropriate termination-resistance values and transmit pre-emphasis and receive equalization settings. The amplitude monitor can note the presence or absence of input signals, as is required by some communication standards, such as those that require support for “out-of-band” (OOB) signaling for e.g. rate negotiation. The amplitude monitor compares the input signal with a reference level in response to a sample clock. The sample clock is periodically phase shifted with respect to the incoming data so the amplitude monitor is sure to sample an incoming data eye at or near the peak amplitude over a selected sample period. The amplitude detector notes the detection of an input signal if the input signal surpasses the reference level for any sample phase. The amplitude monitor experiments with different sample-clock phases over a number of data symbols, but is capable of measuring amplitude fast enough to resolve amplitude-based signals used for rate negotiation. |
| US08085879B2 |
Method for amplitude insensitive packet detection
The invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications and more particularly to a method of and device for detecting the presence of a received data packet in a digital receiver. The present invention proposes a simplified method of correlation by removing dependency on the amplitude fluctuations while at the same time maintaining phase relevancy. The key advancement involves mapping the complex quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) preamble to a quantized phase shift keying (PSK) constellation before application to a matched complex correlator. The proposed process essentially “amplitude normalizes” the input signal without the use or complexity associated with a divider. This simplified normalization scheme makes the packet detection algorithm robust against amplitude variations in the input signal, while still allowing for good correlation output. In applications where interference is superimposed on the I/Q input signals, the invention improves the detection capability over automatic gain control (AGC) normalization methods. |
| US08085878B2 |
Digital broadcasting system and data processing method
A receiving system and data processing method therein are disclosed, by which mobile service data is received and processed. The receiving system comprises a tuner, a filter, an IQ mismatch processor, a gain controller and a demodulator. The tuner tunes radio frequency (RF) signals of a specific channel which includes mobile service data and main service data, converts the tuned RF signals into zero IF signals and outputs the converted zero IF signals. The filter performs low pass filtering for the zero IF signals output from the tuner. The IQ mismatch processor estimates and compensates IQ mismatch generated in the zero IF signals filtered by the filter. The gain controller controls gain of the zero IF signals by estimating a gain error of the zero IF signals output from the IQ mismatch processor. The demodulator performs carrier recovery and timing recovery by receiving the zero IF signals output from the gain controller. |
| US08085869B2 |
Configurable load impedance for power amplifier predistortion calibration
An integrated circuit radio transceiver and method therefor includes an integrated circuit radio transceiver operable to provide specified gain levels and transmit path filter responses to correspond with a selected power spectral density mask. Changes in gain may be provided solely digital gain changes or may include analog gain module gain changes. A transmitter selects from one of at least three masks to reduce or eliminate spectral regrowth out of band to satisfy EVM requirements. Circuitry is provided to allow a transceiver to determine in advance what pre-distortion compensation settings are required for the various gain settings. |
| US08085865B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing high speed data communications in a cellular environment
A method and apparatus for transmitting digital data in a cellular environment. Adjacent cells of the cellular system are prevented from simultaneously transmitting data. Because the noise from transmissions of adjacent cells is a primary source of interference, the transmission rate of power limited base stations can be dramatically increased when the noise from adjacent cells is eliminated. The transmissions to each subscriber station are made at a fixed transmission power level. However, the data rate of transmitted signals differs from one subscriber station to another depending the path loss differences. In a first exemplary embodiment, the data rate of transmissions to a subscriber station is determined by selecting an encoding rate for the transmitted signal while holding the symbol rate constant. In a second exemplary embodiment, the data rate of transmissions to a subscriber station is determined by selection a modulation format for the transmitted signal which directly changes the symbol rate of transmission to a subscriber station. |
| US08085864B2 |
Midamble allocations for MIMO transmissions
Allocation of multiple training sequences transmitted in a MIMO timeslot from multiple transmit antenna elements is provided. For example, a method of generating signals in a MIMO timeslot, the method comprising: selecting a first training sequence; preparing a first data payload; generating a first signal including the prepared first data payload and the first training sequence; transmitting the first signal in a MIMO timeslot from a first antenna of a network element; selecting a second training sequence, wherein the second training sequence is different from first training sequence; preparing a second data payload; generating a second signal including the prepared second data payload and the second training sequence; and transmitting the second signal in the MIMO timeslot from a second antenna of the network element. |
| US08085863B2 |
Radio receiver or transmitter and method for reducing an IQ gain imbalance
A radio receiver includes an in-phase channel and a quadrature channel, the channels being provided in parallel at a respective input with quadrature modulated radio frequency signals; and an error correction loop for detecting and correcting an imbalance in gain between at least part of the in-phase channel and a corresponding part of the quadrature channel, wherein the error correction loop comprises: a detector adapted to calculate Error_detnew=|I′|−|Q′|, where I′ and Q′ are the in-phase and quadrature channels respectively; a loop filter arranged to receive Error_detnew from the detector and calculate loop_filter_outnew+=Ki * Error_detnew, where Ki is the loop filter constant and loop_filter_outnew has an initial value of 1; and a multiplier arranged to receive loop_filter_outnew from the loop filter and adjust the signal of the quadrature channel by multiplying the signal by loop_filter_outnew. |
| US08085859B2 |
Platform noise mitigation
In one embodiment of the invention, a Fourier transform unit converts unsynchronized data received through multiple antennas to a frequency domain. Also, a spectrum estimation unit determines a power spectrum for the unsynchronized data. A notch filter removes data within a frequency band from additional unsynchronized data based on the power spectrum. A synchronization unit synchronizes the notch filtered data and a noise estimation unit determines a noise covariance matrix between the synchronized data received from multiple antennas. In addition, an equalization unit performs channel equalization on the synchronized data based on the noise covariance matrix. |
| US08085857B1 |
Digital-compatible multi-state-sense input
A method and an apparatus are described for sensing of a multi-state signal. An embodiment of a method includes driving a digital input line with a signal, the signal alternating between a first state and a second state. The method further includes sensing one or more values of the digital input line, and determining a state of the digital input line based on the sensed values. |
| US08085856B2 |
Filtering strength determination method, moving picture coding method and moving picture decoding method
A moving picture coding apparatus includes an inter-pixel filter having filters for filtering decoded image data so as to remove block distortion which is high frequency noise around block boundaries. The inter-pixel filter includes filters having different filtering strengths. The coding apparatus also includes a filter processing control unit for determining a filtering strength of the inter-pixel filter. |
| US08085853B2 |
Video decoding and transcoding method and system
A video decoding and transcoding method and system, which decodes, displays and transcodes a video stream. When a previous frame is completely decoded, a decoding procedure checks whether a frame buffer assigned is usable. When the frame buffer is usable, a current frame is decoded to produce a decoded frame and temporarily store the decoded frame in the frame buffer, and a frame flag corresponding to the frame buffer is set. When a previous field is completely displayed, a displaying procedure checks whether the frame buffer temporarily stores the decoded frame. When the frame buffer temporarily stores the decoded frame, the decoded frame is read and displayed. When the previous frame is completely decoded, a transcoding procedure checks whether the frame buffer temporarily stores the decoded frame. When the frame buffer temporarily stores the decoded frame, the decoded frame is read and transcoded. |
| US08085851B2 |
Moving image encoding method and apparatus
A moving image encoding method of encoding a moving image while switching between variable-length encoding schemes. In this method, a continuous unit to be continuously reproduced is determined (S5201), a stream is generated by encoding the moving image without switching between variable-length encoding schemes in the continuous unit (S5202), and management information is generated that includes a first flag information indicating that a variable-length encoding scheme is fixed in the continuous unit (S5204, and S5205). |
| US08085849B1 |
Automated method and apparatus for estimating motion of an image segment using motion vectors from overlapping macroblocks
One embodiment relates to an automated method for estimating motion of an image segment. An image frame is segmented into irregularly-shaped image segments. Motion vectors of blocks of pixels in the image frame are estimated. A determination is made as to the blocks which overlap a segment, and candidate motion vectors are determined from the motion vectors for those overlapping blocks. A motion vector for the segment is selected from amongst the candidate motion vectors. Other embodiments, aspects, and features are also disclosed. |
| US08085844B2 |
Signaling reference frame distances
Techniques and tools for signaling reference frame distances are described. For example, a video encoder signals a code for a reference frame distance for a current field-coded interlaced video frame. The code indicates a count of frames (e.g., bi-directionally predicted frames) between the current frame and a preceding reference frame. The code may be a variable length code signaled in the frame header for the current frame. The encoder may selectively signal the use of a default value for reference frame distances rather than signal a reference frame distance per frame. A video decoder performs corresponding parsing and decoding. |
| US08085841B2 |
Sampled current-integrating decision feedback equalizer and method
A decision feedback equalizer (DFE) and method including a branch coupled to an input and including a sample-and-hold element configured to receive and sample a received input signal from the input and a current-integrating summer. The current-integrating summer is coupled to an output of the sample-and-hold element. The summer is configured to receive and sum currents representing at least one previous decision and an input sample. The at least one previous decision and the input sample are integrated onto a node, wherein the input sample is held constant during an integration period, thereby mitigating the effects of input transitions on an output of the summer. |
| US08085838B2 |
Receiver having an adaptive filter and method of optimising the filter
A receiver comprises an adaptive filter having an input for a digitized input signal, means for storing a pre-designed filter characteristic, means for analyzing a digital representation of the input signal to determine a desired position of the filter characteristic to match the system requirements, and means for adapting the stored pre-designed filter characteristic in the frequency domain and/or the time domain to match the system requirements and for transforming the adapted filter characteristic to the time domain to update coefficients for the adaptive filter and for loading updated coefficients into adaptive filter. The updating of the coefficients may be done periodically. The adaptation may be one or more of adjusting bandwidth, frequency shift and, in the case of a bandpass characteristic, superimposing characteristics. |
| US08085836B2 |
Robustness improvement for bandwidth limited communication system
A method and apparatus for the transmission of multiple control characters of the same type to a receiver to improve the retention of transmitter to receiver synchronization in a noisy environment having receiver code that is less complex and does not require an increase in the bandwidth of the system since the control codes are already utilized to initiate other functions. Detection of any of the control characters of the same type by the receiver allows the receiver to maintain proper synchronization. The receiver will detect these control signals and anticipate the occurrence of an event within a predetermined time period. |
| US08085835B2 |
System and method for performing ranging in a cable modem system
The present invention provides a system and method for performing ranging operations in a able modern system. In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, transmission times, transmission power levels, transmission carrier frequencies, and pre-equalization parameters are adjusted to provide for robust operation of the cable modem system. More particularly, iterative processing steps are used to provide coefficient ordering, scaling, and aligning between the multiple cable modems and the cable modem termination system present in a cable modern system. |
| US08085832B2 |
Segment-wise channel equalization based data estimation
Data is estimated of a plurality of received spread spectrum signals by a wireless communication apparatus. The plurality of received communications are received in a shared spectrum. The received communications are sampled to produce a received vector of sequential samples. The received vector is processed to produce a plurality of segments. Each segment is processed separately to estimate data of the received communications. |
| US08085830B2 |
LAN by ultra-wideband system and method
An ultra-wideband (UWB) system and method provide a local area network (LAN) and/or LAN access. LAN access versions of the UWB system includes an emulator layer and bridge that allow data to be transmitted between a LAN-UWB hybrid device and a LAN network switch, such as an IEEE 802 network switch, through in part a UWB node of a UWB WPAN that can receive UWB super-frames from the LAN-UWB hybrid device. In some implementations the LAN-UWB hybrid device uses Wi-Fi protocol layers above the emulator layer and a WiNet Peer IP PAL layer below the emulator layer. |
| US08085824B2 |
Optimization of laser parameters to achieve desired performance
One example disclosed herein relates to a method of at least partially optimizing one or more output performance parameters of a laser die. The method includes an act of identifying one or more output performance parameters to be at least partially optimized, an act of identifying one or more design parameters associated with the one or more output performance parameters, an act of determining a subset of the one or more design parameters that should be varied so as to at least partially effect the one or more output performance parameters, an act of varying the subset of design parameters to produce one or more intermediate results, and an act of using the intermediate results to determine values for the one or more design parameters such that the one or more performance parameters are at least partially optimized. |
| US08085821B2 |
Light-enhancing device and method based on use of an optically active lasing medium in combination with digital planar holography
The light-enhancing system of the invention comprises a laser diode in which a fully reflecting mirror and/or a partially reflecting mirror of the laser diode is made in the form of digital planar holography (DPH) incorporating a mode-reorganization function that decreases divergence and improves brightness of the output beam of the system by suppressing high-order modes and gaining low-order modes, or mode. The holographic elements are made in the form of rectangular grooves that can be manufactured as binary features reproduced by methods of nanolithography or nanoimprinting. |
| US08085817B1 |
Automatic clock synchronization and distribution circuit for counter clock flow pipelined systems
A clock synchronization buffer for a counter clock flow pipelined circuit including a cascade of processing modules that receive data from a previous module and provide output results to a following module. The clock synchronization buffer receives a clock input signal and provides clock signals to a local processing module and to the next pipeline stage. The clock synchronization buffer includes a selectable delay stage that receives a clock input signal and a delay select signal and outputs a clock signal having a selected delay. An amplifier connected to the selectable delay stage provides the delayed clock signal to a local processing module that corresponds to the clock synchronization buffer circuit. An inverting amplifier connected to the selectable delay stage provides the delayed clock signal to the next pipeline stage. A clock synchronization controller synchronizes the phases of reference clock input and synchronized clock input signals. |
| US08085814B2 |
Frame structure, system and method for OFDM communications
A method and apparatus are provided for performing acquisition, synchronization and cell selection within an MIMO-OFDM communication system. A coarse synchronization is performed to determine a searching window. A fine synchronization is then performed by measuring correlations between subsets of signal samples, whose first signal sample lies within the searching window, and known values. The correlations are performed in the frequency domain of the received signal. In a multiple-output OFDM system, each antenna of the OFDM transmitter has a unique known value. The known value is transmitted as pairs of consecutive pilot symbols, each pair of pilot symbols being transmitted at the same subset of sub-carrier frequencies within the OFDM frame. |
| US08085813B2 |
Method for routing data packets using an IP address based on geo position
Method of routing data over a network in which contact is made with a home network to determine the reported geo-position, using this geo-position to transmit data to the device over a path through a node in which the node reads the geo-position, accesses a list of possible recipients and their geo-positions, compares its location to the positions, selects a recipient based at least in part on the proximity of the recipient to the device, and transmits the data over the best path. Eventually, the device becomes the recipient. A geo-position may be transmitted as part of an IP address, or as geo-position data or XML tagged geo-position information contained in a data packet or IP addressed message or IP addressed voice calls (VoIP). The geo-position information can be generated from a GPS receiver. This method and/or IP address may be used in a method of doing business in which the geo-position is used to identify the source and location for delivery. This information may be incorporated into a purchase order or confirmation receipt. |
| US08085812B2 |
Symbolic representation of protocol-layer information
A method of displaying protocol-specific data includes receiving data, extracting protocol-specific information from the data, converting protocol-specific information into a symbolic representation, and presenting the symbolic representation. A dimension of symbols of the symbolic representation differentiates protocol layers.A test and measurement instrument for displaying data includes an acquisition system configured to receive an input signal, a processor coupled to the acquisition system and configured to generate a symbolic representation of protocol-specific information within the input signal, and a user interface coupled to the processor and configured to present the symbolic representation. A dimension of symbols of the symbolic representation differentiates protocol layers. |
| US08085807B2 |
Method and apparatus for real time scheduling of traffic in wireless networks
Apparatuses, realtime-stations, computer programs, and methods for scheduling of traffic in wireless networks are provided. In one embodiment, a method is provided for scheduling of traffic in a wireless networks including real-time stations intending to send real-time traffic and best-effort stations sending best effort traffic. The method can include overhearing for a predetermined period of time the traffic by a station which intends to send real-time traffic, and if from the overhearing the station concludes that there is already a primary station transmitting real-time access markers, assuming by the station a sequence number based on the number of real-time stations which already are sending real-time traffic. |
| US08085804B2 |
System and method for processing multiple broadcast multimedia streams
A computer-implemented method is disclosed including: receiving a broadcast signal containing a set of multiplexed multimedia channels; storing said multiplexed multimedia channels in a temporary storage buffer on a mass storage device; determining a point in said temporary storage buffer to begin demultiplexing and decoding a first channel responsive to a user request to view a particular program on said first channel in its entirety, said point indicating the start of said program on said first channel; and demultiplexing and decoding said first channel of said set of multiplexed multimedia channels from said point within said temporary storage buffer. |
| US08085799B2 |
System, method and program for network routing
Computer system, method and program for making routing decisions. A best routing path according to an OSPF, IGRP, EIGRP, BGP or other routing function that can provide multiple routing paths is determined. A first multiplicity of routers in the best routing path is determined. If each of the first multiplicity of routers had a degree of availability and/or quality of signal during a predetermined prior interval that met predetermined respective thresholds, the message packet is forwarded to a next hop in the best routing path. If not, a second multiplicity of routers in a second best routing path determined according to said OSPF, IGRP, EIGRP, BGP or the other routing function is identified. If each of the second multiplicity of routers had a degree of availability and/or quality of signal during a predetermined prior interval that met respective thresholds, the message packet is forwarded to a next hop in the second best routing path. |
| US08085797B2 |
Method and system for addressing and routing in coded communications relationships
The invention relates to a method and system for addressing and routing in coded communications relationships in at least two different network levels of a network with different routing levels, which are separated from one another. A first network level with the associated first routing level is demarcated from a second network level with a second routing level via at least one coding device. A network topology of both network levels is determined independently of one another in the at least two routing levels and stored respectively in routing tables. An interface in the at least one coding device is provided with an unambiguous allocation of addresses of the second routing level to addresses of the first routing level, in order to derive the topology of the second network level efficiently from the first network level. |
| US08085793B2 |
Traffic localization with proxy mobility
A method and nodes are provided for localizing traffic between communication nodes receiving service from a same network. A local mobility anchor informs media access gateways providing access to two communication nodes of each other's addresses. Traffic exchanged between the two communication nodes connected to the same network via these media access gateways are routed directly between the gateways, bypassing the local mobility anchor. |
| US08085792B1 |
Traffic-oblivious load balancing protocol for sensor networks
A sensor in a network to which to route a packet is selected, where the sensor is selected independently of energy status of the sensors included in the network, and the sensor is selected by a source sensor. The packet is routed from the source sensor toward the destination sensor. |
| US08085789B2 |
Algorithm and system for selecting acknowledgments from an array of collapsed VOQ's
A method for selecting packets to be switched in a collapsed virtual output queuing array (cVOQ) switch core, using a request/acknowledge mechanism is disclosed. An egress location for an ingress port is selected based on degrees of freedom for the selection mechanism. The degree of freedom can be derived from the collapsed virtual output queuing array by determining a number of egress locations to which an ingress port may send packets and determining a number of ingress ports from which an egress location can receive packets. Analyzing all the queued packets for assignment to an egress location, starting with a lesser degree of freedom and ending with a greater degree of freedom provides efficient switching allocations and acknowledgements. |
| US08085785B2 |
Mobile station, a base station, a mobile communication system and a communication control method
There is disclosed a mobile station performing packet communications with a base station, including: a reservation control signal generating unit configured to generate a reservation control signal, based on control information transmitted in advance of a data packet; and a reservation control signal transmission control unit configured to transmit the reservation control signal at a predetermined timing. |
| US08085784B2 |
Data transmitting apparatus and data transmitting method
With time intervals and transmission times of packets of real time streams, transmission end times thereof are calculated. The transmission order of packets of the real time streams is decided in the order of the earlier transmission end times thereof. Transmission end times of packets of a non-real time stream are compared with the scheduling times of packets of the plurality of real time streams. When the transmission end times of packets of the non-real time stream are earlier than any one of the scheduling times of packets of the plurality of real time streams, the packets of the non-real time streams are transmitted. |
| US08085783B2 |
Priority service scheme
A method includes indicating a state associated with a priority service subscription indicator, indicating a state associated with a priority service activation indicator and receiving an input request for invoking a priority service for a priority communication. The method further includes determining whether a user of a user device is a subscriber of the priority service based on the state associated with the priority service subscription indicator and establishing network resources on which the priority communication is to be transmitted, based on at least one of the state associated with the priority service subscription indicator or the state associated with the priority service activation indicator. |
| US08085782B2 |
Digital combining device and method thereof
The present invention provides a combining device for combining radio signals during uplink transmission in an indoor communication system, the indoor communication system comprising an Ethernet switch, the Ethernet switch connected to a base station and to at least a first and second radio remote headend. The radio remote headend (RRH) is adapted for expanding the wireless coverage of the base station and comprises: means for receiving at least a packet flow from the Ethernet switch, wherein the packet flow comprises packets from at least the first and second RRH, the packet comprises packet data, RRH identification and time stamp of the packets; means for separating the packets according to the RRH origin into at least first and second RRH packet, using the RRH identification; and means for matching the packets with identical time stamp between the first and the second RRH packets. The combining device also comprises means for summing the packet data of the matched packets with a mathematical addition and means for transmitting the summation of the packet data to the Ethernet switch. |
| US08085780B1 |
Optimized buffer loading for packet header processing
A packet header processing engine includes a level 2 (L2) header generation unit and a level 3 (L3) header generation unit. The L2 and L3 header generation units are implemented in parallel with one another. The L2 generation unit writes L2 header information to a first buffer and the L3 generation unit writes L3 header information to a second buffer. When the L2 and L3 header generation units finish processing a packet, the packet may be unloaded from the first and second buffer while a new packet is simultaneously loaded to the packet header processing engine. |
| US08085778B1 |
Voltage regulator
A network device includes a plurality of ports configured to transmit and receive packets of data. A memory is configured to store a routing table. A forwarding engine is configured to transfer the packets of data between the plurality of ports based on the routing table. A processor is configured to define a routing interface. The routing interface comprises a group of the plurality of ports. The processor is configured to assign a media access control (MAC) address to the routing interface. The processor is configured to modify the routing table to direct each packet of data having the media access control (MAC) address as a destination address to a port in the routing interface. |
| US08085775B1 |
Identifying flows based on behavior characteristics and applying user-defined actions
A mechanism is disclosed for identifying, classifying, and controlling flows in a network. In one implementation, a separate set of behavioral statistics is maintained for each flow. These behavioral statistics are updated as packets belonging to a flow are processed. Whenever a packet belonging to a flow is processed, a set of policies that the flow's behavioral statistics satisfy is determined. For each policy that the flow's behavioral statistics satisfy, actions that are associated with that policy are applied relative to the packet. The actions may be designed to cause a router to handle, in a user-specified manner, packets that are likely to represent a particular kind of traffic. Thus, different flows, such as VOIP, gaming, streaming, and P2P flows, which are associated with different behavioral statistics, may be handled in ways applicable for the specific application traffic type. |
| US08085773B2 |
MPLS device enabling service providers to control service levels in forwarding of multi-labeled packets
A MPLS device which receives configuration data identifying a group of multi-labeled packets and desired EXP (corresponding to the 3-bit experimental bit field specified by MPLS protocol) bits (even in the lower label entries of the label stack) for the group when forwarding the related packets. The MPLS device sets the EXP bits of even such lower label entries, and then forwards the multi-labeled packets. MPLS devices further down the path may provide different services for different multi-labeled packets depending on the EXP bit values. A service provider may configure a autonomous system border router (ASBR) to control service levels for while packets are forwarded further down the path (even in autonomous systems not related to the service provider) according to an aspect of the present invention. |
| US08085771B2 |
Information processing apparatus, image processing apparatus, control method, and storage medium
An information processing apparatus which make it possible to search from an information processing apparatus, for an IPv6-compatible image processing apparatus which has an IPv6 network address designated by the information processing apparatus. A device management application determines search conditions, and specifies information associated with a designated network. Further, the device management application generates a IPv6 multicast address using the thus specified information, transmits a search message designating the IPv6 multicast address, and receives a response transmitted from an image processing apparatus associated with the IPv6 multicast address. |
| US08085770B2 |
Method of transporting a multipoint stream in a local area network and device for connection implementing the method
Within the framework of a wireless local area network, the reliability of the transporting of the multicast streams is not enhanced by an acknowledgement of receipt mechanism. To improve this reliability the invention proposes a method of transporting packets transmitted in multicast mode by a device for connection between a first network and a second network, the multicast packets originating from the second network destined for clients of the first network, characterized in that it comprises a step of reception of multicast packets and the despatching according to a unicast transmission mode of at least certain packets transmitted in multicast mode to at least one of the clients of the first network that are subscribers to the transmission group. |
| US08085765B2 |
Distributed exterior gateway protocol
A border gateway has a control card and at least one line card. The control card has a control processor to execute a control portion of an exterior gateway protocol and a routing table of exterior gateway routes and devices. The line card has a line processor to execute an offload portion of an exterior gateway protocol and a communications port to allow termination of at least one communication link. A backplane allows the control card and the line card to communicate. |
| US08085764B1 |
Egress selection switch architecture with power management
A method and an apparatus for reducing power consumption and digital logic noise in a time division multiplexed memory switch. The method is embodied in an egress selection switch (ESS) block architecture. The ESS block includes a data disable block which prevents the propagation of data, in particular ingress grains, to a given group of egress ports if the data is not selected by any of the egress ports in a given group. While the ingress data disable method partitions ports into groups and saves power by disabling the fanout tree from the root on a port group basis, the egress data disable method saves power on a port group basis by disabling the fanout tree from the tail end in addition to applying the ingress data disable method. The ESS block also includes an grain select block for selecting and storing a given ingress grain for eventual output to an egress port. |
| US08085763B2 |
Method for protecting SIP-based applications
A method for protecting SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based applications wherein SIP messages are analyzed and malicious SIP messages that potentially constitute a security risk for the SIP-based application are identified is discloses. Regarding a realization of a particularly high security [level] with means that are easy to implement—a pre-definable number N of pre-configurable parameters—identities—is extracted from the SIP messages and that for each SIP message a comparison of the identities with the identities extracted from previous SIP message is performed, on the base of which a maliciousness level ML is assessed for every SIP message. |
| US08085758B2 |
Methods and apparatus for controlling call admission to a network based on call peers
A session controller configured to be coupled to a database and configured to receive an indication associated with an ingress call is disclosed. The session controller is further configured to query the database for an ingress-call peer associated with the ingress call, and to query the database for a dynamic-peer-definition template associated with the ingress call when the ingress-call peer is not identified upon query of the database. The session controller is further configured to reject the ingress call when the dynamic-peer-definition template is not identified upon query of the database. |
| US08085756B2 |
Automatically sending rich contact information coincident to a telephone call
Rich contact information is provided coincident to a telephone call on a mobile device in an alternate communication. When a telephone call is received on the phone, rich content such as rich personal contact data is provided to the receiver of the call. The rich contact data corresponds to the sender of the call. The rich contact data is sent as an alternate communication directly between the device initiating the call and the device receiving the call. |
| US08085749B2 |
Chaotic spreading codes and their generation
Generation of a set of spreading codes starts with determining first and second chaotic pseudo-random noise codes having delta-peak-like autocorrelation functions and a low cross-correlation function. Further codes are obtained by the steps: (a) generating a further pseudo-random noise code by computing Dk=F(C1)+TkC2+F(C2), where k represents a positive integral index, Dk the generated pseudo-random noise code, C1 the first code, C2 the second code, F a binary function based on basic binary operations and Tk the operator cyclically shifting a code by k chip positions; (b) adding code Dk to the set of already determined pseudo-random noise codes if it has a delta-peak-like autocorrelation and low cross-correlation functions with the pseudo-random noise codes already determined; (c) discarding code Dk if the conditions of step (b) are not satisfied; (d) modifying index k and repeating steps (a)-(d) until the cardinal number of the set of determined pseudo-random noise codes reaches the cardinal number of the set of spreading codes to be generated. |
| US08085740B2 |
Techniques for offering seamless accesses in enterprise hot spots for both guest users and local users
A wireless Local Area Network (LAN 11) capable of providing “enterprise guest” hosting includes at least one an e-open wireless LAN access point (15) that provides access to both guests and local users. Upon receipt of a request for access, the access point forwards the request to an authentication proxy. The authentication proxy then authenticates the party requesting access in accordance with that party's status (that is, whether the party is a local user or guest). Upon successful authentication, the network routes the traffic from a local user differently as compared to that for a guest. For example traffic from guests goes to gateway for receipt in an external network such as the Internet, whereas traffic from the local user goes to a local network, e.g., a corporate intranet. In this way, the Wireless LAN 11, after ascertaining the status of the party requesting access, can limit guest traffic according to the guest access policy. |
| US08085739B2 |
Quality dependent data communications channel
A data channel to transmit data from a transmitter to one or more of a plurality of receivers, each of which intermittently reports to the transmitter its reception quality of signals transmitted by the transmitter. The transmitter transmits the data in frames which include at least one block. Each block includes the same predefined number of traffic symbols, and includes a header portion and a payload portion. The header portion of each block is packaged for transmission in a robust manner, enhancing the probability that each receiver will be able to recover it and the header portion includes information required to recover the payload portion. The payload portion is, in accordance with the reception quality reported by the intended receiver, packaged to make efficient use of the transmission resources while ensuring a reasonable probability that the intended receiver will be able to recover the payload. The header portion can include indications of the modulation, forward error correction and repetition utilized to package the payload and can indicate the length of the payload. |
| US08085734B2 |
System and method for dynamic receive diversity allocation
A system and method for dynamic receive diversity allocation. A communications device comprises a first physical layer (PHY) unit, a second PHY unit, a first signal path coupled to a first antenna and to the first PHY unit, a switchable signal path coupled to a second antenna and switchably coupled to the first PHY unit and the second PHY unit, and a switch control unit coupled to the second antenna. The switch control unit dynamically generates a control signal used to switchably couple the second antenna to either the first PHY unit or the second PHY unit. The second antenna may be used to provided a needed transmit or receive antenna or an extra antenna for use in increasing diversity. Switching antennas reduces the total number of antennas and support hardware, such as digital processing hardware, for wireless communications standards having a high ratio of idle to busy time. |
| US08085732B2 |
Wireless communication terminal and roaming method
A wireless communication terminal roaming from a current access point (AP) to a destination AP within a plurality of APs includes various functional modules. The wireless communication terminal detects a current service quality parameter of each of the plurality of APs, a roaming frequency, and a packet retransmission rate of the wireless communication terminal in a predetermined detection period. Furthermore, the wireless communication terminal calculates a value of an RQI according to the current service quality parameter of each of the plurality of APs, the roaming frequency, and the packet retransmission rate of the wireless communication terminal, and regulates a roaming threshold of the current AP according to the value of the RQI and determines the destination AP that has satisfied a roaming condition corresponding to the value of the RQI. |
| US08085729B2 |
High speed downlink shared control channel cell change
A reordering buffer of a medium access controller-high speed (MAC-hs) is flushed, in response to a high speed-downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) cell change. A status report is generated of at least one radio link control (RLC) instance mapped to the HS-DSCH. The status report indicates missing HS-DSCH packet data units (PDUs), in response to the HS-DSCH cell change. |
| US08085726B2 |
High speed downlink shared channel cell change
In response to initiation of a high speed-downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) cell change, a reordering buffer of a medium access controller-high speed (MAC-hs) is flushed. A user equipment (UE) for at least one radio link control (RLC) instance mapped to the HS-DSCH generates a status report. The status report indicates missing HS-DSCH packet data units (PDUs). |
| US08085723B2 |
Method of allocating resources in a wireless network
A method of allocating channel resources in a wireless network is disclosed. The method of allocating instant channel resources in a wireless network includes receiving channel resource scheduling information of a specific superframe from a coordinator of the wireless network, requesting the coordinator to allocate instant channel resources for an unreserved duration of the specific superframe, and receiving an announcement message from the coordinator, the announcement message announcing allocation of the instant channel resources within the unreserved duration of the specific superframe. |
| US08085720B2 |
Channel element packing and repacking
Providing for efficient utilization of channel element device ladder (CEDL) resources is described herein. By way of example, a received data request can be packed in a first portion of the CEDL and a received voice request can be packed in a second portion of the CEDL. Subsequent requests can be assigned to contiguous channel elements (CEs) of the CEDL within the first or second portion, as suitable. In addition, non-assigned CEs can be maintained in a third portion of the CEDL, by packing requests initially from opposite ends of the first and second portion, and be re-packing dropped traffic within the CEDL. Accordingly, the subject disclosure provides for efficient utilization of CEDL resources both for incoming voice traffic requests and incoming data traffic requests, by packing and maintaining data, voice and un-assigned CEs in contiguous portions of the CEDL. |
| US08085715B2 |
Controlling the use of access points in a telecommunications networks
A mobile telecommunications network includes a radio access network comprising base stations and one or more additional access points. An access point is connected to a network core by an IP transport broadband connection. The access point is configured to appear to the mobile terminal as a conventional base station—that is, for example, it communicates with the mobile terminal using GSM or UMTS transport protocols and does not require any modification to a standard GSM or UMTS mobile terminal. Access Points may not be under the direct control of the network provider, and so are more susceptible to security threats. The described system allows the network provider to verify that the access point through which a mobile terminal is about to communicate is a legitimate and trusted base station and/or is at a particular location. Differential charging may be performed in dependence upon a subscriber's location. |
| US08085706B2 |
Wireless communication method and apparatus
A wireless communication method and apparatus for the same performs access control in the following manner, where an acquisition of a right to transmit is performed by CSMA access control method, and a collision of transmitted data packets among different communication apparatuses is prevented for facilitating a stable transmission of data packets from each of the apparatuses in a predetermined interval. The transmission of a data packet having a predetermined data length under a cyclical access control sets an access control start time at a time that is after a lapse of predetermined amount of time from the previous acquisition of the right to transmit. As a result, the competition of the right to transmit is resolved due to a different access control start time set for the next transmission. |
| US08085699B2 |
Changing period to monitor arrival of beacon signal based on determination as to whether there is a high connection probability
A mobile communication terminal 10 receives “HCS_PRIO” of a notice data (System Information Block Type 3) of a base station 1 or 3, and determines whether the terminal 10 is present “indoor” and is in “a stationary state or a state moving at a low speed” based on the receiving result. Since there is a high possibility that the terminal 10 is connectable with a wireless LAN when the terminal 10 is present “indoor” and is in “a stationary state or a state moving at a low speed”, the terminal 10 sets a period for monitoring arrival of a beacon signal. |
| US08085697B2 |
Method and arrangement in real-time data bi-casting mobile system
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved real-time application performance for user equipments. The object is achieved by a method for bi-casting real time data packets in a mobile system node. The node is comprised in a mobile system, which mobile system comprises an old Node-B and a new Node-B. The old Node-B and the new Node-B are adapted to be connected to the node. The mobile system further comprising a user equipment 130 adapted for switching the receipt of real time data packets from the old Node-B to the new Node-B. The method comprises the steps of associating a first sequence number with a first real time data packet adapted to be sent to the old Node-B, and associating a second sequence number with the same first real time data packet adapted to be sent to the new Node-B. The second sequence number is different from the first sequence number. |
| US08085696B2 |
Dynamic modification of route update protocols
A radio access network dynamically modifies a route update protocol of an access terminal in an active state that is in communication with the network, such that the access terminal reports a route update message upon satisfaction of a condition. The condition may be related to an inter-revision hard handoff, an inter-frequency hard handoff, a RF dragging prevention, a selective resource allocation, or some combination thereof. |
| US08085693B2 |
Virtualization of one or more sets of physical contact center resources for use by one or more virtual contact centers
A system for virtual representation of physical contact center resources includes a server coupled to a wide-area-network (WAN), a digital medium accessible to the server, and a resource virtualization application executable from the digital medium to run on the server, characterized in that at least one physical contact center having physical resources has access to the server over the network wherein the resource virtualization application categorizes and represents the physical resources in an abstract way for access by customers of one or more virtual contact centers. |
| US08085692B2 |
System and method for click-to-join audio conferencing
Systems and methods for audio conferencing are described. At least one embodiment includes an audio-conferencing system comprising a web server configured to allow a host to select one or more individuals to receive invitations to participate in a conference call, the web server further configured to receive parameters associated with the conference call; an e-mail module configured to send e-mails to the one or more selected individuals, the e-mails configured to present an invitation to the one or more selected individuals to participate in the conference call, and wherein the e-mails include a link allowing the one or more individuals to click the link to accept the invitations to become participants; and a conference call server configured to receive a host identification from the host, the conference call server configured to receive a command from the web server to place calls to the one or more participants to initiate a conference call between the host and the participants. |
| US08085691B2 |
Wireless communication system, wireless communication control apparatus and wireless communication control method, and computer program
A communication terminal under the control of a wireless base station recursively has wireless base station capabilities in a parent network, constructs a daughter network within a scope of resources of the own apparatus assigned by the wireless base station, and assigns the resources to an other communication terminal under the control of the communication terminal having base station capabilities. This novel constitution allows to configure two or more networks guaranteed not to interfere each other, thereby allowing the coexistence of a plurality of personal area networks on a same frequency channel. At the same time, the novel constitution allows expanding a network area without increasing the scale of equipment. |
| US08085689B2 |
Network configuration optimization
A method for optimizing a network configuration of network resources includes receiving service attribute data associated with network resources and the traffic demand, based at least in part on the service attribute data, determining one or more network resources for providing communication between end user devices and a carrier network, i.e., one or more metro and/or backbone networks, and determining an optimal configuration of the one or more network resources within the network, wherein the optimal configuration optimizes one or more predetermined criteria. A system for optimizing a configuration of network resources includes a computer-readable medium including service attribute data descriptive of a plurality of network resources, a preprocessing module operable to receive the one or more service attributes and determine a set of one or more resources and transmission modes between the end user devices and the carrier network, and an optimization module operable to determine an optimum configuration of the resources and transmission modes within the network. |
| US08085688B2 |
Methods and systems for determining a network data path
Methods and systems for path determining a network data path are described. In one embodiment, equal cost multiple paths (ECMPs) for a proposed TE tunnel on a network may be determined. The proposed TE tunnel may extend between a head-end tunneling capable router and a tail-end tunneling capable router. The network may further comprise inter router links extending between tunneling capable routers. For each inter router link of at least a portion of the inter router links, a usage count may be established for that inter router link. The usage count may be the number of ECMPs for the proposed TE tunnel that use that inter router link. A tunnel path may be selected from the ECMPs for the proposed TE tunnel that has the lowest usage count of the inter router links. The selected tunnel path may be added to a model of the network. Additional methods and systems are disclosed. |
| US08085681B2 |
Centralized analysis and management of network packets
This description provides tools and techniques for centralized analysis and management of network packets. These tools may provide methods that include storing network packets as identified by packet-detecting devices within networks. These methods may also define baseline behavior patterns applicable to the network, as well as thresholds applicable to deviations in network behavior, relative to the baseline behavior patterns. These methods may also identify attacks against the network, as exhibited by deviations in the behavior patterns that exceed the threshold. |
| US08085677B2 |
Remote testing and monitoring to a cell site in a cellular communication network
Systems and methods provide remote performance monitoring and testing to a cell site in a cellular communications network. The systems and methods include a network management center having remote monitoring and testing capabilities utilizing an intelligent customer service unit that traps and makes available alarm information on the transport link. |
| US08085668B2 |
Timestamp metering and rollover protection in a network device
A network device for processing data on a data network includes a plurality of ports, configured to receive data from a data network and to send processed data to the data network, a memory management unit configured store data on and retrieve data from the memory and a metering unit configured to police a flow of the processed data to be sent to the network device. The metering unit is configured to utilize a series of leaky bucket units, where tokens are added to each leaky bucket unit only when that particular leaky bucket unit is accessed. The metering unit is also configured to add the tokens based on a prior timestamp value, a current timing value and an established rate and a multiplication to establish the tokens is accomplished by shifting a register of the established rate. |
| US08085659B2 |
Method and switch for routing data packets in interconnection networks
The invention falls within the technology of multistage interconnection network such as fat-trees, comprising at least one switch located at a stage (s) and configured to send, through an output port from a number (k) of output ports forming an ordered list, at least a data packet containing a destination address identified by a n-tuple with a plurality (n) of components (pn−1, . . . , p1, p0), and sε{0 . . . (n−1)}. The invention has application for both source and distributed routing, as deterministic and as adaptive routing, selecting an output port to be the unique or the default option to forward the packets at the switch which is the output port that has a position in the ordered list of output ports corresponding to the component (ps) of the destination address at the position given by the stage (s) of the switch. |
| US08085657B2 |
Flow control in a cellular communication system
A base station comprises an RNC message receiver which receives data packets from a Radio Network Controller, RNC. The data packets are transmitted over air interface channels by a transmitter. The base station includes buffer memory for buffering the data packets prior to transmission, a scheduler for scheduling the data packets for transmission over the air interface channels, and a memory allocator for determining a first memory allocation of the buffer memory for a first air interface communication with a first user equipment. The base station further includes a flow controller for determining a transfer allowance for transferring of data from the RNC to the base station in response to the first memory allocation and a current buffer memory usage of the first air interface communication. The transfer allowance is transmitted to the RNC by an RNC message transmitter for achieving an efficient flow control. |
| US08085656B2 |
Apparatus and method for improving transport control protocol performance using path recovery notification over wireless network
Provided are an apparatus and method for improving transmission control protocol (TCP) performance using path recovery notification over a wireless network. The apparatus includes: a path recovery manager which detects a mobile host recovered from a temporary disconnection state and then outputs a detection signal to notify the detection result; a path recovery notification manager which receives the detection signal and generates an ACK (acknowledgement) packet to inform a transmitting end that the mobile host is recovered; and a first packet transceiver which transmits/receives the generated ACK packet and a data packet. Accordingly, a temporary disconnection state of a wireless network is explicitly informed to a transmitting end so as to transmit only lost packets without performing unnecessary congestion control, thereby improving TCP performance. |
| US08085655B2 |
Failure tolerant high density dial router
A Fault Tolerant Dial Router (FTDR) includes redundant subsystem resources that operate independently of telephone line interface connections. The redundant resources are switched active when a failure is detected in an activated dial router subsystem. Switching out subsystem failures is fully automated under software control, providing uninterrupted service to users with limited performance loss. The FTDR includes a switching mechanism that selectively switches out the telephone interfaces or other subsystem resources inside the dial router box detected as having failures. The subsystem resources include line framers, controllers and modem modules. |
| US08085653B2 |
Beamforming with nulling techniques for wireless communications networks
Beamforming with nulling techniques for wireless communications networks are disclosed. For example, an apparatus may include a beamforming module and a weight determination module. The beamforming module applies beamforming weights to a downlink user channel with a first mobile station. The weight determination module determines the beamforming weights based on user channel information and interfering channel information. This user channel information is received from the first mobile station and includes characteristics of the downlink user channel. However, the interfering channel information includes characteristics of one or more downlink interfering channels received by one or more further mobile stations. These downlink interfering channels are associated with transmissions across the downlink user channel with the first mobile station. |
| US08085648B2 |
Servo master magnetically transferring servo patterns to magnetic recording medium, and magnetic transfer method using the servo master
The servo master includes a membrane having a first surface and a second surface; a plurality of stamp areas which are disposed on the first surface, each of the plurality of stamp areas including a magnetic layer patterned with servo patterns to be magnetically transferred to a magnetic recording medium; and a pressing members which are disposed on the second surface, each of the plurality of pressing members being operable to apply pressure to a corresponding stamp area of the plurality of stamp areas. |
| US08085647B2 |
Optical recording/reproducing apparatus having label printer and method for printing labels on optical disk
An optical recording/reproducing apparatus having a label printer for printing labels on an optical disk and a method for printing labels on an optical disk. The optical recording/reproducing apparatus includes an optical disk drive unit recording and reproducing information on a recording surface of an optical disk, a label printer module printing labels on a label surface of the optical disk using thermal transfer, and a controller controlling a label printing operation of the optical disk drive unit and the label printer module, wherein the label printer module includes a ribbon cartridge in which a thermal transfer ribbon to which dyes are attached is wound and which is disposed to face the label surface of the optical disk mounted in the optical disk drive unit, and a thermal printhead transferring the dyes attached to the thermal transfer ribbon onto the label surface of the optical disk using thermal transfer. |
| US08085646B2 |
Optical pickup lens capable of detecting the tilt state
An optical pickup lens includes a first surface to focus laser light for recording/playback on an optical disc, a second surface formed outside the first surface and radiated with laser light for lens tilt detection, and an antireflection coating to transmit the laser light for recording/playback, the antireflection coating being continuously formed on the first surface and a second surface. |
| US08085645B2 |
Optical pickup device and optical disk apparatus
An optical pickup device includes a first laser element that emits first laser light, a second laser element that emits second laser light of which the wavelength is longer than that of the first laser light, an optical path composition element that composes the first laser light and the second laser light to one optical path, a wavelength selective element that acts on the composed first or second laser light; and an objective lens that condenses the first laser light and the second laser light on an optical disk. The magnitude of the power of the wavelength selective element as a lens with respect to the second laser light is larger than the magnitude of the power of the wavelength selective element as a lens with respect to the first laser light. Accordingly, it may be possible to reduce the optical pickup device and the optical disk apparatus in size. |
| US08085642B2 |
Servo controlling apparatus and method of holographic information recording/reproducing system
A servo controlling apparatus of a holographic information recording/reproducing system changes the foci of reference light and signal light in a depth direction of a holographic information storage medium to record information over a plurality of information layers. A servo control is changed from a normal servo operation to a between-movement servo operation while movement between information layers is made during a recording operation, and the servo control is changed back to the normal servo operation when the movement between information layers is completed. The between-movement servo operation maintains a servo control state that exists before the movement between information layers. |
| US08085629B2 |
Optical focus error offset to reduce radial to vertical crosstalk
A method and system are provided for minimizing or optimising radial to vertical crosstalk (RVC) in an error signal in an optical record carrier reader is record carrier losed. Focus error offset values are applied to the reader. The radial to vertical crosstalk is determined after each focus error offset value is applied. The focus error offset value which minimizes or optimises the radial to vertical crosstalk is selected for use by the reader. |
| US08085628B2 |
Focus servo controlling method and apparatus and optical disk drive using the focus servo controlling method
A method and apparatus for controlling a focus servo of an optical disk drive is provided. The focus servo controlling method includes the operations of, when an operating mode enters into a focus pull-in mode, detecting a period of time that satisfies a first threshold condition, the first threshold condition set to determine a duration in which a focal point of an optical signal emitted from a pickup is passing through a cover layer of a disk, the determination made by using a first signal proportional to a detected portion of an optical signal reflected by the disk, and preventing focus servo control from being performed during a detected period of time that first satisfies the first threshold condition since the operating mode entered into the focus pull-in mode. |
| US08085627B2 |
Lens position control method, lens position control apparatus, cutting method, and cutting apparatus
A lens position control method is disclosed. Either an objective lens or a master disc having a resist material film on its substrate is moved, thereby changing a distance between the objective lens and the master disc surface. A return laser beam transmitted through the objective lens and reflected by the master disc surface is detected by a photodetector. The movement of either of them is stopped when the master disc is located near a focal point of the objective lens and the return laser beam is detected. Limit data is rewritten to data corresponding to a position obtained by adding a movement permission amount smaller than a working distance of the objective lens to the stop position. When the return laser beam is not detected, the movement which changes the distance between them is stopped at a position corresponding to the limit data. |
| US08085625B2 |
Burner system capable of inverting an optical disc and inverter thereof
A burner system capable of inverting an optical disc has a control module, a burning module, a mechanical arm and an inverter. The control module controls the mechanical arm to grab the optical disc from a burner in the burning module and release the optical disc into the inverter. The optical disc passes through the inverter due to gravity, one side of the optical disc is tilted by the inverter so the optical disc is inverted. Therefore, the burner system automatically inverts the optical disc for double-sided data processing. |
| US08085622B2 |
Ultra low frequency acoustic vector sensor
An acoustic vector sensor mounted in a housing is provided for measuring ultra low frequency acoustic wave particle velocities in a liquid, comprising a horn for amplifying the acoustic wave particle velocities, and a neutrally buoyant object supported in a liquid contained in the horn. The neutrally buoyant object, in reacting to the amplified acoustic wave particle velocities, produces displacements that are sensitively measured. |
| US08085620B2 |
Determining a position of a survey receiver in a body of water
To determine a position of a survey receiver used to measure a response of a subterranean structure to a survey signal, positions of the survey receiver as the survey receiver descends in a body of water to a surface are received from an acoustic ranging system. Measurement information associated with movement of the survey receiver is received from at least one sensor. Based on the measurement information from the acoustic ranging system and the at least one sensor, the position of the survey receiver at the surface once the survey receiver has reached the surface is computed. |
| US08085612B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing behavior of memory devices
A method of managing power consumption by a memory in a memory device includes determining whether the device is powered by a depletable power supply, and if it is determined that the device is powered by a depletable power supply, changing a behavior of the memory to regulate power consumed by the memory. |
| US08085610B2 |
SRAM and testing method of SRAM
An SRAM includes a memory cell; and a control circuit configured to change a signal level of a signal which is used in an ordinary mode for access to the memory cell in a test mode to apply a disturbance to the memory cell. The control circuit can change the signal level to set a level of the disturbance optionally. |
| US08085605B2 |
Sequence detection for flash memory with inter-cell interference
A memory integrated circuit (IC) includes a read module and a sequence detector module. The read module reads S memory cells (cells) located along one of a bit line and a word line and generates S read signals, where S is an integer greater than 1. The sequence detector module detects a data sequence based on the S read signals and reference signals. The data sequence includes data stored in the S cells. Each of the reference signals includes an interference-free signal associated with one of the S cells and an interference signal associated with another of the S cells that is adjacent to the one of the S cells. |
| US08085604B2 |
Snap-back tolerant integrated circuits
A method and a circuit for preventing snap-back current in NMOS transistors of MOS integrated circuits are provided. Example embodiments may include preventing snap-back current in a circuit including a first NMOS transistor having an associated parasitic bipolar transistor. A second NMOS transistor may be connected in series with the first NMOS transistor. A gate node of the second NMOS transistor may be coupled to a bias node, such that the second NMOS transistor in conductive (ON) state. An auxiliary circuit coupled to a source node of the first NMOS transistor may be configured to provide a bias potential at the source node of the first NMOS transistor, when the first NMOS transistor is in a non-conducting state (OFF). |
| US08085601B2 |
Programming method and initial charging method of nonvolatile memory device
A programming method of a nonvolatile memory device includes precharging bit lines of the nonvolatile memory device based on loaded data, boosting channels corresponding to the respective precharged bit lines, after supplying word lines adjacent to a selected word line of the nonvolatile memory device with an initializing voltage, the selected word line is a word line selected for programming, and supplying a word line voltage for programming to the channels, after the channels are boosted. |
| US08085593B2 |
Method of inputting address in nonvolatile memory device and method of operating the nonvolatile memory device
A method of inputting address in a nonvolatile memory device includes inputting a row address including an information for selecting a memory block and an information for selecting a page, and inputting a column including an information for selecting a column and an information for selecting a plane. |
| US08085591B2 |
Charge loss compensation during programming of a memory device
In programming a selected word line of memory cells, a first program verify or read operation is performed, after one page of a selected word line is programmed, in order to determine a first quantity of memory cells that have been programmed to a predetermined reference point in the programmed first page distribution. Prior to programming the second page of the selected word line, a second program verify or read operation is performed to determine a second quantity of cells that are still at the reference point. The difference between the first and second quantities is an indication of the quantity of cells that experienced quick charge loss. The difference is used to determine an adjustment voltage for the second page verification operation after programming of the second page. |
| US08085589B2 |
Flash memory device and program recovery method thereof
A method of programming a flash memory includes programming memory cells connected to a selected word line by applying a first voltage to the selected word line and a second voltage to non-selected word lines, the second voltage being lower than the first voltage, lowering the first voltage of the selected word line to a third voltage after programming the memory cells connected to the selected word line, the third voltage being lower than the first voltage, and recovering a fourth voltage of the selected word line and the non-selected word lines, the fourth voltage being lower than the second and third voltages. |
| US08085588B2 |
Semiconductor device and control method thereof
Systems and methods for programming data to a memory device (MD). The methods involve receiving the data at MD (100) from an external data source. MD includes a memory cell array (MCA) for storing the data including numbers in data blocks (DB) or memory cell array planes (MCAP). Each DB (122a, 122b, 122c, 122d) and MCAP (1020a, 1020b, 1020c, 1020d) includes memory addresses (Ads) corresponding to locations of respective transistor circuits (2021, 2022, . . . , 202n, . . . , 202m) within the MCA (120, 1020a, 1020b, 1020c, 1020d). Two or more of the transistor circuits have different threshold voltages (TVs) with respect to each other. The methods further involve programming the data to each DB or MCAP in accordance with a first mode. In the first mode, each number is programmed to a different MA of each DB or MCAP based at least in part on the different TVs. |
| US08085581B2 |
STT-MRAM bit cell having a rectangular bottom electrode plate and improved bottom electrode plate width and interconnect metal widths
A Spin Transfer Torque Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) bit cell is provided. The STT-MRAM includes a rectangular bottom electrode (BE) plate, and a storage element on the rectangular bottom electrode (BE) plate. A difference between a width of the rectangular bottom electrode (BE) plate and a width of the storage element is equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum spacing requirement. A width of the bottom electrode (BE) plate is substantially equal to a width of an active layer or a width of a plurality of metal layers. |
| US08085571B2 |
High density prom
The invention shows how diodes in a modern semiconductor process can be used as a very compact switch element in a Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM) using common integrated circuit fuse elements such as polysilicon and metal. This compact switch element allows very dense PROM arrays to be realized since diodes have the highest conduction density of any semiconductor device. The high conduction density is used to provide the relatively high current needed to blow the fuse element open. Since MOSFETs are typically used as fuse array switch elements, a relatively large area is required for the MOSFET to reach the current needed to blow the fuse element. Since diodes are two terminal switch elements unlike MOSFETs which are three terminal devices, methods are outlined on how to both read and write the arrays using this two terminal switch. |
| US08085568B1 |
Methods and circuits for placing unused content addressable memory (CAM) cells into low current states
A method of placing a content addressable memory (CAM) into a low current state is disclosed. The CAM can include at least one storage location that does not store valid data for a compare operation and includes a plurality of CAM cells, each CAM cell having at least two data controllable impedance paths arranged in parallel with one another. The method can include configuring the majority of the CAM cells to store data values that maintain the corresponding at least two data controllable impedance paths in high impedance states. |
| US08085566B2 |
Semiconductor circuit device and data processing system
Occurrence of power supply noise arising in connection with a step-down action at the time of turning on power supply is to be restrained. A step-down unit is provided with a switched capacitor type step-down circuit and a series regulator type step-down circuit, and stepped-down voltage output terminals of the step-down circuits are connected in common. The common connection of the stepped-down voltage output terminals of both step-down circuits makes possible parallel driving of both, selective driving of either or consecutive driving of the two. In the consecutive driving, even if the switched capacitor type step-down circuit is driven after driving the series regulator type step-down circuit first to supply a stepped-down voltage to loads, the switched capacitor type step-down circuit will need only to be compensated for a discharge due to the loads, and a peak of a charge current for capacitors can be kept low. When operation of the switched capacitor type step-down circuit is started, no large rush current arises, and occurrence of noise is restrained. |
| US08085562B2 |
Merged ramp/oscillator for precise ramp control in one cycle PFC converter
A one cycle power factor correction converter circuit comprising a switch for controlling a DC output voltage of the converter circuit, the switch being switched by a drive signal having a frequency determined by a clock signal; the converter circuit being provided with a DC input voltage and producing the DC output voltage, the DC input voltage being rectified from an AC input; a controller circuit for controlling an on-time or off-time of the switch to set the output voltage and to achieve power factor correction at the AC input; the controller circuit comprising an error amplifier receiving a feedback voltage from the output of the converter circuit and a reference voltage and producing an error signal; a ramp generator receiving the error signal and generating a first ramp signal by integrating a signal related to the error signal; a pulse width modulation circuit receiving the first ramp signal and a signal related to the error signal and producing a pulse width modulated signal by comparing the first ramp signal and the signal related to the error signal; the pulse width modulated signal determining the on-time or off-time of the switch to control the output voltage with power factor correction; further comprising a circuit for terminating the first ramp signal when a predetermined inequality exists between the first ramp signal and a reference signal and for developing the clock signal from the first ramp signal. |
| US08085560B2 |
Power supply apparatus
A power supply apparatus includes: a transformer which converts input power supplied to a primary winding to be induced to a secondary winding; a current detector which detects an output current of the secondary winding of the transformer; a voltage detector which detects an output voltage of the secondary winding of the transformer; a switch which adjusts the output voltage outputted by the transformer; and a controller which controls the switch to maintain output power obtained by multiplying the output current by output voltage, within a predetermined level. |
| US08085559B1 |
Current mode control for resonant converter circuits
A current mode resonant converter integrates current information from a first drive transistor to generate an integration signal. The integration signal is added to a sawtooth signal to generate a quasi-sawtooth signal. The quasi-sawtooth signal is compared to an error signal indicative of an output voltage of the resonant converter. The first drive transistor is switched OFF when the quasi-sawtooth signal reaches the level of the error signal. Once the first drive transistor is turned off, a second drive transistor is turned on for the same time duration same as the first drive transistor. |
| US08085558B2 |
Resonant converter
A resonant converter includes a square wave generator including a first switch and a second switch, and generating a first square wave corresponding to an input voltage by alternately turning on/off the first and second switches; a resonator including a first coil of a primary coil of a transformer, and generating a resonance waveform corresponding to the first square wave; and an output unit including a second coil of a secondary coil of the transformer, and outputting a voltage corresponding to a current generated in the second coil corresponding to the resonance waveform. The square wave generator includes a pulse frequency modulation controller for turning on/off the first and second switches, comparing a first voltage linearly increased while the second switch maintains the turn-on state and a second voltage corresponding to an integration value on the time of the current flowing to the second switch when the second switch is turned off, and changing on/off drive frequencies of the first and second switches according to a comparison result. Therefore, a resonant converter driven with safety is realized. |
| US08085557B2 |
Bidirectional DC/AC inverter
A bidirectional DC-AC inverter is disclosed. The DC-AC inverter includes an H bridge circuit, a connecting portion connected to the H bridge circuit, a smoothing filter that connects the connecting portion to the H bridge circuit, and a control section. The H bridge circuit has four switching elements. The four switching elements include two first switching elements first ends of which are connected to each other and two second switching elements second ends of which are connected to each other. The smoothing filter has a capacitor and two coils connected to the capacitor. The control section controls the first switching elements in such a manner that the two coils function as booster coils when an alternating voltage input from a system power supply is converted to a direct current voltage. |
| US08085556B2 |
Dynamic converter topology
Methods and apparatus of dynamic topology power converters are provided. One method includes monitoring at least one variable of the power converter and based on the at least one monitored variable, using a converter topology selected between at least a full-bridge converter topology and a half-bridge converter topology to achieve an efficient operation at a then current operational load. |
| US08085553B1 |
Lead assembly for a flip-chip power switch
A power switch assembly includes a flip-chip type integrated circuit chip and a lead-frame with a plurality of spaced apart parallel lead sections. The flip-chip type integrated circuit chip includes a distributed transistor, and first and second pluralities of flip-chip interconnects connected to source and drain regions, respectively. The first and second lead sections at least partially overlap along the first axis. Each of the plurality of lead sections includes a contact portion and an extended portion extending laterally from the contact portion. The extended portions of the first and second lead section extend from the contact portion in opposite directions. The first side of the first and second lead section contacts at least two of the first and plurality of flip-chip interconnects, respectively. The second side of the first and second lead are configured to contact a first and second contact area on a printed circuit board, respectively. |
| US08085552B2 |
Attachment device and electronic apparatus
An attachment device includes a first holding member configured to be fixed to a board and engage a first end part of a device to be attached to the board to hold the first end part; a second holding member configured to be attached to the board and engage a second end part of the device to be attached to hold the second end part; and a positioning mechanism configured to adjust the attachment position of the second holding member relative to the board. |
| US08085550B2 |
Implementing enhanced solder joint robustness for SMT pad structure
A method and a surface mount technology (SMT) pad structure are provided for implementing enhanced solder joint robustness. The SMT pad structure includes a base SMT pad. The base SMT pad receives a connector for soldering to the SMT pad structure. A standoff structure having a selected geometry is defined on the base SMT pad to increase thickness of the solder joint for the connector. |
| US08085549B2 |
Circuit device
The circuit device includes a first transmitting inductor, a first insulating layer, a first receiving inductor, and a second receiving inductor. The first transmitting inductor is constituted of a helical conductive pattern and receives a transmitted signal. The first receiving inductor is located in a region overlapping the first transmitting inductor through the first insulating layer. The first receiving inductor is constituted of a helical conductive pattern, and generates a received signal corresponding to the transmitted signal input to the first transmitting inductor. The second receiving inductor is connected in series to the first receiving inductor, and constituted of a helical conductive pattern. The second receiving inductor generates a voltage in an opposite direction to that generated by the first receiving inductor, in response to a magnetic field of the same direction. |
| US08085546B2 |
Multilayer printed wiring board for semiconductor devices and method for manufacturing the board
A coreless multilayer printed wiring board including a coreless layer having an opening, a conductive film formed on an upper surface of the coreless layer and closing one end of the opening of the coreless layer, a via-hole formed in the opening of the coreless layer, a first resin layer formed on the coreless layer and the conductive film and having an opening reaching to the conductive film, a via-hole formed in the opening of the first resin layer, a second resin layer formed on the upper surface of the first resin layer and having an opening, a via-hole formed in the opening of the second resin layer. The via-holes formed in the first and second resin layers are open in the direction opposite to the direction in which the via-hole formed in the coreless layer is open. |
| US08085544B2 |
Data card
A data card includes a casing, a circuit board in the casing, a plug electrically connected with the circuit board and a cap part capable of covering the plug; wherein one end of the casing is provided with the plug; a card slot is defined in the casing at a joint of the casing and the plug, and the cap part covers a notch of the card slot when the plug is inserted into the cap part. The invention is mainly used in wireless data signal receiving or transmitting device. |
| US08085534B2 |
Flat display apparatus to optimally radiate heat
A flat display apparatus includes a display unit; a housing configured to accommodate the display unit; a support member configured to support the housing; and a cooling device configured to radiate heat of a heating element which is mounted in the housing, wherein the cooling device includes a first far infrared ray transfer member which is thermally connected to the heating element in the housing and a second far infrared ray transfer member which is thermally connected to an external portion of the housing at a rear surface side, wherein a radiating surface of the first far infrared ray transfer member and an absorbing surface of the second far infrared ray transfer member are disposed to oppose each other with the housing interposed therebetween, and wherein heat radiated from the first far infrared ray transfer member is radiated at both plane surface of the second far infrared ray transfer member. |
| US08085533B2 |
Electronic device with switching assembly
An electronic device includes a body, a cover, and a switching assembly. The body defines two first openings. The cover defines two second openings facing the two first openings. The switching assembly includes a locking assembly received in the body and a latching assembly received in the cover. The locking assembly includes a handle, two guiding members, and two magnetic members received in the corresponding guiding members. The handle is for impelling the guiding members to move. The latching assembly includes two latching members. Each latching member has a latching end for being attracted by one of the magnetic members. When the cover covers the body, each latching end protrudes through the corresponding second and first openings and is caught by the magnetic members. When the handle is pressed, the handle drives the two guiding members to move to impel the two magnetic members away from the corresponding latching ends. |
| US08085532B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes a first, a second body, and an engaging mechanism. The second body is connected to the first body and rotates relatively to the first body. The engaging mechanism, disposed on the second body, includes a rotating member and a moving member. The rotating member is rotatably disposed on the second body. The moving member is movably disposed on the second body and abuts the rotating member. The second body is fastened to the first body by the moving member of the engaging mechanism. When the rotating member rotates along a first direction, the moving member is pushed along a second direction to depart from the first body. |
| US08085526B2 |
Electric double layer capacitor
A solution or dispersion of an ion-permeable compound, a carbon fine particle a, and a solvent is coated on a conductive sheet such as an aluminum foil, the coat is dried to form a film a, which allows to obtain a collector for an electric double layer capacitor. A solution or dispersion of a binder, a carbon fine particle b, an activated carbon b, and a solvent is coated on the film a, the coat is dried to form a film b, which results in obtaining an electrode for an electric double layer capacitor. The electrode is piled on a separator, and immersed in an electrolytic solution to obtain an electric double layer capacitor. |
| US08085524B2 |
Integrated capacitor arrangement for ultrahigh capacitance values
An electronic device includes at least one trench capacitor that can also take the form of an inverse structure, a pillar capacitor. An alternating layer sequence of at least two dielectric layers and at least two electrically conductive layers is provided in the trench capacitor or on the pillar capacitor, such that the at least two electrically conductive layers are electrically isolated from each other and from the substrate by respective ones of the at least two dielectric layers. A set of internal contact pads is provided, and each internal contact pad is connected with a respective one of the electrically conductive layers or with the substrate. A range of switching opportunities is opened up that allows tuning the specific capacitance of the capacitor to a desired value. |
| US08085521B2 |
Flame rod drive signal generator and system
A flame rod drive signal generator and system for producing a flame rod drive signal for a flame rod of a combustion system. In one illustrative embodiment, the flame rod drive signal generator may include a voltage source, an input signal having a frequency, an LC oscillator and a drive mechanism. The drive mechanism may be powered by the voltage source, and may have an output coupled to the LC oscillator. The drive mechanism may receive the input signal, and produces a current in the LC oscillator that has a frequency that is related to the frequency of the input signal. The LC oscillator may then provide a flame rod drive signal to a flame rod that has an amplitude that is larger than the amplitude of the voltage source. In some cases, a controller may monitor the amplitude of the flame rod drive signal and adjust the frequency, duty cycle, or both, of the input signal to achieve a desired amplitude of the flame rod drive signal. Alternatively, or in addition, the controller may monitor an ionization current produced by the flame rod when the flame rod is subject to a flame. |
| US08085518B2 |
Electronic circuit, electronic circuit arrangement and method for producing an electronic circuit
An electronic circuit and method for producing the electronic circuit, where the electronic circuit includes a functional circuit including at least one multigate functional field effect transistor and an ESD protection circuit including at least one multigate ESD protection field effect transistor. The multigate protection field effect transistor is a transistor that is partially depleted of electrical charge carriers, and the trigger voltage of the multigate protection field effect transistor is less than the trigger voltage of the multigate functional field effect transistor. |
| US08085512B2 |
CPP-type magnetoresistance effect element having a pair of free layers
A magnetic field detecting element comprises: a stack which includes first, second and third magnetic layers whose magnetization directions depend upon an external magnetic field, the second magnetic layer being positioned between the first magnetic layer and the third magnetic layer, a first non-magnetic intermediate layer sandwiched between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer, and a second non-magnetic intermediate layer sandwiched between the second magnetic layer and the third magnetic layer, wherein the stack is adapted such that sense current flows in a direction that is perpendicular to a film surface thereof; and a bias magnetic layer which is provided on a side of the stack, the side being opposite to an air bearing surface of the stack. |
| US08085511B2 |
Magnetoresistance effect element having resistance adjusting layer and thin-film insertion layer
A magnetoresistance effect element includes a magnetoresistance effect film including a magnetically pinned layer having a magnetic material film whose direction of magnetization is pinned substantially in one direction, a magnetically free layer having a magnetic material film whose direction of magnetization changes in response to an external magnetic field, and a nonmagnetic metal intermediate layer located between said pinned layer and said free layer. The element also includes a pair of electrodes electrically connected to the magnetoresistance effect film to supply a sense current perpendicularly to a film plane of the magnetoresistance effect film. At least one of the pinned layer and the free layer may include a thin-film insertion layer. The nonmagnetic metal intermediate layer includes a resistance adjusting layer including at least one of oxides, nitrides and fluorides, and the thin-film insertion layer includes at least one element selected from the group consisting of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni). |
| US08085510B2 |
Multi-port cable for removable ESD/EOD protection for electronic devices
A protective device for protecting an electronic device, e.g., MR head, from ESD/EOS damage includes a cable having leads coupled to the electronic device and a first port providing access to the leads. A second port with one-to-one electrical connection to each lead in the cable provides a second electrical access to the all leads. A shorting device is coupled to one of the ports thereby creating a short between both the leads of the extension and the leads of the cable. The other port is available for coupling to an external device, e.g., tester or end device while the short provides ESD/EOS protection. |
| US08085507B2 |
Method and apparatus for forming an opening in a base-metal layer of an electrical lead suspension (ELS) to increase the impedance
An apparatus and method for forming an opening in a base-metal layer of an electrical lead suspension (ELS) to increase the impedance. The method provides a base-metal layer having at least one opening. A dielectric layer above the base-metal layer is also provided, the dielectric layer covering a portion of the base-metal layer and at least one of the openings in the base-metal layer. A signal conductive layer is provided above dielectric layer. The signal conductive layer carries at least one solder pad portion, wherein the solder pad portion is aligned above the portion of the dielectric layer covering at least one of the openings in the base-metal layer. By aligning the at least one solder pad portion over the opening of the base-metal layer the solder pad to base-metal layer the impedance between the at least one solder pad portion and the base-metal layer is increased. |
| US08085502B2 |
Writing and reading multi-level patterned magnetic recording media, with more than two recording levels
A method and apparatus for writing magnetization states in magnetic islands of a multi-level patterned magnetic recording medium with more than two recording levels and a method and apparatus for reading readback waveforms representing written magnetization states of the magnetic islands in the multi-level patterned magnetic recording medium. Writing each magnetization state includes selecting the magnetization state, determining a write current sufficient to write the magnetization state, and applying the write current to a magnetic write head to write the magnetization state, including simultaneously writing associated magnetic states in each magnetic island of at least one pair of magnetic islands. Reading the readback waveform representing a written magnetization state is implemented through use of a magnetic read head and includes: identifying the written magnetization state by decoding the readback waveform; and displaying and/or recording the written magnetization state. |
| US08085500B2 |
Perpendicular magnetic recording head with partial side shield layers
In a perpendicular magnetic recording head in which a magnetic pole part of a main magnetic pole layer exposed at a medium-opposing surface exhibits a trapezoidal form narrower on the leading edge side than on the trailing edge side, a pair of partial side shield layers made of a soft magnetic material are provided on both sides in the track width direction of the magnetic pole part of the main magnetic pole layer such as to be located more on the leading edge side of the magnetic pole part. |
| US08085498B2 |
PMR write with flux choking area
A PMR writer having a trailing shield structure is disclosed in which a flux choking layer (FCL) formed adjacent to the ABS provides a means to limit the amount of flux flowing from the trailing shield to a first write shield (WS1) near the write pole tip thereby significantly reducing adjacent track erasure. The FCL has a substantially smaller thickness than a top section of the trailing shield to which it is attached along a side opposite the ABS. As a result, pole tip protrusion is reduced compared to prior art PMR writers. The FCL contacts a trailing side of WS1 at the ABS and one or both of the trailing sides of the WS1 and FCL may be tapered or perpendicular with respect to the ABS. The top trailing shield section, FCL, and WS1 may be comprised of NiFe, CoFe, CoFeNi, or alloys thereof. |
| US08085497B2 |
Method of multi-angled bump processing for magnetic pole fabrication and systems thereof
A system according to one embodiment includes a magnetic pole; a bump structure above the pole, the bump structure having a first surface oriented at a first angle between 1° and 89° from a plane of deposition of the pole, and a second surface oriented at a second angle between 1° and 89° from the plane of deposition of the pole, wherein the second angle is greater than the first angle; and a shield above the bump structure. A method according to one embodiment includes forming a bump layer above a magnetic pole; removing a portion of the bump layer for forming a step therein; and milling the bump layer for defining thereon a first surface oriented at a first angle between 1° and 89° from a plane of deposition of the bump layer, and a second surface oriented at a second angle between 1° and 89° from the plane of deposition of the bump layer, wherein the second angle is greater than the first angle. |
| US08085494B2 |
Airflow diverter in a hard disk drive system
An airflow diverter in a hard disk drive system. A top portion configured to couple with a top housing of the disk drive system. A thickness configured to create a top clearance between the diverter and a top actuator arm of the disk drive system wherein the top clearance approximates a bottom clearance between a bottom housing of the disk drive system and a bottom actuator arm of the disk drive system. At least one surface configured to divert the airflow in the disk drive system during the operation of the disk drive system. |
| US08085491B2 |
Method of determining flying height of magnetic head
For obtaining a flying height of a magnetic head from a magnetic disk, the magnetic head being placed in a slider arranged at an interval with the magnetic disk, an initial setting process and a flying height detecting process are performed. In the initial setting process, driving power to a heater is increased gradually, from a state where the heater arranged at a position in proximity to the magnetic head in the slider is not driven, until the magnetic head makes contact with the magnetic disk. Then, in each stage, an electrical resistance value of the sensor arranged at a position in proximity to the magnetic head in the slider, which is increased due to the heat from heater, and either an approach distance of the magnetic head toward the magnetic disk or the flying height of the magnetic head from the magnetic disk are acquired. Then, basic data is prepared by obtaining the relationship between a variation of the electrical resistance value of the sensor and the flying height of the magnetic head from the magnetic disk, which is obtained in each stage or which calculated from the approach distance in each stage. In the flying height detecting process, an electrical resistance value of the sensor is determined, and a variation of the electrical resistance value is calculated from the determined values. Then, the flying height of the magnetic head from the magnetic disk in the state where the electrical resistance value was determined is obtained based on the basic data obtained in the initial setting process, using the calculated variation of the electrical resistance value. |
| US08085490B2 |
Slider fly-height control in a hard disk drive
In fly-height control system, a slider comprises a spin torque oscillator that is configured for generating an RF carrier signal which is out-of-band of a frequency band of read data, write data, and control signals in a hard disk drive. |
| US08085485B1 |
Lens barrel support structure and optical device
A lens barrel support structure is provided that includes a base frame and a lens barrel. The base frame includes a first support portion, a second support portion, a third support portion, and a stopper. The lens barrel includes a substantially cylindrical shape body frame configured to accommodate at least part of an optical system, a first attachment portion fixedly coupled to the body frame and to the first support portion, a second attachment portion fixedly coupled to the body frame and to the second support portion, a third attachment portion fixedly coupled to the body frame and to the third support portion, and a receiver fixedly coupled to the body frame. The receiver and the stopper are disposed spaced apart and define a gap that extends along a first direction parallel to an optical axis of the optical system to allow the receiver to contact the stopper. |
| US08085483B2 |
Lens barrel
A telescopic lens barrel which is capable of increasing the assembling workability and advancing and retracting a lens in an optical axis direction of the lens barrel with high accuracy, without miniaturizing of the lens barrel. A barrel base plate holds an image pickup device. A fixed cylinder is secured to the barrel base plate and has an axis in an optical axis direction of the lens barrel. A guide shaft holds a lens frame so as to be advanced and retracted in the optical axis direction in the fixed cylinder and held by the barrel base plate. The barrel base plate includes bearing portions holding the guide shaft on opposite sides of a sliding region of the lens frame, and a protruding portion of the guide shaft protruding from one of the bearing portions of the barrel base plate is regulated in position by the fixed cylinder. |
| US08085478B2 |
Zoom lens system and image pickup apparatus including the same
Provided is a compact and high optical performance zoom lens system, including, in order of from an object side toward an image side: a first lens unit with a negative refractive power; a second lens unit with a positive refractive power; and a third lens unit with the positive refractive power, the first, second, and third lens units moving to perform zooming. The first lens unit includes a first lens element with the negative refractive power, and a second lens element with the positive refractive power in order of from the object side toward the image side, and in which a refractive index of a material of the first lens element (N11), an Abbe number of a material of the second lens element (ν12), and the radii of curvatures of lens surfaces of the first lens element on the object side and the image side (R11a, R11b) are appropriately set. |
| US08085477B2 |
Image forming optical system and electronic image pickup apparatus using the same
It is preferable that for an image forming optical system a basic structure which includes a first lens group having a negative refracting power, which is made of one cemented lens component, a second lens group having a positive refracting power, a third lens group having a positive refracting power, which is made of one lens component, and is movable for focusing, and a fourth lens group which is made of one lens component having an aspheric surface, and at the time of zooming from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, the second lens group moves only toward the object side, and the first lens group and the third lens group move while following a trajectory of movement different from a trajectory of movement of the second lens group is adopted, and that the image forming optical system satisfies predetermined conditional expressions. |
| US08085476B2 |
Zoom lens system and an image pickup apparatus including the same
A zoom lens system is provided that can be used as an optical system for an image pick-up device, which can have improved shading characteristics using multiple lens units, for example three lens units. |
| US08085474B2 |
Zoom lens
A zoom lens includes, sequentially from an object side, a first lens group having a negative refractive power; and a second lens group having a positive refractive power, where focal length is varied by changing a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group, and a first conditional expression 0.8<|f1/f2|<1.0 is satisfied, f1 being the focal length of the first lens group and f2 being the focal length of the second lens group. |
| US08085473B2 |
Phase offset integrated solid immersion mirror and lens for a general phase front
An apparatus includes a core waveguide for directing electromagnetic radiation to a focal point, the core waveguide having a first interface on a first side of a longitudinal axis for directing a first plurality of rays of the electromagnetic radiation to a focal point and a second interface on a second side of the longitudinal axis for directing a second plurality of rays of the electromagnetic radiation to the focal point, wherein the first and second interfaces are shaped such that at the focal point, the second plurality of rays are about 180° out of phase with respect to the first plurality of rays. |
| US08085469B2 |
Optical film
An optical film includes a first refraction layer having a first surface with first optical lens patterns for scattering light and a second surface opposite to the first surface, the first optical lens patterns having a lens shape, and a second refraction layer on the first surface and having second optical patterns for redirecting light in a first direction that is perpendicular to the second surface of the first refraction layer, the second optical patterns being linearly arranged. |
| US08085466B2 |
Optical system of light gathering using orthogonal compressions to form large diameter, shallow depth telescopes
Optical system for a telescope having independent optical arms adapted to collect light rays over a first cross sectional area and compress it into a second cross sectional area less than the first cross sectional area. Orthogonal mirror pairs of parabolic trough mirrors compress light in first one dimension and then the other dimension and feed the light into a focusing smaller telescope structure. The gathered light is kept parallel and its wavefront is kept in phase, allowing the telescope to have the diffraction limit of the collective aperture. The optical arms are independently adjustable to point the system toward different objects of interest and track them. |
| US08085463B2 |
Protective coating for metalhydride based devices
A thin film device includes an active layer (4), wherein the active layer has optical properties that change by adding and removing hydrogen, and includes a Mg-transition metal layer, or rare earth based layer, the active layer being provided on one side with a protective layer (3) that is hydrogen, oxygen and water vapor permeable and liquid water impermeable, and has hydrophobic surface properties. The thin film can further include a Pd catalyst layer (5) disposed between the active layer (4) and the protective layer (3). The thin film device can be used in a switchable mirror wherein the optical properties of the mirror can be changed by adding/removing hydrogen to/from the active layer. |
| US08085462B2 |
Superposition method using a pair of stereo-isomeric micro electro mechanical systems (MEMSs)
DMDs (digital mirror devices) as currently produced by Texas Instruments show handedness with regard to mirror deflection axes and image raster. At present only one isomer (one hand-type) is produced, which we call the (L)DMD. For the superposition of (L)DMDs an additional folding is required in all arrangements of the state of the art, which results in sophisticated and expensive designs, e.g. the trichroic prism assembly (TPA) of 3-chip DMD-projectors. We uncover a superposition method using a pair of stereo-isomeric MEMSs (both the right-handed and the left-handed stereo-isomeric topologies are used). This eliminates the necessity of this previously required additional folding. As a consequence simplified and improved superposition systems can be designed. Minimal back focal length and symmetric designs lead to smaller size, lighter weight and reduced cost. |
| US08085455B2 |
Optical scanning device, method of adjusting the same, and image forming apparatus
A coupling optical system couples a light beam emitted from a light source that includes a two-dimensional array of light-emitting elements, including a first optical element having a positive power and a second optical element that has a negative power and receives the light beam passed through the first optical element. An incident surface and an output surface of the second optical element are concave. An absolute value of a paraxial curvature radius of the incident surface is larger than that of the output surface. A scanning optical system focuses the light beam that passed through the coupling optical system and deflected by a deflector on the target surface. |
| US08085454B2 |
Mirror device drive control apparatus and projector
A mirror device drive control apparatus adapted to perform drive control of a mirror device having a hysteresis characteristic. |
| US08085451B2 |
Image reading apparatus
An image reading apparatus includes: (i) a capturing device for capturing an original image of a source document; (ii) a moving device for moving one of the capturing device and the source document relative to the other; (iii) a first region processor for causing the moving device to position the capturing device in a first capturing position, so as to obtain a first pixel-related data relating to pixels present in a first region of the source document; (iv) a background-color-basis correcting-value determiner for determining a background-color-basis correcting value, based on the first pixel-related data; and (v) a second region processor for causing the moving device to position the capturing device in a second capturing position, so as to obtain a second pixel-related data relating to pixels present in a second region of the source document. The second region processor is configured to correct the second pixel-related data, based on the background-color-basis correcting value, for reducing influence on the second pixel-related data by a background color of the source document. |