| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08099793B2 |
Scanning probe microscope with automatic probe replacement function
An automatic probe exchange system for a scanning probe microscope (SPM) exchanges probes between a probe mount on the SPM and a probe mount on a probe tray based on differential magnetic force. When the magnetic force on the SPM side is greater, the probe is attached to the probe mount on the SPM. When the magnetic force on the probe tray side is greater, the probe is attached to the probe mount on the probe tray. The magnetic force on the probe tray side is varied by moving the magnets that generate the magnetic force on the probe tray side closer to or further from the probe. |
| US08099791B1 |
Method of authenticating a consumable in an imaging device
A method of generating an authentication code for a consumable in an imaging device, includes the steps of: an identification number assigned to the consumable; processing an indemnification number assigned to the consumable using a first algorithm to generate a preliminary number different from the identification number; and compressing the preliminary number using a compression algorithm that utilizes the identification number to generate the authentication code. |
| US08099789B2 |
Apparatus and method for enabling applications on a security processor
Method and apparatus for enabling applications on security processors of computer systems. In one aspect, a security processor apparatus includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor and operative to store a secure table. The secure table stores different certified endorsement keys and different values, each value associated with one of the endorsement keys. Each stored value is derived from a different application that is certified by the associated endorsement key to be executed on the processor. |
| US08099784B1 |
Behavioral detection based on uninstaller modification or removal
To evade heuristic detection, malware is often designed to trick users into installing the malware by being packaged in a standard installer known to the user's computer for typically installing legitimate software. To prevent removal of the malware, the malware modifies or removes its uninstaller. A security module manages this type of evasion technique by monitoring and detecting installations performed on a computer. The module detects attempts to remove or modify the uninstaller for the application to render the uninstaller incapable of uninstalling the application. The module can intercept and block such attempts, and then analyze the application for malicious code. Where the application is determined to be malware, the module prevents malicious activity. The module can also use the malware's own uninstaller to uninstall the malware from the computer. |
| US08099783B2 |
Security method for data protection
An integrated circuit (IC) security apparatus with complementary security traces and a method for producing such an apparatus is disclosed. The security apparatus comprises a pattern generator, and a plurality of security traces. The arrangement of security trace pairs are such that the second trace is arranged substantially parallel to the first trace. The pattern generator produces two signals, a second signal, which is applied to the second trace, is substantially complimentary to the first security trace. The timing and amplitude of the second (complimentary) signal is developed such that any net induced currents are substantially nulled. One or more of the signals is received from the signal generator and compared to the same signal after it is conducted through a security trace. The results are analyzed to determine if the security of the IC has been breached. |
| US08099779B2 |
Federated management of content repositories
A method for integrating a plurality of content repositories into a virtual content repository (VCR), comprising providing credential information to each one of said plurality of content repositories, receiving authorization information from each one of said plurality of content repositories, wherein the authorization information indicates whether or not an authorization procedure succeeded, integrating into the VCR each one of said plurality of content repositories whose authorization information indicates successful authorization, and wherein each one of said plurality of content repositories exposes a first set of services to enable its integration into the VCR. |
| US08099776B2 |
Personalized firewall
A personalized firewall or other network gateway is provided by a method of matching a data packet to a rule in a network gateway having a rule base. One or more identification values are determined based on the data packet and property value(s) associated with said one or more identification values are queried and received from a property server. The property value(s) describe for example allowed connections and services for an entity associated with the identification value(s). The property value(s) are compared to at least one rule in the rule base, said at least one rule comprising property value(s) and an action, and the action defined in said at least one rule is taken, if said property value(s) of the rule match corresponding property value(s) associated with said one or more identification values. |
| US08099774B2 |
Dynamic updating of firewall parameters
The dynamic updating of firewall parameters is described. One exemplary embodiment includes receiving a policy rule that includes a reference to a predefined container that specifies a permissible value range of at least one firewall parameter allowable under the policy rule, receiving a firewall parameter value, and populating the predefined container with the firewall parameter value if the firewall parameter value is within the permissible value range, thereby updating the policy rule. |
| US08099770B2 |
Apparatus, and an associated methodology, for facilitating authentication using a digital music authentication token
An apparatus, and an associated methodology, for facilitating authentication of a user device to access content at another device. A music file is selected as digital music authentication token. Once selected, authentication data is encoded into the music file. Subsequently, when log-in and authentication procedures are performed, the music file is retrieved, and used pursuant to the authentication procedure. |
| US08099768B2 |
Method and system for multi-protocol single logout
A method for multi-protocol logout. The method includes receiving, by a first identity provider, a logout request from a user agent, wherein the first identity provider executes in a federation manager, and initiating a logout on a service provider associated with the first identity provider based on the logout request by the first identity provider. The method further includes identifying, by the federation manager, a plurality of identity providers associated with the user agent, wherein the plurality of identity providers communicate using heterogeneous federation protocols, and initiating, by the federation manager, a logout on each of the plurality of identity providers based on the logout request using the plurality of heterogeneous federation protocols. The method further includes initiating, by the plurality of identity providers, a logout of each service provider corresponding to the plurality of identity providers, identifying a status of each logout, and sending the status to the user agent. |
| US08099764B2 |
Secure push and status communication between client and server
Systems and methods of authentication and authorization between a client, a server, and a gateway to facilitate communicating a message between a client and a server through a gateway. The client has a trusted relationship with each of the gateway and the server. A method includes registering the client with the gateway. The client also constructs the address space identifying the gateway and the client. The client communicates the address space to the server. The client receives an identity identifying the server. If the client authorizes to receive a message from the server through the gateway, the client informs the authorization to the gateway. The client puts the identity identifying the server on a list of servers which are authorized to send messages to the client. In addition, the client communicates the list of servers to the gateway. |
| US08099763B2 |
Apparatus and method for range-confined communications
Range-confined security management adapter and method simplify security deployment in a network. First RC security information, including nearest- and k-neighbor information, is transmitted between authenticating neighbor and supplicant neighbor using a predetermined transmission adaptation technique. The adapter can evoke a response from the neighbor by adapting the initial transmitted signal power level, and increasing incrementally; the initial transmitted signal bit rate, and decreasing incrementally; or both, in response to second RC security information signal. RC communications are effected at low power, high bit rate, or both, establishing secure configuration, effecting secure communication, and thwarting miscreant intrusion into the network. |
| US08099750B2 |
System and method for bypassing an emergency alert break-in for a recorded event
Embodiments of the disclosed invention include a system and a method for bypassing an emergency alert break-in for a recorded event. For example, in one embodiment, a set top box is disclosed that includes a memory component for storing computer executable instructions; a communication interface for receiving media content data from a cable service provider; a decoder module for decoding the received media content data; an emergency alert break-in monitoring module for identifying an emergency alert break-in from the received data; a digital video recorder controller module for determining whether the identified emergency alert break-in affects a recording of a program on a recorded channel; and an emergency alert break-in bypass module for bypassing the identified emergency alert break-in for enabling the digital video recorder controller module to record the program without the identified emergency alert break-in. |
| US08099747B2 |
Disk chucking device for holding a disk
A disk chucking device includes a guide shaft for insertion into the central hole of a disk. A supporting member at the base side of the guide shaft supports a vicinity of the central hole at one surface of the disk. A cylindrical holding member approaches to or separates from the supporting member. A plunger moves along the holding member. A ball supporting member in the plunger stores a ball. An elastic member is locked by the plunger and the holding member, and biases to separate the plunger and the holding member in the axial direction of the guide shaft. A locking portion of the guide shaft prevents plunger movement in the axial direction of the guide shaft by making contact with the balls. An inside protrusion of the holding member supports the balls by surrounding together with the guide shaft when the balls are contacted with the locking portion. |
| US08099743B2 |
Slot-in type disk apparatus
A slot-in type thin disk apparatus having a base body and a lid, which constitute a chassis outer sheath. A front surface of the chassis outer sheath is formed with a disk inserting opening into which a disk is directly inserted. The slot-in type disk apparatus is provided with a traverse moving unit which displaces a traverse base between the base body and the lid. The traverse base moving unit includes a loading motor provided on the chassis outer sheath, a slider which slides by driving of the loading motor, and a traverse cam member which is operated by movement of the slider. |
| US08099740B1 |
System, method, and computer program product for terminating a hidden kernel process
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for terminating a hidden kernel process. In use, a hidden kernel process structure associated with a hidden kernel process is identified. In addition, the hidden kernel process structure is inserted into an active process list. Further, the hidden kernel process is terminated. |
| US08099737B2 |
Event processing finite state engine and language
In various embodiments, a method for processing event streams includes receiving a finite state machine defined in response to a set of processing components, a set of states, and a set of entry points. Event data associated with an event stream is also received. The event data is processes according to the finite state machine to generate an event. |
| US08099729B2 |
Method and device for creating and using pre-internalized program files
A device (45) receives new program files (46) and uses pre-internalized images to avoid having to internalize a program file every time that program execution occurs. In one embodiment, a software Virtual Machine (50) in the device functions to implement the pre-internalization. Once the program files are pre-internalized to create images that are stored in a permanent memory (56) of the device, the images may subsequently be executed without having to perform a pre-internalization operation. Additionally, use of dynamic memory (52) is reduced in connection with subsequent program execution and execution time of new program files is reduced. |
| US08099726B2 |
Implementing strong atomicity in software transactional memory
A software transactional memory system is described which utilizes decomposed software transactional memory instructions as well as runtime optimizations to achieve efficient performance. The decomposed instructions allow a compiler with knowledge of the instruction semantics to perform optimizations which would be unavailable on traditional software transactional memory systems. Additionally, high-level software transactional memory optimizations are performed such as code movement around procedure calls, addition of operations to provide strong atomicity, removal of unnecessary read-to-update upgrades, and removal of operations for newly-allocated objects. During execution, multi-use header words for objects are extended to provide for per-object housekeeping, as well as fast snapshots which illustrate changes to objects. Additionally, entries to software transactional memory logs are filtered using an associative table during execution, preventing needless writes to the logs. Finally a garbage collector with knowledge of the software transactional memory system compacts software transactional memory logs during garbage collection. |
| US08099725B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating code for an extract, transform, and load (ETL) data flow
Methods, computer program products, and system for generating code for an extract, transform, and load (ETL) data flow are provided. In one implementation, the method includes receiving an ETL data flow representing a logical transformation and flow of data, placing a staging table at a pre-determined location in the ETL data flow to reduce a total number of staging tables required by the transformation, and generating code for the transformation based on the ETL data flow including the staging table placed at the pre-determined location. |
| US08099724B2 |
Fast patch-based method calls
A patch-based mechanism is disclosed for providing fast invocations of a target method from a compiled calling method. The code for the calling method is stored into a storage. The code for the calling method comprises an instruction for invoking the target method, where the instruction comprises a parameter. In response to a state change from a current state to a new state that is experienced by the target method, the parameter is modified from a first value to a second value, where the second value indicates the correct address for facilitating the execution of the target method in its new state. Thus, the parameter in the instruction for invoking the target method always reflects the correct state of the target method, which provides for a fast invocation of the target method when the instruction is executed. |
| US08099719B2 |
Transactional debugger for a transactional memory system and detecting conflicts
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for providing a debugger for programs running under a transactional memory system. When running a particular program using the debugger, the system detects when a conflict occurs on at least one conflictpoint that was set in the particular program. A graphical user interface is provided that displays information related to the detected conflict. The graphical user interface can display transactional state and/or other details independently of a conflict. A conflictpoint can be assigned to one or more regions of source code in one or more transactions in the particular program. A conflictpoint can also be assigned to a particular variable in the particular program. When running the particular program in a debug mode, execution is stopped if a conflict occurs on any of the conflictpoints. |
| US08099713B2 |
Program system, and method and system arrangement for configuring it
A method and system arrangement are disclosed for configuring a program system. The method includes initializing binary program components of the program system and a source code interpreter for interpreting at least one source code event handler. Logical connections are set up between interfaces of the binary program components and interfaces of the interpreted source code event handler in order for events generated by the binary program components to be processed by the at least one source code event handler. A configuration file may also additionally be evaluated. |
| US08099709B2 |
Method and system for generating and employing a dynamic web services interface model
A system and method are provided to generate a dynamic web services interface model. In one embodiment, description content of a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) file is identified. A first metadata and a second metadata are extracted from the description content. A dynamic web services interface model is created via the first metadata and the second metadata. |
| US08099707B1 |
Field configured electronic circuits and methods of making the same
Semiconductor devices and/or structures, and methods for fabricating the same are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention allow for production of customized products, while also minimizing production steps, avoiding some or all photolithography steps, and reducing overall production costs. Using selective deposition and patterning methods such as printing, to form metal and/or dielectric layer(s) on substrates where one or more device circuit components are pre-made in a factory, but which require further processing to obtain an electrically functional circuit, results in the ability for a user/consumer to make custom, specific and/or unique electrically functional circuits without incurring the cost and complexity of a full fabrication to form and pattern all of the layers. |
| US08099705B2 |
Technique for determining circuit interdependencies
Embodiments of a device (such as a computer system or a circuit tester), a method, and a computer-program product (i.e., software) for use with the device are described. These systems and processes may be used to statistically characterize interdependencies between sub-circuits in an integrated circuit (which are referred to as ‘aggressor-victim relationships’). In particular, statistical relationships between the aggressors and victims are determined from values of a performance metric (such as clock speed) when the integrated circuit fails for a group of state-change difference vectors. Using these statistical relationships, a worst-case sub-group of the state-change difference vectors, such as the worst-case sub-group, is selected. This sub-group can be used to accurately test the integrated circuit. |
| US08099699B2 |
Filtering of small values for the verification of integrated circuits
The invention relates to a method of simulating an electronic circuit, represented in the form of masks and connections, comprising: a) the definition of the circuit in the form of a first list (140) of electrical components and their interconnections, b) the separation of the data of this first list into a first sub-assembly (170) of components to be modified by a filtering step, and into a second sub-assembly (160) of components not to be modified by this filtering step, c) the filtering of the data of the first sub-assembly (170) of components, d) the definition of the circuit in the form of a second list (190) of electrical components and their interconnections, from the data of the second sub-assembly (160) and the data resulting from step c), e) the simulation (195) of the circuit by means of this second list, f) if the result of the simulation is satisfactory, the manufacture of the circuit. |
| US08099697B2 |
Hardware logic verification support apparatus, verification support method and computer product
A computer-readable recording medium stores therein a verification support program that causes a computer to execute receiving a hardware description of a combinational circuit to be verified; extracting, from the hardware description, a conditional branch description expressing conditional branch processing; identifying, from among conditional branch descriptions extracted at the extracting of a conditional branch description and based on a description sequence in the hardware description, a combination of conditional branch descriptions having a hierarchical relation; extracting, from among combinations of conditional branch descriptions identified at the identifying, a combination having a potential to satisfy a specified condition; creating a simulation program that causes the specified condition for the conditional branch descriptions included in the combination extracted at the extracting of the combination to be satisfied; and outputting, as assertion information of the combinational circuit, the simulation program created for each combination at the creating. |
| US08099696B2 |
Method for providing information associated with an over-constrained event in verification of a circuit design
An automated debugging method and system for over-constrained circuit verification environment are described. Useful information related to circuit evaluation and/or over-constrained event is collected and provided. The information may include: clock cycles at which an over-constrained event occurs; identification of a minimum subset of constraints that will cause an over-constrained event to occur; signal ports having an associated signal that can not switch between different signal states; whether a triggering signal event has occurred during the evaluation; indicating whether constraints in the evaluation are realizable, etc. Novel approaches for detecting and obtaining the useful information also are described. |
| US08099692B1 |
Power-driven timing analysis and placement for programmable logic
An integrated circuit is divided into two or more different regions, each region being a different voltage domain. In each of the regions, a voltage drop and its impact on performance will be quantified. A place and route engine (or another tool of a computer-aided design flow) will then take these timing considerations into account while performing partitioning of the device. A user's logic design is implemented into the logic array blocks taking into a voltage drop seen at those logic array blocks. Faster paths of the logic design are placed into faster logic array blocks, such as those in a core region of the integrated circuit. |
| US08099690B2 |
Adaptive state-to-symbolic transformation in a canonical representation
Some embodiments provide a system for adaptively performing state-to-symbolic transformation in a canonical representation which is used for generating random stimulus for a constrained-random simulation. The system can construct a canonical representation for a set of constraints using the set of random variables and the subset of the state variables in the constraints. Next, the system can use the canonical representation to generate random stimulus for the constrained-random simulation, and monitor parameters associated with the constrained-random simulation. Next, the system can add state variables to or remove state variables from the canonical representation based at least on the monitored parameters. The system can then use the modified canonical representation which has a different set of state variables to generate random stimulus for the constrained-random simulation. |
| US08099689B1 |
Method and system for a tiling bias design to facilitate efficient design rule checking
A method and system for a tiling bias design for an integrated circuit device to facilitate efficient design rule checking. The method is implemented in a computer implemented design synthesis system. The method includes receiving a circuit netlist, wherein the circuit netlist represents an integrated circuit design to be realized in physical form. A deep N-well bias voltage distribution structure is provided within the circuit netlist, wherein the structure includes a plurality of tiles arranged to distribute a bias voltage to a plurality of N-wells of the circuit netlist. |
| US08099686B2 |
CAD flow for 15nm/22nm multiple fine grained wimpy gate lengths in SIT gate flow
Methods are described for forming an integrated circuit having multiple devices, such as transistors, with respective element lengths. The methods include a new CAD flow for producing masks used for exposing sidewall spacers which are to be etched to a smaller base width than other sidewall spacers and which in turn are used as an etch mask to form gate structures with smaller element lengths than those formed from the other sidewall spacers. Embodiments include generating a schematic of an integrated circuit and a corresponding netlist, establishing design rules for the integrated circuit, generating a computer aided design layout for the integrated circuit, plural transistors of the integrated circuit respectively having different gate lengths, checking the integrated circuit layout and netlist for compliance with the established design rules and for correspondence with the generated schematic, and generating a mask with different openings that correspond to the integrated circuit layout, in response to a satisfactory outcome of the checking step. |
| US08099681B2 |
Systems and methods for propagating alerts via a hierarchy of grids
The present solution addresses the displaying of multiple levels of information in a constrained display footprint in a manner that allows a user to be vigilant over the information. Systems and methods are described herein for organizing data and information queries against data sources in a relational display with hierarchical grids, linked to query results, score displays, and alert monitoring. In an embodiment of the present solution, a system allows an analyst to view results and status from monitoring numerous and persistent queries against real-time data streams. Many of these queries may be inter-related and composed in a way to comprehensively analyze a problem. To display, monitor, and interact with a collection of queries, the present solution provides a relational display that makes use of a set of grids via a feature referred to as “grid of grids”. The grids may be arranged in a hierarchy of any number of levels. For example, the grids may be arranged as a directed acyclic graph to facilitate nesting of grids, in which the grids are expanded according to the complexity and levels of granularity in the decomposition of queries for a problem or domain of interest. |
| US08099680B1 |
System and method of contextual pre-tuning
A method implemented on a multi-tuner receiver system comprises successively displaying a set of visual cards where each visual card of the set of visual cards comprises a graphical representation. A visual card of the set of visual cards is selected, the visual card being associated with a first television program. Based on a characteristic of the selected visual card, a second television program is identified. The second television program is then tuned. |
| US08099678B2 |
Dynamic determination of actions on selected items on a report
Various technologies for processing a selection on an item on a report. In one implementation, a request to perform an action on the item may be received. Whether one or more actions corresponding to the item exist based on one or more parameters and one or more values of the parameters associated with the item may be dynamically determined. A list of one or more actions may be displayed if the one or more actions exist. |
| US08099676B2 |
Logon management software, control device, and logon management method
A logon management software application is executed in a print control device (4) connectable to an information processing device (1), and performs the steps of: detecting if a hardware keyboard (38) is connected to the print control device during a logon process; displaying on a display (35) a first logon GUI for using the connected hardware keyboard if the connection of the hardware keyboard is detected; displaying on the display a second logon GUI, different to the first logon GUI, if the connection of the hardware keyboard is not detected; and controlling a logon of the print control device based on information entered into the first and/or second logon GUI dependent on whether the connection of the hardware keyboard is detected during at least part of the logon process. |
| US08099675B2 |
Apparatus for providing indication of audio copy protection support
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus including: a transmission unit configured to transmit an information acquiring request which acquires first information indicating whether or not a predetermined standard for limiting copy of audio data is supported by a terminal device to which the audio data is transferred; a judgment unit configured to judge whether or not the terminal device supports the predetermined standard, based on the first information included in information acquiring response to the information acquiring request from the terminal device; a display unit configured to display an icon indicating that the information processing apparatus is connected to the terminal device via the wireless communication; and a control unit to control, based on a judgment result by the judgment unit, a change of display of the icon. |
| US08099663B2 |
Apparatus and method for document synchronization
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to convert a destination document into a destination document tree hierarchy. The destination document tree hierarchy is flattened into a destination document hash table comprising a set of destination document keys and a set of destination document values. A source document is converted into a source document tree hierarchy. The source document tree hierarchy is flattened into a source document hash table comprising a set of source document key-value pairs. A source document key-value pair comprising a key and a value is identified, where the key is not in the set of destination document keys. The source document key-value is added to a changelist. A destination document key is identified, where the destination document key is not a key in a key-value pair in the set of source document key-value pairs. The destination document key is added to the changelist. |
| US08099659B2 |
Logic tester and method for simultaneously measuring delay periods of multiple tested devices
The invention provides a logic tester. In one embodiment, the logic tester is coupled to a plurality of tested devices, and includes a function generator and a pattern comparator. The function generator generates an initial code sequence as an input signal of the tested devices to fix output signals of the tested devices to a first value, and then generates a functional code sequence as the input signal of the tested devices to trigger the output signals of the tested devices to change from the first value to a second value. The pattern comparator converts the output signals of the tested devices to a plurality of bitstreams after the functional code sequence is generated, calculates numbers of bits corresponding to the first value in the bitstreams, estimates delay periods of the tested devices according to the numbers of bits, and outputs the delay periods of the tested devices. |
| US08099656B2 |
Reed solomon decoder
Techniques, systems and computer program products are described for providing a Reed Solomon decoder. The Reed Solomon decoder includes a syndrome polynomial generator to generate syndrome polynomials for subchannel data received from subchannels. In addition, a syndrome polynomial selector selects one of the generated syndrome polynomials according to a preset priority. An error location/error value polynomial generator generates an error location polynomial and an error value polynomial by applying a first algorithm to the selected syndrome polynomial. Also an error location/error value calculator calculates an error location by applying a second algorithm to the error location polynomial and calculates an error value by applying a third algorithm to the error value polynomial. Further, an error corrector corrects an error included in the received subchannel data by applying the calculated error location and the calculated error value to the received subchannel data. |
| US08099655B1 |
Galois field multiplier system and method
A Galois Field multiplier circuit for multiplying two polynomials (multiplicands). The multiplier circuit can use any arbitrary primitive polynomial to preserve the Galois Field. The multiplier circuit includes at least one logic unit that receives as a first input one of the multiplicands and shift the multiplicand in question by 1 bit to the left. The logic unit receives as a second input a pre-determined primitive polynomial and multiplies the primitive polynomial by the highest bit of the multiplicand received at the other input of the logic unit. The bit-shifted multiplicand is XOR-ed with the primitive polynomial multiplied the highest bit of the multiplicand and the result of the XOR operation is provided to a second logic circuit that completes the multiplication of the two polynomials. |
| US08099653B2 |
Communication apparatus and method including a plurality of descramblers
A communication apparatus includes a plurality of descramblers for subjecting a second header portion of a received frame to descrambling processing using pseudo-random sequences that differ from one another; a plurality of syndrome arithmetic units for performing a syndrome calculation, which is in accordance with a cyclic redundancy check code, with respect to headers descrambled by respective ones of the plurality of descramblers, and an error correction unit for selecting a header that has been descrambled by one descrambler among the plurality of descramblers as a receive header, in accordance with syndrome values calculated by respective ones of the plurality of syndrome arithmetic units. |
| US08099650B1 |
L2 ECC implementation
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for implementing ECC protection in an on-chip L2 cache. When data is written to or read from an external memory, logic within the L2 cache is configured to generate ECC check bits and store the ECC check bits in the L2 cache in space typically allocated for storing byte enables. As a result, data stored in the L2 cache may be protected against bit errors without incurring the costs of providing additional storage or complex hardware for the ECC check bits. |
| US08099649B2 |
Data processing method and computer system medium thereof
A data processing method includes the steps of: initializing a syndrome vector to be an (n−1)th symbol; finding a corresponding mask based on the syndrome vector, wherein the mask is zero when the (n−1)th symbol is zero; correcting a known constant, which is zero when the syndrome vector is zero, based on the mask; inputting the syndrome vector to a log look-up table to correspondingly find log data; performing a modulo addition operation corresponding to log maximum data to find a log sum based on the log data and a log known constant; and inputting the log sum to an anti-log look-up table to correspondingly find operational data. |
| US08099639B2 |
Failure analysis method, failure analysis system, and memory macro system
Configuration information including number of normal cell areas and number of spare cell areas arranged in a memory macro and a size of each cell area is extracted from circuit design information, and electrical test results of the normal cell areas and the spare cell areas arranged in the memory macro are collected. Arrangement information corresponding to a collection order of the electrical test results is converted to a two-dimensional coordinate value for two-dimensionally displaying the arrangement information corresponding to a collection order of the electrical test results in a unit of cell area in association with a physical layout of a memory cell in the memory macro based on the configuration information. The collected electrical test results are displayed based on the two-dimensional coordinate value so that the normal cell areas and the spare cell areas can be distinguished. |
| US08099637B2 |
Software fault detection using progress tracker
The invention provides for software fault detection. A software process tracks its own progress. In the event the timer times out, a handler checks the progress. If the progress meets a fault criterion, a fault response is executed. |
| US08099636B2 |
System and method for protecting memory stacks using a debug unit
A method is disclosed for detecting a memory stack fault. The method may include reserving a memory stack for executing software instructions. The method may also include enabling a debug unit and as the software instructions are execute, utilizing the debug unit to monitor a memory space adjacent to the memory stack. The method may further include identifying a memory stack fault if a write operation to the memory space is attempted. |
| US08099635B2 |
Techniques for generating a trace stream for a data processing apparatus
A data processing apparatus and method are provided for generating a trace stream. The data processing apparatus comprises logic for producing data elements, and trace logic for producing a stream of trace elements representative of at least some of the data elements. The trace logic has trace generation logic operable to generate trace elements for inclusion in the stream, and is further arranged to generate trace timing indicators for inclusion in the stream. Each trace timing indicator indicates the elapse of one or more processing timing intervals, the processing timing interval being a predetermined plurality of clock cycles. |
| US08099631B2 |
Call-stacks representation for easier analysis of thread dump
Computer systems and methods for call-stacks representation for easier analysis of thread dumps. Execution data for a number of process threads are accessed by a parser in a thread dump wherein execution data includes a number of call-stacks. Process threads have corresponding call-stacks comprising information about active program subroutines of the thread. Threads are grouped in a number of sets that include threads with one or more actions in common. The sets correspond to a same action or subroutine in the call-stacks of the grouped threads. A tree representation of the execution data is generated based on the active actions in the call-stacks. In the tree representation, a first set of grouped threads is a child to a second set of grouped threads when the action corresponding to the first set is invoked by the subroutine corresponding to the second set. |
| US08099630B2 |
Hardware diagnostics determination during initial program loading
Disclosed are a method, system and computer program product for determining hardware diagnostics during initial program loading (IPL). A space is allocated for a diagnostics hardware table storing hardware identifications corresponding to hardware to be tested. A hardware monitor function detects new and/or defective hardware. Hardware can be manually selected. A runtime diagnostics detects defective hardware. The hardware identifications corresponding to the new, failing, and/or selected hardware are added to the diagnostics hardware table. The hardware identification to be tested is acquired during the building of a system Hardware Objects Model (HOM). A diagnostics flag is set within HOM according to the diagnostics hardware table. Diagnostics are performed per HOM diagnostics flag indication. The diagnostics table is cleared, and the operating system is run. At system runtime, diagnostics code monitors for runtime error. If an error is detected but cannot be isolated to defective hardware, the suspected hardware identification will be added to diagnostics hardware table so that it can be verified on the next system IPL. |
| US08099624B1 |
Recovery mechanism for I/O module using out-of-band control path
A storage system includes a storage server and a storage subsystem having an I/O module coupled to disks. The storage server includes a storage adapter coupled to the I/O module creating an in-band (data) path to access data stored on the disks. The storage server sends a data command through the in-band path to the I/O module for accessing the data stored on the disks. The storage server further includes a network adapter coupled to the I/O module creating an out-of-band control path to control the I/O module. The storage server detects through the in-band path that the I/O module is non-responsive to a data command and automatically changes the behavior of the I/O module (e.g., resets the I/O module) through the out-of-band control path to recover the non-responsive I/O module. The storage server also collects and outputs status data of the I/O module through the out-of-band control path. |
| US08099623B1 |
Efficient distributed hot sparing scheme in a parity declustered RAID organization
A network storage server implements a method to maintain a parity declustered RAID organization with distributed hot sparing. The parity declustered RAID organization, which provides data redundancy for a network storage system, is configured as a RAID organization with a plurality of logical drives. The RAID organization is then distributed in a parity declustered fashion to a plurality of physical drives in the network storage system. The RAID organization also has a spare space pre-allocating on each of the plurality of physical drives. Upon failure of one of the plurality of physical drives, data stored in the failed physical drives can be reconstructed and stored to spare space of the surviving physical drives. After reconstruction, the plurality of logical drives remains parity-declustered on the plurality of surviving physical drives. |
| US08099617B2 |
Computer apparatus and power supply method thereof
A computer apparatus includes an information processing unit that processes information, a storing unit having a storage space in which the information being processed is stored, a main power supply that supplies power to the information processing unit, an auxiliary power supply including a thermoelectric element that converts heat generated in the computer into auxiliary power, and a controller that controls the auxiliary power supply to supply the auxiliary power to the information processing unit and the storing unit if it is determined that supply of power from the main power supply is interrupted, and controls the information processing unit to store the information to be processed by the information processing unit in the storing unit. |
| US08099616B2 |
Power over ethernet port enabling and disabling responsive to access control system
An electronically controlled method of controlled enabling and disabling of ports, the method constituted of: receiving a message responsive to an access event, the message comprising an identifier of the accessing party and an indication of the access event; determining at least one power over Ethernet supplying port associated with the identifier of the accessing party; and enabling, in the event the indication of the access event is of entry, the determined at least one power over Ethernet supplying port associated with the identifier of the accessing party; and disabling, in the event the indication of the access event is of exit, the determined at least one power over Ethernet supplying port associated with the identifier of the accessing party. |
| US08099615B2 |
Method and system for power management in a virtual machine environment without disrupting network connectivity
A method for power management. The method includes gathering resource usage data for a first blade and a second blade on a blade chassis, migrating each virtual machine (VM) executing on the first blade to the second blade based on the resource usage data and a first migration policy, wherein the first migration policy defines when to condense the number of blades operating on the blade chassis, and powering down the first blade after each VM executing on the first blade is migrated from the first blade. |
| US08099614B2 |
Power management for buses in cmos circuits
The invention relates to a controlled shut-down of an electronic circuit or circuits such that the electrical power consumption of that circuit or circuits is minimized and that each said circuit is at a status which is a pre-determined state (42; 52) of that said circuit wherein all of its own control and messaging signals are taken to their zero level. The present invention claimed relates to the methodology of entering said circuit into this pre-determined state (42;52); where all said signal and messaging lines are taken to zero; thereby reducing power consumption within an electronic circuit when its status is defined as being shut-down or standby. |
| US08099612B2 |
Information processing apparatus
An information processing apparatus includes: a data processing unit configured to perform predetermined data processing; a power supply circuit having a first operation mode in which power is supplied to the data processing unit and a second operation mode in which no power is supplied to the data processing unit; and a mode switching control unit configured to, upon receiving a mode switching request from an apparatus on a network via a communication protocol of a communication protocol layer higher than the network access layer, instruct the power supply circuit to switch between the first operation mode and the second operation mode in response to the mode switching request. |
| US08099610B2 |
Removable device for injecting electric power for an ethernet network
A device for injecting electric power for an Ethernet network comprising at least one switch, one switching board, communication ports, and Ethernet cables, the device including a power supply, a power injecting circuit, a control circuit, and a module including a body bearing at least one Ethernet connector capable of being removably inserted in one of the network communication ports. |
| US08099608B2 |
Limited use data storing device
Embodiments of methods and systems for controlling access to information stored on memory or data storage devices are disclosed. In various embodiments, methods of retrieving information from a data storage device previously deactivated by modification or degradation of at least a portion of the data storage device are disclosed. |
| US08099607B2 |
Asymmetric crypto-graphy with rolling key security
A system for securing information, includes a processor and storage device. The storage device stores information encrypted with one of a first private rolling key and a first public rolling key of an a first asymmetric rolling crypto-key, along with the one first rolling key. The processor has the logic to direct transmission, via a network, of proof of knowledge of the stored one first rolling key to authenticate a user, and of a request for the other of the first private rolling key and the first public rolling key. The processor receives the other first rolling key via the network, responsive to the directed transmission. The processor then decrypts the stored encrypted information with the received other first rolling key, and generates a second asymmetric rolling crypto-key having a second private rolling key and a second public rolling key. The processor encrypts the information with one of the second private rolling key and the second public rolling key. The processor also directs transmission of the other of the second private rolling key and the second public rolling key via the network. The storage device stores the information encrypted with the one second rolling key and the one second rolling key itself. |
| US08099603B2 |
Secure ID checking
A cost-effective system that provides for the efficient protection of transmitted non-public attribute information may be used, for example, to control access to a secure area. Encryption of the attribute information may be performed using symmetric encryption techniques, such as XOR and/or stream cipher encryption. A centralized database that stores and transmits the encrypted attribute information may generate the encryption/decryption key based on selected information bytes, for example, as taken from a card inserted into a handheld device used at the secure area. The selected information to generate the encryption key stream may be varied on a periodic basis by the centralized database. Information as to which selected bytes are to be used for a particular access authorization request may be transmitted to the handheld unit or may be input through action of a user of the handheld unit, for example by entry of a PIN code. |
| US08099602B2 |
Methods for integrating security in network communications and systems thereof
A method, computer readable medium, and system for integrating security in network communications includes generating a private key and a public key by encrypting the private key with a first encryption. The generated private key and public key are provided in an initial response to an initial request over the secure connection. At least one additional received request is validated based on the public key and a requesting signature signed using the key received with the at least one additional request. An additional response with a responding signature signed using the private key is provided in response to the validated additional request. |
| US08099598B1 |
Secure messaging system with automatic recipient enrollment
A public-key based secure messaging system with automatic receiver enrollment is disclosed. A sender in the system first determines whether a receiver has a public key. If the receiver has a public key, the messages will be sent to the receiver using a standard public-key based encryption. If the receiver does not have a public key, the first message will be sent to the receiver using a delivery method that does not require the receiver to have a pair of public and private keys prior to sending the message. However, when the receiver accesses the first message, a pair of public and private keys will be automatically generated at the receiver and the public key will be made available for encrypting subsequent messages sent to the receiver. |
| US08099597B2 |
Service authorization for distributed authentication and authorization servers
A communications component comprising a processor configured to implement a method comprising acquiring an authentication identifier (Auth ID), and constructing a network service identifier (NSI) comprising the Auth ID and an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) realm. The disclosure includes a system comprising an authorization server in communication with a host, wherein the authorization server is configured to verify a previous authentication of the host using a NSI. Also disclosed is a method comprising receiving a NSI and a service request, wherein the NSI comprises an Auth ID, determining an authentication server associated with the Auth ID, verifying an authentication of a host using the Auth ID, and authorizing the host to receive a service associated with the service request. |
| US08099596B1 |
System and method for malware protection using virtualization
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for protecting applications deployed on a host computer from malware using virtualization. An exemplary malware protection system may include a kernel-level driver configured to intercept system calls addressed to an object of a protected application. The system also includes an analysis engine configured to determine if there are security rules associated with one or more of the intercepted system call, the object of the protected application, and the actions allowed on the object of the protected application. The security rules indicate whether the system call is allowed or not allowed to be executed on the host computer. If there is no security rule associated with the system call, the system call is executed in a secure execution environment of the host computer using a virtual copy of the object of the protected application. |
| US08099593B2 |
System and method for retrieving related certificates
A system and method for searching and retrieving certificates, which may be used in the processing of encoded messages. In one embodiment, a certificate synchronization application is programmed to perform certificate searches by querying one or more certificate servers for all certificate authority (CA) certificates and cross-certificates on the certificate servers. In another embodiment, all certificates related to an identified certificate are retrieved from the certificate servers automatically by the certificate synchronization application, where the related certificates comprise at least one of one or more CA certificates and one or more cross-certificates. Embodiments of the invention facilitate at least partial automation of the downloading and establishment of certificate chains, thereby minimizing the need for users to manually search for individual certificates. |
| US08099587B2 |
Compressing and accessing a microcode ROM
An arrangement is provided for compressing microcode ROM (“uROM”) in a processor and for efficiently accessing a compressed “uROM”. A clustering-based approach may be used to effectively compress a uROM. The approach groups similar columns of microcode into different clusters and identifies unique patterns within each cluster. Only unique patterns identified in each cluster are stored in a pattern storage. Indices, which help map an address of a microcode word (“uOP”) to be fetched from a uROM to unique patterns required for the uOP, may be stored in an index storage. Typically it takes a longer time to fetch a uOP from a compressed uROM than from an uncompressed uROM. The compressed uROM may be so designed that the process of fetching a uOP (or uOPs) from a compressed uROM may be fully-pipelined to reduce the access latency. |
| US08099586B2 |
Branch misprediction recovery mechanism for microprocessors
A system and method for reducing branch misprediction penalty. In response to detecting a mispredicted branch instruction, circuitry within a microprocessor identifies a predetermined condition prior to retirement of the branch instruction. Upon identifying this condition, the entire corresponding pipeline is flushed prior to retirement of the branch instruction, and instruction fetch is started at a corresponding address of an oldest instruction in the pipeline immediately prior to the flushing of the pipeline. The correct outcome is stored prior to the pipeline flush. In order to distinguish the mispredicted branch from other instructions, identification information may be stored alongside the correct outcome. One example of the predetermined condition being satisfied is in response to a timer reaching a predetermined threshold value, wherein the timer begins incrementing in response to the mispredicted branch detection and resets at retirement of the mispredicted branch. |
| US08099583B2 |
Method of and apparatus and architecture for real time signal processing by switch-controlled programmable processor configuring and flexible pipeline and parallel processing
A new signal processor technique and apparatus combining microprocessor technology with switch fabric telecommunication technology to achieve a programmable processor architecture wherein the processor and the connections among its functional blocks are configured by software for each specific application by communication through a switch fabric in a dynamic, parallel and flexible fashion to achieve a reconfigurable pipeline, wherein the length of the pipeline stages and the order of the stages varies from time to time and from application to application, admirably handling the explosion of varieties of diverse signal processing needs in single devices such as handsets, set-top boxes and the like with unprecedented performance, cost and power savings, and with full application flexibility. |
| US08099581B2 |
Synchronizing a translation lookaside buffer with an extended paging table
A processor including logic to execute an instruction to synchronize a mapping from a physical address of a guest of a virtualization based system (guest physical address) to a physical address of the host of the virtualization based system (host physical address), and stored in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB), with a corresponding mapping stored in an extended paging table (EPT) of the virtualization based system. |
| US08099580B2 |
Translation look-aside buffer with a tag memory and method therefor
A translation look-aside buffer (TLB) has a TAG memory for determining if a desired translated address is stored in the TLB. A TAG portion is compared to contents of the TAG memory without requiring a read of the TAG memory because the TAG memory has a storage portion that is constructed as a CAM. For each row of the CAM a match determination is made that indicates if the TAG portion is the same as contents of the particular row. A decoder decodes an index portion and provides an output for each row. On a per row basis the output of the decoder is logically combined with the hit/miss signals to determine if there is a hit for the TAG memory. If there is a hit for the TAG memory, a translated address corresponding to the index portion of the address is then output as the selected translated address. |
| US08099579B2 |
System and method for cache-locking mechanism using segment table attributes for replacement class ID determination
A system, method, and program product are provided that identifies a cache set using Segment LookAside Buffer attributes. When an effective address is requested, an attempt is made to load the received effective address from an L2 cache. When this attempt results in a cache miss, the system identifies a segment within the Segment LookAside Buffer that includes the effective address. A class identifier is retrieved from the identified segment within the Segment LookAside Buffer. This class identifier identifies a cache set selected from the cache for replacement. Data is then reloaded into the cache set of the cache by using the retrieved class identifier that corresponds to the effective address. |
| US08099576B1 |
Extension of write anywhere file system layout
An underlying physical volume of a storage system is an aggregate having a plurality of storage devices. The aggregate has its own physical volume block number (pvbn) space. A file system layout apportions the underlying physical volume into a plurality of virtual volumes of the storage system each having a virtual volume identification (vvid). Each virtual volume has its own virtual volume block number (vvbn) space. The block allocation structures of a virtual volume are sized to the virtual volume, and not to the underlying aggregate, to thereby allow operations that manage data served by the storage system (e.g., snapshot operations) to efficiently work over the virtual volumes. Each storage block in a virtual volume is identified by the triplet: pvbn, vvid, and vvbn. |
| US08099573B2 |
Data processing apparatus and method of processing data
Data processing apparatus comprising: a chunk store containing specimen data chunks, a manifest store containing at least one manifest that represents at least a part of a data set and that comprises at least one reference to at least one of said specimen data chunks, a sparse chunk index containing information on only those specimen data chunks having a predetermined characteristic, the processing apparatus being operable to process input data into input data chunks and to use the sparse chunk index to identify at least one of said at least one manifest that includes at least one reference to one of said specimen data chunks that corresponds to one of said input data chunks having the predetermined characteristic. |
| US08099570B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamic selective memory mirroring
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for dynamic selective memory mirroring in solid state devices. An amount of memory is reserved. Sections of the memory to select for mirroring in the reserved memory are dynamically determined. The selected sections of the memory contain critical areas. The selected sections of the memory are mirrored in the reserved memory. |
| US08099568B2 |
Separate swap files corresponding to different virtual machines in a host computer system
A swap space is provided for a host computer system, where the swap space includes a plurality of swap files with each individual swap file for swapping data only for a single corresponding virtual machine (VM). The per-VM swap space is used solely by the single, corresponding VM, such that only that particular VM's memory is allowed to be swapped out to the swap file. |
| US08099567B2 |
Reactive placement controller for interfacing with banked memory storage
An invention is provided for a reactive placement controller for interfacing with a banked memory storage. The reactive placement controller includes a read/write module, which is coupled to a command control module for a banked memory device. A command queue is included that comprises a plurality of queue entries coupled in series, with a top queue entry coupled to the read/write module. Each queue entry is capable of storing a memory command. Each queue entry includes its own queue control logic that functions to control storage of new memory commands into the command queue to reduce latency of commands in the command queue. |
| US08099566B2 |
Load/store ordering in a threaded out-of-order processor
Systems and methods for efficient load-store ordering. A processor comprises a store buffer that includes an array. The store buffer dynamically allocates any entry of the array for an out-of-order (o-o-o) issued store instruction independent of a corresponding thread. Circuitry within the store buffer determines a first set of entries of the array entries that have store instructions older in program order than a particular load instruction, wherein the store instructions have a same thread identifier and address as the load instruction. From the first set, the logic locates a single final match entry of the first set corresponding to the youngest store instruction of the first set, which may be used for read-after-write (RAW) hazard detection. |
| US08099560B2 |
Synchronization mechanism for use with a snoop queue
In a data processing system each bus master of a plurality of bus masters communicates information via a system interconnect. A cache is associated with a predetermined bus master of the plurality of bus masters for storing information used by the predetermined bus master. A snoop queue is associated with the predetermined bus master for storing a plurality of snoop requests and selectively storing for each snoop request an indicator of a synchronization request that indicates a synchronization operation is to be performed by completing any previously issued snoop requests prior to or concurrently with completion of the synchronization operation. In one form the indicator is a synchronization request indicator flag for each entry in the snoop queue that indicates whether each entry participates in the synchronization operation associated with the synchronization request. |
| US08099556B2 |
Cache miss detection in a data processing apparatus
A data processing apparatus and method are provided for detecting cache misses. The data processing apparatus has processing logic for executing a plurality of program threads, and a cache for storing data values for access by the processing logic. When access to a data value is required while executing a first program thread, the processing logic issues an access request specifying an address in memory associated with that data value, and the cache is responsive to the address to perform a lookup procedure to determine whether the data value is stored in the cache. Indication logic is provided which in response to an address portion of the address provides an indication as to whether the data value is stored in the cache, this indication being produced before a result of the lookup procedure is available, and the indication logic only issuing an indication that the data value is not stored in the cache if that indication is guaranteed to be correct. Control logic is then provided which, if the indication indicates that the data value is not stored in the cache, uses that indication to control a process having an effect on a program thread other than the first program thread. |
| US08099552B2 |
Combining resources of multiple BIOS ROMS and managing them as a single entity
A method and related computer program product for combining resources of multiple RAID controllers and managing them as a single entity, comprising searching the RAID controllers for the most appropriate version of the firmware to be executed, determining whether a more appropriate version of the firmware was previously loaded into system memory, unloading inappropriate versions of the firmware, loading the most appropriate version of the firmware and initializing all RAID controllers as a commonly managed entity having combined resources. |
| US08099546B2 |
Mechanism for a lockless ring buffer in overwrite mode
In one embodiment, a mechanism for a lockless ring buffer in overwrite mode is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for implementing a lockless ring buffer in overwrite mode includes aligning memory addresses for each page of a ring buffer to form maskable bits in the address to be used as a state flag for the page and utilizing at least a two least significant bits of each of the addresses to represent the state flag associated with the page represented by the address, wherein the state flag indicates one of three states including a header state, an update state, and a normal state. The method further includes combining a movement of a head page pointer to a head page of the ring buffer with a swapping of the head page and a reader page, the combining comprising updating the state flag of the head page pointer to the normal state and updating the state flag of a pointer to the page after the head page to the header state, and moving the head page and a tail page of the ring buffer, the moving comprising updating the state flags of one or more pointers in the ring buffer associated with the head page and the tail page. |
| US08099540B2 |
Reconfigurable circuit
A reconfigurable circuit includes a network circuit for controlling connections between the output terminal and the input terminal of an arithmetic unit group, and a first selector connected between the arithmetic unit group and the network circuit. When a first control signal is in a first state, the first selector connects a first terminal of the arithmetic unit group to a first terminal of the network circuit, and also connects a second terminal of the arithmetic unit group to a second terminal of the network circuit. Meanwhile, when the first control signal is in a second state, the first selector connects the first terminal of the arithmetic unit group to the second terminal of the network circuit, and also connects the second terminal of the arithmetic unit group to the first terminal of the network circuit. |
| US08099539B2 |
Method and system of a shared bus architecture
A method, system and apparatus of shared bus architecture are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method controlling set of multiplexers using an arbiter circuit per transaction, selecting one of a memory clock and a host clock based on an arbitration status, driving a final output on an interface to provide glitchless switching of an interface signal, connecting the interface signal to a tri-state buffer, and setting the direction of a data and address bus based on the connection of the interface signal to the tri-state buffer. The method may include applying a fair arbitration policy to ensure that none of the devices coupled to the interface signal and application threads running on processor requiring data from different devices are starved. |
| US08099535B2 |
Method for converting a KVM system
A method for converting a KVM system comprising the steps of: (1) initializing a mouse device, at least two computer hosts, a keyboard, and at least two corresponding displaying device; (2) selecting which computer host and a corresponding displaying device are needed to be operated, then switching to the selected computer host and the corresponding displaying device by controlling a switch disposed on the mouse into a particular direction; (3) operating the selected computer host and the corresponding displaying device; (4) finishing the operation; (5) judging whether one of the computer hosts and another corresponding displaying device is needed to be operated, if yes, going to step (2), if no, going to next step; and (6) end. |
| US08099534B1 |
Implementation of logical endpoints in USB device
A method includes receiving an endpoint address and corresponding endpoint data, the endpoint address identifying a logical endpoint associated with the endpoint data, storing the endpoint data to at least one of a plurality of memory buffers corresponding to the identified logical endpoint, and transmitting the endpoint data to a destination according to the endpoint address. A peripheral device includes a logical-to-physical memory map to store an endpoint address and corresponding endpoint data received from a first device, the endpoint address to identify at least one data stream capable of transferring the endpoint data to a second device, and a service unit to retrieve the endpoint address and corresponding endpoint data from the logical-to-physical memory map, and to transfer the endpoint data to the second device in the data stream identified by the endpoint address. |
| US08099533B2 |
Controller and a method for controlling the communication between a processor and external peripheral device
The present invention relates to a data processing system based on a multithreaded operating system. The data processing system comprises at least one processor (PROC) for processing data based on multiple threads, at least one controller unit (CU) for controlling the communication between said at least one processor (PROC) and an external peripheral device (PD) connected to said at least one controller unit (CU). Said at least one controller unit (CU) comprises at least one buffer memory (BM) for buffering data from said peripheral device (PD) connected to said at least one controller unit (CU), and at least one memory managing unit (MMU) for managing the access to said at least one buffer memory (BM) by mapping said at least one buffer memory (BM) into N banks (C0-C3) each with a dedicated prefetch register (Addr.0-Addr.3). At least one of said multiple threads (T0-T3) is mapped to one of said N banks (C0-C3) and its dedicated prefetch register (Addr.0-Addr.3). |
| US08099525B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling access to logical units
A method and apparatus are provided for controlling access to logical units, a logical unit being an addressable entity that accept commands. A plurality of logical units are accessible by one or more ports, a port being an addressable entity that sends commands. A communication means which may be a storage area network (SAN) (102, 202) provides access to the plurality of logical units by the one or more ports. One or more ports that require access to the same logical units are grouped in a named set (301, 302, 303) in a first location. The named set (301, 302, 303) is associated (300) in a subsequent location with selected logical units (304) thereby controlling the access to the logical units. Identification information for the ports in a named set is extracted at the subsequent location by referencing the named set. The sets can be physically defined, for example, by switch zoning, or logically defined by logically grouping port names. |
| US08099524B2 |
Automated method to configure a data storage system
An automated, computer-implemented method to configure a data storage system comprising a host computer, a storage controller in communication with said host computer, and a plurality of data storage media in communication with said storage controller, wherein the method provides a configuration algorithm encoded as computer readable program code, and executes that computer readable program code. The configuration algorithm creates a command procedure comprising a plurality of physical configuration commands to establish a physical configuration for the data storage system. The configuration algorithm further creates a command procedure comprising a plurality of logical configuration commands to establish a logical configuration for the data storage system. |
| US08099515B2 |
Context switched route look up key engine
A key engine that performs route lookups for a plurality of keys may include a data processing portion configured to process one data item at a time and to request data when needed. A buffer may be configured to store a partial result from the data processing portion. A controller may be configured to load the partial result from the data processing portion into the buffer. The controller also may be configured to input another data item into the data processing portion for processing while requested data is obtained for a prior data item. A number of these key engines may be used by a routing unit to perform a large number of route lookups at the same time. |
| US08099511B1 |
Instantaneous media-on-demand
Various techniques for providing instantaneous media services are disclosed. Some of the techniques provide an instantaneous media-on-demand system, process and method for the same. Such a system offers a dynamic library with a significant number of titles from which a user may select and offers play back a desired title fairly instantly. To facilitate instant playback, a file pertaining to a title is fragmented into a header and segments. The header is seeded in all boxes in service and none, one or more segments are distributed to the network of boxes. When the title is ordered, the header is instantly played back while the segments, if not locally available, are streamed in respectively from the boxes having the segments to enable continuous playback of the ordered title. |
| US08099508B2 |
Method of using tokens and policy descriptors for dynamic on demand session management
Tokens and policy descriptors are used for dynamic on demand session management in a distributed and scalable architecture for on demand sessions and resource management. The architecture includes an on demand client, a purchase server, and a session manager. A purchase token is generated at the purchase server and assigned to the on demand client. The purchase token represents at least one requested asset. In response to an on demand session set-up request corresponding to the purchase token from the on demand client to the session manager, the purchase token is expanded to generate at least one dynamic policy management descriptor for the on demand session. This provides token-based purchase authorization and policy management for on demand services. |
| US08099507B2 |
Management system, management method and management program
A management system including a management apparatus and a managed apparatus connected with each other by a communications network, the system having a registration controller, wherein in an initial registration phase where the managed apparatus sends a registration request notice to the management apparatus, and the management apparatus returns a registration permission notice to the managed apparatus; in cases where a first communications method is utilized that enables immediate mutual communication, the registration controller determines that a final registration has completed when the managed apparatus has received the registration permission notice; and in cases where a second communications method via a server is utilized, the registration controller determines that a temporary registration has completed when connection between the managed apparatus and the server has been established, and when the managed apparatus has acquired the registration permission notice, the registration controller determines that the final registration has completed. |
| US08099505B2 |
Aggregating connection maintenance to optimize resource consumption
Combining network connection maintenance operations that use a resource to extend battery life. Each of the network connections has a timer and a defined tolerance for early connection maintenance. After receiving notification of an event, the network connections are accessed to identify the connections for which a maintenance operation may be performed early based on the timer and the tolerance. In an embodiment, the maintenance operation includes sending a transmission control protocol (TCP) keep-alive packet on the connection. |
| US08099502B2 |
System and method for dynamic uploading and execution of applications and drivers between devices
A methodology for dynamic (i.e., run-time) uploading and execution of applications and drivers between devices (e.g., between “client” device and one or more (host) devices), in a fully automated manner, is described. The device which is to be hosted (e.g., the “client” device) initially probes its environment to determine which device or devices it is attached to (e.g., the “host” device(s)). Once it has correctly discerned the relevant host or target device(s), the client device includes the capability of immediately sending out (i.e., uploading) a particular driver or application (i.e., object or file of interest) for placement, and ultimately execution, at the host device. Once the particular object or file of interest has been “injected” into the host device and is executing, the client device may simply revert to a “listening mode” in which it waits to be told what to do (i.e., receive commands from the application or driver which is now executing at the host device). This approach is particularly well-suited for devices which serve as “add-on” devices (clients) to other devices (hosts) that are “smarter,” for instance, including more processing capability and/or memory. In this scenario, the client device enters into a dialog with a device with more resources for the purpose of harnessing the resources of the host device for operating the client or add-on device. The client device is, using this approach, able to start running (i.e., driver-directed operation) immediately upon attachment to a host device that can be identified. |
| US08099498B2 |
Probabilistic mesh routing
Routing messages using unreliable routing data. A method includes receiving a message from a computer readable communication medium. Characteristic properties of the message are calculated so as to determine state requirements for a service instance at a service for processing of the message. An attempt is made to acquire an appropriate service instance that satisfies the state requirements for processing the message. A determination is made that attempting to acquire an appropriate service instance that satisfies the state requirements for processing the message is not successful at acquiring an appropriate service instance. As a result, the message is redirected using an unreliable local cache of routing information and without coordination between processing nodes. |
| US08099488B2 |
Real-time monitoring of service agreements
A telecommunications network management system is disclosed that continuously monitors compliance with a service level agreement. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a data collector, a performance data manager, and a service level objective monitor. The data collector receives service information from one or more sources in a telecommunications network, and converts the service information into values of primary parameters in a service model. The performance data manager receives the primary parameter values from the data collector, and calculates values of secondary parameters in the service model from the primary parameter values. The parameter values are stored in a performance database. The service level objective (SLO) monitor verifies that parameter values satisfy parameter objectives, and initiates a specified action for that parameter objective if a violation is detected. |
| US08099486B2 |
Communication system
A client terminal is capable of communicating with an address server. The client terminal includes a displaying unit, a language determining unit, a language information transmitting unit, a service information acquiring unit, and a display controlling unit. The displaying unit displays a page. The language determining unit determines a language to be used for displaying the page on the displaying unit. The language information transmitting unit transmits language information to the address server. The language information indicates the language determined by the language determining unit. The service information acquiring unit acquires service information from a data server based on address information transmitted from the address server. The display controlling unit controls the displaying unit to display, by using the language determined by the language determining unit, the page including the service information acquired by the service information acquiring unit. |
| US08099482B2 |
Prioritized content download for an entertainment device
Priority-based content retrieval mechanisms for digital entertainment devices are provided. In various embodiments, the download prioritizations may be interrupt-based, sequence-based, or a combination of the two. In interrupt-based prioritizations, a higher priority download request will interrupt a lower-priority download that is already in progress. In sequence-based prioritizations, a plurality of file download requests may be ordered in a download queue depending on the priority of the request, with higher priority requests being positioned towards the top of the queue and lower priority requests being positioned towards the bottom of the queue. |
| US08099479B2 |
Distributed mesh network
A device, method, and system are disclosed. In one embodiment a computing device resides in a mesh network. The device includes a first storage device that operates when the computing device is awake. The first storage device stores a last known list of peer computing devices in the mesh network. The device also includes a a second storage device that operates regardless of whether any central processing unit in the computing device is awake or asleep. The second storage device includes a local block that stores a list of resources provided by the first computing device and a list of computing devices in the mesh network verified by the first computing device. The second storage device also includes a remote block that stores an unverified remote list of computing devices in the mesh network. |
| US08099474B2 |
Hardware-accelerated high availability integrated networked storage system
Disclosed is a system and methods for acceleration of the TCP/IP and the iSCSI protocols. The methods may be adapted to a wide variety of systems and applications that employ communications protocols including TCP, with or without iSCSI. Using a hardware-based acceleration approach, common case network traffic is rapidly processed at near line rate thereby improving overall performance and alleviating processing bottlenecks. |
| US08099473B2 |
Variant streams for real-time or near real-time streaming
Methods and apparatuses for real-time or near real-time streaming of content using transfer protocols such as an HTTP compliant protocol. In one embodiment, a method includes dividing a stream of data, representing the contiguous time based content of a program (e.g. a live video broadcast), into a plurality of distinct media files, and generating a playlist file having a plurality of tags and Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an order of presentation of the plurality of distinct media files. The plurality of media files and the playlist file can be made available for transmission to a client device which can retrieve the media files using the playlist file. |
| US08099472B2 |
System and method for a mobile cross-platform software system
The present invention is a system and method for creating, developing and testing cross-platform software for mobile communications devices. The invention enables mobile device software that must be highly-integrated with the operating system on which it runs to be implemented in a cross-platform manner. Security software for mobile devices is a prime beneficiary of the present invention, as a substantial proportion of its functionality is identical between different platforms yet integrated very specifically into each platform it supports. The cross-platform system includes a core platform-independent component, a platform-specific component, and an abstraction layer component, each of which may communicate with each other using a common defined API. The present invention enables the platform-independent component to be completely re-used between platforms and allows the platform-specific and abstraction components to contain minimal amounts of code on each platform. |
| US08099471B2 |
Method and system for communicating between memory regions
A method and system are provided for transferring data in a networked system between a local memory in a local system and a remote memory in a remote system. A RDMA request is received and a first buffer region is associated with a first transfer operation. The system determines whether a size of the first buffer region exceeds a maximum transfer size of the networked system. Portions of the second buffer region may be associated with the first transfer operation based on the determination of the size of the first buffer region. The system subsequently performs the first transfer operation. |
| US08099470B2 |
Remote direct memory access for iSCSI
A storage networking device provides remote direct memory access to its buffer memory, configured to store storage networking data. The storage networking device may be particularly adapted to transmit and receive iSCSI data, such as iSCSI input/output operations. The storage networking device comprises a controller and a buffer memory. The controller manages the receipt of storage networking data and buffer locational data. The storage networking data advantageously includes at least one command for at least partially controlling a device attached to a storage network. Advantageously, the storage networking data may be transmitted using a protocol adapted for the transmission of storage networking data, such as, for example, the iSCSI protocol. The buffer memory advantageously is configured to at least temporarily store at least part of the storage networking data at a location within the buffer memory that is based at least in part on the locational data. |
| US08099466B2 |
System and method for vote-based, interest specific collaboration regarding location of objects
Systems, devices, and methods of generating location information for an object of interest are disclosed. The location information is based on dynamic input from one or more members of an interest group associated with the object. The input from the one or more members can be provided by users of a collaboration device. The collaboration device includes a GPS receiver, and a target input mechanism in communication with the GPS receiver. The target input mechanism is configured to receive a user indication of the presence of an object of interest to generate location data from the GPS receiver for the object of interest. The collaboration device further includes a radio configured for transmitting the location data to at least one other member of the interest group. |
| US08099461B2 |
Conference system and its multimedia data storage method
According to one embodiment, a conference system which is provided with a plurality of communication terminals, a communication network connecting the plurality of communication terminals thereto and forming a communication environment, and a server apparatus actualizing a conference among users by using the communication network, wherein each of the communication terminals includes a notice processor notifying an acquisition request including the fact of a request to acquire multimedia data and identification information to the server apparatus, and a storage unit storing the multimedia data, and the server apparatus includes a memory unit associating a communication terminal that is a request origin with the identification information, and storing them, an inquiry processor inquiring a possibility to become the route of the multimedia data, and a transmission processor transmitting the multimedia data to the communication terminal of the request origin via the communication terminal of the route. |
| US08099460B2 |
Information processing device and method, recording medium, and program
An information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a recording medium, and a program for allowing communicating parties at remote locations to view the same displayed content and to point to desired positions on the displayed image of the content. A user A and a user B viewing themselves and the content on a cross-faded mode may point to desired positions on the content image with their fingertips. Motion vectors of the fingertips are then detected in particular areas extracted from the image in a manner containing the detected positions. The detected motion vectors are translated into a pointer for the user A and a pointer for the user B, the pointers being alpha-blended with the content image. The two pointers extracted from a single image are associated with the users A and B by use of different Cyber Codes (2D code) attached to the fingertips of each user, for example. This invention applies illustratively to communication apparatuses for permitting communication between remote locations. |
| US08099458B2 |
Workgroup application with contextual clues
A workgroup application with contextual clues. The workgroup application allows any one of multiple participants to provide input, such as commands to edit a document or speech. The effects of the input are presented to other participants in a workgroup session in conjunction with a participant indicator. As one example, each participant may control a cursor that is displayed on the display screens of workstations in a network hosting a workgroup application. Each cursor may be displayed in conjunction with a participant icon that follows the cursor on the display screens. Contextual clues may also be provided by modulating visual properties of the participant icons in response to activity level. |
| US08099457B2 |
Method and apparatus for dynamic data flow control using prioritization of data requests
A data center (14) receives a request (22) for content from a browser (12) on a client (11). The data center determines whether the requested content is available at the data center. The content is available when the content is both present at the data center and current. The content may be expired and marked as non-available in response to an expiration command (24). When the requested content is available at the data center, the data center returns the requested content to the data center. When the requested content is locally unavailable at the data center, the requested content is retrieved from an origin server (18). The retrieval of the content from the origin server may be delayed based on the processing load at the origin server. When retrieval of the content is delayed, the request is prioritized and placed in a queue for handling by the origin server based on the priority of the request. Also, when retrieval of the content is delayed, a status page may be communicated to the browser to inform a user of the delay and provide alternate content (139) and status information related to the request determined as a function of the request or the current state of the origin server. |
| US08099455B2 |
Notifying remote devices of available content
Methods of operating a portable electronic device including a display screen, a user interface, a controller, a memory and a transceiver are provided. The methods include executing a resource on the controller, and receiving a snapshot command through the user interface. In response to the snapshot command, a network address of a remote server from which the resource was downloaded is obtained, an audiovisual signal representative of the resource is generated, and the audiovisual signal and the network address are stored in a file. The file can be forwarded using the transceiver to a remote terminal, which can access the resource from the network address. |
| US08099454B2 |
Staging a file within a distributed computing system
Methods, apparatus, and products for staging a file within a distributed computing system are disclosed that include defining a topology of the network; mapping each computer to a network location in the topology of the network; selecting, in dependence upon the topology of the network and the network locations of the computers in the network, one or more servers on which to stage the file for use by clients in the network; and staging the file on the one or more selected servers. The distributed computing system includes a plurality of computers coupled for data communications through a data communications network, the distributed computing system also includes files of computer data and computer program instructions for use by the computers, the computers include clients that use the files and servers capable of functioning as staging locations for files for use by the computers in the network. |
| US08099449B1 |
Method of and circuit for generating a random number using a multiplier oscillation
A method of generating a random number using a multiplier oscillation, the method comprising providing a multiplier circuit coupled to receive a first digital input and a second digital input, wherein the first digital input and the second digital input are asynchronous signals and the first digital input comprises a feedback signal based upon an output of the multiplier circuit; allowing the multiplier to enter a state of feedback oscillation; and generating a random number based upon the output of the multiplier circuit. The method may further comprise providing a plurality of adders receiving feedback signals. |
| US08099447B2 |
Negative two's complement processor for windowing in harmonic analysis
The present invention provides a solution to the shortcomings of the traditional two's complement system that is commonly utilized in modern computing systems and digital signal processors for calculating harmonic analysis using a discrete time-frequency transform. In the negative two's complement processor a n-bit number, A, has a sign bit, an−1, and n−1 fractional bits, an−2, an−3, . . . , a0. The value of an n-bit fractional negative two's complement number is: A = a n - 1 + ∑ i = 0 n - 2 - a i 2 i - n + 1 . |
| US08099444B2 |
Rules engine for mailpiece content modification
A method for introducing instructions/commands within or acting on the content material of a mail run data file. The method comprises the steps producing an object-oriented data file of the mailpiece content material and displaying a visual image thereof to the user. The visual image displayed spatially corresponds to the object oriented data file. Through the use of a graphical user input device, such as a point-and-click input device, the user defines a region of the visual image. Further, the user creates or selects a rule or expression indicative of a desired instruction/command in connection with the defined region. The rule or expression is represented in computer program code and operates a signal processor to perform the selected instructions/commands. |
| US08099441B2 |
System and method for configurable trading system
A system dynamically integrates into an application program that implements rules for controlling business operations changes in the parameters and parameter groupings that are used by or in conjunction with the rules. The system includes a dynamic business logic rule integrator that provides business logic rules to the application software as executable routines, and a dynamic parameter manager that organizes and manages the parameters. The manager integrates changes to the parameters, groups and/or links the parameters, and makes the parameters available to the rules through a dynamically configurable system database—using a set of static database tables and related dynamically configurable database tables, in which certain database fields or sub-fields correspond to parameters that are used in the rules. The respective database tables and the various fields and sub-fields are established and linked together in accordance with user-defined categories and sub-categories, or “instances.” When parameters are added, edited, grouped, re-grouped, or deleted, the dynamic parameter manager updates, creates and/or removes database tables. The revised set of tables is then made available to the rules, and rules utilize the information in the various fields and sub-fields of the tables to control appropriate trading and associated reporting activities. |
| US08099439B2 |
System and method for generating a unified service model
In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present disclosure, configuration items are received. The configuration items include configuration data for at least one service. Key indicators are received. The key indicators include metrics for the performance of the service. At least one association is identified between the configuration items and the key indicators. A unified service model is generated based on the association. The unified service model includes at least a graphical representation of the service and service requirements. |
| US08099434B2 |
Presenting sponsored content on a mobile communication facility
A computer-implemented method for positioning targeted sponsored content on a cellular phone includes the steps of (a) assessing a likelihood of an interaction by a user of the cellular phone with a sponsored content to be presented to the cellular phone, wherein the assessment is based on a prior interaction by the user of the cellular phone with content related to the sponsored content and/or a plurality of user characteristics associated with the cellular phone; and (b) prioritizing the placement of the sponsored content within one of a plurality of predefined areas of a graphical user interface of the cellular phone over the placement of other sponsored content within the same area, wherein the prioritization is based on the assessment of the likelihood of the interaction of the user of the cellular phone with the sponsored content. |
| US08099431B2 |
Services for data access based on a data ownership directory in distributed system landscapes
A directory includes information about various systems (e.g., applications, processes, tasks, objects, services) and data, and may include data ownership information. The directory may define existing systems, corresponding locations by address, and corresponding semantic names. The directory may also specify the role of each system, e.g., a consumer or provider role. The directory may also define a scope of data a provider system can provide. As such, the directory may also include information about whether and how such data is being replicated. When a user requests data, a service may, based on the directory, determine and select an appropriate provider system for the data. The service may further create a subscription process to provide the user a local cache of the requested data. With such directory information, a service can provide data access services that integrate subscription processes. |
| US08099430B2 |
Computer method and apparatus of information management and navigation
Computer method and apparatus manages and navigates computer implemented information. A first source information and second source information are related as parent-child information. Keywords are extracted from the first and second source information and are used to relate second source information to the first source information. This produces dynamic sets or groupings of second source information related by keywords. Display of a listing of the keywords enables user navigation of the information especially according to the groupings of second source information. |
| US08099429B2 |
Relational linking among resoures
Systems and methods that integrate user assigned association among a plurality of resources or entities. The subject innovation employs an association component that relates such resources or entities, based on aggregate of user notions that are assigned for relationships; and/or based on how users perceive existence of relationships among such resources. Accordingly, resources can be related (e.g., linked, matched, tagged and the like) based on relevance of collective user behavior during tagging. |
| US08099428B2 |
Managing copies of data
A method in a computer system for retrieving data from one of multiple copies of the data is provided, referred to as the data management system. The data management system receives a request identifying at least one data object to be accessed. Then, the data management system queries a metabase to locate data copies that contain the identified at least one data object, wherein the data copies are created from similar source data, and wherein for each data copy the metabase contains an indication of the availability of the copy relative to other copies. Next, the data management system determines one of the located data copies to use to access the identified at least one data object, wherein the determination is made based on the indicated availability contained in the metabase for each of the located data copies. Then, the data management system accesses the identified at least one data object using the determined one of the located data copies. |
| US08099423B2 |
Hierarchical metadata generator for retrieval systems
A computer-implemented method of locating information in a database of electronic documents includes defining fragments of the documents, associating the fragments with the document from which the fragments originated, and associating metadata with the fragments, where the metadata associated with a fragment includes metadata related to one or more topics of the fragment. A query for one or more documents containing information about a topic is received, and a document is located from the database based on a comparison of the query with the metadata associated with a fragment of the document. |
| US08099421B2 |
File system, and method for storing and searching for file by the same
A file system and a method for file storage and file search by the same are provided. All files have unique names in a block-based storage device, such as a hard disk, a flash memory, etc., so that each file is mapped and stored in a one-dimensional storage area. Each file name is matched with a memory block storing data of the corresponding file so that a memory block corresponding to a file name can be found when the file name is input. In addition, through information stored in the found memory block, the data corresponding to the file name can be read from the memory block storing the data or can be stored in a specific memory block. |
| US08099419B2 |
Inferring rules to classify objects in a file management system
Described are methods and systems related to inferring rules to classify an object to one of one or more target folders. One or more properties of the object to be classified are determined. A first degree of affinity between the object to be classified and the objects of the target folders, having a property identical to the object to be classified, is computed. A second degree of affinity between the object to be classified and the objects within each target folder, having a property identical to the object to be classified, is computed. A total degree of affinity between the object to be classified and each target folder is calculated. A normalized total degree of affinity is calculated by averaging the total degree of affinity across all target folders. The object is moved to a target folder having a highest value of the normalized total degree of affinity. |
| US08099414B2 |
Facility information output device, facility information output method, and computer-readable medium storing facility information output program
Facility information for a destination facility and facility information for a neighboring facility of the destination facility are accepted as search conditions. The destination facility that neighbors the neighboring facility is identified by using a database that defines a neighboring relationship between the facilities. The facility information for the identified destination facility is outputted. |
| US08099412B2 |
Query statistics provider
A system to provide search query information. The system receives a request for search query information, identifies a set of search queries from a search query log that includes search queries submitted to a search service over a predetermined length of time, and provides the set of search queries. Each of the set of search queries is associated with at least a predetermined number of unique identifiers. Each of the set of search queries is matched to the request for search query information by a combination of exact matches, expanded matches, and broad matches. |
| US08099411B2 |
System, method, and computer-readable medium for applying conditional resource throttles to facilitate workload management in a database system
A system, method, and computer-readable medium that facilitate workload management in a computer system are provided. A workload's system resource consumption is adjusted against a target consumption level thereby facilitating maintenance of the consumption to the target consumption within an averaging interval by dynamically controlling workload concurrency levels. System resource consumption is compensated during periods of over or under-consumption by adjusting workload consumption to a larger averaging interval. Further, mechanisms for limiting, or banding, dynamic concurrency adjustments to disallow workload starvation or unconstrained usage at any time are provided. Disclosed mechanisms provide for category of work prioritization goals and subject-area resource division management goals, allow for unclaimed resources due to a lack of demand from one workload to be used by active workloads to yield full system utilization at all times, and provide for monitoring success in light of the potential relative effects of workload under-demand, and under/over-consumption management. |
| US08099410B2 |
Optimizing execution of database queries containing user-defined functions
A query engine (or optimizer) which supports database queries having user-defined functions maintains historical execution data with respect to each of multiple user-defined functions. The historical execution data is dynamically updated based on query execution performance. When executing a query having user-defined functions, the query engine uses the historical execution data to predict an optimal evaluation ordering for the query conditions and, preferably, to dynamically adjust the evaluation order when appropriate. Preferably, the historical execution data includes historical execution time of the user-defined function and proportion of evaluated records which satisfied the query parameters. |
| US08099406B2 |
Method for human editing of information in search results
A search engine may perform a search for a user search query. Result items may be returned as a result of the search. The user may enter new human edited information for some of the result items. The new human edited information may be displayed when other users search and view some of the result items at a later time. |
| US08099404B2 |
Method for testing browser-adapting server applications
A method for testing a browser-adapting server application includes collecting and recording, using another server application, key information of a number of browser types and/or versions. The information adaptation method of the browser-adapting server application is tested using the key information. |
| US08099399B2 |
Determining whether change in workload of database system has occurred, and/or whether executing current workload will likely result in problem developing with database system
Whether a change in workload of a database system has occurred can be determined. Investigative queries are formulated. Each investigative query is adapted to test a different resource or a different combination of resources of the database system. The investigative queries are run when the database system is in an unloaded state to acquire unloaded performance metrics. The investigative queries are run when the database system is in a loaded state to acquire loaded performance metrics. Whether executing a current workload of the database system, using a current configuration of the database system, will likely result in a problem developing at a later point in time can also be determined. Simultaneously with actual execution of the current workload on the database system using the current configuration, a simulation of execution of the current workload using the current configuration is performed. The simulation is performed more quickly than the actual execution. |
| US08099397B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for improved portable document format (“PDF”) document archiving
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for improved Portable Document Format (“PDF”) document archiving. The method includes scanning a source PDF document for a shared resource. The source PDF document includes a plurality of records. The shared resource includes a common resource referenced by way of a resource pointer associated with a record of the source PDF document. The method includes copying the shared resource to a resource group associated with the source PDF document. The method also includes short-circuiting a link between content for the shared resource and the resource pointer in each record that points to the shared resource. The method includes extracting a record from the source PDF document. The extracted record is void of content for the shared resource in response to the short-circuited link. Thus, records may be stored in a standalone format without excessive storage space requirements. |
| US08099396B1 |
System and method for enhancing log performance
A system and method enhances performance of a log adapted for use with a storage system. The log is illustratively organized into a plurality of regions, wherein each region comprises one or more entries and wherein each region is allocated to a consistency collection. As used herein, a consistency collection is defined as a set of one or more data containers among which it is desired to maintain transaction consistency, i.e., atomicity of updates of a transaction to those containers. Each entry of the region is adapted to store an update of data from a source, e.g., an application executing on the storage system. Thus, the consistency collection may comprise multiple data containers associated with one or more applications configured to maintain the atomicity of transaction updates to the collection of containers. |
| US08099395B2 |
System level identity object
A method, system, and computer accessible medium for maintaining and sharing identity information for identities. Multiple types of identity information, including communication-related information, for multiple identities may be aggregated, stored in, and accessed through, a corresponding shared identity objects. Aggregated identity information for an identity may be stored in a corresponding shared identity object. Aggregated identity information may be accessed by applications through shared identity objects. Communication-related information may include indications of communication mechanisms. Communication with an identity may be initiated through a corresponding shared identity object using the communication mechanisms. The communication related information may also include an indication of the reach-ability of the identity through each of the communication mechanisms and may be requested and received form remote system associated with the identity. |
| US08099391B1 |
Incremental and differential backups of virtual machine files
Various embodiments of a system and method for backing up files used by a virtual machine are described herein. The files may be stored within a virtual disk image file. A full backup of the virtual disk image file may first be created. After creating the full backup, one or more incremental or differential backups of the virtual disk image file may be created. In some embodiments, fingerprints of the sectors of the virtual disk image file may be stored and used to identify which sectors should be included in the incremental or differential backups. |
| US08099386B2 |
Method and apparatus for synchronizing databases connected by wireless interface
A method for synchronizing a database at a portable electronic device with a backup database including backup data records includes receiving information representative of data records of the database at the portable electronic device, determining if the database at the portable electronic device is to be updated with the backup data records, and if the database at the portable electronic device is to be updated, transmitting representative viewable or audible samples of ones of the backup data records. |
| US08099384B2 |
Operation procedure extrapolating system, operation procedure extrapolating method, computer-readable medium and computer data signal
An operation procedure extrapolating system includes a history recording unit, a sort unit and an extrapolating unit. The history recording unit records history records of processes that at least one image processing apparatus is instructed to perform in a series of operation procedures. Each history record includes operator information, time information, content information and an object image. The sort unit sorts the history records into sets defined for individual operations, based on a comparison among the object images of the recorded history records. The extrapolating unit extrapolates operation procedures in at least one of the individual operations, based on the content information of the history records included in the set defined for the at least one of the individual operations and a sequence of the operator information of the history records included in the set defined for the at least one of the individual operations. |
| US08099383B2 |
Apparatus and method for defining report parts
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to define a report part with a report part element and a report part identifier. A report part computation context including a report identifier, a report part element identifier and a context data path is identified. The report part is associated with the report part computation context. The report part is evaluated according to the report part computation context. A report part value is returned. |
| US08099382B2 |
Method and system for mapping multi-dimensional model to data warehouse schema
A system maps a multidimensional model to data warehouse schema. The system includes a multidimensional model editor for defining a multidimensional model based on a conceptual model; a mapping reasoner for generating more simple mappings from basic mappings by reasoning on the conceptual model so as to provide mappings for concerning elements in an ontology path in the multidimensional model; a data warehouse schema analyzer for generating a data structure capable of indicating information of the data warehouse schema by making an analysis on the information of the data warehouse schema; and a mapping composition engine for generating result mappings according to mappings for the concerning elements of the ontology path in the multidimensional model and by searching in the data structure paths corresponding to the concerning elements of the ontology path in the multidimensional model. A method and computer program product are also disclosed. |
| US08099375B2 |
Non-classical suspension of a logic gate
The computer implemented life form (CILF) is a belief program which excludes all three of the classical logic paradigms, it can then (at least for discussion purposes) be considered derived from a form of “non-classical” logic. Certainly, even the mere idea that reality itself could possibly be nothing more than a simulation, could easily be considered a new (neo-classical) and useful form of non-classical thought. The programming methods used by the CILF are non-computational, meaning they will not generate any independent fact or data. Instead, the CILF programming method will merely check data to form a state of belief or doubt upon the input data from which a new and improved data store can be more correctly and effectively established. |
| US08099374B2 |
Behavior estimating system
A behavior estimating system is provided. According to the system, an estimated trajectory which provides the basis on which the behavior of an agent is controlled is generated according to a second model which represents a motion of an instructor in which the position and the displacing velocity of the position of a state variable and the time differential values thereof continuously change, in addition to the position of a characteristic point of a reference trajectory which represents a motion of the instructor and a plurality of first models which represent a plurality of shape characteristics of reference trajectories. A behavior manner corresponding to a first model whose fluctuation, which is allowed under a condition that an estimated trajectory passes a characteristic state variable or a range in the vicinity thereof, is the smallest and whose stability is the highest is estimated as the behavior manner of the instructor. |
| US08099373B2 |
Object detector trained using a working set of training data
An object detector that includes a number of weak classifiers can be trained using a subset (a “working set”) of training data instead of all of the training data. The working set can be updated so that, for example, it remains representative of the training data. A decision to update the working set may be made based on the false positive sample rate—if that rate falls below a threshold value, an update of the working set can be triggered. |
| US08099370B2 |
System for financial documentation conversion
A method to prepare an Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) document in a web-hosted server includes authenticating a user, uploading financial information from a spreadsheet, storing the information, and processing the data into an XBRL compliant document for transmittal to a financial regulatory agency. The process takes an input from an Excel™ spreadsheet and produces a financial statement in XBRL format while providing a full audit trail for the document conversion and authorization including manual inputs to the final-form submission. |
| US08099358B2 |
Quantifying the output of credit research systems
A method of quantifying the value added by an internal company credit rating system is described. The method includes determining an internal company credit rating for a plurality of securities. The internal company credit rating for the plurality of securities and an external credit research agency original credit rating for each of the securities are inputted in a ratings history database. Data representative of a change of the external credit research agency original credit rating for at least one security of the plurality of securities to a new credit rating is received. Responsive to the change, data representative of a current price of the at least one security and a benchmark price of the at least one security is received. At least one metric is calculated to determine a correlation between the internal company credit ratings and the new external credit research agency for each of the plurality of securities. |
| US08099357B2 |
Automated political risk management
A risk management method and system for facilitating analysis and quantification of risk associated with politically exposed persons is disclosed. A computerized political risk management system maintains a database relating individuals to politically sensitive positions and world events. A rating system is used to assess risk based upon criteria such as a position held, historical data and/or interpretation of world events. The system can generate a risk quotient or other rating based upon a weighted algorithm applied to the criteria. The risk quotient is indicative of risk associated with an account. Actions commensurate with a risk quotient can be presented to an institution to help the institution properly manage risk associated with a politically exposed person. A log or other stored history can be created such that utilization of the system can mitigate adverse effects relating to a problematic account. Mitigation can be accomplished by demonstrating to regulatory bodies, shareholders, news media and other interested parties that corporate governance is being addressed through tangible risk management processes. |
| US08099353B2 |
Market indicator process and method
A market indicator process, residing on a server, predicts an opening index price of a security index including at least two discrete securities. A trade monitoring process monitors at least a portion of the trading of the discrete securities that occur outside of a regular trading session. A closing price variation calculation process, responsive to the trade monitoring process, calculates the predicated opening index price of the security index for the beginning of the next regular trading session with respect to a closing index price of the security index at the end of the previous regular trading session. The index prices are indicative of the cumulative value of the discrete securities. |
| US08099352B2 |
System and method for trading financial instruments based on undisclosed values
In electronic trading venues, there may be orders for which the full information is not publicly displayed. For example, the full quantity of an order available for trading or the most aggressive price at which an order can be traded may not be made public. A system and method are disclosed that facilitates trading based on this non-public information. A first order associated with a financial instrument is placed at a venue to probe for non-public information related to the financial instrument. The results of the probe may then be used to place a second order at the venue that takes advantage of any discovered non-public information. |
| US08099350B2 |
Personal or family financial accounting and management system
A method for determining a state of personal finances includes establishing a personal finance code. The personal finance code includes amounts associated with a set of sources of income and amounts associated with a set of uses of funds. The personal finance code includes amounts associated with a set of asset categories. The set of asset categories include income producing assets, income consuming assets, and non-producing income producing assets. The method also includes determining a set of guidelines associated with the personal finance code. The set of guidelines is associated with at least one time period. In addition, the method includes deriving a comparison between the set of guidelines and a set of fiscal behaviors. The set of fiscal behaviors is associated with the at least one time period. The method further includes projecting the comparison over at least one subsequent time period to determine a projected effect. The projected effect includes a relative valuation of assets in at least one of the set of asset categories. |
| US08099349B1 |
Certificate of deposit consolidation
A user may schedule certificates of deposit (CDs) to be consolidated at maturity into an annuity, long term care insurance, or life insurance. The user provides information pertaining to their certificates of deposits, such as amount and maturity dates, and recommendations may be provided regarding consolidating the CDs by rolling them into annuities or insurance. |
| US08099348B2 |
System and method for creating a market map in an electronic trading environment
A market map interface displays market information and trader-related information associated with at least two tradable objects. In one embodiment, the at least two graphical interfaces may be linked, and a user may define one or more adjustment parameters to be used to adjust the view of information being displayed via the linked graphical interfaces. For instance, a user may initiate repositioning of one of the linked graphical interfaces, thus, effectively, causing other linked graphical interfaces to be repositioned according to the defined adjustment parameters. |
| US08099346B2 |
Reference price framework
A method of computer-assisted price modeling is provided, which uses a reference price to assist in evaluating discretionary pricing of transactional services provided (i) by a professional among his own transactions or (ii) by a target professional among others' transactions. A universe of pricing episode data is segmented into groupings based on price predictive parameters. These data are then arranged in each grouping according to price. A reference price is determined within each grouping based on a predetermined level, rank or percentile. This reference price can then be used to evaluate the pricing episode data and provide various calculations or comparisons, including the revenue opportunity that could have been obtained by pricing at the reference price. |
| US08099345B2 |
Financial account information management and auditing
A database-driven software application may be provided that is configured to keep a record of mainframe activity for various financial transactions and provide relationships between various transactional features. The information of these financial transactions may originate from a single system in a single data format or may be integrated into a single consistent format from a plurality of systems in a plurality of formats. Such an application may enable the reporting of anomalous events and/or the review of activities conducted by a financial associate (e.g., an employee of the financial institution) and/or those impacting a specific customer or account. The system may operate by parsing daily feeds of raw mainframe logs and extracting relevant details and placing information about each transaction in a data warehouse. |
| US08099344B2 |
Method and apparatus for enabling individual or smaller investors or others to create and manage a portfolio of securities or other assets or liabilities on a cost effective basis
An investor adjusts a risk-return characteristic of a portfolio of investments by using a graphical user interface to adjust a pointer on a screen up or down. In response, the computer system automatically recalculates the required mix of the portfolio's stocks. Trades are then sent to the system for execution to implement the adjusted portfolio. Thus, investors are afforded a simple click-of-a-mouse mechanism to adjust their entire portfolio to precisely the types of portfolio characteristics desired without having to know about the various interactions of securities with each other or the portfolio effects of changing one security or another or have any other knowledge. |
| US08099343B1 |
Distribution schemes and related payment models for subscriber-created content
Distribution schemes and related payment models and methods for subscriber-created content are described herein. The methods may include receiving content uploaded from a subscriber who created the content, and collecting a payment from the subscriber in exchange for enabling the subscriber to upload the content. One or more recipients for the content are identified in a community that is associated with the subscriber, where the recipients joined the community in response to an invitation extended by the subscriber. |
| US08099332B2 |
User interface for application management for a mobile device
This specification describes technologies relating to user interfaces for mobile devices. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a touch input to access an application management interface on a mobile device; presenting an application management interface; receiving one or more inputs within the application management interface including an input to install a particular application; installing the selected application; and presenting the installed application. |
| US08099328B2 |
System and method for brokering the sale of internet advertisement inventory as discrete traffic blocks of segmented internet traffic
A management system brokers, between a seller and a buyer, at least a portion of the seller's inventory of advertisement impressions that the seller can render within a web page of internet traffic. The management system comprises a traffic block definition tool adapted to define traffic block parameters for at least two discrete traffic blocks of the advertisement placement. The traffic block parameters for each discrete traffic block comprise a volume parameter and a duration parameter. A sales management tool is adapted to associate advertisement content and a buyer compensation parameter to each salable event. An order fulfillment system: i) directs placement of highest yielding advertisement content if, for each discrete traffic block, a delivered volume of sales events is higher than its minimum fulfillment threshold; and ii) if, for any discrete traffic block, delivered volume of saleable events lower than its minimum fulfillment threshold, directs placement of the advertisement content associated with that discrete traffic block. |
| US08099325B2 |
System and method for selective transmission of multimedia based on subscriber behavioral model
An advertisement system that provides subscribers with the most relevant advertisements based on their individual purchase prediction of the various products and contextual information such as location, ongoing public events, festivals and personal events. The system customizes the advertisements to suit the audiovisual, language, and textual caption preferences of the subscribers. System provides for tracking of various promotional offers made to the subscribers from the time the offer is made to the time it is redeemed by the subscriber. System consists of methods to learn (a) purchase predictions (b) preferred streaming schedule and (c) the subscriber's preferences in terms of audiovisual aspects of the advertisements. Purchase prediction for individual subscriber is derived from historical purchase data by time series analysis and the influence of events such as co-purchases of other products and organized events such as sales exhibitions and festivals is derived based on Bayesian network models. |
| US08099324B2 |
Securely providing advertising subsidized computer usage
A method and apparatus for assuring delivery of paid advertising to a user may involve asking a question about an advertisement or requiring data about the advertisement to be entered. In one embodiment, a human presence indicator, such as stylized letters, may be displayed during or after the presentation of an advertisement to be copied by a user to indicate presence during the advertisement. When the challenge relating to ad viewing is correctly answered, a value associated with viewing the ad may be credited to a user account, either locally or at a clearinghouse or other repository. |
| US08099320B2 |
Product demand forecasting
Embodiments include a system for forecasting demand data for new products. The system and method may include generating a phase-in group profile based on similar products. The phase-in group profile may have multiple demand profiles for low, medium and high demand variations. These demand profiles may be applied to new products in the same phase-in group to generate a forecast profile. |
| US08099315B2 |
Interest profiles for audio and/or video streams
A user interest profile, which indicates a portion-varying level of user interest toward a first streaming media item, is determined. The user interest profile is based on a plurality of ratings inputted by a user for a plurality of respective portions of the first streaming media item. A second streaming media item is recommended to the user based on the user interest profile. |
| US08099305B2 |
Dental data mining
Systems and methods are disclosed providing a database comprising a compendium of at least one of patient treatment history; orthodontic therapies, orthodontic information and diagnostics; employing a data mining technique for interrogating said database for generating an output data stream, the output data stream correlating a patient malocclusion with an orthodontic treatment; and applying the output data stream to improve a dental appliance or a dental appliance usage. |
| US08099301B2 |
Secure on-line authentication system for processing prescription drug fulfillment
A method of processing drug prescriptions via a communications network includes registering doctors, pharmacies and patients as participants such that each registered participant's identity is uniquely defined and determinable. Registered doctors from which prescriptions are received via the communications network have their identities authenticated. Each of the received prescriptions indicates a respective registered patient's identity for whom the prescription is intended. Registered patients from which orders are received via the communications network also have their identities authenticated. Each of the received orders indicates the prescription being ordered. The method also includes forwarding the orders to registered pharmacies via the communications network. |
| US08099297B2 |
Business method and system for ordering, purchasing and storing stem cells
An online business method and system enables donors or parents or guardians of donors to order and purchase stem-cells from biological tissue sampled from the donor, such as, for example, cord-blood stem cells of a newborn baby, wherein the ordering process interfaces directly with the attending medical services, and the service steps include collection, extraction, preservation, containment, packaging, delivery and storage of the stem cells in a storage medium that can be cost-effectively maintained by the donor, parent or guardian at home or in a custodial location. In one embodiment, preservation is by freeze-drying, containment is in a vacuum vial, and storage is at room temperature. |
| US08099293B2 |
Audio signal processing
An audio system for processing two channels of audio input to provide more than two output channels. The input may be conventional stereo material or compressed audio signal data. The audio processing includes separating the input signals into frequency bands and processing the frequency bands according to processes which may differ from band to band. The audio processing includes no processing of L−R signals. |
| US08099291B2 |
Signal decoding apparatus
A signal decoding apparatus that can suppress any large unusual sounds to provide decoded signals of improved audibility even when the number of hierarchical layers to be used in the decoding process varies due to a packet loss or the like in communication utilizing a scalable encoding/decoding technique. In the signal decoding apparatus, a gain adjusting part (2308) adjusts, based on a control of a decoding control part (2301), the gain of a basic layer decoded signal outputted from a basic layer decoding part (2302). A gain adjusting part (2309) adjusts, based on a control of the decoding control part (2301), the gain of a first expansion layer decoded signal outputted from a first expansion layer decoding part (2303). A gain adjusting part (2310) adjusts, based on a control of the decoding control part (2301), the gain of a second expansion layer decoded signal outputted from a second expansion layer decoding part (2304). |
| US08099290B2 |
Voice recognition device
A voice recognition unit is constructed in such a way as to create a voice label string for an inputted voice uttered by a user inputted for each language on the basis of a feature vector time series of the inputted voice uttered by the user and data about a sound standard model, and register the voice label string into a voice label memory 2 while automatically switching among languages for a sound standard model memory 1 used to create the voice label string, and automatically switching among the languages for the voice label memory 2 for holding the created voice label string by using a first language switching unit SW1 and a second language switching unit SW2. |
| US08099289B2 |
Voice interface and search for electronic devices including bluetooth headsets and remote systems
Systems and methods for improving the interaction between a user and a small electronic device such as a Bluetooth headset are described. The use of a voice user interface in electronic devices may be used. In one embodiment, recognition processing limitations of some devices are overcome by employing speech synthesizers and recognizers in series where one electronic device responds to simple audio commands and sends audio requests to a remote device with more significant recognition analysis capability. Embodiments of the present invention may include systems and methods for utilizing speech recognizers and synthesizers in series to provide simple, reliable, and hands-free interfaces with users. |
| US08099288B2 |
Text-dependent speaker verification
A text-dependent speaker verification technique that uses a generic speaker-independent speech recognizer for robust speaker verification, and uses the acoustical model of a speaker-independent speech recognizer as a background model. Instead of using a likelihood ratio test (LRT) at the utterance level (e.g., the sentence level), which is typical of most speaker verification systems, the present text-dependent speaker verification technique uses weighted sum of likelihood ratios at the sub-unit level (word, tri-phone, or phone) as well as at the utterance level. |
| US08099287B2 |
Automatically providing a user with substitutes for potentially ambiguous user-defined speech commands
A method for alleviating ambiguity issues of new user defined speech commands. An original command for a user-defined speech command can be received. It can then be determined if the original command is likely to be confused with a set of existing speech commands. When confusion is unlikely, the original command can be automatically stored. When confusion is likely, a substitute command that is unlikely to be confused with existing commands can be automatically determined. The substitute can be presented as an alternative to the original command and can be selectively stored as the user-defined speech command. |
| US08099283B2 |
Application server providing personalized voice enabled web application services using extensible markup language documents
A unified web-based voice messaging system provides voice application control between a web browser and an application server via an hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) connection on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The application server, configured for executing a voice application defined by XML documents, selects an XML document for execution of a corresponding voice application operation based on a determined presence of a user-specific XML document that specifies the corresponding voice application operation. The application server, upon receiving a voice application operation request from a browser serving a user, determines whether a personalized, user specific XML document exists for the user and for the corresponding voice application operation. If the application server determines the presence of the personalized XML document for a user-specific execution of the corresponding voice application operation, the application server dynamically generates a personalized HTML page having media content and control tags for personalized execution of the voice application operation; however if the application server determines an absence of the personalized XML document for the user-specific execution of the corresponding voice application operation, the application server dynamically generates a generic HTML page for generic execution of the voice application operation. Hence, a user can personalize any number of voice application operations, enabling a web-based voice application to be completely customized or merely partially customized. |
| US08099278B2 |
Age determination using speech
A device may be configured to provide a query to a user. Voice data may be received from the user responsive to the query. Voice recognition may be performed on the voice data to identify a query answer. A confidence score associated with the query answer may be calculated, wherein the confidence score represents the likelihood that the query answer has been accurately identified. A likely age range associated with the user may be determined based on the confidence score. The device to calculate the confidence score may be tuned to increase a likelihood of recognition of voice data for a particular age range of callers. |
| US08099271B2 |
Design instrumentation circuitry
Techniques and systems for analysis, diagnosis and debugging fabricated hardware designs at a Hardware Description Language (HDL) level are described. In particular, the techniques and systems relate to design instrumentation circuitry that facilitates the analysis, diagnosis and debugging of the hardware designs. A HDL design instrumentation circuitry embedded within an electronic system comprises one or more probe circuits to allow storage of signal values of the electronic system upon predetermined events, one or more breakpoint registers to specify the predetermined events, and one or more trigger processing units to control the storage of signal values upon the detection of the predetermined events by the breaking registers. The present design instrumentation circuitry permits monitoring the electronic system at speed, facilitating the analysis diagnosis and debugging by giving detailed and accurate information about the operation of the electronic system. |
| US08099270B2 |
Simulation model for transistors
Various embodiments include methods and apparatus for simulating a transistor using a simulation model that includes a transistor simulation model coupled to diode simulation model. |
| US08099266B2 |
Method and system for the design of an oil well
The invention is concerned with the design of oil wells by defining a number of design parameters, some of which are interdependent. The invention makes use of successive optimizations. Input data are selected for a first parameter and varied to achieve a first optimization. The process is repeated for a second parameter whose input data includes the first parameter, and then repeated for each other of the defined parameters. The design parameters may be presented to the user via a graphical interface such as a virtual reality view. |
| US08099263B2 |
System and method for custom product design
Computer-implemented electronic document design systems and methods allowing a user to integrate user-specific location maps into custom printed products. During the creation of an electronic design of a product intended for subsequent printing, user-provided location information is received by a server computer and used to generate a user map suitable for high quality printing. Lower resolution display and thumbnail versions of the map suitable for displaying to the user of the client system are generated. The display version is sent to the client system for review and editing by the user. The user map, the display map, and the thumbnail are stored at the server for possible future use. The maps are created and stored with the same height to width ratio as the map area in the electronic product design into which the map will be placed. The user is provided with a cropping tool to allow the user to select the portion of the map to be incorporated into the electronic product design. |
| US08099261B2 |
Low-cost solid-state identification device
The invention describes intelligent configurable apparatus used for identification and status indication for variety of applications: point-of-service locations; buildings/apartment complexes, residential homes; street signs; etc. Apparatus could be stand-alone or expandable plug-in modules interconnected via local area wired and wireless network into identification and status system. Apparatus could be DC powered, including solar. Apparatus has controller and sensors. Based on apparatus configuration and information obtained from sensors, controller performs variety of controls: illumination color/intensity/modulation; power consumption; communication with other controllers over LAN and/or INTERNET. Sensors could detect: presence of object; environmental parameters—temperature, light, sound; power consumption. Configuration parameters include: power consumption, brightness, ambient conditions, and schedule of operation. Power consumption allows apparatus operation based on safety and cost criteria. Apparatus also controls light function and intensity to meet set criteria. This leads to self-contained apparatus automatically driven by set criteria, including cost control. |
| US08099259B2 |
Method for monitoring catalyst requirements of a refinery
A method for monitoring a FCC catalyst injection system is provided. In one embodiment of the invention, the method includes automatically updating a catalyst available inventory information in a digital memory device in response to a catalyst usage event. A sufficiency of the updated catalyst available inventory is automatically determined. A re-supply action is then taken in response to a determination of insufficient catalyst available inventory. The method is repeated for each catalyst usage event. |
| US08099258B2 |
Smart garment
A sensor authenticated to a garment transfers information, either wirelessly or wired, to an external data processing device. Such information includes location information, physiometric data of the individual wearing the garment, garment performance and wear data (when the garment is an athletic shoe, for example). The external data processing device can be portable digital media players that are, in turn, in wireless communication with a server computer or other wireless devices. |
| US08099257B2 |
Biometric quality control process
Systems and methods configured to guide and manage laboratory analytical process control operations. A Biometric quality control (QC) process application is configured to monitor bias and imprecision for each test, characterize patient population data distributions and compare, contrast, and correlate changes in patient data distributions to any change in QC data populations. The Biometric QC process monitors the analytical process using data collected from repetitive testing of quality control materials and patient data (test results). The QC process identifies the optimal combination of, for example, frequency of QC testing, number of QCs tested, and QC rules applied in order to minimize the expected number of unacceptable patient results produced due to any out-of-control error condition that might occur. A method of determining an optimum frequency for bracketing patient data into batches using a minimum number of quality control samples is also provided. |
| US08099254B2 |
Elastomeric conductor and shield fault detection
The systems and methods described herein provide for the early detection of wire/cable faults. For example, a system may detect electrical/electronic faults with power lines, data lines, communication lines, coaxial cables, and the like (generally referred to herein as “lines”, “wires”, and “cables”) by providing sacrificial materials including a conductive material external to the lines. A processor may be coupled to the conductive material to transmit a control signal along the conductive material of the line to determine whether the line is degrading. That is, when the sacrificial material wears away and exposes the conductive sacrificial material in the line, that conductive material may begin to experience faults. The faults in the external conductive material may serve as precursors to the overall degradation of the line. Thus, the line may be repaired or replaced prior to the degradation of the line itself. |
| US08099253B1 |
Keyboard tester
Apparatus and methods are described for pressing and releasing keys and measuring timing data of the key presses and releases of a keyboard input device to determine characteristics of different types of keyboards. A key of the keyboard may be pressed and released by a machine at measured speed; and resulting keystroke timing data may be collected from to identify timing delays and differences in delays between when the key is pressed and when the resulting timing data is collected by a computer. The timing delays and differences in delays may be used generate more accurate biometric templates and authentication inputs when a type of keyboard is used. |
| US08099251B2 |
Systems and methods for certifying a racked computer assembly
In some embodiments, a method for testing a chassis including one or more information handling systems is provided. The method includes receiving a chassis configuration specification that defines a set of required components for a chassis configuration, generating one or more test images based at least the received chassis configuration specification, automatically determining components of the chassis, testing the determined components of the chassis using the one or more generated test images, and reporting results from the testing to a user. |
| US08099250B2 |
Impedance parameter values
A method of determining parameter values used in impedance analysis of a subject. The method includes using a processing system to determine a number of impedance measurements at a corresponding number of frequencies. The impedance measurements are used to determine estimates of parameter values, with the estimates being used to determine theoretical impedance values based on the parameter value estimates. The theoretical impedance values are compared to the measured impedance values to allow a modification direction to be determined for at least one of the parameter value estimates. This is then used to modify at least one parameter value estimate, with the parameter values being determined at least in part from one or more modified parameter value estimates. |
| US08099246B1 |
Device for assessing operating-mode transition reliability
Embodiments of a system (such as a computer system), a circuit, a method and a computer-program product (e.g., software) for use with the computer system are described. In these embodiments, one or more physical characteristics of a device may be monitored, and the measured values may be used to assess the reliability of a device. In particular, using hardware and/or software, the probability that the device will be unable to restart if the device is switched to a powered-on operating mode may be determined based at least in part on the one or more measured values and predetermined probabilities of occurrence of one or more failure mechanisms in the device. If the probability is less than a threshold value, the device may be safely transitioned to a powered-on operating mode. However, if the probability exceeds the threshold value, the device may be kept in a power-saving mode until remedial action is taken. |
| US08099242B2 |
Systems and methods for characterization of molecules
The present invention generally provides systems and methods for the detection, identification, or characterization of differences between properties or behavior of corresponding species in two or more mixtures comprised of molecules, including biomolecules and/or molecules able to interact with biomolecules, using techniques such as partitioning. The experimental conditions established as distinguishing between the mixtures of the molecules using the systems and methods of the invention can also be used, in some cases, for further fractionation and/or characterization of the biomolecules and/or other molecules, using techniques such as single-step or multiple-step extraction, and/or by liquid-liquid partition chromatography. The methods could also be used for discovering and identifying markers associated with specific diagnostics, and can be used for screening for such markers once discovered and identified during diagnostics screening. |
| US08099241B2 |
Method and apparatus for real time oil based mud contamination monitoring
The present invention is a method and apparatus for determining oil based mud contamination of a hydrocarbon fluid obtained from a wellbore during a formation testing. The invention includes receiving a model for simulating the contamination and receiving an empirical equation for computing the contamination. At a given pumping time, a simulated contamination is generated based on the model and an empirically computed contamination is generated based on the first empirical equation. The simulated contamination and empirically computed contamination are compared and a determination as to which is more reliable is made. Revision of the first model or first empirical equation based is then performed. |
| US08099240B2 |
Blasting method
Methods for evaluating drill pattern parameters such as burden, spacing, borehole diameter, etc., at a blast site are disclosed. One method involves accumulating the burden contributed by successive layers of rock and matching the accumulated rock burden to a target value for a borehole having a length related to the average height of the layers. Another method relates to varying drill pattern parameters and characteristics to match blast design constraints, including the substitution of one explosive material for another by the proper balance of materials and/or output energies to the associated rock burden. Analysis of deviations from target rock burdens and corrective measures are disclosed, as well as cost optimization methods. The various methods can be practiced using an appropriately programmed general purpose computer. |
| US08099238B2 |
Stateful, double-buffered dynamic navigation voice prompting
A navigation system written in J2ME MIDP for a client device includes a plurality of media players each respectively comprising a buffer. A navigation program manages the state of the plurality of media players. The plurality of media players are in either one of an acquiring resources state, and a playing and de-allocating state. The use of a plurality of media players each respectively comprising a buffer overcomes the prior art in which navigation system can cut off a voice prompt because of the time-consuming tasks associated with playing a voice prompt. |
| US08099237B2 |
Open area maps
Systems and methods associated with an open area map are disclosed. For example, one method comprises obtaining an image of a layout. The layout represents a real-world area in which a person moves about. A grid is applied on the image. The grid includes tiles that fill in a ground area of the image. A routable map is generated as a function of the grid. The routable map is configured to provide point-to-point routing within the layout. |
| US08099233B2 |
Map display controller and computer readable medium including instructions for displaying map image
A map display controller displays a three-dimensional map image on a display screen of a display device, and superimposes a route wall standing from a route and along the route in the three dimensional map image on the display device. This reduces a difficulty in confirming the route behind structures such as a building in the three-dimensional map image displayed on the display screen. |
| US08099232B2 |
Vehicle control device
In a vehicle control device which performs braking control of a vehicle, a priority setting unit determines, when a possibility that a self-vehicle and another vehicle cross each other at an intersection in front of the self-vehicle is detected, a priority for each of the self-vehicle and the other vehicle with respect to access to the intersection. A braking control unit performs, when the self-vehicle has no priority over the other vehicle with respect to access to the intersection, the braking control of the self-vehicle so that the self-vehicle enters the intersection after the other vehicle passes through the intersection. |
| US08099231B1 |
System and method for detecting fuel injector malfunction based on engine vibration
A control system for an engine includes an injection control module, a processing module, and a malfunction detection module. The injection control module commands a fuel injector to operate in a split injection mode. The processing module that measures engine vibration during a period after commanding the split injection mode. The malfunction detection module detects a malfunction of the fuel injector based on a comparison between the measured engine vibration and expected engine vibration. |
| US08099220B2 |
Method for adapting shift schedule of an automatic transmission based on GPS/map information
A powertrain control includes monitoring map preview information, determining a road gradient factor based upon the map preview information, and adapting a transmission shift schedule based upon the road gradient factor. |
| US08099218B2 |
Paving system and method
A method of operating a paving system includes establishing a plan for paving a work area which is based on a positional temperature model. The method further includes receiving temperature data for paving material and comparing the temperature data with data predicted by the positional temperature model. Operation of the paving system is adjusted where actual data differs from model predicted data. A paving system and control system are provided having an electronic control unit configured to compare electronic temperature data with a positional temperature model for paving material. The electronic control unit can control machines of the paving system based on comparing actual data with model predicted data, and can further update either or both of a plan for paving a work area and the positional temperature model itself based on differences between actual data and model predicted data. A complete temperature profile of a paving work area, including a comparison with the model may be recorded in computer readable memory for forensic and predictive analysis. |
| US08099216B2 |
Vehicle driving position control system and method
A detector detects at least one of environmental information on the environment and physical information on the user's physical condition, when the user gets into a vehicle. Each of the environment and the physical condition is divided into a plurality of zones. A memory stores statistical data each representing the probability of the user selecting one of the driving positions in the vehicle in one of the zones. One of the driving positions can, from the probabilities allotted to them, be estimated to be optimum for the user in the zone into which the detected information falls. As a result, even if the user's preference in driving position changes with the environment or the user's physical condition in which the user gets into the vehicle, it is possible to adjust the driving position automatically according to the current preference. |
| US08099215B2 |
Steering operation force detecting apparatus
A steering operation force detecting apparatus enabling to know in detail a force or a moment applied to a steering wheel rim (steering wheel) gripped by a driver during steering is provided. A force and a moment applied to each divided portion 11A and 11B of a steering wheel rim 11 are detected by force sensors 21A and 21B. Force applied points FP1 and FP2 of driver's hands which grip the divided portions 11A and 11B of the steering wheel rim 11 are detected by contact sensors 22 and an arithmetic processing section. Also, forces and moments at the force applied points FP1 and FP2 are calculated based on the detection results, and the calculation results are output to a higher-level device. Accordingly, it is possible to know in detail how much force or moment is applied to the force applied points FP1 and FP2 on the steering wheel rim 11 during a steering operation. |
| US08099210B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting and differentiating users of a device
An apparatus for operator control of an in-vehicle system includes an interface device for receiving inputs for control of the in-vehicle system from an operator hand, the interface device including a control panel having a visual display screen. The apparatus further includes a sensing system adjacent the interface device including an optical proximity sensor having a single infrared light source, a first plurality of directionally sensitive light receivers for detecting a first reflected infrared light from the infrared light source that is reflected by the operator hand only when the operator hand approaches the optical proximity sensor near the interface device from a driver side of the vehicle and a second plurality of directionally sensitive light receivers for detecting a second reflected infrared light from the infrared light source that is reflected by the operator hand only when the operator hand approaches the optical proximity sensor near the interface device from a passenger side of the vehicle. A controller generates a user-specific menu on the visual display screen based upon the first and second plurality of directionally sensitive light receivers detecting respective first and second reflected infrared light from the infrared light source. |
| US08099209B2 |
Multi-dimensional controls integration
A multi-dimensional control system for simultaneously controlling multiple device functions in a motor vehicle is disclosed. The system includes a control panel having a control surface and an input device that is selectable at a plurality of positions about the control surface. Each of the positions is associated with one of a plurality of first function settings and one of a plurality of second function settings. Additional devices, systems, and methods for controlling multiple functions in a motor vehicle are disclosed. |
| US08099206B2 |
Combined evidence vehicle health monitoring
A method is provided for fusing a plurality of self-contained diagnostics for generating a combined state of belief for a monitored system. A plurality of predetermined diagnostic states of self-contained diagnostic routines is executed. Each self-contained routine generates a respective state of belief result for the monitored system. Respective belief vectors are formulated as a function of belief results. A state space is provided that includes a plurality of sub-state spaces. Each of the sub-state spaces is representative of the predetermined diagnostic states of the monitored system. Belief vectors are assigned to the sub-state spaces of the state space. Belief vectors relating to each sub-state space are fused. A combined belief value is determined for each fused sub-state space. The sub-state space having the highest combined belief value is indicated in response to the determined probabilities as the actual diagnostic state of the monitored system. |
| US08099205B2 |
Machine guidance system
A guidance system for a mobile machine is disclosed. The guidance system may have a scanning device configured to generate a signal indicative of a lateral distance from the machine to a roadway marker, a locating device configured to determine a geographical location of the machine, and a controller in communication with the scanning device and the locating device. The controller may be configured to receive a desired lateral distance from the machine to the roadway marker, and to compare the desired lateral distance to the actual lateral distance. The controller may further be configured to implement a response to the comparison based on the geographical location. |
| US08099202B1 |
System and method for providing a final approach curtain
The present invention is a method for providing a depiction of an approach path to a landing area and of terrain proximal to the landing area via a flight deck situational awareness system of an aircraft. The method may include providing a vertical reference graphical indicator for indicating a glide path for the landing area. The method may further include providing a plurality of extended graphical indicators which extend from the vertical reference graphical indicator and intercept the depicted terrain. The method may further include connecting the plurality of extended graphical indicators via a horizontal reference graphical indicator which forms an extension of a centerline of the landing area onto the depicted terrain. The vertical reference graphical indicator, the extended graphical indicators, and the horizontal reference graphical indicator may form boundaries of a plurality of transparent panes, which collectively form a transparent approach curtain. |
| US08099199B2 |
Digital controller
There is provided a digital controller which can generate no oscillation even if sensing a load side and enables control of supplying a desired voltage to the load. In an power amplifier which supplies an output voltage vo to the load connected via a load connecting line, a load voltage vL and the output voltage vo are periodically sampled to calculate a manipulating variable ξ1 from the output voltage vo, the load voltage vL and an arbitrary target value r. Based on the manipulating variable ξ1 calculated, a control signal is output to the power amplifier. As a result, when connecting an LC filter with a load device 9 of the power amplifier intended for a control target and besides the load connecting line is long, a robust digital controller without generating oscillation even if sensing the load side is performed can be realized. |
| US08099178B2 |
Building automation system facilitating user customization
Systems and methods for interacting with and customizing a dynamically extensible and automatically configurable BAS. In one embodiment, the BAS includes a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, a protocol-independent server engine, and a user interface. User customization options are presented by and accomplished through a graphical user interface. In addition to providing a portal through which users may access, manage, and customize the BAS, the user interface itself is customizable in accordance with and complimentary to the dynamic extensibility of the system. |
| US08099176B2 |
Modular, zone-specific medical electrical lead design
A medical electrical lead configured to be coupled to a pulse generator in a cardiac rhythm management system. The lead comprises a proximal terminal connector configured for coupling the lead to the pulse generator, and a plurality of longitudinally arranged lead segments each configured to exhibit one or more predetermined physical characteristics based on the implantation location for the respective segment. The lead segments may be pre-fabricated as separate modules optimized for the operating environment and/or delivery requirements of the respective segments. The pre-fabricated modules are longitudinally arranged and joined to form the lead. |
| US08099172B2 |
Spinal cord stimulation paddle lead and method of making the same
In one embodiment, a method of fabricating an implantable stimulation paddle comprises: providing a sheet of conductive material coupled to a first insulative layer; laser removing portions of the conductive material to form a pattern of conductive material, the pattern of conductive material including a plurality of isolated metal traces; providing a second insulative layer over the pattern of conductive material so that the pattern of conductive material is interposed between the first and second insulative layers; and exposing portions of the metal traces to form electrodes on the paddle for delivering electrical stimulation. |
| US08099171B2 |
Implantable medical lead configured for improved MRI safety and heating reduction performance
An implantable medical lead configured for improved MRI safety and heating reduction performance is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the lead includes a tubular body having a proximal end and a distal end with a lead connector near the proximal end. In this embodiment the lead further includes a conductor extending longitudinally within the tubular body and having a proximal end that is electrically coupled to the connector and a distal end electrically coupled to a contact pin. The lead in this embodiment further includes a filter element electrically coupled to a distal end of the contact pin and a flange electrically coupled between a proximal end of the filter element and a proximal portion of an electrode. In this embodiment the flange and the proximal portion of the electrode form at least a first part of a hermetic chamber enclosing the filter element. |
| US08099168B2 |
Post-operative pain inhibitor for joint replacement and method thereof
A post-operative pain inhibitor system (100) comprises a controller (32) and leads (25, 27). Neuro-stimulator circuitry may be included within the patient controller 32 or within one or more prosthetic components (12, 13, 14) for generating a signal. The topical leads (27), percutaneous leads (25), subcutaneous leads (26), intraosseous leads (22) or leads placed on or within prosthetic components are coupled to neuro-stimulation circuitry (44) to stimulate peripheral nerve fibers such that the signal blocks body generated action potentials. Controller (32) can modify the pulse width, pulse shape, pulse repetition rate, and pulse amplitude of the signal thereby allowing the patient to adapt the signal to minimize their perceived pain. |
| US08099165B2 |
Expert system and method
A medical device programmer and a method of operation in which a first data value is received and used in the execution of one or more algorithms. One or more suggested pulse generator settings are calculated from the one or more algorithms based on the first data value, and the one or more suggested pulse generator settings are displayed on an interactive display screen of the medical device programmer. In one embodiment, the first data value is a duration interval of a QRS complex. From the duration interval, suggestions are made as to one or more ventricular chambers in which to provide pacing pulses. Additionally, pacing intervals for an AV delay are suggested based on measured P-R intervals, or pacing intervals for an LV offset are suggested based on a measured duration interval of a V-V-interval between a right ventricular event and a left ventricular event. |
| US08099164B2 |
Selectively implementable digital signal processing circuit for an implantable medical device
Embodiments of the invention include an implantable medical device having a digital signal processing circuit associated with an implantable medical device function. The digital signal processing circuit can be selectively implementable according to the clinical need of a patient. Embodiments of the invention also include methods of making and using such implantable medical devices. |
| US08099160B2 |
Body fat measuring device capable of accurately measuring visceral fat amount
A body fat measuring device includes at least one pair of first electrodes to be disposed respectively at a first site and a second site sandwiching the abdomen of a subject, and an electrode group including a first abdomen electrode to be disposed at a surface of the abdomen of the subject. The first abdomen electrode includes a pair of second electrodes and a pair of third electrodes disposed in an alignment direction substantially perpendicular to a cross section of the abdomen. In a case where electric current is applied via the first electrodes, a first potential difference between electrodes of one predetermined pair included in the first abdomen electrode is detected. In a case where electric current is applied via the third electrodes, a second potential difference between the second electrodes is detected. Based on the detected two types of potential differences and physical data of the subject, the visceral fat amount of the subject is calculated. |
| US08099159B2 |
Methods and devices for analyzing and comparing physiological parameter measurements
Methods and devices that are capable of measuring physiological parameters of at least two contact points and determining whether the measured parameters reflect favorable or unfavorable physiological responses are disclosed herein. Specifically, the present invention encompasses a method that can non-invasively monitor physiological parameters of at least two contact points before and after a stimulus is applied to a subject and compare the measured parameters to determine whether the physiological state of the subject is favorable or unfavorable. |
| US08099158B2 |
System and method for selecting end of diastole and end of systole frames
A method and apparatus for automatically selecting an end of diastole image frame and an end of systole image frame for cardiac analysis. In the method and apparatus, a plurality of image frames of a heart having a contrast medium injected into the heart and an electrocardiogram (ECG) curve of the heart are obtained. Candidate image frames are identified in the plurality of image frames that correspond to a first predetermined point on the ECG curve of the heart associated with the end of diastole. An end of diastole image frame is selected from the candidate image frames. An end of systole image frame is then identified and selected from the remaining one of the plurality of image frames. |
| US08099148B2 |
Artifact suppression in dynamic magnetic resonance imaging
A method for removing one or more artifacts from a time series of magnetic resonance (MR) images is provided. In one embodiment of the invention, an MR time series of data sets is acquired while changing the k-space that is sampled at each time frame. By using the acquired data, information is produced for a plurality of MR images at different time points, wherein the images contain desired components and one or more artifacts. Changing the k-space locations that are sampled from time frame to time frame makes the artifacts behave in a signature way through time, so that they can be identified as being artifacts and be removed through temporal analysis. |
| US08099145B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes a first module, a second module, and a connecting member. The first module includes a bottom plate having a first slot and a rail corresponding to the first slot. The second module includes a top plate having a second slot and a slide bar overlapping a portion of the second slot. The connecting member passes through the first slot and the second slot and connects the rail and the slide bar. When the first module slides relative to the second module from a first position to a second position in a direction, the connecting member slides along the rail, and when the first module slides relative to the second module from the second position to a third position in the direction, the connecting member forces the slide bar to slide along the second slot. |
| US08099144B2 |
Electronic device with hinge mechanism
An electronic device is described that has a base and a lid, where device can be opened so that part of the base is exposed and closed so that the same part of the base is hidden. The lid is connected to the base by two bars. The bars allow the lid to slide in a plane parallel to the base. The connection between the base and lid is such that there is little overlap between the base and the lid when the device is open. |
| US08099137B2 |
Network support for mobile special alerting
An apparatus in one example has: a mobile terminal having at least first and second modes of operation; and a special alerting code; wherein, in response to the calling party entering the special alerting code, the mobile terminal changes from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation. The system allows a mobile terminal in a silent/meeting mode to go into a vibrate and/or ring mode when a calling party enters a special alerting code. |
| US08099136B2 |
Portable terminal
A portable terminal displays on a selection screen not only contents stored in the portable terminal but also contents stored in a contents server communicatable via a network with the portable terminal. The selection screen displays information regarding the size and location of each of the contents, as well as estimated time and cost required to obtain each of the corresponding contents based on information regarding communication speed and communication path such as communicatable areas. The portable terminal is also equipped with a function to search another communication path that becomes available when moving the portable terminal to another location, and a function to suggest to obtain the contents using such a communication path if the new communication path provides faster and/or more inexpensive connection. |
| US08099133B2 |
Apparatus and a method for directing a received signal in an antenna system
The present invention relates to an antenna system (1), a method and an apparatus (20) for directing a received signal (RX), along selected signal path/paths (12, 13, 14, 15), such that the operation of any of the radio base stations (40, 50) in the antenna system (1) depends on the selected signal path/paths (12, 13, 14, 15). The antenna system (1) is comprised of a filter combiner (10) connected to radio base stations (40, 50) that are of different radio access networks. The apparatus (20) of the antenna system further comprises a duplex filter (21), coupled to the filter combiner (10), and adapted to receive/transmit signals of different access networks. The duplex filter (21) further comprises a transmitter filter (21a) and two receiver filters (21b, 21c). The receiver filters (21b and 21c) are further connected to a switch (22), said switch (22) is adapted to direct the received signal along one or several selected signal paths (12, 13, 14, 15) such that the operation of any of the radio base stations (40, 50) is dependent on which signal path/paths that is/are selected. |
| US08099130B1 |
Wireless sensor network for monitoring one or more selected environmental characteristics
A wireless sensor network for monitoring one or more selected environmental characteristics. Multiple wireless signal transceivers, disposed in respective portions of a selected environment, respond to one or more wireless beacon signals by selectively collecting, processing and storing data corresponding to one or more characteristics of such portions of the selected environment, and by selectively transmitting respective wireless response signals containing selected portions of such data. Alternatively, multiple wireless signal transceivers, disposed in respective sub-networks in portions of a selected environment, collect and convey data corresponding to one or more characteristics of such selected environment portions. |
| US08099128B2 |
Portable electronic device providing gaming functions
A portable electronic device includes a keypad, a memory system, and an audio effect system. The memory system includes a video game application and an audio file associated with the video game application. The audio file includes a collection of trigger signals and a collection of notations where each trigger signal is associated with a corresponding notation. The audio effect system includes an audio player, a signal generator, and a control module. The signal generator is configured for generating a trigger signal in response to operation of the keypad. The control module is configured for reading a notation from the audio file, which corresponds to the generated trigger signal and instructing the audio player to play a corresponding music sound associated with the read notation. |
| US08099126B2 |
Actuator notification system for use with a mobile communications device, a method of automatically driving an actuator on a mobile communications device, and a mobile communications device utilizing same
An actuator notification system is for use with a mobile communications device. A device actuator is selectively movable, by hand, between first and second positions. An electric drive motor operatively engages the actuator. A control processor on-board the device is operatively encoded to start the motor, so as to drive the actuator between the first and second positions. A related method of automatically driving an actuator on a mobile communications device uses a control processor on-board the device which is encoded to start a motor and drive an actuator between first position and second positions. A related mobile communications device is also disclosed. |
| US08099124B2 |
Method and system for correlating user/device activity with spatial orientation sensors
A system and method for determining an operating mode for a mobile unit (“MU”), comprising defining a plurality of spatial regions, tracking at least one activity of the MU when the MU is oriented within the one of the plurality of spatial regions, determining an orientation of the mobile unit, and selecting the operating mode based on the at least one of the orientation and an activity of the MU when the MU is oriented within the one of the plurality of spatial regions. |
| US08099122B1 |
Method and apparatus for improved forward link power control while in soft handoff
Forward power control is improved by increasing forward power control feedback channel reliability when the mobile unit in a wireless communication system is in soft handoff. Forward power control is enhanced by decreasing the bit error rate of forward power control bits received by the base station. The bit error rate of forward power control bits is reduced by raising the power level, and thus the signal to noise ratio, of the reverse pilot channel, while maintaining the power levels of other reverse channels. The signal to noise ratio of the reverse pilot channel is raised by the base station in response to a frame error rate decrease generated by the selector component of the base station controller. The base station maintains the power level of other reverse channels by reducing the power level gain of other reverse channels relative to the reverse pilot channel. |
| US08099118B2 |
Methods and apparatus for prioritizing voice call requests during data communication sessions with a mobile device
A voice call request for a voice call involving the mobile device is received in a wireless network while the mobile device is engaged in a connected data communication service via the wireless network. The service utilizes a radio traffic channel between the mobile device and the wireless network and a data session for communication of data. In response to the receiving of the voice call request, the wireless network causes the radio traffic channel for the service to be torn down without terminating the data session. The wireless network also causes a voice call involving the mobile device to be established and maintained over a new radio traffic channel via the wireless network while the data session for the service is maintained. Subsequently, the wireless network identifies an indication that the voice call involving the mobile device has ended and, in response, resumes the communication of the data in the data session over a radio traffic channel. |
| US08099117B2 |
SMS message delivery over broadband data networks
Broadband messaging gateways, SMS-C's, and associated methods are disclosed that attempt to deliver SMS messages over a broadband data network as opposed to a voice network. When a mobile device sends a Mobile Originated (MO) SMS message, the mobile device sends the MO SMS message to a broadband data network instead of the voice network. The broadband data network then routes the MO SMS message to the appropriate SMS-C. When an SMS-C receives a Mobile Terminated (MT) SMS message destined for a mobile device, the SMS-C forwards the MT SMS message to the broadband data network instead of the voice network. Thus, SMS messages are offloaded from the voice network to the broadband data network. |
| US08099116B2 |
Method and a system for the delivery of short messages
The invention relates to a method an system for forwarding a short message from a sender to a recipient within a telecommunication network, comprising the steps of sending the short message from the sender via at least one network node to the recipient, determining in the network node whether the recipient has activated a forwarding unconditional of the short message to a predefined forwarding destination, and if true, forwarding the short message to the predefined forwarding destination. |
| US08099112B2 |
Network entity, method and computer program product for dynamically changing a request for location information
A network entity includes a controller adapted to operate a location-based application for initiating a location reporting session. The location reporting session includes determining and reporting a current location of a mobile station based on one or more parameters having one or more associated values, where, when the session is a periodic location reporting session, one of the parameters may be a periodicity of reporting the current location of the mobile station. The location-based application is also adapted to change the value of one or more of the parameters during the location reporting session. The same location reporting session may therefore continue based on the changed values of the respective parameter(s). |
| US08099111B2 |
Vehicle telematics data logging
A system and method for data logging of telematics events by a vehicle telematics unit. Upon detection of a telematics event, checks are made to determine if location data logging is enabled and if the telematics event is an incoming personal call. If the location data logging is enabled and the telematics event is not an incoming personal call, then a data log entry is created that includes the current vehicle location; otherwise, a data log entry without any location information is created. Thereafter, the data log entries can be uploaded to a call center for analysis. Procedures for handling data logging during a standby mode of the telematics unit are also provided. |
| US08099107B2 |
Method and apparatus for WLAN location services
Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to providing location services in a wireless network. According to one implementation of the present invention, the wireless network infrastructure provides high-accuracy location information via location services to wireless clients. In one embodiment, during an advertisement phase, a location server provides a list of available location services to wireless clients via a central controller. In another embodiment, during a presentation phase, a driver of the wireless client presents the available location services to one or more applications of the wireless client. In another embodiment, during a request phase, the driver transmits a location service request to the central controller, which passes the location service request to the location server. |
| US08099099B2 |
Methods and apparatus related to assignment in a wireless communications system
Methods and apparatus related to assignment in a wireless communications system are described. A mobile is assigned an identifier and a mask value, e.g., as part of a state transition message. The mobile uses the assigned identifier and/or the assigned mask value in determining whether assignments included in assignment messages, e.g., traffic channel assignment messages, are directed to the wireless terminal. Predetermined associations between assignment slots, assigned segments, and/or mask values are utilized to limit control signaling overhead. Different groups of segments are available for assignment to different wireless terminals as a function of mask values. Different types of assignment messages use different amounts of information bits to convey the assignment. Some types of assignments use a wireless terminal identifier, while other types of assignments use a wireless terminal identifier and a mask identifier. The mask identifier, e.g., a single bit, allows for selection between a subset of the potential masks used in the system. |
| US08099098B2 |
Methods and apparatus for planning wireless data networks using analytical modeling of user level performance
Techniques and systems for planning of wireless networks are described. A system according to an aspect of the present invention receives inputs describing traffic statistics for a wireless network and computes network specifications. The system uses the traffic statistics and network specifications as inputs to a computationally tractable model used to compute parameters for the user level performance of the wireless network. The model may suitably be a processor sharing queuing model. The model employed by the planning system allows analytical solution for the desired user level parameters, given the characteristics and conditions entered as inputs and the intended network layout characteristics. Once a set of user level performance parameters has been computed, the values of the parameters are examined to determine if they meet predetermined requirements, in an iterative process continuing until a set of specifications has been developed that produces parameters meeting the requirements. |
| US08099095B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling operation of an access terminal in a communication system
A novel and improved method and apparatus provide for controlling an operation of an access terminal while processing a signal from an access point in a communication system. Various aspects of the invention provide for an access terminal to disable a handoff process when its demodulator or decoder is operating to demodulate or decode a control message received from an access point. The operation of the access terminal is controlled in a manner that prevents terminating prematurely the demodulation and decoding process of a control signal by a handoff process. As a result, the access terminal may continue operating in a normal wake up/ sleep cycle period while conserving its battery power. |
| US08099093B2 |
Inquiring of a protected communications services database to address concerns over blind base station operation in conflict with protected communications services
A database stores updated information concerning protected communications services. A base station for a coexisting, and potentially co-channel, non-protected communications service makes an inquiry of the database requesting an identification of geographically relevant protected services along with the database stored information pertinent to each of those identified protected services. The returned information is processed by the base station to determine what channels are available for use by the non-protected service. An available channel is identified by the base station as the working channel for the non-protected service and the base station initiates a process to establish a communications network using the non-protected service and the selected working channel. |
| US08099092B2 |
Demand-based provisioning for a mobile communication device
Systems and methods are provided for providing demand-based provisioning for a mobile communication device. A provisioning server may be used to receive a provisioning update request from the mobile communication device and in response to the provisioning update request transmit a service update data message to the mobile communication device. The service update data message may include service information for the mobile communication device that is received by the provisioning server from at least one of a plurality of service providers. The mobile communication device may be operable to detect a triggering event and transmit the provisioning update request to the provisioning server in response to the triggering event. |
| US08099090B2 |
Information system with detachable information module
A unitary handheld portable module includes a keypad for entering data and a display for displaying data. A base module is configured to be coupled with and communicate through a telephone line and includes a keypad for dialing a telephone number and a display for displaying information. The portable and base modules are configured to have a mounted configuration in which the portable module is removably mounted on the base module and covers the base module's display, and the modules communicate with each other for the portable module's display to display information relating to operation of the base module. |
| US08099089B2 |
Method, user equipment and software product for media stream transfer between devices
A method, user equipment, and computer program product are disclosed for accepting a plurality of media streams at a first user equipment, and then sending a session initiation protocol refer request to a recipient. The request specifies a second user equipment, and the request also indicates a subset of those media streams which the recipient is requested to offer to the second user equipment. There can be at least two media streams of the same media type, out of which some media stream(s) are to be offered to the second user equipment and the other media stream(s) are not to be offered to the second user equipment. |
| US08099087B2 |
Location announcement for mobile devices
A network includes a switch and at least one network element to track the locations of wireless devices that interact with the network. The network further includes at least one network element to convert location information for a wireless device obtained from the at least one network element to track locations to a voice announcement, and to interact with the switch to provide the announcement to at least one of a calling wireless device and a called wireless device. |
| US08099086B2 |
System and method for providing a descriptor for a location to a recipient
A method for providing a descriptor of a location to a recipient includes receiving geographical position data of the location from a user and using the geographical position data to identify a plurality of regions near or including the location. Each region is associated with a descriptor. The recipient's level of familiarity with each of the regions is determined and a region is selected based on the recipient's level of familiarity with the selected region. Once the region is selected, the descriptor associated with the selected region is provided to the recipient via the user. |
| US08099085B2 |
Method and system for communicating with users of wireless devices when approaching a predetermined destination
Using cell phones or other wireless devices to notify users of those devices of impending arrival at a selected customer location. The current location of the wireless device is determined and compared with the known location of the destination. When the wireless device is within a predetermined distance or at a predetermined estimated arrival time from the selected destination, an alert is sent to the wireless device and, if authorized, an alert also is sent to the destination. In response to the impending arrival, the destination may provide information for the user concerning offerings at that destination. |
| US08099078B2 |
System and method for service activation in mobile network billing
Embodiments described herein provide a user with the ability to select from a list of available services that can be used on a mobile device. The services include device-based services and device-network based services. The activation, usage tracking and deactivation of a selected service can be conducted at a central location. Some of the services can be provided by different carrier network providers and in different geographical areas. The service selection can be performed from the mobile device, thus providing the user with maximum flexibility as to when and where the user requests the service. |
| US08099067B2 |
Data signal system
A demodulation system for Radio Data System (RDS) signals in a receiver includes a quadrature mixer (303) configured to convert a RDS signal at an input frequency directly to a base band RDS signal, a single filter (305) configured to filter the base band RDS signal to provide a RDS signal, and a signal level detector (311) configured to provide an indication of a level of the RDS signal (313), a demodulator (315) configured to demodulate the RDS signal and provide RDS data, the RDS data corresponding to information for user consumption, where the indication is used for selectively interrupting the user consumption when the level of the RDS signal is unsatisfactory. Other aspects of the RDS and corresponding methods include interference mitigation and include a blanker (323) configured to remove impulse noise from a RDS signal to provide the RDS signal without impulse noise and a demodulator (315) coupled to the blanker and configured to demodulate the RDS signal to provide data corresponding to information for user consumption. |
| US08099064B2 |
Mobile wireless communications device with reduced harmonics resulting from metal shield coupling
A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and antenna supported by the housing. At least one circuit board is carried by the housing and has radio frequency (RF) circuitry operative with the antenna for receiving and transmitting RF signals through the antenna. A power amplifier is connected within a transmission line for amplifying RF signals to be transmitted over the transmission line to the antenna. An antenna switch is carried by the circuit board and connected to the antenna and RF circuitry. An RF shield surrounds the power amplifier and antenna switch isolates the power amplifier and antenna switch from the antenna and RF circuitry. A low pass filter has an input connected to the power amplifier and an output connected to the antenna switch for reducing any RF coupling of voltage standing waves of upper harmonic frequencies from the power amplifier into the antenna switch between the input and output of the low pass filter through the RF shield while maintaining transmission of signals through the transmission line at a desired fundamental frequency. |
| US08099060B2 |
Wireless/wired mobile communication device with option to automatically block wireless communication when connected for wired communication
A mobile wireless communication device also has at least one wired communication port. Enhanced security is achieved by permitting the device to automatically disable one or more wireless ports when connected to a wired port. Specific combinations/permutations of such automatic control may be effected by use of an IT Policy also resident on the device. |
| US08099054B2 |
Mega communication and media apparatus configured for energy harvesting and for boosting signal reception to prevent brain cancerous deseases
Disclosed embodiments comprise an energy harvesting computer device in association with a communication device comprising interactive user interface operatively configured with CMOS multiple antennas on chip for boosting signal receptions and for providing faster data transmission speed. Disclosed embodiment encompasses three modes of communications —the Cell phone, wireless Internet applications, and Global communication and media information. Embodiments provide communication apparatus operable to enhance mobile communication efficiency with touch sensitive display comprising energy harvesting platform in communication with a charging circuit board configured with memories, processors, sensors, and modules. Embodiments further provide a gaming device, a wireless media device configured with touch pads comprising sensors being embedded in silicon substrate and fused in nano-fiber/micro fiber material having excellent electrical characteristics. Certain embodiments provide communication apparatus configured for voice enabled applications comprising human voice auditory operable to convert text into voice auditory and/or voice auditory into text applications. |
| US08099053B2 |
Communication apparatus and communication system
Remote control data is securely transmitted to a device under control. A remote control device transmits an acknowledge request for A ch to the device under control (S21). When the device under control has assigned A ch as the reception channel, acknowledge ACK is received. A ch is assigned as the transmission channel (S23), and a command frame is transmitted through A ch (S24). When acknowledge ACK has not been received, an acknowledge request for B ch is transmitted to the device under control (S25). When the device under control has assigned B ch as the reception channel, acknowledge ACK is received. B ch is assigned as the transmission channel (S27), and a command frame is transmitted through B ch (S28). The remote control device can transmits a command through a channel through which the device under control can receive the command, so that secure remote control can be accomplished. |
| US08099051B2 |
Pilot signal power control apparatus and operation method of pilot signal power control apparatus
A pilot signal power control apparatus to determine a power level of a pilot signal of a primary network to indicate an availability of a wireless resource of thereof to a secondary user of a secondary network according to a cognitive radio technology, the pilot signal power control apparatus and an operation method thereof, the pilot signal power control apparatus including: a prediction unit to predict a noise increase and/or a sensing probability, the noise increase occurring in a primary user of the primary network due to a channel estimation error, and the sensing probability being a probability that a secondary user senses the pilot signal of; a channel capacity calculation unit to calculate a channel capacity of the primary user based on the predicted noise increase and/or sensing probability; and a power level determination unit to determine the power level of the pilot signal using the calculated channel capacity. |
| US08099048B2 |
Wireless communication system using surface acoustic wave (SAW) second harmonic techniques
A system is for encoding information on a passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) device. The system includes a requesting unit configured to wirelessly transmit an impulse signal. The impulse signal is a signal that includes only a single pulse. A SAW device has an interdigital transducer (IDT) configured to physically store coded data. The SAW device is configured to receive the impulse signal. In response to receiving the impulse signal, the SAW device excites the IDT to generate a coded signal that includes the stored coded data and frequency components at a fundamental frequency. |
| US08099047B2 |
Method for controlling the sleep mode on a mobile terminal, corresponding mobile terminal, and corresponding radio access node
The present invention relates to a method for controlling sleep mode in a terminal comprising at least two network interfaces.According to the present invention, the method comprises the steps of: Switching off one of the two interfaces; Activating the switched off interface for a predefined time window upon reception of a predefined signaling message on the other interface. |
| US08099040B2 |
Personal audio player with wireless file sharing and radio recording and timeshifting
A portable MP3 player, which includes radio capability therein. The device includes a radio part which enables receiving radio, either over the airwaves, or via a network. The radio information can be time shared for later use, and sequences within the radio information can be identified for storage within the memory. The memory can store compressed information, such as MP3 information, indicative of songs which are stored. The memory can also store information that is received over the radio. |
| US08099039B2 |
Themed ornaments with Wi-Fi and Wi-Max streaming stations that match the themed ornament
Apparatuses for playing signals received from the internet or other information highway on one or more speakers are described. The apparatus has a receiver for receiving information from a preselected address; a processor for interpreting the signals; and at least one sound emitting device for playing the processed signal. The apparatus has an ornamental design on the outside which is related to the topic of the signals received from the address. |
| US08099033B2 |
Pressure roller interframe oil cleaning device and method
A fuser assembly for an electrostatographic reproduction apparatus including a fuser roller, a pressure roller, and a pressure roller cleaner for cleaning the pressure roller. The pressure roller cleaner has an absorbent portion and a drive mechanism for moving the pressure roller cleaner relative to the pressure roller such that the pressure roller cleaner is selectively located proximate the pressure roller to absorb oil. A controller selectively activates the drive mechanism to move the pressure roller cleaner. |
| US08099028B2 |
Developer supplying apparatus and developer supplying system
A developer supply system including a developer supply apparatus and a developer supply container which is detachably mountable to the apparatus, the system includes the developer supply container including a rotatable container body having an inner space configured and positioned to contain a developer; a feeding portion configured and positioned to feed the developer in the container body to discharge the developer out of the container body with a rotation of the container body; and a hooking portion configured and positioned to engage with the apparatus to receive a rotational force for rotating the container body; the apparatus including a driving member configured and positioned to apply the rotational force; a drive transmitting member configured and positioned to engage with the hooking portion to transmit the rotational force from the driving member to the hooking portion, the drive transmitting member, which has engaged with the hooking portion, being movable between a first position where the drive transmitting member and the driving member are engaged with each other and a second position where the drive transmitting member and the driving member are not engaged with each other; and a displacing member configured and positioned to displace the hooking portion to release an engagement between the hooking portion and the drive transmitting member which is in the second position. |
| US08099025B2 |
Toner stirring device having a pushing member and rotation member for an image forming apparatus
A toner containing section contains toner, and includes a toner stirring member penetrating the toner containing section for stirring the toner. A rotation member is attached to the toner stirring member and revolves around a rotational shaft of the toner stirring member. A pushing member revolves around the rotational shaft of the toner stirring member to push the rotation member. A stopper section having a stopper body is provided to contact the rotation member. An optical detection device is provided to detect the rotation member temporarily stopping at the stopper section. The rotation member separates from the pushing member by own weight and stops at the stopper section waiting for arrival of the pushing device thereon when an amount of toner remaining in the toner containing section decreases to a prescribed level and the pushing member arrives at an upper dead point. The toner stirring member is formed in a crank sate partially plunging into the toner. The rotation member is attached to the toner stirring member at an outside of the toner containing section. |
| US08099022B2 |
Color image forming apparatus
According to an embodiment of the present invention, color drift is prevented from occurring in a color image by detecting a position of a rotation informing mechanism integrally held by one of first, second, and third gears to detect a phase change in full rotation of at least one gear, detecting a position of a rotation informing mechanism integrally held by a fourth gear to detect a phase in full rotation, and setting, on the basis of the detected one phase change and the detected other phase change, phases during start of rotation of the respective gears such that a phase of a fourth image held by an image holding member rotated by the fourth gear coincides with phases of first to third images held by respective image holding members rotated by the first, second, and third gears. |
| US08099020B2 |
Developer cartridge and developing device
A developer cartridge and developing device are provided. The developer cartridge is attachable to and detachable from a developing housing, the developing housing supporting a developer carrier and comprising a drive gear for transmitting a driving force to the developer cartridge. The developer cartridge includes a cartridge housing that is configured to accommodate developer, an agitator that is provided in the cartridge housing and is configured to agitate the developer by the driving force, a transmission gear that is configured to mesh with the agitation gear, the transmission gear meshing with the drive gear when the developer cartridge is installed in the developing housing, and a supporting member that is configured to support the transmission gear movably with respect to the agitation gear while the transmission gear meshes with the agitation gear. |
| US08099016B2 |
Image-forming apparatus
An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion. |
| US08099013B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming unit including sealing member
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit. The image forming unit is detachable with respect to the image forming apparatus. The image forming unit includes a development part, a developer accommodation part, a connection part and a sealing member. The development part develops an electrostatic latent image held on an image holding body by a developer. The developer accommodation part accommodates the developer. The connection part connects the development part and the developer accommodation part. The sealing member unsealably seals the connection part. The sealing member is drawable to outside the image forming apparatus in a direction intersecting with a detaching direction of the image forming unit in such a state that the image forming unit is held therein. |
| US08099009B2 |
Method for print engine synchronization
A print engine synchronization method enables the movement of a first print engine dielectric support member (DSM) having one or more image frames as well as the movement of a second print engine DSM having one or more image frames by monitoring a first frame signal from the moving first print engine DSM and a second frame signal from the moving second print engine DSM. An offset is determined for each of corresponding pairs of frames from the one or more image frames of the first and second print engine DSM and the determined offset for each corresponding pair of frames is compared to a target offset to maintain synchronization between the first and second print engines on a frame by frame basis by adjusting a second print engine DSM velocity based on the comparison of the determined offset and the target offset. |
| US08099006B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image quality correction method used therein
An image forming apparatus includes multiple image forming units to form different single-color images with respective different color developers and a control system to selectively perform a multicolor image forming operation, a specific-color image forming operation, a multicolor image quality correction operation, and a specific-color image quality correction operation. The control system includes an image formation mode detection unit to ascertain which of the multicolor image forming operation and the specific-color image forming operation is performed prior to a request for image quality correction; and a correction instruction unit to order the multicolor image quality correction operation when the multicolor image quality correction operation is requested, the specific-color correction operation when the specific-color image quality correction operation is requested after the specific-color image forming operation, and the multicolor image quality correction operation when the specific-color image quality correction operation is requested after the multicolor image forming operation. |
| US08099005B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A printer determines, in a process control, a reference exposure amount. A charging unit charges a surface of a photosensitive element to a target potential. After an exposure target area on the charged surface of the photosensitive element is exposed to a high adjustment exposure that corresponds to a high-exposure amount area, a control unit determines the reference exposure amount based on the target potential and a detected residual potential that is a result detected by a potential detecting unit as a potential of the target exposure area on the photosensitive element after being exposed to the high adjustment exposure. |
| US08099000B2 |
Direct detection receiver using cross-polarization interferometer for polmux-ask system
A differential delay detection system and method includes an optical splitter to split an incoming optical signal between a first path and a second path. The first path includes a cross-polarization interferometer configured to separately generate polarization independent outputs using split paths and to generate cross-polarization interference outputs, balanced photodetectors to aid in removing cross-polarization beating noise, and a polarization demultiplexer configured to combine the polarization independent outputs and the cross-polarization interference outputs from the cross-polarization interferometer with updated coefficients received from the second path to remove the cross-polarization mixed signals. The second path includes a training signal receiver configured to compute the updated coefficients and output the updated coefficients to the polarization demultiplexer. |
| US08098999B2 |
Multiple channel power monitor
A tunable filter may be utilized to successively tune to different wavelengths. As each wavelength of the wavelength division multiplexed signal is extracted, it may be successively power monitored. Thus, power monitoring may done without requiring separate power monitors for each channel. This results in considerable advantages in some embodiments, including reduced size, reduced complexities in fabrication, and reduced yield issues in some embodiments. |
| US08098994B2 |
Optical interconnection system for transmitting and receiving a three-level signal and method of operating the same
Provided is an optical interconnection system that transmits and receives a three-level signal. The optical interconnection system includes a first and a second optical interconnection device that transmits and receives a two-level signal, and a synthesizer that outputs a three-level signal by synthesizing signals from the first and second optical interconnection devices. The optical interconnection system may transmit and receive a three-level signal while using an optical interconnection device that interconnects a two-level signal. |
| US08098991B2 |
Wideband RF photonic link for dynamic co-site interference mitigation
A method is provided for co-site interference mitigation in an RF communication system. Spectral nulls created in an optical domain may be used to mitigate interfering signals in an RF signal. The method includes: receiving an RF input signal via an antenna; generating two optical signals that are each modulated using the RF signal; creating a phase delay in one of the two optical signals that corresponds with a spectral null at a frequency of an interfering signal; converting the two optical signals into two corresponding electrical signals and combining the two electrical signals to create spectral nulls via interference between the two signals and form a mitigated output signal. In this way, the spectral null offsets the amplitude of the interfering signal, thereby reducing the signal strength of the interfering signal. |
| US08098989B2 |
All-optical wavelength conversion for a polarization multiplexing optical signal
An apparatus includes a first laser source for providing a first lightwave; a first optical coupler that is polarization maintaining for dividing the first lightwave into first and second optical carrier lightwaves; first and second modulators for modulating respective ones of the first and second carrier lightwaves with information; a polarization beam combiner for combining the modulated first and second carrier lightwaves which generates a polarization multiplexing optical signal; second and third lasers for providing second and third lightwaves whose wavelengths are one of both longer than that of the first lightwave and shorter than that of the first lightwave, a second optical coupler that is polarization maintaining for combining the second and third lightwaves; and a third optical coupler for combining the modulated first and second carrier lightwaves from the polarization beam combiner and the combined second and third lightwaves out of the second optical coupler for transmission over an optical medium. |
| US08098988B2 |
Optical add/drop multiplexer
A disclosed optical add/drop multiplexing device demultiplexes a first signal into multiple signals according to wavelengths, drops one or more of the demultiplexed signals to a transponder, adds one or more signals output from the transponder, multiplexes these signals into a second signal, and outputs it. The device includes an injecting unit for injecting one of measurement signals, each of whose wavelength corresponds to that of a different demultiplexed signal, into a core of a multicore cable within the device, the core being used to transmit the different demultiplexed signal having the corresponding wavelength; a preventing unit for preventing the one measurement signal from emanating; a measuring unit for measuring, for each wavelength, levels of the one measurement signal before and after the corresponding core; a calculating unit for calculating loss of the corresponding core, based on the measured levels; and an informing unit for reporting the calculated loss. |
| US08098986B2 |
Camera with light emitting function
For flash photography, a rise of a flash emission control pulse precedes emission timing by a predetermined period. A start of flash emission of a flash lamp precedes a start of exposure of an image sensor. Since the start of the emission is earlier than the start of the exposure, a period of unstable flash emission can be excluded from an exposure time T of the image sensor. The exclusion prevents a captured image from being affected by the period of unstable flash emission. Accordingly, it becomes possible to ensure high color reproducibility for photography with auxiliary light. |
| US08098983B2 |
Zoom lens system, interchangeable lens apparatus and camera system
A zoom lens system is provided that includes a compactly constructed focusing lens unit and that has a suppressed change in the image magnification at the time of movement of a focusing lens unit. The zoom lens system, in order from an object side to an image side, comprises at least: a first lens unit having positive optical power; a second lens unit having negative optical power; a third lens unit having negative optical power; and an aperture diaphragm. At the time of zooming, the zoom lens system moves the first to third lens units so that intervals between these lens units vary. At the time of focusing from an infinity in-focus condition to a close-point object in-focus condition, the zoom lens system moves the third lens unit to the object side. |
| US08098980B2 |
Information record medium, information record device and method, information reproduction device and method, information record/reproduction device and method, recording or reproduction control,computer program and data structure including a control signal
On an information recode medium, a whole stream containing a plurality of partial streams each consisting of content information including still picture information is multiplexed and recorded on packet basis. The information record medium includes a file for storing object data consisting of a plurality of packets each containing a fragment of content information and a file for storing information defining the reproduction sequence of the object data. Furthermore, the information record medium includes an object information file for storing classification information indicating whether each object data corresponds to a first encoding method or a second encoding method. |
| US08098978B2 |
Recording medium having data structure for managing reproduction of still images recorded thereon and recording and reproducing methods and apparatuses
The recording medium includes a data area storing still images and audio data in separate files and a navigation area storing navigation information for reproducing the still images and the audio data together as a slideshow. The navigation information may be included in a playlist, and/or one of a playitem field and a sub-playitem field may provide the navigation information. |
| US08098974B2 |
Method and system of format converting and recording for optical storage media
A format converting and recording method and system for optical storage media including the steps of converting several first optical storage medium information files into the second optical storage medium through generating corresponding navigation tables which gather at a management file, transmitting image of the first optical storage medium to the second optical storage medium, and then generating a destination disc according to the management file. Thus, the operation process is simplified and the problem of lacking in playback control is solved. |
| US08098970B2 |
Composite waveguide
A composite waveguide includes a central core configured to transmit a plurality of modes and at least one side core helically wound about the central core and configured to be selectively coupled to at least a portion of the plurality of modes in the central core. |
| US08098968B2 |
Silicide thermal heaters for silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic devices
A thermally switched Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) photo electronic device includes a silicon layer including an optical waveguide and a silicide heating element horizontally adjacent to the waveguide. The waveguide has a refractive index that changes with heat applied to the waveguide. |
| US08098967B1 |
Generator protection system
A magnetic flux sensor is disclosed. The sensor comprises an optical fiber and at least one twin-grating structure formed on the optical fiber. Each twin-grating structure comprises a first optical grating structure, a second optical grating structure adjacent the first optical grating structure, and a sensing cavity disposed between the first and second optical grating structures. Each twin-grating structure is selectively responsive to a unique wavelength of light to generate an optical interference fringe signal. The sensor also includes a magnetostrictive coating disposed over each twin-grating structure to change an optical property of the twin-grating structure and a phase of the optical interference fringe signal when the magnetostrictive coating is exposed to changing magnetic flux. |
| US08098966B2 |
Thermal sensing fiber devices
There is provided a thermal sensing fiber grid, including a plurality of rows and columns of thermal sensing fibers, each of which includes a semiconducting element that has a fiber length and that is characterized by a bandgap energy corresponding to a selected operational temperature range of the fiber in which there can be produced a change in thermally-excited electronic charge carrier population in the semiconducting element in response to a temperature change in the selected temperature range. There is included at least one pair of conducting electrodes in contact with the semiconducting element along the fiber length, and an insulator along the fiber length. An electronic circuit is provided for and connected to each thermal sensing fiber for producing an indication of thermal sensing fiber grid coordinates of a change in ambient temperature. |
| US08098963B2 |
Resolution conversion apparatus, method and program
An apparatus includes unit acquiring a target image as a target of resolution conversion, unit acquiring an additional image from the image source, unit estimating a corresponding point in the target image using corresponding point estimation methods, the corresponding point being associated with at least one pixel in the additional image to obtain corresponding points in the target image, unit setting a pixel value of each pixel included in the additional image as a sampling value for the corresponding point when each pixel is set as a target pixel, to obtain sampling values for pixels included in the additional image, and unit generating an image of a first resolution into which a second resolution of the target image is converted, using pixel values and positions of pixels included in the target image, and the sampling values and positions of the corresponding points. |
| US08098962B2 |
Signal processing method, apparatus, and program
A method includes inputting to-be-processed data including a set of first-N-dimensional-coordinate values in an N-dimensional space and first-sampling values, inputting search-pattern data including a set of second-N-dimensional-coordinate values in the N-dimensional space and second-sampling values, setting a set of virtual-corresponding points designated by third-N-dimensional-coordinate values, acquiring input patterns each including third-sampling values within a first range with reference to a corresponding virtual-corresponding point, acquiring search patterns each including fourth-sampling-values within a second range with reference to a corresponding second-N-dimensional-coordinate value of the second-N-dimensional-coordinate values in correspondence with each of the second-N-dimensional-coordinate values, detecting, from the search pattern data, an estimated pattern including one search pattern and having smaller differences with respect to the input patterns than other search patterns, setting sampling values at first positions corresponding to the virtual-corresponding points in the estimated pattern as sampling values at the virtual-corresponding points, and converting a sampling rate of the to-be-processed data. |
| US08098960B2 |
Image processing apparatus, computer readable medium storing program, image processing method, and computer data signal
An image processing apparatus includes: a table generation unit that generates a table in which a coefficient set including predetermined weighting coefficients and pixels contained in a resolution converted image are related to each other on the basis of a size of an input image and a size of a resolution converted image; a coefficient selecting unit that selects a coefficient set to be applied for a calculation of a pixel value in the resolution converted image out of plural coefficient sets on the basis of a table generated by the table generation unit; and a pixel value calculating unit that calculates pixel values to be used in the resolution converted image resulting from the resolution conversion of the input image on the basis of the coefficient set selected by the coefficient selecting unit and plural pixel values contained in the input image. |
| US08098956B2 |
Digital microscope slide scanning system and methods
Provided herein are systems methods including a design of a microscope slide scanner for digital pathology applications which provides high quality images and automated batch-mode operation at low cost. The instrument architecture is advantageously based on a convergence of high performance, yet low cost, computing technologies, interfaces and software standards to enable high quality digital microscopy at very low cost. Also provided is a method based in part on a stitching method that allows for dividing an image into a number of overlapping tiles and reconstituting the image with a magnification without substantial loss of accuracy. A scanner is employed in capturing snapshot images. The method allows for overlapping images captured in consecutive snapshots. |
| US08098955B2 |
Efficient selection and application of regions of interest in digital imaging
An imaging device has a plurality of predefined regions of interest. The predefined regions of interest may be selected or deselected. Image data from selected regions of interest is transmitted to a host. In some embodiments the regions of interest comprise tiles. A set of selected tiles may be identified by a bit vector. An example application provides a digital camera configured to provide predefined regions of interest. The camera may be configured to permit a host to select or deselect the regions of interest. |
| US08098950B2 |
Method and apparatus for segmentation-based image operations
A technique is provided for processing image data based upon determination of whether pixilated data tends to represent or exhibit one characteristic or another. Many such characteristics may be considered, such as whether the pixels probably represent structures or non-structures. Multiple thresholds for the classification of segmentation are used, and pixels falling within an overlapping regions are processed as if they exhibited both characteristics. Subsequent processing may include assignment of values for the overlapping pixels, such as by weighted blending. |
| US08098949B2 |
Method and system for imaging with a zoom
An imaging system and method are presented for use in imaging with zoom. The system comprises a pixel detector array (PDA), an optical focusing arrangement, and a spatial filter configured and operable to selectively switch between at least two transmitting states. Distributions of an optical resolution of the optical focusing arrangement and of a geometrical resolution of the PDA define an aliasing window along an at least one direction. |
| US08098948B1 |
Method, apparatus, and system for reducing blurring in an image
A method of processing an image includes obtaining the image; determining a point spread function for the image; applying a filter, based on the point spread function, to at least a portion of the image to form a filtered image; and generating a processed image by blending the filtered image with the image or another filtered image, wherein a first portion of the processed image is generated using a different amount of blending of the filtered image with the image or other filtered image than is used for a second portion of the processed image. |
| US08098945B2 |
Method and system for binarizing an image
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for binarizing an image. The method comprises establishing boundaries of image objects of the image and classifying each image object as either suspect or non-suspect. The method further comprises creating a local binarization threshold map comprising threshold binarization values associated with image objects classified as non-suspect and then expanding the local binarization threshold map to cover the entire image thereby to create a global binarization threshold map for the entire image. |
| US08098943B2 |
Apparatus and method for encoding digital image data in a lossless manner
A method of losslessly compressing and encoding signals representing image information is claimed. A lossy compressed data file and a residual compressed data file are generated. When the lossy compressed data file and the residual compressed data file are combined, a lossless data file that is substantially identical to the original data file is created. |
| US08098940B2 |
Method of and apparatus for encoding signals, and method of and apparatus for decoding the encoded signals
A method of and an apparatus for encoding and decoding using transformation bases of a yet higher efficiency. In a method for encoding an object signal in compliance with a transformation rule, a signal correlating to the object signal is obtained, and a transformation base that forms the transformation rule is derived based on a characteristic of the obtained reference signal. The object signal is transformed and encoded in compliance with the transformation rule based on the derived transformation base. Accordingly, the object signal is transformed in compliance with the transformation rule based on the transformation base derived from the characteristic of the reference signal. Since the reference signal is correlated to the object signal, the transformation base derived from the characteristic matches the feature of the object signal. |
| US08098939B2 |
Adversarial approach for identifying inappropriate text content in images
An adversarial approach in detecting inappropriate text content in images. An expression from a listing of expressions may be selected. The listing of expressions may include words, phrases, or other textual content indicative of a particular type of message. Using the selected expression as a reference, the image is searched for a section that could be similar to the selected expression. The similarity between the selected expression and the section of the image may be in terms of shape. The section may be scored against the selected expression to determine how well the selected expression matches the section. The score may be used to determine whether or not the selected expression is present in the image. |
| US08098938B1 |
Systems and methods for descriptor vector computation
Systems and methods for descriptor vector computation are described herein. An embodiment includes (a) identifying a plurality of regions in the digital image; (b) normalizing the regions using at least a similarity or affine transform such that the normalized regions have the same orientation and size as a pre-determined reference region; (c) generating one or more wavelets using dimensions of the reference region; (d) generating one or more dot products between each of the one or more wavelets, respectively, and the normalized regions; (e) concatenating amplitudes of the one or more dot products to generate a descriptor vector; and (f) outputting a signal corresponding to the descriptor vector. |
| US08098933B2 |
Method and apparatus for partitioning an object from an image
A method and apparatus for partitioning an object from an image, such that substantially the entire object is contained in the partitioned region, includes pre-setting a reference width for the object; extracting a shadow underneath the object from the image and determining a candidate region containing the object in the image based on the extracted shadow underneath an object in the image; acquiring an imaging width of the reference width at the location of the extracted shadow underneath the object in the image, and adjusting the candidate region based on the imaging width of the reference width such that the adjusted candidate region substantially completely contains the object; and partitioning the adjusted candidate region as a region containing the object from the image. |
| US08098931B2 |
Method for adaptively selecting filters to interpolate video data
A method for adaptively selecting filters to interpolate video data is provided. In the present method, when receiving video data encoded by a 4:2:2 sampling format, a plurality of filters having different weights are adaptively selected to convert the color components in the video data to a 4:4:4 sampling format based on the differences of luminance and color components among a target pixel and neighboring pixels thereof. Accordingly, the blurs occurred in an area with large color variation can be removed or reduced, such that the interpolated color components can be accepted by human eyes more easily. |
| US08098925B2 |
Photoconductors and processes thereof
The presently disclosed embodiments relate in general to electrophotographic imaging members, such as layered photoreceptor structures, and processes for making and using the same. More particularly, the embodiments pertain to an improved photoreceptor that exhibits little to no response to injected charges and demonstrates excellent ghosting properties. |
| US08098924B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining if an optical disk originated from a valid source
A method and apparatus for determining if an optical disk originated from a valid source, the method and apparatus scanning one major surface of the optical disk for imperfections, storing the locations of the imperfections relative to a datum, comparing a parameter of each of the locations of the imperfections with corresponding parameters of a master disk of known source for determining if the disk originated from the source from which the master disk originated. |
| US08098921B2 |
Elastic image display method and elastic image display device
According to a 2-dimensional map having longitudinal and horizontal axes indicating different elastic information, hue or luminance of each pixel is mapped correspondingly to their elastic information, and the elastic information is combined to construct one elastic image. With this, a plurality of items of elastic information can be combined into one elastic image and displayed, and thereby the elastic image can be scanned in real time while observing it. Even where one item of elastic information may be in a gray zone, i.e., benign or malignant, another item of information may definitely show the differentiation between benign or malignant, and therefore highly accurate differentiation is possible. In addition, the user can perform diagnosis with the elastic image into which the plurality of items of elastic information is combined without moving the line of sight, thereby obtaining an improved visibility. |
| US08098913B2 |
Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and image filtering method of the same
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus uses the pixel value of each of the pixels found in a predetermined range relative to a reference position of image data as input matrix and computes an output value corresponding to the input at its image processing section. Thereafter, the sorting filter of the image processing section sorts the elements of each row of the input matrix on a column by column basis. Then, it extracts a partial matrix having the row including the reference position and surrounding rows from the matrix obtained as a result of the sorting and having a number of rows smaller than number of rows of the input matrix and a number of columns same as the number of columns of the input matrix. Furthermore, it computationally determines the median of the elements of the partial matrix and outputs the median as the output value. |
| US08098909B2 |
Method and apparatus for efficient three-dimensional contouring of medical images
A technique is disclosed for generating a new contour and/or a 3D surface such as a variational implicit surface from contour data. In one embodiment, B-spline interpolation is used to efficiently generate a new contour (preferably a transverse contour), from a plurality of input contours (preferably, sagittal and/or coronal contours). In another embodiment, a point reduction operation is performed on data sets corresponding to any combination of transverse, sagittal, or coronal contour data prior to processing those data sets to generate a 3D surface such as a variational implicit surface. A new contour can also be generated by the intersection of this surface with an appropriately placed and oriented plane. In this manner, the computation of the variational implicit surface becomes sufficiently efficient to make its use for new contour generation practical. |
| US08098907B2 |
Method and system for local adaptive detection of microaneurysms in digital fundus images
A local adaptive method is proposed for automatic detection of microaneurysms in a digital ocular fundus image. Multiple subregions of the image are automatically analyzed and adapted to local intensity variation and properties. A priori region and location information about structural features such as vessels, optic disk and hard exudates are incorporated to further improve the detection accuracy. The method effectively improves the specificity of microaneurysms detection, without sacrificing sensitivity. The method may be used in automatic level-one grading of diabetic retinopathy screening. |
| US08098905B2 |
Avatars in social interactive television
Virtual environments are presented on displays along with multimedia programs to permit viewers to participate in a social interactive television environment. The virtual environments include avatars that are created and maintained in part using continually updated animation data that may be captured from cameras that monitor viewing areas in a plurality of sites. User input from the viewers may be processed in determining which viewers are presented in instances of the virtual environment. Continually updating the animation data results in avatars accurately depicting a viewer's facial expressions and other characteristics. Presence data may be collected and used to determine when to capture background images from a viewing area that may later be subtracted during the capture of animation data. Speech recognition technology may be employed to provide callouts within a virtual environment. |
| US08098896B2 |
Album generating apparatus, album generating method and computer readable medium
There is provided an album generating apparatus for generating an album in which a desirable combination of images is disposed in one and same page. The album generating apparatus has an image storing section for storing a plurality of images, an object sampling section for sampling objects contained in each image stored in the image storing section, a relationship judging section for judging that a relationship of the first object with the second object is high when a number of images containing the first and second objects sampled by the object sampling section is larger than a reference number set in advance in the images stored in the image storing section, a main image selecting section for selecting a main image that is to be a primary object in the album out of the plurality of images stored in the image storing section, a subsidiary image selecting section for selecting the image containing the second object that has been judged by the relationship judging section to be highly related with the first object contained in the main image selected as a subsidiary and a layout determining section for laying out the main image and the subsidiary image in the album based on contents of the main image and the subsidiary image. |
| US08098884B2 |
Verification system and method in a document processing environment
A feeder control system and method are disclosed. The system includes a feeder information detector, and a feeder information leverager to provide integrity verification, system control and/or reporting. The method includes the steps of detecting feeder information, and leveraging the feeder information to provide integrity verification, system control and/or reporting. |
| US08098883B2 |
Watermarking of data invariant to distortion
A data set is transformed to a domain in which values are robust to distortion. The values are then expanded to carry auxiliary data. To recover the data, the data set is transformed into the domain, further transformed to get a set of possibly expanded data, and then processed to extract auxiliary data from the expanded values. |
| US08098879B2 |
Information processing device, image movement instructing method, and information storage medium
To provide an information processing device, an image movement instructing method, and an information storage medium for selecting any of a plurality of images in a simple operation and for designating a destination to which to move the selected image or images. The image processing device comprises an image displaying unit for displaying one or more images on a display screen; a track acquiring unit for acquiring a finite track at a position designated by a user on the display screen; an image selecting unit for selecting some or all of the one or more object images based on the track acquired by the track acquiring unit; and an image moving unit for moving the object image selected by the image selecting unit to a position in accordance with an end point of the track acquired by the track acquiring unit. |
| US08098878B2 |
Miniature voice coil with integrated coupling coil
The present invention relates to a miniature electro-acoustic transducer comprising a voice coil comprising an air gap voice coil portion at least partly positioned in an air gap of a magnet assembly, and a second voice coil portion attached to a diaphragm of the miniature transducer. The thickness of the second voice coil portion is 2-5 times larger than the thickness of the first voice coil portion. Moreover, the present invention relates to a voice coil for use in a miniature electro-acoustic transducer. |
| US08098877B2 |
Vibration speaker and a portable electronic device comprising the vibration speaker
A vibration speaker for a portable electronic device is disclosed herein. The vibration speaker comprises a case. A loudspeaker member for generating a sound is contained in the case. The loudspeaker member comprises a frame, a magnet, a voice coil and a membrane. The voice coil is operable to generate a movement of the membrane vertically up and down when an electric current is applied to the voice coil and a magnetic field is formed by interaction between the voice coil and the magnet. The vibration speaker additionally comprises a vibration coil for generating a vibration. The vibration coil is positioned in relation to the magnet of the loudspeaker member such that the vibration coil is operable to generate a movement of the entire loudspeaker member vertically up and down when an electric current is applied to the vibration coil and a magnetic field is formed by interaction between the vibration coil and the magnet. Metal springs may be positioned to elastically support between the loudspeaker member and the case. |
| US08098874B2 |
Hanging type earphone with a hinge unit
A hanging type earphone with a hinge unit includes an earphone body, a hang member and a hinge unit. The earphone body has a connecting base defining a receiving space. The hinge unit received in the receiving space includes a positioning base, an axis cover and a pivotal axis having a mating portion whose cross-section is a polygon. The axis cover presses against the positioning base to form a pivotal space, one end of the pivotal axis is fixed in the hang member and the other end passes through the pivotal space, the mating portion mates with the side walls of the axis cover, thereby, the earphone body is positioned after rotating relatively to the hang member. Moreover, the pivot axis can be pulled out from the pivotal hole and then inserted into the pivotal space from the opposite direction, so the hanging type earphone can be hung on either ear of the user. |
| US08098870B2 |
Silicon microphone
A silicon microphone comprising a backplate of electrically conductive or semi-conductive material comprising a rigid aperture area and a surrounding area, a diaphragm of electrically conductive or semi-conductive material comprising a flexible member that extends over the aperture area and a surrounding area that is at least partially connected to, and insulated from, the surrounding area of the backplate, the aperture area of the backplate and flexible member of the diaphragm forming two parallel plates of a capacitor spaced apart by a cavity, a bond pad formed on the surrounding area of the diaphragm, a bond pad formed on the surrounding area of the backplate, a channel formed in the diaphragm surrounding the bond pad formed on the surrounding area of the backplate, at least one air channel formed in the surrounding area of the diaphragm and open into the cavity between the flexible member and the aperture area of the backplate, and at least one vent through the surrounding area of the diaphragm connected to each air channel. |
| US08098869B2 |
Loudspeaker damper, manufacturing method thereof, and loudspeaker and electronic device using the same
A loudspeaker damper, a manufacturing method thereof, and a loudspeaker, electronic equipment and device using the loudspeaker damper. The damper has flexibility. Therefore, even if a large input is applied and the damper oscillates with a large amplitude, a resin layer provided on the surface of the damper base material is not cracked due to partial interface peeling. Thus, the damper follows such a large amplitude and realizes high input-resistance. This loudspeaker damper material is obtained by impregnating a material with thermosetting resin including 2 to 20 wt % of flexibility imparting agent and heat-curing thereof. |
| US08098866B2 |
Receiver device with manipulable sound outlet direction
Provided is a receiver device with an earpiece for securing the receiver device in an auditory canal. The receiver device further comprises a receiver with a sound outlet direction and an adapter for affixing the receiver in the earpiece, with a sound from the receiver being conducted through the adapter. The adapter diverts the sound from the sound outlet direction in a divergent direction. |
| US08098864B2 |
Receiver tube and retaining clamp assembly for a hearing instrument receiver
A receiver tube for a hearing instrument may be securely affixed to the instruments receiver with a retaining clamp. Such an arrangement facilitates assembly and repair, and provides a positive means for the securing the receiver tube. |
| US08098863B2 |
Hearing apparatus having an electrical control element integrated in a cover
Hearing apparatuses and in particular hearing devices are to be designed smaller. To this end, provision is made to integrate an electrical control facility for controlling the hearing apparatus into the cover for covering a programming connection of the hearing apparatus. This multifunctionality of the cover allows installation space to be saved. It is particularly favorable if an actuating element of an electrical push button is mounted to the same bolt, to which the cover itself is also mounted. |
| US08098861B2 |
Battery compartment door
A battery compartment door for an electronic device, said door being operable between open and closed conditions of use with respect to the device, including a cradle shaped to at least partially receive a terminal of a battery, wherein the cradle is adapted to electrically couple the terminal to an electric circuit of the device when the door is arranged in the closed condition of use. |
| US08098859B2 |
Methods, devices and systems using signal processing algorithms to improve speech intelligibility and listening comfort
Methods, devices and systems for improving hearing and for treating hearing disorders, such as auditory neuropathies. A hearing enhancement system of this invention generally comprises; an amplitude modulation processor, a frequency high-pass processor, a frequency upward-shifting processor and a formant upward-shifting processor. |
| US08098857B2 |
Hearing aid having an audio signal generator and method
The invention relates to a hearing aid having a sound receiver and a sound generator. The hearing aid also has an audio signal unit that is functionally linked to the sound generator and has a tone signal generator for generating a tone signal as a function of a trigger signal and of a generation parameter which represents a frequency that can be perceived by a human ear. The hearing aid also has a memory, connected to the tone signal generator, for storing the generation parameter. The audio signal unit changes the generation parameter stored in the memory, generates a trigger signal for each tone signal requiring to be generated, sends said trigger signal to the tone signal generator, and sends the generated tone signal to the sound generator. |
| US08098851B2 |
User interface for network audio mixers
Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a first mixer connects to a network and if a second mixer is detected on the network, the first mixer obtains an identifier for the second mixer, adds one or more audio signals from the second mixer to a mix of the first mixer, and stores a mix setting for the second mixer on the first mixer. If the second mixer is subsequently connected to the first mixer, the first mixer obtains the identifier for the second mixer, recalls the stored mix setting for the second mixer based at least in part on the identifier, and adds one or more audio signals from the second mixer to a present mix of the first mixer based at least in part on the recalled mix setting. |
| US08098850B2 |
Digital mixer
A digital mixer is capable of assigning a desired parameter to an encoder provided in a channel strip on a panel of the digital mixer. The digital mixer assigns a parameter, which corresponds to one of knob controls having switches operable to be turned on, to each encoder provided in a channel strip section on the panel in response to the operation of the switch of the one knob control provided in a selected channel section. The knob controls with the switches are not graphic symbols displayed on a display screen, but are physically disposed on the panel. Accordingly, it is possible to assign a desired parameter to an encoder with no mistake by operating a desired knob control with a switch to be turned on without a mistake. |
| US08098840B2 |
Multi-channel output device for a multimedia device
A multi-channel output device for a multimedia device includes a plurality of reception ends, an amplifier having an input end and an output end, a plurality of sound output devices for outputting sound, a first switching unit coupled between the plurality of reception ends and the input end of the amplifier for coupling a reception end of the plurality of reception ends to the input end of the amplifier according to a control signal, a second switching unit coupled between the output end of the amplifier and the plurality of sound output devices for coupling the output end of the amplifier to a sound output device of the plurality of sound output devices according to the control signal, and a control unit coupled to the first switching unit and the second switching unit for outputting the control signal. |
| US08098835B2 |
Method and apparatus to enhance low frequency component of audio signal by calculating fundamental frequency of audio signal
A method and apparatus to enhance a low frequency component of an audio signal, by computing a fundamental frequency of an input audio signal using the input audio signal and a delayed audio signal obtained by delaying the input audio signal by a predetermined amount of time, generating harmonic signals from the input audio signal based on the fundamental frequency, and combining the harmonic signals and the input audio signal. The low frequency component of the audio signal can be enhanced using human characteristics of perception without physically boosting the energy of the low frequency component. |
| US08098830B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing noise in an audio signal
A technique for reducing inherent noise in a real time digital audio wireless system. The technique allows for low power stereo analog to digital and digital to analog converters to be used in a battery operated real time digital audio wireless applications. The audio signal is sent to the left and right channels of an analog to digital converter with a preceding audio amp of different gain at the input to each channel. The signals are simultaneously digitized then combined to generate a new digital value resulting in noise reduction at lower amplitudes. This new data word is then transmitted via radio waves to a digital audio receiver. Once the data is received it is output simultaneously to a stereo digital to analog converter. The digital to analog conversion of both left and right channels is then summed using a resistor network and an audio amplifier. The audio amplifier output is then reduced to create further reduction of noise at all amplitudes. |
| US08098825B2 |
Method and system for enhancing data encryption using multiple-key lists
A method for enhancing data encryption using multiple-key lists is disclosed. A first multiple-key list and a second multiple-key list for a decryption key are created, wherein each multiple-key list comprises plural partial decryption keys. Content to be accessed is encrypted using an encryption key corresponding to the decryption key. The first multiple-key list is stored in a hidden area of a memory device storing the content. The second multiple-key list is stored in the memory device. When the memory device is installed on an electronic device, an application installed in the electronic device is activated to select a first partial decryption key from the first multiple-key list stored in the hidden area and a second partial decryption key from the memory device, re-organizes and codes the first and second partial decryption keys to recover the decryption key, and decrypts the content using the decryption key, enabling the electronic device to access the content. |
| US08098824B2 |
Storage apparatus and data management method
Provided is a storage system that includes a first storage apparatus and a second storage apparatus each connected to a host computer. The first and second storage apparatuses each include a controller and a disk drive. The controller manages an encryption status and an encryption key for each of a data volume and a journal volume in the disk drive. The controller in the first storage apparatus receives a write request from the host computer, creates a journal based on write data, encrypts the journal, and stores in an order the journal in a storage area in the journal volume. The controller in the order the encrypted journal stored in the journal volume, decrypts the journal, and transmits the decrypted journal to the second storage apparatus. |
| US08098820B2 |
Conditional access system for broadcast digital television
A method for managing access to scrambled broadcast or transmitted events received from a variety of service providers (including broadcast television networks, cable television networks, digital satellite systems). Each service provider employs the same public key for descrambling the access information message thereby permitting a user to access events from various service providers without changing the smart card. The method may also be expanded to manage access to a scrambled package of broadcast events. |
| US08098818B2 |
Secure registration for a multicast-broadcast-multimedia system (MBMS)
A method and an apparatus for secure registration for a multicast-broadcast-multimedia system (MBMS) are disclosed. A random number is generated by a broadcast-multicast-service center (BM-SC) and broadcast to user equipment in the coverage area of a radio access network (RAN). A memory module or smart card (UICC) in the user equipment generates a radio access network key (RAK) which is a function of the random number and a key selected from the group consisting of a public land mobile network key (PK) and a broadcast access key (BAK), and then generates a temporary registration key (RGK) as a function of the RAK, a service identification number and a user identification number, for example, P-TMSI, which may be extracted by the RAN to authenticate the registration as legitimate. |
| US08098817B2 |
Methods and apparatus for mixing encrypted data with unencrypted data
Methods and apparatus for mixing encrypted data with unencrypted data are disclosed. A disclosed system receives data from a first media source, such as DVD-Audio content, and encrypts the data from the first media source using a key stream to form an encrypted data stream. The disclosed system may separate the encrypted data stream into a plurality of encrypted data streams and may combine the plurality of encrypted data streams with an unencrypted data stream associated with a second media source to form a mixed data stream. The mixed data stream is formed without decrypting the plurality of encrypted data streams and is transmitted to hardware or a hardware driver. |
| US08098811B2 |
Methods and systems for selectively playing received ringtones
Methods and systems are described for selectively playing received ringtones. Receipt at a communication device of an incoming voice call that includes a ringtone is detected. A ringtone preselected for the communication device is played in response to receiving the incoming call. Prior to receiving input for answering the call at the communication device, user input for one of playing and not playing the received ringtone at the communication device is received. The received ringtone is played or not played based on the received user input. |
| US08098810B2 |
Intelligent presence management in a communication routing system
Systems and methods for intelligent presence management in a communication routing system are provided. In exemplary embodiments, an inbound communication may be received for a user. The user's presence status is determined and a profile associated with the user is reviewed. Based on rules contained within the profile, appropriate instructions may be generated for routing the inbound communication in accordance with some embodiments. In other embodiments, instructions may be generated to log the user in or out with the communication routing system. |
| US08098803B1 |
Method and apparatus for call gapping of wholesale customer traffic in a communication network
A method and apparatus for enabling wholesale network service providers to selectively block calls from wholesale customers who are exceeding their traffic projections based on pre-arranged agreements. The present method also enables wholesale network service providers to notify their wholesale customers that the subscribed traffic projections, such as call minute usage, begins to approach their maximum established volume. When the maximum established volume is exceeded by the wholesale customer, the present method provides parameters for adjusting the degree to which calls from the providers will be blocked, either gracefully by blocking calls partially or completely by blocking all incoming calls. |
| US08098801B2 |
Systems and methods for information exchange and synchronization using DTMF over telephone communication channels
Systems, methods, protocols and apparatus for information exchange and synchronization using DTMF signaling over telephone communication channels are provided. Information is packetized and converted from one format, e.g., ASCII formatted data, to another format, e.g., BCD formatted data. The information is wrapped in one or more packets by a sending apparatus, each packet including one or more headers, such as a Name and Length field that identify the information being exchanged and the amount of data included in the packet payload/value field. The data in the packets are converted from BCD to DTMF signals and are transmitted over a telephone communication line to a receiving apparatus. The receiving apparatus converts the DTMF signals back to BCD formatted data and processes the packets to obtain the information contained therein. |
| US08098790B2 |
Systems and methods for storing spent nuclear fuel
Systems and methods for storing spent nuclear fuel below grade that afford adequate ventilation of the spent fuel storage cavity. In one aspect, the invention is a system comprising: a shell forming a cavity for receiving a canister of spent nuclear fuel, at least a portion of the shell positioned below grade; and at least one inlet ventilation duct extending from an above grade inlet to a below grade outlet at or near a bottom of the cavity; the inlet ventilation duct connected to the shell so that the cavity is hermetically sealed to ingress of below grade fluids. In another aspect, the invention is a method comprising: providing a below grade hole; providing a system comprising a shell forming a cavity for receiving a canister of spent nuclear fuel, at least a portion of the shell positioned below grade, and at least one inlet ventilation duct extending from an inlet to an outlet at or near a bottom of the cavity, the inlet ventilation duct connected to the shell; positioning the apparatus in the hole so that the inlet of the inlet ventilation duct is above grade and the outlet of the inlet ventilation duct into the cavity is below grade; filling the hole with engineered fill; and lowering a spent fuel canister into the cavity. |
| US08098785B2 |
Signal processing circuit
A signal processing circuit detects a pulsative change point of an input signal and sets a phase point which is shifted by a predetermined phase difference from the detected pulsative change point of the input signal as the timing for sampling the input signal. |
| US08098781B1 |
Communications system using adaptive filter with normalization circuit
A communications system receives a modulated signal that carries encoded communications data. An adaptive filter has a plurality of non-adaptive and adaptive filter taps with weighted coefficients and a input and output normalizing circuit that obtain sample values from a received signal input to or output from the adaptive filter to increase gain recovery based on type of modulation of encoded communication data, on state of demodulator (preamble search, preamble detected, data state) or other signal acquisition information. A demodulator and decoder receive the filtered output signal and demodulate and decode the signal to obtain the communications data. |
| US08098780B2 |
Rake receiver finger assignment based on signal path concentration
A rake receiver finger assignor is configured to assign a rake receiver finger to a time offset between identified signal path time offsets in accordance with a concentration of identified signal paths from a transmitter to a rake receiver. In accordance with the exemplary embodiment, a number of identified signal paths having time offsets within a time window are observed to determine the concentration of signal paths identified by a path searcher. If the number of identified signal paths indicates a concentrated distribution of signal paths such as during a fat path condition, at least one rake finger is assigned between at a time offset between two identified signal paths. |
| US08098779B2 |
Interference detection and mitigation
Techniques for detecting and mitigating interference are described. A device (e.g., a cellular phone) senses interference levels and digitally reconstructs the expected interference in the received signal. The device may correlate the reconstructed interference with the received signal and determine interference in the received signal based on correlation results. The device may adjust the operation of one or more circuit blocks (e.g., a mixer, an LNA, etc.) in a receiver based on the detected interference in the received signal. Alternatively or additionally, the device may condition the digital interference to obtain conditioned reconstructed interference matching the interference in the received signal and may then subtract the conditioned interference from the received signal. |
| US08098776B2 |
Method and system for pre-equalization in a single weight spatial multiplexing MIMO system
Certain aspects of the method may comprise receiving a plurality of spatially multiplexed communication signals from a plurality of transmit antennas at a base station. A plurality of vectors of baseband combined channel estimates may be generated based on phase rotation of the received plurality of spatially multiplexed communication signals. A plurality of pre-equalization weights may be generated based on the generated plurality of vectors of baseband combined channel estimates. The received plurality of spatially multiplexed communication signals may be modified based on the generated plurality of pre-equalization weights. At least a portion of the generated plurality of pre-equalization weights may be fed back to the base station for modifying subsequently transmitted spatially multiplexed communication signals which are transmitted from at least a portion of the plurality of transmit antennas at the base station. |
| US08098774B1 |
Methods and apparatus for providing a ML decoding pipeline for QPSK MIMO OFDM receivers
Methods and apparatus are provided for performing LLR value computations in a pipeline. Portions of a metric used to compute LLR values are computed in one pipeline part. The portions correspond to all permutations of some received signal streams. The portions are combined with one permutation x2 of the received signal stream that was not included in the previous pipeline computation in a subsequent pipeline part to produce M values associated with a particular bit position. At each subsequent clock cycle, a different permutation of x2 is combined with the previously computed portions producing different M values. State values corresponding to different values of bit positions of the received stream are computed by finding the minimum among the M values, in each clock cycle, that affect a particular bit position. The state values are combined to compute the LLR values for the bit position in a final pipeline part. |
| US08098766B2 |
Transceiver with switch circuit for routing data from receiver to transmitter
A transceiver includes a receiver unit including a clock and data recovery unit. The transceiver includes a transmitter unit and a digital core coupled to the receiver unit and the transmitter unit. A switch circuit is positioned after the clock and data recovery unit, and is configured to route data from the receiver unit to the transmitter unit in a test mode of the transceiver. |
| US08098763B2 |
Wireless transmission device and wireless transmission method
A wireless transmission device of the present invention includes n (where n is an integer of two or more) transmission antennas and a delay imparting section for delaying transmission signals supplied to the n transmission antennas by a maximum delay time (n−1)T or less based on a delay time T dependent upon a communication signal, which indicates whether to transmit the transmission signals by way of frequency diversity or multiuser diversity. |
| US08098762B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving signals in multiple-input multiple output communication system provided with plurality of antenna elements
A method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving signals in a multiple-input multiple-output communication system provided with a plurality of antenna elements is disclosed. Accordingly, the present invention provides a plurality of antenna groups at one distance having the antenna elements arranged at the other distance, a method and a means for identifying the groups and adding an identifier for the groups. It further provides a method and an apparatus for allocating power for the groups. |
| US08098760B2 |
Method of generating reference signal in wireless communication system
A method of generating a reference signal includes acquiring a base sequence and acquiring a reference signal sequence with a length N from the base sequence. Good PAPR/CM characteristics of the reference signal can be kept to enhance performance of data demodulation or uplink scheduling. |
| US08098756B2 |
MIMO antenna apparatus capable of diversity reception using one radiating conductor
A MIMO antenna apparatus is provided with: an upper housing having slits; first feed points through which the upper housing itself is excited as first antennas; second feed points through which the slits are excited as second antennas; switch, each of which is connected to one of the first feed points and one of the second feed points, and connects one of the two feed points to an A/D converter circuit-; a signal level detector circuit detecting signal levels of received radio signals; and a controller that controls the switches to change a feed point connected to the A/D converter circuit, when the detected signal level is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value. The slits are located between the first antennas. |
| US08098755B2 |
Method and system for beamforming in a multiple user multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system using a codebook
A method and system for beamforming in a multiple user multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system using a codebook may include a processor in a node B that enables generation of an interference cancellation matrix (WR). The interference cancellation matrix, also referred to as a matched filter, may enable a composite signal (Y) to be represented as a plurality of subsidiary signals (yi), each of which is transmitted by the node B for reception at a corresponding ith UE station. Each of the subsidiary signals yi may be generated based on a corresponding one of a plurality of data stream signals (xi). The processor may enable generation of a precoding matrix (WT) based on the interference cancellation matrix. A transmitter within the node B may enable generation of a plurality of signals based on the preceding matrix. The signals may be transmitted via a wireless communication medium. |
| US08098754B2 |
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. |
| US08098752B2 |
Apparatus and method for supporting a plurality of MIMO modes in a wireless communication system
An apparatus and method for supporting a plurality of MIMO modes in a wireless communication system are provided, in which a receiver selects one of the plurality of MIMO modes according to at least one of a received signal strength, a speed of the receiver, a correlation between a transmitter and the receiver, a presence or absence of channel quality information, a precoding index, and an antenna information, a rank, and a number of users, generates feedback information in a transmission format corresponding to the selected MIMO mode, and transmits the feedback information to the transmitter using a feedback resources allocated according to the selected MIMO mode. |
| US08098749B2 |
CFR estimation method for multi-band OFDM-based UWB systems
A multi-stage CFR estimation method for multi-band OFDM-based UWB systems is provided. The method includes obtaining a CFR estimation ĥr(1) by performing LS estimation using a channel estimation sequence from a received OFDM-UWB frame; obtaining a CFR estimation ĥr(2) by applying a frequency-domain smoothing to the CFR estimation ĥr(1) with a first smoothing factor; obtaining a frame header which contains OFDM symbols transmitted with frequency-domain spreading on each OFDM symbol, and detecting signal signs based on a combination of two spread signals of the same OFDM symbol in the frame header with a decision directed mode and the CFR estimation ĥr(2) assisted; obtaining a CFR estimation ĥr(3) by using the signs and a finite-alphabet feature of the detected transmitted signals; obtaining a CFR estimation ĥr(4) by applying a frequency-domain smoothing to the CFR estimation ĥr(3) with a second smoothing factor; and obtaining a CFR estimation ĥr by averaging the CFR estimations ĥr(2) and ĥr(4). |
| US08098745B2 |
Random access structure for wireless networks
Apparatus and methods for accessing a wireless telecommunications network by transmitting a random access signal. The random access signal includes a random access preamble signal selected from a set of random access preamble signals constructed by cyclically shift selected root CAZAC sequences. The random access signal may be one or more transmission sub-frames in duration, the included random access preamble sequence's length being extended with the signal to provide improved signal detection performance in larger cells and in higher interference environments. The random access signal may include a wide-band pilot signal facilitating base station estimation of up-link frequency response in some situations. Each of the plurality of available random access preamble sequences may be assigned a unique information value. The base station may use the information encoded in the random access preamble to prioritize responses and resource allocations. Random access signal collisions are dealt with by a combination of preamble code space randomness and back-off procedures. |
| US08098739B2 |
Decoding circuit
Input bits having a predetermined number of bits are divided into a plurality of bits by a bit dividing apparatus. Several of the divided bits are input into a recording apparatus, and are converted into address information. The data subjected to variable length decoding and a number of bits of the data are output from the recording apparatus according to the output of the recording apparatus. A plurality of kinds of variable length decoding are performed by rewriting the table of the recording apparatus. |
| US08098728B2 |
Compressing and decompressing multiple, layered, video streams employing multi-directional spatial encoding
A process for compressing and decompressing non-keyframes in sequential sets of contemporaneous video frames making up multiple video streams where the video frames in a set depict substantially the same scene from different viewpoints. Each set of contemporaneous video frames has a plurality frames designated as keyframes with the remaining being non-keyframes. In one embodiment, the non-keyframes are compressed using a multi-directional spatial prediction technique. In another embodiment, the non-keyframes of each set of contemporaneous video frames are compressed using a combined chaining and spatial prediction compression technique. The spatial prediction compression technique employed can be a single direction technique where just one reference frame, and so one chain, is used to predict each non-keyframe, or it can be a multi-directional technique where two or more reference frames, and so chains, are used to predict each non-keyframe. |
| US08098724B2 |
Automatic calibration in high-speed serial interface receiver circuitry
Circuitry for receiving a serial data signal (e.g., a high-speed serial data signal) includes adjustable equalizer circuitry for producing an equalized version of the serial data signal. The equalizer circuitry may include controllably variable DC gain and controllably variable AC gain. The circuitry may further include eye height and eye width monitor circuitry for respectively producing first and second output signals indicative of the height and width of the eye of the equalized version. The first output signal may be used in control of the DC gain of the equalizer circuitry, and the second output signal may be used in control of the AC gain of the equalizer circuitry. |
| US08098722B2 |
Method and apparatus for equalization control
An equalization filter is provided with the ability to softly switch between pure linear equalization and decision feedback equalization. A reliability gain factor and an associated gain factor calculated by a predetermined mapping relation are provided in a decision feedback path and a feedforward path, respectively. Increasing the reliability gain factor increases the significance of the decision feedback filtering. Better performance than pure linear equalization and pure decision feedback equalization can be achieved. |
| US08098718B2 |
Apparatus and methods for digital-to-analog conversion with vector quantization
A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes a mismatch shaping feedback vector quantizer configured to store state information in expanded format using One-Hot Encoding of a matrix. The expanded state format storage enables implementation of a simplified state sorter for the vector feedback mechanism of the vector quantizer. The simplified state sorter may minimize the variance of ones (or other symbols representing state values) in the matrix, and allow performing sorting in a reduced number of clock cycles. For example, sorting may be performed on a predetermined edge of single clock cycle, or on two edges of the same clock cycle. The matrix may be normalized periodically or as needed, to avoid overflow and underflow. The DAC may be used as a quantizer of a modulator of an access terminal in a cellular communication system. |
| US08098711B2 |
Methods and apparatus for flexible hopping in a multiple-access communication network
Techniques for efficiently designing random hopping patterns in a communications system are disclosed. The disclosed embodiments provide for methods and systems for generating random hopping patterns, updating the patterns frequently, generating different patterns for different cells/sectors, and generating patterns of nearby sub-carriers for block hopping. |
| US08098708B2 |
System and method for communicating data using constant envelope orthogonal Walsh modulation with channelization
A radio device includes a transmitter having a modulator for generating M-PAM communications symbols containing communications data. A Fast Walsh Transform circuit orthogonally encodes and band-spreads a communications symbol using the Fast Walsh Transform. A frequency modulation circuit frequency modulates the communications symbols wherein a constant envelope orthogonal Walsh modulated communications signal is generated having a plurality of orthogonal waveforms each forming a separate Walsh communications channel. |
| US08098702B1 |
Step well quantum cascade structures
A Quantum Cascade (QC) structure(s) for use in Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) that use step quantum well(s) in which the radiative and LO-phonon transitions are both vertical transitions and within the same step well. This approach allows for a high oscillator strength and uses LO-phonon scattering for fast depopulation of the middle state (lower lasing state) for maintaining a population inversion. The step also reduces unwanted injection into the lower lasing state due to spatial separation of the wavefunctions. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope of the claims. |
| US08098701B2 |
Quantum cascade laser element
A DFB quantum cascade laser element that can reliably CW-oscillate a single-mode light even at room temperature or a temperature in proximity thereof is provided. In a quantum cascade laser element 1, a top-grating approach for which a diffraction grating 7 is formed on a laminate 3 is adopted, and thus in comparison with a buried-grating approach, deterioration in temperature characteristics of the laser element and decline in the yield and reproducibility are suppressed. In addition, since the thickness of a cladding layer 5 located between an active layer 4 and the diffraction grating 7 is within a range of 42±10% of the oscillation wavelength, weakening of light seeping from the active layer 4 to the diffraction grating 7 or an increase in light leakage is prevented. Consequently, by the quantum cascade laser element 1, a single-mode light can be reliably CW-oscillated even at room temperature or a temperature in proximity thereof. |
| US08098700B2 |
Single-exciton nanocrystal laser
A laser system employing amplification via a single exciton regime and to optical gain media having single exciton amplification is provided. |
| US08098696B2 |
Detection and compensation of multiplexer leakage current
A multiplexed input/output (I/O) system detects leakage currents on a selected input channel. The system includes a leakage detection multiplexer connected to provide an output selected from one of a plurality of input channels. In addition, the leakage detection multiplexer provides as part of the output measured leakage currents associated with the selected input channel. Based on the detected leakage currents, a determination can made regarding whether the detected leakage currents have compromised the integrity of the multiplexer output. In addition, the detected leakage current can be used to compensate the output provided by the multiplexer to account for the presence of leakage currents on the selected channel. |
| US08098694B2 |
Method of processing traffic information and digital broadcast system
A digital broadcast transmitting/receiving system and a method for processing data are disclosed. The method for processing data may enhance the receiving performance of the receiving system by performing additional coding and multiplexing processes on the traffic information data and transmitting the processed data. Thus, robustness is provided to the traffic information data, thereby enabling the data to respond strongly against the channel environment which is always under constant and vast change. |
| US08098693B2 |
Method of early starting the operation of a descrambler
The present invention provides a method of early starting the operation of a descrambler. The method comprises the steps of receiving a, synchronous byte of a transport packet in a group of m packets, where m is an integer, generating an alignment index to indicate a location of the synchronous byte, delivering the alignment index to the descrambler, and loading an initialization sequence to the descrambler in accordance with the alignment index and starting an operation of the descrambler. |
| US08098692B2 |
Method and apparatus for high speed LVDS communication
A method and system communicates payload data over a plurality of low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) channels (50). First device (100) transmits the payload data and synchronization information to the second device (150) over N LVDS channels (50), along with a word clock synchronized to the payload data. The second device generates M LVDS receive clocks from the word clock, each having a same frequency that is P times a frequency of the word clock, and each having a different phase. Each of N LVDS receivers (160) of the second device (150): correlates the synchronization data with a reference word using each of the M LVDS receive clocks to produce a correlation value for each of the M LVDS receive clocks; selects a selected LVDS receive clock producing a greatest correlation value; and receives the payload data for the corresponding LVDS channel (50) using the selected LVDS receive clock. |
| US08098687B2 |
Method and apparatus for forwarding packets
A method for forwarding packets first checks a forwarding table of a bridge to find whether the destination information for a packet is included in the forwarding table. If the information is found, this packet is forwarded to the destination through a physical layer directly without passing through the bridge. This method improves the efficiency of the frame aggregation of an AP (Access Point) and enhances the throughput in a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). |
| US08098683B2 |
Method and system for implementing a single weight (SW) single channel (SC) MIMO system with no insertion loss
In a RF communications system, aspects for implementing a single weight single channel MIMO system with no insertion loss may comprise generating at least one control signal that is utilized to control at least one of a plurality of received signals in a WCDMA and/or HSDPA system. A phase of a first of the plurality of received signals may be adjusted outside of a first processing path used to process that signal so that it is equivalent to a phase of at least a second of the plurality of received signals. A gain in the first processing path may be equivalent to a gain in a second processing path that is utilized to process the second of the plurality of received signals. The control signal may be utilized to adjust a phase and/or an amplitude of at least one of a plurality of received signals. |
| US08098680B2 |
Method and system for managing transmissions in a wireless communication network
The present invention provides a method for managing transmissions in a wireless communication network (100). The method at a first node (102) of a plurality of nodes of the wireless communication network includes transmitting (304) a data frame to a second node (104) using a first transmit power level. The method further includes determining (306) whether an acknowledgement for the transmitted data frame is received from the second node. Further, the method includes determining (308) a cause of unsuccessful transmission when the acknowledgement is not received from the second node. Moreover, the method includes re-transmitting (310) the data frame to the second node using a second transmit power level when the cause of unsuccessful transmission is determined as a collision. Furthermore, the method includes setting (312) a transmit power level of the first node to a third transmit power level. |
| US08098677B1 |
Superset packet forwarding for overlapping filters and related systems and methods
Systems and methods are disclosed that allow for improved management and control of packet forwarding in network systems. Network devices and tool optimizers and a related systems and methods are disclosed for improved packet forwarding between input ports and output ports. The input ports and output ports are configured to be connected to source devices and destination devices, for example, network sources and destination tools in a network monitoring environment. The network devices and tool optimizers disclosed can use superset packet forwarding, such that ingress filter engines are configured with ingress filter rules so as to forward a superset of packets to output ports associated with overlapping filters. Egress filter engines are configured with egress filter rules to then determine which of the superset packets are actually sent out the output ports. |
| US08098676B2 |
Techniques to utilize queues for network interface devices
Techniques to allocate packets for processing among multiple processor(s). In an embodiment, capability to receive packets from a plurality of network interfaces may be provided, where each of the network interfaces is associated with at least one receive queue. the plurality of network interfaces may use any of the receive queues. Packet processing may be performed among a plurality of processors. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08098664B2 |
Retransmission-request transmitting method and receiving side apparatus
In a retransmission-request transmitting method, the receiving side apparatus activates a reordering timer, when receiving a first packet before receiving an unreceived packet with a sequence number smaller than a sequence number of the first packet; triggers transmission of a retransmission request for the unreceived packet, when having not received the unreceived packet by the time of expiration of the reordering timer activated in response to the receipt of the first packet; and stops and reactivates the reordering timer activated in response to the receipt of the first packet, when a value of the sequence number of the first packet falls out of a range of the receiving side window as a result of changing the upper limit value and the lower limit value in accordance with a sequence number of a second packet received from the transmitting side apparatus. |
| US08098663B2 |
Carrier's carrier without customer-edge-to-customer-edge border gateway protocol
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method includes obtaining a first advertisement at a first provider edge (PE) device from a first customer edge (CE) device that is associated with a virtual private network, and sending a second advertisement on a control plane path associated with a border gateway protocol after obtaining the first advertisement. The first PE device has a routing and forwarding table. The first advertisement identifies a plurality of local routes associated with the first VPN, and includes a first indication that information relating to the plurality of local routes is not to be stored in the routing and forwarding table. The second advertisement identifies the local routes, an address of the first CE device, and the first CE device as a next hop. |
| US08098662B2 |
Method and apparatus for using short addresses in a communication system
Methods and apparatus for communicating between an access terminal (AT) and remote device via an access point (AP) are described. For communications over the air link, between an AP and an AT, a short address corresponding to the remote device is used for routing packets to/from the remote device. This conserves air link resources. However, for communicating between the AP and the remote device a longer address, e.g., a full IP address corresponding to the remote device, is used. The AT converts between the long and short addresses as information, e.g., packets, is communicated between the remote device and the AT. The long address may be, for example, an IP address corresponding to the remote device used to route packets through a Layer 2 tunnel between the remote device and the AP. In some embodiments the remote device is a remote access point. |
| US08098656B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing L2 VPNs on an IP network
MP-BGP VPN infrastructure based on IETF RFC 4364/2547 is used to configure a layer 2 VPN on an IP network. VRFs for the VPN are configured on Ethernet switches and service IP addresses are associated with each configured VRF. The service IP addresses are exchanged to enable VPN traffic to be encapsulated for transport over the IP network. To enable a L2 VPN to be established on the network, a VPN-VLAN ID will be configured for the L2 VPN and import/export route targets for the VPN-VLAN will be set in each VRF and UNI-VLAN that is part of the VPN. The VPN-VLAN will be announced to all PEs using MP-iBGP with export route targets set for this VPN-VLAN. The PE's control plane learns the VPN-VLAN on a logical port if the import RT matches the export RT received by the MP-iBGP control plane. Once the VPN-VLAN is learned on a logical port, the PE will perform MAC learning on that logical port and treat the logical port as if it were part of the L2 VLAN. |
| US08098655B1 |
Systems and methods for converting a P packet/cycle datapath to a Q packet/cycle datapath
A system includes a queue that stores P data units, each data unit including multiple bytes. The system further includes a control unit that shifts, byte by byte, Q data units from the queue during a first system clock cycle, where Q |
| US08098650B2 |
Apparatus and method for processing contents using routing table
A routing apparatus includes: a routing table management unit for generating a routing table by receiving interest information of a user of a mobile node, and for broadcasting the routing table through the mobile ad hoc network; an effectiveness calculation unit for calculating effectiveness values for respective paths, included in a routing table broadcasted by some other external node, based on both the interest information of the user of the mobile node and interest information of users of destination nodes of the respective paths when the routing table is received from the other external node; a storing unit for storing the generated routing table; and a routing path setting unit for setting a routing path on the basis of the routing table stored in the storage unit. The routing table management unit updates the routing table using the effectiveness values for respective paths calculated by the effectiveness calculation unit. |
| US08098647B2 |
Method of performing cell search in wireless communication system
A method of performing cell search includes receiving a primary synchronization signal (PSS) comprising a primary synchronization code (PSC), and receiving a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) comprising a first secondary synchronization code (SSC) and a second SSC. The first SSC and the second SSC are respectively scrambled by using a first scrambling code and a second scrambling code, and the first scrambling code and the second scrambling code are associated with the PSC. Detection performance on synchronization signals can be improved, and cell search can be performed more reliably. |
| US08098646B2 |
Digital broadcast system for transmitting/receiving digital broadcast data, and data processing method for use in the same
A digital broadcast system having storing resistance to errors generated during the transmission of mobile service data, and a data processing method are disclosed. The digital broadcast system additionally encodes mobile service data. As a result, the mobile service data has strong resistance to a channel variation and noise, and at the same time the system can quickly cope with the channel variation. |
| US08098642B2 |
Communication system and mobile home agent
A technique is disclosed to decrease unnecessary routing during communication between a mobile node and a correspondent node in case a home agent of the mobile node is a mobile home agent. According to this technique, HA 112 positioned in a home network 102 and HA 114 of MN 130 are included. In a communication system, where HA 114 is a mobile home agent, and a mobile network 104 of HA 114 is hierarchized under the home network 102, HA 114, which is a home agent, discovers HA 112 positioned in the home network 102 when it is detected that it is away from the home network 102 and delegates binding cache entry of MN 130 under its own management to HA 112 so that HA 112 acts as a home agent for MN 130. |
| US08098637B1 |
Load balancing in wireless local area networks
Systems and methods perform load balancing in a wireless network. In particular, one aspect of the systems and methods is the use of weighted mean end-to-end delay across the entire WLAN that is attributable to the wireless portion of the network as a measure of network performance and user satisfaction. The weighted mean end-to-end delay, the costs of refusing service to a mobile station or forcing a mobile station to switch to another access point may be added to determine whether it is desirable to switch a station to a new access point. A further aspect of the systems and methods is the measurement of network traffic, making predictions and optimizing allocation of station to access points every T seconds, where T is selected by the network manager. |
| US08098636B2 |
Radio transmission apparatus and radio transmission method
A radio transmission apparatus and a radio transmission method for readily controlling retransmission timing presets a frame cycle for retransmission, and transmits only packets for which no acknowledgement of receipt has been received within the frame cycle as a reply from a receiving apparatus to a transmitting apparatus. Thus, timing for retransmission can be readily determined. Also, the retransmission timing is determined based on when a packet is actually transmitted. Therefore, the multiple acknowledgement of receipt can be returned as a combined reply. |
| US08098631B2 |
Group MMSE-DFD with rate (SINR) feedback and without pre-determined decoding order for reception on a cellular downlink
The invention is a method directed to group MMSE-DFD with rate (SINR) feedback and without pre-determined decoding order for reception on a cellular downlink. The method includes initializing channel matrix estimates and inner codes of all co-channel transmitter sources in a wireless network. Each channel matrix estimate is converted into an effective channel matrix responsive to the inner code of the corresponding transmitter source; The channel estimates or the inner codes or the modulation and coding schemes are not known for some of the transmitter sources whose transmitted signals are consequently treated as interference and deemed un-decodable. |
| US08098622B2 |
Method for requesting resource and scheduling for uplink traffic in mobile communication and apparatus thereof
The present invention relates to a resource allocation requesting method and a packet scheduling method for uplink packet traffic in a mobile communication system, and an apparatus of the packet scheduling method. For efficient scheduling for the uplink traffic, scheduling is performed according to characteristics of traffic between a base station and user equipment (UE). Particularly, when the traffic generates a variable size packet on a periodic basis, the traffic is classified into first traffic that generates a completely variable size packet on a periodic basis and second traffic that generates a quasi-variable size packet on a periodic basis. In addition, the UE requests resource allocation in a different form from the base station depending on the type of traffic, and the base station performs scheduling according to the resource allocation request. Therefore, the UE requests resource allocation in accordance with traffic characteristics and the base station performs scheduling according to the traffic characteristics so that optimal uplink scheduling can be performed. |
| US08098619B2 |
Method for allocating a temporary address to a mobile node of a telecommunication system, equipment and programs for implementing same
The invention concerns a method wherein the mobile node (1) obtains respective temporary addresses with several access routers (3) of a telecommunication system detected by the mobile mode. It also collects data concerning the characteristics of said access routers, and transmits to a manager temporary addresses (6) of a mobility service provider a request for address selection (REQ) containing part at least of the collected data. The manager (6) processes said request to select one of the temporary addresses for the mobile node. |
| US08098617B2 |
Method and apparatus for selective examination of PPP packets for renegotiation of a PPP link on a Um interface
A method and system that provides for efficient re-synchronization of a PPP link on a Um interface is provided. When the PPP link is connected, if an indication that the communications of the mobile station is associated with a new network server is detected, only the Um interface will undergo PPP configuration renegotiation. The method and system does not require the examination of all data packets for determining whether PPP configuration renegotiation is required. |
| US08098611B2 |
Relay coded multi-user cooperative communications for uplink 4G wireless networks
Source nodes in an International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-advanced 4G network transmit data on uplink channels to a relay node and a BS using a channel code. The relay node decodes independently the data received from each source node, and applies network coding to data correctly decoded, and transmits the encoded data to the BS. The BS decodes the encoded data transmitted by the sources nodes and the relay nodes cooperatively via a turbo decoding process. The data from each source node are decoded by soft-input soft-output single user decoders and are decoded, together with the data from the relay node, by a soft-input soft-output multi-user decoder. |
| US08098610B2 |
Multiplexing and demultiplexing radio channels
In one embodiment, a method and apparatus of multiplexing and demultiplexing radio channels includes receiving data through at least one multicast media channel available for use in an Internet Protocol Interoperability and Communications System (IPICS) comprising multiple communication endpoints linkable to a Land Mobile Radio (LMR) in the IPICS; channel mapping the at least one multicast media channel to multiple media channels of the LMR; receiving an audio signal through the at least one multicast media channel; controlling access to the LMR by applying communication access control policies based on the received data upon reception of the audio signal; and operatively linking the LMR to a specified endpoint through the at least one multicast media channel based on the communication access control policies. |
| US08098600B2 |
Computer, internet and telecommunications based network
A method and apparatus for a computer and telecommunication network which can receive, send and manage information from or to a subscriber of the network, based on the subscriber's configuration. The network is made up of at least one cluster containing voice servers which allow for telephony, speech recognition, text-to-speech and conferencing functions, and is accessible by the subscriber through standard telephone connections or through internet connections. The network also utilizes a database and file server allowing the subscriber to maintain and manage certain contact lists and administrative information. A web server is also connected to the cluster thereby allowing access to all functions through internet connections. |
| US08098598B1 |
Emulating a removable mass storage device
A communication system receives, via a wireless communication link, a packet of data from a mobile communication device that is connected to, and enumerated by, a computer system as a locally attached mass storage device. The communication system sends this packet of data to a network for storage by mass storage system. The communication system may also receive, via a wireless communication link, a registration message that includes a device identifier from a mobile communication device that is connected to, and enumerated by, a computer system as a locally attached mass storage device. The communication system matches the device identifier to a mass storage system. The communication system is configured to translate requests from the mobile communication device. The communication system transfers translated requests to the mass storage system. |
| US08098597B2 |
IAS-based configuration for UMB Femto devices
A method and apparatus configure Femto Devices in an Ultra Mobile Broadband network system. A Femto Device transmits a Femto pilot signal to an Access Terminal, which is served by a plurality of base stations in the Ultra Mobile Broadband network system. The Access Terminal then transmits to the Femto Device an identifier of a base station that controls a macro cell where the Femto Device is located. Next, a Neighbor Discovery Request message is transmitted from the Femto Device to the base station in dependence upon the received identifier of the base station. In response to the Neighbor Discovery Request message received, a Neighbor Discovery Report message is transmitted from the base station to the Femto device. The Neighbor Discovery Report message includes a field indicating network addresses of a Session Reference Network Controller and an Access Gateway that connect to the base station. Finally, the Femto Device connects to the Session Reference Network Controller and the Access Gateway via the Femto device in dependence upon the network addresses of the Session Reference Network Controller and the Access Gateway. |
| US08098594B2 |
Dynamic SIP max-hop setup for IMS
A device forwards in a network, a session setup request from an originating user device toward a destination user device and intercepts a too many hops error message from a network element to the originating user device. The device also automatically sends, in response to the error message, a search request message to determine a correct number of hops from the originating user device to the destination user device and resets a Max-Forwards value for the session setup request based on the determined correct number of hops. The session setup request with the determined correct number of hops may be resent on behalf of the originating device without the too may hops error ever reaching the originating device. |
| US08098592B2 |
Cellular data transmission time period estimation
A method comprises the step of estimating a time period that remains for a cellular mobile communication device data transmission based on one or more determinations of status for one or more network resources that handle the cellular mobile communication device data transmission. |
| US08098589B2 |
System and method for exchanging awareness information in a network environment
A method for communicating packets in a network environment is provided that includes receiving a packet at a network element and identifying a sequence number included in the packet that correlates to awareness information associated with one or more adjacent network elements. A table included in the network element may be updated in order to account for the awareness information included within the packet that has not been accounted for by the network element. In cases where the awareness information included in the packet has already been accounted for, the packet may be ignored. |
| US08098585B2 |
Ranking the importance of alerts for problem determination in large systems
A system and method for prioritizing alerts includes extracting invariants to determine a stable set of models for determining relationships among monitored system data. Equivalent thresholds for a plurality of rules are computed using an invariant network developed by extracting the invariants. For a given time window, a set of alerts are received from a system being monitored. A measurement value of the alerts is compared with a vector of equivalent thresholds, and the set of alerts is ranked. |
| US08098583B2 |
Network having multiple QoS levels
In a multi-QoS network, a scheduling mechanism, such as Weighted Fair Queueing, is configured to meet the multiple QoS guarantees. For each link with n classes and n fixed weights, the traffic is assigned to the various classes to meet end-to-end delay constraints. |
| US08098582B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing bandwidth control services
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing bandwidth control services are provided. The method includes assigning a quality of service preference to a device. The method also includes associating a service session with the device. The method further includes executing a control action for at least one other simultaneously occurring service session when a quality of service level of the service session differs from the quality of service preference by a specified degree. The control action is operable for producing and maintaining the quality of service preference. |
| US08098577B2 |
Method and device for managing simultaneous connections of a mobile telecommunications device to different networks
Method and device for managing simultaneous connections of a mobile telecommunications device to at least a wireless local area network and a mobile telephone network via a single terminal of the mobile telecommunications device, the method including the steps of: (a) establishing a first wireless connection of the terminal with the wireless local area network, (b) establishing a second wireless connection of the terminal with the mobile telephone network, (c) responding to each network at predetermined times, such that the first and second wireless connections are maintained, and (d) preventing simultaneous transmittals of data from the terminal to both networks over the first and second wireless connections. |
| US08098574B2 |
Global ports in multi-switch systems
Global ports are supported in multi-switch systems having arbitrary topologies. In some implementations, global ports are implemented in a manner which makes the switch system robust in the face of link failure. In specific Ethernet implementations, global ports enable flooding, learning, forwarding, and link aggregation across the switch system. |
| US08098570B2 |
Spectrum characterization for communication equipment
The invention concerns the processing of digital signals, in particular spectral scanning upon reception of a signal. Said processing includes multicarrier shape filtering (12) applied to a received signal prior to computing a Fourier transform (13) applied to the received signal thus filtered. The invention is advantageously useful for dynamic spectrum allocation in a context of radio communication of content. |
| US08098567B2 |
Timing adjustments for channel estimation in a multi carrier system
Apparatus and methods are provided for making timing adjustments in a multi carrier communications system. In an aspect, a timing correction method is provided for a multi-carrier system. This includes adjusting the time basis of two or more pilot interlaces with respect to each other in order to account for timing differences between the interlaces when combining the interlaces, and then adjusting or matching the time bases of the combined interlaces with a symbol to be demodulated. The alignment and matching is performed in order to generate channel estimates for data demodulation. The channel estimates, thus generated, along with the timing alignment information are in turn used for determining timing corrections to be applied to demodulation of a particular symbol. Corresponding apparatus are also disclosed that implement the methodology. |
| US08098564B2 |
Objective lens for optical pickup apparatus, objective lens unit for optical pickup apparatus and optical pickup apparatus using the same
The present invention relates to an objective lens, an objective lens unit and an optical pickup apparatus. The objective lens is provided for an optical pickup apparatus recording or reproducing information by converging a light flux with a wavelength λ1 emitted from a light source onto an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium. The objective lens is formed of: a single lens having at least one aspheric surface. In the objective lens, an effective aperture, a thickness on an optical axis, a focal length, a numerical aperture, and a refractive index satisfy the predetermined conditional expressions. The objective lens unit is provided for an optical pickup apparatus and includes an aberration correcting element and the objective lens. |
| US08098563B2 |
Objective lens actuator
An objective lens actuator includes a lens holder, a protector holder, and a protector. The lens holder in which the objective lens is provided has a face configured to oppose the disc. The protector holder is provided on the face of the lens holder. The protector is formed with an opening defined by a first inner face, a second inner face and a bottom face between the first inner face and the second inner face. The protector has a parallelepiped shape elongating in a first direction parallel to the disc. A part of the protector is inserted in the opening so as to contact the first inner face and the second inner face and to extend from the bottom face toward the disc. A first distance between an end of the protector in a second direction in which the protector extends toward the disc and the disc is shorter than a second distance between the objective lens and the disc. A gap is formed between an end of the opening and an end of the protector in the first direction. |
| US08098556B2 |
Optical disc device
An object of this invention is to measure the tilt quantity of, and perform a tilt control on, an optical disc accurately without depending on the rotation control method.An optical disc drive includes: a motor for rotating an optical disc; an optical system for irradiating the optical disc with a light beam; a moving mechanism for moving the optical system along the radius of the optical disc; a focus control section for controlling movement of the optical system perpendicularly to the optical disc based on drive values, thereby focusing the light beam onto a storage layer of the optical disc; and a tilt control section for measuring the tilt quantities of the storage layer at multiple different radial locations on the optical disc based on drive values for the respective radial locations when the focus control section focuses the light beam there. When the tilt control section measures the tilt quantities, the motor keeps the rotational frequency of the optical disc constant and the tilt control section uses the drive values obtained at the respective radial locations. |
| US08098554B2 |
Tilt detecting device and method
An information recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes an optical head, an analog signal processor, an analog/digital converter, a controller and a digital/analog converter. The optical head is used for emitting a light beam on a medium and receiving a reflected light beam from the medium. The analog signal processor is used for processing the reflected light beam to obtain a first analog signal. The analog/digital converter is used for converting the first analog signal into a digital signal. The controller is used for applying a low-pass filtering operation on the digital signal to obtain a digital controlling signal. The digital/analog converter is used for converting the digital controlling signal into a second analog signal. The second analog signal is transmitted to the optical head for correcting a tilt between the light beam and the medium. |
| US08098551B2 |
Recording power calibrating method for improving seeking stability on recording power calibration area
In an optimal recording power calibration method for improving seeking stability on a recording power calibration area, a specific area serves as a data recording area during an optimal recording power calibration, wherein a length of the specific area is such that a plurality of times of optimal recording power calibrations can be performed. The method includes: an optimal recording power calibration step of recording, with different recording power, a first length of calibration data in the specific area, and calibrating optimal recording power, wherein a data sector recorded in this step is defined as a calibration recording sector; and a data recording step of recording, with data recording power, a second length of information having a logical address beside the calibration recording sector of the specific area, wherein a data sector recorded in the step is defined as an information recording sector. |
| US08098547B2 |
Optical waveguide and thermal assist magnetic recording head therewith
An optical waveguide, on account of its ability to apply phase resonance of a wavelength and of a first and second triangular plate-like spot size converter members formed of the same material as a core material and being arranged and formed in a substantially symmetrical structure, can promote shortening of the waveguide length and contrive to reduce the size of the optical waveguide itself. Further, an optical waveguide having excellent spot size conversion efficiency can be obtained even in a reduced size. |
| US08098546B2 |
Geophone having improved sensitivity
A geophone utilizing an Alnico-9 magnet and having an improved sensitivity over Alnico-9 geophones of prior art through the lengthening of the parasitic air gap between the upper and lower pole pieces which, results in less magnetic flux leakage. The flux concentration through the geophone coils is increased and shifted towards the ends of the magnet. The increase of sensitivity of geophone of the present invention over prior art geophones may exceed 3 dB. The axial length of the coil bobbin is increased, and the positions of the electrical coils are moved towards the ends of the magnet to align with the shifted magnetic flux. |
| US08098542B2 |
Combined electromagnetic and seismic acquisition system and method
A method for marine geophysical surveying according to one aspect of the invention includes towing at least one geophysical sensor streamer in a body of water. The streamer includes a plurality of spaced apart electromagnetic field receivers disposed at spaced apart locations along the streamer. The streamer also includes a plurality of seismic sensors disposed at spaced apart locations. The seismic sensors each include at least one pressure responsive receiver and at least one particle motion responsive receiver. At selected times, a seismic energy source is actuated in the water. Particle motion and pressure seismic signals, and electromagnetic field signals are detected at the respective receivers. |
| US08098541B2 |
Non-volatile memory with stray magnetic field compensation
A method and apparatus for stray magnetic field compensation in a non-volatile memory cell, such as a spin-torque transfer random access memory (STRAM). In some embodiments, a first tunneling barrier is coupled to a reference structure that has a perpendicular anisotropy and a first magnetization direction. A recording structure that has a perpendicular anisotropy is coupled to the first tunneling barrier and a nonmagnetic spacer layer. A compensation layer that has a perpendicular anisotropy and a second magnetization direction in substantial opposition to the first magnetization direction is coupled to the nonmagnetic spacer layer. Further, the memory cell is programmable to a selected resistance state with application of a current to the recording structure. |
| US08098540B2 |
Dynamic power saving memory architecture
A memory includes multiple interface ports. The memory also includes at least two sub-arrays each having an instance of all of the bit lines of the memory and a portion of the word lines of the memory. The memory has a common decoder coupled to the sub-arrays and configured to control each of the word lines. The memory also includes multiplexers coupled to each of the interface ports. The multiplexers are configured to cause the selection of one of the sub-arrays based upon an address of a memory cell received at one or more of the interface ports. |
| US08098539B2 |
Hybrid single and dual channel DDR interface scheme by interleaving address/control signals during dual channel operation
A memory structure is described. In one embodiment, the memory structure comprises a memory controller configured to receive a clock signal and to be coupled to a plurality of memory modules via a single address/control bus. The memory controller couples to each of the plurality of memory modules via a separate chip select signal for each memory module. The memory controller issues commands across the address/control bus to the memory modules in an interleaved fashion in accordance with the timing supplied by the clock. During a waiting period after issuance of a command to one memory module, the memory controller can issue commands to a different memory module. |
| US08098532B2 |
Non-volatile semiconductor storage device with address search circuit used when writing
A non-volatile semiconductor storage device includes a memory cell array having a plurality of non-volatile memory cells, an address search circuit which searches for write object data and outputs an address where the write object data is present, when writing data into the non-volatile memory cells, and a control circuit which exercises control to write the write object data into the non-volatile memory cells in accordance with the address output from the address search circuit. |
| US08098527B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor memory device includes a semiconductor substrate; a memory cell array on the semiconductor substrate, the memory cell array comprising a plurality of memory cells capable of electrically storing data; a sense amplifier configured to detect the data stored in at least one of the memory cells; a cell source driver electrically connected to source side terminals of the memory cells and configured to supply a source potential to at least one of the source side terminals of the memory cells; a first wiring configured to electrically connect between at least one of the source side terminals of the memory cells and the cell source driver; and a second wiring formed in a same wiring layer as the first wiring, the second wiring being insulated from the first wiring and being electrically connected to the sense amplifier, wherein the first wiring and the second wiring have a plurality of through holes provided at a predetermined interval. |
| US08098525B2 |
Pre-charge sensing scheme for non-volatile memory (NVM)
The pipe effect can significantly degrade flash performance. A method to significantly reduce pipe current and (or neighbor current using a pre-charge sequence) is disclosed. A dedicated read order keeps the sensing node facing the section of the pipe which was pre-charged. The technique involves pre-charging several global bitlines (such as metal bitlines, or MBLs) and local bitlines (such as diffusion bitlines, or DBLs). The pre-charged global bitlines are selected according to a pre-defined table per each address. The selection of the global bitlines is done according to whether these global bitlines will interfere with the pipe during the next read cycle. |
| US08098523B2 |
Semiconductor memory device with memory cell having charge accumulation layer and control gate and memory system
A semiconductor memory device includes first memory cell transistors, a memory block, and word lines. Each of the first memory cell transistors has a stacked gate including a charge accumulation layer and a control gate and is capable of holding M bits (M≠2i, where i is a natural number and M is a natural number greater than or equal to 3) of data. The memory block includes the first memory cell transistors and is erase unit of the data. The data held in the first memory cell transistors included in the memory block is erased simultaneously. The size of data the memory block is capable of holding is L bits (L=2k, where k is a natural number). The word lines connect in common the control gates of the first memory cell transistors. |
| US08098522B2 |
Non-volatile memory and operation method thereof
An operation method of a non-volatile memory suitable for a multi-level cell having a first storage position and a second storage position is provided. The operation method includes: setting N threshold-voltage distribution curves, wherein the N threshold-voltage distribution curves correspond to N levels and N is an integer greater than 2; programming the first and the second storage positions to the 1st level and an auxiliary level respectively according to the 1st threshold-voltage distribution curve and a threshold-voltage auxiliary curve when the first and the second storage positions are programmed to the 1st and Nth levels; and programming the first and the second storage positions to the ith level according to the ith threshold-voltage distribution curve when the first and the second storage positions are not to be programmed to the 1st and Nth levels, wherein i is an integer and 1≦i≦N. |
| US08098514B2 |
Magnetoresistive element and magnetic memory
A magnetoresistive element includes a first reference layer having magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to a film surface, and an invariable magnetization, a recording layer having a stacked structure formed by alternately stacking magnetic layers and nonmagnetic layers, magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to a film surface, and a variable magnetization, and an intermediate layer provided between the first reference layer and the recording layer, and containing a nonmagnetic material. The magnetic layers include a first magnetic layer being in contact with the intermediate layer and a second magnetic layer being not in contact with the intermediate layer. The first magnetic layer contains an alloy containing cobalt (Co) and iron (Fe), and has a film thickness larger than that of the second magnetic layer. |
| US08098513B2 |
Memory array with read reference voltage cells
The present disclosure relates to memory arrays with read reference voltage cells. In particular the present disclosure relates to variable resistive memory cell apparatus and arrays that include a high resistance state reference memory cell and a low resistance state reference memory cell that provides a reliable average reference voltage on chip to compare to a read voltage of a selected memory cell and determine if the selected memory cell is in the high resistance state or low resistance state. These memory arrays are particularly suitable for use with spin-transfer torque memory cells and resolves many systematic issues related to generation of a reliable reference voltage. |
| US08098508B2 |
Configurable inputs and outputs for memory stacking system and method
Embodiments of the present invention relate to configurable inputs and/or outputs for memory and memory stacking applications. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention include memory devices that include a die having a circuit configured for enablement by a particular signal, an input pin configured to receive the particular signal, and a path selector configured to selectively designate a signal path to the circuit from the input pin. |
| US08098506B2 |
Single-stage power supply with power factor correction and constant current output
An example controller includes first, second and third inputs, a delayed ramp generator and a drive signal generator. The first, second and third inputs are coupled to receive an input voltage sense signal, an output voltage sense signal, and an input current sense signal, respectively. The drive signal generator is coupled to receive an input charge control signal generated by an input charge control signal generator and a delayed ramp signal generated by a delayed ramp generator. The input charge control signal is generated responsive to an integral of the input current sense signal multiplied by a ratio of the input voltage sense signal to the output voltage sense signal, where the drive signal generator produces a drive signal responsive to the input charge control signal and the delayed ramp signal, the drive signal to be coupled to control a switch of a power supply to regulate an output of the power supply. |
| US08098505B1 |
Phase management for interleaved power factor correction
An interleaved power factor correction (PFC) circuit includes phase management to control shedding and adding of channels. The channels may be voltage (e.g., boost) converters connected in parallel. The interleaved PFC circuit can have a first channel and a second channel that operate out of phase of each other to provide input power to a load. In a two phase interleaved PFC circuit, the first and second channels operate 180 degrees out of phase. A channel may be shed or added depending on load conditions. The phase management can be configured to add or remove a channel only when the AC line input to the interleaved PFC circuit crosses zero. |
| US08098504B2 |
Converter station for connecting an AC system to an end of an HVDC transmission line
A converter station for connecting an AC system to an HVDC transmission line. At least two converters are arranged in two separate converter valve halls. The station includes a separate control device configured to control of each converter and an auxiliary power source configured to provide auxiliary power for each converter. A separate overall control configured to control the overall operation conditions is arranged for each converter making each converter self supporting. The converter valve halls are separated by a substantial space. |
| US08098502B2 |
System and method for emissions suppression in a switched-mode power supply
In one embodiment, a method of operating a switched-mode power supply that has a switch coupled to a drive signal is disclosed. The method includes deactivating the drive signal at a first instance of time, and comparing a power supply signal to a threshold after deactivating the drive signal. The method further includes activating the drive signal a variable period of time after the power supply signal crosses the threshold. |
| US08098499B2 |
Circuit arrangement having two semiconductor switching elements and one freewheeling element
One aspect is a circuit arrangement including a first semiconductor switching element, a second semiconductor switching element connected in series with the first semiconductor switching element and a freewheeling element connected in parallel with the second semiconductor switching element. |
| US08098496B2 |
Wiring board for semiconductor device
A wiring board for a semiconductor device has a substrate, a solder resist provided on the substrate, a land, and a wiring line. The solder resist is not in contact with the land, and an end portion of the wiring line is arranged such that, when a solder ball is not provided, the end portion of the wiring line and the land face each other with a distance therebetween. |
| US08098494B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes a housing, a circuit board, a switch, and a side key. The housing has a plurality of side walls. The circuit board is disposed in the housing. The switch is disposed at an inner surface of the housing relatively close to the circuit board. The side key disposes through one of the side walls, and the location of the side key is corresponding to the switch. When the side key is pressed, the side key contacts the switch to make the switch electrically connected with the circuit board. |
| US08098491B2 |
Control unit for controlling an electromotive drive unit
A control unit for controlling an electromotive drive unit has a housing (16), which can be connected to the drive unit by a mechanical interface device, and a plug-in device (17) provided on the housing, for plugging in a cable (20) that is guided to the hosing from the outside, wherein contact pins (6) of the plug-in device are arranged in at least one slot (18) of the plug-in device (17) and are electrically connected to conductor tracks of a circuit board (8), which is arranged on the inside of the housing. The at least one slot (18) is arranged on the side (7) of the housing (16) facing away from the drive unit and is formed by a connector collar (5), which is configured as one piece with the housing (16) and made of the same polymer material. |
| US08098490B2 |
Electronic apparatus
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a housing, a first heating element in the housing, a heat sink in the housing, a first pressing member, a first heat pipe, and a second heat pipe. The first heat pipe has a plate shape, includes a first portion facing the first heating element and a second portion being outside the first heating element. The first heat pipe is configured to be bent by the first pressing member. The second heat pipe is connected to the second portion of the first heat pipe and the heat sink. |
| US08098489B2 |
Integrated thermal system for cooling multiple separate components of an electronic device
The invention broadly contemplates an integrated thermal system that is capable of simultaneously cooling multiple, separate heat generating components of an electronic device. The integrated thermal system according to one embodiment of the invention takes the form of a CPU heat sink designed to intelligently maximize available airflow, utilizing multidirectional airflow cooling of a plurality of heat generating components on the motherboard. The heat sink is designed such that airflow provided by a single fan is captured and directed to nearby/adjacent components, thus cooling these components. The invention thus provides an integrated cooling solution and removes the need for multiple cooling systems/solutions. |
| US08098488B2 |
Computer docking station for a vehicle
A computer docking station for supporting and electrically coupling to a portable computer that has a docking connector includes a body having a support portion configured to support the portable computer, and a main connector moveable relative to the body between an engaged position in which the main connector is engageable with the docking connector, and a disengaged position. The computer docking station also includes a frame coupled to the body and the main connector. The frame is movable relative to the body between a first position, in which the main connector is in the disengaged position, and a second position, in which the main connector is in the engaged position. The computer docking station further includes a subframe coupled to the frame. The subframe is movable with the frame from the first position to the second position and is movable relative to the frame from the second position to a third position to inhibit movement of the main connector away from the engaged position. |
| US08098487B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus is provided. A frame is fixed and supported at the rear of a front panel forming the front portion of the display apparatus, and a separate bracket member is not mounted on the edges of the front panel. Thus, the front exterior of the display apparatus is neatly finished, and the display screen looks bigger than it actually is. |
| US08098483B2 |
Multi electrode series connected arrangement supercapacitor
The present invention is an electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC) series stack formed into a single electrolyte cell structure. The concatenated multiple electrode assembly stack has electrode assemblies electrically connected in series. The electrode assemblies have a double-sided activated carbon electrode formed on a current collector. Power tabs are connected to the end electrode assemblies. An electrolyte is also provided. A poly bag contains the electrolyte and the electrode assemblies. The electrode assemblies form a double-sided activated-carbon electrode on a current collector. The EDLC stack has a number of segments and mass free zones separating them. The segments are folded so that mass free zones are disposed at the apex of each fold. |
| US08098482B2 |
Double layer capacitor using polymer electrolyte in multilayer construction
A double layer capacitor (DLC) containing at least one double layer capacitor cell is provided. Each double layer capacitor cell contains two current collectors, each containing a metallized carrier film with upper and lower planar surfaces, two thin electrode layers in direct contact with the lower and upper planar surfaces of the metallized carrier films of the first and second current collectors, and a polymer electrolyte layer in direct contact with the first and the second thin electrode layers. The polymer electrolyte is applied as a liquid which impregnates and encases the electrode layers and then solidified to form the electrolyte layer. The resulting DLC is preferably no thicker than about 20 microns, and may be as thin as 5 microns. Methods of producing a DLC and for forming a cross-linked electrolyte are also provided. |
| US08098477B2 |
Feedthrough multilayer capacitor with capacitance components connected in parallel
A first signal internal electrode is connected to a first signal terminal electrode and a signal connection conductor. A second signal internal electrode is connected to a second signal terminal electrode and the signal connection conductor. A first ground internal electrode is connected to a first ground terminal electrode and a ground connection conductor. A second ground internal electrode is connected to a second ground terminal electrode and the ground connection conductor. The first signal internal electrode and the first ground internal electrode have their respective regions opposed to each other. The second signal internal electrode and the second ground internal electrode have their respective regions opposed to each other. The first signal internal electrode and the second ground internal electrode are not opposed to each other. The second signal internal electrode and the first ground internal electrode are not opposed to each other. |
| US08098475B2 |
Electrostatic clamp, lithographic apparatus and method of manufacturing an electrostatic clamp
An electrostatic clamp for use in a lithographic apparatus includes a layer of material provided with burls, wherein an electrode surrounded by an insulator and or a dielectric material is provided in between the burls. The electrostatic clamp may be used to clamp an object to an object support in a lithographic apparatus. |
| US08098473B2 |
Component module for a reduced pressure treatment system
A reduced pressure treatment system includes a control unit having a control system and a reduced pressure source. The reduced pressure treatment system further includes a manifold unit in fluid communication with the reduced pressure source and a component module to augment treatment. The component module is configured to communicate with the control system of the control unit, and the component module includes a first mounting region configured to be coupled to a complimentary mounting region of the control unit. The component module further includes a second mounting region identical to the complimentary mounting region of the control unit to allow a second component module to be coupled to the first component module. |
| US08098466B2 |
Circuit configurations to reduce snapback of a transient voltage suppressor
This invention discloses an electronic device formed as an integrated circuit (IC) wherein the electronic device further includes a transient voltage suppressing (TVS) circuit. The TVS circuit includes a triggering Zener diode connected between an emitter and a collector of a bipolar-junction transistor (BJT) wherein the Zener diode having a reverse breakdown voltage BV less than or equal to a BVceo of the BJT where BVceo stands for a collector to emitter breakdown voltage with base left open. The TVS circuit further includes a rectifier connected in parallel to the BJT for triggering a rectified current through the rectifier for further limiting an increase of a reverse blocking voltage. In a preferred embodiment, the triggering Zener diode, the BJT and the rectifier are formed in a semiconductor substrate by implanting and configuring dopant regions of a first and a second conductivity types in a N-well and a P-well whereby the TVS can be formed in parallel as part of the manufacturing processes of the electronic device. |
| US08098465B1 |
AFCI breaker providing protection for multiple branch circuits in an electrical panel
An electrical panel has an Arc Fault Current Interrupter (AFCI) breaker connected to a power supply input, which is operative to interrupt current flow to multiple circuits when an arc fault is detected. The AFCI breaker, which may include Ground Fault Current Interrupter (GFCI) components, provides global arc fault and ground fault protection for multiple circuits of a load center, such as a main panel, sub-panel, transfer switch, and the like. |
| US08098463B2 |
Current perpendicular to plane magnetoresistance read head design using a current confinement structure proximal to an air bearing surface
A current to perpendicular to plane (CPP) magnetoresistance (MR) read head using current confinement proximal to an air bearing surface (ABS) is disclosed. A CPP MR read head includes a first shield, an MR sensor formed on the first shield, and a second shield contacting the MR sensor proximal to an ABS. The CPP MR read head further includes insulating material between the MR sensor and the second shield, where the insulating material is distal to the ABS to electrically isolate the MR sensor from the second shield distal to the ABS. Sense current injected from the second shield through the MR sensor and into the first shield is confined proximal to the ABS at a location where the second shield contacts the MR sensor. |
| US08098462B2 |
Manufacturing method of thin-film magnetic head, wafer for thin-film magnetic head and thin-film magnetic head
A manufacturing method of a thin-film magnetic head, includes a step of forming many thin-film magnetic heads arranged along row and column directions on a wafer, each of the thin-film magnetic heads having a read head element, a write head element, and pairs of probe-use pads electrically connected with the read head element and the write head element, respectively, the pairs of probe-use pads being positioned so that at least part of each probe-use pad is removed by a cutting process along the row direction, a step of obtaining a plurality of row-bars by cutting the wafer along the row direction so that the at least part of each probe-use pad is removed, each of the obtained row-bars having the thin-film magnetic heads aligned in the row direction, a step of forming pairs of bonding pads electrically connected with the read head element and the write head element, respectively, on a surface opposite to an ABS of each thin-film magnetic head of each of the row-bars, and a step of cutting each row-bar along the column direction to separate into individual thin-film magnetic heads. |
| US08098461B2 |
Micro actuator device, head suspension assembly and storage medium driving device
According to one embodiment, a micro actuator device, includes: a first piezoelectric element superposed on a first lower support plate coupled to a fixed plate; a second piezoelectric element superposed on a second lower support plate in parallel with the first lower support plate coupled to the fixed plate; a first upper support plate interposing the first piezoelectric element between the first upper support plate and the first lower support plate, and generating strain equal to strain of the first lower support plate when a tensile force of the first piezoelectric element acts on the first lower support plate; and a second upper support plate interposing the second piezoelectric element between the second upper support plate and the second lower support plate, and generating strain equal to strain of the second lower support plate when a tensile force of the second piezoelectric element acts on the second lower support plate. |
| US08098459B2 |
Connecting a preamplifier to a printed circuit board assembly on a hard disk drive
Connecting a preamplifier to a printed circuit board assembly on a hard disk drive. The disk includes a housing, a head stack assembly coupled with the housing, a printed circuit board assembly comprising via holes, a preamplifier coupled with the head stack assembly, and at least one deformable pogo pin configured to mechanically and communicatively connect the printed circuit board assembly to the preamplifier upon insertion into the via holes, further configured to comprise a tip and a shaft, and further configured to deform upon insertion into the via holes. |
| US08098453B2 |
Magnetic storage medium and storage apparatus
A magnetic storage medium includes: burst lines each including magnetic bodies placed in a nonmagnetic body in a predetermined repetitive pattern repeated in the radial direction, the burst lines arranged in the circumferential direction at predetermined intervals, wherein the phases of the predetermined repetitive patterns are shifted in the radial direction relative to a circumferential line at least between the adjacent ones of the burst lines. |
| US08098450B2 |
Fly-height management in a hard disk drive (HDD)
A hard disk drive (HDD) including a first resistive temperature detector (RTD) configured to detect a temperature generated by proximity of a slider and a media. The first RTD is proximate an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider. The HDD also includes a second RTD configured to detect at least one temperature correlated to a fly-height of the slider. The second RTD is not required to be proximate the ABS of the slider. HDD also includes a read/write integrated circuit (IC) configured to determine the fly-height of the slider based on detection of temperatures by the first RTD and the second RTD. |
| US08098448B2 |
Method for setting zone format of a disk for storing data and disk drive
A method for dividing a data area on a disk into a plurality of concentric zones and determining a format for each zone so that data tracks in the zone have the same number of data sectors. The method includes dividing a data area into a plurality of zones with provisional boundaries. The method also includes determining a linear recording density for a selected zone. The method further includes selecting the number of data sectors per data track corresponding to the determined linear recording density from specified values. Moreover, the method includes resetting a boundary of the zone at a new boundary shifted from the provisional boundary according to a selected value. |
| US08098443B2 |
Miniature zoom lens system
A miniature zoom lens system comprises three lens groups having four lenses in total. The first lens group has negative power and is fixed. The second lens group has positive power and includes two lenses. An aperture is furnished in front of and movable with the second lens group. The third lens group has positive power. The second and third lens groups are movable along an optical axis between a wide-angle position and a telephoto position. The system fulfills the following conditions: 11.5 |
| US08098439B2 |
High brightness optical device
There is provided an optical device, composed of a display source (4), an imaging optical module (8), a projection module (12) having a projection mechanism including an input aperture (10) and output aperture (14) defined by a surface area, and an exit pupil (16). The projection mechanism is non-uniform over the area of the output aperture (14). |
| US08098434B1 |
Optical decollimator for daylighting systems
A decollimator for a daylighting system includes a conical section having a circular end, a square end, and a conical shape tapering inwardly from the circular end to the square end. A mixing zone section is attached to the square end of the conical section and has a square cross sectional shape of a substantially constant cross sectional dimension. The decollimator also includes either a window with a converging Fresnel lens on the circular end of the conical section, a window with a diverging Fresnel lens on an end of the mixing zone section opposite the conical section, or both. When the conical section receives collimated light, the conical section, the mixing zone section, and the Fresnel lens together decollimate the light and provide the decollimated light out of the mixing zone section. |
| US08098432B2 |
Optical multi-layer thin film, optical element, and method for producing the optical multi-layer thin film
Optical multi-layer thin film comprises: an outermost layer stacked above an optical surface of an optical substrate having a lower refractive index than the optical substrate; and at least a certain refractive index layer disposed between the optical substrate and the outermost layer, and having a refractive index adjustable in a predetermined range higher than that of the outermost layer. The outermost layer is formed by a wet film-formation method using: low-refractive-index fine particles made of a low-refractive-index material; and a first binder, and the certain refractive index layer is formed by a wet film-formation method using: high-refractive-index fine particles made of a high-refractive-index material; and a second binder which has a refractive index different from that of the high-refractive-index material. |
| US08098420B2 |
Display method of electrophoresis display device
A display method of an electrophoresis display (EPD) device having a display area and a plurality of pixels located in the display area is provided. In the display method, firstly, the display area is divided into a plurality of unit areas. A plurality of pixels exist in each of the unit areas. Then, in some unit areas, at least two pixels in each of the unit areas are enabled to respectively display a first color and a second color, such that the first colors and the second colors are mixed to achieve a mixed color in vision. The first color has a maximum gray-level value. The second color has a minimum gray-level value. A gray-level value of the mixed color is between the maximum gray-level value and the minimum gray-level value. |
| US08098417B2 |
Electromechanical system having a dielectric movable membrane
An electromechanical device includes a partially reflective and partially transmissive layer and a movable functional element. The movable functional element includes a patterned flexible dielectric layer and a reflective layer mechanically coupled to the flexible dielectric layer. The patterned flexible dielectric layer is configured to flex in response to voltages applied to the partially reflective and partially transmissive layer to move the functional element in a direction generally perpendicular to the partially reflective and partially transmissive layer. The reflective layer is situated between the flexible dielectric layer and the partially reflective and partially transmissive layer. |
| US08098416B2 |
Analog interferometric modulator device with electrostatic actuation and release
A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device includes a first electrode, a second electrode electrically insulated from the first electrode, and a third electrode electrically insulated from the first electrode and the second electrode. The MEMS device also includes a support structure which separates the first electrode from the second electrode and a reflective element located and movable between a first position and a second position. The reflective element is in contact with a portion of the device when in the first position and is not in contact with the portion of the device when in the second position. An adhesive force is generated between the reflective element and the portion when the reflective element is in the first position. Voltages applied to the first electrode, the second electrode, and the third electrode at least partially reduce or counteract the adhesive force. |
| US08098412B2 |
Method for detecting the center of wafer and storage medium storing a program for executing the method
A method detects a center of a wafer having a notch when aligning the wafer mounted on a movable mounting table. The method includes capturing an image of the wafer by using an imaging unit, the image including the notch; extracting an edge line from the image of the wafer; detecting a shape of the notch from the edge line; and calculating the center of the wafer based on the shape of the notch. |
| US08098410B2 |
Image reading apparatus, image forming apparatus, image reading method, and image forming method
During a sheet-through operation, for a first original, a shading operation is performed to acquire white data and a light-quantity measuring operation is performed to acquire a reference value. For subsequent originals, only the light-quantity measuring operation is performed to acquire a subsequent light quantity. If the reference value and the subsequent light quantity differ greatly, the shading operation is performed at this time point to acquire new white data. The sheet-through operation is not stopped when the shading operation is not performed and the sheet-through operation is stopped when the shading operation is performed. |
| US08098402B2 |
Document targeting systems and methods
A raster image target tracking method, the raster image being a binary raster image or a targeted contone raster image, may include determining target information that corresponds to a target device for the raster image, saving the target information in a memory, comprising the raster image target device to a processing device by which the document is to be processed, and providing a warning message when the document target device does not correspond to the processing device. Also, a compound document analysis and target tracking method may include providing a compound document, analyzing each object of the compound document to determine target information, saving the target information in a memory, comparing the target devices of the respective objects to each other, and providing a warning message to a user when the target devices of the respective objects do not correspond to each other. |
| US08098399B2 |
Method for controlling a feed rate of a printer, and printer employing same
A method of controlling a feed rate of a printer, and a printer employing same, wherein the printer includes a feeder motor driving a feeder mechanism and a transport motor driving a transport mechanism. The method includes receiving image data for a first item of print media in a print job, processing the image data to create printable image data, and determining an image preparation time that is a time difference between the time when the printable image data is completed and the time when the start of the image data is first received. The method then further includes determining a current feeder speed based on at least the image preparation time. Following that that determination, the method includes: (i) turning the transport motor on, and (ii) setting a speed of the feeder motor equal to the current feeder speed and thereafter turning the feeder motor on. |
| US08098397B2 |
Image forming apparatus and printing method having printing type changing part
In an image forming apparatus which includes a hardware resource used for image forming processing and a program for performing processing concerning image formation, a type of reading an original during a plurality of originals which include different types of originals in a mixed manner being read, and printing paper sheets on which images have been formed based on the plurality of originals are grouped. |
| US08098396B2 |
Handheld display device for playing video associated with printed substrate
A handheld display device for imaging a printed substrate and playing video associated with the printed substrate. The device comprises: an optical sensor for imaging an area of the printed substrate and for generating image data; a processor for determining interaction data using the image data, the interaction data identifying a substrate identity; a transceiver for retrieval of video data corresponding to the printed substrate; and a touch-sensitive display screen for playing the video based on the video data. |
| US08098395B2 |
System and method for image thumbnail/preview on an image processing device
An image processing device and method for modifying images on an image processing device including a scanner configured to produce an image of at least one document having multiple pages, a communications interface configured to connect the image processing device to a server via a network, a display unit configured to display a preview image or a thumbnail image of at least one of the pages of the scanned document and a user interface configured to display a selectable graphical indicia corresponding to at least one operation for modifying the preview image or the at least one image of the scanned document. |
| US08098394B2 |
Image processing circuit and printing apparatus
Object image data of a processing object image, which virtually has cells each including a set of M×N pixels, is processed. The cells are arranged in steps and are shifted by Dx pixels and by Dy pixels. An input raster buffer stores (N−1) raster data including pixel values of the processing object image. A data updating circuit updates the raster with inputted pixel values. Cell buffers store M×N pixel values regarding one of the cells. Processing circuits output partial data for the processed image data by ubmining a center of gravity position of gradation values in the one of the cells from the M×N pixel values, A control circuit controls storing pixel values regarding each of cells in k-th step using the raster data inputted and the raster data stored when “k•(N−1)+1”-th raster data is inputted to the data updating circuit. |
| US08098390B1 |
On-demand content customization
A system and a method of customizing on-demand printed content are disclosed. In response to receiving a request from a consumer for on-demand printed content, content customization is determined. The determined customization is incorporated within the requested content and the on-demand printed content. Thereafter, and further responsive to the request, an on-demand printed copy of the requested content, including the incorporated customizations, is output for on-demand printing. |
| US08098388B2 |
Content transmission device, content transmission method, and computer program used therewith
A content transmission device for transmitting content, whose copying is controlled, includes an authentication section for performing an authentication procedure between the content transmission device and a content receiving device, a first copy-control-information processing section for processing first copy control information describing copy control information concerning the content, a second copy-control-information processing section for processing second copy control information including content information different from the first copy control information, and a content transmission section for generating and transmitting, to the content receiving device, a packet including a header including the first copy control information and the second copy control information, and a payload obtained by encrypting the content with a predetermined content key. |
| US08098386B2 |
Image management system, image output apparatus, and computer readable medium for security enhancement
Disclosed herein is an image management system, including: an image output apparatus which outputs an image data to various types of media, and a server, wherein the image output apparatus and the server are connected via a communication network, and the image output apparatus includes: an obtaining unit to obtain user information when the image data is output, a history storage unit to accumulate and store the user information which is obtained by the obtaining unit and the image data which is output as history information so as to correspond to one another, a history transfer unit to transfer the history information which is stored in the history storage unit to the server, and a deletion unit to delete the history information which is transferred by the history transfer unit from the history storage unit, and the server includes: a receiving unit to receive the history information which is transferred from the image output apparatus, and a history management unit to accumulate and store the history information which is received by the receiving unit. |
| US08098375B2 |
Light emitting diode illumination system
In various embodiments of the invention, a unique construction for Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) with at least one luminescent rod and extracting optical elements used to generate a variety of high brightness light sources with different emission spectra. In an embodiment of the invention, forced air cooling is used to cool the luminescent rod. In an embodiment of the invention, totally internal reflected light can be redirected outward and refocused. In another embodiment of the invention, light emitted by the luminescent rod is out-coupled for use in a variety of applications. |
| US08098367B2 |
Laser slope adjustment
Tools and techniques for estimating elevations, including without limitation tools and techniques that employ mobile stations with laser detectors for receiving a beam emitted from a laser source and estimating an elevation of the mobile station based on the received beam. In some instances, a mobile station may be configured to identify, based on some or all of a variety of factors, a situation in which the elevation of the detector is likely to change to the extent that the slope of the emitter needs to be adjusted to account for this change in elevation. The mobile station may also be configured to inform the laser source that the slope of the emitted beam should be adjusted. In response, the laser source may adjust the slope of the emitted beam accordingly. |
| US08098364B2 |
Exposure apparatus and method for photolithography process
Provided is an exposure apparatus including a variable focusing device. The variable focusing device may include a transparent membrane that may be deformed in the presence of an electric field. The deformation of the transparent membrane may allow the focus length of a radiation beam to be modified. In an embodiment, the variable focusing device may be modulated such that a radiation beam having a first focus length is provided for a first position on an exposure target and a radiation beam having a second focus length is provided for a second position on the exposure target. A method and computer-readable medium are also provided. |
| US08098360B2 |
Liquid crystal display having particular barrier rib
The present application relates to a liquid crystal display including a first substrate, a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, thin film transistors connected to the gate and data lines, a barrier rib formed on the data lines, and pixel electrodes connected to the thin film transistors. The thin film transistors can be formed using a colored organic film that has an optical density in a range of 1 to 3. Color filters fill the regions surrounded by the barrier rib. Pixel electrodes can be formed on the color filters. A common electrode can be formed on the second substrate facing the first substrate. A liquid crystal layer can be situated between the first and second substrates, which are spaced apart at a predetermined distance by spacers. |
| US08098358B2 |
Liquid crystal display
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display that includes: gate lines and data lines arranged on a first substrate; pixel electrodes connected to the gate lines and the data lines, and including a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode separated from each other by a gap; a common electrode arranged on a second substrate, and facing the pixel electrodes; and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pixel electrodes and the common electrode and including a plurality of liquid crystal molecules, wherein each of the first sub-pixel electrode and the second sub-pixel electrode includes a plurality of fine branch portions, the second sub-pixel electrodes include a connection portion surrounding the fine branch portions of the first sub-pixel electrodes, and a plurality of notches are formed in the connection portion of the second sub-pixel electrode. |
| US08098353B2 |
Liquid crystal display with improved response speed and aperture ratio
A liquid crystal display includes; a gate line, a data line disposed substantially perpendicular to the gate line, a switching element connected to the gate line and the data line, a pixel electrode connected to the switching element, and having a first inclination direction determining member including at least one first oblique portion forming an oblique angle with the gate line and the data line, and an inclination direction assistance member disposed adjacent to the first inclination direction determining member, and substantially parallel to the first oblique portion. |
| US08098352B2 |
Optical pickup apparatus and liquid crystal optical element
The present invention is directed to the provision of an optical pickup apparatus in which a liquid crystal optical element constructed by combining an aberration correcting liquid crystal panel and a λ/4 liquid crystal panel in an integral fashion is mounted in a tilted position. More particularly, the invention provides a liquid crystal optical element comprising a first liquid crystal layer for correcting aberration, a second liquid crystal layer functioning as an nλ/4 plate and combined in an integral fashion with the first liquid crystal layer, a transparent electrode for generating a potential difference on the second liquid crystal layer in order to control an amount of phase difference for the light beam passing through the second liquid crystal layer, and a driver for driving the transparent electrode so as to generate a potential difference that is the lowest among a plurality of potential differences that cause the second liquid crystal layer to function as an nλ/4 plate. The invention also provides an optical pickup apparatus incorporating such a liquid crystal optical element. |
| US08098350B2 |
Display and view angle control element employed therein
There are provided a display that can block light so that a display on an image display device is invisible from a wide range of view angles in an oblique direction, and a view angle control element employed therein. In a narrow view angle state, a view angle control liquid crystal panel (2) prevents light in a predetermined wavelength region that has been incident at a polar angle of φH or more from being transmitted through a polarizing plate (22) by using a phase difference imparted by a liquid crystal cell (21). In the narrow view angle state, a view angle control liquid crystal panel (3) prevents light that has been incident at a polar angle of φL or more, among light that has been transmitted through the polarizing plate (22), from being transmitted through a polarizing plate (32) by using a phase difference imparted by a liquid crystal cell (31). Consequently, light forming a polar angle of φL or more is blocked as a whole, which allows the narrow view angle state to cover a wide range. |
| US08098349B2 |
Backlight module and double-sided liquid crystal display device
A backlight module includes a plate and a plurality of light sources. The plate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The plate is bent to form a plurality of first grooves on the first surface and a plurality of second grooves on the second surface. The light sources are respectively disposed in the first grooves and the second grooves. The backlight module is capable of providing two plane light sources to different directions and has thinner thickness. A double-sided liquid crystal display using the above-mentioned backlight module is also provided. |
| US08098341B2 |
Thin film transistor substrate and liquid crystal display device using the same
The invention provides a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate comprises a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, gate terminals, data terminals and thin film transistors as well as a liquid crystal display (LCD) device having the TFT substrate. The gate terminal and/or data terminal contain a first portion and a second portion, and the first potion and the second portion are connected electrically with an end electrode made of a material which is anticorrosive in the air. The thin film transistor substrate of the invention prevents the spreading of the metal corrosion occurred at the gate leads to the display region of the LCD, and therefore the quality of the LCD device can be ensured. |
| US08098339B2 |
Integrated single panel projection engine
The present invention discloses an integrated single-panel projection engine (500) including a collimated light source (400), a main polarization beam splitter (200), a supporting polarization beam splitter (210), a reflective quarter wave plate (150), a mirror plate (160), an LCOS imager (100) and a projection lens system (300), which provides substantial improvement in optical efficiency of LCOS micro projection display. |
| US08098334B2 |
System and process for image rescaling with edge adaptive phase control in interpolation process
A video image processing system is described that generates the interpolated video images with sharp and jaggedness-free edges. A method of video image processing is also described that interpolates video images to generate the video images with sharp and jaggedness-free edges. The video image processing system receives and makes input image data available for further processing; analyzes the local features of the input image data; filters the input image data before performing interpolation process; modifies the phase value adaptive to the local edge distance; rescales the input image data in horizontal interpolation using the modified phase value; and rescales the horizontally interpolated image data in vertical interpolation using modified phase value. |
| US08098329B2 |
Image determination apparatus, image determination method, and program, and image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program
An image determination apparatus includes a frequency band signal detecting unit, an average value calculating unit, a relative value calculating unit, and an image determination unit. The frequency band signal detecting unit detects signals belonging to a plurality of frequency bands, from an image signal. The average value calculating unit calculates average values for respective ones of the signals belonging to the plurality of frequency bands detected by the frequency band signal detecting unit. Each of the average values is a characteristic value equivalent to an amplitude. The relative value calculating unit calculates a relative value of one of the average values to another of the average values, among the average values calculated for respective ones of the plurality of frequency bands. The image determination unit for determining an image based on the relative value calculated by the relative value calculating unit. The image determined is subject to image-processing. |
| US08098328B2 |
Image signal processing apparatus, image display and image display method
An image signal processing apparatus capable of detecting a black band region included in an input image signal in a shorter time is provided. The image signal processing apparatus may include a measuring means for measuring in a unit frame period whether each pixel in a designated measurement region of an input image signal has a signal level less than a threshold value; and a black band detecting means for detecting a black band region included in the input image signal on the basis of a measurement result from the measuring means. |
| US08098326B2 |
Electronic device and accessory device
A connector on an electronic device includes a pair of locking plates, a guide groove, and a space. Each locking plate has, on its edge, a first concave portion, a first convex portion, a second concave portion, and a second convex portion. An intermediate surface for determining a position of an accessory device below the guide groove is provided below the second concave portions and the second convex portions. A contact mounting surface provided with plural contacts is provided below the first convex portions. Guide surfaces for determining a position of the accessory device in the width direction of the guide groove are provided below the first concave portions and the first convex portions. |
| US08098325B2 |
Digital camera
A digital camera of the present invention has: an optical housing having a bending optical system for reflecting photographic object light entering along a first optical axis to a second optical axis direction perpendicular to the first optical axis to form an image on an image pickup device; a camera main body having a containing portion for containing the optical housing slidably only in the second optical axis direction and having support portions for supporting the optical housing provided on each of both sides surfaces of the containing portion across the second optical axis of the bending optical system; and a shock absorbing unit provided between an inner surface of the containing portion of the camera main body in which the support portions are not provided and an outer surface of the optical housing facing thereto. |
| US08098324B2 |
Imaging device, GPS control method, and computer program
An imaging device includes an imaging unit configured to execute processing to capture image data, a global positioning system (GPS) device configured to execute position calculation processing based on data received from a satellite, and a main controller configured to measure an imaging frequency of the imaging unit, to determine or update a control parameter as a condition for a transition of an operation state of the GPS device based on the measured imaging frequency, and to cause a transition of the operation state of the GPS device based on the determined or updated control parameter. |
| US08098321B2 |
Image pickup element for performing focus detection based on phase-difference detecting and image pickup device having such image pickup element
An image pickup element includes a light receiver having a matrix arrangement formed by disposing first-direction arrays, each having photoelectric converters arranged in a first direction with a gap therebetween, in a second direction orthogonal thereto, and micro-lenses above the light receiver. In the matrix arrangement, a certain first-direction array has two first photoelectric converters receiving, via two micro-lenses, photographic-subject light passing through two segmental regions in an exit pupil of a photographic optical system, and a certain second-direction array has two second photoelectric converters receiving photographic-subject light passing through two segmental regions in the exit pupil. Light axes of the two micro-lenses extend through vicinities of edges, farthest from each other in the first direction, of the first photoelectric converters. The first photoelectric converters include two photoelectric converters that flank one photoelectric converter, disposed at an intersection between the certain first-direction and second-direction arrays, in the certain first-direction array. |
| US08098317B2 |
High speed photographic device, method for controlling high speed photographic device, and computer program
To provide a high speed photographic device which can display in real time a synchronous image photographed in synchronization with motion of a photographic subject. The high speed photographic device (1), which displays in real time a photography image which is in synchronization with a motion cycle of the photographic subject TG, includes: a synchronous cycle adjustment unit (22) which is for designating a synchronous cycle Tsync; a camera (11) which photographs the photographic subject TG at a photography cycle Tshot that is 1/N as long as the synchronous cycle Tsync; and a display unit (14) which displays in real time the photographic subject TG by displaying the photography image of every synchronous cycle Tsync every display cycle Tdisp. The synchronous cycle adjustment unit (22) can adjust the synchronous cycle Tsync at a step width ΔTsync smaller than a visual minimum cycle, within an adjustment range which does not include less than the visual minimum cycle. |
| US08098314B2 |
Noise reduction for analog video applications
Systems and methods are provided that facilitate reducing noise within sampled video information in a CMOS sensor imager. A multi-capacitor sample and hold can capture multiple samples of video information during at least partially overlapping time intervals. The multi-capacitor sample and hold can include a plurality of capacitors and a plurality of sampling switches, wherein each of the sampling switches can be coupled to a respective one of the plurality of capacitors. The plurality of sampling switches can be closed at a substantially concurrent time to begin capturing samples with the plurality of capacitors. Thereafter, the plurality of sampling switches can each be opened at respective disparate times to collect differing noise samples with each of the plurality of capacitors. A readout component can combine (e.g., average) the samples obtained by the plurality of capacitors, thereby reducing noise levels. |
| US08098313B2 |
Address generator and image capturing device
An address generator that generates, in an image capturing device including a photoelectric conversion unit having arrayed therein in a matrix plural photoelectric conversion elements that convert received light into charges and accumulate the charges and a rolling shutter function, an address indicating a line position of each of the photoelectric conversion elements that are processing objects of readout processing and reset processing for accumulated charges includes address counters provided at least in a number same as a number of time divisions of the readout processing and the reset processing, a control unit that independently controls an operation of each of the address counters, a selecting circuit that sequentially selects each of the address counters in a time division manner and outputs a count value of the selected address counter to an address decode circuit as the address, and the address decode circuit that outputs a signal for changing the photoelectric conversion element in a line position corresponding to the address inputted from the selection circuit in a time division manner to an active state. |
| US08098304B2 |
Dynamic identification and correction of defective pixels
Rather than storing a table within a digital camera or other optical device of defective pixels within its image sensor, defective pixels are dynamically identified by comparing the output values of individual pixels under test with those of neighboring pixels. If the neighbors are all above or below the pixel under test by a defined threshold amount, the output of the pixel under test is replaced with a value calculated from the outputs of neighboring pixels. |
| US08098298B2 |
Digital camera recording a composite image
A digital camera capable of recording a subject image so that the subject image can be drawn as it is combined with a selected default image and so that the subject image can be drawn separately from the selected default image. The digital camera includes an image processor which creates subject image data based on output of an image sensor and a default image setting unit which stores subject image data in a removable memory together with information for associating background data with the subject image data, whereby the subject image data, rather than the data provided by combining the subject image data and the background data, is stored in the removable memory and the subject image data and the background data are associated with each other. |
| US08098297B2 |
Pre- and post-shutter signal image capture and sort for digital camera
A camera system includes an image sensor and a processing apparatus receiving image frames from the sensor before and after receipt of a user picture signal. The processing apparatus discards frames that do not meet a quality criterion such as under-exposed frames. Also, the processing apparatus compresses only a subset of remaining frames, specifically, those that meet a compression amount threshold. The remaining frames are presented to a user, who can select a representative frame as the “picture” that was taken. |
| US08098281B1 |
Method and apparatus for providing a video session with images captured from web based cameras
A method and apparatus for displaying image from web based camera(s) located in a residential home to be projected onto a television monitor are disclosed. For example, as part of a home security system, a web server capturing images of passageways leading to or inside a residential home can activate a frame to be projected on a television monitor when movement is detected and a new image is captured. In addition to passively alerting homeowners to potential security threats, the present invention also enables homeowners to see the image of people outside their doorways to react accordingly. |
| US08098275B2 |
Three-dimensional imaging system using optical pulses, non-linear optical mixers and holographic calibration
A three dimensional imaging system is disclosed which includes a three dimensional display (12), three-dimensional calibration equipment (16), and one or more two-dimensional (15) or three dimensional (14) image scanners. The three-dimensional display (12) uses optical pulses (32a-32k) and a non linear optical mixer (18) to display a three-dimensional image (17). The three-dimensional image (17) is generated in voxels of the display volume (28) as the optical mixer (18) sweeps the display volume (28). The three-dimensional calibration equipment (16) uses a hologram projected proximal to a desired object (164) to calibrate optical imaging devices (162a-162c) and to simplify the combination of the images from one or more optical imaging devices (162a-162c) into three-dimensional information. The three-dimensional image scanner (14) employs optical pulses (136, 138) and a non-linear optical mixer (128) to acquire three-dimensional images of a desired object (134). The three-dimensional image scanner (14) captures both the shape and color of a desired object (134). |
| US08098274B2 |
Image signal transmitting/receiving apparatus and method
The present invention relates to an image signal transmitting/receiving apparatus and method for selectively performing transmission and display of a main image signal. The present invention transmits and display an sub-image signal instead of the received main image signal in case that the cut-off mode with respect to the main image signal has been set. |
| US08098271B2 |
Exposure device, light-emitting device, image forming apparatus and failure diagnosing method
The exposure device includes: a light output device outputting light for exposing a charged image carrier, and including light-emitting elements caused to emit light or not through a control using a light-emission signal, switch elements provided corresponding to the light-emitting elements, and sequentially turned on to set the light-emitting elements ready to emit light, a transfer-signal generating unit generating a transfer signal for sequentially turning on the switch elements, a light-emission signal supply unit supplying the light-emission signal to the light-emitting elements, and a detection unit causing the transfer-signal generating unit to generate a transfer signal having cycles whose number is larger than that of the light-emitting elements, and detecting a potential of an output region of the light-emission signal supply unit while making an output from the light-emission signal supply unit high impedance; and an optical member focusing light outputted by the light output device onto the image carrier. |
| US08098265B2 |
Hierarchical multicolor primaries temporal multiplexing system
This invention describes an apparatus, methods and a system for high speed hierarchical multiplexing the native color primaries of SSL-based display systems in order to improve color quality and stability as well as brightness and the efficiency of the display system. |
| US08098262B2 |
Arbitrary fractional pixel movement
A technique is provided for displaying pixels of an image at arbitrary subpixel positions. In accordance with aspects of this technique, interpolated intensity values for the pixels of the image are derived based on the arbitrary subpixel location and an intensity distribution or profile. Reference to the intensity distribution provides appropriate multipliers for the source image. Based on these multipliers, the image may be rendered at respective physical pixel locations such that the pixel intensities are summed with each rendering, resulting in a destination image having suitable interpolated pixel intensities for the arbitrary subpixel position. |
| US08098259B2 |
Image display device
An image display device having an image generation unit for generating an image according to an instruction, a display unit able to display in color the image generated at the image generation unit, a user interface unit including a color designation part enabling selective designation of any color from among a plurality of colors and an adjustment degree designation part able to instruct the degree of adjustment of at least attributes of the color designated by the color designation part, and a control unit for instructing the image generation unit so as to generate an image able to display at least a color designated by the color designation part of the user interface unit. |
| US08098253B2 |
Display unit and method for displaying multiple images
A display unit includes: a display panel for displaying a plurality of information images; a memory for storing a plurality of image data elements corresponding to the information images; an image memory for storing the image data elements transferred from the memory; and a controller for controlling the display panel to display the information images based on the image data elements in the image memory. The controller transfers a part of the image data elements to the image memory on ahead when the display unit starts to operate, and the controller controls the display panel to display a part of information images on ahead based on the part of the image data elements. |
| US08098249B2 |
Apparatus and method for automatic scaling of tick marks
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to calculate a default number of major tick marks as a function of a minimum distance between major tick marks and the length of a GUI control. A whole number of major tick marks that evenly divides a range of values to be mapped along the length of the GUI control is iteratively searched. A whole number of major tick marks is displayed along the length of the GUI control. The default number of major tick marks is the origin from which the search begins. |
| US08098244B2 |
Evolutionary direct manipulation of free form deformation representations for design optimization
An improved method for optimizing a design, based on direct manipulations of the object points of a design. In addition, the number and modifications of control points is kept as minimal as possible while the targeted movement of object points is realized and the automatic adaptation and generation of a set of control points for deformations which allows the movement of object points to desired positions. One aspect of the invention is to generate the transformation function f which is optimized to be able to realize desired changes of object parameters by means of control point variations. This optimization can be realized in a way that the mapping between the original coordinate system of the design and the spline coordinate system is not changed, so that no additional “freezing” process (the generation of the mapping between the coordinate systems) is necessary. |
| US08098235B2 |
Multi-touch device having dynamic haptic effects
A system for generating haptic effects senses at least two generally simultaneous touches on a touchscreen and, in response, generates a dynamic haptic effect. |
| US08098233B2 |
Wide touchpad on a portable computer
In one exemplary embodiment, a portable computer having a display assembly coupled to a base assembly to alternate between a closed position and an open position. Palm rest areas are formed by a touchpad disposed on the surface of the base assembly. In an alternative embodiment, a touchpad disposed on the base assembly has a width that extends substantially into the palm rests areas of the base assembly. |
| US08098229B2 |
Control device for computer
Control device for a computer mouse. In order to enhance comfort as much as possible and to avoid or even cure RSI phenomena, a control device is proposed with a curved finger-supporting element and thumb-supporting element with varying curvatures. Optimum support for the hand and fingers (thumb) is obtained if there is a certain correlation between the length over which the hand, including the fingers, is supported and the width available for supporting the fingers. This value is preferably in the range 0.3-0.6 and more specifically is 0.45. Furthermore, the curvature and height of the finger-supporting element and thumb-supporting element must be implemented such that they are a function of the length of the control device. According to a particular embodiment the finger-supporting element is implemented such that, when viewed transversely, this descends from the highest point in a circle. |
| US08098225B2 |
Display device driving circuit and display device including same
In an embodiment, a sampling signal to each data signal line is generated by using an output signal outputted from each flip-flop, and a precharge signal by which the data signal line to which the sampling signal is to be outputted is precharged is generated by using an output signal outputted from an output terminal of the flip-flop. Further, by providing a NOR circuit, an active period of the precharge signal and an active period of the sampling signal are prevented from overlapping each other. With this, in an embodiment of a display device driving circuit, including a precharge circuit, which causes a precharge power supply to precharge signal supply lines, the number of shift registers and the size of a circuit can be reduced. |
| US08098224B2 |
Driver circuit for display device and display device
A driver circuit for a display device includes NOR circuits on the input side of switches for controlling precharge of data signal lines and selected pixels connected to the data signal lines. While a video signal is written onto a data signal line, a signal instructing precharge of another data signal line is inputted from a shift register to the NOR circuits. A simultaneous precharge instruction signal is inputted from outside to the NOR circuits. According to this arrangement, precharge is performed in both a period in which a video signal is supplied to a data signal line and a period in which no video signal is supplied to any of the data signal lines. As a result, it is possible to perform precharge even with a precharge power source having relatively low driving capability, and to precharge the signal supply lines of the display device sufficiently. |
| US08098223B2 |
Apparatus and method for driving a liquid crystal display device to prevent defective images during frequency conversion
An apparatus and method for driving a liquid crystal display (LCD) device is disclosed, to prevent error of a timing controller and to prevent the defective image on a frequency conversion, the apparatus comprising a liquid crystal display part to display images, a driver to drive the liquid crystal display part, a graphic system to output frequency-conversion prediction information in accordance with a frequency-conversion signal, and perform frequency conversion of a plurality of synchronizing signals, and a timing controller to control the driver to display video data according to a previous frame during the frequency conversion, in response to the frequency-conversion prediction information. |
| US08098221B2 |
Liquid crystal display and method of driving the same
A liquid crystal display (LCD) capable of improving display quality and a method of driving the same are provided. The LCD comprises an LCD panel including a plurality of data lines and gate lines and liquid crystal cells arranged in a matrix at crossings of the gate lines and the data lines, a driving circuit for supplying a data voltage to the data lines and for supplying a scan pulse to the gate lines, a timing controller for generating a gate start pulse for indicating a start horizontal line in which scanning starts in a one frame period where one screen is displayed, a control clock generator for counting the number of frames using the gate start pulse and for generating a control clock whenever an accumulated count value becomes a multiple of a predetermined value, and a common voltage generating circuit for generating control data of a specific bit based on the control clock and for generating a common voltage whose level varies in stages per predetermined interval using the control data to supply the common voltage to the LCD panel. |
| US08098219B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel, liquid crystal display device having the same, and driving method thereof
Provided is a liquid crystal display panel, a liquid crystal display device having the same, and a driving method thereof capable of improving image quality. The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel; a gate driver; and a data driver. The liquid crystal display panel includes pixel regions arranged in a matrix, each being defined by a gate line and first and second data lines crossing the gate line. The gate driver supplies a scan signal to the gate line. The data driver alternately supplies a data voltage and a common voltage to the first and second data lines. |
| US08098216B2 |
Plasma display apparatus and driving method thereof
A plasma display apparatus and a driving method thereof are provided. The plasma display apparatus and a driving method thereof represent an image by a combination of a plurality of subfields, supply a first pulse to the first electrode in a negative polarity direction before a reset period for initializing in at least one of the plurality of subfields, supply a second pulse to the second electrode in an opposite polarity direction of the first pulse while the first pulse is supplied to the first electrode, and do not supply a sustain pulse to at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode in a sustain period after the reset period. |