| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08321960B2 |
Scanning probe microscope
A portion of light emitted from a laser source (11) for detecting a displacement of a cantilever (4) is extracted by a half mirror (20) and guided onto a photodetector (21) having a light-receiving surface divided into four sections. When the direction of the emitted light is inclined due to a change in the ambient temperature or other factors, the light spot formed on the light-receiving surface of the photodetector (21) moves. Accordingly, the amount and direction of the inclination of the emission direction can be recognized from the amount and direction of the movement of the light spot. A drive amount calculator (22) calculates a drive amount according to the amount and direction of the inclination, and operates an actuator (23) to rotate the laser source (11) around each of the Y and Z axes. This operation compensates for the inclination of the direction of the emitted light and thereby prevents the inclination from being falsely recognized as an irregularity on the sample surface. |
| US08321959B2 |
Cantilevers with integrated piezoelectric actuators for probe microscopy
An atomic force microscopy sensor includes a substrate, a cantilever beam and an electrostatic actuator. The cantilever beam has a proximal end and an opposite distal end. The proximal end is in a fixed relationship with the substrate and the cantilever beam is configured so that the distal end is in a moveable relationship with respect to the substrate. The electrostatic actuator includes a first electrode that is coupled to the cantilever beam adjacent to the proximal end and a spaced apart second electrode that is in a fixed relationship with the substrate. When an electrical potential is applied between the first electrode and the second electrode, the first electrode is drawn to the second electrode, thereby causing the distal end of the cantilever beam to move. |
| US08321953B2 |
Secure storage device with offline code entry
A system to authorize access to secured data storage can comprise a user interface configured to receive a user code offline from a user to allow access to stored data, circuitry configured to authorize access to the stored data based, at least in part, on the user code and provide access to the stored data, and a storage system configured to store the stored data. |
| US08321950B2 |
Delivering secure IPTV services to PC platforms
To prevent theft of protected content when IPTV services are provided, a conditional access device (CAD) is connected to a personal computer (PC). An application is launched on the PC from the CAD over universal serial bus (USB) interface. The application configures the PC to allow a user to receive secure internet protocol television (IPTV) services. The conditional access device and an IPTV service provider determine user access to the IPTV services via a network by using a trusted computing base (TCB) on the CAD and keys stored on the CAD. The application decrypts and decodes the IPTV services using the processing and storage capability of the PC. The CAD also receives and processes remote control signals received from a remote control interface. The remote control signals are requests or responses from the user interacting with the application. The application displays content requested by the user or indications of responses by the user via a user interface on the PC. |
| US08321945B2 |
Security measure status self-checking system
A security measure status self-checking system which can determine the security measure status in a more simplified and effective manner by focusing on the information leakage measure in the security measures, managing the PC's security measure status and the user's take-out operation status in an integrated and unitary manner, and providing security policy samples. Accordingly, the client computer collects security inventory information and operation log information and transmits the information to the server computer. Further, the server computer stores the security inventory information and the operation log information transmitted from the client computer and determines whether or not the information conforms to the security policy which has been set in advance. The check result is displayed on the server computer and when a policy violation is detected, the manager and the client are notified of that effect. |
| US08321943B1 |
Programmatic communication in the event of host malware infection
A distress signal sender and a distress signal receiver receive beacon-name generation parameters and generate a beacon name based at least in part on the received parameters, the beacon name representing a network location. Responsive to detecting an unexpected lack of access to network communications, the distress signal sender sends a beacon message to the generated beacon name, the beacon message describing a security state of the client. The distress signal receiver detects the beacon message sent by the distress signal sender, and responsive to receiving the beacon message, performs a remedial action. |
| US08321940B1 |
Systems and methods for detecting data-stealing malware
A computer-implemented method for detecting data-stealing malware may include: 1) detecting an attempt by an untrusted application to access a storage location that is known to be used by a legitimate application when storing potentially sensitive information, 2) determining that the legitimate application is not installed on the computing device, 3) determining that the untrusted application represents a potential security risk, and then 4) performing a security operation on the untrusted application. Corresponding systems and computer-readable instructions embodied on computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US08321936B1 |
System and method for malicious software detection in multiple protocols
A system and a method for detecting malicious content associated with an electronic message are described. An electronic message, such as an e-mail, a chat request, a torrent file or a text message is initially received. The electronic message can then be compared to known viruses using pattern or signature matching techniques. The electronic message is then transmitted to a virtual machine which executes the electronic message in an environment simulating the destination computing system of the electronic message. The virtual machine monitors execution of the electronic message to identify one or more malicious actions and classifies the electronic message accordingly. For example, message component execution is monitored for attempts to access system files, attempts to access user information, attempts to transmit system configuration data or attempts to transmit user information. |
| US08321934B1 |
Anti-phishing early warning system based on end user data submission statistics
Websites used for phishing are detected by analyzing end user confidential data submission statistics. A central process receives data indicating confidential information submitted to websites from a plurality of user computers. The received data is aggregated and analyzed, for example through statistical profiling. Through the analysis of the aggregated data, anomalous behavior concerning submission of confidential information to websites is detected, such is an unexpected, rapid increase in the amount of confidential information submitted to a given website. Responsive to detecting the anomalous behavior, further action is taken to protect users from submitting confidential information to that website. For example, an alert can be sent, a protective measure against the site can be published, the site can be added to a blacklist or a procedure to have the site shut down can be initiated. |
| US08321931B2 |
Method and apparatus for sequential hypervisor invocation
In some embodiments, the invention involves a system and method for invoking a series of hypervisors on a platform. A hardware-based secure boot of a chained series of virtual machines throughout the life of the pre-operating system (OS) firmware/BIOS/loader/option ROM execution, with component-wise isolation of the pre-extensible firmware interface (PEI) and driver execution environment (DXE) cores is utilized. In an embodiment, a Cache-As-RAM (CAR) based hypervisor, executing directly from Flash memory manages sequential invocation of a next hypervisor. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08321928B2 |
Securely executing an application on a computer system
A method of and system for securely executing an application on a computer system such that a user of the computer system cannot access or view unauthorized content available on the computer system or accessible using the computer system. To securely execute an such method and system may terminate any unauthorized processes executing (i.e., running) on the computer system application prior to execution of the application, and may configure the application such that unauthorized content cannot be accessed, including configuring the application such that unauthorized processes cannot be initiated (i.e., launched) by the application. Further, such system and method may terminate any unauthorized processes detected during execution of the application, and may disable any functions of the computer system that are capable of accessing unauthorized content, including disabling any functions capable of initiating processes on the computer system. The application being securely executed may be any of a variety of types of applications, for example, a browser application or an application for receiving answers to questions of an examination (i.e., an exam-taking application). Securely executing an application may be used for any of a variety of purposes, including, among other purposes, to assist preventing students from cheating on exams, to assist preventing students from not paying attention in class, to assist preventing employees from wasting time at work, and to assist preventing children from viewing content that their parents deem inappropriate. |
| US08321927B2 |
Network aware firewall
Among other things, one or more systems and/or methods for a network aware firewall are disclosed. A method comprises accessing a first network connection from a client computer system and determining whether the first network connection is a first network type or a second network type. The method further comprises dynamically modifying security parameters associated with a firewall local to the client computer system in response to determining whether the network connection is the first network type or the second network type. |
| US08321926B1 |
System and method of protecting a system that includes unprotected computer devices
A system and method to selectively isolate one or more unprotected computer devices from the rest of the computer system and/or from the network. The ability to isolate and/or authenticate the software and/or hardware on or interacting with the unprotected software and/or hardware provides for a secured system despite the presence or use of an unprotected computer device. |
| US08321925B1 |
Distributed encryption key management
Secure information is managed for each host or machine in an electronic environment using a series of key identifiers that each represent one or more secure keys, passwords, or other secure information. Applications and services needing access to the secure information can specify the key identifier, for example, and the secure information currently associated with that identifier can be determined without any change to the code or manual input or exposure of the secure information on the respective device. Functionality such as encryption key management and rotation are inaccessible and transparent to the user. In a networked or distributed environment, the key identifiers can be associated with host classes such that at startup any host in a class can obtain the necessary secure information. Updates and key rotation can be performed in a similar fashion by pushing updates to host classes transparent to a user, application, or service. |
| US08321922B1 |
Authenticating a user of a system using near field communication
A system and machine-implemented method for providing a username and password to a system using a device, via establishing a near field communication link with the system; retrieving a username and password from storage on the device; and transmitting the username and password to the system via the near field communication link, wherein the username and password are configured to be used by the system to authenticate the user on the system. |
| US08321916B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for remote management of mobile devices
An apparatus and system for enabling users to remotely manage their devices. Specifically, in one embodiment, in the event of a theft of a device or other such occurrence, a user may send a command to the device to execute a specified command. The command may include actions such as locking the device, shutting down the device, disabling logon's to the device and other such actions that may secure the device and the data on the device from unauthorized access. Upon receipt of an authorized unlock credential, the device may once again be made accessible. |
| US08321914B2 |
System and method for verifying an attribute in records for procurement application
A system and associated method for verifying an attribute in records for a procurement application. The procurement application employs a database having a company profile record, a user profile record, and a requisition object record, among which share a company_code attribute as a target attribute that is desired to be valid. The company profile record has a validity attribute, and the requisition object record has a validity flag, to indicate validities of the value for the target attribute in respective record. A company profile configuration module configures the company profile record. A user profile verification module prohibits a user without a valid user profile from accessing the procurement application. A user profile cleanup program removes invalid user profile records from the database. A requisition object verification module checks out valid values for the company_code attribute from the company profile records and blocks modification to invalid requisition objects. |
| US08321910B1 |
Determining the source of malware
A malware detection system capable of detecting and removing malware from a computer system. The malware detection system determines whether there are files potentially related to a selected malware file using a time-based embodiment based on whether files were installed around the time of the malware. A cache-based embodiment searches an Internet cache to determine the URLs that might be the source of the malware. A location-based embodiment dissects the file system path to determine an application related to the malware. Results are displayed to the user for action. |
| US08321908B2 |
Apparatus and method for applying network policy at a network device
This document discusses, among other things, applying network policy at a network device. In an example embodiment fiber channel hard zoning information may be received that indicates whether a fiber channel frame is permitted to be communicated between two fiber channel ports. Some example embodiments include identifying a media access control address associated with the fiber channel ports. An example embodiment may include generating one or more access control entries based on the fiber channel identifications of the fiber channel ports and the zoning information. The access control entries may be distributed to an Ethernet port to be inserted into an existing access control list and used to enforce a zoning policy upon fiber channel over Ethernet frames. |
| US08321907B2 |
Broadcast receiving apparatus, broadcast receiving method, broadcast receiving program, and broadcast receiving circuit
An MPEG decoder decodes a video data packet for standard broadcasting to generate video data for standard broadcasting, and detects a decoding error thereof. A MPEG decodes a video data packet for broadcasting under rainfall to generate video data for broadcasting under rainfall. A synthesizing section generates a composite signal obtained by replacing a decoding error part of the video data for standard broadcasting with a corresponding part of the video data for broadcasting rainfall. |
| US08321906B2 |
Method and system for a transcoder
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a transcoder module having a controller to manage power distribution in the transcoder module from power supplied to an HDMI port of the transcoder module, transcode audio-visual information into a digital compatible format used on an external device. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US08321905B1 |
Fast switching of media streams
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for fast switching of media streams, are described. The methods and systems described in this specification enable switching media streams as quickly as possible without playback interruption by not having to playback the content of the full buffer prior to the switch to the new stream. The fast switching disclosed in this specification is based on configuring a media player operated at a client computer to specify a switching time offset that corresponds to buffered content. In addition, the disclosed methods and systems enable a media streaming server computer, that is streaming a first media stream to the client computer, to select a key frame of a second media stream that is at or near a switching time offset specified by the client computer, and to immediately begin transmission of the second media stream. |
| US08321904B2 |
System and method to enable access to broadband services
A provisioning system includes a services management system operable to enable a set-top box device configured to receive broadband services at a first network location to access one or more of the broadband services at a second network location. The first network location is associated with a subscriber account and the second network location is not associated with the subscriber account. The broadband services include a voice service, a data service, and a video service. The provisioning system includes a subscriber authentication system operable to evaluate a request that includes subscriber authorization data, to selectively authorize access to the one or more broadband services at the second network location based on the subscriber authorization data, and to enable the set-top box device to access the one or more broadband services when the set-top box device is at the second network location. |
| US08321901B2 |
System for remotely controlling client recording and storage behavior
A system for remotely controlling client recording and storage behavior schedules the recording, storing, and deleting of multimedia content on a client system storage device. The invention accepts as input a prioritized list of program viewing preferences which is compared with a database of program guide objects that indicate when programs of interest are actually broadcast. A schedule of time versus available storage space is generated that is optimal for the viewer's explicit or derived preferred content. The viewer may request that certain content be captured, which results in the highest possible priority for those content. The invention provides objects called a capture requests that are sent by the service to client systems. Capture requests reflect local storage management decisions about how the client system storage is partitioned. Capture requests also allow the service to determine content to be recorded by the client system in the same manner that a viewer requests that certain content are recorded but are more powerful than what a viewer can request. Recording requests for a capture request can preempt viewer requests or be entered at the same or lower priority as a viewer request. Capture requests can adjust all aspects of a recording request and affect the capture request itself. Client system operational functionality are also manipulated by the service using capture requests. |
| US08321900B2 |
Limited chain relay with virtual peer for multimedia distribution
A method includes at a first customer premises equipment (CPE) device coupled to a multimedia distribution network, generating a first request for multimedia content. The method also includes sending the first request to a network node of the multimedia distribution network. The method further includes receiving the multimedia content from a virtual peer located at the network node and storing the multimedia content at the first CPE device. The method also includes receiving a message via the multimedia distribution network, the message indicating a transmission of a second request for the multimedia content by a second customer premises equipment (CPE) device. The method further includes transmitting at least a portion of the stored multimedia content to the second CPE device. |
| US08321892B1 |
Method and apparatus for filtering data displayed in an electronic television program guide
The apparatus and method of the present invention provides a system for reducing the amount of information displayed in an on-screen television program guide. The user selects a genre by pressing a genre labeled button on a remote control. The remote control transmits an infrared signal to a set top box. The set top box then filters program guide data received from a satellite dish according to the selected genre and displays only channels and/or shows associated with the selected genre. |
| US08321889B2 |
Method and system for personalized and localized TV ad delivery
A personalized and localized TV Ad delivery method and system comprise of Ad Center (1), Intelligent Control Module (2), and Display (3) and/or TV (4). Ad Center (1) collects and processes information for ads, ad agencies, advertisers, and TV users. TV user information includes subscriber information associated with a user and public and/or purchasable user information like demographic data, user age group, family group, profession, credit history, etc. Intelligent Control Module (2) interfaces with Ad Center (2) and Display (3) and/or TV (4), collects user viewing program content preference, user ad preference, and user viewing patterns, which, at the discretion of users and based on local rules and regulations, can be uploaded to Ad Center (1). Intelligent Control Module (2) and/or Ad Center (1) also utilize artificial intelligence, mathematical, and statistical techniques for decision processing to produces a user personalized and localized ad schedule and/or ad set pertaining to channels and time, which governs the appropriate ad display during commercial times for certain or all channels. Application of the present invention enables ad agencies and/or advertisers directly and accurately personalize and localize their advertisements to potential buyers and/or locations that might have the interests or needs for the advertised products or services, and greatly enhance the effectiveness of TV advertisements. |
| US08321887B2 |
Displaying enhanced advertisements simultaneously across substantially all channels
A video content network having a plurality of program channels is operated, and a target time slot for an enhanced advertisement is identified. At least some of the plurality of program channels have programs scheduled during the target time slot. The target time slot is signaled to a plurality of terminals connected to the video content network. Each of the terminals is viewing a given one of the program channels prior to the signaling. Responsive to the signaling, the programs scheduled during the target time slot are effectively paused at a program time corresponding to a beginning of the time slot, and the enhanced advertisement is caused to be displayed on the terminals. Responsive to an end of the enhanced advertisement, the programs scheduled during the target time slot are resumed at the program time corresponding to the beginning of the time slot. Thus, substantially all viewers of the video content network during the target time slot are exposed to the enhanced advertisement regardless of which of the plurality of program channels the viewers were watching during the target time slot. |
| US08321878B2 |
Virtualized storage assignment method
Various aspects are disclosed for building a device driver stack in a virtual machine partition that does not physically control the device represented by the stack. In an embodiment, a secondary interface and driver for an I/O device may be instantiated. Information from an I/O virtualization layer describing the devices that the associated driver may control may be requested. A multi-path redirection layer may provide a handle to an existing stack that includes a driver for the I/O device. This existing stack may then be used to communicate with the device and allow the creation of a new stack including an object representing the device and a new driver for the device. The multi-path redirection layer may then open a handle to the new stack and inform the device virtualization layer, which may then ask the existing device interface to relinquish control of the device to the newly created interface. |
| US08321874B2 |
Intelligent context migration for user mode scheduling
Performing directed switches between user mode schedulable (UMS) threads and primary threads enable proper execution of the UMS threads. A primary thread user portion is switched to a UMS thread user portion so that the UMS thread user portion is executed in user mode via the primary thread user portion. The primary thread is then transferred into kernel mode via an implicit switch. A kernel portion of the UMS thread is then executed in kernel mode using the context information of a primary thread kernel portion. |
| US08321871B1 |
System and method of using transaction IDS for managing reservations of compute resources within a compute environment
A system and method for reserving resources within a compute environment such as a cluster or grid are disclosed. The method aspect of the disclosure includes receiving a request for resource availability in a compute environment from a requestor, associating a transaction identification with the request and resources within the compute environment that can meet the request and presenting the transaction identification to the requestor. The transaction ID can also be associated with a time frame in which resources are available and can also be associated with modifications to the resources and supersets of resources that could be drawn upon to meet the request. The transaction ID can also be associated with metrics that identify how well the resource fit with the request and modifications that can make the resources better match the workload which would be submitted under the request. |
| US08321868B2 |
Method for counting events in a computer system
The invention relates to a method for counting events in an information technology system which performs one or more threads of executions, wherein an event counter is introduced comprising: a progress counter to be used across multiple threads of execution, counting the number of events emitted by one or more actions with a logical and dependency which occur in different threads of execution; and a local counter to be used within a single thread of execution counting the number of events emitted by one or more actions which occur within a single thread of execution. |
| US08321864B2 |
Device management
A framework whereby mobile terminals are configured and managed by a central server. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile telecommunications terminal including a first execution environment and a second execution environment, each execution environment being arranged to execute a respective device management agent and each agent issuing, in accordance with instructions from a device management server, management actions that act upon one or more respective management entities running within one or more of the execution environments; wherein the management entities of the second execution environment are grouped into a management structure, the management structure being one of the management entities within the first execution environment, whereby the he first and second execution environments permit the device management server is permitted to manage applications and/or services running within both. |
| US08321862B2 |
System for migrating a virtual machine and resource usage data to a chosen target host based on a migration policy
A method for migrating a virtual machine executing on a host. The method involves monitoring, by a monitoring agent connected to a device driver, hosts in a network, wherein the device driver is connected to a network interface card, determining a virtual machine to be migrated based on a virtual machine policy, sending, by the host, a request to migrate to at least one of a plurality of target hosts in the network, receiving an acceptance to the request to migrate from at least one of the plurality of target hosts, determining, by the monitoring agent, a chosen target host to receive the virtual machine based on a migration policy, wherein the chosen target host is one of the at least one target hosts that sent the acceptance, sending a confirmation and historical information to the chosen target host, and migrating the virtual machine to the chosen target host. |
| US08321861B2 |
Non-native program execution across multiple execution environments
A data processing system 2 executes non-native program instructions using either a first execution environment 14 or a second execution environment 22. The first execution environment identifies at runtime if non-native program instructions to be executed are marked as intended for execution by the second execution environment. When such instructions are encountered the first execution environment triggers performance of data processing operations as specified by the one or more marked program instructions performed by the second execution environment. When those processing operations as specified by the one or more marked program instructions have been completed, a return is made to the first execution environment. |
| US08321848B2 |
Method and system for syntax error repair in programming languages
The described embodiments present techniques for recovering from syntax errors. These techniques correct potential errors while preserving the shape of the parse tree, and the specific implementation of the techniques can be automatically generated from the grammar. These techniques may operate by looking back at states associated with previously-received tokens to determine pair matching status, when a synchronizing symbol is received. The techniques can respond to the pair matching status determination by potentially adding a synthesized token or by deleting a token that has already been received. The techniques may use a structure referred to herein as a tuple to assist with the evaluation of the pair matching status. Some of the techniques utilize indentation information to evaluate the pair matching status, while other techniques ignore such information. The described embodiments also include a technique for automatically generating the tuples from a set of grammar rules associated with the parser. |
| US08321846B2 |
Executable template
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with executable templates are described. One example method includes generating an executable template from a set of template data. When an executable template is executed, the executable template creates one or more instantiated entities. These instantiated entities may then be combined with entities created from portions of the original template that were not compilable into the executable format. |
| US08321843B2 |
Automatic analysis of an application's run-time settings
A method and system for automatic analysis of an application's runtime configuration settings is provided. The configuration processing system includes a monitoring component and an analysis component. The monitoring component observes requests for configuration information stored in configuration data stores of a monitored device. For example, the monitoring component may observe requests directed to the configuration data stores when an application starts, during runtime, and when the application exits. The monitoring component may record the observed requests in a file or data structure that may be accessed by or sent to the analysis component. Based on the observed requests of an application, the analysis component automatically identifies a reduced set of configuration settings which likely correspond to user-specific configuration settings used by the application. The configuration processing system may include a post-analysis component that displays the reduced set of configuration settings to a user for review, manual analysis, and/or verification. |
| US08321842B2 |
Replay time only functionalities in a virtual machine
Replay-time-only functionalities in a computer program are executed only during replay in a virtual machine and are skipped outside of replay. If a replay-time-only functionality is detected during the replay of a program execution in a virtual machine, the replay may be paused and the virtual machine state may be saved. The replay-time-only core functionality is executed. When this execution is complete, a prior state of the virtual machine may be restored and the replay may be resumed. |
| US08321836B2 |
Late bound programmatic assistance
Programmatic assistance is provided for dynamic typing within an integrated development environment (IDE). Types associated with late bound constructs can be inferred from static information and/or determined from design time execution. Assistance can then be provided as a function of a precise and/or speculative type. Furthermore, dynamic type assistance can be employed in conjunction with static type assistance to facilitate development of a program that supports both late and early binding, for example. |
| US08321835B2 |
System decomposition via evolutionary programming
A technique for generating good system decompositions is disclosed. The illustrative embodiment uses evolutionary programming in combination with a fitness function to generate a system decomposition that has a low degree of coupling and a high degree of coherence. A system is represented by an object-oriented specification using the Unified Modeling Language (UML); the UML specification is then represented by an eXtended Markup Language (XML) document, and the contents of the document are transformed into a nested-list data structure that resembles source code in a functional programming language such as Common LISP. The nested-list data structure and an appropriate fitness function are input to an evolutionary programming engine that operates on the nested-list data structure as though it were a source code program, and generates an output source code program. A system decomposition is then derived from the output source code program. |
| US08321834B2 |
Framework for automatically merging customizations to structured code that has been refactored
A method of generating a tool for merging customizations made to a first version of a software artifact when migrating to a second version includes instantiating a mapping element for each top-level element in a first code set that does not have a complementary element in a second code set; requesting and receiving merge instructions for each top-level element for which merge instructions are not provided in the corresponding mapping element; determining whether the merge instructions for each top-level element for which merge instructions are provided require that customizations be merged into the second code set; determining whether the merge instructions for each top-level element set that requires customizations to be merged are valid; requesting and receiving merge instructions for each top-level element for which the merge instructions are not valid; and storing the merge instructions received for each top-level element in the corresponding mapping element. |
| US08321833B2 |
Compact syntax for data scripting language
The subject disclosure relates to a syntax for a scripting language that allows data intensive applications to be written in a compact, human friendly, textual format. The scripting language can be a declarative programming language, such as the “D” programming language, which is well suited to the authoring of data intensive programs. A compact query syntax is provided for D that simplifies the expression of complex and data intensive programs. In another non-limiting aspect, conventional operator precedence is modified to accommodate the compact syntax and other unique features of a general purpose declarative programming language. |
| US08321823B2 |
System and method for designing architecture for specified permutation and datapath circuits for permutation
Computer-implemented systems and methods that provide an efficient technique for performing a large class of permutations on data vectors of length 2n, n>1, implemented with streaming width 2k (where 1≦k≦n−1). The technique applies to any permutation Q on 2n datawords that can be specified as a linear transform, i.e., as an n×n bit matrix (a matrix containing only 1s and 0s) P on the bit level. The relationship between Q and P is as follows: If Q maps (dataword) i to (dataword) j, then the bit representation of j is the bit-matrix-vector product of P with the bit representation of i. Given such a permutation specified by the matrix P and given the streaming width (k), an architectural framework (or datapath) is calculated to implement the permutation. |
| US08321819B1 |
Lithography mask functional optimization and spatial frequency analysis
In an electronic design automation technique for optical proximity correction, a mask is represented by a function with an exact analytical form over a mask region. Using the physics of optical projection, a solution based on a spatial frequency analysis is determined. Spatial frequencies above a cutoff are determined by the optical system do not contribute to the projected image. Spatial frequencies below this cutoff affect the print (and the mask), while those above the cutoff only affect the mask. Frequency components in the function below this cutoff frequency may be removed, which will help to reduce computational complexity. |
| US08321816B2 |
Program storage medium and method for determining exposure condition and mask pattern
A method of determining an exposure condition and a mask pattern includes: setting the exposure condition and the mask pattern; temporarily determining the mask pattern using a first evaluation function describing indices of quality of an image of the mask pattern, using the set exposure condition; calculating a value of a second evaluation function describing indices of quality of the image of the mask pattern, using the temporarily determined mask pattern and the set exposure condition; changing the exposure condition and the mask pattern based on the value of the calculated second evaluation function; and judging whether to execute a process of repeating the temporarily determining step and the calculating step. In the judging step, the mask pattern temporarily determined in the latest second step, and the exposure condition changed in the latest fourth step are determined as the mask pattern and the exposure condition, respectively. |
| US08321815B2 |
Recording medium storing original data generation program, original data generation method, original fabricating method, exposure method, and device manufacturing method
To calculate data of an original, a computer is caused to execute the following steps of converting data regarding an intended pattern to be formed on a substrate into frequency-domain data, calculating a two-dimensional transmission cross coefficient using a function representing an effective light source that an illumination device forms on a pupil plane of a projection optical system when the original is absent on an object plane of the projection optical system and using a pupil function of the projection optical system, calculating a diffracted light distribution from a pattern that is formed on the object plane using both the frequency-domain data and data of at least one component of the calculated two-dimensional transmission cross coefficient, and converting data of the calculated diffracted light distribution into spatial-domain data to determine the data of the original. |
| US08321808B2 |
User interface with toolbar for programming electrical stimulation therapy
The disclosure is directed to a user interface with a menu that facilitates stimulation therapy programming. The user interface displays a representation of the electrical leads implanted in the patient and at least one menu with icons that the user can use to adjust the stimulation therapy. The user may drag one or more field shapes from a field shape selection menu onto the desired location relative to the electrical leads. A manipulation tool menu may also allow the user to adjust the field shapes placed on the electrical leads, which represent the stimulation region. The programmer that includes the user interface then generates electrical stimulation parameter values for the stimulator to deliver stimulation according to the field shapes or field shape groups defined/located by the user. The field shapes may represent different types of stimulation representations, such as current density, activation functions, and neuron models. |
| US08321807B2 |
System and method for generating a visual representation of a service and service management system employing the same
Various systems and methods for generating visual representations of services. In one embodiment, one method generates a static visual representation and includes: (1) retrieving a service description associated with the service, (2) retrieving end points associated with the service, (3) mapping the end points into roles assumed with respect to the service description and (4) for at least some of the roles, rendering the end points in the visual representation. |
| US08321804B2 |
Methods for assessing reliability of a utility company's power system
Methods are provided for assessing reliability of a power system of a utility company. At least one main overview display is obtained. Violation markers are displayed on the one main overview display. A monitored elements tab is updated with a list of monitored elements. |
| US08321802B2 |
Method and system for context dependent pop-up menus
A method and system for providing context dependent pop-up menu icons that activate menu icons in response to a select & drag operation by manipulation of a pointing device. Presented icons may correspond to functions or actions that can be implemented with the particular type of content selected. Icons may be displayed in a consistent manner in terms of position and content with respect to the selected file or object. Icons may appear only during a select & drag operation, thereby leaving the display uncluttered at other times. Presentation of icons may be discontinued when the selected file or object is dragged beyond the area of the presented icons. New applications can register with the operating system to specify icons to be presented when corresponding files are selected or when particular content objects are selected within the application. |
| US08321801B2 |
Desktop widgets for presentation in a layer
A user-activatable dashboard (also referred to as a unified interest layer) contains any number of user interface elements, referred to herein as “widgets,” for quick access by a user. In response to a command from a user, the dashboard is invoked and the widgets are shown on the screen. The user can activate the dashboard at any time, causing the dashboard to temporarily replace the existing user interface display on the user's screen. Once the dashboard has been activated, the user can interact with any or all of the widgets, and can configure the dashboard by adding, deleting, moving, or configuring individual widgets as desired. When the user wishes to return to the normal user interface he or she was working with, the user issues a command causing the dashboard to be dismissed. Once the dashboard has been dismissed, the previous user interface state is restored, allowing the user to resume normal interactions with the operating system. |
| US08321793B1 |
System, method, and computer program for recommending web content to a user
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for recommending web content to a user. In one embodiment, a user is directed to a page of a website, the page including links to a plurality of subpages. Additionally, a number of visits by the user directed from the page to each of the subpages are tracked. Further, one of the subpages with a highest number of visits is designated as a new entry page for the user. Moreover, the user is automatically redirected to the new entry page during subsequent visits by the user to the website. |
| US08321786B2 |
Routine and interface for correcting electronic text
Error checking and correction techniques for web based applications use an error checking routine on a server or a client station to find errors in electronic text of an E-mail message. The disclosed error checking routine detects errors such as spelling errors in the electronic text and creates a correction file of the electronic text containing tags, markers and other information allowing errors to be displayed and corrected using the user's graphical interface. The graphical interface allows the user to review all the errors concurrently in the correction file and to correct the errors in any order. In a preferred embodiment, correction is facilitated in response to the user moving a mouse pointer over an error of interest, which provides correction options to be displayed in-line with the original text. The user can then select a suitable correction to correct the error. |
| US08321785B2 |
Least-effort variable length text replacement
A computer-implemented method of processing text. A method includes providing a unit of text to a text buffer. The unit of text is divided into one or more shift blocks and one or more replacement blocks. Based on a replacement operation of replacing each replacement block with replacement text, a final position of each shift-block within the text buffer is determined. A schedule for the replacement operation is then determined based at least in part on the final position of each shift block. |
| US08321782B1 |
Announcement puzzle and associated website
A jigsaw puzzle and associated web site which provides an entertaining and novel way to give a gift and relay information to select individuals. The puzzle has a code, in addition to the puzzle picture itself, which is displayed when completed. This code gives the puzzle solver access to a web page previously created by the sender of the puzzle. The web page can contain any type of information and data including pictures, videos, music, web links, or items for purchase, for example. |
| US08321781B2 |
User interface pane for an interactive chart
Configuration of an interactive chart is performed by user interactions with a user interface in a satellite pane, which is distinct from a chart pane used to display the data fields present on an interactive chart. Upon entry of a configuration selection, a query is executed to retrieve data to be displayed by the interactive chart. |
| US08321780B2 |
Advanced spreadsheet cell navigation
A cell navigation system is described that allows easy navigation to cells that are likely to be important to a spreadsheet user. The cell navigation system tracks each cell that a user visits and determines the importance of the cell to the user. The system adds important cells to a navigation list. The cell navigation system presents the list to the user as a tool for navigating to the important cells through a user interface. Thus, the cell navigation system provides the user with a quick and easy way of navigating through a potentially large spreadsheet or workbook of spreadsheets to get to those cells that are most important to the user. |
| US08321779B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for operating the same
Semiconductor device includes a pad for outputting a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) data for error detection and a signal outputting unit for outputting the CRC data or a data strobe signal, which is output together with data of being output in response to a read command, through the pad according to operation modes. Method for operating a semiconductor device provided a step of outputting a CRC data for error detection through a CRC data pad and a step of outputting a data strobe signal, which is output together with data output in response to a read command, through the CRC data pad according to an operation mode. |
| US08321776B2 |
Parity error correction for band-limited digital signals
An error correction method corrects and replaces erroneous digital signal samples (having N companded bits) in a receiver after ascertaining by parity check that a sample is erroneous. The method chooses M MSBs where M is less than or equal to N, and produces M test samples, each of the M test samples being obtained by inverting a single bit from the M bits, keeping other bits unaltered. Each test sample is expanded and passed through a selected low pass filter (e.g., 15 kHz) to obtain a filtered output and a differential value between the test sample and its filtered output. The test sample producing the least differential value is chosen to replace the erroneous signal sample. The technique is especially applicable in NICAM demodulators receiving 14 bit sample signals (at 32 kHz) companded to (N) 10 bits from which (M) 6 MSB parity encoded bits are chosen for producing test samples. |
| US08321775B2 |
Non-volatile memory with extended error correction protection
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses related to NVM devices with extended error correction protection. In some embodiments, a parity cache is used to store parity values of data values stored in a plurality of codewords of an NVM device. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US08321774B2 |
Method for fail-safe transmission, safety switching device and control unit
A method for fail-safe transmission of information between a transmitter and a receiver is disclosed. At least two telegrams relating to the information are transmitted as a first telegram via a first channel and a second telegram via a second channel from the transmitter to the receiver. To identify an error affecting the information during transmission, a first identifier is generated from a first subset of the first telegram being used at the receiver to identify the information contained in the first telegram. This method is used for communication from a safety switching device to a control unit. |
| US08321771B1 |
Modified trace-back using soft output viterbi algorithm (SOVA)
Systems and methods are provided for generating error events for decoded bits using a Soft output Viterbi algorithm (SOYA). A winning path through a trellis can be determined and decoded information can be generated. Path metric differences can be computed within the trellis based on the winning path. A plurality of error event masks and error event metrics can be generated based on the decoded information and the path metric differences. |
| US08321770B2 |
Path comparison unit for determining paths in a trellis that compete with a survivor path
A path comparison unit is disclosed for determining paths in a trellis that compete with a survivor path. The disclosed path comparison unit comprises a first type functional unit comprising a multiplexer and a register to store one or more survivor bits associated with the survivor path; and at least two second type functional units, wherein each second type functional unit comprises a multiplexer and a logical circuit to compute at least one equivalence bit indicating whether the bit for a respective path and the bit for the survivor path are equivalent. Generally, the respective path is one or more of a win-lose path and a lose-win path. |
| US08321764B2 |
Multilevel encoding with error correction
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, systems, and apparatuses related to multilevel encoding with error correction. In some embodiments, a plurality of bits may be encoded into a plurality of multilevel memory cells by level-shifting a subset of the plurality of multilevel memory cells for a bit of the plurality of bits. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US08321763B1 |
Split sector recovery method
Reproduction of encoded data which includes a split-mark. FIR data corresponding to split-mark and FIR data affected by the split-mark due to inter-symbol-interference are identified. FIR data corresponding to the split-mark is removed from the received FIR data. Recovered data is created by removing incorrect inter-symbol-interference from the FIR data due to the split-mark, and adding correct inter-symbol-interference from codeword bits. The recovered data is stitched together with data unaffected by split-mark data. |
| US08321760B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and data processing method thereof
Provided are a semiconductor memory device and a data processing method thereof. The semiconductor memory device includes a nonvolatile memory and a memory controller. The nonvolatile memory stores data a plurality of memory cells. The memory controller rearranges data by various operations such as a modulation code operation and processes the data according to an ECC operation to reduce the interference between the memory cells. |
| US08321750B2 |
Interleaving parity bits into user bits to guarantee run-length constraint
RLL encoding is performed to generate RLL data, including by: using a first run-length constraint and using a second run-length constraint. G is a maximum number of zeroes between two ones, I is a maximum number of zeroes between two ones in either a first subsequence or a second subsequence where the first subsequence includes odd bits associated with a DC-balanced sequence and the second subsequence includes even bits associated with the DC-balanced sequence, and S is a number of bits per symbol associated with a systematic ECC. The RLL data is encoded using the systematic ECC to obtain ECC data which includes one or more data symbols and one or more parity symbols. The data symbols and the parity symbols are interleaved. |
| US08321748B2 |
Symbol encoding for tolerance to single byte errors
The present invention provides a method that protects symbol types by characterizing symbols as one of two types—DATA or NON_DATA, generating a symbol characterization bit, placing the symbol characterization bit at both ends of the symbol, and transmitting the symbol with the symbol characterization bits at both ends. Thus, a single byte error may affect a type bit in two consecutive symbols, and will affect one or the other of the type bits in a single symbol, but cannot affect both type bits in a single symbol. |
| US08321746B2 |
Systems and methods for quasi-cyclic LDPC code production and decoding
Various approaches related to systems and methods for LDPC based data processing. |
| US08321744B2 |
Channel adaptive iterative turbo decoder system and method
A channel adaptive iterative turbo decoder for computing with MAP decoders a set of branch metrics for a window of received data, computing the forward and reverse recursive path state metrics and computing from the forward and reverse recursive path state metrics the log likelihood ratio for 1 and 0 and interleaving the decision bits; and identifying those MAP decoder decision bits which are non-convergent, computing a set of branch metrics for the received data, computing from the forward and reverse recursive path state metrics the log likelihood ratio (LLR) for 1 and 0 for each non-converged decision bit and interleaving the non-convergent decision bits. |
| US08321739B2 |
Beam-forming
A method for optimizing re-transmission in a multi-antenna multi-terminal network, the method comprising the following steps performed by a station of the network: receiving from at least one terminal of multiple terminals one or more messages indicating a failed transmission of data sent to the multiple terminals; determining from the received one or more messages if a switching-to-beam-forming criterion is matched and, if the criterion is matched, initiating a re-transmission of the data to the at least one terminal via a beam-forming technique involving one or more of the multiple antennas and using at least one beam for the re-transmission of the data. |
| US08321738B2 |
Method, system and device for retransmitting data
A method, system, and device for retransmitting data are provided. The method includes the following steps. In Step A, a receiving device detects a received frame that bears data, determines that the data frame is damaged, and judges whether the number of the damaged frames meets a set retransmission threshold value in a set range or not. If yes, Step B is performed. Otherwise, Step C is performed. In Step B, the receiving device sends a retransmission request to a sending device, the sending device retransmits the frame, and the process turns to Step A. In Step C, the receiving device performs a decoding processing on the data borne in the damaged frame that is received. |
| US08321732B2 |
DVI link with parallel test data
An embodiment includes encoding parallel digital data into encoded and parallel digital data in an encoder and generating parallel test data in a pseudo-random binary sequence generator circuit. The encoded and parallel digital data is coupled through a multiplexer to be serialized in a serializer in a normal mode of operation and the parallel test data is coupled through the multiplexer to be serialized in the serializer in a test mode of operation. Encoded and serial digital data are transmitted to a transmission medium in the normal mode, and serial test data are transmitted to the transmission medium in the test mode. The encoder, the serializer, the sequence generator circuit, and the multiplexer may be fabricated in a single integrated circuit chip. The parallel test data may be parallel pseudo-random binary sequence data. The parallel digital data may include data to generate colors in a visual image. |
| US08321731B2 |
Built-in-self-test using embedded memory and processor in an application specific integrated circuit
A test method for an ASIC uses an embedded processor in the ASIC to execute test routines from an embedded memory or an external memory. During ASIC production, the test routines can comprehensively test of the blocks of the ASIC without a complicated test pattern from test equipment. The test routines can also perform power-up tests in systems or end products containing the ASIC. Test selection, activation, and result output can be implement using a few terminals of the ASIC. |
| US08321728B2 |
TAP with serial I/O coupled to TCK
The present disclosure describes a novel method and apparatus of using the JTAG TAP's TMS and TCK terminals as a general purpose serial Input/Output (I/O) bus. According to the present disclosure, the TAP's TMS terminal is used as a clock signal and the TCK terminal is used as a bidirectional data signal to allow serial communication to occur between; (1) an IC and an external controller, (2) between a first and second IC, or (3) between a first and second core circuit within an IC. |
| US08321725B2 |
Turbo code interleaver with optimal performance
A method of interleaving blocks of indexed data of varying length is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a set of basic Interleavers comprising a family of one or more permutations of the indexed data and having a variable length; selecting one of the basic Interleavers based upon a desired Interleaver length L; and adapting the selected basic Interleaver to produce an Interleaver having the desired Interleaver length L. |
| US08321723B2 |
Methods and apparatus for event logging in an information network
Methods and apparatus for logging, analysis, and reporting of events such as reboots in a client device (e.g., consumer premises equipment in a cable network) using applications. In one aspect, an improved event logging and monitoring system is provided within the device with which the application(s) can interface to record event or error data. In one exemplary embodiment, the client device comprises a digital set-top box having Java-enabled middleware adapted to implement the various functional aspects of the event logging system, which registers to receive event notifications (including resource exhaustion data) from other applications running on the device. The network operator can also optionally control the operation of the logging system remotely via a network agent. Improved client device and network configurations, as well as methods of operating these systems, are also disclosed. |
| US08321722B2 |
Storage device, and data path failover method of internal network of storage controller
A storage device in which the MR-IOV is applied to an internal network of a storage controller. Data path failover can be executed in the storage device. The internal network of the storage controller is configured to enable the access of a virtual function (VF) “VF 0:0, 1” of each endpoint device (ED0-ED2) from a root port RP0. Likewise, “VF 1:0, 1” of each endpoint device can be accessed from a root port RP1. In a first data path from the RP0 to ED0 in a normal state, “VF 0:0, 1” and “MVF 0, 0” are connected by VF mapping. When a failure occurs on the first data path, the MR-PCIM executes the VF migration, whereby in the second data path from the RP1 to ED0, “VF 1:0, 1” and “MVF 0, 0” are connected by VF mapping. As a result, failover to the second data path is realized. |
| US08321721B2 |
Virtual disk drive system and method
A disk drive system and method capable of dynamically allocating data is provided. The disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem having a pool of storage, for example a page pool of storage that maintains a free list of RAIDs, or a matrix of disk storage blocks that maintain a null list of RAIDs, and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across the pool of storage and a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocation and data progression allow a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed. Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume pool of storage, instant data replay and data instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc. |
| US08321720B2 |
Virtual computer system and control method thereof
When a failure occurs in an LPAR on a physical computer under an SAN environment, a destination LPAR is set in another physical computer to enable migrating of the LPAR and setting change of a security function on the RAID apparatus side is not necessary. When a failure occurs in an LPAR generated on a physical computer under an SAN environment, configuration information including a unique ID (WWN) of the LPAR where the failure occurs is read, a destination LPAR is generated on another physical computer, and the read configuration information of the LPAR is set to the destination LPAR, thereby enabling migrating of the LPAR when the failure occurs, under the control of a management server. |
| US08321719B2 |
Efficient clocking scheme for a bidirectional data link
A method for communication via a bidirectional data link between a processing device and a memory device. The memory device includes a clock source to generate a clock signal for driving a latching at the memory device of data to and/or from the bidirectional data link. The memory device provides the clock signal to the processing device for driving a latching at the processing device of data to and/or from the bidirectional data link. |
| US08321716B2 |
Integrated circuit having frequency dependent noise avoidance
An integrated circuit includes first, second and third circuits, a clock module and a rate adapting module. The first circuit causes frequency dependent noise and is clocked based on a clock signal. The second circuit is rate dependent and is clocked based on an operation dependent clock signal. The third circuit is susceptible to adverse performance when the frequency dependent noise has a component within a given frequency range. The clock module generates a clock signal having a rate such that frequency dependent noise components associated with the clock signal are outside the given frequency range. The rate adapting module is coupled to produce the operation dependent clock signal from the clock signal. |
| US08321709B2 |
Notebook computer with sleep mode function
An exemplary embodiment of notebook computer includes a main body, a display, and a proximity sensor. The display is pivotably connected to the main body. The proximity sensor is installed in the main body and includes an emitter and a receiver. The emitter is configured for emitting an emission. The receiver is configure for receiving the emission, determining if an included angle between the main body and the display is in a predetermined range based upon the received emission, and, if yes, generating a signal indicative of placing the notebook computer in the sleep mode. |
| US08321699B1 |
System and method for determining power consumption
A system and method is provided to measure the power consumption of circuits whereby, in one aspect, a processor's temperature is maintained so that its power consumption is measured at the point the processor throttles. |
| US08321698B2 |
Increasing mean time between failures for power supplies
A redundant power supply may obtain a rule for increasing mean time between failures (MTBF) for a first internal power supply and a second internal power supply connected to an electronic device, apply the rule to the first and second power supplies, activate the second internal power supply based on the rule to permit the second internal power supply to provide power to the electronic device, and deactivate the first internal power supply based on the rule. |
| US08321693B2 |
Parallel processing method and system, for instance for supporting embedded cluster platforms, computer program product therefor
A multi-processing system-on-chip including a cluster of processors having respective CPUs is operated by: defining a master CPU within the respective CPUs to coordinate operation of said multi-processing system, running on the CPU a cluster manager agent. The cluster manager agent is adapted to dynamically migrate software processes between the CPUs of said plurality and change power settings therein. |
| US08321690B2 |
Protecting digital media of various content types
Systems and/or methods (“tools”) are described that enable a digital rights management policy to be associated with digital media having an arbitrary content type or transfer control protocol. In some embodiments, the tools encrypt data segments of a media file and add a descriptor to each of those segments. These descriptors can enable a receiver of the encrypted media file to decrypt the file and consume it according to the correct digital rights management policy. |
| US08321689B2 |
Watermarking computer code by equivalent mathematical expressions
A method of embedding information in a computer program code, including a plurality of program statements. The method comprises: parsing the computer program code to identify at least one program statement that includes a first mathematical expression, wherein said first mathematical expression includes at least a first algebraic expression adapted to produce at least one numeric result; generating a modified mathematical expression by performing a predetermined transformation of the first mathematical expression, wherein the modified mathematical expression includes a transformed algebraic expression instead of the first algebraic expression, such that the modified mathematical expression is adapted to produce the same result as the first mathematical expression, and wherein the modified mathematical expression is indicative of at least a part of said information; replacing said first mathematical expression in the identified program statement by the modified mathematical expression. |
| US08321684B2 |
Digital process and arrangement for authenticating a user of a telecommunications or data network
Digital process for authentication of a user of a telecommunications or data network for access to protected data or a service reserved for a defined circle of users or for the use of data currently entered by the user, wherein a voice sample currently enunciated during an access attempt by the user on a telecommunications or VoIP terminal device is routed to a voice analysis unit and, herein, a current voice profile is computed and this is compared in a voice profile comparison unit against a previously stored initial voice profile and, in response to a positive comparison result, the user is authenticated and a first control signal enabling access, but in response to a negative comparison result a second control signal disabling access or triggering a substitute authentication procedure is generated. |
| US08321677B2 |
Pre-binding and tight binding of an on-line identity to a digital signature
A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards generating a public/private key pair prior to registration. The generation of the public/private key pair is performed by the entity to which the key pair is to be associated. The entity may then complete n application. The entity may then employ the generated public/private key pair to digitally sign the application. In one embodiment, the public key is provided with the application to a registration authority. Upon request, the public key and at least some of the application information may be provided to requester for use in identification, authentication, integrity, and/or non-repudiation of the registered entity. In another embodiment, the registration authority or other entity may verify the identity of the registering entity using the application. In one embodiment, the registration authority may select to digitally sign the application to indicate that the information has been verified. |
| US08321676B2 |
Method for establishing a secure ad hoc wireless LAN
Secure communications on a network. An unauthenticated client on an network sends start packets to locate other clients. The unauthenticated client receives responses to the start packets from other clients on the network. The responses may be advertise packets that are from advertising clients that may be authenticated clients or other unauthenticated clients in authenticated mode. The unauthenticated client prioritizes the received packets so that authentication can be performed with the most desirable advertising client. Authentication packets are sent and received between the unauthenticated client and the advertising client in an attempt to authenticate. |
| US08321672B2 |
Authentication system, information processing apparatus and method, program, and recording medium
An authentication system includes a mobile device carried by a user and a sensor sensing the user's biometric information. The mobile device includes a template storage unit storing the user's biometric information as a template, a first mutual authentication unit performing mutual authentication with the sensor via the user's body, and a template transmitter transmitting the stored template to the sensor via the user's body when the sensor is verified as valid. The sensor includes a second mutual authentication unit performing mutual authentication with the mobile device via the user's body, a sensing unit sensing the user's biometric information, a degree-of-match determining unit determining whether the biometric information matches the template, and a control-signal output unit outputting a preset control signal when the mobile device is verified as valid and when the biometric information and the template are determined to match each other. |
| US08321671B2 |
Method and apparatus for client-driven profile update in an enterprise wireless network
A technique for allowing client-driven profile updates in a wireless network uses a shared character password and a shared image that is known by both a client device and a network server. In some embodiments, a random character table is generated by a client device and is used, along with the shared character password and shared image, to calculate a one-time password (OTP). The OTP is then used to both encrypt and sign a new security profile to be delivered to the network server in a profile update request. The server may then generate the same OTP using information within the request and the shared character password and shared image. The new profile may then be decrypted and validated within the server. |
| US08321670B2 |
Securing dynamic authorization messages
To fortify trust in a roaming environment, a token is introduced in transactions between an authoritative entity (e.g., a Home AAA in RADIUS) and a service providing entity (e.g., a NAS in RADIUS). A Token-Information is sent from the authoritative entity to the service providing entity during the initial authentication. Subsequent transactions include a token computed from the Token-Information. The service providing entity discards messages that it receives that do not contain the correct token. The Token-Information is transported in an encrypted fashion. The token provides secure transactions when messages between the authoritative entity and the service providing entity are routed through proxy servers. |
| US08321661B1 |
Input data security processing systems and methods therefor
Methods and apparatus for implementing input data security processing on user input data are disclosed. The user input data is entered on a webpage that contains a destination specification for an intermediary security service and an encrypted destination specification for a receiving module of the application program. The user input data is first sent to the intermediary security service for performing input data security processing on the user input data. If the user input data is deemed acceptable, the user input data is sent to the receiving module by decrypting the encrypted destination specification for the receiving module to obtain the destination specification for the receiving module and transmitting the user data to the receiving module using the destination specification for the receiving module. |
| US08321659B2 |
Data encryption apparatus, data decryption apparatus, data encryption method, data decryption method, and data transfer controlling apparatus
A crypt processor is connected to a host computer and a storage apparatus. Data from the host computer is transferred to the crypt processor via DMA (Direct Memory Access) to be encrypted and then stored in the storage apparatus. The crypto processor acquires a descriptor defining a DMA number for identifying a DMA channel used to DMA-transfer the data. The crypto processor stores therein, based on the DMA number included in the acquired descriptor, the data transferred using the same DMA channel in units of a data size specified in a data bus. The crypto processor then encrypts the stored data in units of data size specified in a crypt system, and transfers the encrypted data to the storage apparatus. |
| US08321657B2 |
System and method for BIOS and controller communication
A system and method for BIOS and controller communication. An information handling system comprises a central processing unit coupled to a memory. The memory further comprises a BIOS. The information handling system further comprises a controller coupled to a nonvolatile memory, and a register coupled to the central processing unit and the controller. The controller is operable to initialize communication with the BIOS, and service commands from the BIOS. The central processing unit is operable to initialize communication with the controller, and send commands to the controller.A method for communication between a BIOS and a controller in an information handling system comprises initializing communication between the BIOS and the controller. The method further comprises encrypting a command using a key by the BIOS, and sending the command to the controller. The controller processes the command, and the BIOS receives the result. |
| US08321655B2 |
Execution parallelism in extensible firmware interface compliant systems
Methods, systems, apparatuses and program products are disclosed for providing execution parallelism during the DXE phase of computer start-up.Provision is made for loading a microkernel (or other kernel program) which presents itself as though it were a DXE Driver and changes a single threaded environment into multithreaded. This is while the supervisor program continues its role as loader/initiator but remains unaware that it no longer has overarching control of Driver scheduling (which has been acquired by Kernel). |
| US08321651B2 |
System and method for memory allocation in embedded or wireless communication systems
Systems and methods for an improved memory allocation service in embedded or wireless devices. Memory is allocated using a combination of container memory items and referencing memory items. |
| US08321644B2 |
Backing up filesystems to a storage device
A method, a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium, and a tape library for backing up filesystems are provided. Historic job durations to back up data to a storage device are obtained. Objects to be backed up to multiple drives in the storage device are ordered based on the job durations. The objects are assigned to agents based on priorities that first back up an object having a longest job duration. The objects are backed up with the agents to the multiple drives according to the priorities. |
| US08321643B1 |
System and methods for automatically re-signaturing multi-unit data storage volumes in distributed data storage systems
Replicated data storage units are autonomously identified and assembled into generationally related data storage volumes. A data storage manager, implementing a re-signaturing process executed at defined intervals or manually initiated on a server or client system connected to the storage area network, scans the collection of visible data storage units to identify those related as a data storage volume. Each replicated data storage unit includes metadata that embeds an identification of the replicated data storage unit and volume accessible to the data storage manager. To assemble a set of replicated data storage units into a generational volume, the data storage unit metadata is rewritten to establish a unique data storage volume identity including information to associate the data storage volume in a lineage with the source data storage volume. |
| US08321641B2 |
Data access method and data access device
A recording medium has a real data area built from a plurality of clusters and a fat (File Allocation Table) built from a plurality of entries showing usage conditions of the corresponding clusters. A control unit previously divides the fat into a plurality of blocks and creates, in RAM, a search table, at each block, showing presence or absence of an entry (unassigned entry) corresponding to an unassigned cluster. When data are written into the recording medium, the position of a block including an unassigned entry is located on the basis of the search table. Subsequently, the block is read in RAM, thereby locating the position of the unassigned cluster. Data are written in the thus-located cluster. |
| US08321639B2 |
Command tracking for direct access block storage devices
Described embodiments provide tracking and processing of commands received by a storage device. For each received command, the storage device determines one or more requested logical block addresses (LBAs), including a starting LBA and a length of one or more LBAs of the received command. The storage device determines whether command reordering is restricted. If command reordering is not restricted, the storage device processes the received commands. Otherwise, if command reordering is restricted, the storage device conflict checks each received command. If no conflict is detected, the storage device tracks and processes the received command. Otherwise, if a conflict is detected, the storage device queues the received command. |
| US08321636B2 |
Memory reallocation and sharing in electronic systems
Memory reallocation and sharing among components of an electronic system is provided. The electronic system includes a first memory area coupled for access by a first processor via a first bus, and a second memory area coupled for access by a second processor via a second bus. An example system includes a central processor as the first processor and a digital signal processor as the second processor. The electronic system further includes memory configurations that support shared access of the second memory area by the first processor. Using shared access, the first processor can directly access the second memory via the first bus or indirectly access the second memory via the second bus and the second processor. The memory sharing also includes partitioning the shared memory to simultaneously provide the first processor with direct and indirect access to the shared memory. |
| US08321635B2 |
Synchronizing commands for preventing data corruption
A method and apparatus for synchronizing input/output commands is provided. An incoming command mask representing an incoming input/output command associated with a memory region is created. In response to a determination that a pending input/output command associated with the memory region is pending, a bitwise inversion operation is performed on the incoming command mask to form a modified incoming command mask. A bitwise AND operation is performed on the modified incoming command mask and the pending command mask to form a pending command locking mask associated with the pending input/output command. A bitwise OR operation is performed between an existing memory lock for a same type of commands and incoming command bit mask to form a new memory region lock. |
| US08321631B2 |
Parity calculation and journal generation in a storage device with multiple storage media
A data storage device is provided. The data storage device may include a buffer memory, a storage medium, and a controller. The buffer memory may be configured to sequentially store written data blocks received from a host. The storage medium may be configured to include at least one drive. The controller may be configured to calculate first parity data for data selected from the written data in the buffer memory, generate journaling data, and control the generated journaling data to be stored in the storage medium. The data storage device may decrease a number of inputs/outputs used for a parity calculation to thereby reduce overhead. |
| US08321628B2 |
Storage system, storage control device, and method
A storage system includes an interface processor for receiving a read or write request, a primary storage, a secondary storage, a storage control device and a temporary storage area for temporarily storing data for the primary storage in case that an access to the primary storage fails. The storage control device includes a controller for, in case that the access to the primary storage fails when the read request is received by the interface processor, determining whether the read requested data is stored on the temporary storage area, controlling to read the read requested data from the temporary storage area when the read requested data is stored on the temporary storage area, and controlling to read the read requested data from the secondary storage when the requested data is not stored on the temporary storage area. |
| US08321626B2 |
Management of configuration data using persistent memories requiring block-wise erase before rewriting
According to an aspect, the values corresponding to each group of parameters are stored in successive memory locations of a set of blocks, and pointer locations are maintained to point to the area where the groups of values are stored. When a new value is received for a parameter of a group, the values of parameters (with the new value substituted for the corresponding old value) of the group are replicated to a new set of locations in the same set of blocks if sufficient number of successive unwritten memory locations are available. A pointer data from the prior set of locations to the new set of locations is also maintained. According to another aspect, when there is insufficient space for the replication, all the present valid values of all groups are first written to a new set of blocks, and then only the earlier set of blocks are erased. |
| US08321625B2 |
Flash memory device with physical cell value deterioration accommodation and methods useful in conjunction therewith
A method for determining thresholds useful for converting cell physical levels into cell logical values in an array of digital memory cells storing physical levels which diminish over time, the method comprising determining extent of deterioration of the physical levels and determining thresholds accordingly for at least an individual cell in said array; and reading the individual cell including reading a physical level in the cell and converting the physical level into a logical value using the thresholds, wherein the determining comprises storing predefined physical levels rather than data-determined physical levels in each of a plurality of cells and computing extent of deterioration by determining deterioration of the predefined physical levels. |
| US08321622B2 |
Storage system with multiple controllers and multiple processing paths
The first controller includes a first relay circuit which is a circuit that controls data transfer, and a first processor coupled to the first relay circuit via a first second path. The second controller includes a second relay circuit which is a circuit that controls data transfer, and is coupled to the first relay circuit via the first path, and a second processor coupled to the second relay circuit via a second second path. The first processor is coupled to the second relay circuit not via the first relay circuit but via a first third path, and accesses the second relay circuit via the first third path during an I/O process. The second processor is coupled to the first relay circuit not via the second relay circuit but via a second third path, and accesses the first relay circuit via the second third path during an I/O process. |
| US08321613B2 |
Method and system for secure transmission of process data to be transmitted cyclically via a transmission channel between a master and a slave
The invention relates to a method and system for secure transmission of process data to be transmitted cyclically in a cyclical data transmission to be performed protocol-specifically via a transmission channel between a user functioning as a master and at least one user functioning as a slave that are connected to the transmission channel. Within a transmission protocol frame, a time slot that can always accommodate the same number of bits independently of the data to be transmitted is assigned to each slave during a data transmission cycle. For safety-relevant process data that is to be transmitted during a data transmission cycle from a slave to at least one additional user, or that is to be transmitted during a data transmission cycle from a user to at least one slave, additional first protection data for recognizing error-free transmission of this safety-relevant process data is generated and transmitted in each case. |
| US08321605B2 |
PIO interjection between beats of a DMA operation
Techniques are disclosed relating to detecting and interjecting a programmed input/output (PIO) operation into a direct memory access (DMA) operation. In one embodiment, an integrated circuit may include a DMA controller that may contain a control circuit, a DMA unit, and a PIO unit. The control circuit may be configured to detect a pending PIO operation during a DMA operation and interject the PIO operation onto a shared path during the same clock cycle as or the first clock cycle following the detection of the pending PIO operation. The DMA operation may consist of multiple single-clock-cycle beats. In one embodiment, a PIO operation may be interjected onto the shared path between beats of a DMA operation, on consecutive clock cycles. At the next clock cycle following the PIO operation, the control circuit may resume the next beat of the DMA operation. |
| US08321603B2 |
Rechargeable device and method for determining universal serial bus port type
A method for detecting a type of a port connected to a USB connector and a rechargeable device with a USB connector, a USB controller and a power management module. The power management module selectively powers up the USB controller depending on the type of port connected to the USB connector. A hardware detector is connected to the USB connector for determining the port type. If the port type is for recharging only then the power management module does not enable power to the USB controller. |
| US08321599B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A license issue system includes a user terminal and a license information issue server that are connected to a network. In the case in which there is a transfer source device in which license information issued by the license information issue server has been installed, and there is a transfer destination device that is to take over the license information installed in the transfer source device, the license issue system has the feature that the user terminal transmits, to the license information issue server, information regarding the transfer source device and the transfer destination device, and a license period during which the license can be used simultaneously in the transfer source device and the transfer destination device, and the license information issue server issues time-restricted license information to the transfer source device. |
| US08321598B2 |
Method and circuit for capturing keypad data serializing/deserializing and regenerating the keypad interface
A serializer/deserializer interfacing a keypad or keyboard to a processing system is illustrated. However, to minimize wires on intervening cables, a serializer and deserializer is inserted between the processor system and the keypad forming a virtual keypad. The processor scans the deserializer as if it were the keypad and the keypad is scanned by the serializer as if it were the processor. The serializer converts the scanning of the keypad into a serial bit stream and clock that is sent to the deserializer. The deserializer accepts the serial bit stream and reconfigures the data into a response that mimics the response of the physical keypad. In one embodiment an actual second keypad is formed in the deserializer and activated as the first keypad is activated. |
| US08321589B2 |
Intelligent server routing
The present application relates to methods and systems for intelligently routing requests to one of a plurality of redundant servers. The methods and systems route the requests to a most highly ranked redundant server. The redundant servers are dynamically rank according to ranking information, wherein the ranking information may include server performance information, server response information, next step performance information, next step response information, historic information and other like information. Next step response information and next step performance information corresponds to information pertaining to servers the plurality of redundant servers depend upon. The methods and systems may further randomly re-rank the plurality of redundant servers. The methods and systems may further re-route unprocessed requests meeting non-performance criteria. |
| US08321588B2 |
Request routing utilizing client location information
A system, method, and computer-readable medium for request routing based on client location information are provided. A content delivery network service provider receives a DNS query from a client computing device. The DNS query corresponds to a resource identifier for requested content from the client computing device. The content delivery network service provider transmits an alternative resource identifier in response to the client computing device DNS query. The alternative resource identifier is selected as a function of client location information. The client location information is obtained from information corresponding to a mapping of at least partial IP addresses to known locations. The client computing device then issues a second DNS query to the same content delivery network service provider. The content delivery network service provider can then either resolve the second DNS query or transmit another alternative resource identifier. |
| US08321586B2 |
Distributed storage system, node device, recording medium in which node processing program is recorded, and address information change notifying method
In a transmitting node device, a first storing device stores address information and node identification information of a plurality of first specific node devices, a detecting device detects a change in address information of the transmitting node device, a first selecting device selects at least one node device from the first specific node devices, and a notifying device transmits an address change notification message to the node device selected by the first selecting device.In a receiving node device which receives the address change notification message, a second storing device stores address information and node identification information of a plurality of the second specific node devices, and an updating device updates the address information stored in the second storing device with the address information included in the received message. |
| US08321584B2 |
Method and apparatus for offering preferred transport within a broadband subscriber network
Methods and systems for identifying and preferring certain content transmissions over others for transport in a multiple subscriber computer network, such as public broadband access network. Preferred transport includes exempting participating content transmissions from bandwidth preservation policies, such as byte capping or rate limiting, or permitting the broadband access network provider to bill for certain identified content transmissions. The participating content transmissions are identified on a number of bases including by sending or receiving application, or by use of tags embedded by the content originator, sender or distributor. Those tagging techniques are also usable to enforce the content owner's distribution rights. |
| US08321578B2 |
Systems and methods for network virtualization
Message publish/subscribe systems are required to process high message volumes with reduced latency and performance bottlenecks. The end-to-end middleware architecture proposed by the present invention is designed for high-volume, low-latency messaging by, among other things, reducing intermediary hops with neighbor-based routing, introducing efficient native-to-external and external-to-native protocol conversions, monitoring system performance, including latency, in real time, employing topic-based and channel-based message communications, and dynamically optimizing system interconnect configurations and message transmission protocols. |
| US08321575B2 |
Relay server and relay communication system
A relay server can collectively copy a plurality of shared resources separately held by client terminals to a terminal that belongs to the relay server by performing a simple operation. The relay server includes a shared resource information registration unit. The shared resource information registration unit stores shared resource information when a resource is shared among a plurality of client terminals. The shared resource information includes resource information, hierarchical structure information regarding a hierarchical structure of the resources, and account information of a resource sharing terminal that is a client terminal that shares the resource. When the shared resource information is specified by the resource sharing terminal such that the resource included in the prescribed shared resource information may be output to an output destination in accordance with the hierarchical structure information, the relay server transfers the resource that is included in the specified shared resource information and that can be handled by another resource sharing terminal to the resource sharing terminal. |
| US08321568B2 |
Content management
A system and method for management and processing of resource requests is provided. A content delivery network service provider determines a class associated with a set of client computing devices and monitors resources requests for the determined class. The content delivery network service provider then identifies at least one cache component for providing content to client computing devices as a function of the determined class. In other embodiments, instead of cache components, the content delivery network service provider identifies a second set of client computing devices as a function of the determined class for providing the content information. |
| US08321564B2 |
Rendering device selection in a home network
A technique to remotely identify a source of a transaction for transferring content on a home network and to identify a plurality of renderers for rendering the content when transferred. Where multiple pathways are present to transfer the content, remote identification of one or more pathways are also determined to transfer the content. Then, a rendering parameter is determined for each renderer for rendering the content and based on one or more criteria, a renderer is selected for rendering the content, along with the pathway for delivering the content. |
| US08321560B1 |
Systems and methods for preventing data loss from files sent from endpoints
A computer-implemented method for data loss prevention may include intercepting a packet sent by an application of an endpoint. The computer-implemented method may also include extracting file-identification information from the packet. The computer-implemented method may further include identifying a list of opened files and matching the file-identification information to a file in the list of opened files. The computer-implemented method may additionally include identifying a data-loss-prevention policy that applies to the file. The computer-implemented method may moreover include filtering the packet based on the data-loss-prevention policy. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US08321559B2 |
Transparent mode
A method, system, apparatus, and signal-bearing media for provided discovering a target device via one port of a plurality of virtual ports, creating a target data structure associated with the target device, and allocating a second port of the plurality of virtual ports to a host if the second port is available. In an embodiment, an initiator identifier for the host may be created based on a port number of the second port and a media access control address and sent to the target device to identify the host. |
| US08321555B2 |
Network analysis device
A network analysis device is disclosed for recording and processing parameters of a communications network for data exchange in a distributed control system of a process engineering system. An exemplary network analysis device has at least one measuring head and a man/machine interface which are physically separate from one another and are logically connected by means of a wireless communications link. |
| US08321554B2 |
System and program to automatically identify a server on which to deploy an application
A system, method and computer program product for determining one of a plurality of servers on which to install and execute an application. First program instructions obtain information from each of the plurality of servers as to amounts of availability of their respective CPUs, RAMs and storage. Second program instructions determine one or more of the servers which have sufficient CPU, RAM and storage to execute the application. Third program instructions determine a weight for each of the amounts for the one or more servers. Fourth program instructions sum together, for each of the one or more servers, the weights for their respective amounts of availability of the CPUs, RAMs and storage. Fifth program instructions determine which of the one or more servers has a highest sum, whereby the server with the highest sum is recommended to execute the application. |
| US08321552B2 |
Method and device for creating management object instance in management tree of terminal device
The present disclosure relates to a method and a device for creating an MO instance in the management tree of a terminal device. The method for creating the MO instance in the management tree of the terminal device comprises adding the node value to an unnamed node or a specified node of the unnamed node in the MO of the management tree in the terminal device, obtaining data information relative to the content of the unnamed node or the specified node of the unnamed node, generating the name of the unnamed node according to the data information, and adding the MO instance into the management tree of the terminal device. The present disclosure accordingly provides a communications device. |
| US08321549B2 |
Action execution management for service configuration items
A system for managing execution of actions corresponding to service configuration items in accordance with embodiments of the invention may include a discovery section for discovering information regarding a configuration item, and a repository for storing a set of data for each configuration item. The set of data may indicate at least one predetermined attribute of the configuration item, and a relation between the configuration item and other configuration items. An associating section may associate a service configuration item with one or more other configuration items that are objects of actions corresponding to the service configuration item. Finally, a determining section may determine whether execution of an action corresponding to a service configuration item is allowed. Such a determination may be made when a request for an action corresponding to a second configuration item is issued during execution of an action corresponding to a first service configuration item, or when a configuration item that is the object of the action corresponding to the second service configuration item is included in a configuration item that is the object of the action corresponding to the first service configuration item. |
| US08321548B2 |
Method and system for specifying planned changes to a communications network
A method of specifying changes to a communications network is disclosed. The method uses a network model representing a current configuration of the communications network. Scope information is received defining a subset of the network model to which changes are to be made. Model information relating to the defined subset of the network model is copied in accordance with the scope information, to create a partial model copy. The partial model copy is then modified to represent a planned configuration of the communications network. The partial model may be validated as consistent with the network model for the current configuration, and to reserve resources within it. Changes within the partial model may be passed to other models, including the current configuration. |
| US08321547B2 |
System and method for planning communication systems
A method for planning a multi-phase network includes storing initial parameter values for parameters associated with first and second growth phases in a multi-phase network plan, wherein each of the first and second growth phases is characterized by sets of the parameters. The method also includes calculating an initial growth scenario including the first and second growth phases based on the initial parameter values, and adjusting a value for at least one of the parameters to produce a modified parameter value. The method further includes automatically calculating a new growth scenario based on the modified parameter value and at least a portion of the initial parameter values, and displaying the new growth scenario. A computer readable medium for implementing the method described herein is also provided. |
| US08321546B2 |
Integrating discovery functionality within a device and facility manager
Techniques are provided for implementing the WS-DeviceProfile standard as a multi-threaded process (“DFM”) executing on a multi-function peripheral (“MFP”). The DFM takes care of the discovery of devices and services on a network. The DFM also acts as a facility manager. The DFM implements various web services in a single component that applications can re-use. The DFM insulates these applications from some of the more complex details of the web services that the DFM implements. The MFP may comprise several different applications that each use web services provided by the DFM. The threads of the DFM can handle separate tasks concurrently. For example, one thread, of the multi-threaded DFM, may perform one or more functions specified by the WS-DeviceProfile protocol, while another thread may perform one or more functions specified by a WS-Discovery protocol. |
| US08321540B2 |
Push update system
A push update system for a security system having a plurality of network nodes connected in a hierarchy to a root node, including: (i) an upstream agent of an upstream node for sending updates for respective downstream nodes; (ii) a schedule agent for scheduling processing by the upstream agent; (iii) a downstream agent of a downstream node for receiving and storing updates; and (iv) an update agent for processing received updates to queue updates for a downstream node. The root node includes the upstream agent and the schedule agent. Leaf nodes include the downstream agent, and intermediate nodes include all four agents. The updates include Internet threat signatures for Internet protection appliances of the leaf nodes. |
| US08321530B2 |
Cloud computing system, server computer, device connection method, and storage medium
A cloud computing system includes an initial request reception unit, a request reception unit, and a transmission unit. The initial request reception unit receives a connection request from a device. In a case where the device has tried to access a request reception unit, the request reception unit receives a service usage request and service identification information from the device and determines whether a back-end processing unit is present that both corresponds to the device and is configured to execute the service. If present, a service utilization preparation completion screen is transmitted to the device. If not present, an instance generation instruction is sent to a management unit and instruction to launch an instance generated to execute the service is sent. After the instance is launched and the back-end processing unit is realized, the service utilization preparation completion screen is transmitted to the device. |
| US08321527B2 |
System and method for tracking user location and associated activity and responsively providing mobile device updates
A system and method are described for monitoring user location and activity over a period of time and intelligently scheduling content distributions to the user's mobile device. For example, one embodiment of a system for intelligently scheduling a content distribution to a mobile device comprises: a location database to store a plurality of different locations including event facilities and points of interest, the location database associating each of the different locations with a Global Positioning System (GPS) location or range of GPS locations; a data collection module for collecting user location data over a period of time, user location data specifying a user's mobile device's location throughout the period of time, the data collection module to store the user location data within a database; a predictive scheduler module to analyze the user location data over the period of time and responsively schedule content distributions to the user's mobile device based on the analysis of the user location data. |
| US08321526B2 |
Verifiable device assisted service usage billing with integrated accounting, mediation accounting, and multi-account
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for enabling a first end-user communications device to use a plurality of applications to access a plurality of data services via a plurality of data access networks; storing a first service policy for assisting with separately accounting for a use of a first data service of the plurality of data services by the first end-user communications device via a first particular combination of one of the plurality of applications and one of the plurality of data access networks; using the first service policy to monitor the use of the first data service by the first end-user communications device via the first particular combination to separately account for the use of the first data service via the first particular combination; and displaying by the first end-user communications device first service usage information based on the separate accounting. |
| US08321521B1 |
Write-cost optimization of CDN storage architecture
A method and system for cache optimization in a hybrid solid state drive and magnetic storage cache architecture for a content delivery network (CDN) is disclosed. The CDN has a number of geographically distributed points of presence (POPs) across the Internet. Customers of the CDN pay for storage of content objects. Cache management in a POP analyzes information related to content objects to determine if storage will be on a solid state drive (SSD) instead of a magnetic drive. The information used in this analysis is from the application layer or above in the open systems interconnection (OSI) model. The content objects are delivered from either the SSD or magnetic storage to end users. |
| US08321516B2 |
Systems and methods for creating and updating reputation records
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method is provided for generating a reputation record and filtering electronic messages, each reputation record including a reputation score and a reputation key. The method includes receiving at least one incoming event notification, including a reputation key; determining, based on the reputation key, whether a corresponding reputation record exists; creating a new reputation record if the corresponding reputation record does not exist; determining a trust determination function based on the incoming event notification; calculating a reputation score based on the determined trust determination function, the incoming event notification, and an attribute associated with the reputation key; storing the calculated reputation score along with the reputation key in either the new reputation record or the corresponding reputation record; and filtering one or more electronic messages based on the calculated reputation score. |
| US08321515B1 |
Defined delays to support consistent tiered messaging performance
A method for defining delays to support consistent tiered messaging performance is provided. The method comprises a query server receiving a message and the query server analyzing a class of service associated with the message. The method also comprises the query server injecting a defined delay prior to initiating processing of the message and the query server processing the message and storing the processed message in an outgoing queue. The method also comprises the query server sending a notification to a destination component that the message is available for retrieval and the query server releasing the message to the destination component upon request of the destination component. |
| US08321511B1 |
System and method for full wireless synchronization of a data processing apparatus with a messaging system
A system is disclosed in which a data processing device is completely synchronized with a messaging service. One embodiment of the system comprises a wireless data processing device; a messaging service to maintain messages and other information on behalf of a user; and synchronization logic for maintaining synchronization of the messages and other information between the wireless device and the messaging service. |
| US08321510B1 |
Automated metadata updates
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for automatically updating metadata. In one aspect, a method includes determining that metadata associated with an item of electronic content has been updated on a first device, and automatically communicating a notification of the update between the first device and one or more servers. The method also includes selecting a second device that is associated with a user of the first device, automatically communicating the notification between the one or more servers and the selected second device, and automatically updating, by the second device, metadata that is stored on the second device and that is associated with the item of electronic content, based on the notification. |
| US08321509B2 |
Handling crowd requests for large geographic areas
A system and method are provided for processing a request for crowd data for a large geographic area. In one embodiment, a central system, which includes one or more servers, operates to obtain current locations for users of mobile devices and form crowds of three or more users based on the current locations of the users. In order to provide access to crowd data for crowds for a large geographic area, the central system receives a request for crowd data from a requesting device, establishes a bounding region for the request, and identifies one or more starting points within the bounding region for the request. Crowds are identified, crowd data for the crowds is generated, and the crowd data is returned to the requesting device in an iterative manner for a series of two or more outwardly radiating, concentric geographic regions centered at the one or more starting points. |
| US08321507B2 |
Distribution of XML documents/messages to XML appliances/routers
XML appliances/routers may be organized to implement one or more XML distribution rings to enable XML documents/messages to be distributed efficiently. The rings may be logical or physical. The XML distribution rings enable the XML documents/messages to be exchanged without requiring the XML appliances/routers to run a routing protocol to determine how XML documents/messages should be distributed through the network. Documents may be transmitted in one way on the ring or may be transmitted in both directions around the ring to enable the ring to tolerate failure of an XML appliance/router. Each XML appliance/router will receive all XML documents/messages and will make routing decisions for those clients that have provided the XML appliance/router with XML subscriptions. The subscriptions may be formed according to the XPath standard or in another manner. |
| US08321506B2 |
Architecture for an extensible real-time collaboration system
An architecture for an extensible real-time collaboration system is provided. The architecture presents a unified application program interface for writing application programs that use communications protocols. The architecture has activity objects, endpoint objects, and multiple media stacks. These objects may use various communications protocols, such as Session Initiation Protocol or Real-Time Transport Protocol to send and receive messages. The activity objects, endpoint objects, and multiple media stacks may each have one or more APIs that an application developer can use to access or provide collaboration-related functionality. These objects map the API to the underlying implementation provided by other objects. Using the activity objects enables a developer to provide less application logic than would otherwise be necessary to provide complex collaboration services. |
| US08321503B2 |
Context-specific network resource addressing model for distributed services
A back-end locator service can be utilized to identify a specific computing device, from among multiple computing devices in a domain, that is the most appropriate computing device to handle a particular type of request for data or other resources. The data or resources hosted by the domain can be divided among multiple computing devices. The domain can expose a network-based application program interface where successive requests by a client computing device become more specific as to the data or resources requested. Responses from the computing devices in the domain can, at some point in time, be informed by the back-end locator service and can comprise location-specific resource identifiers. The client computing device can utilize such location specific resource identifiers to direct further communications to the appropriate, specific computing device without having to incur redirection inefficiencies. |
| US08321501B2 |
Secure out-of-band storage control
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and computing devices configured to establish secure out-of-band storage control. In various embodiments, a management module in a client device may be used to communicate with a server device independent of an operating system of the client device, to facilitate remote storage services. Other embodiments may be disclosed and claimed. |
| US08321496B2 |
User evaluation of content on distributed communication network
A method and system for identifying and sorting items of content, such as product/service reviews in a database coupled to a distributed communication network such as the Internet. Content from the database is displayed on a client display connected to the database over the network. An interactive element associated with the displayed content item is provided on the client display, which a user clicks to indicate that the user has found the displayed item helpful (such as in determining whether or not to purchase or to use a product/service in the case of a displayed product or service review). The database keeps track of the number of indications and stores the number as a count of the number of indications for the content. The number of indications associated with an item of content on the client display is then displayed together with the content. A client may sort content items according to the number of indications received. |
| US08321493B2 |
Field device and system employing the same
A field device connected to a network includes: a storage section; a communication section for performing communication via the network; and an arithmetic control section for controlling the field device entirely by executing a main task under an execution environment, and controlling an operation mechanism that operates under the execution environment. The operation mechanism assigns a group identifier, a unique address space and a unique name space to an additional task being started. |
| US08321492B1 |
System, method, and computer program product for converting a reduction algorithm to a segmented reduction algorithm
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for converting a reduction algorithm to a segmented reduction algorithm. In operation, a reduction algorithm is identified. Additionally, the reduction algorithm is converted to a segmented reduction algorithm. Furthermore, the segmented reduction algorithm is performed to produce an output. |
| US08321478B2 |
System and method of translating a relational database into an XML document and vice versa
A method of translating a relational database into an XML document comprises generating an Extended Entity Relationship model from relational schema associated with the relational database and applying a schema translation process to the Extended Entity Relationship model to map the relational schema into a Document Type Definition (DTD) of an XML schema. An XML Tree Model is then generated from the Document Type Definition, the XML Tree Model being representative of one or more data semantics of the relational schema which are preserved as one or more data semantics in the XML document. Relational data from the relational database is then converted into the XML document using the relational schema and the XML schema from the Document Type Definition and/or the XML Tree Model. There is also described a method of translating an XML database into a relational database which comprises the reversal of the steps of the disclosed method, and a system for implementing both methods. |
| US08321476B2 |
Method and system for determining boundary values dynamically defining key value bounds of two or more disjoint subsets of sort run-based parallel processing of data from databases
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for sorting a set of records in a sort run. As the records are sorted, metadata regarding the sort run is gathered, and subsequently used to determine bounds of two or more disjoint subsets of the sort run. This enables the parallelization of several tasks over the sort run data using efficient, dynamic bounds determination, such as the outputting of sorted data from the disjoint subsets in parallel. |
| US08321471B2 |
Error model formation
In a method of forming a target error model to facilitate correcting or suggesting corrections to misspelled input text related to a target data collection, a source query log containing user queries to at least one source data collection is provided. Next, target relational data is generated based on the source query log including corrective substring suggestions that relate to the target data collection and corresponding misspelled substrings extracted from the source query log. A target error model is then built using the target relational data. The target error model includes target statistical occurrence data for the substrings of the target relational data derived from the source query log. Finally, the target error model is stored on a computer readable medium. Additional embodiments of the invention are directed to a system configured to implement the method. |
| US08321469B2 |
Systems and methods of profiling data for integration
The present invention is generally directed to systems and methods for gathering information about nonnative data, comparing nonnative data elements to information defining nonnative data, comparing native data elements to information defining native data, establishing transformation rules, and integrating the nonnative and native data. |
| US08321466B2 |
System and method for creating and utilizing metadata regarding the structure of program content stored on a DVR
Metadata regarding program content is created by monitoring a manner in which a first rendering of the program content is affected by a user whereupon the metadata will include data which defines one or more segments within the program content. The data within the metadata is then usable during a second rendering of the program content to inhibit, e.g., advance over during playing or omit during copying, the rendering of the one or more segments within the program content defined by the data within the metadata. |
| US08321464B2 |
Project property sheets
Project property sheets store project compiler and tool properties that are shared across multiple software projects. Property sheets enable a global repository of compiler and tool settings, so that changes in a global project property sheet will automatically propagate to the project property sheets that inherit from the global project property sheet, or from other project property sheets that inherit from the global project property sheet. Users of project property sheets are able to customize their project property sheet by defining their own compiler and tool properties. Defined compiler and tool properties override or supplement compiler and tool properties found in the global project property sheet. |
| US08321463B2 |
Objective and subjective ranking of comments
A system may receive a request for comments associated with a particular document, identify a comment associated with the particular document, generate an objective score for the comment that is independent of a user associated with the request, identify the user associated with the request, generate a subjective score for the comment based on parameters associated with the identified user, generate a combined score for the comment by combining the objective score and the subjective score, and provide the comment, ranked based on the combined score, to the user for presentation with the particular document. |
| US08321461B2 |
Upgrading roles in a role-based access-based control model
Management roles in a role-based framework may be upgraded by updating existing management roles, updating derived roles, and deprecating or reducing existing and derived roles in the role-based framework. The existing management roles may include a set of existing role entries for defining an action using parameters, scripts, application program interface calls, and a special permission for enabling performance of tasks defined by the management roles. The derived roles may include custom management roles derived from the existing management roles in the role-based framework. |
| US08321457B2 |
Techniques for automatically developing a web site
Techniques for building a web site with database components include a web site building appliance having a processor, a computer readable medium, and a special purpose operating system. The computer-readable medium carries a web site wizard including a template and instructions. The template holds data indicating a first arrangement of components associated with a first type of web site. The instructions configure the processor for presenting a user with a series of one or more user interfaces including controls for modifying the first arrangement of components. The instructions also configure the processor for receiving input from the user in response to user interaction with the controls indicating a modified arrangement. The instructions further configure the processor for building the web site automatically in response to the input from the user. The web site is based on the modified arrangement. The special purpose operating system has features and configuration dictated by the web site wizard and supporting program components. |
| US08321456B2 |
Generating metadata for association with a collection of content items
A method of automatically generating metadata for association with a collection of content items accessible to a system (1) for processing data included in the content items, includes obtaining sets of metadata associated with the content items individually, each set of metadata including at least one attribute value associated with the content item. At least one distribution of values of an attribute over the sets of metadata associated with the respective content items is analyzed. At least one attribute value is selected in dependence on the analysis. The selected attribute value(s) are processed to generate the metadata for association with the collection, and the generated metadata are made available to the system (1) for processing data included in the content items in connection with an identification of the collection of content items. |
| US08321449B2 |
Media rating
A method and system for rating media. The media is one or a combination of audio, video and textual data. The media rating method comprises surveying at least a portion of media data received from a device and detecting generation of rating data, the rating data for appraising the media data. The method further comprises transmitting the rating data to the device. The system comprises a device-readable medium having programming instructions stored therein. The instructions when executed on a first device cause the first device to survey at least a portion of media data received from a second device, detect generation of rating data and transmit the rating data to the second device. |
| US08321448B2 |
Click-through log mining
Click-through log mining is described. Raw search click-through log data is processed to generate ordered query keywords, utilizing an algorithm to expand user-submitted keywords to include high frequency user queries, managing the keywords for a keyword expansion file, analyzing the algorithm performance on a bidding criteria, and identifying related phrases with similar page-click behaviors for advertisements. |
| US08321444B2 |
Federated search
Various techniques are disclosed to permit searching several locations with one query. Locations may include web search sites, subscription-only sites, line of business applications, or other searchable data repositories. The query may be modified to provide the required format or other information for each location to perform a search. |
| US08321441B2 |
Disabling subsets of query conditions in an abstract query environment
Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for temporarily disabling conditions in abstract queries. In one embodiment, a query interface is configured to present an abstract query, and to allow a user to select conditions of the abstract query to be temporarily disabled. By executing an abstract query having disabled conditions, the user may be able to determine the effect of individual changes to the abstract query without having to re-compose the abstract query after each change. The conditions to be disabled may be selected individually, by field, or by value. Each disabled element may be displayed with a visual indicator communicating that it is disabled. The user may then select specific disabled conditions to be re-enabled. |
| US08321438B1 |
Integration layer for a data repository
Techniques for a data repository, e.g., a data warehouse, connect multiple disparate systems and combine different software tools to provide a full view of the data warehouse for an end user. An inventory tool integration and services interface includes a tool integration component, a common data component, and an inventory services component. The tool integration component obtains data sets from different tools. The common data component converts each data set and combines the converted data sets. The inventory services component provides the combined data sets through a user interface for an end user. The inventory tool integration and services interface appropriately combines data sets and supports different user interfaces for different end users having different roles within an enterprise. The tool and services integration interface also may obtain a data set from a tool in accordance with an integration option. |
| US08321431B2 |
Iterative and interactive context based searching
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for iteratively and interactively searching for information. Embodiments of the invention can provide a user with relevant location-specific information in response to a query from the user. Provided information can also be relevant to a user's predicted future behavior. As context for a user is obtained and/or accumulated, such as, for example, through an interactive query dialogue, the probability of providing relevant information in response to a query from the user increases. |
| US08321426B2 |
Electronically linking and rating text fragments
In one embodiment, a first text fragment is made available for copying from a fragment repository. The first text fragment is electronically linked to a second text fragment that is a copy of the first text fragment, the second text fragment included in a container external to the fragment repository. A rating is provided for a derivative of the second fragment created within the container. A third text fragment that is a derivative of the second text fragment is received at the fragment repository. The first and third text fragments are electronically linked, and the third text fragment is made available for copying. |
| US08321425B2 |
Information-retrieval systems, methods, and software with concept-based searching and ranking
To improve traditional keyword based search engines, the present inventors devised, among other things, systems, methods, and software that use word co-occurrence probabilities not only to identify documents conceptually related to user queries, but also to score and rank search results. One exemplary system combines inverse-document-frequency searching with concept searching based on word co-occurrence probabilities to facilitate finding of documents that would otherwise go unfound using a given query. The exemplary system also allows ranking of search results based both on both keyword matching and concept presence, promoting more efficient organization and review of search results. |
| US08321423B1 |
Systems and methods for sharing data from web accessed calculators
A method of sharing user data with a plurality of web-based financial calculators includes obtaining a user request for a selected web-based financial calculator from the plurality of web-based financial calculators and identifying at least one input data element required by the selected web-based financial calculator. The method also includes searching a relational database, storing data shared by the plurality of web-based financial calculators, for the at least one identified input data element and determining whether there are any values in the relational database for the at least one identified input data element that are associated with the user. The method further includes populating the at least one identified input data element in the selected web-based financial calculator with a value associated with the user for the at least one identified input data element and providing the selected web-based financial calculator to the user. |
| US08321421B2 |
Storage device having full-text search function
According to one embodiment, a storage device includes an interface, a first and second memory blocks and a controller. The interface receives a content search request. The first memory block stores files and inverted files corresponding to contents included in the files. The second memory block stores a file search table. The controller creates the inverted file for each content included in the files and stores IDs of the files including the content in the inverted file. The controller obtains, by search of the content, a corresponding inverted file from the inverted files stored in the first memory block and stores, in the file search table, the IDs of the files included in the obtained inverted file. The controller outputs the IDs of the files stored in the file search table from the interface as a search result for the content search request. |
| US08321417B2 |
Method of visualizing the collective opinion of a group
A computerized method of visualizing the collective opinion of a group regarding one or more qualitative issues. The group initially selects N issues from the universe of potential issues and often assigns the issues images and titles. The system presents each user with graphical user interface screens wherein individual users vote on the relative importance and degree of relationship between the N aspects (Data Points) and issues, often using drag and drop methods. The software computes N×N similarity matrices based on users voting input and clusters various aspects into groups of greater and lesser similarity and importance, and presents results of users qualitative ranking in easy to read relationship tree diagrams where the relative importance and qualitative relationship of the issues may be designated by size and other graphical markers. The software may reside on a network server and present display screens to web browsers running on users computerized devices. |
| US08321413B2 |
Identifying and changing personal information
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for analyzing information about a user are presented which include obtaining at least one search result based on at least one search terms describing the user; presenting the at least one search result to the user; receiving an indication from the user of the desirability of a search result; and performing an action based on the desirability of the search result. Systems, apparatuses, and methods are also presented for determining a reputation score representing the reputation of a user which include collecting search results from data source, determining an effect on the reputation of the user of the search results from the data source, and calculating a reputation score for the user based on the determined effect on the reputation of the user from the search results from the data source. |
| US08321411B2 |
System and method for management of an automatic OLAP report broadcast system
A system, method and processor medium that manages automatic generation of output from an on-line analytical processing (OLAP) system. Scheduled services are processed in an OLAP system and output from the OLAP system is then automatically forwarded to one or more subscriber output devices specified for that service. The system manages the operation of the service processing system to increase throughput, increase speed, and improve the administrator control over the processing. The system enables administrator control over processing by enabling administrators to view all services and all subscribers of the system, by maintaining an address book containing entries for subscribers of the service and by scheduling processing of services. The system governs the volume of services being processed, the number of subscribers to a particular service, and the number of output devices to which a service may be broadcast. |
| US08321407B2 |
Methods for calculating a combined impact analysis repository
One non-limiting embodiment of the invention comprises the steps of accessing at least two impact analysis repositories, calculating a combined impact analysis repository from the at least two impact analysis repositories, and utilizing the combined impact analysis repository for supplying better quality impact analysis results. |
| US08321402B2 |
Generic application interface for searching
Systems and methods for creating user interfaces for a common application such as a web browser from custom search definitions are presented. The systems and methods may enforce the security of a database. The systems and methods may provide for creating custom search definitions. The systems and methods may require a user to be authenticated before performing the search and the search may be conducted on a centralized database. The systems and methods may create user interfaces that may be executed on many different platforms. |
| US08321400B2 |
Method, device and software for querying and presenting search results
There is disclosed a method, device, and software for presenting search results in a response to an end-user query. Search results are combined from results from a plurality of indexes, each of the search results having an associated key field. Index entries of each of the plurality of indexes are queried using an index-specific search algorithm to obtain a set of matching search results for each index, each matching search result having a quality of match specific to its index. A relative priority is determined for each of the plurality of indexes and the matching search results from the plurality of indexes are combined into a merged list of ordered search results based on the determined priority. A search result from a lower priority index is discarded in favor of any matching search result from a higher priority index. |
| US08321396B2 |
Automatically extracting by-line information
A by-line extraction system detects a set of potential headlines from a title meta-tag of a crawled document, selects a candidate headline from the set of potential headlines, and extracts the by-line information from the document using the location of the selected candidate headline. The system constructs the set of potential headlines based on the title meta-tag. The system selects a candidate headline by evaluating the set of potential headlines in order of the lengths of the potential headlines. The system extracts the by-line information from the document by using the location of the selected candidate headline to extract a string representing a date, a name, or a source located within a minimum distance from the location of the potential headline. |
| US08321394B2 |
Matching a fingerprint
A method and a system are provided for matching a fingerprint, for example, an audio fingerprint. In one example, the system receives, from a user device, a chapter and a query about the chapter. The chapter includes computer readable data generated from a waveform of an audio signal. The query is a request to receive data related to the chapter. The system generates, at a computer, a fingerprint of the chapter. The fingerprint includes at least a digital measure of certain properties of the waveform of the audio signal. The system generates, at a computer, a hash value of the fingerprint by applying a hash function to at least a portion of the fingerprint of the chapter. The hash value serves as an identifier for the fingerprint. The system looks up, in a database system, a matching hash value for the hash value of the fingerprint. |
| US08321393B2 |
Parsing information in data records and in different languages
Embodiments of systems and methods for comparing attributes of a data record are presented herein. In some embodiments, a weight is based on a comparison of the name (or other) attributes of data records. In some embodiments, an information score may be calculated for each of two name attributes to be compared to get an average information score for the two name attributes. The two name attributes may then be compared against one another to generate a weight between the two attributes. This weight can then be normalized to generate a final weight between the two business name attributes. Comparing attributes according to embodiments disclosed herein can facilitate linking data records even if they comprise attributes in languages which do not use the Latin alphabet. |
| US08321387B2 |
Restricting access to sensitive data
Techniques are disclosed for managing execution of queries against databases and more particularly for restricting access to sensitive data in underlying databases. One embodiment includes an operation for managing access to sensitive data in a database. The operation includes receiving, from a requesting entity, a query against the data in the database. The query is executed against the database to obtain a result set. The operation further includes determining whether the result set includes sensitive data based on predefined sensitivity attributes associated with data in the result set. If so, a sensitivity rating is determined for the result set, and a predefined security action is performed with respect to the result set on the basis of the determined sensitivity rating. |
| US08321385B2 |
Hash processing in a network communications processor architecture
Described embodiments provide coherent processing of hash operations of a network processor having a plurality of processing modules. A hash processor of the network processor receives hash operation requests from the plurality of processing modules. A hash table identifier and bucket index corresponding to the received hash operation request are determined. An active index list is maintained for active hash operations for each hash table identifier and bucket index. If the hash table identifier and bucket index of the received hash operation request are in the active index list, the received hash operation request is deferred until the hash table identifier and bucket index corresponding to the received hash operation request clear from the active index list. Otherwise, the active index list is updated with the hash table identifier and bucket index of the received hash operation request and the received hash operation request is processed. |
| US08321384B2 |
Storage device, and program and method for controlling storage device
In a storage device, an information acquisition unit acquires and stores information in an information memory unit. A data acquisition unit acquires data. A deduplication unit divides the acquired data by a smaller division size than that indicated in additional information included in the information stored in the information memory unit, performs deduplication, and stores the resulting data in a data memory unit. The information memory unit stores the information including the additional information that indicates the division size used for dividing data in deduplication of another device. |
| US08321379B2 |
System method and apparatus for optimal performance scaling of storage media
An apparatus, system, and method are presented for scaling storage media to improve data access performance. A scaling module is provided and configured to receive a dataset, identify storage characteristics of the dataset, make a determination based upon user-defined storage criteria, and select a storage instruction. In one embodiment, the storage instruction is configured to scale the storage medium to a predefined capacity. The predefined capacity of the storage medium is configured to optimize data access performance. Alternatively, the storage instruction is configured to not scale the storage medium. Additionally, the present invention may be configured to map and track the storage medium while the dataset is being written to or read from the storage medium. |
| US08321378B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing information related to storage activities of data storage systems
Methods and apparatus for managing information related to backup storage activities of data storage systems. In a computer system having one or more independent backup data storage systems coupled to each other and each serving one or more clients, a user may obtain information related to backup activities of any of the backup storage systems from a single location. Through a user interface associated with any of the backup storage systems, or through a stand alone user interface, a user may manage (e.g., organize, display, print) information related to backup activities of any or all of the backup storage systems. System administrators can design and store a variety of report formats that may be utilized by any user to display or print various parameters associated with backup activities in a particular manner. Report formats may be edited by users, and displayed parameters may be dynamically updated to provide for active monitoring of one or more backup storage systems. Additionally, periodic backup activity reports can be generated and automatically sent to designated locations, for example to one or more printers and/or to one or more designated recipients via E-mail. |
| US08321375B2 |
Search data update method and search data update system
A search data update system includes a navigation apparatus that uses search data and a data providing center that provides update data for updating the search data to the navigation apparatus. The navigation apparatus reads a search data main body constituted with search tree data and a plurality of sets of substance data each specified based upon the search tree data from a recording medium. The data providing center provides the update data to be used to update the search data to the navigation apparatus. The update data are provided in units of individual sets of substance data and include attached thereto information to be used in a search in correspondence to each set of substance data. Upon obtaining the update data from the data providing center, the navigation apparatus stores the obtained update data into a nonvolatile memory separately from the search data main body. |
| US08321374B2 |
Peer-to-peer N-way syncing in decentralized environment
An apparatus and method of synchronizing a datum between a plurality of stores is disclosed. A version history is associated with the datum in each store. The version history has one or more entries, and each entry has an identifier and a value. The identifier identifies a store that has modified the datum, and the value indicates a number of modifications to the datum made by the store. When synchronizing the datum between stores, the version histories of the datum are compared to determine whether one version history is subordinate to another version history. The datum in the store having the subordinate version history is then replaced with the datum having the dominant version history. When compared, a conflict resolution by a user is required if the version histories are not identical, if the version histories do not have all the same identifiers, and if one version history does not contain all of the identifiers with equal or greater values of those in the other version history. |
| US08321373B2 |
Method of servicing query statements from a client machine using a database management system (DBMS) employing a relational datastore and a multi-dimensional database (MDDB)
A method of serving query statements from one or more client machines using a database management system (DBMS) employing a relational data store and a multi-dimensional database (MDDB). A query interface is adapted to receive query statements from the client machines, and generate one or more query requests. A query handling mechanism (i) receives each request from the query interface, (ii) extracts a set of dimensions associated with the request, (iii) uses the dimensions to retrieve aggregated fact data from the MDDB, and (iv) forwards retrieved aggregated fact data to the query processing mechanism for subsequent processing. When the query processing mechanism determines that servicing of one or more query requests require data stored in the relational tables, then the query handling mechanism automatically routes the requests to the relational data tables, so that data can be accessed from the relational tables and forwarded to the query processing mechanism for use in servicing the requests, in a manner transparent to the client machine. |
| US08321372B1 |
Computer-based system to optimize medical treatment based on consumer choice and comparative effectiveness of treatment data
A process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, and improvements, illustratively as method of using a machine, the method including: storing data of a population in memory; computing, by a computer accessing the data stored in the memory, a probability of at least one future medical treatment needed by at least one individual having data in the data of a population; ascribing, by the computer applying the computed probabilities, each said individual with one of a plurality of risk stratifications for each said future medical treatment; and producing, by the computer communicating to an output device, output including at least one said ascribed individual in association with the one of the risk stratifications. The method can also include forming, by the computer accessing the data stored in the memory, an association of travel by an individual and a health consequence as a result of the travel by the individual; and generating, at the output device, output including the association. The method can also include determining, by the computer accessing the memory, whether at least one alternative treatment for the future medical treatment may be appropriate for the individual; and producing, at the output device, output tailored responsive to the determination of whether said alternative treatment may be appropriate for the individual. |
| US08321365B2 |
Horticultural knowledge base for managing yards and gardens
Therefore, the illustrative embodiments provide an apparatus for performing horticultural tasks. In an illustrative embodiment, an apparatus is comprised of a number of data storage devices, a planning process, and a processor unit. The number of data storage devices includes a knowledge base. The processor unit executes the planning process and accesses the knowledge base on the number of data storage devices to identify a horticultural need for a plurality of plants. |
| US08321364B1 |
Method and system for including robots into social networks
Examples disclose a method and system for including robots into social networks. The method may be executable to receiving information associated with a first party, wherein the first party is connected to a second party by a social-network. Based on the received information, the method may be executable to query a behavioral database to obtain a behavioral expectation associated with the first party and to compare the behavioral expectation associated with the first party to a stored behavioral expectation associated with the second party. Based on the comparing, the method may be executable to modify the stored behavioral expectation associated with the second party based on the behavioral expectation associated with the first party and provide instructions, which are executable to perform an action associated with the modified behavioral expectation, to a device associated with the second party. |
| US08321363B2 |
Technology evaluation and selection application
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for evaluating and selecting technology. Specifically, present embodiments provide for assessing the relative importance of various capabilities and constraints to determine weighting factors and applying the weighting factors to potential technology solutions rated in terms of the applicability of the capabilities and constraints. The result is a capability fit score and a constraint fit score for each potential technology solution, which can be combined to form an overall technology fit score for each potential technology solution. Thus, present embodiments assess capabilities and constraints of various potential technology solutions and balance the capabilities and constraints to result in a quantitatively measurement of which technology solution is the best fit for the project at hand. |
| US08321362B2 |
Methods and apparatus to dynamically optimize platforms
Example methods and apparatus to dynamically optimize platforms are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes configuring a processor to operate in a first mode, executing a workload on the processor, and sampling a plurality of registers associated with a performance monitoring unit (PMU). The example method also includes transforming the sampled plurality of registers into a Gaussian signal, partitioning the probabilistic model representation into a plurality of discrete output symbols, and associating one of the plurality of discrete output symbols with the workload based on a probability value associated with the one of the plurality of discrete output symbols. |
| US08321359B2 |
Method and apparatus for real-time website optimization
A novel method of automated, real-time website optimization at least includes: a) receiving website optimization data including an optimization goal, and website source code; b) receiving website optimization criteria indicative of the completion of a website optimization experiment; c) executing an optimization algorithm used to select an optimized website version; d) comparing the output of the optimization algorithm with the website optimization goal to determine whether the website version under consideration is optimized; e) providing feedback from the output of the executed optimization algorithm to an input of the optimization algorithm; f) based upon the feedback, determining the next iterative step of the optimization algorithm; g) performing new iterative steps of the optimization algorithm; h) converging to an optimized website state; and i) modifying the website source code to implement the optimum version of the website. |
| US08321358B2 |
Interpersonal relationships analysis system and method which computes distances between people in an image
An interpersonal relationships analysis method and system obtains an album comprising a plurality of photos, and recognize faces in each of the plurality of photos. The method and system further selects one of the recognized faces, matches the selected face with portraits stored in a person management database, so as to obtain basic information of a person with the selected face from the person management database. The method and system then analyzes an interpersonal relationship of the person with the selected face according to the album, and shows the interpersonal relationship of the person with the selected face. |
| US08321349B2 |
Methods of operating a self-service check depositing terminal to provide an acknowledgement receipt
A method is provided of operating a self-service check depositing terminal to provide an acknowledgement receipt. The method comprises identifying a depositor, receiving one or more checks from the depositor, generating a check deposit receipt associated with the transaction, obtaining an electronic mail (email) address associated with the identified depositor, attaching the check deposit transaction receipt to the email, printing an acknowledgement receipt which contains the email address, and delivering the printed acknowledgment receipt to the depositor. In another embodiment, the printed acknowledgement receipt may contain a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the check deposit receipt. |
| US08321341B2 |
Online fraud prevention using genetic algorithm solution
Online fraud prevention including receiving a rules set to detect fraud, mapping the rules set to a data set, mapping success data to members of the rules set, filtering the members of the rules set, and ordering members of the data set by giving priority to those members of the data set with a greater probability for being fraudulent based upon the success data of each member of the rule set in detecting fraud. Further, a receiver coupled to an application server to receive a rules set to detect fraud, and a server coupled to the application server, to map the rules set to a data set, and to map the success data to each members of the rules set. The server is used to order the various members of the data set by giving priority to those members of the data set with a greatest probability for being fraudulent. |
| US08321338B2 |
Electronic network access device
Methods and systems are described for processing transactions. The methods and systems enable a consumer to present a customer identifier, such as a merchant loyalty or membership card or other identifier as a payment device at a point of sale. In one implementation, a personal account number is generated by appending a proprietary routing code to a customer registration account number so that the personal account number is formatted for transmission as a payment device number over an electronic funds transfer network. In another implementation, the customer registration account number comprises the proprietary routing code. A preferred payment account identifier is accessed, based on the personal account number, from a database, and a transaction approval message is constructed comprising the preferred payment account identifier. The account from which payment is made may be a credit account, a demand deposit account, a stored value account, or another kind of account. |
| US08321337B2 |
Internet-connected devices
There are disclosed methods and systems for identifying an embedded device to a server system so as to provide an improved permission and billing relationship. The invention enables transaction activities by networked devices, each device being connectable to at least one server and associated with at least one stakeholder, wherein each device and each stakeholder has a unique identifier, and wherein there is provided a plurality of electronic certificates each owned by a stakeholder or on behalf of a device, the certificates being held on the at least one server and comprising a data structure which, when interpreted by the at least one server, determines whether a particular device acting on behalf of a particular stakeholder is entitled to carry out a transaction. |
| US08321335B1 |
Customized consumer loan search and optimized loan pricing
The invention relates to methods and systems for presenting a consumer with available loan products with associated pricing comprising comparing the consumer profile to available lender loan products, and optimizing available loan products based upon the consumer criteria, by matching the consumer's qualifications and needs to the best available loan products with associated rate pricing, including combining a plurality of loan products from a single or plurality of lenders to give a consumer a best available loan product. |
| US08321333B2 |
System and method for determining the market risk margin requirements associated with a credit default swap
Determination of a margin requirement associated with a plurality of financial instruments within a portfolio is disclosed for analyzing the portfolio including determining a first and second time-series of returns for the financial instruments, where the second time-series occurs after the first, and calculating the correlation between the first and second time-series of returns. The system and method further implement calculating residuals and volatilities for the financial instruments within the portfolio as a function of the first time-series of returns, calculating a correlation matrix and degrees-of-freedom utilized to simulate standardized residuals for each of the financial instruments within the portfolio, generating simulated returns as a function of the simulated standardized residuals and the returns, generating a spread distribution for the portfolio, wherein the portfolio is repriced as a function of the simulated returns, and calculating a margin risk based on a risk percentile associated with the spread distribution. |
| US08321331B2 |
Method, apparatus and interface for trading multiple tradeable objects
An interface for trading multiple tradable objects includes a price axis or scale. A first indication of quantities represented in a market for a first tradable object is displayed in association with the price axis or scale. A second indication of quantities represented in the market for a second tradable object is displayed in association with the price axis or scale. The first tradable object may be different than the second tradable object. Alternatively, the first tradable object and the second tradable object may be the same, but the indications of quantity may be provided from different sources, such as different exchanges. |
| US08321327B1 |
Mapping an over the counter trade into a clearing house
A method and system converts OTC positions into contracts clearable at a futures clearing house. Each OTC position has a maturity date. The method comprises: a) defining a plurality of tenors. The plurality of tenors is fewer in number than the OTC maturity dates of the OTC positions. The method also comprises: b) defining a contract, which is clearable at the clearing house, corresponding to each tenor defined in step a); c) mapping each OTC position, as it is executed, into one or more of the contracts, based on the maturity date of the OTC position; and d) between business days, re-mapping each contract mapped at step c) to account for the move of calendar day. The invention finds particular application as a method and system to convert OTC Foreign Exchange (FX) positions into futures contracts clearable at a futures clearing house. The OTC FX positions may include OTC FX spot positions and OTC FX forwards positions. |
| US08321319B1 |
Rental property investment calculator
The invention relates to a method for analyzing an investment in a rental property. The method steps include obtaining identification information of the rental property, wherein identification information identifies the rental property to an information source, submitting a request to the information source based on identification information, receiving property information from the information source based on the request, obtaining an investment parameter from an investor of the investment in the rental property, analyzing the investment in the rental property based on the investment parameter and property information to generate an analysis result, adjusting the investment parameter to optimize the analysis result resulting in an optimized analysis result, and generating a report based on the optimized analysis result. |
| US08321315B2 |
System and method for consumer control over card-based transactions
A system and method for consumer control over card-based transactions and associated accounts. An interface is provided between a merchant or the merchant's bank and the bank or banks at which the consumer has accounts for card-based transactions. The interface acts as an intermediary which is accessible to the consumer so that the consumer may place a variety of controls on card-based transactions. For example, multiple transaction cards may be linked to a single credit account with each card having a different credit limit. As another example, each transaction card may be restricted to a particular merchant. As yet another example, a consumer may link several credit and/or debit accounts to a single transaction card; the consumer may pre-select criteria to be utilized for directing charges for a particular transaction to be applied the different accounts. The consumer may access the interface via a web site or a telephone for making changes and receiving account information. Flexibility and control over the use of transaction cards is, therefore, provided for card-based transactions and for debit and credit accounts used in connection with such card-based transactions. |
| US08321313B2 |
Method and process for providing relevant data, comparing proposal alternatives, and reconciling proposals, invoices, and purchase orders with actual costs in a workflow process
The present invention provides a process and system for matching buyers and sellers of either goods or services, or goods and services for a project. The invention enables a buyer to specify a project in terms of physical, functional, temporal, financial, and transactional parameters that can be automatically converted, by the present invention, into at least one request for either goods or services, or goods and services to perform work related to the project. The requests are suitably provided to at least one seller. Upon receiving a request, the seller may submit a response to the request, as desired. The invention provides a forum for the negotiation of any agreements and the formation of contracts to provide the requested, or alternative goods or services, or goods and services, as well as reconciliation of purchase orders, actual field costs, and invoices. |
| US08321311B2 |
Multi-stage, multi-user engagement submission and tracking process
A method for submitting information for an engagement is disclosed. The method might include the steps of generating a tracking screen for tracking the submission of a plurality of files, including a tax file and an image file, each file having the same client identification code, receiving the tax file from a first client device, and updating the tracking screen to reflect the submission of the tax file. The method further might include the steps of receiving an image file from a second client device, updating the tracking screen to reflect the submission of the image file, and transmitting the plurality of files to a remote server system. |
| US08321310B1 |
Interactive account management system and method
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a computer-implemented interactive account management system operated in cooperation with a financial institution on behalf of multiple account holders. The interactive account management system may include a financial networking engine implemented by a processor for defining a financial network for each account holder and for identifying each member of an account holder financial network based on stored account information and account holder input. The system may additionally include interactive processing components for processing information to provide collaborative interaction between the members of the account holder financial network defined by the financial networking engine and user interface presentation tools for displaying financial guidance and collaborative interaction interfaces and inviting active participation from the financial network members. |
| US08321304B2 |
Stocked product sensing system
A stocked product sensing system that can be used with a product display, displaying product items on one or more shelves thereof, to determine the level of product availability and/or configuration of product items on one or more shelves of the product display. According to one embodiment of this invention, the stocked product sensing system utilizes capacitive sensing at the shelf-level. According to another embodiment of this invention, the stocked product sensing system utilizes optical sensing at the shelf-level. The stocked product sensing system of this invention may utilize a store-level management system and/or a central management system and generate low stock alarms based on user-defined criteria in a software system. |
| US08321299B2 |
Method, system, and computer readable medium for rule-based multi-selection gifting
A method for multi-selection gifting, including maintaining, by at least one of a plurality of computers, a gift database including records for multi-selection gifts, each record including a plurality of product identifiers for items of merchandise, and at least one selection rule governing selection of at least two of the items of merchandise, and interactively enabling, by at least one of the plurality of computers, a gift giver to generate a multi-selection gift for at least one gift recipient, including presenting, to the gift giver, a group of selection rules for selection by the gift giver, the group including allowing a gift recipient to select up to a specified total number of items of merchandise in the multi-selection gift, allowing the gift recipient to select items of merchandise in the multi-selection gift up to a specified total cost, and allowing the gift recipient to select items of merchandise in the multi-selection gift up to a specified total measure. A system and a computer-readable storage medium are also described and claimed. |
| US08321291B2 |
Method, system and computer readable medium for facilitating a transaction between a customer, a merchant and an associate
A method and system for facilitating a transaction between at least one user, at least one merchant, at least one associate is provided. The method includes the steps of the associate processing device transferring into the user processing device a first merchant link for a first merchant Web site on a first merchant processing device. The first merchant link is framed with associate information. The user selects the first merchant link. The associate processing device transfers into the user processing device information regarding a first product from the first merchant Web site. The user selects the first product to purchase. The user provides purchase information for purchasing the first product. The user processing device transfers the purchase information to the associate processing device. The associate processing device adds promotional information to the purchase information responsive to the user identification value. The associate processing device transfers the promotional information and the purchase information to the merchant processing device. |
| US08321280B2 |
Demand forecasting system and method for online advertisements
A computer implemented system includes a computer readable storage medium which includes historical demand data for a plurality of advertising inventories, and a processor connected to the computer readable storage medium. The processor is configured for generating a first demand forecast for a first predetermined period of time and a second demand forecast for a second predetermined period of time. The processor is configured for adjusting the first demand forecast by removing an existing demand for each of the plurality of advertising inventories, and for generating a net forecasting demand for each of the plurality of inventories for a third predetermined period of time by combining the second demand forecast and an adjusted first demand forecast. The third predetermined period of time is based on the first and second predetermined periods. |
| US08321279B2 |
Rule-based bidding platform
A computing system is configured to accept bid rules from merchants for the placement of ads for a plurality of products. The bid rules comprise a bid amount, a rule definition and a priority. The bid amount may be an absolute bid or it may be relative to base advertising rate. The rule definition comprises criteria for describing products to determine when the bid rule is applied to a product for sale. The priority indicates whether the bid rule applies to a particular product when the rule definition of more than one bid rule could be applied to a product. The computing system is also configured to generate a list of product offers based at least in part on the bids. The system may also generate reports for merchants. |
| US08321277B2 |
Method and system for voice ordering utilizing product information
A method for voice ordering utilizing catalog taxonomies and hierarchical categorization relationships in product information management (PIM) systems includes: prompting a user with a query to input speech into a speech recognition engine; translating the inputted speech into a series of words; querying a product information management component (PIM) based on the series of words; wherein the querying is performed as a matching algorithm against PIM category and attribute keywords; returning coded results to a voice synthesizer to produce at least one of: a voice response, and a text response to the user; and wherein in the coded results indicate one or more of: a not found message for zero matches, a confirmation of a suitable single match, a request for additional information in the event one or more of the following occurs: more than one matching item, category, and item attribute was found in the PIM. |
| US08321276B2 |
Processing of commerce-based activities
Disclosed are systems, methods and devices, including a method that includes receiving information about one or more transactions, each transaction including a respective sale of at least one first item selected by a customer and an offer of cross-sale of at least one second item offered to the customer, the information about each of the transactions including information about an outcome of the respective offer of cross-sales. The method further includes determining effectiveness measures based on the received information, with each of the effectiveness measures being associated with at least one of a plurality of combinations of at least one purchasable item and a corresponding offer of cross-sale of at least another purchasable item. The effectiveness measures are representative of a likelihood of the corresponding offer of the cross-sale being accepted when offered in combination with the respective at least one purchasable item. |
| US08321271B2 |
System, method and computer program product for cross-selling in network environment
Embodiments of the invention provide a robust rebate cross-sell network in which business entities, including financial institutions, can make targeted offers, including pre-approved or pre-qualified credit offers, to a desirable consumer utilizing information submitted by the consumer during a rebate redemption process. These business entities may but need not be associated with a rebate-issuing entity (i.e., rebate sponsor) or a rebate processing center which processes rebate claims for the rebate sponsor. In one embodiment, a cross-sell network manager can determine the consumer's identity, look-up the consumer at credit bureau(s), and perform a passive, real-time inquiry. Contingent upon a plurality of factors (e.g., the results of the inquiry or look-up against the pre-approved/qualified customer list, etc.), one or more targeted offers are identified. A Web page can be dynamically generated with the selectively identified offers and presented to the consumer as disbursement options, perhaps after authenticating the consumer's identity. |
| US08321269B2 |
Method for performing real-time click fraud detection, prevention and reporting for online advertising
The present invention provides a method of detecting fraudulent clicks in an online environment to reduce fraudulent paid clicks for online advertisers. The method includes server side and client side code which combined enables a click verification web site to identify valid and invalid clicks and in real-time prevents advertisers from getting billed for fraudulent activity. |
| US08321267B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for targeting an offer
A system, apparatus, means, computer code, and method may include receiving data indicative of information associated with a user, determining a value of a metric associated with the user based on the data indicative of information associated with the user, verifying that the value of the metric associated with the user is valid, selecting an offer from a plurality of offers where each of the offers has a score associated with the value of the metric, and providing data indicative of the selected offer. |
| US08321265B2 |
Method for collecting tolls for location usages
A method for collecting tolls for location usages of an on-board unit, which has a unit identifier in a road toll system and a mobile telecommunications identifier in a mobile telecommunications network. The method includes storing the unit identifier and the mobile telecommunications identifier of the on-board unit in a control centre of the road toll system, sending the position-fix data from the on-board unit, under the mobile telecommunications identifier as sole identification, to a toll calculation server, calculating location-anonymised toll data in the toll calculation server, and sending said toll data under the mobile telecommunications identifier to a control centre of the mobile telecommunications network, charging a user account assigned to the mobile telecommunications identifier in the control centre of the mobile telecommunications network, sending a confirmation to the control centre of the road toll system under the mobile telecommunications identifier, and retrieving the unit identifier associated with the mobile telecommunications identifier and providing the confirmation in the control centre of the road toll system. |
| US08321263B2 |
Processing and display of service provider performance data
Disclosed are computing systems, apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture for processing and displaying service provider performance data. In insurance and related industries, service providers perform assignments such as repairing smoke or water damage. Assignments may be performed pursuant to a service level agreement (SLA) between a provider and an insurance company. Service provider performance data reflects how well service providers perform their assigned tasks, and may contain subjective or qualitative values. Service provider performance data is stored in computer-readable storage media and is accessed by a computing system. The computing system selects a number of performance criteria to analyze, such as quality of service criterion, cycle time, and customer satisfaction. The computing system aggregates performance data related to the selected criteria and generates quantitative values from subjective or qualitative values. The computing system generates a vendor quality index (VQI) based on the quantified data. The generated quantitative values and VQI may be rendered on a display device or printed on a printer to facilitate objective comparisons between different service providers. Based on the generated quantitative values and VQI, the computing system may adjust parameters that affect how the VQI is determined, initiate electronic debits or credits to accounts corresponding to service providers, and/or generate user alerts. |
| US08321260B2 |
Product assortment planning system and method utilizing scaled performance metric values
A product assortment planning system determines scaled performance metric values for an assortment of products. The system includes a data store storing performance metric values for an assortment of products including a target assortment of products and a source assortment of products, an equivalization unit and a scaling unit. The equivalization unit equivalizes the performance metric values for the source assortment of products. The scaling unit determines incrementality assumptions. The incrementality assumptions are an estimation of an amount of cannibalization that occurs for the target assortment of products as a result of combining the source assortment of products with the target assortment of products. Scaled performance metric values are calculated for each product in the assortment of products based on the equivalized performance metric values and the incrementality assumptions. |
| US08321258B2 |
Vehicle scheduling and routing with compartments
Embodiments of the invention include a system for scheduling the shipment of a set of products. The shipment may be loaded into a set of vehicles and further configured to fit a set of compartments on those vehicles. The system may include attempts to fill each vehicle and the compartments of each vehicle. The system may include evaluating a set of constraints on the shipment. The constraints may include a complex logical statement. |
| US08321257B2 |
Managing project schedule data using separate current and historical task schedule data
A project management system manages project schedule data using separate current and historical task schedule data structures. In general, current schedule data is stored separately from historical schedule data, so that the current schedule data may be retrieved separately from the historical task schedule data. The project management system may also maintain unscheduled tasks as “to-do lists.” Tasks may be added to a member's schedule without specifying any planned dates and the tasks are added to the database. The tasks have an associated revision number of 0 to indicate that the tasks were added, but not yet scheduled. The tasks are displayed in the member schedule editor and in Web page schedules. The tasks may then be displayed in the member schedule editor and in Web page schedules in a manner that allows a user to readily determine that the tasks are “to-do list” tasks. |
| US08321256B2 |
Systems and methods relating to an opportunity distribution engine and distribution simulation
Opportunity distribution systems and methods distribute business opportunities received from lead sources for routing to one or more destination businesses that will make use the opportunity, such as an opportunity to place a webpage advertisement on a webpage that is being served to a viewer. The system identifies a set of most profitable destinations for each opportunity, for each routing, while complying with business rules associated with the opportunity source and the destination businesses. System variables associated with the lead source and the destinations may be advantageously adjusted to maintain desired flow rate and quality levels of leads to each destination and to maximize profit to the system. A system administrator module and log of lead transactions allows the system to review previous performance and to carry out simulations in order to identify desired adjustments to system variables. |
| US08321255B1 |
Resource management and planning in a distributed manufacturing environment
A method for resource management and planning includes receiving manufacturing information associated with multiple distributed enterprise facilities; generating manufacturing plans based at least in part on the manufacturing information; receiving feedback regarding execution of the manufacturing plans; identifying at least one of the manufacturing plans describing manufacturing activities planned to occur within a fixed time period in the future; modifying the identified manufacturing plan based on the feedback; and communicating the modified manufacturing plan to the distributed enterprise facilities. |
| US08321253B2 |
Technician control system
Technician control, in which a control system is configured to control scheduling and dispatch operations for work orders being handled by technicians. Multiple technician devices are each associated with one or more technicians, are configured to communicate, over a network, with the control system, and also are configured to provide output in response to communications that are received from the control system and that are related to the scheduling and dispatch operations performed by the control system. A set of scheduling configuration options may be pre-defined and user input weighting at least one of the scheduling configuration options relative to other of the scheduling configuration options may be received. A scheduling application used by the control system to perform scheduling operations may be configured based on configuration data that reflects the weighting and scheduling operations may be performed using the configured scheduling application. |
| US08321252B2 |
Air cargo yield management system for utilizing booking profiles and unconstrained demand
A yield management method and system are provided for enhancing revenue obtained from a given cargo flight capacity; the capacity being defined by the weight and volume of freights that may be transported. A set of historical profiles of capacity reserved by each category is stored for previous instances of the flight. Corresponding potential profiles are estimated independently for the weight and volume. The estimation is carried out taking into consideration the corresponding capacity currently reserved by the category for a future instance of the flight; and this result is emphasized according to a corresponding unconstrained demand for the category. A series of historical scenarios of the demand at the departure of previous instances of the flight are obtained from the potential profiles, and a stochastic model is applied to the historical scenarios according to the corresponding probabilities for calculating the optimised weight and volume authorizations for each category. |
| US08321245B2 |
Insurance incentive program for promoting the purchase or release of an automobile after an expiration of a lease
A lessee of an item, such as an automobile, is encouraged to either purchase the automobile at the expiration of the lease, or to initiate a new lease for the same item. If the lessee undertakes a purchase or a new lease, a manufacturer of the item, or another party, provides insurance covering the item. The methods disclosed herein may be performed over a computer network, such as the Internet. |
| US08321244B2 |
Software system for aiding medical practitioners and their patients
Applicant has disclosed a software system, preferably run over the Internet on an SQL server, used to prompt care providers to check certain medical conditions based upon: a patient's history from, e.g., prior office visits to a physician's office; and preferably, if appropriate, the patient's history from other sources. Using the system results in more thorough care and enhanced billing. Applicant's software provides a digital (or printed) version of a familiar billing format—the so-called Superbill. Medical conditions of a patient are highlighted to ensure the medical service provider performs the following services during a patient visit: investigates medical conditions of the patient, as prompted by highlights in the Superbill; and exhaustively addresses all the conditions worthy of investigation based on stored patient information. Afterwards, additional data obtained from the visit are entered into the computer system for later use. Since the system is set up on a standard billing format—i.e., the Superbill, the system helps to ensure that the service provider's bills and the paperwork submitted to insurance carriers are accurate and complete. |
| US08321239B2 |
System for communication of health care data
A computer system that extracts health care data from one or more health care payors to identify meaningful relationships or patterns in treatments to compare the effectiveness of various treatment of specific diseases is provided. This computer system includes a computer and a staging database. The computer is configured to communicate with one or more payor computer systems of a type that includes one or more databases storing records of the health care data from one or more payors over the Internet. The staging database is in communication with the computer and is configured to receive the health care data from each of the payor computer systems. The health care data from each of the payor computer systems is configured to be converted into a normalized format. The normalized data is the made available to determine comparative effectiveness of various treatments of specific diseases. |
| US08321238B2 |
Method and system for automatically associating an assessor with a medical assessment task
In a method and system for automated association of an assessor with an assessment task (in particular an evaluation of an image data set) an assessor database is used that contains assessors as well as selection information associated with assessors and task information associated with assessment tasks. A medical assessment is automatically associated with an assessor using at least one decision rule, starting from the task information and with consideration of the relevant selection information. |
| US08321237B2 |
Integrating different profiles to form a process
In one aspect, a method to integrate different profiles to form a process includes providing to a user a list of actors by profile using a graphical user interface (GUI) of a computer system. An actor includes one of a system or an application stored on a machine-readable medium. The method also includes providing to a user through the GUI a list of transactions by profile performed by the actors, receiving from a user a selection of actors from different profiles to group made by the user using the GUI, receiving from a user definitions of the transactions provided by the user using the GUI, grouping the selection of actors based on at least precedence rules and rendering to the user an integrated profiles graph representing the grouping of the actors from different profiles. |
| US08321222B2 |
Synthesis by generation and concatenation of multi-form segments
A speech synthesis system and method is described. A speech segment database references speech segments having various different speech representational structures. A speech segment selector selects from the speech segment database a sequence of speech segment candidates corresponding to a target text. A speech segment sequencer generates from the speech segment candidates sequenced speech segments corresponding to the target text. A speech segment synthesizer combines the selected sequenced speech segments to produce a synthesized speech signal output corresponding to the target text. |
| US08321220B1 |
System and method of semi-supervised learning for spoken language understanding using semantic role labeling
A system and method are disclosed for providing semi-supervised learning for a spoken language understanding module using semantic role labeling. The method embodiment relates to a method of generating a spoken language understanding module. Steps in the method comprise selecting at least one predicate/argument pair as an intent from a set of the most frequent predicate/argument pairs for a domain, labeling training data using mapping rules associated with the selected at least one predicate/argument pair, training a call-type classification model using the labeled training data, re-labeling the training data using the call-type classification model and iteratively several of the above steps until training set labels converge. |
| US08321218B2 |
Searching in audio speech
A computerized method of detecting a target word in a speech signal. A speech recognition engine and a previously constructed phoneme model is provided. The speech signal is input into the speech recognition engine. Based on the phoneme model, the input speech signal is indexed. A time-ordered list is stored representing n-best phoneme candidates of the input speech signal and phonemes of the input speech signal in multiple phoneme frames. The target word is transcribed into a transcription of target phonemes. The time-ordered list of n-best phoneme candidates is searched for a locus of said target phonemes. While searching, scoring is based on the ranking of the phoneme candidates among the n-best phoneme candidates and based on the number of the target phonemes found. A composite score of the probability of an occurrence of the target word is produced. When the composite score is higher than a threshold, start and finish times are output which bound the locus. The start and finish times are input into an algorithm adapted for sequence alignment based on dynamic programming for aligning a portion of the phoneme frames with the target phonemes. |
| US08321217B2 |
Voice activity detector
The present invention relates to a voice activity detector (VAD) comprising at least a first primary voice detector. The voice activity detector is configured to output a speech decision ‘vad_flag’ indicative of the presence of speech in an input signal based on at least a primary speech decision ‘vad_prim_A’ produced by said first primary voice detector. The voice activity detector further comprises a short term activity detector and the voice activity detector is further configured to produce a music decision ‘vad_music’ indicative of the presence of music in the input signal based on a short term primary activity signal αvad_act_prim_A’ produced by said short term activity detector based on the primary speech decision ‘vad_prim_A’ produced by the first voice detector. The short term primary activity signal ‘vad_act_prim_A’ is proportional to the presence of music in the input signal. The invention also relates to a node, e.g. a terminal, in a communication system comprising such a VAD. |
| US08321204B2 |
Automatic lexicon generation system for detection of suspicious e-mails from a mail archive
A system for generating a lexicon of words, organized into weighted categories, from a user defined set of example documents for detecting suspicious e-mails from a mail archive is provided. The system uses a set of example documents and e-mails given by the user to probabilistically find possible lists of critical words. The obtained list is now applied on an archive of e-mails. The system generates an inverted index on the mails from the archive to facilitate search for the key phrases. User feedback is taken on the results obtained and corrections in the lexicon made if necessary. Thus, the mails are scanned based on user feedback, user defined words and automatically generated word list. These lists constantly adapt as e-mails in the archive change. The system then combines all these to present the user with several possible sets of keywords and their relative importance that can be used as a policy for a desired level of accuracy. The system also shows the user any change if the set is modified. Finally, the system searches through the entire mail archive to find suspicious e-mails. |
| US08321201B1 |
Identifying a synonym with N-gram agreement for a query phrase
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that identifies a synonym with N-gram agreement for a query phrase. During operation, the system receives a candidate synonym for the query phrase. Then, for each term in the query phrase, the system determines whether the term is a lexical synonym of a corresponding term in the candidate synonym or the term shares meaning with the corresponding term in the candidate synonym. If this is true for all terms in the query phrase, the system identifies the candidate synonym as an N-gram agreement synonym for the query phrase. The system then uses this identified N-gram agreement synonym to improve synonym mappings for query terms and/or query phrases. |
| US08321196B2 |
System and method for generating radiological prose text utilizing radiological prose text definition ontology
The present invention is generally directed to a method programmed in a computing environment for providing prose text reporting, utilizing a prose text definition ontology comprising linguistic knowledge and a base report domain ontology. A system and method are provided to define various aspects of radiological report information processing as concept properties represented by a vocabulary of one or more instances of ontology concepts and presented in prose text. Even further, a system and method are provided for consulting a radiological prose text definition ontology wherein radiological domain concepts and relationships may be expressed or further utilized by other application programs. Users are able to quickly, accurately and consistently consult and report radiological observations in unambiguous prose text. |
| US08321193B2 |
Support system and method for manufacturing integrated circuit
An integrated circuit including an I/O register, wherein based on the behavior level design data, I/O register access information is generated. Then, based on the I/O register access information and association of an SW address with an HW address, address map information is generated. The SW address being used when the processor device accesses the I/O register, and the HW address being used when the user logical circuit accesses the I/O register. Based on the behavior level design data and the address map information, behavior level design data is generated. |
| US08321191B2 |
Method of classifying plant embryos using penalized logistic regression
A method is disclosed for classifying plant embryos according to their quality using a penalized logistic regression (PLR) model. First, sets of image or spectral data are acquired from plant embryos of known quality, respectively. Second, each of the acquired sets of image or spectral data is associated with one of multiple class labels according to the corresponding embryo's known quality. Third, sets of metrics are calculated based on the acquired sets of image or spectral data, respectively. Fourth, a penalized logistic regression (PLR) analysis is applied to the sets of metrics and their corresponding class labels to develop a PLR-based classification model. Fifth, image or spectral data are acquired from a plant embryo of unknown quality, and metrics are calculated based therefrom. Sixth, the PLR-based classification model is applied to the metrics calculated for the plant embryo of unknown quality to classify the same. |
| US08321190B2 |
Flow simulation in a well or pipe
A method of simulating fluid transport in a system for stimulating a well in a material formation of a resource reservoir, the system comprising a conduit element arranged in the well, the conduit element comprising a conduit wall including one or more openings for discharging a fluid into the material formation surrounding the conduit element; the method comprising establishing and numerically processing a transport model of fluid transport inside the conduit element. The transport model further includes a model of fluid transport in a predetermined space around the conduit element. |
| US08321188B2 |
Weather-related energy-usage analysis
Embodiments of the invention relate to apparatuses and methods for gathering and analyzing facility weather data, such as temperature and humidity data, and energy-usage data, such as electricity-usage data, from a plurality of remote facilities and using the analysis to assess energy-using systems and/or methods across an organization made up of the plurality of remote facilities. |
| US08321187B2 |
Process simulation utilizing component-specific consumption data
Methods and apparatuses are provided for simulating components and processes using discrete, variable-granularity, component-specific data relating to energy consumption or other sustainability factors. Simulations can be analyzed and optimized to facilitate forecasting of sustainability factors and determine advantageous modifications to the components or processes. |
| US08321182B2 |
System and method for positioning and controlling air conditioning tiles for optimal cooling using Voronoi diagrams
A system and method is disclosed that utilizes a Voronoi diagram to position and/or control perforated ventilation tiles in rooms of equipment requiring cooling air. The Voronoi sites used for constructing the Voronoi diagram are the air inlets of the equipment, and the Voronoi edges of the computed Voronoi diagram are used as the locations for placing (or controlling) perforated tiles. |
| US08321178B2 |
Plant facility managing system
A plant facility managing system capable of executing diagnoses by utilizing respective facility parameters against a plurality of facilities, and capable of using the result of a diagnosis as an input for another diagnosis. The plant facility managing system comprising a diagnosis processing unit for acquiring respective facility parameters held by a plurality of facilities operating inside a plant to thereby execute predetermined computations. The plant facility managing system further comprising a virtual facility defined-unit for generating a virtual facility where a plurality of facility parameters are gathered, the diagnosis processing unit receiving the facility parameters of the virtual facility as targets for diagnosis to thereby execute the predetermined computations. |
| US08321177B2 |
Method for logging the performance of a vehicle suspension system
A method for logging the performance of a vehicle suspension system is provided. The method includes the steps of measuring the dynamic effect of an impulsive load with an electronic weighing system mounted onboard the vehicle, and determining one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of the damping ratio of the suspension, the oscillation frequency of the suspension and the impact loading of the vehicle. One or more of these parameters is then logged in a data logger. |
| US08321168B2 |
Method for compensating drift in a position measuring device
A method for compensating the drift of an element for position measurement mounted on an object, including at least one gyro for measuring rotation of the object about an axis and at least one accelerometer for measuring two mutually perpendicular components of the acceleration of gravity as a consequence of the orientation of the object relative to the acceleration of gravity along two mutually perpendicular directions, which together correspond to the rotation of the object about the axis. The output signal from the accelerometer and the output signal from the gyro are low-pass filtered. These two signals are compared and the output signal from the gyro is compensated using an output signal from the accelerometer so that the deviation of the output signal of the gyro because of drift is decreased or eliminated. The thus produced, compensated signal constitutes an output signal from the gyro. |
| US08321161B1 |
Autonomous magnetic measurement system
The invention as disclosed is an autonomous magnetic measurement system for monitoring the background magnetic fields associated with power lines, electronic devices, electronic vehicles and the Earth's background magnetic field. The components of the autonomous magnetic measurement system include a series of three axis analog magnetic sensors, a fluxgate compass, and a programmable micro-controller. The micro-controller receives data from the sensor and compass and is programmed to autonomously detect magnetic signals having particular characteristics of interest. |
| US08321159B2 |
Controller for remaining liquid amount meter, remaining liquid amount meter, and vehicle
According to some embodiments, a controller 100 of this remaining liquid amount meter 200 performs cumulative processing that increases a cumulative value T when a display level (Rm1) specified based on the liquid surface level detected by a first detection section 141 is higher than a display level (Rm) displayed by the remaining liquid amount meter 200, and that decreases the cumulative value (T) when the display level (Rm1) is lower than the display level (Rm) (S9 to S15). Then, when the cumulative value (T) becomes larger than a predetermined threshold value (Tc), the controller 100 performs display processing that changes the display level (Rm) displayed by the remaining liquid amount meter 200 (S16 to S19). |
| US08321157B2 |
Monitoring device and monitoring method
A dummy junction which will break earlier than a target junction is arranged on a board. A history of load applied to the dummy junction until the dummy junction actually breaks is recorded, and an estimated lifetime of the target junction is calibrated when a lifetime of the dummy junction estimated by the history of the load is largely different from an actual lifetime of the dummy junction. The calibration is performed by subtracting a value of an unmeasurable load from the estimated lifetime of the target junction based on load ever applied to the target junction, and the unmeasurable load is calculated based on the difference of the actual lifetime and estimated lifetime of the dummy junction. |
| US08321151B2 |
Computational methods and systems for treatment in relation to modulation of CYP450 enzyme activity
Methods and systems such as those described herein include accepting input, identifying CYP450-family enzymes, identifying at least one modulator of an enzyme, and communicating one or more treatments to a system user. |
| US08321148B2 |
Multiple compartment dosing model
The method for modeling a dosing regimen for a medicament includes providing a system having at least two biocompartments. The method determines steady state levels in each of the biocompartments. After that, the method provides for modifying values to calculate an amount of at least one protein in one of the biocompartments to which the protein is being transported. Next, the method calculates and integrates a weighted value of the protein to find a weighted area under the curve. Then, the method calculates and integrates a non-drug value of the protein to find a non-drug area under the curve. Finally, the method evaluates one or more dosing regimens by comparing the weighted area under the curve and the non-drug area under the curve of the protein to determine a net effect of the drug over the time period. |
| US08321133B2 |
Measurement of sound speed of downhole fluid utilizing tube waves
A technique for utilizing tube waves to measure sound speed of fluids and other properties in the frequency range of about 5 to 100 kHz. A drill string is equipped with a sensor tube having a cavity filled with a downhole fluid such as borehole mud or formation fluid. An acoustic transmitter and an array of acoustic receivers are mounted on the tube in direct contact with the fluid. Processing circuitry calculates a property, e.g., sound speed, of the fluid based on time-of-flight of an acoustic signal generated by the transmitter and received by the array of receivers. Alternatively change in signal phase as a function of frequency may be employed by the processing circuitry. The technique is particularly suited to measuring the sound speed of borehole mud in situ. |
| US08321127B2 |
Information display method, information processing apparatus, and information display program
Disclosed is an information display method whereby an information processing apparatus displays a map on a display screen such that a cursor is displayed at a position measured as the current position of a position indication object on the map. The method includes the steps of, when the moving speed of the position indication object is equal to or less than a threshold speed, scrolling the map on the display screen in accordance with the movement of the position indication object in a first display mode, and when the moving speed of the position indication object is greater than the threshold speed, fixing the map on the display screen in a second display mode or reducing the speed of scrolling the map on the display screen so that the scrolling speed is less than that in the first display mode. |
| US08321126B2 |
Devices, methods, and systems for managing route-related information
A method can include, for a predetermined route, automatically processing a first set of machine instructions to create a visual travel guide for the predetermined route, the visual travel guide comprising a second set of machine instructions adapted to cause an information device to render: an identification of a destination of the predetermined route; a plurality of videos, each video corresponding to a road intersection located approximately on the predetermined route, each video adapted to substantially reproduce a view of a driver of an automobile approaching the road intersection; a plurality of textual descriptions associated with the plurality of videos; at least one of an identification of an origin of the predetermined route and an identification of an approach to the destination; and an advertisement associated with at least a portion of the predetermined route. |
| US08321122B2 |
System and method for evidential reasoning for transportation scenarios
The system contains a programmable device. At least one camera is in communication with the programmable device. The camera is directed towards at least one road. The camera provides a camera signal to the programmable device. A map of an area, which includes the road, is stored in a memory of the programmable device. A plurality of traffic influences is defined in the map. A first program on the programmable device tracks vehicles on the road utilizing the camera signal. The first program recognizes at least one obstruction and communicates with the map to identify at least one of the traffic influences behind the obstruction. |
| US08321120B2 |
System and method for starting a gas turbine engine with inoperable exhaust gas turbine temperature sensor
A system and method are provided for controlling the start-up of a gas turbine engine having an exhaust gas temperature (EGT) sensor. A determination is made as to whether the EGT sensor is available or unavailable. The gas turbine engine is commanded to accelerate at a nominal acceleration rate during the start-up operation if the EGT sensor is available, and to accelerate at an off-nominal acceleration rate during the start-up operation if the EGT sensor is unavailable. The off-nominal acceleration rate is lower than the nominal acceleration rate. |
| US08321119B2 |
Methods and systems to facilitate over-speed protection
A method for assembling a gas turbine engine to prevent rotor over-speeding is described. The method includes serially coupling a first fuel system interface to a second fuel system interface, such that at least one of the first fuel system interface and the second fuel system interface is coupled to the gas turbine engine. The method also includes coupling a control system to the first fuel system interface and to the second fuel system interface. The control system is configured to identify an occurrence of an over-speed condition. The method also includes programming the control system to discontinue fuel flow to the engine when both the first fuel system interface and the second fuel system interface indicate an over-speed condition has occurred. |
| US08321116B2 |
System for controlling a foundation brake of a vehicle
A system for controlling a foundation brake of a vehicle. The system includes an adaptive cruise control (ACC) device, an arrangement to detect or predict excessive use of the foundation brake and an arrangement to disengage the ACC device on detection of excessive use of the foundation brake of the vehicle. |
| US08321115B2 |
Traction control system using torque sensor for adaptive engine throttle control
A system and method using a vehicle drive shaft torque coupled to a driven wheel and a non-driven wheel speed for a vehicle throttle control system includes reading first and second torque values generated by the torque sensor. The method identifies when a sustained drop occurs between the first and second torque values. Another step determines if a change occurred between the first and second torque value readings in any of: a throttle position; a gear setting; and a brake pressure. A detected traction loss is signaled when the sustained drop occurred with no change between the first and second torque value readings in the throttle position, gear setting, and brake pressure. A desired throttle value is calculated using an engine torque and a target engine speed to prevent driven wheel slip. A throttle command signal changes an existing throttle value to the desired throttle value. |
| US08321110B2 |
Detection of hill grade and feed-forward distribution of 4WD torque bias to improve traction on a low MU surfaces during climbing of such hill grade
A feed forward method for controlling the distribution of torque between the front and rear axle in a four wheel drive vehicle where the slope of a hill upon which the vehicle is traveling is calculated based on measured vehicle longitudinal acceleration and estimated longitudinal acceleration. The hill slope estimation is made and implemented before the wheels of the vehicle begin to slip due to the slope and low friction coefficient of the road surface. Under conditions of high vehicle speeds or severe vehicle turning, the change of torque distribution is not implemented because there is a lesser tendency for the vehicle to slip on the hill surface. |
| US08321108B2 |
Method of controlling the closing phase of a clutch of an automated automobile transmission system
A method of controlling an automobile clutch in an automated transmission system with a CMPC control is disclosed having application to vehicle clutch control in an AMT system. The driver's request is translated in terms of sliding velocity ωsl. Constraints on the engine and clutch actuators are defined to respect their operating limits, and driving quality constraints are defined to guarantee comfort during the clutch engagement phase. In order to meet these quality constraints, a reference trajectory is defined for ωsl as a function of the clutch engagement time. An analytical expression allowing real-time calculation of a set of control trajectories with a CMPC control law is then defined from the expression of this reference trajectory. The trajectory respecting the constraints on the actuators is selected from among all these control trajectories. Finally, the clutch is controlled with the selected control trajectory. |
| US08321107B2 |
Method and a device for controlling a disc clutch
In a method and a control unit for controlling the position of an automatic disc clutch in a vehicle, which disc clutch is arranged to transmit motive force from an internal combustion engine to an input shaft of a stagegeared gearbox in the vehicle, the control unit is arranged to position the clutch in a first position, preparing the vehicle for take off, with the gearbox having a starting gear engaged, and where the clutch in the first position transmits a smaller torque, characterized in that the control unit being further arranged to position the clutch in a second more disengaged position compared to the first position, if a driver of the vehicle does not demand vehicle take off torque by activating a throttle control within a predetermined time. |
| US08321103B2 |
Transmission control system and vehicle
In a transmission control system for a vehicle, in a torque return period at the time of up-shifting of a transmission, an engine torque and a clutch torque are increased in parallel. A target engine torque value and a target clutch torque value are set such that the clutch torque changes at a value higher than the engine torque. The target clutch torque value is set such that a difference between an amount of energy generated in a clutch and an amount of energy generated in an engine substantially coincides with an amount of energy required to reduce the rotation speed of the engine to a target rotation speed. |
| US08321101B2 |
Temperature dependent minimum transmission input speed
A system and method is employed to regulate a minimum transmission input speed based on automatic fluid temperature. The system includes a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the automatic transmission fluid and a controller for setting a minimum engine speed of the engine based on the temperature of the automatic transmission fluid. The size of a transmission pump may be reduced while the pump is still able to supply enough automatic transmission fluid to friction elements and gear ratios to provide lubrication and enable friction element actuators to engage and disengage the friction elements in a timely and effective manner. In a preferred form of the invention, when the temperature of the automatic transmission fluid is below 210° F., the minimum engine speed is set to no greater than 900 rpm; and when the temperature of the automatic transmission fluid is above 210° F., the minimum engine speed is set to no less than 1000 rpm. |
| US08321099B2 |
Device and method for controlling automatic gearbox
When an accelerator pedal opening angle is large, a target vehicle speed is calculated using a read-ahead vehicle speed and, when the accelerator pedal opening angle is small, the target gear shift ratio is calculated using an actual vehicle speed. |
| US08321098B2 |
Method and system for controlling and/or regulating a multi-step automatic gearbox of a vehicle
A method for controlling and/or regulating a multi-step automatic transmission of a vehicle in which an upshift is prevented if a power limit, of the motor of the vehicle, is reached such that, when a driving situation in which the power limit of the motor is reached and recognized, the motor speed (n) is set at a predetermined limit value (nLimit). In addition, a system for implementing the method according to the invention is also proposed. |
| US08321093B2 |
Agricultural working machine
The present invention relates to an agricultural working machine (2), in particular a forage harvester (1) with a device for adjusting the ground speed v, with which the maximum ground speed v of the agricultural working machine (2) is determined as a function of the tire pressure of at least one tire (14). |
| US08321087B2 |
Damping force control apparatus
A control mode for a damping force characteristic is set to be a variable control when a product of the sum xb′ of sprung member speeds and a sprung-member-unsprung-member-relative-speed xs′ is positive. Accordingly, when the vibration in a middle/high frequency range is not being input to a suspension apparatus, an operation of a variable throttle mechanism is controlled so that a step number representing the damping force characteristic of a damper varies with a vibration state of a sprung member HA based on a Nonlinear H∞ control theory. When the product of xb′ and xs′ is negative, the control mode is set to be an operation prohibiting control. When the vibration in the middle/high frequency range is input to the suspension apparatus, operation of the variable throttle mechanism is prohibited, and suppresses an increase in the operation frequency or in the operation amount of the variable throttle mechanism. |
| US08321086B2 |
Gateway control apparatus for vehicles and travel information recording method thereof
A gateway control apparatus for vehicles includes a receiver receiving travel state information sent from sensors and vehicle ECUs through interfaces, a first memory storing the travel state information, a determination unit determining occurrence of a vehicle accident or an ECU malfunction based on the travel state information, a second memory, and a controller allowing the second memory to store malfunction information of an associated ECU among the travel state information if the ECU malfunction has occurred, and allowing the first memory to store pre-accident travel state information and post-accident vehicle state information with reference to an accident occurrence time point if the vehicle accident has occurred. The gateway control apparatus enables not only data communication between the ECUs having different communication modes, but also accurate analysis of causes of the vehicle accident or the ECU malfunction. A travel information recording method of the gateway control apparatus is also disclosed. |
| US08321083B2 |
Aircraft maintenance laptop
An apparatus comprises a portable computer, and program code stored on the portable computer. The program code is capable of being executed to establish a communications link with an aircraft network data processing system in an aircraft, obtain information about the aircraft over the communications link, display the information on a display device for the portable computer, receive user input to control a data processing system on the aircraft network data processing system in the aircraft, and send a number of commands to the data processing system in response to receiving the user input. |
| US08321080B2 |
Engine temperature display device for a watercraft propulsion unit and a watercraft
In engine temperature display device for a watercraft, an engine temperature data value is calculated based on a detection signal of a temperature of an engine of an outboard motor. The engine temperature data value is sent to an engine state display device installed in a watercraft by a LAN. A control portion of the engine state display device computes the engine temperature data value based on a plurality of threshold temperatures of a standard engine model stored in a nonvolatile memory, and converts the data value into a display data for indicating a temperature level among a plurality of temperature levels. The display data is displayed on a display device on the watercraft. An engine temperature data value calculating and sending device computes using a plurality of threshold values on an engine block wall temperature specific to an engine, and sends the appropriately converted engine temperature data value. The engine state display device for the watercraft propulsion unit can display an appropriate temperature level of the engine coolant temperature indicated for a model with higher engine coolant temperatures. |
| US08321076B2 |
On-line inertia estimation for use in controlling an aerospace vehicle
A system for controlling an aerospace vehicle using on-line inertia estimation may include an attitude sensor to measure an attitude of the aerospace vehicle. The system may also include a processor on board the aerospace vehicle. An inertia estimator operable on the processor may generate an on-line inertia estimate of the aerospace vehicle. A rate and attitude estimator operable on the processor may determine an angular position and angular velocity of the aerospace vehicle using the attitude measurement of the aerospace vehicle and the on-line inertia estimate for controlling movement and orientation of the aerospace vehicle without any rates of rotation of the aerospace vehicle being required. |
| US08321074B1 |
Altitude data generation system, device, and method
Present novel and non-trivial system, device, and method for generating altitude data and/or height data are disclosed. A processor receives navigation data from an external source such as a global positioning system (“GPS”); receives navigation data from multiple internal sources; receives object data representative of terrain or surface feature elevation; determines an instant measurement of aircraft altitude as a function of these inputs; and generates aircraft altitude data responsive to such determination. In an additional embodiment, the processor receives reference point data representative of the elevation of the stationary reference point (e.g., a landing threshold point); determines an instant measurement of aircraft height as a function of this input and the instant measurement of aircraft altitude; and generates aircraft height data responsive to such determination. |
| US08321073B2 |
Aircraft galley systems and methods for managing electric power for aircraft galley systems
Aircraft power systems, aircraft galley systems, and methods and systems for managing power distribution to aircraft galley systems are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an aircraft system can include an aircraft power source and at least first and second galley appliances operably coupled to the aircraft power source. The aircraft system can further include a controller operably coupled to the first and second galley appliances. The controller can be configured to receive a first power request from the first galley appliance and a second power request from the second galley appliance. The controller can be further configured to sort the first and second power requests and distribute power to the first and second galley appliances from the aircraft power source based on the sorting of the first and second power requests. |
| US08321070B2 |
Threat object map creation using a three-dimensional sphericity metric
In order to target and intercept a desired object within a number of objects detected in an environment, detection data is received from two different sensors, where the detection data includes spatial coordinates. A set of four-point subsets (tetrahedra) are selected from each set of spatial coordinates. A number of correlation maps are determined between the first set of spatial coordinates and the second set of spatial coordinates based on the plurality of four-point subsets. The mean sphericity for each corresponding plurality of four-point subsets in the plurality of correlation maps is determined, and a threat object map based on the correlation map having the greatest mean sphericity is created. The desired object is targeted based on the correlation map. |
| US08321066B2 |
Method for determining free spaces in the vicinity of a motor vehicle, in particular in the vicinity relevant to the vehicle operation
A method and system for determining free spaces in the vicinity of a motor vehicle, in particular a vicinity relevant to the vehicle operation, is provided. A method and system for determining an evasion trajectory for a driver assistance system of the motor vehicle is provided in which information from at least one object detection sensor of the motor vehicle about at least one detected object is used while taking the characteristics of the physical measuring principle of the at least one object detection sensor into account. A method and system is provided in which it is taken into account that the at least one object detection sensor has the capability of directly detecting a plurality of objects by a single measurement. |
| US08321063B2 |
Electronic control apparatus
An electronic control apparatus is provided in which a supervisory control circuit part capable of mutual communication with a main control circuit part, which is operated by a high speed clock signal of high precision, is operated by a medium speed clock signal, which is low in cost and precision, such that they can operate mutually independently of each other. The main control circuit part supplies a medium speed communication synchronization signal frequency divided to the supervisory control circuit part. The supervisory control circuit part is operated by the medium speed clock signal to supervise the control operation of the main control circuit part. An error measuring circuit calculates an error correction coefficient which is the ratio of the signal cycle of the communication synchronization signal to that of the medium speed clock signal. The value of the error correction coefficient is reversely supervised by the main control circuit part. |
| US08321061B2 |
System and method for irrigation using atmospheric water
An embodiment of the invention delivers water to plants of a specified type which reside in a quantity of soil. A condensing unit is operated at optimum intervals to condense water vapor in the air into water in liquid form. The condensed water is stored in a reservoir connected to an irrigation system, which can deliver water from the reservoir to each of the plants. A database is established that contains horticultural information, wherein the horticultural information comprises a set of values representing the water needed by plants of the specified type at different stages of growth. Estimates of soil moisture content are generated during a specified time period. Optimum watering intervals are computed during the specified time period, at least in part, as a function of the set of values contained in the horticultural database, and also as a function of the estimates of moisture content. The irrigation system is operated to deliver water to each plant during respective optimum watering intervals. |
| US08321057B2 |
Infrastructure for adaptive environmental control for equipment in a bounded area
Integrating information and performance controls for individual devices with environmental controls. Integrating the individual devices with general environmental control enables adaptive environmental control. For equipment housed in a bounded space such as a server room, information about the thermal environment within the bounded space can affect the performance of the equipment. Additionally, information about the performance conditions and/or thermal conditions about a piece of equipment can affect how the environmental control system for the bounded space operates. The equipment exchanges environmental event messages with a control node to affect the performance of the equipment and/or the environmental control system. |
| US08321053B2 |
Flexible two-wheeled self-balancing robot system and its motion control method
A flexible two-wheeled self-balancing robot system and its motion control method include a main controller 1, a motion controller 2, an assistant controller 3, two servo drivers 4, sensors, input/output devices, two DC motors 5 and a power supply system; a camera is installed on truck's top board 11, a tilt-meter and a gyro are installed both in truck 6 and chassis 8. Truck 6 and chassis 8 are connected with an elastic joint in which is installed a two-arm torsion spring and a cylindrical spring; the main controller 1 is connected to the motion controller 2, the assistant controller 3 and input/output devices. The user commands received by the main controller 1 are immediate commands or stored commands; through main controller 1 running the motion behavior decision algorithm, the motion controller 2 running the motion balancing control algorithm, and the servo drives 4 controlling the torques of the motors 5, locomotion on plane and remote control of the robot can be implemented. |
| US08321049B2 |
Flexible manufacturing systems and methods
A converting line comprises a first unit at a first region of the converting line and a second unit at a second region of the converting line. The first unit is positioned in series with the second unit. The converting line further comprises a third unit at a third region of the converting line and a fourth unit at a fourth region of the converting line. The first, second, third, and fourth units are configured to each perform at least one function. The third unit is positioned in parallel with the first unit, the second unit, or the fourth unit. The converting line further comprises a controller configured to activate at least one of the units based a received product order. The converting line is configured to produce a first product different from a second product during a single run of the converting line. |
| US08321047B2 |
Substrate processing system and substrate processing device
A substrate processing system capable of extending and changing a substrate processing module easily according to changes of processing contents for a substrate. An embodiment is the system including a main device and sub-devices. A transfer controlling part includes an acquiring part that acquires transfer-destination specifying information that includes additional information identifying at least a local address and a substrate processing device to which the local address belongs, and that specifies a substrate transfer destination uniquely within the main device and the sub-devices, a judging part that judges which one of the main device, and the sub-devices is the substrate transfer destination based on the specifying information acquired by the acquiring part, and a local transfer part that transfers the substrate to a process chamber connected to a transfer chamber of its own device by using the address allocated uniquely within the own device. |
| US08321044B2 |
Multimedia system for dialysis machine
This patent application relates generally to dialysis machines. |
| US08321042B2 |
Audio system
In one aspect of the present invention, an audio system connectable to a portable audio player for playing audio contents includes an audio content narrowing unit for narrowing the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player down to a processing target audio content according to an attribute of the audio content selected by a user, a preset information registering unit for registering, in response to a user preset registration operation, a procedure of the narrowing performed by the audio content narrowing unit as preset information, and a preset playback controlling unit for performing, in response to a user preset playback operation, a narrowing procedure equivalent to the procedure of the narrowing that is registered as the preset information, and causing the portable audio player to play back the audio content narrowed down from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player. |
| US08321040B2 |
Method for operating a safety control and automation network having such a safety control
In order to operate a safety control in an automation network having a master subscriber which implements the safety control, the safety control is assigned an identifier. When loading the safety control, the master subscriber checks whether the stored identifier in the safety master subscriber matches the identifier calculated form the safety control, and the automation network changes to a safe state if it is determined that the identifier differs. |
| US08321038B2 |
Presentation of still image data on display devices using a wireless home entertainment hub
A method of presenting still image data on multiple display devices using a wireless home entertainment hub comprises obtaining a registration of a plurality of devices with the wireless home entertainment hub, where the plurality of devices includes at least two display devices. An assignment of a zone for each display device of the at least two display devices is received. Still image data is caused to be displayed on a subset of the at least two display devices. |
| US08321035B2 |
Layered electrode for an implantable medical device lead
A medical device lead includes an insulative lead body, a conductor extending through the lead body from a proximal end to a distal end, and an electrode electrically connected to the conductor. The proximal end is adapted to be electrically connected to a pulse generator. The electrode includes a plurality of electrode modules mechanically coupled in a stack of electrode modules. Each electrode module includes a plurality of layers that define substantially similar sized pores such that the stack of electrode modules includes an array of the substantially similar sized pores. |
| US08321029B2 |
External charger usable with an implantable medical device having a programmable or time-varying temperature set point
An improved external charger for charging the battery within or providing power to an implantable medical device is disclosed. The improved external charger includes circuitry for detecting the temperature of the external charger and for controlling charging to prevent exceeding a maximum temperature. The external charger in some embodiments includes a user interface for allowing a patient to set the external charger's maximum temperature. The user interface can be used to select either constant maximum temperatures, or can allow the user to choose from a number of stored charging programs, which programs can control the maximum temperature to vary over time. Alternatively, a charging program in the external charger can vary the maximum temperature set point automatically. By controlling the maximum temperature of the external charger during charging in these manners, the time needed to charge can be minimized while still ensuring a temperature that is comfortable for that patient. |
| US08321028B1 |
Impact resistant implantable antenna coil assembly
An impact resistant implantable antenna coil assembly comprising a flat antenna coil having a plurality of laterally separated turns of wire encapsulated with a non-orthogonal force absorbing coil reinforcement in a flexible biocompatible polymer and axially anchored with the reinforcement to a feedthrough case. Thus configured, non-orthogonal impact forces applied to the antenna coil assembly are absorbed and lateral components thereof that would otherwise be reflected as tensile forces in the plane of the coil are prevented from forming or from fracturing wire within the antenna coil. |
| US08321026B2 |
Spectral tilt optimization for cochlear implant patients
Methods and systems of spectral tilt optimization for a cochlear implant patient include applying electrical stimulation representative of an audio signal to a patient in accordance with a spectral tilt value and optimizing the spectral tilt value in response to a measured ability of the patient to recognize at least one attribute of the audio signal. |
| US08321018B2 |
Systems and methods for reducing occurrences of atrial arrhythmias
A method for reducing occurrences of atrial arrhythmias includes obtaining measures indicative of atrial pressure of a patient, and monitoring for a change in the measures indicative of atrial pressure that is indicative of an increased vulnerability to an atrial arrhythmia. In response to detecting the change in the measures indicative of atrial pressure that is indicative of the increased vulnerability to an atrial arrhythmia, pacing therapy that is adapted to reduce atrial pressure and thereby reduce vulnerability to an atrial arrhythmia is selectively delivered. Additionally, or alternatively, pacing therapy is adjusted to reduce atrial pressure and thereby reduce vulnerability to an atrial arrhythmia. |
| US08321013B2 |
Electrical muscle controller and pacing with hemodynamic enhancement
A method of modifying the force of contraction of at least a portion of a heart chamber is provided. A non-excitatory electric field of given duration is applied, at a delay after an activation of the heart, which increase the force of contraction by at least 5%. Apparatus is also provided for pacing with hemodynamic improvement. Circuitry applies an extended pacing signal to electrodes to pace the heart, the extended pacing signal having an overall duration greater than 8 ms from a time of initiation of application of that portion of the signal that initiates action potential propagation. The signal includes a train of biphasic pulses having pulse durations of at least 1 ms, and the signal has an amplitude that is at least three times as great as a threshold for pacing the heart and that is sufficient neither for cardioversion nor for defibrillation. Other embodiments are also described. |
| US08321011B2 |
Corrective voice prompts for caregiving device
A medical device such as a defibrillator that incorporates corrective voice prompts that navigate users around operator errors. The voice prompts may, for example, address errors of readiness (e.g., failing to connect the defibrillator to an AC power source, failing to pre-connect electrodes, etc.), errors of omission (i.e., forgetting to do something, such as attempting to deliver a shock before the defibrillator is charged), and errors of commission (i.e., doing the wrong thing, such as attempting to shock VF when in the synchronization mode). The voice prompts may address errors in the delivery of therapy (e.g., attempting to shock VF when in the synchronization mode) or they may address errors other than in the delivery of therapy (e.g., failing to connect to an AC power source). |
| US08321009B2 |
DC tissue treatment
Disclosed are a method and a device useful for performing cosmetic or medical procedures of an in vivo portion of tissue. The method includes contacting an in vivo portion of tissue with a portion of a pad, substantially saturating the pad with a reactant, contacting the pad with a first electrode so that the first electrode is proximate to the portion of the pad proximate to the in vivo portion of tissue. The method further includes contacting the pad with a second electrode so as to provide an electrical path between the first electrode and the second electrode through the reactant, passing a DC voltage through a circuit including the first electrode, the reactant and the second electrode, thereby forming at least one of: an electrolytic effect, and an electrolytic product of the reactant, proximate to the first electrode. |
| US08321006B1 |
Biometric data display system and method
An interactive biometric display system and method for collecting and displaying biometric data. The display system comprises a device for identifying a user and at least one biometric input device (e.g., heart rate sensor). A user provides identifying data via the identifying device and biometric data via the biometric input device. The biometric data (e.g., heartbeat) is measured and recorded with a timestamp. Graphical objects for each user are presented (e.g., a heart) and move around the screen in relation to the biometric data. Attributes of graphical objects (e.g., size, color, color saturation, and height) may vary over time indicating the recency of the data. The display system may further comprise a sound component to play sound related to the biometric data. Visual as well as sound attributes may diminish, fade, or disappear over time and may be refreshed when a new reading for the user is received. |
| US08321004B2 |
Body-worn vital sign monitor
The invention provides a body-worn monitor featuring a processing system that receives a digital data stream from an ECG system. A cable houses the ECG system at one terminal end, and plugs into the processing system, which is worn on the patient's wrist like a conventional wristwatch. The ECG system features: i) a connecting portion connected to multiple electrodes worn by the patient; ii) a differential amplifier that receives electrical signals from each electrode and process them to generate an analog ECG waveform; iii) an analog-to-digital converter that converts the analog ECG waveform into a digital ECG waveform; and iv) a transceiver that transmits a digital data stream representing the digital ECG waveform (or information calculated from the waveform) through the cable and to the processing system. Different ECG systems, typically featuring three, five, or twelve electrodes, can be interchanged with one another. |
| US08321003B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for detection of myocardial ischemia upon exertion
Various method embodiments of the present invention concern sensing patient-internal pressure measurements indicative of physiological exertion, identifying one or more steady state periods of physiological exertion based on the patient-internal pressure measurements, sensing extra-cardiac response data and cardiac response data corresponding to the one or more physiological exertion steady state periods, respectively comparing the extra-cardiac response data and the cardiac response data to extra-cardiac response information and cardiac response information associated with equivalent levels of physiological exertion intensity of the one or more steady state periods, and determining the likelihood that myocardial ischemia occurred during the one or more steady state periods based on the comparison of the extra-cardiac response data to the extra-cardiac response information and the cardiac response data to the cardiac response information. |
| US08320998B2 |
Vein imaging apparatus, positional displacement interpolation method, and program
An imaging element of a vein imaging apparatus includes a vein image data generation region generating image data of a vein based a near-infrared light that was condensed by a lens array and that was scattered in a living body and transmitted through the vein and a positional displacement detection data generation region that includes a shielded section in which pixels are shielded from the light and an opening section in which pixels are not shielded from the light, and generates data for detecting positional displacement that is used to detect, based on the light received via the opening section, variation in an image focus position according to an imaging temperature. The vein imaging apparatus detects the image focus position of the light and estimates the amount of positional displacement occurred in the apparatus. The vein imaging apparatus selects a pixel based on the obtained amount of positional displacement. |
| US08320997B2 |
Vein authentication apparatus and template registration method
A vein authentication apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a vein pattern extraction unit for extracting a vein pattern from each of the plurality of vein image data, a rotational amount calculation unit for calculating a rotational direction and an amount of rotation of the finger, a registration information selection unit for calculating a shift width of the imaging range, and for determining whether the shift width of the imaging range is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold value, and for selecting a vein pattern to be registered as a template from among the plurality of vein patterns, and for setting the selected vein pattern as registration information, and a registration information compression unit for compressing, in accordance with the shift width of the imaging range, each of the plurality of selected registration information. |
| US08320995B2 |
Fiducial marker with rings
An interstitial marker for the location of one of an organ, tumor and tumor bed within a mammalian body includes a plurality of rings having an inner diameter and a ribbon positioned within the inner diameters of the plurality of rings. The plurality of rings may be of the same material or different materials. The materials are visible under different imaging modalities. The ribbon similarly may be of a material visible under various imaging modalities. Tips are attached to the ribbon to hold the rings in place. Alternatively, one or more of the rings may be attached to the ribbon. A helical coil may also be used in connection with a central ribbon for improved imaging. A plurality of coils, of the same material or different materials, may be positioned on a ribbon for a marker. |
| US08320986B2 |
Method for determining the resolution of blood glucose
The present invention provides a method for calculating the resolution of blood glucose which corresponding with the peak value of the rising curve. The average peak value is obtained from calculating the plurality of peak value, which determined after the pre-setting sampling time. Then, the average peak value is calculated with the resistance of the measuring circuit, reference resistance, and reference voltage to obtain the resolution of the blood glucose. Furthermore, the mapping table can be fabricated by the different height of maximum peak value and outputted voltage in different presetting sampling time, such that the resolution of blood glucose can be obtained in different outputted voltage values. |
| US08320981B1 |
Enhanced optical sensor module
An implantable system includes light sources to transmit toward vascularized tissue, in a time multiplexed manner, light having a first wavelength of approximately 660 nm, light having a second wavelength of approximately 810 nm, light having a third wavelength of approximately 910 nm, and light having a fourth wavelength of approximately 980 nm. The system includes one or more light detector to detect light of the first, second, third and fourth wavelengths scattered by vascularized tissue. Additionally, one or more processor is configured to determine levels of blood oxygen saturation based on the detected scattered light of the first and third wavelengths, determine levels of tissue oxygen saturation based on the detected scattered light of the first and third wavelengths, determine levels of hemoglobin concentration based on the detected scattered light of the second wavelength, and determine levels of tissue hydration based on the detected scattered light of the second and fourth wavelengths. |
| US08320978B2 |
Device housing
A device housing includes a glass plate, a plastic frame, a metal member and an adhesive member. The glass plate is received in the plastic frame. The metal member is connected to the plastic frame. The adhesive member connects the glass plate to the plastic frame. The glass plate, the plastic frame, the metal member and the adhesive member are integrally formed, and the adhesive member is sandwiched between the glass plate and the plastic frame. |
| US08320975B2 |
Apparatus and method for improving sensitivity of dual-standby portable terminal
An apparatus and method for controlling Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) in a dual standby portable terminal according to communication modes are provided. The apparatus and method improve the received signal sensitivity of the receiving unit of the dual-standby portable terminal. The main controller generates an active control signal when a state of the main controller is switched from a reception standby mode to a call mode, and transmits the active control signal to a sub-controller. The sub-controller maintains a turned on state of an LNA under the control of the sub-controller, according to the active control signal. |
| US08320973B2 |
Call disconnect system and method for a mobile device
A disconnection system and a method of a mobile device include setting a keystroke instruction and a time limit, and displaying an incoming call prompt interface on a display of the mobile device when an incoming call request is received. The disconnection method further includes exiting the incoming call prompt interface if the disconnection keystroke instruction is received, and disconnecting the network connection if a network connection time of the incoming call is not less than the time limit. |
| US08320962B2 |
Contactless disablement
A method for controlling a contactless interface on a dual interface portable device are provided. The method allows for contactless enablement and disablement on both a temporary and semi-permanent basis, dependent on commands sent to the device by the issuer of the portable device. The commands are received through a terminal device and are transferred to the portable device during a contact transaction. Configuration data on the portable device is modified according to the received commands. An application on the portable device controls the transmission of data through the contactless interface dependent on the configuration data. |
| US08320954B2 |
System and method for enabling messages to be sent while a mobile device is out-of-coverage
A system and method are provided that enable a mobile device when out-of-coverage and thus unable to send or receive messages to rely on other mobile devices which are also out-of-coverage as “hosts” for their outgoing messages such that when one of the hosts comes back into coverage the host mobile device (HMD) can send the outgoing messages on behalf of the originating or “source” mobile device (SMD). The system and method may comprise a pairing procedure to determine the suitability of a mobile device being an HMD according to criteria such as battery power, memory availability and whether the device is also out of coverage. When coming back into coverage, information is obtained from the data communication system to determine whether others have already sent messages that have been provided to host mobile devices. |
| US08320953B2 |
Mobile terminal device
A mobile terminal device is provided which can be used without an incongruous feeling. In Step S14, it is determined whether or not the operated application is the second display state (landscape display). When it is determined that the application is not the landscape display, the process is transferred to Step S15, and the key operation functions assigned to the keys b1 to b6 of the “TURN-CLOSE STATE (LENGTHWISE)” of the key assignment table are assigned to the keys b1 to b6. In Step S14, when it is determined that the operated application is the landscape display, the process is transferred to Step S16, the key operation functions assigned to the keys b1 to b6 of “TURN-CLOSE STATE (WIDTHWISE)” of the key assignment table are assigned to the keys b1 to b6, and the key operation unit in the turn-close state has the same function as the cross key 15a. |
| US08320951B2 |
Power sharing process in cellular network architecture
A power sharing process for base station to allocate un-utilized power from a 1x system to an EVDV system is shown. In this process, a power sharing module receives input signals that relate to predicted power allocation for the 1x system and current power allocations for the 1x system and the EVDV system. From these input signals, the power sharing module may determine whether non-utilized power from the 1x system may be allocated to the EVDV system. The power sharing module may provide an indication corresponding to the determination to a scheduler that may allocate the non-utilized power for different forward channels. This technique allows the non-utilized power to be used by the EVDV system to operate the cellular communication system. |
| US08320950B2 |
Method for increasing synchronous control channel capacity in a wireless system
A method is provided for controlling delivery of packets over a synchronous control channel in a wireless system employing the High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) standard. The synchronous channel is comprised of a plurality of slots, and a first packet is sent over the synchronous control channel in a first one of the plurality of slots along with an indication of a second one of the plurality of slots in which a second packet will be delivered. Thereafter, the second packet is sent over the control channel in the second one of the plurality of slots. Subsequent packets are handled similarly. |
| US08320947B2 |
Radio channel allocation and link adaptation in cellular telecommunication system
A network element, a terminal and a method of allocating a radio channel to a connection between a terminal and a base station in a telecommunication system are provided. The number and properties of potential interferers in a plurality of available radio channels are determined, and channel allocation is performed on the basis of the determination. |
| US08320945B2 |
Apparatus and method of performing measurements logging in wireless communication system
A method and apparatus for performing measurements logging in a mobile communications system is provided. An user equipment receives a first measurement configuration message including a first measurement configuration and receives a second measurement configuration message. The user equipment discards the first measurement configuration upon receiving the second measurement configuration message. |
| US08320944B1 |
Method and system for creating/updating customer lists and profiles
A method and system for creating customer lists and customer profiles using mobile computing systems whereby A mobile computing system based marketing device, such as a Short Message Service (SMS) message, is created by the merchant and/or product marketer through a mobile application that includes one or more “hooks” that are presented to the mobile customers to inquire about a given mobile customer's interest level in the mobile computing system based marketing device and/or the specific offer made through the mobile computing system based marketing device. The mobile computing system based marketing device is then distributed to selected mobile customers and one or more of the selected mobile customers who receive the mobile computing system based marketing device respond, or fail to respond, to the mobile computing system based marketing device. Response data is then generated and stored in a mobile customer database and is used to create and/or update mobile customer profiles associated with the respective selected mobile customers in the mobile customer database. |
| US08320943B2 |
System and method for enabling instant messages to be exchanged between mobile devices
A system and method are provided for enabling instant messages to be exchanged between mobile devices, in particular where a mobile device has access to information pertaining to another mobile device. The system enables an instant messaging application to communicate directly with the other mobile device, without requiring an initial email exchange. New contacts can be added automatically and access to other data such provided by having a mobile device access information for another mobile device. The information can be made available through a contact server of the host system common to both mobile devices thereby providing a trusted mechanism to establish the new contacts. In one example, in a PIN-to-PIN based messaging system, a global address list (GAL) look-up can be incorporated into an option for adding a new contact so that the PIN for the invitee is obtained directly and the invitation sent immediately in a PIN-to-PIN message thus not requiring an email invitation. |
| US08320939B1 |
Crowd-sourced information for interior localization and navigation
Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to using crowd sourced information to generate walkable paths through indoor spaces. More specifically, aspects relate to recording data such as accelerometer readings, wireless network or other beacon signal information, and timestamps while a client device moves within an indoor space. If the user reaches a destination within the indoor space, the client device may prompt the user for information about the destination. The information received and recorded by the client device may be sent to a server computer for further processing. The server may use the information to identify walkable paths within the indoor space. This information in turn may be used in various ways, such as to provide navigation assistance to users though the indoor space. |
| US08320938B2 |
Device and method for localizing terminal devices
When localizing terminal devices an updating measure of reference ambient information allocated to surroundings of the terminal device is executed when a deviation of ambient information determined by means of the terminal device from reference ambient information allocated to a position of the terminal device is detected. |
| US08320937B2 |
Method and arrangement for providing location information on a communication terminal
In a method and arrangement for providing a reliable location for a communication terminal, a first location is obtained for the terminal by means of a first access mechanism. A second location is also obtained for the terminal by means of a second access mechanism, and the obtained first and second locations are then compared. The location of the terminal is validated if the obtained first and second locations are found to be substantially equal. Thereby, a more reliable location of the terminal can be used to support communication services requiring or needing such position information, such as emergency services. The validated location of the terminal can also be used for validating the location of an end point used by the terminal in an access network with fixed end points, or for validating a used positioning mechanism. |
| US08320936B2 |
Positioning in a mobile communications system
A method in a mobile communication system for determining a distance between a first mobile terminal and a second mobile terminal. Based on a trigger distance between the first and the second mobile terminal, a triggered location server defines an area surrounding the first mobile terminal and optionally defines an area surrounding the second mobile terminal. The trigger distance may be provided by an application e.g. for providing a location based service. If the first mobile terminal determines that it has moved outside of its area, it sends a trigger to the triggered location server. If the trigger distance between the first and the second mobile terminal is reached, the triggered location server may report this to the application as an event. |
| US08320933B2 |
Estimating whether or not a wireless terminal is in a zone using radio navigation
A method for estimating whether or not a wireless terminal is in a zone is described. The method is based on the following observation: when a wireless terminal is at a particular location, the values of the traits of the ambient electromagnetic signals that vary with location represent a “fingerprint” or “signature” for that location. This enables the location of a wireless terminal to be estimated by comparing the observed values of the traits of the ambient electromagnetic signals with the fingerprint for each potential location for the wireless terminal. |
| US08320929B2 |
Direct transition to cell dynamic host configuration (DCH)
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for reducing the time delay associated with the initialization of a data transfer in a UMTS Radio Access Network. The Radio Network Controller, RNC, (102) connectable to a UMTS network and to a plurality of User Equipments, UEs, (108) wherein the UEs are capable of being in the states, URA PCH, CELL PCH, CELL FACH or CELL DCH, comprises means for handling a data transfer initiating message, means for introducing a delay reducing information in the data transfer initiating and means for transferring the UE from the URA PCH or the CELL PCH state directly to the CELL DCH state by means of the delay reducing information in the data transfer initiating message. |
| US08320928B2 |
Opportunistic uplink scheduling
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate scheduling uplink transmissions. For instance, a time sharing scheme can be utilized such that differing mobile devices can be scheduled to transmit during differing time slots; however, it is also contemplated that a static scheme can be employed. Pursuant to an illustration, an interference budget can be combined with a time varying weighting factor associated with a base station; the weighting factor can be predefined and/or adaptively adjusted (e.g., based upon a load balancing mechanism). Moreover, the weighted interference budget can be leveraged for selecting mobile devices for uplink transmission (e.g., based at least in part upon path loss ratios of the mobile devices). Further, disparate interference budgets can be utilized by differing channels of a sector at a particular time. Also, for example, a base station can assign a loading factor to be utilized by wireless terminal(s) for generating channel quality report(s). |
| US08320925B1 |
Systems and methods for wireless communications with a heavily-loaded wireless network
Methods and apparatus for congestion mitigation in wireless communication networks are provided. The congestion mitigation can include assignment of a new user class, a mobile station identifier, a mobile station identifier and a reserved traffic channel and/or an alternative access channel in another wireless communication network. These congestion mitigation techniques can be employed for selected mobile stations when an activity on an access channel is above a threshold level. |
| US08320923B2 |
Method and apparatus for validating radio resource control messages
A method for validating radio resource control (RRC) messages begins by receiving a RRC message at a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) from a radio access network. A determination is made at the WTRU whether the message is valid by applying a predetermined validation rule. The WTRU accepts the message if the message is valid. The WTRU rejects the message if the message is not valid. The message is rejected unless a new transport format combination set (TFCS) is provided, until the WTRU enters a CELL_DCH state, or both. |
| US08320922B2 |
Registration in a broadcast communications system
Systems and techniques are disclosed relating to communications. The systems and techniques include an input device, generating a time period in response to a broadcast channel selection from the input device, generating a request to register the broadcast channel if the time period ends before receiving a second broadcast channel selection, and transmitting the request to an access network. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or the meaning of the claims. |
| US08320919B2 |
Method and apparatus for measuring channel quality using a smart antenna in a wireless transmit/receive unit
A method and apparatus for measuring a channel quality in wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) which are equipped with a subscriber based smart antenna. The WTRUs are equipped with a smart antenna so that the WTRU generates a plurality of directional beams and, optionally, an omni-directional beam. A dwell time is provided in a measurement period to switch a beam from an active beam to a non-active beam. The active beam is one of the plurality of directional beams or, optionally, the omni-directional beam, for communication with one or more serving base station(s). A beam is switched to a non-active beam at the initiation of the dwell time. Signals are received through the switched non-active beam, and samples of the received signals are generated. The samples are stored in a memory. Channel quality is measured using the samples, whereby the dwell time to measure the channel quality is minimized. |
| US08320912B2 |
Wireless communication system, terminal, message sending method, and program for allowing terminal to execute the method
Upon receiving a beacon, a terminal B sends a RTS control message to a terminal A before sending a registration request message to the terminal A. Upon receiving the RTS control message, the terminal A sends a CTS control message. The terminal B measures the time from when the RTS control message is sent to when the CTS control message is received so as to calculate the distance with the terminal A. If the distance with the terminal A is within a predetermined distance X1, the terminal B sends a registration request message to the terminal A. Similarly, the terminal A measures the distance with the terminal B, and sends a registration request acknowledgement message to the terminal B when the distance with the terminal B is within a predetermined distance X2. |
| US08320910B2 |
Band masking of self organizing cellular networks
This invention addresses a method of whereby a cellular base station can scan the radio band to identify radio channels that are not in use, then claim those un-used radio channels for use to transmit and receive radio signals. A plurality of such radio base station could then comprise a cellular radio network, which channel planning and frequency re-use has become autonomous and self organizing. The present disclosure aims to further expand the utility and function of such self organizing cellular networks by including a user interface to the base station by which the operator can define the radio spectrum boundaries that the base station is authorized to operate within and to further set operational rules for the use of sub-sections of that defined spectral boundary. |
| US08320909B2 |
Expanded cell search and selection in a mobile wireless device
A method and apparatus for expanded cell search and selection in a mobile wireless device. The mobile device locates cells in a first of neighbor cells and in a second list of stored cells and evaluates located cells using suitability criteria. When locating a suitable first cell that uses a first radio access technology (RAT) in the first list, the first cell is selected. When locating a second suitable cell that uses a second RAT in the first list and not locating a suitable cell that uses the first RAT in the second list, the second cell is selected. When locating a third suitable cell that uses the second RAT in the first list and locating a fourth suitable cell that uses the first RAT in the second list, the fourth cell is selected when more suitable than the third cell. |
| US08320908B2 |
Scanning neighboring base stations in wireless access system
Scanning neighboring base stations in a wireless access system is provided. In one embodiment, a method of scanning neighboring base stations for assessing channel quality includes receiving from a serving base station information associated with at least one neighboring base station, and transmitting a scanning request message from a mobile subscriber station to the serving base station, wherein the scanning request message comprises a requested scan duration and a requested scan iteration, the requested scan iteration being associated with a requested number of iterations of the scanning of the at least one neighboring base station. The method also includes receiving a scanning response message from the serving base station, wherein the scanning response message comprises an allowed scan duration and an allowed scan iteration, the allowed scan iteration being associated with an allowed number of iterations of the scanning of the at least one neighboring base station. |
| US08320907B2 |
Method for performing cell search procedure in wireless communication system
A method for performing a cell search procedure by a user equipment in a wireless communication system includes receiving a primary synchronization signal (PSS), and obtaining a correlation value of the PSS to detect a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) indicator indicating whether a service is a dedicated MBMS. Accordingly, whether the service is the dedicated MBMS is indicated using a primary synchronization signal or a secondary synchronization signal used in an initial cell search process, and whether the service is the dedicated MBMS can be known without additional complexity. Therefore, cell search of a user equipment can be more effectively performed. |
| US08320905B2 |
Method for exchanging data between a mobile telephone and a fixed line telephone
The invention relates to a method for exchanging data between a mobile telephone and a fixed line telephone. According to the invention, a mobile telephone equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and a fixed line telephone that is also equipped with NFC technology are initially placed in a reception range, subsequently the mobile telephone and the fixed line telephone are coupled by means of the NFC technology, and then data is transmitted between the mobile telephone and the fixed line telephone by means of the NFC technology. Said coupling occurs when the mobile telephone and the fixed line telephone are authenticated, and two different NFC technologies are used for the authentication of the mobile telephone and the fixed line telephone, and the subsequent transmission of data. |
| US08320902B2 |
System and method for selecting services in a wireless communication network
A system and method for selecting a preferred connection point from a choice of one or more available connection points in a wireless communication network. The system and method include: determining a link quality for the one or more available connection points; establishing a connection to a first connection point when there is no existing established connection, the first connection point offers a desired service, and the link quality for the first connection point exceeds a first threshold value, wherein a service priority is considered in determining the link quality of the first connection point; maintaining the established connection to the first connection point when the link quality exceeds a second threshold value; and making eligible the established connection to the first connection point for preemption by a second connection point, when the link quality for the first connection point is less than the second threshold value. |
| US08320900B2 |
System and methods for data communications in a wireless communication system
In one illustrative example, a mobile device receives from a relay services node an enable message which indicates a pending data message to be retrieved from a host service. The pending data message may comprise a body of text. Subsequent to the receiving of the enable message, a messaging application is opened at the mobile device. In response to the opening of the messaging application, the mobile device communicates directly with the host service without use of the relay services node, for retrieving the pending data message from the host service via a wireless network. |
| US08320896B1 |
Unified communication access system
Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods that allow a mobile device to fully access unified communication services. In a particular embodiment, a mobile device receives a user input indicating a destination identifier for a call and processes the destination identifier to determine whether the destination identifier is associated with a unified communication service. If no, the mobile device connects the call. If yes, the mobile device generates and transfers a text message indicating that the mobile device is requesting the service to an intermediate communication system in a first carrier network. The intermediate system receives and processes the text message to determine a first portion of the service that is associated with the mobile device. The intermediate system initiates the call to the mobile device to connect the mobile device with a unified communication system via the intermediate system and provides the first portion of the service. |
| US08320895B2 |
Method for handling calls switched by private branch exchanges to a mobile communications network
A method and to an arrangement for handling calls switched by private branch exchanges to a mobile communications network are provided. The mobile communications network and a branch exchange communicate with a control device in such a way that in switching of a call request originating from a communication device connected to the private branch exchange to a mobile communication terminal of the mobile communications network there is no call setup on the part of the private branch exchange when the mobile communication device has logged out. |
| US08320891B1 |
Text messages for services
Systems and methods provide text messages for services. A service component provides service options to a handset's user interface, receives a service option selection, and provides a first text message to a server based on the selection. The service component receives a second text message from the server in response to the first text message and provides the second text message to the user interface. The service component may provide interactive voice response system service options to the user interface if an entered number is associated with a specified service. The service component may provide and receive text messages as short message service messages via a handset wireless paging channel. The service component may provide short message service messages to the user interface via an interactive voice response system message. The second text message may include a prompt for a request to occasionally receive the second text message. |
| US08320884B1 |
Limiting user device functionality during motor vehicle operation
A user device receives information associated with the user device, and detects movement of the user device. The user device also determines whether the movement is greater than a threshold velocity, and determines, when the movement is greater than the threshold velocity, whether the user device is located in a moving motor vehicle based on the information associated with the user device. The user device further places functionality of the user device in a semi-locked state when the user device is located in a moving motor vehicle. |
| US08320879B2 |
Mobile certificate distribution in a PKI
A method of providing certificate issuance and revocation checks involving mobile devices in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). The wireless devices communicate with each other via Bluetooth wireless technology in the MANET, with an access point (AP) to provide connectivity to the Internet. A Certificate authority (CA) distributes certificates and certification revocation lists (CRLs) to the devices via the access point (AP). Each group of devices has the name of the group associated with the certificate and signed by the CA. A device that is out of the radio range of the access point may still connect to the CA to validate a certificate or download the appropriate CRL by having all the devices participate in the MANET. |
| US08320874B2 |
System and method for establishing an incident communications network
The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing an interoperable communications system including a plurality of otherwise disjunct communication systems each including at least one communications device. The system includes a plurality of system interface controllers each coupled to one of the communication systems and a common network for connecting the communication system and associated communications devices to the common network. A controller is coupled to each of the system interface controllers. The system interface controller being operable in response to commands from an authorized controller wherein the connection between each of the communication systems and the common network is controlled by a controller associated with, and authorized to control each communication system. The system provides an interoperable communications system between the otherwise disjunct systems wherein the communications devices for each system coupled to the common network are in communication therebetween. |
| US08320869B2 |
Antenna arrangement with reduced comm-mode signals
In one embodiment of the present invention, an antenna arrangement apparatus includes a dipole reception antenna including a first pole portion and a second pole portion. A length of coaxial cable is provided and constitutes a feedline, the length of coaxial cable including a proximal end with respect to the first and second pole portions. The proximal end of the length of coaxial cable is coupled to the first and second pole portions via a common-mode filter. |
| US08320868B2 |
Integrated circuits, communication units and methods of cancellation of intermodulation distortion
A wireless communication unit includes a transmitter for processing a baseband transmit signal to produce a first radio frequency signal. A receiver is arranged to convert a second radio frequency signal to a baseband receive signal, where the receiver has a summation module arranged to add a cancellation signal to the baseband receive signal. A selectivity element is arranged to couple the transmitter and the receiver to an antenna, where a reduced portion of the first radio frequency signal is introduced into the second radio frequency signal thereby creating a second order inter-modulation distortion component in the baseband receive signal. An adaptive estimator module has a filter for filtering the baseband receive signal to remove dc offsets associated with the second order inter-modulation distortion component and generate the cancellation signal based on the baseband transmit signal and the filtered baseband receive signal for inputting to the summation module. |
| US08320867B2 |
Gain in balance measuring apparatus, phase difference corresponding value measuring apparatus, method, program, and recording medium
An object of the present invention is to increase measurement precision for measuring errors of a quadrature demodulator. An error measurement device 10 receives an I signal and a Q signal from a quadrature demodulator 4 for demodulating a signal to be demodulated including multiple carrier signals respectively different from each other in frequency, and measures a gain imbalance which is a ratio of the amplitude of the Q signal to the amplitude of the I signal. Further, the error measurement device 10 includes an I-signal amplitude deriving unit 14I which derives the amplitude of the I signal for the respective carrier signals, a Q-signal amplitude deriving unit 14Q which derives the amplitude of the Q signal for the respective carrier signals, a carrier amplitude ratio deriving unit 16a which derives a ratio of the amplitude of the Q signal to the amplitude of the I signal for the respective carrier signals based on the results derived by the I-signal amplitude deriving unit 14I and the Q-signal amplitude deriving unit 14Q, and an averaging unit 18a which derives the gain imbalance GB by averaging the results derived by the carrier amplitude ratio deriving unit 16a. |
| US08320861B2 |
Channel prediction system, radio communication device, and channel prediction method
A channel prediction system (100) is provided with an estimation error calculator (130) which calculates an estimation error value representing the difference between a channel estimation value and a channel characteristic, and a prediction error calculator (140) for calculating a prediction error value indicating the difference between the channel prediction value calculated by a channel prediction unit (120) and a channel characteristic. The channel prediction unit (120) uses the channel prediction with priority over using the channel estimation value to calculate the channel prediction value corresponding to a future time when the estimation error value exceeds the prediction error value. |
| US08320857B2 |
Method and system for loop through for multi-band TV tuners and set-top box and/or TV set applications
Methods and systems for loop-through for multi-band TV tuners and set-top box and/or TV set applications are disclosed and may include generating master and slave output signals from one or more low-noise amplifiers including master and slave stages. The master and slave stages may include parallel-coupled gain paths. Gate terminals and source terminals of input transistors for the master and slave stages may be directly coupled. The input transistors for the master and slave stages may share an inductor coupled to the source terminals and to ground. The master and slave stages may include cascode stages. VHF and UHF signals may be amplified in the multi-band receiver. The generated master output signal may be processed in the multi-band receiver, and may be utilized to generate I and Q output signals. A plurality of the slave output signals may be summed and communicated to a receiver external to the multi-band receiver. |
| US08320853B2 |
Radio communication device and transmission power measurement method of radio communication device
A radio communication device includes a radio transmitting unit that generates a transmission signal containing a transmission carrier, a radio receiving unit including a frequency conversion circuit that performs down-conversion of a received signal containing a received carrier with substantially equal frequency to the transmission carrier, a transmission/reception separating circuit including a first port connected to the radio transmitting unit, a second port to the radio receiving unit and a third port to an antenna, that outputs the transmission signal into the first port to the third port and the received signal into the third port to the second port, and a transmission power control unit that performs control related to a transmission power of the transmission signal based on a low-frequency signal obtained by supplying a leakage component of the transmission signal leaking from the first port to the second port to the frequency conversion circuit and down-converting it. |
| US08320849B2 |
Transmitter for communications system
An rf signal transmitter for transmitting rf signals through a plurality of antennas is described, which comprises: a transmit section adapted to selectively set, with respect to an input signal, the initial phase of an output to at least one of said antennas depending on a time or frequency region used for communication and to provide delay to the output on an antenna-by-antenna basis and on the basis of a transmission timing or a transmission frequency; and a quality information receive section for receiving quality information from destination station, i.e., a wireless terminal unit, said quality information concerning the rf signal transmitted from said transmit section and received at said destination station. |
| US08320847B2 |
Method and apparatus for signal power loss reduction in RF communication systems
Multiple power amplifiers in an RF front end are coupled to multiple antennas without diversity switching between the PAs and antennas. Diversity switches direct signals to broadcast by a selected antenna to a PA coupled to the selected antenna. Multiple LNAs are similarly coupled to the diverse antennas. Having one PA and LNA set for each antenna removes the need for diversity switching between the PA/LNAs and each antenna improving signal reception. In one embodiment, a single external PA performs broadcast functions and plural on-chip LNAs are used for reception. In another embodiment, phase shifters are coupled to each PA and LNA, which provide beam forming capability for broadcasts, and in phase signal combinations for received signals. |
| US08320846B2 |
Amplifier
An amplifier includes a separating unit, a generator, first to fourth switching amplifiers, and an outputting unit. The separating unit separates a pulse signal into a first separated pulse signal and a second separated pulse signal. The generator generates first to fourth low speed pulse signals by using the first and the second separated pulse signal. The first switching amplifier amplifies the first low speed pulse signal. The second switching amplifier amplifies the second low speed pulse signal by using the output of the first switching amplifier as a power-supply. The third switching amplifier amplifies the third low speed pulse signal. The fourth switching amplifier amplifies the fourth low speed pulse signal by using the output of the third switching amplifier as a power-supply. The outputting unit combines and outputs the first and the second output pulse signal. |
| US08320844B2 |
Configurable transceiver integrated circuit
A configurable radio frequency (RF) transceiver integrated circuit (IC) includes an RF input/output (IO) module, a plurality of switching modules, and a plurality of components. The RF IO module and selected components of the plurality of components are inter-connected via the at least some of the plurality of switching modules based on a configuration instruction to produce at least one of: at least a portion of a receiver and at least a portion of transmitter. |
| US08320838B2 |
Host-mobile trace synchronization and comparison
Systems and methods are provided for tracing parameters indicative of performance of a mobile device that is not tethered to a host computer. The mobile device is instructed to monitor a performance characteristic when the mobile device is not tethered to the host computer. The instructions may be to trace the characteristic at a certain point, for a span in the future, under certain conditions, or at all times. When the mobile device is later tethered to the host computer, the traced parameter data is transferred to the host computer. Applications that decrease performance, as indicated by the traced parameters, may be debugged or optimized. The behavior of the mobile device before, during, and after tethering to the host computer or to a second device may be observed. The performance of a plurality of untethered mobile devices may also be traced, transferred, and compared. |
| US08320837B2 |
Radio communication device, audio data reproducing method and program
Provided is a radio communication device including a communication unit, a memory unit capable of storing first audio data, a distance estimation unit that estimates a distance from an external device serving as a transmission source which transmits a radio signal based on a predetermined condition related to a field intensity and a noise component of the radio signal received by the communication unit, a communication control unit that controls the communication unit to transmit an audio data transmission request addressed to the external device serving as the transmission source based on the estimated distance estimated by the distance estimation unit, when the first audio data is being reproduced, and a reproduction control unit that adjusts a reproducing volume of the first audio data and a reproducing volume of second audio data, when the first audio data is being reproduced and the communication unit receives a radio signal corresponding to the second audio data transmitted from the external device serving as the transmission source in response to the transmission request. |
| US08320831B2 |
Electronic device and communication control method
According to one embodiment, an electronic device includes a communication module, a connection establishment module, a negotiation module, a service execution module, and an execution control module. The communication module executes close proximity wireless transfer. The connection establishment module establishes a connection between the communication module and an external device which are in a close proximity state. The negotiation module determines a service to be executed between the communication module and the external device through a negotiation process when the connection is established. The service execution module executes the service. The execution control module executes the negotiation process again in response to a user's request or a request from the external device if the connection is kept after the completion of the service. |
| US08320827B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing handover with a relay node
Techniques for performing a handover in a network with a relay node (RN) are disclosed. The RN is a node deployed between an eNodeB (eNB) and a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU). The RN receives data from one of the eNB and the WTRU and forwards it to the other. The RN receives a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocol data unit (PDU) from a serving donor evolved Node-B (DeNB) and transmits it to the WTRU. The RN makes a handover decision based on the measurement report received from the WTRU. After making a handover decision, the RN sends a handover request or a control message to the serving DeNB including a first unsuccessfully transmitted PDCP sequence number (SN). The serving DeNB then discards a PDCP PDU with an SN older than the first unsuccessfully transmitted PDCP SN. |
| US08320825B2 |
Method and apparatus for repeating a signal in a wireless communication system
The invention relates to communication in a wireless communications network in which a cell comprises areas with different topographies, for example between indoor and outdoor areas. The communication is optimized by means of a repeater for use in a fixed wireless broadband communications system, comprising receiving means for receiving a downlink signal from a base station, signal processing means for processing the downlink signal to produce an output signal, and transmitting means for transmitting the output signal, said repeater being characterized in that it comprises means for creating diversity in the output signal. |
| US08320824B2 |
Methods and systems to provide automatic configuration of wireless speakers
An apparatus is described that includes an AV receiver with a wireless audio module (WAM) host. The apparatus further includes a plurality of wireless speakers each having a WAM device to enable bi-directional communications with the WAM host. The apparatus further includes a wireless input/output device or a plurality of wireless input/output devices embedded in speakers to enable bidirectional communications with the WAM host in order to automatically configure the plurality of wireless speakers to optimize audio parameters of the wireless speakers. The automatic configuration includes determining a location for each speaker in order to identify each speaker. The automatic configuration further includes setting time delay parameters for each speaker. The automatic configuration further includes setting volume parameters for each speaker. |
| US08320823B2 |
Digital radio broadcast transmission using a table of contents
For each audio and data service, a table of contents (TOC) specifies which logical channel may carry data. The TOC may be transmitted over the NRSC-5 transmission system using a pre-defined protocol, which is received and decoded at an NRSC-5 receiver apparatus that extracts the TOC. When a user or an application requests a specific service from the receiver, the receiver logic may examine the TOC and may identify which LC may carry the requested service data. The receiver may only decode the LCs that are needed for the requested service, and may not decode other unneeded LCs thereby conserving power and memory. |
| US08320814B2 |
Length measurement apparatus and image forming apparatus
A length measurement apparatus including: a measurement portion that measures a sheet length based on a rotational amount of a length measurement roll for a first detection period in which first and third sensors detect the sheet, and a sheet length based on a rotational amount of the length measurement roll for a second detection period in which the second sensor and any one of the first and third sensors detect the sheet, the any one of the first and third sensors being disposed at a position opposite to the second sensor via the length measurement roll; and a whole length calculation portion that selects the sheet length nearer to integral multiples of the circumference length of the length measurement roll from the sheet lengths measured for the first and second detection periods, and calculates the whole length of the sheet by using the selected sheet length. |
| US08320808B2 |
Image forming apparatus and fixing device with fine sheet separation function
A fixing device comprises a fixing roller that fixes a toner image onto a sheet, plural rollers including the fixing roller, and an endless fixing belt driven and wound around the plural rollers. A pressing member is provided to press against the fixing roller via the fixing belt. The pressing member creates a fixing nip on the fixing belt. A slip supporting member is provided to press against the inner surface of the fixing belt at an exit section on a sheet conveyance path downstream of the fixing nip. Plural separation members are provided to separate the sheet ejected from the fixing nip. The plural separation members are arranged with their leading ends being distanced from the exit section. |
| US08320807B2 |
Image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet at a nip portion formed by rotary bodies
An image forming apparatus includes: a first rotary body; a second rotary body provided to face the first rotary body, wherein the first rotary body and the second rotary body form a nip portion by coming in contact with each other to rotate, at which a sheet bearing a toner image is conveyed while being heated and pressed, thereby fixing the toner image onto the sheet; a first nozzle which blows air to a first air blowing position established on a circumferential surface of the first rotary body and on a side of an outlet of the nip portion; and a second nozzle which blows air to a second air blowing position established on a circumferential surface of the second rotary body and established downstream of the first air blowing position in a traveling direction of the sheet. |
| US08320802B2 |
Toner cartridge and image forming apparatus having toner cartridge
A toner cartridge has first and second toner hosing portions configured to house toner. The first toner housing portion has a first bottom part that is arcuately curved. The second toner housing portion has a second bottom part that is arcuately curved. The second bottom part is next to the first bottom part and is situated at a position lower than the first bottom part. A third bottom part is provided between the first bottom part and the second bottom part. The third bottom part has a toner discharge port. |
| US08320801B2 |
Developer supply container and developer receiving apparatus
A developer supply container is mountable to a developer receiving apparatus including a driving gear, and includes an inner body and an outer body configured and positioned to open and close an opening formed on a peripheral portion of the inner body; a developer feeding member provided in the inner body; a drive receiving member engageable with the driving gear for rotating the developer feeding member; and a regulating portion for regulating a mounting attitude of the container to prevent an engagement between the drive receiving member and the driving gear. Upon mounting the container, the drive receiving member is revolvable, with manual rotation of the outer body, in a setting direction around an axis of the outer body to a set position where the drive receiving member engages with the driving gear. The drive receiving member is loaded to retard the rotation thereof about the axis. |
| US08320795B2 |
Imaging cartridge having a displaceable body
Provided is a printer cartridge having a resilient pliable body. The resilient pliable body of the printer cartridge conforms to obstructions located in different positions inside the printer cartridge receiving cavity of different models and brands of printers. When the resilient pliable front of the printer cartridge contacts an obstruction in the cartridge receiving cavity of a printer, it is displaced in that area so that it is not an obstruction any longer, allowing the printer cartridge to fit and operate in multiple brands and families of printers. |
| US08320787B2 |
Image forming apparatus with plural sheet supplying sections
An image forming apparatus including: plural sheet supplying sections which accommodate a recording sheet and feed out the recording sheet; an image forming section which forms an image on the recording sheet, fed out from the sheet supplying section, based on a printing job; a memory section which stores information of the printing job, including information of the recording sheet; and a control section which determines a sheet supplying section, based on the information of the recording sheet, included in the printing job stored in the memory section, and displays an event using a time axis provided on a vertical axis or a horizontal axis on a display section, the event is generated by a schedule for using the sheet supplying section determined above, and is generated when the sheet supplying section is switched to another sheet-supplying section, or the event is generated at a predetermined time cycle. |
| US08320785B2 |
Image forming apparatus featuring a controller for controlling the supply of toner or abrasive particles
An image forming apparatus includes first and second image forming portions. The first and second image forming portions forms a toner image. The second image forming portion forms a toner image so that the toner image is superimposed on the toner image formed by the first image forming portion. The second image forming portion includes an image bearing member, a cleaning member that removes transfer residual toner existing on the image bearing member at an abutting position, and a supply unit that supplies abrasive particles or toner to the abutting position. The image forming apparatus includes a controller that controls the amount of toners or abrasive particles, which are supplied by the supply unit, in accordance with the amount of toner used in the first and second image forming portions. |
| US08320784B2 |
Enhanced fusing of raised toner using electrography
Printing of information with a distinct tactile feel can be accomplished by electrographic techniques. Such electrographic printing includes electrographic printing of raised images to selected areas of a receiver member using electrographic techniques so that they are fixed according to the properties of the raised print such as according to the mass per unit area or toner height. In one embodiment, by slowing down the process speed of the fuser to allow for a longer dwell so that the large toner particles and/or toner mass needed to make raised image will properly adhere to the print media without artifacts. To keep the energy requirements and the cost of the equipment down a speed switching technique is used that slows the process speed of the fuser so that the raised image is properly fused on a wide range of paper types. |
| US08320783B2 |
Image forming apparatus with a plurality of primary transfer sections
A first mode to form a toner image of single color where a pressure contact release section T changes a primary transfer section 7 to be in a pressure contact state, and a second mode to form an overlapped toner image where the pressure contact device T changes a plurality of the primary transfer sections 7 to be in the pressure contact state can be executed, wherein a speed difference D1 between an image carrier 1 and an intermediate transfer belt 6 in the first mode is controlled to be greater than a speed difference D2 between the image carrier 1 and the intermediate transfer belt 6 in the second mode. |
| US08320782B2 |
Electrographic printing device comprised of printing groups with toner reservoirs outside of the printing groups
In an electrographic printing device a plurality of printing groups each have a respective plurality of developer stations. A plurality of toner reservoirs are each connected via a respective toner transport channel with one or more of the developer stations. Each of the toner reservoirs outside of the printing groups is stored in a respective toner transport unit. Each of the toner reservoirs is provided with a first circuit having a memory in which is stored at least a color filled into the respective toner reservoir. A respective second circuit with a memory is associated with each of the toner transport units. These memories have stored therein at least the respective toner color filled into the respective stored toner reservoir. A respective third circuit with a memory is provided for each developer station, the respective third circuit memory having stored therein at least a toner color filled into the respective developer station. |
| US08320779B2 |
Light receiver, optical communication system and method
A receiver includes wavelength demultiplexer for demultiplexing a received WDM light into light signals at respective central frequencies thereof, delay interferometer for converting a light signal output from wavelength demultiplexer into an intensity signal, and light detector for converting an output signal from delay interferometer into an electric signal. The interval between interferential frequencies of delay interferometer is 2/(2n+1) times the interval between the central frequencies of the WDM light. Logic inverting circuit outputs the output signal from the light detector while non-inverting or inverting the logic level thereof depending on the received central frequency. |
| US08320778B2 |
Blind equalization algorithms for adaptive polarization recovery and PMD compensation
A device and method are disclosed for blind equalization of an optical signal to implement adaptive polarization recovery, Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) compensation, and residual Chromatic Dispersion (CD) compensation in a digital coherent optical communication system. |
| US08320770B2 |
Clock and data recovery for differential quadrature phase shift keying
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first input stream, generating a first clock, sampling the first input stream based on the first clock, detecting a first phase difference between the first input stream and the first clock to generate a clock-correction signal and a first select signal, and generating a first recovered stream based on the first select signal. The method may additionally include receiving a second input stream, generating a second clock, sampling the second input stream based on the second clock, detecting a second phase difference between the second input stream and the second clock to generate a clock-correction signal and a second select signal, and generating a second recovered stream based on the second select signal. The method may further include adjusting the clocks based on the first and second clock-correction signals and combining the first and second recovered data streams to generate an output. |
| US08320769B2 |
Transverse-mode multiplexing for optical communication systems
An optical communication system having an optical transmitter and an optical receiver optically coupled via a multi-path fiber. The optical transmitter launches, into the multi-path fiber, an optical transverse-mode-multiplexed (TMM) signal having a plurality of independently modulated components by coupling each independently modulated component into a respective transverse mode of the multi-path fiber. The TMM signal undergoes inter-mode mixing in the multi-path fiber before being received by the optical receiver. The optical receiver processes the received TMM signal to reverse the effects of inter-mode mixing and recover the data carried by each of the independently modulated components. |
| US08320765B2 |
Optical signal transfer device
An optical signal transfer device includes a transmitter system and a receiver system for signal transfer between a base unit and a rotary unit. The receiver system includes a natural number n of light receiving portions forming a ring-like light receiving area around the rotary axis and a light reception controller. The transmitter system includes a light emitting portion, an emission controller, and an optical guide which guides a light beam from the light emitting portion to a light emitting area facing the light receiving area. The optical guide guides a light beam to the light emitting area in one of n equally divided areas of a ring-like opposing area which opposes the light receiving area. Therefore, one of the n light receiving portions always face the light emitting area irrespective of rotary position of the receiver system around the rotary axis relative to the transmitter system. |
| US08320760B1 |
Passive optical network with asymmetric modulation scheme
A passive optical network couples a WDM optical line terminal (“OLT”) to WDM optical network units (“ONUs”). The WDM OLT includes an optical transmitter array with coherent transmitters to generate downstream WDM signals encoded using phase modulation, an optical receiver array with direct detection photo-detectors to receive upstream WDM signals encoded with amplitude modulation, and an optical diplexer optically coupled to the optical transmitter array and the optical receiver array. The WDM ONU includes a tunable optical transmitter having a first tunable laser source coupled to generate a selectable upstream carrier wavelength and direct amplitude modulation circuitry coupled to amplitude modulate the first tunable laser source and a tunable optical receiver having coherent detection circuitry to demodulate phase information from the downstream WDM signals and a second tunable laser source operated as a local oscillator and coupled to tune to a selectable downstream carrier wavelength. |
| US08320756B2 |
Single actuator configuration for a camera module
Systems and methods for camera modules having a movable lens barrel, allowing a maximum lens diameter with minimal outside dimensions are disclosed. At least one single linear actuator is moving the lens barrel. Each actuator is deployed in an own corner of the camera module. The moving lens barrel is guided by rolling elements bearings. The actuator comprises a stator, comprising one or more coils wrapped around a rod of magnetic metal and an anchor comprising one or more permanent magnets, which are tightly attached to the lens barrel. An offset between the longitudinal center line of magnets of the anchor and the center of the stator generates a permanent force pushing the lens barrel in direction of the stator of the motor and consequently pushes protrusions on the lens barrel onto the rolling elements bearings, thus preventing the bearings to fall apart in case of a mechanical shock. |
| US08320755B2 |
Autofocusing zoom lens
In an autofocusing zoom lens, a depth of focus ε is obtained based on an aperture value Fno of a variable diaphragm and a diameter of a permissible circle of confusion δ. A focal position variation amount Δsk for a predetermined positional displacement amount ΔFp0 of a focusing lens unit is obtained according to a position Fp of the focusing lens unit and a variable magnification state Zp. If a predetermined variation amount ΔFp of the focusing lens unit satisfies a first condition, the focusing lens unit is not driven. If the first condition is not satisfied and a second condition is satisfied, the focusing lens unit is driven based on a second autofocusing unit, and if the second condition is not satisfied, the focusing lens unit is driven based on a first autofocusing unit. |
| US08320751B2 |
Volatile material diffuser and method of preventing undesirable mixing of volatile materials
A volatile material diffuser includes a housing and first and second containers holding first and second volatile materials and having first and second wicks, respectively, in contact with respective volatile materials and extending out of respective containers, wherein the containers are inserted into and detachably attached to the housing. The diffuser further includes first and second heaters disposed within the housing adjacent the first and second wicks, respectively, to vaporize the first and second volatile materials, respectively. A means for providing an air flow is disposed in the housing such that air from the means for providing an air flow transports vaporized volatile materials away from the housing. The heaters are energized in an alternating sequence such that, when a heater is deactivated, the means for providing an air flow cools a wick associated with the deactivated heater. |
| US08320748B2 |
Audio/video information recording/reproducing device and method therefor
An audio/video information recording/reproducing device capable of easily implementing a post-recording function on an optical disk by using even a low-cost disk drive having a comparatively low-speed seek time. When recording a video file, it is recorded on an optical disk continuously for a duration equivalent to more than three times a seek time. When recording dubbing audio, it is recorded continuously only with constant data size at the same time with the reproducing of the recorded video file, thereby enabling concurrent real-time continuous reproducing and recording. Accordingly, concurrent reproductions of a video file and an audio file are ensured when reproducing dubbing audio. |
| US08320745B2 |
Recording apparatus, recording method, and program
A recording apparatus is disclosed which records at least either a video or an audio signal of a broadcast program in accordance with reservation information. The recording apparatus includes: an acquisition block configured to acquire program information about the broadcast program; a calculation block configured to calculate a degree of similarity between a program name included in the reservation information and the program name described in the program information acquired by the acquisition block; a changing block configured to change the reservation information using the program information about the broadcast program determined by the degree of similarity, the changing block further changing the reservation information based on the program information about the broadcast program corresponding to program identification information included in the reservation information; and a recording control block configured to record at least either the video or the audio signal of the broadcast program in accordance with the reservation information. |
| US08320744B2 |
Video signal processing device, video signal processing method, video signal encoding device, video signal encoding method, and program
The present invention relates to a video signal processing apparatus and video signal processing method, a video signal encoding apparatus and video signal encoding method, and a program which can solve an EPB problem involved when an encoded video signal is subjected to smart rendering editing. In an extraction process, if EPB problem occurrence prevention countermeasures have been taken in an H.264/AVC stream, smart rendering editing is performed without monitoring the occurrence of an EPB problem. If the countermeasures have not been taken, smart rendering editing is advanced while monitoring the occurrence of an EPB problem. And, in a case where an EPB problem of insertion of an EPB has occurred, a filler or a predetermined parameter corresponding to the inserted EPB is deleted. In a case where an EPB problem of deletion of an EPB has occurred, a filler corresponding to the deleted EPB is inserted. The present invention can be applied to a device that processes a video signal using the H.264/AVC scheme. |
| US08320743B2 |
Dynamic variation of output media signal in response to input media signal
A first input signal, which has a first playback sequence, is resequenced based upon a characteristic of a second input signal. The resequencing occurs analyzing the characteristic in the second input signal, and modifying the first playback sequence of the first input signal based upon the analysis of the characteristic to generate a second playback sequence. Finally, a third signal is output using the second playback sequence. |
| US08320738B2 |
Video management system and method
Systems and methods for video management facilitate operations on a video file based on a transcript or other annotations about the video file. On a stand-alone DVD player, DVD menu components facilitate navigation of a video file in increments corresponding to a portion of a transcript of the video file, for example one page of the transcript at a time. Transcript text may be presented as part of the DVD menu components to enable a user to read the transcript in increments and navigate the video file accordingly. |
| US08320737B2 |
Recording medium capable of interactive reproducing and reproduction system for the same
On an optical disk, video object sets (VTST_VOBS) to be reproduced and video title set information (VTSI) serving as management information on the video object sets have been stored. In each video object set (VTST_VOBS), many data cells, each containing video, audio, and sub-picture data, are arranged. Management information on programs chains, which are combinations of programs to be reproduced one after another, has been written in a video title set PGC table (VTS_PGCIT). By referring to the program chain table (VTS_PGCIT) according to the user's input, the playback order of program chains can be changed, enabling the program chains to be reproduced one after another in various modes. |
| US08320732B2 |
Production of multimedia content
A computer readable medium and method for production of multimedia content are provided. In this regard, one embodiment of such a computer readable medium, among others, can be broadly summarized as including instructions executable by a computer that control the computer to perform importing a source content; receiving a selection of a first portion of the imported source content; generating an instructional content, wherein the instructional content comprises a first server identifying content and a relation between the first portion of the imported source content and a second portion of the imported source content; exporting the first portion of the imported source content for storage as at least a portion of a first server multimedia content on a first server; and burning, on an optical disc, the second portion of the imported source content and the instructional content as at least a portion of an optical disc multimedia content. |
| US08320729B2 |
Camcorder jamming techniques using high frame rate displays
A method and projection system for distorting a recording of a plurality of projected frames is disclosed, comprising a high frame rate display configured to impose a modulation on the projected frames at a frequency that is above the critical fusion frequency of the human visual system, wherein the modulation is of one of shutter width relative to shutter spacing, brightness, frame period, and pseudo-rastering. The high frame rate display may be a tonal display. The projection system may further include hardware for producing low frame rate imagery; an input buffer operatively coupled to said hardware for receiving one of a serial bit stream or blocks of data so as to store at least a predetermined portion of a frame; and a sub-frame generator operatively coupled to said input buffer and to said high frame rate tonal display for applying mathematical modulation techniques to said at least a predetermined portion of a frame. |
| US08320725B2 |
Photonic crystal fibers and medical systems including photonic crystal fibers
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure features a system that includes a flexible waveguide having a hollow core extending along a waveguide axis and a region surrounding the core, the region being configured to guide radiation from the CO2 laser along the waveguide axis from an input end to an output end of the waveguide. The system also includes a handpiece attached to the waveguide, wherein the handpiece allows an operator to control the orientation of the output end to direct the radiation to a target location of a patient and the handpiece includes a tip extending past the output end that provides a minimum standoff distance between the output end and the target location. |
| US08320724B2 |
Optical communication system and arrangement converter
The present invention relates to an optical communication system or the like, which comprises a multicore fiber with a plurality of cores that are two-dimensionally arrayed in a cross-section thereof. In the optical communication system, an arrangement converter, provided between a multicore fiber and an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) having light emitting areas arrayed one-dimensionally, comprises first and second end faces, and a plurality of optical waveguides. The optical waveguides are disposed such that one of the end faces coincides with the first end face and the other end face coincides with the second end face. In particular, the optical waveguide end face array on the first end face and the optical waveguide end face array on the second face are different, contributing to an optical link between network resources of different types. |
| US08320722B1 |
Non-linear optical grating
A method and system for providing an optical grating are described. The optical grating is configured for light of a wavelength. The optical grating includes a top cladding, a core, and bottom cladding. The core resides between the bottom cladding and the top cladding. The core includes a plurality of discrete ridges spaced apart by a nonlinear pitch. The light traverses the top cladding before the core and has a plurality of angles of incidence with the core. The nonlinear pitch of the core is larger for a larger angle of incidence of the plurality of angles of incidence. |
| US08320718B2 |
Optical sensors and methods of making the same
A sensor is provided. The sensor includes a substrate, a waveguide having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the waveguide is disposed on the substrate such that at least a portion of the second surface of the waveguide is in physical contact with the substrate, a holder component disposed on at least a portion of the substrate, or the waveguide, or both, wherein the holder component comprises one or more cavities. The sensor further includes at least one microsphere at least partially disposed in a corresponding cavity of the holder component. |
| US08320716B2 |
Issuing a paper voucher for stored image data
A voucher data management system is provided. An image data generating section reads an original of a voucher to be copied and supplied to a user and generates voucher image data. A database stores the voucher image data. An access code generating section generates an access code for accessing the voucher image data stored in the database. An access code outputting section outputs the access code to the user. An image data outputting section reads out the voucher image data corresponding to the access code from the database in a case where the image data outputting section is accessed from the external terminal based on the access code, determines an attribute of the user who operates the external terminal, determines a range of the voucher image data to be output to the external terminal based on the determined attribute, and outputs the determined range of the voucher image data. |
| US08320714B2 |
Image processing apparatus, computer-readable recording medium for recording image processing program, and image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes: a color difference calculating unit for generating an (R−G)G(B−G) Bayer array image from an RGB Bayer array image; a band-limited interpolation unit for interpolating a sampling position whose number is smaller than the number of U pixel to obtain an equal number of interpolation (R−G), G, and (B−G) pixels from the (R−G)G(B−G) Bayer array image: and an RGB calculating unit for obtaining interpolation R, G and B pixels which constitute a color image with the sampling position where R, G and B pixels coincide, based on the obtained interpolation (R−G), G, and (B−G) pixels. |
| US08320710B2 |
Device for determining the position and/or the transverse dimension of a drill hole in a presentation lens for rimless eyeglasses
The device includes: bearing element (55) for the lens (100); element (53) for acquiring a global image (90) of the drill hole (110) of the lens (100) in a lighting direction (D51, A52), or image acquisition direction (A53); element (54) for processing the image when the lens is carried by the carrier element (55). The processing element (54) designed for determining, from the global image of the drill hole (110) the position of center (C1) of the opening of the drill hole (110) that gives onto one of the faces (98) of the lens (100) and/or the transverse dimension of the opening of the drill hole (110) that corresponds to the desired transverse dimension (D). |
| US08320709B2 |
Information processing method and apparatus for calculating information regarding measurement target on the basis of captured images
From a sequence of images captured by an image pickup unit, images necessary for measuring placement information regarding markers and/or a sensor are automatically determined and obtained. To this end, using position and orientation information regarding the image pickup unit at the time the image pickup unit has captured an obtained image and placement information regarding detected markers, whether to use the captured image corresponding to the position and orientation is determined. Using the captured image determined to be used, the marker placement information, placement information regarding a measurement target, or the position and orientation of the image pickup unit serving as an unknown parameter is obtained so as to minimize the error between the measured image coordinates and theoretical image coordinates of each marker, which are estimated on the basis of a rough value of the parameter. |
| US08320708B2 |
Tilt adjustment for optical character recognition in portable reading machine
A reading machine that operates in various modes includes image correction processing is described. The reading device pre-processes an image prior to optical character recognition processing by detect distortion in an image of a page by measuring an extent to which page boundaries in the image deviate from a simple rectangular shape and correcting for the optical distortion by transforming the image to restore the page to a rectangular shape. |
| US08320701B2 |
Picture processing apparatus and method
A smoothing filter generates a smoothed picture by smoothing a brightness component of an input picture. An adjustment filter generates an adjusted picture by applying a filter to an area of the input picture. The filter has the same characteristic as the smoothing filter. The area has a brightness matched with a predetermined condition of noise detection. A contrast component calculation unit calculates a contrast component of the input picture by dividing each pixel value of the adjusted picture with a corresponding pixel value of the smoothed picture. An output picture generation unit generates an output picture by multiplying the smoothed picture with the contrast component. |
| US08320694B2 |
Surround error diffusion
Machine-enabled methods of, and system, and processor readable media, embodiments for, tone quantization error diffusion, comprising a first stage process and a second stage process, where the quantization and error diffusion steps may be completed for lines scanned according to the first stage, and the quantized pixels may be tested to determine the actual output halftone pattern of the pixels. The quantized pixels may be tested to determine their actual output halftone pattern and threshold levels may be determined by measuring dot intensities for the output device, e.g., a multi-functional peripheral device. |
| US08320693B2 |
Encoding device and method, decoding device and method, and transmission system
An encoding device includes a filter unit that performs a filtering processing as to image data, for a line block including image data of a number of lines for generating coefficient data of one line of a sub-band of at least a lowest band component. The filter unit generates a plurality of sub-bands made up of coefficient data broken down by frequency band. The encoding device also includes a storage unit that stores coefficient data generated by the filter unit, for the line block. The encoding device further includes a coefficient rearranging unit that rearranges the coefficient data, for each line block, in an order in which a synthesizing processing, for generating image data by synthesizing the coefficient data of a plurality of sub-bands which have been divided into frequency bands, is to be executed. An encoding unit encodes the coefficient data rearranged by the coefficient rearranging unit. |
| US08320689B2 |
Image processing apparatus
An image processing apparatus and method execute instructions contained in multiple threads in parallel. The image processing apparatus decodes code data that is obtained by dividing image data into areas and carrying out a compression process such that the individual areas can be independently decoded. The image processing apparatus includes a first thread generating unit that allocates one execution thread to each independently compressed code, a second thread generating unit that allocates plural execution threads to each independently compressed code, and a control unit that controls the operation of the first thread generating unit and the second thread generating unit. At least part of an execution instruction for decoding the code data into image data is generated by the first thread generating unit or the second thread generating unit. |
| US08320688B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding coding unit of picture boundary
A method and apparatus for encoding an image is provided. An image coding unit, including a region that deviates from a boundary of a current picture, is divided to obtain a coding unit having a smaller size than the size of the image coding unit, and encoding is performed only in a region that does not deviate from the boundary of the current picture. A method and apparatus for decoding an image encoded by the method and apparatus for encoding an image is also provided. |
| US08320685B2 |
Picture processing apparatus and method, and imaging apparatus
Data can be transferred from a picture processing section to an encoding section without necessity of using an external memory. In addition, with internal data transfer having a wider band than an external memory, data can be processed at high speed. An entire picture 41 as an original picture is divided into six blocks of (64×4) pixels each. An enlargement process is performed for each block. Data of blocks are read in the order of blocks 1, 2, 3, and so forth. A size changing section processes a first block and generates picture data of a block 42 of (128×8) pixels. From this picture data 42, macroblocks 43 of (16×8) pixels each are read and encoded. As a result, JPEG data 44 are obtained. A code rearrangement section rearranges the order of the JPEG data 46 in the unit of a block. As a result, JPEG data 48 are generated. When JPEG data 48 are decoded in this order, a decoded picture 49 whose block order matches an area 41 of the original picture is obtained. |
| US08320681B2 |
Method and apparatus for recognizing characters
Disclosed is a method and an apparatus for recognizing characters using an image. A camera is activated according to a character recognition request and a preview mode is set for displaying an image photographed through the camera in real time. An auto focus of the camera is controlled and an image having a predetermined level of clarity is obtained for character recognition from the images obtained in the preview mode. The image for character recognition is character-recognition-processed so as to extract recognition result data. A final recognition character row is drawn that excludes non-character data from the recognition result data. A first word is combined including at least one character of the final recognition character row and a predetermined maximum number of characters. A dictionary database that stores dictionary information on various languages using the first word is searched, so as to provide the user with the corresponding word. |
| US08320680B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, computer program, and storage medium
Image data and image-capturing-condition information obtained by analyzing the image data are input from an external apparatus. Based on the input image-capturing-condition information, a range of angles or sizes employed in a process of detecting a specific area from the image data is determined. The specific area is detected based on the determined range of angles or sizes. |
| US08320679B2 |
Method for detecting objects using flexible edge arrangements
A method wherein images of different types of objects within a class are partitioned into region stacks. For each one of the stacks, the method: (a) applies a template to extract fragments having a predetermined size and one of a plurality of different spatial orientations, to generate extracted templates; (b) determines, from the extracted templates, a most frequent one thereof having only a first number of fragments with a common spatial orientations; (c) records the number of images having the determined most frequent extracted template; (d) repeats (b) and (c) with successively increasing number of fragments until the number of recoded images falls below a threshold; and (e) selects as a master extracted template the one of the most frequent templates having the largest recorded number of fragments. The master extracted templates for the stacks are combined into a map that is then compared with background images to remove extracted templates matching segment in the background. |
| US08320672B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer program
An image processing apparatus automatically determining a composition of an image includes area dividing means for dividing an input image into areas; target area determining means for determining a target area having higher visibility from the divided image; unnecessary area determining means for determining an unnecessary area having lower visibility from the divided image; and composition determining means for determining from the input image a composition that includes the target area and does not include the unnecessary area. |
| US08320667B2 |
Automatic and scalable image selection
In a method for automatically and scalably selecting images from an image collection for inclusion in a photo album, an initial pagination arrangement containing a subset of all of the images contained in the image collection is identified. In addition, a determination as to whether the initial number of pages of the initial pagination arrangement is equivalent to a desired number of pages is made and the initial pagination arrangement is modified in an automatic and scalable manner in response to the initial number of pages differing from the desired number of pages. |
| US08320666B2 |
Real-time image and video matting
A system and method implemented as a software tool for generating alpha matte sequences in real-time for the purposes of background or foreground substitution in digital images and video. The system and method is based on a set of modified Poisson equations that are derived for handling multichannel color vectors. Greater robustness is achieved by computing an initial alpha matte in color space. Real-time processing speed is achieved through optimizing the algorithm for parallel processing on the GPUs. For online video matting, a modified background cut algorithm is implemented to separate foreground and background, which guides the automatic trimap generation. Quantitative evaluation on still images shows that the alpha mattes extracted using the present invention has improved accuracy over existing state-of-the-art offline image matting techniques. |
| US08320665B2 |
Document image segmentation system
A system and a method for document image segmentation have been disclosed. Image segments are obtained by forming different clusters in a document image. The document image may include images of company logos, product marks or trademarks. The invention can perform image segmentation on any kind of complex colored image and can recognize logos, product-marks or trademarks which comprise text or graphics, wherein the text can be either of uniform font style or uneven font style such as fancy font styles, calligraphic styles or having different orientation. |
| US08320659B2 |
Method for customs inspection of baggage and cargo
A method and system of inspecting baggage to be transported from a location of origin to a destination is provided that includes generating scan data representative of a piece of baggage while the baggage is at the location of origin, and storing the scan data in a database. A rendered view representative of a content of the baggage is provided where the rendered views are based on the scan data retrieved from the database over a network. The rendered views are presented at a destination different from the origin. |
| US08320658B2 |
Unevenness inspection method, method for manufacturing display panel, and unevenness inspection apparatus
An unevenness inspection method for inspecting presence of unevenness in a panel material, the method includes: acquiring a plurality of primary images by imaging the panel material under inspection on a plurality of levels of condition; creating a plurality of secondary images by processing the plurality of primary images to enhance variation of the image; creating a composite image by combining the plurality of secondary images with a prescribed weighting; and determining the presence of unevenness using the composite image, the prescribed weighting being determined so that a region having the unevenness can be distinguished from the other region, when the plurality of secondary images are created for the panel material for training use having unevenness and are combined into a composite image. |
| US08320657B1 |
Systems and methods to use a digital camera to remotely deposit a negotiable instrument
To deposit a negotiable instrument electronically, a digital image may be used. Systems and methods are described herein that facilitate the use of a digital camera to provide the digital image. A user may capture an image of a negotiable instrument to create a digital image. The digital image may be compressed and saved as a digital image file. The user may then transmit the digital image file to a financial institution, such as a bank, to deposit funds drawn from the account of the negotiable instrument into the user's account. A financial institution may receive digital image files created by a digital camera from account holders and process a deposit request using the digital image file. |
| US08320653B2 |
System and method for image based sensor calibration
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for the calibration of a tracked imaging probe for use in image-guided surgical systems. The invention uses actual image data collected from an easily constructed calibration jig to provide data for the calibration algorithm. The calibration algorithm analytically develops a geometric relationship between the probe and the image so objects appearing in the collected image can be accurately described with reference to the probe. The invention can be used with either two or three dimensional image data-sets. The invention also has the ability to automatically determine the image scale factor when two dimensional data-sets are used. |
| US08320649B2 |
Neuropsychological spatiotemporal pattern recognition
Systems and methods for identifying and analyzing neuropsychological flow patterns, include creating a knowledge base of neuropsychological flow patterns. The knowledge base is formed by obtaining signals from multiple research groups for particular behavioral processes, localizing sources of activity participating in the particular behavioral processes, identifying sets of patterns of brain activity for the behavioral processes and neuropsychologically analyzing the localized sources and the identified patterns for each of the research groups. The neuropsychological analysis includes identifying all possible pathways for the identified sets of patterns, ranking the possible pathways based on likelihood for the particular behavioral process and reducing the number of ranked possible pathways based on additional constraints. A system for comparison of obtained signals from an individual to the created knowledge base is provided. These obtained signals are then used to further update the existing knowledge base. |
| US08320648B2 |
Method of preparing a medical restraint
A method for preparing a clinical restraint for a subject, the method comprises scanning the portion of the subject to be restrained to produce a 3D image data set, generating a three dimensional replica of the portion of the subject from the 3D image data set and preparing a clinical restraint using the three dimensional replica. A scanning system for generating the 3D image data set comprising one or more projectors (6) and one or more cameras (8) in combination with an image processing device is also disclosed. The imaging aspects are also applied in the monitoring of the treatment of a patient, the manufacture and fitting of medical items, such as compression hosiery and the like, as well as in the fitting of garments and items of clothing. |
| US08320643B2 |
Face authentication device
A face authentication device is provided that can perform personal identification with high accuracy regardless of an imaging environment for an input face image. The face authentication device comprises: a first similarity calculation unit (50) for calculating a similarity between a feature data item of an input face image data item and a feature data item of a face image data item registered in a face image data registration unit (30); a second similarity calculation unit (70) for calculating similarities between feature data items stored in a feature data storage (60) and the feature data item extracted by a first feature extraction unit (20); a threshold setting unit (80) for, based on the similarities calculated by the second calculation unit (70), setting a threshold for judging whether the input face image data item and the registered face image data item are of an identical person or not; and an identity determination unit (90) for determining whether the input face image data item and the registered face image data item are data items of an identical person or not by comparing the threshold set by the threshold setting unit (80) and the similarity calculated by the first similarity calculation unit (50). |
| US08320642B2 |
Face collation apparatus
A face collation apparatus has a storage that stores a feature quantity of at least one registrant, the feature quantity being extracted from a registration image of the registrant, a feature quantity extractor that extracts a feature quantity from a collation image of a collation object person, a score calculator that calculates a score indicating an analogy degree between the feature quantity of the registrant and the feature quantity of the collation object person, a score adjuster that adjusts the score using a score adjustment parameter so that any one of a stranger acceptance rate indicating a probability that a stranger is accepted at the time of collation, a principal rejection rate indicating a probability that a principal is rejected at the time of collation, and an equal error rate, which is a probability that the stranger acceptance rate and the principal rejection rate are equal, becomes substantially constant regardless of a registration condition and/or a collation condition, and a determination unit that determines whether the collation object person is the registrant by comparing the adjusted score and a predetermined threshold. |
| US08320640B2 |
Biometrics authentication method and client terminal and authentication server used for biometrics authentication
In a biometrics authentication system inputting biometric information and outputting a user ID, speedup of 1:N matching on the side of server is achieved when cancelable biometrics authentication is realized in which matching is carried out. During registration, similarity of a feature to a dummy feature is searched and the feature is transformed by using a transform parameter corresponding to a nearest neighboring dummy feature. The transformed feature and a group ID are transmitted to the server and the server registers the transformed feature at the group in a DB. During authentication, like the registration process, similarity search of a feature is carried out and the feature is transformed by using transform parameter corresponding to a nearest neighboring dummy feature. The transformed feature and group ID are transmitted to the server. The server executes 1:1 matching between a template a the group in the DB and the transformed feature. |
| US08320632B2 |
Terrain correction systems
Methods, apparatus and computer program code for terrain correction for geophysical surveys, in particular potential field surveys. A method of terrain correction for a geophysical survey involves capturing a multi- or hyperspectral image of a region to be surveyed; determining a surface geological composition of the surveyed region using the captured image multi- or hyperspectral image; determining terrain correction data for the geophysical survey using the determined surface geological composition; and using the terrain correction data for performing the terrain correction for the geophysical survey. |
| US08320628B2 |
Method and system for assisting driver
A method and system for assisting driver are provided in the present disclosure, in which images captured by a single image sensing device is processed by a controller having capability of image processing and identification and distance estimation in image space for providing a complete assisting image-information while the carrier is moving forward or backward. By means of the method and system of the presented disclosure, it can identify the image characteristic to be a basis for lane departure assistance/alarm while the carrier is moving forwardly as well as generate assisting track and change view angle or issue an alarm according to the distance estimation while the carrier is moving backwardly. The present disclosure may be utilized and applied in different kinds of carrier type to solve the problem of guiding of carrier maneuvering, and assist carrier lane changing, parking assistance and blind spot detection. |
| US08320626B2 |
Image processing apparatus
An image processing accuracy estimation unit estimates an image processing accuracy by calculating a size of an object by which the accuracy of measurement of the distance of the object photographed by an on-vehicle camera becomes a permissible value or less. An image post-processing area determination unit determines, in accordance with the estimated image processing accuracy, a partial area inside a detection area of the object as an image post-processing area for which an image post-processing is carried out and lattices the determined image post-processing area to cells. An image processing unit processes the image photographed by the on-vehicle camera to detect a candidate for object and calculates a three-dimensional position of the detected object candidate. An image post-processing unit calculates, in each the individual cell inside the determined area the probability as to whether the detected object is present and determines the presence/absence of the object. |
| US08320624B2 |
Customer behavior collection method and customer behavior collection apparatus
According to one embodiment, a computer selects trajectory data on a person positioned in an image monitoring area from trajectory data on relevant persons. The computer selects a selling space image data obtained when the person corresponding to the trajectory data is positioned in the image monitoring area. The computer analyzes the selling space image data to extract a person image. The computer checks the person image extracted from the selling space image data against image data on each customer to search for customer image data obtained by taking an image of the person in the person image. The computer stores, upon detecting the customer image data obtained by taking an image of the person in the person image, identification information on transaction data stored in association with the customer image data, in association with identification information on the trajectory data. |
| US08320618B2 |
Object tracker and object tracking method
Referring to FIG. 5, the tracking start-and-stop determining unit 28 of the tracking processing unit 26 determines the starting and stopping of tracking based on predetermined conditions. During the tracking, the sampling unit 29 creates or eliminates particles using the probability density distribution estimated for an immediately preceding image frame. The observation unit causes the particles to make a transition according to a predetermined motion model and observes the likelihoods of a candidate curves defined by the particles. The correction unit 32 compares the color histogram of an area located at a predetermined position relative to the candidate curve with the color histogram of an area similarly located relative to the curve determined as a result of tracking in the immediately preceding image frame. If the matching score is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the likelihood of the candidate curve is increased by correction. The result obtaining unit 34 estimates the probability density distribution based on the likelihood thus corrected. |
| US08320617B2 |
System, method and program product for camera-based discovery of social networks
A system, method and program product for camera-based discovery of social networks. The computer implemented method for identifying individuals and associating tracks with individuals in camera-generated images from a face capture camera(s) and a tracking camera(s), wherein the computer implemented method includes: receiving images of an individual from the face capture camera(s) on a computer; receiving images of a track(s) of an individual from the tracking camera(s) on a computer; automatically determining with the computer the track(s) from the images from the tracking camera(s); and associating with the computer the track(s) with the individual(s) and a unique identifier. The present invention has been described in terms of specific embodiment(s), and it is recognized that equivalents, alternatives, and modifications, aside from those expressly stated, are possible and within the scope of the appending claims. |
| US08320612B2 |
System and method for the contactless determination and measurement of a spatial position and/or a spatial orientation of bodies, method for the calibration and testing, in particular, medical tools as well as patterns or structures on, in particular, medical tools
In order to develop known tracking systems, in particular in the medical field, the invention proposes a device for the contactless determination and measurement of a spatial position and/or spatial orientation of bodies using a tracking system, by means of which the bodies are located and brought into relation with one another, the tracking system, or at least components or modules thereof, being mobile. |
| US08320606B1 |
Video watermarking with fast detection
In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in a system that includes a user interface device; and one or more computers operable to interact with the user interface device and to perform operations including: receiving video data; applying a one dimensional watermark pattern to each of multiple one dimensional data lines in the video data to create watermarked video data; receiving the watermarked video data including the multiple one dimensional data lines; combining the one dimensional data lines to form a one dimensional array of numbers; analyzing the one dimensional array of numbers to detect the one dimensional watermark pattern previously applied to each of the one dimensional data lines; and outputting an indication of a match, to trigger further processing with respect to the watermarked video data, when the analyzing indicates the watermark pattern has been detected. |
| US08320604B1 |
Composite loudspeaker cone
Composite loudspeaker cones that include an interstitial layer of material having a core density below 600 kg/m3 and a Young's modulus greater than 0.2 GPa, such as balsa wood, interposed between a first carbon fiber layer and a second carbon fiber layer and method of making same. |
| US08320602B2 |
Adjustable earphone
An earphone includes a body with a surrounding side, a rotatable loop and an ear hook. The rotatable loop is pivotally connected with the body on two opposite ends of the surrounding side. The body and the rotatable loop can rotate with respect to a first axis and with respect to each other. The ear hook is pivotally mounted on one side of the rotatable loop near where the rotatable loop is connected with the body, and the ear hook can rotate with respect to a second axis, which is different from the first axis. |
| US08320601B2 |
Earphone device and sound generating apparatus equipped with the same
An external inserting meatus of user is closed with an insert earphone device in use so that it is hard that external sound penetrates into the external inserting meatus; not only an internal sound propagation path but also an external sound propagation path are formed in an inserting body of the earphone device, and an active diaphragm is provided in the inserting body so as to make the external sound propagation path closed therewith and block the external auditory meatus from the external sound; the active diaphragm is formed from electroactive polymer layer sandwiched between electrodes, and the active diaphragm is deformed in the presence of voltage so as permit the user easily to control it. |
| US08320595B2 |
Wireless acoustic speaker mount
A Wireless Acoustic SPeaker mount, or WASP, is disclosed that serves as both a wireless speaker adapter and a speaker mount. Some embodiments include a separate transmitter that obtains wired acoustic signals from an acoustic source and transmits them wirelessly to the WASP. WASP's can include a digital and/or analog wireless receiver, digital-to-analog converter, amplifier, and/or equalizer or other sound quality adjuster. WASP's can rest on a horizontal surface or be mounted to or embedded within a wall, ceiling, or other structure. Speakers can rest on or attach to a WASP or be mounted inside of a WASP. In various embodiments the horizontal and/or vertical positioning of the speaker is adjustable, WASP's can be used outdoors, WASP's can extend a wireless transmission range by relaying signals to other WASP's, and the transmitter and WASP's can send on/off and other command signals to each other. |
| US08320594B2 |
Audio/video device having a volume control function for an external audio reproduction unit by using volume control buttons of a remote controller and volume control method therefor
An audio/video (A/V) device having a volume control function for external audio reproduction units by using volume control buttons of a remote controller is provided. The A/V device includes speakers, an audio output port for externally outputting an audio signal, an audio signal processing unit for reproducing and amplifying the audio signal and applying the amplified audio signal to the speakers or the audio output port, a memory unit for storing volume control values, and a control unit for applying to the audio signal processing unit any of the volume control values stored in the memory based on whether the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port. The control unit controls the audio signal processing unit to adjust the volume control values for the audio output port by the volume control buttons when the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port. |
| US08320591B1 |
ANR headphones and headsets
An innovative automatic-noise-reduction headset includes numerous enhancements. For example, one embodiment includes added noise-control circuitry at each of one or more auxiliary inputs to reduce audible hiss in the earcups. Another embodiment includes integrated crossfeed processing circuitry to enhance the spatial imaging of stereo audio perceived by headset users. Still another embodiment provides superior perception of noise cancellation by focusing noise cancelling at midband frequencies, such as 400-800 Hertz, as opposed to just lower frequencies. And another embodiment provides earcups formed of magnesium or a magnesium alloy for improved strength-weight as well as passive noise attenuation in the 400-800 Hertz range. |
| US08320590B2 |
Device, method, program, and system for canceling crosstalk when reproducing sound through plurality of speakers arranged around listener
In an audio signal processing device, a signal input part receives a plurality of audio signals to be provided to a plurality of speakers, respectively, arranged so as to surround a listener, the speakers including a center speaker, a left speaker and a right speaker. A signal processing part adds a processed audio signal to an audio signal to be provided to the center speaker, the processed signal being obtained by attenuating a summation of audio signals to be provided to the left speaker and the right speaker. The signal processing part attenuates the summation of the audio signals by an attenuation rate which is set between 0 and 1. The signal processing part sets the attenuation rate to an appropriate value effective to suppress crosstalk between sound emitted from the left speaker and sound emitted from the right speaker. |
| US08320587B2 |
Audio device and volume adjusting circuit for the audio device
An audio device includes an internal sound producer, an earphone jack, a detection circuit, a volume adjustor, and an amplifier. The detection circuit detects a connection between the earphone jack and an external sound producer, generates a first state signal when the connection is established, generates a second state signal when no connection is established. The volume adjustor is preset with first predetermined volume levels and second predetermined volume levels, generates first adjustment signals based on the first predetermined volume levels in response to the first state signal, and generates a second adjustment signal based on the second predetermined volume levels in response to the second state signal. The amplifier amplifies audio signals and adjusts the volume of the amplified audio signals according to the adjustment signals, then sends the amplified audio signals to the internal sound producer and earphone jack. |
| US08320586B2 |
System and method for reducing volume spike in an electronic device
A system and method for reducing volume spike during switching of audio output devices of an electronic device is provided. The system and method adjusts a volume level of a first audio output device currently adopted by the electronic device for audible output to a muted level, and switches the audible output from the first audio output device to a second audio output device with the muted level. The system and method further receives a desired volume level input by a user, and adjusts the second audio output device from the muted level to the desired volume level. |
| US08320579B2 |
Control cord for headsets and auxiliary devices
A cord-based controller for an auxiliary device, such as a headset, is provided for use with a portable electronic device. A pressure-sensitive, and preferably bendable, material such as a piezoelectric pressure sensor is placed within or on an or cord of a headphone lead, such as by wrapping it within the outer shielding of the cord. A self-powered controlling sensor is arranged to control the electronic device using a generated control signal. The controlling sensor comprises a sensor material. The control signal is generated by deformation of the sensor material independent of power supplied to the headset and independent of power supplied to the portable electronic device. This is achieved without requiring a separate housing for the controller, which typically protrudes from the cord. A plurality of control sensor elements can be provided, each producing a different control signal voltage transmitted along a single control signal electrical. |
| US08320577B1 |
Method and apparatus for multi-channel audio processing using single-channel components
Processing multi-channel audio streams using one or more arrangements of single-channel components. Components that only process the near-end, or capture stream, such as noise suppression (NS) components, are limited in how they can be suitably arranged for processing multi-channel streams. However, components that process the near-end stream using one or more inputs from the far-end, or render stream, such as acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) and automatic gain control (AGC) components, are arranged in one or more of the ways suitable for use with multiple channels. |
| US08320574B2 |
Methods and systems for reducing acoustic echoes in communication systems
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems that reduce acoustic echoes in audio signals in accordance with changing conditions at first and second locations that are linked together in a communication system. In particular, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for determining an approximate impulse-response vector for canceling an acoustic echo resulting from an audio signal transmitted from the first location to the second location. This method includes forming a trust region within a search space based on computing a recursive specification vector defining the trust region. The method also includes computing a recursive shadow-impulse-response vector that lies substantially within the trust region, and computing the approximate impulse-response vector based on the recursive shadow-impulse-response vector and the recursive specification vector. |
| US08320572B2 |
Electronic apparatus comprising microphone system
The invention provides a method for directing operation of a microphone system. In one embodiment, the microphone system comprises a plurality of component modules. First, a diagnostic test is performed to determine a diagnostic result indicating whether the component modules have failed the diagnostic test. Whether a plurality of required component modules corresponding to a current application mode for operating the microphone system have failed the diagnostic test is then determined according to the diagnostic result, wherein the application mode requires cooperation of the required component modules selected from the component modules of the microphone system. When some of the required component modules have failed the diagnostic test, the current application mode is changed to an altered application mode and the microphone system is directed to operate according to the altered application mode, wherein a plurality of second required component modules corresponding to the altered application mode are in good condition. When the required component modules are all in good condition, the microphone system is directed to operate according to the current application mode. |
| US08320568B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for key derivation
A method, an apparatus and a system for key derivation are disclosed. The method includes the following steps: a target base station) receives multiple keys derived by a source base station, where the keys correspond to cells under control of the target base station; the target base station selects a key corresponding to the target cell after knowing a target cell that a user equipment (UE) wants to access. An apparatus for key derivation and a communications system are also provided. |
| US08320559B1 |
Identity-based-encryption system
Systems and methods for supporting symmetric-bilinear-map and asymmetric-bilinear-map identity-based-encryption (IBE) key exchange and encryption schemes are provided. IBE key exchange schemes use an IBE encapsulation engine to produce a secret key and an encapsulated version of the secret key. An IBE unencapsulation engine is used to unencapsulate the encapsulated key. IBE encryption schemes use an IBE encryption engine to produce ciphertext from plaintext. An IBE decryption engine is used to decrypt the ciphertext to reveal the plaintext. The IBE unencapsulation engine and decryption engines use bilinear maps. The IBE encapsulation and encryption engines perform group multiplication operations without using bilinear maps, improving efficiency. IBE private keys for use in decryption and unencapsulation operations may be generated using a distributed key arrangement in which each IBE private key is assembled from private key shares. |
| US08320551B2 |
Method and system for processing application logs
A method and system for processing application logs describing transactions in a computer telephony integration (CTI) environment is disclosed. The CTI environment includes a plurality of CTI servers configured to execute CTI applications. Numerous instances or types of CTI applications may be executed. A user may request information for a transaction performed in the CTI environment. The relevant application logs indicating the transaction may be determined and output. Information indicating the relevant application logs may be output to the user. |
| US08320544B2 |
Automated electronic telecommunications order translation and processing
Systems and method for processing orders for telecommunications services are disclosed. Generally a telecommunications transaction set of an electronic data interchange standard is received, the telecommunications transaction set corresponding to a telecommunications product or service for a customer. An order for the telecommunications product or service is then generated based on processing of the telecommunications transaction set. |
| US08320541B2 |
Transfer of call information
A method for transferring call information, includes the steps of a) receiving a server message (20) transmitted to a server (10) via an information network (3) in connection with a mobile telephone network voice call (2), the server message comprising at least one parameter (ID) related to a mobile terminal (4) in connection with the server via the information network and/or a mobile station user (5), a telephone number (SNUM) of a second party of the voice call, and b) producing, on the basis of the received server message (20), dedicated call data (30) retrievable by the information network (3). A server (10) implementing the method is also described. |
| US08320540B2 |
Verifying user identity using a reverse caller ID process
The present disclosure provides a method and a system for verifying identity of a user and a system for generating and maintaining verification codes. The method and the system use system-generated caller numbers as verification codes. When an application system needs to verify the identity of a user, the verification system generates a caller phone number and uses a communication switching system to place a call originating from the caller phone number to the user's phone. The user's phone has a caller ID display function to automatically display the caller number, which serves as a user identity verification code. The user provides the received caller number to the application system for user identity verification. No text messaging or other ways of communication is required. The method and the system can achieve reliable user identity verification. A centralized system may support multiple application systems for user identity verification. |
| US08320534B2 |
Method and system for establishing connection to called terminal
A method for connecting a calling terminal to a called terminal includes establishing a first session to a video server and a call connection request to the called terminal, receiving ringback tone (RBT) video data from the video server using the established first session during a waiting time before a response from the called terminal for the request is received, generating a setup flag to set a connection environment with the called terminal to perform a fast setup between the calling terminal and the called terminal, and transmitting the generated setup flag to the called terminal through a second session established by the called terminal. A system to perform the method includes an establishing unit to establish the first session, an RBT video data receiving unit to receive the RBT video data, a setup flag generating unit, and a setup flag transmitting unit. |
| US08320525B2 |
Digital radiography sensors
A new and improved digital sensor assembly for use in a filmless radiography system is disclosed. The sensor is configured to be universal in that it can be rotated about a cable connection thereby allowing the sensor to be used both vertically and horizontally in the oral cavity. The rotatability of the sensor allows it to fit comfortably and close to a target area in an intraoral cavity. By providing a comfortable relative fit to the target area, the sensor is ergonomically improved, in terms of its comfort and feel to a dental patient. Alternative sensor assembly embodiments disclosed herein relate to quick disconnect-type coupling arrangements between the sensor body and the sensor cable. |
| US08320521B2 |
Method and system for operating an electron beam system
A method for operating an electron beam system is presented. Further, an electron beam system, an X-ray tube and a CT system that implement the presented method are also described. The method includes generating an electron beam in an X-ray tube in an imaging system. Additionally, a current configuration corresponding to a particular view of the imaging system is identified. If the identified current configuration is within a determined range, a duty cycle of the electron beam for the particular view of the imaging system is modulated using pulse width modulation. Further, the modulated electron beam is focused towards a target. |
| US08320512B2 |
Preamble acquisition without second order timing loops
A clock is adjusted by obtaining a first plurality of samples and a second plurality of samples associated with a preamble portion of a data packet. The first plurality of samples and the second plurality of samples are sampled using a clock. A first intermediate value is determined based at least in part on the first plurality of samples and a second intermediate value is determined based at least in part on the second plurality of samples. An ending value associated with an end of the preamble portion is determined based at least in part on the first intermediate value and the second intermediate value. The clock is adjusted based at least in part on the ending value without use of a second order timing loop. |
| US08320509B2 |
Concatenation-assisted symbol-level combining for MIMO systems with HARQ and/or repetition coding
Systems and methods are provided for decoding signal vectors in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where the receiver has received one or more signal vectors from the same transmitted vector. The receiver combines the received vectors by vector concatenation The concatenated vector may then be decoded using, for example, maximum-likelihood decoding. In some embodiments, the combined signal vector is equalized before decoding. |
| US08320507B2 |
Mobile communication system, receiving device, and method
A transmitting device Fourier-transforms symbols in a transmission symbol sequence, maps the Fourier-transformed symbols to subcarriers, inverse-Fourier-transforms the mapped symbols, and transmits the inverse-Fourier-transformed symbols from multiple transmitting antennas. A receiving device Fourier-transforms received signals, extracts signal components mapped to the subcarriers, and estimates the symbols transmitted via the subcarriers by applying a QR decomposition algorithm to the extracted signal components. The receiving device obtains a unitary matrix QH such that the product of the unitary matrix QH, a weight matrix W determining a correspondence between the transmission symbol sequence and the subcarriers, and a channel matrix H becomes a triangular matrix R, and estimates candidates of the symbols transmitted from the transmitting antennas based on the unitary matrix QH and the triangular matrix R. |
| US08320506B2 |
Universal blind mode detector, guard mode detector of the universal blind mode detector, and method of detecting universal blind mode
Provided are a universal blind mode detector capable of universally detecting not only various orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication services but also non-OFDM communication services, and a fast Fourier transform (FFT) mode detector, a guard mode detector, and a memory sharing structure of the universal blind mode detector, and a method of detecting a universal blind mode. The universal blind mode detector includes a radio frequency (RF) tuner converting a received signal into a baseband frequency signal, an automatic gain control (AGC) unit which is connected to the RF tuner and determines existence of a communication service by referring to a received signal strength indication (RSSI), a communication service mode detection unit determining of which scheme a communication service mode signal is if the AGC unit determines that there is the communication service, and detecting the communication service mode signal, and a channel decoding unit detecting the detected signal. |
| US08320499B2 |
Dynamic space-time coding for a communication system
Techniques for transmitting data with dynamic space-time coding are described. Dynamic space-time coding refers to the mapping of data across both space and time dimensions based on a mapping scheme that changes in a dynamic manner, e.g., a time-variant manner. A transmitter generates at least one data stream and performs space-time coding on the at least one data stream in a dynamic manner to generate at least two output streams for transmission from at least two antennas. The space-time coding may be performed in various manners. For example, each data stream may be space-time coded based on a respective set of space-time codes, e.g., by cycling through the space-time codes in the code set or by using a space-time code selected based on feedback from a receiver. The code set for each data stream may also be selected from among multiple code sets available for the data stream. |
| US08320495B2 |
Radio communication method and radio communication terminal
The present invention is summarized as a radio communication method including the steps of calculating a transmission power difference between a transmission power value of a first carrier and a transmission power value of a second carrier; determining whether or not the transmission power difference exceeds a threshold which indicates a maximum transmission power difference allowable between the first carrier and the second carrier; and decreasing a data rate for transmission via one of the first carrier and the second carrier that has the higher transmission power value when the transmission power difference exceeds the maximum transmission power difference. |
| US08320488B2 |
Method for transmitting and receiving signals in open-loop spatial multiplexing mode
A method for transmitting and receiving signals in an open-loop spatial multiplexing transmission mode is described. If the number of transmit antennas is 2 and a rank is 2, a base station performs precoding according to a cyclic delay diversity scheme by a matrix in which a first matrix corresponding to an identity matrix, a second matrix corresponding to a diagonal matrix, and a third matrix corresponding to a unitary matrix are sequentially multiplied and transmits the precoded signals. This may be substantially the same as the case where the base station performs precoding using a matrix in which the second matrix corresponding to the diagonal matrix and the third matrix corresponding to the unitary matrix are multiplied and transmits the precoded signals. A user equipment estimates a transmission mode according to the received rank indicator and the number of transmit antennas and receives signals. |
| US08320487B2 |
Method and system for adaptation between different closed-loop, open-loop and hybrid techniques for multiple antenna systems
Aspects of a method and system for adaptation between different closed loop, open loop and hybrid techniques for multiple antenna systems may include a transmitting station that enables generation of a plurality of signals that are concurrently transmitted via a communication medium based on a selected one of: full feedback information, reduced quantity feedback information, or no feedback information. The selection may be determined at the transmitting station based on a determined Doppler shift frequency. |
| US08320483B2 |
Radio transmission apparatus, radio reception apparatus, radio transmission-reception system, and method thereof
A radio transmission apparatus for transmitting a first radio signal and a second radio signal with different communication system, the apparatus includes: a first transmission unit which generates the first radio signal on the basis of a first communication system and transmits the first radio signal; a diffusion processing unit which performs diffusion processing of data allocated to DC subcarrier on the basis of the first communication system, and generate a diffusion signal; an addition unit which adds the diffusion signal and a signal obtained by orthogonal frequency division multiplex processing; and a second transmission unit which transmits the added signal as the second radio signal. |
| US08320482B2 |
Communication apparatus and offset canceling method
There is already disclosed a technique for an MB-OFDM communication system whereby an orthogonal demodulation section removes a DC offset generated in a received signal in a region where the received signal is an analog signal, but the removal of the DC offset in the analog region cannot prevent the DC offset from remaining, and therefore the DC offset needs to be effectively removed in a digital region. An offset canceling section 26 calculates an average value of amplitude of a signal which should have an average of amplitude within a predetermined time range of 0, subtracts the average value from the signal and thereby removes an offset included in the signal. |
| US08320480B2 |
Method for bit-loading in a multi-tone DSL system
A method and processor in a multi-tone based multi-line transmission system such as a digital subscriber line system. The system includes a pre-processor, also referred to as a pre-coder. The processor iteratively determines an integer number of bits to be allocated before pre-processing. The determination is subject to transmit power constraints taking into account power changes on all lines due to the pre-processor and a required bit error rate. |
| US08320478B2 |
System and method for generating a signal with a random low peak to average power ratio waveform for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system
A method for generating a signal with a random low peak to average power ratio waveform for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system involves processing a complex vector to generate a processed complex vector and performing an inverse fast Fourier transform on the processed complex vector to generate a signal with a random low peak to average power ratio waveform for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. |
| US08320475B2 |
Inter-carrier interference measurement in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems
A system for measuring inter-carrier interference (ICI) in an OFDM system includes a test symbol generator coupled to a transmitter of the OFDM system to generate an N*N orthogonal matrix having N*N test symbols, and to send the test symbols in a test symbol stream via the transmitter to a receiver of the OFDM system. The N*N test symbols are arranged by the test symbol generator into an N*N orthogonal matrix before being sent to the receiver. The system also includes an ICI measuring module coupled to the receiver to detect the N*N test symbols received in the receiver and to arrange the test symbols as a receiving matrix in the same way as the orthogonal matrix in the transmitter. The ICI measuring module outputs the receiving matrix as an ICI matrix of the OFDM system, wherein an element on the kth row, lth column of the ICI matrix represents interference from the lth sub-carrier on the kth sub-carrier, wherein k≠l. |
| US08320472B2 |
Method for efficient feedback of receiving channel conditions in adaptive video multicast and broadcast systems
A method and apparatus for providing channel condition feedback in a multicast network are described including estimating a indication of channel condition, determining a receiver class based on the estimated indication of channel condition, calculating a delay, delaying transmission of the estimated indication of channel condition for the calculated delay, receiving a report from another receiver in the determined receiver class, the report including an indication of channel condition and canceling the delay if the received indication of channel condition is one of greater than and equal to the estimated indication of channel condition. The method and apparatus further include transmitting a single report for the calculated receiver class to a server including a worst indication of channel condition for the determined receiver class. |
| US08320469B2 |
Apparatus for encoding and decoding header data in picture signal transmission
A picture decoding method and apparatus for encoding a video signal. The method includes performing an encoding process on the video signal to generate a bit stream compatible with MPEG 1 moving picture video standard. The method further includes controlling the encoding process so as to generate the bit stream which includes, a picture coding type in a previous picture header, an extension start code indicating the beginning of extension data added when a picture header includes control data that is newly added in MPEG 2 standard format in the previous header, the extension data in the previous header, and the picture coding type in a current picture header, and does not include the extension start code in the current picture header and the extension data in the current picture header. |
| US08320462B2 |
Image encoding method, image decoding method, image encoding apparatus, image decoding apparatus, image encoded bitstream and recording medium
The present invention makes it possible to include, when encoding processing is applied to three color components using a 4:0:0 format, data for one picture in one access unit and makes it possible to set the same time information or the same set encoding modes among the respective color components. In an image encoding system for applying compression processing to an input image signal including a plurality of color components, encoded data obtained by independently subjecting an input image signal of each of the color components to encoding processing and a parameter indicating which color component the encoded data corresponds to are multiplexed with a bit stream. In an image decoding system for inputting a bit stream in which an image signal including a plurality of color components is compressed to perform decoding processing, decoding processing of the encoded data of each of the color components is performed using a parameter indicating which color component the encoded data corresponds to. |
| US08320459B2 |
Moving picture encoding method and decoding method
A moving picture decoding method, which generates a predicted image using information on motion vectors and information on reference images, the moving picture decoding method having multiple prediction modes including a mode without motion vector decoding, including: a step of selecting a frame(s) to be referenced to in the prediction of each prediction direction in the prediction mode from among multiple candidate reference frames, and a step of selecting motion vector information used in the prediction mode, wherein said step of selecting motion vector information is performed based on whether candidate blocks including the block adjacent to the left side of or the upper side of a current block have a motion vector; and moving picture decoding is performed by generating said predicted image using the information on said selected reference frame and the information on said selected motion vectors in said prediction mode. |
| US08320458B2 |
Frame interpolation device and method, and storage medium
A frame interpolation device and method are provided. The device includes an in-screen average motion vector calculation section, a scene detection control section, a correlation calculation section, a no-motion determination section, a search center weight assigning section, a vector center weight assigning section and a weight assigning selection processing section. The in-screen average motion vector calculation section calculates an in-screen average motion vector in a screen for each the video frame. The scene detection control section detects any scene showing a uniform motion in each video frame. The correlation calculation section calculates, for each motion vector candidates for each block in target video frame, a correlation value between the target video frame and other previous video frames. The weight assigning selection processing section selects the search center weight assigning section or the vector center weight assigning section, and provides thereto the correlation value. An output from selected section is output. |
| US08320456B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing a video signal
An apparatus for processing a video signal and method thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes determining an intra reference block in a current view layer by using an intra motion information of an inter-reference unit in a reference view layer, the inter-reference unit being partially decoded and decoding the current block in the current view layer by using the intra-reference block. Accordingly, in coding a video signal, pictures failing to be substantially referred to for reconstruction of a current picture can be omitted. According to another aspect of the present invention, residual information having high redundancy is omitted to raise a compression ratio. |
| US08320448B2 |
Encoder with multiple re-entry and exit points
An encoder is disclosed that is partitioned into discrete hardware modules. The discrete modules include multiple re-entry and exit points that allow enhanced control by software. The software can control the discrete modules during the encoding process and make adjustments according to CPU bandwidth and/or user requirements allowing for enhanced quality control and seamless hardware/software operations. In one embodiment, a media stream is received into an encoder that includes a pipeline of multiple hardware stages for encoding. An intermediate result is provided from at least one of the hardware stages to an encoding control module that processes the intermediate result to determine configuration instructions for a next hardware stage in the pipeline. Thus, the encoding process can be modified dynamically through hardware and software interactions as the media stream progresses through the pipeline of the encoder. |
| US08320445B2 |
System and method for video encoding using constructed reference frame
Disclosed herein is a method for digital video encoding prediction comprising creating a constructed reference frame using an encoder and compressing a series of source video frames using the constructed reference frame to obtain a bitstream including a compressed digital video signal for a subsequent decoding process. The constructed reference frame is omitted from the series of digital video frames during the subsequent viewing process. |
| US08320444B2 |
Transmission apparatus and method, reception apparatus and method, and program
A transmission apparatus includes a modulating section configured to modulate a baseband signal by using a carrier wave; a determining section configured to determine a pattern of the carrier wave, in accordance with a characteristic of a transmission channel on which a waveform represented by a signal value of a specific symbol is stationarily distorted according to a value of a symbol transmitted before or after the specific symbol; and a transmitting section configured to transmit a modulation signal through the transmission channel, the modulation signal being obtained by modulation using the determined carrier-wave pattern. |
| US08320443B2 |
System and method for high-speed decoding and ISI compensation in a multi-pair transceiver system
A method and a system for providing ISI compensation to an input signal in a bifurcated manner. ISI compensation is provided in two stages, a first stage compensates ISI components induced by characteristics of a transmitter's partial response pulse shaping filter, a second stage compensates ISI components induced by characteristics of a multi-pair transmission channel. First stage ISI compensation is performed in an inverse response filter having a characteristic feedback gain factor K, during system start-up. Second stage ISI compensation is performed by a single DFE in combination with a MDFE operating on tentative decisions output from a Viterbi decoder. As the DFE of the second stage reaches convergence, the feedback gain factor K of the first stage is ramped to zero. |
| US08320442B2 |
Channel impulse response estimating decision feedback equalizer
A decision feedback equalizer is operated by making first symbol decisions from an output of the decision feedback equalizer such that the first symbol decisions are characterized by a relatively long processing delay, by making second symbol decisions from the output of the decision feedback equalizer such that the second symbol decisions are characterized by a relatively short processing delay, and by determining tap weights for the decision feedback equalizer based on the first and second symbol decisions. The first symbol decisions may be derived from the output of a long traceback trellis decoder. The second symbol decisions may be derived either from the output of a short traceback trellis decoder or from shorter delay outputs of the long traceback trellis decoder. |
| US08320440B2 |
Equalizer circuit
An equalizer circuit receives digital amplitude data A[N] which represents the amplitude level of the N-th (N is a nonnegative integer) signal to be transmitted via a transmission line and timing data T[N] which represents the cycle of the signal, and performs waveform shaping. The equalizer circuit includes: M (M is an integer) calculation units ECU1 through ECUm; and an adder ADD1 which adds the output data of the M calculation units ECU1 through ECUM and the amplitude data A[N] together so as to generate equalized amplitude data D[N]. A step response waveform RSTEP(t) for the transmission line is approximated by Expression RSTEP(t)=SSTEP(t)·(1−Sj=1:M fj(t)) using M (M is an integer of 2 or more) functions fj(t) (1≦j≦M) and a step waveform SSTEP(t) with the time t as an argument. The representative value of the function fj(t) in a range between T1 and T2 is represented by a function gj(T1, T2). The calculation unit ECUj calculates output data Dj [N] represented by Expression Dj[N]=Σn=0:N [(A[n]−A[n−1])·gj(tN−tn, tN+1−tn). |
| US08320439B2 |
Methods and apparatus for adaptive link partner transmitter equalization
Methods and apparatus are provided for adaptive link partner transmitter equalization. According to one aspect of the invention, a local transceiver adapts one or more equalization parameters of a link partner by receiving a training frame over a channel between the link partner and the local transceiver, wherein the training frame is comprised of a predefined training pattern; adjusting one or more of the equalization parameters of the link partner; and determining whether the equalization of the channel satisfies one or more predefined criteria based on whether the predefined training pattern is properly received by the local transceiver. The predefined training pattern can be a pseudo random pattern, such as a PN11 pattern Noise margins and jitters margins for the channel can optionally be improved. |
| US08320436B2 |
Calibrating received signal measurements in a communication device
Received signal measurements are calibrated in a communication device by measuring a received signal level for each of one or more subcarriers of a transmitted signal received from another communication device, converting the measured received signal level for each of the one or more subcarriers into a corresponding measured power level, estimating a terminal-to-terminal impedance between the communication devices and calculating a corrected power level for each of the one or more subcarriers as a function of the measured power level for the subcarrier, a known reference input impedance for the communication device and the estimated terminal-to-terminal impedance. |
| US08320432B1 |
Device and method for precoding vectors in a communication system
A device and method for precoding vectors in a communication system is provided. A transmitter may precode a data vector using information regarding a communication channel prior to transmitting the data vector. The transmitter may precode the data vector in a manner that reduces an energy value of a resulting transmit data vector so as to minimize interference in a received signal at a receiver. The transmitter may perturb entries of the data vector one-by-one in an iterative fashion until a minimum in an energy value of the transmit data vector is obtained. |
| US08320430B2 |
Handover processing in multiple access point deployment system
This disclosure relates to method, device and system for determining transmit power in a communication system. A node receives an access point interference signal from an access point. The access point interference signal is measured by the access point based in part on an inference from an external system. The node determines a transmit power based in part on the access point interference signal. The node then transmits an uplink signal at the transmit power. |
| US08320425B1 |
Pump cavities for diode laser array pumped laser rods
Systems, apparatus, devices and methods for pumping rod shaped solid state lasers with interchangeable arrays of diode laser pump sources that allows for rapid change of the diode laser array pump source without affecting or altering the solid state laser resonator. An embodiment includes a roof top structure having a light scattering reflection roof-top portion, sides with an interior specular reflecting surface and base opposite the top portion. The cavity includes a laser rod within the top portion of the structure positioned between opposing side walls, laser rod optics, and a pump source connected with the base plate to pump the laser rod. The pump cavity can include a mechanism for automating the rapid interchangeability of the pump source. |
| US08320423B2 |
Compact, all solid-state, avalanche photodiode emitter-detector pixel with electronically selectable, passive or active detection mode, for large-scale, high resolution, imaging focal plane arrays
An advanced, back-illuminated, silicon avalanche photodiode (APD) design is presented using silicon-on-sapphire with a novel crystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) antireflective layer between the silicon and R-plane sapphire. The substrate supports optical and electrical integration of a high quantum efficiency silicon APD with a gallium nitride (GaN)-VCSEL diode in each pixel to form a novel, compact, emitter-detector pixel for passive and active 2-D and 3-D high resolution, imaging focal plane arrays. Silicon mesa pixels are anisotropically etched with a central inverted mesa frustum cavity. The APD detector is fabricated in the silicon mesa and the GaN-VCSEL diode is grown epitaxially in the center of the mesa. A sapphire microlens below each pixel collimates the VCSEL beam and focuses optical returns into the APD detector. APDs share a common front-side anode, and VCSELs share a common cathode. The APD cathode is electrically connected to the VCSEL diode anode in each emitter-detector pixel. |
| US08320419B2 |
High power semiconductor laser diodes
A high power laser source comprises a bar of laser diodes having a first coefficient of thermal expansion CTEbar on a submount having a second coefficient CTEsub and a cooler having a third coefficient CTEcool. The submount/cooler assembly shows an effective fourth coefficient CTEeff differing from CTEbar. This difference leads to a deformation of the crystal lattice of the lasers' active regions by mechanical stress. CTEeff is selected to be either lower than both CTEbar and CTEcool or is selected to be between CTEbar and CTEcool. The submount may either comprise layers of materials having different CTEs, e.g., a Cu layer of 10-40 μm thickness and a Mo layer of 100-400 μm thickness, or a single material with a varying CTEsub. Both result in a CTEsub varying across the submount's thickness. |
| US08320417B2 |
Eye-safe Q-switched short pulse fiber laser
A laser includes a pump source that provides pump energy at a first wavelength and a laser cavity. The laser cavity includes a laser gain medium that receives the pump energy from the pump source and creates gain at a second wavelength different from the first wavelength, and a mode stripping portion coupled to the laser gain medium. The mode stripping portion causes the laser cavity to have a low Fresnel number so as to allow only the lowest-order fiber mode to resonate in the laser cavity. Higher-order fiber modes are discriminated against so as to generate a laser output having a substantially diffraction limited beam in a single transverse mode at the second wavelength. |
| US08320413B2 |
Communication method using one access
A telephone access (3) includes a signaling channel (5). A substitute channel (9) or substitute channels (8) can be added to the signaling channel and used when the signaling channel is down. It is shown that this makes the telephone access more suitable for a separate signaling channel access or hybrid access configuration. |
| US08320412B2 |
Method, device and system for managing timestamp
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of managing IEEE1588 timestamps is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a data frame and a storage address of synchronized timestamp controlling information; obtaining the timestamp controlling information for the data frame to control the timestamp processing according to the storage address; obtaining a timestamp while receiving the data frame, obtaining a required timestamp according to the timestamp and adding the required timestamp into the data frame according to the timestamp controlling information; and sending the data frame added with the timestamp. A downstream timestamp managing module, an upstream timestamp managing module, and relevant timestamp managing systems are also disclosed in an embodiment of the present disclosure. The embodiment can conveniently and accurately add or obtain IEEE1588 timestamp into or from 10 Gbit/s Ethernet and simultaneously save resources and guarantee the synchronization of timestamp and data. |
| US08320409B2 |
Methods and apparatus for improved communications networks
Erroneous data due to faults are prevented from propagating through a distributed network node having diversely routed communications links by using a fault masking technique that eliminates the 60 ms of error propagation time associated with SONET networks. The fault masking technique can also prevent random bit errors from propagating through the distributed network node. A frame alignment technique used in the network node is scalable for very wide words (e.g., 128 bits) for use with high speed optical communications protocols, such as OC-192. |
| US08320408B2 |
Multi-channel code-division multiplexing in front-end integrated circuits
A challenging problem is maintaining low power consumption in multi-channel (MC) systems, where multiple input signals demand several front-end analog signal-processing blocks to be replicated. A code-division multiplexing (CDM) system can be generalized as a signal compression-decompression involving an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This invention utilizes CDM in MC front-end integrated circuits to significantly reduce the power consumption of such systems. The invention also extends CDM's data compression advantages to uncorrelated and weakly correlated MC signals through the introduction of a new Multi-Channel Signal Binning and Multiplexing (MCSBM) method and architecture. The proposed method achieves significant reductions in power consumption in comparison to a conventional time-division multiplexing quantizer, while adding only a modest amount of overhead and complexity. Among other advantages, the invention permits architects to fabricate MC integrated circuits with ultra low power consumption and small chip area, where conventional architectures could not. Another embodiment of the invention relates to the system's compressor organizing samples of the input signal in such a way that the downstream ADC quantizes the higher variance samples with a higher resolution compared to the resolution it uses to quantize other samples with lower variance. |
| US08320407B2 |
Mapping of subpackets to resources in a communication system
Techniques for transmitting data in a communication system are described. A packet may be partitioned into multiple subpackets, and each subpacket may be encoded separately. The subpackets may be mapped to resources assigned for transmission of the packet, with at least one subpacket being mapped to a subset of the assigned resources. The assigned resources may include multiple tiles, with each tile corresponding to a block of time frequency resources. The subpackets may be mapped to the tiles such that (i) the subpackets are mapped to equal number of tiles to achieve similar decoding performance, (ii) each subpacket is mapped to at least NMIN tiles, if available, to achieve a certain minimum diversity order for the subpacket, and/or (iii) each subpacket is mapped to a subset of the multiple tiles, if possible, so that the subpacket can be decoded without having to demodulate all of the tiles. |
| US08320406B2 |
Method and system for adaptively obtaining bandwidth allocation requests
A method and apparatus for adaptively obtaining bandwidth requests in a broadband wireless communication system. The method and apparatus includes dynamically varying technique combinations enabling a plurality of users to efficiently request bandwidth from a shared base station. A user may “piggyback” a new bandwidth request upon, or set a “poll-me bit” within, presently allocated bandwidth. A base station may poll users, individually or in groups, by allocating unrequested bandwidth for new requests. Polling may respond to a “poll-me bit,” and/or it may be adaptively periodic at a rate based on communication status parameters, such as recent communication activity and connection QoS levels. Group polling permits a possibility of collisions. Polling policies may be established for dynamically varying user groups, or may be determined for each user. Dynamic selection of appropriate polling techniques makes use of efficiency benefits associated with each technique. |
| US08320405B2 |
Data management system and method
A method of replicating data on a source to a destination comprising the steps of: extracting data from a source via a user interface in a source format; converting the extracted data from the source's format into a destination format; and uploading the converted data to said destination. |
| US08320404B2 |
Wireless local area network device and adapter thereof
A wireless local area network (WLAN) device includes a WLAN adapter having a USB terminal connected to a USB terminal of a PC (personal computer). The WLAN adapter is loaded with a program for setting a WLAN and executing a communication, and a connection of the adapter to the PC prompts the PC to recognize the adapter as a CD-ROM drive, and prompts the program for setting a WLAN and executing a communication to run automatically. The PC loads data of SCSI standard into the WLAN adapter by using a vender defined command of SCSI standard by way of the program for setting a WLAN and executing a communication. The WLAN adapter converts the data of SCSI standard into data for setting a WLAN or data of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), and sets the WLAN and executes the communication. |
| US08320403B2 |
Multiplexed sensor array
A sensor array, comprising: a plurality of sensors electrically connected in series or in parallel, each of the plurality of sensors operable to generate an individual electrical signal; a multiplexing scheme generator operable to generate a multiplexing scheme; a modulation system connected to the multiplexing scheme generator and operable to selectively reverse the polarity of each of the plurality of sensors for each of a plurality of samples; a readout device operable to sequentially read a plurality of output signals of the plurality of electrically connected sensors, wherein the number of samples is greater than or equal to the number of sensors and wherein one or more electrical signals of the plurality of sensors are readout as one electrical signal; and a demultiplexer operable to receive the output electrical signals and to determine the individual electrical signals of each of the plurality of sensors based on the multiplexing scheme. |
| US08320399B2 |
Add-on module and methods thereof
An arrangement for processing data traffic flowing through a network is provided. The arrangement includes a data interface for receiving the data traffic. The arrangement also includes an inspection engine for analyzing the data traffic, wherein the analyzing is performed on at least payload data. The arrangement further includes means for routing the data traffic through the network, wherein the means for routing is configured to define one or more ports for transmitting the data traffic. The means for routing the data traffic is dynamic to balance the data traffic across multiple outgoing ports. |
| US08320398B2 |
Paging a peer in a peer-to-peer communication network
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate paging a peer in a peer-to-peer communication network. Paging messages may be communicated directly between a wireless terminal and its peer(s). Further, the wireless terminal may monitor for incoming paging messages during subinterval(s) of a paging interval as a function of an identifier of the wireless terminal. Moreover, the wireless terminal may transmit a paging message to a peer (e.g., detected and/or identified during peer discovery) during subinterval(s) of the paging interval as a function of an identifier of the peer. |
| US08320393B2 |
Signalling method and apparatus
An electrical signaling system is disclosed. A modulator is arranged to accept information and encode that information in an alternating signal containing repeated rising and falling edges, by way of the time between consecutive rising or consecutive falling edges. A transmission path transmits the signal from the modulator to a demodulator. The demodulator is arranged to detect a signal edge and store a record of the signal around that edge and compare a subsequent part of the signal with that record thereby to detect a like edge and detect the time difference between like edges. |
| US08320391B2 |
Acoustic signal packet communication method, transmission method, reception method, and device and program thereof
When acoustic signal packets are communicated over an IP communication network, data corresponding to an acoustic signal (acoustic signal corresponding data) has been included and transmitted in a packet different from a packet containing the acoustic signal. However, conventionally, a packet in which the acoustic signal corresponding data is to be included must be determined beforehand and cannot dynamically be changed.According to the present invention, the amount of delay of acoustic signal corresponding data with respect to an acoustic signal is contained in an acoustic signal packet as delay amount control information. Furthermore, the conditions of a communication network are detected from the number of packets lost in a burst loss or jitters and the number of the packets to be stored and the amount of delay at the receiving end are thereby determined. |
| US08320390B2 |
Policy decision function addressing method, network element and network system
A policy decision function (PDF) addressing method includes: receiving a PDF allocation request that contains a user equipment identifier (UE ID) from a second network element (NE); obtaining ID information of a PDF associated with the UE ID according to pre-registered addressing information of the PDF, where the addressing information of the PDF is an association between the UE ID and the ID information of the PDF, and the PDF associated with the UE ID is accessed by a first NE; and sending the obtained ID information of the PDF to the second NE. |
| US08320389B2 |
Reliability processing methods and systems in the networking of metro ethernet network providing multi-service
A reliability processing method and system in networking of Metro Ethernet Network providing multi-service are provided. The method includes: establishing a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) group with at least two service control gateways, establishing network connections between an access device (UPE) and the service control gateways in the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol group by a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS); establishing Layer 2 service and Layer 3 service connections between an active service control gateway and the Access device after active and standby service control gateways in the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol group are determined according to a processing result of a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol message, and performing Layer 2 service and Layer 3 service processing. With the present invention, when the MAN service is in fault, all the Layer 2 and Layer 3 services may be switched to the standby service control gateway quickly, and the switching may be on the order of milliseconds. Therefore, the reliability of the Layer 2 and Layer 3 services of the MAN may be sufficiently guaranteed, and the overhead of the system may be reduced significantly. |
| US08320381B2 |
Application-aware policy enforcement
An application-aware policy enforcement point (PEP) attaches to the edge of a packet-switched network to manage loading when the network nears or exceeds its capacity due to changes in the network, e.g., component failures or incremental growth. An advanced bandwidth manager (ABM) comprises a session/call admission controller (S/CAC) that monitors and maps ever-changing network topology information gathered from remote listeners about how traffic is being routed through various parts of the network. These reports are harmonized to build a single view of the network topology, and the point-to-point connections are abstracted into path tables. Autonomous PEP's at the network's edges provide short-term, application-aware controls on their own that are applied to the corresponding network ingress traffic. The S/CAC uses the path tables to calculate whether particular PEP's can admit more traffic, or should they shed sessions/calls to keep service up for the existing application traffic. Long-term controls are periodically downloaded as admission tables from the S/CAC to the PEP's. |
| US08320373B2 |
Packet-based processing system
A packet-based processing system suitable for various applications, such as for a base station or a terminal in a wireless communication system, is described. The packet-based processing system may include multiple processing modules and at least one transport module. The processing modules may send packets to one another via a common packet interface and may operate asynchronously. The transport module(s) may forward the packets sent by the processing modules and may operate asynchronously with respect to the processing modules. Each processing module may include a network interface, at least one buffer, a packet parser, a packet builder, and at least one processing unit. Each processing module may support at least one service. Each packet may include a header and a payload. The header may include a source service address for a source service sending the packet and a destination service address for a recipient service receiving the packet. |
| US08320371B2 |
Statistics based forwarding information base repopulation
A method and apparatus for repopulating a forwarding information base at a network device are disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a routing information base, forwarding information base, memory for storing performance data based on packets forwarded from the network device, and a processor configured to prioritize routes stored in the routing information base based on the performance data, propagate the routes from the routing information base to the forwarding information base in an order based at least in part on the route priorities. |
| US08320370B2 |
Method for routing data packets, and devices for implementing the method
The present invention is related to a method for routing data packets in a routing device connecting a first network and a second network, and to a corresponding routing device. The method comprises the steps of receiving a frame from a device connected to the first network; forwarding the frame to an internal bridge module of the device; checking whether the frame contains a multicast group management message and in the affirmative, creating a new frame comprising as destination address the destination address of an internal multicast group management module and as payload at least the multicast management data of the received frame; and forwarding this new frame to the internal bridge function. |
| US08320367B1 |
Transitioning telephone from guest mode to custom mode based on logging in to computing system
Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to an example embodiment, a non-transitory, computer-readable medium may include computer-executable instructions stored thereon. When executed by at least one processor, the instructions may be configured to cause a computing system to at least initialize a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone program in a guest mode configured to allow any user of the computing system to place telephone calls, and in response to a user logging in to the computing system, transition the VoIP telephone program from the guest mode to a custom mode for the logged-in user. |
| US08320366B2 |
Delayed onset of voice activity detection for jitter adaptation
Disclosed are various systems and methods for controlling a voice activity detector. In one example approach, a method is provided in which a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) session is initiated in a first gateway with a second gateway. A plurality of jitter adaptation packets are transmitted from the first gateway to the second gateway. Also, the voice activity detector is disabled in the first gateway during the transmission of the jitter adaptation packets. The voice activity detector is enabled in the first gateway after the transmission of the jitter adaptation packets. |