| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08341758B2 |
Secure device and method for preventing side channel attack
Provided are a secure device and method for preventing a side channel attack. The secure device includes a secure module converting plaintext data received from the outside into ciphertext data to thereby store the converted ciphertext data, or converting stored ciphertext data into plaintext data to thereby output the converted plaintext data, and a side channel attack sensing module sensing a side channel attack upon the secure module, and, according to the sensing result, allowing the secure module to stop operating, inducing malfunctions of the secure module, delaying operations of the secure module, or making the secure module a device having the secure module disabled. The secure device can safely protect an internal security algorithm and data from the side channel attack. |
| US08341757B2 |
Electronic device and method for recording disassemble history information and judging the electronic device thereof
An exemplary electronic device includes a detecting component and a storage unit. The detecting component generates detecting signals when the electronic device has been disassembled. The storage unit stores disassemble history information based on detecting signals received from the detecting component. |
| US08341755B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus is provided that is capable of preventing a print data from being leaked even where a user forgets to print out the print data with which an authentication data is attached. The image forming apparatus of the present invention has: a network interface receiving the print data, the authentication data, and an importance degree data; a hard disk drive storing the print data, the authentication data, and the importance degree data received by the network interface; an operation panel with which the user inputs the authentication data that is used to authenticate the print data; an authentication control unit comparing the authentication data stored in the hard disk drive with the authentication data input by the user; a control comprising a print processing unit controlling print processing of the print data stored in the hard disk drive based on the comparison result; and a time management unit measuring a time for which the print data is stored in the hard disk drive, wherein the control unit deletes the print data based on the importance degree data and the time for which the print data is stored in the hard disk drive. |
| US08341754B2 |
Preventing on-line violations of legal regulations on users of a communication system
A system for preventing on-line violations of open meeting regulations and similar laws, in which one or more special classes of users are defined for an electronic communication system. Special class definitions include the number of group members that make a quorum for each special class. If a user is a special class member, a determination is made as to whether posting or sending a message being composed would violate any legal restrictions associated with that special class such as a serial quorum based on a total number of special class members that would be participants in the communication to which the message would be added, if the message were in fact conveyed. If the number of special class members that would be participants in the communication if the message were conveyed reaches the special class quorum, the message is rejected, and prevented from entry into the communication system. |
| US08341751B2 |
Software license management
A method of managing a software license comprises loading a software program into volatile memory, obtaining authorization data, modifying a portion of the volatile memory relied upon by the program in accordance with the authorization data, executing the program, and causing the modifications to be deleted from the volatile memory. In some embodiments, selection criteria compared with the authorization data does not contain information corresponding to all of the content of the authorization data, thereby denying a software attacker the benefit of identifying and exploiting the selection criteria. |
| US08341748B2 |
Method and system to detect breaks in a border of a computer network
A method for detecting breaks in a border of a network is disclosed. The method may include monitoring network regulation and shaping traffic passing through the border. The method may also include providing, by a first confederate server on a first side of the border, a first connection request to a second confederate server on a second side of the border. Further, the method may include providing, by the second confederate server on the second side of the border, a second connection request to the first confederate server on the first side of the border. The method may also include executing a network diagnostic command if one or more of the first or second connection request is granted. Further, the method may also include copying any outputs of the network diagnostic command to a file. |
| US08341742B2 |
Network attack detection devices and methods
A network attack detection device is provided, including a spatial coordinate database for storing spatial coordinate data; a standard time zone database for storing standard time zone data; a domain name system packet collector for collecting a domain name system packet; a spatial snapshot feature extractor for extracting internet protocol address corresponding to the domain name system packet according to the domain name system packet, and generating spatial feature data corresponding to the internet protocol address according to the internet protocol address, the spatial coordinate data and the standard time zone data; and an attack detector for determining whether the domain name system packet is an attack according to the spatial feature data and a spatial snapshot detection model, and when determining that the domain name system packet is an attack, sending a warning to indicate the attack. |
| US08341740B2 |
Method and system for identifying enterprise network hosts infected with slow and/or distributed scanning malware
Malware detection systems are presented in which a list is constructed of enterprise hosts to or from which each given enterprise network host sends or receives packets within a current measurement period and statistics are accumulated based on two or more measurement period lists, with a count value being derived from the statistics to indicate the number of other hosts to or from which each monitored host sent or received packets, and one or more monitored hosts may be identified as suspected of being infected with slow and/or distributed scanning malware for which the count value exceeds a threshold value. |
| US08341737B1 |
Detecting fraudulent web sites through an obfuscated reporting mechanism
A callback component embedded on a web site determines a current location of the web site. The current location is compared to a known legitimate location of the web site to determine if the web site has been copied to a different host location. Responsive to determining that the web site has been copied to a different location, the callback component alerts a central authority that the web site may be a fraudulent web site set up to launch phishing attacks. If the central authority determines that the web site is fraudulent, the central authority alerts appropriate entities to take down the fraudulent web site. The callback component generates a visual component viewable on the web site to deter phishing attackers from removing the callback component when the web site is copied. |
| US08341736B2 |
Detection and dynamic alteration of execution of potential software threats
An arrangement for dynamically identifying and intercepting potential software threats before they execute on a computer system is provided in which a file system filter driver (called a “mini-filter”) interfaces with an anti-malware service to selectively generate an alert event and allow the threat to run, in addition to generating an alert event and suspending the threat. The decision to suspend the threat or allow it to run is made through application of a cascading logic hierarchy that includes respective policy-defined actions, user-defined actions, and signature-defined actions. The mini-filter generates the alert event to the anti-malware service whenever a file is opened, or modified and closed. The service uses an engine to scan the file to identify potential threats which are handled though application of the logic hierarchy which provides for configurations defined in a lower tier of the hierarchy to be overridden by those contained in a higher tier. |
| US08341734B1 |
Method and system to audit physical copy data leakage
A document handling device receives a user request to perform a task on document data. The document data is associated with an electronic document to be converted by the document-handling device into a non-digital form (e.g., paper), or with a physical document received by the document-handling device in a non-digital form. The document handling device or a server determines whether the requested task violates a data loss prevention policy, and records, in an audit trail, information identifying the requested task and the digital data, and an indication of whether the requested task violates the data loss prevention policy. |
| US08341731B2 |
IC card authentication apparatus, IC card authentication method, and recording medium having IC card authentication program recorded thereon
An IC card is recognized by an IC card reader. Data is obtained from the recognized IC card. Card ID included in the obtained data is compared with card ID stored in a user registration information DB. If it is determined that the same card ID exists, an IC card issue count included in the obtained data is compared with an IC card issue count stored in the user registration information DB, and it is determined whether the counts are the same. If it is determined that the issue counts are not the same, a PIN code entry window appears so that the entered PIN code is compared with a PIN code in the user registration information DB. If it is determined that the PIN codes are the same, authentication success is displayed. |
| US08341729B2 |
Hardware access and monitoring control
Various embodiments described and illustrated here include one or more of systems, methods, software, and data structures that may be used to implement policies for hardware access and monitoring control. One embodiment includes obtaining device property data from each device coupled to a system and determining if each device is a device authorized for use with the system. Such embodiments may further include allowing only devices authorized for use with the system to be accessed by processes of the system. |
| US08341727B2 |
Method and system for protecting a computer system from denial-of-service attacks and other deleterious resource-draining phenomena related to communications
Embodiments of the present invention include a variety of different integrated, multi-tiered methods and systems for preventing various types of attacks on computer systems, including denial-of-service attacks and SYN-flood attacks. Components of these integrated methods and systems include probabilistic packet droppers, packet-rate throttles, resource controls, automated firewalls, and efficient connection-state-information storage in memory resources and connection-state-information distribution in order to prevent draining of sufficient communications-related resources within a computer system to seriously degrade or disable electronics communications components within the computer system. |
| US08341726B2 |
System and method for controlling email propagation
A system and method for controlling the propagation of an email message includes defining at least a first email recipient and a second email recipient of the email message. A first email propagation policy associated with at least the first email recipient is defined, and a second email propagation policy associated with at least the second email recipient is defined. The email message is sent to the first email recipient and to the second email recipient. |
| US08341723B2 |
Filtering kernel-mode network communications
Some embodiments of the invention are directed to techniques for determining whether a process on a computer system that is sending or receiving data, or is attempting to send or receive data, with another computer system is executing in kernel mode or user mode and providing an indicator of this determination to a security engine. In some embodiments, such an indication is provided to a security engine (e.g., a firewall) that implements a security policy based at least in part on whether the sending or receiving process is in kernel mode or user mode, and filter communications based on a process' operating mode. This enables a security engine to maintain security policies of greater specificity and thus improve security of a computer system. |
| US08341718B2 |
Short-lived certificate authority service
An integrated authentication service is described which may receive a bundled request from one or more clients. One or more of the described techniques may be utilized to provide, in response to a single bundled request, a token for proof of identity and a certificate for establishing secure communications. |
| US08341710B2 |
Ubiquitous webtoken
A first device receives, from a second device, a first request to set up an account, where the first request includes a shared key and information associated with the second device, where the shared key is calculated based on a private key, of a private key/public key pair, and information regarding an identity selection, from user identity information, associated with a user of the second device; and store the shared key in a memory. The first device receives, from the second device, a second request to log in to the account, where the second request includes a first webtoken and information associated with the second device, where the first webtoken is calculated based on the shared key and a first time interval; retrieves the shared key; generates a second webtoken based on the shared key and a second time interval; performs an authentication operation by comparing the first webtoken and the second webtoken; and permits the second device to access the account when the first webtoken matches the second webtoken. |
| US08341709B2 |
Pushing certificate chains to remote devices
Rather than managing a certificate chain related to a newly issued identity certificate at a terminal to which a wireless device occasionally connects, a certificate server can act to determine the identity certificates in a certificate chain related to the newly issued identity certificate. The certificate server can also act to obtain the identity certificates and transmit the identity certificates towards the device that requested the newly issued identity certificate. A mail server may receive the newly issued identity certificate and the identity certificates in the certificate chain and manage the timing of the transmittal of the identity certificates. By transmitting the identity certificates in the certificate chain before transmitting the newly issued identity certificate, the mail server allows the user device to verify the authenticity of the newly issued identity certificate. |
| US08341703B2 |
Authentication coordination system, terminal apparatus, storage medium, authentication coordination method, and authentication coordination program
In remotely coupling one terminal apparatus to a server apparatus, if an authentication processing of a user of one terminal apparatus has been already completed, the user can switch one terminal apparatus to another without an additional authentication processing. Authenticated information indicating that the authentication of the user has already been successfully completed is transferred to another terminal apparatus by coordinating the authenticated information between more than one terminal apparatuses. Another terminal apparatus receives a service from the server apparatus using the authenticated information. Upon coordinating the authenticated information among more than one terminal apparatuses, another terminal apparatus to receive the authenticated information may be authenticated. A storage medium which conducts the authentication may be coupled to a terminal apparatus to be authenticated. |
| US08341701B2 |
Communication apparatus
The conventional data transmitting/receiving system has problems: that a correct measurement cannot be performed because a measurement result is an addition of a verification processing time and a transmission time; that an authentication processing which is necessary for a transmission time measurement processing needs to be separately required; and that an unnecessary key exchange processing is executed.The transmission apparatus (a) shares authentication information with a request source which requests for transmission of content data, (b) transmits, to the request source, a measurement request generated using the authentication information, (c) receives, from the request source, a measurement response generated using the authentication information by the request source, as a response to the measurement request, (d) measures the period of time from the transmission of the measurement request to the reception of the measurement response, as a round trip time, (e) transmits, to the request source, a measurement preparation request for a preparation which is necessary for generating the measurement response, before the transmission of the measurement request, and (f) determines that the request source is an eligible device as the transmission destination of the content data, after the measurement of the round trip time, in the case where it is confirmed that the round trip time is less than or equal to a reference value, the measurement response is verified as a correct response, and the measurement request is verified as a correct request by the request source. |
| US08341700B2 |
Authentication in heterogeneous IP networks
The invention proposes a system for authenticating and authorizing network services comprising: a mobile device being adapted to, upon receipt of an information message indicating at least one network access type, determine the network access type, to create a start message containing at least a user identity, and to encapsulate the start message in an authentication message compatible with the access network identified in the information message, and an access controller for reading the encapsulated message from the mobile and forwarding the encapsulated message to an authentication server identified in the encapsulated message. The invention also proposes a corresponding method for authenticating and authorizing network services, and an access control device, a subscriber device and a router device. |
| US08341699B2 |
Method and system to detect human interaction with a computer
A system is provided to monitor a user's interaction with a computer. The system may comprise a random reference data generator to generate a random reference string, an image generator to create an image including the random reference string, a modification module to iteratively modify the image until a distortion criterion is satisfied, and a communications module to communicate the image to a client computer for display to a user. The random reference string comprises a plurality of alphanumeric characters. |
| US08341698B2 |
Transforming static password systems to become 2-factor authentication
The present invention provides systems and processes for transforming any system that implements a static password authentication or 1st-factor authentication so as to enforce strong 2-factor authentication, requiring the user to present both a static password and a dynamic password, without having to modify the existing system. |
| US08341695B2 |
Method of access control implemented in an Ethernet switch
An access control system, having at least one access control unit for securing a physical area and controlling entry into and egress out of the physical area, and an Ethernet routing device, is disclosed. The Ethernet routing device includes an access controller for determining access privileges to the physical area; an Ethernet switching unit for directing network communications between multiple network devices; at least one Ethernet connector for connecting the at least one access control unit to the Ethernet routing device; and an access control message interpreter for reading messages received, by way of the Ethernet connector, from the at least one access control unit and providing access control information contained in the messages to the access controller for access privilege determination. |
| US08341694B2 |
Method and system for synchronized access control in a web services environment
Access controls for a Web service (which controls are based on abstract WSDL definitions) are defined for a WSDL defined protected object space and, as such, are loosely coupled with the concrete WSDL binding derived from those definitions, preferably on a per binding level. This WSDL-defined POS is in turn loosely bound to a resource-specific protected object space definition. This loose coupling is leveraged to allow changes (e.g., updates) to the abstract WSDL binding's protected object space to be transitively applied to the application-specific protected object space. If appropriate, changes to the resource-specific protected object space may be applied to the WSDL's protected object space. Thus, according to the invention, the coupling may be one-way (typically, from the WSDL POS to the resource level POS) or two-way (from the WSDL POS to the resource level POS and vice versa). This technique ensures that different security policies are not applied unintentionally to the same resource (for example, one at the Web services entry level, and the other at the resource level). By synchronizing the protected object spaces in the manner described, neither the entity that deploys the application nor the security administrator need to be aware of the differences between the Web service request and the resource request. |
| US08341689B2 |
Automatic frequency compensation of video signals transmitted across cables
Systems and methods to provide automatic compensation for frequency attenuation of a video signal transmitted over a cable are provided. Frequency compensation is applied to a received video signal that was transmitted over the cable to thereby produce a compensated video signal. A shape of a horizontal sync portion of the compensated video signal is analyzed. The frequency compensation is automatically adjusted based on the shape of the horizontal sync portion of the compensated video signal. This abstract is not intended to be a complete description of the various embodiments of the present invention. |
| US08341677B2 |
Interactive product / service listing
A computing device receives selection of television content from a device associated with a user, and collects metadata associated with the selected television content. The computing device also collects information associated with commercials associated with the television content, and determines an interactive product/service listing based on the collected metadata and commercial information. The device further provides the interactive product/service listing to the device for display to the user. |
| US08341675B2 |
Method and system for providing program guide data from a content provider to a user device through a partner service provider based upon user attributes
A method and system for providing program guide data to a user network device associated with a user identifier includes a partner service provider in communication with the user network device and a primary service provider in communication with the partner service provider authenticating the user network device provider using the user identifier. The user network device generates a request for program guide data and communicates the user identifier and the request to the partner service provider. The partner service provider or the primary service provider communicates program guide data to the user network device based on the identifier data. The user network device displays the program guide data on a display device. |
| US08341673B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method as well as software program
The present invention concerns an information processing apparatus, a method thereof, and a program for allowing the audience to easily search for intended television programs. A server stores characteristic words extracted from television program information in a characteristic word file 103. The server also stores the extracted characteristic words associated with IDs for identifying television programs in an association file 102. When the audience selects a characteristic word as an interested word from the characteristic word file 103, the server reads the ID of a television program corresponding to the selected characteristic word from the association file 102. The server reads television program information corresponding to the read ID from a television program information file 101. The server then provides the read television program information to the audience. The present invention can be applied to a recording/reproducing apparatus and a television receiver to provide intended television programs. |
| US08341668B2 |
Television advertising for local businesses
A server may select an advertisement based on a location of a set-top box and information relating to television programming to be provided to the set-top box or being provided to set-top box. The server may further provide the selected advertisement to the set-top box for simultaneously displaying with the television programming. |
| US08341665B2 |
Providing content responsive to multimedia signals
A method of providing information including providing a communication session of at least one of audio and video media and applying automatic recognition to media transferred on the communication session. An advertisement is selected by a processor, based on the automatic recognition and non-advertisement information is selected by the processor, responsive to the automatic recognition. The selected advertisements and the selected non-advertisement information, are presented during the communication session. |
| US08341663B2 |
Facilitating real-time triggers in association with media streams
In one embodiment, a Media Analysis and Delivery System obtains a set of media delivery rules, wherein the set of media delivery rules includes one or more triggers, each of the triggers identifying a topic of interest. The Media Analysis and Delivery System examines a media stream for at least one of the one or more triggers in accordance with the set of media delivery rules. The Media Analysis and Delivery System provides at least a portion of the media stream in response to at least one of the triggers in accordance with at least one of the set of media delivery rules. |
| US08341662B1 |
User-controlled selective overlay in a streaming media
A method and system for tailoring a multimedia presentation of an event on a computerized multimedia system to meet a user's desires. In a preferred embodiment, a set of video streams and a set of audio streams for the event are provided to the user via a network coupled to the multimedia system. From the set of available video streams for the event, one or more video streams are selected for presentation to the user. From the set of available audio streams for the event, one or more audio streams are selected for presentation to the user. Furthermore, the relative volumes of the different audio streams may be adjusted. In response to user input, the selected video and audio streams are assigned to respective portions of video and audio output devices. The event is presented to the user according to the selected video stream assignments. |
| US08341656B2 |
Slim optical disc drive with flexible flat cable assembly
The present invention discloses a slim optical disc drive comprising a case with an upper cover and a lower cover, a disc tray for loading and unloading an optical disc, a first circuit board disposed on the lower cover, a second circuit board disposed on the disc tray, and a flexible flat cable for connecting the first circuit board and the second circuit board. The flexible flat cable comprises a fixed portion and a movable portion, and a patch is adhered to the movable portion of the flexible flat cable. The patch has a first end and a second end, and the width of the first end is larger than that of the second end. |
| US08341654B2 |
Optical disc apparatus
A control unit makes the slot control mechanism execute an failure recovery operation to repeat the insertion operation and the ejection operation alternately for a predetermined amount at a first point of time when the below fact is found, if it is found that there is an error in insertion operation or ejection operation of a slot control mechanism. Afterwards, the control unit makes the slot control mechanism execute an restoration operation for a predetermined amount after a second point of time when the below fact is found, if it is found that the slot control mechanism has returned to normal, thereby making the slot control mechanism return to the state at the first point of time. Then, the control unit makes the slot control mechanism execute the insertion operation or the ejection operation again. With this arrangement, it is possible to ensure reliable insertion operation or ejection operation. |
| US08341651B2 |
Integrating enterprise search systems with custom access control application programming interfaces
Methods and computer-readable media are provided herein for integrating enterprise search systems with proprietary back-end content store access control APIs. A declarative metadata model is utilized to create and store data defining a custom API exposed by a back-end content store for retrieving access rights for documents stored therein. A normalized API for obtaining access rights for a document is also exposed. When a call is made to the normalized API, the stored data is utilized to transform the call to the normalized API into a call to the custom API. |
| US08341650B1 |
High thread count analyzer for web application server environment
Thread count analyzer programming enables automated monitoring of open process thread counts for a middleware web service, for example, in the context of Communication Enterprise Services (CCES) for providing customer account related notifications to customers/users of a mobile communications network. Web server thread counts are compared to first thresholds. In response to a high web server thread count, an impacted application server is identified, for example, by comparing application server thread counts to second thresholds. The procedure initiates a thread dump with regard to the impacted application server and provides notification to a support person together with information enabling access to a page of thread dump data. The exemplary thread count analysis can automatically detect a high thread count problem before there is an outage or any impact to the customer, accumulate relevant thread data, store such data in an accessible form, and provide automatic notice(s) for support personnel. |
| US08341649B2 |
System and method for handling an event in a computer system
Stack-based system for handling an event in a computer system which has a kernel mode and a user-mode, concurrently by one or more user-mode applications. The systems comprise at least one computing device. The computing device is configured to suspend an occurrence of the event in the kernel-mode of an operating system running thereon. The computing device is also configured to cause the event to occur in the user-mode of the operating system. The computing device is further configured to determine if an occurrence of the event in the kernel-mode will compromise the computer system by analyzing the occurrence of the event in the user-mode. If it is determined that the occurrence of the event in the kernel-mode will compromise the computer system, then the computing device executes at least one security measure. |
| US08341648B1 |
Automatic virtualization based on user-defined criteria
The disclosure is directed to automatic virtualization based on user-defined criteria. In one example, data representative of user-defined criteria is received, a virtualization heuristic is generated based on the user-defined criteria, the virtualization heuristic is activated, an occurrence of an event defined by the user-defined criteria is detected, and at least one virtualization operation is automatically performed in response to the detected event. In certain embodiments, the virtualization operation is selected based on the user-defined criteria. In certain embodiments, the virtualization operation includes capturing file system and configuration activity associated with the detected event and storing data representative of the captured file system and configuration activity to a virtual layer. |
| US08341640B2 |
Using smart objects in a virtual universe to conserve computing resources
Described herein are some embodiments that use smart objects in a virtual universe to conserve computing resources. Some embodiments describe a first object that detects an indication to reduce resource usage of a computing resource that supports a virtual universe. Some embodiments further describe reducing, based on detection of the indication to reduce resource usage, display quality of the first virtual object according to an order of degrees of display quality reduction that corresponds to one or more degrees of resource reduction required for the computing resource. Further, some embodiments describe a second virtual object that is not reduced in display quality while simultaneously the first virtual object is reduced in display quality. |
| US08341636B2 |
System and method for queue-less enforcement of queue-like behavior on multiple threads accessing a scarce resource
A system and method for managing simultaneous access to a scarce or serially re-usable resource by multiple process threads. A stationary queue is provided, including a wait counter for counting the cumulative number of threads that have been temporarily denied the resource; a satisfied counter for counting the cumulative number of threads that have been denied access and subsequently granted access to said resource; a sleep code routine responsive to the wait counter for generating a run identifier; and a wakeup code routine responsive to the satisfied counter for generating the run identifier. |
| US08341634B2 |
System and method of providing a fixed time offset based dedicated co-allocation of a common resource set
Disclosed are a system, method and computer-readable medium relating to managing resources within a compute environment having a group of nodes or computing devices. The method comprises, for each node in the compute environment: traversing a list jobs having a fixed time relationship, wherein for each job in the list, the following steps occur: obtaining a range list of available timeframes for each job, converting each availability timeframe to a start range, shifting the resulting start range in time by a job offset, for a first job, copying the resulting start range into a node range, and for all subsequent jobs, logically AND'ing the start range with the node range. Next, the method comprises logically OR'ing the node range with a global range, generating a list of acceptable resources on which to start and the timeframe at which to start and creating reservations according to the list of acceptable resources for the resources in the group of computing devices and associated job offsets. |
| US08341631B2 |
System and method for application isolation
A system, method, and computer readable medium for providing application isolation to one or more applications and their associated resources. The system may include one or more isolated environments including application files and executables, and one or more interception layers intercepting access to system resources and interfaces. Further, the system may include an interception database maintaining mapping between the system resources inside the one or more isolated environments and outside, and a host operating system. The one or more applications may be isolated from other applications and the host operating system while running within the one or more isolated environments. |
| US08341630B2 |
Load balancing in a data processing system having physical and virtual CPUs
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a method of load balancing in a data processing system comprising a plurality of physical CPUs and a plurality of virtual CPUs, the method comprising: mapping one or more virtual CPUs to each of said physical CPUs; and dynamically adapting the mapping depending on the load of said physical CPUs and the negative load indicative of the load of all other virtual CPUs that are allocated to each physical CPU. |
| US08341624B1 |
Scheduling a virtual machine resource based on quality prediction of encoded transmission of images generated by the virtual machine
A method and apparatus for scheduling a resource used by a virtual machine. In one embodiment, the method comprises generating information regarding utilization of a resource by a virtual machine, where the resource is used by the virtual machine to generate a media stream for communication with a remote computer, where information comprises a quality prediction for encoding the media stream and adjusting an allocation of the resource for use by the virtual machine based on the information. |
| US08341620B2 |
Streaming optimized virtual application images
Embodiments provide an optimized virtual application or suite of virtual applications, but are not so limited. In an embodiment, components of a system are configured to generate an optimized virtual package that can be used in a virtual application streaming environment. Components of the system can provide bits of the optimized virtual package based in part on scenario mappings associated with a user action and/or an application or application feature. In one embodiment, a client virtualization handler can operate to download byte ranges of an optimized virtual package including re-prioritizing byte range download operations as part of streaming virtual application functionality over a computing network. |
| US08341617B2 |
Scheduling software updates
A system and method for scheduling software updates on data processing systems. In an embodiment, software updates are scheduled on a data processing system by identifying a list of software updates; scheduling at least one primary software update for execution within a scheduled outage time based on an estimated execution time and an estimated rollback time for the at least one primary software update; executing the at least one primary software update during the scheduled outage time; and ordering the list of software updates for possible execution of at least one secondary software update in any remaining outage time in dependence upon the estimated execution times and estimated rollback times for each of the remaining software updates. The list of software updates may also be ordered in further dependence upon evaluation of relative priorities between the software updates, any prerequisite software updates, and a performance scaling factor for the data processing system. |
| US08341616B2 |
Updating digitally signed active content elements without losing attributes associated with an original signing user
A method and system for updating digitally signed active elements without losing attributes associated with an originally signing user. An updating entity determines the identity of an originally signing user from the original digital signature of an active content unit to be updated. Privileges associated with the original active content unit are determined from the original contents of the active content unit, or based on the identity of the originally signing user. The updating entity updates the active content unit with the new software version, and associates the original privileges for the active content unit with the new version of the active content unit. The updating entity stores the identity of the originally creating user in an On Behalf of: field of the updated active content unit. The updated active content unit is digitally signed by the updating entity. When a subsequent software update is received for the previously updated digitally signed active content unit, the updating entity determines that the On Behalf of: field is non-empty, and can then determine whether the previous signer has privileges allowing it to digitally sign for other users, and whether any privileges associated with (e.g. indicated within) the active content unit are available to the user identified in the On Behalf of: field. The privileges associated with subsequent updated version of the active content unit can advantageously be based on the identity of the user contained in the On Behalf of: field. |
| US08341608B2 |
Cross-browser toolbar and method thereof for facilitating cross-browser interoperability
A cross-platform toolbar and method thereof is disclosed. The toolbar includes a toolbar render object defining at least user interface elements of the cross-browser toolbar; a script file defining at least event handlers associated with the user interface elements; toolbar libraries including at least application programming interfaces (APIs) and script files supporting a specific web browser type; and a unique dynamic-link library (DLL) file assigned with the toolbar libraries and the script file. |
| US08341607B2 |
Condensing pattern matcher generation for intermediate language patterns
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to pattern matcher generation and provide a method, system and computer program product for automatic pattern matching and generation of intermediate language patterns. In one embodiment of the invention, a pattern matcher generation method can be provided. The method can include identifying input elements from intermediate language code, reducing the identified input elements from the intermediate language code to inputs of common and unique use, creating a unifiable form for each of the input elements of common and unique use, and generating a pattern matcher for each of the input elements of common and unique use in the intermediate language code using a corresponding unifiable form in place of each of the input elements of common and unique use. In particular, the generated pattern matcher can be expression matching and transformation programming framework (EMTF) conformant. |
| US08341595B2 |
System and method for developing rich internet applications for remote computing devices
A system for developing rich internet applications (RIAs) for remote computing devices that utilize a certifying player to invoke server-side web services through a single, secure, certifying intermediary server, includes an integrated development environment (IDE). The IDE includes a toolbox comprising graphical components configured to be dragged and dropped into UI states implementing the RIA process flow and a Web Service Description Language (WSDL) integrator for generating web service call for accessing web services for processing input from the UI states and generating an output result. |
| US08341594B1 |
Version control in modeling environments
Methods and systems for controlling versions of models in modeling environments are disclosed. The versions of models and component interfaces are stored in a repository and checked in and out of the repository. The version designation of a model is changed when the model is checked in the repository. A selected version of the model is checked out of the repository and loaded directly in a memory so that users may load the selected version of the model without error. The loaded model is displayed with information on the version of the model. The version information may include the version number and author of the version. The version information may also include information on whether the model is locked with a version or in a read only mode. |
| US08341589B2 |
Packaging design aiding device and method
A packaging design aiding device, including a storage unit to store component information that specifies another electronic component to be connected with an electronic component and a constraint that specifies a range of a wiring distance, a wiring determination unit to specify the electronic component and the another electronic component to be connected based on the component information and to determine a wiring there between, a wiring distance calculation unit to calculate the wiring distance between the electronic component, a display form determination unit to determine a display form based on the calculated wiring distance and the constraint, and a display control unit to display the wiring that connects the electronic component and the another electronic component in the determined display form. |
| US08341584B1 |
Flexible pin allocation
A system includes a memory and a controller. The controller may include a group of pads and an allocation register. The controller is configured to receive input signals corresponding to the group and allocate each one of the pads to output one of the input signals based on a configuration of pins of the memory. The controller is also configured to redirect the input signals, within the controller, based on the allocation of the pads and output the input signals from the controller into the pads. |
| US08341580B2 |
Modular routing fabric using switching networks
A routing fabric using multiple levels of switching networks along with associated routing matrices to allow a more uniform and shorter interconnection or routing path among logic modules or routing modules compared with those in the conventional designs. The resulting routing fabric can be used in electronic devices, such as switching networks, routers, and programmable logic circuits, etc. |
| US08341576B2 |
Semiconductor device and designing method of the same
A semiconductor device includes: a control target circuit section; and a voltage control section configured to dynamically control a supply voltage to the control target circuit section. The control target circuit section includes: a delay monitor circuit configured to measure a delay in the control target circuit section as a monitor delay; and a target delay register configured to store a target delay data which shows a target delay as a target value of the monitor delay. The delay monitor circuit compares the monitor delay and the target delay shown by the target delay data and sends a comparison resultant signal to the voltage control section to show a result of the comparison. The voltage control section controls the supply voltage based on the comparison resultant signal such that the monitor delay approaches to the target delay. |
| US08341574B2 |
Crosstalk time-delay analysis using random variables
Embodiments of a computer system, a method, an integrated circuit and a computer-program product (i.e., software) for use with the computer system are described. These devices and techniques may be used to calculate the total time delay in a signal path due to crosstalk from a group of crosstalk aggressors that are associated with a group of signal paths. In order to properly account for statistical behaviors in the switching times and directions of the switching patterns in the group of signal paths, the time-delay contribution from each of these crosstalk aggressors may be modeled as a corresponding statistical random variable. Because the number of crosstalk aggressors are usually much larger than the number of stages in the signal path, the calculated total path delay may be less pessimistic. Furthermore, in order to detect potential timing violations, the time-delay contributions from additional dominant crosstalk aggressors can be modeled using non-statistical worst-case deterministic values. |
| US08341568B2 |
Systems and methods for logic verification
Methods and systems for simulating logic may translate logic design into executable code for a multi-processor based parallel logic simulation device. A system may implement one or more parallel execution methods, which may include IPMD, MPMD, and/or DDMT. |
| US08341566B2 |
Method for generating and evaluating a table model for circuit simulation
A method for generating and evaluating a table model for circuit simulation in N dimensions employing mathematical expressions for modeling a device. The table model uses an unstructured N-dimensional grid for approximating the expressions. The method includes the steps of: (a) establishing a function domain having boundary limits in the N dimensions; (b) performing an accuracy partitioning operation to establish accuracy partitions; the mathematical expressions being satisfied within each accuracy partition within a predetermined error criteria; (c) performing a continuity partitioning operation to establish continuity partitions ensuring continuity of solutions of the mathematical expressions across boundaries separating adjacent accuracy partitions; (d) performing a grid refining operation to configure the continuity partitions to assure monotonic solutions of the mathematical expressions in the continuity partitions; (e) if a continuity partition is altered during the grid refining operation, returning to step (c), else proceeding to next step; (f) ending the method. |
| US08341564B1 |
Method and system for optimizing migrated implementation of a system design
A method and system are provided for optimizing migrated implementation of a system design. In certain applications, a source hierarchical structure system and a target hierarchical structure system are provided, the hierarchy is abstracted out, intrinsic parameters are encoded and compared between source hierarchical structure and target hierarchical structure to arrive at an optimized change order list for transforming/migrating the source hierarchical structure system to the target hierarchical structure system. |
| US08341563B1 |
Method and apparatus for power gating stitching
Aspects of the disclosure provide a method to design integrated circuit (IC) using power gating techniques. The method includes determining a placement of a plurality of power gating cells and at least a circuit block in an IC layout. On the IC layout, a first set of power gating cells and a second set of power gating cells are separated by the circuit block with a distance longer than a threshold. Further, the method includes optimizing a stitching order of the power gating cells for the placement to reduce a number of instances that the power gating cells in the first set and the power gating cells in the second set are neighboring power gating cells in the stitching order. |
| US08341562B1 |
Reducing metal pits through optical proximity correction
A method includes retrieving first layouts of an integrated circuit from a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The first layouts include a via pattern in a via layer, and a metal line pattern in a metal layer immediately over the via layer. The metal line pattern has an enclosure to the via pattern. The enclosure is increased to a second enclosure to generate second layouts of the integrated circuit. |
| US08341560B2 |
Method of designing semiconductor device including adjusting for gate antenna violation
This is a method of designing a semiconductor device. The method includes: arranging cells used for an electric circuit and wirings respectively connected to gates of the cells in a coordinate region to create chip layout data including the cells, gates and wirings; checking whether each gate included in the chip layout data is in antenna violation; storing antenna violation information in an error-remaining portion library, the antenna violation information representing an antenna violation gate group, in which gates in the antenna violation are contained, in the gates included in the chip layout data; performing lithography simulation for the chip layout data to create predicted layout data after photoresist exposure; selecting the antenna violation gate group from the gates included in the predicted layout data, with reference to the error-remaining library; calculating a calculated value representing a ratio of an area of an wiring of the wirings with respect to an area of a gate of the antenna violation gate group connected to the wiring, for each gate of the antenna violation group; and adjusting a size of the gate of the antenna violation gate group, when the calculated value of the antenna violation group included in the predicted layout data is in a range between a first and second setting value. |
| US08341551B2 |
Method and arrangment for a primary actions menu for a contact data entry record of an address book application on a handheld electronic device
A system and method is disclosed that provides for displaying on the screen of a handheld electronic device, an extended menu or a short menu, which is a subset of the corresponding extended menu. The system and method include a contact data entry record of an address book application being displayed on a screen. If a contact data entry record is designated through use of the auxiliary user input device and no menu is displayed, the user may initiate an ambiguous request. Various short menus are provided with their respective menu items being dependent and adjustable based upon the position of a cursor on the display page, the currently opened application, and/or the previous selections. Further, a selection from the short menu is capable of displaying the extended menu corresponding thereto. |
| US08341550B2 |
User generated targeted advertisements
User generated targeted advertisements is described. In embodiments, a selection of an advertisement template for a targeted advertisement can be received when initiated by a user. Advertisement content to incorporate in the advertisement template can be received, as well as selections of recipients to receive the targeted advertisement. A program grid can be generated for display from which a television program and advertisement time slot can be selected to display the targeted advertisement for viewing. Confirmation to purchase the targeted advertisement for delivery to the recipients can also be received to initiate the targeted advertisement being displayed for viewing during the selected television program and advertisement time slot. |
| US08341544B2 |
Scroll bar with video region in a media system
An electronic device associated with a remote wand controlling the operations of the electronic device is provided. The wand may include a motion detection component operative to provide an output reflecting the motion of the wand to the electronic device, such that the movements of a cursor displayed by the electronic device may be related to the output of the motion detection component. The wand may also include an input mechanism operative to receive user inputs. Using the input mechanism, the wand may detect a user's inputs and direct the electronic device to zoom or scroll displayed objects. The electronic device may display a screen saver by which the user may select particular media items for playback while remaining in the screen saver mode. In some embodiments, the electronic device may display video with a scroll bar that includes a preview window of the video. |
| US08341541B2 |
System and method for visually browsing of open windows
A method referred to as visual window browsing allows a user to browse through windows on their desktop. Aspects of the invention include responsive to a command, moving open windows to form a visual stack with the topmost window in the stack being in focus. Responsive to a browse the windows in the visual stack can be browsed, where the topmost window moves to the bottom of the visual stack and the other windows move higher in the stack, with the second highest window becoming the topmost window and being in focus. Successive browse commands causes this behavior to repeat allowing a user to cycle through each of the open windows. |
| US08341540B1 |
Visualizing object behavior
A visualization service generates a graphical representation or visualization of each user's behavior within a network resource, such as a website. In one example, the visualization service provides a dynamic visualization of each user accessing the network resource. Each user is graphically represented in the visualization with an indicium, such as a point or dot. The visualization (and thus, the position of each indicium representing a user) is dynamically updated as each user accesses data files from the network resource and thus, moves from state to state (or page to page) over time. The effect is similar to watching cars move along a complex highway system. |
| US08341539B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, information processing program, and mobile terminal device
An information processing apparatus includes a content detector portion, a display controller portion, an operation state detector portion, and a popup display controller portion. The content detector portion detects contents belonging to a same time range from different types of contents. The display controller portion collects the contents detected by the content detector portion and belonging to the same time range, displays content-related graphical information of the respective contents collected in units of the respective time range, and displays on the display portion a selector. The operation state detector portion detects an operation state of an operation portion. After detecting a predetermined operation state, the popup display controller portion detects a content having past time information with respect to the time information of the selected content, and popup displays content-related graphical information of the detected content on the display portion. |
| US08341537B2 |
Indication of delayed content output in a user interface
Indication of delayed content output is described. In an implementation, content is output for display as a user interface having one or more selectable elements. When a cursor is positioned proximally to one of the selectable elements, a graphical symbol is output in the user interface that indicates a delay of a user-specified amount of time before additional content is displayed. |
| US08341535B2 |
System and method for distributed communication control within an enterprise
Systems and methods for providing distributed call control are provided. In exemplary embodiments, a communication user interface is provided on a client device associated with an individual. The communication user interface comprises a plurality of selectable communication control operations configured to provide control over communications of users within an enterprise. A selection of one of the plurality of communication control operations is received from the individual. Permissions associated with the individual are reviewed to determine if the individual is allowed to perform the communication control operation. If the individual is allowed, the communication control operation is performed. If the individual is not allowed, a denial indicator may be provided. |
| US08341533B2 |
Storage and expedited retrieval of messages and responses in multi-tasking environments
Tools and techniques are described for storage and expedited retrieval of messages and responses in multi-tasking environments. Methods provided by these tools may establish active communications with a first contact, and then received indications of secondary communications involving a second contact. These methods may then present user interfaces (UIs) that include representations of at least the secondary communications. Through the UIs, the methods may receive a selection of one of the secondary communications for an expedited response, and may receive input from the user that provides the expedited response to the secondary communication, while maintaining the active communication in an active state. These methods may provide the expedited response to the secondary communication, based upon the input received from the user. |
| US08341531B2 |
Content formatting and installation techniques
Content formatting and installation techniques are described. In an implementation, a method includes receiving one or more inputs for initiating an installation process of one or more content items and performing the installation process without user intervention. The performing of the installation process includes obtaining a content package, from over a network, which includes a manifest which describes a content type for each of the content items. Each of the content items is installed for use by an application module based on a respective content type. |
| US08341528B2 |
Managing the content of shared slide presentations
Systems, methods, and software applications for managing slide presentation content are described in the present disclosure. According to one embodiment, among many, a computer readable medium is configured to store instructions that are executable by a processing device. The computer readable medium comprises logic adapted to disassemble a plurality of slide presentations into a plurality of individual files, wherein each individual file corresponds to a single slide of a respective slide presentation. The computer readable medium also includes logic adapted to extract information from each slide and logic adapted to compare the extracted information from each slide and consolidate groups of slides that are substantially similar. |
| US08341525B1 |
System and methods for collaborative online multimedia production
A digital multimedia platform available to a plurality of collaborators of a video project through a networked computing system maps script information to a timeline, allowing contributions to be mapped to the timeline for inclusion in the project. One embodiment includes a tools module, an authentication module, a compilation module, and a script writing tool. The tools module enables editing of a multimedia project by collaborators. The authentication module assigns roles and privileges to collaborators. The compilation module receives files and information from collaborators to the multimedia project. The script writing tool implements edits to a script file associated with the multimedia project. |
| US08341521B2 |
Method and apparatus for merged browsing of network contents
Client devices capable of merged browsing, and a server for assisting merged browsing, are described herein. In various embodiments, client devices may receive suggestions of network content fragments to be merge browsed with network content being browsed by the user. The client device may then receive a user selection of fragment(s) and facilitate merged browsing of the fragment(s) with the network content. In some embodiments, the client device may facilitate a user in browsing first network content and in selecting a portion of the first network content. The client device may then facilitate the user in browsing second network content and in merged browsing the selected portion with the second network content. In various embodiments, the server may accept registrations of network content fragments, receive indications from client devices of network content being browsed, and assist in merged browsing the network content with one or more network content fragments. |
| US08341515B2 |
Method for validating unique particle attribution constraints in extensible markup language schemas
A method for validating unique particle attribution (UPA) in extensible markup language (XML) schemas includes receiving an input argument including a particle of an XML schema, verifying particle occurrence information of the XML schema, verifying particle sequence model group information of the XML schema, verifying particle choice model group information of the XML schema, verifying particle all model group information of the XML schema, and recursively calling additional instances of the method for validating UPA such that all particles recursively defined in the particle of the input argument are subject to verification of UPA constraints. |
| US08341512B2 |
Method for capturing design-time and run-time formulas associated with a cell
An interface for designing a report is provided, with elements of the report being disposed at intersections of report positions and configured to present information derived from data in a database. A formula is associated with one or more selected elements in the report to generate a result for the one or more selected elements. A tuple identifying the report positions of the one or more selected elements is associated and stored with the formula in a formula list associated with the report. The report is configured so that, when the report is generated, it is determined whether identifying report positions corresponding to an identified element in the report correspond with the tuple in the formula list. Upon determining the tuple corresponds with the identifying report positions for the identified element, the formula associated with the tuple is applied to generate the result. |
| US08341510B2 |
CRC generator polynomial select method, CRC coding method and CRC coding circuit
Disclosed herein is a CRC generator polynomial select method for selecting a generator polynomial to be used in CRC coding and code checking, the method may include a first process of finding largest minimum Hamming distances Max.dmin of codes generated from given polynomials; a second process of finding code lengths n for codes having the largest minimum Hamming distances Max.dmin and determining a range nmin (r, Max.dmin)≦n≦nmax (r, Max.dmin); a third process of searching all polynomials for specific polynomials generating codes having dmin=Max.dmin in the determined range; and a fourth process of selecting final generator polynomials having a smallest non-zero coefficient count and a lowest code undetected-error probability from the specific polynomials. |
| US08341509B2 |
Forward error correction (FEC) scheme for communications
Forward error correction (FEC) scheme for communications. Appropriate selection/arrangement of bits of an information bit sequence undergo one or more types of subsequent encoding to generate a coded bit sequence that may subsequently undergo appropriate processing to generate a continuous time signal to be launched within a communication channel. In some embodiments, an information bit sequence, after being partitioning into a number of information bit groups, initially undergoes a first encoding within a first encoding module thereby generating a number of redundancy/parity bit groups (e.g., e.g., each redundancy/parity bit group corresponding to one of the information bit groups). Then, after performing any desired and appropriate selection/arrangement of bits within the redundancy/parity bit groups and the information bit groups, second encoding within a second encoding module is performed thereon to generate additional redundancy/parity bits. In addition, interleaving may be performing at various stages of the encoding processing. |
| US08341504B2 |
Fast and reliable wireless communication
A communication system that provides fast and reliable communications. The system is suitable for use in connection with wireless computing devices in which transmission errors may occur because of channel conditions, such as interference. Channel conditions causing transmission errors may be bursty and transient such that the errors temporarily overwhelm an error control code. By combining data received for multiple transmission attempts of a packet that fail error checking or that pass error checking with low reliability, a reliable representation of the packet may be quickly constructed. Though, combining may be omitted when a transmission attempt is received that passes error checking with high reliability. |
| US08341501B2 |
Adaptive endurance coding of non-volatile memories
Adaptive endurance coding including a method for storing data that includes receiving write data and a write address. A compression algorithm is applied to the write data to generate compressed data. An endurance code is applied to the compressed data to generate a codeword. The endurance code is selected and applied in response to the amount of space saved by applying the compression to the write data. The codeword is written to the write address. |
| US08341499B2 |
System and method for error detection in a redundant memory system
A system and method is disclosed for detecting errors in memory. A memory subsystem that includes a set of parallel memory channels is disclosed. Data is saved such that a duplicate copy of data is saved to the opposite memory channel according to a horizontal mirroring scheme or a vertical mirroring scheme. A cyclic redundancy code is generated on the basis of the data bits and address bits. The generated cyclic redundancy code and a copy of the cyclic redundancy code are saved to the memory channels according to a horizontal mirroring scheme or a vertical mirroring scheme. |
| US08341498B2 |
System and method of data encoding
A method includes reading data from a data area of a word line and reading first ECC data from an ECC area of the word line. The method also includes, in response to determining that an error indicator exceeds a threshold, storing second ECC data in the ECC area. The second ECC data corresponds to a subsection of the data area. |
| US08341495B2 |
Method for detecting short burst errors in LDPC system
The present invention is a device for detecting short burst errors. The device includes a first signal input, wherein the first signal input is configured to receive a first signal. The device includes a second signal input, wherein the second signal input is configured to receive a second signal. The device includes a logic gate, wherein the logic gate is operable for receiving the first signal via the first signal input, receiving the second signal via the second signal input, and generating a logic output gate signal based on the received first signal and the second signal. Furthermore, the device includes a filter, wherein the filter is configured for receiving the logic output gate signal from the logic gate and generates a filter output signal based upon the received logic output gate signal, wherein the filter output signal is operable for flagging errors. |
| US08341494B2 |
Decoding apparatus for high-density recording medium
A decoding apparatus for a high-density recording medium includes a demodulator, a long-distance code (LDC) processing module, a burst indicator subcode (BIS) processing module, an erasure code generator, and a decoder. The demodulator demodulates data from a high-density recording medium to obtain a demodulated data and a demodulation error flag. The LDC processing module and the BIS processing module deinterleave the demodulated data to respectively obtain an LDC data and a BIS data. The erasure code generator sets an erasure flag corresponding to the LDC data according to the demodulation error flag and the BIS error flag. The decoder decodes the LDC data according to the erasure flag. Further, the decoder decodes the BIS data to obtain the BIS error flag. |
| US08341493B2 |
Control channel detection for multiple implicit identifiers
A method for identifying matched mobile stations includes receiving by a first mobile station signals from a plurality of mobile stations located within a threshold distance of the first mobile station, identifying a first group of mobile stations of the plurality of mobile stations, and receiving uni-cast control information from a network entity. For each mobile station of a first group, the method includes identifying a matched mobile station based upon first data of a mobile station of the first group effectively matching second data of a mobile station of a second group. One operation includes generating a descrambled information element for each matched mobile station of the first group by using the first scrambling sequence that is associated with the matched mobile station to descramble the scrambled information element of the mobile terminal of the second group that is matched to the mobile terminal of the first group. |
| US08341486B2 |
Reducing power consumption in an iterative decoder
A method for controlling power consumption of an iterative decoder based on one or more criteria is described. The method may include performing iterative decoding on a demodulated signal to provide a decoded signal, determining whether the iterative decoding is suffering an impairment, and terminating the iterative decoding responsive to the determination of the impairment, otherwise continuing the iterative decoding to provide the decoded signal. |
| US08341485B2 |
Increasing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) throughput
In some embodiments, the invention involves increasing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) throughput. In one embodiment, throughput may be increased by clearing the retransmission buffer at least one frame in advance, based on status received from the downlink device before a full acknowledgement. Another embodiment partitions HARQ bursts into two groups. A first group is for packet data units (PDUs) that are anticipated to be in error and a second group is for PDUs anticipated to be received correctly. Only PDUs that are anticipated to be in error, based on forward error correction (FEC) blocks, are to be saved in the retransmission buffer. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08341479B2 |
Robust file casting for mobile TV
Disclosed are a repair control device and a method at the repair control device for selecting a repair server among a plurality of repair servers, in a system where at least one terminal and the plurality of repair servers listen to at least one file delivery session distributed in a push mode from at least one file server. The method includes the steps of receiving from at least one terminal a request for repairing a packet of the at least one file delivery session, selecting a repair server among a plurality of repair servers for repairing the packet to the at least one terminal and redirecting the request to the at least one terminal with the address of the selected repair server or forwarding the request to the selected repair server. |
| US08341470B2 |
Semiconductor memory device supporting read data bus inversion function and method of testing the semiconductor memory device
Provided is a semiconductor memory device supporting a read data bus inversion (RDBI) function and a method of testing the semiconductor memory device. The method includes: providing data of an input test pattern to data input/output pads; including the data of the input test pattern in a data bus through a memory cell core block; if the data on the data bus satisfy an inversion condition, inverting and outputting the data on the data bus, and generating a flag signal indicating that the data on the data bus are inverted; comparing each of the inverted data on the data bus with the flag signal and transmitting resultant data to the data input/output pads; and determining whether the resultant data transmitted to the data input/output pads are data of an output test pattern. |
| US08341469B2 |
Configuration device for configuring FPGA
An FPGA configuration device comprises: a read operation control unit which performs control to read configuration data from a configured FPGA; and a configuration data transfer unit which transfers the configuration data read out of the FPGA to a memory. |
| US08341467B2 |
System and method for wireless transmission using hybrid ARQ based on average mutual information per bit
A method and system for packet transmission in a hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) system. A modulation and a block length for a transmission are determined based on the average mutual information per bit. The average mutual information per bit is computed based on a current channel signal-to-noise ratio and a plurality of previous transmissions, each being transmitted with a respective coded block length, modulation form, and signal-to-noise ratio. A block error rate is computed for the potential block lengths and modulations based on the average mutual information per bit, and a throughput of the current transmission is determined based on the block error rate. The modulation form and the block length of the transmission are determined based on an analysis of the throughput. If the receiver cannot decode the current transmission, the transmitter repeats the computation to determine the modulation and the block length for retransmission. |
| US08341465B2 |
Data through community feedback
A method, system and computer program product for providing a framework to enable a builder to construct a situational application, wherein the framework provides access to one or more background data sources. A graphical user interface is displayed to receive feedback inputs, including one or more inputs which describe the problem detected within a data item of a situational application, by an end-user. Feedback inputs may include a unique identifier of the problem data item and identification details of the service from which the data originates. A second input may be of a note, which provides suggestions for improving the data within the data item. Preference information is provided to a notification agent within the framework of the situational application about whether the owner of the data allows direct correction of the data and whether feedback input has to be stored in a problem cache. The feedback input is passed to a notification agent of the framework, which identifies the owner and/or builder of the data. |
| US08341463B2 |
System operations management apparatus, system operations management method
A system management procedure combines operations for performing operation management in a computer system, the system management knowledge capable of specifying a post-status of each constituent element of the computer system, the post-status being expected as a result that the operations are executed in accordance with the system management procedure, are previously stored in databases. Then, it is judged that a failure occurs, when an actual state of the computer system as a result that the operations are executed based on the system management procedure, is inconsistent with the expected post-status. When the failure occurred, a revising method capable of making the actual state of the computer system as the result that the operations are executed in the system management procedure, to be consistent with the expected post-status, is derived to be proposed. |
| US08341460B2 |
Verification of computer backup data
A backup method for a computer system network avoids generating hashes from data that may be inaccurate due to network errors affords verification of source data written to backup media includes reading at a network client a portion of the source data from a source storage volume and generating a hash of the source data at the client. The source data and hash are transmitted to a backup server and written to the backup media. The hash is written to the backup media is associated with the backup data corresponding to the source data from which the hash was generated. Verification of the backup data is performed by reading the backup data from the backup media, generating a hash from the backup data read, and comparing that hash with the hash originally stored on the backup media. This enables the backup data to be verified as corresponding to the original source data without the necessity of rereading the source data from the source volume, and enables faster, more accurate off-line verification subsequent to the backup process. |
| US08341459B2 |
Data migration without interrupting host access and with data lock for write access requests such that held write access requests do not expire
A system includes a source storage device, a target storage device, a host coupled to the source storage device and the target storage device, and a first migration device coupled to the source storage device and the target storage device. The first migration device includes a first virtual storage device. The first migration device is configured to migrate data from the source storage device to the target storage device, and the first virtual storage device is configured to receive write access requests for the data from the host during the data migration and send the access request to the source storage device and target storage device. |
| US08341453B2 |
Transmission apparatus that transmits data according to a protocol, and method for measuring time in the transmission apparatus
A transmission apparatus that transmits data according to a protocol has a timer, a memory, a processor, and a transmission unit. The processor stores, in the memory, type data indicating a single type of time from a plurality of types of time that are to be measured according to the protocol. The transmission unit transmits data according to the protocol and starts the measurement of time of the type indicated by the type data stored in the memory using the timer after the data has been transmitted. |
| US08341451B2 |
Clock configuration
A circuit and method for determining the frequency of a first oscillating reference signal generated by a first reference oscillator. The circuit comprises: a second reference oscillator arranged to generate a second oscillating reference signal having a known frequency, a boot memory storing boot code comprising clock configuration code, and a processor coupled to the boot memory and the second reference oscillator. The processor is arranged to execute the boot code from the boot memory upon booting, wherein when executed the clock configuration code operates the processor to determine the frequency of the first reference signal by reference to the second reference signal. |
| US08341449B2 |
Battery management system and method for transferring data within the battery management system
A battery management system is provided. The system includes a battery monitoring device having a microprocessor and a hardware component. The microprocessor identifies a non-modifiable node ID from the hardware component. The microprocessor also obtains operational parameters associated with the at least one battery cell. The microprocessor computes a network ID for the battery monitoring device based on the non-modifiable node ID. The system further includes a main controller that communicates with the battery monitoring device via a communication bus utilizing the network ID. |
| US08341447B2 |
Computer with low-power secondary processor and secondary display
A device operable in each of active and inactive modes includes first and second processors. The first processor performs, in accordance with a first power level, both wireless and non-wireless network processing. A second processor performs wireless network processing in accordance with a second power level. While the device is operating in the active mode: the first processor and the first display are powered up; the first display displays a result of the wireless network processing or the non-wireless network processing by the first processor; and the second processor and the second display are powered down. While the device is operating in the inactive mode: the first processor and the first display are powered down; the second processor and the second display are powered up; and the second display displays a result of the wireless network related processing by the second processor. |
| US08341446B2 |
Control module for controlling electro-phoretic display integrated circuit and method thereof
By classifying an electro-phoretic display integrated circuit (EPD IC) into a digital routine module, a digital non-routine module, and an analog routine module, and by switching off the digital non-routine module and the analog routine module, power consumption of the EPD IC may be effectively reduced, and an available time of an integrated circuit card utilizing the EPD IC may also be lengthened. |
| US08341441B2 |
Reducing energy consumption in a cloud computing environment
Functionality can be implemented within a cloud manager to leverage energy consumption data of cloud processing and their associated facility resources when selecting computing nodes to complete the job. The cloud manager can determine possible computing nodes to complete the job based on the job attributes. The cloud manager can determine aggregate energy data of the cloud resources from an energy usage database. The cloud manager can analyze the energy usage data to determine a configuration of the computing nodes to perform the job that reduces total energy consumption. For example, a configuration of servers can be based on a number of servers and processor utilization at the servers to perform the job. The cloud manager can assign the job to the servers and set the processor utilization at the servers in accordance with the resource configuration determined to minimize energy consumption. |
| US08341432B2 |
Methods of invoking various functions of a digital media player using a single switch of the digital media player
There is provided a method for charging a power source of a digital media player (20) using a cable (24) connected to a computer (34), and also a method for activating a lower volume during playback of content on the digital media player (20). Both methods may be triggered by a toggling switch (22) on the media player (20). |
| US08341427B2 |
Trusted cloud computing and services framework
A digital escrow pattern is provided for network data services including searchable encryption techniques for data stored in a cloud, distributing trust across multiple entities to avoid a single point of data compromise. In one embodiment, a key generator, a cryptographic technology provider and a cloud services provider are each provided as separate entities, enabling a publisher of data to publish data confidentially (encrypted) to a cloud services provider, and then expose the encrypted data selectively to subscribers requesting that data based on subscriber identity information encoded in key information generated in response to the subscriber requests, e.g., a role of the subscriber.Appendix A—Additional Non-Limiting Details about Federated Trust Overlays |
| US08341426B2 |
Methods and devices for instruction level software encryption
A method of encrypting compiled computer code instructions to be decrypted instruction by instruction during execution. The computer code instructions are encrypted using a chaining mode so that an encrypted instruction depends on the values of the instruction, the value of the preceding instruction and a pseudo-random number. As it may happen that the instruction can be arrived at from more than one preceding instruction, at least one of the preceding instructions is associated with a random number compensator for use during decryption of the encrypted instruction, so that the decryption of the encrypted instruction yields the same result regardless of which the preceding instruction was. Also provided are an encryption device, a decryption device and method, and a digital support medium storing encrypted compiled computer code instructions. |
| US08341424B2 |
Methods for playing protected content
One aspect of the present invention is a method of playing multi-media content through a personal computer. The personal computer includes a processor and memory, with the memory having software instructions stored therein. The processor executes the instructions to carry-out the method. The method includes: receiving data representing multi-media content at the personal computer; receiving at the personal computer an initial set of data representing a base set of usage rights that is associated with the multi-media content, wherein the initial set of data defines a first set of rights that is permissible without upgrading or renewing the base set of usage rights; and upon receiving a request to perform an action involving the multi-media content, checking the initial set of data representing the base set of usage rights to determine whether the action is permissible, and providing an option to a user through the personal computer to contact a remote computer to negotiate for an upgraded set of usage rights. The transmission of the multi-media content is among those actions that are not permissible. |
| US08341422B2 |
Method and apparatus for incremental code signing
The present invention discloses a method for quickly and easily authenticating large computer program. The system operates by first sealing the computer program with digital signature in an incremental manner. Specifically, the computer program is divided into a set of pages and a hash value is calculated for each page. The set of hash values is formed into a hash value array and then the hash value array is then sealed with a digital signature. The computer program is then distributed along with the hash value array and the digital signature. To authenticate the computer program, a recipient first verifies the authenticity of the hash value array with the digital signature and a public key. Once the hash value array has been authenticated, the recipient can then verify the authenticity of each page of the computer program by calculating a hash of a page to be loaded and then comparing with an associated hash value in the authenticated hash value array. If the hash values do not match, then execution may be halted. |
| US08341417B1 |
Data storage using encoded hash message authentication code
Data storage and message processing using an encoded hash message authentication code is described. In one embodiment, a data processing apparatus comprises one or more processors; logic coupled to the one or more processors for execution and which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes receiving a data set at the one or more processors; creating and storing a hash output value by applying the data set to a collision-resistant hash operation that provides the hash output value as output; encoding the hash output value using a uniquely invertible keyed pseudo-random permutation operation based on a first shared key, to result in creating an encoded authentication code; and associating the encoded authentication code with the data set. |
| US08341409B2 |
Content server apparatus, on-vehicle player apparatus, system, method, and program
A content server apparatus (10) includes: a unique information holding unit (103) which holds unique information of an on-vehicle player apparatus (20), a content obtaining unit (101) which obtains a content from outside, an encrypting unit (104) which encrypts the obtained content, prior to a transmission request from the on-vehicle player apparatus (20), onto an encrypted content using the unique information, a storing unit (105) which stores the encrypted content, and a transmitting unit (107) which transmits the stored encrypted content in response to the transmission request from the on-vehicle player apparatus (20). The on-vehicle player apparatus includes a storage medium (208) which stores the received encrypted content, and a decrypting unit (209) which decrypts the stored encrypted content in response to a reproduction request given from outside. |
| US08341403B2 |
Decryption method and apparatus using external device or service and revocation mechanism, and decryption support method and apparatus
A revocation examination method and apparatus for a device are provided. The method includes: storing information regarding revoked nodes; receiving from the device an identifier (ID) of the device and a revocation examination request message including an ID of a leaf node corresponding to the device; examining whether the device corresponding to the ID of the leaf node is revoked with reference to the information regarding revoked nodes; and transmitting a response to the revocation examination request message based on a result of the examining. |
| US08341400B2 |
Method and apparatus for achieving nonconformant public key infrastructures
Method and apparatus are described wherein, in one example embodiment, a public key certificate issued by a certificate authority includes at least one characteristic that conforms to at least one rule established for the operation of a public key infrastructure. An attribute certificate is issued to be used to modify the public key certificate in accordance with information contained in the attribute certificate to create a modified public key certificate wherein the at least one characteristic is modified so as to be non-conformant with the at least one rule. According to one example embodiment, the attribute certificates may be distributed by a certificate authority, or embedded in an application that includes an engine that is used to modify the conforming public key certificate. |
| US08341398B2 |
Communication system, network device and program
There is provided a communication system in which a network device and an information processing device are communicatably connected to each other through a network. The network device comprises a certificate providing unit to transmit an electronic certificate to the information processing device through the network; and a printing unit configured to print an image of a public key corresponding to the electronic certificate. The information processing device comprises: a certificate reception unit to receive the electronic certificate from the certificate providing unit through the network; an image output unit to generate and output an image of the public key described in the received electronic certificate; and an installation unit configured to install the electronic certificate onto the information processing device in response to a fact that the generated image of the public key is output by the image output unit and a command for installation of an electronic certificate is received. |
| US08341395B2 |
Media independent handover protocol security
An apparatus for providing security to media independent handover service includes a point of service for providing the media independent handover services including an independent authenticator. The independent authenticator authenticates candidate access networks prior to the handover of the mobile devices from serving access networks to the candidate access networks, where each of the serving access networks and the candidate access networks belong to a plurality of heterogeneous access networks having the specific serving media. An access controller applies an access control through an access authentication with the point of service providing the media independent handover services through an authentication server, in which when the access authentication is established between the point of service and the authentication server, the mobile devices are authorized to access the media independent handover services through the point of service for the mobile devices attached between heterogeneous media. |
| US08341394B2 |
Data encryption/decryption method and data processing device
It is possible to improve a radio communication digital baseband processing device including data encryption/decryption so as to prevent processing failure caused by a data rate increase in recent years by increasing the MAC processing speed of data encryption/decryption and realizing the load distribution in a processing device. A data processing device which performs a communication process including data encryption/decryption includes: a control processor which performs calculation of the MAC processing parameter; and MAC processing means which performs MAC data processing including data encryption/decryption. The control processor controls the MAC processing means by a command script continuously describing a combination of a command and parameter accompanying it. |
| US08341393B2 |
Security to extend trust
An exemplary apparatus includes one or more processors; memory; circuitry configured to hash a value associated with core root of trust measurement code and system management code; store the hash in a secure register; load an operating system; validate a certificate associated with the core root of trust measurement code and validate a certificate associated with the system management code; based on the validated certificates, provide an expected hash associated with the core root of trust measurement code and the system management code; decide if the expected hash matches the hash stored in the register; and, if the expected hash matches the hash stored in the register, commence a dynamic root of trust measurement session. Various other apparatuses, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed. |
| US08341392B2 |
Network storage target boot and network connectivity through a common network device
The present disclosure includes systems and techniques relating to booting to a network storage target. In general, in one implementation, a bus-to-network device driver is loaded during a machine boot, where the bus-to-network device driver is capable of sending machine bus commands over a network, providing access to the network for a network device driver, and distinguishing between received responses to the machine bus commands and other network traffic corresponding to the network device driver. Loading of the bus-to-network device driver can occur in response to an operating system load of bus drivers. For example, the bus-to-network device driver can be an iSCSI driver, and the operating system load of bus drivers can be the operating system load of SCSI drivers. |
| US08341391B2 |
Image reproducing apparatus and method performing a first booting mode in which only some booting operations of a second booting mode are performed
An image reproducing apparatus and method of controlling the image reproducing apparatus are provided. The method of controlling the image reproducing apparatus includes: determining whether external power is supplied; performing a first booting operation when the external power is supplied; and controlling the image reproducing apparatus to operate in a sleep mode if an operation start signal is not received until the booting operation is completed. The method further includes controlling the image reproducing apparatus to perform a second booting operation to operate in a normal mode after an operation start signal is received. The method further includes performing a resuming operation so that the image reproducing apparatus operates in a normal mode when the operation start signal is received while the image reproducing apparatus operates in the sleep mode. The method further includes operating in an end mode when the sleep mode continues for a predetermined time or longer. |
| US08341386B2 |
Method for updating basic input/output system and method for repairing thereof
The invention relates to a method for updating a basic input/output system (BIOS) and method for repairing the BIOS. A part of a program code of the BIOS is stored in a backup memory block in advance. If the BIOS fails to update, the backup program code can be adopted to start up a computer system and then the BIOS will be repaired. |
| US08341383B2 |
Method and a system for accelerating procedure return sequences
A method for retrieving a return address from a link stack when returning from a procedure in a pipeline processor is disclosed. The method identifies a retrieve instruction operable to retrieve a return address from a software stack. The method further identifies a branch instruction operable to branch to the return address. The method retrieves the return address from the link stack, in response to both the instruction and the branch instruction being identified and fetches instructions using the return address. |
| US08341382B2 |
Memory accelerator buffer replacement method and system
A microcontroller using an optimized buffer replacement strategy comprises a memory configured to store instructions, a processor configured to execute said program instructions, and a memory accelerator operatively coupled between the processor and the memory. The memory accelerator is configured to receive an information request and overwrite the buffer from which the prefetch was initiated with the requested information when the request is fulfilled by a previously initiated prefetch operation. |
| US08341377B2 |
Application independent storage array performance optimizer
A system comprising a performance module and an application. The performance module may be configured to (i) monitor a LUN for a predetermined amount of time, (ii) capture information relating to the LUN, and (iii) store the information. The application may be configured to (i) retrieve the information, (ii) analyze the information, (iii) generate a configuration based on the analysis of the information and (iv) send the configuration to the performance module. The performance module may reconfigure the LUN based on the configuration. |
| US08341376B1 |
System, method, and computer program for repartitioning data based on access of the data
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for repartitioning data based on access of the data. In use, an addition of a new partition in memory to at least one existing partition in the memory across which data is stored is detected. Additionally, access to a portion of the data is identified. Further, one of the at least one existing partition in the memory in which the portion of the data is stored is determined. Moreover, the portion of the data is repartitioned from the one of the at least one existing partition to the new partition while allowing access to other portions of the data, in response to the identification of the access to the portion of the data. |
| US08341375B2 |
Methods for conversion of update blocks based on association with host file management data structures
A method for operating a memory system is provided. In this method, a sequential update block is provided and a write command is received to write data. The write command comprises a logical address associated with the data. If the logical address is associated with a host file management data structure, then the sequential update block is converted to a chaotic update block. After the conversion, the data are written to the chaotic update block. |
| US08341373B2 |
Apparatus and method to set signal compensation settings for a data storage device
A method is disclosed to set signal compensation settings for a data storage device comprising a first port and a second port, where that first port is interconnected to a first switch via a first communication pathway having a predetermined first length. The method determines first signal compensation settings based upon the first length. |
| US08341370B2 |
Restricting access to object based storage
A method, in one embodiment, can include a server receiving a message to deactivate a partition key of an object based storage system. A token of the object based storage system is signed by the partition key. The object based storage system includes the server. Additionally, after receiving the message, the server can deactivate the partition key to block access to a partition of the object based storage system by a client. The server includes the partition. |
| US08341366B2 |
Splitting writes between a storage controller and replication engine
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for splitting writes between a storage controller and replication engine. A splitter executing in a storage controller manages access to primary volumes. An initialization command is received to communicate with a replication engine. A replication command is received for one primary volume and the primary volume is indicated as subject to replication. A write request is received to write data to a target primary volume of the primary volumes that is indicated as subject to the replication. The data in the write request is written to the target primary volume. The data in the write request is sent to the replication engine. The replication engine executes a copy services function associated with the target primary volume to write the data to a replication engine volume. |
| US08341361B2 |
Method for storing data as well as a transponder, a read/write-device, a computer readable medium including a program element and such a program element adapted to perform this method
A method for storing or reading data in a memory array is described. The application data file includes an application data length indicator indicating a memory size of first application data stored in the application data file in compliance with a predetermined protocol. The method for storing additional data comprises checking whether a memory size of the application data file is larger than the memory size indicated by the application data length indicator and storing second application data in a partial memory area of the application data file not occupied by the first application data. Thereby, memory areas which, according to the predetermined protocol, are not used, can be used for new applications, data can be hidden in these areas such that they cannot be read by protocol compliant reader devices, and the data structure is compatible with the former predetermined protocol. |
| US08341358B1 |
System and method for cleaning dirty data in a cache via frame buffer logic
One embodiment of the invention sets forth a mechanism for efficiently write dirty data from the L2 cache to a DRAM. A dirty data notification, including a memory address of the dirty data, is transmitted by the L2 cache to a frame buffer logic when dirty data is stored in the L2 cache. The frame buffer logic uses a page-stream sorter to organize dirty data notifications based on the bank page associated with the memory addresses included in the dirty data notifications. The page-stream sorter includes multiple sets with entries that may be associated with different bank pages in the DRAM. The frame buffer logic transmits dirty data associated with an entry that has a maximum threshold of dirty data notifications to the DRAM. The frame buffer logic also transmits dirty data associated with the oldest entry when the number of entries in a set reaches a maximum threshold. |
| US08341356B2 |
Protected cache architecture and secure programming paradigm to protect applications
Embodiments of the present invention provide a secure programming paradigm, and a protected cache that enable a processor to handle secret/private information while preventing, at the hardware level, malicious applications from accessing this information by circumventing the other protection mechanisms. A protected cache may be used as a building block to enhance the security of applications trying to create, manage and protect secure data. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08341353B2 |
System and method to access a portion of a level two memory and a level one memory
A system and method to access data from a portion of a level two memory or from a level one memory is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, the system includes a level one cache and a level two memory. A first portion of the level two memory is coupled to an input port and is addressable in parallel with the level one cache. |
| US08341352B2 |
Checkpointed tag prefetcher
A dual-mode prefetch mechanism for implementing checkpoint tag prefetching includes: a data array for storing data fetched from cache memory; a set of cache tags for identifying the data stored in the data array; a set of checkpoint tags for storing data identification; a cache controller including prefetch logic, the prefetch logic including a checkpoint prefetch controller and a checkpoint prefetch operator. |
| US08341346B2 |
Offloading volume space reclamation operations to virtual tape systems
A method for offloading volume space reclamation operations to virtual tape systems is disclosed herein. In certain embodiments, such a method includes writing instruction information to a virtual tape system for use in performing a reclamation operation on a source virtual tape volume. The instruction information identifies the source virtual tape volume as well as valid objects in the source virtual tape volume. The virtual tape system then transforms the source virtual tape volume by retaining valid objects in the source virtual tape volume, removing invalid objects in the source virtual tape volume, and updating metadata associated with the source virtual tape volume to reflect changes made thereto. This generates an updated source virtual tape volume of reduced size. A corresponding computer program product and system are also disclosed and claimed herein. |
| US08341341B2 |
Electronic apparatus of recording data using non-volatile memory
An electronic apparatus for recording data using a non-volatile memory is provided. The electronic apparatus includes a non-volatile memory and a controller. The non-volatile memory stores a plurality of sets of playing information of the electronic apparatus. The controller is coupled to the non-volatile memory for receiving an input data and transforming a data structure of the input data into a bitmapping data structure. The controller includes a bitmapping module that is capable of transforming the input data into data having at least one bit but less than one byte in a bitmapping manner. |
| US08341333B2 |
Method of writing data into semiconductor memory and memory controller
A method of writing data into a semiconductor memory (11) in which nonvolatile memory cells (MC) each having a gate connected to a word line (WL) are connected in series, the method comprising selecting (S13) a scrambling method for the data according to a word line address for memory cells (MC) into which data is to be written, scrambling (S14) the data, and writing (S15) the scrambled data into the memory cells (MC) according to the word line address. The data is scrambled using the selected scrambling method. |
| US08341321B2 |
Managing a resource lock
A method of operating a resource lock for controlling access to a resource by a plurality of resource requesters, the resource lock operating in a contention efficient (heavyweight) operating mode, and the method being responsive to a request from a resource requester to acquire the resource lock, the method comprising the steps of: incrementing a count of a total number of acquisitions of the resource lock in the contention efficient operating mode; in response to a determination that access to the resource is not contended by more than one resource requester, performing the steps of: a) incrementing a count of a number of uncontended acquisitions of the resource lock in the contention efficient operating mode; b) calculating a contention rate as the number of uncontended acquisitions in the contention efficient operating mode divided by the total number of acquisitions in the contention efficient operating mode; and c) in response to a determination that the contention rate meets a threshold contention rate, causing the resource lock to change to a non-contention efficient (lightweight) operating mode. |
| US08341308B2 |
Method and apparatus for a fibre channel N-port ID virtualization protocol
Disclosed is a computer implemented method, data processing system and computer program product to discover an SCSI target. The method comprises a client adapter transmitting an N_port ID virtualization (NPIV) login to a virtual I/O server (VIOS). The client adapter receives a successful login acknowledgement from the VIOS and issues a discover-targets command to the fabric. Upon determining that the SCSI target information is received, wherein the SCSI target information includes at least one SCSI identifier. Responsive a determination that SCSI target information is received the client adapter issues a port login to a target port, wherein the target port is associated with the at least one SCSI target. The client adapter makes a process login to form an initiator/target nexus between a client and at least one SCSI target. The client adapter queries the SCSI target by using a world wide port name associated with the target port. |
| US08341306B1 |
Installation of a device driver and a filter driver
Some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method comprising coupling a first device to a client device, the first device having a virtual storage drive, the virtual storage drive storing a device driver; installing the device driver in the client device; and subsequent to installation of the device driver in the client device, installing a filter driver in the client device, the filter driver configured to prevent the client device from detecting the virtual storage drive of the first device whenever the first device is subsequently re-coupled to the client device. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. |
| US08341303B2 |
Asymmetrical universal serial bus communications
In some embodiments a Universal Serial Bus cable includes a first differential pair to transmit bus signals, and a second differential pair to transmit bus signals in a same direction as the bus signals transmitted by the first differential pair. In this manner, a bandwidth of the Universal Serial Bus cable is doubled in that same direction. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08341302B2 |
Method for configuring an electronic device
A method for automatically configuring an electronic device, such as a mobile telephone, is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the method includes receiving at an electronic device a command identifying first data and automatically determining a property of the identified first data. The method further includes automatically identifying an executable from the determined property and operating on the identified first data using the identified executable. |
| US08341294B2 |
Mechanism for cooperative load balancing with HTTP in converged telecommunication services
A mechanism for cooperative load balancing with HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) in converged telecommunication services is disclosed. A method of the invention includes receiving an incoming HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) request, determining that the HTTP request does not belong to a server machine node that received the HTTP request, updating a hints field included with the HTTP request with identifying information of the server machine node, selecting another server machine node of the cluster of server machine nodes that is not listed in the hints field to place in a route field included with the HTTP request, and sending a redirection response with the updated hints and updated route fields to a client machine. |
| US08341293B2 |
Peer-to-peer (P2P) network system and method of operating the same based on region
A peer-to-peer (P2P) network system and a method of operating the P2P network system based on region are provided. If an edge peer storing a resource information list of a super peer migrates to a different super peer and is registered and connected with the different super peer, the edge peer transfers the resource information list to the different super peer to share the resource information list. Resources may be searched based on a region information list into which resource information lists of adjacent super peers are integrated. |
| US08341285B2 |
Method and system for transferring files
The present invention proposes an apparatus and a method to efficiently transfer large files by splitting the file into smaller portions which may be transferred through a plurality of recipient nodes to a terminal node. The portion of file to be transferred by each recipient node is decided based on a load sharing algorithm. The terminal node may gather the current specifications of the recipient nodes and compute the portion of file each needs to transfer. The source node will get parallel requests from plurality of recipient nodes to transfer different offsets of the same file. The file splits across various nodes may be later merged locally. |
| US08341281B2 |
Generic communications protocol translator
The present invention discloses a generic protocol translator (32) that translates information from a source device to a destination device. The generic protocol translator (32) includes a receiver circuit manager (92) that receives information from a source device that is intended for a destination device through one or more interface sockets (104). The present invention also includes one or more receivers (106) receive information from the receiver circuit manager. Further included are one or more message converters (110) that convert the information to the destination format using a conversion process. Additionally included is a message router (112) that determines which destination protocol is appropriate for the information. And, the present invention includes one or more message senders (114) that transfer the information in the destination format and protocol to the destination device. |
| US08341271B2 |
Device discovery in a wireless communication system
A method and apparatus for performing device discovery in a wireless communication system is described. In one embodiment, a device discovery process is used in a wireless communication system having an apparatus for communicating with WirelessHD devices in a wireless network, where the apparatus comprises a host processor; a transceiver; a physical interface coupling the host processor and the transceiver; and a memory accessible by the host processor and the transceiver to exchange information between the host processor and the transceiver, and the device discovery process comprises: discovering a remote wireless device in the wireless network; notifying, by the transceiver, the host processor of the remote wireless device; requesting, under control of the transceiver, capability information from the remote wireless device prior to receiving a request from the host processor for the capability information; buffering, under control of the transceiver, the capability information before the capability information is requested by the host processor; receiving a capability request from the host processor; and providing the host processor access to the capability information. |
| US08341268B2 |
Resource sharing in multi-principal browser
Techniques for providing resource sharing in a multi-principal browser are described. Resource sharing includes managing a resource for web entity by determining how to divide the resource to share among two or more web entities based at least in part on a Document Object Model (DOM)-recursive resource allocation policy or an application-specified resource allocation policy. A web entity includes a principal instance contending for the resource. The process identifies resource allocation mechanisms from each resource type based at least in part on the DOM-recursive sharing policy or the application-specified resource allocation policy along with the resource type. |
| US08341267B2 |
Memory allocation to store broadcast information
Methods and systems for allocating memory of user terminals are disclosed. A user terminal may determine a weight for one or more categories, each category being associated with Internet information to be broadcast. The user terminal also may determine an available memory size of memory and may allocate memory to the one or more categories for storing the Internet information based on the weights and the available memory size. |
| US08341259B2 |
ASP for web analytics including a real-time segmentation workbench
An application service provider system for retrieving and displaying web analytic data, or segmentation workbench, comprises a server and several client computing devices. The server includes a web analytics tool. Each of the clients preferably includes a web analytics client for communication with the server. The application service provider system is architecture allows web analytics service to be provided to users with an application service provider where the web traffic information for different users can be segregated and share a single server while communicating with different clients of different user companies. The present invention also includes a number of methods for retrieving and presenting web analytics data. |
| US08341258B2 |
Display, view and operate multi-layers item list in web-browser with supporting of concurrent multi-users
Supporting end-user to view and operate computing resources by deploying logically organized and graphically represented multi-layered item list (“tree”) has been fully realized on native window based computer user work environment provided by modern operating system such as Windows Explore of Microsoft. The present invention has implemented such tree to represent structured resources, such as for a central controlled distributed scalable virtual machine (CCDSVM), and to be displayable and operable in any web browser on any type of computing system for user to access and manage the actual structured resources. The implementation of the tree is accomplished by creating the tree in memory to mirror the actual structure resource, where the mirrored tree is sent, via web page, to the computing system, where the computing system executes the web browser to display the tree and allow the user to access the actual structured resources via the displayed tree. |
| US08341256B2 |
Local control network processor (LCNP) emulator for multi-generation control systems
A multi-generation distributed control system includes a first generation (FG) DCS connected to a local control network (LCN) including FG client nodes. A second generation (SG) DCS connected to a non-LCN data highway includes a server node connected between the LCN and the non-LCN data highway and SG client nodes. The server node includes a LCN processor (LCNP) board. LCNP emulator software including a server LCNP emulator software component is at the server node and a client LCNP emulator software component at the SG client nodes. The server LCNP emulator software component translates between LCN data and data highway protocol data and adds one of a plurality of LCN address slots to communications received from the LCN for delivery to the SG DCS that each correspond to a SG client node. Each client LCNP emulator software component provides one of the LCN address slots at its SG client node. |
| US08341255B2 |
Managing network traffic by editing a manifest file
A technique for controlling the streaming of content through a network is disclosed. In an embodiment, the technique involves editing the manifest file that is used to implement an HTTP adaptive bit rate streaming protocol. For example, a manifest file is received at an intermediate network device in response to a request from a client for a content element, the manifest file is then edited at the intermediate network device, and then the edited manifest file is sent to the client. In an embodiment, editing the manifest file involves deleting and/or inserting a URI within the manifest file. |
| US08341254B2 |
Middleware-driven server discovery
The present invention describes a method and system for discovering of server devices. The system and method receive a list of known server devices. The system and method obtain middleware configuration data and/or log files for each of the known server devices in the list. The system and method derives dependencies on at least one other server device from the middleware configuration data and/or log files. The system and method determines whether the at least one other server device is a new server device not included in the list. Thus, the system and method discovers the new server device upon determining that the at least one other server device is not included in the list. |
| US08341252B2 |
Internet domain name super variants
Systems and methods for registering a domain, including Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), including receiving a request to register an IDN and determining a language category of the request. Code points of the request are converted to yield a generalized variant of the IDN. The generalized variant is compared to a stored database of registered IDNs that may include similar generalized variants of the registered IDNs. Based on the comparison, it is determined whether or not to resister the IDN. In the case the that IDN registration is allowed, the generalized variant of the IDN may be stored in the database to protect against later registration by similar IDNs. Converting the code points of the request may include identifying corresponding code points of variants within the language category, and converting each of the code points of the requested IDN based on a deterministic algorithm applied to the corresponding code points. The deterministic algorithm may be applied to a value of each of the corresponding code points to yield a representative code point from among the corresponding code points, and the generalized variant may include a representative code point for each of the code points of the request. |
| US08341246B2 |
Personal content server apparatus and methods
Personal content server apparatus and associated methods that allow a user (e.g., cable or satellite network subscriber) to access content, such as a video program, from a location outside the subscriber's network. In one embodiment, a personal content server streams the content to the subscriber over a network connection from the local e.g., (subscription) network to a remote network upon authorization by a content manager process. Various access, business or operational rules are applied depending on the content and delivery mode; e.g., to live video broadcast, video-on-demand (VOD), or archived content from the subscriber's digital video recorder (DVR) or networked PVR. Secondary content (e.g., promotions, advertisements, etc.) can also be selectively replaced if desired in order to make the remotely delivered content more appropriate to the remote user's context. |
| US08341243B2 |
Information processing apparatus, method and program
An apparatus includes unit storing scripts includes a tree structure, each of the scripts including at least one of a child-node script and content, unit selecting a parent-node script among the scripts, and acquiring to analyze a child-node script if the child-node script exists, unit acquiring content if content exists, unit retrieving substitute content if the acquisition of content ends in failure and if content indicates retrieving substitute content, unit retrieving the substitute-child-node script if the acquisition of the child-node script ends in failure and if the child-node script indicates retrieving the substitute-child-node script, and retrieving the substitute-parent-node script when content or the child-node script shows retrieving the substitute-parent-node script, unit acquiring substitute content when substitute content is found, unit acquiring the substitute-child-node script and the substitute-parent-node script when the substitute-child-node script and the substitute-parent-node script are found, respectively, and unit acquiring a change script. |
| US08341240B2 |
Information terminal
The present invention provides mobile terminals with various types of services such as electronic commerce service, music delivery service, and position information service. User applications required for the electronic commerce service, music delivery service, and position information service are respectively configured as service objects each having a server facility, and further a local gateway is provided, whereby various types of services can be used through a browser. |
| US08341238B2 |
Methods and systems for multiple-device session synchronization
Aspects of the present invention relate to systems and methods for session synchronization between multiple devices connected to a server system. |
| US08341236B1 |
Privacy and security enhanced internet geolocation
To determine a geographical location of a user network device communicating with a network site on a network having a master, first slave and second slave servers, the master server receives, via the network, user messages including a user input character padded with k−1 characters, where k equals a predefined message size, and time stamps corresponding to the respective time that message was sent to the master server, the first slave server and the second slave server, and the message was received by the first slave server and by the second slave server. The master server computes the respective time taken to communicate each message to the master and slave servers based on the time stamps, adjusts the computed times based on fluctuations in the bandwidth dependent on the time of day, and determines a geographic location of the user network device as a function of the adjusted times. |
| US08341234B2 |
Information exchange in wireless servers that bypass external domain servers
Systems and methods for wireless systems provide a mechanism for resource sharing. In an embodiment, an electronic communication is routed between mobile wireless clients without first processing the electronic communication through an external domain. In an embodiment, an e-mail message is routed between mobile wireless clients without first processing the e-mail message through an external e-mail domain identified in the e-mail message. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed. |
| US08341231B2 |
Systems and methods for processing heartbeat messages
According to one embodiment, a method for processing heartbeat messages includes processing heartbeat messages received at a first network interface integral to a first network element from a second network element to determine a first status parameter associated with the second network element. The method may also include processing heartbeat messages received at a second network interface integral to the first network element from the second network element to determine a second status parameter associated with the second network element. The method may further include determining a status of the second network element based on the first status parameter and the second status parameter. |
| US08341230B2 |
Method for predicting messaging addresses for an electronic message composed on an electronic device
A method for predicting messaging addresses for an electronic message composed on an electronic device is provided. In accordance with one embodiment, the method comprises: receiving a request to compose an electronic message; automatically filtering the contacts based on filter criteria comprising a type of the electronic message to generate a first list of contacts; displaying a message composition user interface screen on a display screen of the electronic device, the message composition user interface screen including one or more address fields for inputting message recipients; displaying the first list of contacts, the message recipients being selectable from the first list of contacts; and selecting a messaging address in accordance with selection of a contact from the first list of contacts and populating an active address field in the message composition user interface screen with the selected contact. |
| US08341229B2 |
IMAP fetch diff
An apparatus and a method for processing messages at a mail server. In one embodiment, the mail server receives and compares at least two messages, where each message has a same message identifier. The mail server generates a single message having the same message identifier and a differential message based on the comparison of the messages. The single message and the differential message are delivered to a mail client where the single message is assembled with the differential message. |
| US08341227B2 |
Playback of instant messaging session history
Systems, methods and media for playback of instant messaging session history in an instant messaging system by facilitating recording and playback of an instant messaging session history to a user are disclosed. Embodiments may include, during an instant messaging session where one or more instant messaging events occur, determining a timestamp associated with the one or more instant messaging events and recording an indication of the one or more instant messaging events and their associated timestamps. Embodiments may also include receiving one or more playback commands and, in response to the received playback commands, displaying playback of the one or more instant messaging events based on their associated timestamps. The instant messaging events may include one or more of a text message, file transfer, input device movement, or a status indication such as offline, returned from offline, away, returned from away, secure session established, session beginning or session ending. |
| US08341226B2 |
Techniques to control electronic mail delivery
Techniques to manage electronic mail delivery may be described. An apparatus may include an internal message transfer agent to determine a message flow rate for an external message transfer agent based on a trust value associated with the external message transfer agent. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08341225B2 |
Method and apparatus for improved referral to resources and a related social network
A method and apparatus are provided for a user to construct a payload comprising content, such as multimedia, or references to content. The payload may be provided with further elements, such as a title or initial comments. The payload may be sent to any immediate contact of the user. Upon receipt by other users, the payload may be forwarded to any of the others' immediate contacts. Additionally, comments can be made by anyone in receipt of the payload for others in receipt of the payload to view. A social networking mechanism is provided, wherein a record is made for each forwarding of a payload and introductions can be made between individuals lying in the same forwarding chain of a payload. Immediate contacts can be collected into groups for ease in addressing. Teams of users can send and forward messages among themselves or to others outside of the team, according to predetermined rules and individuals' standing within the team. Users are provided with a sortable, filterable list of payloads sent to them. A thumbnail of each payload is provided to allow a user the opportunity to quickly assess the nature of the content. Payloads and invitations to join may be sent to people outside the system via email or as an instant message. |
| US08341222B2 |
Text suggestion framework with client and server model
A local or remote server is configured to receive requests for text and other suggestions from a plurality of client applications. The local or remote server can format requests for delivery to one or more suggestion sources along with client contexts that specify client delivery, format, or other requests associated with the suggestion request. The local or remote server selects suggestion sources based on the client requests and the client contexts, and can combine suggestions returned from multiple sources as directed by client contexts. Requests associated with different clients can be directed to different suggestion sources, and user or client accepted suggestion histories can be stored for use in providing suggestions. |
| US08341221B2 |
Instant messenger location buddy
A device may provide information identifying an entity, which includes a business or individual, to a user during an instant messaging session between the user and the device. The device may further promote the instant messaging session to a multimedia session between a first device associated with the user and a second device associated with the entity. The first device and the second device are different than the device. |
| US08341212B2 |
Service description refinement based on actual service use
Techniques are disclosed for generation and refinement of service descriptions based on records of invocations of the services, i.e., service description refinement based on actual service use. For example, a method for describing one or more services in a service-oriented environment comprised of one or more clients invoking the one or more services comprises the following steps. An initial description is established for at least one of the one or more services. Information is collected from one or more service invocations including at least one of a client identity, a value of at least one parameter, a return value, and an execution time. The information is analyzed to refine the description. |
| US08341211B2 |
System and method for inquiry caching in a storage area network
A system and method for servicing inquiry commands, wherein inquiry data is stored in a memory and if an inquiry command for a target device is received while the target device is busy processing another command, the stored inquiry data is returned in response to the command. In one embodiment, a router contains a memory for storing static inquiry data corresponding to each of a plurality of sequential devices connected thereto. The first time a host sends an inquiry command to one of the sequential devices, the router routes the command to the target device and stores the data returned by the device. Subsequent inquiry commands are serviced by passing the command through to the target device if it is not busy, or returning inquiry data from the router's memory if the target device is busy processing another command. |
| US08341210B1 |
Delivery of items for consumption by a user device
An item-providing system supplies items to a user device for consumption at the user device via communication infrastructure. The device may correspond to a book reader device or other type of device. The item-providing system uses a content delivery module to deliver the items to the user device. |
| US08341204B2 |
Vector SIMD processor
A data processor whose level of operation parallelism is enhanced by composing floating-point inner product execution units to be compatible with single instruction multiple data (SIMD) and thereby enhancing the operation processing capability is made possible. An operating system that can significantly enhance the level of operation parallelism per instruction while maintaining the efficiency of the floating-point length-4 vector inner product execution units is to be implemented. The floating-point length-4 vector inner product execution units are defined in the minimum width (32 bits for single precision) even where an extensive operating system becomes available, and compose the inner product execution units to be compatible with SIMD. The mutually augmenting effects of the inner product execution units and SIMD-compatible composition enhances the level of operation parallelism dramatically. Composition of the floating-point length-4 vector inner product execution units to calculate the sum of the inner product of length-4 vectors and scalar to be compatible with SIMD of four in parallel results in a processing capability of 32 FLOPS per cycle. |
| US08341201B2 |
Random number generator
Provided is a random number generator including: a clock generator outputting first and second control signals; a ring oscillator (RO) block receiving a meta stable voltage and performing an oscillation operation using the meta stable voltage in response to the first control signal; and a sampling unit sampling an output signal according to the oscillation operation in response to the second control signal. |
| US08341198B1 |
File system repair with continuous data availability
Volumes of a file system environment are taken offline when they require repair for confirmed corruptions. Applications utilize handles, both real and, in environments where proxy file systems are overlaid upon the real file system(s), proxy, to access objects stored on volumes of a file system environment. Real handles are closed when the volume storing the objects for the real handles is taken offline, terminating applications' access to the volume's objects. New real handles are automatically generated for those volume objects that had a real handle prior to the volume going offline for corruption correction processing and which were not altered during the corruption correction processing. Applications accessing these objects can continue to use their original proxy handle, which is subsequently correlated with an automatically established new real handle, to access the objects. |
| US08341195B1 |
Platform for managing media assets for multi-model licensing over multi-level pricing and asset grouping
Managing content assets, such as images, video, and audio to facilitate filtering, searching, licensing, and editing associated attributes. Content assets are associated with multiple attributes, including licensing models, predefined value tiers, collections, and albums. Value tiers define varying ranges of price, resolution, or other qualities. Collections comprise groups of content assets within families, each specified by a license model and a value tier. Albums comprise groups of content assets that share a common topic, and albums have a predefined duration. An interface enables a user to filter by selecting any combination of the attributes, and to search the filtered content assets by keywords. Collection states and asset states determine which content assets are accessible for filtering and searching. An asset organizer automatically evaluates proposed edits to content asset attributes, to minimize edits that would unintentionally make content assets unavailable for licensing, and/or that would unintentionally change licensing terms. |
| US08341194B2 |
Matrix-based user interface and system for creating the same
A system that includes a graphical user interface that may be used to access information contained in a database is provided. The graphical user interface includes a matrix of icons that correspond to textual excerpts. A textual excerpt is displayed above the matrix and the displayed textual excerpt changes as a user moves a pointing device over the icons. The user may perform searches of character strings contained in the textual excerpts. The color of the icons that correspond to textual excerpts that satisfy the search request is different from the color of the remaining icons. The interface also allows the user to rapidly and efficiently perform searches to retrieve information from the database. |
| US08341193B2 |
Data versioning through data transformations
In response to receiving a request for data stored according to a first version of a data type, a second version of the data type supported by the requester is determined, and the requested data is transformed from the first version to the second version to provide access to the data. |
| US08341192B2 |
Navigation system and methods regarding disputed territories
Systems, devices, features, and methods for collecting or storing data corresponding to disputed territories for a geographic database, such as for use with a navigation system, are disclosed. For example, one method comprises identifying a data record that represents a geographic feature of a disputed area. An indication of dispute may be assigned to the identified data record, in which the indication of dispute represents that the identified data record corresponds to a feature in dispute between multiple geographic entities. Another data record that represents a geographic feature in dispute may also be identified. The indication of dispute and/or the data records of the features may be stored in a geographic database. |
| US08341190B2 |
Mechanisms to support multiple name space aware projects
Mechanisms to support multiple name space aware projects are provided. Multiple roots of a project declare multiple namespacing mechanisms. Resources of the project can utilize each of the multiple namespacing mechanisms. In some cases, a particular resource of the project can override and use a foreign namespace that is associated with a different project hierarchy even while that particular resource resides within a project hierarchy associated with the original project and even while the project hierarchy does not declare, at the root, the foreign namespace. |
| US08341187B2 |
Method and device for storage
A method and device for storage are provided in embodiments of the present invention. The method includes: acquiring a storage position of a table entry in a hierarchical binary tree that includes a first-part binary tree and second-part binary trees, wherein nodes of the first-part binary tree point to the second-part binary trees through pointers; and inserting the table entry to the hierarchical binary tree according to the storage position. In the embodiments of the present invention, the hierarchical binary tree structure with pointers is adopted to store table entry content, reducing the times of moving table entries and greatly improving the algorithm refresh rate. |
| US08341181B2 |
Method for performance tuning a database
A method for performance tuning a database is described. The method includes setting a database-allowed core value between 500 megabytes and half size of memory for the database. Further, the method declares small and heavily accessed structures as memory resident structures, and sets a memory resident limit value between 0 and the database-allowed core value for the database. In addition, the method analyzes the database to determine whether read-ahead should be enabled for the data structures. The method also analyzes the database to apply a reblocking factor between 1 and 60. The method associates system buffers ranging from 1000 to 20000 with the data structures, and stores the system buffers in memory. Moreover, the method consolidates the data structures having unused space. |
| US08341178B2 |
SQL performance analyzer
Techniques are provided for analyzing performance differences for a set of database query language statements on two different database systems. The performance analysis is based on quantitative measurements and estimates of the execution of the set of database query language statements on the two different database systems. This performance analysis process may be used by database administrators to predict impacts to performance due to a change in a database system. |
| US08341176B1 |
Structure-based expansion of user element selection
Input indicating a first object within a set of structured data may be received. Input indicating a second object within the set of structured data may be received. Additional other objects within the set of structured data that are structurally similar to first and second objects may be determined based on metadata associated with the first object and based on metadata associated with the second object. |
| US08341175B2 |
Automatically finding contextually related items of a task
Architecture for enabling a user to automatically recover documents and other information associated with work contexts and recover documents and other information artifacts associated with a specific project. The architecture enables monitoring and recording of activity information related to user interactions with information artifacts pertaining to a particular work context. The user can select a document having a portion of work content (e.g., a term or other type of reference item in a document) related to the work context. A lexical analysis is performed on the activity information and the reference item to identify lexical similarities. A list of candidate items (e.g., related documents) is inferred from the information artifacts based on the lexical similarities. The candidate items related to the work context are presented to the user, who can select specific items to reestablish the work context. |
| US08341173B2 |
Method and system for database-based semantic query answering
A computer-implemented method, computer-implemented system, and a computer program product for answering a database-based query of a computerized database system. The method includes: generating a canonical individual ind′ with respect to a role and a concept, for an existential restriction in an ontology used in the computerized database system; converting implicit data in original data into explicit data using the canonical individual ind′ and the ontology; and retrieving an answer meeting all query conditions in a query from the original data and the converted explicit data. The computer-implemented system includes: a canonical individual generation unit; a data conversion engine; and a query unit. |
| US08341171B2 |
Named entity database or mining rule database update apparatus and method using named entity database and mining rule merged ontology schema
A mining rule database update apparatus using a named entity dictionary and a mining rule combined with an ontology schema includes: a named entity dictionary and mining rule database storage module storing the named entity dictionary and a mining rule database; a named entity and mining rule search module searching for a corresponding mining rule and a named entity from the mining rule database and the named entity dictionary using a terminology included in an inputted mining pattern and the mining pattern; and a mining rule database update module estimating a relationship name using a named entity of the terminology and the ontology schema, generating a corresponding mining rule, and storing the generated mining rule in the mining rule database depending on user's selection. |
| US08341169B2 |
Open profile content identification
Open profile data in a user profile, e.g., free-form fields in a user profile, are processed to identify interests and preferences of the user. The interests and preferences are utilized to identify categories associated with the user profile, and content items, e.g., advertisements, can be identified based on the categories. |
| US08341168B1 |
System for displaying hierarchical data
A system for displaying hierarchical data comprises an interface and a processor. The interface is for receiving a request to view a data set. The data set comprises a set of data stored as linked objects in a database. The processor is configured to determine a chunk of the data set to be provided in response to the request that is displayed according to a set of display parameters. |
| US08341166B2 |
Infrastructure and architecture for development and execution of predictive models
A system that enables development and execution of predictive models comprises a centralized data management system, a data extraction tool a model validation tool and a model execution tool. In embodiments, a data management system includes a data management server that can be accessed via a web browser that stores data in the form of a flat file. An extraction tool extracts data. A model validation tool validates a model by scoring an analytical environment data set and a production environment data set. A model execution tool allows a user to select when and how often a model is scored. |
| US08341165B2 |
Method and apparatus for searching extensible markup language (XML) data
Extensible Markup Language (XML) data is represented as a list of structures with each structure in the list representing an aspect of the XML. A set of frequently used elements is extracted from the list of structure representation and stored in packed vectors. The packed vector representation allows Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions to be used directly on the XML data to increase the speed at which the XML data may be searched while minimizing the memory needed to store the XML data. |
| US08341160B2 |
Methods and systems for a closet match search
A system to generate an index for a closest match search is described. The system receives a corpus of information that includes member information. The system parses the member information to generate signatures for each of the members and stores the signatures in the index. The signatures are unique to the members. Accordingly, the signatures signify the respective members. The system subsequently utilizes the index to identify input information that matches signatures in the index to identify a closest match of the input information to one or more members in the corpus information. |
| US08341158B2 |
User's preference prediction from collective rating data
A computer-implemented method includes receiving a dataset representing a plurality of users, a plurality of items, and a plurality of ratings given to items by users; clustering the plurality of users into a plurality of user-groups such that at least one user belongs to more than one user-group; clustering the plurality of items into a plurality of item-groups such that at least one item belongs to more than one item-group; inducing a model describing a probabilistic relationship between the plurality of users, items, ratings, user-groups, and item-groups, the induced model defined by a plurality of model parameters; and predicting a rating of a user for an item using the induced model. |
| US08341152B1 |
System and method for enabling objects within video to be searched on the internet or intranet
A method and system for generating and linking keywords to objects in videos, and then providing an internet searchable web page is disclosed. The objects also may be associated with hyperlinks to further information, further objects, or further videos or web pages. First, objects within a video are selected. Then software for tracking the objects throughout a video is used to determine in which frames the object appears. Data corresponding all frames in which the object first appears and last appears is determined. Second, an object descriptor term or phrase is associated with the object. The object descriptor is then used to generate a set of keywords, which along with the object descriptor, are stored in memory in association with the object and video, preferably an XML file or other format. Then, the keywords or keyword phrases are converted to a search engine searchable computer language, e.g., HTML, CSS, and posted to a web page. When a user searches the internet using a search term that sufficiently matches, in accordance with the search engine's search strategy, keywords (or the object descriptor itself which should be included in the set of searchable keywords in a searchable language) that are associated with an object in a video, the results will include a listing with a link to the video or videos at the video segment in which the object appears. The video thus can start playing at the first frame the object appears in and may end at the last frame the object appears in. |
| US08341151B2 |
Method and system for providing targeted searching and browsing
A server constituted a processor and a server memory, the processor arranged to: provide a selectable plurality of attributes, the plurality of attributes stored on the server memory; provide, for each selected one of the plurality of attributes, a selectable plurality of values, the plurality of values stored on the server memory; and generate an archetype responsive to the selected values of the selected attributes. Preferably, a system exhibiting the server and a user computing station in communication with the server, is provided, the user computing station comprising a user input device, wherein each of the selected one of the plurality of attributes is selected responsive to the user input device, and wherein each of the selected one of the plurality of values for each of the selected one of the plurality of attributes is selected responsive to the user input device. |
| US08341148B1 |
Academic activity stream
A method and computer-readable medium for generating an activity stream is provided. The activity stream includes a ranked set of objects that are presented to one or more users. The ranking of objects is updated to reflect events associated with objects. |
| US08341146B1 |
Search history presentations
A method for displaying a search history for a user is shown. The method includes generating a search history for a user including one or more listings of search results, displaying a first search result listing on a web page, and displaying at least a second search result listing on the web page, the second search result listing having a relationship to the first search result listing within the search history. |
| US08341145B2 |
Face recognition using social data
Faces may be indexed and identified using visual and social criteria. In one example, the visual features of a face are quantified, and the quantification of the features is represented in a vector. Aspects of the vector are then represented in the form of text strings. Social context surrounding the face is also represented in the form of text strings. The text strings—both the visual-based strings and/or the social-based strings—are associated with the face, and are stored in an index. The association of these strings with the face then may make the face text-searchable on both its visual and social features. Searches on these visual and/or social features may be used to help to assist in identifying new images of faces, or to propose tags for users to apply to photos. |
| US08341138B2 |
Providing content using stored query information
Among other disclosed subject matter, a computer-implemented method relating to providing content on a page includes receiving information for providing content for an access device in response to a navigation from a first page to a second page. The content is to be included in the second page. The method includes accessing query information stored on the access device, the query information based on a first query that was submitted from the access device to a search provider before navigating to the first page. The method includes providing the content for inclusion in the second page, the content selected using at least the received information and the accessed query information. A computer-implemented method can include recording search query information for a user; retrieving the search query information; and using the search query information to determine content for display to the user. |
| US08341131B2 |
Systems and methods for master data management using record and field based rules
According to some embodiments, a plurality of input records may be received from a plurality of sources, and each input record may include a plurality of fields. It may then be detected that a set of input records from different sources are related to each other (e.g., are duplicates). One of the set of input records may be automatically selected as a master record in accordance with a record level rule. At least one field in the master record may, according to some embodiments, be automatically modified based on a corresponding field in another input record in accordance with a field level rule. The modified master record could then be stored for subsequent use by other applications. |
| US08341127B1 |
Client initiated restore
Client initiated restore is disclosed. An indication is received from a client computer that a restore operation is desired. Access to a backup data associated with the client computer is provided to the client computer. The backup data associated with the client computer comprises a subset of a backup data set that includes both backup data associated with the client computer and backup data not associated with the client computer. |
| US08341126B2 |
Efficiently storing indented threads in a threaded discussion application
A method, apparatus, and computer-readable media for retrieving records in a hierarchical set of the records having a plurality of hierarchical levels and a plurality of hierarchical depths, each of the records having a tag that is unique within the hierarchical set of the records, comprises identifying one of the records in the hierarchical set of the records; modifying the tag, thereby producing a key; indexing the hierarchical set of the records only once, thereby selecting one or more of the records within the hierarchical set of the records, wherein indexing the hierarchical set of the records only once comprises applying the key to the hierarchical set of the records; and retrieving the selected records. |
| US08341125B2 |
Transaction log management
Managing a log-full condition of a transaction log in a transaction processing system, where the transaction log has a plurality of log records each associated with a particular transaction. When a log-full condition is detected, the active transaction having the oldest log entry of all active transactions is identified and logging for all transactions except for the identified transaction is temporarily suspended. A dynamic transaction backout of the identified transaction is initiated, with the writing of a backout record for the identified transaction to the log being delayed. Confirmation that the backout has completed is awaited before trimming the log. Then the delayed backout record for the identified transaction is written to the log, and normal logging is resumed. |
| US08341123B2 |
Event structured file system (ESFS)
A computer storage file system structured without the use of tables or indexes, instead using a sequence of a small but extensible number of predefined Event types in a logical sequence that describes the complete historical state and content of the file system, Events being actions taken upon objects, objects being at least a directory or a file, optionally with associated user data. |
| US08341121B1 |
Imminent failure prioritized backup
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for backing up or archiving objects in the event of imminent failure, comprising receiving an indication of imminent failure, determining a prioritization of the objects, and indicating the prioritized objects to a backup application. Prioritization may be determined by the nature of the imminent failure, and the objects are backed up according to the prioritization. The objects may be prioritized according to object location, object type, or timestamp. |
| US08341117B2 |
Method, system, and program for personal data management using content-based replication
Provided herein are data management systems and methods for storing, cataloging, and protecting data on a computer using software and a portable data storage device. The technology can back up, manage, and protect data for any operating or file system by checking files for block-level or byte-level changes and storing only new data. By storing only new data and cataloging information within a comprehensive backup archive composed of these blocks, the size of each backup is minimized. |
| US08341115B1 |
Dynamically switching between synchronous and asynchronous replication
In a system comprising a production environment and a replication environment, a method and program product for dynamically switching from an asynchronous replication policy to a synchronous replication policy. In a system comprising a production environment and a replication environment, a method for dynamically switching from a synchronous replication policy to an asynchronous replication policy. |
| US08341108B2 |
Kind classification through emergent semantic analysis
A goal of computer development is to understand the user and the data with which the user is engaged. If a better understanding of the user and their data can be accomplished, then additional information and features may be provided based upon the user's intent and interests. Accordingly, as provided herein, Kinds may be created as digital representations of everyday things. Kind classifications may be created to characterize the Kinds. The Kind classifications may be updated based upon user interaction to further characterize Kinds with which the user has interacted. For example, when a user writes an email about using orange peels as an air freshener, an orange Kind classification may be updated to reflect that an orange may be used as an air freshener. Kind feature vectors and user feature vectors may be created to represent the probabilities that the Kind or user relates to particular characteristics. |
| US08341106B1 |
System and method for identifying related events in a resource network monitoring system
A computerized method for detecting related events in a water monitoring system. The method includes receiving event data from a plurality of sensors in a water network. The method also includes identifying at least two candidate events from the event data as being candidate events which are likely to constitute part of a common anomaly event, the candidate events each being substantially anomalous. An event combination rule is selected. One or more event characteristics are compared between the at least two candidate events based on the event combination rule. The at least two candidate events are determined whether they are related and associated with a common event causing the at least two candidate events on the basis of the comparison. The determination of the at least two candidate events are related and associated with a common event is reported to a user via a user interface. |
| US08341104B2 |
Method and apparatus for rule-based masking of data
An approach is provided for de-personalizing data. Content from a data source is retrieved in response to a request by a user. A rule for masking data (e.g., web data) is determined, wherein the rule is specified in a policy associated with the user. A search, within the content, for data that satisfy the rule is performed. The data that satisfy the rule is masked. The content is then modified with the masked data for delivery to the user. |
| US08341103B2 |
Method and system for connecting analytic network process model (ANP) with feedback throughout the ANP model between sub-networks
A computer-implemented system is provided for an analytic network process (ANP) control structure with feedback throughout the ANP control structure. The computer-implemented system includes an ANP control structure storage unit that stores an ANP control structure with feedback throughout the ANP control structure. Also included is a synthesizer that performs a BOCR calculation on the ANP control structure with feedback throughout the ANP control structure, to yield a result which is proper according to ANP theory when values are non-trivial. Also disclosed is a computer-implemented method for an analytic network process (ANP) control structure with feedback through the ANP control structure, and a related computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program. |
| US08341099B2 |
Semantics update and adaptive interfaces in connection with information as a service
Additional semantic information that describes data sets is inferred in response to a request for data from the data sets, e.g., in response to a query over the data sets, including analyzing a subset of results extracted based on the request for data to determine the additional semantic information. The additional semantic information can be verified by the publisher as correct, or satisfy correctness probabilistically. Mapping information based on the additional semantic information can be maintained and updated as the system learns additional semantic information (e.g., information about what a given column represents and data types represented), and the form of future data requests (e.g., URL based queries) can be updated to more closely correspond to the updated additional semantic information. |
| US08341097B2 |
Systems, methods and circuits for learning of relation-based networks
Circuits, devices and methods for processing learning networks are implemented using a variety of methods and devices. One example involves a circuit-implemented method to identify a relationship of objects in a set of objects. Local scores are generated for the object and possible parents. The local scores indicate relationship strength between object and parent. The results are stored in a memory. A state-machine circuit is used to perform sampling and searching of the parent sets for each data node. The local scores are used to encode orderings of the parent. An algorithm is executed that uses the encoded possible orderings and a random variable to generate and score a current order and a proposed order of the possible parent sets. The proposed orders are accepted or rejected based on probability rules applied to the scores for the current and proposed orders. Structures are sampled to assess a Bayesian-based relationship. |
| US08341094B2 |
Franking machine
The invention relates to a franking machine, comprising a print head of an ink-jet printing mechanism for printing flat postal items such as letters or postcards, which can be introduced into said mechanism or which pass through the same. Said franking machine consists of a guiding part which is located around the print head and projects in relation to the nozzle opening plane of said print head, and with which a conveying device is associated, said conveying device transporting the postal items between itself and conveying rollers lying opposite and rotating about axes that are located crosswise to the conveying direction. Said conveying device has two drive-connected driving rollers which together with the guiding part, form a path of travel. The driving rollers are located in front of and behind the print head in relation to the conveying direction. A reversibly liftable counter pressure roller located opposite exerts a pressure on each driving roller, respectively, or on a postal item being transported in-between. A roller feeler (39, 119) which is driven by the passing postal item and which is associated with an encoder device (122) is located between the driving rollers (13, 15; 127, 113) in order to monitor the speed and position of a postal item being transported or for controlling the pressure on a postal item. |
| US08341090B1 |
Systems and methods for optimized water allocation
The present invention relates to systems and methods for optimizing water allocation. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for establishing and querying a database of information for projecting and optimizing water distribution within a county, city or state and providing useful output as a result of such queries. The system and method also provide for exchange of water rights and the output of data in a useful form, such as a map, graph, list, summary or chart. The system and method also provide for water planning based on consideration of various parameters. |
| US08341088B2 |
Multipurpose electronic payment method and system
The invention relates to multipurpose electronic payment method and system. The inventive method consists in transmitting (A) from a multimedia terminal (TM) a payment order (MP) issued from at least one multimedia application hosted in the (TM) to a local proxy for payment (PP), in discriminating (B) said payment order in (PP) upon a specific local processing criterion respectively remote, in carrying out (C) a local payment upon the retained local payment specific criterion, if not in transmitting (D) the payment order to a remote system (SD) for carrying out a remote payment. Said invention is usable for proximity payment transitions, external payment or for electronically carrying out a telepayment. |
| US08341087B2 |
Method for implementing and application of a secure processor stick (SPS)
Systems and methods for implementing a secure processor stick are described. In one aspect, the system for implementing a secure processor stick with a computer, the system comprising: a secure processor stick, including: a processor; a memory coupled to said processor; a smart chip coupled to said processor, said smart chip storing data for implementing a secure environment; and an operating system adapted to run on said memory and said processor, wherein said operating system is adapted to provide a secure environment for display on a computer using said data. |
| US08341083B1 |
Wirelessly executing financial transactions
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for wirelessly executing financial transactions. A payment card includes an interface, a communication module, secure memory, a user-interface module, and a processing module. The interface connects to a slot of a mobile host device. The communication module wirelessly receives RF signals from and transmits RF signals to a retail terminal. The secure memory stores user credentials and a payment application used to execute financial transactions with the retail terminal. The user credentials and the payment application are associated with a financial institution. The user-interface module presents and receives information through the GUI of the mobile host device. The processing module executes the payment application using the user credentials in response to at least a transaction request received by the communication module and transmits a transaction response to the retail terminal based, at least in part, on the executed application. |
| US08341081B1 |
Intelligent identification of on-line bank accounts utilized for business purposes
Computer-implemented methods, articles of manufacture and systems for identifying an on-line bank account utilized for business purposes. A computer processor receives or determines a name of on-line bank account entered by an account holder. The account name is tokenized or parsed into name segments, which are analyzed using a first or local set of rules that is applied to each individual segment to tag or assign a score to each individual segment, and a second or global set of rules are applied to multiple name segments or groups of segments. Scores generated by application of the first and second rule sets are used to determine whether the customer uses the account identified by the account name for business purposes. |
| US08341075B2 |
Method and system for using a bayesian belief network to ensure data integrity
The present invention relates to a method and system for assessing the risks and/or exposures associated with financial transactions using various statistical and probabilistic techniques. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for identifying plausible sources of error in data used as input to financial risk assessment systems using Bayesian belief networks as a normative diagnostic tool to model relationships between and among inputs/outputs of the risk assessment system and other external factors. |
| US08341068B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating and evaluating ideas in an organization
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for generating and evaluating ideas within an organization through an idea market. It includes an automatic price-setting mechanism that modifies the share-price at the same instant that a trade is made, yet without the assistance of a market maker or a queue of orders. The instant price-setting is achieved by assuming a pre-defined relationship between the quantity of shares in the order and the average share price for that order. This relationship is the price-quantity function. The present invention also includes a mechanism of weighted parameters to modify the share-price in addition to pure supply and demand. The parameters can be adjusted over time in a neural network to optimize the relationship between the share price and the prediction of the actual idea value. |
| US08341067B2 |
Apparatus and method for trade aggregation of trade allocations and settlements
A post-trade aggregation system includes an allocation middleware interface, which interacts with an order management system to allocate and settle trades. The order management system receives a trade order on behalf of a customer and either apportions the trade into a plurality of smaller orders and communicates them to a plurality of order destinations directly (e.g. via the FIX protocol), or sends large orders to an order staging and optimization interface which then apportions the larger orders into a plurality of smaller orders and communicates the orders to a plurality of order destinations. The post-trade aggregation system contains an allocation middleware interface which receives the individual trade executions from the plurality of order destination and compresses them into a single average-priced block. The allocation middleware interface then sends the single average-priced block to be cleared by a designated clearing agent and allocates the single average-priced block into one or more custodian accounts. In further aspects, a method and apparatus are also provided. |
| US08341066B2 |
System and method for determining optimal investment strategy
An artificial expert system and method for determining whether to buy, sell, or hold a specific Individually Traded Unit (ITU) of publicly traded units residing in a securities or investment portfolio owned or controlled by a user, wherein the portfolio comprises of at least the trading statistics of each ITU. In one embodiment, the invention provides a user with a rational basis: to sell the optimum number of ITU's to unload at the optimum ITU sale price or buy the optimum number of ITU's to purchase at the optimum ITU purchase price or recommend that the user neither buy nor sell any of the selected ITU's. |
| US08341063B1 |
Asset allocation risk and reward assessment tool
A financial planner and portfolio simulation system projects the simulated cumulative risks and rewards of a plurality of mixed portfolios in relation to the expected risk and reward of a minimum-risk or relatively risk-free baseline portfolio. Through simulation, the system generates, for each mixed portfolio, a distribution of average retirement budgets that the corresponding mixed portfolio would be projected to sustain. An asset allocation risk and reward spectrum chart is provided that graphs various percentile-ranked samples from each distribution on a computer-generated plot that also displays the sustainable retirement budget supported by a baseline portfolio. The statistical and graphical comparisons of the mixed portfolios to the baseline portfolio assist investors in choosing mixed portfolios best suited to their retirement goals and risk tolerance. |
| US08341060B2 |
Core/satellite financial portfolio design methodology, system and computer readable medium
Investment choices are each within a respective asset class of a defined set of asset classes. Investment choices of a first set of the investment choices (e.g., core investment choices) are within a particular asset class and have a performance factor value that is constrained by a performance factor value range defined by a filter structure. Investment choices of a second set of the investment choices (e.g., satellite investment choices) are within the particular asset class and have a performance factor value that may or may not be constrained by the performance factor value range of the first set, but may have a separate and distinct filter structure. The filter structure specifies unique characteristics desired of a set of investment choices, including a relationship between a benchmark performance factor value and a parameter used for determining the performance factor value range. The performance factor value of each investment choice and the performance factor value of the benchmark investment choice correspond to a common performance factor. A comparative assessment of each investment choice set is performed using a comparative assessment value for each one of the investment choices within each set of investment choices. |
| US08341059B1 |
System, method and apparatus for creating and executing inter-exchange spread instruments
A system, method and apparatus for creating and executing inter-exchange spread instruments, comprising a buy and a sell leg (or other variation of buys and/or sells) of two distinct global exchange traded instruments. A spread instrument price is set using an implied base price of a first leg based upon a current bid and offer of the first leg on a global exchange, an implied base price of a second leg based upon a current bid and offer of the second leg on a global exchange, a first leg weighting factor, a second leg weighting factor, and a volatility risk factor. When the spread instrument is traded, each underlying leg is automatically filled and confirmed pursuant to the customs and practices of the corresponding exchange and clearinghouse or clearing firm for the product associated with the leg. |
| US08341054B2 |
System and method for bank account management and currency investment
The invention is a device for bank account management, comprising an input device adapted to receive information related to a diversification of an initial fund of a user, and a processor adapted to calculate a distribution of the initial fund comprising one or more selected currencies based upon the diversification information, convert the initial fund from an initial currency into a converted fund comprising one or more selected currencies based upon the calculated distribution, and record the information about the converted fund in a data file for the bank account. |
| US08341052B2 |
Combined loan and investment system and method
A combined loan and investment program comprises a computer processor and program code configured to be executed by the computer processor to process financial loan and investment data by calculating from the data interest and principal loan payments on a loan principal at a given rate and term, calculating investment performance data on a periodic principal investment deposit at a given rate and calculating loan principal amortization parameters as a function of the investment performance data. The present invention provides a method for paying off a mortgage and simultaneously generating wealth via an investment account by making a payment to a mortgagee, dividing the payment, applying a first portion of the payment to satisfy the interest due on the mortgage, applying a second portion of the payment to an investment account, allowing the investment account to grow and applying a portion of the investment account to satisfy the mortgage. |
| US08341041B2 |
Method and apparatus for automated medical supply take/store tracking
A supply cabinet is fitted with an outer sensor and an inner sensor. The outer and inner sensor wirelessly sense inventory items tagged with radio frequency tags and in proximity of the sensors. A method of tracking inventory items stored in a supply cabinet includes determining, based on time sequencing of sensing by the outer and the inner sensor, if an inventory item was removed from the cabinet or stored into the cabinet, and updating an inventory database accordingly. An alarm is optionally triggered if an inventory item is removed by an unauthorized user. |
| US08341036B2 |
Combining disparate purchases into a single purchase order for billing and shipment
An order is placed by a purchaser at a client system and received by a server system. The server system receives purchaser information including identification of the purchaser, payment information, and shipment information from the client system. The server system then assigns a client identifier to the client system and associates the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser information. The server system sends to the client system the assigned client identifier. The client system receives and stores the assigned client identifier. In response to an order indication, the client system sends to the server system a request to purchase the identified item. The server system receives the request and combines at least one previous purchase associated with the client identifier of the client system to generate a single order for billing and shipment. |
| US08341035B2 |
Deal matching system
A multiple criteria buying and selling system and method is provided. A seller initially establishes a deal structure for a product, which provides seller defined selling criteria information relating to the purchasing of the product, such as volume per unit price, quality, delivery time and warranty information. A buyer will be able to review a list of deals if the seller's selling criteria matches a buyer defined buying criteria. The deal structure is preferably set up so as to provide buyers with both price and non-price criteria information that the buyer's would consider important in a purchase of the type of product being offered by the seller. The deal structure is electronically made available to potential buyers of the product. For example, the deal structure may be displayed on an Internet site. |
| US08341033B2 |
Method, system and business model for a buyer's auction with near perfect information using the internet
A methodology, system and business model are disclosed for facilitating a fully automated buyer's auction in which the major types of transaction costs are significantly reduced by providing the buyer and the sellers with near-perfect information about one another, including information about buyer preferences and competing sellers' offers. The system implements a buyer's auction with multidimensional bidding that minimizes market intelligence, search, bargaining and transaction execution costs and thus creates more competitive, frictionless markets. Buyers and sellers can efficiently conduct the buyer's auction within a unified environment, thereby minimizing buyer integration costs as well. The buyer's auction generates commercially marketable proprietary information and a revenue stream for the auctioneer providing such a service. |
| US08341030B2 |
System and method for providing access to product related electronic catalog functionality
An aggregation of functionality related to a product within an electronic catalog hosted by a wholesaler web system is provided by presenting on a client computing device a webpage in which a single product is directly associated with a single access point. The single access point provides a means by which plural wholesaler web system functions related to the single product are made available to a consumer. A listing of the plural wholesaler web system functions related to the single product is displayed within the webpage in response to an activation of the single access point by the consumer. In response to a selection by the consumer from the displayed listing the wholesaler web system initiates a performance of the one of the plural wholesaler web system functions so selected. |
| US08341029B1 |
User profile and geolocation for efficient transactions
Techniques for providing friction-free transactions using geolocation and user identifiers are described herein. These techniques may ascertain a user's location based on a location of a mobile device. A transaction between the user and a merchant may be completed with zero or minimal input from the user based on the geolocation of the mobile device and the user identifiers. In some implementations, a transaction initiated earlier is completed when the mobile device arrives at the merchant. Additionally, a parent-child or similar relationship may be established between multiple devices. Security on the mobile device based may be provided by biometric identification and calculation of variance from regular movement patterns. Advertisements may be sent to the mobile device based on bids from merchants near to the mobile device. Promotions may be sent to the mobile device when more than a threshold number of mobile devices are located at the same merchant. |
| US08341027B2 |
System and methods of conducting business-to-business operations by registered sellers and buyers using an internet accessible platform
An internet accessible computer system to conduct business to business operations among a plurality of buyer companies and a plurality of seller companies. In one embodiment, the system includes at least one seller client system, at least one buyer client system, at least one computer server coupled to a database for storing data, and a network connecting said at least one seller client system and said at least one buyer client system to said at least one computer server. Said at least one computer server is programmed for, among other things, registering each of the plurality of seller companies with the internet accessible computer system, wherein each of the plurality of seller companies sells goods to a corresponding one of the plurality of buyer companies, and the corresponding one buyer company makes payment for the goods sold by that seller company, and registering each of the plurality of buyer companies with the internet accessible computer system, wherein the registration of each of the plurality of buyer companies depends on the registration of its corresponding seller company. |
| US08341025B2 |
E-mail based gift delivery
A retail system enabling a first party to purchase a gift and to deliver the gift to a second party comprises a retailer computer and a communication network enabling a user device to communicate with the retailer computer. The retailer computer is programmed to provide a gift website accessible by the first party via the user device and includes a merchandise module and a delivery module. The merchandise module enables the first party to purchase a gift. The delivery module is adapted to receive an e-mail address or pseudonym of the second party from the first party, to procure shipping addresses associated with the e-mail address or pseudonym, to enable the first party to select one of the shipping addresses, and to cause the gift to be shipped to the selected shipping address without revealing the selected shipping address to the first party. Other systems and methods are also disclosed. |
| US08341020B2 |
Match engine marketing
Enabling advertisers using a computer network such as the Internet and a match engine to submit their offerings to product, service, benefit seeking entities. In some embodiments, a database having accounts for the providers is made available. Accounts contain contact and billing information for an advertiser; and at least one offering having at least a description, a criteria set comprising one or more criterion factors, and a bid amount. An advertiser influences a position of an offering in the advertiser's account by first selecting offering relevant criteria. The advertiser enters the criteria and the description into a listing; influencing at least in part the position for the listing within a results page through an online bidding process. This results page is generated in response to a seeking entity query of the match engine. Pay for performance demographic, geographic, psychographic criteria/characteristics targeted directly advertising (frictionless advertising) is enabled. |
| US08341019B2 |
Method for click-stream analysis using web directory reverse categorization
In embodiments disclosed, information on a click stream associated with a user and meta tags commonly used by search engines can be used to profile a user. The click stream may comprise network addresses and timestamps and may be the only source of user information used for the profile. The meta tags may contain metadata that correspond to the network addresses in the click stream, including network address categorization for these network addresses. The profile obtained for the user may be an existing profile that represents a person or a theoretical individual having attributes similar to or most closely match the user. Based at least in part on the profile, information regarding an item may be provided to the user or the item may be offered to the user. In some embodiments, the information may be filtered before being displayed to the user. |
| US08341015B2 |
Virtual sample cabinet system and method for prescription drug marketing
A method is provided which provides functionality for doctors and staff to remotely electronically download a “virtual sample cabinet” software program from a central server onto their desktop computers or mobile technology devices to allow them to centrally search, review product information and insurance coverage, print or electronically send prescription drug sample vouchers and co-pay savings coupons to selected pharmacies. This eliminates the need for physician offices to manage and house physical drug samples, as well as offers a more convenient and efficient way to allocate, dispense and monitor needed drug samples and coupons for savings to their patients.Additionally, the method helps patients to enroll into further savings on refills for their on-going medications through automatically scheduled coupons that are emailed (or mailed) to the patients thereby promoting more affordable compliance to their prescribed therapies.A computer program system, which incorporates this method, increases effectiveness of prescription drug promotions over conventional means —while increasing productivity of providers and affordability to patients. All reporting by physician offices, affiliate groups, drug manufacturers and other participating parties can be accessed through the website administration login based on capture of redemption of each patient coupon or voucher through a network of reporting pharmacies. |
| US08341014B2 |
Recovery segments for computer business applications
Recovery Segments are defined and employed to facilitate management of a customer's environment. A Recovery Segment is a runtime usable representation of resources and relationships between those resources associated with a business application. That representation is usable in managing the business application. Associated with the representation is one or more goals to be met by resources of the representation. |
| US08341010B1 |
Method and system for counting households within a geographic area
A method and system for providing an accurate count of total households and seasonal households within a defined geographic area is disclosed. The invention has application in, for example, the identification of potential sites for retail business locations. The invention utilizes additional data sources beyond census data in order to provide more accurate household counts, particularly in high-growth areas when census data has become stale. Seasonal households are counted by the use of telephony data containing spatially inconsistent records (SIRs), that is, records for which the billing address does not match the location where the telephone service is provided. Households for which an exact address is not known are allocated within the geographic area of interest according to various spreading models. |
| US08341007B2 |
Systems and methods for forecasting demand of an object in a managed supply chain
Systems and methods are disclosed for forecasting demand for objects, such as products, parts, etc. in a managed supply chain. In one embodiment, a method for forecasting demand is provided that comprises the step of determining a forecast profile including a forecast model and a forecast parameter to be assigned to a set of data forming the basis of the forecast. The determining step may include the steps of performing at least one forecast test on the set of data to identify the significance of a forecast model in the set of data, and determining iteratively the value of a forecast parameter, wherein the forecast parameter is determined based on the outcome of performing the at least one forecasting test. Further, the method may include the step of automatically assigning the determined forecast profile to the set of data. |
| US08341002B2 |
Diagnostic system and method for home appliance
A diagnostic system and method for a home appliance is provided. When the home appliance outputs product information as a sound signal, a service center remotely performs fault diagnosis of the home appliance by receiving the sound signal, detecting the product information from the sound signal, checking the state of the home appliance using diagnostic data included in the product information to determine whether the home appliance is out of order, determining, when a drying error has occurred, a cause of the drying error, and deriving a solution to the drying error. Upon deriving a diagnosis result through the fault diagnosis of the home appliance, the service center immediately notifies the user of the diagnosis result and may dispatch a service technician or may provide the user with a solution to allow the user to easily fix the fault without dispatching a service technician. |
| US08341001B2 |
Campaign management of direct mail
A machine-implemented method receives job specifications for a plurality of direct mail printing jobs from a user and automatically groups the multiple direct mail printing jobs into at least one campaign, using a computerized or processor-based machine. The machine automatically creates a plurality of workflows related to direct mail printing jobs within a campaign and transmits requests for bids on these job activities to entities (e.g., supply vendors) to allow the entities to bid on performing the job activities. The machine automatically selects winning bids on an individual job activity-by job activity basis from the bids received from the entities and combines the bids to provide cost and completion estimates for each of the workflows. The machine automatically combines estimates for the workflows to produce an overall estimate for the campaign. The overall estimate for the campaign is output to the user for review and approval. The machine then performs the workflows to output the direct-mail printing jobs within the campaign. |
| US08341000B2 |
Automated direct mail procurement system
A machine-implemented method receives job specifications for at least one direct mail printing job from at least one user and creates at least one workflow related to the direct mail printing job. The workflow comprises at least one job activity. The method automatically transmits requests for bids on the job activities to entities for allowing the entities to bid on performing job activities within the workflow. Bids are received on the job activities from the entities and from rate cards previously established by the entities. The method identifies the lowest bids on an individual job activity-by job activity basis from the bids received from the entities and the rate cards and outputs the lowest bids to the user. The method receives an identification of a single selected entity to perform all activities within the workflow from the user and performing the workflow to output the direct-mail printing job through the selected entity. |
| US08340998B2 |
Enterprise opportunity assessment
In some embodiments, a market assessment system comprises a market opportunity engine, a market capture engine, a comparison engine, and an attainability engine. The market opportunity engine is operable to provide an opportunity measurement for each market of a plurality of markets. The market capture engine operable to provide an actual capture measurement for each market of the plurality of markets. The actual capture measurement indicates an amount of the product actually provided by the enterprise within each market. The comparison engine operable to compare a first market of the plurality of markets to one or more different markets of the plurality of markets to determine one or more comparable markets. The attainability engine operable to calculate an attainable opportunity measurement for the first market based on the actual capture measurement and the opportunity measurement for each of the one or more comparable markets. |
| US08340996B2 |
Method for analyzing maintenance operations and assessing the readiness of repairable systems
An automated method for assessing the readiness of a plurality of repairable systems, such as a fleet of aircraft, is provided. In addition to identifying the repairable systems that will be operational, the relative state of readiness of the repairable systems is determined such that the repairable systems that are most likely to successfully complete the designated task can be selected. Additionally, an automated method of analyzing the maintenance operations performed upon a plurality of repairable systems, such as a fleet of aircraft, is provided. In this regard, the relative states of readiness of the repairable systems are determined and maintenance resources are allocated based upon the respective measures of the relative states of readiness of the repairable systems. As such, maintenance operations scheduled for the aircraft that will have the greatest state of readiness upon completion of the maintenance operations can be prioritized. |
| US08340990B2 |
Logistics planning in a business environment
A method for supply chain design may include identifying nodes, links connecting the nodes, and replenishment strategies for moving materials along the links, in a supply chain. The method may also include determining a value indicative of the complexity of the supply chain based on a characteristic of the nodes, links, and replenishment strategies. The method may also include identifying whether core competencies of the nodes are underutilized. The method may also include reducing the complexity of the supply chain to increase utilization of the core competencies of the nodes. |
| US08340986B2 |
Methods and systems for providing deferred annuities with an income reset feature
Methods and corresponding systems are provided for providing and administering deferred annuities with an annuity reset feature that provide periodic income payments to an annuitant for a term beginning at a start date. The methods include the step or steps of: receiving annuity information for an annuitant; determining at a first date one of a purchase price and an amount of at least one income payment due to the annuitant at the start date. The purchase price or the amount of at least one income payment due the annuitant includes a fee for the annuity reset feature that resets at least one variable of the annuity at a reset date later than the first date if the at least one variable of the annuity at the reset date is more beneficial to the annuitant than at least the first date; and offering the annuity with the reset feature to the annuitant. |
| US08340985B2 |
System and method for selling intangible property
A method comprises analyzing the psychology of a typical consumer and defining first key stages wherein customers drop out and second key stages wherein sales could be maximized. |
| US08340984B2 |
Certified IT services in-a-box
A system, in a cloud computing environment (“CCE”) includes a data processor. One or more cloud computing auditing components are configured to monitor the CCE in accordance with a predefined insurance level agreement (“ILA”) and to create a log of one or more CCE events indicated by the ILA. A neutral data warehouse is configured to store the log. A reporting module generates one or more reports for a party indicated by the ILA from the log in the neutral data warehouse in accordance with the ILA. |
| US08340983B2 |
Method and system for furnishing an on-line quote for an insurance product
A method and system for furnishing an on-line quote for an insurance product, such as auto insurance, the user is allowed to enter basic user information on an on-line quote system application which calls a common data entry system to request credit information for the user. The common data entry system sends the requested credit information to the on-line quote system application, and the user is allowed to enter a selection of coverage. The user is then allowed to enter underwriting information on the on-line quote system application which calls a rating engine of the common data entry system to request rating information. The on-line quote system application displays a quote for the user based at least in part on the rating information, and the user is offered an option to talk to an agent. A fast-forward feature simplifies the entry of modifications for the user. |
| US08340982B2 |
Method, system and medium for assessing the impact of various ailments on health related quality of life
The present invention relates to a system and method for assessing the impact of an ailment on a health related quality of life domain of a patient using a standardized common metric. The standardized common metric of the present invention enables the impact of various ailments to be compared. |
| US08340980B2 |
Data visualisation system and method
A data visualization system is disclosed that includes a data value memory, a display, and contour generator. The data value memory maintains a finite set of data values. The display is arranged to display a representation of each data value centered on respective data points. The contour generator is arranged to generate and display a representation having a cross-sectional shape of a bell-shaped curve in which each data point is displayed as an apex of the bell-shaped curve. Also disclosed is a method of data visualization and a data visualization computer program. |
| US08340979B2 |
Systems and methods for electronically processing government sponsored benefits
Systems and methods for processing benefits include providing a graphical user interface, such as a web browser, to a benefit recipient for accessing at least account information concerning at least one benefit type. The benefits processing system may receive a request from the benefit recipient through the graphical user interface for displaying the at least account information concerning the at least one benefit type. The benefits processing system may then display the at least account information through the graphical user interface concerning the at least one benefit type. |
| US08340978B2 |
Method and system for cross-carrier parcel tracking
A system and method is provided that enables a carrier of a mailpiece, such as a national postal service, to track a mailpiece as it passes from the control of a first carrier to the control of another, second carrier. The tracking of the mailpiece continues until the mailpiece is delivered, by the second carrier, to its ultimate recipient. In this manner the first carrier, who had control of the mailpiece when first posted, can monitor the handling of the mailpiece and can calculate delivery times when the mailpiece was in the control of the second carrier. The method and system of the present invention will find particular application to a national postal service seeking to track delivery performance of internationally addressed express mail that is first domestically posted and then ultimately delivered in a foreign country by the postal service of the foreign country. |
| US08340976B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating an enhancement layer within a multiple-channel audio coding system
A method and apparatus are disclosed for generating a coded audio signal based on a multiple channel audio input signal. A balance factor having balance factor components each associated with an audio signal of the multiple channel audio signal is generated. A gain value to be applied to the coded audio signal to generate an estimate of the multiple channel audio signal based on the balance factor and the multiple channel audio signal is determined, with the gain value configured to minimize a distortion value between the multiple channel audio signal and the estimate of the multiple channel audio signal. |
| US08340971B1 |
System and method of dialog trajectory analysis
The invention comprises computer-readable media, methods and systems for performing a dialog analysis and using that analysis to release an updated spoken dialog system. The method embodiment of the invention comprises receiving data associated with dialogs, extracting turn by turn details of the dialog and generating from the extracted details an empirical call-flow representation of the dialog. The call data may be call-logs and user audio. The empirical call-flow representation may be a finite-state machine with nodes that represent call-states and the arcs between nodes represent user responses. Nodes may also represent sub-dialogs. The call-flow representation is presented graphically to a user for easier analysis and understanding. Significant changes in the dialog can be identified as hot-spots for improvement in the next release of the spoken dialog system. |
| US08340970B2 |
Methods and apparatus for initiating actions using a voice-controlled interface
Methods and apparatus for initiating an action using a voice-controlled human interface. The interface provides a hands free, voice driven environment to control processes and applications. According to one embodiment, a method comprises electronically receiving first user input, parsing the first user input to determine whether the first user input contains a command activation statement that cues a voice-controlled human interface to enter a command mode in which a second user input comprising a voice signal is processed to identify at least one executable command and, in response to determining that the first user input comprises the command activation statement, identifying the at least one executable command in the second user input. |
| US08340968B1 |
System and method for training diction
A computer-implemented method for automatically training diction of a person acquires a speech data stream of the person as the person is speaking, compares the words in the speech data stream to a set of predefined undesirable phrases provided in a look-up table and upon detection of one of the predefined undesirable phrases in the speech data stream, alerting the person by an alarm. |
| US08340963B2 |
Echo suppressing system, echo suppressing method, recording medium, echo suppressor, sound output device, audio system, navigation system and mobile object
An echo suppressing system includes: a sound output device for outputting sound based on a sound signal, including a passing section for allowing passage of a component of a different frequency band, and a plurality of sound output sections, each of which outputs sound based on each of the plurality of sound signals passed through the passing section; a summer for summing the plurality of sound signals to generate a reference sound signal; a sound input device for converting input sound into a sound signal; and an echo suppressor for suppressing echo based on the sound output by the sound output device, including an input section to which a sound signal is input from the sound input device as an observation sound signal, and a correction section for correcting the observation sound signal so as to suppress echo included in the observation sound signal. |
| US08340959B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting wideband speech signals
A method and an apparatus for transmitting a speech signal are provided. A speech signal transmitter includes a quadrature mirror filter, a base sub-band encoder, an enhancement sub-band encoder, and a network connector. The quadrature mirror filter receives a speech signal, divides the speech signal into an enhancement band speech signal and a base band speech signal, and outputs the enhancement band speech signal and the base band speech signal. The base sub-band encoder receives and encodes the base band speech signal. The enhancement sub-band encoder receives and encodes the enhancement band speech signal. The network connector multiplexes the encoded enhancement band speech signal and the encoded base band speech signal based on the kinds of networks over which speech signals are transmitted, and transmits the multiplexed signals to the networks. A speech signal is multiplexed and transmitted by various methods based on the kinds of networks. Thus, the speech signal can be efficiently transmitted. |
| US08340957B2 |
Media content assessment and control systems
Computer implemented methods, computing devices, and computing systems, wherein relationships of words or phrases within a textual corpus are assessed via frequencies of occurrence of particular words or phrases and via frequencies of co-occurrence of particular pairs of words or phrases within defined tracts of text from within the textual corpus. |
| US08340951B2 |
Synthetic enzymes derived from computational design
Disclosed herein are techniques for computationally designing enzymes. These techniques can be used to design variations of naturally occurring enzymes, as well as new enzymes having no natural counterparts. The techniques are based on first identifying functional reactive sites required to promote the desired reaction. Then, hashing algorithms are used to identify potential protein backbone structures (i.e., scaffolds) capable of supporting the required functional sites. These techniques were used to design 32 different protein sequences that exhibited aldol reaction catalytic function, 31 of which are defined in the Sequence Listing. Details of these 31 different synthetic aldolases are provided, including descriptions of how such synthetic aldolases can be differentiated from naturally occurring aldolases. |
| US08340950B2 |
Direct to consumer genotype-based products and services
In one embodiment, a method of providing genotype-based information is described that comprises receiving one or more genotype calls that each identify a fraction of an individuals' genetic composition; assigning an electronically identifiable identifier for each genotype call; and generating a customized set of information using one or more of the identifiers. |
| US08340948B1 |
Fleet performance optimization tool for aircraft health management
A computer-based method for simulating an overall effect of a component replacement on the reliability of a platform is described. The method includes determining a scheduled reliability for a platform based on a reliability associated with each of the removable components of the platform, selecting, via a user interface, at least one removable component of the platform for which replacement is to be simulated, determining, using a computer-based model, an effect the one or more replacements would have on the forecasted reliability for the platform, and providing a comparison of the forecasted reliability and the scheduled reliability to a user. |
| US08340944B2 |
Computational and/or control systems and methods related to nutraceutical agent selection and dosing
The present disclosure relates to computational and/or control systems and methods related to nutraceutical agent selection and dosing. |
| US08340939B2 |
Method and apparatus for selecting paths for use in at-speed testing
In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for selecting paths for use in at-speed testing. One embodiment of a method for selecting a set of n paths with which to test an integrated circuit chip includes: organizing the set of n paths into a plurality of sub-sets, receiving a new candidate path, and adding the new candidate path to one of the sub-sets when the new candidate path improves the process coverage metric of the sub-sets. |
| US08340937B2 |
Characterization of a model-based spectral reflectance sensing device
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for characterizing a model-based spectral reflectance sensing device. In accordance with the teachings hereof, measurements of training samples taken with a previously manufactured ‘fleet master’ sensing device are adapted, in a manner more fully disclosed herein, based upon knowledge of the wavelengths of the illuminators used for both the subject and fleet master sensors, as well as spectral reflectance response of the training samples as measured by a reference spectrophotometer device. Utilizing the adapted measurements of the fleet master device, a reconstruction matrix can be quickly constructed for the subject sensor. The present system and method provides reasonably good accuracy using pre-existing measurement data. This results in manufacturing cost savings on a per-sensor basis. |
| US08340932B2 |
Vehicle power supply device and method of estimating state of charge of power storage device in vehicle power supply device
A vehicle power supply device includes a battery, a charging device (a charger, booster converters and inverters capable of performing an internal charging operation for performing charging with an electric power generated by a motor generator and an external charging operation for performing charging by coupling to a power supply outside the vehicle, and a control device detecting a state of charge of the battery and controlling the charging device. The control device executes a first estimation processing of estimating the state of charge in the internal charging operation and a second estimation processing of estimating the state of charge in the external charging operation. |
| US08340925B2 |
Vehicle fuel consumption calculator
Diesel fuel consumption is calculated in real-time in an vehicle diagnostic monitor using standard OBDII reported parameters and publicly available engine characteristics. Also, fuel consumption in vehicles that maintain a constant air-fuel ratio is calculated by analyzing the subject engine as an air pump and reading publicly available OBDII diagnostic data to estimate the instantaneous airflow through the engine without the need of MAF sensor data. |
| US08340922B2 |
Method for estimating fan life
A method for estimating a fan life includes the following steps. Fans to be checked at a number of M are provided. A working temperature and a test temperature of a fan are set, and the test temperature is greater than the working temperature. An acceleration factor is set, which has a fixed value. The fans are kept in an operating state at the test temperature, and a number of the damaged fans is detected and recorded at intervals of a check time, until N damaged fans are detected. A distribution of time points when the fans are damaged is simulated with a Weibull distribution model, and a shape parameter and a characteristic life of the Weibull distribution model are calculated. A life value of the fans at the test temperature is calculated. A life value of the fans at the working temperature is calculated by using the acceleration factor. |
| US08340911B2 |
Compensated ensemble crystal oscillator for use in a well borehole system
A compensated ensemble crystal oscillator clock system. The clock system includes preferably four quad compensated clocks, a compensated temperature sensor, and software for processing and correcting system response. Physical fabrication of elements of the quad compensated clocks, the compensated temperature sensor and cooperating software minimized drift in frequency of the oscillator clock system in harsh borehole environments encountered while drilling a borehole. The clock system exhibits a frequency stability of 2.8×10−9 or less over a temperature range of from 0° C. to 185° C. The compensated ensemble crystal oscillator clock system is particularly applicable to seismic-while-drilling operations wherein precise downhole measurements of time are required typically over a period of days. |
| US08340907B2 |
Slippage condition response system
A slippage condition response system for a first machine of a plurality of machines is disclosed. The response system may have a sensing system configured to sense a parameter indicative of a slippage condition of the first machine. Additionally, the response system may have a locator configured to sense a parameter indicative of a location of the first machine. The response system may also have a transmitter. In addition, the response system may have a controller, which may be in communication with the sensing system, the locator, and the transmitter. The controller may be configured to monitor the location of the first machine. The controller may also be configured to monitor the parameter indicative of a slippage condition of the first machine. Additionally, the controller may be configured to transmit to an offboard system at least one location where the first machine experienced a slippage condition. |
| US08340905B2 |
Vehicle guidance and sensor bias determination
Systems and methods for guiding a vehicle and vehicle sensor bias determination methods are disclosed. A method for guiding a vehicle includes a primary antenna of a primary survey-grade GNSS-receiver and a secondary antenna of a secondary GNSS-receiver mounted to the vehicle, which are at least temporarily receiving GNSS-signals of a global positioning system. A plurality of physical sensors mounted to the vehicle generate physical data indicative of respective measured physical parameters of at least part of the vehicle. The method includes de-biasing the physical data and applying a recursive statistical estimator, such as a Kalman filter, to the de-biased physical data and an output of the primary and secondary GNSS-receivers to determine a position and velocity of the vehicle. |
| US08340899B2 |
Route calculation device, navigation apparatus and computer readable medium
A route calculation device is disclosed. The route calculation device sets a recommended route leading from a departure point through via-points and sets an order of the via-points in the recommended route, through: (1) calculating multiple optimum routes from an origin point of a departure side route to multiple unarranged via-points and selecting one unarranged via-point that constitutes one optimum route that has minimum cost among the multiple optimum routes; (2) determining the place of the one unarranged via-point in the order so that the recommended route passes through the one unarranged via-point one via-point later than the origin point, adding the one optimum route to the departure side route, and setting the origin point to the one unarranged via-point; and (3) calculating, when the number of unarranged via-points becomes one, the optimum route between the origin point and the last one unarranged via-point. |
| US08340898B2 |
System and method for identifying portions of roads
A system and method splices into, or replaces routes identified based on road geometry with routes taken by the same user or other users to create alternate routes that may be selected by a user to display, for example, on a map or for which driving directions can be displayed. Communication of routes traveled by different devices may be received from a server or from another device. A naming convention for road segments and ordered paths of road segments is described. |
| US08340891B2 |
Two-wheeled vehicle control apparatus and two-wheeled vehicle control method
The present invention aims to provide a parallel two-wheeled vehicle in which a rider can ride in safety without executing a predetermined procedure in boarding. A parallel two-wheeled vehicle control apparatus according to the present invention includes a drive unit that drives two wheels arranged on the same axis line in parallel, a rider detection unit that detects a state of a rider on a riding part that is connected to the wheels, a vehicle detection unit that detects a posture of a vehicle body, and a control unit that generates a control command to the drive unit and performs initial control to optimize transition of control from boarding to normal operation based on the detection result by the vehicle detection unit upon detection by the rider detection unit that the rider rides on the riding part while satisfying a certain riding condition. |
| US08340890B1 |
Method and apparatus for enabling commuter groups
A commuter groups service (CGS) allows commuters to join commuter groups so that they are able to socialize while commuting. Through the commuter groups, the users may share commuting routes, traffic updates, road conditions, and other information. Group members may arrange car pools, short term riding arrangements, and may anonymously or directly contact each other. The CGS may collect group member position information, e.g. GPS information, to enable the CGS to calculate traffic conditions and to select location specific information for group members. The system may include an on-line service accessible through a computer or wireless networking device. The user may log into the CGS, create or modify a user profile, and join groups of their choosing. Groups may be associated with specific events or with getting to/from work. Commuter groups may be formed for commuters that use private vehicles and/or public transportation. |
| US08340886B2 |
System and method for transitioning between fuel supplies for a combustion system
A system includes a turbine fuel controller. The turbine fuel controller includes a purge control logic configured to control a purge sequence of mixing a purge gas with a first fuel during a first fuel shutdown, wherein the purge sequence is configured to open a purge valve for the purge gas before fully closing a fuel valve for the first fuel. |
| US08340885B2 |
Method for controlling a stationary gas motor
The invention proposes a method for controlling a stationary gas motor (1), wherein a rotational speed control deviation is calculated from a target rotational speed (nSL) and a current rotational speed (nIST), a target torque is determined from the rotational speed control deviation as the controlled variable, wherein a mixture throttle angle (DKW1, DKW2) is determined for the determination of a mixture volume flow and of a current mixture pressure (p1 (IST), p2(IST)) in a receiver pipe (12, 13) upstream of the intake valves of the gas motor (1) as a function of the target volume flow, and wherein a gas throttle angle is determined for determining a gas volume flow as the gas content in a gas/air mixture, also as a function of the target volume flow. |
| US08340884B1 |
Fuel saving method and device for vehicle
A system and method for maximizing a vehicle's fuel efficiency preferably without inconveniencing the driver, includes maximizing a ratio of a real-time parameter proportional to engine load or engine power to fuel flow or air flow rate referred to herein as the P/F ratio. This ratio is calculated to evaluate engine fuel efficiency. With the system and method, the throttle is operated incrementally to increase or decrease the throttle in a manner to maximize the P/F ratio, thus maximizing fuel efficiency, in a pulse phase. The system and method implement an on and off pulse width modulation (“PWM”) style of control to modulate engine power and acceleration to achieve the speed that the driver desires, based on the position of the accelerator pedal. When the desired speed is achieved, the throttle is released and when the speed drops a sufficient amount, the throttle is re-engaged to reach the desired speed again. When the throttle is disengaged or when the driver releases the accelerator pedal, the system and method implement a glide phase, where the vehicle coasts without use of fuel or in neutral with very limited use of fuel and minimum engine drag. |
| US08340879B2 |
Method for activating a clutch arrangement
A method for opening a closed clutch arrangement of a drivetrain for a motor vehicle. The clutch arrangement is activated in such a way that the torque which it can transmit is reduced up to an opening point at which torque can no longer be transmitted via the clutch arrangement. The clutch arrangement is placed into an intermediate slip state before the opening point is reached. |
| US08340878B2 |
Torque converter control device and control method thereof
When an upshift is performed while a traveling condition of a vehicle corresponds to a driving condition or a downshift is performed while the traveling condition of the vehicle corresponds to a coasting condition, a second target slip amount is set as a target slip amount for a period extending from the start of gear ratio variation following issuance of a gear position change start command to completion of the gear ratio change, and when a downshift is performed in the driving condition or an upshift is performed in the coasting condition, a first target slip amount is set as the target slip amount for a period extending from issuance of the shift command to completion of the shift. |
| US08340876B2 |
Controller for automatic transmission
In an automatic transmission controller, a gear shift control unit has a target rotational angle position calculator for calculating a target rotational angle position of a gear shift motor, an actual rotational angle position calculator for calculating the actual rotational angle position of the gear shift motor, and an F/B gain setting unit. When a gear shift instruction from a gear shift controller is a gear shift pattern for driving at least a select motor, the F/B gain is set to be larger that of the gear shift pattern in which the select motor is not driven, and also a motor driving mode and a motor braking mode are switched to each other in accordance with the difference between the target rotational angle position and the actual rotational angle position. |
| US08340875B1 |
Lift system implementing velocity-based feedforward control
A hydraulic system for lifting a work tool of a mobile machine is disclosed. The hydraulic system may have a pump, a lift actuator, a lift valve arrangement, and a lift sensor configured to generate a first signal indicative of an actual lift velocity. The hydraulic system may also have a tilt actuator, a tilt valve arrangement, and at least one operator interface device movable to generate a second signal indicative of a desired lift velocity and a third signal indicative of desired tilt velocity. The hydraulic system may further have a controller configured to command the lift valve arrangement to meter pressurized based on the second signal, command the tilt valve arrangement to meter pressurized fluid based on the third signal, and command the tilt valve arrangement to meter pressurized fluid and maintain a desired tilt angle of the work tool during lifting based selectively on the first and second signals. |
| US08340868B2 |
Steering system and method of steering a machine
A steering system for steering a machine having opposing first and second sides with first and second pairs of rotatably mounted rear wheels disposed along the respective sides and at least one rotatably mounted, spaced front wheel. The system includes at least one first drive unit and at least one second drive unit for rotating the rear wheels of the respective pairs, and a steering input device that provides a signal to a controller that produces drive unit request signals to control the drive units to rotate the associated rear wheels along one side at rotational speeds greater than those along the other side to facilitate turning. |
| US08340858B2 |
Method and system for motor torque control for vehicles when a current sensor is not operating properly
Methods and systems for controlling motor torque in a hybrid vehicle are provided. A current sensor provides a feedback current when the sensor is operating properly. A processor controls the motor torque using the feedback current if the current sensor is operating properly. The processor controls the motor torque using a slip value for the hybrid vehicle if the current sensor is not operating properly. |
| US08340856B2 |
Off-board device with read/scroll actuator
A single input having multiple functions is provided. The single input having multiple functions may be used on off-board tools. In accordance with one embodiment, an off-board tool having a read/scroll actuator is provided. The read/scroll actuator, upon being actuated, performs either a read function or a scroll function. Another embodiment of an off-board tool having a display and capable of receiving information is provided. The off-board tool includes a contextual actuator having a first and a second mode. Actuation of the actuator in the first mode effectuates retrieval of information. Actuation of the actuator in the second mode effectuates display of at least a portion of the retrieved information. In accordance with another embodiment, an off-board device is provided. The off-board tool includes a display, read logic, scroll logic and a read/scroll actuator. |
| US08340855B2 |
USB isolation for vehicle communication interface
The present invention relates generally to an automotive diagnostic tool which facilitates data communications between an automobile and diagnostic device, such as a personal computer. More particularly, the present invention relates to electrically isolating the data communications using a Vehicle Communication Interface (VCI) device situated between an automobile's communication diagnostic port and the personal computer. The VCI contains logic circuitry to translate the automobile's On Board Diagnostic (OBD II) signals to an embedded Ethernet controller. Ethernet signals are then non-galvanicly exchanged with an Ethernet to USB controller with an Ethernet transformer. A personal computer is attached via a USB cable to the VCI's Ethernet to USB Controller, permitting information exchange between the automobile and the personal computer. |
| US08340854B2 |
Methods and systems for centrally managed maintenance program for aircraft fleets
Methods and systems for managing maintenance of a fleet of aircraft are provided. The method includes collecting data from at least one aircraft in each of the fleets related to the operation of the aircraft, determining a range of acceptable values of performance parameters associated with the collected data and based on the collected data, analyzing the collected data having values outside the range of acceptable values, and modifying at least one of a maintenance requirement and an interval between maintenance actions to facilitate reducing the number of performance parameters values that are outside the range of acceptable values during future operation of the aircraft. |
| US08340853B2 |
System and method for indicating apparent vehicle service brake application without apparent operation of service brack actuator
A motor vehicle has wheels on which it travels, a powertrain delivering propulsion torque to at least some of the wheels propel the vehicle, and a service brake system having service brakes. When the service brakes are applied by a service brake actuator, braking torque is applied to at least some wheels. A first device provides data representing a velocity that correlates with velocity of the vehicle, and a second device associated with the actuator provides data that distinguishes between application and non-application of the service brakes by the actuator. A processor monitors data from the first and second devices and processes the monitored data to provide a data output when the first device has disclosed velocity change indicative of the service brakes having been applied without the second device having disclosed that the service brakes have been applied. |
| US08340851B2 |
Autonomous mobile robot
An autonomous mobile robot includes a housing mounted on a track and controllable to move along the track and to stop at each selected location, two side covers pivotally mounted on the left and right sides of the housing and movable by a respective driving motor to close/open the left or right side of the housing, and a mechanism consisting of a motor roller, a driven roller, timing pulleys and timing belts to move a material carrier horizontally leftwards or rightwards to the outside of the housing after opening of the left-sided or right-sided side cover. |
| US08340849B2 |
Hybrid vehicle controller
A power frequency distribution predicting unit predicts the power frequency distribution of a vehicle in a case where the vehicle travels a route with reference to the history of the vehicle power Pv when the vehicle traveled the route in the past. An operation condition setting unit sets the range of the required vehicle power Pv0 to operate the engine as an engine operation condition for controlling the energy balance between generated power and generated electric power of an electric rotating machine in a case where the vehicle travels the route to be at a preset value according to the power frequency distribution predicted by the power frequency distribution predicting unit. An operation control unit controls the operation of the engine according to the range of the required vehicle power Pv0 to operate the engine set by the operation condition setting unit. |
| US08340845B2 |
Marine vessel theft deterrent apparatus and marine vessel including the same
A theft deterrent apparatus in a marine vessel including a propulsion device having an engine coupled to a starter and a power generator, includes an authentication unit arranged to operate by receiving power from a battery that is arranged to supply power to the starter and accumulate power generated by the power generator, an operation control unit arranged to allow operation of the propulsion device if authentication by the authentication unit does succeed and prohibit operation of the propulsion device if authentication by the authentication unit does not succeed, a fault detection unit arranged to detect a fault of the authentication unit, and a fault detection control unit arranged to make a provisional fault judgment when the fault detection unit detects the fault of the authentication unit before completion of engine starting by the starter, and then make the fault detection unit perform the fault detection again after the completion of engine starting by the starter. |
| US08340843B2 |
Method for determining the speed of an aircraft
The invention relates to a method for determining the speed of an aircraft that is subject to a time constraint. The invention consists no longer in calculating a single CAS/MACH pair during climb/descent but in adapting the speed in a continuous manner to the bounds of curves of minimum Vmin and maximum Vmax speed defining a flight envelope of the aircraft. The calculation of these speeds is carried out on the basis of constant maximum and minimum speed setpoints and of a coefficient taking into account a deviation to the time constraint. |
| US08340835B2 |
Printing apparatus with plural page print medium conveyance control method
A printing apparatus is controlled to generate a pulse signal so that a print medium conveyance speed detected by an encoder comes close to a target speed. The duty of the generated pulse signal is calculated every predetermined timing. When a sensor detects the leading end of the print medium, the duty of the pulse signal input to a feed motor is stored in a memory. It is determined whether the difference between the calculated duty and the stored duty has exceeded a predetermined value. If the difference has exceeded the predetermined value, supply of the pulse signal stops. When supply of the pulse stops, a conveyance roller is driven. |
| US08340834B1 |
Occupancy sensor with energy usage indicator
An occupancy sensing and energy indicating load control device includes an occupancy sensor, an energy savings feedback indicator, and a manual controller. The occupancy sensor detects occupancy within a monitored area. The device is electrically coupled to at least one load positioned within the monitored area and controls the energy consumption of the load. The energy savings feedback indicator provides awareness to an end user regarding energy savings and provides the end user with opportunities for additional energy savings. The device optionally includes a demand response indicator for providing awareness to the end user regarding when a demand response condition exists, its severity, and opportunities for additional energy savings. |
| US08340832B1 |
Energy efficiency management system and method
Exemplary embodiments of the computerized management system for controlling energy consumption for energy consumers using a smart meter may include a database that contains contract provisions for energy consumers. Furthermore, exemplary embodiments of the system include a database interface adapted to allow the system to access the contract provisions to optimize energy consumption based upon available energy. The system may also include a managing data component that is adapted to manage data between the database and the smart meter. In exemplary embodiments, a communication network connecting the system to the database and the smart meter may be included. Additionally, some exemplary embodiments of the system include a protocol converting component that is adapted to act as an interface for application programming or protocol converting. |
| US08340828B2 |
Water and fertilizer management system
A monitoring system is provided for monitoring the growing conditions of plants in the vicinity of the roots. In addition, it is provided a system that applies real-time analysis of the growing process parameters and takes into consideration components such as plant, soil, climate, fertilizer and water. A management system based on the real-time analysis is designed that computes the amount of water and fertilizer needed every day to the plants. |
| US08340826B2 |
System and method for optimizing use of plug-in air conditioners and portable heaters
Thermostatic HVAC and other energy management controls that are connected to a computer network. For instance, remotely managed load switches incorporating thermostatic controllers inform an energy management system, to provide enhanced efficiency, and to verify demand response with plug-in air conditioners and heaters. At least one load control device at a first location comprises a temperature sensor and a microprocessor. The load control device is configured to connect or disconnect electrical power to the an attached air conditioner or heater, and the microprocessor is configured to communicate over a network. In addition, the load control device is physically separate from an air conditioner or heater but located inside the space conditioned by the air conditioner or heater. |
| US08340823B2 |
Controller of mobile robot
A controller of a mobile robot that moves an object such that the position of a representative point of the object and the posture of the object follow a desired position and posture trajectory is provided. The desired posture trajectory of the object includes the desired value of the angular difference about a yaw axis between a reference direction, which is a direction orthogonal to the yaw axis of the object, and the direction of the moving velocity vector of the representative point of the object, defined by the desired position trajectory. The controller has a desired angular difference setting means which variably sets the desired value of the angular difference according to at least a required condition related to a movement mode of the object. This allows the object to be moved at a posture which meets the required condition of the movement mode. |
| US08340809B2 |
Intelligent shelving system and dividing element
An intelligent shelving system and associated dividing element. One or more dividing elements are arranged to communicate with a controller, each of the one or more dividing elements including an antenna having a detection plane and a base for placement on a shelf. The detection plane of the antenna is configured so as to be substantially parallel to the base. Each of the one or more dividing elements is arranged to identify electronically tagged items falling within the detection plane of its respective antenna and communicate data on said identified items to the controller. |
| US08340802B2 |
Systems and methods for producing clip-ons for a primary eyewear
A method for providing data regarding a given primary eyewear to a remote data processing center where the data is processed to yield production instructions for producing a clip-on for the primary eyewear. The production instructions are provided to one or more remote production units. Preferably, the site providing data regarding the primary eyewear and the site for producing the secondary eyewear object are the same site. |
| US08340800B2 |
Monitoring a process sector in a production facility
Monitoring a process sector in a production facility includes establishing a tool defect index associated with a process sector in the production facility. The tool defect index includes a signal representing a defect factor associated with a tool in the process sector. Monitoring the process also requires determining whether the defect factor is a known defect factor or an unknown defect factor, and analyzing a unit from the tool if the defect factor is an unknown defect factor. Monitoring the process further requires identifying at least one defect on the unit from the tool, establishing that the at least one defect is a significant defect, determining cause of the significant defect, and creating an alert indicating that the tool associated with the process sector is producing units having significant defects. |
| US08340797B2 |
Method and system for generating and processing digital content based on text-to-speech conversion
A method and system is provided for generating digital content using text-to-speech (TTS) conversion. A predetermined script is selected using a portable terminal or user personal computer (PC). A format for converting the selected script into an audio data file is determined. The selected script is generated into the audio data file according to the determined conversion format of the audio data file using a TTS engine provided to at least one of the user PC and a web server. |
| US08340793B2 |
Architecture using integrated backup control and protection hardware
An electronic control configuration includes at least one secondary microprocessor operable to control a device. The at least one secondary microprocessor assumes protection control of the device responsive to a first type of failure by transmitting a protection control signal to a first effector. The at least one secondary microprocessor assumes backup control of the device responsive to a second type of failure by transmitting a backup control signal to a second effector. The backup control functionality of the at least one secondary microprocessor can be selectively disabled. |
| US08340788B2 |
Positioned based motor tuning for a guillotine cutter mechanism
A method for tuning operation of servo motors includes selecting a plurality of discrete positions in a guillotine blade cycle for which to determine tuning coefficients, determining tuning coefficients at the discrete positions, interpolating tuning coefficients for positions between the discrete positions, and applying the determined and the interpolated tuning coefficients to the servo motor. The servo motors may be used in connection with a guillotine cutter for separating individual sheets from a continuous web. The guillotine cutter blade may be driven by a servo motor to cyclically lower and raise to transversely cut the web transported below the cutter blade. |
| US08340783B2 |
Implantable medical device lead with selectively exposed electrodes and reinforcement member
An implantable lead including a lead body including an outer surface, a proximal end, a distal end, and at least one electrode; an electrically insulating member that extends axially over a first portion of the outer surface of the lead body between the proximal end and distal end, the electrically insulating member defining at least one aperture that exposes a first portion of the at least one electrode when in a first position over the lead body; and a reinforcement member formed at least partially of a different material than the insulating member and coupled to the insulating member, the reinforcement member extending axially over the outer surface of the lead body between the insulating member and proximal end. The reinforcement member may be configured to transfer at least one of a radial or axial force from a proximal portion of the reinforcement member to the insulating member, wherein the at least one of radial or axial force transferred to the insulating member is sufficient to move the insulating member over the outer surface of the lead body. In some examples, the lead may further include a deployable lobe member configured to anchor the reinforcement member and insulating member adjacent a tissue site within a patient. |
| US08340780B2 |
Leadless cardiac stimulation systems
Various configurations of systems that employ leadless electrodes to provide pacing therapy are provided. In one example, a system that provides multiple sites for pacing of myocardium of a heart includes wireless pacing electrode assemblies that are implantable at sites proximate the myocardium using a percutaneous, transluminal, catheter delivery system. Also disclosed are various configurations of such systems, wireless electrode assemblies, and delivery catheters for delivering and implanting the electrode assemblies. |
| US08340779B2 |
Percutaneous flat lead introducer
In general, the invention is directed to a technique for percutaneously introducing a stimulation lead into a target stimulation site via the epidural region proximate the spine of a patient. The process of introducing the stimulation lead may include the use of a hollow stimulation lead introducer, which comprises an elongated sheath and an elongated dilator. The dilator fits within the sheath and serves to widen a path through the epidural region for the introduction of a stimulation lead. At least a portion of the stimulation lead introducer has an oblong cross-section, allowing passage of stimulation leads such as paddle leads. The stimulation lead introducer may enter the epidural region proximate a spine of a patient via a guidewire. The stimulation lead introducer provides a path through the epidural region of a patient to a target stimulation site. A stimulation lead may travel through the path to reach the target stimulation site where it may provide therapy to the patient. |
| US08340777B2 |
Systems configured to transmit optical power signals transdermally out of a living subject, and devices and methods
In an embodiment, a system includes an internal optical power transmitter configured to be disposed within a living subject. The internal optical power transmitter includes a power source configured to provide electrical energy and an electrical-optical converter operably coupled to the power source. The electrical-optical converter may be configured to convert at least a portion of the electrical energy into one or more optical power signals transdermally transmittable out of the living subject. The system further includes an external optical-electrical converter configured to convert the one or more optical power signals into one or more electrical power signals and at least one external device configured to be operably coupled to the external optical-electrical converter and powered by the one or more electrical power signals. Embodiments of methods, biocompatible electrical-optical converters, and internal optical power transmitters are also disclosed. |
| US08340774B2 |
Implantable device with removable magnet
An implantable device includes a receiving coil assembly including a magnet holding structure for containing an internal holding magnet which is reorientable in responsive alignment to an external magnetic field. The magnet holding structure is adapted for allowing removal and subsequent reinsertion of the internal holding magnet. |
| US08340770B2 |
Controlling seizure activity with electrical stimulation
Apparatus and methods associated with controlling seizure activity with electrical stimulation that either suppress axonal conduction between brain structures and/or that generate a desired response in a targeted neuronal pool are described. One example apparatus includes an implantable stimulating electrode that provides an electrical stimulus to fiber tracts of the hippocampal commissure of the brain of a subject. The stimulus may be a high frequency structure that prevents communication of signals associated with an epileptic episode and/or prevents seizure activity in a target nucleus. The example apparatus may also include a detection logic that detects specific electrical activity in the central nervous system that identifies that an epileptic episode is imminent. The example apparatus includes a pacing system to selectively configure and apply the electrical stimulus to fiber tracts of the hippocampal commissure of the brain. |
| US08340760B2 |
Electric modulation of sympathetic nervous system
A method is described for the treatment of obesity or other disorders, by electrical activation or inhibition of the sympathetic nervous system. This activation or inhibition can be accomplished by electrically stimulating the greater splanchnic nerve or other portion of the sympathetic nervous system using an implantable pulse generator. This nerve activation can result in reduced food intake and increased energy expenditure. Reduced food intake may occur through a variety of mechanisms that reduce appetite and cause satiety. Increased adrenal gland hormone levels will result in increased energy expenditure. Fat and carbohydrate metabolism, which are also increased by sympathetic nerve activation, will accompany the increased energy expenditure. |
| US08340758B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling electrical stimulation
An apparatus and method for controlling an electrical stimulation system to increase the resolution of the stimulation region with multiple independent power source electrodes is proposed. In the apparatus, the electrode set contains at least three electrodes of which two adjacent electrodes are of the same power polarity to control the location of the composite stimulation signal and the others are of an inverse power polarity to balance the total power polarity and narrow the stimulation region. The method for the apparatus comprises steps of: receiving a target stimulation location and level, generating at least one parameter to adjust power settings of the electrodes, thereby obtaining a composite stimulation signal corresponding to a virtual channel of which a location and level match the target stimulation location and level. |
| US08340755B2 |
Electric field control device and detection device
The present invention provides an electric field control device that can transmit a quasi-electrostatic field more efficiently. There is provided an electric field control device that applies electric fields to an electric field application subject, which includes a first electrode and a second electrode that generate the electric fields, a frame that is arranged around the first electrode and second electrode, and is connected to the first electrode and second electrode, an opening that is formed at one end of the frame, and an output unit that outputs a first signal to the first electrode, and outputs a second signal to the second electrode, wherein, when the electric fields are generated from the first electrode and second electrode, the output unit outputs the second signal to the second electrode so that the potential of the frame is not changed temporally and made constant. |
| US08340752B2 |
Method, apparatus and computer program product for assessment of attentional impairments
A method, apparatus, and computer useable medium that provides, among other things, a standardized test protocol for screening and evaluation of attentional impairment using EEG data. Further, the method, apparatus, and computer program product enhances existing psychological, behavioral, and physiological EEG data acquisition systems by introducing a sequential stochastic model procedure, and an intelligent data interpretation component capable of assessing EEG inconsistencies associated attentional impairments. Potential users of this product will be any person or organization that diagnoses or treats persons with attentional or cognitive impairments. The method can be used for initial screening and diagnosis of disorders associated with impaired attention, such as ADHD, as well as for treatment and evaluation of the effects of treatments, such as medication or additional therapies. |
| US08340750B2 |
Mechanical function marker channel for cardiac monitoring and therapy control
The implantable medical device (IMD) system disclosed here utilizes one or more cardiac sensors that measure mechanical characteristics of the heart, such as left ventricular acceleration or right ventricular pressure. The raw sensor data is collected and processed by the IMD, which derives one or more mechanical event marker signals from features, traits, and characteristics of the sensor data waveforms. The mechanical event marker signals are wirelessly transmitted to an external monitor device for display. |
| US08340748B2 |
Fetus electrocardiogram signal measuring method and its device
Disclosed are a fetus electrocardiogram signal measuring method and its device that are capable of measuring the electrocardiogram signals of a fetus even during fetus movements and even at a gestational age during which the measurement current is weak, without the need for reattaching the electrodes and providing any shield room, even if the mother is a hospitalized or ambulant pregnant woman. The fetus electrocardiogram signal measuring device includes (1) high input impedance electrodes, (2) region-variable ground electrodes, and (3) a differential amplifier circuit and an optimization computing section. |
| US08340736B2 |
Mobile electronic device
A system and method for controlling antennas in a mobile electronic device is disclosed. The mobile electronic device comprises a first case comprising first antenna means and second case comprising second antenna means. The mobile electronic device is operable to communicate using the first antenna means when in a closed state and using the first and second antenna means when in an opened state. |
| US08340735B2 |
Electromagnetic shielding and an acoustic chamber for a microphone in a mobile electronic device
A circuit board in a mobile electronic device has a microphone and related amplifier and signal conditioning circuitry mounted thereon. A radio frequency (RF) shield surrounds and isolates the microphone from electromagnetic interference (EMI). The RF shield together with the circuit board forms an acoustic chamber surrounding the microphone. A hole in the RF shield permits acoustic energy to enter the acoustic chamber and reach the microphone. |
| US08340734B2 |
Sliding mechanism for slide-type electronic device
A sliding mechanism for a portable electronic device includes a fixing member, at least one first elastic member arranged at a side of the fixing member, a sliding member, and at least one second elastic member arranged at a side of the sliding member. The first elastic member includes an arcuate first resisting section, the second elastic member includes an arcuate second resisting section, the second resisting section is shorter than the first resisting section. The sliding member is assembled with the fixing member and the second resisting section elastically resists with the first resisting section. The sliding member can automatically slide due to resilient forces between the first resisting section and the second resisting section. |
| US08340733B2 |
Electronic device having selective touch sensitive display window
An apparatus including a first housing section and a second housing section. The first housing section includes a window having a touch sensitive member which is at least partially see-through. The second housing section is movably connected to the first housing section. The second housing section includes a display. When the second housing section is at a first position relative to the first housing section, a first portion of the display is located at a first location directly behind the window. When the second housing section is at a second position relative to the first housing section, the first portion is located at a second different location, spaced from the first location directly behind the window, and a second portion of the display is located at the first location directly behind the window. |
| US08340730B2 |
System and method for safely blocking mobile communications usages
A system and method for internally controlling a mobile communication system, the mobile communication system internally inhibiting communication of a mobile communication device when the communication device achieves a threshold of predetermined momentum, a motion monitoring routine internal to the mobile communication device initiates with device turn on and periodically updates momentum, inhibiting device usage if motion is sustained, when the motion monitoring routine does not detect device motion above the threshold no inhabitation is deployed and full usage including connection to a cellular network is available, a inhibit safety override is facilitated for emergencies or other circumstances, a time out of inhibit when motion has ceased below the threshold for a sustained period. |
| US08340729B2 |
Wireless headset switching system
Switching signals between a mobile communications device and a wireless headset can include setting a switch in a first position; connecting, through the switch, signals received from a mobile communications device to a wireless adapter for transmission to a wireless headset; and repositioning the switch, in response to input, to a second position, wherein signals received by the wireless adapter from the wireless headset are connected through the switch to the mobile communications device. Further, signals can be transmitted from the wireless adapter to the wireless headset using a short-range radio frequency protocol. Additionally, the input in response to which the switch is repositioned can be received from a hand-held trigger switch. |
| US08340727B2 |
Method and system of creating a video sequence
A method of creating a video sequence. The method comprises setting at least one repetitive reminder in a schedule managed by a handheld device having an image sensor, alarming a user according to the at least one repetitive reminder, capturing a sequence of images using the image sensor, automatically identifying a facial image depicting a face in a preset area in the sequence of images, automatically selecting the facial image, in response to the identification, and adding the facial image to a facial video sequence. |
| US08340724B2 |
Feeder cable reduction
The present invention allows transmission of multiple signals between masthead electronics and base housing electronics in a base station environment. At least some of the received signals from the multiple antennas are translated to being centered about different center frequencies, such that the translated signals may be combined into a composite signal including each of the received signals. The composite signal is then sent over a single feeder cable to base housing electronics, wherein the received signals are separated and processed by transceiver circuitry. Prior to being provided to the transceiver circuitry, those signals that were translated from being centered about one frequency to another may be retranslated to being centered about the original center frequency. |
| US08340722B2 |
Auto-accelerated method for a mobile communication equipment and the equipment therefore
An auto-accelerated method is applied to a mobile communication equipment. The mobile communication equipment includes a primary module and a secondary module with a specific communication pattern including a transmission interface. The primary module sends out an inquiry command to inquire the transmission interface corresponding to the secondary module. The secondary module sends out a reply command to answer the inquiry command. According to the reply command, the primary module turns a switch inside the primary module to reach a transmission unit corresponding to the transmission interface of the secondary module. After the switching, the data transmission is made through between the primary module and the secondary module. |
| US08340721B2 |
Notebook computer and cell phone assembly
A computer and cell phone assembly, including a communicator including a modem for communicating over a wireless network, and a notebook computer, including a pouch for physically attaching the communicator to the notebook computer, and a connection indicator for indicating arrival of an incoming phone call from the wireless network when the communicator is attached to the notebook computer, wherein the communicator is operative to receive the incoming phone call whether it remains attached to the notebook computer or whether it is subsequently detached from the notebook computer. A method is also described and claimed. |
| US08340719B1 |
Mobile phone message management
Techniques are described for managing messages with a mobile phone. First user input is received that indicates a first active call record from a list of active call records. In response to the first user input, a call is initiated from a mobile device to a particular target indicated by the first active call record. After completion of the call, the mobile device prompts for second user input to update the status of the list of active call records. In one embodiment, a second active call record is created for the connection in response to the second user input. The second active call record may automatically populated with notes from the first active call record. |
| US08340712B2 |
Method and system for utilizing diplexer/duplexer for WCDMA operation as a filter for supporting GSM-based operation
Aspects of a method and system for utilizing a diplexer/duplexer for WCDMA operation as a filter for supporting GSM-based operation are provided. A receiver portion of a wireless device may receive WCDMA signals and GSM signals via at least one duplexer or diplexer. The duplexers may enable bandpass filtering of received GSM signals. The wireless device may enable receiving the WCDMA signals and the GSM signals via a single antenna coupled to the duplexers. The receiver portion may also enable selecting a processing path for received WCDMA signals or a processing path for received GSM signals. The receiver portion may enable amplification and filtering of the WCDMA signals. Filtering of the WCDMA signals may be performed via surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters. The receiver portion may also enable filtering of the GSM signals via the duplexers and amplification of the filtered GSM signals. |
| US08340708B2 |
Portable terminal
A portable telephone according to this invention includes a housing (10) which incorporates a display unit and a receiving speaker (6), a first sound emission portion (8) and a second sound emission portion (9) which guide an output sound from the receiving speaker to the outside of the housing, a sound guide hole (26) which communicates the first sound emission portion and the second sound emission portion, and a screen (12) which protects the display unit. The first sound emission portion is formed at a position opposing an output sound generating main surface (6a) of the receiving speaker, and the second sound emission portion is formed at a portion adjacent to the position opposing the output sound generating main surface. The sound guide hole is formed by covering a groove (23), formed on the housing to connect the first sound emission portion to the second sound emission portion, with the screen. This arrangement enables stable emission of an output sound without sacrificing downsizing and thickness reduction of the portable telephone regardless of the position of an earpiece portion to allow a user to listen to the output sound that the user's ear pinna opposes. |
| US08340705B2 |
Method of camping on a hybrid cell and checking access priority and device therefor
Methods of camping on a hybrid cell and checking access priority and devices therefor are provided. The service of a CSG user is preferably guaranteed by adjusting a UE's camping right and a passing probability of an access priority checking according to the user's contracted characteristic and limit access information of a hybrid cell Node B. At the same time, the initial access delay of a non-CSG user is reduced, the initial access efficiency of the non-CSG user is improved, and the network resource and the UE's power are saved. |
| US08340702B2 |
Unsuccessful call alert
A method for a mobile phone to provide an unsuccessful call alert, including monitoring an outgoing call from a caller to a callee to determine if the callee is available; if the callee is not available, then automatically actuating a message editor, automatically displaying a pre-defined call alert message, including an identifier of the caller and contact information for the caller, enabling the caller to edit the pre-defined call alert message, and sending the call alert message to the callee. A system is also described and claimed. |
| US08340698B2 |
System and method for delivering short messages on do and 1x networks
A method for delivering SMS to ATs in a first communication network providing DO and 1x interfaces and for offloading the delivery of the SMS from a second communication network including an MSC, comprising monitoring a DO control channel for pages by an AT and delivering the SMS in SIP to the AT over the DO interface. The method may further comprise tuning the AT to the DO interface and determining whether the AT is SIP registered for using the DO interface. An application server determines whether the AT is SIP registered for using the DO interface. When the DO interface is not available, the SMS may be delivered over the 1x interface and the method further comprises the AT sending a special SMS to an SMS gateway, which causes the application server to remember that the AT is now monitoring the first communication network including a circuit-switched network. |
| US08340697B1 |
Method and computer-readable medium for dynamically adjusting a multimedia data resolution in a wireless environment
A method and computer-readable medium for dynamically adjusting a multimedia data resolution in a wireless environment is provided. The method includes: determining the access profile of the mobile station; monitoring transmission conditions in the wireless system; transmitting the multimedia data and control signaling to the mobile station with a highest resolution based upon the transmission conditions, wherein the control signaling determines an amount of the multimedia data accessible to the mobile station based upon the access profile of the mobile station; and decreasing a resolution of the multimedia data being transmitted to the mobile station, if the transmission conditions become unacceptable for transmitting the multimedia data at the highest resolution. If the transmission conditions become acceptable for transmitting the multimedia data at a higher resolution, the resolution of the multimedia data being transmitted to the mobile station is increased to the highest possible resolution based upon the transmission conditions. |
| US08340694B2 |
Synchronizing mobile and vehicle devices
Location information is received at a mobile device from the memory of a vehicle device. The mobile device is updated based on the location information. Sensor data is received from at least one sensor measuring movement of the mobile device, and an estimated location of the mobile device is calculated based at least in part on the location information and the sensor data. |
| US08340693B2 |
WiMAX base station and method for determining location information for a mobile station in a WiMAX network
Embodiments of a WiMAX base station and a method for determining current location information of a mobile station in a WiMAX network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a first timing adjustment is determined from receipt of the ranging frame from the mobile station within the granted uplink time-slot, and a second timing adjustment is received from the non-serving base station. The second timing adjustment may be determined by the non-serving base station based on receipt of a ranging frame from the mobile station. |
| US08340691B1 |
Confirming a venue of user location
In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for verifying a venue associated with a user location. A mobile computing device determines an estimated geographic location of the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device wirelessly transmits the estimated geographic location to a server system. The mobile computing device receives from the server system an identification of a suggested venue. An interface element that indicates that the mobile computing device may be located at the suggested venue is provided on a display of the mobile computing device. User input that confirms that the user is at the suggested venue is received. In response to receiving the user input, the suggested venue is identified as a confirmed venue. A wireless communication that identifies that the user is at the confirmed venue is provided from the mobile computing device. |
| US08340690B2 |
Mechanism for content management in wireless mobile networks
Techniques for content management in wireless mobile networks are provided. In one aspect, a method of managing content stored on a plurality of mobile nodes in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is provided. The method includes the following step. The content is bound to one or more geographical locations such that, at any given time, the content is stored on at least one of the nodes at the geographical location. |
| US08340685B2 |
Methods, systems and apparatus to generate market segmentation data with anonymous location data
Methods and apparatus are disclosed to generate market segmentation data with anonymous location data. A disclosed example method involves receiving geographic location information associated with a mobile phone user, associating the geographic location information with an identifier unrelated to personal information associated with the mobile phone user, identifying a home location associated with the geographic location information, and associating segmentation information with the identifier based on the home location and without referencing personal information of the mobile phone user. |
| US08340678B1 |
Indicating radio bearer information to network applications
Providing information related to a quality of a mobile communication link to an internal and/or external application provider is described herein. By way of example, a system can include component(s) that can receive communication link quality information associated with a mobile session, incorporate such information into a data packet, and forward such data packet to an application provider. The system can provide such information for second generation network components, third generation network components, and advanced components compatible with both second and third generation network architectures. |
| US08340671B2 |
Method and apparatus of performing cell reselection procedure in wireless communication system
A method and an apparatus of performing a cell reselection procedure in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes starting a first reselection timer if a signal property value of a first neighbor cell with a higher priority than a serving cell is increased to above a threshold, starting a first delay timer if a second reselection timer that is a reselection timer of a second neighbor cell with a higher priority than the first neighbor cell is running at the expiry of the first reselection timer, reselecting the second neighbor cell as a suitable cell if the second reselection timer expires before the expiry of the first delay timer, and reselecting the first neighbor cell as the suitable cell if the first delay timer expires before the expiry of the second reselection timer. |
| US08340670B2 |
Registering with SIP servers for IMS using a fully qualified domain name
A fully qualified domain name may be used to identify a session initiation protocol server with which a client device may connect to IMS services in a network. In one implementation, a network device may receive a request to register a client device for IMS services. The network device may determine a fully qualified domain name corresponding to one or more SIP servers that process SIP signaling packets for the client device and transmit a message initiating resolution of the fully qualified domain name into a plurality of IP addresses. |
| US08340662B2 |
Method and system for implementing communications between multiple subnets and MSC
The present invention discloses a method and a system for implementing communications between multiple subnets covered by one physical Mobile Switching Center (MSC) and an MSC. The method includes the steps of: mapping one physical MSC to multiple logical MSCs, i.e. multiple virtual MSCs, and assigning a virtual MSC number to each virtual MSC, and setting relationship(s) between location area(s) covered by the virtual MSC and the virtual MSC number of each virtual MSC; transmitting location information of a terminal with the virtual MSC number during communications to implement communications among multiple subnets. During communication, since the terminal location is transmitted according to the virtual MSC number, it is possible to differentiate the terminals located in different subnets covered by a physical MSC, therefore the roaming and handover of the terminal between the subnets can be implemented; and the roaming limitation also can be implemented through the MSC List and VLR List. |
| US08340660B2 |
Method and apparatus for paging admission rate control
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a paging admission rate in a signaling control node of a wireless communication network. After execution of paging message transactions into the wireless communication network, a success rate is determined as ratio of paging messages forwarded to a paging area of the wireless communication network and number of successfully received paging messages. Even if the success rate is below a predetermined lower paging success rate limit, paging message transactions will be continued as long as a certain amount of paging success is maintained. |
| US08340651B1 |
Reconciling contact information between users
Methods, devices, and products utilize wireless-backup technologies to provide contact-reconciliation services with respect to sets of contacts stored on mobile devices. One embodiment of the inventions includes receiving an indication of an update event associated with a first set of contacts on a first mobile device, updating a remotely-stored copy of the first set of contacts, determining that a remotely-stored copy of a second set of contacts does not include a portion of contact information corresponding to the first mobile device, and updating the remotely-stored copy of the second set of contacts. In an embodiment, the remotely-stored copy of the second set of contacts is synchronized with the second set of contacts, thereby updating the second set of contacts. |
| US08340650B2 |
Mobile phone device, and its channel search method and program
To provide a mobile phone device, and its channel search method and program capable of starting up a channel search without requiring a user to manipulate any channel search button, and of returning from out-of-service-range or waiting in the optimal channel. A mobile phone device includes an acceleration sensor that detects an amount of vibration exerted on the mobile phone device, and the control means compares an amount of vibration detected by the acceleration sensor with a predetermined first threshold, and when the amount of vibration is higher than or equal to the first threshold, starts electric field level measurement of a waiting channel or a call channel as a channel search. |
| US08340649B2 |
Establishing communications sessions
A method of establishing a communications session in a communications system is disclosed. The communications system comprises a caller terminal (103), a mobile terminal (101) associated with the caller terminal (103), a callee terminal (115) associated with a callee and session initiation means (111,113). It has become common yet frustrating for users to have to maintain contact lists on a multiplicity of communications devices (e.g. the caller terminal and the mobile terminal). The method comprises: (i) identifying the callee using the mobile telephone (101); (ii) responsive to identification of said callee, transferring data identifying the callee from the mobile terminal (101) to the session initiation means (111,113); and (iii) in dependence on the transferred data, operating the session initiation means (111,113) to establish a communications session between the caller terminal (103) and the callee terminal (115). |
| US08340641B2 |
Aggregated multi-number visual voicemail server
A system, in which a server is connected to a group of voicemail servers, is provided. A first voicemail server provides voicemail services to landline telephone devices. A second voicemail server provides voicemail services to wireless telephone devices. The server receives information regarding a first voicemail intended for a user of a user device, receives information regarding a second voicemail intended for the user of the user device, aggregates the information regarding the first voicemail and the information regarding the second voicemail as aggregated information, and sends the aggregated information to the user device. |
| US08340640B2 |
Transcription systems and methods
A communication device may participate in telephone calls. The communication device may allow a user to request transcription of a telephone call by prompting the user when the telephone call is completed. The communication device may display a call history user interface and, in response to a selection of a telephone call from the call history user interface, may request transcription of the selected telephone call. The communication device may include a dedicated transcription button that, when pressed, causes audio content of a telephone call to be sent to a transcription service. The communication device may display a preferences user interface via which a user may elect to have all incoming and outgoing telephone calls transcribed, all incoming and outgoing telephone calls to/from selected contacts transcribed, and/or have the communication device prompt the user about transcription when each telephone call is completed. |
| US08340638B2 |
System and method of maintaining communications policy settings in a wireless network
In a network having a plurality of subscriber devices, a plurality of base stations and a server, a system and method of modifying policy settings are provided. Each base station transmits wirelessly across a geographic region. A subscriber device, capable of roaming between regions, establishes a wireless link with the server via the base stations. The network contains a communication policy determining from which other communication devices a subscriber device can receive voice calls. The server updates the policy based on requests from subscriber devices. The determination of whether to update the policy can be based on a record of rejections respective to the caller requested to be blocked. Alternatively, the policy can be updated according to a trust policy maintained on the server respective to the subscriber device making the request; the trust policy represents the procedure to follow when a request is received from that subscriber device. |
| US08340636B2 |
Determining if an access terminal is authorized to use an access point
A wireless access point is capable of communicating with an access terminal. The wireless access point executes instructions for receiving a first parameter from the access terminal in an attempt by the access terminal to register with the wireless access point for first service, for using the first parameter to update a failed list if the access terminal is not permitted to register with the wireless access point, for receiving a second parameter from the access terminal in an attempt by the access terminal to register with the wireless access point for second service, and for using the second parameter and the failed list to determine if the access terminal is authorized to use the wireless access point for second service. |
| US08340629B2 |
Method of contacting a PSAP
A method of contacting a public safety answering point (PSAP) that includes determining the location of a vehicle, communicating the location of the vehicle to a PSAP location service, identifying a PSAP proximate to the location of the vehicle, determining a direct inward dialing (DID) number associated with the identified PSAP, communicating the DID number to the call center from the PSAP location service, contacting the identified PSAP using the DID number, and transmitting the DID number of the identified PSAP and the location of the vehicle to the PSAP. |
| US08340622B2 |
Arrangement of radiofrequency integrated circuit and method for manufacturing thereof
A master radiofrequency integrated circuit (RF IC) and a slave radiofrequency integrated circuit include a master radiofrequency module and a slave radiofrequency module, respectively. Both RF ICs include a radiofrequency side contact connectable to an antenna, for receiving radiofrequency signals, via the antenna, from a wireless communications network and a baseband side contact connected to the radiofrequency module and connectable to a contact of a baseband integrated circuit, for transmitting the baseband signals from the master radiofrequency module to the baseband integrated circuit. The RF module is connected to the radiofrequency side contact, for converting the radiofrequency signals into baseband signals. The master radiofrequency module includes a slave control unit for controlling the slave radiofrequency module. The master RF IC has a slave side contact connected to the slave control unit and to the slave RF IC, for transferring a control signal or data from and/or to slave radiofrequency module when the slave radiofrequency module is connected to the contact of the baseband integrated circuit. The slave RF IC includes a master side contact connected to a control interface of the slave RF module and connectable to a master radiofrequency module on another RF IC, for receiving the control signals from the master radiofrequency module. |
| US08340613B1 |
Systems and methods providing signal power detection using low performance circuitry
Systems and methods which utilize low performance circuitry to provide received signal power detection without unacceptably impacting operation of a receiver circuit are shown. Circuitry utilized to provide received signal power detection according to embodiments comprises circuitry dedicated for use with respect to received signal power detection. Performance of the circuitry of the detection path may be lower than that required of circuitry of the signal processing path. However, performance parameters are selected to provide power detection of desired accuracy (e.g., flat gain) and to meet other performance metrics. Embodiments provide a low performance power detection circuit comprising a low performance tuner configuration. Further embodiments provide a low performance power detection circuit comprising a low performance data converter configuration. |
| US08340612B2 |
Active antenna array and method for calibration of the active antenna array
The disclosure relates to an active antenna array for a mobile communication system which comprises a plurality of receive paths, a control unit for generating a sounding signal, and a coupler for coupling the sounding signal into at least one of a plurality of receive paths. A switch is used to switch the output of one the plurality of receive paths between one of a receiver and a calibration unit. The disclosure also provides a method for the calibration of the active antenna array which comprises generating an initial sounding signal, coupling the initial sounding signal into at least one of a plurality of receive paths to generate an adjusted sounding signal, comparing the adjusted sounding signal with an initial sounding signal and then generating calibration parameters. |
| US08340605B2 |
Coordinated transmissions between cells of a base station in a wireless communications system
Systems and methods for providing coverage to a first cell through a first antenna system and coverage to a second cell through a second antenna system. Data is also processed for transmission to a mobile device in the first cell using the first and second antenna systems. |
| US08340597B1 |
Calibration correction for implicit beamforming in a wireless MIMO communication system
A transmitter beamforming technique for use in a MIMO wireless communication system determines a calibration factor and then applies the calibration factor to a transmit beamforming steering matrix developed using implicit beamforming, i.e., using an estimate of a forward channel disposed between a transmitter and a receiver based on a measurement of the reverse channel disposed between the receiver and the transmitter. The beamforming technique first determines descriptions of both the forward and reverse channels, determines an estimate of the forward channel from the description of the reverse channel, determines right singular matrixes which model the forward channel and the estimated forward channel and then develops a calibration factor from the determined right singular matrixes. The beamforming technique then applies the determined calibration factor to a steering matrix which is calculated using a standard implicit beamforming technique, i.e., assuming that the forward channel can be described as the transpose of the reverse channel. The use of this beamforming technique provides superior beamforming results when using implicit beamforming without having to take the necessary steps to determine a description of the actual forward channel each time a new steering matrix is to be calculated. |
| US08340594B2 |
Thermally optimized microwave channel multiplexing device and signals repetition device comprising at least one such multiplexing device
A microwave channel multiplexing device comprises several elementary filters connected in parallel with a common output port by way of a transverse waveguide, each filter comprising a lower end fixed to a support common to all the filters and an upper end away from the support, an external peripheral wall, at least one internal cavity defining an internal channel, a signal input connected to the internal cavity and a signal output connected to the transverse waveguide. The multiplexing device furthermore comprises a conducto-radiative device coupled mechanically and thermally to at least two filters, the conducto-radiative device comprising at least one thermally conducting plate, and linked to the external peripheral walls of each of said at least two filters, the plate being fixed at the level of the upper end of the filters. The invention applies to the field of satellite telecommunications and more particularly to signals repetition devices aboard satellites. |
| US08340591B2 |
Scheduling methods and systems for multi-hop relay in wireless communications
A wireless communication system includes one or more base stations, which may include one or more antennas for signal communications; a transceiver device, and a communication control device. The transceiver device is configured to communicate with a first group of relay stations being configured to receive and relay a first group of wireless communication signals from at least one base station and a second group of relay stations being configured to receive and relay a second group of wireless communication signals from at least one base station. The communication control device is configured to control one or both of (1) signal transmission power of at least one antenna and (2) signal communication timing of at least one antenna. The communication control device is also configured to divide a service period of the antenna into multiple phases, to enable communication of signals directed toward or from the first group of relay stations in a first phase, and to enable the second group of relay stations to communicate signals with one or both of the user device and the base station, during at least a part of the first phase, independently from the signals directed toward or from the first group of relay stations. |
| US08340587B2 |
Channel quality feedback mechanism and method
Methods and apparatus are presented for improving the feedback of channel information to a serving base station, which allows a reduction in the reverse link load while allowing the base station to improve the forward link data throughput. Over a channel quality indicator channel, three subchannels are generated; the re-synch subchannel, the differential feedback subchannel, and the transition indicator subchannel. The information carried on each subchannel can be used separately or together by a base station to selectively update internal registers storing channel conditions. The channel conditions are used to determine transmission formats, power levels, and data rates of forward link transmissions. |
| US08340584B2 |
Systems and methods for adaptive beamforming in indoor wireless networks
Systems and methods are disclosed for transmitting signals between a transmitter and a receiver by differentially estimating channel coefficients for each of the antenna elements relative to a reference antenna element; determining beam weights to remove oscillator induced phase or offset; and applying a correction (beamforming solution) at the transmitter to make the phase of the received signal from different antenna elements to be coherently combined at the receiver. |
| US08340573B2 |
Payload system for satellites
A payload system for satellites comprising transponder devices with an input section including an uplink antenna, a low noise amplifier, and a converter, and an output section including an input filter, a high power amplifier, an output filter, and a downlink antenna. At least some of the transponders share their high power amplifiers and the high power amplifiers shared have a maximum power smaller than the total power which can be transmitted by the payload. |
| US08340571B2 |
Repeater equipped with attenuator and variable attenuation method in the repeater and system for remotely managing the same
A repeater, a remote management system of a repeater and a method arc provided for variably attenuating an input signal. A repeater relays at least one frequency band signal between a base station and a service side, includes at least one variable attenuator for variably attenuating each of at least one frequency band signal, variably attenuates an input signal that is received from the base station through the variable attenuator, and transfers the input signal to the service side. Further, a remote management system of the repeater communicates through the repeater and a mobile communication network and includes a repeater management server for requesting to change an attenuation value of the variable attenuator to the repeater when the input signal is an excess input signal. |
| US08340570B2 |
Using radio frequency tuning to control a portable audio device
A method for controlling a portable audio device using radio frequency tuning is provided. A radio signal transmitter device communicatively coupled to the portable audio device transmits an audio signal of an audio file on a first radio frequency channel, a forward control signal on a second radio frequency channel, and a backward control signal on a third radio frequency channel to a radio signal receiver device. The portable audio device determines whether an audio output of the forward control signal is received by an audio receiver device. In response to determining that the portable audio device did receive the audio output of the forward control signal using the audio receiver device, the portable audio device plays a next audio file in a play list. |
| US08340564B2 |
Sheet thickness detector and image forming apparatus using same
The sheet thickness detector includes a fixed member, a displacement roller disposed opposite the fixed member and movable in such a linear direction as to be contacted with or separated from the fixed member when the sheet passes through a nip therebetween, bearings rotatably supporting a shaft of the displacement roller, a displacement member movable in the linear direction in conjunction with the displacement roller and integrated with at least one of the bearings, and a displacement sensor operatively connected to the displacement member and detecting displacement of the displacement member. The thickness of the sheet passing through the nip is determined based on the amount of displacement of the displacement member. |
| US08340563B2 |
Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus
A sheet conveying apparatus including: a sheet conveying path through which a sheet is conveyed; a sensor unit configured to output a signal according to a characteristic of the sheet which is conveyed through the sheet conveying path; a pressure unit configured to press the sheet against the sensor unit; and a moving member protruding into the sheet conveying path, the moving member being moved by being pushed by the sheet passing through the sheet conveying path, wherein the pressure unit is interlocked with the moving member so that the sheet is pressed by the pressure unit against the sensor unit when the moving member is not pushed by the sheet, and a pressure force on the sheet applied by the pressure unit is released or reduced when the moving member is pushed by the sheet. |
| US08340552B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A printer according to the present invention is a so-called tandem-type printer, and has a configuration that a motor gear is directly connected to an M-photoconductor driving gear and an idler gear is directly connected to a Y-photoconductor driving gear and the M-photoconductor driving gear. A diameter of the Y and M photoconductors driving gear, a distance between transfer sections of the Y and M photoconductors, a motor gear input angle, and an idler input angle are set so that an absolute value of a value obtained by subtracting 1 from an ideal amplitude ratio, which indicates a ratio of an ideal amplitude of an eccentric component of the Y-photoconductor driving gear to an actual amplitude of an eccentric component of the M-photoconductor driving gear, is equal to or less than a maximum allowable amplitude ratio. |
| US08340550B2 |
Transfer device and image forming device
A transfer device includes: an endless transfer-belt that includes a first transfer-portion, at which a developer image is transferred onto an outer periphery surface of the transfer-belt, and a second transfer-portion, at which the developer image is transferred onto a member-to-be-transferred, the transfer-belt moving toward the second transfer-portion from the first transfer-portion; a transfer-member that, at the second transfer-portion, sandwiches the member-to-be-transferred between the transfer-member and the transfer-belt, and transfers the developer image to the member-to-be-transferred; a tension application unit that includes a resilient member, and a tension application member that urges the transfer-belt with resilient force of the resilient member and applies tension to the transfer-belt; and a damping member that causes damping force to act on the tension application member when the tension application member moves in one of a direction in which the tension application member urges the transfer-belt, or an opposite direction. |
| US08340548B2 |
Image forming apparatus having a driving gear unit and a support guide
An image forming apparatus, includes: a main body frame; a process cartridge which comprises a driven gear unit which is driven to form a visible image on an image carrying body; and a bracket device which comprises a bracket main body which is coupled to the main body frame, a driving gear unit which is supported to the bracket main body, and which is to be engaged with the driven gear unit, and a guide which guides the process cartridge into a mounting position in the main body frame. |
| US08340542B2 |
Image forming apparatus for improving transfer efficiency and preventing image deterioration
An image forming apparatus including multiple colored toner image forming units to form multiple colored toner images on a rotatable body, a transfer device to collectively transfer the multiple colored toner images onto a recording medium from the rotatable body, a fixing device to fix the multiple colored toner images onto the recording medium, and a light-colored toner image forming unit to form a light-colored toner image as a bottommost layer of a resultant full-color toner image formed on the rotatable body. The multiple colored toner images are sequentially superimposed on the light-colored toner image formed as the bottommost layer of the resultant full-color toner image formed on the rotatable body. A condition for forming the light-colored toner image by the light-colored toner image forming unit is set such that the light-colored toner image is not transferred onto the recording medium from the rotatable body by the transfer device. |
| US08340534B2 |
Side band pilot tone for digital signal processing in polarization multiplexed coherent optical communication system
A method comprising generating a plurality of first symbols that correspond to a side band pilot tone (SBPT) signal for a plurality of data streams, mapping the first symbols into a plurality of second symbols that correspond to a plurality of signal components of the polarization multiplexed (PM) optical signal, and transmitting the second symbols in a plurality of data blocks of a PM optical signal. An apparatus comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory and configured to obtain a data block that comprises a plurality of SBPTs in a received PM optical signal, estimate a set of values for a carrier frequency and a polarization state, update a tap weight of a master equalizer based on the estimated set of values, and update a plurality of slave equalizers based on the updated tap weight of the master equalizer. |
| US08340533B2 |
Optical balanced receiver and IQ receiver with balanced compensation
An optical balanced receiver including an optical coupler for combining input optical information signal and optical reference signal and outputting two optical interfering signals whose phases are opposite to each other, two photodetectors for receiving the two optical interfering signals and outputting detection signals as electrical signals having the amplitudes corresponding to the interference intensities of the received optical interfering signals, a balance compensation type difference device for compensating an intensity fluctuation component added to a difference signal of the two detection signals due to the difference in amplitude and/or delay between the detection signals output from the two photodetectors in accordance with an input control signal, and outputting the compensated difference signal of the two detection signals, and a control circuit for outputting the control signal to the balance compensation type difference device. |
| US08340532B2 |
Optical signal receiving apparatus
A simple synchronizing detection circuit is provided in each of logical operation circuits, and a method for making a synchronizing detection in parallel is adopted. A selector control section monitors the states of the simple synchronizing detection circuits in parallel, and supplies an output from a proper logical operation circuit detecting the synchronization establishment to a frame synchronizing/terminating circuit at the latter stage. There is provided a function of relieving a synchronization determination condition if the synchronization establishment is not detected in any of the synchronizing detection circuits, whereby the output from the proper logical operation circuit can be selected depending on a load on a transmission path. |
| US08340530B2 |
Local oscillator frequency offset compensation in a coherent optical signal receiver
A system and method implementing dual stage carrier frequency offset compensation (FOC) in a coherent receiver for an optical communication system. In the first stage, a feed forward FOC function compensates for relatively slowly drifting frequency offsets. In a second stage, a decision-feedback FOC function compensates for relatively quickly drifting frequency offsets. The feed forward frequency offset compensation may be implemented with a feed forward carrier phase estimation function and the decision-feedback frequency offset compensation may be implemented with a decision-feedback carrier phase estimation function. |
| US08340527B2 |
Method and apparatus for coupling optical signal with packaged circuits via optical cables and lightguide couplers
Method and apparatus for coupling electrical and communication circuits, included in a packaged semiconductor comprising photo receivers, photo transmitters and photovoltaic cells, through lightguide and optical fiber cables. The packaged semiconductor combinations comprise one, two or plurality of photo elements for a single or plurality one way optical signal, receive or transmit, and a single or plurality of two way optical signal communications via direct optical links and via optical prisms, filters, half mirrors and lenses. The packaged semiconductor includes at least one optical access to a single or plurality of lightguides or optical fiber with single core and for multicore lightguides. A built-in or attachable holders are used for attaching the different lightguide cables to the one or plurality of optical accesses with the attached cable end is terminated by cutting, trimming and shaping. The packaged circuit comprising electrical switches, current sensors, basic elements such as diodes, transistors and FETs, switches and power switches and different basic electrical circuit and communication, distribution circuits including CPU, DSP and complex semiconductor circuits, as used for communicating within limited short distances through optical network of lightguides and fiber optical cables. A packaged semiconductor of an SPDT power switch circuit is integrated with an SPDT manually activated switch, for providing dual switching for lights and other electrical appliances, via manual action and remotely via the lightguide or the optical fiber. |
| US08340526B2 |
Fiber optic observatory link for medium bandwidth data communication
Systems and methods for a reconfigurable, long-range, underwater data-communication network are described. The network provides a low cost, low power, lightweight, and easy to deploy underwater communication system capable of being operated at long distances. The network may include a cabled ocean observatory, which may be deployed underwater and connected to a surface buoy. The cabled ocean observatory may be connected to one or more removable underwater sensors via fiber optic cables. The underwater sensors may be disposed at underwater locations at long distances from the cabled ocean observatory. Fiber optic extension modules may be permanently connected to each end of the fiber optic cables. Each fiber optic extension module may include an optical transceiver, a power supply, and an inductive element for removably coupling an underwater sensor or the cabled ocean observatory to the fiber optic cable. |
| US08340522B2 |
Filter assembly and optical module using same
There is provided a filter assembly for combining a wavelength multiplexed optical signal by multiplexing optical signals of different wavelength emitted from respective optical devices, and/or for dividing a wavelength multiplexed optical signal into optical signals of different wavelength and causing the optical signals of different wavelength to enter respective optical devices. This filter assembly comprises: a light transmitting member within which each optical signal propagates; plural optical filters disposed on an upper face of the light transmitting member at a predetermined spacing wherein each optical signal passes through the optical filters; upper reflective layers respectively provided between adjacent ones of the optical filters; and a lower reflective layer provided on a lower face of the light transmitting member, and wherein the wavelength multiplexed optical signal propagates along the same optical path within the light transmitting member. |
| US08340519B2 |
Passive optical network comprising an optical burst mode receiver
A passive optical network is disclosed that enables burst mode operation without some of the disadvantages for doing so in the prior art. An embodiment of the present invention comprises a receiver that receives optical signals from transmitters of a plurality of optical network units. For each transmission from an optical network unit, the receiver provides an output signal based on a comparison of the optical signal and a reference voltage that is specific to that optical network unit. A digital-to-analog converter generates the reference voltage in a data rate-independent manner based on information provided to it from the control plane. |
| US08340518B2 |
PON system, station-side apparatus for PON system, and control method thereof
An OLT, which is one of the embodiments of the present invention, is provided with: an allocation request receiving unit that receives a bandwidth allocation request from each of 1G-ONUs and each of 10G-ONUs; an allocation execution unit that allocates to each of the ONUs a time slot for data transmission in accordance with an allocation rule based on fairness in time allocation or an allocation rule based on fairness in throughput allocation; and an allocation result notification unit that notifies each of the ONUs of information regarding the time slot. |
| US08340516B2 |
Grooming method and apparatus for optical communication network
A grooming apparatus for an optical communication network is disclosed. The apparatus mainly includes a first photoelectric integration unit and an electrical-layer grooming unit. The first photoelectric integration unit includes a wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing unit and a photo-electric/electric-photo conversion unit. The wavelength division demultiplexing unit is configured to demultiplex a multi-wavelength optical signal into single-wavelength optical signals. The photo-electric conversion unit is configured to convert the single-wavelength optical signals to single-wavelength electrical signals. The electrical-layer grooming unit is configured to groom the single-wavelength electrical signals. The present invention overcomes the fatal defect of light dispersion, light power estimation, light power adjustment, OSNR limitation for a conventional OADM/ROADM system. Also, the flexibility of the electrical-layer grooming eliminates the wavelength broadcast and multicast issue. The processing of the electrical layer also addresses the wavelength monitoring issue and the wavelength conflict issue. |
| US08340512B2 |
Auto focus technique in an image capture device
Multiple sets of pixel values representing a captured image of a scene are received, with each set representing an image captured with a corresponding degree of focus. An image processor may identify a region of interest in the captured image, automatically determine the configuration parameters for a lens assembly to provide a desired degree of focus for the region of interest, and generate signals to configure a lens assembly. In an embodiment, the region of interest is a face, the desired degree of focus of the face is determined by computing a rate of variation of luminance of pixels representing the face, and the desired degree is the degree of the image having the maximum degree of focus. |
| US08340511B2 |
Portable photo booth
A portable photo booth may be transported to various entertainment events after being disassembled into readily transportable component. The photo booth may comprise a tent-like enclosure into which 1 to 15 people may enter to be photographed. Upon arrival at an event site the enclosure may be erected and a collection of separable equipment boxes may be attached to the enclosure. The equipment boxes may contain pre-connected equipment such as a camera, a laptop computer, a monitor, a light source and a printer. After the event, the photo booth may be disassembled into readily transportable components and carried to another event. |
| US08340506B2 |
System and method for signal processing
A system and method for processing image signals, including a signal dividing unit for dividing input image signals per frame into a first plurality of sub-blocks with a second plurality of the sub-blocks being included in the horizontal direction and each of the sub-blocks having the height equal to that of at least one macro-block, a recording unit for recording thus divided input image signals, a third plurality of encoding units each for encoding the divided and recorded input image signals in units of sub-block to be outputted as an encoded stream with the number of the encoding units equal to that of the sub-blocks in the horizontal direction, a further recording unit for recording the encoded stream in units of sub-block, and a stream conversion unit for outputting a video stream after rearranging the order of the encoded and recorded stream. |
| US08340496B2 |
Playback apparatus, playback method, program, program storage medium, data structure, and recording-medium manufacturing method
The present invention relates to a playback apparatus and a playback method which allow setting of picture-in-picture display, a program, a program storage medium, a data structure, and a recording-medium manufacturing method. Pip_metadata states information required for the picture-in-picture display. Pip_horizotal_position indicates, on the frame of a primary video, an X coordinate at the upper left corner of a sub display screen on which a secondary video is displayed. Pip_vertical_position indicates, on the frame of the primary video, a Y coordinate at the upper left corner of the sub display screen on which the secondary video is displayed. Pip_scale states information indicating the size of the sub display screen on which the secondary video is displayed. For example, pip_scale states the size ratio of the secondary video to the primary video, the scale ratio of the secondary video to its original image, or information indicating how many pixels is included in the sub display screen in each of the vertical direction and horizontal direction. The present invention is applicable to playback apparatuses. |
| US08340495B2 |
Data processing device, data processing method, program, program recording medium, data recording medium, and data structure
A process corresponding to a reproduction time of data and an argument information is executed. When mark_time_stamp representing one reproduction time on a time axis of a play list, mark_type representing a type of Mark( ), and mark_type are of a type of an event that is generated, if a reproduction time of data reproduced corresponding to a play list containing PlayListMark( ) having Mark( ) including mark_data as an argument of the event matches mark_time_stamp, Mark( ) having mark_time_stamp is recognized at step S302. When mark_type of Mark( ) recognized represents a type in which the event is generated at step S307, mark_data of Mark( ) and occurrence of the event are notified at step S307. A process corresponding to mark_data is executed at step S308. The present invention can be applied to for example a game machine and so forth that use a DVD. |
| US08340489B2 |
Device and method for adjusting a position of an optical component
An bidirectional optical component position adjustment device includes a first member having a flat sliding surface, and a second member movable relative to the first member contacting the sliding surface. The optical component attaches to the second member. An elongated third member connects with the first and second members so the second member is movable relative to the first in a direction of a rotation axis of the third member when the third member is moved in the direction of its rotation axis. The rotation axis is substantially parallel to the sliding surface. The third member includes an eccentric part which is eccentric in relation to the rotation axis. The eccentric part is operationally connected with the second member so the second member moves relative to the first perpendicular to the rotation axis when the third member is rotated around its rotation axis. An optical adjustment method is also provided. |
| US08340486B1 |
Effective χ2 on the basis of electric biasing of χ3 materials
A method for controlling the nonlinear moments of a nonlinear optical material of an electrooptical device is disclosed. The method includes controlling an optical mode region of the electrooptical device by providing a time varying signal to the electrooptical device via one or more electrodes of the device and affecting the nonlinear moments of the nonlinear optical material of the electrooptical device by providing a time independent bias to the device. In one embodiment, the nonlinear optical material includes a χ3 material. In another embodiment, the method includes employing the time independent bias to bias the χ3 material such that the χ3 material behaves in a manner analogous to a χ2 material. |
| US08340480B2 |
Opto-electrical hybrid wiring board and method for manufacturing the same
An opto-electrical hybrid wiring board is formed with a flexible wiring board; a first rigid wiring board and second rigid wiring board connected to each other by the flexible wiring board; a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element, one of which is arranged on the first rigid wiring board and the other on the second rigid wiring board; and a flexible optical waveguide for optically connecting the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element. One end of the flexible wiring board is inserted in and supported by the first rigid wiring board, and the other end is inserted in and supported by the second rigid wiring board; the rigid wiring boards and flexible wiring board are electrically connected to each other by using vias to connect the wiring of the first and second rigid wiring boards and the wiring of the flexible wiring board at the inserted portions. |
| US08340470B2 |
Imaging apparatus, image editing method and program
An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging device; a first storage section storing image data including an image obtained by the imaging device; a display section displaying the image data stored in the first storage section; an image-effect specification section specifying a type of image effect to be produced on the image data displayed in the display section; a scaling operation section capable of specifying expansion and contraction of the image data displayed in the display section and specifying a range of an image edit area on the displayed image data; and an image processing section performing image processing on the image edit area specified by the scaling operation section in accordance with the specification from the image-effect specification section. |
| US08340469B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program, and image processing apparatus
An information processing apparatus includes a band-shaped area selecting section, an angle selecting section, and a control section. The band-shaped area selecting section selects, from among band-shaped areas each having a first angle with respect to a second direction orthogonal to a first direction, a first band-shaped area having a maximum height, which satisfies a condition that the first band-shaped area is on one side of a first point group, which is in the first direction and on one side of a second point group, which is in a direction opposite to the first direction. The angle selecting section selects a candidate for the first angle. The control section effects control to repeat selecting of the first band-shaped area and selecting of the candidate for the first angle, and obtains the finally selected first band-shaped area as a processing result. |
| US08340468B2 |
Temperature measuring device and temperature measuring method
Feature points (41, 42, 43) in the heat image (10) of a casting die (1) are extracted and a predetermined geometrical conversion processing is performed on the heat image (10) such that the feature points are superimposed on the reference feature points (61, 62, 63) set in a reference heat image (30) picked up previously to generate a corrected heat image (20). A difference image (40) is generated by superimposing the corrected heat image (20) and the reference heat image (30) such that the corrected feature points (51, 52, 53) in the corrected heat image (20) is superimposed on the corresponding reference feature points (61, 62, 63). With such an arrangement, a highly reliable difference image can be generated even when the imaging field of vision slips off among a plurality of heat images. |
| US08340467B2 |
Information processor, information processing method, and computer readable medium
A first movement control section sequentially moves a first image to multiple first positions. A first comparison section compares the moved first image with a second image. A target first position selection section selects a target first position based on the result of said comparison. After the target first position is selected, the second movement control section sequentially moves the first image to multiple second positions located in the periphery of the target first position. The second comparison section compares the moved first image with the second image. A target second position selection section selects a target second position based on the result of said comparison. A second position alignment execution section performs geometric transformation based on the difference between the position of the first image and the target second position and aligns the positions of the first and second images. |
| US08340466B2 |
Arrangement for the imaging of surface structures of three-dimensional objects
The aim of the invention is the improvement of an arrangement for the imaging of surface structures of three-dimensional objects, comprising a device for the optical recording of the surface of at least a partial region of the three-dimensional object from different positions, such that the imaging of the object can be carried out with comparatively little complexity with high reproducible accuracy. According to the invention, the arrangement thus comprises a selection circuit (9), for the selection of a first image section (10) and a subsequent image module (11), in which at least one further image section (12) is digitally recorded. A comparator unit (16) serves to compare the digital patterns (13, 14) contained in the first (10) and the at least one further image section (12) and permits the generation of comparison information on the degree of matching of the digital patterns (13, 14), provided to an image processing unit (19), for determination of spatial parameters and for the aggregation of the image section (10, 12) of the object to give an overall image. |
| US08340465B2 |
Device, method and program for processing image
Disclosed herein is a device for processing a moving image, the device including: a selection unit which selects an image group composed of a plurality of still images including a target image from the moving image, according to specified information for specifying the target image among the plurality of still images included in the moving image; an acquisition unit which performs an acquisition process of acquiring the plurality of still images included in the image group from the moving image; and a synthesis unit which performs a synthesis process of synthesizing the plurality of acquired still images and generating a high-resolution image of the target image having a pixel density higher than that of the target image, wherein the selection unit has a function for performing selection by a first mode for selecting the target image and a still image which is located behind the target image in time-series order. |
| US08340464B2 |
Image processing method and image processing device
In a device for combining a plurality of images having a same photograph range, a position shift between the images having the same photograph range is detected, and the position shift of the images is corrected, and after the position shift is corrected, similarity of the respective portions between the images is evaluated, and the image combining method is changed according to the similarity evaluation. Therefore it is possible to create an image having no position shift due to the shaking of a camera and object blurring due to the movement of the object. Moreover, whether the images are combined or not is determined according to the similarity, hence the processing load is reduced and an image having no object blurring can be created. |
| US08340463B1 |
Candidate pruning for patch transforms
Systems and methods for performing image editing operations may divide an input image into overlapping patches and assign those patches to locations in a reconstructed output image such that visual artifacts are minimized. The methods may use belief propagation to compute a joint probability for the assignment of active patch labels to output image nodes. The computation may include an exclusivity term, steering the solution such that each patch is preferably only used once in the output image. The methods may include a pre-computation of a pruned list of candidate patches for placing next to each patch in the output image, dependent on local evidence (e.g., color, intensity, or user-driven placement) for each patch. The pre-computation may include determining groupings of patches, each forming a highly compatible loop of neighboring patches for a given candidate patch. The methods may be implemented as program instructions executable by a CPU and/or GPU. |
| US08340457B2 |
Image analysis method, image analysis program and pixel evaluation system having the sames
The present invention provides an image analysis method and an image analysis program having a feature of carrying out a panel display quality evaluation at low cost and short time with relieved influence of moire by treating a value, which is obtained by recognizing a coordinate of a panel pixel in a shot image based on an image for detecting a coordinate and positional information thereof with high accuracy and by calculating average luminance by panel pixel unit based on a center position of a coordinate, as representative luminance in each pixel of the panel, in a panel evaluation method of shooting an image display panel with a digital camera. |
| US08340454B2 |
Image processing device and method and program
An information processing device includes: a block level information obtaining unit to detect a block level from the difference in pixel values between each pixel of an image and nearby pixels and to obtain distribution information wherein the block levels are accumulated for each position in a predetermined direction; a short cycle measuring unit to measure short cycle information which is the distribution information for each phase in a plurality of predetermined short cycles corresponding to a plurality of block sizes from the distribution information; and a determining unit to determine the block size corresponding to the short cycle information wherein the phase distribution takes a maximum value, of the short cycle information of the plurality of predetermined short cycles corresponding to the plurality of block sizes, as the block size in the image. |
| US08340453B1 |
Metadata-driven method and apparatus for constraining solution space in image processing techniques
Methods and apparatus for constraining solution space in image processing techniques may use the metadata for a set of images to constrain an image processing solution to a smaller solution space. In one embodiment, a process may require N parameters for processing an image. A determination may be made from metadata that multiple images were captured with the same camera/lens and with the same settings. A set of values may be estimated for the N parameters from data in one or more of the images. The process may then be applied to each of images using the set of values. In one embodiment, a value for a parameter of a process may be estimated for an image. If the estimated value deviates substantially from a value for the parameter in the metadata, the metadata value is used in the process instead of the estimated value. |
| US08340449B1 |
Three-dimensional wavelet based video fingerprinting
A method and system generates and compares fingerprints for videos in a video library. The video fingerprints provide a compact representation of the spatial and sequential characteristics of the video that can be used to quickly and efficiently identify video content. Because the fingerprints are based on spatial and sequential characteristics rather than exact bit sequences, visual content of videos can be effectively compared even when there are small differences between the videos in compression factors, source resolutions, start and stop times, frame rates, and so on. Comparison of video fingerprints can be used, for example, to search for and remove copyright protected videos from a video library. Further, duplicate videos can be detected and discarded in order to preserve storage space. |
| US08340443B2 |
System and method for compressing compressed data
A method for restoring compressed data. A difference file and a reference file corresponding to a compressed file are accessed. The difference file is partially decompressed into a partially decompressed difference file in an intermediate representation. The reference file is partially decompressed into a partially decompressed reference file in the intermediate representation. A partially decompressed compressed file is generated based on said partially decompressed difference file and said partially decompressed reference file. |
| US08340441B2 |
Image encoding apparatus, image decoding apparatus, and methods of controlling the same
This invention enables the suppression of block noise even at an intermediate resolution equal to or lower than the original resolution and further increases the number of directly decodable resolutions for higher convenience. For this purpose, a memory stores original image data photographed by an image sensing unit. A resizing unit generates resized image data by reducing the numbers of horizontal and vertical pixels of the original image data stored in the memory to ½ and stores the image data in the memory again. An image compression unit encodes the original image data and the resized image data by HD Photo®. A CPU puts the two encoded data into one file and stores it in a nonvolatile memory card connected to an output unit. |
| US08340438B2 |
Automated tagging for landmark identification
The different illustrative embodiments provide a method for identifying landmarks in an image. An image of a worksite is received. The image is analyzed to determine a suggested identity of a worksite feature in the image. The suggested identity of the worksite feature is sent over a communications unit. A confirmation of the suggested identity of the worksite feature is received to form a confirmed identity. The confirmed identity and a number of attributes associated with the confirmed identity is stored in a database. |
| US08340431B2 |
Automatic photographing method with face recognition
An automatic photographing method with face recognition is applied in a camera having a detecting lens and a photographing lens for a user to photograph a target. First, detect a face of the user through the detecting lens, and obtain a plurality of face images of the detected face. Then, capture an image variance of the obtained face images, and photograph the target through a photographing lens when the captured image variance exceeds a photographing starting value. Therefore, during the whole photographing process, photographing can be achieved through determining variations of the face images of the user without pressing the shutter key of the camera, thereby completely preventing handshakes resulted from the pressing action, and thus improving the photographing quality. |
| US08340421B2 |
Three-dimensional system and method for connection component labeling
Embodiments disclosed include methods and systems for three dimensional connected component labeling, including determining a location value for each of one or more labels, each location value identifying a maximum “y” extent and a maximum “z” extent of an associated label region; storing each of the one or more labels that refer to areas subsumed in a determination of the maximum y extent in the maximum “z” extent as a yzMax location value; buffering in a frame buffer the one or more of labels; and providing access via a three-dimensional kernel to one or more values in a current line buffer and/or a current array and/or a previous array. |
| US08340417B2 |
Image processing method and apparatus for correcting skin color
Provided are an image processing method and an image processing apparatus for performing skin color correction for removing freckles and wrinkles by using mask pixels spaced apart from a center pixel by a predetermined number of pixels, a digital photographing apparatus using the image processing apparatus, and a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for executing the method. According to various embodiments of the invention, the skin color correction for efficiently removing freckles and wrinkles and preserving an edge may be performed. |
| US08340416B2 |
Techniques for robust color transfer
Techniques and systems to transfer color robustly between images are described. In an embodiment, a technique for transferring color includes separating color information of a registered source image into a one dimensional luminosity channel and multi-dimensional chromatic channels. The technique further includes building a voting table, where each table cell is indexed by the chromatic coordinates from the source image and from the destination image. The table is built by adding to a count stored in a table cell indexed by the chromatic coordinates of the source pixel and the chromatic coordinates of its related destination pixel for each occurrence of such a pairing. The voting table values are used to identify a transfer color, and to adjust the colors of the source image to the colors of the destination image. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08340409B2 |
Systems and methods for outlining image differences
Methods disclosed permit the outlining of difference images associated with an image pair. In some embodiments, an outlined difference image may be generated by selecting at least one non-zero pixel in a thresholded difference image and setting the value of the selected pixel to the maximum value permitted for that color space. In some embodiments, each color component of the selected pixel may be set to the maximum value permitted for that color component. The outlined difference image may also be scaled while preserving thresholded difference information. In some embodiments, the outlined difference image may be rendered using a monitor or a printer. |
| US08340408B2 |
Automatic page layout validation
A method for validating the layout of webpages comprises receiving a webpage, transforming the webpage into a color-coded page, and determining based at least in part on detecting a color on the color-coded page that a layout of the webpage contains an error. The transforming can comprise identifying a block of content in the webpage, identifying a size and a location of the block, creating a new block with the size and the location of the block, and assigning a new color to the new block. The determining can comprise storing an image snapshot of the color-coded page and comparing the image snapshot to a reference image. |
| US08340407B2 |
System and method for image demosaicing
A method for generating an interpolated output image, including generating a first interpolation array including RGB values, at least one of which is interpolated, based on a first interpolation region, and generating a first homogeneity array based on the first interpolation array including homogeneity values calculated based on a first homogeneity neighborhood having the same pixel locations as the first interpolation region. The method includes generating a second interpolation array based on a second interpolation region, and generating a second homogeneity array based on the second interpolation array and a second homogeneity neighborhood, where the second homogeneity neighborhood includes the same pixel locations as the second interpolation region. The method includes determining, for a first pixel location, that the homogeneity value in the first homogeneity array is greater than the homogeneity value in the second homogeneity array, and outputting the RGB color values in the first interpolation array. |
| US08340403B2 |
Learning device, learning method, identifying device, identifying method, and program
A learning device includes: a feature point extracting unit for extracting a feature point from each of multiple generated images; a feature point feature amount extracting unit for extracting feature point feature amount representing the feature of the feature point from the generated image; a whole feature amount calculating unit for calculating the whole feature amount representing the feature of the whole generated image from the feature point feature amount of the generated image based on a shared code book including generated feature amount to be commonly used for generation of an identifier for identifying each of different identified objects; and an identifier generating unit for generating the identifier based on the whole feature amount of the generated image, and a correct answer label representing whether the generated image is the positive image or the negative image. |
| US08340399B2 |
Method for determining a depth map from images, device for determining a depth map
Window based matching is used for determining a depth map from images obtained from different orientations. A set of fixed matching windows is used for points of the image for which the depth is to be determined. The set of matching windows covers a footprint of pixels around the point of the image, and the average number (O) of matching windows that a pixel of the footprint (FP) belongs to is less than one plus the number of pixels in the footprint divided by 15 (O |
| US08340395B2 |
Defect inspection method and apparatus therefor
The invention relates to a defect inspection apparatus in which images of mutually corresponding areas in identically formed patterns on a sample are compared to detect mismatched portions of the images as defects. The defect inspection apparatus includes an image comparator that creates a feature space with the use of feature quantities calculated from pixels of images acquired under different optical conditions and detects outlier values in the feature space as defects. Thus, the defect inspection apparatus can detect various defects with high sensitivity even if there are luminance differences between images of identical patterns which are attributable to the difference in wafer pattern thickness. |
| US08340394B2 |
Method, program product and apparatus for performing a model based coloring process for geometry decomposition for use in a multiple exposure process
A method of decomposing a target pattern having features to be imaged on a substrate so as to allow said features to be imaged in a multi-exposure process. The method includes the steps of: (a) dividing a plurality of the features into a plurality of segments; (b) determining the image log slope (ILS) value for each of the plurality of segments; (c) determining the value of the gradient of the image log slope (ILS) value for each of the plurality of segments; and (d) assigning a phase or color to the segments based on the values of the gradient of the image log slope of each of the plurality of segments. |
| US08340391B2 |
Document input module
A document input module (2) for the input of documents (9, 91, 92, 93) having at least one MICR section (10), with a reading head (3) to read the at least one MICR section (10) relative to a system (8) of input documents (9, 91, 92, 93), characterized in that the document input module (2) has at least one further reading head (4, 5, 6) to read different formats and input positions of input documents (9, 91, 92, 93). |
| US08340390B2 |
Method and apparatus for magnetic character recognition
A method for magnetic character recognition may include: a peak detection process for detecting peak positions in a regeneration waveform; a character pitch measuring process for calculating an average character width and an average character period of each character according to a detection result of the peak detection process; a character segmentation process for calculating a peak interval array for each character according to the average character period; a peak searching process for searching for peak positions by using searching conditions, which are different from what the character segmentation process applies, on each waveform part segmented through the character segmentation process; a peak count evaluation process for choosing either a result of the character segmentation process or a result of the peak searching process, depending on whether the number of peaks in the waveform part agrees with a prescribed number of peaks; and a character determining process for a matching operation on a peak interval array, according to the peak interval array determined through the peak count evaluation process, to determine the character. |
| US08340387B2 |
Fast preprocessing algorithms for digital mammography CAD and workstation
A method and apparatus are disclosed for an image preprocessing device that automatically detects chestwall laterality; removes border artifacts; and segments breast tissue and pectoral muscle from digital mammograms. The algorithms in the preprocessing device utilize the computer cache, a vertical Sobel filter and a probabilistic Hough transform to detect curved edges. The preprocessing result, along with a pseudo-modality normalized image, can be used as input to a CAD (computer-aided detection) server or to a mammography image review workstation. In the case of workstation input, the preprocessing results improve the protocol for chestwall-to-chestwall image hanging, and support optimal image contrast display of each segmented region. |
| US08340383B2 |
CT scanner and control method therefor
A CT scanner which can reconstruct high-quality tomographic images using only the projected images obtained by scanning an object without requiring any special three-dimensional phantom is provided. A two-dimensional radiation sensor placed to face a radiation source via the object acquires projected images while relatively rotating the object in the radiation emitted from the radiation source. Tomographic images are obtained at one predetermined slice position of the object by performing, for each of geometrical calibration parameter values, reconstruction of a tomographic image of the object using one of the calibration parameter values based on acquired projected images. One of the calibration parameter values is selected based on the obtained tomographic images. A tomographic image is reconstructed at each slice position by using a selected calibration parameter value based on a projected image at each acquired slice position of the object. |
| US08340380B2 |
Mammary gland content rate estimating apparatus, method and recording medium
A mammary gland content rate estimating apparatus, includes: a breast image acquiring device which acquires a breast image obtained by radiographing a breast by a mammography imaging apparatus; an adipose image estimating device which estimates an adipose image from the acquired breast image based on an assumption that an entire breast is composed of only adipose tissues; a device which acquires a pixel value of a directly irradiated region from the acquired breast image; and a mammary gland content rate calculating device which calculates a mammary gland content rate for each of pixels in the breast image based on the acquired breast image, the estimated adipose image and the acquired pixel value of the directly irradiated region. Accordingly, without requiring complicated calibration in advance, the mammary gland content rate can be estimated for each of pixels easily and precisely. |
| US08340377B2 |
Method for energy calculation and pileup determination for continuously sampled nuclear pulse processing
A method for processing events in a medical imaging device may comprise the steps of receiving analog signals from at least one PMT into an Applied Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) comprising a Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD) and transmitting analog outputs from the ASIC. Further, sampling the analog outputs continuously using an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) and transmitting digital outputs; and collecting a number of samples of the digital output during a sampling period using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) when triggered by the CFD. The method may additionally determine the energy of the analog signals from the at lease one PMT by subtracting the peak value of each signal from the baseline value of each signal, wherein the peak value is determined as an average of at least one sample taken only around the peak during the sampling period, and the baseline value is determined as an average of at least one sample taken only around the beginning or end of the sampling period. |
| US08340376B2 |
Diffusion tensor imaging confidence analysis
A system and method can increase confidence or other factors of a tract identified in a selected image data. The system can use various confidence determining factors to identify confidence in the identified tract. The identified tract can be used for various purposes, such as diagnosis or treatment. |
| US08340372B2 |
Image analysis
A method for the automated analysis of digital images, particularly for the purpose of assessing mitotic activity from images of histological slides for prognostication of breast cancer. The method includes the steps of identifying the locations of objects within the image which have intensity and size characteristics consistent with mitotic epithelial cell nuclei, taking the darkest 10% of those objects, deriving contours indicating their boundary shape, and smoothing and measuring the curvature around the boundaries using a Probability Density Association Filter (PDAF). The PDAF output is used to compute a measure of any concavity of the boundary—a good indicator of mitosis. Objects are finally classified as representing mitotic nuclei or not, as a function of boundary concavity and mean intensity, by use of a Fisher classifier trained on known examples. |
| US08340364B2 |
Iris data extraction
A process for extracting iris data for biometric identification includes a thresholding method where the thresholds are selected according to a nonparametric approach that considers the grey scale and does not require classifying pixels as edge or non-edge pixels. An eye image is first acquired, where the eye image has component images including an iris image with an inner boundary and an outer boundary. The eye image has a distribution of grey levels. Component images, such as an iris image or a pupil image, from the eye image are segmented according to the distribution of grey levels. The inner boundary and outer boundary of the iris image are determined from the component images. The iris image within the inner boundary and outer boundary is processed for biometric identification. The component images may be segmented by creating an eye histogram of pixel intensities from the distribution of grey levels. |
| US08340358B2 |
Visual camouflage with thermal and radar suppression and methods of making the same
A visual camouflage system that provides at least one of thermal or radar suppression is described. The system includes a vinyl layer having a camouflage pattern on a front surface of the vinyl layer. The camouflage pattern includes a site-specific camouflage pattern. A laminate layer is secured over the front surface of the vinyl layer coating the camouflage pattern to provide protection to the camouflage pattern and strengthen the vinyl layer. One or more nanomaterials are disposed on at least one of the vinyl layer, camouflage pattern, or the laminate to provide at least one of thermal or radar suppression. |
| US08340352B2 |
Inter-trajectory anomaly detection using adaptive voting experts in a video surveillance system
A sequence layer in a machine-learning engine configured to learn from the observations of a computer vision engine. In one embodiment, the machine-learning engine uses the voting experts to segment adaptive resonance theory (ART) network label sequences for different objects observed in a scene. The sequence layer may be configured to observe the ART label sequences and incrementally build, update, and trim, and reorganize an ngram trie for those label sequences. The sequence layer computes the entropies for the nodes in the ngram trie and determines a sliding window length and vote count parameters. Once determined, the sequence layer may segment newly observed sequences to estimate the primitive events observed in the scene as well as issue alerts for inter-sequence and intra-sequence anomalies. |
| US08340350B2 |
Information processing device and method, and program
An information processing device for tracking the image of a tracking point within a moving image wherein contents, of multiple images which are continuous temporally, are discontinuous temporally, includes: a block-matching unit for performing block matching within the moving image, wherein a processed image and an image prior to the processed image are compared to determine the position of the tracking point within the processed image; an interpolation unit for performing interpolation processing wherein the position of the tracking point within an image not subjected to the block matching, which is an image before or after the processed image within the moving image, is determined as the position of the tracking point within the processed image; and a motion-vector calculating unit for obtaining the motion vector of the tracking point based on the position of the tracking point within the processed image determined by the block-matching unit or interpolation unit. |
| US08340346B2 |
Information processing device, information processing method, and computer readable medium
An information processing device includes: a storage that stores information associating features with respective processing information; an electronic image acquisition unit that acquires an electronic image obtained by reading an image of an original; a specifying unit that recognizes a feature contained in the acquired electronic image, and specifies the processing information associated with the recognized feature and stored in the storage as processing information for use in processing the acquired electronic image; and a display control unit that displays information indicating the specified processing information and a part of the image where the feature is recognized in the acquired electronic image. |
| US08340342B2 |
Diaphragm for speaker, speaker using the diaphragm, electronic device using the speaker, and speaker-mounted device
A speaker diaphragm containing resin and carbonized bamboo material with a large degree of flexibility in setting physical properties, moisture-proof reliability and strength secured, superior appearance, and productivity and dimensional stability increased, which allows making characteristics and sound highly accurately, and designing with great originality. |
| US08340341B2 |
Coated speaker dome
A rigid three-dimensional component such as a speaker dome is formed of diamond, preferably fabricated to net shape by CVD diamond synthesis, and includes a coating on one or more major surfaces thereof. The coating is designed to enhance the performance and/or to alter the appearance of the component. In particular, the coating is designed to act as a damping medium and/or provide aesthetic qualities to the component. |
| US08340337B2 |
Loudspeaker module
A loudspeaker module includes a hollow main body, two rotatable connecting portions, and two loudspeakers. The hollow main body includes two opposite sidewalls. Each of the opposite sidewall defines a first opening, an inner sidewall of the first opening defines an annular rotating slot. One end of the connecting portion extends an annular flange shaped corresponding to the rotating slot. The two rotatable connecting portions are respectively rotatably connected to the main body via the flange rotating about the rotating slot. Two loudspeakers are disposed in an end of the corresponding rotatable connecting portion away from the main body. |
| US08340332B2 |
Hearing aid configuration with a lanyard with integrated antenna and associated method for wireless transmission of data
A hearing aid configuration and an associated method provide wireless transmission of data between a hearing aid and an external unit. The external unit, for example a programming device, is worn with a lanyard around the neck of a hearing aid user. The configuration additionally contains at least one second antenna disposed in the lanyard and at least one third antenna arranged in the lanyard which is connected by an electric series circuit to the second antenna. The advantage of this is that the lanyard can be made long enough to be comfortable to wear and a sufficiently high receive signal of the wireless data transmission is still guaranteed in the external unit. |
| US08340328B2 |
Acoustics transducer
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, an acoustics transducer is provided, which includes a support substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface including a first portion and a second portion surrounding the first portion, a recess extending from the upper surface towards the lower surface, the recess is between the first portion and the second portion of the upper surface, a vibratable membrane disposed directly on the recess, the vibratable membrane including a fixed portion fixed on the support substrate and a suspended portion, and a back plate disposed on the support substrate and opposite to the vibratable membrane. The suspended portion has an edge extending substantially along with an edge of an opening of the recess. The suspended portion is separated from the first portion and the second portion of the upper surface by an inner interval and an outer interval, respectively. |
| US08340322B2 |
Acoustic processing device
An acoustic processing device includes an input section to which audio signals of a plurality of channels respectively including in-phase components are input, a phase adjusting section that adjusts phases of the audio signals of the plurality of channels respectively to generate phase adjustment signals of the plurality of channels being different in phase from the audio signals of the plurality of channels input to the input section, an anti-phase generating section that generates an anti-phase signal by adding the phase adjustment signals of the plurality of channels to each other and adjusting a phase of the added signal to a substantially inverted phase, and an output section that outputs signals obtained by adding, to each of the audio signals of the plurality of channels input to the input section, the phase adjustment signal of another channel and the anti-phase signal. |
| US08340320B2 |
Mute circuits
Mute circuits capable of eliminating audible noise when the audio system is powered up and powered down are disclosed. A discharge element is coupled between an audio processing unit and an audio output unit in an audio system and a mute control unit is coupled to the discharge element. The mute circuit comprises an active element comprising a control terminal coupled to at least one power voltage at a power terminal of a functional element in the audio processing unit through a capacitor and turning on, by AC capacitor coupling, to drive the discharge element when the audio system is powered up, such that the discharge element is turned on to discharge an output current of the audio processing unit to a ground terminal, thereby muting the audio output unit to eliminate audible noise. |
| US08340319B2 |
Playback device, playback method and playback system
A playback device includes: a playback portion that plays back content and outputs at least an audio signal; an acquisition portion that acquires an external audio signal; a generating portion that, based on noise collected by a sound collecting device, generates a noise cancellation signal to reduce the noise; a switching portion that, if the acquisition portion has acquired the external audio signal when the playback portion is playing back content, switches an output signal from the audio signal to the external audio signal; and a synthesizing portion that synthesizes the output signal from the switching portion with the noise cancellation signal. |
| US08340315B2 |
Assembly, system and method for acoustic transducers
The invention relates to an assembly of acoustic transducers, a system and a method for receiving and reproducing sound. The assembly comprises a first acoustic transducer having a directional pattern of the shape of a figure of eight in the direction of an X axis of a XYZ coordinate system, and a second acoustic transducer placed perpendicularly relative to a first capsule and providing a directional pattern of the shape of a figure of eight in the direction of a Y axis of a XYZ coordinate system. The assembly is characterized in that it further comprises a third acoustic transducer placed perpendicularly relative to the first and second acoustic transducers, enabling the implementation of spatial sound both in a XY plane and in a XYZ plane by using these acoustic transducers placed in accordance with an axis of the axes of the XYZ coordinate system. The invention further provides a system and a method for processing signals received with the assembly. |
| US08340314B2 |
Audio system for a passenger aircraft and method for controlling same
An audio system for an aircraft passenger cabin and a method for controlling such an audio system for providing passengers with information programs, in which multiple loudspeakers are each disposed at a predefined loudspeaker location in the aircraft cabin, and an audio signal having at least one audio channel is reproduced via the loudspeakers wherein the at least one audio channel is output by a central processing unit to the multiple loudspeakers in the aircraft cabin via a bus system having multiple distribution units and multiple cabin units. |
| US08340307B2 |
Passive sound pressure level limiter
A passive sound pressure level (SPL) limiter is provided that can be used with audio sources of varying drive levels and headsets, earbuds, etc. of varying sensitivity. The SPL limiter includes a control circuit that includes a rectifier and, in most configurations, a step-up transformer. The SPL limiter also includes a limiting circuit that utilizes a transistor to shunt current from the audio source in proportion to a control signal output by the control circuit. The control circuit may further include a low pass filter, for example an RC filter, and one or more fast limit diode paths. The limiting circuit may further include a feedback network to increase the linear behavior of the limiting circuit. |
| US08340306B2 |
Parametric coding of spatial audio with object-based side information
A binaural cue coding scheme involving one or more object-based cue codes, wherein an object-based cue code directly represents a characteristic of an auditory scene corresponding to the audio channels, where the characteristic is independent of number and positions of loudspeakers used to create the auditory scene. Examples of object-based cue codes include the angle of an auditory event, the width of the auditory event, the degree of envelopment of the auditory scene, and the directionality of the auditory scene. |
| US08340305B2 |
Audio encoding method and device
Audio encoding method and device comprising the transmission, in addition to the data representing a frequency-limited signal, of information relating to a temporal filter that is to be applied to the entire enhanced signal, both in its transmitted low-frequency part and in its reconstituted high-frequency part. The application of this filter for reshaping the reconstituted high-frequency part and the correction of compression artefacts present in the transmitted low-frequency part. In this way, the application of the temporal filter, simple and inexpensive, to all or part of the reconstituted signal, makes it possible to obtain a signal of good perceived quality. |
| US08340301B2 |
Method for establishing a secret key between two nodes in a communication network
A method for establishing a secret key between two nodes in a communication network, in particular in a wireless local area network (WLAN), includes concealment of the fact that a key exchange occurs, one of the nodes—first node (B)—broadcasts one or more packets (Pi) that can be received by the other node—second node (A)—, wherein the packets (Pi) contain each a first key (Ki) and wherein the packets (Pi) are each encrypted with a second key (ki) before being sent, the second node (A) randomly chooses one packet (Pm) from the packets (Pi) received and breaks the encryption of the chosen packet (Pm) in order to obtain the first key (Km), and the second node (A) initiates a key exchange protocol, wherein the second node (A) encrypts the message to be sent for initiating the key exchange protocol with the revealed key (Km). |
| US08340298B2 |
Key management and user authentication for quantum cryptography networks
Key management and user authentication systems and methods for quantum cryptography networks that allow for users securely communicate over a traditional communication link (TC-link). The method includes securely linking a centralized quantum key certificate authority (QKCA) to each network user via respective secure quantum links or “Q-links” that encrypt and decrypt data based on quantum keys (“Q-keys”). When two users (Alice and Bob) wish to communicate, the QKCA sends a set of true random bits (R) to each user over the respective Q-links. They then use R as a key to encode and decode data they send to each other over the TC-link. |
| US08340295B2 |
High-speed cryptographic system using chaotic sequences
A cryptographic system (500) that includes a data stream receiving device (502) configured for receiving a modified data stream representing data entries encrypted using a chaotic sequence of digits. The system also includes user processing device (503, 505) configured for receiving user access information specifying an initial value for the chaotic sequence of digits and data field location information associated with selected ones of the data entries. The system further includes a synchronized pair of chaotic sequence generators (300) coupled to the user processing devices configured for generating encryption and decryption sequences based on the initial value and the data field location information. The system additionally includes an encryption device (504) and a decryption device (506) coupled to the chaotic sequence generators and the data stream receiving device, the decrypter configured for generating an output data stream from the modified data stream by applying the decryption sequences. |
| US08340294B2 |
Secure modulation and demodulation
A system and method are disclosed for securely transmitting and receiving a signal. A nonlinear keying modulator is used in the transmitter to encrypt the signal using a nonlinear keying modulation technique. A nonlinear keying demodulator is used in the receiver to decrypt the signal. |
| US08340293B2 |
Verification system, server, and electronic instrument
The verification system of this invention comprises an image forming apparatus 1 having verification function and a card reader 2 for reading a user ID from a card. The image forming apparatus 1 is capable of performing short-range radio communication with a portable instrument 3. The portable instrument 3 receives a polling command transmitted by the image forming apparatus 1 and sends back its own identification code if it is located near the image forming apparatus 1. The image forming apparatus 1 permits usage of all the functions thereof if it verifies that user is an officially permitted person according to user ID read by the card reader 2 and the identification code sent back from the portable instrument 3. Consequently, there is provided a verification system having a high security level and convenient for use or a verification system which permits usage of its apparatus and other related devices within an appropriate range depending on the security level of a verified method. |
| US08340291B2 |
Systems and processes of automatic verification and protection of paper documents against falsification, adulteration and leakage
Protection of documents printed in paper is provided by processes for detection, immediately and clearly, of different types of falsification, adulteration, inclusion and omission. A network accessible system is capable of detecting several fraud aspects. A “Remote Expertise Center” or a remote service data center accessible from and to any location in which there is a connection to the network, such as through the Internet provides customized protection and automatic verification of document pages. Documents pages are generated by the Remote Expertise Center and transmitted to remote printers, bypassing user operational system, using a specific driver of each printer, avoiding any access to protected document before effective printing. Documents include multiple types of security features, such that in the event that any of them is surpassed, the document will remain protected by the other types of security protection. Security features may include, among others, background images, computer readable code containing the printed content, identification information readable only with a predetermined optical filter, a copy alert that changes appearance when the printed document is copied, and personalized items to identify individuals responsible for non authorized document disclosure or leakage. |
| US08340290B2 |
Security method of keyboard input directly controlling the keyboard controller
Disclosed herein is a method of securing keyboard input information by directly controlling a keyboard controller of a keyboard. The keyboard includes the keyboard controller, an interrupt controller, an input information processing module and a keyboard security module. The method includes a status information checking step of enabling the input information processing module to check status information of the keyboard controller; an interrupt inactivation step of inactivating an interrupt request function of the keyboard controller; an input information encryption step of encrypting the keyboard input information written to the keyboard input/output ports; a transfer step of transferring the encrypted input information to the keyboard security module; and an input information deletion step of deleting the keyboard input information remaining in the keyboard controller. |
| US08340287B2 |
Securing multifactor split key asymmetric crypto keys
Techniques for securing an asymmetric crypto-key having a public key and a split private key with multiple private portions are provided. A first one of multiple factors is stored. All of the factors are under the control of a user and all are required to generate a first private portion of the split private key. The first private portion not stored in a persistent state. A second private portion of the split private key under control of an entity other than the user is also stored. The first private portion and the second private portion are combinable to form a complete private portion. |
| US08340282B2 |
Information processing apparatus
A high-security cryptanalysis-resistant cryptographic processing apparatus and a cryptographic processing method are provided. A Feistel common key block cipher is produced by repeatedly performing an SPN-type F-function including a nonlinear transformation part and a linear transformation part over a plurality of rounds. In each round, a linear transformation process is performed according to an F-function using a matrix determined so as to satisfy a relatively loose constraint whereby high resistance to differential attacks and/or linear attacks is achieved. The relatively loose constraint allows an increase in the number of candidates for usable matrices, and it is possible to maintain the number of active S-boxes to a sufficiently large level. This makes it possible to increase the minimum number of active S-boxes, which is one of measures indicating the degree of robustness of ciphers, and thus it is possible to realize an algorithm of encrypting data in a highly secure manner so that high resistance to attacks is achieved. |
| US08340280B2 |
Using a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction to speed up galois counter mode (GCM) computations
In one embodiment, an encryption operation may be performed by obtaining a product of a carry-less multiplication using multiple single instruction multiple data (SIMD) multiplication instructions each to execute on part of first and second operands responsive to an immediate datum associated with the corresponding instruction, and reducing the product modulo g to form a message authentication code of a block cipher mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08340278B2 |
Method and apparatus for cross-talk resistant adaptive noise canceller
A method and apparatus for cross-talk resistant adaptive noise cancellation. The method includes retrieving, via the processor, a primary signal and a reference signal, filtering the primary signal utilizing a filter H12(z) and estimating a cross-talk, filtering the reference signal utilizing a filter H21(z) and estimating the noise leakage of the reference signal, determining the difference between the noise leakage estimate from the primary signal and estimating a first post-filtering, determining the difference between the cross-talk estimate and the reference signal and estimating a second post-filtering, determining if the voice activity is detected in the primary signal, adapting filters H12 and H21 by de-correlation if the voice activity is detected, and adapting filter H12 by NLMS if the voice activity is not detected, limiting maximum filter change during different conditions for protecting filters H12 and H21 from diverging, maintaining filter stability by tracking absolute sum of the coefficients of the convolution of H12 and H21, obtaining a primary output and a reference output utilizing the first post-filtering and the second post-filtering, and utilizing the primary output and the reference output for cross-talk resistant adaptive noise cancellation. |
| US08340276B1 |
System and method for providing customer service
Various systems and methods provide techniques for providing a communication center comprising a plurality of representatives, receiving a request for communication from a first party, determining an available representative from the plurality of representatives and a representative available time period for the request for communication, preventing the available representative from communicating with a second party during the representative available time period, providing the first party with communication information, and connecting the first party to the available representative during the representative available time period. |
| US08340275B1 |
Selective contact between customers and customer service agents
A network-based service may generate notifications regarding items of interest to a user. A contact selection service may receive the notifications and generate a user interface for transmission of the notification to the user. The generated user interface may include a unique identifier and may further enable the user to submit user contact information to request contact with a service agent. The contact selection service may further pre-authorize contacts between users and customer service agents CSA. The unique identifier, and optionally the submitted user contact information, may be employed by the contact selection service to selectively determine which customer contact requests received by the contact selection service are pre-authorized for contact with a CSA and enables such contacts between customers and CSAs to proceed. |
| US08340271B2 |
Method and system for transferring a conference between a mobile communication device and a conferencing terminal
A conferencing system for an enterprise is disclosed. The conferencing system allows a user conducting a communication session on a personal communication device to transfer the communication session to a local conferencing device. The conferencing system prompts the personal communication device with an option to transfer the communication session to the conferencing device. The system obtains contact information for a multimedia endpoint associated with the remote communication device and initiates a connection between the local conferencing device and the remote multimedia endpoint. The system can also transfer a communication session from a local conferencing device to a portable communication device. |
| US08340262B1 |
Home call router
Disclosed is a method and system for routing telephone calls within a household. In the disclosed home call routing system, a head of the household or other person with administrative authority within the home can control the routing of telephone calls by establishing and modifying call system parameters such as call priorities, traffic times, caller identities, routing rules, etc. through a home computer. |
| US08340251B2 |
Thin walled tube radiator for bremsstrahlung at high electron beam intensities
Methods and systems for generating bremsstrahlung with enhanced photon flux in a narrow cone at forward angles utilize a thin target of a high-Z material such as gold as radiator, supported on a tube of a low-Z material such as titanium, which tube contains a circulating fluid such as water which acts as a coolant and also may absorb the incident electron beam. |
| US08340249B2 |
Real-time dosimetry system, RTDS
Real-Time Dosimetry System, RTDS, is dose measurement system consisting of an ionization chamber and electrometer with the ability to measure, record, and display the high radiation doses required to meet approved standards for sterilization of medical, industrial and food products. |
| US08340243B2 |
X-ray imaging apparatus, X-ray imaging method, and X-ray imaging program
An X-ray imaging apparatus includes a phase grating, an absorption grating, a detector, and an arithmetic unit. The arithmetic unit executes a Fourier transform step of performing Fourier transform for an intensity distribution of a Moiré acquired by the detector, and acquiring a spatial frequency spectrum. Also, the arithmetic unit executes a phase retrieval step of separating a spectrum corresponding to a carrier frequency from a spatial frequency spectrum acquired in the Fourier transform step, performing inverse Fourier transform for the separated spectrum, and acquiring a differential phase image. |
| US08340241B2 |
Image display apparatus and X-ray computed tomography apparatus
An X-ray computed tomography apparatus has an area arithmetic unit and an image processing unit. The area arithmetic unit obtains information with respect to a position of a deteriorating area appeared around an end on an acquisition range of a projection data under an influence of a cone angle. The image processing unit performs an image processing for a CT image to be discriminable the deteriorating area from an area other than the deteriorating area. |
| US08340240B2 |
Shift register of LCD devices
A shift register includes a plurality of shift register units coupled in series. Each shift register unit, receiving an input voltage at an input end and an output voltage at an output end, includes a node, a pull-up driving circuit, a pull-up circuit and first through third pull-down circuits. The pull-up driving circuit can transmit the input voltage to the node, and the pull-up circuit can provide the output voltage based on a high-frequency clock signal and the input signal. The first pull-down circuit can provide a bias voltage at the node or at the output end based on a first low-frequency clock signal. The second pull-down circuit can provide a bias voltage at the node or at the output end based on a second low-frequency clock signal. The third pull-down circuit can provide a bias voltage at the node or at the output end based on a feedback voltage. |
| US08340237B2 |
Wireless communication method, wireless communication system, base station and mobile station
There is provided a wireless communication method, a wireless communication system, a base station and a mobile station which conduct wireless communication using an OFDM modulation scheme. The base station transmits a timing correction burst to the mobile station only when a correlation peak detected from a received OFDM symbol is within a predetermined timing detection range. If the timing correction burst is not introduced from the base station even after expiration of predetermined time duration, by copying a signal by a length different from a guard interval from the end of an effective symbol and adding the copied signal to the front of the effective symbol, the mobile station generates a new timing correction channel (second time), in which transmission timing of a previously generated timing correction channel is shifted. |
| US08340236B2 |
Circuit for a radio system, use and method for operation
A circuit and method of operation for a circuit of a radio system in which a system time is divided into symbols, in which a system clock generator is activated in an operating mode, so that the system time is determined from an output clock signal of the system clock generator by counting, in which the system clock generator is deactivated in a sleep mode, in which an output clock signal of a sleep clock generator is blanked as a function of an output signal of a modulo divider in the sleep mode, and the system time is determined by counting, wherein an output frequency of the output clock signal of the sleep clock generator is a non-integer multiple of a symbol frequency, in which the modulo divider divides the output clock signal of the sleep clock generator by a division factor, and in which the division factor of the modulo divider is produced by changing between at least two integer divisor values. |
| US08340235B2 |
X-MIMO systems with multi-transmitters and multi-receivers
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a wireless transmission of a plurality of data streams in a wireless communication system having a plurality of nodes is disclosed. Each node has multiple antennas. The method involves receiving first and second data streams from respective first and second nodes at a receiver node, causing the receiver node to generate a receive filter for decoding each of the received data streams, and causing the receiver node to transmit receive filter information for each of the first and second data streams, the receive filter information facilitating precoding of the first and second data streams for simultaneous transmission within a common frequency band to the receiver node. |
| US08340232B2 |
Apparatus and method for channel estimation using training signals with reduced signal overhead
A base station comprising an antenna array including M antennas for transmitting data to a plurality of subscriber stations. The base station generates a first pilot signal preamble by adding a first cyclic prefix to a first pilot signal sequence and generates a second pilot signal preamble by adding a second cyclic prefix to a second pilot signal sequence. The second pilot signal sequence is a circularly shifted copy of the first pilot signal sequence. The first pilot signal preamble is transmitted from a first antenna and the second pilot signal preamble is transmitted from a second antenna concurrently with transmission of the first preamble. |
| US08340230B2 |
Receiving device, receiving method, and program
A receiving device includes: a noise detecting means for detecting a noise, which is contained in a received signal, using the received signal which has undergone clock synchronization processing: a phase error detecting means for detecting a phase error of the received signal using the received signal which has undergone clock synchronization processing; and a calculation means for calculating a phase correction value on the basis of the phase error detected by the phase error detecting means, wherein, when the noise is detected by the noise detecting means, the calculation means modifies a parameter to be employed in the calculation of the phase correction value so as to decrease the phase correction value. |
| US08340228B2 |
Setting a transmission power level for a mobile unit
A spread signal is produced having an adjustable spread spectrum. A data signal is provided for transmission. The data signal is processed to have a first spread spectrum. The processed first spread spectrum data signal is filtered to have one out of a plurality of spread spectrums. The filtering capable of producing a signal having a spread spectrum of any of the plurality of spread spectrums. The filtered one spread spectrum data signal is transmitted. |
| US08340224B2 |
Resonant power converter for radio frequency transmission and method
A resonant power converter for ultra-efficient radio frequency transmission and associated methods. In one exemplary embodiment, the invention is digitally actuated and uses a combination of a noise-shaped encoder, a charging switch, and a high-Q resonator coupled to an output load, typically an antenna or transmission line. Energy is built up in the electric and magnetic fields of the resonator, which, in turn, delivers power to the load with very little wasted energy in the process. No active power amplifier is required. The apparatus can be used in literally any RF signal application (wireless or otherwise), including for example cellular handsets, local- or wide-area network transmitters, or even radio base-stations. |
| US08340223B2 |
Receiver and wireless communication system equipped with the same
A receiver includes: an amplifier that amplifies a received broadband signal up to a predetermined level; a first switch that switches an output signal from the amplifier; a signal generator that generates a signal for controlling a switching operation of the first switch; an integration capacitor that integrates an output signal from the first switch; a comparator that compares an output voltage from the integration capacitor with a predetermined voltage; and a reset circuit that discharges electrical charges accumulated in the integration capacitor based on a comparison result from the comparator. |
| US08340221B1 |
System and method for frequency offset and symbol index estimation
Scattered pilots are used to estimate the integer frequency offset and OFDM symbol index simultaneously. A cross-correlation between IFFT outputs of received samples with different spectral shift and OFDM symbol index is used to identify the channel impulse response. Upon determination of the channel impulse, the estimated integer frequency offset and OFDM symbol index can then be determined. |
| US08340220B2 |
Receiver, integrated circuit, digital television receiver, reception method, and reception program
A receiver receives an OFDM signal and performs the Fourier transform on the received OFDM signal. In the receiver, a first channel estimation subunit estimates channel characteristics at SP signal positions and interpolates the estimated channel characteristics in the time direction, whereas a second channel estimation subunit estimates channel characteristics at TMCC signal positions. A correlation calculation subunit performs an autocorrelation calculation on the output from the first channel estimation subunit, and performs a cross-correlation calculation on the output from the first channel estimation subunit and the output from the second channel estimation subunit. By using the results of the autocorrelation calculation and the cross-correlation calculation performed by the correlation calculation subunit, a control subunit controls a transfer function of an interpolation filter in a frequency interpolation subunit. |
| US08340219B2 |
Receiver and receiving method for scalable bandwith
Provided are a receiver and a receiving method for a scalable bandwidth in a mobile station of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. The receiving method includes the steps of: (a) filtering a received RF signal; (b) oscillating a frequency according to a center frequency control signal to output a local oscillation frequency; (c) down-converting the filtered RF signal by using the local oscillation frequency; (d) scalable-filtering the down-converted signal while adjusting a bandwidth according to a bandwidth control signal; (e) controlling gain of the scalable-filtered signal; (f) converting the gain-controlled analog signal into a digital signal by using a sampling frequency matching with a corresponding bandwidth according to an ADC control signal; and (g) demodulating the converted digital signal, outputting the center frequency control signal, the bandwidth control signal, and the ADC control signal according to control information received from an upper layer. |
| US08340217B1 |
Configurable search engine start/stop mechanism provides flexible ranges of search for GPS C/A code
A method and apparatus for reconfiguring a GPS receiver. A device in accordance with the present invention comprises a Radio Frequency (RF) section, the RF section adaptable to receive at least one GPS signal from at least one GPS satellite; and a baseband section, coupled to the RF section, the baseband section comprising at least one correlator, wherein the at least one correlator is adaptable to reacaquire the at least one GPS signal based on a priori knowledge of the at least one GPS signal. |
| US08340216B2 |
Space-time scrambling for cellular systems
Techniques for transmitting data with space-time scrambling in cellular systems (e.g., CDMA systems) are described. At least one stream of data symbols is generated, mapped to one or more physical channels, and spread with channelization codes for the physical channels. Space-time scrambling is performed on the at least one stream of data symbols to generate at least two streams of output chips. The space-time scrambling may be achieved by performing matrix multiplication with a sequence of matrices. For each time interval in which space-time scrambling is performed, a matrix may be selected (e.g., based on a scrambling code for a base station), and data to be sent in the time interval is multiplied with the selected matrix. The matrices used for space-time scrambling may be defined and selected in various manners. The streams of output chips are processed and transmitted from respective transmit antennas. |
| US08340215B2 |
Radio transceiver architectures and methods
A radio communications device 100 including a processor 120 having a digital signal processor (DSP) coupled to a transceiver 110. The transceiver includes a digital-to-phase synthesizer having one or more independently variable frequency or phase signal outputs coupled to a transmitter and/or to a receiver. The variable frequency and phase outputs of the digital-to phase synthesizer are mixed with corresponding received signals and are capable of frequency or phase modulating information signals for transmission. Amplitude modulated signals may be provided through polar modulation by combining synthesizer outputs at a summer. |
| US08340212B2 |
Integrated circuit for radio transmission
A radio transmitting device and method enables reduction of an increase of CGI memories for the control channel and an improvement of the throughput of the data channel. When multiplex transmission through the control channel and the data channel is carried out and when adaptive modulation is applied to both channels, an MCS selecting section (108) is provided with one CQI table for the data channel and CQI tables for the control channel, and a table selecting MCS determining section (201) selects one of the tables depending on the transmission bandwidth of the terminal and determines the MCS of the control channel while looking up the selected CQI table. |
| US08340211B2 |
Methods and apparatus to encode bandwidth request message
A subscriber station is capable of encoding a bandwidth request message. The subscriber station includes a controller and a transmitter coupled to the controller. The transmitter includes a linear channel encoder and a Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation block. The channel encoder uses a generator matrix comprising alphabets from Galois field (GF) (2). Each column of the generator matrix belongs to a twelve dimensional subspace and wherein the code generated using the generator matrix has a minimum hamming distance no greater than thirty. |
| US08340207B2 |
Differential feedback scheme for closed-loop MIMO beamforming
A first N×M codebook of a first rank M may be used to generate a second N×(N−M) codebook of a second rank (N−M). This second codebook is both orthogonal and complementary to the first codebook. In practice, this may reduce storage requirements in closed-loop MIMO beamforming, because the second codebook may be dynamically generated as needed by a base station and/or a mobile station. In some cases, a higher rank beamforming matrix or precoding matrix may be formed from a lower rank (e.g., one or two) beamforming matrix or precoding matrix. Also, a novel way to generate the rotation matrix Qv(t-1) is disclosed. |
| US08340205B2 |
Method and apparatus for correcting linear error phase of an OFDM signal
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for correcting linear error phase of an OFDM signal. The method includes a step of offsetting a rotation corresponding to a back-off value of the signal. The apparatus of the present invention includes a correction module for offsetting the rotation of the signal corresponding to the back-off value. |
| US08340204B2 |
Soft decision enhancement
A Viterbi trellis processing technique in which soft decisions and hard decisions are derived from a received signal and the soft decisions are enhanced by being modified using the hard decisions. A log likelihood ratio for a bit of the received signal can be derived by grouping candidate metrics associated with the decision that the bit has a first state, grouping candidate metrics associated with the decision that the bit has a second state, applying respective functions to the groups and calculating the difference of the function values. |
| US08340203B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting data using a plurality of carriers
A data transmitting and receiving method of transmitting supplementary data in an OFDM communication system is disclosed. The method of transmitting and receiving the OFDM signal includes: mapping an input bit stream into at least one transfer symbol; changing at least one of amplitudes and phases of the transfer symbols that are transmitted by a specific sub-carrier group having a plurality of sub-carriers using constellation modification information to indicate specific additional data; and transmitting the transfer symbols, to which the changing is carried out, to a receiving end by an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing data processing, the constellation modification information being identical to each other with respect to the transfer symbols that are transmitted by the specific sub-carrier group. |
| US08340200B2 |
Method for seamlessly changing power modes in an ADSL system
A DMT system and method with the capability to adapt the system bit rate on-line in a seamless manner. The DMT system provides a robust and fast protocol for completing this seamless rate adaptation. The DMT system also provides a framing and encoding method with reduced overhead compared to conventional DMT systems. The DMT system and method provide seamless rate adaptation with the provision of different power levels. This framing and encoding method enables a system with seamless rate adaptation capability. The system and method of the invention can be implemented in hardware, or alternatively in a combination of hardware and software. |
| US08340198B2 |
Preprocessing method, base station, and system for cooperative communication
A preprocessing method for cooperative communication and a base station and a system for executing the method are provided. The method includes: obtaining a common base station group from a cooperative base station group of a user terminal, in which the common base station group includes a set of base stations providing a cooperative service for other user terminals in the cooperative base station group; and calculating a first precoding matrix of the user terminal according to the common base station group, in which the first precoding matrix is used to perform elimination preprocessing on interference from the user to other user terminals served by the common base station group. The method reduces Multi-User Interference (MUI). |
| US08340192B2 |
Wyner-Ziv coding with multiple side information
A Wyner-Ziv coding scheme jointly utilizes multiple side information at the decoder is described. A new probability model is introduced based on an extended turbo decoding trellis, so that the transitional probability is calculated from the probabilities conditioned on multiple side information. The proposed scheme handles multiple side information in a multi-dimensional manner to potentially achieve coding performance better than either selecting one side information or generating a single side information by averaging several side information. When the decoder receives multiple streams of parity bits, the conditional probabilities on the parity bits from the multiple streams all contribute in turbo decoding. The errors existing in some of the streams can be automatically eliminated during the decoding process. |
| US08340188B2 |
Method and device for motion vector estimation in video transcoding using union of search areas
A transcoder and methods of encoding inter-prediction frames of a downsampled video wherein the downsampled video is a spatially downsampled version of a full-resolution video. Full-resolution motion vectors are downscaled and each downscaled motion vector pinpoints a search area within a reference frame. The union or combination of search areas defines the search field for candidate motion vectors. A motion vector is selected from the candidates based on realizing a minimum rate-distortion cost. |
| US08340182B2 |
Video decoding apparatus and video decoding method
According to one embodiment, a video decoding apparatus decoding a video stream selectively generates one of an intra prediction image and an inter prediction image based on an encoding mode of a decoding object from the video stream and decoded images thereof, generates a residual decoded image based on a quantization parameter of a decoding object from the video stream, generates a decoded image by adding an intra prediction image and an inter prediction image selectively generated, and the residual decoded image, applies deblocking filter process for reducing a block distortion onto the decoded image, extracting at least one of information on a quantization parameter and information on an encoding mode of a decoding object from the video stream, and determining whether or not the filter process is skipped based on extracted information thereof, and selectively skipping the filter process based on a result of the determination. |
| US08340178B2 |
Moving image encoder and moving image decoder, and its method and program
In a time/space-division filtering, a moving image signal in a certain resolution-hierarchy, for which time hierarchizing is performed, is divided into a time low-band signal and a time high-band signal. A moving image signal, which has the moving image signal corresponding to the time high-band signal reconstructed by employing the time low-band signal and the time high-band signal, is generated. A reduced image signal having the moving image signal reduction-processed is generated. A high-band generating process by space hierarchizing is performed for the time high-band signal, thereby to generate a time high-band/space high-band signal. The time low-band signal, the reduced image signal, and the time high-band/space high-band signal are assumed to be a division result respectively. The time/space-division filtering is recursively performed for the time low-band signal that is assumed to be a moving image signal of which the time-resolution is lower by one stage, and the reduced image signal that is assumed to be a moving image signal of which the space-resolution is lower by one stage, thereby to hierarchize the moving image signal in a multi-step. |
| US08340177B2 |
Embedded base layer codec for 3D sub-band coding
Techniques and tools are described for scalable video coding and decoding. For example, a 3D sub-band video encoder includes an embedded base layer codec as well as temporal sub-band transforms and spatial sub-band transforms. The placement of the base layer codec among the sub-band transforms and the role of the base layer codec in scalable video coding vary depending on implementation. In general, the base layer codec provides efficient compression at low bit rates and produces a base layer compressed video bit stream compatible with existing decoders. At the same time, the 3D sub-band video encoder provides spatial and temporal scalability options at higher bit rates, refining the base layer video. A corresponding 3D sub-band video decoder includes an embedded base layer decoder. |
| US08340170B2 |
Receiver and apparatus for receiving a data signal
A receiver for receiving a data signal having a channel profile may include an equalizer, to which the data signal is feedable, the equalizer having a plurality of filters and a switching device coupled to the filters, a selection device, which is disposed such that it determines a first number and a second number in dependence on the channel profile, and the switching device is disposed such that it connects a number of linear filters corresponding to the first number to form a first overall filter and connects a number of linear filters corresponding to the second number to form a second overall filter. |
| US08340168B2 |
Smart grid radio-frequency interference (RFI) detection
A method, system, network and device provide Smart Grid Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) detection. One or more symbols or chips present in one or more received radio frequency signals are detected and the presence of one or more erred symbols or chips in the detected one or more symbols present in the received one or more radio frequency signals determined. A correlation in time between the one or more erred symbols or chips and an infrastructure waveform associated with electrical infrastructure can be determined. When the determined correlation indicates the electrical infrastructure as a source of detectable radio frequency interference to a device, a pattern flag is generated. The pattern flag or pattern flag representation can be stored and/or transmitted. |
| US08340166B2 |
Smart grid radio-frequency interference (RFI) detection
A method, system, network and device provide Smart Grid Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) detection. One or more symbols or chips present in one or more received radio frequency signals are detected and the presence of one or more erred symbols or chips in the detected one or more symbols present in the received one or more radio frequency signals determined. A correlation in time between the one or more erred symbols or chips and an infrastructure waveform associated with electrical infrastructure can be determined. When the determined correlation indicates the electrical infrastructure as a source of detectable radio frequency interference to a device, a pattern flag is generated. The pattern flag or pattern flag representation can be stored and/or transmitted. |
| US08340163B2 |
Implementing single line asynchronous dual watchdog communication for ESD immunity
A method and dual watchdog communication circuit for implementing single line asynchronous dual watchdog communication for electrostatic discharge (ESD) immunity, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. The dual watchdog communication circuit includes a source transceiver module and a sink transceiver module connected together by a single line, each of the source transceiver module and the sink transceiver module uses a coded pulse for the single line asynchronous dual watchdog communication. |
| US08340162B2 |
Method for synchronizing seamless rate adaptation
A Discrete Multitone Modulation (DMT) system and method with the capability to adapt the system bit rate on-line in a seamless manner. The DMT system provides a robust and fast protocol for completing this seamless rate adaptation. The DMT system also provides a framing and encoding method with reduced overhead compared to conventional DMT systems. The DMT system and method provide seamless rate adaptation with the provision of different power levels. This framing and encoding method enables a system with seamless rate adaptation capability. The system and method of the invention can be implemented in hardware, or alternatively in a combination of hardware and software. |
| US08340159B2 |
Method and apparatus for multiresolution / multipath searcher
A multipath searcher and method includes a programmable decimation filter configured to adjust a sample rate of a received pilot signal. A plurality of correlators is configured to compare the received pilot signal to a reference code in a first mode and in a second mode. The first mode includes a low resolution search of a search window performed such that the plurality of correlators encompass an entire search window concurrently and the plurality of correlators receives a delayed reference code delayed to correspond with a portion of the search window in which a corresponding correlator performs correlation to identify peaks in the received pilot signal. The second mode includes a high resolution search of a refined search window only at or near identified peaks discovered in the first mode. The high resolution search is focused at the peak location by adjusting delays in the plurality of correlators. |
| US08340158B2 |
System and method for human body communication using limited passband
Provided are a system and method for human body communication using a limited passband. The system includes a transmission frame generating unit for human body communication which generates a transmission frame for human body communication based on data information including user identification (ID) and data scrambled into an orthogonal code generated by the user ID; a symbol mapping unit for symbolizing the generated transmission frame for human body communication according to a predetermined modulating method; a spreading unit for spreading the symbol outputted in the symbol mapping unit; a waveform generating unit for generating a baseband signal whose band is limited to a predetermined range with respect to the data spread in the spreading unit; and a middle band transmitting unit for modulating the baseband signal into a predetermined limited passband signal. |
| US08340157B2 |
Methods and devices for wireless communication in wireless communication systems
A method for wireless communication in a wireless communication system may include receiving signal contributions from within a predefined frequency range, categorizing the received signal contributions in a plurality of different frequency bands being sub-bands of the frequency range, comparing content in each of the plurality of sub-bands with a predetermined criteria, selecting a sub-set of the plurality of sub-bands corresponding to the criteria, determining a frequency hopping pattern based on the selected sub-set of sub-bands, generating a frequency key including information as to the selected sub-set of sub-bands and frequency hopping pattern, and broadcasting the frequency key to nodes of the wireless communication system. A wireless communication device for wireless communication in a wireless communication system may include an antenna, a receiver module connected to the antenna, a control unit connected to the receiver module, and a transmitter module connected to the control unit and antenna. |
| US08340156B2 |
Methods of synchronizing with first multipath component in ultra wideband receiver and ultra wideband receivers using the same
A synchronization method in a Ultra Wideband (UWB) receiver includes receiving a signal through a multipath channel, and synchronizing with a first multipath component of the received signal by computing a correlation value between the received signal and a template signal of the receiver in a predetermined search range. Since multipath components received at the receiver after the first multipath component of the received signal have lower power than that of the first multipath component, the synchronization with the first multipath component of the received signal may improve the performance in processes after the synchronization process. |
| US08340154B2 |
Radio transmission device and radio transmission method
Disclosed are a radio transmission device and a radio transmission method which can reduce a processing amount or a memory amount while maintaining the randomizing effect of other cell interference. When using as a reference signal, a ZC sequence of the sequence length uniquely correlated to a transmission bandwidth of a reference signal, as the transmission bandwidth becomes smaller and the sequence length of the ZC sequence becomes shorter, the sequence is switched at a shorter time interval and as the transmission bandwidth becomes greater and the sequence length of the ZC sequence becomes longer, the switching is performed at a longer time interval. Thus, a reference signal is generated by using the ZC sequence in accordance with the timing into which the reference signal transmission bandwidth and the sequence are switched. |
| US08340153B2 |
Hybrid orthogonal frequency division multiple access WTRU and method
A hybrid orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and method are disclosed. A WTRU includes a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver processes received data to recover data mapped to the subcarriers using OFDMA. The receiver recovers first input data by separating user data from multi-user spread data and recovers second input data from non-spread data. |