| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08931110B2 |
Security restrictions on binary behaviors
A security model restricts binary behaviors on a machine based on identified security zones. Binary behaviors can be attached to an element of a document, web-page, or email message. The binary behavior potentially threatens security on the local machine. A security manager intercepts download requests and/or execution requests, identifies a security zone for the requested binary behavior, and restricts access based on the security zone. The binary behavior can identify a security zone according to the related URL. In one example, all binary behaviors associated with a security zone are handled identically. In another example, a list of permissible binary behaviors is associated with a security zone such that only specified binary behaviors are granted access. In still another example, a list of impermissible binary behaviors is associated with a security zone such that binary behaviors that are found in the list cannot initiate access. |
| US08931109B2 |
Context-based security screening for accessing data
A processor-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product securely accesses a specific data store. A non-contextual data object is associated with a context object to define a first synthetic context-based object. The non-contextual data object ambiguously describes multiple types of persons, and the context object provides a circumstantial context that identifies a specific type of person from the multiple types of persons. The first synthetic context-based object is associated with at least one specific data store in a data structure. A string of binary data that describes a requester of data is received by a security module for generating a new synthetic context-based object. If there is a match between the new synthetic context-based object and the first synthetic context-based object, then the data is returned to the requester. |
| US08931106B2 |
Systems and methods for managing and protecting electronic content and applications
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing and protecting electronic content and applications. Applications, content, and/or users can be given credentials by one or more credentialing authorities upon satisfaction of a set of requirements. Rights management software/hardware is used to attach and detect these credentials, and to enforce rules that indicate how content and applications may be used if certain credentials are present or absent. In one embodiment an application may condition access to a piece of electronic content upon the content's possession of a credential from a first entity, while the content may condition access upon the application's possession of a credential from a second entity and/or the user's possession of a credential from a third entity. Use of credentials in this manner enables a wide variety of relatively complex and flexible control arrangements to be put in place and enforced with relatively simple rights management technology. |
| US08931103B2 |
Generating security permissions
Embodiments of the invention relate to generating security permissions for applications. A static analysis on an application is carried out to determine security exceptions and to determine the application components responsible for the security exceptions. The determined security exceptions are analyzed to calculate permissions required for each component. A security policy file that includes a hierarchy of the required permissions suitable for the type of application is formatted and applied to the application to provide a security enabled application. |
| US08931102B2 |
Testing web applications for file upload vulnerabilities
A system for detecting file upload vulnerabilities in web applications is provided. The system may include a black-box tester configured to upload, via a file upload interface exposed by a web application, a file together with a signature associated with the file. An execution monitor may be configured to receive information provided by instrumentation instructions within the web application during the execution of the web application. The execution monitor may be configured to recognize the signature of the uploaded file as indicating that the uploaded file was uploaded by the black-box tester. The execution monitor may also be configured to use any of the information to make at least one predefined determination assessing the vulnerability of the web application to a file upload exploit. |
| US08931094B2 |
System and methods for detecting malicious email transmission
A system and methods of detecting an occurrence of a violation of an email security policy of a computer system. A model relating to the transmission of prior emails through the computer system is defined which is derived from statistics relating to the prior emails. For selected emails to be analyzed, statistics concerning the selected email are gathered. Such statistics may refer to the behavior or other features of the selected emails, attachments to emails, or email accounts. The determination of whether a violation of an email security policy has occurred is performed by applying the model of prior email transmission to the statistics relating to the selected email. The model may be statistical or probabilistic. A model of prior email transmission may include grouping email recipients into cliques. A determination of a violation of a security policy may occur if email recipients for a particular email are in more than one clique. |
| US08931091B2 |
Method for operating a tachograph and tachograph
A method for operating a tachograph having an application controller and a safety controller. A memory is associated with the application controller and a further memory is associated with the safety controller. An encrypted program code having at least one associated signature is made available to the safety controller. The encrypted program code is decrypted by means of the security controller and verified by the at least one signature. It is detected whether the decrypted program code (EPC) is intended for the application controller and/or for the security controller. Depending on what is detected, the program in the memory and/or the further program in the further memory is at least partially replaced by the decrypted program code and, depending on a result of the verification, the at least partially replaced program and/or the at least partially replaced further program is released for executing. |
| US08931088B2 |
Adaptive distinct counting for network-traffic monitoring and other applications
In one embodiment, a counting method of the invention uses an adaptive sketching-update process to compress an unknown cardinality into a counter value that counts the number of binary ones in a hashed bitmap vector. The sketching-update process is probabilistic in nature and uses bit-flip probabilities that are adaptively decreased as the counter value increases. Parameters of the sketching-update process are selected so that the relative error of cardinality estimates obtained based on the counter values is relatively small and substantially constant over a relatively wide range of cardinalities, e.g., from one to about one million. Due to the latter property, the counting method can advantageously be implemented in the form of embedded software that relies on a relatively small, fixed amount of memory. |
| US08931087B1 |
Reconfigurable virtualized remote computer security system
Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for performing computer network security operations with respect to a computer networked environment. A system and method can include deploying a computer network security apparatus at a company's location. A virtualization environment is provided for the computer network security apparatus to allow new configurations to be downloaded to the computer network security apparatus after it has been deployed. |
| US08931084B1 |
Methods and systems for scripting defense
Methods and systems for cross-site scripting (XSS) defense are described herein. An embodiment includes, embedding one or more tags in content at a server to identify executable and non-executable regions in the content and transmitting the content with the tags to a client based on a request from the client. Another embodiment includes receiving content embedded with one or more permission tags from a server, processing the content and the permission tags, and granting permission to a browser to execute executable content in the content based on the permission tags. A method embodiment also includes receiving content embedded with one or more verify tags from a server, performing an integrity check using the verify tags and granting permission to a browser to execute executable content in the content based on the integrity check. |
| US08931079B2 |
Security element having an electronic display device for displaying security-relevant information or patterns
A security element having an electronic display device, particularly a digital display for representing security-relevant information or patterns is provided, wherein the represented information or patterns changes or change over time due to an algorithm and/or external influences. A method for marking, identifying or authenticating objects or living beings is provide, with the living being or object being provided with a security element having an electronic display device, particularly a digital display for representing security-relevant information or patterns, whereby the represented information or patterns changes or change over time due to an algorithm and/or external influences. |
| US08931069B2 |
Authentication with massively pre-generated one-time passwords
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for the storage of One-Time Passwords (OTPs) on a device (principal) that needs to authenticate from time to time. It utilizes recent availability of data storage capacity not previously exploited in this arena. Also disclosed is the means to initialize and modify the system (all principals) in a secure manner, and the means to store the OTP production means on a device in a secure manner, even if the device has no built-in protected storage. |
| US08931064B2 |
Identity attribute exchange and validation ecosystem
Methods and systems are described herein for performing attribute authentication for use by a relying party in providing access to a resource as requested by a user. Attribute authentication may be performed entirely by a single identity service provider, or by multiple identity service providers each authenticating a subset of a plurality of user attributes, such as name, address, phone, email, and the like. Each attribute may be authenticated with a level of assurance. Levels of assurance may vary from attribute to attribute. Different levels of assurance may be required for different attributes before the relying party may grant access to the user-desired resource. An authentication broker may act as a registry or broker of identity service providers, and may store information usable by relying parties to establish a trust relationship with a particular identity service provider on demand, as needed by a relying party. |
| US08931063B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for securely operating shared host computers with portable apparatuses
The present invention provides methods and apparatuses that utilize a portable apparatus to securely operate a host electronic device. Typically, each portable apparatus includes a data storage unit which stores an operating system and other software. In one example, a portable apparatus can provide a virtual operating environment on top of a host's operating system for a host device. In another example, a portable apparatus containing its operating system can directly boot a host device with one or more hardware profiles. Furthermore, a device-dependent protection against software piracy, a user-dependent protection against sensitive data leaks, a controllable host operating environment to prevent unwanted information exposure, and a secure restoration procedure to prevent virus infection between the host device users may be incorporated. Moreover, an authorization signature may also be utilized to authorize a connected-state guest operation environment in the host device. |
| US08931061B2 |
Techniques for providing access to data in dynamic shared accounts
Techniques for providing access to data in dynamic shared accounts are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a system for providing data in dynamic shared accounts. The system may comprise one or more processors communicatively coupled to a network. The one or more processors may be configured to identify a first user associated with an account, identify a second user to have access to the account associated with the first user in the event the first user is unavailable to access data or perform functions associated with the account, map the second user to the account, and provide the second user access to the account based on the mapping and with access privileges associated with the first user. |
| US08931060B2 |
System for two way authentication
A system and method for online authentication having at least two levels of authentication has been disclosed. The two levels of authentication provide total security of privileged information by requiring users to authenticate themselves in two stages/levels. The first level of authentication involves simple alphanumeric password verification, which if successful, is followed by a second level of graphical password verification. The graphical password verification is based on the novel concept of challenging users with a dotted grid to enable users to create a non-definable vector pattern of definitive lines by sequentially joining pre-determined dots in the grid. |
| US08931057B2 |
Apparatus and method for access validation
One or more techniques for access validation are provided. Access validation may be performed automatically or in real-time. Access validation may be at the resource level or at a sub-resource level. Techniques provided herein may be applied in a large variety of situations and industries, e.g. compliance management or inventory. Access validation reports may be generated in real-time or may link to indications of access validation in real-time. Five outcomes or options are provided, including affirmative, negative, stronger negative with larger implication, undetermined, and negative, however with temporarily granted access. A field for allowing entry of justification for access to a particular resource is provided. Reminders to validate privileges are provided. A continuous access validation process is provided. A technique for extending the hierarchy and corresponding workflow that is generated thereof is provided. |
| US08931052B2 |
Operation of mobile device as trusted mobile web client or trusted mobile web server
A method of operating a mobile device comprises executing a trusted service application in a trusted operating system through secure access, executing a trusted web server module in the trusted operating system, wherein the trusted web server module is configured to transfer information using an internet protocol and the information is generated by execution of the trusted service application, and executing a user application in a rich operating system through normal access, wherein the user application is configured to relay communication between a remote web server and the trusted web server module through a security session. |
| US08931050B2 |
Mobile application access control
Systems and methods of controlling access to one or more mobile applications are provided. In some examples, a plurality of business groups may be identified. One or more mobile applications may be associated with each business group. An individual determined to be associated with the business group may then receive, on a mobile device, access to the one or more mobile applications associated with the business group with which he/she is associated. In some examples, the one or more mobile applications may include native applications, web or Internet based applications and/or third party applications provided in a portal. In some examples, the portal may “take over” or mimic the desktop of the mobile device. The systems, methods, and the like may also prevent access to one or more applications not associated with the business group of the individual. |
| US08931048B2 |
Data system forensics system and method
A system and method for creates, maintains and monitors individuals, organizations and artifacts relating to the same over time with respect to pedigree and reputation, security and reliability. One aspect of the present invention provides for a method and a system for collecting and maintaining historical party reputation data. Another aspect of the present invention provides for a method and a system for assessing an access decision to the historical party reputation data to a person after the person's reputation has changed. |
| US08931044B1 |
Methods and systems for automated assignment of protection to physical documents that are digitized
Content analysis is performed on documents that have been scanned or converted into a digital format. Based on the content analysis of a document, a security policy is selected and assigned or attached to the document. The security policy prevents the document from being improperly accessed. In a specific implementation, the documents include patient medical records. |
| US08931043B2 |
System and method for determining and using local reputations of users and hosts to protect information in a network environment
A method in an example embodiment includes correlating a first set of event data from a private network and determining a local reputation score of a host in the private network based on correlating the first set of event data. The method further includes providing the local reputation score of the host to a security node, which applies a policy, based on the local reputation score of the host, to a network communication associated with the host. In specific embodiments, the local reputation score of the host is mapped to a network address of the host. In further embodiments, the first set of event data includes one or more event indicators representing one or more events, respectively, in the private network. In more specific embodiments, the method includes determining a local reputation score of a user and providing the local reputation score of the user to the security node. |
| US08931038B2 |
System and method for a cloud computing abstraction layer
According to one system of the invention, the system provides a cloud-computing service from a cloud-computing environment having a plurality of cloud-computing resources. The system may include a management module configured to manage a cloud-computing resource of the plurality of cloud-computing resources as a cloud-computing service, wherein the cloud-computing service performs a computer workload, an adapter configured to connect to the cloud-computing resource to the system and translate a management instruction received from the management module into a proprietary cloud application program interface call for the cloud-computing resource, a cloud service bus configured to route the management instruction from the management module to the adapter, a consumption module configured to allow a user to subscribe the cloud-computing service, a planning module configured to plan the cloud-computing service, and a build module configured to build the cloud-computing service from the cloud-computing resource. |
| US08931034B2 |
System, method, and policy engine for granting temporary access to electronic content
A system, method, and Policy Engine for granting a first user temporary access to a second user's electronic content. The Policy Engine receives a request originating from the first user to access the second user's content, and retrieves from a relationship database, relationship information regarding a relationship between the two users. If an access rule matching the relationship information is stored in the Policy Engine, the Policy Engine applies the access rule to control access by the first user for a period of time specified in the rule. If an access rule is not stored, the Policy Engine obtains the access rule from the second user. The Policy Engine allows access when the matching rule grants access and the matching rule has not expired, and denies access when there is no matching rule, when the matching rule does not allow access, or when the matching rule has expired. |
| US08931033B2 |
Integrating policies from a plurality of disparate management agents
Described herein are embodiments for managing policies of a mobile device. In embodiments, a mobile device receives policy containers from a plurality of disparate management agents. Each policy container has one or more policies. Each policy corresponds to a particular category that governs various aspects of the device. The policies described herein may be device wide policies corresponding to various features on the device. The policies may also be data specific policies which dictate how data is stored on and transferred to and from the device. Once the policies are received, a determination is made as to which policy in each category is the most secure policy. The most secure policy for each category is merged to create a global policy that is applied to the mobile device. |
| US08931032B2 |
Wall-mounted digital transport adapter
A digital transport adapter (DTA) responds to radio frequency distribution signals to extracted digital content information therefrom and to create analog television (TV) signals and high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) signals and to pass through a copy of the distribution signals. The analog TV signals, they HDMI signals and the pass through distribution signals are made available at separate connectors for use separately by customer electronic equipment. The DTA is rigidly attached to a wall overlying a wall connection box, to make it virtually impossible to remove the DTA. |
| US08931031B2 |
Matrix code-based accessibility
A method of presenting a matrix code for providing accessibility content includes receiving, at a content receiver, a signal carrying accessibility content, generating, at the content receiver, a matrix code from the accessibility content, and transmitting the matrix code as part of a content presentation to a presentation device for display, wherein the content presentation includes at least one of audio and visual content and the accessibility content includes an alternative form of at least one of the audio and the visual content for allowing a user to more fully comprehend the content presentation. Systems for implementing the method are also provided. |
| US08931029B2 |
Transmitter, receiver and extender system
A transmitter includes a signal input terminal, multiple loading units and a communication port. The signal input terminal receives a digital video-audio signal, which comprises multiple digital differential signals and multiple single-end/low frequency signals. The loading units respectively load the corresponding single-end/low frequency signals to the digital differential signals to obtain multiple differential mixed signals. A frequency of the digital differential signals is higher than a frequency of the corresponding single-end/low frequency signals. The communication port outputs the differential mixed signals to a receiver via a network cable. |
| US08931028B2 |
Receiving device
Provided is a receiving device that without interrupting a program being viewed is capable of switching the channel to the program in a destination reception area. When reception is good, a plurality of receiving units select the same channel and receive a program; and when reception worsens, the plurality of receiving units is divided into units for program reception and units for channel searching. The receiving units for program reception continue receiving the program, and the receiving units for channel searching search for a relay station and switch to a relay station channel having better reception than the channel being viewed. In a case where a relay station channel with good reception cannot be found, series broadcast stations in the same network are searched and a switch is made to a channel of a series broadcast station in the same network that has better reception than the channel being viewed. |
| US08931025B2 |
Generating a stream comprising synchronized content
A method of generating a stream comprising synchronized interactive content is described. The method comprises the steps of: transmitting a first stream from a studio to a terminal or a terminal system of a first user and to a buffer; transmitting in response to the first stream a second stream to a mixer connected to the buffer, the second stream comprising content generated in reaction to the content of the first stream; providing the mixer with a temporal relation between the packets in the first and second stream; generating a first output stream comprising a substantially synchronized content by mixing packets in second stream with packets of the buffered first stream on the basis of the temporal relation. |
| US08931024B2 |
Receiving apparatus and subtitle processing method
Provided is a receiving apparatus, including: a program receiving section configured to receive broadcast program data; a program reproduction section configured to reproduce the received program data; a clock functioning as a timer; a subtitle-data obtaining section configured to obtain subtitle data via a network, the subtitle data corresponding to the program data, time to display the subtitle data being previously specified; and a reproduction-time shifting section configured to delay, in a case where the time to display the obtained subtitle data is behind time of the clock, time to reproduce the program data by the program reproduction section for at least a time lag between time to display the subtitle data and time of the clock. |
| US08931022B2 |
Technique for providing security measures for communications device connectable to a communications network
A user may purchase in a retail outlet a host device for receiving cable services. The cable operator needs to provide a point-of-deployment (POD) module for insertion into the host device to realize out-of-band communications, and provide conditional access to premium subscription channels. Security measures are implemented to detect removal of the host device from its connection to a broadband communications system. If its removal is unauthorized, the service area in which the host device is located may be identified when it is reconnected to the system. In addition, a transmission device in the host device may be activated to transmit detectable signals to help recover the host device. |
| US08931021B2 |
Display apparatus and image playing method thereof
A display apparatus and image playing method thereof, are provided. The display apparatus includes a broadcasting receiver which receives a broadcasting signal; a communication unit which communicates with an external device comprising a storage medium; a first buffer which buffers the broadcasting signal to store the received broadcasting signal in the storage medium; a second buffer which buffers a broadcasting signal input from the external device to play the broadcasting signal stored in the storage medium; and a controller which outputs a control signal to the external device to control a broadcasting signal reception volume received from the external device based on at least one buffer volume of the first buffer and the second buffer upon execution of a broadcasting recording and playing function which stores the broadcasting signal in the storage medium and plays the stored broadcasting signal. |
| US08931012B2 |
Digital television signal, digital television receiver, and method of processing digital television signal
A digital television (DTV) receiver for processing a DTV signal, a receiver to receive a digital television signal including a plurality of extended text table (ETT) instances that appear in transport stream packets with common PID values, the ETT instances having common table ID values, each ETT instance comprising a section header and a message body, the section header containing a table identification (ID) extension field that serves to establish uniqueness of each ETT instance, the message body containing an extended text message (ETM) which provides detailed descriptions of a virtual channel or an event associated with each ETT instance, wherein the section header further contains a protocol version field indicating a protocol version, and wherein the ETT instance further contains a CRC 32 field; a demodulator to demodulate the digital television signal; and an identifier to identify at least one pertinent ETT instance from the plurality of ETT instances. |
| US08931010B2 |
Methods and apparatus for client aggregation of media in a networked media system
A network client aggregates media items available in a media system. The network consists of a plurality of nodes, including at least two media server nodes. A client node generates an internal request to obtain a list of media items available in the media system. In response, the client node generates a request for a list of media items from each individual media server node on the network. Each media server node sends their list of media items to the client node. The client node aggregates the lists of media items from each of the media server nodes. Thus, a list of media items available on the media system is aggregated to a requesting client node in the media system. |
| US08931009B2 |
System and method of providing recommendations related to a service system
A method of providing recommendations related to a service is disclosed and includes receiving data from a device associated with a service subscriber, the data identifying an individual. The method also includes creating a personalization profile associated with the service subscriber. The personalization profile is populated with information included in a profile of the identified individual. The method further includes providing at least one recommendation based on the personalization profile of the service subscriber. |
| US08931007B2 |
Information descriptor and extended information descriptor data structures for digital television signals
According to an aspect, there is provided a digital television (DTV) data stream including program and system information protocol (PSIP) data associated with content of the DTV data stream, the PSIP data including a virtual channel table (VCT) and an event information table (EIT), the EIT comprising: a source identification field identifying a source of an associated event in a DTV data stream; an event identification field indicating an identification of the event; a start time field indicating a star time of the event; a title field indicating a title of the event; and a descriptor comprising: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor; a descriptor length indicating a total length of the descriptor; and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream, each category code specifying genre, program type, or category information of the associated event, wherein the at least one category code specifies at least one of a set of basic categories. |
| US08931006B2 |
Information descriptor and extended information descriptor data structures for digital television signals
According to an aspect, there is provided a digital television (DTV) data stream including program and system information protocol (PSIP) data associated with content of the DTV data stream, the PSIP data including a virtual channel table (VCT) and an event information table (EIT), the EIT comprising: a source identification field identifying a source of an associated event in a DTV data stream; an event identification field indicating an identification of the event; a start time field indicating a star time of the event; a title field indicating a title of the event; and a descriptor comprising: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor, a descriptor length indicating a total length of the descriptor; and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream, each category code specifying genre, program type, or category information of the associated event, wherein the at least one category code specifies at least one of a set of basic categories. |
| US08931002B2 |
Explanatory-description adding apparatus, computer program product, and explanatory-description adding method
When a scene group including plural scenes, for example a group of scenes bookmarked during viewing of video contents is inputted, a combination of a scene and metadata in a group of metadata that represents characteristics of the scene, corresponding to the respective scenes in the scene group, which combination has a largest distance between the metadata, is selected as explanatory descriptions that are explanations for distinguishing among the scenes, and the selected explanatory descriptions for each scene included in the scene group is added to each scene. |
| US08931001B2 |
System and method for distributing video data over an electrical power line
A non-transitory tangible computer readable medium is disclosed, containing a computer program for distributing video data over an electrical power line, the computer program including but not limited to instructions to receive first video data and second video data concurrently at a first internet protocol television client device over an electrical power line from a second and third controllable devices in response to the detecting the first event data in the first location at the first controllable device; instructions to create at a first client end user device, a client created internet protocol television channel and insert the client created channel into an existing electronic program guide for the first and second video data; and instructions to send the electronic program guide to a second client end user device for selection and display of the first and second video concurrently at a display for the second client end user device. |
| US08930996B2 |
Apparatus, systems and methods for automatically presenting stored media content at its beginning
Media device systems and methods are operable to automatically present a program at its beginning while a remaining portion of the program is being received at the media device. An exemplary embodiment receives a program in a media content stream; receives a presentation request to present the program, wherein the presentation request is received after an initial portion of the program has been received and wherein the presentation request is received before a conclusion of the program; accesses a stored initial portion of the program from a memory medium; and initiates presentation at a beginning of the program residing in the accessed initial portion of the program. |
| US08930995B2 |
Method for providing multiple formats through XML based EPG schema in terrestrial DMB system
Disclosed is a method for providing multiple formats through an XML based EPG schema in terrestrial DMB system. The method includes the steps of setting a predetermined type in an area for defining type information of the EPG information, setting the defined predetermined type to have at least one format value, and making a definition to convert a format type to the defined predetermined type in an XML schema for expressing the EPG service information. |
| US08930993B2 |
System and method for presenting progressively downloaded media programs
A system and method for presenting progressively downloaded media programs is disclosed. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, obtaining an estimated length of a media program where the estimated length is based on a plurality of different reported lengths of the media program in reported media program information, presenting at a display device a portion of the media program while it is being delivered by a media delivery system via a progressive download, and enabling active trick play functions for the media program based on the estimated length of the media program until a true time index is generated using an index file at an end of the progressive download of the media program. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US08930992B2 |
TV social network advertising
An advertising method involves displaying a plurality of social network thumbnails as an array of thumbnails on a television display, where said plurality of social network thumbnails represent social network videos that are posted or linked to a social network post; representing an advertisement as a thumbnail representation; displaying the advertisement thumbnail representation within the array of thumbnails on the television display; and receiving an instruction selecting of one of the thumbnails to navigate to and responsive thereto displaying either one of the social network videos or the advertisement. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract. |
| US08930988B2 |
Reception apparatus, reception method, program, and information processing system
Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus including: a reception portion configured to receive AV content; a trigger acquisition portion configured to acquire trigger information for operating an application program to be executed in interlocked relation to the AV content; a table acquisition portion configured to acquire a correspondence table associating a command for controlling the operation of the application program with a valid time of the command; and a control portion configured such that when the time acquired from the trigger information as indicative of the progress of the AV content satisfies a predetermined condition of validity in reference to the valid time of the command on the basis of the acquired correspondence table, the control portion controls the operation of the application program in accordance with the command being valid. |
| US08930984B2 |
Method of content substitution
A method of substituting a primary content (110) being transmitted on a primary channel (100) with a secondary content (220) corresponding to a content being transmitted on a secondary channel (200), characterized by substituting the secondary content in response to a highlight occurring in the content transmitted on the secondary channel (210-3), said secondary content (220) being a summary of the content already transmitted on the secondary channel. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the program being transmitted on the secondary channel (200) corresponds to a live event. |
| US08930981B2 |
Television channel mapping techniques
In one embodiment, a television configuration technique includes determining a location, from a web service, of a television set using an internet protocol address of the television set or a zip code corresponding to a physical location of the television. Electronic programming guide, interactive programming guide or the like data for a plurality of service providers in the determined location are downloaded. The electronic programming guide data, interactive programming guide data or the like for one or more channels that are unique between the plurality of service providers are checked against transmitting station identifier data or system information protocol data to identify the specific service provider that the television set is connected to. A channel list for the specific service provider is then determined from the electronic programming guide or interactive programming guide corresponding to the specific service provider. |
| US08930976B2 |
Context-based automatic selection of factor for use in estimating characteristics of viewers viewing same content
A method of selecting a factor for estimating characteristics of viewers who view a same content is disclosed. This method includes: storing a multi-layered hierarchal list of attribute words expressing viewer attributes, each of which is a candidate of the factor; extracting the attribute words from the same content; generating a first vector indicative of frequencies with which the attribute words occur in the same content; for a successively-selected one of the attribute words, successively generating a second vector indicative of frequencies with which the attribute words occur in ones of sets of learned-text information which contain the successively-selected attribute word; calculating a similarity score between the vectors on a per-attribute-word basis; and selecting one of the attribute words as the factor, which is associated with subordinate attribute words on a lower layer, based on a dispersion level of the similarity scores calculated for the subordinate attribute words. |
| US08930970B2 |
Method and computer for obtaining using-frequency of application program
The invention relates to a method or a device for obtaining a using-frequency of a specified application program. The method comprises: obtaining an installing route of the specified application program, according to a system-registering information list; calling an API to monitor operation of the specified application program; recording a last start-up time and the installing route of the specified application program; obtaining the last start-up time of the specified application program based on the installing route as an index; comparing the last start-up time and a current time, to determine the using-frequency of the specified application program. The present invention can intercept the process start functions of the Operation System, to easily and efficiently obtain the using-frequency of the specified application program, easily manage the application program installed in the computer, and provide the base for optimizing the Operation System of the computer. |
| US08930969B2 |
Cloth application programmer interface
A method of executing a physics simulation is performed in a system comprising a computational platform, a main application stored in the computational platform, a secondary application stored in the computational platform, and a cloth application programming interface (API) implemented in the computational platform. The method defines a cloth simulation call in the cloth API, and by operation of the main application, invokes a software routine using the cloth simulation call. Additionally, by operation of the secondary application, a state of the physics simulation is updated in response to the software routine. |
| US08930960B2 |
Methods and systems for object interpretation within a shared object space
Methods and systems are provided for creating and using a shared object space to interpret objects. In one exemplary embodiment, a method is provided that includes partitioning a memory area of a server. The method may also include creating an object, wherein the created object contains the data needed for performing the function of the object, and providing an interpretation routine for interpreting the object. The method may further include storing the created object and the interpretation routine in the partitioned memory area and defining application access to the partitioned memory area. |
| US08930953B2 |
Dynamic checking of hardware resources for virtual environments
Mechanisms that dynamically check availability of hardware resources for applications of virtual environments are provided. One or more computing devices have various hardware resources available to applications of a virtual environment. Hardware resources may comprise, for example, amounts of memory, amounts or units of processing capability of one or more processors, and various types of peripheral devices. The mechanisms store hardware data pertaining to a specified amount of hardware recommended or required for an application to execute within the virtual environment. The mechanisms monitor for changes to the hardware configuration that may affect amount of hardware available to the virtual environment and/or application. If the changes to the hardware reduce the amount of available hardware to a point beyond the specified amount of hardware, the mechanisms prevent the application from being executed or prevent the changes to the hardware configuration. |
| US08930949B2 |
Apparatus, method, and computer program product for solution provisioning
In one embodiment, an apparatus for solution provisioning includes a task manager configured to, establish a provisioning task and obtain a provisioning image for the provisioning task in response to a request, and a provisioning implementer configured to execute and monitor the provisioning task established by the task manager. The task manager configures and launches the provisioning implementer based on the provisioning image obtained, and the provisioning image includes configuration information and scripts used for executing installation, and information for mapping the configuration information to the scripts. In another embodiment, a method includes establishing a provisioning task in response to a received solution provisioning request, obtaining a provisioning image for the provisioning task, configuring and launching a provisioning implementer based on the obtained provisioning image, and executing and monitoring the provisioning task using the provisioning implementer. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are described according to other embodiments. |
| US08930945B2 |
Environment managers via virtual machines
Methods and apparatus enforce computing policies of an enterprise in a distributed manner so that idiosyncratic services to a computing device can be minimized or altogether eliminated. Pluralities of virtual machines are arranged on one or more computing devices and define, for example, applications specified by a user and shared services approved by the enterprise. A central library stores the virtual machines and each is available for check-out by users. A manager evaluates the virtual machines for satisfactory compliance with the computing policies at a time when the virtual machines are resident in the library. Upon confirmation of satisfactory compliance, the applications and shared services are available for deployment to users. Otherwise, the virtual machines are centrally serviced for compliance and/or tested before redeployment. Libraries, managers, software program products, threat assessment, and policy management are other features, to name a few. |
| US08930944B2 |
Application model that integrates the web experience with the traditional client application experience
This Application Model includes elements that define the scope of an application, its startup and shutdown behavior, and how it manages windows and resources; provide basic navigation functionality, journaling and journal extensibility, browser integration, and Structured Navigation; and define the way an application is deployed, installed, activated, updated, rolled back, and removed from the system in a secure, non-impactful way. It also enables using the same tools and languages for Web applications and locally installed applications, and allows the same application to be hosted in the browser or in a standalone window, based on a compile-time attribute. |
| US08930939B2 |
Comparing system engram with product engram to determine compatibility of product with system
Information includes states that are each representable by a number and that each corresponds to a characteristic. Each characteristic is assigned an index integer of an index, and has potential states from which the state corresponding to the characteristic is specified within the information. An engram value for each characteristic is equal to the number representing the state corresponding to the characteristic multiplied by a state base value for the characteristic. The state base value for each characteristic is equal to a base value to the power of the index integer assigned to the characteristic. The base value is identical for all the characteristics. An engram is based on the engram values for the characteristics. Engrams can be generated and can be compared to one another, to, for instance, determine whether a product can be compatibly installed in relation to a target system. |
| US08930936B2 |
Loading remote binaries onto a write-protected device
A binary library overload instruction is received at an embedded computing device that executes a write-protected firmware build. The binary library overload instruction specifies a write-protected binary library of the write-protected firmware build to be overloaded by execution of an alternative binary library instead of the write-protected binary library of the write-protected firmware build. The alternative binary library is configured within a random access memory (RAM) storage area to execute instead of the write-protected binary library as specified in the received binary library overload instruction. The write-protected firmware build is executed using the alternative binary library instead of the write-protected binary library specified in the binary library overload instruction. |
| US08930935B2 |
Composite service refactoring
A network device may include a memory to store instructions. The network device may further include a processor to execute the instructions to obtain information relating to a loosely-coupled composite service, where the loosely-coupled composite service includes a group of services. The processor may further execute the instructions to analyze the obtained information to determine one or more design recommendations, and re-factor the loosely-coupled composite service as a target composite platform based on at least one of the one or more design recommendations. |
| US08930934B2 |
Technique for updating a resident application and associated parameters in a user terminal through a communications network
Methods and apparatus related to updating a resident application (RA) and replacing an updated resident application with a previous version of a resident application are described. The methods and apparatus may be used for updating and replacing resident applications in set-top terminals (STTs) of a cable system including a cable network headend. |
| US08930933B2 |
System, method and computer program product for associating a plurality of stored elements with a creation of a patch
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for associating a plurality of stored elements with a creation of a patch. These mechanisms and methods for associating a plurality of stored elements with a creation of a patch can enable improved patch development for multi-tenant on-demand database systems, improved patch flexibility, etc. |
| US08930932B2 |
In-service software patch
A method in a network device with a processor that runs multiple software threads for software that needs an update for updating the software while mitigating service disruption, the method comprising installing at least one new function, modifying at least one existing function to point to a synchronization code, wherein the synchronization code indicates whether the multiple software threads use the at least one new function or the at least one existing function, synchronizing software threads in the network device, based on the synchronization code indicating that the synchronization of the software threads is not complete, using, by the multiple software threads, the at least one existing function, and based on the synchronization code indicating that the synchronization of the software threads is complete, using, by the multiple software threads, the at least one new function, wherein the multiple software threads continually run on the network device during the synchronization. |
| US08930928B2 |
Method for modifying the assembly output of a compiler
The present invention performs manipulations on the assembly file level. As a compiler outputs an assembly file, the assembly file may be inspected and modified before it is sent to the assembler. One or more of the following modifications may be made to the assembly file: rewrite certain symbols, scramble program symbols, reorganize declarations of global variables so that their layout and default values are known prior to linking, and identify initializer and de-initializer functions in order to make them callable through central initialization and de-initialization functions, respectively. |
| US08930927B2 |
Diagnosing aliasing violations in a partial program view
A compiler generated static analysis of potential aliasing violations in a portion of code that is not in the current program view of the analysis. Source code in a current program view of the program code is processed to collect symbol definitions. The possible destinations of each symbol definition are computed. The set of symbol definitions in the current program view of the code that are accessible to the portion of the program code outside the current program view is evaluated. Each symbol definition is diagnosed based on the type of the symbol defined and the symbols which may be pointed-to by the symbol definitions. |
| US08930926B2 |
System, methods and apparatus for program optimization for multi-threaded processor architectures
Methods, apparatus and computer software product for source code optimization are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a first custom computing apparatus is used to optimize the execution of source code on a second computing apparatus. In this embodiment, the first custom computing apparatus contains a memory, a storage medium and at least one processor with at least one multi-stage execution unit. The second computing apparatus contains at least two multi-stage execution units that allow for parallel execution of tasks. The first custom computing apparatus optimizes the code for parallelism, locality of operations and contiguity of memory accesses on the second computing apparatus. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims. |
| US08930916B1 |
Generation of API call graphs from static disassembly
Data is received that includes at least a portion of a program. Thereafter, entry point locations and execution-relevant metadata of the program are identified and retrieved. Regions of code within the program are then identified using static disassembly and based on the identified entry point locations and metadata. In addition, entry points are determined for each of a plurality of functions. Thereafter, a set of possible call sequences are generated for each function based on the identified regions of code and the determined entry points for each of the plurality of functions. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described. |
| US08930915B2 |
System and method for mitigating repeated crashes of an application resulting from supplemental code
Provided is a method for mitigating the effects of an application which crashes as the result of supplemental code (e.g., plug-in), particularly a plug-in from a source other than the source of the operating system of the device or the source of the application that crashes. The method includes executing the application. As the application is running, it may be monitored to determine if normal execution of instructions ceases. When that occurs, the system will make a determination if code from a supplemental code module was the cause of the crash, and will make an evaluation if that supplemental code module is from a source other than the source(s) of the operating system and application in question. In some implementations, remedial steps may be provided, such as providing information on subsequent executions of the application. |
| US08930913B2 |
Intermediate representation construction for static analysis
The analysis of an intermediate representation of source or program code. An initial version of an initial representation of the source or program code is accessed and statically analyzed. For one or more portions of this initial version, the analysis component queries an analysis-time resolution component that provides supplemental intermediate representations corresponding to the portion. This supplemental intermediate representation provides further clarity regarding the portion, and is analyzed. If defects are found, they may be reported. |
| US08930911B2 |
Execution difference identification tool
Displaying instrument output is disclosed. Instrument output data is received. A difference between two or more corresponding portions of data included in the received instrument output data is determined. At least a selected part of the received instrument output data is displayed in a manner that highlights the difference. |
| US08930908B2 |
Aspect and system landscape capability-driven automatic testing of software applications
In a system and a method, a sub-test catalog is retrieved from a test catalog repository. A test aspect of the sub-test catalog is compared to an aspect of a software application to be tested. A required system capability of the sub-test catalog is compared to the capabilities of a system landscape based on a determination that the sub-test catalog test aspect matches the aspect of the software application to be tested. The system landscape includes at least one system. The sub-test catalog is added to a master test catalog based on a determination that the required system capability of the sub-test catalog matches the system landscape capabilities. |
| US08930906B2 |
Selectively allowing changes to a system
Identify a first change to a first portion of the system, and identifying at least a second portion of the system that is, at least in part, dependent on the first portion. At least one user who is assigned responsibility for maintaining the first portion or the second portion of the system can be identified, and an availability of the user to maintain the first portion or the second portion of the system during a time period can be determined. The time period can begin when the first change is initially scheduled for introduction into the system. Responsive to determining that the user is not sufficiently available to maintain the first portion or the second portion of the system during the time period, the first change can be prevented from being introduced into the system as initially scheduled for introduction into the system. |
| US08930905B2 |
System and method for providing a guideline for optimizing platform
A system and method for providing a guideline for optimizing a platform are provided. The system for providing a guideline for optimizing a platform includes: a virtual hardware platform which virtually simulates a hardware architecture equivalent to hardware and performs a function of the hardware; a software platform which provides an operating environment of software on the virtual hardware platform; an application class which installs and operates software to be inspected on the software platform; a simulation class which simulates the software to be inspected; and an optimization inspection class which inspects whether the software to be inspected is optimized to the hardware platform or the software platform, during the simulation, the optimization inspection class providing an optimization inspection result of the software to be inspected as the guideline for optimizing the platform. |
| US08930900B2 |
Artifact divider for large scale application builds
A method for building an application installation repository is disclosed herein. In one embodiment a build directory comprising a plurality of application objects is evaluated. Artifact generation rules may also be evaluated with respect to the application objects and the build directory. Object groupings, each comprising one or more application objects of the plurality of application objects, are defined according to the evaluations of the artifact generation rules and the hierarchical directory structure and artifacts are generated according to the object groupings. An installable application is generated that includes the generated artifacts. Artifacts may be further grouped into sharable units and assemblies according to rules and organization of application objects in the build directory. A delta build including only artifacts corresponding to modified files and correspondingly modified metadata may also be generated according to methods disclosed herein. A corresponding computer program product is also disclosed. |
| US08930896B1 |
Data anonymity and separation for user computation
This disclosure includes techniques for using distributed computing over a network to resolve difficult computational problems. Anonymization of the data allows computing devices in the distributed computing system to solve the computational problem without exposing private aspects of the data. Individual computing devices receive instructions and data that correspond to a piece of a larger computational problem. In one implementation, a user may request a webpage from a web server and receive the webpage along with commands in a scripting language that instructs the user's computer to process a piece of the larger computational problem. The web server may assign the piece of the problem to the user's computer based on processing capabilities of the user's computer. Combining solutions received from multiple distributed computing devices and reversing the anonymization process yields a solution to the computational problem. |
| US08930894B2 |
Method and system for executing an executable file
A method for executing an executable file. The method includes executing instructions in the executable file by a first process, receiving a write request from a second process to write to the executable file, generating an anonymous file from the executable file in response to the write request, executing the anonymous file by the first process, and accessing the executable file by the second process. |
| US08930893B2 |
Initialization safety
Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to inserting a declaration of a non-overwritable variable pointing to a current object in a source code, and inserting a code of storing a value referencing the current object to the non-overwritable variable. Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to converting a source code to generate a shared object in a lock-free mode by inserting a declaration of a non-overwritable variable pointing to a current object in the source code, and inserting a code of storing a value referencing the current object to the non-overwritable variable. |
| US08930877B1 |
Method and system of change evaluation of an electronic design for verification confirmation
A computer implemented method and system of change evaluation of an electronic design for verification confirmation. The method has the steps of receiving the electronic design comprised a subcomponent, employing a banked signature of data representative of the subcomponent, receiving a review request of the subcomponent, generating a current signature of the data representative of the subcomponent and determining a difference of the current signature and the banked signature. |
| US08930871B2 |
Methodology on developing metal fill as library device
A methodology for developing metal fill as a library device and, in particular, a method of generating a model of the effects (e.g., capacitance) of metal fills in an integrated circuit and a design structure is disclosed. The method is implemented on a computing device and includes generating a model for effects of metal fill in an integrated circuit. The metal fill model is generated prior to completion of a layout design for the integrated circuit. |
| US08930870B2 |
Optimized buffer placement based on timing and capacitance assertions
Optimized buffer placement is provided based on timing and capacitance assertions in a functional chip unit including a single source and multiple macros, each having a sink. Placement of the source and macros with the sinks is pre-designed and buffers are placed in branches connecting the source with the multiple sinks. An estimated slack is calculated for each branch, the branches are arranged according to the calculated slack, decoupling buffers are inserted in all branches except the most critical branch(es), the most critical branch(es) are globally routed and slew conditions are fixed within this branch, and at least one next branch is globally routed and slew conditions are fixed therein. |
| US08930867B2 |
Scheduling for parallel processing of regionally-constrained placement problem
Scheduling of parallel processing for regionally-constrained object placement selects between different balancing schemes. For a small number of movebounds, computations are assigned by balancing the placeable objects. For a small number of objects per movebound, computations are assigned by balancing the movebounds. If there are large numbers of movebounds and objects per movebound, both objects and movebounds are balanced amongst the processors. For object balancing, movebounds are assigned to a processor until an amortized number of objects for the processor exceeds a first limit above an ideal number, or the next movebound would raise the amortized number of objects above a second, greater limit. For object and movebound balancing, movebounds are sorted into descending order, then assigned in the descending order to host processors in successive rounds while reversing the processor order after each round. The invention provides a schedule in polynomial-time while retaining high quality of results. |
| US08930865B1 |
Layout correcting method and layout correcting system
A layout correcting method and a layout correcting system are provided. The layout correcting method includes the following steps. An integrated circuit design layout is provided. A plurality of performance parameters of the integrated circuit design layout are analyzed. A plurality of devices under test is selected according to the performance parameters. A computer simulating process is performed on the devices under test and a direct probing process is performed on the devices under test. The direct probing process is an on-chip test for comparing each device under test and an environment condition thereof by a Boolean algebra algorithm. A plurality of differences between the results of the computer simulating process and the direct probing process is analyzed. The integrated circuit design layout is corrected according to differences between the results of the computer simulating process and the direct probing process. |
| US08930860B2 |
Layout decomposition method and method for manufacturing semiconductor device applying the same
A layout decomposition method and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device applying the same are provided. According to the layout decomposition method, a design layout is received by the logic processor of a computing system. A design rule for layout decomposition is then identified by the logic processor, including identifying dense areas (areas with densely distributed features) on a substrate, and identifying areas with odd-numbered features on the substrate. Next, a first mask with a first pattern and a second mask with a second pattern are generated corresponding to results of design rule identification by the computing system for fabricating patterns of features in at least two of the areas with odd-numbered features in one of the dense areas. |
| US08930859B2 |
Method of decomposing layout of semiconductor device
Embodiments relate to a method of decomposing a layout of a semiconductor device. The method may include generating a pattern layout including first patterns and second patterns, generating an interference map for the pattern layout, the interference map including optical interference information regarding the first and second patterns, and decomposing the pattern layout into a first decomposition pattern layout including the first patterns, and a second decomposition pattern layout including the second patterns, based on the interference map. In the interference map, an influence of constructive interference on the first patterns may be greater than an influence of constructive interference on the second patterns. |
| US08930858B1 |
Method for optical proximity correction
A smooth process is provided in the present invention. The smooth process is applied to a retarget layout, wherein the retarget layout is dissected into a plurality of segments. Furthermore, the retarget layout comprises a first original pattern, a first adding pattern and a second adding pattern. The smooth process includes changing the second adding pattern to a first smooth pattern. Latter, a second smooth pattern is added to extend from a bottom of the first smooth pattern and a tail portion of the first adding pattern is shrunk to a third smooth pattern. After the smooth process, an optical proximity correction process is applied to the smooth layout to produce an optical proximity correction layout. |
| US08930848B2 |
Method for selecting area of content for enlargement, and apparatus and system for providing content
A method for selecting an area of content for enlargement is provided. Content including a plurality of objects is displayed. A user's selection of an area is received and the selected area is identified. At least one object that crosses into the selected area is selected. An importance value of the at least one selected object is calculated considering a crossing range of the selected area and the at least one selected object. At least one to-be-displayed object is extracted based on the importance value. The at least one extracted object is displayed. |
| US08930846B2 |
Repositioning applications in a stack
A dual-screen user device and methods for revealing a combination of desktops on single and multiple screens are disclosed. A number of desktops and/or running applications can be selectively displayed on dual screen displays conditioned upon inputs received and the state of the device Desktop displays and applications can be selectively shifted between the screens by user gestures or moved off of the screens by other user gestures and therefore hidden. The hidden desktops and screens however can be re-displayed by yet another gesture. The user gestures prevent the user from having to open and close the running desktops and applications, or to execute other user commands that otherwise result in a laborious effort by the user to manage the multiple desktops and applications. One user gesture or input enables a user to change an order of the window stack by simply re-launching a selected desktop or application. |
| US08930845B2 |
Multi-pane graphical user interface for mobile electronic device
Improved approaches to display information on a portable computing device having a display with limited display area are disclosed. The information displayed can, for example, assist a user in navigating a hierarchical menu system operable on the portable computing device to browse, search or play media items. In one embodiment, the information displayed can be presented in a multi-pane display screen (or graphical user interface). One pane can present a list of selectable items, such as a list of selectable media items. The list can represent one menu in the hierarchical menu system. Another pane can present other information that can be related to the list being displayed. For example, the other information can be data contextually related to the list. In one embodiment, the size of the panes of a multi-pane display screen can adapt dependent on user interaction and/or characteristics of the data being display. |
| US08930843B2 |
Electronic content workflow review process
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to a process for reviewing electronic content. |
| US08930837B2 |
Graphical user interface for map search
Particular embodiments include a method comprising accessing location data representing a first location of a first user wherein the first location corresponds to geographic coordinates, retrieving image data defining a graphical map from a remote server based on the first location accessing a search query inputted by the first user, retrieving one or more second locations in response to the search query, where the one or more second locations correspond to geographic coordinates, and displaying a first view comprising a list of the one or more second locations overlaying at least a portion of the graphical map, wherein the graphical map includes indicators for the first location and at least one of the one or more second locations in accordance with their respective geographic coordinates. |
| US08930834B2 |
Variable orientation user interface
A graphical user interface system is described in which users can be located at any angle. Different application interfaces can be generated on the display to appear in different orientations, such that different users sitting at different positions around the periphery of a display surface may each have an interface that is readable and accessible. The location and orientation of a new interface may be specified by user request, or may be automatically determined based on a characteristic of the request, such as the location of a tap or the direction of a swipe gesture. Interfaces may be radial in nature, and may have a central origin on the display, or at corners of the display. |
| US08930832B2 |
Multimedia communication system and method
Systems and methods are disclosed for creating, editing, sharing and distributing high-quality, media-rich web-based communications. The communications are created in a layered fashion that integrates user-selected text, colors, background patterns, images, sound, music, video, or other media. The systems and methods are used to generate, edit, broadcast, and track electronic presentations, brochures, advertisements (such as banner advertisements on highly trafficked media websites), announcements, and interactive web pages, without the need for the user to understand complex programming languages. |
| US08930831B2 |
User interface generation based on business process definition
A system and method including retrieval of a markup language file, the markup language file defining a business process including a plurality of steps, each of the plurality of steps being associated with a plurality of actions; and automatic generation of code executable based on the markup language file to present a first user interface associated with a first one of the plurality of steps of the business process, the first user interface comprising a first plurality of user interface controls, where each user interface of the first set of user interface controls corresponds to one of a plurality of a actions that are associated with the first one of the plurality of steps and is selectable to execute the corresponding one of a plurality of actions. |
| US08930829B2 |
Presence change alert
An apparatus and a method for monitoring availability of a contact are described. The apparatus includes an interface module for receiving a selection from a user that indicates the contact to be monitored. The apparatus also includes a presence change alert manager that is coupled to the interface module and is coupled to a network. The presence changer alert manager is configured to determine at least one relevant type of availability for the contact and to determine if availability information obtained from the network corresponds to a change in a relevant type of availability for the contact. The apparatus further includes a notification manager coupled to the presence change alert manager. If the presence change alert manager determines that the obtained availability information corresponds to a change of a relevant type of availability for the contact, the notification manager generates a notification alerting the user of the change. |
| US08930828B2 |
Distinguishing conference participants
Technologies are described herein for distinguishing between conference participants associated with different groups. A communication is received from a participant during a conference. The participant's group affiliation is determined and a representation attribute corresponding to the group is used to render the communication within the conference. As a result, the communications from participants of like groups are displayed with like representation attributes to visually distinguish the communications according to group affiliations. An administrator may designate the representation attributes so that all of the communications from participants of the same group are similarly distinguished without action from the participants. Participants may filter the communications as desired according to the groups and corresponding representation attributes. |
| US08930824B2 |
Facilitating propagation of user interface patterns or themes
A user interface architectural pattern for product/platform user experience is described. In an embodiment, a request associated with a first macro file is made. The first macro file refers to a second macro file, and includes one or more elements embedded in a wrapper associated with the second macro file. Based at least in part on the second macro file, a user interface component is generated. |
| US08930821B2 |
Component specifying and selection apparatus and method using intelligent graphic type selection interface
A system generates an output identifying components for a building. Each of the components having one of a plurality of types, and is defined by a plurality of specifications. The system includes a network interface, a computer system memory, and a processing circuit. The network interface receives a selection tool from a network. The computer system memory stores the selection tool. The processing circuit executes the selection tool to: open a multi-window display that includes a schedule window, a product type select window, and a product window. A menu of graphic elements is displayed, each graphic element representative of a product type. A user input selects a graphic element from the menu, and the graphic element then appears in the product type select window. A component database is filtered to identify components having a component type corresponding to the graphic element. A list of those components is displayed. |
| US08930818B2 |
Visualization of website analytics
A computer-implemented method for visualization of website analytics overlaid upon the source website is described. In one example embodiment, the method can comprise receiving website usage data associated with a customer website, aggregating the website usage data to generate website statistics, processing the website statistics to generate the website analytics, receiving credential data associated with a substantially current user of the customer website, based on the credential data, identifying the substantially current user as a customer associated with the customer website, and selectively communicating the website analytics to the customer website, the website analytics being displayed within a website analytics interface having one or more graphical reports over the website. The interactive graphical reports include reporting elements positioned over website elements corresponding to the reporting elements, which are independent of any variations in the size and shape of the display window or screen. In another example embodiment, the method can comprise pre-configuring and remotely storing display options, and selectively and automatically altering the display of the customer website pages, presenting different versions of those pages to different users based on the preconfigured and remotely stored display options to establish which versions of the page are more effective. |
| US08930816B2 |
Image reproducing apparatus, methods, and recording media for reproducing and displaying images while switching images
An image reproducing apparatus sets event information including date of an event and retrieves a related image from images stored in a storing device on the basis of the event information. The image reproducing apparatus calculates an event waiting period from present date to the date of the event, determines display ratio for inserting the retrieved related image into images to be reproduced on the basis of the event waiting period, and displays an event related image group obtained by inserting the related image into the images to be reproduced at the display ratio. |
| US08930815B2 |
Methods, systems and computer readable media for creating a virtual agent
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for producing a virtual agent. The virtual agent is generated. A demographic trait of a user, interacting with the virtual agent, is acquired. The virtual agent is endowed with the demographic trait, thereby enriching the virtual agent to appeal the user. Further, one or more intelligent agents are associated with the virtual agent allowing the virtual agent to accomplish specific tasking as directed by the user. |
| US08930814B2 |
Digital comic editor, method and non-transitory computer-readable medium
The digital comic editor edits a piece of master data of a digital comic suitably for efficiently viewing a digital comic which has an image size larger than a screen size of a predetermined mobile terminal. The digital comic editor enables the master data of the digital comic to be appropriately edited. The master data includes a piece of image file having high resolution image of the entire page of the comic and an information file having described therein a piece of frame information including a piece of frame region information of the frame within the page. Particularly, the digital comic editor displays a frame boundary while superimposing the frame boundary on the image based on the frame region information included in the information file and displays a border F corresponding to the screen size of the predetermined mobile terminal on the image. The digital comic editor allows an editor to virtually drag and shift the position of the displayed frame boundary while referring to the border F; thereby the frame region information can be corrected to match with the screen size of the mobile terminal. |
| US08930811B2 |
Method for making multi-element image templates
A method of making an image product includes receiving a template selection from a user, the template including a template graphic and a plurality of different openings in the template graphic, each opening surrounded by at least a portion of the template graphic. The method further includes receiving a single image selection from a user and compositing the single image into two or more of the plurality of different openings in the template graphic, so that two different portions of the single image are located in two different openings in the template graphic and the two different portions of the single image have the same relative locations in the composition as in the single image. |
| US08930809B2 |
Editing apparatus and layout method, and storage medium
An apparatus for laying out image data and text data on a page, which distributes multiple sets of image data and text data into multiple sets of an image box and a text box upon a page in an order based on attribute information of the image data, compares the text data to an upper limit of the text box into which the text data has been distributed and when the text data is greater than the upper limit of the text box, switches the set of the image data and the text data with another set of distributed image data and text data into another set of an image box and a text box, the text data is less than the upper limit of the other text box, and the upper limit of the text box is greater than the other text data. |
| US08930806B2 |
Providing toolbars
A server device receives a request for a document of a website from a user device; retrieves the document from a server that hosts that website; retrieves information associated with the user device; determines a toolbar for the document based on the information associated with the user device and information associated with the document; inserts the toolbar into the document; and transmits the document, with the toolbar, to the user device. |
| US08930804B2 |
Structured web advertising
A system for selecting a candidate advertisement for linking to a web page based on the content of the web page. The content of the web page may be automatically determined and then compared to content of the candidate advertisement to determine which candidate advertisement to select. The system can be used to implement a structured advertising system for the World Wide Web. Web pages are searched and indexed, producing indexed content data. This indexed content data may be ranked according to relevancy. The ranked content data are compared to content data of advertisements and an advertisement is selected. The advertisement may be copied onto (linked to) the Web page. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US08930801B2 |
Rate matching for a wireless communications system
Apparatuses and methods are provided for generating a plurality of redundancy versions using various rate matching algorithms. In some embodiments, a rate matcher is provided that allocates systematic and parity bits to the redundancy versions in a manner that allows all, of these bits to be transmitted in at least one redundancy version. In some embodiments, the rate matcher uses a first puncturing algorithm to generate both a first redundancy version and a third redundancy version, but allocates a different proportion of the systematic bits to these redundancy versions. In these embodiments, the second redundancy version may include only bits that were not transmitted in the first redundancy version. |
| US08930799B1 |
Methods and apparatus for correcting block-coded data errors with an error detection code
A method is disclosed for correcting bit errors in a block-coded data frame. The method includes receiving a plurality of block-coded symbols, each symbol including at least one unencoded bit; detecting a bit error in one of the plurality of symbols associated with the unencoded bits, the detecting carried out in accordance with an error detection algorithm; identifying the symbol having the bit error from among the plurality of symbols based on the error detection algorithm; and correcting the bit error in the identified symbol. |
| US08930795B1 |
Methods for slicing dynamically modulated symbols
Reducing decision based filter error propagation by feedback from a physical coding sublayer (PCS) to a slicer. One method includes: receiving a frame comprising symbols of at least two different modulation orders that use subsets of a symbol superset; slicing the received symbols according to the highest modulation order by a slicer having slicing functions suitable for the different modulations; identifying frame boundaries and modulation information, which are modulated according to a predetermined modulation order; using the identified modulation information for determining the modulation of a nonempty set of dynamically modulated symbols in the received frame; and providing the slicer with an indication of which slicer function output to use for feeding a decision based filter. |
| US08930791B2 |
Early stop method and apparatus for turbo decoding
In one embodiment, device for early stopping in turbo decoding includes a processor configured to receive a block of data to be decoded, compare hard decision bits resulting from decoding iterations and compare a minimum value of log likelihood ratio (LLR) of decoded bits against a threshold. The processor configured to match hard-decisions with previous iteration results. The processor may be configured to set an early stop rule after the matching hard-decisions with previous iteration results is matched. The processor may be configured to set an early stop rule when the minimum reliability of the output bits exceeds the threshold. |
| US08930790B1 |
Method and apparatus for identifying selected values from among a set of values
The present invention is directed toward identifying selected values from among a set of values. In accordance with an embodiment, a method of identifying two selected values from among a plurality of values comprises: partitioning the plurality of values into pairs of values; for each pair of values, using a comparator to select one of the two values to form a vector from the selected value of each pair; and applying the vector to a hardware unit that identifies first and second extreme values from among the values of the vector. |
| US08930785B2 |
Method for transmitting a data block in radio communication system
A method of transmitting a data block in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes transmitting the data block, receiving hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) not-acknowledgement (NACK) for the data block, receiving an automatic repeat request (ARQ) feedback message indicating a reception state of the data block, and determining whether to retransmit the data block by using the ARQ feedback message. |
| US08930780B2 |
Systems and methods for non-zero syndrome based processing
The present invention is related to systems and methods for harmonizing testing and using a storage media. As an example, a data system is set forth that includes: a data decoder circuit, a data processing circuit, and a write circuit. The data decoder circuit is configured to decode a test data set to yield a result. The data processing circuit is configured to encode a user data set guided by the result to yield a codeword. The write circuit is configured to store an information set corresponding to the codeword to a storage medium. |
| US08930779B2 |
Bit-replacement technique for DRAM error correction
The disclosed embodiments provide a dynamic memory device, comprising a set of dynamic memory cells and a set of replacement dynamic memory cells. The set of replacement dynamic memory cells includes data cells which contain replacement data bits for predetermined faulty cells in the set of dynamic memory cells, and address cells which contain address bits identifying the faulty cells, wherein each data cell is associated with a group of address cells that identify an associated faulty cell in the set of dynamic memory cells. The dynamic memory device also includes a remapping circuit, which remaps a faulty cell in the set of dynamic memory cells to an associated replacement cell in the set of replacement cells. |
| US08930776B2 |
Implementing DRAM command timing adjustments to alleviate DRAM failures
A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing command timing adjustments to alleviate Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) failures in a computer system. A predefined DRAM failure is detected. Responsive to the detected failure, a set of timers is adjusted for controlling predetermined timings used to access the DRAM. Responsive to the failure being resolved by the adjusted set of timers, checking for a predetermined level of performance is performed. |
| US08930775B2 |
Preventing disturbance induced failure in a computer system
A system and a computer program product for executing a method to prevent failure on a server computer due to internally and/or externally induced shock and/or vibration. The method includes acquiring, by at least one sensor, analog acceleration data of components in a server computer. The data is then converted to digital format and stored within a motor drive assembly processor memory unit. The processor analyzes the stored data for existence of machine degradation. In response to detecting the existence of machine degradation, the motor drive assembly processor initiates remediation procedures. The remediation procedures include controlling rotating speed of moving devices or performing a complete system shut down. |
| US08930773B2 |
Determining root cause
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media with executable instructions stored thereon for determining root cause are provided. A method for determining root cause can include receiving values for at least one performance metric for each of a plurality of components of an IT system to establish a normal value for each of the performance metrics, receiving an abnormal value that differs from the normal value for at least one of the plurality of components of the IT system, and determining a probability that the at least one of the plurality of components of the IT system is a root cause of the abnormal value. |
| US08930767B2 |
Techniques for test automation in emergent systems
Certain example embodiments described herein relate to techniques for test automations in emergent systems. More particularly, certain example embodiments provide a mechanism for dynamic recognition of combinations of services/components, monitoring of their real-time usage, and automatic generation and running of tests for the combinations at appropriate times (e.g. when part of a combination is updated). The tests for individual (and, if available, combinations of) services are associated with the services using a registry. A taxonomy or ontology can be used to denote the semantics of the services, providing an array of options for assessing how and when to run tests and actions. It also is possible to detect similar combinations of services automatically. It therefore becomes possible to automate the detection and running of tests for a combination of services/components, even in emergent systems where such combinations cannot always be predicted in advance and where services/components are addable/modifiable over time. |
| US08930764B2 |
System and methods for self-healing from operating system faults in kernel/supervisory mode
A method, apparatus, and computing system are provided for self-healing from a fault in an operating system (OS) without crashing the OS. In one example, the method includes detecting, isolating, and repairing a faulty kernel code module without affecting the run-time operation of other, properly function, portions of the OS. In another example, the apparatus comprises a variety of modules, including, for instance, a kernel level fault detector and a kernel level fault manager, that are configured to execute steps of the method. In another example, the computing system includes an OS that has at least some modularized kernel code sections, and a self-healing code for detecting, isolating, and repairing failures occurring in one or more of the modularized kernel code sections without crashing the OS. |
| US08930762B1 |
Optimal tracking of cluster-wide shared storage connectivity for graceful error handling
The tracking of cluster-wide connectivity information is optimized. I/O errors that result from failed operations in which specific nodes attempt to access shared storage are detected. The start-times of failed operations are tracked. The tracked start-times are compared to the time at which the cluster-wide connectivity information was last updated. Responsive to the results of the comparing, the cluster-wide connectivity information is updated in response only to a single I/O error that results from a single failed operation that was initiated after the update time, wherein additional errors resulting from failed operations with start-times after the update time are also detected, thereby preventing redundant updates of the cluster-wide connectivity information. The update time is set to the time at which the cluster-wide connectivity information is updated. |
| US08930761B2 |
Test case result processing
A computer-implemented method for test case result processing includes receiving, by a test case result processing logic in a processor of a computer, a test result from a test case that executes on the computer; determining, by the test case result processing logic based on a result description file, whether a result description corresponding to the received result exists in the result description file; based on the result description corresponding to the received result existing in the result description file, determining an action description associated with the result description based on an action definition file; and executing an action corresponding to the determined action description. |
| US08930760B2 |
Validating cache coherency protocol within a processor
A mechanism is provided for effectively validating cache coherency within a processor. For each node in a set of nodes, responsive to a node in a set of nodes being a controlling node, at least one action is performed on each controlled node mapped to the controlling node. After performing the at least one action on each controlled node mapped to the controlling node or responsive to the node failing to be a controlling node, a self-modifying branch test pattern is executed based on the selected execution pattern in the condition register through the set of nodes. Responsive to the self-modifying branch test pattern ending, values output from the execution unit during execution of the self-modifying branch test pattern are compared to a set of expected results. Responsive to a match of the comparison for the execution patterns in the set of execution patterns, the execution unit is validated. |
| US08930759B2 |
Stream generation
A method, apparatus and product for generating elements based on generation streams. The method comprises: obtaining one or more generation streams, wherein the streams comprise elements, wherein each element is a formal specification of an operation that stimulates a system, wherein based on each of the generation streams one or more alternative stimuli for the system can be generated, which stimuli comprises operations according to the elements; and generating a stimuli in accordance with the one or more generation streams, wherein the stimuli comprises at least one hybrid operation, wherein the hybrid operation complies simultaneously with two or more elements of the one or more generation stream, whereby the stimuli is comprised of a number of operations that is smaller than a sum of the numbers of elements of the one or more generation streams. |
| US08930756B2 |
Grouping related errors in a distributed computing environment
Techniques are described for detecting the occurrence of error scenarios occurring across a plurality of nodes. Embodiments retrieve a plurality of error scenario profiles. Each of the error scenario profiles specifies prerequisite criteria, the prerequisite criteria including at least one of (i) one or more errors and (ii) one or more conditions. The plurality of nodes is monitored to detect errors occurring on nodes within the plurality of nodes. Embodiments then detect the occurrence of an error scenario, when at least a portion the monitored errors match the prerequisite criteria specified in a first one of the error profiles and when the one or more conditions specified in the first error profile are satisfied. |
| US08930755B2 |
Distribution apparatus and distribution method
A distribution apparatus for distributing content data items via multicast includes a transmitting and receiving unit and an error correction encoding unit. The transmitting and receiving unit receives reception status information regarding a reception status of the content data items in a receiving apparatus that receives the content data items. The error correction encoding unit generates recovery data used by the receiving apparatus to recover a content data item that is not successfully received among the content data items on the basis of reception status information received from the receiving apparatus that receives the content data items distributed via multicast. Subsequently, the transmitting and receiving unit distributes the generated recovery data together with the content data items via multicast. |
| US08930754B2 |
Apparatus and method for processing data streams
A distributed architecture and method for maintaining the integrity of data streams within a multi-pipelined processing environment. The architecture comprising a communications network for carrying a plurality of data streams and a master processor adapted to process one or more messages in at least one of the data streams, the message processing including the creation of one or more data packets within the stream, each packet encapsulating at least a transaction summary of the data that has been processed. The architecture further comprising at least one slave processor per master processor adapted to emulate the transactional state of the master processor by regenerating the data stream as a result of processing the one or more data packets, whereupon in response to an error event on the master processor, the slave processor acts to avoid interrupting the data stream by generating one or more successive data packet(s). Hence, the architecture and method serve as a high availability, robust fault tolerant system, mitigating against the loss of data within data streams. |
| US08930752B2 |
Scheduler for multiprocessor system switch with selective pairing
System, method and computer program product for scheduling threads in a multiprocessing system with selective pairing of processor cores for increased processing reliability. A selective pairing facility is provided that selectively connects, i.e., pairs, multiple microprocessor or processor cores to provide one highly reliable thread (or thread group). The method configures the selective pairing facility to use checking provide one highly reliable thread for high-reliability and allocate threads to corresponding processor cores indicating need for hardware checking. The method configures the selective pairing facility to provide multiple independent cores and allocate threads to corresponding processor cores indicating inherent resilience. |
| US08930751B2 |
Initializing replication in a virtual machine
Techniques for initializing a replication relationship between virtual machines are described herein. The techniques include performing one or more pre-requisite checks, determining, at least partly in response to performing the one or more pre-requisite checks, one or more first data blocks associated with a first virtual machine that differ from one or more second data blocks associated with a second virtual machine. The second virtual machine may be instructed to send the one or more second data blocks that differ from the one or more first data blocks to the first virtual machine. |
| US08930749B2 |
Systems and methods for preventing data loss
For preventing data loss in storage systems a detection is made that a storage device in a plurality of storage devices is experiencing a malfunction. The type of malfunction is determined. A SMART rebuilding technique, a normal building technique, a data migration technique, or a user data backup technique is selected to preserve the data in the storage device based on the determined type of the malfunction. The selected technique is performed on the storage device. |
| US08930747B2 |
Private cloud replication and recovery
Replication and recovery for a protected private cloud infrastructure that may include hosts, virtual machines (VMs) provisioned on the hosts, storage arrays and a management server. Metadata is periodically captured and made accessible to a recovery site. Upon a recovery event, replication of storage arrays is halted, and a number of target machines corresponding to the management server and the hosts to be recovered are assigned. The assigned management server and hosts are then bare provisioned by installing operating systems or hypervisors as specified by the metadata. Only then are recovery target machines connected to the replicated storage arrays so that virtual machines can be activated. |
| US08930746B1 |
System and method for LUN adjustment
A method, computer program product, and computing system for identifying at least one misassigned slice that is associated with a first data tier and is located in a first front end LUN. The at least one misassigned slice is being accessed contrary to the first data tier. The failure domain of the first front end LUN is determined. At least one replacement slice that is associated with a second data tier and is located in a second front end LUN is identified based, at least in part, upon the failure domain of the first front end LUN. The at least one misassigned slice is moved to the second front end LUN. The at least one replacement slice is moved to the first front end LUN. |
| US08930745B2 |
Storage subsystem and data management method of storage subsystem
Since the whole storage device is blocked according to the conventional data saving method when failure occurs to the storage device in a storage subsystem, so that when failure occurs to two storage devices at the same time within a same RAID group, double failure is caused and data loss occurs. In order to solve the problem, the present invention divides a storage device into storage areas of predetermined units, constructs RAID groups from two or more storage areas, and when failure occurs to the storage area, selects a data migration destination storage area from either the RAID group in which failure has occurred or the RAID group other than the RAID group in which failure has occurred, migrates the data stored in the storage area where failure has occurred to the selected data migration destination storage area, and blocks only the storage area where failure has occurred. |
| US08930744B2 |
Maximizing use of storage in a data replication environment
Mechanisms for controlling access to storage volumes on the secondary storage system is provided. A determination is made as to whether a first site computing device has sent a notification of a failure condition of a first site. In response to a determination that the notification of the failure condition of the first site has not been received, secondary workloads of a second site computing device are permitted to access storage volumes on the secondary storage system. In response to a determination that the notification of the failure condition of the first site has been received, a mode of operation of the second site is modified from a normal mode of operation to a failure mode of operation. In the failure mode of operation, the storage system controller of the second site blocks at least a portion of access requests from secondary workloads of the second site computing device. |
| US08930741B2 |
Voltage regulator with drive override
Techniques to enable voltage regulators to adjust for coming load changes are presented herein. In some embodiments, a functional block such as a microprocessor core having an associated clock signal is powered by at least one switching-type voltage regulator. When the functional block is about to require an increased level of power, the associated clock is provided to drive the at least one regulator switches overriding their normal drive signal, which has a lower frequency. Thus, the switches are driven at a higher frequency sufficiently prior to (e.g., just ahead of) the load change to reduce the amount of droop that would otherwise occur. |
| US08930738B1 |
Battery backup system
A common form-factor battery backup system includes a battery system configured to provide electrical energy to an external system. A control circuit is configured to compare a monitored voltage level associated with the external system to a minimum acceptable voltage level and, if the monitored voltage is less than the minimum acceptable voltage level, provide electrical energy from the battery system to the external system. The battery backup system is configured to fit within a common form-factor storage space within a data system. |
| US08930733B2 |
Separating power domains of central processing units
A circuit includes a central processing unit (CPU), which includes a first memory block having a first power domain; and a core block signally connected to the first memory block and having a second power domain disconnected from the first power domain. |
| US08930732B2 |
Fast speed computer system power-on and power-off method
A fast speed computer system power-on & power-off method, that is used to reduce an amount of main memory transferred and stored from a main memory into a second storage device, thus speeding up a speed of re-activation of a computer system from a hibernation state into a full speed operation state. Said fast speed computer system power-on & power-off method is applicable to various types of computer systems, and can be used to write in and load back data in cooperation with a random access processing technology. In addition, said method can be used to reduce extent of data loss and damage of said computer system due to a sudden power outage of said computer system. |
| US08930726B2 |
Physical layer device auto-adjustment based on power over Ethernet magnetic heating
Physical layer device auto-adjustment based on power over Ethernet (PoE) magnetic heating. In one embodiment, information generated by a PoE module that is indicative of the PoE operation over the network cable (e.g., level of current, heating, etc.) is made available to the physical layer device (PHY). This information enables the PHY to infer a change in the level of inductance on the line. In response, the PHY can then adjust a characteristic of transmission by the PHY. |
| US08930725B2 |
Server rack system for managing power supply
A server rack system for managing power supply is provided. The system includes: a first LAN switch, a plurality of servers, at least one power supply unit, and an IMM. The first LAN switch is coupled to a management network. Each of the servers has a BMC. The BMC has a management network port connected to the management network. The power supply unit supplies electric power to the server rack system and has a management network port connected to the management network. The IMM has a management network port connected to the management network, visits the BMCs through the management network to acquire a power consumption value of the servers, generates a control command according to the power consumption value of the servers, and transmits the control command through the management network to the power supply unit. The power supply unit adjusts electric power output according to the control command. |
| US08930723B2 |
System and method for multi-phase voltage regulation
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a multi-phase voltage regulator may comprise a plurality of phases, each phase configured to supply electrical current to one or more information handling resources electrically coupled to the voltage regulator. A controller may be electrically coupled to the plurality of phases. The controller may designate at least one of the plurality of phases as a first state phase, and designate each of the plurality of phases not designated as a first state phase as a second state phase. The controller may alternate the designation of at least two of the plurality of phases between a first state phase and a second state phase. Each first state phase may be configured to supply a first electrical current regardless of electrical current demand. Each second state phase may be configured to supply a second electrical current based on the current demand. |
| US08930716B2 |
Address translation unit, device and method for remote direct memory access of a memory
A method for Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) of a memory of a processor. An address translation unit comprises an address translator and a signer. The address translator is configured to translate a received virtual address in a real address of the memory. The signer is configured to cryptographically sign the real address. |
| US08930714B2 |
Encrypted memory
A memory device is operable to perform channel encryption wherein for communication between devices, each includes cryptographic logic and performs cryptographic operations. In an illustrative embodiment, the memory device can comprise memory operable to store data communicated via a communication channel from a processor, and logic operable to perform channel encryption operations on the communication channel that communicates information between the processor and the memory. |
| US08930709B2 |
Method and apparatus for sequential authentication using one or more error rates characterizing each security challenge
Methods and apparatus are provided for sequential authentication of a user that employ one or more error rates characterizing each security challenge. According to one aspect of the invention, a user is challenged with at least one knowledge challenge to obtain an intermediate authentication result; and the user challenges continue until a cumulative authentication result satisfies one or more criteria. The intermediate authentication result is based, for example, on one or more of false accept and false reject error probabilities for each knowledge challenge. A false accept error probability describes a probability of a different user answering the knowledge challenge correctly. A false reject error probability describes a probability of a genuine user not answering the knowledge challenge correctly. The false accept and false reject error probabilities can be adapted based on field data or known information about a given challenge. |
| US08930707B2 |
Near field communication (NFC) device and method for selectively securing records in a near field communication data exchange format (NDEF) message
A method and apparatus for selectively securing records in a Near Field Communication Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message in a Near Field Communication (NFC) device are provided. The method includes generating a place marker signature record by setting a URI_present field to ‘0’ and setting a signature_type field to a predefined value, wherein a combination of the URI_present field set to ‘0’ and the signature_type field set to the predefined value indicates that a signature Record Type Definition (RTD) is a place marker signature record; and placing the place marker signature record in the NDEF message, wherein a set of records following the place marker signature record are secured. |
| US08930702B2 |
Strong authentication token with acoustic data input
Strong authentication tokens for generating dynamic security values having an acoustical input interface for acoustically receiving input data are disclosed. The tokens may also include an optical interface for receiving input data and may have a selection mechanism to select either the acoustical or the optical input interface to receive data. A communication interface may be provided to communicate with a removable security device such as a smart card and the token may be adapted to generate dynamic security values in cooperation with the removable security device. The acoustic signal received by the token may be modulated using a frequency shift keying modulation scheme using a plurality of coding frequencies to code the acoustical signal where each coding frequency may be an integer multiple of a common base frequency. |
| US08930699B2 |
Short-range secure data communication method based on sound wave or audio, and apparatus thereof
The present invention discloses an apparatus, a system and a method for short-range sound wave communication. The system realizes non-contact secure transmission by using the sound wave as the data transmission medium, and also can realize a reliable and secure data link directly through an audio connection. The invention systematically constructs multiple end-to-end transmission verification mechanisms for the process of data transmission: transmission data integrity verification, valid time verification, password verification, service data verification and data encryption; and according to the security level of the data, the sending end specifies the requirements for encryption and data verification in the transmission data so as to notify the reception end which verifications should be performed to the data packets, how to perform the verifications, etc. By using the same verification processing manner, operations can be performed to the data (e.g. the payment and settlement function of an account). |
| US08930694B2 |
Method for the generation of a code, and method and system for the authorization of an operation
The present invention relates to a method for generating a code and a method comprising the authorization of an operation carried out by a client on a first server. A second server generating an authorization code according to an encoding method is involved in the authorization. The operations can be transactions, access to a web page, user-to-user payments, user-to-business payments, online user-to-business payments, cash withdrawal in automated teller machines, etc. |
| US08930689B2 |
Securing email conversations
At least a portion of a transmission of an outgoing first email from a first email account to at least a second email account is encrypted. Second email address data is changed corresponding to the second email account to cause replies to the first email intended for the second email account to be sent to an intermediate device prior to being routed to the second email account. Replies to the first email are then sent to the intermediate device and sent over one or more encrypted channels. Replies to the first email including the changed email address data are decoded to identify the second email address data associated with the second email account. A reply to the first email is then sent to the second email account based on the identified second email address data. |
| US08930687B1 |
Secure distributed deduplication in encrypted data storage
In an encrypted storage system employing data deduplication, encrypted data units are stored with the respective keyed data digests. A secure equivalence process is performed to determine whether an encrypted data unit on one storage unit is a duplicate of an encrypted data unit on another storage unit. The process includes an exchange phase and a testing phase in which no sensitive information is exposed outside the storage units. If duplication is detected then the duplicate data unit is deleted from one of the storage units and replaced with a mapping to the encrypted data unit as stored on the other storage unit. The mapping is used at the one storage unit when the corresponding logical data unit is accessed there. |
| US08930681B2 |
Enhancing performance by instruction interleaving and/or concurrent processing of multiple buffers
An embodiment may include circuitry to execute, at least in part, a first list of instructions and/or to concurrently process, at least in part, first and second buffers. The execution of the first list of instructions may result, at least in part, from invocation of a first function call. The first list of instructions may include at least one portion of a second list of instructions interleaved, at least in part, with at least one other portion of a third list of instructions. The portions may be concurrently carried out, at least in part, by one or more sets of execution units of the circuitry. The second and third lists of instructions may implement, at least in part, respective algorithms that are amenable to being invoked by separate respective function calls. The concurrent processing may involve, at least in part, complementary algorithms. |
| US08930680B2 |
Sync-ID for multiple concurrent sync dependencies in an out-of-order store queue
A method, system and process for retiring data entries held within a store queue (STQ). The STQ of a processor cache is modified to receive and process multiple synchronized groups (sync-groups). Sync groups comprise thread of execution synchronized (thread-sync) entries, all thread of execution synchronized (all-thread-sync) entries, and regular store entries (non-thread-sync and non-all-thread-sync). The task of storing data entries, from the STQ out to memory or an input/output device, is modified to increase the effectiveness of the cache. Sync-groups are created for each thread and tracked within the STQ via a synchronized identification (SID). An entry is eligible for retirement when the entry is within a currently retiring sync-group as identified by the SID. |
| US08930677B2 |
Computer operation control method, program, and system
A computer implemented control method, article of manufacture, and computer implemented system for determining whether stack allocation is possible. The method includes: allocating an object created by a method frame to a stack. The allocation is performed in response to: calling a first and second instruction in the method frame; the first instruction causes an escape of the object, and the second instruction cancels the escape of the object; the object does not escape to a thread other than a thread to which the object has escaped, at the point in time when the escape is cancelled; the first instruction has been called before the second instruction is called; and the object does not escape in accordance with an instruction other than the first instruction in the method frame, regardless of whether the object escapes in accordance with the first instruction. |
| US08930675B2 |
Transactional memory that performs a TCAM 32-bit lookup operation
A transactional memory (TM) receives a lookup command across a bus from a processor. The command includes a memory address. In response to the command, the TM pulls an input value (IV). The memory address is used to read a word containing multiple result values (RVs), multiple reference values, and multiple mask values from memory. A selecting circuit within the TM uses a starting bit position and a mask size to select a portion of the IV. The portion of the IV is a lookup key value (LKV). The LKV is masked by each mask value thereby generating multiple masked values. Each masked value is compared to a reference value thereby generating multiple comparison values. A lookup table generates a selector value based upon the comparison values. A result value is selected based on the selector value. The selected result value is then communicated to the processor via the bus. |
| US08930673B2 |
Load page table entry address instruction execution based on an address translation format control field
What is provided is a load page table entry address function defined for a machine architecture of a computer system. In one embodiment, a machine instruction is obtained which contains an opcode indicating that a load page table entry address function is to be performed. The machine instruction contains an M field, a first field identifying a first general register, and a second field identifying a second general register. Based on the contents of the M field, an initial origin address of a hierarchy of address translation tables having at least one segment table is obtained. Based on the obtained initial origin address, dynamic address translation is performed until a page table entry is obtained. The page table entry address is saved in the identified first general register. |
| US08930661B2 |
Operation processing device and method of detecting memory leak
A memory leak detecting method includes: producing an object which occupies an area on a first area of the memory; checking a presence of a pointer which points at the object separately so as to remove the object and to repeatedly carry out a process for increasing a counter value of the object; moving the object from the area on the first area of the memory to an area on the second area of the memory when the counter value exceeding a first threshold; and moving the object from the area on the second area to the area on the first area and clearing the counter value of the object upon the object occupying the area on the second area. |
| US08930657B2 |
Method and apparatus for realtime detection of heap memory corruption by buffer overruns
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a heap overflow detection system that includes an arithmetic logic unit, a datapath, and address violation detection logic. The arithmetic logic unit is configured to receive an instruction having an opcode and an operand and to generate a final address and to generate a compare signal on the opcode indicating a heap memory access related instruction. The datapath is configured to provide the opcode and the operand to the arithmetic logic unit. The address violation detection logic determines whether a heap memory access is a violation according to the operand and the final address on receiving the compare signal from the arithmetic logic unit. |
| US08930656B2 |
Storage device with wireless capability
Wireless USB device with security that allows the information to be automatically exchanged with the USB device wirelessly when it is in one location, and when in another location, only certain information can be so exchanged. |
| US08930654B1 |
Method and apparatus for mapping virtual drives
A method and apparatus for creating a map of files related to a virtual disk of a virtual machine comprising inspecting file system entries within at least one volume of the virtual disk; converting information related to file system entries into a map, where the map comprises file locations within a physical disk for the files related to the virtual disk. |
| US08930651B2 |
Archiving system with partitions of individual archives
According to the disclosure, a unique and novel archiving system that provides one or more application layer partitions to archive data is disclosed. Embodiments include an archiving system having removable hard disk drives embedded in removable disk cartridges, referred to simply as removable disk drives. In embodiments, the removable disk drives are electrically connected to one or more drive ports that are separately addressable. The archiving system can create application layer partitions that associate the application layer partitions with one or more drive ports. Each application layer partition, in embodiments, has a separate set of controls that allow for customized storage of different data within a single archiving system. |
| US08930647B1 |
Multiple class memory systems
An apparatus is provided comprising a physical memory sub-system including a first memory of a first memory class and a second memory of a second memory class, the second memory being communicatively coupled to the first memory. The apparatus is configured such that the first memory and the second memory are capable of receiving instructions via the memory bus. A system and method are also provided for circuit cooperation. The system includes a first semiconductor platform including at least one first circuit, and at least one additional semiconductor platform stacked with the first semiconductor platform and including at least one additional circuit. Furthermore, the system is operable such that the at least one first circuit and the at least one additional circuit cooperate to carry out at least one task. |
| US08930646B2 |
Characterization and optimization of tracks on disks
Embodiment of the invention related to characterization and optimization of tracks on a disk, magnetic or optical by determining an input/output (I/O) characteristics for a plurality of blocks on a disk by a processor, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of a data size or data type or an association between the data files, and determining a plurality of parameters affecting operation performed on the disk for placement of the plurality of data clusters. |
| US08930644B2 |
Configurable transactional memory for synchronizing transactions
A configurable transactional memory synchronizes transactions from clients. The configurable transactional memory includes a memory buffer and a transactional buffer. The memory buffer includes allocation control and storage, and the allocation control is configurable to selectively allocate the storage between a transactional buffer and a data buffer for the data words. The transactional buffer stores state indicating each combination of a data word and a client for which the data word is referenced by a write access in the transaction in progress from the client. The transactional arbiter generates the completion status for the transaction in progress from each client. The completion status is either committed for no collision or aborted for a collision. A collision is an access that references a data word of the transaction from the client following a write access that references the data word of another transaction in progress from another client. |
| US08930642B2 |
Configurable multi-port memory device and method thereof
Embodiments of a multi-port memory device may include a plurality of ports and a plurality of memory banks some of which are native to each port and some of which are non-native to each port. The memory device may include a configuration register that stores configuration data indicative of the mapping of the memory banks to the ports. In response to the configuration data, for example, a steering logic may couple each of the ports either to one or all of the native memory banks or to one or all of the non-native memory banks. |
| US08930640B2 |
Multiprocessor computer system with reduced directory requirement
The invention has application in implementation of large Symmetric Multiprocessor Systems with a large number of nodes which include processing elements and associated cache memories. The illustrated embodiment of the invention provides for interconnection of a large number of multiprocessor nodes while reducing over the prior art the size of directories for tracking of memory coherency throughout the system. The embodiment incorporates within the memory controller of each node, directory information relating to the current locations of memory blocks which allows for elimination at a higher level in the node controllers of a larger volume of directory information relating to the location of memory blocks. This arrangement thus allows for more efficient implementation of very large multiprocessor computer systems. |
| US08930636B2 |
Relaxed coherency between different caches
One embodiment sets forth a technique for ensuring relaxed coherency between different caches. Two different execution units may be configured to access different caches that may store one or more cache lines corresponding to the same memory address. During time periods between memory barrier instructions relaxed coherency is maintained between the different caches. More specifically, writes to a cache line in a first cache that corresponds to a particular memory address are not necessarily propagated to a cache line in a second cache before the second cache receives a read or write request that also corresponds to the particular memory address. Therefore, the first cache and the second are not necessarily coherent during time periods of relaxed coherency. Execution of a memory barrier instruction ensures that the different caches will be coherent before a new period of relaxed coherency begins. |
| US08930629B2 |
Data cache block deallocate requests in a multi-level cache hierarchy
In response to executing a deallocate instruction, a deallocation request specifying a target address of a target cache line is sent from a processor core to a lower level cache. In response, a determination is made if the target address hits in the lower level cache. If so, the target cache line is retained in a data array of the lower level cache, and a replacement order field of the lower level cache is updated such that the target cache line is more likely to be evicted in response to a subsequent cache miss in a congruence class including the target cache line. In response to the subsequent cache miss, the target cache line is cast out to the lower level cache with an indication that the target cache line was a target of a previous deallocation request of the processor core. |
| US08930627B2 |
Mitigating conflicts for shared cache lines
A computer program product for mitigating conflicts for shared cache lines between an owning core currently owning a cache line and a requestor core. 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 determining whether the owning core is operating in a transactional or non-transactional mode and setting a hardware-based reject threshold at a first or second value with the owning core determined to be operating in the transactional or non-transactional mode, respectively. The method further includes taking first or second actions to encourage cache line sharing between the owning core and the requestor core in response to a number of rejections of requests by the requestor core reaching the reject threshold set at the first or second value, respectively. |
| US08930625B2 |
Weighted history allocation predictor algorithm in a hybrid cache
A mechanism is provided for weighted history allocation prediction. For each member in a plurality of members in a lower level cache, an associated reference counter is initialized to an initial value based on an operation type that caused data to be allocated to a member location of the member. For each access to the member in the lower level cache, the associated reference counter is incremented. Responsive to a new allocation of data to the lower level cache and responsive to the new allocation of data requiring the victimization of another member in the lower level cache, a member of the lower level cache is identified that has a lowest reference count value in its associated reference counter. The member with the lowest reference count value in its associated reference counter is then evicted. |
| US08930624B2 |
Adaptive cache promotions in a two level caching system
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for managing data in a first cache and a second cache. A reference count is maintained in the second cache for the page when the page is stored in the second cache. It is determined that the page is to be promoted from the second cache to the first cache. In response to determining that the reference count is greater than zero, the page is added to a Least Recently Used (LRU) end of an LRU list in the first cache. In response to determining that the reference count is less than or equal to zero, the page is added to a Most Recently Used (LRU) end of the LRU list in the first cache. |
| US08930622B2 |
Multi-level data protection for flash memory system
The disclosed embodiments are directed to methods and apparatuses for providing efficient and enhanced protection of data stored in a FLASH memory system. The methods and apparatuses involve a system controller for a plurality of FLASH memory devices in the FLASH memory system that is capable of protecting data using two layers of data protection, including inter-card card stripes and intra-card page stripes. |
| US08930620B2 |
Host discovery and handling of ALUA preferences and state transitions
Various systems and methods can discover asymmetric logical unit (LUN) access (ALUA) preferences and/or state transitions and use those preferences and/or state transitions to control how a host accesses a LUN in an ALUA array. One such method involves detecting a preferred controller for a LUN and then detecting that a current owner controller of the LUN is not the preferred controller. In response, the method can initiate an ownership change from the current owner controller to the preferred controller. Another method involves detecting an initial state of a first controller with respect to a LUN. The method then detects a subsequent state of the first controller with respect to the LUN subsequent to detecting the initial state. The method can then cause a computing device to access the LUN via a second controller, in response to the subsequent state not being the active optimized state. |
| US08930619B2 |
Method and apparatus for efficiently destaging sequential I/O streams
A method for destaging write data from a storage controller to storage devices is provided. The method includes determining that a cache element should be transferred from a write cache of the storage controller to the storage devices, calculating that a dirty watermark is above a dirty watermark maximum value, identifying a first cache element to destage from the write cache to the storage devices, transferring a first data container including the first cache element to the storage devices, and incrementing an active destage count. The method also includes repeating determining, calculating, identifying, transferring, and incrementing if the active destage count is less than an active destage count maximum value. The active destage count is a current number of write requests issued to a virtual disk that have not yet been completed, and the virtual disk is a RAID group comprising one or more specific storage devices. |
| US08930607B2 |
Underlaying device with steadying component for laying of a computer device
An underlaying device includes a main signal port, an expanding signal port, a signal process component, and a power connector. The main signal port is receiving and sending a communication signal from/to the computer device by means of a main signal wire. The expanding signal port is receiving and sending the communication signal from/to an external expanding device. The signal process component is coupled between the main signal port and the expanding signal port for transforming the communication signal into a signal which is able to be received and sent between the main signal port and the expanding signal port. The power connector is supplying power by means of a power wire. The underlaying device is suitable for various computer devices and is able to integrate the functionality of connection ports. |
| US08930606B2 |
Ordering a plurality of write commands associated with a storage device
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for ordering a plurality of write commands associated with a storage device. In operation, a plurality of write commands associated with a storage device to be sent to a device are identified. Additionally, an order of the plurality of write commands is determined, the determined order being known by the device. Further, the plurality of write commands are ordered in the determined order. |
| US08930605B2 |
Systems and methods for docking portable electronic devices
Systems and methods for docking portable electronic devices. A master device may be docked to a slave device to control the operation of the slave device. The slave device may have a form factor different than that of the master device. For example, the slave device may be a tablet and the master device may be a handheld device such as a smart phone. The slave device may include a retention mechanism to retain the master device in a docked position with respect to the slave device. When in the docked position, the master device may be in operative communication with one or more hardware components of the slave device to control the operation thereof. The slave device may lack the ability to exploit the full functionality of the one or more hardware components of the slave device without communication with the master device. |
| US08930595B2 |
Memory switch for interconnecting server nodes
Described is a data switching device comprising a plurality of input ports, a plurality of output ports, a plurality of first conductive connectors, a plurality of second conductive connectors, a plurality of crosspoint regions, and a memory device at each crosspoint region. The first conductive connectors are in communication with the input ports. The second conductive connectors are in communication with the output ports. Each crosspoint region includes a first conductive connector and a second conductive connector. The memory device is coupled between the first conductive connector and the second conductive connector for exchanging data between the input ports and the output ports. |
| US08930591B2 |
Apparatus for improved signal communication in electronic circuitry and associated methods
An apparatus includes a microcontroller unit (MCU). The MCU includes a buffer and an analog comparator that are coupled to an input of the MCU. The MCU is adapted to selectively determine a logic value of a digital signal applied to the input of the MCU from an output signal of the buffer or from an output signal of the analog comparator. |
| US08930590B2 |
Audio device and method of operating the same
An audio device and a method of operating the same are provided. The audio device includes a storage unit, a first memory and a second memory, a hardware decoder, a software decoder, a first direct memory access (DMA) block, a second DMA block, and a controller. The controller converts the audio device from an ultra low power mode in which the first PCM information is transmitted to an audio interface buffer through the first memory, the hardware decoder, and the first DMA block or a low power mode in which the second PCM information is transmitted to the audio interface buffer through the second memory, the software decoder, and the first DMA block to a normal mode in which the second PCM information is transmitted to the audio interface buffer through the second memory, the software decoder, and the second DMA block. |
| US08930588B2 |
Control device, input/output device, connection switch device and method for an aircraft control system
Methods and apparatus are described for an aircraft network that permits an automatic configuring and/or repairing of the network. |
| US08930586B2 |
Identification of electronic devices operating within a computing system
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and apparatuses for identification of electronic devices within a computing system. According to an aspect, a method may be implemented at an electronic device comprising an input. The method may include setting, during a startup state, the input to indicate an identity of the electronic device. Further, the method may include determining an event for changing from the startup state to an operational state. The method may also include changing from the startup state to the operational state in response to determining the event. |
| US08930580B2 |
Network access control for many-core systems
In a processor based system comprising a plurality of logical machines, selecting a logical machine of the system to serve as a host; the host communicating with a policy decision point (PDP) of a network to provision a data channel interconnecting the processor based system and the network and to provision a logical data channel interconnecting each logical machine of the system to the network. |
| US08930577B2 |
Synchronizing streaming video between viewers over a network
Described is a technology by which machines such as gaming (including media) systems are configured to synchronize streaming video between peers over a network, including participants communicating via voice or video chat. The video synchronization may include “full” synchronization that operates to synchronize streaming video that is currently unsynchronized video, by causing participants to stop and buffer, and resume playing from a specified position in the stream. Video synchronization also may include “fast” synchronization that operates to re-synchronize video that has begun to drift out of synchronization, such as by briefly pausing any stream that has gotten ahead of others. Also described is replicating the activation of a video transport control (e.g., pause, fast forward, rewind, skip, and the like) that occurs on one machine to other machines, such that video players behave as if there is a common remote control among the peer systems. |
| US08930576B1 |
Secure communication network
The present invention is directed to a secure communication network that enables multi-point to multi-point proxy communication over the network. The network employs a smart server that establishes a secure communication link with each of a plurality of smart client devices deployed on local client networks. Each smart client device is in communication with a plurality of agent devices. A plurality of remote devices can access the smart server directly and communicate with an agent device via the secure communication link between the smart server and one of the smart client devices. |
| US08930575B1 |
Service for automatically converting content submissions to submission formats used by content marketplaces
A content submission system may provide a submission format to a content creator that allows content, including but not limited to software applications, to be submitted in a content submission bundle. The content submission system may examine the received content submission bundle, and determine one or more submission formats for submitting the content to one or more electronic content marketplaces. In some embodiments, the content submission system may act as a central broker for content submissions to multiple content marketplaces. For example, the content submission system may translate the content submission bundle into the submission formats used by respective marketplaces so that the content creator/submitter need not perform this task. |
| US08930574B2 |
Voice and other media conversion in inter-operator interface
An apparatus receives a protocol invitation communication from an originating operator and targeted to a receiving operator in a communications system. The apparatus intercepts the communication and checks whether the originating operator and the receiving operator use the same protocol for the protocol invitation communication. If the receiving operator uses another protocol, the apparatus performs a conversion from the originating operator's protocol to the receiving operator's protocol and forwards the converted protocol invitation communication towards the receiving operator. |
| US08930572B2 |
Path selection for routing traffic in a network
Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for communicating among stations in a network. A station in the network can determine costs between that station and a headend through a number of other stations. The station can select a low cost path from among the possible paths. Cost data from the determination can be transmitted from the station to other stations in the network for use in selecting low cost paths at those stations. |
| US08930566B2 |
Real-time HD TV/video IP streaming to a game console
Program code enabling the streaming of HD content in real-time to a game console is stored on a storage medium remote from the game console. The game console executes software that facilitates transfer of the program code from the remote storage medium to the game console. The program code ensures that sufficient bandwidth exists on a network between the game console and a HD tuner, and enables the streaming of HD content in real-time to the game console. |
| US08930563B2 |
Scalable and extendable stream processing
An extensible architecture that enables developers to focus solely on the domain-specific nature of the stream processing algorithm to be implemented. It is positioned as an intermediary component between streaming data feeds and stream algorithms, thereby aggregating demand on data sources and hiding the complexity involved in managing active connections to different data sources. Per-algorithm stream throttling is provided so that individual algorithms do not get overloaded; thus, ensuring that algorithms receive fresh items from the data feeds to which the algorithms subscribe. Feed items can be discarded when an algorithm is not able to process the items in realtime to ensure that feed items are sampled at the fastest processing rate of the algorithm. Thus, a single instance of an algorithm can handle an entire data stream. Moreover, redundancy can be achieved by running the same configuration on multiple machines. |
| US08930558B2 |
Proxying multiple targets as a virtual target using identifier ranges
A gateway includes a Fibre Channel (“FC”) port configured to couple to multiple FC targets, and an iSCSI port configured to couple to an iSCSI initiator. The iSCSI port is configured to facilitate communication between the FC targets and the iSCSI initiator, and proxy the multiple FC targets as a virtual iSCSI target. The iSCSI port is also configured to divide the Logical Unit Number (“LUN”) range into a plurality of subdivided LUN ranges, and associate the FC targets with the subdivided LUN ranges. |
| US08930555B2 |
Extending functionality of web-based applications
A centralized location for discovery and data exchange for web applications. Embodiments of the invention are directed to providing a centralized interface location to send data to and receive data from one or more web applications hosted on application servers different from a server hosting the centralized interface. An application developer for a subscriber having an account with the web application may therefore easily extend the functionality of one or more web applications by communicating with a single interface provided, rather than with separate interfaces for each application. The centralized interface may provide information such as a list of all web applications or functionality to which a particular subscriber has access, and may support any desired extension (e.g., addition of users). |
| US08930553B2 |
Managing mid-dialog session initiation protocol (SIP) messages
Processing mid-dialog SIP messages by receiving a mid-dialog SIP message from a SIP user agent client, creating a new SIP session, associating the new SIP session with the mid-dialog SIP message, identifying an application that is associated with the mid-dialog SIP message, providing to the application the mid-dialog SIP message in the context of the new SIP session, receiving an acknowledgement from the application that the application will accept the mid-dialog SIP message, and responsive to receiving the acknowledgement, providing to the application the mid-dialog SIP message in the context of the new SIP session. |
| US08930552B2 |
Application switch system and application switch method
An application switch system includes a switch configured to control a connection between a plurality of client terminals and a plurality of servers which exist on a network, a relay unit configured to perform a protocol relay, and a controller that includes a section configured to perform a centralized control on a route table used to determine a destination in the switch, a section configured to control relay processing of the relay unit, a section configured to select one server as a connection destination from the plurality of servers, a section configured to select a route which links between one client terminal of the plurality of client terminals and the selected connection destination server, and which contains the relay unit, and set the selected route to the route table in the switch, and a section configured to set relay information used when the relay unit performs the protocol relay. |
| US08930551B2 |
Diverse source message association
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node and machine-readable storage medium including a policy and charging rules node (PCRN) receiving a plurality of related service requests from different devices. The PCRN may proceed to generate a policy and charging control (PCC) rule based on at least one service request and other information stored in the PCRN if a mate service request does not arrive during the duration of a waiting timer. If the mate service request arrives subsequent to the expiry of the waiting timer, the PCRN may then generate a subsequent PCC rule to replace the previously generated rule, with the new PCC rule incorporating information from both of the mate service requests. |
| US08930550B2 |
Selectable non-interactive entity application proxy method and system
A selectable security method and system. The method includes retrieving first configuration data associated with a non interactive entity (NIE) software application and second configuration data associated with a plurality of requesters. A master refresh period is calculated from the first configuration data and the second configuration data. Credentials data associated with the NIE software application are retrieved. The credentials data are transmitted to a resource server. A session key generated by the resource server is received by the NIE software application. The NIE software application calculates a stale time associated with the session key. The NIE software application stores the session key and the stale time. |
| US08930549B1 |
Method and apparatus for storing information in a browser storage area of a client device
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for performing steps to cause encoded information to be stored at a client device during a first network session between a server and the client device. To cause encoded information to be stored at a client device, the server first determines a set of network resource requests that encode the information. These network resource requests may include requests for one or more specific URLs and/or requests for one or more files. The server then causes the client device to initiate the network resource requests. The server may cause this initiation by, for example, redirecting the client device to the network resources. The client device initiating the network resource requests causes data representative of the network resource requests to be stored at the client device. |
| US08930544B2 |
Network resource identification
A system, method and computer-readable medium for client-side processing of resource identifiers. A client request for content is returned that includes information for generating a request for translation information and a number of embedded resource identifiers. Based on the information for generating a request for translation information, the client generates and obtains translation information and processes the embedded resource identifiers to obtain resources from a service provider. |
| US08930543B2 |
Dynamically building a set of compute nodes to host the user's workload
A method, system and computer program product for dynamically building a set of compute nodes to host a user's workload. An administrative server receives workload definitions that include the types of workloads that are to be run in a cloud group as well as a number of instances of each workload the cloud group should support. These workload definitions are used to determine the virtual machine demands that the cloud group will place on the cloud environment. The administrative server further receives the demand constraints, placement constraints and license enforcement policies. The administrative server identifies a set of compute nodes to host the user's workload based on the virtual machines demands, the demand constraints, the placement constraints and the license enforcement policies. In this manner, a set of compute nodes is dynamically built for consideration in forming a cloud group without the user requiring knowledge of the cloud's composition. |
| US08930541B2 |
System, method and program product for cost-aware selection of templates for provisioning shared resources
A template generator organizing templates in a cost-aware clustering, a method of allocating resources using cost-aware clustering and computer program products therefor. A resource provisioning unit generates, selects and maintains a selected number of resource templates. Each template specifies an allocable resource capacity configuration. Each requesting client device has resources allocated determined by one of the selected resource templates. A resource provisioning unit includes a configuration store with costs of allocable resources and associated attributes, a server request store with previously received requests, and an input parameter store with template list options. A template generator determines an optimum list of templates to satisfy previously received requests. A template store stores generated template lists. |
| US08930539B1 |
Method and apparatus for optimizing resource utilization within a cluster and facilitating high availability for an application
A method and apparatus for optimizing resource utilization within a cluster and facilitating high availability for an application is described. In one embodiment, the method for optimizing resource utilization within a cluster and facilitating high availability for an application includes accessing configuration information regarding virtual machine nodes within the cluster to identify an active node and at least one passive node that are associated with the application and configuring the at least one passive node to be in a suspended state, wherein a passive node of the at least one passive node is to be in a running state and the active node is to be in a suspended state upon migration of the application to the passive node of the at least one passive node. |
| US08930536B2 |
Virtual private cluster
The present invention provides a system, method and computer-readable media for generating virtual private clusters out of a group of compute resources. Typically, the group of compute resources involves a group of clusters independently administered. The method provides for aggregating the group of compute resources, partitioning the aggregated group of compute resources and presenting to each user in an organization a partition representation the organization's virtual private cluster. The users transparently view their cluster and have control over its operation. The partitions may be static or dynamic. |
| US08930532B2 |
Session management in a thin client system for effective use of the client environment
A session management system including a client environment providing server, a plurality of terminals, and a session management server, wherein the session management server includes a session monitoring unit which monitors use end time of the client environment, a client environment management unit which makes a log-out request for the execution of log-out processing of a predetermined client environment to the client environment providing server, and a state of use checking unit which checks a state of use of each the client environment, wherein the session monitoring unit notifying a request for stopping use of the client environment to the state of use checking unit when the use end time of the client environment coincides with current time, and the client environment management unit, when the client environment is in use, transmitting to the client environment providing server a log-out request of the client environment. |
| US08930529B1 |
Policy enforcement with dynamic address object
Policy enforcement is disclosed. An identity notification is received from a network device. The identity notification is usable to determine a user identifier associated with the network device. The identity notification is also usable to determine an IP address associated with the network device. A policy is updated based on the received identity notification. |
| US08930527B2 |
High availability enabler
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for interacting with a high availability session. According to one embodiment, a method of providing high availability can comprise abstracting one or more functions of a high availability infrastructure via a high availability enabler and providing access to the abstracted one or more functions via a northbound interface of the high availability enabler. For example, the one or more functions of the high availability infrastructure can comprise session control, either synchronous session control or asynchronous session control, concurrency management, data distribution, e.g., possibly including storing at least some of the data local to the high availability enabler, caching, session replication, providing fault tolerance, providing predictable latencies, etc. The high availability infrastructure can comprise, for example JGroups, Oracle Coherence, or another high availability infrastructure. The method can include decoupling application level processing from protocol level processing via the high availability enabler. |
| US08930524B2 |
Status reporting apparatus, image processing system, and storage medium storing control program
A status reporting apparatus for reporting a status of an image processing apparatus operating in connection with a network includes a status detector, a status report destination information obtainer, and a status reporting unit. The status detector detects a status of the image processing apparatus. The status report destination information obtainer obtains information on at least one report destination to which the status detected by the status detector is to be reported in accordance with status report destination information in which the status of the image processing apparatus is associated with the information on the at least one report destination. The status reporting unit reports the status detected by the status detector to the at least one report destination on which the information is obtained by the status report destination information obtainer. |
| US08930523B2 |
Stateful business application processing in an otherwise stateless service-oriented architecture
Methods, apparatus, and products for stateful business application processing in an otherwise stateless service-oriented architecture (‘SOA’), the SOA including SOA services where each SOA service carrying out a processing step of the business application, where the stateful business application processing includes: configuring each service of the SOA to record state information describing the state of the service upon completion of a processing step in the business application and provide the state information to a subsequent service; and executing the business application in the SOA, including sending requests for data processing among the services, each such request including a specification of the state of the executing business application. |
| US08930516B2 |
Management apparatus, management method, management system, and network device for setting values of application programs
When an application installed in a network device, which allows for the manipulation of setting values of an application from a remote place, is not configured for that device, a management apparatus manipulates setting values using an agent. The management apparatus manipulates the setting values after the application is quitted or manipulates the setting values while the application is running, if the setting values can be manipulated while the application is running. |
| US08930514B2 |
System and method for conducting peer-to-peer (P2P) communications
A method and system are provided which enable an alternative identifier to be used instead of a normally used identifier such as a personal identification number (PIN) in a peer-to-peer (P2P)-based system. The alternative identifier can be used to avoid divulging the normally used identifier and can be cancelled or de-activated at a later time or can be converted to the normally used identifier at a later point. |
| US08930510B2 |
Image formation apparatus, network system, and program product for network operation at low cost
A supervision feasible apparatus capable of operating in a supervisory mode directed to supervising supervision information related to a plurality of apparatuses detects, when set at a supervisory mode, an apparatus attaining a data access enable state and an apparatus attaining a data access disable state with respect to a network, and updates supervisory information based on information related to the detected apparatus. |
| US08930508B2 |
Device management apparatus, device management method, and computer-readable storage medium
A management server calculates a correlation coefficient between the number of settings executed in a network device and load information of communication of the network device with respect to each of network devices which are objects of management. The management server identifies a network device of which the load is on a rising trend on the basis of a calculated correlation coefficient and load information of processing of the network device. The management server selects an object of change of the settings from among network devices other than the identified network device. |
| US08930507B2 |
Physical memory shared among logical partitions in a VLAN
A computer implemented method for sharing physical memory among logical partitions. A computer reserves physical memory of a Central Electronic Complex (CEC) for communication within the CEC as a shared memory pool. The computer creates a first logical partition using resources of the CEC that are not reserved as the shared memory pool. The computer creates a second logical partition using resources of the CEC that are not reserved as the shared memory pool. The computer creates a virtual local area network (VLAN) having at least two addresses within the CEC. The computer allocates a portion of the shared memory to the VLAN as the shared memory pool. |
| US08930504B2 |
Digital downloading jukebox system with user-tailored music management, communications, and other tools
A digital downloading jukebox system including a mechanism for delivering custom services to a recognized user, including services for creating playlists, communicating with others, accessing other features, etc. is provided. In some exemplary embodiments, after a user is recognized, the jukebox system allows users to access a special front-end via an Internet-enabled device or on an actual jukebox. Then, the user may, for example, create playlists, share songs with friends, send messages to friends, and access other value-added content. Such a system preferably learns about networks of friends, and enables managers to send similar messages to regular customers and/or others known to the system. In some exemplary embodiments, changes via a first user interface on a first device are reflected on second user interface on other properly-configured devices. |
| US08930501B2 |
Distributed data storage system and method
A distributed data storage system and method are disclosed. The distributed data storage system includes: an interface machine process module; at least one service process module; and at least one storage module. The interface machine process module is configured to receive a storage request containing data to be stored from a storage requester and distribute the storage request to one of the at least one service process module; the service process module is configured to receive the storage request from the interface machine process module and assign a storage identifier for the date contained in the storage request; the at least one storage module is configured to store the data according to the storage identifier assigned by the service process module. The distributed data storage system and method of the present invention can provide stable, simple, highly efficient, and low cost mass data storage and read/write services for users. |
| US08930499B2 |
Data replication between software versions
A method, computer program product, and system for data replication between software versions is described. A method may comprise determining if a first item created in a first software version includes data native to a second item in a second software version. The method may further comprise, if the first item created in the first software version includes data native to the second item in the second software version, storing the data native to the second item in the second software version as native data. The method may also comprise, if the first item created in the first software version is missing required data based upon, at least in part, the second item in the second software version, storing a default value for the missing required data as native data. |
| US08930498B2 |
Mobile content management
A computer system interacts with a mobile device to support the needs of remote users and may leverage e-ink technology so that a mobile user can access, manage and read documents without being tethered. The mobile device allows for both user-initiated downloads from a corporate entity as well as corporate pushes by the corporate entity to ensure that the user has updated content. The computer system receives a request for selected electronic content, where the request includes updated configuration information and user identification. The computer system then maps the user identification to a device type from a plurality of device types. Embodiments support different device types including electronic ink display capable devices. The selected electronic content is then downloaded to the mobile device. Subsequently, the computer system pushes updated versions of the selected electronic content based on the updated configuration information. |
| US08930497B1 |
Centralized execution of snapshot backups in a distributed application environment
Systems and methods for centralizing database manipulation for a plurality of heterogeneous databases are disclosed. A single or limited number of central servers can be used to manage a plurality of hosted client systems. With such a technique, database consistent backups can be performed without requiring altering of the central server, even when different database engines are used across the hosted client systems. |
| US08930489B2 |
Distributed rate limiting of handling requests
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for performing rate limiting in a horizontally distributed and scalable manner. The method includes receiving a request in a rate limiter. In turn, a sleep time can be obtained for the request based at least in part on a time value and an allotted time per request, and the request can be delayed according to the sleep time. The time value can be obtained from a distributed key value store using a key generated from the request. After this sleep time, the request can be forwarded from the rate limiter to the handling server. |
| US08930482B2 |
Communication exchanges and methods of use thereof
In some embodiments, the instant invention provides for a computer-implemented method that includes the following steps: administering, by a first specifically programmed computer system of a communications exchange, an electronic delivery of a first electronic distribution from a first sender to a first recipient, where the mediating includes: receiving from a first source of a plurality of sources, a first electronic distribution of the first sender, receiving from the first sender, a plurality of sender attributes of the first sender and a plurality of sender rules of the first sender that define how electronic distributions of the first sender to be delivered; receiving the plurality of recipient attributes of the first recipient and the plurality of recipient rules of the first recipient; matching the first electronic distribution of first sender to the first recipient; transmitting, the first electronic distribution of first sender to first channel of the first recipient. |
| US08930481B2 |
Message processing method, terminal and system
A message processing method, terminal and system. The method includes: obtaining a user's historical message interaction information and first context data associated with the user's historical message interaction information, where the user's historical message interaction information includes historical message interaction content and historical message replying status; determining the user's message interaction preferences according to the user's historical message interaction information and the first context data, where the message interaction preferences include a message reply policy and/or a message writing style; receiving a current message sent to the user, and obtaining second context data associated with the current message; and replying to the current message according to the message interaction preferences, the current message, and the second context data. With the present invention, the user's message interaction preferences are determined, and the current message can be replied automatically, thereby enhancing user experience. |
| US08930479B2 |
Processing cellular telephone subscription for E-mail threads
A method and system for processing a subscription to an e-mail message thread. Short Message Service (SMS) data is assigned to a mobile device. Both a telephone number associated with the mobile device and the assigned SMS data are assigned to a setting in a database stored in an e-mail message server. A subscription to updates related to an e-mail message thread associated with the e-mail message server is created. The creation of the subscription includes correlating the telephone number and the SMS data to a unique e-mail message thread identifier of the e-mail message thread. The updates related to the e-mail message thread are sent to the mobile device via the e-mail message server. |
| US08930476B2 |
Instant messaging (IM) file folder transmission method and system
A method is disclosed for folder transfer based on instant messaging (IM). The method includes receiving from an IM sender a transfer request for transferring a folder-to-be-transferred. The folder-to-be-transferred may contain a plurality of files. The method also includes receiving from the IM sender folder information of the folder-to-be-transferred, determining a receiving folder corresponding to the folder-to-be-transferred on a predetermined storage location, and determining files-to-be-transferred from the plurality of files corresponding to the folder-to-be-transferred based on the folder information. Further, the method includes sequentially sending one transfer request for each of the files-to-be-transferred to the IM sender through a same network connection, receiving the files-to-be-transferred sent sequentially by the IM sender through the same network connection, and storing the received files-to-be-transferred in the receiving folder. |
| US08930472B2 |
Promoting communicant interactions in a network communications environment
In a network communication environment in which communicants operating from respective client network nodes connect to different server applications, communicants who are related to a target communicant are ascertained, statuses of the related communicants with respect to the different server applications are determined, and indications of the related communicants and the determined statuses of the related communicants are transmitted to the target communicant. Graphical representations of the related communicants and graphical indications of the statuses of the related communicants with respect to connections to the different server applications may be displayed on a display. A contact list including a respective graphical representation of each of one or more of the communicants also may be displayed in association with visual cues representing the ascertained types of current interaction activities respectively engaged in by the one or more communicants. A single universal user identifier may be used to identify each communicant. |
| US08930469B2 |
Functionality for sharing items using recipient-specific access codes
A collaboration system is described for sharing files. The collaboration system operates by receiving an Email message from a sender, the Email message specifying an attachment item (such as a file) and one or more recipients. The Email message also specifies a sender code assigned to the sender for the particular attachment item. The collaboration system stores the attachment item and then generates a recipient-specific code associated with each recipient who is to receive the Email message. The collaboration system then sends a recipient-tailored Email message to each recipient. Each recipient-tailored Email message contains Email content provided by the original Email message along with a recipient-specific code associated with the recipient. Each recipient can access the attachment item via its recipient-specific code, which constitutes a secure access key. |
| US08930468B2 |
System and method for breaking up a message thread when replying or forwarding a message
Disclosed is a method of communicating a message thread, comprising: receiving a message thread at a first device, the message thread comprising existing sub-messages; receiving input of a newly composed sub-message associated with the message thread; delineating each of the respective existing sub-messages from one another within the message thread; receiving selection of at least one delineated existing sub-message from the message thread through a selection interface for one of inclusion in and exclusion from a modified message thread; creating a modified message thread in accordance with the selection of at least one delineated existing sub-message, the modified message thread further comprising the new sub-message; and initiating communication of the modified message thread to a second device. |
| US08930465B2 |
Context-aware content transmission utility
A method is disclosed. The method includes monitoring a user interface for a data item delivery request. In response to receipt of the data item delivery request, a data type for a data item selected for a delivery is determined, and a schema for performing the delivery is selected. Content of the data item for the delivery is selected, and the content is sent using the schema. The delivery is recorded in an activity log. |
| US08930457B2 |
Proximity initiated co-browsing sessions
Methods and systems of conducting co-browsing sessions may provide for detecting a proximity event between a first device and a second device, and initiating a co-browsing session between the first device and the second device based on the proximity event. In one example, the proximity event is a physical bump between the first and second devices. |
| US08930455B2 |
Power outage detection system for smart grid using finite state machines
A power outage detection system. The system includes a device configured to increment a reboot counter when the device is powered up, and to transmit a first message when the device loses power and a second message when the device is powered up, and a back office system. The first message includes the value of the reboot counter and a timestamp, and the second message includes the value of the reboot counter. The back office system includes a finite state machine configured to receive the first and second messages. The finite state machine determines if the received first message is valid using the value of the reboot counter and the timestamp, and determines if the received second message is valid using the value of the reboot counter. The finite state machine then outputs an accurate indication of the state of the device. |
| US08930447B2 |
Method, apparatus, and program for usability analysis of web applications
A usability analysis method of a web application including: a first step of acquiring a page transition log and operation logs on individual pages in the web application; a second step of detecting a segment having a specific page transition pattern in the page transition log; a third step of managing operation logs on individual pages included in the detected page transition pattern in relation to the individual pages; a fourth step of performing statistic processing on the managed operation logs and analyzing page utilization; and a fifth step of analyzing usability based on the page transition pattern and the page utilization. |
| US08930446B2 |
Altering transcoding priority
In an embodiment, a content array represents media content available from a media server. The content array, sent by a media server in response to a request, lists content program objects that represent media content to be available from the media server. The media server receives a message for altering a transcoding priority of the selected content program object that represents media content not previously transcoded by the media server, and sends a return code for indicating whether the transcoding priority was successfully altered in response to the message. In a further embodiment, a media server system includes a transcoding queue with references to a plurality of content program objects that include an object method for altering a transcoding priority, and includes a transcoder configured to transcode media content associated with the content program objects according to the transcoding priority of each content program object of the transcoding queue. |
| US08930441B2 |
Architecture for modeled pattern based user interfaces
A computer system includes a UI designer client that runs on a client device and is configured to enable creation of UI models. A client engine runs on a client device and is configured to initiate requests for the UI models, receive the UI models in response to the requests and interpret and render the UI models at runtime. A UI runtime server client is located on a server and is configured to interface with the client engine to receive and process the requests for the UI models from the client engine. A repository is located on the server and is configured to interface with the UI designer client and store the UI models as created using the UI designer client and interface with the UI runtime server client to deliver requested UI models to the UI runtime server client for interpretation and rendering by the client engine. |
| US08930439B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing cooperative user interface layer management with respect to inter-device communications
An apparatus for providing cooperative user interface layer management may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured, with the processor, to cause the apparatus to perform at least maintaining a terminal session between a server device and a client device in which the client device emulates at least a portion of a display presented at the server device, receiving, at the server device, an indication identifying a user interface layer for which display of information related to the user interface layer is not supported at the client device, and determining a response to a user input provided at the client device based on whether the user input relates to the user interface layer identified by the indication. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided. |
| US08930438B2 |
Push-based location update
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for a location information server to gather location updates by sending location-update-requests through a push notification service to a mobile device are disclosed. The mobile device provides location updates in response to the push-based location-update-requests received through the push notification service. The mobile device can switch from a self-initiated location update mode to a push-based location update mode depending on the current state of the mobile device. The mobile device can also choose an appropriate positioning system for self-locating based on the information embedded in the location-update-request received through the push notification service. The information embedded in the pushed location-update-request can be a precision requirement or context information that can be used to determine a precision requirement for the location update. |
| US08930436B2 |
Apparatus and method of dynamically distributing load in multiple cores
Provided is an apparatus and method of dynamically distributing load occurring in multiple cores that may determine a corresponding core to perform functions constituting an application program, thereby enhancing the entire processing rate. |
| US08930432B2 |
Floating point execution unit with fixed point functionality
A floating point execution unit is capable of selectively repurposing one or more adders in an exponent path of the floating point execution unit to perform fixed point addition operations, thereby providing fixed point functionality in the floating point execution unit. |
| US08930429B2 |
Network distributed quantum random number generation
A quantum random number generation system includes a source of light output as a plurality of coherent states such that each state has an indeterminate number of photons, a photodetector arranged to receive the light output from the light source and to generate a photocurrent dependent on the number of photons in each coherent state, and processing circuitry connected to receive the photocurrent and arranged to convert it to generate a sequence of random numbers. |
| US08930427B2 |
Randomized value generation
A data processing apparatus is provided for producing a randomized value. A cell in the data processing apparatus comprises a dielectric oxide layer and stress voltage circuitry is configured to apply a stress voltage across the dielectric oxide layer of the cell to cause an oxide breakdown process to occur. Oxide breakdown detection circuitry is configured to determine a current extent of the oxide breakdown process by measuring a response of the dielectric oxide layer to the stress voltage and randomized value determination circuitry is configured to determine a randomized value in dependence on the current extent of the oxide breakdown process. |
| US08930425B2 |
Data integration in service oriented architectures
A system, method and program product for transferring structured and unstructured data in a service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure. A method is disclosed that includes: receiving a request for a synchronization at a service orchestration engine (SOE), wherein the synchronization includes a transfer of structured meta-data from a first node to a second node and a transfer of unstructured file data from a first file node to a second file node; creating an entry in a routing table to track the synchronization; receiving the structured meta-data at the SOE from the first node and transferring the structured meta-data to the second node; and orchestrating a peer-to-peer data transfer from the first file node to the second file node, including communicating with file handling agents at the first and second file handling nodes. |
| US08930424B2 |
Data storage system and method for protecting the system in case of power-failure
A data storage system includes a data storage device with a first file system of a first type. At least one file stored in the first file system comprises a second file system of a second, different type. The data storage system is configured to write data to the second file system in a power-safe manner. |
| US08930423B1 |
Method and system for restoring encrypted files from a virtual machine image
Various techniques, including a method, system and computer program product for restoring encrypted files are disclosed. The method includes accessing a file table record for an encrypted file. The file table record includes an encrypted file stream and extent information identifying a location of one or more portions of the encrypted file in a virtual machine image. In response to accessing the file table record a consecutive data stream is stored. Storing the consecutive data stream includes encapsulating the encrypted file stream and the one or more portions of the encrypted file. |
| US08930420B2 |
Orphan object tracking for objects having acquire-release semantics
A method for object tracking of resource objects with acquire and release semantics can include instrumenting both an acquisition method and a release method of a resource object to write a reference to the resource object to an open object set upon acquiring the resource object, and to remove the reference to the resource object in the open object set upon releasing the resource object. The method also can include determining whether the resource object both has been flagged for garbage collection in the virtual machine and also remains referenced in the open object set. Finally, the method can include generating an error record in the virtual machine responsive to determining the resource object to have been both flagged for garbage collection in the virtual machine and also remaining referenced in the open object set. |
| US08930418B2 |
Interoperability format translation and transformation between IFC architectural design file and simulation file formats
Automatically translating a building architecture file format (Industry Foundation Class) to a simulation file, in one aspect, may extract data and metadata used by a target simulation tool from a building architecture file. Interoperability data objects may be created and the extracted data is stored in the interoperability data objects. A model translation procedure may be prepared to identify a mapping from a Model View Definition to a translation and transformation function. The extracted data may be transformed using the data stored in the interoperability data objects, an input Model View Definition template, and the translation and transformation function to convert the extracted data to correct geometric values needed for a target simulation file format used by the target simulation tool. The simulation file in the target simulation file format may be generated. |
| US08930417B2 |
Networked procurement
A method may include receiving unstructured content data related to a business entity by a networked service application; selecting, via a user interface of the networked service application and based at least in part on the received unstructured content data, a business template, the business template being a representation of a networked business object data structure having associations with structured data; and creating, by the networked service application, an instance of the networked business object by associating at least some of the received content data with the business template and the networked business object associated with the business template. |
| US08930416B2 |
Job dispatcher of transcoding jobs for media programs
In one embodiment, a method determines a job to dispatch for transcoding a source file. The source file is stored on a node in a distributed file system in which a plurality of nodes are storing a plurality of source files. The method then determines location information for the source file in the distributed file system where the location information identifies the node in which the source file is stored. Also, a node in the plurality of nodes is determined in which to dispatch the source file based on the location information for the source file. Then, the job is dispatched to the determined node such that transcoding of the source file is performed on the determined node. |
| US08930415B2 |
Method and computer system for interacting with a database
The invention proposes interacting with a database having data related to modeled products and parts using a graphical user interface displayed by a computer. The graphical user interface is adapted to allow a user to access the database. The method also includes providing within the graphical user interface a toolbar with at least one field suitable for displaying an argument. The toolbar is adapted for allowing a user to execute a function using the argument. The method further includes the steps of querying the database and updating the argument displayed in the field using a result of the querying step. |
| US08930411B2 |
Method and system for GIS enabled land management system
A improved tract-based lease data management systems is described that allow for rendering maps of database entities with reduced data entry. The invention includes methods for linking, unlinking, detecting invalidating changes, and rebuilding database entity geographical representations. |
| US08930398B1 |
System and method for improving a resume according to a job description
The present invention relates to a system and method for improving a resume according to a job description, including generating a first user profile signature based on a first user profile element associated with a user, generating a first job description signature based on a first job description element associated with a job description; and comparing the first user profile signature with the first job description signature to determine a first score indicating a strength of a match between the first user profile element and the job description. |
| US08930397B2 |
Multi-row database updating for enterprise workflow application
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a system, method, or computer program product for providing expedited updating of data stored by an entity. Specifically, the invention expedites the updating of data within large quantities of data on database tables. Initially received update data is processed, via multi-row insert, onto in-memory or temporary tables. The update data is staged on a temporary table while the appropriate base table (housing the data to be updated) is determined. Once determined, update data from the temporary table is pointed to the base table. In this way, a massive amount of data updating may occur. This prevents logging and locking associated with adding individual data updates or row updates to the base table independently. Errors are check and processed accordingly. Once updated, the update data on the temporary table is deleted in mass and a check point restart is issued. |
| US08930396B2 |
Method and system for detecting an applicance based on users' feedback information
A method and system for detecting an appliance based on users' feedback information, particularly a nonintrusive load monitoring method and system based on a user's feedback information and a joint strategic decision search algorithm are disclosed. By means of obtaining the users' feedback information on an appliance inputted by users or a search result of the appliances being confirmed by the users to generate a mapping between the model of the appliances and at least one load signature of each model of appliances; the users' feedback information is recorded into a smart meter or a cloud computing system, and a mathematical analysis is further used to compute an occurrence of any one signature of the appliance and the identification rate of each signature; then the joint strategic decision search algorithm automatically identifies various models of appliances and analyzes the operating states of the electric appliances in homes or offices. |
| US08930395B2 |
Proactive monitoring of database servers
A computer system monitors database servers to mitigate server availability risks. The plurality of servers may be proactively monitored to determine database status at each server before an alert is generated. An automated proactive process executes at a user's desktop to monitor database features over a plurality of database servers. Information about the server status is presented in a graphical user interface (GUI) format where status information for all of the database servers is presented in one integrated view in an automated manner. For example, the monitoring process reads a list of SQL instances and then connects to each listed SQL server to query the system catalogs of an SQL server engine. The monitoring process interprets the received information from the SQL servers and updates the GUI. The GUI may be color-coded to indicate the status state of individual SQL features for each monitored SQL server. |
| US08930391B2 |
Progressive spatial searching using augmented structures
A location associated with a user of a computing device and a prefix portion of an input string may be received as one or more successive characters of the input string are provided by the user via the computing device. A list of suggested items may be obtained based on a function of respective recommendation indicators and proximities of the items to the location in response to receiving the prefix portion, and based on partially traversing a character string search structure having a plurality of non-terminal nodes augmented with bound indicators associated with spatial regions. The list of suggested items and descriptive information associated with each suggested item may be returned to the user, in response to receiving the prefix portion, for rendering an image illustrating indicators associated with the list in a manner relative to the location, as the user provides each successive character of the input string. |
| US08930387B1 |
Techniques for suggesting correct identifiers
In an illustrative embodiment, an apparatus, computer-readable medium, system, or method may be configured to suggest correct identifiers. Frequencies of occurrence of expected identifiers may be determined. One or more unrecognized identifiers may be detected. One or more first numerical scores indicating that one or more unrecognized identifiers were provided to the computing environment in place of one or more of the expected identifiers may be calculated. Second numerical scores indicating that the unrecognized identifiers were intended to include expected identifiers may also be calculated. The second numerical scores may be calculated using the first numerical scores and the frequencies of occurrence of the expected identifiers. One or more expected identifiers may be selected based on the second set of numerical scores. |
| US08930384B2 |
Topical activity monitor system and method
A method monitors topical activity among networked devices of social communications networks. Related messages, such as posts, shares, likes, and others, are communicated between devices of the social networks. Each social network maintains a share count of related messages. A data network, such as the Internet, includes sources of articles. The method includes receiving a search item from the data network, collecting articles related to the search item from article sources, storing a unique identifier for each collected article, comparing the search item to the unique identifiers to determine similarity, compiling a result set of any similar unique identifiers, communicatively detecting, for the result set, respective share counts of related messages for each social network, and deriving a collective score based on all share counts. The score represents topical activity for the search item. The score is reported, and relevant articles may also be reported. |
| US08930380B1 |
Automatic parser generation
Automatically generating a parser is disclosed. Raw data is received from a first remote device. A determination that the raw data does not, within a predefined confidence measure, conform to any rules included in a set of rules is made. A clustering function is performed on the raw data. At least one parser rule is generated based on the clustering. |
| US08930379B2 |
Merging distributed mail into a unified folder view
A technique for managing distributed email content uses metadata to identify the location of email maintained on one or more data storage resources. When processing email content for display, the metadata is consulted and a display output is generated that presents a unified email folder view in which the email is represented. Email may be represented in the unified email folder view regardless of whether the email's data storage resource is accessible. Email content that is not currently accessible may be identified as being inaccessible. The email may be identified in the unified email folder view by specifying the data storage resource on which it is stored. The unified email folder view may also include at least one email folder representation that merges email content from more than one data storage resource. |
| US08930372B2 |
Search engine, search system, search method, and search program product
A search system can include a server, a token assignment unit for assigning types of tokens based on different kinds of character string analysis methods, an index generating unit for generating an index list that associates the tokens assigned with the token assignment unit, a type identification value for identifying a type of the character string analysis, and information, a search unit that receives a search word for referencing the information to combine types of search tokens generated from the search word to generate a single search command for parallel inquiry of the information to search for the information, and a search result generating unit for displaying information extracted in relation to the search word through parallel inquiry with the search unit and search tokens so as to identify the tokens. |
| US08930371B1 |
Systems and methods for efficiently storing index data on an electronic device
A method for efficiently storing index data on an electronic device may include storing index data in data pages within an indexing data structure on the electronic device. The method may also include providing at least one directory for the indexing data structure. The method may also include dynamically modifying how many directory levels are provided for the indexing data structure in response to changes to the data pages within the indexing data structure. |
| US08930370B2 |
Content aggregation method and apparatus for on-line purchasing system
The method comprises processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product, correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product, comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy, and determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group, creating product specifications based on the determined attributes and storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy. |
| US08930366B2 |
Method and system for automatically ranking product reviews according to review helpfulness
A method and system for automatically ranking product reviews according to review helpfulness. Given a collection of reviews, the method employs an algorithm that identifies dominant terms and uses them to define a feature vector representation. Reviews are then converted to this representation and ranked according to their distance from a ‘locally optimal’ review vector. The algorithm is fully unsupervised and thus avoids costly and error-prone manual training annotations. In one embodiment a Multi Layer Lexical Model (MLLM) approach partitions the dominant lexical terms in a review into layers, creates a compact unified layers lexicon, and ranks the reviews according to their weight with respect to unified lexicon, all in a fully unsupervised manner. When used to rank book reviews, it was found that the invention significantly outperforms the user votes-based ranking employed by Amazon. |
| US08930365B2 |
System and method for evolutionary clustering of sequential data sets
An improved system and method for evolutionary clustering of sequential data sets is provided. A snapshot cost may be determined for representing the data set for a particular clustering method used and may determine the cost of clustering the data set independently of a series of clusterings of the data sets in the sequence. A history cost may also be determined for measuring the distance between corresponding clusters of the data set and the previous data set in the sequence of data sets to determine a cost of clustering the data set as part of a series of clusterings of the data sets in the sequence. An overall cost may be determined for clustering the data set by minimizing the combination of the snapshot cost and the history cost. Any clustering method may be used, including flat clustering and hierarchical clustering. |
| US08930363B2 |
Efficient handling of address data in business transaction documents
The present disclosure involves computer-implemented methods, software, and systems for efficiently handling address data in business transaction documents. A computer-implemented method includes receiving a modification to address data associated with an existing address instance, receiving, using at least one computer, an indication of a modification type, creating a new snapshot instance, associating the modified address data with the new snapshot instance, retrieving a unique reference value for the new address snapshot instance, and associating the unique reference value identifying the new address snapshot instance with the address instance. |
| US08930360B2 |
System and method for online handwriting recognition in web queries
A graphic representation resulting from a user interacting with a user interface operating on a user device is received over a network. The graphic representation corresponds to a portion of a desired graphic character of a graphic character set (e.g. Chinese). The graphic representation is analyzed to select a plurality of graphic characters of the graphic character set that are a probable match of the graphic representation. The plurality of probable graphic characters are transmitted back to the user. A selection of one of the plurality of probable graphic characters is received over the network. A plurality of suggested search terms are identified to the user. Each suggested search term comprises at least one graphic character from the graphic character set. One of the plurality of suggested search terms is selected to be used to conduct an Internet search. An Internet search is then conducted using the selected search term. |
| US08930355B2 |
System and method for reflective searching of previous search results
An approach for searching within previous search results for new search results is provided. In one aspect, a first computer receives first search contexts from a second computer. The first search contexts include parameters including characteristics of elements of second search contexts and parameters including weight of importance to the user that elements of the second search contexts includes the characteristics of the first search contexts. In addition, the first computer searches for the characteristics of the elements of the second search contexts in a repository. In another aspect, the first computer determines a match between the characteristics of the elements of the second search contexts and characteristics elements of the first search contexts, and wherein the first computer ranks a list of the new search results based on the determination. |
| US08930353B2 |
System and method for reflective searching of previous search results
An approach for searching within previous search results for new search results is provided. In one aspect, a first computer receives first search contexts from a second computer. The first search contexts include parameters including characteristics of elements of second search contexts and parameters including weight of importance to the user that elements of the second search contexts includes the characteristics of the first search contexts. In addition, the first computer searches for the characteristics of the elements of the second search contexts in a repository. In another aspect, the first computer determines a match between the characteristics of the elements of the second search contexts and characteristics elements of the first search contexts, and wherein the first computer ranks a list of the new search results based on the determination. |
| US08930350B1 |
Autocompletion using previously submitted query data
A computer-implemented method for processing query information includes receiving query information at a server system. The query information includes a portion of a query from a search requestor. The method also includes obtaining a set of predicted queries relevant to the portion of the search requestor query based upon the portion of the query from the search requestor and data indicative of search requestor behavior relative to previously submitted queries. The method also includes providing the set of predicted queries to the search requestor. |
| US08930347B2 |
Intermediate result set caching for a database system
A method for storing intermediate result sets in a database is provided. An access plan for a single query for accessing data stored in the database system is received. An intermediate result set is generated during execution of the access plan. A value of an intermediate result set rating of the intermediate result set is determined during execution of the access plan at runtime of the query for determining if the intermediate result set, generated during the execution of the access plan, is to be stored. Based on determining that the value of the intermediate result set rating meets a predefined criterion, the determined intermediate result set is stored for a longer period of time than the runtime of the query as a stored intermediate result set. |
| US08930346B2 |
Symbolic-link identifying
Methods for identifying symbolic links in network file systems are provided herein. An absolute path may be determined at a network file server. This may include determining a complete client path from an initial client path and combining the complete client path with a server export path. Once the absolute path is determined, it may be traversed using a file descriptor of each file in the absolute path to identify a symbolic link. |
| US08930344B2 |
Systems and methods for holding a query
A database management system that can comprise a memory for storing computer executable instructions and a processing unit for accessing the memory and executing the computer executable instructions. The computer executable instruction scan comprise a compiler to hold a query received at a query input, thereby preventing the query from executing based on a cost comparison between an estimated resource execution cost of a query plan for the query and cost rules. |
| US08930337B2 |
Mapping dataset elements
Among other things, one aspect includes receiving one or more mapped relationships between a given output and one or more inputs represented by input variables, at least one of the mapped relationships including a transformational expression, the transformational expression defining an output of a mapped relationship based on at least one input variable mapped to an element of an input dataset; receiving identification of elements of an output dataset mapped to outputs of respective mapped relationships; generating output data according to the transformational expression based on input data from the input dataset associated with the element of the input dataset mapped to the input variable; determining validation information in response to the generated output data based on validation criteria defining one or more characteristics of valid values associated with one or more of the identified elements of the output dataset; and presenting visual feedback based on the determined validation information. |
| US08930334B2 |
Creating a database that stores information about individual habitable units
Techniques for creating and searching a database that stores information about a plurality of individual habitable units (IHUs) are provided. An example of an IHU is a hotel room. Image data that depicts where a plurality of IHUs reside relative to each other is placed on a base image, such as a satellite/map image. The base image is associated with a mapping that maps points on the base image to spatial (e.g., geographical) coordinates. The coordinates of the IHU may be used to generate a computer-rendered view from a window of an IHU. Also, label input is received that labels each IHU reflected in the image data with certain information. Each label indicates a value of an attribute of an IHU, such as its size, price, distance from elevators, etc. A query that targets information about each IHU may be processed and results returned that are ranked based on criteria associated with the query. |
| US08930333B1 |
Lockahead for simultaneous readers and writers in a clustered file system
A system and method for efficiently performing simultaneous access of files in a clustered file system. A cluster of nodes is coupled to a data storage medium. A first node executes a first thread with write operations for a given file. A second node executes a second thread with read operations for the given file. The first thread is appending the given file. In response, the first node requests a write lock range between an end-of-file for the given file to a highest possible endpoint. If a prediction determines the second thread may request read locks after the range it is currently reading, then the method enables the locks to be efficiently transferred from the first node to the second node before they are required on the second node, allowing the reading second node to proceed with fewer delays. |
| US08930330B1 |
Validation of log formats
Systems and methods for validation of log formats are described herein. Log data is stored via a logging service in a data store or other storage system. An example log or proposed log format is received by the logging service. The proposed log format is validated against validation rules provided by log consumers. |
| US08930326B2 |
Generating and utilizing a data fingerprint to enable analysis of previously available data
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system analyzes data in response to detecting occurrence of an event, and includes a computer system including at least one processor. The system maps fields between the data and a fingerprint definition identifying relevant fields of the data to produce a fingerprint for the data. The data is deleted after occurrence of the event. The produced fingerprint is stored in a data repository, and retrieved in response to detection of the event occurrence after the data has been deleted. The system analyzes the retrieved fingerprint to evaluate an impact of the event on corresponding deleted data. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for analyzing data in response to detecting occurrence of an event in substantially the same manner described above. |
| US08930317B2 |
Throttling to reduce synchronizations of excessively changing data
Embodiments of the invention determine if a user preference or other piece of data is being synchronized too frequently. If the user preference is being synchronized too frequently, synchronization of the user preference is throttled to prevent it from synchronizing for some number of synchronization cycles. If the user preference rarely changes, the user preference is rewarded by throttling it less often. |
| US08930316B2 |
System and method for providing partition persistent state consistency in a distributed data grid
A system and method can provide partition persistent state consistency in a distributed data grid. The distributed data grid can provide a plurality of copies of a partition on a plurality of cluster nodes in the distributed data grid, wherein the plurality of cluster nodes includes a primary owner node and one or more backup nodes for the partition. The primary owner node can propagate one or more modifications of the partition from the primary owner node to the one or more backup nodes. The distributed data grid can ensure consistency among the plurality copies of the partition on the plurality of cluster nodes in the distributed data grid. |
| US08930315B2 |
Using a data protection server to backup and restore data on virtual servers
A virtual machine may be discovered through a directory service or via an agent that is installed on the host operating system that is running the virtual machine. If the agent is installed on the virtual machine, the agent monitors changes to a set of protected volumes on the virtual machine. If the agent is installed on the host, the agent monitors changes to the protected volumes, which may contain one or more virtual servers on the host. Periodically, these changes from the host or the virtual server are sent to a data protection server. The data protection server updates its replicas of protected volumes with the sent changes. Versions of files on a data protection server corresponding to a volume of a virtual server may be restored to the virtual machine, to another machine, or may be viewed from the data protection server. |
| US08930314B1 |
Data set capture management with forecasting
A set of virtualized computing services may include multiple types of virtualized data store differentiated by characteristics such as latency, throughput, durability and cost. A sequence of captures of a data set from one data store to another may be scheduled to achieve a variety of virtualized computing service user and provider goals such as lowering a probability of data loss, lowering costs, and computing resource load leveling. Data set captures may be scheduled according to policies specifying fixed and flexible schedules and conditions including flexible scheduling windows, target capture frequencies, probability of loss targets and/or cost targets. Capture lifetimes may also be managed with capture retention policies, which may specify fixed and flexible lifetimes and conditions including cost targets. Such data set capture policies may be specified with a Web-based administrative interface to a control plane of the virtualized computing services. |
| US08930306B1 |
Synchronized data deduplication
A system and method for data deduplication is presented. Data received from one or more computing systems is deduplicated, and the results of the deduplication process stored in a reference table. A representative subset of the reference table is shared among a plurality of systems that utilize the data deduplication repository. This representative subset of the reference table can be used by the computing systems to deduplicate data locally before it is sent to the repository for storage. Likewise, it can be used to allow deduplicated data to be returned from the repository to the computing systems. In some cases, the representative subset can be a proper subset wherein a portion of the referenced table is identified shared among the computing systems to reduce bandwidth requirements for reference-table synchronization. |
| US08930303B2 |
Discovering pivot type relationships between database objects
According to a present invention embodiment, a system determines a relationship between source and target database tables, and includes a computer system including at least one processor. Potential pivot keys of the target database table are determined, and maps are created for each potential pivot key between the database tables based on distinct values. Transformations for each map are generated that enable target data to be produced from source data. The transformations for each potential pivot key are analyzed and the potential pivot key with the transformations that generate the greatest amount of matching data is selected as the resulting pivot key. The database table columns corresponding to the resulting pivot key are determined to be associated by the relationship. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for determining a relationship between source and target database tables in substantially the same manner described above. |
| US08930302B2 |
Apparatus and method for identifying the creator of a work of art
A method for determining the authorship of a picture, wherein the method comprises at least the following steps: —transferring the picture to be examined or parts of the picture to be examined with the aid of a digitizing means, in particular a scanner, into at least one data set, —analyzing the data set(s) and determining characteristic features or parts of characteristic features, in particular dots or lines or dot or line groups or patterns, contained in the data set in digitized form, wherein the characteristic features to be determined are stored in a database, —and wherein the database includes an additional associated data set for each of the stored characteristic features. |
| US08930299B2 |
Systems and methods for wind forecasting and grid management
In one embodiment, a wind power ramp event nowcasting system includes a wind condition analyzer for detecting a wind power ramp signal; a sensor array, situated in an area relative to a wind farm, the sensor array providing data to the wind condition analyzer; a mesoscale numerical model; a neural network pattern recognizer; and a statistical forecast model, wherein the statistical model receives input from the wind condition analyzer, the mesoscale numerical model, and the neural network pattern recognizer; and the statistical forecast model outputs a time and duration for the wind power ramp event (WPRE) for the wind farm. |
| US08930296B2 |
Method and system for programming virtual robots using a template
Disclosed is a method for processing input entered by a user and providing at least one response maintained by an administrator in a system for autonomously processing requests. A template is provided to the administrator, wherein the template includes at least one field to elicit specific information from the administrator. The information is received from the administrator into the template. The information is saved for use in providing the at least one response in reply to a request from a user. An apparatus for performing this method is also disclosed. |
| US08930289B2 |
Estimation of predictive accuracy gains from added features
Various technologies described herein pertain to estimating predictive accuracy gain of a potential feature added to a set of features, wherein an existing predictor is trained on the set of features. Outputs of the existing predictor for instances in a dataset can be retrieved from a data store. Moreover, a predictive accuracy gain estimate of a potential feature added to the set of features can be measured as a function of the outputs of the existing predictor for the instances in the dataset. The predictive accuracy gain estimate can be measured without training an updated predictor on the set of features augmented by the potential feature. |
| US08930287B2 |
Dynamic training for tagging computer code
System, method, device and article of manufacture are provided wherein software code is sorted between optional pools using attributes of software in the target pools. Training for subsequent sorts can take place when attributes of already sorted code are considered and used when sorting previously unclassified code. Manual intervention may also be used to sort code and to verify the accuracy of previous sorts. |
| US08930286B2 |
Information processing apparatus, processing method therefor, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium
An information processing apparatus creates, for each of a plurality of nodes, a query to be executed for a learning pattern input to the node; inputs a plurality of learning patterns to a root node of the plurality of nodes; executes, for the learning pattern input to each node, the query created for the node; determines whether the query has been effectively executed for the individual learning pattern input to each node; distributes and inputs, to a lower node of each node, an individual learning pattern for which it has been determined in the determining that the query was effectively executed in the node; deletes a learning pattern for which it has been determined in the determining that the query was not effectively executed in each node; and stores an attribute of the learning pattern input to a terminal node of the plurality of nodes in association with the node. |
| US08930285B2 |
Composite production rules
A method for forming and using a composite production rule may include compiling, by a computer system, a decision table or a decision tree to generate a composite production rule. The method may also include generating the composite production rule and selecting, by the computer system, an algorithm for compiling the composite production rule. The method may additionally include compiling, by the computer system, the composite production rule into an executable program based on pattern matching of the selected algorithm. The method may further include executing, by the computer system, the composite production rule to provide an output based on the composite production rule. |
| US08930282B2 |
Content generation revenue sharing
Techniques are described that facilitate generating useful content based on user interactions, such as by providing an answer-providing service that facilitates interactions between users who supply questions and users who supply responses to the questions of other users, as well as using the generated content in various ways. In some situations, users are compensated for participating in interactions with the answer-providing service in various ways, including by sharing a portion of an ongoing revenue stream generated from an answer to a question with users who provided responses that are used as part of the answer. In some situations, the sharing of an ongoing revenue stream related to an answer may be split between the users who provided the responses for the answer in various manners, including based on assessed levels of expertise of those users. |
| US08930280B2 |
Recycling postage-paid indicator and process
A method for recycling a mail piece by a user that utilizes a postage-paid indicator that includes an intelligent barcode and the postal system which scans the intelligent barcode and compares it with a first data file that contains information concerning the distribution of funds generated from the sale of the recycle indicator and a second data file that contains information concerning a recycling destination of the mail piece to which the postage-paid recycle indicator is affixed by the user. |
| US08930277B2 |
Content management apparatus
There is disclosed an apparatus configured to provide a chart of content items to a plurality of user devices. The apparatus is configured to enable individual users to temporarily access one or more content items listed in the chart. The apparatus comprises a user device interface configured to communicate with user device applications and a permissions module configured to define user access permissions, including temporary user access permissions, relating to individual ones of the one or more items of content. The apparatus also provides a distribution module configured to implement permissions defined in the permission module in relation to user devices by making available one or more items of content listed in the chart to at least one user device application. |
| US08930274B1 |
Securing payment transactions with rotating application transaction counters
An account management system creates a bundle of private application transaction counters (ATCs) and a bundle of corresponding public ATCs, and transmits them to a user device. The device receives a request for payment information from a merchant and processes the request without accessing a secure element processor on the device. The device calculates a security code using one of the bundle of private ATCs and a transaction number received from the merchant. The device transmits proxy account information, the calculated security code, and the corresponding public ATCs to the merchant. The merchant transmits a payment request to the account management system as the issuer of the proxy account information. The account management system retrieves the private ATC using the public ATC, and determines the validity of the security code by recomputing it. The account management system retrieves the financial account information and requests authorization from the issuer. |
| US08930273B2 |
System and method for generating a dynamic card value
A method and system is provided for generating a dynamic card value (DCV) from a mobile user device for use in a transaction between a user cardholder and a transaction provider. The DCV may be configured for use as a card verification value (CVV), also known as a card security code (CSC), a primary account number (PAN), or a portion of a PAN. The DCV may be generated using a DCV generator which may include an algorithm and a DCV generation key. The DCV generation key may be camouflaged. Obtaining a DCV from the user device may require inputting a PIN, a device identifier, a challenge or transaction information. The DCV may be used for any transaction requiring the input of a user identification number and a verification value, including, credit card transactions, debit card transactions, online or telephonic transactions. |
| US08930265B2 |
Monitoring retail transactions associated with a financial institution-based merchant offer program and determining savings metrics
Embodiments of the invention provide for monitoring transactions and providing related savings metrics in association with a financial institution-based merchant offer program. Since the transaction monitoring occurs at the financial institution level, the savings metrics may include both amounts saved by accepting the merchant offers associated with the program and savings amounts lost by conducting a transaction absent a merchant offer when an applicable merchant offer was available. |
| US08930264B1 |
Methods, software programs, and systems for managing one or more liabilities
The present invention relates to various methods, software programs, and systems for managing one or more liabilities. More particularly, certain embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, software programs, and systems for managing debt in the form of at least one credit issued by a borrower. |
| US08930261B2 |
Method and system for generating a fraud risk score using telephony channel based audio and non-audio data
Disclosed is a method for generating a fraud risk score representing a fraud risk associated with an individual, the method comprising: a) determining a telephony channel risk score from at least one of audio channel data and non-audio channel data of the individual; and b) generating the fraud risk score based on at least one of the telephony channel risk score, the audio channel data, and the non-audio channel data. |
| US08930260B2 |
Method and system for reserving future purchases of goods and services
A method and system for reserving future purchases of goods or services or events including plural electronic options with associated option fees for the goods or services or events. The plural electronic options include electronic option terms established by one or more suppliers who can supply the goods or services or events. The purchase of the electronic option is accepted according to electronic option terms established by the desired supplier. The option terms may vary greatly among the individual suppliers and no two suppliers may use the same option terms. The electronic options are displayed, viewed, purchased, and exercised from a client network device. |
| US08930259B2 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring and evaluating limit order trading
Systems, methods, apparatus, computer program code and means for generating quality data associated with an option limit order are provided. In some embodiments, an option limit order is received, the option limit order including information identifying a customer, information identifying a desired option, and information that indicates a limit price for said option limit order. A substantially real time feed of option market date is received and the option market data is used in real time to identify at least one of a trade-through and a trade-at transaction relevant to the option limit order. Alerts may be generated based on the identified trade-through or trade-at transaction. Trade-at or trade-through data may be tabulated and analyzed to evaluate option limit order trading activity. Analysis to generate trade-at or trade-through data may be performed on a batch processing basis relying entirely or in part on data received in real time or on a batch basis. |
| US08930255B2 |
Methods and systems for combining securities and carbon credits
Systems and methods are provided for reducing or neutralizing a carbon footprint of a security using carbon credit. At least one security that is excluded from an investment fund may be determined. A carbon footprint of the at least one security may be calculated. A first amount of carbon credit necessary to neutralize the carbon footprint of the at least one security may be determined. A second amount of carbon credit may be purchased based on the act of calculating the first amount of carbon credit necessary to neutralize the carbon footprint. A financial instrument determined to have an at least partially neutralized carbon footprint may be generated by causing the at least one security and the second amount of carbon credit to be stored in a trust. |
| US08930252B2 |
Electronic financial management and analysis system and related methods
A computing system facilitating electronic bill presentment and payment features for authorized users via a user interface is introduced including an analysis engine. The analysis engine, in response to user interaction with the user interface, selectively performs user-defined analysis on at least a subset of retrieved billing information associated with one or more billers. The analysis engine further generates one or more user-defined report(s) based, at least in part, on the user-defined analysis. |
| US08930251B2 |
Debt trending systems and methods
A debt trending device accesses credit reports and/or other financial data that is available from one or more financial data sources, for a user and extracts financial account information. The debt trending device may then analyze the account information in order to generate debt trending information that indicates in the form of lists, tables, graphs, charts, etc., information regarding multiple debt accounts associated with the user. |
| US08930248B2 |
Managing consistent interfaces for supply network business objects across heterogeneous systems
A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to a supply network plan, a supply network plan configuration and/or a supply network planning aggregate hierarchy business object. |
| US08930247B1 |
System and methods for content-based financial decision making support
Robust content-based decision-making support is enabled by software with a customizable knowledge base. Utilizing proprietary information contained within a knowledge base, the software enables users to search the indexed database by feature, example firm, or pattern and update the knowledge base based on the results. The information contained in the knowledge base enables results to be ranked by relevance and enables other feedback to be provided. The system and methods provide process support by helping financial professionals identify, analyze, and construct data analysis patterns based on individual domain knowledge and preferences. The system and methods automatically detect abnormal patterns and automatically analyze their correlations to market events to provide further process support to financial professionals. Using the results of any searching, analysis, and processing, the system and methods provide a neural network or other learning algorithm to provide content-based decision-making support. |
| US08930246B2 |
Dynamic comparison text functionality
A system is provided comprising a plurality of listings, a plurality of labels associated with at least some of the listings. Additionally, a plurality of form inputs are provided, each associated with one of the labels, wherein selection of a form input causes a transition of the associated label from a first state to a second state. The system further includes a link that is made active upon the transition, thereby associating an action with a label wherein a first description is displayed in the first state and a second description is displayed in the second state. |
| US08930242B2 |
Auction system
A method for auctioning a lot, in which a plurality of messages are received from a plurality of bidders for the lot, with each message including a bid for the lot. A bid acceptance message is sent by SMS to each of the bidders notifying the bidder of the status of the bidder's bid. Each bidder is charged for sending the bid acceptance message. The bidder associated with the lowest unique bid for the lot is determined. |
| US08930239B2 |
Distributed content exchange and presentation system
An Internet-oriented advertising exchange controller presents website content in a plurality of frames as well as support search criteria and other flexible forms of inventory formatting and delivery. Applications include Internet protocol request coordination or relay, cooperative frame based or interstitial advertising, and support for a local search or dataless metasearch system. The controller operates in a cookieless environment, has logic to protect advertiser's investment from AutoSurf equivalent systems, and protects against other inappropriate stimuli including denial of service or IP blast attacks. As such, an advertiser's credits are affected only by human stimuli. Communication with and among exchange controllers for sharing or delivering information about inventory occurs by a number of protocols with optional encryption. The controller provides a foundation for a robust, advertiser protective, web based advertising and network search system with economic support by use of unstoppable framesets, and ultimately frame-based advertising and presentation methods. |
| US08930237B2 |
Using web-mining to enrich directory service databases and soliciting service subscriptions
A system and method are provided for augmenting information on business directory databases and communicating with businesses is disclosed. Using the enriched business directory database and Web mining technology, customized email message are sent inviting businesses to enter their enriched business information into the directory or even subscribe to other paid services provided by the directory service. |
| US08930235B2 |
Shelf space product placement optimizer
A system for optimizing shelf space placement for a product receives decision variables and constraints, and executes a Randomized Search (“RS”) using the decision variables and constraints until an RS solution is below a pre-determined improvement threshold. The system then solves a Mixed-Integer Linear Program (“MILP”) problem using the decision variables and constraints, and using the RS solution as a starting point, to generate a MILP solution. The system repeats the RS executing and MILP solving as long as the MILP solution is not within a predetermined accuracy or does not exceed a predetermined time duration. The system then, based on the final MILP solution, outputs a shelf position and a number of facings for the product. |
| US08930233B2 |
System and method for anonymous location based services
Provided is a fully automated web service with location based services generally involved in transmission of situational location dependent information to automatically located mobile receiving data processing systems. The web service communicates with a receiving data processing system in a manner by delivering information to the device when appropriate without the device requesting it at the time of delivery. There are varieties of configurations made by different user types of the web service for configuring information to be delivered, and for receiving the information. The web service maximizes anonymity of users, provides granular privacy control with a default of complete privacy, and supports user configurable privileges and features for desired web service behavior and interoperability. The web service is fully automated to eliminate human resources required to operate services. |
| US08930222B2 |
Method and system for managing patient healthcare
Methods and systems are provided for managing patient healthcare, which include creating a patient profile for a patient, screening and assessing the patient with respect to a disease and updating the patient profile, determining a health management status of the patient with respect to the disease based on a comparison of the updated patient profile to at least one predefined criterion regarding progression of the disease, and providing a recommended action based upon the health management status and updated patient profile. |
| US08930220B2 |
Apparatus and methods for rendering personal stories to medical patients
A health care apparatus (10) and methods are described for rendering audio visual content to a medical patient in the patient's home, in which a content element storage (22) stores a plurality of audio visual content elements (28) to be rendered to the patient in the patient's home, including personal story content elements (40) in which an interviewee (42) is shown discussing one or more issues related to the patient's medical condition. One or more content elements are selected according to a medical condition of a given patient and presented to the patient via a display device (14) of a user interface (12) located in the patient's home. Methods are presented for generating audio visual content for presentation to a medical patient in the patient's home in which a set of questions relating to a given medical condition is generated (102) and questions from the set are presented (104) to at least one interviewee, such as an actor or a person having the given medical condition. The interviewee's responses to the presented questions are recorded (106) and edited (108) to create a personal story content element which is then stored (110) in a content element storage coupled with a communications network from which content elements are selected for presentation to patients having the given medical condition. |
| US08930219B2 |
Treatment analysis systems and methods
A dental treatment planning system includes an input form to receive one or more dental patient inputs; and an engine adapted to receive the dental patient data from the input form and validating the dental patient data in a predetermined sequence. |
| US08930216B1 |
Method and apparatus for assessing credit for healthcare patients
According to one example embodiment, there is provided a method and an apparatus to evaluate the credit of a healthcare patient. The example embodiment provides methods and computer systems programmed to use multiple variables that are known about a patient prior to a service being rendered to segment the patient population into finer grained groupings. These finer grained groupings allow financial factors, such as a credit score, to be a more accurate predictor. Also, according to another example embodiment, the model is not a generic model for all patients, but the variables and their parameters are specific to a particular healthcare organization's or facility's patient population. This creates a custom model that further enhances its predictiveness. |
| US08930214B2 |
Consolidated healthcare and resource management system
A technical procedure and information enhancement system comprising a multi-function colored display; a computing device having memory and processors; a touch-free gesture-responsive computer input device; computer-readable media containing computer instructions for displaying a plurality of electronic pages selected from the group consisting of a pre-procedural page, a procedure preparation page, an intra-procedural page and a post-procedural page; connection to the internet; a backup memory; a microphone; one or more video cameras situated to record the medical procedure, speakers, and an electronic signature pad. |
| US08930212B2 |
Patient data management apparatus for comparing patient data with ailment archetypes to determine correlation with established ailment biomarkers
The Medical Diagnostic Apparatus implements a physician-operated medical data analysis system for assisting a physician in identifying ailments and conditions which correlate to anomalies identified in a set of patient medical data relating to an identified patient. This system includes a plurality of biomarkers which relate to interpreting patient medical data and possible ailments associated with patient medical data. A data characterization module displays biomarkers selected by a physician and a set of patient medical data, collected from and about an identified patient, to compare the set of patient medical data with biomarkers of known ailments to enable the physician to identify an ailment representative of the patient medical data. |
| US08930210B2 |
Method and system for generating a medical report and computer program product therefor
A method and a system for generating, with the assistance of a computer system(12), a medical report (18) suitable for automatic billing, wherein an electronic template (39) suited for a specific patient's condition is selected out of a plurality of given electronic templates stored in storage means (15); personal data of the specific patient's and previously stored in storage means (11) are automatically entered into the selected electronic template; and medical report text passages and instructions are entered into the selected template by dictating and using a speech recognition system (13); additionally, condition data are automatically entered on the basis of condition information as far as stored in storage means (7 ) into the selected template, and code data associated with these condition information are automatically embedded in the selected template; and when entering medical report text passages, at least one predetermined voice macro stored in storage means (16) together with code data embedded therein is called in; the code data thus embedded in the medical report (18) being applicable when coding the medical report for automatic billing. |
| US08930209B2 |
Individual assessment and classification of complex diseases by a data-based clinical disease profile
An tool and method is disclosed to assess disease activity and to classify complex diseases using basic clinical data. The tools and methods allow identifying and consulting affected individuals based on comprehensive bedside examinations and thus provide a basis for the personalized management of complex diseases. |
| US08930208B2 |
Methods and systems for detecting a bioactive agent effect
Methods, computer program products, and systems are described that include accepting at least one indication of bioactive agent use by an individual and/or presenting an indication of an artificial sensory experience programmed to detect at least one effect of the bioactive agent at least partly based on the at least one indication of the bioactive agent. |
| US08930202B2 |
Audio entropy encoder/decoder for coding contexts with different frequency resolutions and transform lengths
An audio encoder for encoding segments of coefficients, the segments of coefficients representing different time or frequency resolutions of a sampled audio signal, the audio encoder including a processor for deriving a coding context for a currently encoded coefficient of a current segment based on a previously encoded coefficient of a previous segment, the previously encoded coefficient representing a different time or frequency resolution than the currently encoded coefficient. The audio encoder further includes an entropy encoder for entropy encoding the current coefficient based on the coding context to obtain an encoded audio stream. |
| US08930195B1 |
User interface navigation
Methods and systems described herein relate to using nasal vocalizations to control a head-mountable device. An example method could include causing at least one sensor of a head-mountable device to detect a vibration. The head-mountable device could include a near-eye display. The method could further include determining the vibration corresponds to a first nasal vocalization from a plurality of nasal vocalizations. The method could also include controlling the head-mountable device based on the first nasal vocalization. The plurality of nasal vocalizations could include at least an affirmative vocalization and a negative vocalization. |
| US08930187B2 |
Methods, apparatuses and computer program products for implementing automatic speech recognition and sentiment detection on a device
An apparatus for utilizing textual data and acoustic data corresponding to speech data to detect sentiment may include a processor and memory storing executable computer code causing the apparatus to at least perform operations including evaluating textual data and acoustic data corresponding to voice data associated with captured speech content. The computer program code may further cause the apparatus to analyze the textual data and the acoustic data to detect whether the textual data or the acoustic data includes one or more words indicating at least one sentiment of a user that spoke the speech content. The computer program code may further cause the apparatus to assign at least one predefined sentiment to at least one of the words in response to detecting that the word(s) indicates the sentiment of the user. Corresponding methods and computer program products are also provided. |
| US08930185B2 |
Speech feature extraction apparatus, speech feature extraction method, and speech feature extraction program
A speech feature extraction apparatus, speech feature extraction method, and speech feature extraction program. A speech feature extraction apparatus includes: first difference calculation module to: (i) receive, as an input, a spectrum of a speech signal segmented into frames for each frequency bin; and (ii) calculate a delta spectrum for each of the frame, where the delta spectrum is a difference of the spectrum within continuous frames for the frequency bin; and first normalization module to normalize the delta spectrum of the frame for the frequency bin by dividing the delta spectrum by a function of an average spectrum; where the average spectrum is an average of spectra through all frames that are overall speech for the frequency bin; and where an output of the first normalization module is defined as a first delta feature. |
| US08930183B2 |
Voice conversion method and system
A method of converting speech from the characteristics of a first voice to the characteristics of a second voice, the method comprising: receiving a speech input from a first voice, dividing said speech input into a plurality of frames; mapping the speech from the first voice to a second voice; and outputting the speech in the second voice, wherein mapping the speech from the first voice to the second voice comprises, deriving kernels demonstrating the similarity between speech features derived from the frames of the speech input from the first voice and stored frames of training data for said first voice, the training data corresponding to different text to that of the speech input and wherein the mapping step uses a plurality of kernels derived for each frame of input speech with a plurality of stored frames of training data of the first voice. |
| US08930182B2 |
Voice transformation with encoded information
Method, system, and computer program product for voice transformation are provided. The method includes transforming a source speech using transformation parameters, and encoding information on the transformation parameters in an output speech using steganography, wherein the source speech can be reconstructed using the output speech and the information on the transformation parameters. A method for reconstructing voice transformation is also provided including: receiving an output speech of a voice transformation system wherein the output speech is transformed speech which has encoded information on the transformation parameters using steganography; extracting the information on the transformation parameters; and carrying out an inverse transformation of the output speech to obtain an approximation of an original source speech. |
| US08930180B1 |
Rapid scenario generation using natural language understanding
A generator for providing highly interactive, immersive training and mission rehearsal scenarios for war fighters and leaders on the job is provided. Through natural language understanding, the automation of such scenarios may be enabled and quickly created to ensure effectiveness, consistency, completeness and relevance. New tactical simulations may be added to the system by writing software adapters to down-translate from an abstract scenario model to the specific tactical simulation and its delivery platform. Finally, this same approach of interpreting written problem or task specifications may be extended to instruction in non-military domains that also leverage system or device simulations. |
| US08930177B2 |
Scripting support for data identifiers, voice recognition and speech in a telnet session
Methods of adding data identifiers and speech/voice recognition functionality are disclosed. A telnet client runs one or more scripts that add data identifiers to data fields in a telnet session. The input data is inserted in the corresponding fields based on data identifiers. Scripts run only on the telnet client without modifications to the server applications. Further disclosed are methods for providing speech recognition and voice functionality to telnet clients. Portions of input data are converted to voice and played to the user. A user also may provide input to certain fields of the telnet session by using his voice. Scripts running on the telnet client convert the user's voice into text and is inserted to corresponding fields. |
| US08930176B2 |
Interactive multilingual word-alignment techniques
Techniques for interactively presenting word-alignments of multilingual translations and automatically improving those translations based upon user feedback are described herein. With one or more implementations of the techniques described herein, a word-alignment user-interface (UI) concurrently displays a pair of bilingual sentences, where one is a translation of the other, and interactively highlights linked (i.e., “word-aligned”) words and phrases of the pair. Other implementations of the techniques described herein offer an option for a user to provide feedback about the existing word-alignments or realign the words or phrases. In still other described implementations, word-alignment is automatically improved based upon that user feedback. |
| US08930166B1 |
Method and apparatus for efficient extraction of information from signals
A method and device for extracting information from data representing a signal is disclosed. A set of data comprising a plurality of measurements of the signal generated at a first sampling rate is received from a sensor. A subset of the plurality of measurements is selected. A plurality of feature variables, each of which corresponds to a particular feature in a set of features that may be present in the signal are determined by deriving an underdetermined system of equations based on a selected basis function, the subset of the plurality of measurements, and the plurality of feature variables and corresponding features. The underdetermined system of equations is solved to determine a value for each feature variable using a non-linear optimization technique to minimize an L1 norm of the set of features. Feature information is stored in a storage medium. |
| US08930165B2 |
Source localization using multiple units of a tight-pitched detector array
A system and method for determining a probability of the location of an illicit radiation source within an environment based on directional detectors. An embodiment includes a plurality of directional radiation detectors distributed about the environment and integrated with a processing unit adapted to determine the probability of the source location based on the radiation count data received from the plurality of detectors. The processing unit is further adapted to output information indicative of the location of the radiation source within the environment. |
| US08930159B2 |
Semiconductor circuit, semiconductor device, line break detection method, and computer readable medium storing line break detection program
When line break detection of signal line Ln is carried out, potential smaller than signal line Ln−1 having lower potential than signal line Ln is supplied to signal line Ln, and potentials of signal line Ln and signal line Ln−1 are compared. If potential of signal line Lc>signal line Li, it is detected no line break, and if signal line Lc |
| US08930152B2 |
Whole structure contactless power consumption sensing
A contactless current and power consumption sensor can be safely mounted on a circuit breaker box of a structure, so as to sense the current flow and/or power consumed in the structure. Because the sensor can be mounted on a surface of the circuit breaker box without the need to access energized conductors inside the box, an unskilled person can readily install the sensor to monitor total instantaneous current flow and thus, determine the power consumed by energized devices in the structure on a continuing basis. The output from the sensor can be supplied to a readout or can be conveyed by a wired or wireless link to a computing device disposed at a remote location, where the data can be stored or viewed on a display. By integrating the power consumed over time, the energy usage by the energized devices in a structure can also be determined. |
| US08930151B2 |
Method and device to monitor a module operating in a magnetic resonance system
A monitoring method to monitor and/or protect modules, in particular a radio-frequency antenna of a magnetic resonance system, includes a measurement step in which at least one first characteristic monitoring variable is measured by at least one first measurement unit, and at least one calculation step in which at least one maximum limit value for a power and/or a voltage within the module is calculated using the at least one first measured characteristic monitoring variable. At least one second characteristic monitoring variable, different than the at least one first characteristic monitoring variable, is measured in the measurement step. |
| US08930150B2 |
Leak detection in a fluid distribution network
Systems and methods for detecting leaks in a fluid distribution network are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes calculating value of non-revenue fluid. Further, the method includes receiving data corresponding to pressure from pressure sensors in the fluid distribution network and receiving data corresponding to flow from flow sensors in the fluid distribution network. Furthermore, the method includes estimating pressure values at the pressure sensors and estimating flow values at the flow sensors. The received data and estimated values of respective sensors for corresponding time periods are compared. Existence of leak in the fluid distribution network is detected if the value of non-revenue fluid is non-zero. One or more leak spots are located, if a leak is detected, by solving an optimization problem. |
| US08930149B1 |
Relative valuation method for naphtha streams
A system and a method for determining the relative value of a naphtha stream is provided, by reforming the stream into fractions at a predetermined constant research octane number (RON), conducting PIONA analysis on the reformate, after which modules or steps are performed to calculate the feed quality, estimate the total liquid yields, estimate raw product yields, normalize raw product yields, determine the value of each fraction based on predetermined values, and calculate the total value of the naphtha stream. The method is repeated on samples from different crude oils in order to provide relative values for comparison purposes at the predetermined RON. |
| US08930148B2 |
Animal identification, measurement, monitoring and management system
A highly automated system and method for acquiring animal consumption and behavior data including stations where consumables are fed to animals. The stations being equipped with RFID equipment for reading RFID tags in close proximity to the station, and weighing devices for measuring the weight of the consumables. The RFID equipment and the weighing device are connected to a computer which calculates the weight of the trough at specific times by using weight data collected before and after the specified time to enhance the accuracy of the weight measurement. The computer uses a “mathematical weighted filter technique” to estimate the weight of the trough before and after a consumption event. The computer uses a method to divide the reduction/increase in weighed matter between the RFID tag last seen and the next RFID tag appearing, providing the reduction/increase in matter is less than a specified amount. |
| US08930147B2 |
Multi-sensor patch and system
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for remote sensing and/or monitoring utilizing a sensing device, such as may be implemented in a patch that can be placed on or affixed to a subject, where the sensing device includes multiple sensors. For example, one embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless human temperature skin patch providing accurate measurement of human temperature from a sensing device applied to the skin and even in the presence of differing ambient temperature. In such an embodiment, the patch can include, for example, a flexible, breathable bandage or adhesive strip or pad to affix the sensing device to a patient. The sensing device can include multiple sensors such as two or more temperature sensors that can be used to accurately determine the patient's core body temperature from the measured temperature at the skin. |
| US08930146B2 |
Apparatus state detector, method for detecting apparatus state, apparatus state detection server and apparatus state detection system; living persons' anomaly detector, living persons' anomaly detection system and method for detecting living persons' anomaly, and apparatus-state database maintenance server
An apparatus state detector and its associates are provided to save time and effort for learning combinations of operation states of all apparatuses at home and commit fewer estimation errors even when an unknown apparatus starts operating. The apparatus state detector includes measuring means that measures a physical quantity of an environment in which an apparatus is placed, feature-quantity calculation means that calculates a feature quantity of the measured value measured by the measuring means, storage means that stores in advance the feature quantity of each apparatus and an apparatus state associated with the feature quantity in a reference-apparatus entry dictionary, and apparatus-state detection means that searches the reference-apparatus entry dictionary for a feature quantity by using a feature quantity calculated by the feature-quantity calculation means as a search key and detects an apparatus state based on the apparatus state associated with the retrieved feature quantity. |
| US08930145B2 |
Light focusing continuous wave photoacoustic spectroscopy and its applications to patient monitoring
The present disclosure describes systems and methods that use spatial modulation to focus continuous wave light into a localized region of interest such as an individual blood vessel. In certain embodiments, intensity modulation techniques, such as linear frequency modulation, are used in conjunction with spatial modulation to achieve more precise measurements through otherwise scattering medium. The focused beam of continuous wave light is capable of penetrating several centimeters of tissue to deliver measurements and images associated with individual blood vessels and other discrete vascular components. |
| US08930142B2 |
Route selection system, method and program
A method for obtaining a many-to-many route searching process with a reasonable amount of computation. The method includes preparing a graph expressing road segments as edges and route intersections as nodes, the weight of each road segment being approximated by a monotonically increased piecewise linear function, searching the graph for the shortest routes, establishing the obtained routes as a set of routes to be processed, solving an objective function so as to minimize the maximum value obtained by dividing the required time from each departure point to each destination point by the shortest required time with respect to the set of a plurality of departure points and destination points, and removing those routes whose minimum cost is greater than or equal to that of the current best solution, and any unused routes added in the previous iteration, while repeating the solving of the objective function. |
| US08930139B2 |
Dynamically varied map labeling
Methods for dynamically varying label density and label placement on a map display used in mapping and/or navigation solutions. Label density and label placement on a map display are adjusted dynamically based on: a function class of a road being navigated, a function class of a road to be navigated following an upcoming maneuver, a distance to an upcoming maneuver, and/or a speed a device receiving mapping/navigation services is travelling. |
| US08930132B2 |
Geo-spatial recommendation and discovery system
A system, method, device, computer program, user interface, and apparatus for method of transmitting content to a user equipment. The method includes receiving an intent from a user of the user equipment; gathering a time window of validity for the intent; receiving location information from the user equipment; determining a mode of transportation based on the location information; and, for the duration of the time window, querying a location database of points of interest (POIs) to retrieve candidate POIs that match the user intent and are located within reach of the user equipment based on the time left of the time window and the mode of transportation; presenting the candidate POIs to the user equipment. |
| US08930131B2 |
Method and apparatus of physically moving a portable unit to view an image of a stationary map
A portable unit is moved along at least one of the orientations of a vector. As the user moves the unit, images of the background map appear on the screen of the portable device. The user scans the stationary map presented on the screen of the portable unit. This has several benefits since now relative distances and angular displacements between objects that are outside of the range of the screen of the handheld unit can be immediately be located and placed into view on the screen of a portable unit. The handheld unit is like a Sliding Window which provides a view of this image of a stationary map lying in the background of the portable unit. |
| US08930130B2 |
Method for constructing a trajectory of an aircraft by state vector
A method for constructing a flight trajectory of an aircraft, comprises a step of computing a sequence of state vectors (Ei) representing the trajectory of the aircraft; a state vector (Ei+1) being determined on the basis of the state vector (Ei) preceding it by means of: a step of computing the speed components (Vi+1), consisting in determining: a flight setpoint, by selecting an objective navigation point, a joining strategy adapted to the flight setpoint and to the flight domain (DV) by means of a predefined library (LSr) of joining strategies, a manoeuvre by means of the flight domain (DV), making it possible to follow the joining strategy towards the flight setpoint; a step of computing the other components of the state vector (Ei+1), on the basis of the components of the speed vector (Vi+1) and of the preceding state vector (Ei). |
| US08930129B2 |
Navigation system with multiple users and method of operation thereof
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: operating a communication unit for establishing a communication link between a first device and a second device; receiving a user defined destination; displaying a first location and a first route to the user defined destination on the first device and the second device, where the first location represents the location of the first device; and displaying a second location and a second route to the user defined destination on the first device and the second device, where the second location represents the location of the second device. |
| US08930124B1 |
Dynamic speed limit generation
A method and system for generating a dynamic speed limit is provided. The method includes dynamically receiving, from vehicles currently in motion on a roadway, a dynamically changing data stream comprising data comprising parameters associated with the vehicles. Speed limits, recommended lane assignments, and velocity ranges for the vehicles are dynamically defined. The speed limits, the recommended lane assignments, and the velocity ranges are transmitted to and presented by each associated vehicle. |
| US08930122B2 |
Methods and systems for associating vehicles en route to a common destination
Methods and systems are provided for associating vehicles en route to a common destination. A request is received from a first vehicle as to an identification of one or more additional vehicles en route to the common destination. The first vehicle is associated with the additional vehicles as part of a caravan. Information is provided as to each of the vehicles in the caravan. |
| US08930115B2 |
Efficiency-based speed control with traffic-compatible speed offsets
Vehicle apparatus includes a speed control for adjusting a vehicle powertrain of the vehicle in response to a speed setpoint. A grade estimator determines a road grade of a roadway where the vehicle is traveling. A traffic density estimator determines a density of traffic traveling on the roadway in the vicinity of the vehicle. An optimizer executes a selected control policy to periodically generate speed adjustments for applying to the speed setpoint to operate the vehicle powertrain at increased efficiency. The control policy is based on a value function providing an optimized solution for a cost model responsive to the determined road grade to generate an initial speed offset. The optimizer reduces the initial speed offset in proportion to the determined traffic density to generate the speed adjustments. The system minimizes negative impacts to overall traffic flow as well as any negative contribution to reduced fuel efficiency of surrounding traffic. |
| US08930113B1 |
Electronic traction control
In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for performing vehicle traction control. Time intervals between points of rotation of a rotating vehicle output shaft are measured. Indicators of shaft rotation rate are generated using, for each generated indicator, a set of one or more of the time intervals. The generated indicators of shaft rotation rate are used to determine a value indicative of a rate of change of shaft rotation rate. An indicator of a maximum allowable output shaft rotation rate is computed. A current indicator of output shaft rotation rate is determined to exceed the maximum allowable output shaft rotation rate. In response to determining that the current indicator exceeds the maximum allowable output shaft rotation rate, a signal to trigger application of a traction control mechanism is output. |
| US08930110B2 |
Automatic parking brake with optimized re-tensioning method
A method for re-tensioning an automatic parking brake by an electric motor includes carrying out a re-tensioning process after a predefined time period after the tensioning of the parking brake. The parking brake is driven in the tensioning direction by the electric motor to determine the travel carried out by the parking brake in the tensioning direction and the clamping force exerted by the parking brake during the re-tensioning. The method further includes carrying out a further re-tensioning process after a predefined time if the travel of the parking brake is less than a predefined threshold value and the clamping force in the parking brake is less than a second threshold value. If the travel of the parking brake is greater than a third threshold value or the clamping force exerted by the parking brake is greater than a fourth threshold value, a further re-tensioning process is not carried out. |
| US08930101B2 |
Hybrid vehicle differential element speed control
A control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle provided with an electrically operated continuously-variable transmitting portion and a step-variable transmitting portion, which control apparatus permits an adequate control of a shifting action of the step-variable transmitting portion, while reducing deterioration of fuel economy of the hybrid vehicle.The control apparatus is configured to implement concurrent controls of a movement of an operating point of an engine and a shifting action of the step-variable transmitting portion, such that ratios of change rates of rotating speeds of first, second and third rotary elements of a differential mechanism are respectively equal to ratios of differences between present actual values of the rotating speeds of the first, second and third rotary elements and target values of the rotating speeds of the first, second and third rotary elements to be established after the shifting action, so that a shifting shock of the step-variable transmitting portion can be reduced while controlling an electric power generation/consumption balance to a desired value. |
| US08930097B2 |
Device for evaluating the transverse acceleration of an automobile vehicle and corresponding method
A device for evaluating the transverse acceleration of a motor vehicle measures the rotational speeds of two wheels of the vehicle, estimates the transverse acceleration of the vehicle from these speeds, and calculates, as a function of vehicle operating parameters, particularly of the rotational speeds of the wheels and of the transmission ratio engaged, a Boolean slip variable which is negative if the transverse estimated acceleration is relevant for detecting a bend, and which is positive if the reverse is true. |
| US08930092B2 |
Integrated paving process control for a paving operation
Process control for a paving operation is facilitated by obtaining paving material conveyance information for a time period during which paving material is delivered to a screed of a paver by a material conveyance system and distributed over a surface to be paved. The paving material conveyance information includes data indicating incremental advance of the paving material to the screed of the paver during the period of time and data indicating incremental quantity of the paving material at one or more points of the material conveyance system, both of which are correlated to points in time during the time period at which the data is acquired. Incremental quantity of paving material delivered to the screed is determined to facilitate process control in the paving operation. |
| US08930084B2 |
Seat weight detecting subsystem
It is provided a subsystem for seat weight detection, the configuration of which enables improved assemblability and economization of space in layout. A seat weight detecting subsystem is provided for each seat 7 mounted inside a vehicle. Each seat weight detecting subsystem 4 includes weight detection sensors 8 which are installed in a seat 7, and a power supplying member 9 which is connected to the weight detecting sensors 8, a power supply 5, an ECU 3 and the like. The power supplying member 9 is provided with an FPC 10 and a seat side ECU functional portion 11 that is integratedly attached to the FPC 10. The seat-side ECU functional portion 11 includes sensor connecting sections 13, a signal receiving section 14, a data generating section 15, and a data outputting section 16. |
| US08930079B2 |
Systems and methods for driver intervention in an automatic steering system
A vehicle steering system includes an automatic steering control unit configured to control the vehicle steering system when in an automatic operational state and a driver intervention unit is configured to determine driver intervention during the automatic operational state. The driver intervention unit comprising a decision software module configured to determine driver intervention. |
| US08930073B1 |
Method, apparatus and computer-readable recording media for managing a plurality of applications by using head unit of vehicle
A method for managing a plurality of applications by using a head unit of a vehicle includes a step of recognizing the plurality of applications installed in at least one of mobile terminals, if being connected with the head unit of the vehicle. Additionally, the method includes the step of performing a process of classifying the recognized applications depending on categories or content types supported by the head unit of the vehicle and a process of authenticating whether the recognized applications are compatible with the head unit of the vehicle. The method also includes the step of maintaining states of the completely classified and authenticated applications being able to be controlled in the head unit of the vehicle by registering the completely classified and authenticated applications in the head unit. |
| US08930067B1 |
System and method for a subscription-based diagnostic software service
Systems and methods for a diagnostic software service that utilizes a subscription model to distribute diagnostic software to diagnostic tools. A diagnostic application is installed on a mobile device. The mobile device communicates with an adapter coupled to a vehicle. An application server provides software modules to which a technician subscribes and, once subscribed, are utilized via the diagnostic application. Subscription to software modules enable the technician to add and utilize specific diagnostic functionality in an a la carte manner. |
| US08930061B2 |
Method and apparatus for influencing the transverse dynamics of a vehicle
In a method and apparatus for influencing transverse dynamics of a vehicle, for a chassis intervention is carried out when an intervention condition is met. The intervention condition is met when the value of a determined transverse dynamics disturbance variable is higher than a disturbance variable threshold value, and when one or a group of the following criteria is met: the longitudinal speed of the vehicle is higher than a longitudinal speed threshold value of the vehicle; the sensorially detected actual yaw rate is lower than or equal to a calculated current yaw rate; a braking torque variable describing a braking torque and caused by braking by the driver is lower than or equal to a braking torque threshold value; a spring variable describing the current spring path of a chassis spring of a vehicle wheel is lower than or equal to a spring path threshold value; a differential spring variable describing the difference between the current spring paths of the two chassis springs of a vehicle axle is lower than or equal to a differential spring path threshold value; and a slip difference variable describing the slip difference between two vehicle wheels is lower than or equal to a slip differential threshold value. |
| US08930060B1 |
Post-impact path assist for vehicles
An environment monitor has a plurality of sensors for detecting predetermined safety risks associated with a plurality of potential destination regions around a vehicle as the vehicle moves over a roadway. The environment monitor selects one of the potential destination regions having a substantially lowest safety risk as a target area. A path determination unit assembles a plurality of plausible paths between the vehicle and the target area, monitors predetermined safety risks associated with the plurality of plausible paths, and selects one of the plausible paths having a substantially lowest safety risk as a target path. An impact detector detects an impact between the vehicle and another object. A stability control is configured to autonomously steer the vehicle onto the target path when the impact is detected. |
| US08930058B1 |
System and method for controlling a vehicle traveling along a path
The present invention provides an unmanned fully autonomous threat representative mobile land target for testing modern weapon systems and training personnel. The invention implements novel navigation and vehicle control algorithms which allow any predefined course to be represented spatially and temporally with continuously and smoothly varying curvatures having no discontinuities of curvature, direction, or acceleration that enable the target vehicle to traverse a predefined course with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and maneuverability without the need for communication with any remotely located station. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope of the claims. |
| US08930056B2 |
Control apparatus and control method of motive power apparatus for hybrid vehicle
In a control of a motive power apparatus for a hybrid vehicle, the coil temperatures of first and second rotary electric machines and an air pressure index value are acquired, and upper limit values of the outputs of the machines are determined on the basis of the values acquired. If the output of one of the machines is restricted by the determined upper limit value of the output, the output of the other is increased. Alternatively, the upper limit values of the outputs of rotary electric machines are determined by applying the acquired coil temperatures to a relation between the coil temperature and the upper limit value of the output which relation is set for each air pressure index value. If the output of one of the first and the second rotary electric machines is restrained by the determined upper limit values, the output of the other is increased. |
| US08930051B2 |
Control device
A control device that controls a drive device for a power transfer path, the control device configured with a loss torque estimation section that estimates the value of loss torque due to drag resistance of a first engagement device, with the first engagement device in a disengaged state. A specific-slip hydraulic pressure control section sets a hydraulic pressure to be supplied to a second engagement device such that a transfer torque capacity of the second engagement device becomes a capacity corresponding to estimated input torque, which is determined as a difference between output torque of the rotary electric machine and the estimated loss torque. This is performed in the event that specific slip control, in which the second engagement device is controlled to a slip state from a state with the first engagement device in the disengaged state and with the second engagement device in a completely engaged state, is executed. |
| US08930050B2 |
Method and system for increasing or decreasing engine throttle in a marine vessel
A method of adjusting engine throttle in an electronic shift and throttle system comprises determining a position of a control lever which allows an operator to manually control throttle functions. A throttle command is calculated based on the position of the control lever. The throttle command is adjusted in response to an input received from an input means. The position of the control lever remains constant as the throttle command is being adjusted. |
| US08930049B2 |
LDV for airdrops
A method of using a light detection system for increasing the accuracy of a precision airdrop is described. Radiation is transmitted to target areas between an airborne vehicle and a dropzone target. Scattered radiation is received from the target areas. Respective wind characteristics are determined from the scattered radiation and a wind velocity map is generated, based on the respective wind characteristics, between the airborne vehicle, and at least the dropzone target. An aerial release point for the precision airdrop is computed based on the generated wind velocity map and a location of the dropzone target. |
| US08930044B1 |
Multi-part navigation process by an unmanned aerial vehicle for navigating to a medical situatiion
Embodiments described herein may relate to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigating to a medical situation in order to provide medical support. An illustrative method involves a UAV (a) determining an approximate target location associated with a medical situation, (b) using a first navigation process to navigate the UAV to the approximate target location, where the first navigation process generates flight-control signals based on the approximate target location, (c) making a determination that the UAV is located at the approximate target location, and (d) in response to the determination that the UAV is located at the approximate target location, using a second navigation process to navigate the UAV to the medical situation, wherein the second navigation process generates flight-control signals based on real-time localization of the medical situation. |
| US08930041B1 |
Methods of operation for plug-in wireless safety device
An aftermarket plug-in safety device that allows a vehicle to communicate with other vehicles or infrastructures in a V2X communications system. The device includes a radio for transmitting and receiving signals and a GPS receiver for receiving GPS signals and providing vehicle position data. The device also includes a memory for storing digital security certificates and vehicle application data and a processor configured to be put in electrical communication with a vehicle CAN bus. The processor receives vehicle location signals from the GPS receiver, files from the memory and signals from the radio and providing signals for transmission to the radio. The processor identifies the vehicle that the plug-in device is coupled to and provides data on the CAN bus identifying the device. The processor also performs self-configuring operations based on type of vehicle, access to vehicle systems and location of the vehicle. |
| US08930039B2 |
Combine performance evaluation tool
An evaluation tool related to operation of a combine is provided to aid an operator of the combine. A processing device implements the evaluation tool by receiving an input related to an evaluation to be performed from the operator of the combine. The processing device initializes the evaluation to be performed. A plurality of sensors are operably connected to the processing device and collect data related to the operation of the combine during the evaluation. The processing device analyzes the collected data and presents the analyzed data to the operator of the combine. As such, the operator may review the analyzed data and make an informed choice in proceeding with the combine operation, such as changing settings or operating components to affect the combine performance. |
| US08930038B2 |
System, method, and apparatus for electric power grid and network management of grid elements
Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments for electric power grid and network registration and management of grid elements. Grid elements are transformed into grid elements following initial registration of each grid element with the system, preferably through network-based communication between the grid elements and a coordinator, either in coordination with or outside of an IP-based communications network router. A multiplicity of grid elements function in the grid for supply capacity, supply and/or load curtailment as supply or capacity. Also preferably, messaging is managed through a network by a Coordinator using IP messaging for communication with the grid elements, with the energy management system (EMS), and with the utilities, market participants, and/or grid operators. |
| US08930028B2 |
Handheld medical device functionality without battery
A processor module includes memory having instructions for executing functions of a handheld diabetes management device and a processor that selectively executes the instructions. Battery terminals electrically connect the processor module with a re-chargeable battery. A receptacle is configured in accordance with a universal serial bus (USB) standard. A component is included for communicating information from the handheld diabetes management device to a user or another device. A multiplexer module relays power from the receptacle to a bus voltage node. A first switching device is connected between the bus voltage node and a second voltage node. The component receives power from the second voltage node. A second switching device is connected between the bus voltage node and a third voltage node. The processor module is directly connected to the bus voltage node and to the third voltage node. |
| US08930019B2 |
Mobile human interface robot
A mobile human interface robot that includes a drive system, a controller in communication with the dive system, and an electronic display supported above the drive system and in communication with the controller. The controller includes a central processing unit, a general purpose graphics processing unit, and memory in electrical communication with the central processing unit and the general purpose graphics processing unit. Moreover, the controller has a display operating state and a driving operating state. The controller executes graphics computations on the general purpose graphics processing unit for displaying graphics on the electronic display during the display operating state; and the controller executes mobility computations on the general purpose graphics processing unit for issuing commands to the drive system during the driving operating state. |
| US08930016B2 |
Method and system for arranging rod-like elements
Method for arranging rod-like elements including cigarette parts such as filter and tobacco parts, in which elements are delivered to a conveyor having successive sectors which arrange the elements in separate rows along the conveyor. The type, number and location of element transported on the conveyor are determined by at least a single scanning of each successive element on the conveyor. The scanned results are transmitted to a control unit which assigns each sector of the conveyor information according to its contents. The elements are subsequently sorted based on the information received by the control unit according to the type and the number of parts each element is composed of, the orientation of these parts in relation to the direction of movement of the conveyor. Each of the successive elements is transferred to a predetermined receiving area based on the information received from the control unit. |
| US08930015B2 |
Sorting system for damaged product
A sorting system having a plurality of sorting assemblies where each sorting assembly has an image device that transmits an image of product to a controller that then actuates a robotic sorting device to remove damaged product through a suction tube based upon the transmitted image. |
| US08930012B2 |
Reconfigurable garment definition and production method
Computer-aided design and manufacture software and hardware automate garment and fashion definition and production. Configurable garment includes ornamental element, pattern display, and personal identifier and wireless sensor electronics. |
| US08930011B2 |
Method of measuring an overlay of an object
A method of measuring an overlay of an object is provided. In the method, first information of a first structure may be obtained. A preliminary structure may be formed on the first structure. Second information of the preliminary structure may be obtained. The first information and the second information may be processed to obtain virtual information of a second structure that would be formed on the first structure if a process is performed on the preliminary structure. A virtual overlay between the first structure and the second structure may be measured using the virtual information. |
| US08930008B2 |
Methodology for design of a manufacturing facility for fabrication of solid state hybrid thin film energy storage and conversion devices
A method and system for designing a manufacturing facility for solid state thin film battery devices. The method can include providing a plurality of processing tools for arrangement within a predetermined spatial region of one or more manufacturing facilities. A plurality of variables can be assigned for the plurality of processing tools. A target financial variable can be defined to evaluate different manufacturing processing tool configurations. The plurality of variables in the tensor relationship can be processed to reduce a magnitude of the target variable. An optimized set of the plurality of processing tools and respective configuration with the plurality of tools associated with the reduced magnitude of the target variable can be determined through processing. The optimized set of the plurality of processing tools in the respective configuration can be used in the one or more manufacturing facilities for the manufacture of a solid state thin film battery device. |
| US08930006B2 |
Data transfer method and system for loudspeakers in a digital sound reproduction system
The present publication describes a data transfer method and system in a digital sound reproduction system. The method comprises method steps for generating a digital audio stream for multiple channels in a host data source, e.g. a computer, the audio stream is formed by multiple consecutive samples, receiving the digital audio stream sent by the host data source through a digital data transmission network by several digital receivers each of which including a microcontroller with a clock, the receivers further including means for generating an audio signal. In accordance with the invention the host data source sends repeatedly a synchronization sample to at least one receiver, the receiver replies to the synchronization sample by a return sample, the host calculates a latency (T) for each receiver based on the sending time (Th1) of the synchronization sample and the reception time (Th2) of the return sample and the processing time (Tt1-Tt2) of the receiver, the host sends to the receiver information of the calculated latency (T) in combination with the time stamp the measurement time, based on this information the receiver adjusts the function of its clock, and the above synchronization steps are repeated continuously. |
| US08930004B2 |
Electronic device and fan control method
An electronic device including an audio module, a monitoring module and a fan is provided. The audio module generates an audio signal and an audio parameter according to audio data, and transmits the audio signal to a play device. Furthermore, the monitoring module determines a speed of fan rotation base on the type of the play device, the audio parameter and a sensed temperature. Then, a rotation speed of the fan is adjusted according to the determined speed of fan rotation. |
| US08930003B2 |
Data capture bridge
A method and apparatus are provided for gathering research data indicating exposure to audio content to a user of an audio source device and an audio receiver device. The audio source device wirelessly transmits an audio signal containing the audio content. The audio receiver device receives an audio signal containing the audio content. The audio receiver device includes a speaker to output the audio content to be heard by the user. The apparatus includes a bridge device for wirelessly bridging the audio signal from the audio source device to the audio receiver device. The bridge device includes a speaker for outputting the audio content from the audio signal. The apparatus also includes a monitoring device acoustically coupled to the bridge device for monitoring the audio content output by the speaker of the bridge device, and generating research data identifying the audio content. |
| US08930002B2 |
Mobile communication terminal and method therefor
A method for providing a user interface modified in accordance to audio data, a module including an audio feature extractor and a UI modifier, an apparatus and a computer readable medium. First, audio data is received. Thereafter, an audio feature is extracted from the received audio data. In accordance to the extracted audio feature, the appearance of one of a number of user interface components is modified, e.g. by superposing music visualization effects. |
| US08930000B2 |
Plant monitor and control device and a maintenance support method thereof
This invention includes a control device and a maintenance support device. The maintenance support device included in the plant monitor and control device selects temporary setting target logic element among logic elements contained in a control logic data, generates a temporary setting target logic element data, and generates a temporary setting logic element parameter data in accordance with a value of logic element parameter inputted by an operator. The control device memorizes the temporary setting target logic element data sent from the maintenance support device as the temporary setting target logic element data, and also the logic element parameter data before the temporary setting corresponding to the logic element designated by the temporary setting target logic element data among the logic element parameter data. Then, the control device renews the logic element parameter data located in the saving area with use of the temporary setting logic element parameter data sent from the maintenance support device. |
| US08929998B2 |
Percutaneous placement of electrodes
This document relates to methods and materials involved in delivering therapies to target tissue (e.g., a peripheral nerve). For example, methods and materials for placing and subsequently using leads to deliver electrical and/or drug therapies to target tissues (e.g., nerves and/or arteries) are provided. |
| US08929995B2 |
Implantable medical device telemetry in disruptive energy field
An implantable medical device may include a telemetry module, a sensing module, a therapy delivery module, and a processor. The processor may be configured to detect a patient event based on data generated by the sensing module, operate the IMD in a first mode in which the telemetry module is disabled and the therapy delivery module is at least partially disabled when the patient event is not detected, and operate the IMD in a second mode in which the telemetry module is enabled and the therapy delivery module is at least partially disabled when the patient event is detected. In some examples, the processor is configured to, in the second mode, generate a notification of the cardiac arrhythmia and transmit the notification to an external device via the telemetry module. The external device may reside inside an MRI room or outside the MRI room, and may communicate with other devices. |
| US08929994B2 |
Reduction of transient sounds in hearing implants
A method is described for generating electrode stimulation signals for electrode contacts in a cochlear implant electrode array. An input audio signal is processed to generate band pass channel signals that each represent an associated band of audio frequencies. A channel envelope is extracted from each channel signal. The input audio signal and the channel envelopes are processed to produce transient reduced envelopes based on: i. determining for each channel envelope a normalized channel-specific transient indicator characterizing transient noise present in the channel signal, ii. determining a combined transient indicator as a function of the channel-specific transient indicators, and iii. applying a channel-specific gain to the channel envelopes as a function of the combined transient indicator to produce the transient reduced envelopes. The transient reduced envelopes are then used to generate electrode stimulation signals to the electrode contacts. |
| US08929991B2 |
Methods for establishing parameters for neural stimulation, including via performance of working memory tasks, and associated kits
Methods for establishing parameters for neural stimulation, including via performance of working memory tasks, and associated kits, are disclosed. A method in accordance with one embodiment includes engaging a patient in a function controlled at least in part by a target neural population, and applying electromagnetic signals to the target neural population. A target parameter in accordance with which the electromagnetic signals are applied is adjusted, based at least in part on a characteristic of the patient's performance of the function. Electromagnetic signals are applied to the patient with the adjusted target parameter, and the patient's response to the electromagnetic signals, including the characteristic of the patient's performance, is evaluated. Based at least in part on the evaluation of the patient's response, an embodiment of the method includes determining whether to apply further electromagnetic signals to the patient, establishing a value of the target parameter for applying further electromagnetic signals to the patient, and/or adjusting another target parameter in accordance with which the electromagnetic signals are applied to the patient. |
| US08929985B2 |
System and method for connecting devices to a neurostimulator
A method for defining connections between a plurality of lead bodies and a plurality of output ports of a neurostimulator, and an external control device for performing the method are disclosed. The external control device includes a user interface and control circuitry. The method includes displaying the lead bodies and the output ports of the neurostimulator; selecting a first one of the lead bodies; dragging a connector from the first lead body to a first one of the output ports of the neurostimulator; and dropping the connector onto the first output port of the neurostimulator, thereby defining a connection between the first lead body and the first output port of the neurostimulator. In another embodiment, a method includes defining the connection between the first lead body and the first output port, and graphically displaying the connection between the first lead body and the first output port of the neurostimulator. |
| US08929984B2 |
Criteria for optimal electrical resynchronization during fusion pacing
Generally, the disclosure is directed one or more methods or systems of cardiac pacing employing a plurality of left ventricular electrodes. Pacing using a first one of the left ventricular electrodes and measuring activation times at other ones of the left and right ventricular electrodes. Pacing using a second one of the ventricular electrodes and measuring activation times at other ones of the left ventricular electrodes. Employing weighted sums of the measured activation times to measure a fusion index and select one of the left ventricular electrodes for delivery of subsequent pacing pulses based on comparing fusion indices during pacing from different LV electrodes. One or more embodiments use the same fusion index to select an optimal A-V delay by comparing fusion indices during pacing with different A-V delays at resting atrial rates as well as rates above the resting rate. |
| US08929983B2 |
Reverse hysteresis and mode switching for intermittent pacing therapy
Cardioprotective pre-excitation pacing may be applied to stress or de-stress a particular myocardial region delivering of pacing pulses in a manner that causes a dyssynchronous contraction. Such dyssynchronous contractions are responsible for the desired cardioprotective effects of pre-excitation pacing. A method and device for applying reverse hysteresis and mode switching to the delivery of such cardioprotective pacing are described. |
| US08929977B2 |
Methods and devices for accurately classifying cardiac activity
Methods, systems, and devices for signal analysis in an implanted cardiac monitoring and treatment device such as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. In illustrative examples, captured data including detected events is analyzed to identify likely overdetection of cardiac events. In some illustrative examples, when overdetection is identified, data may be modified to correct for overdetection, to reduce the impact of overdetection, or to ignore overdetected data. New methods for organizing the use of morphology and rate analysis in an overall architecture for rhythm classification and cardiac signal analysis are also discussed. |
| US08929975B2 |
System for heart monitoring, characterization and abnormality detection
A system analyzes and characterizes cardiac electrophysiological signals by determining instantaneous signal entropy for identifying and characterizing cardiac disorders, differentiating cardiac arrhythmias, determining pathological severity and predicting life-threatening events. A system for heart monitoring, characterization and abnormality detection, includes an acquisition device for acquiring an electrophysiological signal representing a heart beat cycle of a patient heart. A signal processor derives an entropy representative value of the acquired electrophysiological signal within a time period comprising at least a portion of a heart beat cycle of the acquired electrophysiological signal and provides an entropy value as a function of the entropy representative value and the time period. A comparator generates data representing a message for communication to a destination device in response to the entropy value exceeding a predetermined threshold. |
| US08929970B2 |
Apparatus and method for magnetic resonance measurement and mapping of electrical impedance, complex permittivity and complex conductivity as applied to detection and evaluation of sample pathology
A method of measurement of or mapping the distribution of complex permittivity, complex conductivity, complex impedance, or electric loss angle during magnetic resonance imaging or analysis. The method includes applying a time-varying electric field of a Faraday shield to a sample and cross-correlating the line spectrum signal so produced with the voltage applied to the Faraday shield in a detection circuit. The method permits non-contrast magnetic resonance screening for breast cancer in vivo and/or continuous measurement of electrical characteristics of materials at variable frequencies in vitro. A system of detecting and evaluating sample pathology includes a Faraday shield device that includes parallel electrodes oriented orthogonal to the static magnetic field of a MRI device to produce a time varying electric field. A detector is coupled to the MRI device to detect at least one of a complex permittivity, a complex conductivity, and an electrical impedance of the sample. |
| US08929964B2 |
Multiple wavelength sensor drivers
A physiological sensor has light sources arranged in one or more rows and one or more columns. Each light source is activated by addressing at least one row and at least one column. The light sources are capable of transmitting light of multiple wavelengths and a detector is responsive to the transmitted light after attenuation by body tissue. |
| US08929961B2 |
Protective case for adding wireless functionality to a handheld electronic device
A protective case for an electronic device may comprise a wireless adaptor for adding wireless capabilities, including support of additional wireless communication protocols, to the electronic device. The system may enable, for example, location based services functions, social networking functions, and messaging functions. |
| US08929960B2 |
Voice call processing method and apparatus for mobile terminal
A voice call processing method and apparatus for a mobile terminal are provided for improving voice communication quality by switching between matching circuits that are optimized for respective audio output modes of the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal includes at least two matching circuits designated for individual audio output modes, a mode tracking unit for detecting a change from a first audio output mode to a second audio output mode, a control unit for identifying the second audio output mode and the matching circuit designated for the second audio output mode and for outputting a control signal for switching to the matching circuit designated for the second audio output mode, and a switch for switching the signal path between the at least two matching circuits based on the control signal output by the control unit. |
| US08929957B2 |
Reduced jamming between receivers and wireless power transmitters
Exemplary embodiments are directed to reducing jamming caused by radiated fields generated by wireless power transmitters. Exemplary embodiments include detecting a jamming condition of a wireless power receiving device resulting from a radiated field from a wireless power transmitter of a charging device. Such embodiments include synchronizing the wireless power coupling with communication of the wireless power receiving device. Synchronizing wireless power coupling may include wireless power coupling at a first level when the wireless power receiving device is expected to receive a signal on a communication channel. Synchronizing wireless power coupling may further include coupling at a higher rate when the wireless power receiving device is not expected to receive a signal on the communication channel. |
| US08929950B2 |
Wireless communication system, remote access device, and base station device
A wireless communication system includes a base station including a determining section that determines control information indicating signal processing for each of wireless resources used for wireless communication with terminal equipment units, and remote access sections each including a first signal processing section that performs first signal processing on a first downlink signal received from the base station so as to generate a second downlink signal to be transmitted to the units via the wireless communication, and a second signal processing section that performs second signal processing on a second uplink signal received from the units via the wireless communication so as to generate a first uplink signal to be transmitted to the base station, and at least one of the first signal processing and the second signal processing being performed for each of the wireless resources based on the control information. |
| US08929948B2 |
Wireless communication adapter for field devices
A wireless process communication adapter is provided. The adapter includes a housing having a plurality of openings. An end cap is coupled to a first opening of the plurality of openings. A field device coupling is disposed at the second of the plurality of openings. The housing, end cap and field device coupling define a chamber therein. At least one circuit board is disposed within the chamber, the circuit board has wireless communication circuitry disposed thereon and is coupleable to a field device through the field device coupling. In one aspect, substantially all remaining volume in the chamber is filled with a solid material. In another aspect, an explosion-proof barrier is provided in the field device coupling. Combinations of the aspects are also provided. |
| US08929947B2 |
Local exchange implementation method for local call
The present invention discloses a method for implementing local exchange for a local call, including: a calling side mobile switch center (MSC) receiving a call setup request from a calling user, and the calling side MSC transferring a local reference to a calling side base station system (BSS) and a called side MSC, and transferring a calling access location information to the called side MSC; the called side MSC receiving the local reference and transferring the local reference to a called side BSS; and the called side MSC determining that a call is a local call according to the calling access information, and notifying the called side BSS to execute the local exchange. The present invention solves the problem that the local exchange is unsuccessful caused by one BBS connecting a plurality of MSCs. |
| US08929944B2 |
Wireless intelligent switch engine
A wireless intelligent switch engine (WISE) is described. The wireless intelligent switch engine provides for automatic switching between different physical wireless interfaces in mobile devices while roaming to maintain a wireless network connection. WISE functions as a bridge between a mobile device and multiple wireless network interfaces to provide automatic and seamless switching among networks while roaming. The mobile device sees WISE as a LAN interface and communicates with WISE using the TCP/IP protocol stack, thus providing a PPP-less configuration that uses the TCP/IP protocol stack regardless of the wireless interface. |
| US08929939B2 |
Session-triggered pushing of group communication data
Exemplary techniques for sending data packages, such as media objects, during group communication sessions between wireless telecommunication devices, such as push-to-talk communication sessions, are disclosed. In one embodiment, the data packages, such as discrete data packages, are queued at the transmitting wireless communication device and then sent to other group members upon establishment of channels for group communications to the group members. The data packages can also be queued at the group communication server prior to being sent to a target device. |
| US08929934B2 |
Communication devices and methods for operating a communication device
A communication device is described comprising a receiver configured to receive a radio signal from another communication device via a communication channel; a detector configured to detect the presence of an impairment of the communication channel; a determiner configured to determine a type of the impairment of the communication channel; and a transmitter configured to transmit an indication of the type of the impairment of the communication channel to the other communication device. |
| US08929931B1 |
Resource installation management in a wireless network
A graphical user interface displays a proposed site plan of one or more new base stations with respect to existing network infrastructure in a geographical region. While in the field, an installation specialist can perform an in-person survey of the geographical region to determine whether a proposed location is suitable for installation of a wireless base station. The installation specialist may identify an obstacle that would inhibit a newly proposed wireless base station from providing desired coverage if installed at the proposed location. Via input to the graphical user interface, the installation specialist proposes an alternative location in which to install the new base station. A processor performs a validity check and provides feedback indicating whether installation of the new base station at the alternative location is acceptable. The graphical user interface also can support collection of site survey data to monitor progress of the installation. |
| US08929920B2 |
Peer device supported location-based service provider check-in
Methods, apparatuses and articles of manufacture are provided for use in checking-in a mobile device with a location based service provider at a venue location. A candidate device check-in profile for a candidate device and one or more check-in validation schemes may, for example, be provided, directly or indirectly, to a computing device via the candidate device and/or one or more peer devices. The candidate device may, for example, be checked-in with the location based service provider in response to a determination that the candidate device check-in profile is valid. |
| US08929907B1 |
Method and system for management of neighbor scanning
Disclosed herein is a method and corresponding system for management of neighbor scanning in a cellular wireless communication system. A radio access network (RAN) sends, and a mobile station receives, a neighbor list update message (NLUM) containing a plurality of different neighbor lists. The mobile station then selects one of the neighbor lists based on a determined first rank-ordering of its active set members. Once the mobile station selects one of the neighbor lists, the mobile station scans the neighbors listed in the selected neighbor list in accordance with the selected neighbor list. If the mobile station detects a change in rank-ordering from the determined first rank-ordering to another rank-ordering, the mobile station may select and transition to another one of the neighbor lists and may begin to scan the neighbors listed in the selected other neighbor list in accordance with the selected other neighbor list. |
| US08929906B2 |
Communication system for supporting carrier aggregation and method and apparatus for updating system information thereof
A communication system for supporting carrier aggregation and a method and apparatus for updating system information thereof are disclosed. A method for providing system information in the communication system supporting carrier aggregation includes: when system information of said communication system changes, generating first information including information for indicating the change of system information; determining a first cell of a terminal related to the change of system information, wherein said first cell is one of cells to which said terminal connects, and corresponds to a carrier unit currently used by said terminal for keeping connection with a base station of said communication system; and transmitting said first information to said terminal through said first cell. |
| US08929900B2 |
Method, base station and mobile station for TDD operation in a communication system
A method, NodeB and User Equipment for TDD operation in a communication system operating in TDD mode in a frequency band allocated for FDD operation. Preferably, operation is in TDD uplink and downlink mode in a first frequency band designated or normally used for FDD uplink communication, and in TDD downlink-only mode in a second frequency band designated or normally used for FDD downlink communication. The invention provides the following advantages: Provides a flexible method to deploy a time division duplex architecture in frequency division duplex spectrum. Allows flexible use of system capacity by adjusting the uplink and downlink capacity split. Removes previous FDD duplex restrictions. |
| US08929899B2 |
Long term evolution mobility network timer and retry management
Management of a network may be accomplished by adjusting timer settings and/or retry criteria. For example, communications and management from an end-to-end perspective of entities in a network may be conducted; timers and/or retry criteria may be adjusted dynamically based on network traffic load; timers and/or retry criteria may be adjusted dynamically based on overload conditions; feedback mechanisms may be implemented to allow downstream network elements to inform upstream network elements about the health status and/or load condition of the network; and/or differentiated timer and retry criteria/mechanisms may be implemented. |
| US08929897B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing improved mobility procedure
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided in order to provide measurement reports on a more timely basis. Additionally, the method, apparatus and computer program product may provide measurement reports without first having initiated a cell reselection process. As such, the network entity, such as a radio network controller (RNC), may provide increased control in regards to the mobility procedure, such as cell redirection or handover, based at least in part upon the measurement result. From the perspective of a mobile terminal, one method includes receiving instructions to perform a cell update procedure based upon a new measurement. In response to obtaining the new measurement, the method also includes causing the cell update procedure to be triggered. In this regard, the cell update procedure includes provision of a cell update message that includes measurement results. |
| US08929896B2 |
Geolocation-based load balancing
Technologies are generally described for geolocation-based load balancing in a cloud computing environment hosting a mobile service. In some examples, a method may include calculating a probability of movement of a user device from a first cell to a second cell, and calculating an amount of cached data to copy from a second cache server corresponding to the second cell to a first cache server corresponding to the first cell based at least in part on the calculated probability. |
| US08929891B2 |
Measurement control for handover from one radio access technology to another
A method is provided for measuring at least one radio condition of each of a plurality of radio access technologies (RATs). The method includes specifying a sequence of the RATs, and measuring at least one radio condition of a first RAT in the sequence before measuring at least one radio condition of a second RAT in the sequence. |
| US08929884B2 |
Communication network control system, radio communication apparatus, and communication network control method
The present invention can provide a radio communication apparatus comprising an antenna which receives a restriction signal from a radio base station, a reception circuit which decodes the restriction signal received by said antenna, and a control circuit which controls the radio communication apparatus, in which the control circuit can be adapted to select appropriately a speech outgoing/incoming scheme for performing communication with the radio base station on the basis of the restriction signal from the radio base station. As the speech outgoing/incoming scheme, a domain scheme or a speech communication scheme is used. In addition, the present invention further provides a communication network control system using the radio communication apparatus, and a communication network control method. |
| US08929876B2 |
Mobile to hardware device linking
Allowing a user of a mobile computing device to link the mobile computing device and its associated network or system to a subject piece of hardware operating via a second network or system is provided. After the mobile computing device is linked to a given hardware device, functional operation of the hardware device and access to accounts associated with the hardware device may be provided to the linked mobile computing device. |
| US08929873B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for initiating multi-mode system selection at user equipment power up
The present disclosure presents methods and apparatuses for managing Multimode System Selection in one or more user equipment in a wireless system. According to some aspects of the present disclosure, such a method may include discovering whether a user equipment (UE) contains at least one 3GPP network subscription and at least one 3GPP2 network subscription, determining whether 3GPP2 network subscription information is stored on a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) or a nonvolatile memory (NV) associated with the UE where the UE contains at least one 3GPP network subscription and at least one 3GPP2 network subscription, and performing a read operation on one or both of the UICC and NV to obtain one or more Multimode System Selection (MMSS) base files based on the determining. |
| US08929869B2 |
Communications system providing mobile device notification based upon personal interest information and calendar events
A communications system may include at least one mobile wireless communications device for storing personal interest information for respective contacts and for storing calendar event data. The system may further include a notification server communicating with the at least one mobile wireless communications device via a wireless communications network and configured to access the personal interest information and calendar event data from the at least one mobile wireless communications device, and send notifications to the at least one mobile wireless communications device based upon the personal interest information and the calendar event data. |
| US08929868B2 |
System and method to identify and transfer to a wireless device actionable items based on user selected content
A system, method, device and interface for selecting data for a wireless device. The system, method, device and interface provide for categorizing selected data based on two or more categories, determining an action based on the categorization, and transferring the selected data and the determined action to the wireless device. In one embodiment, the categorization of the selected data may also be transferred to the wireless device. The categorizing of the selected data may include receiving input related to the categorizing, and altering a categorizing algorithm utilized in performing the categorization in response to the received input. The input may include a new category and/or a change in an existing category. |
| US08929864B2 |
Secure remote control of notification operations of communication devices
A network service provider computer remotely overrides and controls user notification settings of a mobile communications device by establishing one or more authentication keys by a server computer for a specific mobile communication device; transmitting the one or more authentication keys to the specific mobile communication device to establish a trusted relationship; responsive to an event or signal requiring overriding of user notification settings, preparing a notification control message including at least one notification control parameter; and transmitting to the specific mobile communications device the notification control message to cause it to implement and override one or more user notification settings according to the at least one notification control parameter. |
| US08929863B2 |
Methods and systems for temporarily permitting a wireless device to access a wireless network
Various arrangements for temporarily enabling the wireless device for use on a wireless network are presented. A computer system may store a plurality of international mobile subscriber identities (IMSIs) and, associated with each IMSI of the plurality of IMSIs, an indication of a period of time of a predefined length. An authentication request indicating an IMSI of the plurality of IMSIs may be received from a wireless device, wherein the wireless device has not previously been authenticated in association with the IMSI. The IMSI may be authenticated for use on the wireless network. After authorizing the IMSI for use on the wireless network device, the period of time of the predefined length associated with the IMSI may be determined to have expired. In response to determining the period of time of the predefined length associated with the IMSI has expired, the IMSI may be deauthorized for use on the wireless network. |
| US08929860B2 |
Mobile communication terminal and incoming call management method
The invention discloses a mobile communication terminal and an incoming call management method. The mobile communication terminal comprises a master SIM card and an auxiliary SIM card. The method comprises the following steps: when receiving an incoming call to the auxiliary SIM card, determining whether the auxiliary SIM card is locked; if the auxiliary SIM card is locked, stopping responding to the incoming call, and waiting for receiving from a user an instruction of whether to send a prompt message to inform a caller for the incoming call; and when receiving from the user an instruction of sending a prompt message to inform the caller for the incoming call, transmitting a prompt message that is automatically generated by the system or manually edited by the user to the caller with the master SIM card. |
| US08929858B1 |
Banded billing system for telecommunication service
A banded billing system for telecommunication service is disclosed. A carrier's billing system maintains in data storage a banded-pricing schedule that divides a continuum of minutes of use into a series of contiguous, mutually-exclusive minute-ranges and that specifies for each minutes-range a respective cost. At the end of a billing period, the billing system determines a number of minutes of telecommunication service used by a given subscriber during the billing period. The billing system then queries the banded-pricing schedule to determine which minute-range the number of minutes falls into, and to determine the cost specified by the banded-pricing schedule for that minute-range. The billing system then bills the determined cost to the subscriber, for use of the telecommunication service in the billing period. |
| US08929854B2 |
Emergency text messaging
A location privacy configuration module enables location determination to emergency services only relating to an emergency text message or emergency text message session. An emergency text message transmitted to an emergency number is routed to an emergency text message server, which initiates an emergency text indicator for each emergency text message, and requests location information for the emergency texting device by transmitting the emergency text indicator and a location request to a location determination server. Location of the emergency texting device may be obtained without acquiring customer authorization for location determination. The originating text messaging device acknowledges receipt of the emergency text indicator/location request combination and checks the location privacy setting configured thereon. Location determination is permitted if configured to permit location determination if emergency text messaging. |
| US08929853B2 |
Mobile emergency attack and failsafe detection
A mobile communication device can be placed into an “attack detection mode.” While the device is in attack detection mode, certain events can cause the device to summon assistance automatically. For example, while the device is in attack detection mode, if the device's user ceases to interact with the device, then the device can automatically place a telephone call to emergency services (e.g., by calling 911). For another example, while the device is in attack detection mode, if an accelerometer contained within the device detects a sudden shock, then the device similarly can automatically place a telephone call to emergency services. After detecting a probable emergency situation, the mobile device can responsively and continuously emit a loud audible alarm through the device's speakers at maximum volume regardless of the device's current silence or volume settings, in an effort to attract help from other people who may be nearby. |
| US08929851B2 |
System and method for establishing an incident communications network
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for establishing incident communications networks. In an embodiment, the system includes an incident controller, a communications resource database that stores communications resources information and a marshalling rules module that stores a set of marshalling rules. A marshalling rule identifies how to select the communications resources to be marshaled into the incident communications network based on an incident trigger. Upon receipt of an incident trigger, the incident controller is configured to establish the incident communications network by obtaining a marshalling rule based on the incident trigger. The incident controller marshals communications resources based on the marshalling rule and the communications resources determined to be available. Information sources can either provide an incident trigger (e.g., a hurricane warning) or provide data to be analyzed to determine an incident trigger. In an embodiment, an incident communications network includes one or more mobile interoperability workstation. |
| US08929847B2 |
Signal processing circuit with circuit induced noise cancellation
A signal processing circuit with noise cancellation includes an impedance matching unit and a transconductance stage. The impedance matching unit is disposed at a first path, and arranged to provide input impedance matching, wherein the impedance matching unit is a passive element, and the first path is coupled between a signal input port and a signal output port. The transconductance stage is disposed at a second path, and arranged to guide circuit introduced noise to the signal output port for noise cancellation at the signal output port, wherein the second path is coupled between the signal input port and the signal output port. |
| US08929838B2 |
System and methods for adaptive antenna optimization
A method (600) and devices for enhancing the performance of one or more antennas (440) is provided. A control circuit (104) assesses performance of an antenna (101) in a plurality of bands, such as a receive band and a transmit band. The control circuit (104) then selects one of the bands, e.g., a lesser performing band, as a “selected band” for which the antenna (101) will be optimized. The control circuit (104) can then adjust an adjustable impedance matching circuit (103) coupled to the antenna (101) to improve the efficiency of the antenna (101) in the selected band and can adjust a resonance of the antenna (101) to further improve an efficiency of the antenna (101) in the selected band. |
| US08929836B2 |
Zigbee device and method for management of zigbee device
The present invention is related to a Zigbee device and a method for management of a Zigbee device. The Zigbee device is capable of improving data processing efficiency as well as improving resource utilization by estimating a future available buffer amount of a buffer unit and controlling a variable buffer amount in such a way that the available buffer amount of the buffer unit is matched to the future available buffer amount. |
| US08929834B2 |
System for constraining an operating parameter of an EHF communication chip
An EHF communication system including an EHF communication chip. The EHF communication chip may include an EHF communication circuit having at least one controllable parameter-based module having a testable and controllable operating parameter The EHF communication chip may further include a test and trim circuit coupled to the EHF communication circuit, where the test and trim circuit includes a logic circuit having one or more memory elements, where the logic circuit is coupled to the controllable parameter-based module. |
| US08929830B2 |
Systems and methods for detecting a loss of communication using statistical analysis
Systems and methods for detecting a loss of communications between an aircraft and a ground station are provided. In one embodiment, a system for detecting a loss of communication for an aircraft comprises: a communication detection software module resident as an application on an aircraft communication management unit (CMU); a CMU message router in communication with the communication detection software module; at least one radio coupled to the communication management unit; a statistical model of communications traffic density for an RF zone associated with a ground station; wherein the communication detection software module performs a statistical analysis of a current communications traffic density of radio communications observed by the at least one radio to determine when the aircraft has a lost a communications link with the ground station. |
| US08929823B2 |
Handheld diabetes manager with automated disconnect feature
A computer-implemented method is provided for a handheld diabetes-management device to establish a data connection with a Continua manager. The method includes: receiving a request to establish a new data connection with a computing device, where the computing device is physically separated from the diabetes-management device and operates as a manager in accordance with IEEE standard 11073; determining whether the diabetes-management device has an existing data connection with a medical device that is physically separated from the diabetes-management device; terminating the existing data connection with the medical device in response to the determination that the diabetes-management device has an existing connection with the medical device; and establishing a new data connection with the computing device in accordance with IEEE standard 11073. |
| US08929822B2 |
Method for using legacy Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi P2P simultaneously
A method for using legacy Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) simultaneously is provided. The method includes entering a device discovery process of Wi-Fi P2P, if use of a Wi-Fi P2P function is requested while using a legacy Wi-Fi function, acquiring a Group Owner (GO) right of Wi-Fi P2P in the device discovery process, performing a listen state over the same channel as a channel where the legacy Wi-Fi function is in use, through the acquisition of the GO right, and performing a search state over a social channel of Wi-Fi P2P, and repeating the listen state and the search state until the device discovery process is ended. |
| US08929821B2 |
Short range RF monitoring system
A wireless short range radio-frequency master device adapted to create and maintain a portable private network of wireless short range radio-frequency slave devices wherein the master device is configured to detect and register suitable slave devices for a network, and is capable of determining the proximity of any registered slave device with respect to the master device in use, the master device further being adapted to enable a user to define two or more groups of registered slave devices selected from the total number of registered slave devices and to enable a user to select a defined group of such registered slave devices as an active group, thereby forming an active portable private network of wireless short range radio frequency devices comprising the master device and selected registered slave devices within the selected group. |
| US08929818B2 |
User-controlled method and system for modifying the radiation of a wireless device in one or more user-selected volumes
A user-controlled method for modifying the radiation of a wireless device (1) in one or more volumes used for in-house communications, comprising user-selecting this one or more volumes (10, 10′, 10″, 10′″, 10IV) while holding the orientation of this wireless device (1) modifying the intensity of this radiation in one or more directions so as to control the radiation in this user-selected one or more volumes (10, 10′, 10″, 10′″, 10IV). The invention allows the user to define volumes or regions where radiation should be modified, e.g. reduced, and one or more temporal intervals in which this radiation should be reduced. |
| US08929817B2 |
Sensor-based touch inquiry control
A system for selectively expediting connection establishment between apparatuses. In accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus may sense a first change in the disposition of the apparatus, and may initiate device discovery based on the first sensed change. A determination may then be made in the apparatus as to whether another apparatus encountered by the apparatus during device discovery satisfies a predetermined response criteria. The apparatus may then select the other apparatus if it is determined that the other apparatus satisfies the predetermined response criteria. |
| US08929813B2 |
Monitoring device and method for wireless power transmission in a monitoring device
In a monitoring device consisting of a reader and a data carrier, the reader (100) comprises a control unit (101), a memory (102), a digital signal generator (103), an output driver (104), resonance capacitors (105, 107) and a transmitter coil (106). The digital signal generator (103) is adapted for supplying a digital bit sequence selected among, at least two, bit sequences stored in the memory (102) whereby the strength of the magnetic field generated by the transmitter coil (106) can be varied dependent on the bit sequence selected by the control unit (101). The invention further provides a method of controlling the strength of a magnetic field generated by the reader of the monitoring device. |
| US08929811B2 |
Terminal, system, and method for retrieving an application using NFC header information
A terminal includes: a near field communication (NFC) reading unit to acquire tag information via NFC; an NFC tag information processor to extract NFC header information from the tag information; and a memory to store the NFC header information. The NFC tag information processor analyzes the NFC header information, and installs and executes an application based on the NFC header information. A method for retrieving an application, includes: acquiring tag information; extracting near field communication (NFC) header information from the tag information; retrieving the application based on the tag information; and installing and executing the application. |
| US08929809B2 |
Techniques for wireless communication of proximity based content
A system and method for close proximity communication is disclosed. The method comprises detecting a signal transmitted by a close proximity communication (CPC) device at a distance of one of greater than and less than a CPC detection perimeter with a multi-mode magnetic induction communication (MMMIC) device having at least one antenna. The type of device transmitting the detected signal is identified. The MMMIC device is enabled to communicate with the close proximity communication device at one of the distance of greater than the CPC detection perimeter and less than the CPC detection perimeter based on the type of device that is identified. |
| US08929807B2 |
Transmission of broadcasts based on recipient location
Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for transmitting/broadcasting messages/content (e.g., audio) by routing such messages to an intended audience/recipient(s), and optionally applying audio preferences to broadcast characteristics. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention may receive a message/broadcast in a queue, and identify a set of intended recipients of the broadcast (e.g., based on the content therein). Once the intended recipients have been identified, a set of locations of the intended recipients may be determined. Based on the locations, at least one output device is selected (e.g., based on proximity of the output device(s) to the intended recipients). Thereafter, the broadcast may be transmitted to the intended recipients via the selected output device(s), while any associated audio preferences are applied. In one embodiment, if an intended recipient is listening to other content, such content may be muted and/or paused so that the transmitted broadcast may be heard. |
| US08929805B2 |
System, method, and device for radio frequency communication
A radio frequency communication system, method, and device operate in the VHF, UHF, or SHF range, where a controller controls the radio-frequency communication range provided by the VHF, UHF, or SHF radiation. |
| US08929804B2 |
Node in a wireless communication network arranged to communicate with at least one serving node
The present invention relates to a first node in a wireless communication network. The first node is arranged to communicate with at least one serving node and comprises a served antenna arrangement that is adapted to communicate with said serving node by means of at least one electrically adjustable antenna radiation lobe. The first node is arranged to evaluate communication properties for said serving node Furthermore, the first node is arranged to include antenna gain of the served antenna arrangement when performing said evaluation. |
| US08929802B2 |
Discharge device and image-forming apparatus
A discharge device includes a transport unit that transports a medium in the form of a sheet having a first surface and a second surface on the opposite side of the first surface; a contact member that comes into contact with the second surface of the medium transported by the transport unit, and that moves in a first direction in which the contact member presses the medium to a side of the first surface, and in a second direction opposite to the first direction within a predetermined range; a guide member provided so that the guide member does not come into contact with the contact member, that guides the medium transported by the transport unit while contacting the first surface of the medium, after the contact member comes into contact with the medium; and a discharge unit that discharges the medium guided by the guide member. |
| US08929798B2 |
Print media tray
A printer including a printer housing further including a cavity and a print media tray arranged to fit within the cavity. The print media tray further comprises a plurality of walls at least partially defining a receptacle a first roller support member disposed on one of the walls, outside of the receptacle; and a first roller disposed on the first roller support member |
| US08929795B2 |
Cleaning device, process cartridge and image forming apparatus
A cleaning device for use with an image forming apparatus, includes: a frame including a fixing portion; a cleaning member, fixed at the fixing portion, for removing developer from an image bearing member (drum). The cleaning member includes: a blade portion contacted to the drum; and a flexible supporting member for supporting the blade portion, the supporting member including one end portion where the blade portion is provided, another end portion including a portion-to-be-fixed at the fixing portion, and a bent portion between the end portions; and an engaging portion provided on the frame. The engaging portion is engaged, such that the blade portion is not contacted to the drum, with a portion-to-be-engaged provided at the supporting member to position the cleaning member. The engaging portion is spaced from the portion-to-be-engaged in a state in which the blade portion is contacted to the drum. |
| US08929794B2 |
Sheet cooling apparatus, sheet conveying apparatus and sheet moisturizing apparatus
A sheet cooling device includes a fixing device for heat fixing an unfixed image formed on a sheet; and a cooling device for cooling the sheet heated by the fixing device, the cooling device including, a rotatable endless belt contactable with the sheet heated by the fixing device and traveling above the fixing device; and a cooling member for cooling the endless belt to condense water vapor produced by a fixing operation. |
| US08929791B2 |
Fixing device and endless belt assembly
A fixing device includes an endless flexible belt, an elongated stationary pad, a rotary pressure member, a low-friction sheet of lubricant-impregnated material, a first adhesive layer, and a second adhesive layer. The endless flexible belt is looped into a generally cylindrical configuration extending in an axial direction thereof for rotation in a rotational, circumferential direction thereof. The elongated stationary pad is stationarily disposed inside the loop of the belt. The rotary pressure member is disposed parallel to the belt. The rotary pressure member presses against the stationary pad via the belt to form a nip therebetween. The low-friction sheet of lubricant-impregnated material covers the stationary pad to supply lubricant between the stationary pad and the belt across the nip. The first adhesive layer is disposed between the low-friction sheet and the stationary pad. The second adhesive layer is disposed between the low-friction sheet and the stationary pad. |
| US08929787B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus
A fixing device includes a heating member, a pressure member forming a nip portion with the heating member; and a separation member disposed on a downstream side of the nip portion in a medium conveyance direction, wherein the separation member includes a guide portion having a guide surface for guiding the recording medium to be conveyed, and a condensation portion formed at a position remote from the guide surface, to promote generation of water droplets due to condensation at the condensation portion and to prevent recording failures from occurring due to condensation by evaporating the generated water droplets at the condensation portion. |
| US08929783B2 |
Image forming apparatus, method for performing image correction using the same and computer readable storage medium
An image forming apparatus comprising: at least one first image carrier; an image writing unit configured to write the electrostatic latent image including a test pattern; a second image carrier configured to move along a transfer position facing to the at least one first image carrier; an image forming unit configured to transfer the subject image transferred on the second image carrier to a transfer material; a detector configured to detect the test pattern image; and a controller configured to correct an image forming condition of the subject image, wherein during a period from the detection of the test pattern to the writing a subsequent subject image, the controller calculates a correction amount of a correction matter, and reflects the calculated amount in the image forming condition of the subject image. |
| US08929781B2 |
Developing device and image forming apparatus
A developing device includes a first developer carrier that carries developer on a peripheral surface thereof; a second developer carrier that carries the developer on a peripheral surface thereof; a supplying section that supplies the developer to the peripheral surface of the first developer carrier; a layer thickness regulating member that regulates a layer thickness of the developer supplied to the peripheral surface of the first developer carrier by the supplying section; a first transfer magnetic pole disposed in an interior of the first developer carrier; a second transfer magnetic pole disposed in an interior of the second developer carrier; a first downstream magnetic pole disposed in the interior of the first developer carrier; and a second downstream magnetic pole disposed in the interior of the second developer carrier. |
| US08929777B2 |
Sieve device, supply unit, developing unit, image forming apparatus, and method of supplying toner particles
A sieve device is provided. The sieve device includes a sieve body and an introduction unit. The sieve body includes a cylinder, a filter, and a blade. The cylinder is adapted to be supplied with toner particles. The filter is disposed at a bottom of the cylinder. The blade is adapted to agitate the toner particles within the cylinder to allow the toner particles to pass through the filter. The blade is rotatable about a rotation axis that intersects with the filter in proximity to the filter. The introduction unit is adapted to introduce the toner particles passed through the filter outside the sieve body. |
| US08929775B2 |
Belt drive device and image forming apparatus
A belt drive device for an image forming apparatus includes a belt, a roller, a roller drive member, a state detector and a controller. The roller drive member drives the roller that entrains the belt. The state detector detects a state of the belt. The controller identifies a specific portion of the belt based on the state detected by the state detector, and controls the roller drive member to stop the belt so that the specific portion lies at a predetermined position. |
| US08929774B2 |
Belt unit and image forming apparatus employing same
A belt unit is detachably attached to a housing. A holder changes a state of an endless belt by moving a transfer roller between a first state as an endless belt movement state and a second state as a detachment state. The first state allows the endless belt to circulate for image formation, and the second state allows the belt unit to be detached from the housing. The holder moves the transfer roller adjacent supporter independently of the transfer roller and lifts the opening in the endless belt to a prescribed position to expose it to the front side plate. |
| US08929772B2 |
Electrophotographic image forming apparatus
A developing cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive member, and a developing roller for contacting the electrophotographic photosensitive member to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive member. The developing cartridge also includes a force receiving portion, projected in an axial direction of the developing roller, for receiving a force for spacing the developing roller and the electrophotographic photosensitive member. |
| US08929771B2 |
Image forming device
An image forming device includes a motor capable of positive rotation and reverse rotation, a photoconductor drum, a developing roller, a contact/separation cam and a switching cam. The contact/separation cam is configured to move the developing roller. The switching cam is configured to switch a position of a transmission member. An electromagnetic clutch is disposed between one of the contact/separation cam and the switching cam and the motor. The other cam is connected to the motor without the electromagnetic clutch. The contact/separation cam and the switching cam are driven by using the positive rotation and the reverse rotation of the motor and the electromagnetic clutch. |
| US08929768B2 |
Method of remanufacturing a toner cartridge and remanufactured toner cartridge
Provided herein is a method of remanufacturing a toner cartridge for use in a xerographic process, as well as a toner cartridge remanufactured by the disclosed method. According to one exemplary embodiment, the remanufacturing method includes electrically connecting a resistor of a predetermined resistance between a toner supply roll contact and a development roll contact, the resistor modifying the electric field between the toner supply roll and development roll, where the remanufactured toner cartridge includes toner of triboelectric charge properties different from the original toner. |
| US08929767B2 |
Dual roll system integrating a delivery roll and a cleaning roll to extend the lifetime of the BCR system
An image forming apparatus including an electrophotographic photoconductive member, a charging unit, a delivery unit and a cleaning unit. The charging unit is disposed in contact with the surface of the photoconductive member and the delivery unit disposed in contact with the surface of the charging unit. The delivery unit applies a layer of functional material to a surface of the charging unit and the charging unit in turn applies a layer of the functional material onto the surface of the photoconductive member. The cleaning unit is disposed in contact with a surface of the charging unit to clean the charging unit and reduce contamination of a surface of the delivery unit. The cleaning unit is disposed in an upstream direction of the delivery roller relative to a rotation direction of the charging unit. |
| US08929764B2 |
Printing apparatus and control method thereof
A printing apparatus prints on a printing medium based on print data from at least one host apparatus; stores print information associated with a printing operation except for print data in a first storage unit; performs, by a power supply unit, first control to supply power to the first storage unit and second control to stop power supply to the first storage unit; stores, in a second storage unit which receives power supply from the power supply unit regardless of the first control or the second control, the print information stored in the first storage unit when the printing apparatus changes from the first control to the second control; and when the printing apparatus receives a request from the host apparatus to obtain the print information after changing to the second control, transmits the print information stored in the second storage unit to the host apparatus. |
| US08929762B2 |
Image heating apparatus with an air feeding device configured to feed air to a belt cooperating with a heating rotatable member to form a nip for heating an image on recording material
An image heating apparatus includes a heating roller; a belt forming a heating nip; a heating device for heating the heating roller; a controller for controlling a temperature of the heating roller at temperature depending on thickness of sheet; an air feeding device for feeding air to the belt; an executing portion capable of executing an operation in a mode in which the air feeding device feeds the air into between the belt and the heating roller while the belt is spaced from the heating roller with the belt and the heating member being rotating. When a thin sheet is fed following a thick sheet, the executing portion executes the operation in the mode after the thick sheet passes through the nip and before the thin sheet is fed into the nip. |
| US08929761B2 |
Image forming method and apparatus having induction heat fixing device with temperature sensing of switching element
An image forming apparatus uses a switching element to switch current flowing to an excitation coil, so that a heating layer in a fixing member produces heat that fixes an image to a transported sheet. Based on a change in temperature of the switching element over time, a prediction unit determines, at a predetermined first time point, a predicted temperature of the switching element at a second time point at which a tip of the sheet is scheduled to arrive at the fixing member. When the predicted temperature is at least a predetermined value, a control unit controls power supplied to the excitation coil by restricting switching of the switching element and lifting the restriction, so that by the second time point the detected temperature of the fixing member reaches a temperature necessary for fixing. |
| US08929759B2 |
Image forming apparatus and density change suppressing method
An image forming apparatus includes: a density detection unit that detects densities of an image developed by a developing unit at a plurality of positions in a main-scanning direction; a processing unit that obtains at least one of an amplitude and a phase of a first periodical density change of the image, of which cycle is a rotation cycle of a photosensitive drum, at the plurality of positions in the main-scanning direction on the basis of an output signal of the density detection unit, and corrects a drive signal for the light source so as to suppress the first periodical density change of the image at each position in the main-scanning direction on the basis of the rotation cycle of the photosensitive drum and at least one of the amplitude and the phase. |
| US08929758B2 |
Method and apparatus for compensation of banding from multiple sources in marking platform
A method for compensation of banding in a marking platform includes: initiating a calibration stage; marking a test pattern over multiple intervals of a lowest fundamental frequency among marking modules; obtaining image data for the test pattern from a sensor; obtaining 1× signals from sensors associated with the marking modules; and processing the image data in relation to the 1× signals to form banding profiles for multiple marking modules. Alternatively, the method may include: processing image data in relation to 1× signals to form banding profiles for multiple marking modules; determining amplitudes in multiple banding profiles exceeds a threshold to identify dominant banding profiles; and processing dominant banding profiles to form dominant banding signatures. Alternatively, the method may include: initiating a correction stage; obtaining 1× signals from sensors associated with dominant marking modules; and periodically processing dominant banding signatures and 1× signals to determine a banding compensation value. |
| US08929754B2 |
Image forming apparatus provided with a waste toner full-capacity detection mechanism
An image forming apparatus includes a waste toner box, a base, a detection sensor, a counter and a controller. The waste toner box collects toner not transferred to a sheet but remaining on a surface of a photoreceptor. The base is for placing the waste toner box thereon, and a position of the base changes with a weight of the waste toner box placed thereon. The detection sensor detects the position of the base to detect an amount of toner in the waste toner box placed on the base. The counter counts the number of sheets with images formed thereon. The controller determines whether or not to continue image formation on a sheet on a basis of a signal from the detection sensor and the counter. |
| US08929752B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus using same
A fixing device for fixing an unfixed toner image on a recording medium includes a rotatable fixing member heated by a heater to contact the recording medium bearing the unfixed toner image while rotating, with the heater disposed inside a hollow of the fixing member and turned on and off intermittently at a start of a fixing process to heat the fixing member intermittently, a first pressing member disposed opposite the fixing member to press against and rotate the fixing member to define a fixing nip through which the recording medium passes to fix the unfixed toner image with heat and pressure, and a temperature detector to detect a change in the temperature of the fixing member when the heater turns on and off intermittently. When the temperature detector detects the change in the temperature of the fixing device, the heater is turned on continuously. |
| US08929744B2 |
40G/100G MSA-compliant optical transceivers with advanced functionality
Integrated performance monitoring (PM); optical layer operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P); alarming; amplification, and the like is described in optical transceivers, such as multi-source agreement (MSA)-defined modules. An optical transceiver defined by an MSA agreement can include advanced integrated functions for carrier-grade operation which preserves the existing MSA specifications allowing the optical transceiver to operate with any compliant MSA host device with advanced features and functionality. The optical transceiver can include CFP and variants thereof (e.g., CFP2, CDFP, CXP), OIF-MSA-100GLH-EM-01.0, CCRx (Compact Coherent Receiver), Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP) and variants thereof (e.g., QSFP+, QSFP2), 10×10 MSA, XFP, XPAK, XENPAK, X2, XFP-E, SFP, SFP+, 300-pin, and the like. |
| US08929742B2 |
Optical communication module, and optical communication system in which optical communication module is used
An optical communication module in which the pin arrangement can be applied flexibly. An optical communication module has an outer shape formed based on normal standards and which is able to communicate with a host-side circuit board, etc. to which it is fitted, via a predetermined communication interface; wherein the optical communication module exchanges input/output I/F information with the circuit board, etc., and the communication interface can be switched to another communication interface based on these input/output I/F information. |
| US08929736B2 |
Regenerators placement mechanism for wavelength switched optical networks
The method of placing regenerators along a trail connecting a source network node with a destination network node of an automatically switched optical network first identifies N tentative regeneration sites and n+1 optical paths along the trail. Wavelengths are assigned to each optical path, and the performance of the trail is assessed based on regenerator placement data and wavelength assignment data. |
| US08929734B2 |
Multiplexer/demultiplexer and multiplexing/demultiplexing method
In order to realize a multiplexer/demultiplexer in which utilization efficiency of a frequency is high, wavelength characteristics of a transmission band is flat, the cost is low, the size is small, and a wavelength and a band are variable, the multiplexer/demultiplexer includes: first light branching means for branching inputted light into plurality of pieces of light and outputting the branched pieces of light; a plurality of light wavelength separating means for separating and outputting light outputted from the first light branching means for each of predetermined frequency bands; and an optical coupling means for making outputs having frequency bands different from each other among outputs from the light wavelength separating means gather and be outputted. |
| US08929733B2 |
Open shortest path first extensions in support of wavelength switched optical networks
A network component comprising a generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) control plane controller configured to implement a method comprising transmitting a message to at least one adjacent control plane controller, wherein the message comprises a Type-Length-Value (TLV) indicating Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) information, wherein the TLV comprises a Node Attribute TLV, a Link Set TLV, or both, and wherein the TLV further comprises at least one sub-TLV indicating additional RWA information. A method comprising communicating an open shortest path first (OSPF) link state advertisement (LSA) message comprising a TLV with at least one sub-TLV to a GMPLS control plane controller, wherein the TLV comprises a Node Attribute TLV, a Link Set TLV, or both, and wherein the TLV further comprises at least one sub-TLV indicating RWA information. |
| US08929732B2 |
On-vehicle communication system, optical communication harness and optical distribution apparatus
Plural optical communication apparatuses are connected through communication lines with a star topology to an optical coupler that is arranged at the center of star topology and can distribute input light. Each optical communication apparatus makes an optically transmitting unit input an optical signal into an optically inputting unit of the optical coupler, and makes an optically receiving unit receive an optical signal output from an optically outputting unit of the optical coupler, for detecting a collision based on the reception signal. After transmitting an optical signal from the optically transmitting unit, each of optical communication apparatuses makes the optically receiving unit receive the optical signal, performs the collision detection based on the comparison between the transmission signal and the reception signal. When having detected the collision, each of optical communication apparatuses stops own processing for transmitting the optical signal and performs processing for receiving optical signals. |
| US08929730B2 |
Differential eye diagrams
Changes in a signal are detected. The signal is repeatedly sampled in a synchronous manner during a predetermined interval to generate a captured eye diagram. At least one of a positive differential eye diagram or a negative differential eye diagram is generated from the captured eye diagram and a baseline eye diagram. The at least one positive or negative differential eye diagram is analyzed to determine whether a change in signal conditions is present. |
| US08929724B1 |
High efficiency oven and method of use
A high efficiency oven is disclosed. An exemplary high efficiency oven includes two or more infrared heating elements selected to generate different wavelengths in an oven cavity, a temperature sensor, and a system controller. |
| US08929718B2 |
Systems and methods for providing online advertisements
A computer-implemented method for providing online advertising is provided. The method includes providing, by a video delivery module, online video content to a user and maintaining, by a tracking module, a content consumption counter tracking an amount of time the user has watched the video content. The method also includes preventing, by a blocking module, the user from controlling playback of the video content if the content consumption counter satisfies a time characteristic. The method further includes providing, by an advertisement delivery module, a portion of an advertisement section to the user during the preventing. The duration of the portion of the advertisement section is dependent on the time characteristic. |
| US08929717B1 |
Commercials on mobile devices
Among other things, videos and commercials are downloaded to a mobile device for storage on the mobile device and later playout on the mobile device. The downloading includes downloading of metadata associated with the commercials and based on which the mobile device can select commercials for insertion into videos being played back to the user of the mobile device. The commercials to be downloaded are selected based on one or a combination of any two or more of the location of the user, the type of mobile device, and personally-identifiable information about a user of the mobile device. |
| US08929712B2 |
Display for displaying progress
The invention relates to a display (30) for displaying the progress of a recording process, which shows video data of events that are recorded during the recording process in chronologically graduated resolution. |
| US08929710B2 |
System and method for time shifting at least a portion of a video program
A system and method is provided for time shifting a video program. In one embodiment, a receiver, which may be configured to function as both a receiver and a DVR, is configured to add auxiliary data to time-shifted data. The receiving device is configured to acquire auxiliary data at the time the time-shifted data is being played, and to add the auxiliary data to the time-shifted data so that both the time-shifted data and the auxiliary data are displayed to a user on a display. By acquiring data at (or around) the time the time-shifted data is being played, it is more likely that the auxiliary data has value to the user, thereby increasing the value of the time-shifted data to the content owner, the content provider and advertiser. In an alternate embodiment, the auxiliary data is removed only after its value has diminished. |
| US08929705B2 |
Apparatus for the collection and transmission of electromagnetic radiation
A collector for propagating incident radiation is disclosed. The collector may comprise a light directing component coupled to a buffer component, a first propagation component coupled to the buffer component and configured to transmit the incident radiation into a collector region through one of a plurality of windows, and an optical transport assembly coupled to an end of the collector region and having a second propagation component. Each light directing component may be configured to redirect the incident radiation from a first direction to a second direction, and the collector region may include a plurality of regions exhibiting a refractive index value that gradually transitions from about 1.5 to about 2.0. The second propagation component may be further configured to retain the incident radiation. |
| US08929704B1 |
Isotopically altered optical fiber
An optical waveguide having a cladding layer formed of high-purity glass, or a cladding layer formed of high-purity isotope-proportion modified glass, and with a core of high-purity isotope-proportion-modified glass with the index of refraction of the core glass greater than the index of refraction of the cladding glass, said high-purity isotope-proportion-modified core material having a Si-29-isotope proportion at most 4.447% Si-29 (atom/atom) of all silicon atoms in said core, or at least 4.90% of Si-29 (atom/atom) atoms in said core, or having a Ge-73 isotope proportion of at most 7.2% Ge-73 (atom/atom) of all germanium atoms in said core, or at least 8.18% of Ge-73 (atom/atom) of Germanium atoms in said core region. |
| US08929703B2 |
Uniform UV efficient light diffusing fiber
Light diffusing optical fibers for use in ultraviolet illumination applications and which have a uniform color gradient that is angularly independent are disclosed herein along with methods for making such fibers. The light diffusing fibers are composed of a silica-based glass core that is coated with a number of layers including a scattering layer. |
| US08929699B2 |
Symmetrical branching ortho mode transducer (OMT) with enhanced bandwidth
An Ortho Mode Transducer (OMT) comprising a main guide configured with a set of ports and at both ends for communicating a band of frequencies. The ports and are placed at a predetermined distance from each other to form a taper section. Branching waveguides are disposed around the main guide for extracting polarization signals from the main guide. Coupling apertures are disposed apart along the periphery of the main guide for coupling the branching waveguides to the main guide. The coupling apertures are aligned parallel to a longitudinal axis of the main guide and extended to the taper portion of the main guide, which enhances bandwidth performance without the need for additional extraneous impedance matching elements. |
| US08929698B2 |
Plasmonic transducer with reduced cross section at media-reading surface
A plasmonic transducer includes at least two metal elements with a gap therebetween. The metal elements are placed along a plasmon-enhanced, near-field radiation delivery axis. Cross sections of the metal elements in a plane normal to the delivery axis vary in shape along the delivery axis. The metal elements have a reduced cross section portion at a media-facing surface oriented normal to the delivery axis. A dielectric material surrounds the reduced cross section portion of the plasmonic transducer at the media-facing surface, and reduces deformation of the metal elements proximate the media-facing surface at elevated temperatures. |
| US08929692B2 |
Integrated optical device and manufacturing method of the same
Provided is an optical integrated device comprising a first waveguide that is formed on a substrate and includes a first optical path; an electrode formed on the first waveguide; a second waveguide that is formed on the substrate and includes a second optical path; and a transparent waveguide that is formed on the substrate between the first waveguide and the second waveguide, and includes a transparent core that serves as an optical path and is formed of a material having higher bandgap energy than the first optical path. The electrode is formed above the first waveguide and is not formed above the transparent waveguide, and elements including the first waveguide are optically active elements that operate according to current injected thereto. |
| US08929691B2 |
Optoelectronic chips including coupler region and methods of manufacturing the same
An optoelectronic chip including a coupler region, and a method of manufacturing the same, include a substrate; a coupler region formed of a material having a refractive index lower than the substrate and surrounded by the substrate. The coupler region includes a total reflection surface that totally reflects light incident through a surface of the substrate into the substrate or emits light guided in the substrate through the surface of the substrate. |
| US08929688B2 |
Remapping methods to reduce distortions in images
The present invention provides software, methods, and systems for characterizing an actual scan pattern of a scanning beam device. The characterization of the actual scan pattern may be used in an image remapping method and/or a drive signal remapping method to reduce distortions in an image. |
| US08929685B2 |
Device having image reconstructing function, method, and recording medium
A mask acquisition unit acquires a mask (region information) that matches photography setting information acquired by a photography setting acquisition unit, the mask defining a sub-image region of a light field image acquired by an LFI acquisition unit. A prototype definition unit disposes a prototype of a reconstructed image at a position of reconstruction setting in a reconstruction setting storage unit. A reconstructed pixel selecting unit selects a pixel of interest from pixels of a reconstructed image. A corresponding pixel extracting unit extracts, as a corresponding pixel, a pixel that corresponds to the pixel of interest and is included in a sub-image region of the acquired mask. A pixel value calculation unit calculates a pixel value of the pixel of interest from a pixel value of the corresponding pixel. An output unit decides pixel values of all reconstructed pixels as pixels of interest and generates and outputs a reconstructed image. |
| US08929684B2 |
Image display apparatus and control method thereof
When an area in a first image is specified, an amounts of characteristics of image data included in the area and a neighboring area are detected and it is determined based on the amount of the characteristics whether or not a notification display indicating that the area is likely not to be a target area needs to be presented. If it is determined that the notification display needs to be displayed, a notification image that enables the area to be identified is generated for the first image and is combined with a second image to generate a composite image and the composite image is displayed on a display unit. On the other hand, if it is determined that the specified area is likely to be a target area, the second image based on the image data included in the area is displayed over the full screen of the display unit. |
| US08929668B2 |
Foreground subject detection
Classifying pixels in a digital image includes receiving a primary image from a primary image sensor. The primary image includes a plurality of primary pixels. Depth information from a depth sensor is also received. The depth information and the primary image are cooperatively used to identify whether a primary pixel images a foreground subject or a background subject. |
| US08929664B2 |
Shape detection using chain code states
A method for identifying objects in a digital image includes tracing chain codes associated with the contour of the object; a series of states is maintained, and the next chain codes in the contour are accepted only if they comply with allowed chain codes for each state. Certain chain codes trigger a transition into a next state. If a disallowed chain code is encountered, the process halts. |
| US08929663B2 |
Image processing device identifying region in image as one of uniform region and nonuniform region
An image processing device includes a processor, and a memory storing computer-readable instructions therein. The computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, causes the image processing device to perform: generating edge image data by using the original image data; calculating characteristic values for a plurality of determination regions; and identifying a determination region as a nonuniform region when the characteristic value of the determination region satisfies a prescribed criterion, and the determination region as a uniform region when the characteristic value of the determination region does not satisfy the prescribed criterion. Each of the plurality of determination regions corresponds to one of the characteristic values, represents a part of the edge image, and includes a plurality of pixels, the plurality of determination regions being different from one another, each of the characteristic values characterizing the edge strength of the corresponding determination region. |
| US08929661B2 |
System and method for measuring camber on a surface
The disclosed embodiment relates to methods for measuring camber on a surface. The method preferably comprises receiving, by a computing device, a plurality of images of a surface, identifying, by a computing device, a key image of the surface from the plurality of images, extracting, by a computing device, a portion of the key image including the surface, and analyzing, by a computing device, the extracted portion of the key image to thereby determine the camber on the surface. The disclosed embodiment also relates to a system and computer-readable code that can be used to implement the exemplary methods. |
| US08929660B2 |
Apparatus and method for lane marking analysis
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of determining a location at which a lane divider marking changes type, comprising determining (350) a first type of lane divider (120) marking based upon a frequency spectrum determined by Fourier analysis of first image data (431) corresponding to a first area, determining (350) a second type of lane divider (130) marking based upon a frequency spectrum determined by Fourier analysis of second image data (432) corresponding to a second area, and determining (360) a geographic location at which the lane divider marking changes type according to a comparison of the first and second types (120, 130) of lane divider marking. |
| US08929659B2 |
Adaptively assessing object relevance based on dynamic user properties
Provided are techniques for assessing object relevance. One or more user usage patterns are retrieved. Object properties of one or more objects are retrieved. The one or more user usage patterns are compared against the object properties of the one or more objects to compute one or more interaction scores that represent a value of how an object interacts with a user based on a current context of the user. Object importance is assigned to each of the one or more objects based on the one or more interaction scores. |
| US08929654B2 |
Spectral image processing
A substantially rectangular spectral representation is synthesized, which is adapted to produce either (a) image capture device sensor outputs if applied to an image capture device or (b) color values if applied to corresponding analysis functions. Spectral expansion, which can be used in various image processing methods, is achieved with the synthesized spectral representation. |
| US08929652B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing image
A method and apparatus for processing an image that performs an online brightness change is disclosed, the method including dividing a luminance channel in a reference image and a target image based on a size of a chroma channel, enhancing an image quality of the target image in which the luminance channel is divided, using the reference image in which the luminance channel is divided, enhancing the image quality of an image of the luminance channel divided in the target image, using the enhanced target image of which, and combining the luminance channel of the enhanced target image and the luminance channel of which the image quality is enhanced. |
| US08929649B2 |
Image processing apparatus for converting image in characteristic region of original image into image of brushstroke patterns
The importance detection unit 52 detects importance of each pixel composing the original image thus acquired. In addition, the importance map generation unit 52 generates an importance map indicating distribution of the importance detected for each pixel. The characteristic region detection unit 61 detects a characteristic region of the original image, from the original image thus acquired. The determination unit 62 determines a brushstroke pattern that should be applied to the characteristic region thus detected, from at least two types of brushstroke patterns stored in a storage unit. The brushstroke pattern conversion unit 63 converts an image in the characteristic region into an image, to which the brushstroke pattern is applied, based on the brushstroke pattern thus determined. The adjustment unit 64 adjusts color of the image of the brushstroke pattern being the image in the characteristic region, based on the importance map thus generated. |
| US08929645B2 |
Method and system for fast dense stereoscopic ranging
A stochastic method and system for fast stereoscopic ranging includes selecting a pair of images for stereo processing, in which the pair of images are a frame pair and one of the image is a reference frame, seeding estimated values for a range metric at each pixel of the reference frame, initializing one or more search stage constraints, stochastically computing local influence for each valid pixel in the reference frame, aggregating local influences for each valid pixel in the reference frame, refining the estimated values for the range metric at each valid pixel in the reference frame based on the aggregated local influence, and post-processing range metric data. A valid pixel is a pixel in the reference frame that has a corresponding pixel in the other frame of the frame pair. The method repeats n iterations of the stochastically computing through the post-processing. |
| US08929644B2 |
3D shape measurement using dithering
A method for three-dimensional (3D) shape measurement includes generating fringe patterns using a dithering technique, projecting the fringe patterns onto an object using a projector, capturing the fringe patterns distorted by surface geometry of the object using an imaging device, and performing a fringe analysis to reconstruct a 3D shape of the object using the fringe patterns and the fringe patterns distorted by the surface geometry of the object. The step of generating the fringe patterns using the dithering technique may include binarizing sinuisoidal fringe patterns with the dithering technique. The step of generating the fringe patterns using the dithering technique may include applying an optimization algorithm. |
| US08929642B2 |
Three-dimensional scanner and robot system
A three-dimensional scanner according to one aspect of the embodiments includes an irradiation unit, an imaging unit, a position detecting unit, and a scanning-region determining unit. The irradiation unit emits a slit-shaped light beam while changing an irradiation position with respect to a measuring object. The imaging unit sequentially captures images of the measuring object irradiated with the light beam. The position detecting unit detects a position of the light beam in an image captured by the imaging unit by scanning the image. The scanning-region determining unit determines a scanning region in an image as a scanning target by the position detecting unit based on a position of the light beam in an image captured by the imaging unit before the image as a scanning target. |
| US08929640B1 |
Apparatus and system for imaging currency bills and financial documents and method for using the same
Currency bills are transported past an image scanner to one or more output receptacles. Each of the bills is imaged to produce image data from which a visually readable image of each bill can be reproduced. The serial number, denomination, and/or secondary identifiers of a bill is attempted to be extracted and/or determined from the image data associated with the bill. The serial number of the bill has an integer number, X, of characters. One or more of the X characters of the serial number of the currency bill is not extracted with a predetermined confidence. In response to failing to extract all of the X characters of the serial number of the bill with the predetermined confidence, a serial number field in an electronic record associated with the bill is populated with a serial number snippet image. The electronic record is stored in a non-transitory memory. |
| US08929639B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, image processing program, and virtual microscope system
Provided is an image processing apparatus capable of analyzing a target sample image with high accuracy in line with a phenomenon occurring in the target sample. The image processing device includes: a dye spectrum storage portion (233) for storing a dye spectrum of a dye used in staining the stained sample; and an arithmetic portion (250) including: a variation characteristic calculating portion (2501) for calculating, based on the stored dye spectrum, a variation characteristic representing either a sharp or gradual change of the dye spectrum in the wavelength direction; and a dye-amount/variation-amount estimating portion (2503) for estimating, based on the stored dye spectrum and the calculated variation characteristic, a variation amount from a pixel value of each pixel forming the stained sample image based on the dye-amount and the variation characteristic, the arithmetic portion analyzing the stained sample image at least based on the variation amount. |
| US08929634B2 |
Parametric images based on dynamic behavior over time
An embodiment for analyzing a body-part of a patient is proposed. A corresponding data-processing method includes the steps of providing a sequence of input images representing the body-part over an analysis period, each input image including a set of input values each one being indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding location of the body-part at a corresponding acquisition instant included in the analysis period, associating an analysis function of time with each one of a set of selected locations, the analysis function modeling a trend of the input values of the selected location in the sequence of input images, and providing a reference function of time for the analysis functions; in an embodiment, the data-processing method further includes comparing the analysis function of each selected location with the reference function to determine a polarity trend representing a trend over the analysis period of a polarity of a divergence between the analysis function of the selected location and the reference function, and creating a parametric image including a parametric value for each selected location, the parametric value being indicative of the polarity trend of the selected location. |
| US08929633B2 |
Diagnostic X-ray system and method
A diagnostic x-ray system includes a CT-image projection unit obtains a third perfusive-flow image by projecting a second perfusive-flow image obtained by computed tomography in the same direction as a projection direction in which an X-ray is projected toward a test subject to obtain a first perfusive-flow image. A positioning unit obtains positioning information by performing positioning of the first perfusive-flow image and the third perfusive-flow image. A perfusive-flow index calculation unit calculates a first perfusive-flow index from the first perfusive-flow image, and calculates a second perfusive-flow index from the third perfusive-flow image. A comparative-index calculation unit calculates a comparative index based on the first perfusive-flow index and the second perfusive-flow index, by comparing the first perfusive-flow index with the second perfusive-flow index, based on the positioning information obtained by the positioning unit. |
| US08929627B2 |
Examination information display device and method
An examination information display device of the present invention includes: a storage unit that stores examination information of an object; a display unit that has a display screen on which the examination information is displayed; an extraction unit that extracts candidate examination information, which is a candidate referred to or compared with a reference examination to be diagnosed, using supplementary information of the examination information of the object stored in the storage unit; and a display control unit that displays the candidate examination information in a predetermined display region of the display screen. |
| US08929621B2 |
Methods and systems for segmentation and surface matching
A contoured surface map of a lesion within a patient is obtained by shifting a reference surface to an estimated location in operational images. The process can be repeated to minimize errors, and the contoured surface map can then be segmented. |
| US08929617B2 |
Method for identifying an unknown fingerprint by generating a numeric representation through interleaving digits
A method for searching a database comprising data related to a plurality of fingerprints. In step 301, two or more feature points in an image of an unknown fingerprint are identified. A plurality of properties are generated in step 302. The plurality of properties are based on the two or more feature points. In step 303, a number comprising a plurality of digits, e.g. binary digits, is assigned to each of the plurality of properties. In a subsequent step, step 304, a numeric representation of said fingerprint is generated based on the assigned numbers. The numeric representation is generated by interleaving the plurality of digits, such that the digits of the numeric representation are arranged in an interleaved or intertwined manner within the numeric representation. In step 305, the numeric representation is used as a search argument when searching the database. The invention also relates to an apparatus and computer program product. |
| US08929613B2 |
Device and method for internally and externally assessing whitelists
A white list inside or outside determining apparatus includes: a first feature data extracting unit which extracts first feature data from an image by using a first transformation formula created based on preliminary learning images; a second feature data extracting unit which extracts second feature data from an image by using a second transformation formula created from the preliminary learning images and application learning images; a first matching unit which performs matching between a registration image and a collation image by using the first transformation formula; and a second matching unit which performs matching between a registration image and a collation image by using the second transformation formula. Weights of a matching result of the first matching unit and a matching result of the second matching unit are changed according to the number of preliminary learning images and the number of application learning images. |
| US08929607B2 |
System and method for performing depth estimation utilizing defocused pillbox images
A system and method for performing a depth estimation procedure utilizing defocused pillbox images includes a camera device with a sensor device for capturing pillbox blur images of a photographic target. The camera utilizes a depth estimator for performing a Gaussianization procedure that transforms the pillbox blur images into corresponding Gaussian blur images. The Gaussianization procedure is performed by convolving the pillbox blur images with a Gaussianization kernel to generate the corresponding Gaussian blur images. The depth estimator then utilizes the Gaussian blur images for effectively performing the depth estimation procedure. |
| US08929602B2 |
Component based correspondence matching for reconstructing cables
In a stereoscopic pair of images, global homography at the image level is applied to feature points extracted from connected components (CC) to identify corresponding CC's and feature points, and to discard any CC's that do not have a corresponding pair in the stereoscopic pair of images. Local homography at the CC level is then applied to individual footprint areas of the previously identified paired CC to further clean feature point correspondence. Any CC or feature point or pixel within a paired CC footprint not satisfying local homography constraint is discarded. A correspondence is also extrapolated between unknown pixels within a paired CC footprint using a weighing mechanism and the unknown pixel's surrounding pixels that do have a known correspondence. This provides a dense correspondence of pixels, or feature points, which is then used to create a dense 3D point cloud of identified objects within a 3D space. |
| US08929599B2 |
Articulation region display apparatus, articulation region detecting apparatus, articulation region belongingness calculating apparatus, articulated object region belongingness calculating apparatus, and articulation region display method
An articulation region display apparatus includes: an articulatedness calculating unit calculating an articulatedness, based on a temporal change in a point-to-point distance and a temporal change in a geodetic distance between given trajectories; an articulation detecting unit detecting, as an articulation region, a region corresponding to a first trajectory based on the articulatedness between the trajectories, the first trajectory being in a state where the regions corresponding to the first trajectory and a second trajectory are present on the same rigid body, the regions corresponding to the first trajectory and third trajectory are present on the same rigid body, and the region corresponding to the second trajectory is connected with the region corresponding to the third trajectory via the same joint; and a display control unit transforming the articulation region into a form visually recognized by a user, and output the transformed articulation region. |
| US08929593B2 |
Method and device for recognition of information applied on packages
Embodiments describe a system and method for reading the information on bundled packages wrapped in transparent film. The film can obscure information on the outside of the packages making the automated identification and tracking of the packages difficult. Embodiments described herein provide a system and method for capturing the unique information regardless of the obscuring effects of packaging films. A camera that is insensitive to UV light captures visible light emitted by labels after the labels are irradiated by UV light. The light emission induces greater contrast overcoming any distortion that might have occurred due to the transparent packaging film. |
| US08929590B2 |
Object tracking device capable of tracking object accurately, object tracking method, and storage medium
An object tracking device capable of accurately tracking an object as a tracking target. The device receives an image signal having a plurality of frame images and tracks a specific object in the image signal. The device sets a predetermined number of small areas in a reference area indicative of an area where an image of the object is formed in the preceding frame image. The object tracking device detects a motion vector of the object in each of the small areas, and determines a change of the object according to the motion vector to thereby obtain shape change information. The device corrects the location and size of the reference area according to the shape change information to thereby correct the reference area to a corrected reference area, and tracks the object using the corrected reference area. |
| US08929588B2 |
Object tracking
Methods, devices, and systems for object tracking are described herein. One or more method embodiments include receiving an initial set of track points associated with a trajectory of an object, compressing the initial set of track points into a plurality of track segments, each track segment having a start track point and an end track point, and storing the plurality of track segments to represent the trajectory of the object. |
| US08929587B2 |
Multi-tracking of video objects
An inventive method for video object tracking includes the steps of selecting an object; choosing an object type for the object, and enabling one of multiple object tracking processes responsive to the object type chosen. In a preferred embodiment selecting the object includes one of segmenting the object by using a region, selecting points on the boundary of an object, aggregating regions or combining a selected region and selected points on a boundary of an object. The object tracking processes can be expanded to include tracking processes adapted to newly created object types. |