| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08733283B2 |
Method for rearing predatory mites
The present invention relates to the field of biological control. Specifically, it relates to the use of predator mites as biological control agents for reducing damage to crops by insect pests. In particular, it relates to a new method for rearing predator mites, and a method for controlling pests in a crop using predator mites reared using said method. |
| US08733281B2 |
Plasma processing apparatus
A plasma processing apparatus includes: a processing chamber produced from a metal; a susceptor configured to mount a substrate; an electromagnetic wave source that supplies an electromagnetic wave; one or more dielectric member provided at an inner wall of the processing chamber, and configured to transmit the electromagnetic wave into an inside of the processing chamber; one or more metal electrode, wherein each metal electrode is installed on a bottom surface of each dielectric member such that a part of the each dielectric member is exposed to the inside of the processing chamber; and a surface wave propagating section which is a metal surface facing the susceptor, the surface wave propagating section being installed adjacent to the dielectric member and being exposed to the inside of the processing chamber. The surface wave propagating section and a bottom surface of the metal electrode are positioned on the same plane. |
| US08733279B2 |
PECVD process chamber backing plate reinforcement
The present invention generally comprises a backing plate reinforcement apparatus for use in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition apparatus. When processing large area substrates, the backing plate extending across the chamber may also be quite large. By supporting a central area of the backing plate with a frame structure, the backing plate may be maintained substantially planar. Alternatively, as necessary, the contour of the backing plate may be adjusted to suit the particular needs of the process. |
| US08733273B2 |
Adhesive ejecting apparatus
An ejecting mechanism includes a pump, a pump controller unit, a distribution pipe, a restricting unit, and adhesive nozzles. The pump controller unit is configured to control to increase or decrease the amount of adhesive to be taken in by the pump. The distribution unit is configured to send a predetermined amount of adhesive to the adhesive nozzles out of the adhesive supplied by the pump, and to return the rest of adhesive to a discharge pipe out of the supplied adhesive, except for the predetermined amount of adhesive. The restricting unit is configured to disposed between the distribution unit and the discharge pipe and configured to restrict an amount of adhesive to be returned to a pipe. |
| US08733267B2 |
Telescopic submarine
A telescopic submarine includes: a front submarine unit (1), a rear submarine unit (2), and a lift tower (3). A ring-shaped piston (14) connected with the rear submarine unit (2) is in a hydrocylinder (7) connected with the front submarine unit (1). When the piston (14) is moved forward, a volume of the telescopic submarine is decreased, a specific gravity of the telescopic submarine is increased, and therefore the telescopic submarine dives into the water gradually. The telescopic submarine is able to surface via operating the horizontal rudder (20) to raise the telescopic submarine to a surface of the water, and then pumping the hydraulic oil (32) into the hydrocylinder (7) via the hydraulic pump (11) to drive the piston (14) to move backward. Therefore the volume of the telescopic submarine is increased, the specific gravity of the telescopic submarine is decreased, and the telescopic submarine surfaces. |
| US08733266B2 |
Integrative deep draft floating production platform with unconditional stability and offshore installation method thereof
An integrative deep draft floating production platform with unconditional stability and an offshore installation method thereof are disclosed. The platform comprises an ring ballast tank at the bottom, some columns with small cross sections, an ring buoyancy tank at the middle part, some columns with large cross sections, and an upper drilling equipment and oil gas processing module. The ballast tank adopts a permanently fixed ballast, and the tank is internally filled with weights to ensure that the center of buoyancy of the platform is higher than the center of gravity. The drilling equipment and oil gas processing module is installed in the construction site, and the platform is transported to the installation site by a dry tow or wet tow as a whole and then is installed. The platform can be applied to deepwater oil and gas exploitation under harsh marine environment. |
| US08733265B2 |
Offshore buoyant drilling, production, storage and offloading structure
An offshore structure having a hull, an upper vertical wall, an upper inwardly-tapered wall disposed below the upper vertical wall, a lower outwardly-tapered wall disposed below the upper sloped wall, and a lower vertical wall disposed below the lower sloped wall. The upper and lower sloped walls produce significant heave damping in response to heavy wave action. A heavy slurry of hematite and water ballast is added to the lower and outermost portions of the hull to lower the center of gravity below the center of buoyancy. The offshore structure provides one or more movable hawser connections that allow a tanker vessel to moor directly to the offshore structure during offloading rather than mooring to a separate buoy at some distance from the offshore storage structure. The movable hawser connection includes an arcuate rail with a movable trolley that provides a hawser connection point that allows vessel weathervaning. |
| US08733261B2 |
Apparatus and non-transitory computer-readable medium
An apparatus includes a processor and a memory configured to store computer-readable instructions that instruct the apparatus to perform the steps of acquiring first pattern data representing stitches that form a first pattern and second pattern data representing stitches that form a second pattern, the first pattern and the second pattern being two patterns to be sewn by embroidery in mutually adjacent positions, generating, in a case where the two patterns are to be sewn on a sewing object that is formed of a soluble material, connecting data representing a connecting stitch based on the first pattern data and the second pattern data, the and generating, from the acquired first pattern data, the acquired second pattern data and the generated connecting data, embroidery data to sew the two patterns and the connecting stitch. |
| US08733260B2 |
Embroidery data processing apparatus and computer-readable medium storing embroidery data processing program
An embroidery data processing apparatus that processes embroidery data includes a reference point setting unit that sets, within a sewing area, positions of at least three reference points, a reference line setting unit that sets two reference lines being straight lines that intersect each other and each pass through at least two reference points of the at least three reference points, a plane setting unit that sets a reference plane by setting two sets of a plurality of virtual lines arranged in a matrix, a position determination unit that determines the plurality of arrangement positions based on the reference plane, a pattern selection unit that selects a type for the plurality of unit patterns from at least one type of unit pattern, and an arrangement unit that arranges the plurality of unit patterns of the type in the plurality of arrangement positions. |
| US08733259B2 |
Seed metering apparatus for a seeder
A seed metering apparatus includes a seed container with a feed opening in a bottom thereof. A feed shaft is rotatably mounted across the feed opening. A feed disc is mounted to the shaft and disc recesses are spaced along a periphery thereof An upright shield plate extends across the feed opening adjacent to the shaft and defines a disc slot having a width corresponding to a thickness of the disc. An output portion of the feed disc extends through the disc slot forward of a front face of the shield plate. The feed shaft, feed disc, and shield plate are configured such that the shield plate seals the feed opening, and such that an intake portion of the feed disc is in the feed opening exposed to seeds. Rotation of the feed shaft carries seeds out of the seed container in the disc recesses and into a seed receiver. |
| US08733258B2 |
Seed flap for seed meter
A metering device having an obstruction within its metering chamber to prevent inputs such as seeds from passing from a seed sump to other areas within the metering chamber and causing to the metering device to become overfilled with seeds when the metering device is raised out of the planting position. In one embodiment, the obstruction includes one or more hingedly connected flaps that move due to the changing orientation of the metering device. In one or more positions of the metering device, the obstruction is positioned to prevent the seeds from leaving the seed sump. The seeds are prevented from leaving the seed sump without having to manually shut a gate on each metering devices of a planter. |
| US08733256B2 |
Planter with four bar linkage
An agricultural planter includes a frame and left and right wings pivotally attached to respective ends of the frame, all of which have a plurality of spaced row units. Each wing includes a forward bar pivotally coupled to the frame for forward folding for transport and an aft bar having row units attached thereto. Each aft bar is aligned parallel with and is pivotally coupled to its associated forward bar by at least one pair of first and second non-parallel coupling arms. A hydraulic cylinder coupled to the forward bar and to one of the pivoting arms raises the associated aft bar with row units above the soil to a first elevated position to facilitate turning the planter. Further extension of the hydraulic cylinder causes additional elevation, and substantial rotation of the aft bar and row unit combination to provide a low and narrow planter profile for transport and storage. |
| US08733252B2 |
Electric monorail part carrier
An electrified monorail assembly includes a track having a length, a plurality of electrically conductive buss bars disposed along the length of the track, and a controller disposed on the track. The controller is in electrical communication with the plurality electrically conductive of buss bars, and configured to selectively energize the plurality of electrically conductive buss bars. The assembly further includes a proximity sensor disposed on the track and in communication with the controller, the proximity sensor configured to detect the presence of a trolley assembly on the track. |
| US08733250B2 |
Metal-sealing material-feedthrough and utilization of the metal-sealing material feedthrough with an airbag, a belt tensioning device, and an ignition device
A metal-sealing material-feedthrough for igniters includes: a base body including a feedthrough opening, a front side, and a back side, the base body configured such that a ratio of a thickness of the base body to a maximum dimension of the feedthrough opening vertical to an axis direction of the feedthrough opening is in a range of approximately 0.5 to 2.5, the base body having a thickness between 1.5 mm and 3.5 mm; a sealing material; and a metal pin which is located in the feedthrough opening, the thickness being such that the base body is deformed under compression, the deformation adding an additional force to the sealing material such that the metal-sealing material-feedthrough is configured for avoiding a relative movement of the sealing material between the front side and the back side in a direction toward the back side relative to an inside circumference of the feedthrough opening. |
| US08733245B2 |
Screen printer
Provided is a screen printer including a main body in which an operation region and at least one introduction and extraction portion are formed, wherein the operation region includes an installation position of a stencil mask therein, and, through the at least one introduction and extraction portion, the stencil mask is introduced into the operation region and is extracted from the operation region to an outside of the main body; and a conveyance unit which conveys the stencil mask introduced into and disposed at the operation region to the at least one introduction and extraction portion when the stencil mask is replaced by a new stencil mask introduced through the at least one introduction and extraction portion, and conveys the new stencil mask to the operation region. |
| US08733244B2 |
Methods for depositing viscous material on a substrate with a combination stencil printer and dispenser
A method of depositing viscous material on a substrate includes positioning the substrate in a print position, performing a print operation on the substrate with a print head and a stencil to deposit viscous material on the substrate, and inspecting the substrate with a vision system to detect a defect with the deposit of viscous material on the substrate. The method further includes, in the event of a defect, re-working the substrate by depositing viscous material on the substrate with a dispenser attached to a cleaning assembly, the stencil, or an independent gantry to correct the defect. |
| US08733243B2 |
Roller imprinter and production method of imprinted sheet
At least one embodiment of the present invention provides a roller imprinter that allows easy replacement of a transfer roller, and a method of producing an imprinted sheet. In at least one embodiment, a roller imprinter is disclosed for transferring a pattern on a surface of a transfer roller to a surface of a workpiece sheet through rotation of the transfer roller, the roller imprinter including an axis shaft or rotation for the transfer roller, and the axis of the shaft being non-coincident with the rotation axis of the transfer roller. |
| US08733235B1 |
Multifunctional cooker system
A fuel-fired multifunctional cooker system is useable for deep frying, submerged cooking in water, steaming, griddle frying, grilling, double-boiler operation and simultaneous combinations thereof. Some examples of cooker system 4 include features such as a cylindrical flue with a perforated upper discharge ring plate for even heat distribution, a removable upper flue deflector ring (annular deflector) for shielding a user and creating an “air curtain” across the cooker system's upper food-receiving opening, an invertible griddle/grill cooktop with a central flue gas opening, an adjustable skewer, a steamer hood, an annular lower heat deflector around the burner, an annular flue gas baffle in the combustion chamber, a series of legs or feet creating a combustion air inlet between the floor and the cooker system's lower edge, a removable table, and a lifting device for handling one or more cooker components. |
| US08733233B2 |
Machine for preparing coffee
A Machine for preparing coffee comprising a infusion chamber to house at least a coffee dose, and means for feeding pressurized water to said infusion chamber, said means comprising a cylinder and plunger assembly, said plunger defining inside the cylinder a chamber to house a preset quantity of water, and said plunger being able to accumulate, in an active position, potential energy capable of being transmitted as a pressure to the water of said chamber, when said plunger contacts, in said active position, with the water of said chamber. It is characterized in that said infusion chamber is placed adjacent below the water chamber of said cylinder, both chambers including at least one hole through which, once opened, passes the pressurized water to said infusion chamber, said plunger moving back to the rest position inside said chamber as pressurized water is fed through said hole. |
| US08733231B2 |
Dispensing head for a machine for making beverages with single-dose capsules, and machine comprising said dispensing head
A dispensing head includes an infusion chamber constituted by at least one first portion in which a seat for single-dose capsules is set, and one second, closing, portion of the infusion chamber. The dispensing head also includes an oscillating expeller set between the first and second portions of the infusion chamber. The oscillating expeller engages a capsule inserted in the infusion chamber to cause expulsion thereof when the infusion chamber is opened. The expeller includes an appendage shaped so as to engage the capsule from the bottom and lift it from the infusion chamber. |
| US08733229B2 |
Extraction module for a capsule-based beverage production device
A device for producing a beverage from a capsule, comprising a motor-driven extraction module which comprises a first jaw member and a cooperating second jaw member, wherein in an opened state of the extraction module the jaw members are distanced from each other while in the closed state the jaw members tightly enclose a capsule space, a motor for controlling the transfer of the extraction module between the closed and opened state, and a knee lever arrangement, being functionally connected to the motor and to at least one of the jaw members and being designed to convert the motor drive action into a closure force, i.e. a force with which the first and second jaw member are approaching each other, which is increasing during the course of the closure movement. |
| US08733228B2 |
Pneumatic cylinder
A pneumatic cylinder includes a cylinder housing, a central piston displaceable longitudinally in the cylinder housing, a first trailing piston configured to work with a first trailing stop of the central piston and a first positioning stop on the cylinder housing, and a second trailing piston configured to work with a second trailing stop of the central piston and a second positioning stop on the cylinder housing. The cylinder housing comprises a base body in which the first trailing piston runs, a cylinder cover in which the second trailing piston runs, and an intermediate washer on which the first positioning stop and the second positioning stop are formed. |
| US08733226B2 |
Armored cab for vehicles
An armored cab having at least an upper wall, two side walls, a front wall, a back wall, and a bottom wall. The armored cab and its respective walls include a longitudinal axis extending from the back wall to the front wall. The bottom wall includes at least one concave surface. The at least one concave surface faces downwardly and away from the armored cab, and is disposed in a direction substantially parallel with the longitudinal axis of the armored cab. |
| US08733224B2 |
Ammunition feed system for firearm
The present invention is a firearm cartridge feeding system to automatically feed firearm cartridges in a successive order one diameter of a firearm cartridge at a time, to the chamber of a bolt action, semi-automatic, or fully automatic firearm until all firearm cartridges in the system are expended. The firearm cartridges are stored in a tight spiral channel side by side to maximize the use of the peripheral space surrounding the area of a magazine well or feed point of a firearm. The housing or body of the firearm feeding system consists of a multiple segment body or housing. The housing contains a spiral channel, clutch mechanism pocket and a spring drive compartment which supports the storage of firearm cartridges and the arrangement of a drive system for feeding the firearm cartridges to the feed lips. |
| US08733223B2 |
Automated systems and methods for making braided barbed sutures
A system for making braided barbed sutures includes a filament winding assembly, and a guide assembly including at least one barbed insert dispenser opening defining a passageway for orienting a barbed insert. The guide assembly is adapted to dispense at least one barbed insert from the dispenser opening into the filament winding assembly for winding a plurality of filaments around the at least one barbed insert for making a braided barbed suture. The passageway of the dispenser opening is adapted to allow longitudinal movement of the barbed insert relative to the passageway while simultaneously preventing twisting movement of the barbed insert relative to the passageway. As the barbed insert is being dispensed, the barbed insert dispenser opening is selectively rotatable for imparting rotation to the barbed insert as the filaments are wound about the barbed insert. The passageway may be an elongated slit having a greater width than height. |
| US08733221B2 |
Groove machining apparatus for insulating spacer and groove machining method for the same
A groove machining apparatus for an insulating spacer includes a cutting blade that is removably fixed to a rotation shaft rotatable around a horizontal axis and movable in a right-left direction and in an up-down direction and mounts for a cassette that are fixed in a loading/unloading position opposing an entrance through which the cassette can be loaded/unloaded and in a working position 180 degrees apart from the loading/unloading position and facing the cutting blade, respectively, on a rotary table. The apparatus includes positioning devices that are respectively located in the vicinity of the mounts to position and fix the cassette to the mounts, and a clamping device that corresponds to the cassette in the working position and presses opposing edges in a front-back direction of a plurality of insulating spacers aligned on the cassette. |
| US08733214B2 |
Wrench
The present invention provides a wrench which includes a movable jaw, a fixed jaw and a slidable member formed at the bottom portion of the movable jaw and slidably mounted to the main body. In the present invention, a toggle member can be driven to rotate through rotating a handle of the wrench, and the toggle member can smoothly move to and fro between a driving space and an evading space of the slidable member. Whereby, the present invention is simple in structure, has characteristics of smoothly engagedly-cooperative movements between parts of the wrench, so that it can make full use of the force applied by the user and has excellent effects of use. |
| US08733213B2 |
Power tong apparatus
A power tong apparatus is provided. The power can include a vertical riser assembly for attaching to a drilling rig, and a swing arm assembly pivotally attached to the vertical riser assembly. The apparatus can include a power tong assembly pivotally attached to the swing arm assembly. The power tong assembly can include a back-up tong to grip a first pipe, and a power tong to grip and rotate a second pipe to make or break a joint between the pipes. The power tong can include a jaw assembly that, when rotated, grips the second pipe. The power tong can include a hydraulic motor to operate a drive chain or belt to rotate the jaw assembly. |
| US08733209B2 |
Drive arrangement with an infinitely variable sub-gear box
In order to further develop drive arrangements with a continuously variable sub-gear mechanism, the invention proposes a drive arrangement with a continuously variable sub-gear mechanism having two circulating transmission elements, which are actively connected to one another via a circulating connecting element, having a hybrid drive comprising a first drive and at least one additional drive, and further having at least one output, wherein at least one of the two drives is interactively connected to the output, either directly or indirectly via the continuously variable sub-gear mechanism. |
| US08733208B2 |
Screw and nut assembly with screw rod support means
A screw and nut assembly includes a movable platform, a first screw and nut set with the first screw rod affixed between two locating members and the first screw nut pivotally mounted in the movable platform, a second screw and nut set with the second screw nut pivotally mounted in the movable platform, a driving mechanism for driving first screw nut and the second screw nut simultaneously for causing the first screw nut to create a first speed and the second screw nut to create a second speed slower than and reversed to the first speed, and a first support and a second support respectively affixed to the second screw rod to support and to move with the second screw rod. Thus, the gap between the movable platform and each support is changed subject to movement of the screw nuts. |
| US08733203B2 |
Steering wheel
A steering wheel in which a load exerted on an elastic member constituting a dynamic damper can be reduced, the life of the dynamic damper can be extended, and the assembly operation is readily performed. The steering wheel has a first horn plate (11), a second horn plate (21), guide pins (12), stoppers (13), bushes (14), elastic members (15), and coil springs (16); the bushes (14) are divided into first bushes (141) which have first flanges (14a), openings (14b), columnar parts (14c); and recessed parts (14d), and second bushes (142) which have second flanges (14e), openings (140, and casings (14h); and the columnar parts (14c) are configured so as to be in contact with the second flanges (14e). |
| US08733202B2 |
Linear level for steering column
An adjustment assembly and adjustable steering column including a linearly slidable actuating lever are provided. The actuating lever is slidable between a first position and a second position along a linear travel path. The actuating lever includes an engaging portion which engages a gear assembly. The gear assembly is connected to a clamping mechanism. The clamping mechanism is configured to apply or release a clamping force on a steering column or other component. Movement of the actuating lever between the first and second positions causes rotation of the gear assembly. Rotation of the gear assembly causes the clamping mechanism to apply or release the clamping force, depending on the direction of rotation. The adjustment assembly also includes a rake bracket to support a compression bracket. The compression bracket supports the component or steering column. |
| US08733198B2 |
Helical gear and power transmission apparatus
As to a distance in a radial direction of a rotation shaft from a rim at the hub side to an outer peripheral side face, the outer peripheral side face includes a first side region having a distance located at the most leading end side spot in the direction of rotation of a helical gear longer than a distance at a tail end side spot. |
| US08733196B2 |
Standard gear unit, assembly kit and drive
In a standard gear unit, which, in a first variant, is implemented with an output-side bearing and an outgoing shaft, and which, in a second variant, is able to be implemented with an intermediate flange inserted at the bearing position of the output-side bearing, the intermediate flange is formed such that, with an associated, differently formed outgoing shaft, a robot interface or flange block interface is able to be formed on the output side. |
| US08733195B2 |
Actuating assembly for a centrally syncronised dual-clutch transmission
An actuating assembly for actuating synchronizing elements of a centrally synchronized dual-clutch transmission having at least a first part-transmission (6) and a second part-transmission (7) such that at least one synchronizing element is associated with each of the first and the second part-transmission (6, 7). A common actuator (1) is provided for actuating at least the synchronizing elements of the two part-transmissions. |
| US08733187B2 |
Pipe inspection system
A pipe inspection system and method for accessing and inspecting a feeder tube extending from a larger header pipe at an angle are disclosed. A pipe inspection tool including a head piece and a delivery tube are positioned within the header pipe and aligned with the feeder tube using cameras or other alignment means. The head piece includes a jack that presses the head piece against the interior surface of the header pipe at the feeder tube to create a sufficient seal to deliver a PIG or another pipe inspection device to the feeder tube. |
| US08733181B2 |
Electromechanical joining module having a force transducer
An electromechanical joining module for applying a linear force to a joining element, includes a stator, which represents the stationary part of the joining module, a tappet, which can be linearly extended out of the stator and which has an outer tappet end, and a force transducer for detecting forces that are applied to the joining element during the operation of the tappet end. The force transducer is attached in the area of the tappet end and has sensor electronics for wirelessly transmitting measurement data by means of near-field and far-field telemetry. |
| US08733179B2 |
Flow meter with digital temperature compensation
A flow meter is disclosed, which composes an operational amplifier, a digital potentiometer, a sensor coil, and fixed resistors R1, R2 and R3. One end of the coil is connected to the non-inverting input terminal of the amplifier, the other end is grounded. The R1 is connected between the non-inverting input terminal and the output terminal of the amplifier, the inverting input terminal of the amplifier is connected to one end of R2 and R3, the other end of R2 is connected to the output terminal of the amplifier, and the other end of R3 is grounded. The connecting end of R2 and the output terminal of the amplifier is connected to the high side of the potentiometer, the grounded end of R3 is connected to the low side of the potentiometer, and the inverting input terminal of the amplifier is also connected to the sliding end of the potentiometer. |
| US08733176B2 |
MEMS stress concentrating structure for MEMS sensors
A stress concentrating apparatus and a method for a MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) sensors is provided. The apparatus includes a plate having an inner region and outer region, the inner region being separated from the outer region by slits defined in the plate. A stress concentrator bridge connects the inner region to the outer region, and to mechanically amplify stress applied on the inner region of the plate. At least one stress sensor is operatively connected to the stress concentrator bridge, whereby the at least one stress sensor converts the mechanically amplified stress applied on the inner region into an electrical signal. |
| US08733172B2 |
Microelectromechanical gyroscope with rotary driving motion and improved electrical properties
An integrated microelectromechanical structure is provided with: a die, having a substrate and a frame, defining inside it a detection region and having a first side extending along a first axis; a driving mass, anchored to the substrate, set in the detection region, and designed to be rotated in a plane with a movement of actuation about a vertical axis; and a first pair and a second pair of first sensing masses, suspended inside the driving mass via elastic supporting elements so as to be fixed with respect thereto in the movement of actuation and so as to perform a detection movement of rotation out of the plane in response to a first angular velocity; wherein the first sensing masses of the first pair and the first sensing masses of the second pair are aligned in respective directions, having non-zero inclinations of opposite sign with respect to the first axis. |
| US08733166B2 |
Air flow measuring device
An air flow measuring device includes a passage forming housing, a sensor housing, and a sensor part. An inner wall surface of the passage forming housing defines a measured passage. The passage forming housing includes a sensor attaching part. Measured air flows through the measured passage. The sensor housing is attached to the sensor attaching part. The sensor part is disposed on the sensor housing and measures a flow rate of the measured air flowing through the passage. The passage forming housing includes a guiding device for guiding the measured air, which flows along the inner wall surface of the passage forming housing on an upstream side of the sensor attaching part in a measured air flow direction, further toward a center of the passage than the inner wall surface of the passage forming housing on a downstream side of the sensor attaching part in the flow direction. |
| US08733165B2 |
Sensor device for use in controlling irrigation
Methods and apparatus are provided herein for sensing rain fall for use in irrigation control. In one embodiment, a wireless rain sensor comprises a housing at least partially covering a first sensor, a controller and a wireless transmitter. The first sensor comprises a moisture absorptive material located to be contacted by rain fall and configured to expand in response to the contact with the rain fall and contract in response to an absence of the rain fall. The controller is coupled to the first sensor and configured to output signals corresponding to a variable amount of expansion and contraction of the moisture absorptive material. The wireless transmitter is configured to transmit wireless signals, at least one wireless signal comprising data corresponding to the variable amount of expansion and contraction of the moisture absorptive material. |
| US08733164B2 |
Wind turbine optical wind sensor
The invention comprises a wind turbine having an optical wind sensor 10. The optical wind sensor generates one or more multiple beams of light 42, each of which forms a sensor beam pointing along a sensor axis. Where more than one sensor beam is used the beams are arranged so that the different sensor axes lie at least partly orthogonal to each other, allowing the wind direction 40 to be detected for any direction of wind. Each multiple sensor beam comprises at least two individual sensor beams having different respective wavelengths of light. The different color of the individual light beams allows the sensor system to detect which of the light beams is triggered first when matter in the wind passes through the beam and reflects light back to light collecting device. |
| US08733162B2 |
Resonant flow sensor and uses and production methods for the same
The invention relates to a flow state sensor (10) for detecting a flow state at a body (16) that may be impinged on by a flow (12). A flow state sensor (10) that is of a simple construction and that is simple to evaluate is characterized in accordance with the invention by at least one frequency detecting device (20) for detecting at least one predefined frequency characteristic of the flow state. The frequency detecting device (20) has at least one oscillation element (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) excitable to resonant oscillatory movement (30) by a flow (12) and having a resonant frequency or natural frequency adapted to the predefined frequency characteristic, especially corresponding to the predefined frequency characteristic. Uses of the flow state sensor (10) in a flow measuring device (62) and in a flow measuring method, and an advantageous production method for the flow state sensor (10) are also proposed. |
| US08733161B1 |
Elastic tire valve cap holder
This invention solves the problem of what to do with the valve cap when it is removed from the valve while checking tire pressure. A cap holder elastic or rubbery projection on the pressure gauge is adapted to removably receive the cap. Caps have a standard internal female thread. The projection has ridges that increase the outside diameter to greater than the inside diameter of the threaded portion. The ridges as composed of a rubbery material that is so soft that they will bend without damage to the cap threads when the cap is pressed on to the projection. It will remain there securely while the operator is checking or adjusting the tire pressure. |
| US08733158B2 |
Method and device for determining the composition of a fuel mixture
A method for determining the composition of a fuel mixture consisting of a first fuel and a second fuel to operate an internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder pressure sensor for determining the cylinder pressure in at least one cylinder of the internal combustion engine. The calorific value of the fuel mixture or a characteristic variable correlating to said calorific value is determined from the cylinder pressure and the composition of the fuel mixture is determined from said calorific value or the characteristic variable correlating to said calorific value. |
| US08733157B2 |
Cylinder inner pressure detector for internal combustion engine
An cylinder inner pressure detector of an internal combustion engine includes: a reference voltage output circuit for outputting a reference voltage having a level, which is selected among multiple levels according to a switching signal; a level shift circuit for shifting a level of a sensor signal of an inner pressure sensor by a selected level of the reference voltage toward a signal potential side corresponding to a low pressure side of cylinder inner pressure; a first A/D converter circuit for converting the shifted sensor signal from an analog signal to a digital signal; and a controller for outputting the switching signal, which provides the reference voltage such that the reference voltage has the level on the signal potential side corresponding to the low pressure side from an offset voltage, and for detecting the cylinder inner pressure based on the digital signal output from the first A/D converter. |
| US08733156B2 |
PMC laminate embedded hypotube lattice
A gas turbine engine component such as a laminate airfoil having a static pressure transducer and having a plurality of structural fiber layers bonded with a polymer matrix composite. The transducer includes a lattice formed from a plurality of hypotubes aligned in a first direction and a plurality of reinforcing wires aligned substantially perpendicular to the hypotubes. The lattice is placed between at least some of the structural fiber layers prior to thermally processing into a cured polymer matrix laminate composite. |
| US08733154B2 |
Liquid analysis using capacitative micromachined ultrasound transducers
A method for analyzing liquid samples may comprise applying a liquid to a cMUT device having a plurality of sensors, drying the plurality of sensors, electronically detecting an agent bound to each of the plurality of sensors, wherein the electrical circuit provides a sensor output responsive to a mechanical resonance frequency of the sensor, wherein the mechanical resonance frequency of the sensor is responsive to the binding of an agent to the functionalized membrane, and determining the mass of the agent bound to each of the plurality of sensors. |
| US08733150B2 |
Column and method of evaluation of contaminated condition of gas
A gas adsorbing column filled with a filler composed of an adsorbent supported on a substrate having an average particle size or cross-sectional average diameter of 500 μm to 1000 μm, wherein the void volume of the column is 5 to 100 μl. |
| US08733148B2 |
Method for calibrating and/or adjusting a sensor, especially an electrochemical, electrophysical or optical sensor, and corresponding sensor
A method for calibrating and/or adjusting a sensor, especially an electrochemical, electrophysical or optical sensor, wherein the sensor has an evaluating electronics, which is embodied in such a manner, that a signal produced by the sensor is essentially non-changeable by a subsequent transmission. The sensor is calibrated and/or adjusted at a site other than a later measuring location or a later measuring environment or the like. |
| US08733145B1 |
Method of forming a pole and saddle
A method and apparatus for forming a pole with a wrap-around saddle includes making corresponding bends in the pole and saddle in the same motion. |
| US08733142B2 |
Process for manufacturing stamped products, and stamped products prepared from the same
The invention relates to a process for making a hot stamped coated steel sheet product, comprising the steps of pre-coating a steel strip or sheet with aluminum—or aluminum alloy, cutting said pre-coated steel strip or sheet to obtain a pre-coated steel blank, heating the blank in a furnace preheated to a temperature and during a time defined by diagram according to thickness, at a heating rate Vc between 20 and 700° C. comprised between 4 and 12° C./s and at a heating rate Vc′ between 500 and 700° C. comprised between 1.5 and 6° C./s, to obtain a heated blank; then transferring said heated blank to a die, hot stamping the heated blank in the die obtain a hot stamped steel sheet product, cooling at a mean rate Vr between the exit of the heated blank from the furnace, down to 400° C., of at least 30° C./s. |
| US08733140B2 |
Trailer theft deterrent device
Disclosed is a security device to prevent trailer theft that attaches to the lug thread of a wheel hub to prevent wheel rotation or wheel mounting. The device includes an outer cylinder, an inner cylinder, a locking lug nut that screws onto the lug thread, and a lug nut key. The outer and inner cylinders rotate around and extend beyond the locking lug nut, utilizing a design that defeats many common methods for removing wheel locks, or requires specific tools that create considerable noise and time to defeat. An optional security bar can be engaged by removing two lug nuts to prevent wheel rotation. Also disclosed is an embodiment that prevents wheel installation on a bare wheel hub. |
| US08733139B2 |
Vehicle door handle hardware assembly
The vehicle door hardware assembly includes exterior and interior housings each having a handle or paddle for opening the door. The outer housing includes a plunger which is normally extended, and can be retracted by either the exterior or interior handle when the door is unlocked. A deadbolt is also provided on the exterior housing. A main lock can be slid between locked and unlocked positions to preclude or allow movement of the paddle. A pair of key cylinders is provided on the exterior housing for actuating the deadbolt and the main lock. Power units can be connected to the lock and deadbolt via actuators. The deadbolt and lock are also movable by a pair of knobs on the inside housing. |
| US08733137B2 |
Washing machine
Provided is a washing machine. The washing machine includes an outer tub, an inner tub, and a pulsator. The pulsator includes a base and a plurality of ribs. The ribs include an upper surface and a side surface. The upper surface extends from the hub to an outer side along a radial direction to meet a circumference of the base. The side surface declines from the upper surface to the base. The side surface includes a first side surface and a second side surface. The first side surface has a boundary with an inner side of the base. The boundary radially diverges outward in a circumference direction. The second side surface extends from the first side surface along the circumference of the base and the upper surface. |
| US08733136B2 |
Washing machine
A washing machine has a water spray device to efficiently wet the laundry by spraying washing water to the laundry with uniform pressure. The washing machine includes an outer tub, and a water spray device installed at an upper portion of the outer tub to spray washing water. The water spray device includes a diffusion duct for diffusing the washing water around the outer tub and a spray member provided in the diffusion duct to spray the washing water into the outer tub. |
| US08733135B2 |
Method and device for wet treating laundry items
An inline washing system to be formed from a tunnel-type washing machine (10) which both rinses and removes water from the items of laundry. However, rinsing and simultaneously also water removal can also be performed in the downstream spin-dryer (18) or water-removal press. It has been found that the rinsing performance is better and fresh water can be saved on account of the invention. By virtue of the invention, it is possible to wash relatively small amounts of laundry using a tunnel-type washing machine (10) in an economical manner. The tunnel-type washing machine (10) can be designed to be shorter and also simpler if it is designed without a rinse zone. |
| US08733132B2 |
Laundry treatment appliance control system
A control system for a fabric treatment appliance configured to control the operation of the fabric treatment appliance as a function of a user-selected system input weighting. |
| US08733131B2 |
Apparatus and method for chemical deposition on a rod member in an optical fibre manufacturing process
An apparatus and method for chemical deposition on a rod member having a support structure for supporting the rod member substantially coaxial to a deposition axis; a burner for depositing chemical substances on the rod member; and a rotation device for imparting a rotation motion to the rod member. The rotation device has a joint member of a type suitable to transmit torque between two misaligned members, for example, a double universal joint or a flexible joint, positioned between a motor and a rod gripping member. |
| US08733129B2 |
Glass substrate for magnetic disk and manufacturing method thereof
The present invention provides a method for efficiently manufacturing a glass substrate for magnetic disk having good accuracy of a surface irregularity and an impact resistance. The method includes the steps of: performing press forming to molten glass to prepare a sheet glass material, the sheet glass material having a roughness of the principal surface of 0.01 μm or less and target flatness of a glass substrate for magnetic disk; chemically strengthening the sheet glass material by dipping the sheet glass material in a chemically strengthening salt, thereby preparing a disk substrate; polishing the principal surfaces of the disk substrate. A thickness of the sheet glass material prepared in the press forming step is larger than a target thickness of the glass substrate for magnetic disk by a polishing quantity of the principal surface polishing step. |
| US08733127B2 |
Silica container and method for producing the same
A method for producing a silica container, the method including forming a preliminarily molded silica substrate to an intended shape by feeding a powdered substrate's raw material (silica particles) to an inner wall of a carbon-made outer frame having aspiration holes with rotating the outer frame, and forming the silica substrate wherein the preliminarily molded substrate is degassed by aspiration from its outer peripheral side with charging from an inner peripheral side of the preliminarily molded silica substrate a reducing gas containing more than 10% by volume of an H2 gas, and at the same time heated from inside the preliminarily molded silica substrate by a discharge-heat melting method with carbon electrodes, thereby making an outer peripheral part of the preliminarily molded silica substrate to a sintered body while an inner peripheral part of the preliminarily molded silica substrate to a fused glass body. |
| US08733126B2 |
Vehicle air-conditioning apparatus
A vehicle air-conditioning apparatus, including: a refrigerant circulation channel that flows a refrigerant, the refrigerant circulation channel provided in a refrigeration cycle system including, as connected in a cyclic pattern, a compressor for the refrigerant, an outdoor heat-exchanger exchanging heat between the refrigerant and an outdoor air, an expansion valve reducing pressure of the refrigerant, and an air-conditioning heat-exchange circuit exchanging heat between the refrigerant and air to be introduced into a vehicle interior; and an equipment heat-exchange circuit connected in parallel to the circuit and exchanging heat between the refrigerant and in-vehicle equipment. The circuit includes a cooling heat-transfer medium circulation channel that circulates a heat-transfer medium for cooling. The cooling channel has a cooling heat-exchanger exchanging heat between the refrigerant in the channel and a cooling heat-transfer medium for cooling the in-vehicle equipment and a cooling circulation pump for circulating the cooling heat-transfer medium. |
| US08733121B2 |
Snow cone and slushy dispenser
A frozen treat dispenser (11) dispenses a snow cone and/or a slushy, and has at least an ice storage bin (14) for storing ice (10), a cup de-nesting mechanism (49) to separate a cup from a stack having a plurality of cups, an ice grinder (21) to grind ice from the ice storage bin to produce snow (82), a flavor dispenser (25), a cup transport mechanism (23) to move the cup to a first position (40A) whereby the ice grinder can at least partially fill the cup with the snow and to a second position (40B) whereby the flavor dispenser can dispense at least one flavor onto the snow in the cup, and a processor (152) to control the operation of at least one of the cup de-nesting mechanism, the ice grinder, the flavor dispenser, or the indexer. |
| US08733120B2 |
Air-conditioning apparatus
An air-conditioning apparatus that that is capable of saving energy is provided. An air-conditioning apparatus includes a refrigerant indoor unit that air-conditions a conditioned space by using a heat source side refrigerant supplied from an outdoor unit, and a heat medium indoor unit that air-conditions a conditioned space by using a heat medium different from the heat source side refrigerant. The air-conditioning apparatus includes a first heat medium relay unit that is supplied with the heat source side refrigerant from the outdoor unit, a third heat medium relay unit interposed between the first heat medium relay unit and the refrigerant indoor unit, and a third heat medium relay unit interposed between the first heat medium relay unit and the heat medium indoor unit. |
| US08733119B2 |
Air conditioning equipment, signal transmission method, and signal transmission method for air conditioning equipment
An air conditioning equipment having an in-room unit connected to one end of the refrigerant pipes and an out-room unit connected to the other end of the refrigerant pipes. The air conditioning equipment includes signal coupling portions which are respectively disposed at both end parts of the refrigerant pipes. Each of the signal coupling portions couples an alternating current (AC) control signal to the refrigerant pipes and exhibits a predetermined impedance with respect to an AC electric signal. The configuration of the air conditioning equipment brings forth the advantages that the electrical insulation devices used in the prior art are dispensed with, and the signal transmissions between the in-room unit and the out-room unit can be performed by a simple apparatus configuration. |
| US08733115B2 |
Method for controlling freezing capacity of a variable-frequency freezing AC ice-water system
A method for controlling freezing capacity of a variable-frequency freezing AC ice-water system separates the freezing capacity of each individual requirement end so as to reduce sudden or peak concentrating freezing demand and relieve variable-frequency load demand, and defines operating procedures corresponding to different requirement ends, respectively, wherein each of the operating procedures has a corresponding high-low temperature range that can be used as a temperature buffer zone so as to redistribute supply of the freezing capacity to each requirement end, thereby allowing the compressors thereof to operate smoothly and thus achieve energy saving as a result. The drawbacks of damaged pipelines are overcome that cause deficiency in freezing capacity as encountered in prior techniques. |
| US08733111B2 |
Cooling hole with asymmetric diffuser
A gas turbine engine component includes a wall having first and second wall surfaces and a cooling hole extending through the wall. The cooling hole includes an inlet located at the first wall surface, an outlet located at the second wall surface, a metering section extending downstream from the inlet and a diffusing section extending from the metering section to the outlet. The diffusing section includes a first lobe diverging longitudinally from the metering section and a second lobe adjacent the first lobe and diverging longitudinally and laterally from the metering section. |
| US08733108B2 |
Combustor and combustor screech mitigation methods
The present application provides for a combustor for use with a gas turbine engine. The combustor may include a cap member and a number of fuel nozzles extending through the cap member. One or more of the fuel nozzles may be provided in a non-flush position with respect to the cap member. |
| US08733106B2 |
Fuel injector and support plate
An integrated plate is provided for use with a combustor including a casing, a fuel plenum extending circumferentially about the casing, and a fuel nozzle extending axially through the casing. The integrated plate includes a plurality of fuel injection pegs that extend radially between the fuel plenum and the fuel nozzle. |
| US08733097B2 |
Multi-stage actuation for an active materials-based actuator
A mechanical system for selectively moving a load a motive distance comprises an actuator operable for applying a force to the load. The actuator includes an active material element having a variable property. A controller is connected to the actuator and operable for sending a first stimulus to the actuator to shift the actuator from a first state to a second state. The second state is associated with detecting the onset of actuation for the actuator. The controller is operable to send the priming stimulus level to the actuator to shift it to the primed state. The actuator includes a priming device operable for determining the onset of actuation of the first active material element. |
| US08733095B2 |
Systems and methods for efficient pumping of high-pressure fluids for energy
In various embodiments, a mechanical assembly and/or storage vessel is fluidly coupled to a circulation apparatus for receiving pressurized heat-transfer fluid from an outlet at a first elevated pressure, boosting a pressure of the heat-transfer fluid to a second pressure larger than the first pressure, and returning heat-transfer fluid to an inlet at a third pressure. |
| US08733090B2 |
Methods and systems for subsea electric piezopumps
In at least some embodiments, an apparatus includes a hydraulic directional control manifold and a plurality of electric piezopumps. The apparatus also includes an electric piezopump controller that operates the plurality of electric piezopumps in varying combinations to provide generation and directional control of hydraulic power to linear hydraulic actuators using localized closed-loop hydraulic fluid. |
| US08733088B2 |
Exhaust manifold system and collar coolant jacket
An exhaust manifold of a turbocharged engine includes a collar coolant jacket to maintain component temperatures within acceptable limits. The collar coolant jacket is specifically located around the exhaust outlet of the manifold. |
| US08733087B2 |
Liquid drain system
A drain system and method for draining a first liquid, including a collection vessel having a first chamber arranged to receive the first liquid, a second chamber, and higher and lower valves positioned between the first and second chambers. When the valves are open, liquids can pass between the chambers. When the pressure in the second chamber exceeds that in the first chamber by more than a first predetermined amount, the valves are closed. A first outlet to the second chamber allows liquids to flow from the second chamber. In a first mode, the first inlet supplies a second liquid at a pressure higher than that of the first liquid in the first chamber such that the valves are closed. In a second mode, the first inlet stops supplying the second liquid such that the pressure in the second chamber reduces relative to the first chamber allowing the valves open. |
| US08733086B2 |
Tail trim assembly for exhaust pipe in vehicle
A tail trim assembly for an exhaust pipe in a vehicle which may be mounted at a rear portion of the exhaust pipe that may be formed at an end of a vehicle muffler and discharges exhaust gas and condensed water from the muffler to the outside, may include a main body fitted around the rear portion of the exhaust pipe, at least a welding part formed at an end of the main body and welded to the exhaust pipe, and a collecting part formed at a rear end of the main body, wherein the rear end of the main body and a rear end of the rear portion in the exhaust pipe may be spaced with a predetermined gap to collect the condensed water discharged from the exhaust pipe therethrough. |
| US08733080B2 |
Thrust reverser and VAFN arrangement
An actuator arrangement comprises an actuator having a rotatable drive input, a motor, and a drive transmission arrangement for transmitting rotary drive from the motor to the rotatable drive input of the actuator, wherein the transmission arrangement includes a telescopic drive coupling. |
| US08733079B2 |
Electric thruster for a spacecraft
The invention relates to an electric thruster for a spacecraft. According to the invention, the thruster (II) comprises a jet generating portion (G1) and a jet accelerating portion (A2), pivotably connected (H1) such that the jet accelerating portion (A2) can rotate in relation to the jet generating portion (G1). |
| US08733073B2 |
System and apparatus for cutting, windrowing, and baling material in a single pass
A system for cutting, windrowing, and baling material in a single pass. The system has a tractor, a windrower for windrowing material, a baler for baling material that passes through the windrower, a conveying assembly attached to an outlet opening of the windrower, and a connecting assembly for connecting the tractor, the windrower, and the baler. The conveying assembly moves material from the outlet opening of the windrower toward an inlet of the baler. |
| US08733072B2 |
Starter system for an engine
A lawn mower includes an internal combustion engine, an electric motor configured to start the internal combustion engine, and a blade driven by the internal combustion engine. The lawn mower further includes an assembly for stopping at least one of the blade and the internal combustion engine. The assembly includes a brake mechanism, a release mechanism, a linkage between the brake mechanism and the release mechanism. The assembly further includes an interlock configured to prevent the release mechanism from releasing the brake mechanism, and an interface allowing an operator to release the interlock. The electric motor is coupled to the assembly such that release of the brake mechanism automatically engages the electric motor to start the internal combustion engine. |
| US08733071B2 |
Packaging and de-packaging methods using shape memory polymers
A method disclosed herein includes packaging and de-packaging a part. The part is packaged by placing the part adjacent to a shape memory polymer (SMP) while the SMP is in a permanent shape. The SMP is heated to a temperature above a switching temperature of the SMP, and a force is applied to the heated SMP such that it conforms to i) a shape of the part and/or ii) a desired shape for packing the part, thereby changing the SMP from the permanent shape into a temporary shape. The SMP is cooled to a temperature below the switching temperature to set the SMP into the temporary shape. The part is de-packaged by heating the SMP to a temperature above its switching temperature, thereby reverting the SMP from the temporary shape into the permanent shape and releasing the part. The part is removed from the SMP in the permanent shape. |
| US08733069B2 |
Multi-pack packaging system
Methods and apparatus for combining units from among a plurality of packages are disclosed. In some embodiments, units are combined from a plurality of single-variety packages to provide one or more variety packs. For example, a plurality of single-variety packages arranged in repeating order of variety can be provided. The single-variety packages being so arranged can define at least two lanes extending among the plurality of single-variety packages. At least one single-variety group of units can be selected from at least one of the plurality of single-variety packages. Each of the selected at least one single-variety group of units can be positioned in one of the lanes. The selected at least one single-variety group of units can be repositioned to another package and within the one of the lanes. |
| US08733068B2 |
Wrapping device
A device for wrapping an article, the device comprising a first feeder for a first sheet of plastics film, a second feeder for a second sheet of plastics film, a carriage for positioning the article between the first and second sheets of plastics film and a sealing mechanism for sealing the first and second sheets of plastics film together adjacent the periphery of the article. |
| US08733065B2 |
Mechanical locking system for floor panels
Floor panels are provided with a mechanical locking system having small local protrusions which reduce displacement along the joint when the panels are laying flat on the sub floor and locked vertically and horizontally. |
| US08733064B2 |
Ventilation baffle and insulation stop
A baffle for use in an attic is installed between adjacent roof rafters to substantially block the flow of ventilating air through an opening located between the top surface of the wall plate and the underside of the roof deck. The baffle is formed from extruded cellular plastics material which is cut to define two parallel grooves by cutting through the first wall to define first and second side flaps hingedly connected to the rectangular panel by bending said sheet at said grooves for attaching the side flaps to the inner face of said roof rafters. The first and second grooves are formed in the sheet at right angles to the webs so that the grooves cut through the first sheet also cut at least partly through the webs. |
| US08733060B2 |
Directional grate access floor panel
A grate access floor panel comprising a support frame and a plurality of vanes supported by the frame, each of the plurality of vanes having an upstream end and a downstream end with respect to a direction of airflow across the plurality of vanes and faces that extend between the upstream and downstream ends, wherein at least some of the vanes have openings that extend through the faces thereof and have angled tips. |
| US08733059B1 |
Plank assembly for use in an attic
A plank assembly for use in an attic safely supports an individual on an attic surface whether moving across or remaining stationary on the surface. The assembly includes a plank having a top surface opposite a bottom surface and a perimeter edge extending between the top and bottom surfaces. The plank is configured for coupling to a pair of joists supporting an attic when a top side of the joists abuts the bottom surface of the plank. A pair of extensions is coupled to the plank. Each of the extensions is coupled to opposite ends of the perimeter edge. Each of the extensions is slanted downwardly relative to the top surface of the plank. An inner side of each of the extensions is configured for positioning above an outer side of an associated one of the joists. |
| US08733053B2 |
System and method for a supported architectural design
A system and method for a supported architectural design. A plurality of primary supports configured to couple with one or more architectural structures. A plurality of flexible fins, where at least one of the plurality of flexible fins includes an inner edge and an outer edge, where the inner edge includes a plurality of attachment points. A plurality of secondary supports configured to couple with the plurality of primary supports, where at least one of the secondary supports includes a plurality of fin slots configured to couple with the plurality of attachment points. |
| US08733045B2 |
Base support for wind-driven power generators
Disclosed are apparatus and corresponding methodology for providing a base support, such as including concrete, and used such as for a wind-driven generator. Precast concrete cylinders are stacked in place upon a platform that may be partially precast and partially cast in place during assembly and supported, in certain embodiments, by plural concrete legs, the other ends of which are supported on a unitary or subdivided concrete foundation. In other embodiments, the platform may be supported by ribbed concrete panels. The concrete cylinders are glued together using an epoxy and then secured by an internal vertical post tension system extending from the platform to the upper most cylinder. Different types of concrete are used between upper and lower sections of the stacked cylinders. The lower section uses reinforced concrete while the upper section used ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete. |
| US08733043B1 |
Corner block building trim
A trim piece for attachment to either an outside or an inside corner of a building for subsequently receiving and hiding the ends of a frieze board or siding panels, thereby providing a neat, smooth corner transition. Two inner flat surfaces converge at right angles to form a primary inner corner for abutting conformance with the building corner, and two outer trim elements defining respective two outer flat decorative surfaces converge at right angles to form an outer corner. Two mounting flanges extend in parallel with the respective inner flat surfaces, and are spaced parallel to and extend laterally beyond a respective outer trim element. The flanges and outer trim elements form a pair of vertical slots for receiving a frieze board or at least one siding panel. |
| US08733041B2 |
Window insert system and associated methods
A window insert system that advantageously provides a high strength mounting system for windows to be positioned within an opening is provided. The window insert system for mounting the window into a an opening formed in a door or other structural element includes a mounting channel connected to a door or other structural element, a window rail to overlie the mounting channel and support a window therein, and a window securing member to engage a portion of the window rail to secure the window. The window rail may include an outer surface portion, an inner sidewall, an exterior sidewall, and a window carrying member. The window may be positioned between the window carrying member and the window securing member. |
| US08733036B2 |
Solar panel assemblies
A solar panel module comprises a photovoltaic panel supported on a frame for location on a supporting surface. The frame comprises two generally parallel side walls which taper upwardly from a nose section to a rear section of the frame to provide support for the photovoltaic panel above the roof surface. The frame further comprises connections for attaching it to adjoining frames of the solar panel assembly. The rear section has a curvilinear surface which terminates in a step which extends between the side walls of the frame and is formed in its riser with at least one opening which places the interior of the frame rear section in communication with the external atmosphere. A partition wall is provided which, when the frame is positioned on a supporting surface, extends either downwardly from the step towards the supporting surface or lengthwise of the frame from the step towards the nose section to define with the two side walls (or parts thereof) a space which is closed to the external atmosphere other than through the at least one opening. |
| US08733031B2 |
Attachment member and support structure for supporting a structural building component
An attachment member for securing a structural building component (e.g., joist) to a support pedestal of an elevated building surface assembly. The attachment member includes a central portion and at least one joist support arm attached to the central portion. The central portion includes one or more features that allow it to be secured to a support pedestal, and the at least one support arm includes engagement flaps that can be attached to a structural building component to secure the structural building component to the attachment members, and hence to the support pedestal. |
| US08733030B2 |
Roofing corbel
A soffit enclosure for building roofs and the like of the type having at least one eave with a soffit thereunder. A first mounting member is attached to an adjacent exterior wall of the building and a second mounting member is disposed on a roof fascia of the building. The first and second mounting members support a plurality of soffit panels thereon. A decorative corbel member has a generally flat upper mounting portion with opposite end edges, a decorative lower portion shaped to enhance the appearance of the eave of the building, and first and second rigid hanger tabs disposed above and generally parallel with the mounting portion. The hanger tabs project longitudinally from the opposite end edges of the upper mounting portion and are configured for sequentially inserting into the first and second mounting members. The corbel member overlies adjacent soffit panel to conceal a joint disposed therebetween. |
| US08733029B2 |
Modular prefabricated house
A prefabricated house including two or more modules including a core module having a fixed space portion and a passive space portion. The fixed space portion includes non-foldable walls. The fixed space portion has a functionality beyond providing volume. The passive space portion has one or more foldable panels. Each foldable panel is movable from a first, closed position to second open position. |
| US08733026B1 |
Door assembly
A door assembly is provided which comprises a stationary frame and a movable frame, wherein the door assembly further comprises an adjusting assembly for fixing and adjusting the movable frame. The adjusting assembly comprises a fixing element disposed at one end of the fixing frame and including an engagement element on which a first groove is formed, an adjusting element disposed at one end of the movable frame and including a first through hole corresponding to the first groove and a cavity for receiving the engagement element, and a locking member comprising a handle portion and a rotation portion which can go through the first through hole such that at least one part of the rotation portion can reach in the first groove. |
| US08733024B2 |
Flexible door with rigid insulation
A door system comprises a door panel, a support member, and a pivoting vertical plate. The door panel comprises a plurality of discrete rigid insulation pieces interposed between flexible layers. An outer skin encompasses the rigid insulation pieces and the flexible layers. The door panel is secured to the support member by the outer skin, such that the outer skin bears the weight of the door panel. The vertical plate is secured to a trailing side of the door panel. The vertical plate includes keepers that selectively engage hooks extending from a casing positioned at a doorway. The rigidity of the door panel depends on the pivotal position of the vertical plate relative to a plane defined by the door panel. The door panel provides sufficient flexibility to withstand impacts from objects and vehicles yet also provides sufficient rigidity to insulate a cold environment from a warm environment. |
| US08733023B2 |
Door arrangement and guide of a door
Door arrangement, more particularly a sliding door arrangement of an automatic door of an elevator or of a building, which comprises a door panel, and a guide arrangement for controlling the path of movement of the door panel, which guide arrangement comprises at least one guide connected to the aforementioned door panel, and a guide rail, closely along which the aforementioned guide is arranged to move, and from which guide rail the guide takes lateral support force with respect to the longitudinal direction of the guide rail. The guide comprises a first guide roll for taking the support force from the guide surface of the guide rail on the side of a first side of the guide, and a second guide roll for taking support force from the guide surface of the guide rail on the side of a second side of the guide. |
| US08733016B2 |
Method of wrapping a floral grouping
A substantially shape-sustaining sheet of material having a substantially circular shape may be formed into a substantially frusto-conical shaped bouquet holder in which a floral grouping may be disposed. |
| US08733012B2 |
Lure fishing assembly with weighted wireform
A fishing lure assembly is disclosed which comprises a blade free to oscillate, yaw and produce a trailing wake as the fishing lure assembly is displaced through water. A weight is affixed to the fishing lure assembly, but affixed to an associated wireform where it is inferiorly disposed relative to the blade such that the blade is free to oscillate and have side-to-side action, substantially unaffected by mass and inertia of the weight. The fishing lure may be variably constructed to include one or more hooks and artificial or natural soft bait and hard bait bodies which are disposed to follow behind the trailing wake of the blade. A compound lure is disclosed wherein the weight is replaced by a jig hook. |
| US08733005B2 |
Display device, kit and assembly
A keepsake display device stores and displays a printed ultrasound image, and includes a substantially transparent convex hollow first member with a substantially closed smooth outer surface, a second member coupled to the first member to define a substantially closed outer surface for the device, and a display element adapted to receive the printed ultrasound image and display it through the outer surface of the first member. The first and second members can be shaped to mimic a pregnant belly and a woman's buttocks, together representing the midsection of a pregnant woman. A kit includes the display device plus one or more of a lamination member, a real or plastic birthstone or a set of real or plastic birthstones, a template useful for cutting the ultrasound image, and glue. An assembly includes the display device and a figurine such a stork which can hold the display device from its beak. |
| US08733002B2 |
Recipient verification system and methods of use, including recipient identification
A recipient verification system including a band to be worn by a patient or other recipient that allows for placement of a hospital's own identification label, which is then protected from damage, an area for a permanent label, which can then be associated with the hospital label, a series of removable labels that remain with the patient, a test tube label, and a tail of labels to be removed from the band at the time of application to the patient to ensure a sufficient supply of labels. Each of the permanent label, the removable labels, the test tube label, and the tail are encoded with identical identification information. The band and label strip are separately formed from desired materials and then assembled. |
| US08732999B1 |
Method and apparatus for mounting banner
Method and apparatus for mounting a pair of banners between upright members wherein the banners includes a flexing mechanism so that the banners can withstand high wind situations. Upper, intermediate and lower collars are mounted onto the upright members so that the intermediate collar can slide up and down along the column to allow the banner to flex. Each collar has a pair of cylindrical receptacles for receiving horizontal members so that upper, intermediate and lower horizontal members are provided so that the intermediate horizontal member slides up and down along the members in high wind situations. Elastic members connecting the intermediate and lower horizontal members stretch in high wind situations to allow the banners to flex. |
| US08732991B2 |
Cutter head for dredging ground and use of this cutter head for dredging ground
The invention relates to a cutter head (10) for dredging ground under water, this cutter head being suitable for attachment rotatably around a central axis to the ladder (2) of a cutter suction dredger (1) and for being moved through the ground (9) therewith in a lateral sweeping movement, the cutter head comprising a base ring (13), a hub (14) situated at a distance in the direction of the central axis from the base ring, and a plurality of arms (15) extending from the base ring to the hub, wherein a passage opening (16) is located between arms and wherein the arms are provided with a first series of cutting tools on a leading part (15a) relative to the direction of rotation of the cutter head, and wherein at least one arm is provided with a second series of cutting tools on a part of the arm (15b) facing away from the central axis. |
| US08732990B1 |
Wing lock for side-mounted snow plow
The wing lock is a safety mechanism for a snow plow blade and is engaged when the plow blade is not in use. The safety mechanism is primarily a pin and tongue assembly which is actuated by an air, electric, or hydraulic cylinder tied to the truck on which the plow is mounted. The pin is protected by a collar and sleeve which are disposed below the actuator cylinder. The tongue is affixed on the support arm of the plow wing so that when the support arm is raised the tongue slides into a receiving position for the pin. The pin drops through the tongue to lock the blade. For use, the safety mechanism is activated or deactivated from the truck cabin by a lighted, electrical switch which sends a signal to the actuator to deploy or retract the pin so that the plow may be locked or unlocked. |
| US08732989B1 |
Snowplow wheel kit
The present snowplow wheel kit converts a standard snowplow for use on unimproved surfaces. The snowplow wheel kit is designed to support the weight of the snowplow blade on swiveling wheel assemblies which are mounted to the rear of the snowplow blade and have the ability to turn in all directions. The tires ride on top of the unimproved surface, allowing the edge of the snowplow blade to travel just above the ground surface, thus removing the snow without the blade coming in direct contact with the soft underlying surface. The swivel feature of the wheel assemblies allows the blade to travel over the surface smoothly while maintaining the desired height of the blade edge from the surface. In addition, this feature allows for the plow blade to be fully functional when back-plowing, using the rear of the plow blade to drag snow while the vehicle is moving rearward. |
| US08732988B2 |
Implement with linkage assembly and work assembly wherein work assembly has dynamic skid shoe and a scraping edge
An implement including a work assembly for clearing materials on a ground, the work assembly including an edge and at least one dynamic skid shoe. The implement may have a pair of dynamic skid shoes. The dynamic skid shoe includes a surface contact component for contacting a street surface, a dynamic component operably connected to the surface contact component for providing vertical movement of the surface contact component, and a hydraulic fluid circuit including a pressure providing component fluidily connected to the dynamic component. The implement includes a linkage assembly, wherein the linkage assembly and the dynamic skid shoe operate to provide the edge to be elevated above the ground surface in order to pass over an obstruction encountered by the edge even on uneven surfaces. |
| US08732985B2 |
Shoe with breathable sole
Sole (100; 200; 300; 400) comprising a support layer (101; 201; 301; 401) having at least one region (103; 203; 303; 403) which allows the passage of air through said layer (101; 201; 301; 401), characterized in that it comprises one or more reinforcing elements (111; 211, 311; 411) joined to one side of said layer (101; 201; 301; 401) in said at least one region (103; 203; 303, 403) and perforated with through-openings (113; 213; 313; 413) for evacuating the air which passes through said region; and a membrane (117; 290, 390; 417) made of material which is waterproof and vapor-permeable, situated above said at least one region (103; 203; 303, 403) on the side of said layer (101; 201; 301, 401) opposite to said elements (111; 211, 311; 411) and sealed with said layer (101; 201; 301; 401) at least along one contour (115; 215; 305) around said at least one region (103; 203; 303; 403). |
| US08732983B2 |
Shoes, devices for shoes, and methods of using shoes
A shoe includes a first plate and a second plate that are located in a forefoot portion of the shoe between an upper and an outsole of the shoe, and one or more springs for biasing the first plate and the second plate apart from each other. A device for a shoe includes a first plate and a second plate that are installable in a forefoot portion of the shoe, and an energy return member positioned between the first plate and the second plate. A method of using a shoe includes applying, with a foot, a force on at least one of two plates that is positioned in a forefoot portion of a shoe, so as to move the two plates together and increase a loading of a spring, and launching the foot due to the two plates being moved apart by the spring as the foot is being lifted. |
| US08732982B2 |
Footwear
A footwear sole assembly that includes a sole body defining voids of different depths. The voids are arranged to provide relatively greater cushioning and bendability within at least one of a metatarsus portion and a calcaneus portion of the sole body. A heel top surface of the footwear sole assembly is elevated between about 4 mm and about 12 mm above a forefoot top surface of the footwear sole assembly. |
| US08732981B2 |
Eccentric toe-off cam lever
A sole system which allows plantarflexion and dorsiflexion in the running/walking gait; provides a mechanical advantage through articulation of the forefoot to stimulate an upward plantar moment force during toe-off; and increases the distance per step without altering the stride pattern. An embodiment of the current invention has an eccentric toe-off cam lever (“cam lever”) integrated into the midsole of a shoe. The cam lever of the embodiment includes: a distal longitudinally extending cam element; a forefoot fulcrum element; and a rear longitudinally extending cam element. |
| US08732979B2 |
Variable airflow in laundry dryer having variable air inlet
A laundry treating appliance and a method for operating the appliance to supply air into a treating chamber through an air inlet and controlling the supplied air by varying the effective area of the air inlet. |
| US08732978B2 |
Drying silicon particles and recovering solvent
Apparatus to dry milled silicon particles has solvent spray nozzles, solvent drainage, gas inlet, and gas exhaust. This drying can occur, for example, following an acid etch and a deionized water rinse. The drying apparatus is an enclosed system with a lid that contains a solvent feeding tube and exhaust ventilation. This enclosed system design creates an effective low temperature drying system in an inert atmosphere. The apparatus can handle a variety of different particle sizes, inhibits the growth of surface oxides on the particles by using lower temperatures, and allows reuse of solvent. |
| US08732977B2 |
Method of producing structural components having improved toughness
A method of producing a structural component comprising manufacturing a structural component from a moisture absorbable material the toughness of which increases with increasing moisture absorption and subsequently subjecting the structural component to at least one of elevated temperature and humidity for a period of time such that the structural component attains a predetermined moisture content and distribution. |
| US08732968B2 |
Apparatus for measuring geologic strike and dip
An apparatus for measuring geologic strike and dip of a formation. The apparatus includes a support plate, a first rotation plate disposed on the support plate and parallel to the support plate, the first rotation plate being rotatable parallel to the support plate, a second rotation plate hinge-coupled to the first rotation plate, the second rotation plate being rotatable about a hinge shaft, a protractor configured to read an angle between the first rotation plate and the second rotation plate; and a measuring unit including a compass disposed on the second rotation plate. |
| US08732960B2 |
Floral scissors assembly
An improved floral scissors assembly includes a clamping jaw extended from a top end of a first handle, a blade, a second handle pivotally coupled to the bottom of the clamping jaw, a long hole formed on the blade, plural stop protrusions formed in the long hole, and a link rod installed between the second handle and the blade. The link rod has an end extended into the long hole by a stop pin and the other end coupled to a switching mechanism including a slice member and a stop portion. The stop portion is situated at an upper or lower fixed position. An active end of the link rod is switchably limited by the stop portion at the upper or lower fixed position, and the stop pin is moved in an opposite direction of the active end and between the upper and lower ends in the long hole. |
| US08732957B2 |
Retractile-blade utility knife
A knife has a housing, an operating part shiftable on the housing between advanced and retracted positions, and a blade holder connected to the part and carrying a blade. The holder is shiftable on the part between offset first and second cutting positions with the blade projecting from the front end and a safety position with the blade recessed in the housing rearward of the front end. A spring biases the holder into the safety position. A brace element can shift between a position braced between the blade holder and the housing in the first cutting position and a position out of engagement with the blade holder or the housing in the second cutting position. The brace element when engaged holds the blade in the first cutting position but in the second cutting position is disengaged so the spring returns the holder to the safety position. |
| US08732953B2 |
Assembling panels edge to edge
A method of edge to edge assembly of panels. The method generally includes performing male and female matching cuts on the panel edges to be assembled next to each other, and assembling the panels edge to edge so that the male protuberances of one panel are inserted in the matching female cavities of the second panel, and vice-versa. Such method is applicable to aircraft and automobile manufacturing for the assembly of thin structures, primary or secondary, such as fuselage panels, airfoils, cabin and cockpit paneling, etc., and can be used for metallic as well as composite panels. |
| US08732948B2 |
Method of manufacturing impeller for centrifugal blower
A resinous blade-supporting rotator is prepared to rotate around a rotational axis. The blade-supporting rotator has rotator weld parts including rotator weld surfaces formed on one side surface in the axial direction. A plurality of resinous blades are disposed annularly around the axis. The plurality of resinous blades have hollow spaces formed in the blade interiors, and blade weld parts with blade weld surfaces. The blade weld surfaces and the rotator weld surfaces are inclined with respect to each other when facing each other in the axial direction. An axial pressure load is applied to opposite axial ends of the blade-supporting rotator so as to compress the blades in the axial direction such that the blade weld surfaces and the rotator weld surfaces are no longer inclined with respect to each other. The blade weld surfaces are fixed to the rotator weld surfaces by laser welding. |
| US08732944B2 |
Method of fabricating a stimulation lead for delivering electrical pulses to tissue of a patient
In one embodiment, a method of fabricating stimulation leads, the method comprises: providing a spool of polymer film; providing a plurality of payout carriers of wires; drawing the polymer film from the spool and the wires from the plurality of payout carriers over a rotating drum, wherein the drum comprises a plurality of grooves over an outer circumferential surface of the drum for directing the wires from the plurality of payout carriers, wherein a distance of each groove from an edge of the drum is varied about the circumference of the drum; bonding the wires to the polymer film while performing the drawing to form an intermediate assembly comprising the polymer film as a carrier with the bonded wires in a repeating pattern along a length of the intermediate assembly. |
| US08732943B2 |
Method of forming a liner for an appliance
A liner for an appliance is formed by a plastic sheet formed into a three dimensional shape corresponding to at least a portion of a compartment of the appliance. A plurality of electrically conductive ink pathways are applied on a surface of the plastic sheet, and a sealer material is applied to the plastic sheet to cover said pathways |
| US08732939B2 |
Method of manufacturing an electronic component
An electronic component capable of preventing the occurrence of magnetic saturation due to a magnetic flux surrounding each coil conductor and a method of manufacturing the electronic component are provided. The electronic component includes a laminate formed by stacking unit layers, where each unit layer includes a first insulating layer, and a coil conductor and second insulating layer formed on the first insulating layer. Each second insulating layer has a Ni content greater than a Ni content of each first insulating layer. Portions of the first insulating layers have a Ni content lower than a Ni content of the second portions after the laminate is calcined. |
| US08732938B2 |
Method of packaging a sensor
An improved method of packaging a sensor is provided. The method includes the step of affixing a tuning fork to a platform. The tuning fork includes tines comprising one or more surfaces, with each tine further comprising an electrode and a piezoelectric material. An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is affixed to the platform. Electrical communication between the ASIC and the electrode of each tine is established for providing stimulus to the tuning fork and for receiving a response signal from the tuning fork. A protective layer is applied to cover the platform and a portion of the tuning fork while maintaining a portion of a surface of each tine free from the protective layer such that the surface can displace the fluid in contact therewith. |
| US08732934B2 |
Connector
A connector comprises a male component, a female component configured to receive an end portion of the male component, and a rotatable collet mounted on the male component. The collet and the female component comprise respective complementary inter-engaging lugs configured to secure the male and female components together in an engaged position. A latch is provided on the collet to lock the male and female components together. |
| US08732933B2 |
Releasable basket and method of making thereof
A medical retrieval device includes a basket formed of two or more loops. The basket may be used to retrieve material (e.g., a urinary stone) from a body. The basket opens and closes for end-encapsulation of a stone and is strengthened by support members that interconnect the basket loops. A captured stone may be released from the basket with the basket still in the body by opening the loops. |
| US08732930B1 |
Fully knock-down drum fan
Methods, devices, systems and apparatus of fully knock-down drum fans that can be shipped completely unassembled so that the smallest packaging results in more units per container and lower shipping costs Drum fan design utilizes modular components that can be assembled quickly and easily by the distributor or the end user. Drum fan can include identical shroud curved members, with same number of pie shaped front grill members, and same number of pie shaped rear grill members, and other modular components that are easy to nest, pack, store and ship with one another. The knock-down fan is easy to re-assemble, and can be applied to any size drum fan from approximately 24″, 36″, and 42″ to approximately 60″ in diameter. |
| US08732928B1 |
System and method for repairing a counterbalance spring in an overhead rolling door assembly
A system and method for supporting and rotating an axle of an overhead rolling door assembly while replacing a counterbalance spring. A support stand is provided. The support stand is positioned under the overhead door assembly. The overhead door assembly is disassembled enough to expose its main axle. The support stand is adjusted in height to engage the main axle so that the support stand holds the main axle at an elevated position. The broken counterbalance spring is replaced. The main axle is the reinstalled into the overhead door assembly. A pulley wheel is then attached to the main axle. The pulley wheel is turned by winding a cable around the pulley wheel and then unwinding the cable with a winch. This rotates the main axle with the torque needed to properly pre-tension the replacement spring. |
| US08732927B2 |
Method for adjusting torsional frequency of a power train
A load coupling device for a power train including: a rotatable shaft; a first flange on a first end of the shaft, wherein the first flange is adapted to couple to a first rotating shaft of at a torque producing turbine or a torque driven electrical generator; a second flange on an opposite end of the shaft, wherein the shaft is adapted to couple to a second rotating shaft of the other of the turbine and the generator, and an annular ring extending radially outward from the first flange, wherein the mass of the annular ring is selected to shift a torsional natural frequency of the power train away from an operational condition of the power train. Trim masses may be added to make fine adjustments to the torsional natural frequency of the power train. |
| US08732926B2 |
Method for assembling a pneumatic booster
A device (100) for assembling a pneumatic booster (200). A cover (203) of the booster is housed in a support (101). A cylindrical cap (104) whose internal volume (107) is greater than a volume of a cylinder (206) of the booster, covers the cylinder placed on the cover. A gearing element (110) of the device rotates two sets of rollers (109A and 109B) about the booster. An eccentric (118) controlled by the gearing element allows an oscillating movement of the rollers against a wall of the booster. The swaging is achieved by alternately applying the rollers (109A) and (109B). An angle of attack (114A) of the first rollers is greater than an angle of attack (114B) of the second rollers. The invention also relates to a method of swaging a booster and such a booster. |
| US08732921B2 |
Method for manufacturing piezoelectric actuator
A method for manufacturing a piezoelectric actuator is disclosed that includes forming a vibration plate, forming a plurality of electrodes on the vibration plate, forming a piezoelectric layer on the electrodes, and forming a common electrode on the piezoelectric layer. |
| US08732917B2 |
Standing seam roof clamp
A clamp for attaching solar panel grids to standing seam roof structures. The clamp includes opposing clamp halves having inter-engageable projections and recesses. One or more fasteners engage the halves to draw them together. A first set of recesses on one clamp half receives a first set of projections on the other half. A second set of recesses on the other clamp half receives a second set of projections. When loose, the first set of projections engage the first set of recesses like a detent, while the second set of projections are spaced apart from the second set of recesses to enable the clamp to be slid down onto the vertical seam of a standing seam roof. Tightening the fasteners causes the second set of projections to deform the seam into the second set of recesses, fixing the clamp to the seam. |
| US08732910B1 |
Appliance handle assembly
A handle assembly that may be used on an appliance is provided. The handle assembly can include a handle that is received into one or more receptacles and can be installed without tools or the use of additional fasteners such as screws, bolts, and the like. The handle assembly can be installed onto doors, drawers, or other components of a variety of different appliance types. |
| US08732909B2 |
Hinge profile fixable in a supporting profile
A hinge profile (2) fixable in a supporting profile (1) intended to be used for a sheet unit e.g. in the form of a door, said supporting profile (1) is in the first place intended to be fastened to a wall. The supporting profile (1) has the form of an U, the legs (3,4) of which are directed towards, envelope and cooperate with two legs (5,6) having an inner friction surface (7) protruding from the hinge profile (2), the supporting profile (1) further having in the same in pairs provided angle-bent fixing profiles (8,9), the front portions (10) of which constitute legs (12,13) with friction surfaces (14), the back portions (11) of the fixing profiles (8,9) are displaceable a short distance from each other by help of at least one adjusting screw (15) at the same time as the front portions (10) are displaced in a transverse direction relatively each other to an adjustable engagement with the friction surface (7) of the hinge profile (2), whereby the hinge profile (2) is fixed into a selected, predetermined position in the supporting profile (1). |
| US08732906B1 |
Locking hinge assembly
A locking hinge including barrel members with a cylindrical female recess and a multi-sided center bore. A medial barrel member has a center bore and first and second cylindrical male portions rotatably inserted into one of the female recesses, and a multi-sided center bore, such that the bores are in axial alignment. First and second hinge pins have a cylindrical portion and a multi-sided portion slidably inserted through the aligned multi-sided center bores. A spring disposed in the medial barrel member urges the hinge pins apart. When in a fully locked configuration, the multi-sided portions of the hinge pins engage the multi-sided center bore of a male portion and a barrel member; when in an unlocked configuration, at least one or both of the hinge pins is depressed such that its multi-sided portion is disengaged from the multi-sided center bore of the barrel member through which it is slidably inserted. |
| US08732900B2 |
Vacuum cleaner lint brush attachment
A vacuum cleaner lint brush accessory system having a lint brush and cradle. The lint brush has longitudinally opposed handle and brush portions. The brush portion has a brush material adapted to remove fibrous substances from a surface to be cleaned. The cradle has a chamber opening leading to a chamber. The chamber extends in the longitudinal direction and is adapted to longitudinally receive at least the brush portion of the lint brush, the chamber has at least one brush cleaning pad adapted to engage the brush material and remove the fibrous substances from the brush material. The chamber further includes an air outlet spaced from the chamber opening. The air outlet is selectively connectable to a vacuum passage of a vacuum cleaner. |
| US08732897B2 |
Autonomous cleaning device
A blade assembly of an autonomous cleaning device. The blade assembly includes a blade having a first part fixed to the main body and a second part extended from the first part toward a floor and a support member having at least a portion disposed adjacent to the second part of the blade to restrict movement of the second part of the blade to within a predetermined range. |
| US08732892B2 |
Leaves collection system for use with a portable blower/vacuum and a lid allowing the rejection and the retention of debris in a bag
A leaves collection system for use with a portable blower/vacuum in the vacuum mode with a lid allowing the rejection of debris in a plastic or paper bag. The lid (of round shape with a lateral groove) has three main openings, one for the entrance of debris and two for the outlet of air as well as holes to attach the various elements to the lid with cable ties. The lid is inserted into the opening of the bag and the bag is held in place on the lateral edge of the lid by a bungee cord in the groove. Ribbed pipe connects the fan outlet of the blower/vacuum to the lid and sends debris towards the lid and the bag. A membrane under the bag protects the bag from the roughness of the ground. |
| US08732890B2 |
Toothbrush
An oral care implement is described herein. The oral care implement has a base having a handle region, an oral engaging region and a neck between the handle region and the oral engaging region. A recess surrounds the handle and/or the neck and has a first boundary and a second boundary, and the first boundary is further from a distal end than the second boundary. The first boundary has an angle of greater than about 90 degrees with respect to a mold parting line of the oral care implement. The base has a first material, and a collar made of a second material which is different than the first material, is disposed in the recess. |
| US08732888B2 |
Brush for cleaning a container
A brush including a gripping handle combined with a cleaning head, wherein the cleaning head has a base forming an extension of the handle, including a peripheral wall and an end wall. The latter is located opposite the handle. Cleaning elements in the form of hairs are attached to the base. The base is, for example, substantially planar and has a rectangular cross-section. The hairs are arranged on two opposite sides of the base and at the end thereof, i.e. in the same plane as the base. |
| US08732885B2 |
Arrangement of device for back massage
A back massage device comprises multiple rotary brushes mounted on a support, whereby the brushes are driven mechanically by a motor system and the support is embedded in a wall. The device includes a system for moving the brushes perpendicularly to the wall, such that the device can occupy a stowed position in which the brushes do not protrude from the wall and an operating position in which the brushes protrude from the wall. |
| US08732884B1 |
Apparatus for dressing a weld adjacent to a weld bead
An apparatus for dressing a weld in an area adjacent a weld bead has a power head, a shaft affixed to the power head such that the power head rotates the shaft, a first brush affixed to the shaft and extending radially outwardly therefrom, and a second brush affixed to the shaft and extending radially outwardly therefrom. The second brush is spaced by a distance greater than a width of the weld bead from the first brush. Each of the brushes is a wire brush. A third brush can be affixed to the shaft in side-by-side relation to the second brush on a side of the second brush opposite the first brush. |
| US08732879B2 |
Patient support device
A device for supporting a patient during a radiological imaging procedure is disclosed. The device includes a base, a support member pivotally coupled to the base and configured to receive a portion of the patient undergoing the radiological imaging procedure and an adjustment device comprising an inflatable bladder. The inflatable bladder has a first portion acting on the base and a second portion acting on the support member. An inflatable state of the adjustment device is controllable to selectively adjust an angular positioning of the support member relative to the base. |
| US08732875B2 |
Patient support apparatus with movable siderail assembly
A patient support apparatus includes a base, a frame coupled to the base, a deck supported by the frame and capable of moving relative to the frame, and a siderail assembly movable between a raised position above the deck and a first lowered position below the deck. The patient support apparatus further includes a siderail mover coupled to the deck to move the siderail assembly from the first lowered position to a second lowered position in response to movement of the deck relative to the frame. |
| US08732874B2 |
Heated and cooled bed assembly
A climate controlled bed comprises a cushion member having an outer surface comprising a first side for supporting an occupant and a second side, the first side and the second side generally facing in opposite directions. In some embodiments, the cushion member includes one or more recessed areas along its first side or its second side. In one embodiment, the bed further includes a flow conditioning member that may be at least partially positioned with the recessed area of the cushion member, an air-permeable topper member positioned along the first side of the cushion member and a fluid temperature regulation system. |
| US08732873B2 |
Portable baby changing station for use in automobiles
A portable baby changing station fabricated from a soft, flexible material for changing diapers in automobiles. When fully extended, it provides a soft surface to rest a baby while changing a diaper. In this mode, the head end is affixed to the rear portion of the back seat by a fastener such as Velcro. One or more netted pockets are positioned at the head end to hold diapers and changing supplies. Once the baby has a new diaper, the changing station folds up into a compact shape while remaining fastened to the back seat. It is held in the closed position by fasteners such as Velcro or snaps. It is always affixed to the automobile, and always ready to unfold. |
| US08732869B2 |
Compliant impact protection pad
A hip protector pad absorbs impact energy at a vulnerable area of a greater trochanter of an adult human hip. The pad has a continuous sheet of flexible honeycomb material having faces covered with an optional cover material and a layer of compliant and resilient foam on an inner side and an outer side of the honeycomb material. The pad is flexible to conform to a shape of the hip area. The pad is effective to reduce an impact of a fall of an adult human on the vulnerable area and minimizes the chance of a hip fracture resulting from the fall. |
| US08732868B2 |
Helmet and/or a helmet liner with at least one internal flexibility sipe with an attachment to control and absorb the impact of torsional or shear forces
A helmet and/or helmet liner having one or more internal flexibility sipes for controlling and absorbing the impact of torsional or shear forces, including, for example, at least a first bladder, chamber, or compartment having an inner surface; a second bladder, chamber, or compartment having at least one cavity or void that at least partially encloses at least one gas, and an outer surface located in the first bladder, chamber, or compartment, as viewed in a cross-section, and at least one internal sipe, which is defined by a portion of the inner surface of the first bladder, chamber, or compartment and a portion of the outer surface of the second bladder, chamber, or compartment. The surface portions defining the internal sipe oppose each other and are configured to be movable relative to each other in a sliding motion and have at least one centrally located attachment between the surface portions. |
| US08732863B2 |
Fiber blends for garments with high thermal, abrasion resistance, and moisture management properties
Fiber blends useful for garments with a balance of high thermal, abrasion resistance, and moisture management properties are disclosed. The fiber blends comprise a hydrophobic fiber component, a hydrophilic fiber component, a structural fiber component, and an optional antistatic fiber. Yarns, fabrics, and garments comprising the fiber blends are also disclosed. Such garments are particularly useful for occupations requiring high thermal properties and abrasion resistance, such as fire fighters, utility workers, and military personnel, without compromising comfort of the wearers by maintaining breathability and moisture management properties of the fabric. |
| US08739310B2 |
Characterization structure for an atomic force microscope tip
A structure for the characterization of a tip of an atomic force microscope, the structure being produced on a substrate and including a first support element located above the substrate; a first characterization element with a constant thickness, the first characterization element being located above the first support element and having an upper flat surface and a lower flat surface covering the upper surface of the first support element with two zones extending beyond the upper surface of the first support element, each zone having a characterization surface at one end which is capable of coming into contact with a tip to be characterized, the upper surface and the lower surface of said first characterization element being parallel to the upper surface of the substrate. |
| US08739306B2 |
System and method for accessing private digital content
Method for providing access to private digital content installed on a content server C(s), wherein a content manager server C(a) has a number of clients potentially interested in the private content; the method comprising the following steps performed at the content management server C(a): establishing a first communication channel with a client C(b) of the number of clients; receiving a query for private digital content from the client C(b) and sending an appropriate response, causing the client to establish a second communication channel with the content server; establishing a secure session with the content server C(s) over the first and second communication channel; establishing a new session key for the secure session and transmitting said new session key to the client C(b), so that the client can obtain the queried private digital content from the content server as if the client is the content management server. |
| US08739305B2 |
Secure access to encrypted information
A method of using a mini filter driver to secure access to encrypted information stored on a removable storage device. The method comprises receiving a request to read information from the removable storage device. The mini filter driver ascertains if the request originated from an authorized client. The mini filter driver receives encrypted information read from the removable storage device, and decrypts the encrypted information in the event that the request originated from an authorized client. The decrypted information can then be conveyed to the authorized client. If the client is not authorized, then the mini filter driver does not decrypt the information. |
| US08739300B2 |
System and method for transmission of files within a secured network
A system and method of distributing a file maintained on a first device located at the top tier of a secured network having at least a second device at a lower tier, without needing to change security parameters of the secured network, is disclosed. Network administrators may access the top tier of the network, may add files into the system, and may generate a file privilege file. The file privilege file can include configuration information for a computer on a tier and may include information about files accessible to a computer on a specific tier. The network propagates the file privilege file from the first device through intermediate devices and onto the second device. The second device may then receive a file authorized from the first device via a connection in the secured network. The second device may also propagate files up to the first device. |
| US08739299B1 |
Content unlocking
A content protection scheme for controlling access to digital content comprises dividing content into data sectors, storing the data sectors on a storage medium and storing selected original data sectors at a remote location. Additional content is unlocked by the remote location only if data from a storage medium correlates to at least a portion of data of the corresponding selected original data sectors. |
| US08739298B2 |
Method and system for enforcing a license dependency rule for a software application
Methods and systems for enabling a software application that does not have independent licensing information are described. Consistent with some embodiments, a first software application is associated with a license dependency rule that indicates one or more other software applications that must be installed and activated in order for the first software application to be fully executed and used on the target computer system. A license manager module evaluates the license dependency rule, for example, by making remote license calls to verify the license status of the software applications identified in the license dependency rule. |
| US08739297B2 |
Key usage policies for cryptographic keys
A computer program product for secure key management is provided. The computer program product includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method. The method includes creating a token and populating the token with key material, and binding key control information to the key material. The key control information includes information relating to usage of the key material populating one or more key usage fields that define attributes that limit actions that may be performed with the key material. |
| US08739290B1 |
Generating alerts in event management systems
There is disclosed techniques for generating alerts in an event management system which comprises event management device and risk assessment device. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. There is received data in an event management device related to events associated with an asset in a network environment. The received data is filtered in order to provide an input to risk assessment device. The filtered data is forwarded to risk assessment device. A score indicative of risk based on filtered data is determined in risk assessment device. The score is forwarded to event management device and received in event management device. A score chart is generated in the event management device. The score chart includes the score and enables the prioritization of threats based on their respective scores. |
| US08739288B2 |
Automatic detection of vulnerability exploits
An embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus and method for automatic detection of a vulnerability exploit. The apparatus and method are configured to post a security vulnerability warning indicating a vulnerability of software; provide an exploit detector; and use the exploit detector to detect an attempted exploit that targets the vulnerability. |
| US08739285B1 |
Differential virus scan
Differential scanning is disclosed. A scan collection period is determined. A system is monitored to detect object events during the scan collection period, and a scan list may be updated with information regarding objects to be scanned, based on some of the object events. Objects are scanned based on the information in the scan list. Information regarding objects associated with object events occurring outside the scan collection period may be removed from the scan list. |
| US08739281B2 |
Multilayered deception for intrusion detection and prevention
Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for multilayered deception for intrusion detection. According to various embodiments of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a multilayer deception system includes honey servers, honey files and folders, honey databases, and/or honey computers. A multilayer deception system controller generates honey activity between the honey entities and exposes a honey profile with contact information associated with a honey user. Contact directed at the honey user and/or activity at any of the honey entities can trigger alarms and/or indicate an attack, and can be analyzed to prevent future attacks. |
| US08739271B2 |
Network information collection and access control system
An approach is provided for collecting and controlling access to network information. A network information anonymizer receives network information associated with a device, separates the network information into anonymized network information and user identifiable information, and enables access to the anonymized network information independently of the user identifiable information based on a privacy setting. |
| US08739270B1 |
Trusted, cross domain information sharing between multiple legacy and IP based devices
The methods and systems of the present disclosure provide a high assurance means for multiple legacy communication (e.g., Mil-Std-1553 communications protocol) system users and/or devices and multiple IP based network users and/or devices to seamlessly, and in real time, share information across various security domains. Specifically, the system enables multiple legacy communication system protocols and interfaces to communicate with existing IP interfaces and protocols with a high degree of trust. The system includes a configurable filtering capability to allow for the data to be inspected prior to being passed from one security domain to another security domain. |
| US08739267B2 |
Method and system for communication between a secure information storage device and at least one third party, and corresponding entity, device and third party
The disclosure relates to a method for communication between a secure information storage device and at least one third party with which information is exchanged. An entity ensures the management of a plurality of secure information storage devices to which said device pertains. The method includes the following steps: the entity places, in a secure container which is arranged in the device and specific to a third party, an authorization for communication between the secure container and the given third party; the entity sends an identifier of the device, an address of the device, an identifier of the secure container, and the authorization to communicate, to the give third party; the given third party attempts to establish communication with the secure container, using the address of the device, the identifier of the device, the identifier of the secure container, and the authorization to communicate; and, before accepting said communication, the device checks that the authorization to communicate transmitted by the third party is acceptable in view of the authorization to communicate previously placed in the secure container by the entity. |
| US08739265B2 |
System and method of sort-order preserving tokenization
An intercepting proxy server processes traffic between an enterprise user and a cloud application. The intercepting proxy server provides interception of real data elements in communications from the enterprise to the cloud and replacing them with obfuscating tokens. Tokens included in results returned from the cloud, are intercepted by the intercepting proxy server, and replaced with the corresponding real data elements. In order for the sort order of the tokens to correspond to the sort order of the corresponding real data elements, a sort order preserving data compression is performed on parts of the real data elements, and the compressed values concatenated with the obfuscated tokens, thus producing sortable tokens which, even though they are obfuscated, appear in the correct sort order in the cloud application. |
| US08739260B1 |
Systems and methods for authentication via mobile communication device
Described systems and methods allow secure and relatively convenient authentication of a secure login session. When a user initiates a login session on a secure site using a client computer system (e.g. laptop, tablet, smartphone), matching login session identifiers (Ticket IDs) are displayed on the client computer system and a mobile communication device uniquely associated with the user (e.g. the user's smartphone). Upon verifying that the two Ticket IDs match, the user accepts the Ticket ID displayed on the mobile communication device, which causes the login session by the client computer system to proceed. Identity verification proceeds largely in the background, through communications between an authentication server, service provider server, and mobile communication device, and involves minimal user input. Techniques are disclosed for reducing the incidence of inadvertent acceptance of incorrect Ticket IDs by users, and reducing system vulnerability to attacks. |
| US08739257B1 |
Managing authentication of virtual clients
A method is used in managing authentication of virtual clients. An identifier for a virtual client is generated by a virtual server. The identifier is added to a configuration file by the virtual server. The configuration file is associated with the virtual client. The virtual client is authenticated based on the identifier. |
| US08739254B2 |
Methods, systems, and products for identity verification
Methods, systems, and products verify identity of a person identification verification. A signature, representing the presence of a device, is acquired. The signature is compared to a reference signature. When the signature favorably compares to the reference signature, then the identity of a user associated with the device is verified. |
| US08739251B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing access among devices
Provided are a method, system, and computer storage device for managing zone information for devices in a network. A zone table includes entries indicating whether devices in at least one zone are permitted to communicate. An attributes table has attributes of the devices indicated in the zone table. A determination is made of attributes from the attributes table for devices indicated in the zone table entries as being permitted to communicate. The entries in the zone table indicating that devices can communicate are verified by determining whether the attributes for the devices indicated as permitted to communicate in the entries in the zone table are consistent with the determined devices being able to communicate. Information is outputted indicating whether the entries in the zone table indicating that devices can communicate are in error. |
| US08739250B2 |
Denial of service attack resistant input port
An input port for a computer system may retain potentially authenticable requests for processing while removing other connection requests from an incoming queue or request pool. The input port may continue to receive new requests even during a denial of service attack, allowing potentially legitimate requests to be processed. In a typical embodiment, a first in, first out buffer may be used to receive and process connection requests. When the buffer is full, any request that comes from a device having a previous connection with the computer system may be retained for authentication, while removing requests that come from unknown devices. Some embodiments may retain a list of known devices associated with administrators or other known users, and the list may be updated as those users are authenticated. |
| US08739244B1 |
Configuring and authenticating WAN optimization devices for accessing content delivery networks
WAN optimization devices and content delivery networks together optimize network traffic on both private networks and public WANs such as the internet. A WAN optimization device intercepts and optimizes network traffic from clients within a private network. The WAN optimization device communicates this first optimized network traffic to the nearest edge computer in the content delivery network via a public WAN, such as the internet. This edge computer further optimizes the network traffic and communicates the doubly optimized network traffic via the content delivery network to a second edge computer nearest to the network traffic destination. The second edge computer converts the doubly optimized network traffic back to its original format and communicates the reconstructed network traffic from the second edge computer to the destination via a public WAN. Licensing and configuration portals configure WAN optimization devices for specific network protocols, types of network traffic, applications, and/or cloud services. |
| US08739242B2 |
Digital rights management in a collaborative environment
A system for enforcing rights management policies in a collaborative environment is provided. The system may reside at a collaboration host and may include a session manager to manage a collaborative session associated with a plurality of participants, a shared view detector to detect a request to distribute shared content to participants of the collaborative session, a policy module to obtain a rights management policy associated with at least a portion of the shared content, a filter generator to generate a filter based on the obtained rights management policy, and a shared view distributor to distribute the shared content to the participants of the collaborative session together with the filter. |
| US08739241B1 |
Signal processing apparatus and methods
A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming. |
| US08739237B2 |
Closed-captioning uniform resource locator capture system and method
A particular method includes extracting uniform resource locator data from closed-captioning content using a set-top box. The closed-captioning content is included in a broadcast signal received by the set-top box. The method includes generating a web page using the set-top box. The web page includes a portion of the uniform resource data as one or more selectable links. A check box is associated with each of the one or more selectable links. The web page includes a first selectable option to enable each selectable link associated with a checked check box to be added to a uniform resource locator address book. The method also includes sending the web page from the set-top box via a local area network to a device coupled to the set-top box by the local area network in response to a request from the device for the web page. |
| US08739235B2 |
Method and apparatus for changing received streaming content channels
An apparatus and method is disclosed in which a buffer receives a first content stream carrying a content channel signal. The first content stream carries the content channel signal at a rate substantially greater than the streaming content playout rate, for initially loading the buffer. The buffer switches its reception of the content channel signal from the first content stream to a second content stream. The second content stream is at a rate substantially the same as the streaming content playout rate. Generally, this switch occurs when some predefined threshold of the content channel signal is buffered. |
| US08739229B2 |
On-board vessel entertainment system
An improved user experience is provided for passengers on a vessel such as an airplane, train or ship. Passengers can customize their travel experience ahead of time by accessing a web-based server system to indicate preferences with respect to a number of in-flight entertainment options. The passenger's experience is also enhanced by allowing passengers to share preferences such as media playlists with others. Meals can be ordered on-demand once on board, and seat-to-seat chat as well as group chatting is also made available through an in-seat or other proximate entertainment device. |
| US08739227B2 |
Radio signal distrubution device and reception system therefor
Data is exchanged between two decoders by means of an antenna cable while, at the same time, being able to position at least two decoders in two different transmission bands or on two independent antennas. A signal distribution device in a multi-decoder reception system has means, such as a band pass filter, for linking the input/outputs, connected to the decoders, between them in order to form an electrical contact limited to a communication frequency band. |
| US08739223B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing augmented broadcast content using augmentation region information
Provided is a method for processing augmented broadcast content, and the method includes receiving, from a broadcast content provider, broadcast content and augmentation region information required to composite augmented content to an augmentation region in the broadcast content; receiving, from a user input device, selection information necessary to select one out of a plurality of augmented content providers; generating an augmented content request message based on the augmentation region information, and transmitting the augmentation content request message to an augmented content provider selected based on the selection information; receiving the augmented content from the augmented content provider; and compositing the augmented content to the augmentation region in the broadcast content by using the augmentation region information. |
| US08739222B2 |
Alteration of electronic program guide data based on ratings lock
A television receiver receives a programming signal including programming content and EPG data. The television receiver receives a request for an EPG display. The television receiver modifies the EPG data for one or more records in the EPG data which include content ratings that exceed a ratings lock setting of the television receiver. The television receiver may modify the EPG data for one or more records in a variety of different manners depending on a variety of different factors associated with the records. The television receiver then generates the EPG display from the modified EPG data and transmits the generated EPG display to a display device. The modification of the EPG data may prevent display of objectionable content in the EPG display and/or may indicate that the records correspond to blocked programs. |
| US08739212B2 |
Configuration of presentations of selectable TV services according to usage
The present invention provides a method and system for accessing services in a television system. In one implementation, a DHCT presents a user a menu containing a plurality of selectable link representations corresponding to separate services or applications offered by the cable television system. The user navigates the menu with a remote device and selects a desired service by choosing the selectable link representation corresponding to the desired service or application. The DHCT receives the user input, translates the selectable link command into an executable call, and activates the service or application corresponding to the selected link representation from the menu chosen by the user. |
| US08739211B2 |
Method and apparatus for storing broadcast program
A method and apparatus for storing a broadcast program are provided. The apparatus includes: a signal processing unit which generates an audio/video (A/V) file, an application file, and a first electronic program guide (EPG) file by appropriately processing a plurality of A/V signals, application information, and EPG information, respectively, which are included in an input broadcast program transport stream; a synchronization unit which receives the A/V file, the application file, and the first EPG file from the signal processing unit, generates storage information for the A/V file and storage information for the application file, and converts the first EPG file into a second EPG file comprising the storage information for the A/V file and the storage information for the application file; and a storage unit which stores the A/V file, the application file, and the second EPG file. |
| US08739202B2 |
Customized program insertion system
An object insertion system is provided for inserting a portion of a model image into an image signal. The object insertion system includes a camera that obtains the model image. An image processor determines the portion of the model image to be inserted into the image signal from the model image obtained by the camera. The image processor extracts the portion of the model image from the model image. An image extractor determines an image component of the image signal, and the image processor inserts the portion of the model image into the image signal as the image component. The image processor determines the portion of the model image from the model image obtained by the camera based on the image component of the image signal determined by the image extractor. |
| US08739201B2 |
System and method of delivering advertisement data to a mobile device
A method of delivering advertisement data to a mobile device includes receiving video content associated with an advertisement at a set-top box device via an access network of a video distribution system. The method also includes receiving an advertisement selection command at the set-top box device. The advertisement selection command indicates that data related to the advertisement is to be sent to a particular mobile device associated with the set-top box device. Further, the method includes sending an indication of the advertisement selection command to an advertisement data management system via the access network, in response to the advertisement selection command. |
| US08739199B2 |
Log processing to determine impressions using an impression time window
Set top box logs are received from a television provider and processed to identify channel tunes and channel tune times. The channel tunes and channel tune times of the log data can be compared to expected air times of television advertisements on channels, and an impression values, e.g., projected viewers, can be generated for each television advertisement. |
| US08739197B1 |
Demographic attribution of household viewing events
Tuning data representing a television viewing event associated with a particular household is accessed. Household member data representing information on individual members of the particular household is accessed. Viewing profile data representing information on individual members of other households regarding viewership by the individual members of the other households is accessed. Fractional viewership values for the individual members of the particular household are determined based on the tuning data, the household member data, and the viewing profile data. Household viewership data is determined based on the fractional viewership values. |
| US08739195B2 |
Microchips with an internal hardware firewall protected portion and a network portion with microprocessors which execute shared processing operations with the network
A microchip, comprising an internal hardware firewall located between a protected portion of the microchip protected by the internal hardware firewall and a network portion configured to communicate with a network of computers located between the internal hardware firewall and a connection of the microchip to the network. The microchip also includes one or more microprocessors located in the network portion and separate from network communications components; and the microprocessors located in the network portion and the network communications components being separate from the firewall. The firewall is configured by its location to permit unrestricted access by the network to the network portion, and one or more shared processing operations conducted by the microchip with the network are executed at least by one or many microprocessors located in the network portion. |
| US08739194B2 |
Methods and apparatus to count audience members
Methods and apparatus to count audience members are disclosed. An example method includes identifying a first audience member present at a first time, incrementing a stored first count of a number of times the first audience member is present during a day part corresponding to the first time, incrementing a stored tuning occasion count, identifying a second audience member present at a second time, incrementing a stored second count of a number of times the second audience member is present during the day part, incrementing the stored tuning occasion count, determining a probability that an unidentified audience member is the first audience member based on the first count, the second count, and the tuning occasion count, and counting the first audience member based on a comparison of the probability to a threshold. |
| US08739193B2 |
Optical disc drive device and method of driving the same
A disc loading device includes a loading motor, a loading roller that is driven by the loading motor and that loads and unloads a disc, a gear device provided between the loading motor and the loading roller, the gear device including a plurality of gears, and a power train control device which is configured to control power between the plurality of gears, wherein the power train control device operatively disconnects a power transmission train between the plurality of gears when the disc is unloaded. |
| US08739190B2 |
Determining an extension to use to process an input object to a call in a program
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for determining an extension to use to process an input object to a call in a program. An association of parameter definitions is indicated with extensions, where each extension comprises a program capable of being selected to process at least one input object. A call is received for an extension point including at least one input object to determine one extension to use to process the at least one object. A determination is made of a set of candidate extensions capable of processing the at least one input object based on a first criteria determining extensions whose parameter definitions are capable of satisfying the requirements defined for the extension point. A selection is made from the set of candidate extensions of one extension to use to process the at least one object using a second criteria. |
| US08739188B2 |
System, method and computer program product for deferring interface monitoring based on whether a library associated with the interface is loaded
An interface monitoring system, method and computer program product are provided. In use, an interface is identified. In addition, monitoring of the interface is deferred based on whether a library associated with the interface is loaded. |
| US08739181B2 |
Processing apparatus and method
A processing apparatus for processing elements, which are contained in a message received via a network, by an application is provided. The apparatus includes a selection unit configured to select, in accordance with the number of elements contained in the received message, whether conversion of an element to a form by the application is carried out in response to or prior to a request from the application, a storage unit configured to store an element, which is converted to a form by the application, in response to a request from the application, a read-out unit configured to read an element, which has been requested by the application, out of the storage unit, and a conversion unit configured to convert an element to a form by the application in response to and prior to a request from the application in accordance with the selection. |
| US08739180B2 |
Processing of MTOM messages
A method and system for processing MTOM messages comprising a root document and one or more binary attachments referenced by the root document, in a Web service requester or provider. When an inbound MTOM message is received, a pipeline comprising a plurality of message handlers is selected to process the received message. The message is unpackaged by separating the binary attachments from the root document, and the pipeline properties are checked to determine if conversion of the message is required. Responsive to the result of the determination, either conversion of the message is carried out, by encoding the binary data in each of the attachments and replacing each reference in the root document to a binary attachment with the encoded data for that attachment, and processing the converted message by the pipeline, or the root document and binary attachments are processed by the pipeline. |
| US08739178B2 |
Method of configuring intelligent electronic devices to facilitate standardized communication messages among a plurality of IEDS within a network
Provided is a system and method of configuring IEDs to facilitate standardized communication messages among a plurality of IEDs within a power system network based on the IEC 61850 standard. A description file is described for an intelligent electronic device configured in accordance with the IEC-61850 standard. The description file includes a section which indicates which GOOSE message the intelligent electronic device should receive. In yet another embodiment, the description file includes a section which is capable of linking to logic functions of the intelligent electronic device for performing programmable data binding or dynamic data binding. A configuration tool is further provided for editing and creating such description files. A method for selectively receiving messages from an intelligent electronic device configured in accordance with the IEC-61850 standard is also described herein, along with a method for optimizing file space and improving execution speed of an intelligent electronic device configured in accordance with the IEC-61850 standard. |
| US08739176B1 |
Task-driven multitasking method that constrains task suspension to task preemption
While preemptive multitasking has been available for task-driven methods that use multiple call stacks and even-driven methods that use a single call stack, an embodiment of a new method teaches how preemptive multitasking may be achieved in a single call stack for task-driven applications. The new method requires significantly less memory and processing overhead than required to manage multiple call stacks and provides a significant reduction in transition states and lines of application code than required for event-driven methods. The method comprises providing a single call stack, providing a preemptive scheduler, providing a wait operation which is followed by a return to the scheduler, wherein execution context is not preserved, and providing a signal operation which may be invoked synchronously from a task handling function and/or asynchronously from an interrupt routine, whereby the scheduler is invoked and execution context is preserved and subsequently restored by the single call stack. |
| US08739172B2 |
Generating a virtual machine placement plan for an identified seasonality of segments of an aggregated resource usage
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media with executable instructions stored thereon for a virtual machine (VM) placement plan are provided. Seasonality of a measured aggregated resource usage of a group of VMs can be identified. A VM placement plan for the identified seasonality can be generated by a computing device. |
| US08739167B2 |
Method and device for balancing load of multiprocessor system by sequencing migration priorities based on memory size and calculated execution time
A method and a device for balancing load of a multiprocessor system relate to the resource allocation field of the multiprocessor system, for achieving the object of reducing the number of accessing a remote node memory or the amount of copying data when the processes migrated into a target Central Processing Unit (CPU) are performed. The method for balancing the load of the multiprocessor system includes: determining the local CPU and the target CPU in the multiprocessor system; sequencing the migration priorities, based on the size of memory space occupied by the processes in the queue of the local CPU; where the less the memory space occupied by the process is, the higher the migration priority of the process is; and migrating the process whose migration priority is the highest other than the processes being performed in the queue of the local CPU into the target CPU. |
| US08739164B2 |
Automatic suspend atomic hardware transactional memory in response to detecting an implicit suspend condition and resume thereof
An apparatus and method is disclosed for a computer processor configured to access a memory shared by a plurality of processing cores and to execute a plurality of memory access operations in a transactional mode as a single atomic transaction and to suspend the transactional mode in response to determining an implicit suspend condition, such as a program control transfer. As part of executing the transaction, the processor marks data accessed by the speculative memory access operations as being speculative data. In response to determining a suspend condition (including by detecting a control transfer in an executing thread) the processor suspends the transactional mode of execution, which includes setting a suspend flag and suspending marking speculative data. If the processor later detects a resumption condition (e.g., a return control transfer corresponding to a return from the control transfer), the processor is configured to resume the marking of speculative data. |
| US08739162B2 |
Accurate measurement of multithreaded processor core utilization and logical processor utilization
An embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus and method for accurate measurement of utilizations in a hardware multithreaded processor core. The apparatus and method perform the acts including: determining idle time spent cycles which are cycles that are spent in idle by a hardware thread in a processor core; determining idle consumed cycles which are cycles that are consumed in the idle time spent cycles, by the hardware thread; and determining at least one of a processor core utilization and a logical processor utilization based upon at least one of the idle time spent cycles (d1) and idle consumed cycles (d3). |
| US08739161B1 |
Process management
A technique for managing a plurality of processes is disclosed. The technique includes reading a process manager configuration file and executing a set of actions according to the timing and conditions specified in the process manager configuration file. The process manager configuration file is a markup language-based specification of the timing and conditions of the execution of the processes. |
| US08739152B2 |
Method and system for version independent software release management
A system for assembling an update for a software release is described, comprising a processor and memory configured to define classes of software components, each class having a plurality of instances, each instance having a unique identifier (UID) and representing a software component having a plurality of versions; for each version of the software component, assign time stamps and indicator identifying release status of the version; introduce a flexible coupling between versions of software components and instances of classes using a pointer between a version of the software component and a UID associated with the version; select versions of software components from which pointers originate; for each instance of the class, to which the pointer points, select one version of the software component based on the assigned indicator; and assemble the selected versions of software components into the update of the software release. A corresponding method is also provided. |
| US08739142B2 |
Method and apparatus for run-time statistics dependent program execution using source-coding principles
Disclosed are a method and system for optimized, dynamic data-dependent program execution. The disclosed system comprises a statistics computer which computes statistics of the incoming data at the current time instant, where the said statistics include the probability distribution of the incoming data, the probability distribution over program modules induced by the incoming data, the probability distribution induced over program outputs by the incoming data, and the time-complexity of each program module for the incoming data, wherein the said statistics are computed on as a function of current and past data, and previously computed statistics; a plurality of alternative execution path orders designed prior to run-time by the use of an appropriate source code; a source code selector which selects one of the execution path orders as a function of the statistics computed by the statistics computer; a complexity measurement which measures the time-complexity of the currently selected execution path-order. |
| US08739136B2 |
Validating run-time references
Identifying conflicting declared invalid runtime references of overlaid data structures of a shared memory area as declared in a program listing. The identifying includes identifying a first data structure and a first parameter list in the program listing. A first routine call and a sequential flow of execution of the first routine call through the program listing in order to write data to the shared memory area are identified. A second data structure and a second parameter list in the program listing are identified. A second routine call and a second sequential flow of execution of the second routine call through the program listing in order to write data to the shared memory area are identified. It is determined whether the second routine call is attempting to overwrite data of the first routine call with the data of the second routine call in the shared memory area. |
| US08739135B2 |
Static instrumentation macros for fast declaration free dynamic probes
Embodiments of the present invention provide a dynamic instrumentation system that uses statically defined probes. The probes may be defined using macro definitions. One or more libraries of macro definitions that are linked to static probes are provided in the computer system. Each probe is uniquely identified by a name having a well-defined prefix and a structured format. Probes may then be inserted at various locations and into the target software using standard macro calls. When the target software is compiled, the macro calls of each probe are expanded to calls to an existing function known as a probe handler function. Each probe handler function is identified in the computer system's symbol table with a unique symbol that corresponds to the name specified by the macro definition. When a probe is activated, the operating system kernel transfers control to an instrumentation kernel object. The instrumentation kernel object locates and runs the probe handler function to perform the actions requested for that probe. |
| US08739133B2 |
Multi-threaded debugger support
A method and information processing system facilitate debugging of a multi-threaded application. A control program request associated with at least one thread of a process that has been designated for debugging is generated. The control program request is placed into a memory buffer associated with the thread by the debugger. The memory buffer is passed to a control program. A plurality of memory buffers is monitored. Each memory buffer in the plurality of memory buffers is associated with a different thread of the process. At least one memory buffer in the plurality of memory buffers is determined to include debugging event information from the control program determining. The debugging event information is processed. The processing includes at least one of notifying a user of the debugging event information and generating at least one control program request for a thread associated with the at least one memory buffer. |
| US08739130B2 |
Quality assurance testing
A quality assurance system has a test generator for applying tests to an application program and a correlator for logging events that occur during testing in correlation with test steps so as to generate a test log. The quality assurance program has a user interface for providing an interactive presentation displaying a list of events and a list of test steps such that: 1) selecting a test step will cause a correlated event to be highlighted, and 2) selecting an event will cause a correlated test step to be highlighted. |
| US08739129B1 |
Multi-domain unified debugger
A Unified Debugger that enables the debugging of graphical models with combinations of entities from multiple domains such as time-based block diagrams, statecharts, and physical system models, with additional features for the debugging of hand-written and automatically generated code is disclosed. A view of the entity being executed that is consistent with the type of the modeling domain to which the entity currently being executed belongs is automatically generated for a user. Rather than requiring a user to manually transition from one debugger to the next, the Unified Debugger applies the appropriate debugging features from each modeling domain. The Unified Debugger also enables integration of diagnostic information from a multitude of modeling domains into a central user interface. In addition, a standard diagnostic interface which spans a plurality of modeling domains is defined that enables the customization of debug behavior. |
| US08739124B2 |
Configuring integration capabilities for system integration
Configuring integration capabilities includes: receiving a configuration stencil that is a configuration artifact of a message flow, the configuration stencil comprising at least one configuration point, the configuration point currently having no assigned value, and at least one constraint for the configuration point, the constraint being a rule or type for a value to be assigned to the configuration point; receiving, using one or more processors, input comprising at least one configuration point value for the configuration point, the configuration point value having been selected based on first and second systems to be integrated using the message flow; determining whether the received configuration point value violates the constraint and if so requesting another configuration point value from the input; and generating a configuration stencil instance based on the configuration stencil and the input, the configuration stencil instance representing the message flow in an integration of the first and second systems. |
| US08739122B2 |
Command line output redirection
In one embodiment the invention provides a method to provide command line utility output to an application without the need of temporary files. The method includes receiving an identifier, receiving output from a command line utility, and storing the command line utility output in a system storage at a location identified by the identifier. In one illustrative embodiment, command line utility output is stored in a system registry database. In another illustrative embodiment, command line utility output is stored in a shared system memory. The method may be stored in any media that is readable and executable by a computer system. |
| US08739121B1 |
Providing access to external content using metadata in source code listings
Exemplary embodiments may provide one or more computer readable storage media storing executable instructions that when executed on processing logic output a source code listing and external content to an editor. The media may hold instructions for creating a source code listing in an editor, the source code listing being executable when the source code listing is compiled or interpreted. The media may further hold instructions for inserting a non-executable statement into the source code listing, the non-executable statement including metadata identifying external content. The media may hold instructions for interpreting the metadata. The media may further hold instructions for communicating with external content. The media may also hold instructions for outputting the source code listing and the external content to the editor. The media may further hold instructions for interacting with the external content from the source code listing. |
| US08739117B2 |
Method and system for providing developer interface
A method and system for generating a developer interface using a loaded program. The method of generating a developer interface may share a plurality of components included in a loaded program through a communication interface, and generate a new program using components selected from among the plurality of shared components through the developer interface. |
| US08739109B2 |
Development support apparatus of semiconductor device, development support method, and development support program product
Disclosed is a development support apparatus of a semiconductor device that makes it possible to easily develop the semiconductor device, a development support method, and a program product. A design evaluation apparatus is a design evaluation apparatus having an analog front-end unit for inputting a measurement signal of a sensor and an MCU unit, which has a GUI processing unit for displaying a GUI corresponding to a circuit configuration of the analog front-end unit and a register setting unit that generates setting information for setting up the circuit configuration and a circuit characteristic of the analog front-end unit based on an operation of the GUI by a user, and sets the generated setting information in the analog front-end unit through the MCU unit. |
| US08739108B1 |
Method and apparatus for implementing loop-based control in an electronic design automation tool
A selectable block in a graphical user interface of an electric design automation tool for generating a design of a system on a target device includes a token passing unit operable to pass a token through one of a first output port and second output port in response to a result from a loop test. The selectable block also includes a counter operable to increment a step value in response to the selectable block receiving the token at a first input port. |
| US08739107B2 |
Signal selection apparatus and system, and circuit emulator and method and program
Disclosed is a system in which in order to obtain the operation parameter of a circuit based on an implementable area indicating a circuit scale that can be implemented on a circuit implementation device, circuit area information, and operation parameter measuring circuit area information, an observation signal number determining means determines observation signal information on a circuit that obtains the operation parameter of the circuit. The number of the extracted signals is determined in view of the area that can be implemented on a digital LSI or an emulator and the area of the circuit to be implemented (refer to FIG. 1). |
| US08739106B2 |
Computer motherboard and CPU voltage regulator power supply layout method
A computer motherboard includes a motherboard substrate defining a CPU loading area and a CPU voltage regulator power supply layout area. The power supply layout area is equally divided into a number of phase regions, and each of the phase regions has a number of spaced circuit layers. The circuit layers in the phase regions are symmetrical about a central axis of the CPU loading area, and a difference between each two simulating impedances between an impedance center of each of the phase regions and a loading center of the CPU loading area is within 1%. |
| US08739105B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing parallel routing using a multi-threaded routing procedure
A method for designing a system to be implemented on a target device includes generating bounding boxes on the target device for nets in the system where a bounding box identifies routing resources available for routing its corresponding net. The nets in the system are assigned to a plurality of threads to be routed. The threads are executed so that a plurality of the nets are routed in parallel within their corresponding bounding box. |
| US08739100B2 |
Distributed LC resonant tanks clock tree synthesis
A technique for implementing an clock tree distribution network having a clock buffer and a plurality of LC tanks that each take into consideration local capacitance distributions and conductor resistances. An AC-based sizing formulation is applied to the buffer and to the LC tanks so as to reduce the total buffer area. The technique is iterative and can be fully automated while also reducing clock distribution power consumption. |
| US08739099B1 |
Method and apparatus for determining clock uncertainties
A method for determining clock uncertainties is provided. The method includes identifying clock transfer types between registers from an integrated circuit design and identifying contributors to the clock uncertainties for each of the clock transfers. The jitter associated with each identified contributor is calculated for both set-up time and hold time. This calculated jitter is incorporated into a slack calculation to determine whether timing constraints are met for a circuit design. |
| US08739098B1 |
EUV mask defect reconstruction and compensation repair
Embodiments of the invention provide approaches for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) defect reconstruction and compensation repair. Specifically, a defect starting point of a defect of a mask is determined, and the performance of the mask with the defect is simulated. The simulated performance of the mask is compared to an empirical analysis of the mask to produce a profile of the mask and the defect. An initial image of the mask geometry, with the defect, is calculated, and then compared to a target image of the mask. From this, a compensated layout is generated. As such, embodiments provide a EUV fabrication system that detects and corrects for defects in the blanks and patterned masks to avoid or counteract the defect. Once a compensated pattern has been designed and successfully simulated, the mask may be patterned with the compensated design. |
| US08739097B2 |
Method for placing decoupling capacitors
A method comprises selecting a region from a layout pattern of an integrated circuit, wherein the region comprises a plurality of functional units, and wherein the functional units are not coupled to each other through a variety of connection components, identifying hot spots in the region using a first threshold and inserting a plurality of decoupling capacitors adjacent to the hot spots. |
| US08739096B2 |
Micro-electro-mechanical structure (MEMS) capacitor devices, capacitor trimming thereof and design structures
Micro-electro-mechanical structure (MEMS) capacitor devices, capacitor trimming for MEMS capacitor devices, and design structures are disclosed. The method includes identifying a process variation related to a formation of micro-electro-mechanical structure (MEMS) capacitor devices across a substrate. The method further includes providing design offsets or process offsets in electrode areas of the MEMS capacitor devices across the substrate, based on the identified process variation. |
| US08739095B2 |
Method, system, and program product for interactive checking for double pattern lithography violations
Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer program product for performing interactive layout editing to address double patterning approaches to implement lithography of electronic designs. A spatial query is performed around the shape(s) being created during editing with the distance of allowed spacing in a single mask. If a design error is encountered, corrective editing may occur to correct the error. Checking may occur to make sure that the error detection and corrective actions can be performed interactively. |
| US08739093B1 |
Timing characteristic generation and analysis in integrated circuit design
Techniques for use in integrated circuit design systems for generation and analysis of timing characteristics associated with an integrated circuit design. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. Cells with at least one timing arc are identified from a set of cells, wherein the set of cells are useable in an integrated circuit design. A test circuit is generated comprising an input stage sub-circuit for each terminal serving as an input for each of the identified cells, and an output stage sub-circuit for each terminal serving as an output for each of the identified cells, wherein each input stage sub-circuit is independent of each other input stage sub-circuit, and each output stage sub-circuit is independent of each other output stage sub-circuit. The test circuit is stored for use in a timing delay correlation operation between a first timing analysis process and a second timing analysis process. By way of example only, the first timing analysis process comprises a static timing analysis process and the second timing analysis process comprises a circuit level analysis process. |
| US08739092B1 |
Functional property ranking
Tools for ranking of generated properties are described. A plurality of circuit design properties are generated from a signal trace of the circuit design. A static analysis of the circuit design properties is performed against one or more circuit design constraints to determine whether the properties are true. Rankings for the circuit design properties are determined responsive to results of the static analysis. The ranking for a circuit design property represents a value of the circuit design property in validating correct functionality of the circuit design. At least some of the circuit design properties are presented in a user interface responsive to the rankings for the circuit design properties. |
| US08739091B1 |
Techniques for segmenting of hardware trace and verification of individual trace segments
A logic verification program, method and system that segments simulation results and then processes the resulting segments separately, and optionally in parallel, reduces memory and other system requirements and improves efficiency of verification of digital logic designs. The verification process fixes up event dependency check for past-directed checkers by including additional information with each segment after an initial segment that describes at least a portion of a state of the logic design, so that resultant events in the current segment that are caused by events in the previous segment(s) can be traced back to those events. Future directed checks are fixed-up by either repeating a failed check with a concatenation of the current segment and a next segment, or by providing an overlap between segments to ensure that the expected time duration between a causative event and the resulting event are included within the same segment file. |
| US08739090B1 |
Probe signal compression method and apparatus for hardware based verification platforms
The present patent document relates a method and apparatus for compressing probe system data in hardware functional verification systems used to verify user logic designs. Such systems can create large amounts of data every data cycle, which can include many bits that do not toggle from one cycle to the next. Compressing such data is possible by arranging the data in bytes and determining which bytes contain bits that have changed. A status byte may be generated that conveys which bytes contain changed bits. Together the status byte and only the bytes that contain changed bits are transmitted to a host workstation, saving bandwidth on the communication interface. |
| US08739087B1 |
System and method for large multiplexer identification and creation in a design of an integrated circuit
In the process of designing an integrated circuit (IC), it is often the case that a functional description is converted into multiplexers. In some cases it would be more efficient to combine two or more multiplexers into a larger multiplexer to identify potential design problems in the original register transfer level (RTL). Such early detection can prevent routing congestion problem that would be too expensive to fix later. A large multiplexer is defined as a multiplexer having a number of inputs and control signals that is above a predetermined threshold. When such a multiplexing functionality is detected that function may be replaced in the circuit with a large multiplexer that would be a more efficient implementation. Accordingly the circuit is checked for existence of multiplexing functions, and merging, when possible, of such multiplexing functions to achieve the ability to instantiate the multiplexing functionality with a large multiplexer. |
| US08739086B2 |
Compiler for closed-loop 1×N VLSI design
Embodiments that design integrated circuits using a 1×N compiler in a closed-loop 1×N methodology are disclosed. Some embodiments create a physical design representation based on a behavioral representation of a design for an integrated circuit. The behavioral representation may comprise RTL HDL with one or more 1×N building blocks. The embodiments may alter elements of the 1×N building block by using logic design tools, synthesis tools, physical design tools, and timing analysis tools. Further embodiments comprise an apparatus having a first generator to generate a behavioral representation of a design for an integrated circuit, a second generator to generate a logical representation of the design, and a third generator to generate a physical design representation of the design, wherein the representation generators may create updated versions of the representations which reflect alterations made to 1×N building block elements. |
| US08739076B2 |
Method and apparatus for process window modeling
A photolithographic modeling process is disclosed. Optical and non-optical parts of a model of the photolithographic process are calibrated. With the non-optical part of the model one or more model corrections are determined between (i) modeled critical dimension data from an aerial image generated by the optical part of the model, and (ii) empirical critical dimension data from tangible structures made at only a first process combination of a first dose and a first defocus in the photolithographic process. Critical dimension data of the photolithographic process are predicted at a second process combination of a second dose and a second defocus in the photolithographic process. |
| US08739064B1 |
Thumbnail scaling based on display pane size
Methods and apparatus for thumbnail scaling based on display pane size. A computer-implemented method includes displaying a display pane and an image scaling tool on a display device. The display pane is subject to resizing and is displayed at a current width and height. The image scaling tool has two or more selectable positions. The method includes receiving one or more thumbnails. The method includes designating one of the thumbnails to be a reference thumbnail. The reference thumbnail is an image having a particular aspect ratio. The method includes calculating a maximum display width and height at which the reference thumbnail, without being cropped or having its aspect ratio altered, can fit in the display pane. The method includes calculating, for a first of the selectable positions, a target display width and a target display height, the calculation being based on the maximum display width height of the reference thumbnail. |
| US08739061B1 |
Method and apparatus for output of search results
Methods and systems for generating search results for output to a user. A number of “views” of search results may be provided each having particular formats. In a product search engine implementation, a grid view may be provided that allows multi-column display of product-related search results. In other implementations, a user may be able to select between multiple output modes/formats, and may even be able to select how search results should be output (e.g., what type and format of cues should be output for each search result). |
| US08739058B2 |
Sidebar engine, object model and schema
An engine is provided for displaying an application for hosting a second application. The hosting application can be a sidebar on a display. The engine can contain a part or program which can include a manifest file, a definition file and/or a script file. The manifest file may contain a pointer to at least one of the definition file and the script file. The engine may also contain a loader that can locate the definition file and/or script file (e.g., via pointers in the manifest file) and load the definition file and/or script files of the part for processing. The engine may also execute script associated with the part and convert an object model into a user interface which can be displayed at a predetermined location on a display or docked onto a sidebar. The user interface can further be manipulated or relocated within the sidebar or removed (i.e., undocked) from the sidebar. The sidebar may be exploded or imploded with the corresponding parts on the sidebar displayed on the desktop or another application (exploded) or returned to the sidebar (imploded). |
| US08739055B2 |
Correction of typographical errors on touch displays
Various embodiments related to the correction of typographical errors on touch displays are disclosed. One disclosed embodiment includes a portable computing device comprising a touch-sensitive display device, a logic subsystem, and memory comprising instructions executable by the logic subsystem to perform a method of correcting typographical errors displayed on the touch-sensitive display device. The instructions are executable to identify a typographical error within text displayed on the display, and upon identifying the typographical error, highlight on the display the typographical error. The instructions are further executable to detect a gesture-based touch input selecting a text replacement for correcting the typographical error, and, upon detecting the gesture-based touch input, if a release of the gesture-based touch input is detected within a predefined region associated with a location of the typographical error, then display on the display a replacement of the typographical error with the text replacement. |
| US08739053B2 |
Electronic device capable of transferring object between two display units and controlling method thereof
An electronic device includes a housing, a first display unit, a second display unit, a sensing input unit and a processor. The first display unit and the second display unit are both disposed on the housing. The sensing input unit is coupled to the first display unit and the second display unit, and is used for sensing and receiving a user input. The user input enables a transferring behavior of displaying a second object in the second display unit according to a first object displayed in the first display unit. The processor is coupled to the first display unit, the second display unit and the sensing input unit, and is used for controlling the second display unit according to the user input to display the second object. |
| US08739052B2 |
Media user interface layers and overlays
A method of overlaying layers of a user interface on a display of a computing device is presented herein. In a preferred embodiment, while a media item is displayed within the user interface, an overlay having features associated with the media item being displayed on the user interface is layered on top of the user interface such that the media item beneath the overlay layer is at least partially viewable through the overlay layer. |
| US08739037B1 |
Method and apparatus for promoting on-line activities using rules-based virtual worlds
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer and network software, and more particularly it relates to a computer system and method for promoting virtual world and specific on-line activities through rules, awards and other incentives. According to some aspects, the present invention maintains rules-based virtual world(s) and activities, wherein the rules are designed to allow users to achieve a certain status, skill and/or reputation level, and to reward them accordingly. Rewards can include access to certain virtual activities (e.g. interactive objects, games, etc.) and/or virtual spaces, possession of certain Virtual Collectibles, and other enhancements to their on-line experience. Rules and criteria can specify that such rewards are provided to users based on their skill level in virtual games hosted by system, the number and type of Virtual Collectibles they have already acquired, the reputation they have gained as traders or chatters within the virtual world(s), etc. According to certain other aspects of the invention, the rules and criteria for providing rewards are designed to promote further activity with the system and to directly and indirectly drive traffic to sites of partners. |
| US08739035B2 |
Controls and indicators with on-screen cognitive aids
The invention relates to an applet for a mobile computing device, comprising an element to detect user input and perform appropriate associated actions, and to provide a cognitive aid for users of the mobile computing device. The invention also relates to a method for controlling operation of a mobile computing device, comprising detecting user input and performing appropriate associated actions and providing a cognitive aid for users of the mobile computing device. The invention further relates to a cognitive aid for a mobile computing device having a display screen, the cognitive aid being displayed on the display screen and including an on-screen and/or an audio tip, and being associated with an input vehicle of the mobile computing device. The cognitive aid provides relevant information to the user regarding the input vehicle. The invention still further relates to a method for assisting users of a mobile computing device having a display screen. The method comprises providing a vehicle for user input to the mobile computing device and providing a cognitive aid on the display screen, the cognitive aid being associated with the user input vehicle. The cognitive aid provides relevant information to the user regarding the user input vehicle. |
| US08739032B2 |
Method and system for document presentation and analysis
A document analysis system receives multiple concepts along with multiple reference documents and generates sensory indicators that assist a researcher in assessing the relevance of each of the documents to the concepts. In one exemplary aspect, the document analysis system displays a table of keywords separated into blocks, each block of keywords corresponding to one of the concepts. Each block is colored according to the prevalence of any keyword within a given keyword group. The color of a block thus indicates the relative presence of a concept in the document. The document analysis system also determines a unique color for each block of keywords for highlighting in the text of the document. In this manner a researcher can quickly identify passages that contain multiple concepts. Additionally, the researcher is provided the ability to quickly locate reference characters, figure numbers and patent numbers in the document. |
| US08739030B2 |
Providing a quote template in a multi-tenant database system environment
In a method, system, and computer-readable medium having instructions for providing a quote template in a multi-tenant database system, information on a selection of a first database object is received for use in creation of a document template, representations for one or more database fields related to the first database object are displayed on a user interface and a database field related to the first database object has a database field of the first database object or a second database object related to the first database object and a representation of the database field may be selected on a layout for one or more documents that can be created with the document template, information is received on the layout of a document to be created with the document template and the layout of the document template has one or more selected database fields related to the first database object, and rendering information is generated for the document with information on the layout in the document template in a target format. |
| US08739028B2 |
Methods for producing user-configurable accented presentations
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for the production of accented presentations using pre-defined templates and material, which presentations may be in a printed or scrap-booked format. A server system may be made available to clients over a network, that server providing templates, patterns and associated material, the server providing a client with executable instructions enabling a user to make selections to a final accented presentation. The server system may receive an order including an identification of a template and user selections, and may include an interpretive and production system that fabricates a final accented presentation, or a part of fabrication and/or assembly thereof. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims. |
| US08739027B2 |
Methods and apparatus for enabling use of web content on various types of devices
A method and system for displaying web content on a device including the functionalities of requesting a web page by a user, in response to a user request, downloading the web page to a server, searching for at least one template for the web page on a database of the server, if a template is found for the web page, effecting best matching between the template and a plurality of information bearing regions on the web page and importing the plurality of information bearing regions to at least one device adapted page. |
| US08739026B2 |
Markup language schema error correction
The following is iteratively performed a number of times. Whether the markup language schema has an error is determined. Where the markup language schema has an error, the markup language schema is modified to attempt to correct the error. |
| US08739024B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing world wide web page
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for processing a World Wide Web (WWW) page, which includes: determining at least one website to be optimized; generating a corresponding page template for each of WWW pages with different types in each website, and storing the page template; grabbing WWW pages from each website, matching each grabbed WWW page with a page template, filtering redundant HTML data from the WWW page according to a matching result, and storing the filtered WWW page; after receiving a request sent by a terminal for accessing a WWW page, determining whether there is a stored filtered WWW page corresponding to the WWW page requested by the terminal, if yes, returning the filtered WWW page to the terminal. Embodiments of the present invention also provide an apparatus for processing a WWW page. With the scheme of the present invention, redundant information may be efficiently eliminated. |
| US08739023B2 |
Utilizing a graphical transition to sort an interface element independently of a document object model
One or more elements can be rendered within a canvas of an interface. The elements can be associated with an element attribute and an element data. The elements can be user interface elements. The elements can be associated with a document object model of a markup language document. The interface can be a Web browser. The elements can be visually sorted differently via a graphical transition effect. The transition effect can execute to sort the elements without modifying objects of the document object model, without changing the elements as specified in a mark document being rendered, and without changing the element data of the elements being sorted. |
| US08739021B2 |
Version history inside document
Architecture that provides a technique whereby version information is tracked and presented for a given document, in the document. The version information can be presented or accessed using a dropdown user interface (UI) navigation model which employs animation to assist users in tracking which user is making a change and when the change is made. Moreover, a user can select a specific version item to navigate back to the content associated with changes made, as part of collaboration, for example. The dropdown menu includes elements that comprise user tiles, user name, last saved date, and so on. Additionally, a user can jump between documents within a single UI. In an email embodiment, users communicating via email as part of the collaboration can be presented with a side-by-side view of the messages communicated during the collaboration, and the corresponding change to the document content. |
| US08739020B2 |
Enhanced favorites service for web browsers and web applications
The invention provides two enhancements for the use of favorites during a Web browsing session. A first enhancement identifies when a user is adding a favorite to his favorites list and auto-suggests a category under which the favorite could be stored. A second enhancement allows a user to review his favorites list and see a summary of feed content (RSS or other standard) on each feed enabled page on his favorites list, without requiring the user to link to the page in question. |
| US08739018B2 |
System and method for loading and playing
A system and method for loading and playing multimedia information are disclosed. A navigator sends a series of play orders that each play order demands for playing a corresponding multimedia segment. A playing engine demands a loader to provide the corresponding multimedia segment according to related play order. A decoder is used to decode the provided multimedia segment for playback. Each play order may be delivered even the multimedia segment corresponding to its previous play order has not been played completely yet. The information discontinuity disadvantage can be eliminated since there is a smooth multimedia information stream provided for the decoder. |
| US08739017B2 |
Method, system, apparatus and content model for the creation, management, storage, and presentation of dynamic objects
The invention includes structures and schema for organizing and inter-relating objects, data, or files, including relational, network, hierarchical, and entity-relationship models, among others, that are dynamic, that is changing with time. This includes manipulating structures by conversion, compression, compaction, and compilation, for various purposes. Also included is generating structures for storing, organizing, and managing dynamic objects for retrieval and presentation.A discussion group for collaborative participants is also provided. A time-based dynamic object within a plurality of stored dynamic objects is stored. Each dynamic objects comprises a plurality of predefined attribute fields. Requested dynamic objects are assembled in real time so that the requested dynamic objects are displayed on the basis of the start-time attribute field of each requested dynamic object. A different threaded discussion associated with the each displayed requested dynamic object is provided with each displayed requested dynamic object based on the displayed requested dynamic object's start time. |
| US08739014B2 |
Method for determining transport block size and signal transmission method using the same
A method and device for determining a size of a transport block based on modulation and coding related information, and resource information. |
| US08739011B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting communication errors on a bus
A semiconductor memory includes multi-mode reporting signals, a state register, and parity detectors. The parity detector determines whether signals received on a communication bus contain a desired parity. The multi-mode reporting signals enable reporting of communication faults without adding additional signals to the semiconductor memory by being configured in a normal operating mode or a parity fault mode for reporting communication faults to an external memory controller. The state register enables storing of received values from the communication bus. With the state register, a memory controller may determine correctly received signal patterns and failing signal patterns. Parity may be defined as even or odd and may be generated based on various signal configurations. The embodiments may be configured as a computing system comprising a processor, an input device, an output device, the memory controller, and at least one semiconductor memory. |
| US08739008B2 |
Method for determining parity check matrix utilized in flash memory system and related flash memory system thereof
A method for determining a parity check matrix utilized in a flash memory system is disclosed. The parity check matrix comprises M×N blocks. The method includes generating a first set of candidate blocks as candidates of a first set of blocks of the M×N blocks; calculating a plurality of first estimated results corresponding to the first set of candidate blocks; determining content of a first block of the M×N blocks according to a best result of the first estimated results; generating a second set of candidate blocks as candidates of a second set of blocks of the M×N blocks; calculating a plurality of second estimated results corresponding to the second set of candidate blocks by considering the content of the first block; determining content a second block of the M×N blocks according to the second estimated results. |
| US08739007B2 |
Chien search using multiple basis representation
A method for decoding an Error Correction Code (ECC) includes accepting coefficients, including at least first and second coefficients, of an Error Locator Polynomial (ELP) that is defined over a vector space and has at least one root that is indicative of a location of an error in a set of bits, which represent data that has been encoded with the ECC. The first coefficient is represented using a first basis of the vector space, and the second coefficient is represented using a second basis of the vector space, different from the first basis. Using processing circuitry, the root of the ELP is identified by applying algebraic operations to the coefficients, such that the algebraic operations are applied to the first coefficient using the first basis, and to the second coefficient using the second basis. The error is corrected responsively to the identified root of the ELP. |
| US08739004B2 |
Symbol flipping LDPC decoding system
Various embodiments of the present inventions provide a symbol flipping LDPC decoding system. For example, a symbol flipping data processing system is disclosed that includes a low density parity check decoder operable to decode codewords and to identify unsatisfied parity checks, a symbol flipping controller operable to change values of at least one symbol in the codewords based on the unsatisfied parity checks to assist the low density parity check decoder to decode the codewords, a scheduler operable to control a decoding and symbol flipping mode in the low density parity check decoder and the symbol flipping controller, and a hard decision queue operable to store hard decisions for converged codewords from the low density parity check decoder. |
| US08739001B2 |
LDPC encoding and decoding techniques
An improved LDPC encoding and encoding and associated architectures therefor are described. In one exemplary embodiment, a set of parity bits (p) are generated from a set of information bits (s), by storing information related to z×z sub-matrices of a first sub-matrix and of a second sub-matrix corresponding to a first and a second portion of a parity check matrix H of an LDPC code, to allow representation of the parity check matrix in a compressed form and by generating the set of parity bits p by appropriately multiplying, shifting and accumulating subsets from the set of information bits s based on the stored information, without decompressing the parity check matrix. Further relevant techniques are also described. |
| US08738996B1 |
Method and system for ceasing access to memory cells of flash memory when less than a maximum number of correctable errors for an error correction code exists
A system includes a flash memory, an encoder, a first interface, a decoder and a controller. The encoder is configured to (i) receive data, and (ii) encode the data based on an error correction code. The first interface is configured to (i) write the encoded data to a memory cells in the flash memory, and (ii) read the encoded data back from the memory cells. The decoder is configured to (i) decode the encoded data read back from the memory cells, and (ii) based on the decoded data, determine a number of decoding errors for the plurality of memory cells. The controller is configured to, in response to the number of decoding errors being greater than or equal to a first threshold, cease accessing the memory cells. The first threshold is less than a maximum number of errors correctable by the error correction code for the memory cells. |
| US08738995B2 |
Memory subsystem having a first portion to store data with error correction code information and a second portion to store data without error correction code information
A system comprising a memory subsystem having at least one memory device, and a memory controller to control access of the memory subsystem, wherein the memory controller is configured to store data with error correction code (ECC) information in a first portion of the memory subsystem, and to store data without ECC information in a second portion of the memory subsystem. |
| US08738989B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting free page and a method and apparatus for decoding error correction code using the method and apparatus for detecting free page
A method and apparatus for detecting a free page of a memory device, and a method and apparatus for decoding an error correction code by using the method and apparatus for detecting a free page are provided. Free page data read from the memory is converted into a converted codeword for inclusion as an element of an error correction code field. The converted codeword is compared to an initially set target codeword to detect an amount of non-identical bits. A page read from the memory is determined to be a free page when the amount of non-identical bits is equal to or less than an initially set threshold value. |
| US08738988B2 |
Data sending/receiving method with forward error correction and related component and system for gigabit ethernet
A method for sending data from a transmitter to a receiver in a transmission network comprising receiving outgoing data that is eight-bits-ten-bits (8b10b) encoded at a Gigabit Ethernet (GE) line rate from a physical medium attachment (PMA) layer, 8b10b decoding the received outgoing data, 64-bits-to-66-bits (64b66b) encoding the 8b10b decoded outgoing data, forward error correction (FEC) encoding the 64b66b encoded outgoing data, and serializing and sending the 64b66b and FEC encoded outgoing data at the GE line rate to a physical medium dependent (PMD) layer. |
| US08738986B2 |
Remote presentation over lossy transport with forward error correction
In various embodiments, methods and systems are disclosed for integrating a remote presentation protocol with a datagram based transport. In one embodiment, an integrated protocol is configured to support lossless or reduced loss transport based on Retransmission (ARQ) combined with Forward Error Correction (FEC). The protocol involves encoding and decoding of data packets including feedback headers and FEC packets, continuous measurement of RTT, RTO and packet delay, dynamically evaluating loss probability to determine and adjust the ratio of FEC, congestion management based on dynamically detecting increase in packet delay, and fast data transmission rate ramp-up based on detecting a decrease in packet delay. |
| US08738983B2 |
Methods and arrangements in a wireless communications system
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements that enable continuous adaptive control of the number of autonomous HARQ retransmissions. This is achieved by a solution, where the UE and the radio base station are using a number of autonomous HARQ retransmissions that can be adjusted based on observations in the UE and/or the radio base station. What is observed is the amount of HARQ retransmissions needed for the radio base station to correctly decode the latest received data packet(s). |
| US08738980B2 |
Transmission controlling method, sender apparatus and receiver apparatus for wireless communication system
A transmission controlling method for a wireless communication system wherein a plurality of data blocks can be transmitted from a sender apparatus having a plurality of sending antennas to a receiver apparatus, the transmission controlling method including on the sender apparatus, sending process information which prevent plurality of data blocks from competing to the receiver apparatus with a control channel; and on the receiver apparatus, combining, based on the process information, the data block received already and a re-sent data block. |
| US08738974B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device and memory controller
The memory controller writes and reads data in and from a nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory has a plurality of memory cell blocks, each memory cell block includes a plurality of multi-level cells each capable of storing m-bit data (m is a natural number of two or more), a first page to a m-th page are allocated to the respective m bits of the multi-level cell, the memory controller sequentially writes the data to the memory cells from the first page in ascending order, and comprises a backup unit, and when a write command is received from the outside of the memory controller, in a case where a data write destination of the data in the nonvolatile memory is a n-th (n is a natural number of two to m) page of the multi-level cell, and data is already written in the first to (n-1)th pages, the backup unit copies the already written data to a nonvolatile storable backup region. |
| US08738972B1 |
Systems and methods for real-time monitoring of virtualized environments
A method of root cause analysis in a virtual machine environment includes receiving a plurality of events from a system monitoring the virtualized environment. The events may include alarms or alerts, such as alarms or alerts associated with a resource reaching or exceeding a threshold. The capacity manager consumes these events and performs event correlation to produce a set of correlated events. The capacity manager performs a root cause analysis on the set of correlated events to identify one or more root causes. The capacity manager further performs an impact analysis to determine how the root cause impacts the system, such as other virtual machines, hosts or resource in the virtual environment. Based on the root cause and impact analysis, the capacity manager makes one or more recommendations to address issues with or to improve the operations and/or performance of the virtualized environment. |
| US08738970B2 |
Generating performance alerts
A method for generating performance alerts in a database system. The method includes collecting a predefined set of performance data, and comparing the performance data to one or more predefined thresholds. The method also includes determining if any of the performance data exceeds the one or more predefined thresholds, and generating an alert if any of the data exceeds one of the predefined thresholds. |
| US08738968B2 |
Configuration based service availability analysis of AMF managed systems
An Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration describes how configuration entities of a highly available system are grouped and includes information on service provision and service protection policies against resource failure. The AMF configuration defines a set of failure types for each component and each node, and specifies a failure rate and a recommended recovery for each failure type. A method for evaluating service availability receives the AMF configuration as input, and analyzes it to obtain an actual recovery that the highly available system is to perform when the given component fails. The method maps the AMF configuration to a stochastic model that captures the dependencies among the components and among the configuration entities at multiple levels of the hierarchy. The method utilizes the model to calculate the service availability of the AMF configuration based on the failure rate, the actual recovery and the dependencies. |
| US08738965B2 |
Test method and test device for restarting a computer based on a hardware information comparison and a restart count
A test method for restarting a computing device communicating with a remote computer. The computing device is shut down and awakened by the remote computer. A second hardware information of the computing device after restarting the operating system of the computing device is compared with initial hardware information of the computing device when the computing device is initial started. Test results are stored to a predetermined storage path and displayed on a screen after the test ends. |
| US08738963B2 |
Methods and apparatus for managing error codes for storage systems coupled with external storage systems
A system comprising a plurality of storage systems, which uses storage devices of multiple levels of reliability. The reliability as a whole system is increased by keeping the error code for the relatively low reliability storage disks in the relatively high reliability storage system. The error code is calculated using hash functions and the value is used to compare with the hash value of the data read from the relatively low reliability storage disks. |
| US08738960B2 |
Local protection method of ethernet tunnel and sharing node of work sections of protection domain
The invention discloses a segment protection method for an Ethernet tunnel, there are two segment protection domains with a shared link in a Provider Backbone Bridge-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) network, and at least one of the two segment protection domains works in a non-revertive mode, and when a simultaneous failures of working segments of two segment protection domains recover or a failure of the shared node of the working segments recovers, the shared node of the working segments switches all the FDB entries of bidirectional ESPs of all the TESIs protected by the protection domains to standby entries, and after switching, out ports of the FDB entries of the ESPs are the ports connecting the shared segment. The invention also discloses a shared node of working segments of protection domains correspondingly. The invention is able to ensure that the bidirectional ESPs are co-routed after the failure recovering. |
| US08738958B2 |
Recovery node testing
There is disclosed a recovery node testing system and method. The system and method include copying a protected server image associated with a protected server to a test node and creating a test environment for the test node, the test environment including at least one of the network characteristics of the protected server. The test node may then be activated using the protected server image which may then be connected to the virtual network. Once connected, at least one test is performed on the test node to confirm that the protected server image operating on the test node responds in the same manner as the protected server. |
| US08738956B2 |
Method and apparatus for updating a fractional time interval using time-domain interpolators in optical communications
An apparatus comprising an analog-to-digital converter (ADC); a frequency-domain equalizer (FDEQ); a time-domain interpolator positioned between the ADC and the FDEQ, wherein the time domain interpolator is coupled to the ADC and the FDEQ and configured to perform a time-domain interpolation to compensate a signal sample for a plurality of ADC induced changes. |
| US08738954B2 |
Power source circuit and control method thereof
There is provided a power source circuit (100) which supplies power from a first power source (1) when the first power source that stops feeding upon consumption of a current of a predetermined value or more, and a second power source (9) lower in voltage than the first power source are connected simultaneously. The power source circuit includes a switching unit (5) which controls power supply from a control unit (2) for controlling feeding from the first power source, a charge accumulation unit (3) which accumulates charges between the control unit and the switching unit, and a charging detection unit (4) which outputs, to the switching unit, a signal for performing the power supply when it is detected that the difference between a voltage charged in the charge accumulation unit and a feed voltage from the control unit is equal to or smaller than a designated value. |
| US08738946B2 |
Method for an os to disable a graphics adapter and lock inputs when tablet display is detached on a hybrid laptop
A computer and a method for controlling an operating state of a device thereof are disclosed. The method comprises: detecting that a display portion and a host portion of the computer are in a state of being disconnected from each other; and generating a state event or a control instruction corresponding to the disconnected state for switching the device to an inactive state. With the present invention, when the state of a computer changes, e.g., when a display portion and a host portion of a portable computer are separated, an operating system can control a device to switch its operating state, e.g., deactivate the device, based on a generated state event. In this way, it is possible to avoid unnecessary power consumption of the entire computer due to the active state of the device, and any potential security risk can be eliminated. |
| US08738939B2 |
System and method for testing WOL function of computers
In a system and method for testing a wake-up on LAN (WOL) function of a computer, the computer connects to a server through a local area network (LAN). The system constructs a network connection between the server and the computer according to an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address and a name of the computer, and enables the computer in a wake-up mode when the server connects to the computer through the LAN. A wake-up command is generated for waking up a WOL function of the computer, the computer performs a WOL function test process according to the wake-up command. The sever detects a current status of the computer from a data packet when the data packet is received from the computer, and records the current status as a test result of the WOL function of the computer. |
| US08738935B1 |
Verified erasure of data implemented on distributed systems
Systems, methods and related processes for securely erasing and/or rendering permanently inaccessible data stored on storage systems securely erased is described. Such storage systems may, in some aspects, integrate hardware capable of secure erasure. In some aspects, a cryptographically-based system is utilized. |
| US08738933B2 |
Archive system, management apparatus, and control method
A user terminal reads out an encrypted content from a removable memory medium, assigns data forming the read encrypted content to the same hash function, and computes a first hash value. The management apparatus acquires the computed first hash value and management information from the user terminal, reads out, from a management information memory that stores a second hash value previously computed by assigning data forming the encrypted content retaining its authenticity to the hash function in association with the management information, the corresponding second hash value by using the acquired management information as a retrieval key, authenticates whether the acquired first hash value and the second hash value are identical, and permits a decryption process when the authentication result is an authentication success. |
| US08738932B2 |
System and method for processor-based security
A system and method for processor-based security is provided, for on-chip security and trusted computing services for software applications. A processor is provided having a processor core, a cache memory, a plurality of registers for storing at least one hash value and at least one encryption key, a memory interface, and at least one on-chip instruction for creating a secure memory area in a memory external to the processor, and a hypervisor program executed by the processor. The hypervisor program instructs the processor to execute the at least one on-chip instruction to create a secure memory area for a software area for a software module, and the processor encrypts data written to, and decrypts data read from, the external memory using the at least one encryption key and the verifying data read from the external memory using the at least one hash value. Secure module interactions are provided, as well as the generation of a power-on key which can be used to protect memory in the event of a re-boot event. Lightweight, run-time attestation reports are generated which include selected information about software modules executed by the processors, for use in determining whether the processor is trusted to provide secure services. |
| US08738927B2 |
Arrangement for and method of protecting a data processing device against an attack or analysis
In order to further develop an arrangement for as well as a method of protecting at least one data processing device, in particular at least one embedded system, for example at least one chip card or smart card, against at least one attack, in particular against at least one side-channel attack, for example against at least one current trace analysis, the data processing device, in particular at least one integrated circuit of the data processing device, carrying out calculations, in particular cryptographic operations wherein an attack, for example an E[lectro]M[agnetic] radiation attack, or an analysis, for example a D[ifferential]P[ower]A[nalysis], such attack or such analysis in particular targeted on finding out a private key, is to be securely averted, it is proposed to blind all intermediate results of the calculations by at least one random variable, without inverting any operand of the calculations. |
| US08738926B2 |
Data processing system, method for executing a cryptographic algorithm and method for preparing execution of a cryptographic algorithm
A data processing system including a memory configured to store confidential data and non-confidential data; a cache memory which is configured to cache data stored in the memory and which comprises a first cache memory region and a second cache memory region; a processing circuit configured to carry out, in a first state of the data processing system, a cryptographic algorithm which operates on the confidential data and on the non-confidential data, wherein the confidential data are cached using the first cache memory region and the non-confidential data are cached using the second cache memory region; and an invalidating circuit configured to invalidate the first cache memory region when the data processing system switches from the first state into a second state. |
| US08738924B2 |
Electronic system and digital right management methods thereof
An electronic system is provided, in which a smart chip, a smart chip controller, a processor, a system memory, and an access management module is provided. The smart chip controller communicates with the smart chip. The processor performs a mutual authentication with the smart chip. The system memory is accessible to the smart chip and the processor. The access management module is coupled between the processor and the smart chip controller. The access management module prevents the processor accessing a certain range of the system memory according to a block command from the smart chip controller, in response of that the mutual authentication between the processor and the smart chip is failed. |
| US08738918B2 |
Document evidence and article retrieval and identification system
The invention involves document evidence and article retrieval and identification system which provides solution to track a document, or article within a control environment. This solution provides the integrated human identity, embedded tracking devices into physical evidence record to enable tracking of movement by authorized person or personnel. The system is capable to capture and track the activities life cycle of the document, evidence, file or article life cycle using the tracking management system server. This invention provide highly security feature to integrate human identity for access authentication interrogative with the confidential document or evidence or file or article. |
| US08738915B2 |
System and method for establishing perpetual trust among platform domains
A method may include generating a first shared secret for a present boot session of the information handling system and determining if a second shared secret existed for a prior boot session of the information handling system. If the second shared secret existed for the prior boot session, the method may include encrypting the first shared secret with the second shared secret and communicating the first shared secret encrypted by the second shared secret from a first information handling resource to a second information handling resource. If the second shared secret did not exist for the prior boot session, the method may include communicating the first shared secret unencrypted from the first information handling resource to the second information handling resource. The method may additionally include securely communicating between the first information handling resource and the second information handling resource using the first shared secret for encryption and decryption. |
| US08738908B2 |
System and method for web-based security authentication
A security authentication method comprises establishing a user account associated with a login credential, generating an encryption salt, generating graphical key images of a plurality of sequences of values each beginning at a random point, generating encrypted key values by encrypting each value in the plurality of sequences using the generated encryption salt, incorporating the graphical key images and encrypted key values into a displayable input form, receiving user input including a plurality of encrypted key values, generating decrypted key values by decrypting the encrypted key values of the user input using the encryption salt, and verifying that the decrypted key values match the login credential. |
| US08738907B2 |
Wireless device authentication and security key management
A method and wireless device for updating at least one cryptographic security key (116) associated with a wireless device (104) and an authentication module (108). An over-the-air programming message comprising security key update information is received (804) from an information processing system (118). The security key update information is processed (808). At least one new security key is extracted from the security key update information in response to the processing (806). At least one existing security key (116) is updated with the at least one new security key (124) that has been extracted. |
| US08738906B1 |
Traffic classification and control on a network node
A system may identify one or more attributes associated with traffic. The system may then determine that at least one attribute, of the one or more attributes, matches an attribute of a set of attributes that correspond to a set of categories of traffic. Based on determining that the at least one attribute matches the attribute of the set of attributes, the system may identify a category, of the set of categories, that corresponds to the attribute. The system may associate the category with the traffic, and process the traffic based on the associated category. |
| US08738903B2 |
Method for identifying mobile station
A data transmission and reception method for ensuring privacy and security and a method for identifying a Mobile Station (MS), while ensuring the location privacy of the MS in a wireless access system are disclosed. The MS identification method includes transmitting a ranging request message including a hashed Medium Access Control (MAC) address to a Base Station (BS), for initial ranging, and receiving a ranging response message including a temporary station Identifier (ID) from the BS. The temporary station ID is used to provide security to a MAC address or station ID by which the BS uniquely identifies the MS. |
| US08738894B2 |
Methods for firmware signature
A method for installing embedded firmware is provided. The method includes generating one or more firmware file instances and generating one or more digital certificate instances that are separate instances from the firmware file instances. The method includes associating the one or more digital certificate instances with the one or more firmware file instances to facilitate updating signature-unaware modules with signature-aware firmware or to facilitate updating signature-aware modules with signature-unaware firmware. |
| US08738892B2 |
Very long instruction word (VLIW) computer having efficient instruction code format
A Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processor having an instruction set with a reduced size resulting in a small number of bits being necessary to specify registers. The VLIW processor includes a register file, and first through third operation units, and executes a very long instruction word. Further, the very long instruction word includes a register specifying field which specifies a least one of the registers in the register file and a plurality of instructions. The operand of each instruction includes bits src1, src2, and dst, which indicate whether or not the registers specified by the register specifying field are to be used as the source register and the destination register. |
| US08738891B1 |
Methods and systems for command acceleration in a video processor via translation of scalar instructions into vector instructions
A method for implementing command acceleration. The method includes receiving a first set of instructions from a first processor, wherein the first set of instructions are formatted in accordance with a microarchitecture of the first processor. The first set of instructions are translated into a second set of instructions, wherein the second set of instructions are formatted in accordance with a microarchitecture of a second processor. The second set instructions are then transmitted to the second processor for execution by the second processor. |
| US08738889B2 |
Generating multiple address space identifiers per virtual machine to switch between protected micro-contexts
Embodiments of an invention for generating multiple address space identifiers per virtual machine to switch between protected micro-contexts are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an instruction requiring an address translation; initiating, in response to receiving the instruction, a page walk from a page table pointed to by the contents of a page table pointer storage location; finding, during the page walk, a transition entry; storing the address translation and one of a plurality of address source identifiers in a translation lookaside buffer, the one of the plurality of address source identifiers based on one of a plurality of a virtual partition identifiers, at least two of the plurality of virtual partition identifiers associated with one of a plurality of virtual machines; and re-initiating the page walk. |
| US08738888B2 |
Memory control device, memory device, and memory control method
The memory control device according to the present invention includes a command generating unit which divides the memory access request issued by the master into access commands each of which is for one of the memory devices, a command issuing units which issue each of the access commands to the memory devices, a data control unit which switches data between a master and memories, and the command generating unit switch between control for outputting an identical physical address to the memory units and control for outputting different physical addresses to the memory devices, depending on when the physical addresses of the memory devices are identical and when the physical addresses of the memory devices are different, each of the memory devices corresponds to one of the divided access commands. |
| US08738886B2 |
Memory mapping in a processor having multiple programmable units
A processor is disclosed that can map a request from a central processing unit that uses memory-mapped input-output space to a second processing domain, such as a multithreaded processing domain. A request addressed to the input-output space of the central processing unit is converted to a corresponding command that simulates an operation between components in the multithreaded processing domain. The command is executed in the multithreaded processing domain. Information is accessed according to the request in response to executing the command. |
| US08738881B2 |
Performance optimization system, method and program
Provided is a performance optimization system that can identify a case where the impact on performance is large even when the number of cache misses is small. The performance optimization system includes: a required-period-of-time measurement unit that measures a required period of time concerning a to-be-observed access; a required-period-of-time table holding unit that holds a required-period-of-time table that consists of a plurality of table entries in which stored are measured values of the required period of time for each of classification regions produced by dividing a memory region for each of types based on the to-be-observed access to store a measured value of the required period of time; a table entry selection unit that makes a selection as to in which table entry, out of a plurality of table entries for each of the classification regions that make up the required-period-of-time table, the measured value of the required period of time is stored on the basis of the to-be-observed access; and a cache miss observation unit that detects the occurrence of a cache miss associated with the to-be-observed access. |
| US08738875B2 |
Increasing memory capacity in power-constrained systems
A system, and computer program product for increasing a capacity of a memory are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Using an application executing using a processor wherein the memory includes a set of ranks, the memory is configured to form a cold tier and a hot tier, the cold tier including a first subset of ranks from the set of ranks in the memory, and the hot tier including a second subset of ranks from the set of ranks in the memory. A determination is made whether a page to which a memory access request is directed is located in the cold tier in the memory. In response to the page being located in the cold tier of the memory, the processing of the memory access request is throttled by processing the memory access request with a delay. |
| US08738873B2 |
Interfacing with a point-in-time copy service architecture
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for interfacing with point-in-time copy service architecture to create a point-in-time copy of a volume in a storage used by an application. A point-in-time copy request is processed to perform a point-in-time copy with respect to the volume in the storage, wherein the request indicates at least one exit, wherein the exit indicates when the exit is to be invoked with respect to an operation of the point-in-time copy and indicates a location of an executable object to execute when the exit is invoked. Communicating with the point-in-time copy service to prepare for the point-in-time copy. For each exit, determining from the exit when to invoke the exit and executing the executable object for the exit to invoke to perform operations related to the point-in-time copy. The point-in-time copy service is called to perform the point-in-time copy operation of the volume. |
| US08738867B2 |
Memory system
A memory system includes a volatile first storing unit, a nonvolatile second storing unit, and a controller. The controller performs data transfer, stores management information including a storage position of data stored in the second storing unit into the first storing unit, and performs data management while updating the management information. The second storing unit stores management information in a latest state and a storage position of the management information. The storage position information is read by the controller during a startup operation of the memory system and includes a second pointer indicating a storage position of the management information in a latest state and a first pointer indicating a storage position of the second pointer. The first pointer is stored in a fixed area in the second storing unit and the second pointer is stored in an area excluding the fixed area in the second storing unit. |
| US08738865B1 |
Identification of data stored in memory
Systems and methods for identification of data stored in memory are provided. A data packet is received and a first packet byte within the data packet is compared to a first memory byte within a memory. A mismatch is determined between the first packet byte and the first memory byte. A memory location is jumped to that contains a second memory byte that is non-consecutive with the first memory byte. A packet location is jumped to that contains a second packet byte that is non-consecutive with the first packet byte. The second packet byte is compared to the second memory byte. A retrieval instruction is generated based at least in part on a result of the comparison between the second packet byte and the second memory byte. Various embodiments may be included in a network memory architecture to allow for faster data matching and instruction generation in a central appliance. |
| US08738862B2 |
Transactional memory system with efficient cache support
Embodiments related to a transaction program. An aspect includes, based on determining that one instruction is part of an active atomic instruction group (AIG), determining whether a private-to-transaction (PTRAN) bit associated with an address of the one instruction in a main memory is set, the PTRAN bit being located in a main memory comprising a plurality of memory increments each having a respective directly addressable PTRAN bit in the main memory. Another aspect includes, based on determining that the PTRAN bit is not set: setting the PTRAN bit; adding a new entry to a cache structure and a transaction table including an old data state of the address of the one instruction stored in the cache structure and control information stored in the transaction table; and completing the one instruction as part of the active AIG. |
| US08738857B1 |
System and method for improving cache performance
A method, computer program product, and computing system for receiving a read request on a first cache system, wherein the read request identifies previously-written content included within a data array. A read request content identifier associated with the previously-written content identified in the read request is received from the data array. The read request content identifier associated with the previously-written content identified in the read request is compared to a plurality of content identifiers included within a content directory for the first cache system to determine if a matching content identifier exists. Each of the plurality of content identifiers is associated with a piece of previously-written content included within the first cache system. |
| US08738854B2 |
Storage apparatus and control method of storage apparatus
A start time of recovery processing performed during a fall-back operation of the RAID can be flexibly controlled. A storage apparatus including an I/O processing unit that receives a data input/output request sent from an information processing device communicatively coupled to the I/O processing unit, and performs reading and writing of data from and to storage drives, includes: a priority storage unit that stores a priority set to each RAID group; a failure information storage unit that acquires and stores information on a failure occurred in the storage drives; a blockage processing unit that determines whether or not to block each of the storage drive based on the information on the failure, and blocks the storage drive that is determined to be blocked; a start time calculation unit that calculates a start time for starting recovery processing to delete a fall-back state of the RAID group to which the blocked storage drive belongs according to the priority set to the RAID group; and a recovery processing execution unit that starts the recovery processing at the start time. |
| US08738851B2 |
Device and memory system for swappable memory
An integrated memory management device according to an example of the invention comprises an acquiring unit acquiring a read destination logical address from a processor, an address conversion unit converting the read destination logical address into a read destination physical address of a non-volatile main memory, an access unit reading, from the non-volatile main memory, data that corresponds to the read destination physical address and has a size that is equal to a block size or an integer multiple of the page size of the non-volatile main memory, and transmission unit transferring the read data to a cache memory of the processor having a cache size that depends on the block size or the integer multiple of the page size of the non-volatile main memory. |
| US08738849B2 |
Method and system for enhanced performance in serial peripheral interface
A method of conducting an operation in an integrated circuit having a plurality of memory cells includes receiving an operating command for the memory cells and receiving a first address segment associated with the memory cells in at least one clock cycle after receiving the operating command. The method further includes receiving a first performance enhancement indicator in at least one clock cycle after ending the first address segment while before starting to transfer data, for determining whether an enhanced operation is to be performed. |
| US08738846B2 |
File system-aware solid-state storage management system
A file system-aware SSD management system including an SSD management module that incorporates both file system information and information related to the underlying physical solid-state storage media into its operations is described. Also described are related methods for performing data management operations in a file system-aware manner. By incorporating both file system and physical storage information, the system may achieve various advantages over conventional systems, such as enhanced I/O performance, simplified SSD firmware, and extended SSD lifespan. Moreover, by moving solid-state management functions above the firmware level, the system may enable the simultaneous management of a pool of multiple SSDs. |
| US08738840B2 |
Operating system based DRAM/FLASH management scheme
A memory system is provided. The system includes an operating system kernel that regulates read and write access to one or more FLASH memory devices that are employed for random access memory applications. A buffer component operates in conjunction with the kernel to regulate read and write access to the one or more FLASH devices. |
| US08738837B2 |
Control of page access in memory
The present techniques provide systems and methods of controlling access to more than one open page in a memory component, such as a memory bank. Several components may request access to the memory banks. A controller can receive the requests and open or close the pages in the memory bank in response to the requests. In some embodiments, the controller assigns priority to some components requesting access, and assigns a specific page in a memory bank to the priority component. Further, additional available pages in the same memory bank may also be opened by other priority components, or by components with lower priorities. The controller may conserve power, or may increase the efficiency of processing transactions between components and the memory bank by closing pages after time outs, after transactions are complete, or in response to a number of requests received by masters. |
| US08738832B1 |
Microgrid apparatus with central area containing plural processors communicating via respective wireless connection point or bi-directional bus with module in docking bays defined by radial arms
A micro grid apparatus and a method for forming the micro grid apparatus. A selected complex shape is placed on a circuit board. At least two irregular shaped modules are selected. Each selected irregular shaped module is inserted into a respective docking bay of the complex shape to form the micro grid apparatus on the circuit board. The micro grid apparatus includes a central area and at least three radial arms connected to the central area. The radial arms are external to and integral with the central area. Each radial arm extends radially outward from the central area. Each pair of adjacent radial arms defines a docking bay. The central area includes at least two processors that are linked together wirelessly or by direct electrical connection. The at least two processors are linked wirelessly or by direct electrical connection to each inserted irregular shaped module. |
| US08738829B2 |
Information system for replacing failed I/O board with standby I/O board
An information system includes a configuration controller board having a capability to set, to each I/O bus bridge device in the alternative I/O board, the logical bus number set in corresponding I/O bus bridge device in the failed I/O board 20, and to set to the I/O bus bridge device in the system board 10 connected with the alternative I/O board, the same downstream side logical bus number as that of the I/O bus bridge device in the system board connected with the failed I/O board. |
| US08738826B2 |
System and method for display mirroring
A computing system that supports the use of multiple displays in display mirroring mode and extended display mode may automatically determine a display mode in which to configure the system (with little or no user input) based on various characteristics of the displays in the system. For example, the system may determine that a television, projector, or other presentation type display is connected in the system, and in response, may determine that the system should be configured in a display mirroring mode, rather than in an extended display mode. The system may also determine that the presentation type display is the preferred display, and may render image content in a best (or preferred) mode for that display using its native resolution, aspect ratio or color profile. The system may then scale the rendered image content for display on other (non-preferred) displays, such as an internal display, without re-rendering it. |
| US08738816B2 |
Management of detected devices coupled to a host machine
In one embodiment, a method includes detecting a coupling of a device to an interface of the host machine. The method also includes determining, through an operating system of the host machine whether the device coupled to the interface of the host machine is same as another device that is formerly coupled to the interface of the host machine as indicated in a topology file of the operating system. In addition, the method includes modifying the topology file maintained in the operating system to remove a mapping information of the other device that is formerly coupled with the interface of the host machine in the topology file to logically decouple the other device from the interface of the host machine and to add a mapping information of the device coupled with the interface in the topology file to logically couple the device with the interface of the host machine. |
| US08738815B2 |
System and method for virtualizing the peripherals in a terminal device to enable remote management via removable portable media with processing capability
Systems and methods for virtualizing the peripherals in a wireless device to enable remote management via removable portable media with processing capability are described. One aspect may include a system for virtualizing a peripheral device of a wireless device from a media device, the system comprising a media device, including a first memory; a processor coupled to said first memory; and a virtualization device controller interface remote layer adapted to run on said processor and first memory, wherein said virtualization device controller interface remote layer is adapted to communicate with a peripheral device of the wireless device. |
| US08738813B1 |
Method and apparatus for round trip synchronous replication using SCSI reads
The SCSI WRITE command is a two round trip protocol, which introduces significant latency in synchronous replication environments. Example embodiments of the present invention overcome these and other deficiencies by using SCSI READ commands from the replication site to the production site instead of using SCSI WRITE commands from the production site to the replication site to decrease latency in a synchronous replication environment. SCSI READ commands are single round trip commands. Thus, the number of round trips required to complete each I/O is reduced from two round trips to one round trip by maintaining at least one SCSI READ command from a SCSI initiator to a SCSI target and then responding to at least one of the at least one SCSI READ command at the SCSI target according to the SCSI READ command. |
| US08738807B2 |
System and method for preserving consumer choice
Methods and systems for preserving user attribute data by way of managing and synchronizing redundant storage locations. |
| US08738806B2 |
Method of synchronizing a plurality of content directory device (CDS) devices, CDS device, and system
Provided is a method and system for synchronizing a plurality of content directory service (CDS) devices in a home network environment. The method of synchronizing the plurality of CDS devices of a home network, which includes the plurality of CDS devices and a control point (CP), comprises (a) requesting a first CDS device among the plurality of CDS devices to start synchronization using the CP; (b) performing the synchronization with a second CDS device among the plurality of CDS devices using the first CDS device; (c) selecting a third CDS device from the plurality of CDS devices and requesting the third CDS device to start synchronization with the first CDS device or the second CDS device using the CP; and (d) performing the synchronization with the first CDS device or the second CDS device using the third CDS device. |
| US08738804B2 |
Supporting transactions in a data network using router information
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for monitoring transactions for a set of known nodes in a network data processing system. Cache data is received from a router in the data processing system. The cache data includes an identification of the set of known nodes sending data packets for transactions onto the network data processing system. The transactions are tracked for the set of nodes using the cache data from the router. In this manner, the loading of work for different nodes in a set of nodes can be identified. |
| US08738801B2 |
Methods and apparatus for updating index information while adding and updating documents in a distributed network
Systems and methods are described herein for updating documents in a distributed network. When a new document needs to be added to the network, or when changes are to be made to an existing document, keywords are extracted from the document and used to generate update messages for each keyword. The nodes responsible for each keyword are determined. The individual update messages are consolidated into a composite update messages that is sent to a first node in the network. The first node extracts those portions of the composite message associated with it, and forwards the composite message to a second node in the network. |
| US08738799B2 |
Framing format selection in a communications network with a user plane
The invention relates to a technique for selecting a framing format to be used for communications on the user plane of a layered communications network. The selection technique includes the provision of a first user plane component (such as a media gateway, MGW) bridging transmission regimes and operable in accordance with two or more different framing formats. The first user plane component is controllable via control messages received from a control plane without being responsive to any framing format instructions possibly included in the control messages. The first user plane component or any other user plane equipment in communication with the first user plane component selects the framing format to be used for user plane communications. The selected framing format is then implemented by the first user plane component for communications with a second user plane component. |
| US08738797B2 |
Method and apparatus for rate matching
A method and apparatus for rate matching are disclosed by the invention, wherein the method includes: determining an initial value according to the total amount of data in the data stream and a predetermined initial offset value; performing an accumulation processing and an even distribution processing on said initial value and the amount of the data needing rate matching; determining the data needing rate matching from the data stream according to the processing result. With the solution proposed by the invention, a rate matching method using even distribution principle and accumulation principle can be determined. The method is simple, clear and accurate, and can be understood easily. |
| US08738796B2 |
Internet-based system and method for distributing interstitial advertisements
A system and method for use by website operators and advertisers to place interstitial advertisements on websites. The system uses an Internet dispatcher server and a mass storage device containing one or more databases storing advertisement command files pertaining to placements of advertisements that are stored in an advertisement server. The method comprises the steps of selecting aid files stored in a computer ad server, designating the url for the ad file, the url for the website page where the ad will be displayed, the url for the websites to which a user will be directed depending on the user's reaction to the advertisement, storing in a dispatcher server database a data string representing the ad placement commands with a url representing a dispatcher server-based application to execute said ad placement commands, and including said data string on said website for launching said dispatcher server command file. |
| US08738793B2 |
Priority selection mechanism for driving outputs from control logic for controllers of various protocols
A priority selection mechanism for driving outputs from control logic which can be automatically translated to controllers of various protocols. The priority selection mechanism may assign a priority to the outputs and select the output having the highest priority as the output of the control logic. There may be an abstract representation of the priority logic which may permit a protocol mechanism to be used in the logic without the designer or user needing to know the details of the mechanism. |
| US08738791B1 |
Location based network usage policies
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining a network usage policy using a physical location of a device. One of the methods includes storing information defining a plurality of network policy groups, receiving first information indicating that a client device is connected to the network at a first physical location, and identifying a first user role associated with the client device, identifying, from among the plurality of network policy groups, a first network policy group having both (i) an associated first policy location that corresponds to the client device's first physical location, and (ii) an associated policy role that corresponds to the client device's first user role, and regulating the client device's access to resources available on the network based on the one or more network usage policies associated with the identified first network policy group. |
| US08738787B2 |
Ad server integration
A method and system for providing a content object is disclosed with an in-stream ad unit inserted into the content object for a content object player. The content object is audio and/or video. A media services platform (MSP) knows of one or more in-stream slots in the content object where in-stream ad units may be placed. The MSP queries a display ad server (DAS) to specify the in-stream ad unit, however the DAS does not natively support in-stream ad units in this embodiment. The MSP maps one or more in-stream slots in the content object to corresponding display ad locations. The MSP places the in-stream ad unit into the slot of the content object to create a processed content object. The MSP optionally transcodes the processed content object. The processed content object is downloaded or streamed to the content object player. |
| US08738784B1 |
Managing dynamic state of a physical system
In an embodiment, a network may represent a physical system. The network may have an element that represents an entity of the physical system. A value of a state associated with the network may be identified (e.g., generated) using various techniques. The state may be a low-level state associated with the network. The techniques may include, but are not limited to, for example, generating the value based on a scaffold defined for the network, generating the value based on a target value for the state, and/or generating the value based on applying an operation to various values of the state. The identified value may be associated with an identifier. The identifier may distinguish the value, for example, from other values of other states in the network and/or other values of states in other networks. |
| US08738775B1 |
Managing resource dependent workflows
Systems and method for the management of resource dependent workflows are provided. One or more resource control devices monitor usage of a computing resource by server computing devices. Each resource control device may direct a server computing device to proceed with a workflow or to pause processing a workflow. A resource control device may further direct a server computing device to take resource conserving actions. When a computing resource is determined to be available, a resource control device may direct a paused server computing device to resume a workflow. |
| US08738772B2 |
Regulating use of a mobile computing device for a user at a selected location
A system and method for regulating use of a mobile computing device is disclosed. The method comprises identifying a location of the mobile computing device. A role of the user at the identified location is determined. Predetermined limitations are classified for the mobile computing device based on the role of the user at the identified location. A functionality of applications operating on the mobile computing device is regulated based on the predetermined limitations while the mobile computing device is at the identified location. |
| US08738771B2 |
Secure graphical objects in web documents
The invention provides a method and system for presenting information in a web document using a program applet to restrict further copying or redistribution. The web document includes a first region in which a graphical element or other information is displayed, and a second region covering the first region in which a program applet is invoked by a server for the web document. The program applet is dynamically created upon access, and assigned a serial number. The program applet contacts the server for permission to display the graphical element or other information; thus, the server can control, by granting or denying permission, when and if the program applet displays the graphical or other information. The program applet can be subjected by the server to one or more of a variety of restrictions, such as: a limit on the number of times the information is displayed, a time limit, a requirement for a password or other security authentication, a requirement that the program applet is executing at a selected device or from a selected web document, or other requirements the server may deem fit to impose. |
| US08738768B2 |
Multiple destinations for mainframe event monitoring
Methods, systems, and devices are described for managing mainframe events. In the methods, systems, and devices of the present disclosure, at least one mainframe event is received at a mainframe event server module communicatively coupled with a mainframe. The received at least one mainframe event may be converted to an open format. A destination Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) application may be selected for the received at least one mainframe event based on a set of rules, and a format associated with the selected destination SIEM application may be identified. The at least one mainframe event may then be transmitted in the identified format from the mainframe event server module to the selected destination SIEM application. |
| US08738764B1 |
Methods and systems for controlling communications
A computer-implemented method may associate a communication-control policy with a contact. The computer-implemented method may identify a first communication made via a first communication mechanism. The computer-implemented method may also identify a first alias associated with the first communication. The computer-implemented method may determine that the first alias is an alias of the contact. The computer-implemented method may apply the communication-control policy to the first communication, wherein the associating, the identifying the first communication, the identifying the first alias, the determining, and the applying may be performed by a communication-control computing system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US08738754B2 |
Systems and methods for managing computing systems utilizing augmented reality
Systems and methods for managing computing systems are provided. One system includes a capture device for capturing environmental inputs, memory storing code comprising a management module, and a processor. The processor, when executing the code comprising the management module, is configured to perform the method below. One method includes capturing an environmental input, identifying a target device in the captured environmental input, and comparing the target device in the captured environmental input to a model of the target device. The method further includes recognizing, in real-time, a status condition of the target device based on the comparison and providing a user with troubleshooting data if the status condition is an error condition. Also provided are physical computer storage mediums including a computer program product for performing the above method. |
| US08738747B2 |
Dynamic modification of a subscriber connection
In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a request to modify a subscriber connection to a network element. The method also includes modifying attributes of the subscriber connection, within a memory of the network element, without disconnecting the subscriber connection from the network element. |
| US08738743B2 |
Network-optimized content delivery for high demand non-live contents
A method, apparatus and computer-readable storage medium distribute a non-live content stream in a network. An initial meta-file is transmitted in response to a request for the content, which identifies a division of the content stream into blocks, and available sources for delivery of the blocks. The initial meta-file can identify a first multicast and a second multicast server, assigning a first and second portion of the blocks for delivery using the first and second multicast source server, respectively. The first and second portions are transmitted using the first and second multicast source servers, respectively. The first and second portions correspond to distinct non-overlapping portions of the non-live content stream. The initial meta-file can also identify a unicast source server, assigning a third portion of the blocks for delivery using the unicast source server, the third portion being transmitted by the unicast source server. |
| US08738737B2 |
Portable media player for recording and playback of streamed digital content
A portable media player and a car media player are disclosed. In either implementation the media player may be used to record digital content as it is streamed over a wide area network (WAN). The recorded digital content may then be played back using the media player and associated controls on the media player. In one implementation the media player makes use of a stored program and an external computer so that digital content recorded by the computer may then transferred from the computer on to the media player for storage and playback. |
| US08738735B2 |
System for designing and performing web application
When an application server for performing a Web application is developed, a framework describing each of the modules of data, a logic, and a screen is provided. To attain this, the input contents of a Web page are converted into a data object, the combination of the type of the data object and a command is mapped in each process routine using a first foreign definition file, a process routine to be executed is determined from among prepared process logics based on the type of the data object, the command, and the first foreign definition file, and the combination of an execution result of the process logic and the type of the displaying data object is mapped in the displaying component using a second foreign definition file. These files are provided in the application server. |
| US08738733B1 |
Dynamic control system for managing redirection of requests for content
Requests for content are received, for example, an HTTP request for a web page is received. Each request has a landing context, which may include information about the user sending the request, the request itself, the referrer, or another subject. This information can be found in the requests or external to the requests. The information of the landing context is compared to appropriate triggering criteria. For requests that satisfy the appropriate triggering criteria, a destination is provided based on one or more weighted treatments. The request is directed to the provided destination. The results of the requests are subsequently analyzed and used to adjust the treatments in an automated fashion. |
| US08738726B2 |
Data processor, data processing system, data processing method, and computer product, with error message display
A data processor (client PC) is connected to a document data management apparatus (server PC) that manages the location of document data listed in a document data list. The data processor displays the document data list, and inquires the document data management apparatus about the location of document data. The data processor compares the location of the document data with that indicated in the document data list. When the two locations do not match, the data processor denies operation on the document data. |
| US08738721B1 |
System and method for detecting spam using clustering and rating of E-mails
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for detection of spam. In one example, a system receives electronic messages and attempts to classify the messages as legitimate or spam messages. For an unknown message, the system obtains its metadata including hash sum of the message and sender's IP address. The system then places the metadata of the unknown messages into one cluster of a plurality of clusters based on degree of similarity between hash sums of different unknown messages. The system then rates each unknown message in accordance with a rating of the cluster, wherein the rating of the cluster is based, at least, on a number of similar hash sums of unknown messages received from different addresses of message senders contained in said cluster. Finally, the system classifies unknown messages as legitimate or spam based on the message rating. |
| US08738720B2 |
Systems and methods for enabling anonymous collaboration among members along value chains
The invention concerns a computer-implemented collaboration platform comprising: means enabling an initiator (158) to create a message (168); means enabling the initiator (158) to invite a group of first degree partners (160, 162, 164) to respond to the message (168); means enabling a first degree partner (162) to create a sub-message (170, 172); means adapted to automatically create a link between the sub-message (170) and the message (168), or between the first degree partner (162) and the initiator (158), or between collaboration spaces established for the sub-message (170) and the message (168); and means enabling the first degree partner (162) to invite a group of second degree partners (176) to respond to the sub-message (170) while concealing identities of one or more first degree partner (158, 160, 164) for the group of second degree partners (176), and/or vice versa concealing identities of one or more second degree partner (176) for the group of first degree partners (158, 160, 164). |
| US08738719B2 |
Image based electronic mail system
An image based email system associates images with different electronic mail (email) senders. The email system receives email messages from different email senders and then looks through either website member profiles or user contacts for associated images. Any located image is displayed in a list of recent senders. This allows the email user to associate recently received email messages with particular sender images or photographs. The images can also be used in a list of favorite or most frequent email senders. Other features of the email system extract information from received email messages to better identify the email senders. These and other features of the email system provide more intuitive and easier to perform email operations. |
| US08738718B2 |
Systems and methods for facilitating creating calendar entries in client devices
A method for facilitating creating one or more calendar entries in one or more client devices is provided. The method includes receiving an iTIP (iCalendar Transport-Independent Interoperability Protocol) message from a first client device. The method further includes generating an iMIP (iCalendar Message-Based Interoperability Protocol) message using the iTIP message. The method also includes providing at least one of a copy of the iTIP message and a copy of the iMIP message to a least one of the second client device and a second communication server device connected to the second client device for enabling the second calendar application to generate a calendar entry in the second client device. The method also includes determining whether one of a first action and a second action is to be taken. The method further includes performing one of said first action and said second action based on said determining. |
| US08738717B2 |
System and method for delivering variable size messages based on spam probability
There is disclosed a system and method for delivering a message to a communication device. In an embodiment, the method comprises obtaining a probability that the message is spam; in dependence upon the probability that the message is spam, determining a variable message size; and sending the message to the communication device in dependence upon the determined variable message size. In an embodiment, the method further comprises receiving a user response whether the message is spam; and if the message is verified as being spam, then filtering the message from the communication device. |
| US08738716B2 |
System and method for routing instant messages
A system and a method for routing an instant message which can refer to a Converged IP Messaging (CPM) message are provided. The instant message, for example, CPM message and the like, is sent to a plurality of terminals having the same user identification of the same user; in the case that the receiving party uses a plurality of terminals online simultaneously, the communication system such as a CPM system routes the instant message such as CPM message to a plurality of terminals respectively. Thereby, the problem of routing when forwarding an instant message such as a ‘one number more machines” CPM message can be solved, further, the transmission of messages in the communication system such as the CPM system is realized better, and improving the user experience. |
| US08738712B2 |
Method and system for storing and presenting program messages
An approach is provided for a messaging interface between applications and a user. A plurality of messages associated respectively with a plurality of programs is stored in a common message database according to timing information corresponding to the messages. A subset of the messages is retrieved based on the timing information. The subset of messages is filtered based on message type. The filtered messages are output to a non-visual communication program for presentation of the filtered messages. |
| US08738711B2 |
System and method for redirecting client-side storage operations
A method and apparatus for redirecting client-side storage operations to one or more remote storage devices. An HTTP message generated by a web server includes one or more client-side storage operations. Based on defined criteria, the client-side storage operations are replaced with remote storage instructions to generate a modified HTTP message. The modified HTTP message is sent towards the client device. A user agent on the client device receives the HTTP message and executes the remote storage instructions. The storage operations are implemented on the remote storage devices rather than on the client. |
| US08738708B2 |
Bounce management in a trusted communication network
An embodiment of a method handles bounced messages in a private network processing hub that is configured to handle messages submitted by a plurality of member networks that are registered with the private network processing hub, and wherein the private network processing hub and the plurality of member networks form a private network. The method may include receiving a first message from a member network or from an unregistered network within the private network processing hub, and determining whether the first message is a bounced message generated in response to an original message sent by the private network processing hub by searching the first message for a tracking identifier that was generated by the private network processing hub and inserted into the original message. The determining operation may include searching for the tracking identifier among a plurality of stored tracking identifiers. A system is described that carries out the method. |
| US08738705B2 |
Categorizing social network objects based on user affiliations
Groups of users of a social networking system are categorized based on their association with a type of malicious activity. A set of predetermined malicious groups is identified. Users associated with the malicious groups are selected based on their level of interactions with the malicious groups. Other groups associated with the selected users are identified as being potentially malicious groups. The potentially malicious groups are further analyzed based on occurrences of keywords associated with the type of malicious activity and manual verification by experts. The potentially malicious groups are either classified as being malicious or non-malicious or assigned a score based on their likelihood of being associated with the type of malicious activity. The methods and system disclosed can be used for categorizing other types of social network objects based on their association with a type of malicious activity, for example, users, events, and content. |
| US08738703B2 |
Systems and methods for providing online collaborative support
A first support node and a third node provide online collaborative support to a customer node over a computer network. An online support session facilitating, at least in part, bi-directional communication between the customer node and the first support node is established. The third node is also connected to the online support session and receives support session information from the customer node. In addition, information is communicated bi-directionally between the first support node and the third node. |
| US08738700B2 |
Method and system for providing network services
The present invention provides a system for intermediating between client nodes and pools of server nodes in an NGN network where the server nodes provide network services to client nodes, wherein the client nodes use various communication protocols and at least part of said communication protocols are different from the communication protocol used by the server nodes. The system comprising: a cluster of associated gateway nodes providing an integrated service for the clients nodes, where each gateway provides services of at least one of: translations of request and answers between the client node and a provider server node, load balancing and managing scenario rules. Each gateway comprise: a database of scripts including, scenario rules, routing scripts and associated transformation scripts, an execution processing module for handling events of at least client requests and server answers according to scenario rules. |
| US08738699B2 |
Method, apparatus, and computer readable medium for transferring a collaboration session
A method for transferring a collaboration session from a handheld device to a multimedia endpoint by encoding session data for the collaboration session and/or instructions into an optically machine-readable representation of data, displaying the data on a display of the handheld device, and optically providing the data to a multimedia endpoint the collaboration session is to be transferred to. The multimedia endpoint may send a message to a server upon detecting the data, causing the server to transfer the collaboration session, based on the session data in the message. Alternatively, the multimedia endpoint establishes a session with another multimedia endpoint based on the instructions and/or session data. |
| US08738697B2 |
Highlight providing system and method based on hot topic event detection
Provided are a system capable of providing a highlight of a real-time event using message streams of social media and a highlight service providing method using the same. The disclosed highlight providing system includes: a hot event session detection unit detecting a hot event session where a hot event occurs using message streams of social media; a keyword detection unit detecting keywords related with the hot event from the hot event session detected by the hot event session detection unit using a predetermined algorithm; a hot event generating unit generating the hot event using a semantic relation between the keywords detected by the keyword detection unit; and a highlight providing unit providing a highlight of the social media along with a description in a natural language based on the hot event generated by the hot event generating unit. |
| US08738689B2 |
Method, system, and computer program product for managing interchange of enterprise data messages
A system and method for enabling the interchange of enterprise data through an open platform is disclosed. This open platform can be based on a standardized interface that enables parties to easily connect to and use the network. Services operating as senders, recipients, and in-transit parties can therefore leverage a framework that overlays a public network. |
| US08738684B1 |
Dynamic collaborations in concurrent computing environments
A system may include a technical computing client to define a job. The system may also include a group of technical computing workers that form a collaboration to perform the job. The group of technical computing workers may include a first technical computing worker that acts as a lead worker for the collaboration and one or more second technical computing workers that act as follower workers for the collaboration. The system may further include a third technical computing worker that is not a part of the collaboration when the group of technical computing workers begins performing the job. The third technical worker may join the collaboration during the performance of the job and aid in obtaining a result from performing the job. |
| US08738683B2 |
System, apparatus and method for encryption and decryption of data transmitted over a network
A method and system for securing data transmitted between a client device and a server by obtaining input text at an intermediate module, processing the input text to obtain processed text, and transmitting the processed text to the server. In particular, the server may be configured to provide at least one function on input data provided by the client device, and the intermediate module may be configured to receive input data from the client device, to transform the input data into processed data, and to transmit the processed data to the server. Embodiments of the invention may include systems and methods for intercepting the input data at the intermediate module without transmission of the input data to the server; providing the at least one function by the intermediate module on the input data; and generating by the intermediate module at least one message to the client device based on a result of the at least one function. |
| US08738682B2 |
Monitoring a path of a transaction across a composite application
At each intermediate transaction hop from among multiple transaction hops in a transaction flow through a composite application, an entry with tracking data for a current transaction hop of the multiple transaction hops is inserted into a tracking envelope associated with the transaction flow and the tracking envelope is passed to a next transaction hop of the transaction hops in the transaction flow. At a final transaction hop of the multiple transaction hops, a final entry with tracking data for the final transaction hop is inserted into the tracking envelope and the multiple entries with tracking data for each of the transaction hops in the tracking envelope are exposed in a single tracking event. |
| US08738681B1 |
Hierarchical cooperative storage services
A method, system, and program product for enabling a virtual storage layer to offer array based extent services, the virtual storage layer communicatively coupled to one or more storage mediums, the method comprising determining for the one or more storage mediums, the services offered by the storage mediums, and enabling extent based services at the virtual service layer by combining the services offered by the one or more storage mediums to create new services and by providing a set of services at the virtual service layer. |
| US08738675B2 |
Random numbers generation using continuous-time chaos
Novel random number generation methods and random number generators (RNG)s based on continuous-time chaotic oscillators are presented. Offset and frequency compensation loops are added to maximize the statistical quality of the output sequence and to be robust against parameter variations and attacks. We have verified both numerically and experimentally that, when the one-dimensional section was divided into regions according to distribution, the generated bit streams passed the tests used in both the FIPS-140-2 and the NIST 800-22 statistical test suites without post processing. Numerical and experimental results presented in this innovation not only verify the feasibility of the proposed circuits, but also encourage their use as the core of a high-performance IC RNG as well. In comparison with RNGs based on discrete-time chaotic maps, amplification of a noise source and jittered oscillator sampling, it is seen that RNGs based on continuous-time chaotic oscillators can offer much higher and constant data rates without post-processing. In conclusion, we can deduce that the proposed circuits can be realized in integrated circuits and the use of continuous-time chaos with the proposed innovations is very promising in generating random numbers with very high throughput. |
| US08738674B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method and program
An information processing apparatus to create an arithmetic expression by combining one or more operators includes a detection unit to detect a permutation of plural operators existing in common to the plural created arithmetic expressions, and a registration unit to register the detected permutation of the operators as a new operator. |
| US08738672B1 |
Document management system user interfaces
Systems, methods, and software to provide document management system user interfaces to clients. Some embodiments include an intermediary server to provide document management system indexing data to a client in a form that is displayable within an existing client file browsing user interface, such as Windows Explorer. |
| US08738667B2 |
Mapping of data from XML to SQL
A method, an apparatus and a computer program product for converting an XML encoded dataset into a minimal set of SQL tables and provided. In the method, a hierarchical structure in the XML encoded dataset is identified. A node element set for the XML encoded dataset is determined, wherein each node element in the node element set is a discrete level of the hierarchical structure of the dataset. One or more nodes of the XML encoded dataset are determined, each node being an instance of a node element. A unique node identifier is allocated to each node. Then, an SQL node table containing one or more records is generated, each record corresponding to a respective one of the allocated node identifiers. An SQL ancestry table is optionally generated to define the inter-relationships among nodes of the identified hierarchical structure of the XML encoded dataset. |
| US08738663B2 |
Rule-based transformation of metadata
A computer automatically reads each object in a metadata that is descriptive of a database. Then the computer automatically applies a number of rules, to check if the object triggers a rule. If so, then the computer automatically changes the metadata as per an action identified by the triggered rule. After all rules are applied to the object, and after all objects in the metadata are processed, the resulting metadata is used to change the database's structure. The objects may be read from the metadata in an order (e.g. hierarchy) specified in meta-metadata that is descriptive of the metadata. |
| US08738660B2 |
Method and system for multilevel creation of consolidated dynamic playlist and utilization thereof
A method and system that includes an aggregation of clients' playlists, separate item names, and a systems own playlists that are converted to request lists. A consolidated dynamic playlist is created by a computer algorithm, which provides an order of priority depending on input variables. Depending on a system mode, consolidated dynamic playlist of a lower level can participate in higher level session of the system. |
| US08738659B1 |
Method and apparatus for managing priority in standardized test and survey imaging
Disclosed herein, among other things, are method and apparatus for managing priority in a standardized test and survey imaging system. In various embodiments, a batch code is associated with a batch of documents, and a material code and a return-type code are associated with each document of the batch. A prioritization strength is automatically assigned to each document based on the material code and the return-type code, and a prioritization strength is automatically assigned to the batch as a function of the prioritization strengths of the documents in the batch. The batch is processed using a computer as a function of the prioritization strength of the batch. |
| US08738658B2 |
Method for using paths in a directory for locating objects
One embodiment is a method that discovers branches and groups that include a reference to an object located in a directory information tree. Paths are determined through the directory information tree to the branches and the groups. Information about the paths is then used to describe the object in the directory information tree. |
| US08738650B2 |
Distributed processing of streaming data records
Representative embodiments of a distributed processing method of facilitating interactive analytics of streaming data records by receiving the data records at a plurality of distributed computational nodes, establishing and storing dimensions corresponding to attributes of the data records, parsing the streaming data records to identify matches to at least one of the dimensions and based thereon, reducing the number of data records to create a targeted subset of the data, re-distributing the targeted subsets of the streaming data records among the distributed computational nodes in accordance with the dimensions stored on the nodes, updating a database storing measures of the dimensions in accordance with the targeted subsets of the streaming data records, and using the database to respond to a query based on measures associated with one or more of the dimensions. |
| US08738649B2 |
Distributed processing of streaming data records
Representative embodiments of a distributed processing method of facilitating interactive analytics of streaming data records by receiving the data records at a plurality of distributed computational nodes, establishing and storing dimensions corresponding to attributes of the data records, parsing the streaming data records to identify matches to at least one of the dimensions and based thereon, reducing the number of data records to create a targeted subset of the data, re-distributing the targeted subsets of the streaming data records among the distributed computational nodes in accordance with the dimensions stored on the nodes, updating a database storing measures of the dimensions in accordance with the targeted subsets of the streaming data records, and using the database to respond to a query based on measures associated with one or more of the dimensions. |
| US08738646B2 |
Method and system for selecting amongst a plurality of processes to send a message
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for selecting amongst a plurality of processes to send a message (e.g. a message for updating an endpoint system, etc.). These mechanisms and methods for selecting amongst a plurality of processes to send a message can enable embodiments to utilize more than one queue for sending such message. The ability of embodiments to provide such multi-process feature can, in turn, prevent latency that typically accompanies a mounting number of messages. |
| US08738645B1 |
Parallel processing framework
Data can be processed in parallel across a cluster of nodes using a parallel processing framework. Using Web services calls between components allows the number of nodes to be scaled as necessary, and allows developers to build applications on the framework using a Web services interface. A job scheduler works together with a queuing service to distribute jobs to nodes as the nodes have capacity, such that jobs can be performed in parallel as quickly as the nodes are able to process the jobs. Data can be loaded efficiently across the cluster, and levels of nodes can be determined dynamically to process queries and other requests on the system. |
| US08738643B1 |
Learning synonymous object names from anchor texts
A repository contains objects representing entities. The objects also include facts about the represented entities. The facts are derived from source documents. A synonymous name of an object is determined by identifying a source document from which one or more facts of the entity represented by the object were derived, identifying a plurality of linking documents that link to the source document through hyperlinks, each hyperlink having an anchor text, processing the anchor texts in the plurality of linking documents to generate a collection of synonym candidates for the entity represented by the object, and selecting a synonymous name for the entity represented by the object from the collection of synonym candidates. |
| US08738642B2 |
Clinical data monitoring
Data is combined from multiple independent data stores, and is then queried using a data correlation engine. Contemplated engines preferably keep track of previously run correlations, and then makes those correlations available to clinicians for their own use. For example, a preferred system might provide a listing of correlations run by other clinicians in a particular medical specialty, or a particular community, whether geographic or otherwise. In another example, a preferred system might provide a listing of correlations sorted by popularity, so that the most frequently accessed correlations appear near the top of the list. In any case a clinician could simply view the list, and check off which correlations he/she would like to have run for his/her practice, or practice community. |
| US08738641B2 |
Ranking algorithm for search box auto-complete
In various exemplary embodiments, a system and associated method for prioritizing search results in an electronic environment is disclosed. The system comprises a communications module to receive a search query from an end-user. The search query includes one or more characters contained within a single TCP packet. A query engine coupled to the communications module matched the one or more characters from the search query against a plurality of selected keywords contained within a database against the search query. Each keyword is then ranked within the plurality of selected keywords thus forming a subset of selected keywords. A response including the subset of selected keywords is returned to the end-user. |
| US08738637B2 |
Generating sharable recommended and popular E-mails
A method of determining popularity of an e-mail is provided. The method includes receiving an e-mail and determining if a generated signature is associated with the e-mail. If there is no generated signature, then a signature is generated for associating with the e-mail. A popularity measure associated with the e-mail is determined based on the signature. Furthermore, a method of determining popularity of an e-mail is provided. The method includes receiving an e-mail and identifying a generated signature associated with the e-mail. The method further includes determining a match of the associated generated signature with a record of the generated signature, if the generated signature is identified. If the identified generated signature is determined to match the record of the generated signature, then a popularity measure associated with the e-mail is increased. |
| US08738630B2 |
Image search apparatus and methods thereof
Embodiments of a method and apparatus of image search are provided. An exemplary method of image search includes: receiving a request and returning a web page, where the returned web page allows uploading an image and adding annotation content for the image; receiving and storing the image and the annotation content for the image; and providing the annotation content for the image as a search index to an image search engine. Using the disclosed method and server, more searches related to information in an image can be provided. Moreover, because more information related to merchandise in an image can be provided to a viewer, it is believed that more online transactions can be facilitated. |
| US08738627B1 |
Enhanced concept lists for search
Disclosed are various embodiments providing an enhanced concept list for browsing within item search results. A pool of items is generated in a computing device in response to a search query. A plurality of relevant concepts is determined. The relevant concepts are those relevant to the search query. At least one network page is encoded for rendering by a client. The at least one network page includes a concept list and at least a portion of a plurality of items. The items in the plurality of items are responsive to the search query. The concept list corresponds to the plurality of relevant concepts. Each of the relevant concepts in the concept list operates to limit a view of the plurality of relevant items to items located in the respective relevant concept. |
| US08738621B2 |
Systems and methods for managing files on a storage device
Described herein are techniques for the dynamic allocation of storage capacity between multiple namespaces associated with a storage system. Data from multiple namespaces is stored in a common pool of addresses of the storage system and data from each namespace is capable of being written to any free address of the storage system at any time. Metadata associated with each of the files stored in the storage system is maintained that tracks the particular storage address or addresses and namespace associated with the file. Storage capacity can be dynamically allocated between multiple namespaces by writing data to free blocks and updating the metadata accordingly. |
| US08738613B2 |
Relevancy ranking of search results in a network based upon a user's computer-related activities
A computer-implemented method, system and computer program product providing ordered search results within a search engine. Items are retrieved from a network satisfying search criteria provided by a user. Computer-related activities performed by the user, including social networking activities, are determined, and the retrieved items are ranked based on the computer-related activities. The ranking of the retrieved items is dependent upon whether any retrieved item has been referenced by the social networking activities of the user, and the search results are provided including the retrieved items in order of the ranking. |
| US08738612B1 |
Resolving ambiguous queries
Methods, systems, and apparatus for resolving ambiguous queries. A search query is received and metrics are identified for the query that are associated with respective categories. Each metric indicates a user preference for search results that are responsive to the query and associated with the metric's respective category. The identified metrics are used to determine whether the query is ambiguous. Responsive to determining that the query is ambiguous, the identified metrics are used to determine a user preference for one or more categories of search results responsive to the ambiguous query. Search results associated with the one or more user preferred categories are ranked higher than search results that are not associated with the one or more user preferred categories. |
| US08738610B2 |
Apparatus, system and method for rapid cohort analysis
An apparatus, system, and method for rapid cohort analysis. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes an interface and a processor. The interface may receive an identifier of a first index attribute. The processor may search the database for a first group of records associated with the first index attribute, search the database for a second group of records, each record in the second group of records sharing a common second index attribute with a record in the first group of records, but not associated with the first index attribute, and calculate a statistic in response to information associated with the first group of records and the second group of records. |
| US08738605B2 |
Systems for discovering sensitive information on computer networks
One embodiment of a system of the present invention for discovering sensitive information on computer network includes means for discovering databases on a computer network, means for defining a pattern for a data discovery, means for discovering qualifying records by matching the pattern with field names and/or record values in the databases, means for sending electronic notification to a database administrator managing the qualifying database, means for receiving a selection choice from the database administrator managing the qualifying database identifying the status for the qualifying records. |
| US08738602B1 |
Determining relevance scores for locations
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining relevance scores for locations. In one aspect, a method includes storing a respective plurality of category-location relevance scores for each location of a plurality of geographic locations. A category-location relevance score is based on a plurality of category-entity-location relevance scores for a plurality of entities associated with the category at the location. A first category-location relevance score is determined for a first geographic location that is not one of the plurality of geographic locations. Determining the first category-location relevance score includes calculating the first category-location relevance score based on a second category-location relevance score for a second geographic location in the plurality of geographic locations and a physical distance between the first geographic location and the second geographic location. |
| US08738591B2 |
Sorting transactions in a memory object store
Methods and systems for rating and committing events in an event processing system are provided. Events can be rated at a rating system according to information that is stored locally on the rating system. Rated events can be stored in a database system with these rated events being utilized to, among other things, restore information that is stored locally on the rating system. |
| US08738589B2 |
Classloading technique for an application server that provides dependency enforcement
A Java-based application server, which supports multiple component models, includes a classloading module to enforce dependencies among classes and among the components that uses the classes. The classloading module determines whether a classloader created at deployment can share a version of a class with other classloaders. The classloading module also uses dependency information to determine which of the other classloaders on which the classloader depends. The classloading module uses pluggable classloading policies to determine the rules to be followed during classloading operations. The same state machine is used for classloading and for controlling the lifecycle of multiple component modules. The classloading module also utilizes abstraction of interfaces to communicate requirements and capabilities among the classloaders and with the system. |
| US08738588B2 |
Sequential media reclamation and replication
Sequential media reclamation is usually performed after portions of a sequential access volume's data are no longer needed and the unused portion of the volume exceeds a threshold. Improved sequential media reclamation is provided by using a sequential access disk volume (for example, a volume of a virtual tape library (VTL)) embodied as a sparse file. Reclamation of objects stored in the volume is accomplished by nulling out regions of the sparse file that contain the objects that are no longer needed. A replication method is also provided in which information about the objects stored in the sparse file (such as offset and length) is used during replication to enable the correct portions of a target volume (embodied as a sparse file) to be nulled out to match a source volume (also embodied as a sparse file). |
| US08738586B2 |
Ensuring database log recovery consistency
A plurality of transactions are executed in a data storage application. Thereafter, log entries are sequentially stored according to the plurality of transactions in at least one log. Each log segment has a first globally unique identifier (GUID) uniquely identifying the log segment and includes a second GUID uniquely identifying an immediately preceding log segment in the sequence. In addition, the current position in the at least one log is stored along with the current log segment GUID together with data pages during data backup. Subsequently, a position in the at least one log from which to initiate replay of the log segments and a GUID for a corresponding log segment at the determined position at database recovery time is determined based on information stored during data backup. Replay of the log segments is then initiated starting at the determined position. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described. |
| US08738583B2 |
Efficiently delivering event messages using compiled indexing and paginated reporting
Techniques for compiled indexing and paginated reporting are described. Event messages, having sequential identifiers, are received and stored in a working table. The working table is renamed as a rollover table upon receiving a threshold number of the event messages and a new working table is created. A reference to the rollover table is stored in a management table. Summary data which summarizes each rollover table according to predetermined criteria is stored in a summary table with the reference to the corresponding rollover table. When a query to the event messages is received, a response to the query is generated based on the contents of the summary table and management table. The response may also include a predetermined quantity of event messages based on a dimension of a window of a graphical user interface of a client computer which issued the query. |
| US08738580B2 |
Copying files from one directory to another
An aspect of the present invention stores files of a source directory in a target directory. In an embodiment, a unique identifier is generated for each of the files and a new location and a new name are generated for the file. The new location represents the specific sub-directory of the target at which the file is stored. The file is stored at the new location with the new name. Such storing in a new location with a new name can be advantageously used to address various issues in corresponding environments. In one environment, the target directory is stored in an embedded system, with limited resources and the source directory contains several files with substantial overlapping names (which can require substantial resources to search for a specific file). The unique identifiers are generated according to media transfer protocol (MTP), which generates an object identifier for each of the files/directories, etc. |
| US08738579B2 |
Method for performing a warm shutdown and restart of a buffer pool
A system and a method for performing a warm shutdown and restart of a buffer pool. The buffer content, including pages and control structures associated with these pages, is partitioned into blocks, where block is saved to a disk as a sequential file. The size of each block is selected to provide an optimal I/O efficiency during buffer pool shutdown and restart operations. Blocks can be saved simultaneously using a plurality of writer threads. During restart of the buffer pool, the control information is read from the disk and restored to the buffer pool using reader threads. The buffer pool may be made available for reference to pages while the reader threads are enabled to read the saved information by blocks, to facilitate a more rapid restoration of information in the buffer pool. |
| US08738578B1 |
Growing data structures
A system is configured to: determine whether criteria are met to grow a structure; calculate, when the criteria are met, a new size of the structure based on at least one or more of: a predefined curve, a total number of elements to be stored in the structure, an amount of available memory, or architecture information corresponding to the processor; allocate an area in memory to store the structure based on the new size; and store the elements of the structure in the area, where the area comprises space to add additional elements to the structure. The new size of the structure may be greater than the total number of elements. |
| US08738577B1 |
Change tracking for multiphase deduplication
Change tracking for multiphase deduplication. In one example embodiment, a method of tracking changes to a source storage for multiphase deduplication includes a change tracking phase. The change tracking phase includes performing a hash function on each allocated block in a source storage that is changed between a prior point in time and a subsequent point in time, and tracking, in a change log, the location in the source storage of each changed block and the corresponding hash value. The hash function calculates a hash value corresponding to the changed block. |
| US08738575B2 |
Data recovery in a hierarchical data storage system
Systems and methods for retrieving data from a storage system having a plurality of storage pools are provided. The method comprises processing configurable data retrieval instructions to determine a first storage pool from which target backup data is to be retrieved, in response to a data restore request; and retrieving the target backup data from the first storage pool to satisfy the restore request. The configurable data retrieval instructions are managed by a source external to the storage system with administrative authority to change the configurable data retrieval instructions to optimize data restoration from the storage system. |
| US08738574B2 |
Automatic wireless device data maintenance
A computer-implemented method includes downloading data elements from a wireless device. The method includes determining whether a user account exists in storage and determining whether the user account currently has stored data elements of the same type as the downloaded data elements associated therewith. The method further includes comparing the downloaded data elements to the stored data elements. This method also includes storing any downloaded data elements not currently existing in the data elements associated with the user account and not in conflict with data elements associated with the user account. The method further includes resolving conflicts between downloaded data elements and currently existing data elements, to establish which of the conflicting elements is representative of a proper version of the element. Finally, the method includes storing the proper version of the element resulting from each conflict resolution. |
| US08738573B2 |
Optimistic versioning concurrency scheme for database streams
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to versioning for databases. In aspects, two or more users may share the same version of data, such as a report, in a database. One of the users may seek to update the data. In response to a request from the user, a new version of the data is created. For data that is not updated via the request, the new version shares data with the previous version, thus saving space. For data this is updated, new segments within the database are created to store the updated data. Each user is allowed to access the data without blocking other users accessing the data. |
| US08738572B2 |
System and method for storing data streams in a distributed environment
Systems, methods and computer readable medium for storing data elements transmitted via data streams received from distributed devices connected via a network. The received data elements may be stored in block stores on the distributed devices. The stored data elements may be allocated to data blocks of a block store that have assigned block identifiers and further allocated to events of the data blocks. Stream schema of the received plurality of data streams may have the same stream schema, and indices may be generated indices based on the order of the event allocated data elements. Stream schema of the received data streams may comprise a list of token names. Token names may be assigned to the event allocated data elements. Indices may be generated for the event allocated data elements based on the stream schema. |
| US08738567B2 |
Network file system with enhanced collaboration features
Generally described, the present invention is directed to a network operating system that provides more effective ways of leveraging the connectivity of computer networks. In one embodiment, an XML virtual machine is implemented that accepts high-level application code written in an XML programming language as input. Functionality is provided to interpret or translate the application code written in an XML programming language into code that is suitable for execution across computer platforms. Moreover, the XML virtual machine supports the Model View Controller (MVC) design paradigm that facilitates true data abstraction from applications to a common data model. Multi-instance applications, with each instance potentially supporting multiple views, may be created and executed. |
| US08738562B2 |
Universal data discernment
An contextual artificial intelligence system is disclosed. Intelligent business objects enable dynamic data object interaction and encapsulation of user context. Data is rationalized and data objects evolve by way of an artificial intelligence assisted process of self-discovery. Significant data is identified based upon factors such as cost, revenue and outcome and contextually significant result sets are automatically generated for users. |
| US08738557B1 |
Detection of spam using contextual analysis of data sources
Aspects of the disclosure provide for detection of spam business listings. Aspects operate to identify business listing characteristics in trusted sources and untrusted sources. As untrusted sources are likely to contain more spam, characteristics that are present in untrusted sources but not present in trusted sources are typically indicative of spam listings, and vice versa. Thus, statistical analysis of the frequency of characteristics within each source may be used to identify common characteristics of spam listings. These characteristics may further be analyzed in specific listing contexts, as different listing contexts (e.g., different types of businesses) typically use different terms and vocabularies, such that terms that are indicative of spam in one context may not be indicative of spam in another. Various methods for leveraging this context-specific statistical information to improve spam detection operations are disclosed. |
| US08738556B2 |
Course development program
The present invention is directed to a method of operating a knowledge capture program. The knowledge capture program has the steps of starting the knowledge capture program wherein a user can access content that is either existing content or creating new content. Once the content has been selected then a source subject matter can be selected and displayed, and then captured and incorporated into the content. The source subject matter can be edited and saved into the content. The content can then be retrieved and played in a desired mode of learning. |
| US08738555B2 |
Data processing device, data processing method, and program
A data processing device includes a state value calculation unit which calculates a state value of which the value increases as much as a state with a high transition probability for each state of the state transition model, an action value calculation unit which calculates an action value, of which the value increases as a transition probability increases for each state of the state transition model and each action that the agent can perform, a target state setting unit which sets a state with great unevenness in the action value among states of the state transition model to a target state that is the target to reach by action performed by the agent, and an action selection unit which selects an action of the agent so as to move toward the target state. |
| US08738551B2 |
Method for storing data in memory
A method for storing data in a memory may include when the data may be obtained under a variable condition, determining a cell corresponding to an area of the variable condition from an entire memory area, storing the data in the cell and dividing the cell storing the data into a plurality of cells, and whenever a new data may be obtained under a new variable condition, determining a new cell corresponding to an area of the new variable condition under which the new data may be obtained, from the plurality of cells of the entire memory area and repeating storing of the new data and dividing of the new cell. |
| US08738538B2 |
Barter for rights
Selling intangible property rights may include receiving content from a seller and determining one or more potential purchasers for the content's intangible property rights. The potential purchasers may be determined according to the subject of the content, the audience for the content, and the intangible property rights being sold. An offer to sell the intangible property rights may then be transmitted to one or more potential purchasers, along with a portion of the content. Upon receiving the one or more purchaser's acceptance of the offer, a complete copy of the content may be transmitted to the purchaser. |
| US08738535B2 |
System and method for software site licensing
The software site licensing system includes a client site having a target unit and a license sales site for generating a corresponding site license. The sales site receives an order for a target unit from the client and sends the physical order to a warehouse for shipping. The sales site determines the intangible portion of the order and establishes a virtual warehouse for the client to inventory the intangibles (license components). The warehouse notifies the sales site of the unique identifiers on the target prior to shipping so the sales site can link the en-route target with the client. The client accesses its personal virtual warehouse and selects the license components desired for the site license. The system assembles the site license and upon request, transmits the site license from the virtual warehouse to the target unit for installation. |
| US08738532B2 |
System and method for securing data through a PDA portal
Consumers may utilize computing devices to assist in the purchase and/or loyalty process, and in particular, the consumer may utilize a PDA to facilitate the purchase and/or loyalty process. During the purchase and/or loyalty process, the consumer may need to insure that any content downloaded or used in association with the PDA is secure in how it is collected, assembled, and delivered to the PDA device. This system and method secures the data from its source to when it is actually viewed or used by the authorized user. The exemplary system and method may establish a PDA portal link to the web site for collecting specified information for a user and transmitting the information to the remote device. To receive the information, the PDA contacts the portal and establishes a connection, authenticates itself to the network and allows the user to complete secured transactions or transmissions over the network. |
| US08738531B1 |
Cryptographic distributed storage system and method
A method for controlling access to protected objects in a distributed environment, including providing a user key KU corresponding to a public key KUP of a user; receiving a server key KS from a remote server; generating the combination key KC by decrypting a metadata field Datai using the key KU. The public key KUP is used to generate the metadata field Datai, and the metadata field Datai is stored as part of a protected object's metadata. The object key KOBJ is calculated from the combination key KC and the server key KS by either XORing the combination key KC and the server key KS, or by decrypting the combination key KC using the server key KS. The object key KOBJ is used to encrypt and decrypt the protected object. A user who has access to the protected object having structure has access to any unprotected file or unprotected structured objected inside the structured protected objected, but does not have access to any structured protected object without an additional key. |
| US08738530B2 |
Apparatus and methods for providing a payment system over a network
Apparatus and methods provide an accumulator that processes electronic payments from an employer to a recipient via a network. The payments processed may be, for example, child support payments collected from an employee by the employer. The employer may submit one transaction made up of payments collected from multiple employees bound for multiple recipients and the accumulator may receive, translate, batch, and deliver the payments to the multiple recipients. The accumulator, employers, and recipients may communicate via a network such as the Internet. |
| US08738529B2 |
Multi-channel data driven, real-time fraud determination system for electronic payment cards
Exemplary embodiments for detecting electronic payment card fraud include receiving real-time payment card transaction data from ingress channels and an egress channels of at least one payment card system through a first application programming interface (API); generating transactional profiles for each of at least payment cards, the ingress channel, the egress channels, and funding sources of the payment cards; in response to receiving transaction data for a current payment card transaction, evaluating the transaction data using a predictive algorithm that compare the transaction data to the transactional profiles to calculate a probabilistic fraud score for the current transaction; evaluating the probabilistic fraud score and the current transaction data based on a set of rules to generate a recommendation to approve, decline or review the current transaction; and transmitting the recommendation back to the payment card system via a second API. |
| US08738526B2 |
Instant availability of electronically transferred funds
A system and method for making proceeds of an ACH (Automated Clearinghouse) transaction available to a user before the transaction is completed. The system may be part of an on-line system or traditional merchant configured to facilitate payments or fund transfers from users. A user requests the transfer of funds to an entity (e.g., another user, a merchant, the user's account with the system) via an ACH entry. The system calculates a risk associated with the user, while considering various data (e.g., number of previous ACH entries, how many failed, how many succeeded, amount of the transfer). If the risk is low enough, the ACH entry is initiated and the desired funds are released for the transfer even before the ACH entry clears. The ACH entry may be presented as a default choice for funding the transfer. |
| US08738524B2 |
System and method for creating parity on close orders
An automated system for creating parity on close orders in an exchange configured for trading securities or derivatives is disclosed including an electronic trade engine operative to receive an order for a security or derivative at the exchange, the trade engine further operative to disseminate a request for a price message to a plurality of market makers quoting a class in response to receiving the order, wherein the request for a price message includes a parity amount for the order; an electronic book in communication with the electronic trade engine, the electronic book operative to store at least one order received by the electronic trade engine; and wherein, in response to the request for a price message, the electronic trade engine receives at least one price message that includes a fee in addition to the parity amount. |
| US08738523B1 |
Systems and methods to identify and profile a vehicle operator
A method for assessing risk associated with a driver of a vehicle includes receiving a plurality of risk variables associated with a driver, the plurality of risk variables being gathered when the driver operates the vehicle. A driver is then identified based on the plurality of risk variables, and a risk profile is developed for the driver. The development of the risk profile involves determining the risk associated with at least some of the risk variables and generating a risk index, the risk index being a collective measure of risk associated with the driver. |
| US08738519B2 |
Waiver decisioning
A system and method of identifying one or more waivers for waiving a fee associated with an account of a customer at a financial institution. The system and method may include identifying, based one or more criteria of the account, customer, and the like, one or more waivers applicable to the account, customer, and the like. The applicable waivers may be provided for selection. In some examples, a history of all waivers associated with the account or customer may also be provided. |
| US08738518B2 |
Methods and systems for executing a plurality of money transfers having a fluctuating parameter
Systems and methods are provided for executing a plurality of money transfers, at least one term of which is dependent on the value of a fluctuating parameter, for example a currency exchange rate or the amount of a transaction service fee. The customer may stage a first money transfer at a money-transfer system and a first value of the fluctuating parameter may be determined by a host processor. The first money transfer may then be executed by the money-transfer system using the first value of the fluctuating parameter and a unique lock-in value identifier may be stored in the host processor's memory that associates the first value of the fluctuating parameter with the customer. |
| US08738514B2 |
System and method for providing borrow coverage services to short sell securities
The present invention is directed to providing borrow coverage services to clients by a conduit lender, while the conduit lender maintains a flat position. The source of supply for the loans is a liquidity pool from existing agent lenders that have enrolled the conduit lender as a borrower. |
| US08738513B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing account information
A method includes receiving account information associated with a user. The account information includes an electronic mail (“email”) address associated with the user. The method also includes storing the account information in an account associated with the email address. The method further includes validating the email address associated with the user. In addition, the method includes allowing a plurality of computer systems to retrieve the account information stored in the account. |
| US08738510B2 |
System and method for money management using a plurality of profit levels in an electronic trading environment
A system and method for money management in an electronic trading environment are presented. According to one embodiment, a money management application intercepts an order before the order is sent to an exchange, and determines a plurality of P/L levels, based on which the money management application then selects a set of money management parameters to be used to control or modify order parameters before the order is sent to the exchange. The plurality of profit levels may include a net profit level determined based on a trader's net position and a current market level, a realized profit level determined based on trader's sells and buys associated with the tradeable object, or an open profit level determined based on the realized and net profit levels. The set of money management parameters may include a maximum order quantity and a maximum net position so that, for example, if the order quantity associated with the order is higher than the maximum order quantity associated with the applicable set of money management parameters, the order quantity may be modified to the maximum order quantity. |
| US08738502B2 |
Electronic trading system and method that provide real-time trade analytics
The present invention relates generally to electronic trading systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for providing, within an electronic trading process, real-time or near real-time pre- and post-trade analytics to assist traders make the decision of how to trade electronically a particular tradeable asset. Pre- and post-trade analytics can be displayed to a trader without affecting their workflow. Moreover, pre- and post-trade analytics can be used to make trading recommendations, to select or modify a trading strategy, to select and or modify trading destinations, brokers, algorithms or venues, and/or to automatically generate and transmit electronic trade orders or to effect trades. |
| US08738499B2 |
Binary options on an organized exchange and the systems and methods for trading the same
Financial systems and methods for trading fixed return options on secondary markets such as stock exchanges including an electronic order delivery and execution system and/or an on-floor trading auction, configured to provide an exchange-traded environment. Also included is at least one fixed return option or binary option traded through an exchange's order delivery and execution system or on-floor trading auction, whereby such trading environment provides an open market. Also included are methods for calculating the closing settlement value for securities underlying fixed return options or binary options in order to maintain a fair and orderly trading environment for these instruments on an organized exchange. |
| US08738498B2 |
System and method for routing a trading order
A system for routing a trading order to a market center comprises a memory and a processor. The memory stores a trading order specifying a trading product. The processor determines a plurality of market center prices for the trading product, each market center price associated with at least one of a plurality of market centers. The processor selects one of the plurality of market centers based upon the determined market center prices. The processor further determines a disclosure policy for the selected market center and routes the trading order to the selected market center according to the determined disclosure policy. |
| US08738496B2 |
Prepaid short messaging
A prepaid messaging solution that uses open networking standards and supports pre-payment of enhanced Internet messaging services. The prepaid messaging solution accurately determines if a subscriber has sufficient account balance to deliver a complete short message, prior to message delivery. Message delivery is prevented if insufficient funds are in the subscriber's account. A prepaid tariff engine, preferably extensible over a TCP/IP network, supports remote interaction with the SMSC and web chat servers to apply a real-time billing charge for each message. A service provider may create subscriber classes of service that define subscriber rates and/or tariffing plans used to apply real-time billing charges for sending/receiving messages. The prepaid short message tariff engine determines the appropriate message billing based upon, e.g., flat rate per message, character count, Time of Day, etc. The prepaid short messaging service preferably supports Internet web page access to subscriber's short messaging account balances and account status. |
| US08738494B1 |
End user generated billing cycles
The present invention provides a method for electronically splitting an original billing cycle into at least two billing cycles in an account by electronically changing the debiting timeframe of the original billing cycle and electronically switching on or starting at least one additional billing cycle, as well as a method for electronically replacing an original billing cycle with at least two additional billing cycles in an account by electronically switching off the original billing cycle and electronically switching on at least two additional billing cycles, wherein electronically switching on or starting one or more billing cycles is determined by an end user, and wherein electronic operations of the methods are performed by at least one computer. |
| US08738489B2 |
Managing schedules in a financial close management system
A computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, and financial close management system are provided that manage a schedule. A schedule is a core object of the financial close management system, and is an expression of a template. Managing a schedule can include creating a new schedule, modifying an existing schedule, deleting an existing schedule, duplicating an existing schedule, validating an existing schedule, creating a template from an existing schedule, setting a status of an existing schedule, and importing and exporting an existing schedule. In addition, managing a schedule can include defining task type parameters that can be set during scheduling and setting task parameters of a schedule at a schedule level rather than a task level. |
| US08738484B2 |
Discretionary order in an electronic guaranteed entitlement environment
An enhanced system and method for handling, matching and executing discretionary orders in an electronic options environment is disclosed. Market maker entitlements are integrated with the discretionary order processing, so that the market maker is guaranteed an allocation of the trade if the market maker is at the NBBO when an incoming discretionary order priced at or better than the NBBO is received. If the incoming discretionary order cannot execute at the NBBO using its display price, then it will use as much discretion as is required to participate in a market maker entitlement if the market maker is quoting at the NBBO, and to execute against the order book and route to away markets quotations at the NBBO. Once posted to the order book, only the display price of a discretionary order is eligible for preferential execution in a market maker entitlement process. |
| US08738481B2 |
Remote management system
A remote management system includes imaging apparatuses and a central managing apparatus configured to manage the imaging apparatuses. The imaging apparatuses and the central managing apparatus are connected to mutually communicate with each other. The respective imaging apparatuses notify the central managing apparatus of one or more counter values of one or more users, one of the counter values corresponds to a number of images processed by corresponding one of the users by using one of the imaging apparatuses. The central managing apparatus determines a fee to be charged to one of the users according to a total counter value of the one of the users. The total counter value is a sum of the counter values of the one of the users notified by the imaging apparatuses. |
| US08738479B1 |
Real property tax lien categorization system and methods associated therewith
A real property tax lien categorization and rating system and associated methods that facilitate classifications and ratings of tax liens from various counties of numerous states in the country, according to a common referenceable category scheme that facilitates identification of liens having common underlying real property characteristics, investment characteristics or other characteristics. In one example, a computer accesses a county server and its tax lien database via the Internet. The computer categorizes the tax liens, for instance into subgroups, and determines a rating for the tax liens based on one or more characteristics. The categorized tax lien information and the ratings of each tax lien are stored by the computer, for instance on one or more databases, so that this information is made available to third-party computers or computing devices (such as mobile devices or tablets) used by potential investors to evaluate the possible purchase of such tax liens. In this manner, the system provides classifications and ratings of tax liens from various counties of numerous states in the country in a manner that can be accessed by potential investors over the Internet. |
| US08738475B2 |
System and method for associating financial transaction data with a user's project data using a portable electronic device
This invention relates to a system for viewing and manipulating a user's financial transaction data and a method for associating financial transaction data with a user's project data using a portable electronic device. |
| US08738474B1 |
System and method for managing product inventory
A system has a storage bin used to hold a product and a product storage rack intended to hold the storage bin. The storage bin is provided with a near field communication (NFC) tag device and the product storage rack is provided with a NFC antenna device cooperable with the NFC tag device. The NFC antenna device and the NFC tag device are used to determine a relative position of or orientation of the storage bin relative to the product storage rack for the purpose of automatically determining if replenishment of the product within the product storage rack is required. |
| US08738470B2 |
Providing gift clustering functionality to assist a user in ordering multiple items for a recipient
A method and system for creating of gift clusters of multiple items in a client/server environment by users, and for the ordering of such user-defined gift clusters of multiple items. In particular, a user can specify multiple items to be associated together as a gift cluster, and can also specify a variety of descriptive information about the gift cluster. That user or another user can then order the gift cluster as a gift for themselves or for another recipient, and may also order the gift cluster for the same or different recipients multiple times. When customers are later searching for appropriate gift clusters, the various categorization or other descriptive information can then assist is identifying appropriate gift clusters. The gift clustering functionality may be provided by and work in conjunction with a particular item ordering service, or instead may work independently from any particular item ordering service. |
| US08738469B2 |
Information processing apparatus and information processing method for recommending application programs
An information processing apparatus includes a communication section that acquires application programs from an external apparatus, a memory that stores an application program and information relevant to the application program, and an application execution section that executes the application program stored in the memory. The information processing apparatus also includes a control section that determines other application programs to be recommended, during execution of the application program by the application execution section. The other application programs to be recommended are determined based on the information relevant to the application program, which includes first relevant information and second relevant information. |
| US08738467B2 |
Cluster-based scalable collaborative filtering
Methods for determining a predictive rating are disclosed. In an embodiment, an active user is compared to a set of clusters. One or more of the clusters are determined to be most similar to the active user. From the one or more clusters, K users are determined to be most similar to the active user. Prior ratings for an item by the K users may be used to predict a rating for the item for the active user. |
| US08738461B1 |
Display of popular, in-stock products of a merchant
Displaying popular items that are available for sale at a merchant's physical location comprises creating a electronic document corresponding to the merchant's physical location. Then, a product availability database and a product popularity database are populated, the product availability database taking into account the inventory available at the merchant's physical location. Next, a cross-referencing engine identifies the popular products that are available at the merchant's physical location, and displays on the merchant's electronic document a plurality of popular items that are available at the merchant's physical location. |
| US08738460B2 |
Automatically purchasing a gift from a wish list
A facility for providing a gift is described. In one embodiment, the facility receives information identifying a first person that will give a gift and a second person that will receive the gift given by the first person. The facility then automatically chooses a gift to be given to the second person by the first person. |
| US08738459B2 |
Product recommendation
A method and system for generating recommendations is provided. The method includes accepting queries and revised assumptions associated with shopping habits of a shopper. Responses to the queries are generated. The responses are associated with product features for products. A group of shoppers and associated interests are characterized resulting in a creation of a group of recommended products. Alternative products associated with the recommended products are determined based on the revised assumptions and a consistency of assumptions is managed. |
| US08738455B2 |
Systems and methods to determine a value relating to a post
Products and processes are provided in which an award for a commitment from an entity to post information, via a posting site, at or before a subsequent time is offered to an entity. In response to receiving the commitment, the award is provided to the entity. |
| US08738447B2 |
Banner advertisement transfer server and banner advertisement transfer program
A banner advertisement transfer server for transferring a banner advertisement to a plurality of sponsors which form members for the banner advertisement on a web and are connected to the server through a network includes a device for analyzing a click signal for the banner advertisement, a device for counting the click signal by each of the members registered in the server, and a device for deciding a transfer number of the banner advertisement for each of the members in response to a total number of the click signals. The transfer number of the banner advertisement for one member is calculated based on a number of the click signals by the one member for the banner advertisement of other members. |
| US08738445B2 |
Computerized systems and methods for anonymous collaborative auctions
A computerized auction system is used for collecting bids from a plurality of producers. The bids are placed on individual components of a multi-component ensemble. Bids from separate marketers are added and affect the rank of a single ensemble within a potential consumer's ensemble search result. The bids are cooperative as the separate bids on the components are added to form the single bid on the ensemble. The bids are anonymous such that each bidding marketer is kept unaware of whether another marketer's bid was combined with the bidding marketer's bid. |
| US08738439B2 |
Targeting of advertisements to users of an online service
There is disclosed a server and local device that interface for selecting advertisements to be viewed by users of an online service based upon user activity. The local device preferably maintains a targeted activity list of activity identifiers and associated advertisements. The local device monitors the activity on the local device and compares the activity to the identifiers in the targeted activity list. If the activity matches one of the identifiers, the local device plays one or more advertisements. |
| US08738438B2 |
Method, system, and program product for increasing the effectiveness of customer contact strategies
The invention provides a method, system, and program product for increasing the effectiveness of a customer contact strategy. In one embodiment, the method includes assigning a value to each of a plurality of customer events; assigning each of the plurality of promotion events to a “bucket” having a predefined range of values, based on a value of each promotion event; and selecting a customer event from the bucket having the highest range of values. |
| US08738431B2 |
Mobile advertising syndication
Apparatus and methods for distributing advertising content to a mobile device. An application is executed on a mobile device containing an advertising opportunity. Advertising content is requested from an advertisement syndication interface. A filtering constraint applicable to the advertising content request is identified and used to select and advertisement from a local advertising cache. The selected advertisement is rendered in a composite with rendering of content of the application. |
| US08738428B2 |
Managing retail promotion events
Disclosed are techniques for the creation, communication, negotiation, and storage of promotion events between trading partners. A promotion event is managed between a retailer and a vendor each having an associated computer in communication with a data network. The promotion event is defined to include terms, including an event description and a designated items description. The terms are situated in fields of a promotion event record. The designated items description is matched to a list of items stored in an item table. This list of items is authorized for sale by the retailer. A validation operation includes determining whether the fields in the promotion event record conform to requirements of a deal sheet associated with the retailer. The promotion event record is stored as a deal in a deal transaction storage medium. The retailer computer is provided with read access to the stored deal. The retailer can then negotiate the stored deal with the vendor. The vendor can revise the terms of the stored deal as desired. Further negotiation can occur until the deal is accepted. |
| US08738420B1 |
Method and apparatus for modeling satisfaction of a client
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates modeling satisfaction of a client based on an exponential-decay function. During operation, the system receives an identifier for a client. The system also receives a selection of components to use in modeling the satisfaction of the client. Note that a component is a performance metric, such as a goal, that has a quantifiable result. Next, for each selected component, the system determines a current satisfaction of the client by: determining an initial intensity for the satisfaction based on the component and an initial point in time; determining a decay constant for the client and the component; and using the decay constant in an exponential-decay function to decay the initial intensity to a current point in time, thereby obtaining the current satisfaction. Finally, the system combines the current satisfaction for each selected component to obtain an overall client satisfaction. |
| US08738413B2 |
Semi-automated reciprocal scheduling
Schedules which include reciprocal events, such as schedules for youth hockey leagues, can be created using a system in which users can invite one another to schedule games based on information selected through an interface and reciprocal dates which are automatically identified by a suitably programmed computer. Information related to games and schedules can be stored in a database which can be accessed and modified by different users depending on their roles and the permissions associated with those roles. |
| US08738411B2 |
Optimizing service delivery systems
A computer implemented method, system and/or computer program product optimizes a service delivery system. A processor receives a first set of inputs that describes a current state of a service delivery system and a second set of inputs that describes a cost overhead for the service delivery system. The processor then optimizes the service delivery system in order to derive an optimized service delivery system. |
| US08738408B2 |
Methods for grid-based rating insurance products using a programmed computer system
A method for rating insurance products using a programmed computer system comprising: receiving a coordinate pair comprising a longitude and a latitude of a location; determining a target coordinate grid block bounded by latitude and longitude lines, which grid block is associated with the coordinate pair; querying a database for a first set of existing data associated with the target coordinate grid block, wherein the existing data was associated with the target coordinate grid block prior to receiving the coordinate pair; querying a database for a second set of existing data associated with a regulator, which regulates insurance policies in a geographic area comprising the location; and calculating a pure premium based on constant values and an analysis of the data in the first set and the second set. |
| US08738406B1 |
Lump sum disability benefit rider
A system, a computer implemented method and a computer readable medium for providing a lump sum disability benefit to a loss payee is provided. Payment of the lump sum disability benefit is conditioned upon the fulfillment of two or more requirements and is paid upon the later of two predetermined events. |
| US08738403B2 |
Methods and apparatus for updating text in clinical documentation
Based on a free-form narration of a patient encounter provided by a clinician, it may be determined that one or more clinical facts could possibly be ascertained from the patient encounter. One or more options corresponding to the one or more clinical facts may be provided to a user. A selection of a first option of the one or more options may be received from the user. The first option may correspond to a first fact of the one or more clinical facts. A textual representation of the free-form narration may be updated to identify the first fact as having been ascertained from the patient encounter. |
| US08738397B2 |
Distributed randomization and supply management in clinical trials
A distributed clinical trial system that provides configurability, reusability and integration of randomization and inventory configurations for different clinical trials with various electronic data capture (EDC) systems. The distributed clinical trial system includes a method of randomizing subjects in a multi-arm clinical trial. In accordance with a method, a subject identifier and a trial identifier are received from an EDC system. The trial identifier indicates the multi-arm clinical trial and the subject identifier indicates a subject enrolled in the multi-arm clinical trial. A randomization design previously configured for the multi-arm clinical trial is retrieved from a database based on the received trial identifier. The subject identifier is assigned to an arm identifier of the multi-arm clinical trial based on the randomization design. The arm identifier indicates an arm of the multi-arm clinical trial to which the subject has been assigned. |
| US08738396B2 |
Integrated medical software system with embedded transcription functionality
An integrated medical software system with embedded transcription functionality, and a method of using that system, is disclosed. The system includes a clinical software module that is configured to be executed by a processor to create an electronic document and to capture clinical data for a patient in the electronic document during an encounter with the patient. The system also includes a transcription software application that is configured to be executed by the processor to select predefined clinical data that will appear within the electronic document in response to speech commands and to automatically transcribe dictated clinical data that will appear within the electronic document in response to dictation, wherein the predefined clinical data being previously linked to at least one of a diagnosis code and a procedure code and the dictated clinical data being automatically linked to at least one of a diagnosis code and a procedure code as it is transcribed. And the system includes an account management software module that is configured to be executed by the processor to automatically generate at least one of a bill, a claim, or a statement for the patient using the at least one of a diagnosis code and a procedure code linked to at least one of the predefined clinical data and the dictated clinical data. |
| US08738384B1 |
Method and system for creating natural language understanding grammars
Grammars for interactive voice response systems using natural language understanding can be created using information which is available on websites. These grammars can be created in automated manners and can have various tuning measures applied to obtain optimal results when deployed in a customer contact environment. These grammars can allow a variety of statements to be appropriately handled by the system. |
| US08738380B2 |
System and method for processing multi-modal device interactions in a natural language voice services environment
A system and method for processing multi-modal device interactions in a natural language voice services environment may be provided. In particular, one or more multi-modal device interactions may be received in a natural language voice services environment that includes one or more electronic devices. The multi-modal device interactions may include a non-voice interaction with at least one of the electronic devices or an application associated therewith, and may further include a natural language utterance relating to the non-voice interaction. Context relating to the non-voice interaction and the natural language utterance may be extracted and combined to determine an intent of the multi-modal device interaction, and a request may then be routed to one or more of the electronic devices based on the determined intent of the multi-modal device interaction. |
| US08738378B2 |
Speech recognizer, speech recognition method, and speech recognition program
A speech recognition apparatus includes a speech collating unit that calculates similarities at each time between a feature amount converted by a speech analyzing unit and a word model generated by a word model generating unit. The speech collating unit extracts a word model from word models generated by the word model generating unit, whose minimum similarity among similarities at each time or whose overall similarity obtained from similarities at each time satisfies a second threshold value condition, and whose similarity at each time in a section among vocalization sections of utterance speech and corresponding to either a phoneme or a phoneme string associated with a first threshold value condition satisfies the first threshold value condition, and outputs as a recognition result the recognized word corresponding to the extracted word model. |
| US08738358B2 |
Messaging translation service application servers and methods for use in message translations
A method for message translation and a Messaging Translation Service Application Server (MTS AS) are provided for translating messages exchanged with, and among, social network services alike Facebook™ and Tweeter™. According to the invention, a message written in a first language by a user is received by a first social media network, which further obtains from other social media network(s) information related to a language used by therein. Then, the first social media network requests translation of the message from the first language into the language used by the other social network systems, and further sends the translated message to the other social network systems. |
| US08738355B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for providing predictive translation information services to mobile stations
Techniques are provided which may be implemented using various methods and/or apparatuses to allow a mobile station to request and receive translation information associated with a location (e.g., a region, a point of interest, etc.). The translation information may be based, at least in part, on historical information associated with at least one other request associated with the location and previously obtained from at least one other mobile station. |
| US08738346B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling multiple simulations
Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for controlling multiple simulations. One embodiment is a method that includes executing plural architectural simulators being interconnected to form a platform for hardware simulation; placing at least one of the plural architectural simulators into a pause state; and automatically minimizing windows associated with the at least one of the plural architectural simulators. |
| US08738340B2 |
Local enforcement of accuracy in fabricated models
The systems and methods disclosed herein employ a combination of digital three-dimensional modeling and rapid fabrication technologies to provide pre-indexed, pre-registered, and/or precut components for articulated dental models. Dental articulators and components of dental models as described herein use a positioning key to encode positional information for components of the dental model, and/or a reference grid on mounting surfaces to enforce local accuracy of fabricated parts against a fixed reference array. |
| US08738339B2 |
System and method for ultrasonic testing
A method of establishing position dependent focal laws and dynamically accessing these focal laws during inspection is disclosed comprising the steps of partitioning a CAD model into distinct geometric regions prior to inspection, generating a dedicated set of focal laws for each of the geometric regions, and associating each position of the scanner with one of the geometric regions. A method of compressing an A-Scan using a windowing technique is also disclosed. Additionally, methods for computing and displaying volumetric slices in real-time are disclosed. Finally, a method of firing multiple probes at different firing frequencies is disclosed, as well as a multi-probe inspection system that enables parallel firing. |
| US08738331B2 |
Increased reliability in the processing of digital signals
A method, device and computer program product for providing increased reliability in the processing of digital signals. The device includes a module for performing analog measurement of a received signal intended to occupy two logical states at various instances in time, a module for determining if there is a change in the analog signal level, a module for determining if the change fulfills at least one logical state change condition, wherein a first logical state change condition is based on the speed of change of the analog signal level, and a module for determining that there is a change from one logical state to the other if at least one logical state change condition is fulfilled. The invention provides secure detection of unreliable digital signals that may be generated in harsh environments that are polluted or moist. |
| US08738322B1 |
Apparatus and method for a remote fish weighing, monitoring, and culling system
An apparatus, method, and system comprising at least one transmission unit utilized as a weight measurement and transmission device in communication with a remote receiving and display unit and whereby the system allows for monitoring, tracking, and sorting of multiple weight measurements of fish as caught by a fisherman. The fish weight measurement data along with its associated fish identification data may be coded, sorted, and culled according to the lightest fish of the catch. The main components of the transmission unit include a transmitter, an actuator, a weight transducer, a control unit, and a signal processor. The main components of the receiving and display unit include a receiver, a display screen, and a signal processor. |
| US08738320B2 |
Light condensing lens and three-dimensional distance measuring apparatus
A light condensing lens includes a plurality of lenses disposed side by side in a splitting direction of a view angle to condense incident light over a range corresponding to respective split portions of the view angle. The view angle is split in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis of the incident light. |
| US08738319B2 |
System and method for detecting a turning vehicle
A sensor system for a host vehicle may detect whether another in-path vehicle is turning. The sensor system may include a transmitter, a receiver and a controller. Signals may be emitted by the transmitter over a detection area. The emitted signals may reflect off an object vehicle in the detection area and be received by the receiver. The receiver may include a number of channels, each corresponding to a different region of the detection area. The sensor system may determine whether the in-path vehicle is turning and in what direction based on the reflected signals received at each channel. |
| US08738316B2 |
Luminance sensing system and method and computer program product thereof
A luminance sensing system and method and a computer program product thereof are provided. The system includes: a first luminance sensing unit, arranged at a first position, and used for sensing a light ray luminance at the first position to generate a first illumination value; a second luminance sensing unit, arranged at a second position, having a displacement unit, and used for sensing a light ray luminance at the second position to generate a second illumination value; and a computing unit, electrically connected to the first luminance sensing unit, the displacement unit, and the second luminance sensing unit, and used for acquiring the first illumination value and the second illumination value, acquiring luminance range information by using the first illumination value. When the second illumination value does not conform to the luminance range information, the computing unit controls the displacement unit to move the second luminance sensing unit. |
| US08738313B2 |
Measurement apparatus
An apparatus is realized which is capable of shortening the updating period of the measurement of a specific channel and lengthening the updating period of the measurement for another channel, thereby making the measurements for all the channels possible. The measurement apparatus includes a multiplexer that sequentially switches between analog input signals of a plurality of channels and internal calibration signals; an analog-to-digital converter that converts the signals from an analog to digital form; and a digital processor to which the signals are input, wherein the digital processor includes a sequence operation unit for sequentially switching between a combination of a channel for which a high-speed update is necessary and another channel, and the internal calibration signal among the input signals of the plurality of channels and supplying, to the multiplexer, an operation signal that is input to the AD converter. |
| US08738312B2 |
Phase measuring device and frequency measuring device
This disclosure provides a phase measuring device that can measure phase differences with high precision using the digital circuits. A phase measuring device includes a buffer delay measuring circuit and a phase difference measuring circuit which use a TDC, respectively, and a phase difference calculator. The buffer delay measuring circuit generates delay measurement data indicating a delay amount τB between the buffers of the TDCs based on a highly precise clock signal and a sampling reference signal. The phase difference measuring circuit generates a number data row indicating a phase difference between measuring signals SS(A) and SS(B), and first and second phase difference measuring data Ds(A) and Ds(B), using the clock signal. The phase difference calculator calculates the phase difference using numbers of state data NB(A) and NB(B) based on the first and second phase difference measuring data Ds(A) and Ds(B), the number data row, and the highly precise delay amount τB obtained from the delay measurement data. |
| US08738311B2 |
State-of-charge estimation method and battery control unit
A SOC (state of charge) estimation method for a rechargeable battery includes: measuring a battery parameter of the rechargeable battery; judging whether the battery parameter of the rechargeable battery is stable; if the battery parameter of the rechargeable battery is not stable yet, estimating an open circuit voltage of the rechargeable battery by a fuzzy control and expanding an established experiment data of the rechargeable battery into a 3D function by the fuzzy control; and calculating a time domain dynamic equation and converting into a SOC function, substituting the SOC function into the fuzzy control to estimate an SOC estimation value, wherein the time domain dynamic equation performing a time domain dynamic monitor. |
| US08738306B2 |
Pump tester
Methods of and devices for testing medical pumps via tracking induced single or multiple bubble trajectories within a fluid flow conduit (60) and methods of synchronized (600) corrections (604) of flow data estimates. |
| US08738304B2 |
System for acquiring data from a component
In one aspect of the present invention, a system has a data acquisition device for acquiring data from a component. The component has an identification transmitter. The data acquisition device has an image acquisition mechanism to capture an image of the component and a receiver to receive a signal from the identification transmitter. The data acquisition device also has a processor to process data from the image acquisition mechanism and the receiver. |
| US08738301B2 |
Method for gas analysis of on-load tap changers
The present invention relates to a method for quantitatively analyzing gases as a monitor for on-load tap changers. The general inventive concept lies in selecting particular characteristic gases allowing an indirect subsequent association and a dimension for aging effects, excessive discharge, and/or heating of the on-load tap changer; measuring said characteristic gases, formed during the operation of the tap changer in the insulating oil thereof, at particular time intervals; forming indicative quotients from the measured values of the defined gases, said quotients allowing direct conclusions about aging effects, excessive discharge, and/or heating; displaying trends from a comparison of the currently derived value of each quotient to the most recently derived value for the same quotient; and inferring warnings for aging effects, excessive discharge, and/or heating if the corresponding quotients tend to change significantly over time or in the course of the switch changes made. |
| US08738296B2 |
Indexing a reference sequence for oligomer sequence mapping
Generating an index includes receiving a reference sequence and applying one or more key patterns to the reference sequence to obtain a plurality of keys in the index. Each of the one or more key patterns is derived based on a corresponding set of oligomer sequence relationships of a plurality of oligomer sequences that are expected to be generated from the reference, and the keys correspond to a plurality of candidate and/or validated locations in the reference sequence. |
| US08738289B2 |
Advanced routing of vehicle fleets
A system, method and computer program product for obtaining a traffic route for a vehicle. The system receives information of a current location of the vehicle. The system determines a destination location or destination region of the vehicle. The system computes a plurality of available traffic routes from the current location to the destination location or to the destination region. The system estimates a potential demand for at least one potential passenger from the current location to the destination location or to the destination region per each available traffic route. The system recommends, to a driver of the vehicle, an available traffic route that has a highest estimated potential demand among a plurality of the available traffic routes. |
| US08738287B2 |
Systems and methods for off-board voice-automated vehicle navigation
A method of providing navigational information comprises processing destination information spoken by a user of a mobile processing system. The processed voice information is transmitted to a remote data center. The processed voice information is analyzed at the data center to recognize components of the destination information. The center generates a list of hypothetical recognized components of the destination by confidence levels as calculated for each component of the information analyzed. The hypothetical recognized component list is displayed with confidence levels at the data center for selective checking by a human data center operator. A set of hypothetical components is selected based on confidence levels in the list. The accuracy of the selected set of hypothetical recognized components of the destination information is confirmed though interactive voice exchanges between the mobile system user and the remote data center. A destination is determined from confirmed components of the destination information. |
| US08738285B2 |
Learning road navigation paths based on aggregate driver behavior
Techniques are described for generating and using information regarding road traffic in various ways, including by obtaining and analyzing road traffic information regarding actual behavior of drivers of vehicles on a network of roads. Obtained actual driver behavior information may in some situations be analyzed to identify decision point locations at which drivers face choices corresponding to possible alternative routes through the network of roads (e.g., intersections, highway exits and/or entrances, etc.), as well as to track the actual use by drivers of particular paths between particular decision points in order to determine preferred compound links between those decision point locations. The identified and determined information from the analysis may then be used in various manners, including in some situations to assist in determining particular recommended or preferred routes of vehicles through the network of roads based at least in part on actual driver behavior information. |
| US08738282B1 |
Reconfigurable vehicle control system and method
A processing system for a driven vehicle comprising a detector to detect an object which is in an area surrounding the driven vehicle via one or more sensors mounted on the driven vehicle, and to generate position data and size data corresponding to the detected object. The system may include a calculator to calculate an adjustment signal based on the position data and the size data. The system may also include a controller to adjust the driven vehicle's cabin height and/or the driven vehicle's wheelbase width, based on the calculated adjustment signal, such that the driven vehicle avoids colliding with the detected object. Collision may be avoided by the system via elevating the vehicle cabin above the road using an expandable suspension system. Further, an omni-directional telescoping shaft and wheel assembly system with in-wheel motors may be used for maneuvering the vehicle and/or altering the wheelbase width. |
| US08738276B1 |
Emergency routing within a controllable transit system
Embodiments of the present invention provide a solution for an orderly and well-considered evacuation of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system in the event of declared emergency. It describes the mapping of evacuation points and subsequent routing of PRT vehicles according to both the nature/location of the emergency and outflow capacity at each evacuation point. If an emergency is declared within a PRT system, which does not cause widespread power loss, but which does require an orderly evacuation (e.g., smoke or flooding), PRT vehicles will be routed to an evacuation point capable of handling such outflow in an orderly manner. |
| US08738275B2 |
Vehicle group control method and vehicle
The invention provides a vehicle group control method that controls the traveling of a vehicle group including a plurality of vehicles. The vehicle group control method includes: a process of controlling vehicles in each of a plurality of small vehicle groups which are divided from the vehicle group and controlling the relative relationship between the vehicles in each small vehicle group using communication between the vehicles in the same small vehicle group; and a small vehicle group control process of controlling the relative relationship between the small vehicle groups using communication between representative vehicles in the small vehicle groups. |
| US08738274B2 |
Control apparatus for internal combustion engine
In an apparatus for controlling an internal combustion engine mounted on a vehicle, it is configured to have a falling signal generator that generates a falling signal indicative of falling of the vehicle when the vehicle falls; an operation stopper that stops operation of the engine in response to the generated falling signal; and a suspender that suspends processing of the operation stopper to stop the operation of the engine until a predetermined time period elapses. With this, when the falling of the vehicle is not serious and the operator lifts the vehicle body within the predetermined time period, the operator can restart the vehicle to drive immediately after lifting the vehicle body. |
| US08738271B2 |
Asymmetric wavelet kernel in support vector learning
Example methods of modeling a nonlinear dynamical system such as a vehicle engine include providing a model using linear programming support vector regression (LP-SVR) having an asymmetric wavelet kernel, such as derived from a raised-cosine wavelet function. The model may be trained to determine parallel model parameters while in a series-parallel configuration, and operated in the parallel configuration allowing improved and more flexible model performance. An improved engine control unit may use an LP-SVR with an asymmetric wavelet kernel. |
| US08738267B2 |
Vehicular travel control device
A vehicular travel control device according to the invention includes an inter-vehicle distance measuring section that is mounted on a subject vehicle and measures an inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and a preceding vehicle, a target inter-vehicle distance setting section that sets a target inter-vehicle distance, a following travel control section that performs a travel control so as to make the inter-vehicle distance become equal to the target inter-vehicle distance and stops the subject vehicle while following a stopping of the preceding vehicle, a gradient acquiring section that acquires a gradient of a road being traveled of the subject vehicle, and a vehicle speed sensor that measures a travel speed of the subject vehicle. The target inter-vehicle distance setting section sets the target inter-vehicle distance based on the gradient and the travel speed. |
| US08738265B2 |
Stability control method and system for use when driving on a low-μ surface
A system and a method for assisting a driver of a vehicle to turn the vehicle when driving during low-mu surface conditions. The vehicle has a steering system, a plurality of wheels and a brake system allowing individual braking of the respective wheels of the vehicle. The system comprises a controller arranged to detect if the vehicle accelerates after the brakes of the vehicle have been applied, and detect a driver command to turn the vehicle in either direction. If both detections are positive the controller is further arranged to release the brake force on a side of the vehicle opposite to the detected turning command direction. |
| US08738261B2 |
Accelerator pedal apparatus
An accelerator pedal apparatus includes an accelerator pedal, a hysteresis generating mechanism which generates hysteresis on pedaling force, a reaction force adding mechanism which adds reaction force to push back the accelerator pedal toward a rest position, and controller which performs drive control of the reaction force adding mechanism, while the controller performs drive control of the reaction force adding mechanism so that reaction force is added during returning as well as during depressing of the accelerator pedal under predetermined conditions as the reaction force being larger than pedaling force difference between pedaling force at the depression side and pedaling force at the return side of the pedaling force hysteresis to obtain an appropriate accelerator feeling and to quickly perform danger avoidance or danger notification. |
| US08738258B2 |
Shift hunting control of a hybrid electric vehicle
In a powertrain for a motor vehicle that includes an engine, a transmission driveably connected to the engine and wheels of the vehicle, an electric machine for transmitting power to at least some of the vehicle wheels, a method for controlling the powertrain includes operating the engine and transmission to produce a wheel torque at a desired vehicle speed with the transmission operating in a desired gear in response to a demanded wheel torque, increasing the demanded wheel torque due to the vehicle ascending a grade, determining a magnitude of wheel torque able to be produced in the desired gear, using the electric motor to provide a second wheel torque in combination with wheel torque whose magnitude is equal to or greater than the wheel torque being produced in the desired gear, and continuing to operate the transmission in the desired gear. |
| US08738252B2 |
Method and system for driving of a vehicle
A method for driving a vehicle in which a gearbox connected to a combustion engine can be set to various different transmission ratios including a low transmission ratio in which the engine speed is below that at which a torque plateau for the low ratio is reached. The vehicle may drive in a first mode or a second mode both at the low ratio, such that in the first mode, the vehicle is driven without fuel supply to the engine and in the second mode, the engine is provided with fuel supply in order to deliver motive force for propulsion of the vehicle. In the method one determines whether the vehicle should be driven according to the first mode or the second mode, based on a need for motive force. |
| US08738249B2 |
Synchronous automatic transmission up-shift control utilizing input torque signal
A synchronous automatic transmission up-shift control utilizes input torque measurements. The input torque is measured during an up-shift having preparatory, torque, and inertia phases. Target input torque profiles for the torque and inertia phases are determined based on the input torque during the preparatory phase. During the torque phase, an engine torque is controlled to cause the input torque to achieve the target profile for the torque phase. During the inertia phase, an on-coming clutch is controlled to cause the input torque to achieve the target profile for the inertia phase. |
| US08738248B2 |
System for controlling vehicle overspeeding via control of one or more exhaust brake devices
A method and system are provided for controlling overspeeding of a vehicle carrying an internal combustion engine having one or more exhaust brake devices controllable to apply braking torque to the engine. The system may be operable determine a desired speed of the vehicle, to determine a road speed of the vehicle, and if the road speed of the vehicle exceeds the desired speed of the vehicle by more than a threshold speed, to determine a target brake torque required to reduce the road speed of the vehicle speed to the desired speed of the vehicle, and to then control the one or more exhaust brake devices to apply the target brake torque to the engine to thereby control the road speed of the vehicle to the desired speed of the vehicle. |
| US08738237B2 |
Control system for starting electrically powered implements
A control system is provided for starting electrically powered implements on a vehicle such as a grass mowing machine with electrically powered cutting reels. The electric motors are started at intervals, rather than simultaneously. The intervals between starting each electric motor may be based on pre-defined criteria such as a fixed time constant, voltage, current or speed input from a motor controller for each implement. |
| US08738236B2 |
Method and system for adjustment of headlamps for motor vehicles
A method and system for adjustment of headlamps for motor vehicles, comprising a step for calculating a headlamp angle. The method furthermore comprises the steps of detecting a target vehicle, calculating a lateral position of the target vehicle with respect to the motor vehicle, calculating a lateral angular offset with respect to the said lateral position of the target vehicle and adjusting the headlamps as a function of the headlamp angle and of the lateral angular offset. |
| US08738235B2 |
Detection method for a motor vehicle
A detection method, system and device for a motor vehicle (V1). The method, system and device uses at least one camera which has a predetermined field of vision. The method includes the following steps: receiving information which is representative of a driving state associated with the vehicle; and modifying the field of vision of the camera, and in particular its orientation, according to the information. |
| US08738234B2 |
Vehicle movement actuator controller using travel condition detector input
A vehicle control device includes travel condition detection devices configured to detect conditions around a vehicle and performs travel control of the vehicle according to the conditions around the vehicle by controlling a plurality of actuators according to information detected by the travel condition detection devices. The vehicle control device has a plurality of the travel condition detection devices. A control amount of at least one of the actuators, from among the plurality of actuators, is restricted according to reliability of a plurality of pieces of the information detected by the plurality of travel condition detection devices. |
| US08738231B2 |
Method and a system for assisting a driver of a vehicle during operation
A method for assisting a driver of a vehicle during operation in order to avoid an undesired situation based on a current driving scenario includes predicting if a first guiding force to a vehicle steering device is desired in order to avoid the undesired situation and, if the first guiding force is desired, predicting a total guiding force comprising the first guiding force, which would be applied to the steering device for avoiding the undesired situation, comparing the predicted total guiding force with a limit value, and if the predicted total guiding force exceeds the limit value, in advance, deciding whether to apply the predicted total guiding force to the steering device for avoiding the undesired situation or not. |
| US08738229B2 |
Electric power steering device and method for controlling the same
A current command value computing section includes an integration control computing section. Based on an integration of the steering torque τ, the integration control computing section computes a steering torque integration control amount Iint*, which is a compensation component for increasing the assist force. The integration control computing section functions as a determining device that determines whether the vehicle is traveling forward in a straight line. When the determining device determines that the vehicle is traveling forward in a straight line, the integration control computing section outputs the steering torque integration control amount Iint* to an adder. The current command value computing section superimposes the steering torque integration control amount Iint* on a basic assist control amount Ias* computed by a basic assist control section, and outputs the obtained value, as a current command value Iq* corresponding to a target assist force, to an output section. |
| US08738224B2 |
Steering wheel system
A steering wheel system for use with a vehicle includes, but is not limited to, a steering wheel having a rim. A touch sensitive member covers the rim. The touch sensitive member detects first and second gestures on the rim and generates a first electronic signal when the first gesture is detected and generates a second electronic signal when the second gesture is detected. A processor is communicatively coupled to the touch sensitive member and is configured to be operatively coupled to a first subsystem and a second subsystem. The touch sensitive member is further configured to send the first electronic signal and the second electronic signal to the processor and the processor is further configured to send a first command to the first subsystem after receiving the first electronic signal and to send a second command to the second subsystem after receiving the second electronic signal. |
| US08738219B2 |
Good checking for vehicle longitudinal acceleration sensor
A controller for indicating whether a previously-detected, acceleration-sensor malfunction no longer exists. The controller includes an electronic memory and an electronic processing unit connected to the electronic memory. The electronic processing module includes a malfunction monitoring module, a failure handling module, and a signal checking module. The signal checking module performs a signal check after the malfunction monitoring module generates the fault signal. The signal check includes executing a signal check function with a longitudinal acceleration signal. Also disclosed is a vehicle including the controller, and a method executed by the controller. |
| US08738217B2 |
Methods and systems for a hybrid vehicle
Systems and methods for learning torque estimate errors and updating torque estimation models are presented. In one example, torque errors are learned during an engine shut-down, after a disconnect clutch coupled between an engine and an electric machine has been released. An updated torque estimation model is then used to control torque during subsequent engine operation to improve drive feel and vehicle performance. |
| US08738214B2 |
Method of determining a status of a vehicle on a roadway and method and system of communicating the same
A method of determining a status of a vehicle on a roadway, in one example, includes monitoring a then-current vehicle speed by an in-vehicle processor, and during the monitoring, determining that the speed has exceeded a pre-established threshold speed. When the speed exceeds the threshold speed, an algorithm is triggered. Upon triggering the algorithm, a sub-routine is initiated that determines if the vehicle is caught in a traffic jam. Also disclosed herein is a method and system for communicating the vehicle status determination to an outside entity. |
| US08738213B1 |
User interface for displaying internal state of autonomous driving system
Autonomous vehicles use various computing systems to transport passengers from one location to another. A control computer sends messages to the various systems of the vehicle in order to maneuver the vehicle safely to the destination. The control computer may display information on an electronic display in order to allow the passenger to understand what actions the vehicle may be taking in the immediate future. Various icons and images may be used to provide this information to the passenger. |
| US08738211B2 |
Control apparatus for vehicle
A control apparatus for a vehicle is provided for a vehicle that has a normal mode and a power mode as vehicle driving characteristics. The control apparatus includes a continuously variable transmission mechanism that steplessly changes a speed ratio when rotational driving force of an engine output shaft is transmitted to a rotating output shaft; and a control portion that controls the continuously variable transmission mechanism such that, when a rotation speed is increased to a target rotation speed and a required output of an internal combustion engine when the power mode is selected is the same as when the normal mode is selected, the rate of increase in the rotation speed is greater when the power mode is selected than when the normal mode is selected. |
| US08738209B2 |
Control device of vehicle drive apparatus
It is provided a control device of a vehicle drive apparatus in a vehicle including an electric motor for driving drive wheels, the control device controlling an output torque of the electric motor in accordance with a predetermined electric motor torque control characteristic making the output torque of the electric motor larger when a requested drive force is greater such that a drive force of the vehicle becomes equal to the requested drive force requested by a driver, wherein when the stopped vehicle is started, if the requested drive force is equal to or less than a requested drive force judgment value set equal to or less than a necessary start-up drive force necessary for start-up of the vehicle, the control device provides electric motor torque suppression control suppressing the output torque of the electric motor below an output torque determined from the electric motor torque control characteristic. |
| US08738203B2 |
Method, apparatus, signals, and medium for managing power in a hybrid vehicle
A method and apparatus for managing power in a hybrid vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle includes an engine, an electric motor, and an energy storage element coupled to the motor. The method involves receiving a request to supply operating power to drive the vehicle and responding to the request by selecting an apportionment of operating power between the engine and the motor from among a plurality of apportionments having respective operating costs such that the selected apportionment is associated with a minimum operating cost, the operating cost including at least an engine fuel consumption cost and a storage element lifetime cost. The method further involves causing power to be supplied by at least one of the engine and the motor in accordance with the selected apportionment. |
| US08738202B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling sanding on locomotives
To avoid a locomotive from travelling with a disabled sanding system, a method and system are provided for ensuring that the sanding system is not disabled if a primary speed reference used to detect the locomotive's speed is faulty. The method comprises determining a first speed measurement from a primary speed source; if the first speed measurement is below a setpoint, determining a second speed measurement from a secondary speed source; and if the second speed measurement is below the setpoint, disabling the automated and/or emergency initiated sanding control system on the locomotive. |
| US08738201B2 |
Systems and methods of improving or increasing information concerning, particularly, runway conditions available to pilots of landing aircraft
Addressed are systems and methods for providing to pilots of landing aircraft real-time (or near real-time) information concerning runway conditions and aircraft-stopping performance to be encountered upon landing. The systems and methods contemplate using more objective data than utilized at present and providing the information in automated manner. Information may be obtained by using conventional ground-based runway friction testers or, advantageously, by using air-based equipment such as (but not limited to) unmanned aerospace vehicles (UAVs). |
| US08738192B2 |
Methods for operating a wind turbine
A method for operating a wind turbine having at least one blade includes determining an ambient air operating envelope and controlling a power output of the wind turbine at least partially based on the determined ambient air operating envelope. Determining an ambient air operating envelope includes measuring at least one of an ambient air temperature, an ambient air pressure, an ambient air humidity, and wind turbine power output. The method also includes comparing at least one of a measured ambient air temperature, a measured ambient air humidity and a measured ambient air pressure to predetermined ambient air temperature, pressure and humidity values. The method further includes referencing the predetermined ambient air temperature, pressure and humidity values to at least one operational parameter of the wind turbine. The method also includes determining if an existing wind turbine power output is within a range associated with the determined ambient air operating envelope. |
| US08738191B2 |
System and method for power grid management
A system for monitoring a power transmission line includes at least one monitoring device located along the power transmission line configured to provide power transmission line data. A wide area situational awareness module is configured to receive the power transmission line data and an adaptation module is configured to receive output from the wide area situational awareness module and further configured to calculate control actions for the power transmission line based on the power transmission line data. |
| US08738190B2 |
Industrial control energy object
An energy object extension to an industrial protocol having a comprehensive suite of attributes, messages and services utilized for the monitoring and control of energy consuming or producing resources by a manufacturing automation application is provided. The energy object includes an identifier associated with an energy resource that is associated with a manufacturing automation application and an energy type associated with the energy resource. This includes a measurement characteristic associated with the energy resource to facilitate energy management by the manufacturing automation application. |
| US08738184B2 |
Electrical monitoring and control system
A system for monitoring and controlling the electrical infrastructure of a building includes at least one sensor for sensing an operating characteristic in the building, and a processor for receiving information from the at least one sensor and predicting a future operating characteristic. |
| US08738180B2 |
Robot control during an e-stop event
A system for a work cell having a carrier that moves a product along an assembly line includes an assembly robot, sensor, and controller. An arm of the robot moves on the platform adjacent to the carrier. The sensor measures a changing position of the carrier and encodes the changing position as a position signal. The controller receives the position signal and calculates a lag value of the robot with respect to the carrier using the position signal. The controller detects a requested e-stop of the carrier when the arm and product are in mutual contact, and selectively transmits a speed signal to the robot to cause a calibrated deceleration of the platform before executing the e-stop event. This occurs only when the calculated tracking position lag value is above a calibrated threshold. A method is also disclosed for using the above system in the work cell. |
| US08738178B2 |
Method for controlling the walk of humanoid robot
The invention relates to a method for controlling walking of humanoid bipedal walking robot. More specifically, the invention comprises steps of designing a zero momentum position (ZMP) of a robot for the ground surface (a); calculating trajectories of a center of gravity (COG) of the robot along with the trajectory of the ZMP (b); calculating an angular velocity of driving motors of two feet, which has the robot walk according to the trajectory of the ZMP (c); and controlling walking of the robot by driving the driving motors according to the angular velocity of the driving motors calculated above. The robot walking control method according to the invention has stability against disturbances. |
| US08738177B2 |
Vending machine for storage, labeling and dispensing of a container
A vending machine, in communication with a remote station, delivers a labeled container to a user from storage holding containers of different sizes and shapes and containing different products such as medicaments. A control system is operable to select a specific unlabeled container from among the other containers in storage, and to move the selected unlabeled container to a labeling module where a label is applied after the position of the label and/or the selected unlabeled container are/is adjusted so as to result in the label being applied at a desired position and angular orientation with respect to the selected unlabeled container. The control system is further operable to move the labeled container to a delivery zone accessible to the user. |
| US08738174B2 |
Substrate processing apparatus and method for loading and unloading substrates
Provided is a substrate processing apparatus for loading substrates such as solar cell substrates on a tray in substrate processing equipment for processing a large number of substrates. The substrate processing apparatus includes: a tray carrying unit configured to receive and carry a tray; a substrate loading conveyor unit on which substrates to be loaded on a tray are arranged in a line; a substrate unloading conveyor unit on which substrates unloaded from a tray are arranged in a line; a first substrate carrying robot configured to pick up substrates from the substrate loading conveyor unit and carry the substrates to a tray placed on the tray carrying unit; and a second substrate carrying robot configured to pick up substrates from a tray placed on the tray carrying unit and carry the substrates to the substrate unloading conveyor unit. |
| US08738171B2 |
Sewing machine and non-transitory computer-readable medium
A sewing machine may comprise a mounting portion configured to be mounted with an embroidery frame comprising a frame and an outer frame. The sewing machine may also comprise an image capturing device configured to capture an image including the embroidery frame mounted on the mounting portion. The sewing machine may further comprise a processor configured to execute instructions, and a memory. The memory may be configured to store computer-readable instructions that instruct the sewing machine to execute steps comprising identifying a mark from the captured image, wherein the mark is provided on the embroidery frame or on a work cloth held by the embroidery frame, determining a rotation angle of the frame with respect to the outer frame based on the identified mark, and notifying rotation information based on the determined rotation angle. The rotation information may be information for adjusting the rotation angle to a specified rotation angle. |
| US08738169B2 |
Computer controled sewing machine with cutting needles
An apparatus includes a processor and a memory. The memory is configured to store computer-readable instructions that instruct the apparatus to execute steps including acquiring pattern data, identifying a plurality of needle drop points, identifying a corresponding identified needle, storing needle drop point data and identified needle data in association with each other in the memory, identifying a continuous number of times, replacing, among the identified needle data stored in the memory, the identified needle data of the identified needle for which the identified continuous number of times is smaller than a threshold value, with other identified needle data corresponding to the needle drop point data of one of a previous needle drop point and a subsequent needle drop point in the order, and generating cut data based on the needle drop point data and the identified needle data stored in the memory. |
| US08738167B2 |
3D integrated circuit device fabrication with precisely controllable substrate removal
A method is provided for fabricating a 3D integrated circuit structure. According to the method, a first active circuitry layer wafer is provided. The first active circuitry layer wafer comprises a P+ portion covered by a P− layer, and the P− layer includes active circuitry. The first active circuitry layer wafer is bonded face down to an interface wafer that includes a first wiring layer, and then the P+ portion of the first active circuitry layer wafer is selectively removed with respect to the P− layer of the first active circuitry layer wafer. Next, a wiring layer is fabricated on the backside of the P− layer. Also provided are a non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a program for fabricating a 3D integrated circuit structure, and a 3D integrated circuit structure. |