| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09037376B2 |
Road-surface condition estimating device
A front-wheel speed is calculated as a wheel speed of driving wheels, a rear-wheel speed is calculated as a wheel speed of driven wheels, a rear-wheel acceleration is calculated as a wheel acceleration of the driven wheels, a front-wheel-speed difference value is calculated as a driving-wheel-speed difference value, a rear-wheel-speed difference value is calculated as a driven-wheel-speed difference value, a rear-wheel-acceleration difference value is calculated as a driven-wheel-acceleration difference value, and a front-wheel ground load is calculated as a ground load acting on the driving wheels. Based on these calculated values, a gradient of a tire-characteristic curve indicating an amount of change in road-surface friction coefficient with respect to an amount of change in slip rate is calculated, and the calculated gradient of the tire-characteristic curve is compared with preset threshold values, whereby a road-surface friction coefficient as a road-surface condition can be determined. |
| US09037375B2 |
Vehicle brake system
Provided is a vehicle brake system capable of reducing a sense of discomfort felt by a driver, even if a transmission is shifted when a braking force holding function for keeping a vehicle stationary is in operation. A vehicle brake system includes a control system capable of determining whether an automatic transmission is set in a driving mode or in a non-driving mode, and is capable of operating the braking force holding function for keeping the vehicle stationary by holding a braking force generated through a brake pedal operation. Further, the control system operates the braking force holding function when a vehicle speed becomes lower than a predetermined threshold value by the braking force generated through the brake pedal operation, and if the control system determines that the automatic transmission is set in a non-driving mode, the control unit increases the braking force and holds the braking force. |
| US09037374B2 |
Method for braking intention detection, device for braking intention detection for a braking system of a vehicle, and sensors for a braking system of a vehicle
A method for detecting a braking intention in a vehicle includes: establishing at least one setpoint braking power for the braking intention specified by a driver and/or an automatic vehicle control system; and taking at least one ascertained sensor variable into consideration. The sensor variable includes: a variable regarding a position and/or an adjustment travel of an output rod of the braking system, a position and/or an adjustment travel of a booster body of the braking system, a position and/or an adjustment travel of a timing case of the braking system, a position, an adjustment travel and/or a rotation angle of a component of a motor of an electromechanical brake booster, a position, an adjustment travel and/or a rotation angle of a component of a thread of the brake booster, and/or a shape and/or a deformation of a reaction disk of the braking system. |
| US09037373B2 |
Lateral control apparatus of vehicle and control method of the same
The present invention provides a lateral control apparatus including: an offset measuring unit that measures current lateral offsets of at least two other vehicles at a current time based on a center of a driving lane; a preview offset calculating unit that predicts a lateral offset of the other vehicle based on the center of the driving lane based on a location and a speed of the other vehicle at a time when a predetermined time has elapsed to calculate a preview offset; a priority determining unit that determines a priority of the other vehicles based on a difference between the lateral offset and the preview offset; and a controller that generates a route for lane keeping control of own vehicle based on the lateral offset of the other vehicle to which a top priority is assigned by the priority determining unit. |
| US09037369B2 |
Method of controlling clutch transfer torque in hybrid vehicle
A method of controlling clutch transfer torque in a hybrid vehicle comprises estimating clutch characteristics from a relation between a control current for a clutch hydraulic valve and a clutch transfer torque corresponding to the control current for the clutch hydraulic valve. With the method, a clutch friction coefficient can be precisely estimated, thereby reducing/eliminating a shock that can occur in the event of the clutch going on or off. |
| US09037365B2 |
Method for control of a gearbox
A method for control of a gearbox installed in a motor vehicle (1), which method effects a downshift of the gearbox (20) from a first gear (G1), for which the acceleration a of the vehicle (1) is negative, to a second gear (G2), for which the acceleration a is positive or substantially equal to nil. The downshift involves at least one intermediate gear step between the first gear (G1) and second gear (G2), with a maximum engine speed at each intermediate gear step which is as high as, or higher than, a highest engine speed at a preceding intermediate gear step. Also, a system, a motor vehicle, a computer program and a computer program product for performing the method are disclosed. |
| US09037355B2 |
Control assembly for auxiliary hydraulics
A ground engaging vehicle including a tool having a moving member and a control system controlling a speed of the moving member. The control system includes an adjustable proportional control and a triggering control. The adjustable proportional control creates a signal to thereby select a direction and a speed of the moving member. The triggering control setting the direction and/or the speed dependent upon the signal resulting in a set direction and a set speed, the triggering control subsequently setting the speed to zero. |
| US09037354B2 |
Controlling vehicle entertainment systems responsive to sensed passenger gestures
A vehicle entertainment system is controlled responsive to gestures that are formed by a passenger of the vehicle. The vehicle entertainment system includes a display device, at least one gesture control camera, and a processor. The gesture control camera generates a camera signal responsive to light reflected from at least one object within a field of view of the at least one gesture control camera. The processor analyzes the camera signal to identify a gesture made by a passenger moving the at least one object, and controls at least one operation of the vehicle entertainment system responsive to the identified gesture. |
| US09037353B2 |
System and method for controlling electric power steering system
A method controls a torque of an electric power steering (EPS) system of a vehicle. The method determines, based on a state of a movement of the vehicle, a range of values of the torque of the EPS system satisfying constraints. The constraints include at least one constraint on an effect of the torque of the EPS system on the steering wheel. The method selects a value of the torque within the range of values based on an objective of the movement of the vehicle and commands the EPS system to generate the torque according to the value of the torque. |
| US09037349B2 |
Trailer identification system for trailer backup assist
A system and method for configuring a trailer backup assist system. The system and method communicates predetermined trailer parameters, which are embedded on a tag attached to the trailer, to a controller in the trailer backup assist system. A trailer backup assist system is configured using the predetermined trailer parameters and the configured trailer backup assist system is activated to operate using the trailer parameters. |
| US09037346B2 |
Steering control for vehicle trains
A steering control system is disclosed for a vehicle train with a tow vehicle, a first towed vehicle with at least one ground-engaging member, and a second towed vehicle. A steering assembly may be configured to control steering of the at least one ground-engaging member. One or more sensing devices may be configured to determine orientation information for one or more of the tow vehicle, the first towed vehicle, and the second towed vehicle, during operation of the vehicle train. A steering correction may be determined for the second towed vehicle based upon the determined orientation information. The steering correction may be applied for the second towed vehicle by controlling the steering assembly to steer the first towed vehicle. |
| US09037341B2 |
Traction control enable/disable feature
A method and system for displaying a traction control ON/OFF menu at a display module in a vehicle upon detection of vehicle characteristics and conditions that may warrant a driver's desire to manually disable the traction control feature. The method and system verify traction control is enabled on the vehicle, verify the traction control ON/OFF menu is not already being displayed at a display module, a controller receives at least one signal indicating an occasion that may warrant manual deactivation of traction control and the controller initiates displaying the traction control ON/OFF menu for the convenience of the driver. |
| US09037335B2 |
Method for operating an automated guided, mobile assembly and/or material transport unit and automated guided, mobile assembly and/or material transport unit therefor
A method for operating a driverless, mobile assembly and/or material transport unit as a driverless transport system (DTS) with fixed assembly and/or warehousing stations. In this method, a system control device is used for the entire assembly process. The driverless, mobile assembly and/or material transport units comprises a travel device for the traveling movement of the unit, a drive device for the travel device, an energy storage device for providing the energy for the drive device and a control device for controlling the traveling movement in coordination with the system control device. |
| US09037330B2 |
Method and system for operating a hybrid vehicle
A method for operating a hybrid vehicle comprises conducting unfire operation in an internal-combustion engine in a fuel cut-off mode during a hybrid-mode ride in deceleration of the internal-combustion engine, disconnecting the internal-combustion engine from an output while maintaining the fuel cut-off mode, and reducing a transmission capacity of a clutch configured to couple the internal-combustion engine and an electric motor. During a hybrid-mode ride in deceleration of the internal-combustion engine for transition to the purely electric drive, the internal-combustion engine may be disconnected from the output and shut down. When the internal-combustion engine is operated unfired in a fuel cut-off mode, the internal-combustion engine may be disconnected from the output and shut down by reducing the transmission capacity of the clutch that is connected between the internal-combustion engine and the electric motor. |
| US09037328B2 |
Vibration reduction method for an automatic transmission of a hybrid vehicle and system for executing vibration reduction algorithm
A vibration reduction algorithm for a vehicle having no torque converter includes: optimized feedforward logic in which a request torque is divided into two or more different types of torques depending on a driving state of the vehicle. One of the two torques is provided two times with a time difference therebetween to reduce vibration of a driving system of the vehicle, and is identified as the request torque. Then the identified request torque is outputted as a motor command torque of the driving system. Furthermore, heuristic logic in which feedback information from the driving system is processed through heuristic calibration, added to the motor command torque of the optimized feedforward logic, and then provided as a motor command torque of the driving system. |
| US09037321B2 |
Airborne advisory for inadvertent approach to taxiway
A taxiway approach advisory system. The system may include a computer-readable memory containing runway information and a processor in data communication with the memory. The processor may include a component for ascertaining the altitude of an aircraft, a component for ascertaining the location of the aircraft, a component for accessing runway information from the memory and determining if the aircraft is within a pre-determined runway envelope based on the altitude and location, and a component for issuing an indication if the aircraft is not within the pre-determined runway envelope. |
| US09037319B2 |
System and method for processing and displaying wake turbulence
A system and method to display, when within an envelope of an ownship's flight path, a symbol representing wake turbulence from another aircraft based on aircraft type and flight parameters received from the other aircraft, the symbol being formatted to indicate the severity of portions of the wake turbulence. The format is modified periodically in accordance with the aircraft's flight path and a decay rate of the wake turbulence. |
| US09037317B2 |
System and method for automatic dependent surveillance collection and analysis
A system and method for collecting and analyzing data generated by at least one mobile platform (such as a train, ship, aircraft or automobile). The system includes a source of at least one user input, and a data interface control module that collects at least one type of data from the mobile platform, based on the user input, with the data related to the operation of the mobile platform. The system also comprises an analysis control module that analyzes the data collected by the data interface control module and generates analysis data based on the user input. |
| US09037316B2 |
Early identification of a vortex ring phase
A method for early detection of the vortex ring state in a helicopter includes steps of establishing flight control signals for flight control with regard to the vertical movement axis of the helicopter, detecting resultant movements in the vertical movement axis of the helicopter, and detecting an impending vortex ring state of the helicopter in accordance with a correlation between the flight control signals and the vertical movements in the vertical movement axis. |
| US09037315B2 |
Air vehicle control system and method
A control actuation system (CAS) for positioning control effectors of an air vehicle, for steering the air vehicle, includes application of a control allocation matrix to measured positions of the control effectors or their actuators, as part of a feedback mechanism. The output from the control allocation matrix is used as an input for one or more controllers, the output of which is passed through an inverse control allocation matrix, to produce signals that are sent to control actuators to position the control effectors. The controller may use different gains for different of its inputs, for example applying a lower gain for a brake signal than for one or more of a pitch signal, a roll signal, and a yaw signal. The control actuation may make for a control system that is able to better withstand impaired performance or non-performance of some the control effectors. |
| US09037312B2 |
Trailer heading angle using vehicle wheel speed sensors
A system and method of calculating a heading angle for a trailer that is being backed by a vehicle. A trailer backup assist control module, in communication with a hitch angle detecting apparatus, receives a hitch angle and determines displacement of left and right vehicle wheels using information supplied by vehicle wheel speed sensors while the vehicle is backing the trailer. A vehicle heading angle is determined using left and right wheel displacement information and a known vehicle track width. A trailer heading angle is then calculated using the vehicle heading angle and the hitch angle. |
| US09037309B2 |
Rack server system and operating method thereof
A rack server system and an operating method thereof are disclosed herein. The rack server system includes a rack, a rack management controller, a plurality of servers, a plurality of fan modules, and a plurality of fan controllers. The rack management controller includes a plurality of different first bus ports, and the fan controllers are connected to the first bus ports separately. Each of the fan controllers includes a plurality of different second bus ports, and the servers are connected to the second bus ports separately. The rack management controller identifies the fan controllers through the first bus port, and acquires server general positions of the servers inside the rack through the difference between the first bus ports and the difference between the second bus ports. |
| US09037308B2 |
Electrical appliance energy consumption control
A power control system that includes a plurality of electrical appliances and a controller. Each of the electrical appliances includes an energy storage device comprising a heat storage medium, a heater, and a temperature sensor. The heater is configured to heat the storage medium at a heating rate. The temperature sensor produces a temperature signal that is indicative of a temperature of the heat storage medium. The controller adjusts the heating rate of each energy storage device from a first heating rate to a second heating rate based on the temperatures of the heat storage mediums of the other energy storage devices. |
| US09037298B2 |
Cook flash temperature optimization
The present invention provides novel techniques for controlling the output of a distillation sub-process by controlling, using model predictive control, the temperature of steam used in the distillation sub-process, wherein the steam is generated in a milling and cooking sub-process. In particular, the present techniques are presented in the context of biofuel production, wherein the temperature of a cook tube generated in a milling and cooking sub-process may be controlled to optimize the energy utilization in the ethanol/water separation of a side stripper column, which uses the cook flash steam as an energy source. However, the present techniques may also be applied to other suitable applications, such as liquor processing, where steam generated in a different process may be used in a distillation process to help separate water from the liquor. |
| US09037296B2 |
Robot cleaner, and system and method for remotely controlling the same
Disclosed are a robot cleaner, and a system and method for remotely controlling the robot cleaner. Since the robot cleaner is accessed to a terminal through a network, the robot cleaner can be controlled in more various manners. A situation inside a house can be real-time checked from the outside, and the satiation can be rapidly handled according to a state of the robot cleaner. Since the terminal and the robot cleaner are connected to each other through a network, a voice call function and an interphone function can be implemented. Furthermore, the robot cleaner can perform automatic cleaning, manual cleaning, and reservation cleaning in an autonomous manner, or in a remote-controlled manner. |
| US09037293B2 |
Robot
A robot includes a base, first and second arms, first and second drive sources, first and second inertia sensors, and first and second angle sensors. A rotation axis of the first arm and a rotation axis of the second arm are orthogonal to each other. The first inertia sensor is installed at the first arm, and the second inertia sensor is installed at the second arm. The first angle sensor is installed at the first drive source, and the second angle sensor is installed at the second drive source. Angular velocities obtained from the first inertia sensor and the first angle sensor are fed back to a first drive source control unit. Angular velocities obtained from the second inertia sensor and the second angle sensor are fed back to a second drive source control unit. |
| US09037292B2 |
Robot and control method of optimizing robot motion performance thereof
A robot and a method of controlling the same are disclosed. The robot derives a maximum dynamic performance capability using a specification of an actuator of the robot. The control method includes forming a first bell-shaped velocity profile in response to a start time and an end time of a motion of the robot, calculating a value of an objective function having a limited condition according to the bell-shaped velocity profile, and driving a joint in response to a second bell-shaped velocity profile that minimizes the objective function having the limited condition. |
| US09037290B2 |
Accumulation control
Systems, methods, devices, and non-transitory processor readable media of the various embodiments enable control of a conveyor having a plurality of zones each having a control module configured to control a selectable speed of the zone. The various embodiments are disclosed in connection with, but not necessarily limited to, accumulation conveyors with control systems which selectively set the speeds of zones based on conditions of upstream and downstream zones. The various embodiments are directed to improving efficiency of accumulation systems by controlling zones based upon consideration of conditions of neighboring zones. The various embodiment also enable the generation and use of translation tables correlating zones with network addresses of their respective control modules. |
| US09037285B2 |
Automated apparatus and method for filling vials
An apparatus for filling vials comprises a shelving unit defining an array of storage locations. The shelving unit may be an array in an XY plane or one or more carousels. A plurality of storage containers are provided, each removably carried by one of the storage locations. A counting and dispensing unit, a source of vials, a label printer and application unit or units, and an output device are also provided. The output device may take a variety of forms such as an output chute, which is preferably used when a capping unit is provided, an output conveyor, a plurality of output lanes, and an output carousel, which may be a dedicated carousel or a portion of the carousel providing the plurality of storage locations. A computer controlled engagement device provides motion in a Z direction. The engagement device may be comprised of a first stage for engaging the storage containers and a second stage for engaging the vials. A computer controlled system carries the engagement device and moves the engagement device in XY directions among the plurality of storage locations, counting and dispensing unit, source of vials, label printer and application unit, and output device. Methods of operating and refilling the vial filling apparatus are also disclosed. |
| US09037283B2 |
Apparatus safeguard
A safeguard method and system. The method includes receiving and analyzing apparatus data associated with an electro/mechanical apparatus. A type, mode, and state of the electro/mechanical apparatus are determined and a list of associated safeguard devices is generated and presented to a user. A selection for a safeguard device is received and it is determined if the safeguard device is currently present. In response, a specified action is executed. |
| US09037278B2 |
System and method of predicting user audio file preferences
A computerized method of automatically determining a user's potential liking for an unknown audio file, based upon a reference audio file that the user likes. Each audio file is analyzed into various frequency and amplitude bins, each bin having a time length that is at least a substantial fraction of the audio file's normal playing time. Each bin is further scored according to the complexity or information content of the audio signal in that bin. Corresponding bins from the reference audio file and one or more unknown audio files are then compared on a per-bin basis, and the results aggregated according to an anticipated user affinity score using an anticipated user affinity algorithm. The method can be used by an internet server to accept song input from users (using user computerized devices), and in turn suggest other high user affinity score songs that the user may like. |
| US09037274B2 |
Audio converter device and method for using the same
An audio converter device and a method for using the same. The audio converter device receives the digital audio data from a first device via a local area network. The audio converter device decompresses the digital audio data and converts the digital audio data into analog electrical data. The audio converter device transfers the analog electrical data to an audio playback device. |
| US09037273B2 |
Operator terminal in a process control system
The present invention relates to a method of enabling an operator to make control or protection related decisions in a process control system, an operator terminal in a process control system as well as to a computer program product for such an operator terminal. The method includes the steps receiving (38) an operator selection of a control object in a view of control objects, selecting (40) a number of data points for a group of control objects including the operator selected control object according to a data point selection criterion, fetching (42) process data values associated with the data points and with different control aspects, and presenting (44) the process data values of on a display, where each data point receives one corresponding presentation axis on which data values of this data point are presented and data values of data points associated with the same control aspect are linked together with a line. |
| US09037272B2 |
Auto-tuning electro-hydraulic valve
A flow control valve includes a housing that includes a fluid inlet, a fluid outlet, a first work port and a second work port. The housing defines a spool bore and a pilot spool bore. A main stage spool is disposed in the spool bore. A pilot stage spool is disposed in the pilot spool bore. The pilot stage spool is in selective fluid communication with the main stage spool. A microprocessor includes a controller having a restricted structured controller and a compensation controller. Outputs of the restricted structured controller and the compensation controller are summed to form an electrical signal that is communicated to the pilot stage spool. |
| US09037271B2 |
Electrode with redundant impedance reduction
An electrode assembly that includes an electrically conductive layer, a first impedance reduction system, and a second impedance reduction system. The electrically conductive layer forms an electrode portion of the electrode assembly and a first surface to be placed adjacent a person's skin. The first impedance reduction system is configured to dispense a first amount of an electrically conductive gel onto the first surface of the electrically conductive layer in response to a first activation signal. The second impedance reduction system is configured to dispense a second amount of the electrically conductive gel onto the first surface of the electrically conductive layer in response to a second activation signal. |
| US09037260B2 |
Cable conductor fitting
Various embodiments concern a lead comprising a cable conductor and a coil electrode having one or more filars, the one or more filars wound in a helical pattern. The lead can further include an inner fitting axially aligned with the coil electrode. The inner fitting can comprise external threading and a slot extending along the inner fitting. The slot can receive a portion of the cable conductor. The lead can include an outer tubular fitting having a lumen with internal threading. Each of the coil electrode and the inner fitting can be partially received within the lumen, both of the external threading and the one or more filars threadedly engaged with the internal threading. The cable conductor can be pinched in the slot to mechanically connect the cable conductor to the inner fitting. The pinching can be supported by the outer tubular fitting. |
| US09037258B2 |
Switched safety protection circuit for an AIMD system during exposure to high power electromagnetic fields
An energy management system that facilitates the transfer of high frequency energy induced on an implanted lead or a leadwire includes an energy dissipating surface associated with the implanted lead or the leadwire, a diversion or diverter circuit associated with the energy dissipating surface, and at least one switch disposed between the diversion circuit and the AIMD electronics for diverting energy in the implanted lead or the leadwire through the diversion circuit to the energy dissipating surface. The switch may comprise a single or multi-pole double or single throw switch. The diversion circuit may be either a high pass filter or a low pass filter. |
| US09037257B2 |
Resonance tuning module for implantable devices and leads
An implantable medical assist device includes a medical device. The medical device has a housing and electronics contained therein. A lead provides an electrical path to or from the electronics within the medical device. A resonance tuning module is located in the housing and is connected to the lead. The resonance tuning module includes a control circuit for determining a resonant frequency of the implantable medical assist device and an adjustable impedance circuit to change the combined resonant frequency of the medical device and lead. |
| US09037255B2 |
Device for controlling the electric charge on stimulating electrodes
A device for stimulating living tissue or nerves by individual or repeated stimulating pulses via stimulating electrodes which stimulate living tissue or nerves by stimulating pulses includes an electrical circuit which regulates the electric voltage or charge on the stimulating electrodes as a function of the electric voltage between the stimulating electrodes and reduces or equalises imbalances of electric charges on the stimulating electrodes. This device is capable of equalizing the electric charge on the stimulating electrodes of a stimulation system. The device and the process for using the device have the advantage that imbalances of electric charges on the stimulating electrodes, and the associated disadvantageous effects on the tissue and on the nerves, are avoided or eliminated. Furthermore, the device has a small space requirement. |
| US09037254B2 |
Methods and systems for semi-automatic adjustment of medical monitoring and treatment
Systems and methods are described for adjusting the operation of implantable stimulation devices used to provide medical monitoring and treatment. Several hierarchical algorithms are described which operate according to conditionally obtaining a patient response to an alert signal. In one such strategy semi-automatic therapy adjustment occurs by automatically issuing patient alert messages when selected operations are to occur, and using a patient's response to the alert message that is provided within a selected time limit in order to contingently adjust therapy. Methods are also described for resolving conflicts which may occur when time information and sensed data information each indicate different patient states are occurring. Although treatment of neural and cardiac disorders is emphasized, the techniques can be applied to the monitoring and treatment of any medical disorder with an implanted device. |
| US09037252B2 |
Visual prosthesis and retina stimulation device for same
The present invention provides a visual prosthesis comprising: image capture means for capturing an image from a surrounding environment; image processing means for processing the image and converting the image into a transmissible image signal; signal processing means for processing and converting the image signal into a stimulation signal; and a retina stimulation device (10) adapted to stimulate the retina of both left and right eyes in accordance with the stimulation signal. The retina stimulation device (10) comprises a left-side stimulation unit (11) having an electrode array (12) for stimulating the retina of the left eye, and a right-side stimulation unit (11′) having an electrode array (12′) for stimulating the retina of the right eye, with the left-side stimulation unit (11) having a configuration which is reversed with respect to a configuration of the right-side stimulation unit (11′). Furthermore, the electrode array (12) has a plurality of individual electrodes (15) distributed in a predetermined pattern across a substrate (16) of the electrode array for stimulating the nerve cells of the retina. The electrode array substrate (16) is elongate in a lateral or transverse direction, namely in a medial-lateral direction with respect to an implantation orientation, such that the electrode array has a height-to-width ratio of less than 1, preferably less than 0.8, more preferably in the range of 0.6 to 0.2, and most preferably in the range of about 0.5 to about 0.3. |
| US09037251B2 |
Artificial retina device
The present technology provides an organic based artificial retina device that includes a substrate and an array of micro-electrodes formed on the substrate. The illustrative artificial retina device further includes a photoconducting polymer blend deposited on the array of micro-electrodes. The photoconducting polymer blend is configured to produce a photoelectric signal in response to receiving light. |
| US09037248B2 |
Method to treat pain through electrical stimulation of nerves
Methods of treating pain are disclosed, wherein a non-pulsed, low-frequency electrical current is applied to the nerve carrying the pain signals in order to suppress transmission of those signals. In desired embodiments, the current is applied in a direction transverse to the nerve axis. Such currents have been found not to induce motor-neuron recruitment, meaning these methods can treat pain without causing muscle spasm or other muscular responses. A cuff for applying such a current transverse to the nerve axis is also disclosed. |
| US09037242B2 |
System of redundant wires and connectors for picafina DBS and heart pacemaker electrical stimulating device implanted in animals including human animals
A system to increase the reliability of the electrical connections between the stimulating electrodes and the battery/controlling electronics of an electrical stimulating device as DBS (Deep Brain Stimulator), heart pacemakers and the like. We disclose a redundant male/female connector and/or a set of redundant wires to improve the reliability of the electrical connections. The redundant male/female connector serves as a backup for a potential loss of electrical continuity due to the adverse effect of body fluids, and the redundant wires serve as a backup for potential loss of electrical continuity due to repetitive muscle movement causing wire movement, stress and breaking. DBS connecting wires, that ran down the neck of the patient, are subjected to repetitive stresses due to neck twisting and therefore at high risk of breaking. |
| US09037237B2 |
Algorithm to modulate atrial-ventricular delay and rate response based on autonomic function
An implantable medical device and associated method provide atrial pacing and measure an atrial ventricular (AV) delay. An autonomic function index is computed using the AV delay. The autonomic function index may be compiled in a medical report. In some embodiments, the autonomic function index is used to adjust atrial pacing control parameters. |
| US09037236B2 |
Method and system to select a neurostimulation system configuration based on cardiac rhythm feedback
Methods and systems are provided to control a configuration of a neural stimulation (NS) system having an NS device coupled to an NS lead. The methods and systems change between configurations of the NS system and collect cardiac signals from a patient that are representative of cardiac rhythms experienced by the patient over a period of time and in connection with multiple NS configurations. The methods and systems derive, from the cardiac signals, characteristic values for at least one physiologic characteristic indicative of at least one of normal and abnormal cardiac rhythms in connection with the multiple NS configurations; and select, from the multiple NS configurations, an NS operating configuration to be used by the NS system based on the characteristic values. |
| US09037234B2 |
Implantable cardiac stimulation devices, and methods of use therewith, that use assignable pace return capacitors
Described herein are implantable cardiac stimulation devices, and methods for use therewith. A pacing channel of such a device includes a pace output terminal, a pulse generator and at least two pace return electrode terminals. The pace output terminal is coupleable to an electrode for use as an anode. The pulse generator is configured to selectively output an electrical stimulation pulse to the pace output terminal. Each of the pace return electrode terminals is coupleable to a separate one of at least two further electrodes for use as a cathode. Switching circuitry selectively couples any one of the pace return electrode terminals of the pacing channel to the pace return capacitor of the pacing channel at a time, thereby enabling the pace return capacitor to be shared by at least two of the pace return electrode terminals of the pacing channel. Additional embodiments are also disclosed herein. |
| US09037231B2 |
Cap for an implantable electrical lead assembly
A cap for an implantable medical device electrical connector lead assembly and methods of use. A cap for protecting an electrical connector lead assembly of an implantable medical device is disclosed. The cap includes a body defined by a mating surface and a non-mating surface. The mating surface is adapted for electrically insulating engagement with an electrical connector lead assembly of an implantable medical device. The cap includes a body having a mating surface and an electrical network disposed therein. The electrical network includes first and second contacts exposed at the mating surface, a first circuit element, and two conductive pathways connecting the contacts to the circuit element. The body is configured to mate with the electrical connector lead assembly such that each contact conductively engages a corresponding contact of the electrical connector lead assembly when the cap and electrical connector lead assembly are mated. |
| US09037230B2 |
Method and device for treating microscopic tumors remaining in tissues following surgical resection
This invention concerns treating apparently normal tissue surrounding sites of cancerous tumors so as to reduce both the probability of a recurrence of cancer at and near the site of a cancerous tissue, and to reduce the amount of apparently healthy tissue that is usually excised along with the tumor, thereby providing a substantial benefit to the cancer patient by eliminating or delaying tumor recurrence and sparing normal tissue for its functionality and for avoiding unnecessary disfigurement. |
| US09037228B2 |
Method and system for detecting electrophysiological changes in pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue
Methods and systems for determining a condition of a selected region of epithelial tissue and/or an organ in a body as well as to diagnose disease, susceptibility, premalignancy or cancer and measure response to therapy, introduction of a drug and to assess the margins of a tumor or resection. The methods utilize through the tissue or organ electrical measurements with alternating current using one or more surface or internal electrodes and measuring the electrical response using one or more surface electrodes, preferably in combination with one or more electrodes in direct or indirect contact with epithelium comprising the organ or tissue under test. The methods are also useful in combination with DC measurements on the surface of the organ or tissue under test. Measurement of impedance, admittance, electropotential and dielectric properties is particularly useful, particularly as a function of frequency and position on and in the tissue or organ. |
| US09037226B2 |
Endotracheal tube apparatus
An apparatus for monitoring EMG signals of a patient's laryngeal muscles includes an endotracheal tube having an exterior surface. Conductive ink electrodes are formed on the exterior surface of the endotracheal tube. The conductive ink electrodes are configured to receive the EMG signals from the laryngeal muscles when the endotracheal tube is placed in a trachea of the patient. At least one conductor is coupled to the conductive ink electrodes and is configured to carry the EMG signals received by the conductive ink electrodes to a processing apparatus. |
| US09037221B2 |
Non-contact electrocardiogram system
A non-contact electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor having an ECG electrode and guard electrode coupled to an electronic circuit that actively gain-corrects the electrocardiogram signal based on fringe capacitance signal and filters the gain-corrected signal based on a static charge reference signal. The compensation system first makes a gain correction for the preamplifier to address ECG electrode-to-subject motion and then removes any additive static common mode interference from motion-induced static charge generation. |
| US09037219B2 |
Estimation of distances and size of lesions in the colon with an imaging capsule
A method of estimating distances in a colon of a subject, including: orally administering to a subject a contrast agent, orally administering an imaging capsule to the subject, emitting radiation from the imaging capsule at a location in the colon, detecting photons that are returned from an interaction of the radiation with an inner wall of the colon and contents of the colon, summating the detected photons with energies corresponding to X-ray fluorescence interactions to form a first count, summating the detected photons with energies corresponding to Compton back-scattering interactions to form a second count, determining the distance from the imaging capsule to the inner wall of the colon and a concentration of the contrast agent at the location of the imaging capsule in the colon using the values of the first count and the second count. |
| US09037218B2 |
Photoacoustic contrast agent based active ultrasound imaging
Electromagnetic energy is applied to thereby oscillate a bubble that is then insonified to produce an echo (260) for reception and analysis to afford imaging of the region of the bubble. To create the bubble, the energy may be applied to a nano particle (232) of a contrast agent whose consequent internal nano- or micro-bubbles offer, with novel pulsing techniques, greater sensitivity, and which can permeate outside vasculature (216) prior to being energized thereby affording quantification of vascular permeability and delivery of targeting molecules. The particle can include an absorbing and an evaporating parts, the irradiation (204), as by near-infrared laser, causing the phase change that gives rise to the bubble. The echo may occur in response to ultrasound interrogation (220) of the activated contrast agent, which could entail pulse inversion, power modulation or contrast pulse sequence imaging, with persistence processing. The contrast agent might be mixed with microbubble based ultrasound contrast agent to facilitate the timing of bubble activation. |
| US09037216B2 |
Systems and methods for dynamic imaging of tissue using digital optical tomography
A methods for imaging tissue using diffuse optical tomography with digital detection includes directing at the tissue a plurality of amplitude modulated optical signals from a plurality of optical signal sources illuminating the tissue at a plurality of locations; detecting a resulting plurality of attenuated optical signals exiting the tissue to obtain a plurality of analog signals containing diffuse optical tomographic information; converting the analog signals into digital signals; recovering the tomographic information from the digital signals using a digital signal processor-based detection module that performs digital detection, wherein the detection module includes a master digital signal processing subsystem and at least one slave digital signal processing subsystem that processes at least a portion of the digital signals and the master digital signal processing subsystem controls the at least one slave digital signal processing subsystem; and transmitting the recovered tomographic information in digital form to a host computer. |
| US09037209B2 |
Bio-diagnostic testing system and methods
An implantable diagnostic device in accordance with the present disclosure includes a probe assembly that can be implemented in a variety of ways. A few example implementations include: a needle inside which is located a bio-sensor chip (the needle being insertable into a human being); a compact package containing the bio-sensor chip (the compact package configured for placement inside a catheter); or a silicon-based bio-sensor package configured for insertion into a vein. |
| US09037208B2 |
Method and system for monitoring a health condition
A system and method for monitoring a health condition are disclosed. The system includes a patient management application, a data store and a monitoring device. The monitoring device includes an optical sensor, a Doppler sensor, and a computing device adapted to provide health parameter values including oxygen saturation of the blood, blood flow, blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac output. |
| US09037202B2 |
Electricity transmission cooling system
A cooling system includes a first section of high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable configured to receive a first flow of coolant and to permit the first flow of coolant to flow therethrough. The system may further include a second section of high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable configured to receive a second flow of coolant and to permit the second flow of coolant to flow therethrough. The system may further include a cable joint configured to couple the first section of HTS cable and the second section of HTS cable. The cable joint may be in fluid communication with at least one refrigeration module and may include at least one conduit configured to permit a third flow of coolant between said cable joint and said at least one refrigeration module through a coolant line separate from said first and second sections of HTS cable. |
| US09037201B2 |
Coupling an electronic apparatus having a radio link, in particular a mobile telephone, to devices of a motor vehicle
A system for wirelessly coupling a radio device (111) via a radio link has a support surface (119) for placing radio device (111) thereon; an antenna in order to produce and maintain wireless coupling of the radio device, or a plurality of antennas (217a, 217b) positioned adjacently which can be selectively operated to produce and maintain wireless coupling of radio device (111). Support surface (119) has a rotationally symmetrical recess (117) extending around an axis of rotation (18) perpendicular to support surface (119), wherein, at different rotational positions relative to the axis of rotation (18), a radio device (111) having a projection (204) which engages in recess (117) can operate a radio link to the antenna, or to one of the antennas (217). Alternatively a radio device rests against support surface (119) and is located in any orientation and any position within a space defined by support surface (7). |
| US09037195B2 |
Mobile communication terminal
A mobile phone apparatus 10 includes a touch panel controlling IC 30. The touch panel controlling IC 30 controls electric power supplied from the electric power IC 14 on the basis of a received active signal or standby signal to set a touch panel input apparatus 32 to an active state or a standby state on the basis of the received active signal or standby signal. A processor 12 transmits to the touch panel controlling IC 30 the active signal or the standby signal in correspondence with a determined state of the mobile phone apparatus 10. |
| US09037187B2 |
Interference cancellation receiver and method
A method of receiving a signal formed from information bits propagated through a channel, which has been subjected to interference, the method comprising the steps of: (a) filtering the received signal rn with a linear interference cancellation filter using estimated filter coefficients wn to generate a signal yn; (b) processing the signal yn in a detection unit using an estimated final impulse response of the channel Bn to generate estimates of the transmitted bits; (c) wherein the filter coefficients wn are calculated using the separate steps of: (c1) estimating, using the received signal rn, an initial impulse response cn of the propagation channel; (c2) deriving, using the estimated initial channel impulse response cn and the received signal rn, the filter coefficients wn. |
| US09037186B2 |
Method for controlling signal transmission power and device for same
A method of transmitting signals including determining, per each of the component carriers, transmission power of at least one channel for simultaneous transmission, in such a way that a total transmission power of the at least one channel does not exceed a maximum transmission power configured for a corresponding component carrier; and checking whether a total transmission power of channels over the multiple component carriers for the simultaneous transmission exceeds a total maximum transmission power configured for the communication apparatus or not. If the total transmission power of the channels exceeds the total maximum transmission power configured for the communication apparatus, transmission power of at least one PUSCH among the channels is adjusted in such a way that an adjusted total transmission power over the multiple component carriers does not exceed the total maximum transmission power. |
| US09037185B2 |
Communication control apparatus, communication control method, mobile station, communication method, and communication system
A communication control apparatus includes a processor that is configured to determine a congestion state of uplink communication of a base station; and cause a mobile station that attempts to establish connection to the base station while increasing transmission power stepwise from an initial value, to set the initial value to be a first value, upon determining the congestion state to be a first congestion state and to set the initial value to be a second value that is greater than the first value, upon determining the congestion state to be a second congestion state that is heavier than the first congestion state. |
| US09037179B2 |
Method and network node in a wireless communication system
Network node (120) and method in the network node (120) for allocating a radio resource in a first radio coverage area (115-1) when establishing a wireless communication with a mobile station (130-1), which radio resource is not assigned exclusively for the first radio coverage area (115-1) but may be shared between multiple radio coverage areas within a local radio environment. |
| US09037178B1 |
Systems and methods for managing wireless links
Systems and methods for increasing a combined data rate for communication links between a plurality of radio systems and a plurality of base stations. |
| US09037176B2 |
Method and apparatus for allocating device identifiers (STID) in a wireless access system
The present description provides a method for allocating a device identifier through an initial network entry process with a base station in a wireless access system. The method comprises a step of transmitting control information, indicating a mobile station supporting Machine to Machine (M2M) communication, to a base station; and receiving a first message, comprising at least one of a first identifier indicative of a group to which devices belong and a second identifier indicative of each of the devices belonging to the group, from the base station. |
| US09037175B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting available radio access possibilities in a communications area
A local radio access information transmitter (LRAIT) may be used in a communications area serviced by multiple different radio access technologies (RATs) allocated to different radio resources in different locations in the communications area. Each RAT is associated with RAT radio transceiver(s) for serving UEs in the communications area. The LRAIT is in addition to the RAT transceivers and located near a hotspot service area in the communications area. The LRAIT determines local radio access information (LRAI) including different RATs available in the hotspot service area and frequenc(ies) of operation allocated to each RAT in the hotspot service area, sends a registration message to a wide area radio access information controller, and based on a response therefrom, determines what radio resources to use to transmit the LRAI signals. The LRAIT transmits the LRAI signals for receipt by UEs in the hotspot service area using those radio resources. |
| US09037171B2 |
Mobile station apparatus and signal detection and channel estimation method
To cancel interference from the other cells and improve throughput characteristics without needing complicated processing, provided are a reception section that receives a reception signal including signal components from a plurality of base station apparatuses (BSs), and a signal detection and channel estimation section (61) that performs signal detection and channel estimation processing based on a factor graph on the reception signal, where the signal detection and channel estimation section (61) estimates interfering components from base station apparatuses of the other cells except a desired base station apparatus included in the reception signal at a symbol level, and reuses the interfering components in the signal detection and channel estimation processing based on the factor graph. |
| US09037170B2 |
Management of an electronic calendar using short message service (SMS)
Approaches are provided for managing an electronic calendar using short message service (SMS). Specifically, an approach is provided that is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to receive an SMS text message including an SMS command to manage an electronic calendar with at least one pre-existing event. The SMS command includes an instruction to modify the at least one pre-existing event. The programming instructions are further operable to execute the SMS command such that the at least one pre-existing event is modified. |
| US09037169B2 |
SMS communication to and from messaging devices in an aircraft
The application discloses a message transmission device for transmitting an SMS message of a mobile device from an aircraft to a ground system. The device comprising an onboard antenna which is connected to a base transceiver station for receiving the SMS message from the mobile device, means for forwarding the message to a mobile switching centre onboard the aircraft and means for emulating status messages. Furthermore, the message transmission device comprises means for transferring the status messages to the mobile device, a splitter for splitting the message into data packets and means for transmitting the data packets to the ground system. |
| US09037166B2 |
Apparatus and method for scheduling paging messages in a communications network
A method of scheduling paging messages in a communications network comprises the steps of receiving new paging messages to be scheduled, scheduling the paging messages on a first come first served basis during a first mode of operation, scheduling the paging messages based on priority levels of the paging messages during a second mode of operation, and switching between the first mode of operation and the second mode of operation according to the volume of paging messages being scheduled. |
| US09037159B2 |
Apparatus and systems for providing location-based services within a wireless network
A system for providing wireless telecommunications services to mobile devices includes structure and functionality for location-based services, and includes both server and client/mobile device apparatuses. One apparatus includes a data store storing at least a first record associated with a first wireless device or a second record associated with a second wireless device. A computer is coupled to the data store and is configured to receive a request from the first wireless device to obtain location information associated with the second wireless device. The computer is configured to receive a change location privileges request, and to update the first or second records in the data store based on the received change request. Other apparatuses provide additional structures and functions. |
| US09037155B2 |
Time of arrival (TOA) estimation for positioning in a wireless communication network
Techniques for determining time of arrivals (TOAs) of signals in a wireless communication network are described. Each cell may transmit (i) synchronization signals on a set of contiguous subcarriers in the center portion of the system bandwidth and (ii) reference signals on different sets of non-contiguous subcarriers distributed across the system bandwidth. A UE may determine TOA for a cell based on multiple signals transmitted on different sets of subcarriers. The UE may perform correlation for a first signal (e.g., a synchronization signal) from the cell to obtain first correlation results for different time offsets. The UE may perform correlation for a second signal (e.g., a reference signal) from the cell to obtain second correlation results for different time offsets. The UE may combine the first and second correlation results and may determine the TOA for the cell based on the combined correlation results. |
| US09037151B2 |
Management of preemptable communications resources
In a communications spectrum shared by public safety users and commercial users, in the event of an emergency condition, commercial users are preempted and corresponding resources are reallocated to authorized public safety users. When the emergency condition subsides, the reallocated resources are again made available for commercial use. In an example configuration, resources and associated attributes including preemptability status are maintained in a Base Station Controller (BSC), Radio Network Controller (RNC), and/or Radio Resource Control (RRC) of a communications network. |
| US09037150B1 |
Load management in a wireless communication system
A paging message is received and determined to be an alert message intended for a tracking area. Numbers of wireless devices comprising an active connection over a first channel and over a second channel in the tracking area are determined. A number of wireless devices which will respond to the alert message over the first channel and the second channel is determined based on the number of wireless devices comprising an active connection the access node on the first and second channels and a total number of connections in the tracking area. At least one wireless device comprising an active connection over the first channel is instructed to communicate over the second channel before the alert message is sent to the tracking area based on the estimated number of wireless device which will respond to the alert message over the first channel and the second channel. |
| US09037149B2 |
Dynamic bandwidth and access management
A method includes, in response to determining that a data communication measure for a plurality of mobile devices served by a base station exceeds a first data communication threshold for a first data communication path between the base station and a network providing data for the plurality of mobile devices, establishing, at the base station, a second data communication path between the base station and the network via a wireless access point based on an access control list. The method includes receiving, at the base station, a portion of the data from the network via the second data communication path. |
| US09037147B2 |
Network controlled tethering of wireless devices
A method for tethering wireless devices includes assigning, by a wireless communication network access point, a master wireless device as a hotspot to provide communication services for a slave wireless device. The assignment may be based on first channel quality information and second channel quality information. The first channel quality information may be associated with a first communication channel between the master wireless device and the access point. The second channel quality information may be associated with a second communication channel between the master wireless device and the slave wireless device. The method may also include allocating a wireless communication resource to the master wireless device such that the master wireless device is configured as the hotspot. The allocation of the communication resource may be based on a determination that a parameter requirement of the communication resource associated with the master wireless device acting as the hotspot is met. |
| US09037142B2 |
Cell planning method for wireless communication systems
A method for estimating how best to position a new cell within an existing overloaded cell that is running out of capacity in a wireless network so as to optimize the offloading of capacity from the overloaded cell includes: filtering call records to keep calls made during a selected capacity planning interval calls and performing one or more of sending data to the overloaded cell and receiving data from the overloaded cell; geo-locating the sending and receiving calls; calculating one or more resource utilization values for one or more geo-located sending and receiving calls; and determining coordinates for an optimum new cell location so as to optimize the offloading of capacity from the existing overloaded cell. |
| US09037141B2 |
Method of handling queries-caused overload in wireless communication system
A method of handling queries caused overload in a core network of a wireless communication is disclosed. The core network comprises a data base and a network control node which stores a mobility management (MM) context of a mobile device. The method comprises the network node sending information in a notification message to the data base, wherein the information comprises at least one of International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), UE Reachability Request Parameter for the MME/SGSN (URRP-MME/URRP-SGSN), and a session management (SM) and/or mobility management (MM) back-off timer or a back-off indicator. |
| US09037139B1 |
Varying access probe message power based on battery life and distance to base stations
A wireless communication device (WCD) may transmit a first sequence of access probe messages to a radio access network (RAN) via a first wireless coverage area. The WCD may then transmit a second sequence of access probe messages to the RAN via a second wireless coverage area. Based on the first wireless coverage area being more preferable to the WCD than the second wireless coverage area, the WCD may use a negative inter-sequence power step for the power levels at which the WCD transmits the access probe messages of the first and second sequences. Thus, the WCD may transmit the first access probe message of the second sequence at a lower power than the first access probe message of the first sequence. |
| US09037138B2 |
Communications system
A method performed by a home base station, the method includes registering with a gateway device, sending the gateway device data identifying whether or not the home base station includes an open access mode or a closed access mode home base station, receiving a request from a mobile communications device, transmitting a registration request for the mobile communications device to the gateway device, and receiving a registration accept message from the gateway device if registration of the mobile communication device is accepted. |
| US09037130B2 |
Vehicle-mounted apparatus, method of controlling vehicle-mounted apparatus, and program
A vehicle-mounted apparatus is mounted on a vehicle having a keyless entry unit which receives a signal instructing a keyless entry from a mobile terminal and performs a keyless entry process in response to the received signal. The vehicle-mounted apparatus includes; a communication unit which receives control information including manipulation information indicating manipulation content for controlling the vehicle-mounted apparatus and information specifying a mobile terminal, from the mobile terminal; a terminal determination unit which determines whether the mobile terminal which transmitted the control information is the mobile terminal used for the keyless entry; a manipulation acceptance determination unit which determines whether to accept manipulation specified by the manipulation information included in the control information received by the communication unit, according to the determination result of the terminal determination unit; and a processing unit which performs a process according to the determination of the manipulation acceptance determination unit. |
| US09037129B2 |
Method, network and device for information provision by using paging and cell broadcast services
The invention relates to a method, terminal and network or entity wherein a broadcast service is used for informing a number of users on an emergency or other situation of public interest. A specific identifier is used in a paging message for activating broadcast service in the terminals. A terminal checks a received paging message with regard to the presence of the specific identifier and when detecting the specific identifier, switches to a broadcast mode for receiving broadcast content. The received broadcast emergency content is notified and/or displayed to the users of the terminals. |
| US09037126B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling response to service notifications in a network environment
A method of providing content notifications to devices in a wireless communication system includes obtaining notification information regarding content available to a first group of mobile devices in a wireless network, generating a notification message comprising the notification information and an identifier associated with a second group of mobile devices that is a subset of the first group, and broadcasting the notification message over the network to cause mobile devices of the second group to retrieve the content over the network. The method also includes receiving content notifications in a wireless communication system, including receiving a notification message comprising notification information regarding content available to a first group of mobile devices and an identifier associated with a second group of devices, where the second group is a subset of the first group, and retrieving content from a network in response to being one of the second group of devices. |
| US09037125B1 |
Detecting driving with a wearable computing device
A wearable computing device is described that detects an indication of movement associated with the wearable computing device when a user of the wearable computing device detected being located within a moving vehicle. Based at least in part on the indication of movement, a determination is made that the user of the wearable computing device is currently driving the moving vehicle. An operation is performed based on the determination that the user of the wearable computing device is currently driving the moving vehicle. |
| US09037122B2 |
Fixed line extension for mobile telephones
A method of dynamically invoking a simultaneous ring feature in a telecommunications network includes: identifying a call directed to user equipment (20); notifying the user equipment (20) of the identified call; and, receiving an indication from the user equipment (20) whether or not the simultaneous ring feature should be invoked base on a determined location of the user equipment (20). |
| US09037117B2 |
Wireless communication terminal
A wireless communication terminal includes a communication status measurement element for measuring communication status data representing a communication status of the self terminal at the time of wireless communications; a reference data storage element for storing respective pieces of preset reference data representing communication statuses of a terminal which can be measured at respective locations at the time of wireless communications, in association with respective pieces of location data identifying the respective locations, and a location specifying element for comparing the communication status data measured by the communication status measurement element with the respective pieces of reference data stored in the reference data storage element, and based on the comparison result, specifying a location corresponding to the location data associated with a particular piece of reference data as a location of the self terminal. |
| US09037111B2 |
Location aware authentication techniques
Location aware authentication techniques are provided. A user pre-registers a mobile device and a geographical location with a location-based authentication service. When the user attempts to access a target resource from the mobile device, a current location for the mobile device is resolved and communicated to the location-based authentication service. If the mobile device is within a geographical range of the pre-registered geographical location, then the mobile device is automatically authenticated for access to the target resource via the location-based authentication service. |
| US09037109B1 |
Controlling billing for use of one system based on device location in other system
A method and corresponding system for controlling billing for communication service. An area of coverage of a first wireless serving system is dynamically determined based on signals from one or more mobile stations served by the first wireless serving system. A determination is then made as to whether a mobile station was within the determined area of coverage of the first wireless serving system when the mobile station was being served with communication service by a second wireless serving system. And a billing rate, for billing for the communication service, is selected based at least in part on the determination. |
| US09037107B2 |
Communication device with improved interference rejection and a method therof
A communication device is disclosed. The device may be in particular a radio transmitter and a receiver that can operate with low power consumption and with improved interference rejection, therefore particularly suitable for use in low-power communication systems, such as wireless sensor networks and wireless body area networks. In one aspect, multiple frequency tones (carriers) are used to carry information from the transmitter, such that a RF signal having multiple radio frequency components is produced and transmitted. In the receiver, an envelope detector is still the RF down-converter. After down-converting intermodulation components are extracted containing amplitude, phase and frequency information of the multiple radio frequency components. This allows the desired signal (the baseband information) to be distinguished from the carriers and unwanted interference. |
| US09037099B2 |
Techniques to manage channel prediction
A system, apparatus, method and article to manage channel prediction for a wireless communication system are described. The apparatus may include a media access control processor to perform channel prediction, and a transceiver to communicate information using the channel prediction. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09037096B2 |
Reducing insertion loss in LNA bypass mode by using a single-pole-triple-throw switch in a RF front end module
A microwave radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM) having a low noise amplifier (LNA) with a bypass mode uses a single-pole-triple-throw RF switch that reduces insertion loss to about 1 dB and thereby improves RF receiver sensitivity over existing technology two series connected single-pole-double throw RF switches. The single-pole-triple-throw RF switch may be three metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) RF switches that may be arranged with a common source input and isolated independent drain outputs. The RF switches may be single, double or triple gate MOSFET RF switches. The MOSFET RF switches may also be configured as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) field effect transistor (FET) RF switches. |
| US09037095B2 |
Radio frequency tracking filter
The specification and drawings present a new apparatus and method for an RF tracking filter which may be used in RF transceivers. Instead of having band pass filter and switches in the signal path exemplary embodiments of the invention describe keeping the signal path intact for wanted frequency components and drawing selectively signal energy (e.g., corresponding to unwanted frequency components) from the signal path. This may be done with a shunt passive switch comprising multiple switches for generating commutated signals of the radio frequency signal. Behind the switches there may be a plurality of active feedback loops, each drawing a frequency dependent current for one of the one or more commutated signals and feeding the drawn current back to the passive input switch to cancel only the unwanted frequency components of the radio frequency signal. |
| US09037089B2 |
Multi-radio coexistence
A method and apparatus relate to coexistence of multiple RF subsystems on a communication device. An apparatus may include a plurality of radio frequency (RF) subsystems configured to receive or transmit communication signals; and an interference table indicative of zones of interference among the multiple RF subsystems, the zones of interference being based on RF measurements. At least one of the RF subsystems comprises a coexistence module configured to communicate coexistence-related messages with of the other RF subsystems, the coexistence-related messages being based on the zones of interference. |
| US09037086B2 |
Method for controlling bluetooth device for power conservation
A method for controlling a Bluetooth device for power conservation includes the steps of: establishing a Bluetooth link; controlling the Bluetooth device to enter sniff mode; handling a sniff anchor point after wakeup preparation and before sleep preparation; and handling a wakeup operation between the wakeup preparation and the sleep preparation. The wakeup/sleep preparation can be also done as few times as possible in the invention such that the power consumption of the Bluetooth device is effectively reduced. |
| US09037083B2 |
Communications device including radio frequency (RF) signal blocking layer for near-field communication (NFC) device and related methods
A communications device may include a near-field communication (NFC) circuit device, and a radio frequency (RF) signal blocking member adhesively coupled with the NFC device. The RF signal blocking member may be configured to block RF signal communication by the NFC device while coupled therewith. The RF signal blocking member may comprise an electrical conductor. In accordance with an example, the RF signal blocking member may comprise a frangible layer. In another example, a pressure sensitive adhesive layer may be included for adhesively securing the RF signal blocking member with the NFC device. |
| US09037082B2 |
Wireless technology bridging system
A bridged wireless communication system includes a user device that is configured to perform wireless communications natively using a second wireless technology, and a wireless technology bridging system chassis such as, for example, a user device case, coupled to the user device. The wireless technology bridging system chassis houses a first technology wireless controller that is configured to perform wireless communications using a first wireless technology that is different from the second wireless technology, and a second technology wireless controller that is configured to perform wireless communications using the second wireless technology. A bridging engine receives first wireless communications of the first wireless technology through the first technology wireless controller, converts the first wireless communications from the first wireless technology to the second wireless technology, and sends the first wireless communications of the second wireless technology through the second wireless technology controller and to the user device. |
| US09037077B2 |
Methods and devices for wireless relays
A relay method and device, wherein the control signal and the data signal which are in the same subframe are directly sent to a lower level device respectively by an upper level device and a relay function device. In one example, the relay function device transmits data signal using subscriber special reference signal to make the lower level device estimate an access channel correctly; in another example, the relay function device carries out precoding of the data signal correlative with the access channel so as to cancel the influence of the access channel, thereby make the lower level device receive data signal correctly. Retransmission control signaling is sent to the lower level device in each subframe by the upper level device to ensure the fixed sequential relationship of feedback retransmission. |
| US09037076B2 |
Radio relay station apparatus and radio relay method
To provide a radio relay station apparatus and radio relay method for enabling the radio relay station apparatus to identify a multi-hop relay signal and relay a downlink signal suitably, a first radio relay station apparatus or a radio base station apparatus generates a control signal indicative of passing through a radio relay station apparatus, and transmits the control signal in downlink, and a second radio relay station apparatus receives the control signal, demodulates a downlink signal based on the control signal, modulates the demodulated downlink signal, and transmits the modulated downlink signal. |
| US09037074B2 |
Method and system for monitoring and controlling a local collection facility from a remote facility through an IP network
A method and system of collecting local television signals includes a local collection facility a plurality of primary receiver circuit modules comprising a first receiver circuit module. The first receiver circuit module receives and demodulates the first channel signal and forms an IP signal. A remote facility is spaced apart from the local collection facility and communicates with the local collection facility through an IP backhaul. A primary decoder within the remote facility is in communication with the IP backhaul and forms a decoded signal from the IP signal. A primary encoder within the remote facility in communication with the primary decoder forms a first encoded signal from the decoded signal. A multiplexer in the remote facility multiplexes the first encoded signal into a multiplexed signal. The multiplexed signal may provide an output signal used for uplinking or other type of distribution. |
| US09037073B2 |
Bypass feeder and door on an image forming apparatus
A bypass feeder, which is included in an image forming apparatus, includes an opening/closing unit opening and closing with respect to an apparatus body between a unit closed state and a unit open state, a bypass tray opening and closing with respect to the opening/closing unit between a tray closed state and a tray open state, a linkage including a flexible-member fixing member and connecting the opening/closing unit to the apparatus body, and a flexible member having one end fixed to the fixing member and the other end fixed to the bypass tray. When the opening/closing unit is changed to the unit open state while the bypass tray is rotated away from the opening/closing unit to the tray open state, the fixing member of the linkage shifts by pulling the flexible member to hold the bypass tray at a substantially horizontal line with respect to a sheet loading surface. |
| US09037071B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes: a collecting container, provided detachably mountable to a casing of the image forming apparatus, capable of collecting a developer; a locked portion provided on the collecting container; a locking portion, provided on the casing, for locking the collecting container to prevent the collecting container from moving in a demounting direction by being locked with the locked portion when the collecting container is mounted in a main assembly of the image forming apparatus in an empty state; and a supporting portion for supporting the collecting container, the supporting portion being provided so as to be displaceable, by a weight of the developer collected by the collecting container, in a direction such that locking with the locking portion is released. |
| US09037070B2 |
Cleaning device and image forming apparatus using same
The intermediate transfer belt cleaning device includes a cleaning blade for removing residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt, a waste toner conveying screw that conveys the removed toner, and a vibrating part with multiple vanes, arranged between the cleaning blade and the waste toner conveying screw, each vane partly coming into contact with the waste toner conveying screw and vibrating in linkage with the motion of the waste toner conveying screw. Each vane has a projected part that is positioned close to, and projects toward, the intermediate transfer belt. |
| US09037064B2 |
Fixing member, fixing device, and image forming apparatus
To provide a fixing member, which contains a base, and a polyorganosiloxane layer provided on the base, where the polyoranosiloxane layer contains polyoranosiloxane including a silicon atom bonded to three or four oxygen atoms, and wherein the fixing member is designed to be used in a process for heating a toner image on a recording medium to fix the toner image onto the recording medium. |
| US09037057B2 |
Fixing device capable of suppressing contact between tubular member and electric components
A fixing device for thermally fixing a developing agent image to a sheet includes: a flexible tubular member having an inner peripheral surface and circularly moving in a moving direction while the developing agent image is thermally fixed; a heater; a nip member being in sliding contact with the tubular member; a backup member nipping the tubular member in cooperation with the nip member; a stay covering the heater and supporting the nip member; an electric component positioned opposite to the heater with respect to the stay; and a frame supporting the electric component. The frame includes: an isolating portion interposed between the tubular member and the electric component for isolating the electric component from the tubular member; and a guide portion guiding the inner peripheral surface of the tubular member while the flexible tubular member is moving in the moving direction. |
| US09037055B2 |
Rotating body support device and fixing device having rotating body support device, and image forming apparatus
A rotating body support device includes a shaft, a bearing, a mounting member, and a protruding part. The shaft serves as a rotating shaft which rotates or a fixed shaft during rotation of a rotating body. The bearing includes an inner peripheral part for supporting the shaft and an outer peripheral part disposed at an interval in a radial direction relative to the inner peripheral part. The mounting member includes an insertion part on which the outer peripheral part is mounted, and supports the bearing. The protruding part is provided to protrude from one of a peripheral face of the shaft and the inner peripheral part of the bearing in the radial direction along a peripheral direction of the rotation. Moreover, the protruding part comes into contact, along the peripheral direction, with the other one of the peripheral face of the shaft and the inner peripheral part of the bearing. |
| US09037049B2 |
Developing device, and image forming apparatus using the same
A developing device includes a transporting unit that rotates while being opposed to an image holding member and that transports a developer toward the image holding member to develop the electrostatic latent image on the image holding member, a supplying unit that has the developer adhered onto a circumferential surface thereof being rotated and that supplies the developer to the transporting unit in contact with the transporting unit, and a replenishing unit that includes a transporting path connected between a containing chamber and supplying chamber, that keeps the developer, with which the supplying unit is replenished, remaining, and that replenishes the supplying unit with the developer, wherein the replenishing unit is provided with an opening on a developing chamber side of the transporting path facing the supplying unit, and includes a downstream side counter member, and wherein the downstream side counter member has a regulating surface with a gap. |
| US09037046B2 |
Liquid electrophotography printing apparatus and methods thereof
A method of maintaining a photoconductive member of a liquid electrophotography printing apparatus (LEP) is disclosed. The method includes storing a fluid having at least fluid particles and a carrier liquid in a fluid chamber and removing at least a portion of the fluid particles and the dissolved materials from the fluid through adsorption by filtration material disposed within a filtration assembly to form a filtered fluid. The method also includes maintaining the photoconductive member by periodically applying the filtered fluid to the photoconductive member and removing the filtered fluid and fluid residue therefrom. |
| US09037045B2 |
Charge rollers and apparatus including charge rollers
Printers, methods, and apparatus to form an image on a substrate are disclosed. An example disclosed charge roller includes a dielectric outer layer (104) comprising an inner surface (106) and an outer surface (108), the outer surface (108) to be charged by a first external surface and to discharge onto a second external surface, and the dielectric outer layer (104) to substantially prevent charge transfer between the inner surface (106) and the outer surface (108), and an electrically conductive inner layer (102) to direct electrical charge toward and away from the inner surface (106) of the outer layer (104), and to be coupled to an electrical source to control a transfer of the electrical charge. |
| US09037044B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes image bearing members that bear formed images; a driving source that rotationally drives the image bearing members and whose rotational direction is switchable between a first direction and a second direction; a first driving-force transmitting unit that transmits a rotational driving force of the driving source rotationally driven in the first direction as a unidirectional rotational driving force to the image bearing members; and a second driving-force transmitting unit that transmits a rotational driving force of the driving source rotationally driven in the second direction as a unidirectional rotational driving force to one or more of the image bearing members and does not transmit the rotational driving force to a remaining one or more of the image bearing members. The first and second driving-force transmitting units are switched therebetween by changing the rotational direction of the driving source. |
| US09037042B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes: a transfer unit that is detachably attachable to a housing of the image forming apparatus and includes: a transfer member configured to contact the image carrier; a movable frame that supports the transfer member and configured to rotate around a fulcrum shaft; a driving input member coaxially arranged with the fulcrum shaft and configured to connect to a first driving transmitting member, and a second driving transmitting member supported by the movable frame and configured to transmit a driving force inputted by the driving input member to the transfer member. The image forming apparatus further includes a contact/separation unit configured to press the transfer member against the image carrier and to separate the transfer member from the image carrier by moving the movable frame around the fulcrum shaft while the transfer unit is attached to the image forming apparatus. |
| US09037039B2 |
Electrophotographic image forming apparatus
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material, includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a cartridge including a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, the cartridge containing a developer for effecting development and including a force receiving portion, wherein the cartridge is mounted to a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus; and an urging member for urging the cartridge; wherein by mounting the cartridge, the force receiving portion receives a force from the urging member to urge the developing roller to the electrophotographic photosensitive drum. |
| US09037029B2 |
Job control apparatus and method, and recording medium for producing a book
There is provided an error recovering method that can be applied to a photobook production flow handling plural types of parts and reduces operator's manual workload while keeping consistency in the job order between the plurality of parts at the time of occurrence of an error. An information processor receives information on an error that is caused in a printer or a post-apparatus and determines whether or not reprinting of a target part is necessary. When determining that reprinting is necessary, the information processor updates job tickets of an error-caused part and other types of parts and transmits the updated job tickets to the printer and the post-apparatus. The printer and the post-apparatus execute post-processing in accordance with the job tickets updated by the information processor. |
| US09037028B2 |
Cleaning apparatus, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus
Representative configurations of a cleaning apparatus, a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes: a cleaning blade which abuts on a photosensitive drum which bears a toner image, and which removes toner which remains on the photosensitive drum; compression springs which are compressed to pressurize the cleaning blade against the photosensitive drum; and spring attaching portions which regulate phases of compression springs such that positions of the compression springs in a circumferential direction are at predetermined phase positions when the compression springs are attached. |
| US09037025B2 |
Fixing device, and image forming apparatus with same
Provided is a fixing device including a transparent cylindrical body that is formed in a cylindrical shape to be rotatable, an opposing member that is arranged to oppose the transparent cylindrical body and forms a contact region in a portion between the transparent cylindrical body and the opposing member, a laser beam radiation device that is provided in an external portion of the transparent cylindrical body and radiates the laser beams, a light converging member that is provided in an internal portion of the transparent cylindrical body and is disposed to be in contact with portions of the transparent cylindrical body, and a liquid filling body that fills an air interface layer between a portion of the transparent cylindrical body and the light converging member, with a transparent liquid enabling the laser beams to pass therethrough. |
| US09037023B2 |
Fixing device, image forming apparatus including the same, and method for controlling the fixing device
A fixing device includes a heating rotating member, a pressing rotating member, a motor, a fixing pressure adjustment mechanism, a control section, a motor drive section, a detecting member, and a stop control circuit. The heating rotating member heats a paper sheet. The pressing rotating member is pressed to the heating rotating member. The motor can rotate in both forward and backward directions. The fixing pressure adjustment mechanism moves a rotating member to be moved between first and second positions. The control section includes a control device, issues an instruction of voltage to be applied to the motor. The motor drive section controls the voltage to be applied to the motor. The detecting member detects that the rotating member to be moved reaches the first position. The stop control circuit stops the motor without software control when the rotating member to be moved reaches the first position. |
| US09037022B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming system, and transfer method
An image forming apparatus includes a transfer unit configured to transfer a toner image onto a recording medium; a power supply unit configured to output one of an alternating-current-based voltage including at least an alternating-current voltage and a direct-current voltage to the transfer unit; and a power supply control unit configured to cause the power supply unit to start switching to the alternating-current-based voltage a first time after the power supply unit stops outputting the direct-current voltage in the case that output of the power supply unit is switched to the alternating-current-based voltage, and cause the power supply unit to start switching to the direct-current voltage a second time after the power supply unit stops outputting the alternating-current-based voltage in the case that output of the power supply unit is switched to the direct-current voltage. The second time is longer than the first time. |
| US09037014B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier; an intermediate transfer body; a second-transfer member; a support mechanism that supports the second-transfer member in a second-transfer region; a surface-positioning member that is disposed upstream of the second-transfer member in a transport direction; a determination device that determines whether or not a recording medium is a thin medium; and a controller that, in a case where it is determined that the recording medium is a thin medium, controls the support mechanism so as to move the second-transfer member more upstream in the transport direction than in other cases and controls the position of the surface-positioning member so as to move the second-transfer member in a direction such that an angle between the intermediate transfer body and the second-transfer member on the upstream side becomes larger than in other cases. |
| US09037013B2 |
Image forming apparatus and printing method
An image forming apparatus includes an input unit, a display unit, an image forming unit, a storage unit, a first-page print execution information setting unit, and a print control unit. The first-page print execution information setting unit stores information in the storage unit. The information relates to execution of printing the first page of a job on a sheet on a manual feed tray. If printing on a long nonstandard-size sheet is selected, the print control unit causes the display unit to display an indication prompting a user to identify the sheet size and requests the image forming unit to start printing the sheet on the manual feed tray after a print start instruction. If the information is stored in the storage unit, the print control unit skips the step of displaying the indication and requests the image forming unit to start the printing on the sheet on the manual feed tray. |
| US09037011B2 |
Color-image forming apparatus
In an image forming apparatus that forms an electrostatic latent image for detection on a photosensitive member by light irradiation and performs color-misregistration correction control on the basis of detection of a change in detection current due to the detecting electrostatic latent image passing through a processing unit disposed close to the periphery of the photosensitive member, the intensity of at least one of the apply voltage of the processing unit and the output of the light irradiation unit is set higher than that during normal image formation. |
| US09037008B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus including same
A fixing device including a fixing member, an opposing member, a plurality of heat sources, and a voltage detector. The opposing member is disposed opposite the fixing member to contact the fixing member to form a nip portion at which an unfixed image on a recording medium is fixed. The plurality of heat sources heats the fixing member. The voltage detector detects an applied voltage of at least one of the plurality of heat sources. Upon detection of the applied voltage of the heat sources by the voltage detector, a voltage is applied to at least one of the heat sources. |
| US09037006B2 |
Image forming apparatus with a regulating member for regulating insertion of units into an internal space of the apparatus
An image forming apparatus has an image forming section, a casing, a wall section, a first unit, a second unit and a first regulating member. The casing has an internal space in which the image forming section is disposed. The first unit is mounted in a first position of the internal space. The first insertion path is a path through which the first unit passes in the internal space. The second unit is mounted in a second position of the internal space closer to the wall section than the first position is. The second insertion path is a path through which the second unit passes in the internal space. The first regulating member projects to the second insertion path when the first unit is not mounted in the first position and retracts from the second insertion path when the first unit is mounted in the first position. |
| US09036991B2 |
Optical transceiver having an OTDR mode, and a method of obtaining test data for testing an optical fiber
An optical transceiver has a communications mode and an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) mode. The transceiver comprises a transmitter channel and a receiver channel operable, in the communications mode, to respectively transmit and receive communications signals through respective external optical fibers. The transceiver also comprises a guide arrangement for guiding, in the OTDR mode, a reflected OTDR signal along a path from the transmitter channel into the receiver channel. A method of obtaining test data for an optical fiber in an optical data communications subsystem is also disclosed. |
| US09036982B2 |
Recording apparatus
A recording apparatus includes a recording unit configured to record a moving image signal in a recording medium, a setting unit configured to set a threshold based on a remaining recording capacity of the recording medium, and a control unit configured to control the recording unit to start recording the moving image signal, into a first moving image file in the recording medium, according to a recording instruction, wherein the control unit is configured to control the recording unit to divide the moving image signal into at least a second moving image file in the recording medium in the case that a size of the first moving image file has reached the threshold during recording of the moving image signal according to the recording instruction, and is configured to control the recording unit to delete the moving image file recorded first, from among the plurality of moving image files recorded after the recording instruction, if the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium is determined to have run out during recording of the moving image signal. |
| US09036981B2 |
Method and apparatus for advertisement placement in a user dialog on a set-top box
Methods and apparatuses for presenting targeted advertisements to DVR users are described. After a DVR has finished playing a recorded television program, or in response to other specified events, the DVR presents a screen which comprises a “save or delete” menu. In addition to the “save” and “delete” options, the menu additionally comprises one or more other options. Each of these other options may correspond to a separate promotional item. For example, a user's selection of such an option may cause the DVR to display or play an advertisement on the user's television set. Additionally or alternatively, these other options, when selected by a user, may cause the DVR to display a user interface through which the user can actually purchase a product or service. The product or service advertised or offered may be one that was featured or referenced in the television program that the user was just watching. |
| US09036977B2 |
Automatic detection, removal, replacement and tagging of flash frames in a video
A method for automatically detecting, eliminating and replacing flash frames in digital video utilizes the detected flash frames to categorize and tag the surrounding frames as a relevant area of the digital video. The flash frame is detected when acquiring digital video during capture, the flash frame is replaced with a newly-constructed frame that is interpolated based upon surrounding frames and then, using the detected flash as the timestamp, the frame is tagged. |
| US09036974B2 |
Fiber optic enclosure with tear-away spool
Example fiber optic enclosures include a cable spool assembly and a cover. Each disc of the cable spool assembly has a removable section that extends radially outwardly from a central portion of the disc. The cable spool assembly has a first diameter when the removable sections are attached to the discs. The central portion of each disc has a second diameter. The cover has a lateral dimension that is smaller than the first diameter of the cable spool assembly and larger than the second diameter of the cable spool assembly. Certain types of spool assemblies include a termination region including a plurality of adapters that rotate in unison with the first disc of the cable spool assembly. |
| US09036972B2 |
Optical fiber preform, method for producing optical fiber, and optical fiber
An easily producible optical fiber preform which is drawn to an optical fiber having a core containing a sufficient concentration of alkali metal is provided. An optical fiber preform 10 is composed of silica-based glass and includes a core portion 20 and a cladding portion 30. The core portion 20 includes a first core portion 21 including a central axis and a second core portion 22 disposed on the perimeter of the first core portion 21. The cladding portion 30 includes a first cladding portion 31 disposed on the perimeter of the second core portion 22 and a second cladding portion 32 disposed on the perimeter of the first cladding portion 31. The core portion 20 contains an alkali metal at an average concentration of 5 atomic ppm or more. The concentration of the OH group in the perimeter portion of the first cladding portion 31 is 200 mol ppm or more. |
| US09036970B2 |
Method and device for diffuse excitation in imaging
A coupling device for an optical fiber used in optical tomography examination of a medium includes a mass of diffusing material for a wavelength guided by the optical fiber. This mass includes a bearing surface to be applied against the surface of the medium. At least one housing is provided in the mass to receive the end of the optical fiber. |
| US09036969B2 |
Spot size converters and methods of manufacturing the same
Provided are a spot size converter and a method of manufacturing the spot size converter. The method includes stacking a lower clad layer, a core layer, and a first upper clad layer on a substrate, tapering the first upper clad layer and the core layer in a first direction on a side of the substrate, forming a waveguide layer on the first upper clad layer and the lower clad layer, and etching the waveguide layer, the first upper clad layer, the core layer, and the lower clad layer such that the waveguide layer is wider than a tapered portion of the core layer on the side of the substrate and has the same width as that of the core layer on another side of the substrate. |
| US09036965B2 |
Microlens array and optical transmission component
A microlens array, which maintains high positional accuracy with respect to an optical circuit such as a waveguide and facilitates connection operation, and an optical transmission component including the microlens array.SolutionThe microlens array is provided with a plurality of microlenses arranged in an array structure and having the same length in the optical axis direction and optical fibers for alignment arranged at both ends of the array structure so that the optical axis is parallel to the optical axis of the microlens and having a length in the optical axis direction the same as the length of the microlens and a guided mode diameter smaller than an aperture of the microlens. |
| US09036964B2 |
Optical light guide coupler
An optical light guide coupler for coupling at least two light guides comprises an input face and an output face, wherein the optical light guide coupler is configured to receive light from a first light guide having a stepped output profile and is configured to transmit that light to a second light guide having a non-stepped profile. The input face of the light guide coupler is registered to the stepped output profile of the first light guide and the output face of the light guide coupler is at least one of rectilinear and curved. |
| US09036963B2 |
Light collecting and emitting apparatus, method, and applications
A light guide apparatus includes a light guide layer having a top surface and a bottom surface, and a transversely oriented side-end surface that forms an output aperture of the light guide, characterized by an index of refraction, n1, and further characterized by a length dimension in an intended light propagation direction towards the output aperture, where the intended light propagation direction is a z-axis direction of a Cartesian coordinate system; and a plurality of light injection elements disposed in the form of at least one linear strip in at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of the light guide layer, wherein some of the plurality of light injection elements are disposed on one lateral side of the strip and some other of the plurality of light injection elements are disposed on an opposing lateral side of the strip at a rotation angle Δz about the y-axis. |
| US09036962B2 |
Arrangement of optical fibers, and a method of forming such arrangement
A method of forming an optical fiber array. The method comprises providing a substrate having a first surface and an opposing second surface. The substrate is provided with a plurality of apertures extending through the substrate from the first surface to the second surface. Additionally, a plurality of fibers is provided. The fibers have fiber ends with a diameter smaller than the smallest diameter of the apertures. For each fiber, from the first surface side of the substrate, the fiber is inserted in a corresponding aperture such that the fiber end is positioned in close proximity of the second surface. Then the fiber is bent in a predetermined direction such that the fiber abuts a side wall of the aperture at a predetermined position. Finally, the bent fibers are bonded together using an adhesive material. |
| US09036957B2 |
Shared propagation region for an optical multiplexer or an optical demultiplexer
An optical system may include an optical multiplexer or demultiplexer circuit having a slab with a propagation region. The propagation region may have a first propagation section and a second propagation section, such that a portion of the first propagation section and a portion of the second propagation section overlap each other to form a shared propagation section. The shared propagation section may include both the portion of the first propagation section and the portion of the second propagation section. The first propagation section and the second propagation section may each have a first end and a second end. The optical system may further include multiple waveguides directly connected to the second end of the first propagation section and directly connected to the second end of the second propagation section. |
| US09036954B2 |
Optical waveguide structure
Embodiments of the invention describe a multi-segment optical waveguide that enables an optical modulator to be low-power and athermal by decreasing the device length needed for a given waveguide length. Embodiments of the invention describe an optical waveguide that is folded onto itself, and thus includes at least two sections. Thus, embodiments of the invention may decrease the device size of a modulator by at least around a factor of two if the device is folded twofold (device size may be further reduced if the modulator is folded threefold, four-fold, five-fold, etc.).Embodiments of the invention further enable the electrode length required to create the desired electro-optic effect for the multi-segment optical waveguide to be reduced. In embodiments of the invention, certain electrodes may be “shared” amongst the different segments of the waveguide, thereby reducing the power requirement and capacitance of a device having a waveguide of a given length. |
| US09036952B2 |
Electro-optical assembly for silicon photonic chip and electro-optical carrier
An electro-optical device and method of assembly is disclosed. A first unit of the electro-optical device is positioned with respect to a second unit of the electro-optical device to pre-align an optical communication pathway between the first unit and the second unit. The first unit is positioned with respect to the second unit to pre-align an electrical communication pathway between the first unit and the second unit. The first unit is bonded to the second unit to assemble the electro-optical device to establish optical communication and electrical communication between the first unit and the second unit. |
| US09036950B2 |
Autogenerating video from text
A method of converting user-selected printed text to a synthesized image sequence is provided. The method includes capturing a first image of printed text and generating a model information associated with the text. |
| US09036946B2 |
Image processing apparatus that retrieves similar images, method of controlling the same, and storage medium
An image processing apparatus capable of reducing time taken to retrieve a specific image including a specific object area from a plurality of images, even when an image is newly added or a face dictionary is updated. A CPU of the apparatus determines whether or not object search information indicating the image is a candidate image as a candidate of the specific image exists in management information. When the object search information does not exist, the CPU refers to an object dictionary in which feature value data of an objects are registered, and compares feature value data of an object detected from a image and the feature value data of the object dictionary to thereby retrieve candidate images. When the object search information exists, the CPU retrieves candidate images based on the object search information. |
| US09036943B1 |
Cloud-based image improvement
Approaches are described for managing the processing of image or video data captured by a portable computing device. The device provides a set of images to a remote server executing “in the cloud”. The set of images can include a reference image and at least one other image captured subsequent or prior to the reference. Upon receiving the set of images at the remote server operating, the remote server can process the images to determine a similarity between the reference image and each of the other images. Thereafter, each image having a similarity value above a similarity value threshold can be aligned with the reference image, and the pixel values for corresponding locations in each of the images can be combined to create a processed image. The processed images can be provided to the computing device from the remote server, where the user can decide to accept or discard the image. |
| US09036942B1 |
Link between handheld device and projectile
A projectile can be equipped with a camera and be configured to detonate after receiving a command to detonate. After the projectile is thrown the camera can capture images. These images can be sent by way of the physical link to the handheld device. The handheld device can display the images. A user of the handheld device can view the images and determine if the projectile should detonate based on the images. |
| US09036941B2 |
Reducing moiré patterns
Among other disclosed subject matter, a computer-implemented method includes receiving illustrated content. The illustrated content includes half-tone content. The method includes blurring at least part of the illustrated content. The blurring is performed according to a blur radius. The method includes downscaling the blurred illustrated content to an output size. |
| US09036938B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program
There is provided an image processing apparatus including a vector detection unit which detects flow vectors of pixels in an inputted image, a vector-coherency calculation unit which calculates vector coherency based on the flow vectors detected by the vector detection unit, a deformation-characteristic computation unit which computes a deformation characteristic by using the vector coherency calculated by the vector-coherency calculation unit, the deformation characteristic being used for deforming a tap shape of a filter used for each of the pixels, and a painterly conversion unit which converts the inputted image based on the deformation characteristic computed by the deformation-characteristic computation unit. |
| US09036936B2 |
Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing program
An image processing device includes an image acquirer for acquiring an image, a depth of field calculator for calculating an estimate representing a depth of field of an image based on collateral information of the image, an image divider for dividing the image into evaluation regions, and a blur evaluator for detecting a blur in each of the evaluation regions divided by the image divider, performing blur evaluation for calculating evaluation values for evaluating degrees of an out-of-focus blur or a camera/subject movement-caused blur, and calculating an evaluation value of the image from the evaluation values of the evaluation regions based on the estimated depth of field. |
| US09036935B2 |
Image coding apparatus and image coding method
First coded data are generated from a target block by a first coding mode. Second coded data having predetermined amount are generated from the target block by a second coding mode. Whether to encode by the first coding mode or the second coding mode is decided. Based on the decision result, any of the first coded data and the second coded data is selected. If a total amount of coded data of a segment is over a target amount, encoding by the second coding mode is decided. The segment comprises blocks including the target block. The total amount is sum of an amount of coded data generated from blocks prior to the target block in the segment, an amount of the first coded data, an amount of coded data to be generated from remained blocks in the segment by the second coding mode. |
| US09036933B2 |
Image encoding method and apparatus, image decoding method and apparatus, and programs therefor
When the entire image is divided into regions, each of which is subjected to predictive encoding while predicting an image signal by using an independent method assigned to the region, the object number and a representative pixel value for each object are predicted utilizing spatial continuity for the presence of the object, and also using decoded pixel values of a previously-processed neighbor region adjacent to a processing region. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the amount of code required for encoding the object number in the processing region or the pixel value as a representative of each object in the processing region, where these encoded items are required in highly accurate image signal prediction which can handle any object shape by utilizing the pixel value as a representative of each object in the processing target region and information for identifying the object assigned to each pixel in the processing region. Therefore, efficient image encoding can be implemented. Since the employed decoded pixel values of pixels in a previously-decoded neighbor region are common information between the encoding and decoding sides, appropriate prediction can be performed even in the case where one of multiple image signal prediction modes is selected for each region, like in H.264. |
| US09036928B2 |
Systems and methods for encoding structured light field image files
Systems and methods configured to store images synthesized from light field image data and metadata describing the images in electronic files and render images using the stored image and the metadata in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. One embodiment includes a processor and memory containing an encoding application and light field image data, where the light field image data comprises a plurality of low resolution images of a scene captured from different viewpoints. In addition, the encoding application configures the processor to: synthesize a higher resolution image of the scene from a reference viewpoint using the low resolution images, where synthesizing the higher resolution image involves creating a depth map that specifies depths from the reference viewpoint for pixels in the higher resolution image; encode the higher resolution image; and create a light field image file including the encoded image and metadata including the depth map. |
| US09036927B2 |
Image coding method, image decoding method, image coding apparatus, image decoding apparatus, and image coding and decoding apparatus
An image coding method of coding an image on a per coding unit basis, the method comprising: applying a frequency transform to luminance data and chrominance data of transform units in the coding unit including predetermined blocks each corresponding to one or more of the transform units; and coding the luminance data and the chrominance data to which the frequency transform has been applied to generate a bitstream in which the luminance data and the chrominance data are grouped on a per predetermined block basis. |
| US09036921B2 |
Face and expression aligned movies
Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for generating sequences of face and expression aligned images are presented. An embodiment includes determining a plurality of candidate images, computing a similarity distance between an input image and each of the candidate images based on facial features in the input image and the candidate images, comparing the computed similarity distances, selecting a candidate image based on the comparing, and adding the selected candidate image to an image sequence for real-time display. Embodiments select images from the image sequence as they are being added to the image sequence and scale, rotate and translate each image so that a face appearing in a selected image is aligned with a face appearing in a subsequently selected image from the image sequence. In this way, embodiments are able to render arbitrarily large image collections efficiently and in real time to display a face and expression aligned movie. |
| US09036915B2 |
Architectural pattern detection and modeling in images
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate architectural modeling. In one aspect, repetitive patterns are automatically detected and analyzed to generate modeled structural images such as building facades. In another aspect, structural symmetry is analyzed to facilitate architectural modeling and enhanced image generation. |
| US09036914B2 |
Arrangement with a rotatable X-ray detector
The present embodiments provide an arrangement with an X-ray detector that is driven by a rotation device. The arrangement includes a first rotational speed sensor and a second rotational speed sensor that determine a rotation of the X-ray detector. The first rotational speed sensor and the second rotational speed sensor are coupled via a connection device including a pre-tensioned torsion spring. |
| US09036912B2 |
Method, system, digital camera and asic for geometric image transformation based on text line searching
The present invention provides a method, system and/or a digital camera providing a geometrical transformation of deformed images of documents comprising text, by text line tracking, resulting in an image comprising parallel text lines. The transformed image is provided as an input to an OCR program either running in a computer system or in a processing element comprised in said digital camera. |
| US09036910B1 |
Method and system for processing a sequence of images using fingerprints
A method and system for processing a sequence of images using fingerprints. A current image in the sequence of images is segmented into a plurality of segments. A plurality of segment fingerprints is created for the plurality of segments. Segments in the plurality of segments are fused together using the plurality of segment fingerprints and a set of prior segment fingerprints created for a previous image in the sequence of images to form a set of master segments. |
| US09036909B2 |
Pyramid collapse color interpolation
One exemplary embodiment involves receiving an image with a set of undefined pixels and a set of defined pixels and recursively modifying the image to generate a seamless composition comprising only defined pixels. Disclosed are embodiments for recursively modifying the image by recursively down sampling the image by a factor to generate a plurality of down sampled images until the down sampled image generated at each recursive down sampling lacks undefined pixels and then recursively up sampling each one of the down sampled images by the factor to generate an up sampled image from the respective down sampled image. Additionally, at each recursive up sampling instance, pasting the next recursively occurring down sampled image on the up sampled image to generate the next recursively occurring image for up sampling. |
| US09036908B2 |
Backwards compatible extended image format
Techniques are provided for encoding an extended image such that it is backwards compatible with existing decoding devices. An extended image format is defined such that the extended image format is consistent with an existing image format over the full range of the existing image format. Because the extended image format is consistent with the existing image format over the full range of the existing image format, additional image information that is included in an extended image can be extracted from the extended image. A base version of an image (expressed using the existing image format) may be encoded in a payload portion and the extracted additional information may be stored in a metadata portion of a widely supported image file format. |
| US09036904B2 |
Image processing device and method, learning device and method, and program
There is provided an image processing device including a weight calculation unit that calculates a weight corresponding to each of a plurality of pixel values centering on a pixel of interest of an input image based on a feature amount calculated based on the plurality of pixel values centering on the pixel of interest, a regression coefficient reading unit that reads a regression coefficient stored for each class code determined based on a plurality of pixel values corresponding to the pixel of interest of the input image, and a pixel value calculation unit that calculates a pixel value of a pixel of interest of an output image by performing calculation using the plurality of pixel values, the weights, and the regression coefficients centering on the pixel of interest of the input image. |
| US09036903B2 |
Learning device, identification device, learning identification system and learning identification device
A learning device includes a gradient feature extraction unit which extracts a gradient feature amount including a gradient direction at each coordinate and a gradient intensity value thereof based on an amount of variation between luminance at each coordinate of an inputted learning target pattern and luminance at a periphery thereof, a sum difference feature extraction unit which calculates a predetermined sum difference feature amount by adding the gradient intensity values according to the gradient directions included in a predetermined gradient range indicating a range of the predetermined gradient direction based on the extracted gradient feature amount and subtracting the gradient intensity values according to the gradient directions included in the other gradient range adjacent to the predetermined gradient range from the calculated sum, and a learning unit which acquires a learning parameter at each coordinate. |
| US09036902B2 |
Detector for chemical, biological and/or radiological attacks
This specification generally relates to methods and algorithms for detection of chemical, biological, and/or radiological attacks. The methods use one or more sensors that can have visual, audio, and/or thermal sensing abilities and can use algorithms to determine by behavior patterns of people whether there has been a chemical, biological and/or radiological attack. |
| US09036901B2 |
Method of color correction of pair of colorful stereo microscope images
A method for color correction of a pair of colorful stereo microscope images is provided, which transmits the color information of the foreground areas and the background area of the reference image to the aberrated image separately for avoiding transmission error of the color information of the varied areas of the pair of the images, thus sufficiently improves the accuracy of the color correction, reduces the difference between the color of the reference image and the color of the aberrated image, and well prepares for the stereo matching of the pair of colorful stereo microscope images as well as for the three-dimensional reconstruction and three-dimensional measurement; on the other hand, during the correction, the correcting procedure is provided automatically without manual work. |
| US09036893B2 |
Tire defect detection method
Provided is a tire defect detection method capable of accurately detecting a thinly extending convex defect of a tire surface. Prior to the start of Step S1, two-dimensional images including a slit light image are successively obtained in advance. In Step S1, a slit light image is extracted from data of a plurality of shot two-dimensional images. In Step S2, an eccentricity component which is deviation resulting from eccentricity is eliminated from the extracted slit light image. In Step S3, a feature quantity is calculated based on the light image from which the eccentricity component is eliminated, and in Step S4, a thinly extending convex defect is detected based on the calculated feature quantity. |
| US09036892B2 |
Systems and methods for data entry in a non-destructive testing system
Systems and methods for entering data acquired from a non-destructive testing (NDT) system may include obtaining information related to an inspection using a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device. After obtaining the information, the method may include generating an inspection template, a report, metadata, or any combination thereof based on the information related to the inspection. |
| US09036887B2 |
Particle image velocimetry suitable for X-ray projection imaging
A 2D or 3D velocity field is reconstructed from a cross-correlation analysis of image pairs of a sample, without first reconstructing images of the sample spatial structure. The method can be implemented via computer tomographic X-ray particle image velocimetry, using multiple projection angles, with phase contrast images forming dynamic speckle patterns. Estimated cross-correlations may be generated via convolution of a measured autocorrelation function with a velocity probability density function, and the velocity coefficients iteratively optimized to minimize the error between the estimated cross-correlations and the measured cross-correlations. The method may be applied to measure blood flow, and the motion of tissue and organs such as heart and lungs. |
| US09036881B2 |
Reduction and removal of artifacts from a three-dimensional dental X-ray data set using surface scan information
A system for removing artifacts caused by x-ray reflective materials from an x-ray image of a patient's teeth. The system includes an x-ray source, an x-ray detector that captures several x-ray images, and a surface scanner that captures a surface scan of the patient's teeth. An image processor generates three-dimensional models from the optical surface data and the CT volumetric data. The models are resized and oriented to be of the same scale and orientation and then overlaid to create a combined data set. Data points that extend beyond the surface of the patient's teeth in the surface model are identified and may be removed if it is determined that they are artifacts. An artifact-reduced CT model is then displayed. |
| US09036878B2 |
Method for delineation of tissue lesions
The present invention relates to a method for estimating a measure of a penumbra size of a penumbra in biological tissue wherein first and second images obtained respectively by perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) are analyzed, and wherein the analysis of the first image includes application of a level set method, and the analysis of the second image includes application of a grayscale morphological operation. In a further embodiment of the invention, a connected component labeling algorithm maybe applied on any one of the first and second image. The invention further relates to a system, a computer program product and use of a corresponding method. |
| US09036877B2 |
Continuous cardiac pulse rate estimation from multi-channel source video data with mid-point stitching
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for extracting photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals (i.e., cardiac signals) on a continuous basis from signals generated from video images captured of a subject being monitored for cardiac function in a non-contact remote sensing environment. In one embodiment, a time-series signal is received. The time-series signal is generated from video images captured of a region of exposed skin where a PPG signal of a subject of interest can be registered. The time-series signal is then divided into batches for processing, with successive batches having at least a 95% overlap with a previous batch. Each of the batches of time-series signals is processed to obtain a PPG signal from each batch. A mid-point of each of these PPG-signals is stitched together to obtain a continuous PPG signal for the subject. The continuous PPG signal for the subject can then viewed on a display device. |
| US09036873B2 |
Apparatus, method, and program for detecting object from image
An image processing apparatus includes a detection unit configured to scan an input image and each of images at different resolutions, which are generated from the input image, by a predetermined-sized window to detect an object in the image, a storage unit configured to store a detection result of the detection unit, and a control unit configured to, if there is no free space in the storage unit to store a new detection result of the detection unit, store the new detection result instead of a detection result of an image at higher resolution than resolution of an image from which the new detection result is acquired. |
| US09036872B2 |
Biometric authentication using the eye
An apparatus and method for authenticating a subject using the eye as an identifying biometric, in particular the shape of the cornea. An image projection device generates and projects an image of a pattern, of plural discrete points, onto at least a part of the cornea of the eye. An image capture device captures an image of the pattern of plural discrete points, after reflection from the cornea of the eye. A computer processor extracts data defining the locations of the discrete points in the captured image. The method steps are capturing an image of a pattern, made up of plural discrete points, after reflection from of the cornea of a subject; comparing the locations of the discrete points in the captured image against the locations of discrete points in a pattern of a reference image; and, authenticating the identity of the subject depending on the similarity of the comparison. |
| US09036868B2 |
Sustainable outdoor lighting system for use in environmentally photo-sensitive area
Provided herein are systems and methods for outdoor lighting, which generally include two or more light sources. One light source is a monochromatic light source producing a light with a peak wavelength of about 580 nm or above. A second light source is a polychromatic light source producing a green-tint white light. During a standby operational mode, a control system maintains the first light source illuminated. The control system, which includes an integrated imaging system, illuminates the second light source when the imaging system identifies a target in an illumination area. Methods of preparing and using such outdoor lighting system are also provided. |
| US09036863B2 |
Resuming tracking after losing target
An object recognition apparatus comprises: an extraction unit configured to extract a partial region from an image and extract a feature amount; a recognition unit configured to recognize whether the partial region is a target object based on the feature amount and one of a first recognition model including a feature amount of a positive example indicating the target object and a negative example indicating a background and a second recognition model including that of the positive example; an updating unit configured to update the first recognition model by adding the feature amount; and an output unit configured to output an object region recognized as being the target object, wherein the recognition unit performs recognition based on the first recognition model if the object region was output for a previous image, and based on the second recognition model if not. |
| US09036858B1 |
Customizable audio speaker assembly
A customizable audio speaker assembly has a speaker housing enclosing electronic components of the speaker assembly, including a speaker for producing sound and a battery. A decorative cover is adapted to fit over an outer surface of the housing via first and second securing elements disposed on the speaker housing and the decorative cover, respectively. The decorative cover enables the quick and easy customization of the speaker assembly. |
| US09036855B2 |
Rotary user interface for headphones
A headphone includes a housing, a loudspeaker located inside the housing, a cushion coupled to the housing and arranged to acoustically couple the headphone to a user's ear, electronics electrically coupled to the loudspeaker, and a rotatable ring coupled to the housing and surrounding a central portion of the housing, rotation of the ring providing a user input to the electronics. The headphone may include a touch sensor detecting contact with the ring by an external element and providing an input signal to the electronics, the electronics reacting to the input signal based on the direction and extent of contact by the external element moving along the ring. |
| US09036853B2 |
Earpiece positioning and retaining
A positioning and retaining structure for an in-ear earpiece. An outer leg and an inner leg are attached to each other at an attachment end and attached to a body of the earpiece at the other end. The outer leg lies in a plane. The positioning and retaining structure have a stiffness that is greater when force is applied to the attachment end in a counterclockwise direction in the plane of the outer leg than when force is applied to the attachment end in a clockwise direction in the plane of the outer leg. The positioning and retaining structure position an earpiece associated with the earpiece in a user's ear and retains the earpiece in its position. |
| US09036852B2 |
Earpiece positioning and retaining
A positioning and retaining structure for an in-ear earpiece. An outer leg and an inner leg are attached to each other at an attachment end and attached to a body of the earpiece at the other end. The outer leg lies in a plane. The positioning and retaining structure have a stiffness that is greater when force is applied to the attachment end in a counterclockwise direction in the plane of the outer leg than when force is applied to the attachment end in a clockwise direction in the plane of the outer leg. The positioning and retaining structure position an earpiece associated with the earpiece in a user's ear and retains the earpiece in its position. |
| US09036851B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for sound production
Electrical signals corresponding to sound are received at a wire, and sound is generated at a speaker connected to the wire. The sound is resonated in a cavity of a shell housing the speaker, and then passed along a transmission tube toward a pinna of a user's ear without directing the sound directly toward the user's ear canal. |
| US09036850B2 |
Augmented custom fit headset
An augmented custom fit headset (300) is disclosed. The augmented headset (300) can include: a wearable module (310) configured to be worn around a user's head including an outer band structure (312) with left and right ends (314) and (316), at least one of the left and right ends (314) and (316) having an inner facing cavity (318); earpiece modules (322) and (324) including left and right speakers (326) and (328) connected to the left and right ends (314) and (316); and a removable inner band (330) including a plug portion (332), the plug portion (332) being snap connected to the inner facing cavity (318), defining a snap connector (336). Advantageously, this structure provides an improved removable inner band (330), which is effective, economical, reliable and easy to use. Also, this construction helps to allow the plug portion (332) to remain in place, during use, and can slightly deflect or bend inwardly, to facilitate insertion and removal. |
| US09036849B2 |
Headset with stowable boom
A headset comprises a headband for supporting the headset on a user's head, an earpiece including an audio driver and a microphone boom including a microphone. The microphone boom is rotatable when the headset is located on a user's head from an operative position in which the microphone boom is directed towards the user's mouth to a stowed position in which the microphone boom is at least partially received in a recess defined in the headset. |
| US09036846B2 |
Systems and methods for optimizing a compliance voltage of an auditory prosthesis
Exemplary systems and methods for optimizing a compliance voltage of an auditory prosthesis are disclosed. Each stimulation channel formed by electrodes that are coupled to an auditory prosthesis may have an adjustable current steering range associated therewith. Each adjustable current steering range is centered about the midpoint of its respective stimulation channel and defines a range of current steering that may be used within its respective stimulation channel. A compliance voltage of an auditory prosthesis may be optimized by setting a current steering range for one or more stimulation channels to a value that results in an optimum balance between power conservation and performance of the auditory prosthesis. |
| US09036844B1 |
Hearing devices based on the plasticity of the brain
The invention describes a hearing improvement device including components for training the brain to connect and stimulate the auditory and visual corteces and strengthen pathways between them, in order to overcome the shortcomings of the damaged auditory channel. |
| US09036842B2 |
Positioning and reproducing screen sound source with high resolution
A virtual screen sound source is spatially synchronized with a visual object displayed on a display. A plurality of loudspeaker sets, which each include at least three of a plurality of loudspeakers installed at the periphery of a display, are selected, individual sound sources corresponding to the respective selected loudspeaker sets are generated, and a multi-sound source is generated by overlapping the generated individual sound sources and output through loudspeakers included in the loudspeaker sets. |
| US09036839B2 |
Multi-way coaxial loudspeaker with magnetic cylinder
A coaxial loudspeaker includes a permanent magnet positioned between a generally coaxially aligned first transducer having an associated permanent magnet and second transducer having an associated permanent magnet. In one embodiment, a magnetic cylinder is positioned between a woofer and a tweeter of a coaxial multi-way loudspeaker. An optional support structure, such as a plastic cylinder, may encompass the permanent magnet to enhance structural characteristics of the assembly. The woofer may include an external ceramic magnet extending around a center pole of the woofer. |
| US09036838B2 |
Dual-diaphragm acoustic transducer
A dual-diaphragm acoustic transducer includes a substrate defining an opening, an inner diaphragm and an outer diaphragm concentrically mounted at one same side of the substrate corresponding to the opening of the substrate, and a plurality of elastic supporting members connected between the outer perimeter of the inner diaphragm and the inner perimeter of the outer diaphragm. Thus, when a sound wave enters the opening of the substrate, the sound wave pressure forces the outer diaphragm to displace and to carry the inner diaphragm to move, and the inner diaphragm itself will also be forced by the sound wave pressure to have a larger displacement than the outer diaphragm, enhancing the sensitivity. Further, using the inner and outer diaphragms to respond to different sound wave pressures can enhance the sound wave pressure sensing range. |
| US09036835B2 |
Combining an audio power amplifier and a power converter in a single device
An apparatus is described that includes an audio power amplifier having an input and an output. An alternating-current to direct-current power converter is coupled to the audio power amplifier in a single package to supply power to the audio power amplifier. |
| US09036831B2 |
Amplification system, carrier tracking systems and related methods for use in parametric sound systems
A signal processing system for generating an ultrasonic signal from an audio signal comprises a compressor, operable to compress the audio signal, and an equalization circuit, operable to equalize the audio signal. A modulation circuit is operable to combine the audio signal with a carrier signal to produce at least one modulated carrier signal. A voltage detection and control circuit is operable to: detect a voltage of the modulated carrier signal; compare the detected voltage of the modulated carrier signal to a desired voltage; and cause the voltage of the modulated carrier signal to be adjusted if the compared voltage differs by a predetermined amount from the desired voltage. |
| US09036830B2 |
Noise gate, sound collection device, and noise removing method
A purpose of the invention is to provide a noise gate that can output an audio signal in which only a stationary noise is removed, without degrading an utterance voice of a speaking person. A sound collection device 1 includes an FFT processing unit 11, the noise gate 12, and an IFFT processing unit 13. The sound collection device 1 transforms a collected audio signal NET into a frequency spectrum NE′N by using the FFT processing unit 11. The noise gate 12 estimates a noise spectrum N′N of a stationary noise based on the frequency spectrum NE′N of the audio signal. The noise gate 12 decreases a signal level (a gain) of the audio signal in a case where a signal level ratio of the frequency spectrum NE′N of the audio signal to the noise spectrum N′N is less than a threshold value, and outputs the audio signal. The sound collection device 1 outputs an audio signal CO′T which is generated in such a manner that the IFFT processing unit 13 inversely transforms a frequency spectrum CO′N after removing the stationary noise N′N. |
| US09036828B2 |
Method for outputting music information in a vehicle
In a method for outputting music information in a vehicle by way of an audio system having loudspeakers in the front area and rear area of the vehicle, the behavior of the vehicle is determined by use of an acceleration sensor responding to longitudinal accelerations. The loudspeakers arranged in the direction of the respective acceleration are at least preferably activated. |
| US09036827B2 |
Parametric audio system
Ultrasonic signals are used to transmit sounds from a modulated ultrasonic generator to other locations from which the sounds appear to emanate. In particular, an ultrasonic carrier is modulated with an audio signal and demodulated on passage through the atmosphere. The carrier frequencies are substantially higher than those of prior systems, e.g., at least 60 kHz, and the modulation products thus have frequencies which are well above the audible range of humans; as a result, these signals are likely harmless to individuals who are within the ultrasonic fields of the system. The signals may be steered to moving locations, and various measures are taken to minimize distortion and maximize efficiency. |
| US09036826B2 |
Echo cancellation using closed-form solutions
A system that utilizes closed-form solutions to perform echo cancellation is described. The system includes a filter, filter parameter determination logic and a combiner. The filter is configured to process a far-end audio signal in accordance with one or more filter parameters to generate an estimated echo signal. The filter parameter determination logic is configured to update estimated statistics associated with the far-end audio signal and a microphone signal based on instantaneous statistics associated with the far-end audio signal and the microphone signal, and calculate the one or more filter parameters based upon the updated estimated statistics. The combiner is configured to generate an estimated near-end audio signal by subtracting the estimated echo signal from the microphone signal. |
| US09036815B2 |
Method for acoustic echo cancellation and system thereof
The spirit of the present invention is to vary the step size parameter in accordance with the error signal and the output acoustic signal, wherein the filter is easy to implement, nonparametric VSS-NLMS algorithm which employs the mean-square error and the estimated system noise power to control the step-size update. The new nonparametric VSS-NLMS algorithm has been shown to perform with fast convergence rate, good tracking, and low mis-adjustment. In comparison with existing VSS-NLMS algorithms, the proposed algorithm has demonstrated consistently superior performance both in convergence and for final error level relative to published algorithms in application on both simulated data and real speech data. |
| US09036812B2 |
Method and apparatus for selecting communication identifiers
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a communication device having a controller to retrieve a targeted party telephone number, retrieve a telephone number assigned to the communication device, submit to a system at least a portion of the targeted party telephone number and at least a portion of the telephone number assigned to the communication device, receive from the system information indicating a dialing format for the targeted party telephone number, and initiate communications according to the information supplied by the system. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09036811B1 |
Dialing a telephone number subject to an autodialer prohibition in a contact center
A contact center dialing a telephone number to a destination party, such as a debtor, may discover that the number is subject to a prohibition of being autodialed. In other embodiments, a number that was subject to the prohibition of being autodialed is now discovered to no longer be subject to such prohibition. Various mechanisms may be defined to indicate how such a prohibition associated with the number may be indicated in a dialing list and how various contact center architectures may be used to process the dialing list. In one embodiment, separate sub-systems are used to dial separate dialing lists based on whether the number is to be manually dialed or dialed using an autodialer. In another embodiment, another architecture is used to process an integrated dialing list to determine whether a number is to be manually dialed or autodialed. |
| US09036809B1 |
Global interpreter/translation services via conference bridge
Embodiments of the present invention pertain to an apparatus, method, and a computer program configured to connect a translator located in a remote area to a conference holding area, and also connect a customer and customer service representative to the translator in order for the translator to translate between the customer service representative and the customer, when the customer services representative determines that a translator is needed. |
| US09036803B2 |
System and method for providing advanced call forwarding functionality
The disclosed embodiments include a method of determining a particular communications device to signal in order to contact a user. The method includes storing a plurality of device locations in memory. The method includes determining a current location of a user or user device in response to receiving a communication request, comparing the received current location and one or more of the device locations, and selecting a particular communications device to route the communication request. A distinctive call forwarded ring signal may be sent to the particular communications device in order to indicate to the user that the call is intended for the user. |
| US09036799B2 |
Method for communication and components in a communications network
With a method for communication in a communication network, a subscriber is assigned an authorization level depending on the respective applicable scenario at the time when the authorization level is assigned for that subscriber in that communication network. |
| US09036798B2 |
Methods and systems for selecting a buddy from a buddy list and for placing call to a buddy
There is described a provides a method for selecting a buddy with which a user wants to connect. The buddy having a buddy identification being listed in a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations. The user using a user telephone means to which is associated identification information. The method comprises: initiating a call from the user telephone means to an Internet-enabled computing device, the call having associated thereto calling line identification (CLID) information; comparing the CLID information to the user telephone means identification information; validating the CLID information using the comparison upon positive validation, the user providing the buddy identification; consulting the pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations for a match between the buddy identification and one of the Internet-accessible destinations; and advising the user of a successful or unsuccessful match. Alternatively, a call is placed to a party which does not necessarily belong to a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations. |
| US09036791B2 |
Telephone system having alert module
One telephone system embodiment having an alert module includes a base unit and at least one handheld unit. The base unit has a processor in data communication with a telephone network interface, a radio receiver, a first local transmitter, a first local receiver, and a first computer memory having a first program. The handheld unit has a processor in data communication with a second local receiver, a second local transmitter, a microphone, a speaker, and a second computer memory having a second program. At least one of the first and second programs includes instructions for passing signals between a telephone network on one end and the microphone and the speaker on another end. At least one of the first and second programs includes instructions for presenting an emergency warning through the speaker upon receipt of alert data from an emergency broadcast radio transmitter. |
| US09036787B2 |
Mobile X-ray unit
One embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to a mobile X-ray unit. The mobile X-ray unit may include a base and an arm associated with the base. The arm may be configured to support an X-ray applicator having an X-ray tube. The X-ray tube may be configured to generate an X-ray beam. The X-ray applicator may include an exit surface through which the X-ray beam passes in use. The X-ray unit may further include an applicator cap for covering at least the exit surface of the X-ray applicator. |
| US09036786B2 |
Transmission type X-ray tube and reflection type X-ray tube
The present invention provides a transmission type X-ray tube and a reflection type X-ray tube. The transmission type X-ray tube comprises a target and a filter material. The target has at least one element which produces X-rays as being excited. The X-rays comprise characteristic Kα and Kβ emission energies of the element for producing images of an object impinged by the X-rays. The filter material through which the X-rays pass has a k-edge absorption energy that is higher than the Kα emission energies and is lower than the Kβ emission energies. The thickness of the filter material is at least 10 microns and less than 3 millimeters. |
| US09036784B2 |
Power converter, X-ray CT apparatus, and X-ray imaging apparatus
A power converter is configured to include an inverter which converts a DC output into an AC voltage of a predetermined frequency, and a high voltage generator which receives an output from output terminals of the inverter and boosts the output to a desired high DC voltage. The high voltage generator includes a transformer, and the primary windings of the transformer are connected to the output terminals of the inverter in parallel by conductive wires connected to both ends of each primary winding. Further, a current sensor is provided to detect a current flowing through each of the primary windings, and a control unit determines abnormalities of a path of the inverter and the primary windings on the basis of a value of the current sensor. |
| US09036783B2 |
Gain calibration technique for digital imaging systems
A computer-implemented method for gain calibration is provided. The method includes sorting the calibration data of each pixel location from the offset-corrected X-ray image data into a sequence. The method also includes removing part of the calibration data from one end or both ends of the respective sequence for each pixel location. The method further includes averaging the calibration data remaining within each respective sequence to obtain an average pixel value for each pixel location. The method yet further includes generating a gain map based on the average pixel value for each pixel location. |
| US09036773B2 |
Method for X-ray phase contrast and dark-field imaging using an arrangement of gratings in planar geometry
An X-ray arrangement is suitable to record absorption, phase contrast, and dark field images of an object. The visibility of low absorbing specimens is improved and required radiation dose is reduced. The assembly includes an X-ray source; two or more gratings; a position-sensitive detector with spatially modulated detection sensitivity; a recorder for recording the images; an evaluator for evaluating the intensities for each pixel to identify the characteristic of the object for each individual pixel as an absorption and/or a differential phase contrast and/or an x-ray scattering dominated pixel. Images are collected by rotating from 0 to n or 2n either the sample or the assembly. The gratings are produced with planar geometry. The X-rays pass through the gratings parallel to the substrate. The grating structures extend along the X-ray path which determines the phase shift. The attenuation of the X-rays caused by the grating structures is no longer given by the thickness, but by the length of the grating structures. |
| US09036769B2 |
Radio tomographic image generation method and device
A radio tomographic image generation device includes a reconstruction unit for generating a plurality of reconstructed images of different iteration numbers by a successive approximation process; a region segmentation unit for obtaining information about structure based on radiographic image signals, and segmenting, based on the information about structure, a region, of which the tomographic image is generated, into a plurality of segmented regions having different information about structure; and an image combining unit for generating partial tomographic images by using the reconstructed images of different iteration numbers for the individual segmented regions based on the information about structure of the individual segmented regions, and generating a tomographic image of a subject by using the generated partial tomographic images for the individual segmented regions. |
| US09036768B2 |
Method, arrangement, and computer program product for efficient production of tomographic images
A method is provided for constructing a tomographic reconstruction through the application of statistical inversion. Unknowns associated with points of a reconstruction grid are represented with components of a vector-valued variable. A next version of the vector-valued variable is repeatedly created by drawing for each component a value from a conditional distribution. The components of a so generated version of the vector-valued variable are used as the tomographic reconstruction. The components are divided into sets, so that components in a set represent unknowns associated with mutually independent points of the reconstruction grid, or into independent collections. For at least two components of a set or at least two collections, the drawing of values from a conditional distribution is performed in parallel in a computer-implemented process. |
| US09036764B1 |
Clock recovery circuit
This disclosure provides a clock recovery circuit having a phase-locked loop (PLL) with two-point modulation. A binary phase-error signal controls a variable frequency oscillator's (VFO's) feedback path, while a linear phase-error signal controls the PLL outside of that feedback path. The linear phase-error signal is injected using an ultra-low latency delay path. While the binary phase-error signal sets the lock-point of the PLL, the linear phase-error path dominates at high frequencies and also helps reduce dither jitter. Other optional features include an area-efficient hybrid phase detector that generates both the binary and linear phase-error signals, use of a phase interpolator inside the PLL to further smooth dither jitter, recovered clock update filtering for specific data transitions, and support for multi-PAM signaling. |
| US09036758B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting envelope
A method and apparatus for detecting an envelope are provided. The method and apparatus may detect an envelope of a modulating signal based on a low calculation complexity and a simple circuit configuration, by detecting an envelope for a plurality of sampling signals with equal time intervals. |
| US09036757B1 |
Post-cursor locking point adjustment for clock data recovery
Embodiments include systems and methods for applying post-cursor locking point adjustment to an at-rate clock data recovery (CDR) system. Some embodiments operate in context of a CDR circuit of a serializer/deserializer (SERDES). In one embodiment, a training routine is used to determine an optimal post-cursor target level. Increasing or decreasing the post-cursor target level can cause the CDR clocking to shift right or left, which can be seen as a shift of the channel impulse response with respect to the CDR sampling locations. In some implementations, the post-cursor can be locked to the determined target level. In other implementations, the determined target level can be compared to a fully-adapted post-cursor to tune adaptations performed by transmitter and/or receiver equalizers. |
| US09036756B2 |
Receiver and methods for calibration thereof
There is disclosed a receiver and associated methods in which a received signal can be sampled at the symbol rate rather than oversampled. This reduction in the sampling frequency compared with conventional receivers lowers power consumption. Quality metrics in receiving the data (e.g. packet error rate, etc) are not adversely affected by setting a programmable phase shift in the sampling frequency. The programmable shift can be selected through a calibration process using a known sequence of symbols, such as the short training field in 802.11 standards. |
| US09036753B1 |
Calibration method and calibration apparatus for calibrating mismatch between I-path and Q-path of transmitter/receiver
A method for calibrating mismatches of an in-phase signal path and a quadrature signal path of a transmitter, including: additionally configuration at least one mixer calibration coefficient at a transmitting part of the transmitter; obtaining at least one mixer testing signal from the transmitting part via loopback for spectrum analysis to derive at least one mixer spectrum analysis result; adjusting the mixer calibration coefficient of the transmitting part according to the mixer spectrum analysis result; and additionally utilizing an in-phase signal path finite impulse response filter and a quadrature signal path finite impulse response filter to calibrate mismatches between a low pass filter of the in-phase signal path of the transmitting part of the transmitter and a low pass filter of the quadrature signal path of the transmitting part of the transmitter. A similar mismatch calibration operation may be applied to a receiver. |
| US09036751B1 |
Skew compensation based on equalizer coefficients
A receiver applies a calibration method to compensate for skew between input channels. The receiver skew is estimated by observing the coefficients of an adaptive equalizer which adjusts the coefficients based on time-varying properties of the multi-channel input signal. The receiver skew is compensated by programming the phase of the sampling clocks for the different channels. Furthermore, during real-time operation of the receiver, channel diagnostics is performed to automatically estimate differential group delay and/or other channel characteristics based on the equalizer coefficients using a frequency averaging or polarization averaging approach. Framer information can furthermore be utilized to estimate differential group delay that is an integer multiple of the symbol rate. Additionally, a DSP reset may be performed when substantial signal degradation is detected based on the channel diagnostics information. |
| US09036746B2 |
Estimating doppler shift using predefined autocorrelation vectors
A method includes holding in a memory of a communication terminal multiple predefined vectors, each including signal autocorrelation values computed for a respective Doppler shift. A signal is received, and empirical autocorrelation values are calculated for the received signal. An actual Doppler shift of the received signal is estimated by selecting, from among the predefined vectors, a vector whose autocorrelation values best match the empirical autocorrelation values of the received signal. |
| US09036744B2 |
Enhanced reception of precoding vector switching (PVS)
A method includes, in a mobile communication terminal, receiving a signal including multiple instances of a synchronization signal transmitted in multiple respective time periods, wherein each instance is precoded with a respective precoding scheme that is selected from a set of precoding schemes in accordance with a precoding alternation pattern. A subset of the instances of the synchronization signal is selected, in accordance with an instance selection pattern that ensures that at least one of the instances of the synchronization signal is received in the terminal with at least a predefined quality. Only the instances belonging to the selected subset are decoded. |
| US09036741B2 |
Systems, methods, and devices for frequency-selective AGC
A wideband phase detector configured to receive an intermediate frequency (IF) signal having a plurality of information signals at predetermined carrier frequencies and to generate a carrier indication signal used to control one or more attenuators to equalize the signal levels of the information signals thereby enabling a multichannel receiver to process the two information signals in a parallel fashion using a common analog front-end and analog to digital conversion circuit. The circuit may include an attenuation controller configured to provide control signals to the one or more attenuators to attenuate one or more corresponding information signals based on an average of the carrier indication signal. |
| US09036738B2 |
Receiving device and receiving method
A receiving device including: a demodulation circuit configured to generate first likelihood data of reception symbols based on a transmission format of the reception symbols, the transmission format being selected from transmission formats and including a modulation scheme applied to the reception symbols, the modulation scheme being one of amplitude modulation schemes, a processor configured to estimate a scale ratio of an implementation scale to a theoretical scale, the implementation scale being a scale of the first likelihood data, the theoretical scale being a scale of second likelihood data of the reception symbols, the second likelihood data being defined by a theory and not depending on an implementation of the receiving device, and to generate the second likelihood data based on the first likelihood data and the scale ratio, and a decoding circuit configured to decode the second likelihood data based on the transmission format. |
| US09036727B2 |
Method of generating a codebook
A precoding codebook matrix/vector of length 2L is generated by the selection of two matrices/vectors, each from one of a predetermined set of L×L matrices and multiplying each column of one of the matrices/vectors by a complex coefficient. |
| US09036726B2 |
Method and a device for increasing the amount of information bits comprised in a symbol
A method for increasing the amount of information bits comprised in a symbol transferred by a source to at least one receiver. The symbol is representative of a modulated base sequence obtained by encoding a sequence of base bits selected by the source and by modulating the encoded selected sequence. The modulated base sequence has fixed points. The source encodes the selected sequence of base bits and a sequence of supplementary bits, obtains a modulated base sequence by modulating the encoded selected sequence of base bits, obtains a modulated altering sequence by modulating the sequence of supplementary bits, alters the modulated base sequence by modifying at least a part of the values of its fixed points using the modulated altering sequence in order to obtain a modulated altered sequence, and transfers the modulated altered sequence under the form of an altered symbol. |
| US09036722B2 |
Robust channel estimation and interpolation
Present robust 2 Dimensional Minimum Mean Square Error (2D-MMSE) or minimax approach assumes significant time and frequency selectivity due to which it has a poor Mean Square Error (MSE) performance for Resource Blocks (RBs) with low/moderate frequency and/or time selectivity. A filter cannot be designed assuming low frequency and/or time selectivity and use that for all channel models. The instant invention proposes a Robust Adaptive (RA) MMSE filter that can bridge the gap between a robust 2D-MMSE/minimax and the optimal MMSE approach. The RA-MMSE filter smoothens the filter coefficients of the robust 2D-MMSE filter with the degree of smoothing adaptively changing with amount of frequency and time selectivity within a RB. The method uses multiple hypothesis tests on the maximum likelihood Channel Frequency Response (CFR) estimates at the pilots. The RA-MMSE filter solves the minimax estimation problem with additional constraints on the autocorrelation sequence corresponding to the channel frequency response. |
| US09036721B2 |
Wireless communication method for magnetic field communication network and demodulation device of coordinator
Disclosed herein is a wireless communication method for a magnetic field communication network. The wireless communication method is performed by a coordinator on the magnetic field communication network. The wireless communication method includes transmitting a request signal used to request response to each of sensor nodes; selecting any one of response signals received from the sensor nodes; transmitting an acknowledgement signal to a sensor node corresponding to the response signal; selecting any one of response signals transmitted again from sensor nodes which did not receive the acknowledgement signal; and transmitting an acknowledgement signal to a sensor node corresponding to the selected response signal. |
| US09036720B2 |
Systems and methods for transmitting and receiving additional data over legacy satellite digital audio radio signals
Systems and methods for transmitting and receiving additional data, such as video data, over legacy satellite digital audio radio signals are provided. In exemplary embodiments, hierarchical modulation can be used to transmit secondary information over a legacy signal. For example, the Sirius Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (“SDARS”) system may use a second layer of modulation to transmit video data on top of its regular audio signal. In order to support such future services within the original system design, sometimes referred to herein as a “legacy” system, additional information bandwidth can be acquired, for example, by using hierarchical modulation to overlay data for such new services on top of the legacy transmission. In such a system, for example, overlay data can be transmitted by applying a programmable angular offset to legacy QPSK symbols, for forming a new constellation similar to 8PSK. |
| US09036717B2 |
Restoring program information for clips of broadcast programs shared online
To restore context information about a clip that was sampled from a broadcast program, the clip is identified by matching a digital fingerprint of the clip against a database of known digital fingerprints taken from broadcast programs. If the clip can be identified, it is then associated with information about the matching broadcast program. The loss of context data about the clip obtained from a broadcast program is thus remedied, enabling media content available online to be more useable for a variety of purposes, such as media searching, automatic broadcast attribution, and targeting advertisements. |
| US09036716B2 |
Link aware mobile data network
Methods, systems, and devices are described for communicating data from multiple data terminals to an aggregator terminal over a communication link having changing link conditions. In some embodiments, source data is received at multiple data terminals, each in communication with an aggregator terminal over a communication link. For example, during a live newscast, one mobile camera may receive live video of an event from a first position while another mobile camera receives live video of the event from a second position. For various reasons (e.g., as the cameras move) each communication link may experience independently changing link conditions. Each data terminal encodes the source data (or store source data for later encoding) as a function of its respective link conditions, and transmits encoded source data over its respective communication link to the aggregator terminal. |
| US09036715B2 |
Video coding
In a method and apparatus for encoding an input video bitstream to produce an encoded output bitstream, a base stream is enhanced based on enhancement control parameters. At least one picture content parameter is extracted from the enhanced base stream. At least one picture content parameter is extracted from the input video bitstream. The enhanced picture content parameters are compared with the input picture content parameters. An output from the comparison step is received and the enhancement control parameters are calculated so as to minimize the difference between the input picture content parameters and the enhanced picture content parameters. The calculated control parameters are incorporated into the encoded output bitstream. |
| US09036714B2 |
Frame packing for video coding
Implementations are provided that relate, for example, to view tiling in video encoding and decoding. A particular implementation accesses a video picture that includes multiple pictures combined into a single picture, and accesses additional information indicating how the multiple pictures in the accessed video picture are combined. The accessed information includes spatial interleaving information and sampling information. Another implementation encodes a video picture that includes multiple pictures combined into a single picture, and generates information indicating how the multiple pictures in the accessed video picture are combined. The generated information includes spatial interleaving information and sampling information. A bitstream is formed that includes the encoded video picture and the generated information. Another implementation provides a data structure for transmitting the generated information. |
| US09036692B2 |
Motion prediction method
A motion prediction method is provided. The method has the following steps of: determining a plurality of candidate units corresponding to a current unit of a current frame; obtaining a plurality of motion vectors of the candidate units; calculating a plurality of temporal scaling factors of the candidate units according to a plurality of temporal distances between a plurality of reference frames of the motion vectors and the current frame; scaling the motion vectors of the candidate units according to the temporal scaling factors to obtain a plurality of scaled motion vectors; and selecting a motion vector predictor for motion prediction of the current unit from the candidate units according to the scaled motion vectors. |
| US09036687B2 |
Predictive network testing
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for evaluating a network and for predicting network performance for a higher order modulation by analyzing network signals modulated using a lower order modulation format. A margin index may be generated for the current or projected modulation formats based on displacement vectors for received symbols to indicate a margin remaining before a codeword error occurs to alert the network operator of potential performance issues before actual codeword errors occur. |
| US09036683B2 |
Mitigation circuitry generating cross correlation doppler/code LAG variable comparison value
A receiver (100) is provided for signals of different signal strengths and modulated with respective pseudorandom noise (PN) codes. The receiver (100) includes a correlator circuit (120) operable to correlate the signals with a selectable locally-issued PN code having a Doppler and a code lag to produce a peak, the correlator circuit (120) being subject to cross correlation with a distinct PN code carried by least one of the signals that can produce cross correlation; and a cross correlation circuit (370, 400) operable to generate a variable comparison value related to the cross correlation as a function of values representing a Doppler difference and a code lag difference between the locally-issued PN code and the distinct PN code, and to use the variable comparison value to reject the peak as invalid from cross correlation or to pass the peak as a valid received peak. |
| US09036680B2 |
Interference cancellation in a spread spectrum communication system
A code division multiple access communication system transmits a pilot and traffic signal over a shared spectrum. The pilot and traffic signal have an associated code and are received over the shared spectrum. The received signals are sampled and the samples are delayed to produce a window. A weighted value for each despread pilot code window sample is determined using an adaptive algorithm. Each window sample is despread with a traffic code. Each despread traffic code window sample is weighted according to a weight corresponding to its respective pilot code sample. |
| US09036679B2 |
Apparatus and method for generating Gaussian pulse and ultra wideband communication apparatus for generating Gaussian pulse
A pulse generation apparatus includes a delay pulse generator configured to generate a plurality of delay pulses, an amplitude modulator configured to modulate amplitudes of the plurality of delay pulses, and a Gaussian pulse generator configured to generate a Gaussian pulse based on the amplitude-modulated delay pulses. |
| US09036678B2 |
Light emitting semiconductor device
A fiber coupled semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing of such a device are disclosed. The method provides an improved stability of optical coupling during assembly of the device, whereby a higher optical power levels and higher overall efficiency of the fiber coupled device can be achieved. The improvement is achieved by attaching the optical fiber to a vertical mounting surface of a fiber mount. The platform holding the semiconductor chip and the optical fiber can be mounted onto a spacer mounted on a base. The spacer has an area smaller than the area of the platform, for mechanical decoupling of thermally induced deformation of the base from a deformation of the platform of the semiconductor device. Optionally, attaching the fiber mount to a submount of the semiconductor chip further improves thermal stability of the packaged device. |
| US09036677B2 |
Transverse pumped laser amplifier architecture
An optical gain architecture includes a pump source and a pump aperture. The architecture also includes a gain region including a gain element operable to amplify light at a laser wavelength. The gain region is characterized by a first side intersecting an optical path, a second side opposing the first side, a third side adjacent the first and second sides, and a fourth side opposing the third side. The architecture further includes a dichroic section disposed between the pump aperture and the first side of the gain region. The dichroic section is characterized by low reflectance at a pump wavelength and high reflectance at the laser wavelength. The architecture additionally includes a first cladding section proximate to the third side of the gain region and a second cladding section proximate to the fourth side of the gain region. |
| US09036676B2 |
Catalytic generation of metastable singlet oxygen
Singlet oxygen metastables can be formed. A catalytic coating is formed on an interior surface of a flow reactor, and an oxygen containing species is flowed into the flow reactor to produce singlet oxygen metastables by a chemical reaction in the presence of the catalytic coating. |
| US09036675B2 |
Communication module and portable electronic device
A communication module according to the present invention includes a substrate, a laser element and a light receiving element provided on a front surface of the substrate and separating from each other, a transparent resin package collectively sealing the laser element and the light receiving element, and a diffusion unit provided to be opposed to a light emitting surface of the laser element at a prescribed distance for diffusing a laser beam emitted by the laser element, while the distance T between the laser element and the light receiving element satisfies the following formula (1): T≧t1·tan θ+(t1+t2)·tan θ′ . . . (1) (in the formula (1), t1 represents the distance between the light emitting surface of the laser element and the diffusion unit, θ represents the maximum angle of emission of the laser element, t2 represents the difference between the height from the front surface of the substrate up to the light emitting surface and the height up to alight receiving surface of the light receiving element, and θ′ represents the maximum diffusion angle of the diffusion unit.) |
| US09036672B2 |
Tensile strained semiconductor photon emission and detection devices and integrated photonics system
Tensile strained germanium is provided that can be sufficiently strained to provide a nearly direct band gap material or a direct band gap material. Compressively stressed or tensile stressed stressor materials in contact with germanium regions induce uniaxial or biaxial tensile strain in the germanium regions. Stressor materials may include silicon nitride or silicon germanium. The resulting strained germanium structure can be used to emit or detect photons including, for example, generating photons within a resonant cavity to provide a laser. |
| US09036670B2 |
Method for optical frequency synthesis
A method for generation of electromagnetic radiation has the following method steps: generation of electromagnetic radiation at a useful frequency, division of the electromagnetic radiation into a useful beam and a secondary beam, frequency shift of the electromagnetic radiation of the secondary beam, control of the useful frequency as determined by a manipulated variable, wherein the manipulated variable is derived from the frequency-shifted radiation of the secondary beam. |
| US09036666B2 |
Interface circuit for transmitting digital signals between devices
A video signal and an audio signal are TMDS transmitted from a source device to a sink device. Through a reserved line and a HPD line provided separately from a TMDS transmission line, an Ethernet™ signal is bidirectionally transmitted, and also, a SPDIF signal is transmitted from the sink device to the source device. The Ethernet™ signal bidirectionally transmitted between Ethernet™ transmitter/receiver circuits is differentially transmitted by an amplifier and is received by the amplifier. The SPDIF signal from a SPDIF transmitter circuit is common-mode transmitted from an adder and is received by the adder to be supplied to the SPDIF receiver circuit. |
| US09036662B1 |
Compressing packet data
A system, method, and computer program for compressing packet data is provided. In exemplary embodiments, one or more blocks may be identified that include block data similar to packet data of one or more packets. The one or more blocks may comprise archives of previously transferred packets. The packet data may be compressed based, at least partially, on the block data. Accordingly, the compressed packet data may be transferred over a communication network. |
| US09036661B2 |
False lock detection for physical layer frame synchronization
Systems, devices, processors, and methods are described which may be used for the reception of a wireless broadband signal at a user terminal from a gateway via a satellite. A wireless signal may include a series of physical layer frames, each frame including a physical layer header and payload. The received signal is digitized and processed using various novel physical layer headers and related techniques to synchronize the physical layer frames and recover data from physical layer headers for purposes of demodulation and decoding. |
| US09036660B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing MAC address table
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and an apparatus for managing a MAC address table. The method includes: receiving a packet and obtaining MAC address information carried in the packet; matching the MAC address information with a MAC address table; and if the matching succeeds, prolonging an aging time of the MAC address information in the MAC address table. |
| US09036659B2 |
Method for transferring network event protocol messages
A method for transferring network event protocol messages includes: attaching message length information to SYSLOG (network event protocol) messages; the receiver of the SYSLOG messages parses the SYSLOG messages from the received transport payload according to the message length information. By means of the method in this invention, SYSLOG messages can be rapidly parsed from the received transport payload by the receiver of the SYSLOG messages. |
| US09036657B2 |
Variable load driver with power message transfer
Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide a modulation arrangement for a control signal. The control signal is received as a digital value. A modulated control signal having a varying rate of change may be generated based on the quantity of off-bits and the quantity of on-bits of the digital value. |
| US09036655B2 |
Key frame detection and synchronization
Mechanisms are provided for allowing a streaming server to efficiently provide frames associated with a media stream to a client device. A streaming server receives multiple media streams and determines which frames in the multiple media streams are key frames. When a connection request is received from a client device, a key frame is selected and provided to the client device. A client device receiving a key frame does not have to drop any predictive frames prior to playing a media stream. |
| US09036652B2 |
Communication transmission system
In an example embodiment, a system may include a base station configured to broadcast a group scheduling message configured to be received at a terminal group that includes a plurality of terminals. The base station may further be configured to receive group transmissions transmitted at the plurality of terminals in a scheduled sequence in response to the group scheduling message. The base station may further be configured to broadcast a group reply in response to receiving the group transmission. |
| US09036648B2 |
Message attachment tracking
The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for tracking files attached to electronic messages. One process includes operations for receiving a message, the message including information to be displayed by a message reading application, the message including a first indication that a file was attached to the earlier message, wherein the first indication is marked to not be displayed with the information by the message reading application; determining that the file is not attached to the message; sending a request for the file to a user identifier, the user identifier being included in the message and associated with the file or the earlier message or both; and receiving the file. |
| US09036647B2 |
Method and apparatus for network security
A method of securely routing data traffic between communication networks. In an integrated security device, a host router supports a virtual router that peers with VRF (virtual routing and forwarding) instances associated with participating networks on the host router. Each VRF instance preferably runs its own dynamic routing protocol and determines when received data traffic may be directly forwarded from one network to another and when it must be forwarded to an OE (offload engine) for enforcement of security policies or NAT (network address translation) processing. |
| US09036646B2 |
Distributed routing mechanisms for a virtual switch enabled by a trill-based fabric
In one embodiment, a system includes a routing protocol engine (RPE) RBridge which includes a local uplink port configured to be coupled to a router, a local processor for executing logic, and logic configured for: receiving a data frame at the local uplink port, running routing protocols to enable L3 processing of the data frame, connecting to a LAG cluster, and configuring learned routes and routes passed from another RPE RBridge in the local processor. In more embodiments, methods for providing L3 processing in a TRILL-enabled network include receiving a data frame at a local uplink port of a RBridge enabled with a RPE to enable L3 processing, running routing protocols to provide L3 processing of the data frame, and configuring learned routes and routes passed from any other RPE RBridges. The RPE RBridge may be connected to a router or to a first server and a second server. |
| US09036645B2 |
Traversing of NAT address translation equipment for signaling messages compliant with SIP protocol
Method of setting up a communication session between a calling client (C1) and a called client (C2), through a communication network (SN1, SN, SN2) containing at least one address translation device (NAT1, NAT2). This method contains stages for the transmission of signaling messages (fs), passing through at least one address translation device and allowing the exchange of the physical addresses of the clients. At least one of the clients implements a solution for the traversing of address translation devices. The method is innovative in that at least one client adds, within the sent signaling messages, a parameter representing the implementation of the traversing solution and that, in the presence of such a parameter, the network devices do not implement their own solutions for the traversing of address translation devices. |
| US09036644B2 |
Method of provisioning H-VPLS services in a multi-domain MPLS network
A method is disclosed for provisioning loop free H-VPLS traffic service in a multi-domain MPLS network having interconnected domains. The method comprises: provisioning pseudo wires (PWs) for MPTMP services in each domain of the MPLS network; defining multiple Split Horizon Groups (SHGs) in the network, wherein each SHG corresponds to a domain, for the H-VPLS service traffic and for each specific node of the MPLS network, automatically assigning indications to SHG and the pseudo wires connected to the specific node, wherein the same indication is assigned to all pseudo wires belonging to the same group (SHG-N), and wherein the step of assigning is characterized in that when traffic belonging to H-VPLS service crosses a border network node located between two interconnected domains, the SHG-N indication of PWs remains the same within a VPLS domain thereby preventing the service traffic from returning to the domain of origin. |
| US09036640B2 |
Encapsulation of data
An encapsulation apparatus for encapsulating data includes an input to receive the data, a machine to generate information related to the encapsulation of data and a logic coupled to the machine. A processing machine is coupled to the input and the logic. |
| US09036634B2 |
Multicast route entry synchronization
Embodiments of the invention relate to synchronizing multicast route entries in a system. One embodiment includes a system with a first module that synchronizes a group membership and sets a router processing flag based on an interface where a packet is received. A second module receives the router processing flag and information based on the synchronized group membership from the first module and creates multicast route entries based on processing the information and the router processing flag even on a non-designated router (DR) interface. |
| US09036632B2 |
Efficient communication for devices of a home network
Systems and methods are provided for efficient communication through a fabric network of devices in a home environment or similar environment. For example, an electronic device may efficiently control communication to balance power and reliability concerns, may efficiently communicate messages to certain preferred networks by analyzing Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) packet headers that use an Extended Unique Local Address (EULA), may efficiently communicate software updates and status reports throughout a fabric network, and/or may easily and efficiently join a fabric network. |
| US09036627B2 |
Method and apparatus for enabling customer premises public branch exchange service feature processing
A method and apparatus for enabling customer premise Public Branch eXchange (PBX) service feature processing to be performed in a service provider network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a signaling message associated with a user, and accesses a customer premise Internet Protocol (IP) Public Branch eXchange (PBX) to retrieve customer premise IP PBX based service logic and data associated with the user by a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) network element. The method then completes a service feature associated with the service logic and data in the communication network. |
| US09036623B2 |
Aggregating endpoint capabilities for a user
A method and system for aggregating capabilities from multiple endpoints associated with a user are provided. The system aggregates the capabilities of the endpoints associated with a user into an aggregate view of available modes of communication for reaching the user. Then, the system publishes the aggregate view so that other users who want to send communications to the user will know the modes of communication available for that user. In addition, the system may designate certain modes of communication as preferred or as capable of reaching the user. |
| US09036622B2 |
Media negotiation method for IP multimedia link
A media negotiation method for an IP multimedia link is used in the process of establishing an IP multimedia link between a first entity and a second entity via an application server (AS) of an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS). AS sends the second entity an invite message, which includes media resource information of the first entity; When AS receives a message with media resource information from the second entity before an answer message is received or after it receives a response message with media resource information from the second entity, AS sends an IMS re-invite message without media source information to the first entity; the AS, after receiving the IMS signaling message with media resource information from the first entity, sends the first entity the media resource information returned by the second entity. The present invention is applicable to an IMS centralized service and may effectively reduce the number of steps and the time required after response for media resource re-negotiation. |
| US09036620B2 |
Method, and related mobile communications system, for providing combinational network services
In a mobile communication system including a circuit-switched (CS) mobile communications network, a packet-switched (PS) mobile communications network and an interworking function adapted to enable a signaling exchange between the CS and PS mobile communications network, a method of providing combinational CS+PS services to mobile users includes receiving, at a serving network entity in the PS mobile communications network, a user request issued from a first user on the PS mobile communications network, the user request relating to combinational services and having the serving network entity managing the received request, wherein the managing of the received request includes controlling an establishment of a session in the CS mobile communication network through the interworking function. |
| US09036618B1 |
Method and system for providing voice assisted configuration on an internet protocol (IP) telephone
Method and system for providing voice assisted configuration on an IP telephone in a non-DHCP environment includes detecting a data packet including the IP telephone terminal MAC address, transmitting a configuration terminal MAC address in response to detected IP telephone MAC address, and configuring the IP telephone terminal in the non-DHCP layer 2 environment by assigning an IP address, a gateway address, a subnet mask, and additional parameters such as audio and noise level adjustment so that the IP telephone terminal is configured to fully function in the data network. Additional VOIP telephone terminals in the local area network may be configured by the configuration terminal. |
| US09036614B2 |
PHY layer parameters for body area network (BAN) devices
In at least some embodiments, a communication device includes a transceiver with a physical (PHY) layer. The PHY layer is configured for body area network (BAN) operations in a limited multipath environment based on a constant symbol rate for BAN packet transmissions and based on M-ary PSK, differential M-ary PSK or rotated differential M-ary PSK modulation. The PHY layer is configured to transmit and receive data in a frequency band selected from the group consisting of: 402-405 MHz, 420-450 MHz, 863-870 MHz, 902-928 MHz, 950-956 MHz, 2360-2400 MHz, and 2400-2483.5 MHz. |
| US09036600B2 |
Method and apparatus for serving high speed downlink shared channel cell change
A method and apparatus for serving high speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) cell change are disclosed. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) sends a measurement report to a radio network controller (RNC) when a signal strength of a target cell approaches a signal strength of a source cell. The RNC adds the target cell in an active set and sends pre-loaded HS-DSCH configuration information for the target cell to the WTRU. The WTRU sends another measurement report when a signal strength of the target cell exceeds that of the source cell. The WTRU monitors a high speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) on the target cell based on the pre-loaded HS-DSCH configuration information and decodes an HS-SCCH transmission. The WTRU determines whether a MAC-hs/ehs reset is required and if so resets a MAC-hs/ehs entity prior to receiving an HS-DSCH transmission from the target cell. |
| US09036599B2 |
Systems and methods for multimode wireless communication handoff
Methods and apparatus for easily and quickly returning to a first radio access technology (RAT) network when handover to a second RAT network is cancelled are provided. The methods and apparatus may involve a mobile station (MS) entering idle mode before handover to the second RAT network is completed and requesting a serving base station (BS) to retain MS service and operational information, as well as service flow state information. In this manner, should handover to the second RAT network be cancelled before completion, a re-entry to the first RAT network may be expeditiously performed using the retained MS information. |
| US09036598B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving data in communication system
A data transmission apparatus in a communication system includes a reception unit configured to receive terminal information from a plurality of terminals through a new frequency band for transmission and reception of data between the plurality of terminals and an AP (access point); a determination unit configured to determine access timing of the terminals to the AP by using the terminal information, and generate terminal access information including information on the access timing; and a transmission unit configured to transmit the terminal access information and beacon frames to the terminals, wherein the terminals access the AP and transmit data frames to the AP, at the access timing based on the beacon frames. |
| US09036595B2 |
Method for setting subbands in multicarrier communication, and radio communication mobile station apparatus
A wireless communication base station apparatus wherein when a frequency scheduling transmission and a frequency diversity transmission are performed in a multicarrier communication at the same time, the adaptive control of a channel for performing the frequency scheduling transmission can be prevented from being complicated. In this apparatus, a modulating part (12) modulates an encoded Dch data to generate Dch data symbols. A modulating part (22) modulates an encoded Lch data to generate Lch data symbols. An assigning part (103) assigns the Dch and Lch data symbols to subcarriers constituting OFDM symbols and outputs them to a multiplexing part (104). At this moment, the assigning part (103) assigns a set of Dch and Lch data symbols to each subcarrier for a respective subband. |
| US09036594B2 |
Systems and methods for enhancing uplink coverage in interference scenarios
A method and apparatus are for communication in a wireless network in which a User Equipment (UE) associated with a first evolved Node B (eNB) experiences interference from a second eNB. The method includes negotiating by the first eNB of the wireless network with a second eNB of the wireless network for a partitioning of subband resources on an uplink. A first subset of subband resources is assigned to the first eNB, and a second subset of subband resources is assigned to the second eNB. A method and apparatus are for communication in a wireless network. The method includes decoding a downlink control channel received during a protected downlink subframe to determine an uplink subframe n containing a protected subband for uplink transmission. The method also includes transmitting data during the uplink subframe n on the protected subband. |
| US09036591B2 |
System and method for enabling VPN-less session setup for connecting mobile data devices to an enterprise data network
A mobile application gateway configured to interconnect mobile communication devices on a cellular network with an enterprise network is provided. The mobile application gateway includes a voice and data signaling gateway configured to provide routing functionalities, service functionalities and admission control. A gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) is configured to establish a secure data session between one or more of the mobile communication devices and the enterprise network by establishing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel between a carrier-hosted serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and the GGSN. |
| US09036582B2 |
Method and system for efficient management of a telecommunications network and the connection between the telecommunications network and a customer premises equipment
A method for efficient connection between a telecommunications network and a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) via an access node includes: establishing a physical communication channel between the access node of the telecommunications network and the CPE; providing, by the telecommunications network, a public or private Internet Protocol address to the CPE for use by the CPE to communicate with an Internet Protocol Edge node of the telecommunications network; initially assigning, by the telecommunications network, a first functionality level to the public or private Internet Protocol address; and assigning, by the telecommunications network, a second functionality level to the public or private Internet Protocol address when the telecommunications network is able to federate the network access related identification information to a contract related identification information. |
| US09036579B2 |
Apparatus and method for SCH interference cancellation
Apparatus and methods for wireless communication in a wireless communication network include initiating a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) call to a user equipment (UE), applying a synchronization channel interference cancellation (SCHIC) algorithm to the HSDPA call, calculating synchronization channel (SCH) interference based on the application of the SCHICH algorithm to the HSDPA call, and eliminating the SCH interference from the HSDPA call. |
| US09036578B2 |
Method and apparatus for control channel configuration in a heterogeneous network architecture
Methods, systems and apparatus are provided for camping, assisted serving cell addition or removal, and discontinuous reception (DRX) in networks having a macro cell and at least one assisted serving cell. In other aspects, enhancements to Layer 1 channels and uplink timing alignments are provided in networks having a macro cell and at least one assisted serving cell. In further aspects, assisted serving cell Layer 2 architecture and transport channels are provided in networks having a macro cell and at least one assisted serving cell. In further aspects, collaborated HARQ solutions are provided in networks having a macro cell and at least one assisted serving cell. |
| US09036570B2 |
Method and system for providing an uplink structure and improved channelization scheme in a wireless communication network
A method and system are provided to perform channelization in a wireless communication network, wherein the wireless communication network including at least one base station that is communicatively coupled to at least one mobile terminal. A bandwidth of the wireless communication network is divided into a plurality of zones at the base station. Resource blocks are provided at the base station to receive data symbols transmitted in the wireless communication network. A plurality of resource blocks are combined at the base station to form a physical basic channel unit which are allocated to one of the plurality of zones at the base station. A permutation is performed on the physical basic channel unit to form a logical basic channel unit. A channel is provided to communicatively couple the base station and the mobile terminal so that the mobile terminal may send an access grant message and a user identification to the base station to transmit data in the logical basic channel unit. |
| US09036569B2 |
Low peak-to-average power ratio transmission in frequency-division multiple access systems
A method for communication includes allocating, in a multiple-access communication system (20) that uses multiple subcarriers, first subcarriers to a first communication terminal for transmitting first data, and second subcarriers to a second communication terminal for transmitting second data. The first communication terminal is assigned to modulate the first data onto at least some of the first subcarriers using a first multi-carrier modulation scheme, to produce a first signal. The second communication terminal is assigned to modulate the second data onto at least some of the second subcarriers using a second multi-carrier modulation scheme, which has a reduced peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) relative to the first multi-carrier modulation scheme, to produce a second signal. Simultaneous communication is carried out with the first and second communication terminals by simultaneously receiving the first and second signals over the first and second subcarriers. |
| US09036566B2 |
Communications method, base station, and mobile terminal
A communications method and a mobile terminal that constructs a communications system which transmits data by using an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method as a downlink access method, and also transmits data by using an SC-FDMA (Single Career Frequency Division Multiple Access) method as an uplink access method. The mobile terminal includes a processor that determines a candidate set including CCEs (Control Channel Elements), each of which is one of regions to which one frequency bandwidth is divided, for delivery of an L1/L2 control signal which is control information transmitted and received between a base station and the mobile terminal. In addition, the processor, which is at the mobile terminal, determines the candidate set based on the frequency bandwidth. |
| US09036564B2 |
Dynamic assignment of ACK resource in a wireless communication system
Techniques for dynamically assigning acknowledgement (ACK) resource to a user equipment (UE) are described. For dynamic scheduling, a scheduling message may be used to send scheduling information for a single transmission of data. For semi-persistent scheduling, a scheduling message may be used to send a semi-persistent assignment for multiple transmissions of data. In an aspect, at least one field of a scheduling message, which is normally used to carry scheduling information for dynamic scheduling, may be re-used to carry an ACK resource assignment for semi-persistent scheduling. In one design, a UE may receive a scheduling message carrying a semi-persistent assignment and may obtain an assignment of ACK resource from the at least one field of the scheduling message. The UE may receive a transmission of data sent in accordance with the semi-persistent assignment, determine ACK information for the transmission of data, and send the ACK information with the ACK resource. |
| US09036561B2 |
Dual-homing protection
Examples of the present disclosure provide a dual-homing protection method and device. In the dual-homing protection method, a forwarding item synchronizing channel and a data transfer channel are established between two Provider Edge (PE) devices in a dual-homing node, a Pseudo Wire (PW) and a Label Switched Path (LSP) protection group bearing the PW are established between a network side peer PE device and the two PE devices in the dual-homing node, which are taken as a logical device, so as to implement LSP protection within a network. The present disclosure may enable the protection within a network to be independent of access link protection. Subsequently, the management is simple. |
| US09036560B2 |
Hybrid routing and forwarding solution for a wireless sensor network
A hybrid routing and forwarding solution for a mobile wireless sensor network is provided. This invention allows each node of the wireless sensor network to move in random directions in a three dimensional space. The invention seeks to minimize resource consumption while optimizing routing and forwarding in a wireless sensor network. |
| US09036555B2 |
Direct generation of discrete Fourier transforms of time-shifted Zadoff-Chu sequences
A method includes accepting input values u and v, respectively identifying a uth root Zadoff-Chu sequence whose length is a prime number, and a vth cyclic shift for the sequence. Elements of a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the vth cyclic shift of the uth root Zadoff-Chu sequence are computed using processing circuitry, by evaluating a single respective exponent depending on u and v in computing each of the elements. |
| US09036554B2 |
Policy and charging control methods
An IMS registration and session initiation is disclosed for a user equipment (UE). The UE has a subscription identifier comprising an IMSI and/or MSISDN. A PDN-GW establishes (s10) an IP-CAN session with a PCRF, for the UE, by transmitting, to the PCRF, the subscription identifier of the UE and an IP address assigned to the UE. The PCRF binds (s20) the subscription identifier to the IP address assigned to the UE for the IP-CAN session. Then, upon the UE initiating the IMS registration, a P-CSCF transfers (s30), to an S-CSCF, an IMPU. The S-CSCF obtains (s40), based on the IMPU, the subscription identifier of the UE from a user database. The S-CSCF transfers (s50) to the P-CSCF the obtained subscription identifier of the UE. The P-CSCF binds (s60) the subscription identifier of the UE to the IMPU. Then, upon the UE initiating an IMS session associated with the IMPU, the P-CSCF establishes (s70) an AF session towards the PCRF with the subscription identifier bound to the IMPU. The PCRF then identifies (s80) the correct IP-CAN session by matching the subscription identifier with the one of the IP-CAN session. |
| US09036550B2 |
Method and terminal for direct communication between terminals
A direct communication method between terminals is provided. When a terminal receives a plurality of synchronization information parts, the terminal selects synchronization information to acquire a reference time among the plurality of synchronization information parts according to a priority. Here, the priority is an order of first synchronization information that is received from a base station, second synchronization information that is received from a global positioning system (GPS), and third synchronization information that is received from a terminal in which a hop count from the base station or the GPS is small. |
| US09036540B2 |
Method and system for correlating IP layer traffic and wireless layer elements in a UMTS/GSM network
The present invention relates to a correlation module for correlating IP layer traffic and wireless layer network elements in a network. According to an example embodiment, the correlation module includes an RNC analyzer, a Gn snoop unit, and/or a mapping unit. The RNC analyzer is configured to collect wireless layer network element information from at least one RNC. The Gn snoop unit is configured to collect wireless layer network element information and IP layer traffic information from at least one Gn interface between a serving GPRS support node and a gateway GPRS support node. The mapping unit is configured to map the IP layer traffic and the wireless layer network elements in the network based on the collected IP layer traffic information and the collected wireless layer network element information. A method of correlating IP layer traffic and wireless layer network elements in a network is also disclosed. |
| US09036539B2 |
Synchronization method of femtocell base station and femtocell base station using the same
The exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method of synchronizing a femtocell base station securing time synchronization of a femtocell base station by allowing the femtocell base station to transmit a symbol to a terminal belonging to the femtocell by performing the time synchronization with a preamble signal when the femtocell base station receives the preamble signal from the macrocell base station in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication system in which a femtocell is present in a macrocell. |
| US09036531B2 |
Wireless communication method based on proxy redundancy
A method for wireless communication in a network comprising a resource-restricted device (ZGPD), at least two proxy devices (ZP1, ZP2) and at least one destination device (DD), wherein the method comprises the following steps: the resource-restriced device transmitting a frame to be forwarded to a destination device in the network, said frame containing a unique source identifier of the resource-restricted device, at least one proxy device receiving the frame and identifying the frame as originating from a resource-restricted device, —the proxy device determining the unique source identifier and deriving a group identifier as a known function of the unique source identifier, the group identifier designating a group of devices in the network or a source address, the proxy constructing, from the frame, an appropriate packet to be forwarded, the proxy forwarding the packet by taking into account the group identifier. |
| US09036530B2 |
Method and device for carrying MBMS notification information
A method for carrying MBMS notification information comprising: when the MBMS notification information is transmitted more than once in a modification period of MCCH information, carrying at least once the MBMS notification information in a sub-frame carrying the MCCH information at the time of arrival of the modification period of the MCCH information; and when the MBMS notification information is transmitted once in the modification period of the MCCH information, carrying the MBMS notification information in the sub-frame carrying the MCCH information at the time of arrival of the modification period of the MCCH information. Also disclosed is a device for carrying MBMS notification information. The method for carrying MBMS notification information allows a receiving terminal to save more power. |
| US09036528B2 |
Mobile communication system and method for managing terminal paging in the system
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, and to a method for managing terminal paging in the system. According to the present invention, local IDs are each allocated to the respective multiple MTC terminals, and therefore trigger periods can be efficiently managed in a network. Further, the multiple MTC terminals can be grouped using the allocated local IDs, thus achieving advantages of an increased number of MTC terminals which can be managed in the network. |
| US09036523B2 |
Methods and apparatus for network energy savings in a wireless communication system
Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus for network energy savings in a wireless communication system, such as the 3GPP LTE system. Particularly, one such method reduces power consumption in a base station by selectively muting or disabling downlink transmissions of certain control signal symbols in one or more subframes or frames. The disclosed methods and apparatus can apply independently or in combination in both FDD and TDD systems. |
| US09036521B2 |
Reducing battery power consumption during discontinuous reception and transmission
Techniques, systems and apparatus are described for reducing battery power consumption during a discontinuous reception and transmission mode of operation of a communication device. When operating in the discontinuous reception and transmission mode, a communication device can process radio frequency signals received from base stations to identify a set of active base stations based on a quality of the received radio frequency signals. This can reduce the total number of base stations to decode the corresponding system frame number (SFN). Based on the decoded SFN, the communication device can select a base station to perform hand-off. |
| US09036518B2 |
Wireless base station apparatus, wireless communication system, wireless communication method, and program
A wireless communication system comprises: first wireless base station apparatus that covers first cell; and second wireless base station apparatus that covers second cell that is wider than first cell and overlaps at least a portion of first cell, wherein: in a case of performing communication with mobile station terminal included in first cell, first wireless base station apparatus makes reference to communication quality of the second cell, judges whether or not wireless resource(s) of second wireless base station apparatus is to be reserved, and, when a judgment is made that reservation of wireless resource(s) is necessary, transmits wireless resource allocation request including necessary resource amount to second wireless base station apparatus; and in a case of receiving wireless resource allocation request from first wireless base station apparatus, second wireless base station apparatus allocates wireless resource(s) in accordance with necessary resource amount to first wireless base station apparatus. |
| US09036517B2 |
Methods and apparatus for establishing a tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) session between devices in a wireless network
The present disclosure describes techniques for establishing and reestablishing tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) sessions. In some aspects a TDLS persistent capable bit is stored at a computing device to indicate whether the computing device is capable of storing persistent group[ information associated with TDLS sessions. Persistent group information is also stored at the computing device to assist the computing device in reestablishing TDLS sessions and directing reestablishment of TDLS sessions. |
| US09036512B2 |
Efficient control information transmission method and apparatus for supporting multiple antenna transmission technique
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and provides an efficient control information transmission method and apparatus for supporting a multiple antenna transmission technique. A method is provided for transmitting downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to an uplink multiple codeword transmission and includes receiving the uplink multiple codeword transmission, generating HARQ information related to each of the multiple codewords based on a result of decoding each of the multiple codewords, modulating the HARQ information, and transmitting the modulated HARQ information via one or more physical HARQ indicator channels (PHICHs). |
| US09036511B2 |
Transmission of uplink control signals in a communication system
A method and apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) to simultaneously transmit information of a first type and information of a second type over a number of transmission symbols, the information of the first type and the information of the second type being respectively associated with a first Orthogonal Cover Code (OCC) and a second OCC, wherein a length of each OCC is equal to the number of transmission symbols. The method includes multiplying, at each transmission symbol, the information of the first type with a respective element of the first OCC to obtain a first output; multiplying, at each transmission symbol, the information of the second type with a respective element of the second OCC to obtain a second output; summing the first output and the second output to obtain a combined output; and transmitting the combined output. |
| US09036509B1 |
System and method for routing, mobility, application services, discovery, and sensing in a vehicular network environment
A method includes selecting a path for routing a data packet from a source node to a destination node in a vehicular ad hoc network, storing the data packet if the selected path is identified as a dead end, and establishing a communication link with a first node. The method also includes forwarding the data packet to the first node if a first distance between the first node and the destination node is less than a second distance between the source node and the destination node. More specific embodiments include sending a query for location information of the destination node, receiving the location information including two or more available paths from the source node to the destination node, and determining the path for routing the data packet is an optimal path of the two or more available paths. |
| US09036508B2 |
Layer two extensions
A network device may be configured to define a Layer 2 domain, wherein the Layer 2 domain defines a data link layer broadcast domain and assign an access interface to the Layer 2 domain. The network device may be further configured to assign a double Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier to the access interface in the Layer 2 domain, wherein the double VLAN identifier includes an inner VLAN identifier and an outer VLAN identifier, receive a data unit via the access interface, wherein the data unit includes the double VLAN identifier, and associate the data unit with the defined Layer 2 domain, based on the data unit being received via the access interface and based on the data unit including the assigned double VLAN identifier. |
| US09036504B1 |
Using virtual networking devices and routing information to associate network addresses with computing nodes
Techniques are described for providing managed virtual computer networks that have a configured logical network topology with virtual networking devices, such as by a network-accessible configurable network service, with corresponding networking functionality provided for communications between multiple computing nodes of the virtual computer network by emulating functionality that would be provided by the virtual networking devices if they were physically present. In some situations, the networking functionality provided for a managed computer network of a client includes receiving routing communications directed to the virtual networking devices and using included routing information to update the configuration of the managed computer network, such as to allow at least some computing nodes of a managed computer network to dynamically signal particular types of uses of one or more indicated target network addresses and/or to dynamically signal use of particular external public network addresses based on such routing information. |
| US09036503B1 |
Interband traffic management in a multi-band wireless network
A wireless control system for managing traffic in a multi-band wireless network is disclosed. The wireless control system configured to receive measurements that indicate channel performance information and round trip delay information for wireless communication devices operating within a first frequency band of the multi-band wireless network, process the channel performance information and the round trip delay information to determine a probability of successful frequency transfer, identify a subset of the wireless communication devices with probabilities of successful transfer that exceed a transfer threshold, and remove from the subset wireless communication devices whose velocity exceeds a movement threshold. The wireless control system also receives loading information for the first frequency band, processes the loading information to determine if the loading information exceeds an offload threshold, and if so then identifies a first wireless communication device from the modified subset of the plurality of wireless communication devices and transfers an instruction to modify an operating frequency of the first wireless communication device from the first frequency band to the second frequency band. |
| US09036502B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing interaction between DRX cycles and paging cycles
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate managing interaction between paging and discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles for users operating in a communication system. As described herein, a connected mode user having an associated DRX cycle can modify its schedule for paging reception to minimize unnecessary periods of activity. For example, a user can initially schedule monitoring of paging occasions that coincide with periods of activity associated with the DRX cycle of the user. If such paging occasions are not sufficient to reach a minimum required number of monitored paging occasions, additional paging occasions can be monitored as needed by scheduling additional periods of activity and/or extending periods of activity specified in the DRX cycle. Additionally or alternatively, a network can synchronize a connected mode DRX cycle associated with a user with an idle mode paging cycle for the user, thereby providing power and performance benefits with low complexity. |
| US09036501B2 |
Wireless communication device
A wireless communication device comprises: a detector configured to detect an interference wave and a frequency of the interference wave, the interference wave causing radio interference in the wireless communication; an interference avoidance controller configured to predict duration where the wireless communication is affected by radio interference due to the interference wave, and configured to issue a command for avoiding the radio interference due to the interference wave when the predicted duration exceeds a threshold time period; and a frequency controller configured to control frequencies used in the wireless communication to exclude the frequency of the interference wave in accordance with the command for avoiding the radio interference issued by the interference avoidance controller. |
| US09036500B2 |
Method and apparatus for transporting deterministic traffic in a gigabit passive optical network
A system and method are disclosed for transporting deterministic traffic in a gigabit passive optical network. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an Optical Line Termination (OLT) for exchanging data traffic in a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) having a controller programmed to generate a timeslot schedule for transport of a desired bandwidth of constant bit rate (CBR) data traffic by selecting one or more timeslots from periodic frame clusters operating according to a GPON Transmission Convergence (GTC) protocol. Additional embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09036498B2 |
Mitigation of false PDCCH detection
A method includes receiving in a communication terminal a signal, which is transmitted in multiple links and which includes a control channel transmitted in an assigned sequence of the links. One or more candidate sequences of the links, which are likely to be the assigned sequence, are identified. For at least, one candidate sequence, a verification is made whether the candidate sequence is the assigned sequence, by re-encoding decoded bits of the candidate sequence to produce regenerated symbols and comparing the regenerated symbols to respective received symbols from which the decoded bits were decoded. The control channel is decoded from the candidate sequence in response to verifying that the candidate sequence is the assigned sequence. |
| US09036494B2 |
Method and device for transmitting and receiving power headroom report
The present application discloses a method and device for transmitting and receiving a power headroom report, wherein the method for transmitting a power headroom report comprises: forming, at a user equipment, a power headroom report specific to each carrier component; and transmitting the power headroom report to a base station. By implementing the method and device disclosed by the present application, a complete power headroom reporting mechanism can be provided to a LTE-A system having multiple new features. In addition, by receiving the power headroom report specific to each carrier component, the base station can further derive how many resource units need to be allocated to the user equipment, and a corresponding modulation and coding scheme so as to perform an effective resource scheduling and guarantee transmission quality of wireless links. |
| US09036492B2 |
Apparatus and method for scheduling in wireless communication system
A scheduling method and apparatus in a wireless communication system. The scheduling method for a node B in a wireless communication system supporting a plurality of carriers includes determining a delay weight for each of a plurality of user equipment (UEs) according to a preset weight application time point. The method also includes determining a scheduling metric value of each UE per carrier using the delay weight, and determining a priority of each UE per carrier using the scheduling metric value. |
| US09036491B2 |
Devices for converting a downlink subframe
An evolved Node B (eNB) configured for converting a downlink subframe is disclosed. The eNB includes a processor and executable instructions stored in memory that is in electronic communication with the processor. The eNB determines whether to convert a target downlink subframe to a special subframe type 2. The eNB also transmits physical (PHY) layer signaling indicating a subframe conversion for the target downlink subframe if it is determined to convert the target downlink subframe to the special subframe type 2. |
| US09036488B2 |
Faulty link detection method, apparatus, node, and system
A faulty link detection method includes receiving statistical data that is reported by all nodes every preset quantity of packets that carry a program clock reference value. All the nodes collect statistical data starting from a unified program clock reference value. The quantity of packets lost between an upstream node and a downstream node among all the nodes is acquired according to the statistical data. A faulty link is determined according to the quantity of packets lost between the upstream node and the downstream node. |
| US09036484B2 |
Method for transmitting MBSFN subframe configuration information of neighboring cells
Disclosed is a method for transmitting MBSFN subframe configuration information of neighboring cells in a wireless system, the method comprises steps of: transmitting, by a base station of a serving cell, MBSFN subframe configuration information of the serving cell to a UE which accepts services from the serving cell via a broadcast control channel (BCCH); transmitting, by the base station of the serving cell, information on a subset relationship of MBSFN subframe configurations of the neighboring cells relative to the MBSFN subframe configuration of the serving cell to the UE which accepts services from the serving cell via the broadcast control channel (BCCH); performing, by the UE, measurements on the neighboring cells according to the subframe configuration information of the serving cell and the information on the subset relationship of the MBSFN subframe configurations of the neighboring cells relative to the MBSFN subframe configuration of the serving cell. With the method of the present invention, the UE can learn about the MBSFN subframe configuration information of the neighboring cells in a more accurately manner. Therefore, more subframes can be measured to improve measurement precision. Meanwhile, the present invention is based on redefinition of messages in the existing method, and thus no extra signaling overhead will be introduced. |
| US09036476B2 |
Maintaining load balancing after service application with a network device
In general, techniques are described for maintaining load balancing after service application. A network device comprising ingress and egress forwarding components and a service card may implement the techniques. An ingress forwarding component receives a packet and, in response to a determination that the service is to be applied to the packet, updates the packet to include an ingress identifier that identifies the ingress forwarding component, thereafter transmitting the updated packet to the service card. The service card applies the service to the updated packet to generate a serviced packet and transmits the serviced packet to the ingress forwarding component identified by the ingress identifier so as to maintain load balancing of packet flows across the plurality of forwarding components. The ingress forwarding component determines a next hop to which to forward the serviced packet and the egress forwarding component forwards the serviced packet to the determined next hop. |
| US09036473B2 |
Control and data plane solutions for carrier-aggregation based WLAN offload
Systems and methods for controlling data traffic offload to a WLAN (e.g., a Wi-Fi network) from a WWAN (e.g., a 4G LTE network) are generally disclosed herein. One embodiment includes data traffic offload techniques managed by a Radio Resource Control (RRC) in a networked device including offloading data at the IP, PDCP, RLC, or MAC layers; another embodiment includes data traffic offload techniques managed by a MAC Scheduler with RRC control. Configurations for multimode user equipment (UE) and multimode base stations are also described herein, including configurations for implementing a Multiple Radio Access Technology (Multi-RAT) aggregation function to offload data from a WWAN to a WLAN and transmit the data via the WLAN using a Layer 2 transport. |
| US09036472B2 |
Network switching device for quantifying available service-level capacity of a network for projected network traffic
A network switching device (101) for quantifying available service-level capacity of a network (201) for projected network traffic. The network switching device (101) includes at least one input port (110-1a), at least one output port (110-6a), at least one packet-handling module, and at least one test-packet module. At least one packet-handling module is coupled to an input port (110-1a) and an output port (110-6a). At least one test-packet module is coupled with at least one network switching-device module. The test-packet module is to affect presence of a test packet in the network (201) for quantifying available service-level capacity of the network (201) for projected network traffic. A packet-injection system and method for quantifying available service-level capacity of the network (201) for projected network traffic are also provided. |
| US09036471B2 |
Wireless communication management system and method
A system and method is provided for managing communication of data by a wireless networking device in a zone. The zone may be analyzed to determine compliance with a performance threshold. Conditions such as interference affecting the communication of data may be detected and analyzed to determine a solution. The system may control one or more wireless networking device, which may be heterogeneous, to apply the solution. |
| US09036469B2 |
Data communication in openflow networks
Systems and methods for data communication in OpenFlow networks are described. At least one system state condition corresponding to at least one flow matching condition is provided to a network device. The at least one system state condition is related to a state of at least one state attribute of the network device. The at least one system state condition is provided for forwarding a packet from the network device. |
| US09036463B2 |
Scalable BGP protection from edge node failure using dynamically assigned labels in data packets
In one embodiment, a method comprises detecting, by a provider edge router configured for providing reachability for core network traffic to a prescribed destination address prefix, a backup provider edge router relative to the prescribed destination address prefix; allocating, by the provider edge router, a distinct protected next-hop address for reachability to at least the destination address prefix via the provider edge router; and sending via a core network, by the provider edge router, repair information for the prescribed destination address prefix to ingress provider edge routers and a BGP-free core network router in the core network, the repair information enabling the ingress provider edge routers to insert primary and backup switching labels into each data packet of the core network traffic enabling the BGP-free core network router to reroute the received packet to the backup provider edge router if the provider edge router is unavailable. |
| US09036460B2 |
System and method for cooperative precoding in heterogenous two-tier wireless networks
Embodiments are provided for a cooperative cross-tier precoding (CTP) and intra-tier precoding (ITP) scheme for two-tier networks. The cooperative precoding scheme allows exploitation of extra transmit dimensions at the second-tier network, thereby increasing the achievable throughput at the second-tier network. The embodiments allow significant increase in throughput of the second-tier network due to both CTP between the second-tier network and the first-tier network, and efficient ITP between the second-tier network transmitters. The increase in transmit dimension allows for efficient linear inra-tier precoding, which significantly reduces the intra-tier interference. A processor coupled to the second-tier network transmitters is configured to perform CTP of transmit signals in the second-tier network for cancelling signal interference from the second-tier network transmitters to a first-tier network receiver, thereby generating CTP matrix information. The processor then performs, using the CTP matrix information, ITP for reducing intra-signal interference from the second-tier transmitters to corresponding second-tier receivers. |
| US09036459B2 |
Rectangular power spectral densities of orthogonal functions
In this application, a set of orthogonal functions is introduced whose power spectral densities are all rectangular shape. To find the orthogonal function set, it was considered that their spectrums (Fourier transforms of the functions) are either real-valued or imaginary-valued, which are corresponding to even and odd real-valued time domain signals, respectively. The time domain functions are all considered real-valued because they are actually physical signals. The shape of the power spectral densities of the signals are rectangular thus, the Haar orthogonal function set can be employed in the frequency domain to decompose them to several orthogonal functions. Based on the inverse Fourier transform of the Haar orthogonal functions, the time domain functions with rectangular power spectral densities can be determined. This is equivalent to finding the time-domain functions by taking the inverse Fourier transform of the frequency domain Walsh functions. The obtained functions are sampled and truncated to generate finite-length discrete signals. Truncation destroys the orthogonality of the signals. The Singular Value Decomposition method is used to restore the orthogonality of the truncated discrete signals. |
| US09036455B2 |
Electronic timepiece
An electronic timepiece is operated with a power-supply voltage from a secondary battery charged with a voltage from a solar panel. An oscillation circuit generates and supplies a clock signal to a CPU when the voltage charged to the battery is lower than a first voltage. A reset circuit resets the CPU when the voltage charged to the battery does not exceed a second voltage higher than the first voltage, and cancels the reset of the CPU when the voltage charged to the second battery exceeds the second voltage. The CPU starts an operation when the voltage charged to the secondary battery exceeds the second voltage and the reset is cancelled, and performs a time-of-day display on a display unit when the voltage charged to the secondary battery is equal to or higher than a third voltage higher than the second voltage. |
| US09036451B2 |
Exploring a subsurface region that contains a target sector of interest
A system and method are disclosed for exploring a subsurface region that contains a target sector of interest. The method comprises providing information about the harmonic response for the target sector of interest and a seismic source. The method comprises controlling the seismic source to provide seismic waves in a narrowband selected on the basis of the information about the harmonic response for the target sector of interest. The method comprises activating the seismic source so as to introduce seismic waves into the subsurface sector and sensing reflections of the seismic waves at a seismic receiver. |
| US09036450B2 |
Generating an image of a subterranean structure
Different values of at least one migration parameter are selected. An imaging technique is applied a plurality of times, where each application of the imaging technique uses a corresponding different one of the different values. Each application of the imaging technique produces a corresponding image of a subterranean structure. An aggregate of the images is computed to produce an output image of the subterranean structure. |
| US09036447B2 |
Decoder circuit with reduced current leakage
A decoder circuit with reduced leakage configured to decode an address and drive one of a number of word lines may be implemented with two-high logic gates in a pre-decode stage, a decode stage, and a word line driver stage. Such decoder circuits may include, in the word line driver stage, a number of two-high NOR gates configured to drive one of a number of word lines. In some embodiments, the two-high logic gates that share common inputs are implemented with multi-output static logic. |
| US09036444B1 |
Redundant memory system and associated method thereof
Method and system are provided for handling data when power failure from a primary power source of a storage system is detected. The system provides a first memory and a second memory. The first memory is primarily used to store data when the primary power source is operating. If a power failure is detected, a first indicator is set to indicate that data is stored or being transferred to the second memory. Thereafter, data is transferred from the first memory to the second memory. Any errors during the transfer are logged. Once power is restored, data is transferred back to the first memory. A second indicator is set to indicate that there is no data at the second memory. |
| US09036442B2 |
Reduced-noise reference voltage platform for a voltage converter device
An electronic system, a reduced-noise reference voltage platform for a voltage converter device, and a method of manufacture of a reduced-noise reference voltage platform for a voltage converter device are disclosed. For example, the reduced-noise reference voltage (e.g., ground) platform includes a first conductor unit, a second conductor unit, and an insulator unit interposed between a first surface of the first conductor unit and a first surface of the second conductor unit. The reduced-noise reference voltage platform also includes a phase terminal connected to the first conductor unit, and a reference voltage (e.g., ground) terminal connected to the second conductor unit, wherein a second surface of the second conductor unit forms a platform coupled to the reference voltage (e.g., ground). |
| US09036441B2 |
Anti-fuse circuit in which anti-fuse cell data is monitored, and semiconductor device including the same
An anti-fuse circuit in which anti-fuse program data may be monitored outside of the anti-fuse circuit and a semiconductor device including the anti-fuse circuit are disclosed. The anti-fuse circuit includes an anti-fuse array, a data storage circuit, and a first selecting circuit. The anti-fuse array includes one or more anti-fuse blocks including a first anti-fuse block having a plurality of anti-fuse cells and the anti-fuse array is configured to store anti-fuse program data. The data storage circuit is configured to receive and store the anti-fuse program data from the anti-fuse array through one or more data buses. The first selecting circuit is configured to output anti-fuse program data of a selected anti-fuse block of the one or more anti-fuse blocks in response to a first selection signal. |
| US09036436B2 |
Supporting calibration for sub-rate operation in clocked memory systems
The disclosed embodiments related to a clocked memory system which performs a calibration operation at a full-rate frequency to determine a full-rate calibration state that specifies a delay between a clock signal and a corresponding data signal in the clocked memory system. Next, the clocked memory system uses the full-rate calibration state to calculate a sub-rate calibration state, which is associated with a sub-rate frequency (e.g., 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 of the full-rate frequency). The system then uses this sub-rate calibration state when the clocked memory system is operating at the sub-rate frequency. This calculation of the sub-rate state calibration states eliminates the need to perform an additional time-consuming calibration operation for each sub-rate. |
| US09036435B2 |
Semiconductor apparatus, method for delaying signal thereof, stacked semiconductor memory apparatus, and method for generating signal thereof
The semiconductor apparatus includes a reference delay value check unit configured to receive a source signal and delay the source signal to generate a reference delay signal; a process delay value check unit configured to receive the source signal and delay the source signal to generate a process delay signal; and a signal generation unit configured to receive the reference delay signal and the process delay signal, receive an input signal, and variably delay the input signal based on the reference delay signal and the process delay signal to generate an output signal. |
| US09036434B1 |
Random access memory and method of adjusting read timing thereof
A method of adjusting read timing of a random access memory. The method includes providing a Column Address Strobe (CAS) value for defining an CAS latency (CL) of the random access memory; generating a shift margin according to the CAS latency and a reference latency; generating a read command for accessing the random access memory; dynamically generating a Column Select (CS) signal and adjusting output timing of the CS signal according to the shift margin, after the read command is generated. |
| US09036433B2 |
Data transfer circuit and memory including the same
A data transfer circuit includes a plurality of first lines, a second line suitable for receiving data from a first line selected among the first lines, a third line suitable for transferring data to the first line selected among the first lines, a plurality of driving units, each suitable for driving the second line based on the data from the corresponding first line in a first operation, and a plurality of connection units, each suitable for coupling the third line to the corresponding first line when the corresponding first line is selected in a second operation. |
| US09036432B2 |
Method for controlling data write operation of a mass storage device
A method for controlling data write operation of a mass storage device is provided. The mass storage device has a controller and a memory unit. The method includes connecting the mass storage device to a host device, and receiving a voltage provided from the host device; sensing and monitoring whether the voltage is lower than a first predefined voltage; writing data to the mass storage device with a first frequency when the sensed voltage is higher than the first predefined voltage; and writing data to the mass storage device with a second frequency when the sensed voltage is lower than the first predefined voltage, wherein the second frequency is adjusted by decreasing the first frequency. |
| US09036427B2 |
Apparatus and a method for erasing data stored in a memory device
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for erasing data in a memory device comprising an array of memory cells, and configured to operate from a clock signal. The apparatus includes erase circuitry, responsive to receipt of an erase signal in an asserted state, to perform a forced write operation independently of the clock signal in respect of each memory cell within a predetermined erase region of said array. Further, erase signal generation circuitry is configured to receive a control signal and to maintain said erase signal in a deasserted state provided that the control signal takes the form of a pulse signal having at least a predetermined minimum frequency between pulses. The erase signal generation circuitry is further configured to issue said erase signal in said asserted state if the control signal does not take the form of said pulse signal. Such an approach enables the security of a memory device to be improved, and in particular prevents hackers from taking advantage of data remanence effects, by ensuring that stored data is overwritten in an efficient, and clock independent, manner, triggered by assertion of an erase signal generated if a pulse-based control signal does not take it is expected form. |
| US09036420B2 |
Storage devices with soft processing
A storage device includes a storage array having a group of storage elements. Each storage element can written to a discrete set of physical states. A read circuit selects one or more storage elements and generates, for each selected storage element, an analog signal representative of the physical state of the selected storage element. A signal processing circuit processes the analog signal to generate a plurality of outputs, with each output representing a degree of an association of the selected storage element with a different subset of one or more of the discrete set of physical states. |
| US09036416B2 |
Non-volatile storage with broken word line screen and data recovery
Data, normally read using a page-by page read process, can be recovered from memory cells connected to a broken word line by performing a sequential read process. To determine whether a word line is broken, both a page-by page read process and a sequential read process are performed. The results of both read processes are compared. If the number of mismatches between the two read processes is greater than a threshold, it is concluded that there is a broken word line. |
| US09036413B2 |
Flash memory reference voltage detection with tracking of cross-points of cell voltage distributions using histograms
Cross-points of flash memory cell voltage distributions are determined by reading data from a portion of the flash memory two or more times using two or more different candidate reference voltages and determining corresponding decision patterns. The frequency of occurrence of the decision patterns in the data read from the flash memory is used to conceptually construct a histogram. The histogram is used to estimate the cross-points. Employing decision patterns enables multiple cross-point voltages to be determined with a minimum of read operations. |
| US09036409B2 |
Immunity of phase change material to disturb in the amorphous phase
Disturb from the reset to the set state may be reduced by creating an amorphous phase that is substantially free of crystal nuclei when programming the reset state in a phase change memory. In some embodiments, this can be achieved by using a current or a voltage to program that exceeds the threshold voltage of the phase change memory element, but does not exceed a safe current voltage which would cause a disturb. |
| US09036408B1 |
Phase change memory with bit line matching
Methods, circuits, and systems for phase change memories. A matching bit line, on which no data-containing PCM cells have been selected, is used to cancel out time-dependent current components due to parasitic capacitive and leakage resistance loading of bit lines. This can effectively allow direct comparison of the current from the phase change memory cell to the desired reference current, at a time before the voltage of the first bit line permits stable operations using DC comparison. |
| US09036406B2 |
Magneto-resistive memory device including source line voltage generator
A MRAM includes a memory cell array of spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) cells and a source line commonly connected to the plurality of STT-MRAM cells. A source line voltage generator generates a source line driving voltage in response to an external power supply voltage and provides the source line driving voltage to the source line. |
| US09036405B1 |
Memory sense amplifier with multiple modes of operation
Memory circuitry comprising an array of 6T bit cells 6 in which columns of bit cells are coupled together via bit line pairs 8 connected to respective sense amplifier circuitry 10 is provided. The sense amplifier circuitry includes an inverter pair 12, 14 and control circuitry which is configured to control the sense amplifier circuitry to operate in a plurality of modes including an offset compensation mode, an amplification mode and a latching mode. |
| US09036404B2 |
Methods and apparatus for SRAM cell structure
An SRAM cell structure. In one embodiment, a bit cell first level contacts formed at a first and a second CVdd node, a first and a second CVss node, at a bit line node, at a bit line bar node, at a data node and at a data bar node; and second level contacts formed on each of the first level contacts at the first and second CVdd nodes, the first and second CVss nodes, the bit line node and the bit line bar node; wherein the first level contacts formed at the data node and the data bar node do not have a second level contact formed thereon. In another embodiment, a word line is formed and bit lines and a CVdd and a CVss line are formed overlying the SRAM cell and coupled to the corresponding ones of the nodes. Methods are disclosed for forming the cell structure. |
| US09036402B2 |
Arrays of vertically stacked tiers of non-volatile cross point memory cells
An array of vertically stacked tiers of non-volatile cross point memory cells includes a plurality of horizontally oriented word lines within individual tiers of memory cells. A plurality of horizontally oriented global bit lines having local vertical bit line extensions extend through multiple of the tiers. Individual of the memory cells comprise multi-resistive state material received between one of the horizontally oriented word lines and one of the local vertical bit line extensions where such cross, with such ones comprising opposing conductive electrodes of individual memory cells where such cross. A plurality of bit line select circuits individually electrically and physically connects to individual of the local vertical bit line extensions and are configured to supply a voltage potential to an individual of the global horizontal bit lines. Other embodiments and aspects are disclosed. |
| US09036401B2 |
Memory cell operation
Methods, devices, and systems associated with memory cell operation are described. One or more methods of operating a memory cell include charging a capacitor coupled to the memory cell to a particular voltage level and programming the memory cell from a first state to a second state by controlling discharge of the capacitor through a resistive switching element of the memory cell. |
| US09036394B2 |
Method of driving nonvolatile semiconductor device
Pulse voltages V1 and V2 are applied to a first upper gate electrode and a second upper gate electrode, respectively, for a period T1 which is shorter than a period necessary to invert all the polarizations included in a ferroelectric film, while voltages Vs, Vd, and V3 are applied to a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a lower gate electrode film, respectively, so as to increase the values of the widths WRL1 and WRL2 and so as to decrease the value of the width WRH. The absolute values of the pulse voltages V1 and V2 are smaller than that of a voltage necessary to invert all the polarizations included in the ferroelectric film. The voltage Vs, the voltage Vd, the voltage V3, the pulse voltage V1, and the pulse voltage V2 satisfy the following relationship: Vs, Vd, V3>V1, V2. |
| US09036391B2 |
Arrays of vertically-oriented transistors, memory arrays including vertically-oriented transistors, and memory cells
An array includes a plurality of vertically-oriented transistors, rows of access lines, and columns of data/sense lines. Individual of the rows include an access line interconnecting transistors in that row. Individual of the columns include an inner data/sense line elevationally inward of the access lines and which interconnect transistors in that column. An outer data/sense line is elevationally outward of the access lines and electrically couples to the inner data/sense line. Other embodiments are disclosed, including memory arrays and memory cells. |
| US09036390B2 |
Frequency converter that suppresses crosstalk that occurs between a local oscillation signal and a received signal, and receiver that uses the frequency converter
The present invention is applied to a frequency converter used for a receiver. The frequency converter according to the present invention includes an LO signal generator (11) that generates an LO signal and outputs the LO signal; and a mixer (10) that multiplies a received signal that has been band-limited to a usable bandwidth of said receiver by the LO signal so as to convert the frequency of the received signal and outputs the resultant signal. Said LO signal generator is capable of varying a phase resolution. |
| US09036389B2 |
Secure control mechanism for distributed photovoltaic system
A system for controlling photovoltaic electricity production equipment having photovoltaic modules each equipped with a DC/DC microconverter connected to a DC bus, a DC bus manager, and an inverter for converting the direct current from the photovoltaic panels into alternative current intended for an electrical distribution network. Power is injected into the DC bus when the voltage of the DC bus is less than a minimum voltage until the minimum voltage is reached. Each of the microconverters injects a maximum power from the photovoltaic modules into the DC bus when the voltage of the DC bus is between a first voltage and a second voltage. The injecting of power from the photovoltaic modules into the DC bus is stopped when the voltage of the DC bus is less than a low threshold voltage or greater than a high threshold voltage. |
| US09036388B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device of a three-level inverter circuit with a reduced number of power supplies for driving IGBTs. The semiconductor device includes a series-connected circuit of IGBTs between P and N of a DC power supply and an AC switch element that is connected between a series connection point of the series-connected circuit and a neutral point of the DC power supply. The series-connected circuit and the AC switch element are integrated into one module. The AC switch element is formed by connecting a collector of a first IGBT to which a diode is connected in reverse parallel and a collector of a second IGBT to which a diode is connected in reverse parallel, and an intermediate terminal is provided at a connection point between the collectors. |
| US09036384B2 |
Power converter having semiconductor switching element
Provided is a configuration in which it is possible to mount an applied voltage suppression circuit configured to prevent voltage breakdown of a semiconductor switching element, and a set voltage thereof can be inspected without damaging an IC or the like of a peripheral circuit. In a power converter having a semiconductor switching element, an applied voltage suppression circuit configured to suppress a voltage applied to the semiconductor switching element and at least one component of constituent components of a driving circuit which causes the semiconductor switching element to be turned off if the component is absent are transferred to and disposed on a slave substrate (separate unit) which is divided from and electrically connected to a master substrate including the semiconductor switching element, the driving circuit, a control circuit, and the like mounted thereon. |
| US09036376B2 |
Switched-mode compound power converter with main and supplemental regulators
In certain embodiments, the present invention provides a compound power converter in which the majority of power passes from input to output through only a single stage of power conversion. At least one embodiment includes a main converter with an auxiliary output. The auxiliary output energizes a reservoir that provides input power for a supplemental converter capable supplying the main output. The supplemental converter improves regulation and can provide holdover power for Power Factor Correction (PFC) or Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) operation. |
| US09036374B2 |
Switching mode power supply and control method thereof
There is provided a switching mode power supply having primary and secondary induction coils inductively coupled to each other and converting a voltage applied to the primary induction coil to supply the converted voltage to the secondary induction coil, the switching mode power supply including a power switching unit switching the voltage applied to the primary induction coil, a load information obtaining unit obtaining load information relating to a load connected to the secondary induction coil, a bias current controlling unit controlling a switching driving current based on the load information; and a driving unit driving the power switching unit based on the load information and the switching driving current. |
| US09036366B2 |
Terminal unit
The terminal unit includes a main board, electronic components implemented on the main board, a sub-board covering above the electronic components and a frame member so disposed between the main board and the sub-board as to surround the electronic components. A flexible printed circuit covers an outer side of a wall portion of the frame member and is so wound around the frame member from upper and lower sides of the wall portion as to cover at least part of an inner side of the wall portion. A wiring pattern formed on the flexible printed circuit is electrically connected to the electronic components, and information to be protected that is stored on the electronic components becomes unreadable if the wiring pattern is cut off or short-circuited. |
| US09036365B2 |
Interconnection substrate design supporting device, method of designing interconnection substrate, program, and interconnection substrate
A via disposition information acquiring unit acquires via disposition information indicating a disposition of the plurality of first vias (212). A second conductor information acquiring unit acquires second conductor information indicating disposition positions of a plurality of second conductors (232) repeatedly disposed in the second conductor layer (230). A via extracting unit extracts an extraction via with respect to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The extraction via is each of the first vias (212) overlapping the second conductor (232). A via selecting unit selects a selection via with respect to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The selection via is each of first vias (212) selected in a predetermined number from the extraction vias. An opening introducing unit introduces a first opening (234) to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The first opening (234) overlaps the extraction via not selected by the via selecting unit in plan view. |
| US09036363B2 |
Devices and stacked microelectronic packages with parallel conductors and intra-conductor isolator structures and methods of their fabrication
Embodiments of devices and methods of their manufacture include coupling first and second package surface conductors to a package surface with an intra-conductor insulating structure between the package surface conductors. The package surface conductors extend between and electrically couple sets of pads that are exposed at the package surface. Elongated portions of the package surface conductors are parallel with and adjacent to each other. The intra-conductor insulating structure is coupled between the package surface conductors along an entirety of the parallel and adjacent elongated portions, and the intra-conductor insulating structure electrically insulates the elongated portions of the package surface conductors from each other. Some embodiments may be implemented in conjunction with a stacked microelectronic package that includes sidewall conductors and an intra-conductor insulating structure between and electrically insulating the sidewall conductors from each other. |
| US09036362B2 |
Electronic component incorporated substrate
An electronic component incorporated substrate includes a first substrate and a second substrate that are electrically connected to each other by a spacer unit. An electronic component is mounted on the first substrate and arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate. An encapsulating resin fills a space between the first substrate and the second substrate to encapsulate the electronic component. The spacer unit includes a stacked structure of a metal post and a solder ball stacked in a stacking direction of the first substrate and the second substrate. The spacer unit further includes an insulation layer that is formed on the second substrate and covers a side wall of the metal post. |
| US09036360B2 |
Power casing apparatus of image display module
A power casing apparatus of an image display module includes a display panel configured to have a Light-Emitting Diode module disposed in a front thereof; a bus bar unit installed in the rear of the display panel and configured to supply driving power to the LED module and to have a pair of electrode blades disposed on one side thereof; and a power casing unit disposed in the bus bar unit in such a way as to be attached to or detached from the bus bar unit and configured to supply the driving power to the bus bar unit and to have a pair of power supply connectors disposed at positions corresponding to the respective electrode blades on one side. |
| US09036356B2 |
Printed circuit board laminate
A printed circuit board laminate is provided of a novel structure that is not only capable of enhancing a degree of freedom in design and achieving a further size reduction, but also capable of enhancing heat releasing performance in a space sandwiched in between two printed circuit boards. A lattice-like portion formed of a plurality of connection walls crossed with one another is provided to an insulating plate interposed between two printed circuit boards, and the connection walls are positioned with clearances from the two printed circuit boards, respectively, by a plurality of supporting ribs protruding from the connection walls toward at least one of the two printed circuit boards. |
| US09036355B2 |
Printed wiring board (PWB) for high amperage circuits
A printed wiring board (PWB) includes a substrate having first and second opposing surfaces and a busbar coupled to the substrate. The busbar includes a power input connector and a cross-sectional dimension configured and disposed to carry at least 100 amperes. At least one semiconductor device is mounted to the busbar. The at least one semiconductor device includes an input electrically coupled to the busbar and an output. One or more output conductors are electrically coupled to the output of the at least one semiconductor device. The one or more output conductors include a cross-sectional dimension configured and disposed to carry at least 50 amperes. |
| US09036351B2 |
Passive cooling system and method for electronics devices
An apparatus for passively cooling electronics. The apparatus for passively cooling electronics includes at least one heat pipe and at least one heat sink thermally coupled to a bridge plate. When a cradle is thermally coupled to the at least one heat pipe, the at least one heat sink draws heat from the cradle. |
| US09036350B2 |
Barrier device
This disclosure relates to an apparatus and method 10 for protecting an electronic circuit from an airflow. The apparatus 10 comprises a base 12, wherein said base 12 comprises a cover means for covering at least part of the electronic circuit. The apparatus further comprises a guide means for guiding an airflow around the electronic circuit. |
| US09036347B2 |
Display device capable of fixing a screen at different view angles
The present invention discloses a display device including a base, a screen and a fixing mechanism. The fixing mechanism is connected to the base and the screen for fixing the screen on the base. The fixing mechanism includes a supporting structure rotatably installed on the base. Two ends of the supporting structure selectively engage with a plurality of constraining portions on the screen so as to fix the screen at different view angles relative to the base. The fixing mechanism further includes a resilient component sheathing with the supporting structure. An end of the resilient component is fixed on the base, and the other end of the resilient component is fixed on the supporting structure. The resilient component provides torque to the supporting structure as the screen rotates relative to the base. |
| US09036346B2 |
Electronic device and cover assembly
A cover assembly applied to an electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device includes a first component and a second component, and an opening is formed between the first component and the second component. The cover assembly includes a cover element, at least one first moving element, at least one second moving element and an elastic element. The cover element is disposed in the opening, attached to the second component, and abutted against the first component. The first moving element is connected to the cover element and includes at least one first moving part. The second moving element is connected to the second component and includes at least one second moving part. The elastic element is connected between the first moving element and the second moving element, and provides an elastic force to make the cover element continuously abutted against the first component and cover the opening. |
| US09036343B2 |
Portable device docking station
A molded external expanding apparatus or “docking station” operable with a portable computer device of a type having a display unit having a display screen on an inner surface thereof and a hard shell backing surface opposite thereof and pivotally mounted on a substantially rigid casing having a pair of locating holes adjacent to opposite corners of a substantially planar bottom surface thereof, and an input/output (I/O) connector positioned on a back plane thereof with a pair of positioning apertures provided on opposite sides thereof. |
| US09036336B2 |
In-vehicle display apparatus
An in-vehicle display apparatus includes a display panel including a rectangular display screen; a pair of semicircular decorative rings (frames) obtained by dividing an annular member into two parts along a line extending in a lateral direction of the display screen; and a driving mechanism that drives the decorative rings to reciprocate toward and away from each other in a longitudinal direction of the display screen. The decorative rings are rotatable around axes extending in the lateral direction of the display screen. The driving mechanism moves the decorative rings while the decorative rings are in front of the display panel and in parallel positions in relation to the display screen. The decorative rings are rotated on sides of the display panel in a longitudinal direction of the display panel and stored in storage spaces. |
| US09036327B2 |
Electronic element, variable capacitor, micro switch, method for driving micro switch, and MEMS type electronic element
An electronic element includes a fixed portion, and a movable portion which is movable with respect to the fixed portion and which is provided to generate a spring force to make restoration to a predetermined position. The fixed portion is provided with a first driving electrode and a first signal electrode. The movable portion is provided with a second driving electrode and a second signal electrode. An electrostatic force is generated between the first driving electrode and the second driving electrode by a voltage applied therebetween so that the electrostatic force resists against the spring force; and the first and second driving electrodes and the first and second signal electrodes are arranged so that the electrostatic force is generated in a direction in which a spacing distance between the first and second signal electrodes is widened. |
| US09036325B2 |
Ion wind generator and ion wind generating device
Provided is an ion wind generator capable of suitably generating an ion wind along the surface of a dielectric. An ion wind generator has: a dielectric having a first primary surface and a second primary surface at the rear thereof; an inner side electrode arranged in the dielectric; a first electrode arranged on the first primary surface side with respect to the inner side electrode; and a second electrode arranged on the second primary surface side with respect to the inner side electrode. The inner side electrode has a first downstream area located in a first direction (the positive side of x-axis direction) along the first primary surface with respect to the first electrode, and a second downstream area located in a second direction (the positive side of x-axis direction) along the second primary surface with respect to the second electrode. |
| US09036319B2 |
Arrangement for energy conditioning
Circuit arrangement embodiments that use relative groupings of energy pathways that include shielding circuit arrangements that can sustain and condition electrically complementary energy confluences. |
| US09036313B2 |
Apparatus for protecting analog input module from overvoltage
Disclosed is an apparatus for protecting an analog input module from overvoltage, the apparatus including an analog input module and a stabilization unit. The analog input module converts one of a plurality of positive/negative analog signals inputted from the outside thereof into a digital signal and insulates the converted digital signal. The stabilization unit supplies voltages of the positive/negative analog signals to the analog input module when the voltage levels of the plurality of positive/negative analog signals are higher than the levels of positive/negative operating voltages in the analog input module. |
| US09036304B1 |
System and methods utilizing dual read sensors
A dual-stack read sensor is utilized in a storage device having an actuator arm that positions the read sensor over a rotating storage medium. The dual-stacked read sensor includes a primary read sensor having a first set of read sensor characteristics and a secondary read sensor having a second set of read sensor characteristics that differ from the first set of read sensor characteristics, wherein the secondary read sensor is positioned relative to the primary read sensor to be radially offset from the primary read sensor relative to a data track being read. |
| US09036302B2 |
Damped dual stage actuation disk drive suspensions
Various embodiments concern a DSA suspension of a disk drive. The DSA suspension comprises a support configured to attach to the disk drive, the support comprising a proximal portion, a distal portion, and a linkage portion therebetween. The DSA head suspension system further comprises at least one motor mounted on the support, each motor positioned between the proximal portion and the distal portion. The DSA suspension further comprises a damper attached to some or all of the proximal portion, the motor(s), the distal portion, and the linkage portion. The damper can be a single layer or multilayered. The damper can comprise viscoelastic material. The damper can be adhesive. The damper may only be attached to the support and the motors and not to other components of the DSA suspension. |
| US09036301B2 |
Slider including laser protection layer, head gimbal assembly, and disk drive unit with the same
A slider includes a substrate having a trailing edge, a leading edge opposite the trailing edge, and an air bearing surface connecting the trailing edge with the leading edge; a read/write transducer formed at the trailing edge; and a coat layer attached on the trailing edge and covering on the read/write transducer. The slider further includes a protection layer for shielding the read/write transducer thereby preventing the read/write transducer from damaging during a laser soldering process. The present invention can prevent the read/write transducer from damaging during the laser bonding process and, in turn improve the reading and writing performance of the slider. The invention also discloses an HGA and a disk drive unit. |
| US09036296B2 |
Multiple writers with reduced crosstalk
A system according to one embodiment includes at least two write transducers for writing to a magnetic medium; and a low reluctance path from a first pole of a first of the write transducers to a second pole of a second of the write transducers. In another embodiment, either 1) the first pole of the first write transducer and the second pole of the second write transducer are positioned close enough to each other that a low reluctance path is present from the first pole of the first write transducer to the second pole of the second write transducer, or 2) a magnetic strap extends between the first pole of the first write transducer and the second pole of the second write transducer thereby creating a low reluctance path therebetween. |
| US09036295B1 |
Information storage device with a damping insert sheet between a housing bay and a disk drive
A novel information storage device is disclosed and claimed. The information storage device includes a device housing with a generally rectangular bay to accommodate a disk drive. The generally rectangular bay includes a base portion and a plurality of side portions. The information storage device further includes a damping insert sheet disposed between the disk drive and the base portion. The damping insert sheet has a plurality of elastomeric cushions, for example with a cushion thickness in the range 0.5 mm to 10 mm, and a spanning sheet, for example having a sheet thickness in the range 0.02 mm to 0.35 mm. Each of the plurality of elastomeric cushions is attached to the spanning sheet. Each of the plurality of elastomeric cushions contacts and is compressed between the generally rectangular bay and the disk drive. |
| US09036294B1 |
Hard disc assembly
A hard disc assembly includes a box and a hard disc body slidably mounted to the box. The box comprises a driving unit and a pivoting pole. The hard disc body comprises a disc member and a magnetic arm. A magnetic head is located on the magnetic arm and contacts the disc member. The magnetic arm is connected to the pivoting pole of the driving unit. The driving unit is configured to move the magnetic arm on the disc member. The magnetic head is configured to access data in the disc member when the disc member rotates. The magnetic head remains in contact with the disc member when the disc member stops rotating. |
| US09036290B2 |
Head transducer with multiple resistance temperature sensors for head-medium spacing and contact detection
A head transducer, configured to interact with a magnetic recording medium, includes a first sensor having a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and configured to produce a first sensor signal, and a second sensor having a TCR and configured to produce a second sensor signal. One of the first and second sensors is situated at or near a close point of the head transducer in relation to the magnetic recording medium, and the other of the first and second sensors spaced away from the close point. Circuitry is configured to combine the first and second sensor signals and produce a combined sensor signal indicative of one or both of a change in head-medium spacing and head-medium contact. Each of the sensors may have a TCR with the same sign (positive or negative) or each sensor may have a TCR with a different sign. |
| US09036289B2 |
Magnetic storage medium comprised of magnetic nanoparticles contained within nanotubes
A magnetic storage medium is formed of magnetic nanoparticles that are encapsulated within nanotubes (e.g., carbon nanotubes). |
| US09036286B2 |
Reading data stored in recording medium
A device for reading data recorded on a recording medium having multiple tracks, the device including: a receiver that receives designations of a number of data elements to be read; and a determination unit that determines an order of reading the data elements so that, no matter on which track of the tracks each of the data elements is recorded, the data elements are read in an order of recorded locations of the data elements in a direction along the tracks on which the data elements are recorded. |
| US09036284B1 |
Isolated shingled bands of fractional tracks
Systems and methods are disclosed for isolated bands of fractional tracks in data storage devices, particularly devices employing shingled magnetic recording. In one embodiment, a device may comprise a data storage medium including a first data storage area including tracks overlapped in a shingled manner and having a first circumferential portion of a track to store data, a second data storage area, and a guard area disposed between the first data storage area and the second data storage area, the guard area including a second circumferential portion of the track as a partial guard track. In some embodiments, the guard area may include at least one sector in the first circumferential portion of the track, such that at least one sector of the guard area is interposed between data storage sectors of the first data storage area. |
| US09036281B2 |
Opto-mechanical devices with sharp-edge lenses
An opto-mechanical device, such as a lens cell, includes a housing having an axially extending chamber and an intermediate internal spacer that positions a sharp-edged lens in the chamber. The sharp-edged lens has first and second optical surfaces that intersect in a circumferential sharp edge. The housing positions an image sensor proximal to the sharp-edged lens for processing light therefrom. |
| US09036279B2 |
Imaging lens and imaging apparatus
An imaging lens provided with a negative first lens group and a positive second lens group disposed in order from the object side. The first lens group is composed of a first group first lens which is a negative biconcave single lens, and the second lens group is composed of a positive second group first lens, an aperture stop, a positive second group second lens, and a negative second group third lens disposed in order from the object side. The second group second lens and second group third lens are cemented together to form a cemented lens. The imaging lens is configured to satisfy a conditional expression (3) 0.9 |
| US09036278B2 |
Imaging lens and imaging device
An imaging lens consists of a negative first lens, a negative second lens, a third lens of a plano-convex shape having a convex surface directed toward an object side or of a positive meniscus shape having a convex surface directed toward the object side, and a fourth lens of a plano-convex shape having a convex surface directed toward an image side or of a positive meniscus shape having a convex surface directed toward the image side, which are arranged in this order from the object side. Further, the following conditional formula (1) is satisfied: 2.25<νd2/νd3 (1), where νd2: an Abbe number of a material of the second lens for d-line, and νd3: an Abbe number of a material of the third lens for d-line. |
| US09036275B2 |
Image optical system, imaging device, and digital apparatus
An imaging optical system, an imaging device, and a digital apparatus of the invention are provided with an optical system constituted of five lens elements having positive, negative, positive, positive, and negative refractive powers, or positive, negative, negative, positive, and negative refractive powers; and satisfy the conditional expressions: 1 |
| US09036272B2 |
Image lens assembly and image capturing device
An image lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element, a fifth lens element and a sixth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface. The second lens element has positive refractive power. The third lens element has refractive power. The fourth lens element has refractive power. The fifth lens element with negative refractive power has a concave object-side surface, wherein both of the surfaces of the fifth lens element are aspheric. The sixth lens element with refractive power has a concave image-side surface, wherein the image-side surface thereof has at least one inflection point, and both of the surfaces of the sixth lens element are aspheric. The image lens assembly has a total of six lens elements with refractive power. |
| US09036269B2 |
Imaging lens and imaging apparatus
An imaging lens substantially consists of five lenses of a first lens having a meniscus shape with its convex surface facing an object side and negative refractive power, a second lens having negative refractive power, and the image-side surface of which has a convex shape facing an image side in the vicinity of an optical axis, a third lens having positive refractive power, a stop, a fourth lens having positive refractive power, and a fifth lens having negative refractive power. At least one of the surfaces of the first lens through the fifth lens is aspherical. A predetermined conditional formula about a distance on the optical axis from an object-side surface of the first lens to an image plane and a distance on the optical axis from the object-side surface of the first lens to the image-side surface of the second lens is satisfied. |
| US09036265B2 |
Optical system and image pickup apparatus having the same
An optical system (OL) includes a magnification conversion optical unit (EXT) configured to be insertable and removable at a position between an aperture stop (SP) and an image plane (IP) of the optical system in order to change a focal length of the optical system, a total lens length of the optical system is constant before and after insertion of the magnification conversion optical unit, and a length Lp on an optical axis from the aperture stop to the image plane of the optical system, and a length Le on the optical axis from a lens surface closest to an object side of the magnification conversion optical unit to the image plane when the magnification conversion optical unit is inserted are appropriately set. |
| US09036263B2 |
Optical unit and wavelength selective switch
In a wavelength selective switch, a holding member is used to rotate one end of optical fibers and a collimator array around a rotation axis to thereby change an incident angle of collimated light with respect to incident surfaces of a beam expander optical system. When the incident angle of the collimated light on the beam expander optical system is changed, an amount of variation in an emission angle of light from the beam expander optical system is not proportional (inversely proportional) to the magnification of the beam expander optical system. Thus, this wavelength selective switch can easily fine-tune the incident position (beam position) of light with respect to each reflecting surface of a MEMS mirror by rotating the holding member. |
| US09036262B2 |
Beam shaping and control apparatus
A method and apparatus for laser beam splitting and shaping is disclosed wherein two beam splitters are used to split one input laser beam into four beams in a generally rectangular pattern. Half-wave plates are used to adjust the power of the input laser beam between the four laser beams. A variable power optical telescope comprising negative and positive lens pairs for the four laser beams is used to adjust the divergence of the four beams, and pointing control prism wedges are used to point or steer the four beams to be parallel to each other and to adjust their relative spacing to create a flat top profile. |
| US09036261B2 |
Optical element, light diffusing element, and image display apparatus
An optical element using visible light from wavelengths λS to λL (λL>λS), is formed of a translucent material having refractive indexes nS and nL, respectively, for light having the wavelengths λS and λL. The optical element includes an incident face; an exit face; and a micro convexo-concave structure used as an anti-reflection structure (ARS), being formed at least one of the incident face and the exit face. An average distance P between adjacent micro convexo-concave structures satisfies condition (1) P≦0.8·λS/nS. Dimensionless parameters mS and mL satisfy condition (2) 0.8≦mS≦1.1 and condition (3) 0.8≦mL≦1.1. The parameters mS and mL, an average height H, the wavelengths λS and λL, and the refractive indexes nS and nL of the micro convexo-concave structure satisfy condition (4) mS·λS/(2·nS)≦H≦mL·λL/(2·nL). |
| US09036260B2 |
Lens holder driving device capable of avoiding deleterious effect on hall elements
An AF unit of a lens holder driving device includes a lens holder, a focusing coil, a permanent magnet having a plurality of permanent magnet pieces having first surfaces opposed to the focusing coil, a magnet holder holding the permanent magnet, and first and second leaf springs supporting the lens holder in a direction of an optical axis shiftably. An image stabilizer portion includes a fixed portion disposed near the second leaf spring, a supporting member swingably supporting the AF unit with respect to the fixed portion, an image stabilizer coil having a plurality of image stabilizer coil portions disposed so as to oppose to second surfaces of the plurality of permanent magnet pieces that are perpendicular to the first surfaces, and a plurality of Hall elements. Each Hall element is disposed at a position where the image stabilizer coil portion is separated into a plurality of coil parts. |
| US09036258B2 |
Display method of a two-dimensional and naked eye type stereoscopic switchable display device
A display method of a two-dimensional and naked eye type stereoscopic switchable display device is disclosed. The two-dimensional and naked eye type stereoscopic switchable display device includes a two-dimensional and naked eye type stereoscopic switchable display module, at least one detection device and an indicator device. The two-dimensional and naked eye type stereoscopic switchable display module provides a plurality of stereoscopic image regions in a naked eye type stereoscopic display mode. Then, detect a viewer's position with the detection device. And, determine whether or not the viewer's position is in the stereoscopic image regions with the two-dimensional and naked eye type stereoscopic switchable display device. When the viewer locates in the stereoscopic image regions, the indicator device emits a first color light. When the viewer locates outside of the stereoscopic image regions, the indicator device emits a second color light. |
| US09036257B2 |
Portable movie screens, systems, and methods of using the same
A portable movie screen includes a screen portion and a frame portion surrounding at least part of the periphery of the screen portion. The screen portion has a screen gain greater than about 0.8 and an elasticity greater than an elasticity of the frame portion. The movie screen includes at least one side connected to the front portion and a receiving space defined at least in part by the front portion and the side portion. The receiving space is configured to selectively receive a support body including at least one sealed chamber and movable between a collapsed configuration and an expanded configuration. The frame portion is configured such that when the support body is in the expanded configuration and positioned in the receiving space, the frame portion tensions the screen portion and substantially maintains the screen portion in a desired shape. |
| US09036255B2 |
Method and device for slide caching
Systems and techniques for an optical scanning microscope and/or other appropriate imaging system includes components for scanning and collecting focused images of a tissue sample and/or other object disposed on a slide. The focusing system described herein provides for determining best focus for each snapshot as a snapshot is captured, which may be referred to as “on-the-fly focusing.” The devices and techniques provided herein lead to significant reductions in the time required for forming a digital image of an area in a pathology slide and provide for the creation of high quality digital images of a specimen at high throughput. |
| US09036253B2 |
Photonic devices based on vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers
Vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers for various photonic devices including all optical logic gate devices and oscillators, where such devices can be implemented to achieve various advantages, including Boolean inversion at high speeds, low power, workable noise margins for cascadability because of input output isolation, and easy of integration in large arrays. |
| US09036252B1 |
Nonlinear spectrally narrowed fiber amplifier
A fiber amplifier system including at least one seed source providing an optical seed beam and a harmonic driver providing a sinusoidal drive signal at a predetermined frequency. The system also includes a harmonic phase modulator that receives the seed beam and the drive signal, where the harmonic phase modulator frequency modulates the seed beam using the drive signal so as to remove optical power from a zeroth-order frequency of the seed beam and create sidebands separated by the frequency of the drive signal. A dispersion element receives the frequency modulated seed beam and provides temporal amplitude modulation to the seed beam and a nonlinear fiber amplifier receives the amplitude modulated seed beam from the dispersion element and amplifies the seed beam, where the dispersion element and the fiber amplifier combine to remove optical power from the sidebands and put optical power back into the zeroth-order frequency. |
| US09036251B2 |
Slab amplification device, laser apparatus, and extreme ultraviolet light generation system
An EUV light generation system includes a driver laser comprising a master oscillator such as a semiconductor laser, a spatial filter, gas slab amplification devices, relay optical systems, and high-speed axial-flow amplifiers. The slab amplification devices include beam adjusting optical units disposed, respectively, at input and output sides of the slab amplifiers SA to convert the beam profile and/or polarization direction and/or an elongated direction of the beam profile with the slab amplifiers is parallel to a free space axis AF of the slab waveguides, i.e. parallel to the discharge electrodes. |
| US09036248B2 |
Light generation device and light generation method
A terahertz light generation device 1 comprises a resonator structure 12 for intensifying incident light and outputting the intensified light and laser oscillation units 10, 11 for feeding the incident light into the resonator structure 12. The incident light comprises first and second incident light components having polarization states different from each other and frequencies different from each other. The laser oscillation units 10, 11 feed the resonator structure 12 with the first and second incident light components at an angle inclined from a principal surface in the resonator structure 12. The resonator structure 12 outputs light having a frequency corresponding to the difference between the respective frequencies of the first and second incident light components. |
| US09036246B2 |
3-dimensional image display apparatus
Provided is a 3-dimensional (3D) display apparatus including a light source, a beam scanner, and a beam deflector array. The beam scanner scans light emitted by the light source, and the beam deflector array includes a plurality of beam deflectors arranged in an array to reproduce a light field by changing a direction of light rays scanned by the beam scanner. |
| US09036238B2 |
Micro electro mechanical display module
A micro electro mechanical display module including a first substrate, a light source and a color filter layer is provided. The first substrate includes a first substrate body, a light-shielding pattern layer and light-shielding units. The light-shielding pattern layer has first openings. Each light-shielding unit includes a light-shielding shutter having one second opening. The shutter light-shielding shutter is movable relative to the light-shielding pattern layer. When one of the light-shielding units is enabled, the second opening is aligned with one of the first openings, so that the white light provided by the light source passes through the light-shielding pattern layer and the one of the light-shielding units and then passes through the color filter layer. When the one of the light-shielding units is not enabled, the second opening is not aligned with the one of the first openings, so that the white light is blocked by the light-shielding shutter. |
| US09036234B2 |
Head-up display device for vehicle
A HUD device includes a stepper motor, which rotates a reflection mirror for adjusting a display position of a virtual image. The stepper motor has an electric stabilization point and a mechanical stabilization point. A control system controls a drive signal for the stepper motor in response to an adjustment instruction. Pole teeth of a specified phase, which provides a greater magnetic attraction force with the rotor when not powered than by pole teeth of other phase, is set as stabilization pole teeth. The control system continues to apply the drive signal until the target stabilization point is attained even after the adjustment instruction is stopped. The target stabilization point is set to the electric stabilization point, at which the holding torque is provided by the stabilization pole teeth of the specified phase. |
| US09036231B2 |
Micro-electro-mechanical systems micromirrors and micromirror arrays
A micromirror and micromirror array may have a first stationary structure, and a mirror structure connected to a first pivoting structure that pivots the mirror structure relative to the first stationary structure about a first axis of rotation. A first comb drive pivots the mirror structure about the first axis of rotation. The first comb drive has a first portion attached to the stationary structure and a second portion attached to the mirror structure, the first portion being electrically isolated from the second portion. The micromirror or micromirror array may be mounted to a Through Silicon Via (TSV) wafer having electrical connections that extend between a first side and a second side of the TSV wafer such that the first and second portions of each comb drive are electrically connected to the electrical connections. |
| US09036228B2 |
Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing program recording medium
An image processing device comprises: a first output device having a first color gamut and outputting an image based on a given first color reproduction target value; a second output device having a second color gamut and outputting an image based on a second color reproduction target value; a color gamut information acquirer for acquiring a first color gamut information relating to the first color gamut of the first output device and a second color gamut information relating to the second color gamut of the second output device; and a target value generator for producing a second color reproduction target value for the second output device by correcting the given color reproduction target value for the first output device based on acquired first and second color gamut information by the color gamut information acquirer. |
| US09036219B2 |
Image processing device and image processing method for preventing image quality deterioration
An image processing device includes an image-modification processing unit and an adjustment unit. The image-modification processing unit executes first image-modification processing wherein pixels are inserted to or deleted from a subject image in a first direction or pixels in the subject image are shifted in the first direction and second image modification processing wherein pixels in the subject image are shifted in a second direction. The adjustment unit adjusts a position of a shift-border along which the pixels are shifted in the second image-modification processing on the basis of a position of each step in an image caused in the first image-modification processing. |
| US09036218B2 |
Scanner and image forming apparatus having the same that reduces the tilting of a moving unit
Disclosed are a scanner and an image forming apparatus including the same. The scanner may include a scanner unit; a support unit configured to support the scanning unit; a first pinion rotatably disposed on the support unit and configured to move along a first rack of a first surface of a guide member; and a second pinion rotatably disposed on the support unit and configured to move along a second rack of a second surface of the guide member such that the direction of rotation of the second pinion is opposite to the direction of rotation of the first pinion, the second surface of the guide member being different from the first surface of the guide member. |
| US09036215B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming method
An image forming apparatus includes a color measurement portion printing unit, a colorimeter, and an image evaluating unit. The color measurement portion printing unit prints at least one color measurement portion. The colorimeter measures a color of the color measurement portion. The image evaluating unit evaluates, on the basis of a measured color value obtained by the colorimeter and a predetermined reference value, whether or not an image printed in response to a print request satisfies quality requirements that are based on a predetermined standard. The image evaluating unit evaluates whether or not the image satisfies the quality requirements, on the basis of a measured color value of a color measurement portion whose color is the same as a color used in the image or whose color difference from the color used in the image is within a predetermined range, among plural color measurement portions. |
| US09036210B2 |
Image processing device, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium
An image processing device includes a detector that detects a target pixel as an outline pixel if a density of a predetermined region including the target pixel with each pixel of an image treated as the target pixel is equal to or above an outline determination threshold value, the outline determination threshold value being a threshold value set in response to the density of the target pixel, and being a threshold value used to determine whether the target pixel is an outline pixel corresponding to an outline of the image, and a correction unit that corrects a correction pixel, as a correction target having a density equal to or above a predetermined density from among the outline pixels detected by the detector, in response to a density of the correction pixel. |
| US09036202B2 |
Image processing device and image processing method performing image process according to attribute information of image object
An image processing device includes a rewriting unit that extracts attribute information of each image object from first page description language data and adds a special color space designating command including at least one color name parameter that represents the attribute information of each of the extracted image objects to rewrite the first page description language data into second page description language data; an RIP unit that interprets the second page description language data rewritten by the rewriting unit to obtain each pixel value of printing image data for a printing device; and a color converting unit that performs a color conversion process during the processing of the RIP unit, wherein the rewriting unit and the color converting unit share information on the correspondence between a color space and a combination of color name parameters for expressing the color space. |
| US09036193B2 |
Image forming apparatus and method of controlling resources in the image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a resource management part that manages, as a plurality of resources, image data to be used by a plurality of processes concerning a module in the image forming apparatus or a storage area that stores the image data, and one or more units of hardware; and an exclusive control part that, in a case where at least one resource of the plurality of resources is used, carries out exclusive control of the at least one resource, and stops or finishes exclusive control of the module. |
| US09036192B2 |
Image processing systems that establish connections using different communication protocols, data processing apparatuses that establish connections using different communication protocols, and computer-readable media storing instructions for such data processing apparatuses
Image processing systems include image processing apparatuses and information processing apparatuses. Image processing apparatuses include image processing devices, which perform image processing for printing print image data, generating scanning image data, or both; and first and second communication devices, which communicate using first and second communication protocols, respectively. Information processing apparatuses include third and fourth communication devices, which communicate using the first and second communication protocols, respectively. First and third communication devices communicate therebetween using the first communication protocol to transmit connection information. Image processing apparatuses, information processing apparatuses, or both determine whether an image transmission condition for transferring the image data between second and fourth communication devices is satisfied. Second and fourth communication devices use connection information to establish communication therebetween using the second communication protocol in response to the determining that the image transmission condition is satisfied and transmit the image data therebetween using the second communication protocol. |
| US09036190B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method of installing a printer driver
If a printer driver corresponding to identification information (MDL) transmitted from a printer cannot be found, an information processing apparatus generates class driver identification information (CID) based on the identification information (MDL) and installs a class driver using the generated class driver identification information (CID). |
| US09036183B2 |
Image forming apparatus with operation display unit
Provided is an image forming apparatus including an apparatus body, an operation display unit provided on top of the apparatus body and including an operation display surface that allows an input operation by a user and provides a display for the user, and a supporting member with one end thereof connected to the back of the operation display unit and the other end thereof connected to an upper surface of the apparatus body. The supporting member supports the operation display unit such that the operation display surface faces the front of the apparatus body. Operation display unit connecting sections that connect to the one end of the supporting member are provided on the back of the operation display unit and apparatus body connecting sections that connect to the other end of the supporting member are provided on the upper surface of the apparatus body. |
| US09036181B2 |
Wireless printing device for printing digital content received via wireless communication compatible, at least partly, with IEEE 802.11 or Bluetooth
A wireless printer for rendering digital content received from wireless information apparatus is herein disclosed and enabled. The wireless printer includes a wireless communication unit compatible with at least part of a protocol within IEEE 802.11 or Bluetooth. The wireless printer may access and connect to a local area wireless network for wireless connection, or may communicate directly with the wireless information apparatus via direct wireless communication. The wireless printer may wirelessly broadcast an indication of the wireless printer to the wireless information apparatus for selection and service. The wireless printer may include an output controller for decoding output data; an image processor for image processing the output data; a marking engine for printing an image onto a substrate; and may further include an operating system that enables installation of additional applications for expanding or updating the functionalities of the wireless printer. |
| US09036177B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method configured to register and manage transmission of image data
An image processing apparatus includes a registration unit configured to register a destination of file transmission, a selection unit configured to select whether to require a user to input, at time of transmission, authentication information required for the file transmission for each destination registered by the registration unit, a transfer unit configured to transfer received image data, and a control unit configured to prevent a destination for which it is selected to require the user to input the authentication information at time of transmission from being set as a transfer destination of the image data. |
| US09036175B2 |
Printer capable of authenticating user, print management system including the printer and computer readable device storing user authentication program
In a printing apparatus, a controller authenticates a user with using first authentication information, and printing is allowed according to successful authentication using the first authentication information and printing is prohibited according to failed authentication using the first authentication information. The controller determines whether an authentication request condition is satisfied, and according to determination that the authentication information request condition is satisfied, the controller requests a user to input second authentication information and authenticates the user with using the second authentication information. Printing is allowed according to successful authentication using the second authentication information, and printing is prohibited according to failed authentication using the second authentication. |
| US09036172B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and storage medium
An image forming includes a predetermined-act acquisition unit, an output control unit, and an image forming unit. The predetermined-act acquisition unit is configured to obtain a predetermined act by a user. The output control unit is configured to: output a page of print data where a security has not been set up among pages of the print data where the security has been set up in page units, and permit output of a page of the print data where the security has been set up if the predetermined act has been obtained by the predetermined act acquisition unit within a predetermined standby time. The image forming unit is configured to print a page for which the output has been permitted by the output control unit. |
| US09036171B2 |
Relaying device, image processing device, and system comprising image processing device and relaying device
A relaying device may be configured to communicate with an image processing device and a server via a network. The relaying device may receive, from the image processing device, process identification information. The selected data process may be executed on output data outputted from the image processing device or the server. The relaying device may identify an instruction-module as a selected instruction-module from among a plurality of instruction-modules. The relaying device may execute the selected instruction-module so as to execute the selected data process on the output data. The relaying device may transmit processed data to the server in a case that the output data is outputted from the image processing device. The relaying device may transmit the processed data to the image processing device in a case that the output data is outputted from the server. |
| US09036170B2 |
Relaying device, image processing device, and system comprising image processing device and relaying device
A relaying device may be configured to communicate with an image processing device via a network. The relaying device may identify a data process as a selected data process in accordance with the process identification information received from the image processing device. The relaying device may receive, from the image processing device, process identification information for identifying a selected data process. The selected data process being executed on output data outputted from the image processing device. The relaying device may identify a selected instruction-module from among a plurality of instruction-modules. The relaying device may execute the selected instruction-module so as to execute the selected data process on the output data. The relaying device may transmit processed data created by the selected instruction-module to the image processing device. The relaying device may cause the image processing device to execute a printing process based on the processed data. |
| US09036169B2 |
Image forming apparatus supporting Wi-Fi direct and method of activating Wi-Fi direct
A multi-function printer (MFP) supporting Wi-Fi Direct includes a print engine to perform a print operation, a first wireless interface to connect the MFP to an access point (AP) of an infrastructured network, a second wireless interface to Wi-Fi Direct connect the MFP to an external wireless terminal, a soft AP to allow the MFP to perform as an AP when the MFP is Wi-Fi Direct connected, a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server unit to allocate an internet protocol (IP) address to the wireless device that is Wi-Fi Direct connected to the MFP, a Wi-Fi Direct connection manager to manage the Wi-Fi Direct connection, and an automatic group owner (AGO) manager activate Wi-Fi direct so as to drive the soft AP and operate the MFP as a group owner (GO) when the MFP receives a Wi-Fi Direct activation request. |
| US09036166B2 |
Medium processing apparatus, image formation apparatus, and medium discharge mechanism to prevent a medium from being jammed
An apparatus includes a discharge mechanism including a drive roller rotatable in a normal direction to discharge a medium and in a reverse direction reversed to the normal direction, and a driven roller in contact with the drive roller and configured to be rotated by the rotation of the drive roller. The apparatus also includes a stacker on which the medium discharged from the discharge mechanism is to be stacked. The driven roller is movable in position depending on the rotation of the drive roller in the normal direction or the reverse direction, such that the driven roller is located at a first position in the vicinity of the stacker when the drive roller is rotating in the normal direction, and the driven roller is located at a second position further away from the stacker than the first position when the drive roller is rotating in the reverse direction. |
| US09036164B2 |
Image recording device
A feeder feeds a first recording medium in a first direction. A curved guide guides the first recording medium fed by the feeder upward along a first path. An upper guide receives a leading edge of the first recording medium, guided by the curved guide, and guides the first recording medium in a second direction substantially opposite to the first direction. An insertion guide guides, along a second path, a second recording medium inserted from an opening. A conveying unit disposed downstream of the upper guide in the second direction conveys the first recording medium and the second recording medium to a recording unit which records an image on each recording medium supported by a supporting unit. A deflecting member has a surface inclined with respect to the second direction and deflects a leading edge of the second recording medium, guided by the insertion guide, upward toward the upper guide. |
| US09036163B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for displaying text block and processing text block
The invention discloses a method for displaying a text block, a method for processing a text block, a client and a server, where the method for displaying a text block includes the steps of: a client collecting font parameters and layout parameters of a text block; the client transmitting the font parameters and the layout parameters of the text block to a server; and the client receiving vector description information of the text block, generated according to the font parameters and the layout parameters of the text block, sent from the server and executing drawing commands to draw the text block and display the text block on a screen. With embodiments of the invention, the effect of a personalized presswork printed at the server can be kept consistent with the effect of displaying the text block on the screen. |
| US09036161B1 |
Label edge detection using out-of-plane reflection
This disclosure describes an optical method of detecting the presence of pressure-sensitive labels, using the reflective properties of their edges. Labels that are removably attached to a liner are moved through a light beam that is directed across their direction of motion so the light impinges on the labels at a predetermined angle of incidence. The light remains in its plane of incidence when it reflects off all parts of the liner and labels except the labels' edges. Due to the angularity of the labels' edges, the light beam is deflected out of the plane of incidence upon reflection off the edges, thus enabling detection of the label edges by light reflected out of the plane of incidence. |
| US09036159B2 |
Device for generating an optical dot pattern
A device for capturing a three-dimensional object is presented, which allows, on one hand, a sufficiently large number of projected pixels and a high image quality of the projected pixels, and which has, on the other hand, a compact size and low assembly costs. |
| US09036158B2 |
Pattern projector
A pattern projector, comprising a light source, configured to emit a beam of light. A transparent substrate, which has a pair of mutually-opposed planar surfaces is configured to receive and propagate the beam within the substrate by total internal reflection between the planar surfaces. The transparent substrate comprises a diffractive structure that is formed on one of the planar surfaces and is configured to direct at least a part of the beam to propagate out of the substrate in a direction that is angled away from the surface and to create a pattern comprising multiple interleaved light and dark areas. |
| US09036157B2 |
System of computing surface reconstruction, in-plane and out-of-plane displacements and strain distribution
A system of computing surface reconstruction, in-plane and out-of-plane displacements and strain distribution utilizes the optical switching element to switch the reference beam to analyze the images of the test object before and after deformation, to measure the topography, in-plane and out-of-plane displacements and surface two-dimensional strain distribution on the test surface of the test object, and thus to increase the measurement range on the test surface of the test object with the use of image registration. Thereby, the complexity and error of scanning the test object can be reduced. Such a system need not to move the image capturing device or test object to generate relative displacement for reaching the measurement effect of the test surface of the test object in three-dimensional coordinates. |
| US09036156B2 |
System and method for optical coherence tomography
The present invention relates to a device and a corresponding method having a light source (20) for emitting light, an interferometer (10), into which light emitted by the light source (20) is injected, for irradiating a sample (1) with light, and a, in particular spatially resolving, detector (40) for detecting interference patterns obtained by superimposing the light reflected from the sample (1) with a partial beam of the light injected into the interferometer (10) which is reflected at a reference mirror (16) of the interferometer (10).In order to obtain OCT images in the simplest way possible and with the highest possible resolution and image quality, the light source (20) comprises a radiation source (21) for generating spatially incoherent light, and an optical filter (22) with a bell-shaped or Gaussian-shaped spectral filter characteristic for filtering the light generated by the radiation source (21). |
| US09036154B2 |
Four-axis four-subdividing interferometer
Four-axis four-subdividing interferometer comprising a four-axis light splitting module and an interference module which are sequentially arranged along the incident direction of polarization orthogonal double-frequency laser. The four-axis light splitting system comprises three 50% plane beam splitters and three 45-degree plane reflecting mirrors. The invention comprises a four-axis four-subdividing plane mirror interferometer and a four-axis four-subdividing differential interferometer. In the differential interferometer, an adjustable 45-degree reflecting mirror is used to guide the reference light to a reference reflecting mirror which is arranged in the same direction as a measurement mirror and fixed on the moving object. |
| US09036148B2 |
Electrochemical deposition and spectroscopic analysis methods and apparatus using diamond electrodes
A method of analyzing chemical species in a solution, the method comprising: providing an electrochemical deposition apparatus comprising a first electrode (2) formed of an electrically conductive diamond material and a second electrode (4); locating the first electrode in contact with a solution (8) to be analyzed and the second electrode in electrical contact with the solution to be analyzed; applying a potential difference between the first and second electrodes (2, 4) such that current flows between the first and second electrodes through the solution to be analyzed and chemical species are electro-deposited from the solution onto the first electrode; applying a spectroscopic analysis technique to the electro-deposited chemical species (M1, M2, M3) on the first electrode to generate spectroscopic data about the electro-deposited chemical species on the first electrode; and using the spectroscopic data to determine the type of chemical species electro-deposited on the first electrode. The spectroscopic analysis technique, which can be based on X-rays, fluorescent X-rays or gamma rays, is used in combination with stripping voltammetric measurement performed on the first electrode. The spectroscopic data can also be used in-situ calibration data for calibrating the reference potential used voltammetric measurements. |
| US09036145B2 |
Conoscopic illumination optical device with a hollow cone for an optical microscope and method of optical microscopy in conoscopy
A method of microscopy and an illumination optical device with a hollow cone for a microscope, the illumination device includes a first conical lens (1) able to receive a collimated incident light beam (10) and form a conical light beam (20), a second conical lens (5) arranged in such a way as to receive the conical light beam (20, 40) and to form a cylindrical light beam with a black background (50) and an optical lens (6) having an image focal plane (12) arranged in such a way as to receive the cylindrical light beam with a black background (50), to form a hollow cone light beam (60) and to focus the hollow cone light beam (60) into a point (18) in the image focal plane (12). |
| US09036144B2 |
Nano-/micro-droplets for the detection of analytes
For a rapid and real-time SERS detection of organic chemicals in the air and the interfaces of air/solids, colloidal silver and/or gold nanoparticles solution is sprayed, in the form of nano-/micro-sized droplets, at the desired target area where the analytes of interest are present, e.g., in the air or onto certain organic/inorganic interfaces. |
| US09036134B2 |
Multi-mode optical measurement device and method of operation
An optical measurement device is provided includes a tracker device configured to emit a first beam of light and receive a portion of the first beam of light reflected off of a target. The first beam of light being emitted from a gimbal location, the tracker device further including an absolute distance meter configured to determine the distance to the target. A scanner device is provided that is configured to emit a second beam of light along a pathway without reversing direction and receive a portion of the second beam of light reflected off an object. The second beam of light being emitted from the gimbal location, the scanner further being configured to determine the distance to the object based at least in part on the speed of light. |
| US09036132B2 |
Clamping device, assembly and lithographic projection apparatus
A clamping device is constructed and arranged to clamp two parts together. The clamping device includes an aligner constructed and arranged to bring the two parts in an aligned position with respect to each other, a clamp constructed and arranged to maintain the two parts in the aligned position, a disconnect constructed and arranged to guide the two parts away from the aligned position to a disconnected position, and an actuator constructed and arranged to convert an electrical current to kinetic energy. The aligner, the clamp, and the disconnect are constructed and arranged to be driven by the actuator. |
| US09036127B2 |
Lithographic apparatus
An immersion lithographic apparatus is disclosed that includes a fluid supply system configured to supply a fluid, the fluid supply system having a chamber with a plurality of inlet holes in a first side wall and a plurality of outlet holes in a second side wall, the first side wall facing the second side wall, wherein the inlet holes direct fluid entering the chamber in a direction towards areas of the second side wall between the plurality of outlet holes. |
| US09036125B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel and manufacturing method thereof
A liquid crystal display panel includes a substrate, a thin film transistor array, a circuit, and a dummy circuit. One surface of the substrate is divided into a display region and a wiring region. The thin film transistor array is formed on the display region. The circuit and the dummy circuit are formed on the wiring region, the dummy circuit is adjacent to the circuit, and the circuit and the dummy circuit protrude from the substrate. |
| US09036124B2 |
Display device
Disclosed is a display device. The display device includes an upper substrate; a lower substrate having gate and data lines, with exposing a part of the lower surface of the upper substrate; a sealant for adhering the upper substrate to the lower substrate; a panel driver connected to the part of a lower surface of the upper substrate; a pad formed on the lower substrate, for applying a signal to the gate and data lines; and a connection part formed on the upper substrate, for connecting the pad and the panel driver. Accordingly, the thickness of the display device decreases, and a step height is not formed at a front surface of the display device, whereby the present invention can obtain an aesthetic design effect in that the front surface of the display device is shown as one structure. |
| US09036117B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus comprises a display device for displaying an image and a diffractive optical element. The diffractive optical element is disposed on a light emitting side of the display device. The diffractive optical element comprises first grating regions. Each of the first grating regions has first diffraction gratings having a constant cycle space and the same azimuth angle. An area of the first grating regions occupies 17.5%˜94% of an area of the diffractive optical element. |
| US09036106B2 |
Liquid crystal display device in which array substrate includes black matrix and method of manufacturing the same
The embodiment of the invention discloses a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same. The liquid crystal display of the embodiment of the invention comprises an array substrate, a color filter substrate and a liquid crystal layer formed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. The array substrate comprises a first substrate; a black matrix formed on the first substrate; and a thin film transistor (TFT) device formed on the black matrix. The TFT device is a top gate TFT device having a gate electrode formed on a side of the TFT device facing away the black matrix and an active layer made of a-Si. The color filter substrate comprises a second substrate; and a color filter layer formed on the second substrate. The color filter substrate does not include a black matrix. |
| US09036103B2 |
Display substrate, method of manufacturing the same and display apparatus having the same
A display substrate includes a base substrate, a thin-film transistor (TFT), a color filter and a pixel electrode. The TFT is on the base substrate. The color filter is on the base substrate including the TFT and in contact with the base substrate. The pixel electrode is on the color filter and in electrical connection to a drain electrode of the TFT. |
| US09036102B2 |
Image stabilization and shifting in a liquid crystal lens
Variable liquid crystal devices for controlling the propagation of light through a liquid crystal layer use a frequency dependent material to dynamically reconfigure effective electrode structures in the device. The frequency of a drive signal that generates an electric field in the device can be varied, and the frequency dependent material has different charge mobilities for the different frequencies. At a low charge mobility, the frequency dependent material has little effect on the existing electrode structures. However, at a high charge mobility, the frequency dependent material appears as an extension of the fixed electrodes, and can be used to change the effective electrode structure and, thereby, the spatial profile of the electric field. This, in turn, changes the optical properties of the liquid crystal, thus allowing the optical device to be frequency controllable. |
| US09036101B2 |
Gradient refractive index liquid crystal optical apparatus and image display apparatus
A gradient index liquid crystal optical apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a first substrate having a first face; a second substrate having a second face opposed to the first face of the first substrate; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate; a plurality of first electrodes provided on the first face of the first substrate, and arranged along a first direction; a plurality of second electrodes provided on the first face of the first substrate to correspond to the first electrodes, the plurality of second electrodes being arranged along the first direction; a plurality of third electrodes provided on the first face of the first substrate and arranged along the first direction; and a fourth electrode provided on the second face of the second substrate. |
| US09036100B2 |
Liquid crystal lens and 3D display using the same
A liquid crystal (LC) lens includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a plurality of liquid crystal units disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. Each liquid crystal unit includes a first sub-unit having a first electrode and a second electrode disposed on the first substrate with a first interval therebetween and a third electrode and a fourth electrode disposed on the second substrate with a second interval therebetween. A first voltage difference is applied between the first electrode and the third electrode, and a second voltage difference is applied between the second electrode and the fourth electrode. The polarity of the first voltage difference is contrary to that of the second voltage difference, and the first interval is not equal to the second interval. A 3D display including the LC lens and a display panel is also provided. |
| US09036096B2 |
Head mounted display and method for displaying contents using the same
A head mounted display and a method of displaying a content using the head mounted display are disclosed. The head mounted display is disclosed which includes: a display unit displaying a content; and a first lens unit configured by a set of lens elements that refract the content displayed on the display unit in an eyeball direction. |
| US09036091B2 |
Receiver and method of receiving analog and digital television signals
An integrated circuit includes a tuner, a digital television (DTV) demodulator, an analog television (ATV) demodulator, and a controller. The tuner includes an input for receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal including at least one of an analog television signal and digital television signal, and including a first output terminal and a second output terminal. The DTV demodulator includes a DTV input coupled to the first output terminal of the tuner and includes a DTV output terminal. The ATV demodulator includes an ATV input coupled to the second output terminal of the tuner and includes an ATV output terminal. The controller is coupled to the tuner, the DTV demodulator, and the ATV demodulator to configure the tuner and at least one of the DTV demodulator and the ATV demodulator for receiving television content in a selected television format. |
| US09036087B2 |
Display device and color adjustment method thereof, and method for displaying video signal
A device for image processing includes a video signal receiver, for receiving at least one video signal, wherein an image frame of the at least one video signal includes: a plurality of pixel groups; a color engine; and an output stage, coupled to the color engine, for outputting the adjusted at least one video signal. The color engine includes: a local adjusting unit, configured to locally adjust at least one of color hue, luminance factor and saturation of a specific pixel group of the pixel groups without adjusting any other pixel group of the pixel groups, wherein the specific pixel group has color hue in a predetermined range that is a part of a full range of color hue; and a global adjusting unit, configured to globally adjust at least one of color hue, luminance factor and saturation of each of the pixels of the image frame. |
| US09036084B2 |
Apparatus and method for synchronous display of video data
The apparatus and method for displaying video data are disclosed. Reference refresh frequency and/or time may be predetermined or derived from predetermined values. Measured refresh frequency and/or time of display panels may be determined and compared against the reference refresh frequency and/or time. Based on the comparisons and through one or more control loops, display properties of the display panels may be adjusted so that one or more display panels may be in sync with respect to their refresh timings without dedicated hardware or a common hardwired synchronization signal. |
| US09036076B2 |
Interchangeable lens, camera body and camera system for transmitting drive condition information at different frequencies
An interchangeable lens that is detachably mounted at a camera body includes: a photographic optical system that includes a first drive target member and a second drive target member, and a drive condition information transmission unit that transmits to the camera body first drive condition information to the drive condition of the first drive target member and second drive condition information to the drive condition of the second optical member. The drive condition information transmission unit transmits the first drive condition information with a first frequency and transmits the second drive condition information with a second frequency lower than the first frequency by attaching the second drive condition information to the first drive condition information. |
| US09036069B2 |
Method and apparatus for unattended image capture
Described is a method and apparatus for unattended image capture that can identify subjects or faces within an image captured with an image sensor. The methods and apparatus may then score the image based, at least in part, on scores of detected subjects or faces in the image, scores of facial expressions, a focus score, exposure score, stability score, or audio score. If the score of the image is above a threshold, a snapshot image may be stored to a data store on the imaging device. If the score of the image is below a threshold, one or more audible prompts may be generated indicating that subjects should change positions, smile or remain more still during the image capture process. |
| US09036067B2 |
Solid-state imaging device including a shielding film over a floating diffusion region, fabrication method and electronic apparatus
A solid-state imaging device includes a photodetector which is formed on a substrate and is configured to generate signal charge by photoelectric conversion, a floating diffusion configured to receive the signal charge generated by the photodetector, a plurality of MOS transistors including a transfer transistor that transfers the signal charge to the floating diffusion and an amplification transistor that outputs an pixel signal corresponding to a potential of the floating diffusion, a multi-wiring layer which is formed in a layer higher than the substrate and is composed of a plurality of wiring layers electrically connected to the MOS transistors via contact portions, and a light-shielding film that is constituted by a bottom wiring layer disposed in a layer higher than the substrate and lower than the multi-wiring layer. |
| US09036066B2 |
Solid-state image pickup device, method of controlling solid-state image pickup device, and image pickup device
A solid-state image pickup device includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a two-dimensional matrix, and outputs signals corresponding to the light quantity incident on each pixel. Each pixel includes: a first pixel that is equipped with a first photoelectric conversion means that converts incident light into an electrical signal to store it; and a second pixel that is equipped with a second photoelectric conversion means that converts incident light into an electrical signal to store it, and a light beam selecting means that selects a light beam that is incident on the second photoelectric conversion means. The solid-state image pickup device includes: a first scanning circuit; and a second scanning circuit. The solid-state image pickup device outputs the electrical signals stored in the first photoelectric conversion means as image signals, and outputs the electrical signals stored in the second photoelectric conversion means as focus signals. |
| US09036063B2 |
Solid-state imaging apparatus
In the solid-state imaging apparatus, the carrier holding portion is arranged at a position in a first direction from a photoelectric conversion portion, a floating diffusion region is arranged at a position in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction from the carrier holding portion with a transfer portion sandwiched between the floating diffusion region and the carrier holding portion, the carrier holding portion included in the first pixel is arranged between the photoelectric conversion portion included in the first pixel and the photoelectric conversion portion included in the second pixel, the carrier holding portion included in the first pixel is covered with a light shielding portion, and the light shielding portion extends over a part of each of the photoelectric conversion portions included in the first and second pixels. |
| US09036055B2 |
Data processing apparatus and method of controlling same
In a data processing apparatus having a plurality of card slots in which memory cards are removably inserted, it is determined, with regard to each of the plurality of card slots, whether a memory card that has been inserted into the slot is a wireless card having a wireless communication function. In a case where it is determined that a memory card that has been inserted into a first card slot among the plurality of card slots is the wireless card, the wireless communication function of the wireless card is enabled. In a case where it is determined that a memory card that has been inserted into a card slot other than the first card slot is the wireless card, the wireless communication function of the wireless card is disabled. |
| US09036054B2 |
Autofocusing optical imaging device
An optical imager includes: an image sensor for capturing images of targets and outputting image signals; a lens for focusing the target on the image sensor as a function of lens position; a memory for storing predetermined lens positions determined from predetermined target sizes; and a controller for determining current target size based on captured images and positioning the lens at a predetermined lens position by correlating current target size with predetermined target sizes. |
| US09036047B2 |
Apparatus and techniques for image processing
An apparatus may include an image sensor that contains a multiplicity of pixel elements to detect one or more images and a processor circuit coupled to the image sensor. The apparatus may include a white balance module for execution on the processor circuit to receive, based upon a detected image of the one or more images, for a plurality of pixel elements of the multiplicity of pixel elements, three of more gray level values for a respective three or more color channels, to determine grayness likelihood functions for the respective three or more color channels, the three or more grayness likelihood functions comprising a proportional contribution to grey pixels of the detected image from one or more gray levels for each respective color channel, and to determine a white balance gain for two or more color channels based upon the determined grayness likelihood functions. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09036045B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus divides image data captured while a flash light is not emitted into a plurality of areas, calculates color evaluation value for each of the divided areas. The apparatus divides image data captured while the flash light is emitted into a plurality of areas and to calculate color evaluation value for each of the divided areas. The apparatus determines a movement for each of the plurality of areas in accordance with the calculated color evaluation value and the calculated color evaluation value. The apparatus performs white balance processing into image data in accordance with the determined movement. |
| US09036041B2 |
Stepped ramp signal generator and image sensor using the same
A stepped ramp signal generator includes a ramp signal generation unit configured to provide final values of previous stepped ramp signals as initial values of the next stepped ramp signals. The ramp signal generation unit includes a plurality of matching resistors, and a plurality of holders installed between the matching resistors, each holder storing a final value across a previous matching resistor and providing the final value to a next matching resistor. |
| US09036039B2 |
Apparatus and method for acquiring face image using multiple cameras so as to identify human located at remote site
An apparatus for acquiring a face image using multiple cameras so as to identify a human being located at a remote site is disclosed. The apparatus for acquiring a face image using multiple cameras allows a PTZ camera to track an interest object from among objects detected/tracked by a fixed camera, and obtains an optimum face image for remote human identification from images generated by the PTZ camera. The apparatus for acquiring the face image using multiple cameras so as to identify a human located at a remote site includes a multi-camera control module for tracking an interest object being detected/tracked by a fixed camera through a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera, and generating an image of the interest object; and a face-image acquisition module for acquiring a face image appropriate for identifying a face image of the remote human in the interest object image generated by the multi-camera control module. |
| US09036038B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method for extracting and categorizing postures of human figures
An information processing apparatus includes an image pickup unit, an extracting unit, an estimating unit, a categorizing unit, and a recording control unit. The image pickup unit captures an image of a subject. The extracting unit extracts a human figure from the captured image of the subject captured by the image pickup unit. The estimating unit estimates a posture of the human figure extracted by the extracting unit. The categorizing unit categorizes the posture of the human figure estimated by the estimating unit into a previously prepared pose. The recording control unit controls recording of the captured image on the basis of the pose that the posture of the human figure is categorized into by the categorizing unit. |
| US09036036B2 |
Image capture device and image processing method for prioritizing tilt or rotational shake correction according to shooting situation
An image capture device includes: an image capturing section configured to capture a subject image and to generate an image; an acceleration sensor configured to detect acceleration; a controller configured to set, according to a result of detection obtained by the acceleration sensor, a reference angle for the device's own tilt when a predetermined instruction is issued; and an image processing section configured to rotate the generated image by using the set reference angle as a reference for tilt correction processing. |
| US09036035B2 |
Rifle scope with video output stabilized relative to a target
A rifle scope including a display, at least one optical sensor to capture video of a view area, and image processing circuitry coupled to the display and the at least one optical sensor. The image processing circuitry is configured to select visual elements within a sequence of frames of the video and to align the visual elements within adjacent frames of the sequence of frames to produce a video output corresponding to the view area that is stabilized relative to a target. The image processing circuit is configured to provide the video output to the display. |
| US09036034B2 |
Image pickup apparatus and image shake correction method
A system controller sets an optical correction ratio, which is a distribution ratio in which a shake angle detected by a gyro sensor is distributed to optical shake correction, in accordance with an optical zoom magnification and controls a prism driver to correct the shake angle multiplied by the optical correction ratio by the optical shake correction, and also controls a read controller to correct the rest of the angle by electronic shake correction. |
| US09036031B2 |
Digital image stabilization method with adaptive filtering
A Digital Image Stabilization method including selecting a Principal transform representing a stationary/background object in the scene of a video frame, based on scoring each of a plurality of transforms of tile motion vector (Tile MV) groups and of feature point motion vector (FP MV) groups, and excluding large moving objects based on the history of the stationary (background) group and the history of each of the plurality motion vector groups. |
| US09036030B2 |
Color calibration of an image capture device in a way that is adaptive to the scene to be captured
Method comprising the steps of: choosing a set of calibration colors within said scene, measuring each calibration color of said set such as to get a set of XYZ to represent each calibration color in the given colorimetric color space, by using said image capture device, capturing calibration colors such as to get a set of Raw RGB values to represent each calibration color, estimating a parametric color transform such that any set of Raw RGB values corresponding to a calibration color is transformed into a set of XYZ values corresponding to the same calibration color, building a color calibration transform by the concatenation of the parametric color transform with an output color transform. |
| US09036029B2 |
Active cloaking with wideband transducers
Electro-mechanical transducers are used to actively cloak a targeted object in a way that absorbs incoming waves without reflection, sends them out the opposite side of the target and returns the wave without leaving a shadow behind the target. The present invention pertains to an improvement in the cloaking of an object without requiring the use of special materials for the object itself and allows the use of SONAR and other possible transducer systems that would be covered and rendered ineffective with passive cloaking materials. Other means are also provided for extending the bandwidth as well as increasing the efficiency for cloaking or other transducers. |
| US09036020B2 |
Image acquisition device
Provided is a camera including a housing; an intermediate plate that divides the interior of the housing into first and second chambers; image acquisition elements disposed in the first chamber within the housing; a motor disposed in the second chamber within the housing; a pivot shaft that extends through the intermediate plate and transmits a driving force from the motor; a bearing that is provided in a through-hole area for the pivot shaft extending through the intermediate plate and seals a gap formed around the pivot shaft; and a prism that is connected to the pivot shaft in the first chamber and is moved by the driving force transmitted by the pivot shaft so as to switchably guide light from a sample to at least one of the image acquisition elements. |
| US09036019B2 |
Fall detection and reporting technology
Fall detection and reporting technology, in which output from at least one sensor configured to sense, in a room of a building, activity associated with a patient falling is monitored and a determination is made to capture one or more images of the room based on the monitoring. An image of the room is captured with a camera positioned to include the patient within a field of view of the camera and the captured image of the room is analyzed to detect a state of the patient at a time of capturing the image. A potential fall event for the patient is determined based on the detected state of the patient and a message indicating the potential fall event for the patient is sent based on the determination of the potential fall event for the patient. Techniques are also described for fall detection and reporting using an on-body sensing device. |
| US09036015B2 |
Rendering views for a multi-view display device
A method of rendering views for a multi-view display device (100) is disclosed. The multi-view display device (100) comprises a number of display means (104, 110) for displaying respective views in mutually different directions relative to the multi-view display device (100). The method comprises: computing a first motion vector field on basis of a first input image of a time sequence of input images and a second input image of the time sequence of input images; computing a first motion compensated intermediate image on basis of the first motion vector field, the first input image and/or the second input image; and providing the first motion compensated intermediate image to a first one of the number of display means (104, 110). |
| US09036012B2 |
3D viewing device, image display apparatus, and method for operating the same
An image display apparatus and a method for operating the same are disclosed herein. The image display apparatus may include a display to display a 3D image having a left-eye image and a right-eye image, a sensor to detect positions of a first viewing device and a second viewing device for viewing the 3D image, and a controller configured control a perceived view of the 3D image viewed through the viewing devices. The perceived view of the 3D image may be changed based on a position of the viewing devices or the user relative to the display. |
| US09036011B2 |
Optical phase extraction system having phase compensation function of closed loop type and three-dimensional image extraction method thereof
Provided is an image extraction method of optical phase extraction system. The image extraction method may include checking whether a phase error due to an environmental disturbance of optical fiber occurs by monitoring an output signal obtained by interfering reflection optical signals reflected through two paths. When a phase error occurs, an error is compensated using a phase compensation control method of closed loop type through one of the two paths and an image is extracted by capturing an image of object in a state that the image of object is shifted by the set phase value when a phase error is compensated. According to the inventive concept, a phase error occurring in an optical fiber type interferometer due to an environmental disturbance is minimized or compensated. Also, since an interference image accurately shifted by the phase value set among arbitrary various phase values is obtained through a camera, reliability of three-dimensional phase information being extracted is guaranteed. |
| US09036008B2 |
Image display device
An image display device which includes a parallax adjustment unit, a display unit, a parallax detector, and a maximum parallax detector. The parallax adjustment unit is configured to obtain a right-eye image signal and a left-eye image signal. The parallax adjustment unit is configured to adjust a parallax between the right-eye image signal and left-eye image signal and output an adjusted image signal that includes an adjusted left-eye and adjusted right-eye signal. The parallax detector is configured to detect an amount of parallax between the right-eye and left-eye image signals. The maximum parallax detector is configured to detect a maximum value. The display unit is configured to display a right-eye image and a left-eye image and to display an augmented image including the right-eye image and the left-eye image as well as a monitor image indicating the amount of parallax detected and the maximum value. |
| US09036007B2 |
System and method for converting two dimensional to three dimensional video
A system and method for converting two dimensional video to three dimensional video includes a processor having an input for receiving a two dimensional image data and an output for outputting three dimensional image data to a display. The processor is configured to receive two dimensional image data, segment a specific object in the two dimensional image data based on variations in brightness and sharpness in the two dimensional image data to identify and locate the specific object in the two dimensional image data. The processor is also configured to adjust the depth value of the specific object over the period of time as the size of the specific object changes in each of the two dimensional images or adjust the depth value of the specific object over the period of time as the size of the specific object changes in each of the two dimensional images. |
| US09036003B2 |
Multi-pitching angle suspended 3D display device with 360-degree field of view
This invention discloses a multi-pitching angle suspended space 3D display device with 360° FOV, comprising: a transmitted composite deflective diffusing screen, a high speed projector, an image generator, a detecting module and a rotating drive mechanism. The high speed projector projects the composite images of the 3D objects of different pitching angles and horizontal 360° views to the composite deflective diffusing screen that rotates at a high speed. The composite deflective diffusing screen is able to control the vertical deflecting and scattering angles and horizontal diffusing angle for incident rays with different angles, allowing the surrounding viewers at different height levels to see the images corresponding to their viewpoints, making the displayed 3D objects suspended over the composite deflecting scattering screen, of which the position does not change as the height of the viewpoint changes. The multi-pitching angle suspended space 3D display device with 360° FOV allows watching by multiple persons at multiple pitching angles and horizontal 360° FOV in naked eyes, realizing space occlusion, exploration and interaction. |
| US09035999B2 |
Bandwidth reduction system and method
A method and computing system for receiving an indication of a first user participating in a videoconference. A determination is made concerning whether bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference. If bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference: an unprocessed video stream associated with the first user is processed to generate a reduced bandwidth video stream, and the reduced bandwidth video stream is provided to a video encoder. Processing the unprocessed video stream includes performing an edge detection procedure on the unprocessed video stream. |
| US09035994B2 |
Transmission management system, transmission system, program, program supply system, and maintenance system
A transmission management system that manages image communications among a plurality of transmission terminals capable of performing at least voice communications. The transmission system includes a terminal management section that manages image communications state information indicating an image communications state of each of the transmission terminals for each terminal identification information for identifying each transmission terminal, a creation section that creates a specified communications control message causing the specified transmission terminal to control the image communications in accordance with the image communications state information, and a transmitting section that transmits the created communications control message to the transmission terminal caused to control the image communications. |
| US09035993B2 |
Method and system for bypassing an anchor point
An approach for splitting a communication data stream into an audio data stream and a video data stream, anchoring the audio data stream at an anchor point within a network, and bypassing anchoring of the video data stream at the anchor point within the network to reduce a processing load at the anchor point. |
| US09035991B2 |
Collaboration system and method
A network apparatus in a collaboration system with a plurality of participants, the apparatus comprising: a processing structure; and a memory including computer program code, wherein the memory and the computer program code are configured, with the processing structure, to cause the network apparatus to at least: present content on a display coupled to the processing structure; select a portion of the display for sharing, the portion having the shared content; simultaneously send said shared content to said display and to an encoder for encoding; automatically discover a network server configured to distribute the shared content with the plurality of participants; couple the apparatus to the network server and transmit the shared content to the network server for distribution to at least one of the plurality of participants, such that the shared content is encoded and decoded, and displayed in real-time. |
| US09035990B2 |
Method and system for providing continuous presence video in a cascading conference
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for providing continuous presence video stream in a cascading video conference, i.e., a video conference that is conducted over more than one MCU. A cascading continuous presence composition controller (CCCC) selects which endpoints from among all of the endpoints participating in the conference should be displayed in the layout, regardless of which endpoints are associated with which MCU. The CCCC can be resident on one of the MCUs, resident on a cascading conference server, or can be distributed among all of the MCUs involved in a cascading conference. |
| US09035984B2 |
Printing system and printing apparatus
A printing system and printing apparatus are provided with improvements in the image quality of an image formed on a printing medium, a peel off region (PO) wherein a transfer layer of a transfer film is not transferred is set corresponding to a card, modified printing data is generated by modifying a gray-scale value of printing data inside a region that is larger than the PO region by predetermined dimensions and including the PO region in the printing data of Y, M, C and Bk into a gray-scale value of 0, an image is formed on the transfer film by heating a thermal head for an image formation panel of an ink ribbon according to the modified printing data. The transfer layer is peeled off by heating the thermal head for a peel off panel of the ink ribbon according to position information of the PO region. |
| US09035981B2 |
Device to reproduce images or graphical patterns in general on surfaces, and corresponding method
Device to reproduce images or graphical patterns in general on large surfaces, comprising at least a printing system (14) mobile in at least one direction with respect to a support frame (12)>> an optical viewing system (100) associated with the support frame (12) and able to recognize the position of the portion of image already executed, and to recognize possible reference signs affixed in the step when said portion of image was executed, in order to allow the correct positioning of the device so as to execute the adjacent portion of image that has to be executed next. |
| US09035979B2 |
Driving method for image display apparatus
Disclosed herein is a driving method for an image display apparatus which includes an image display panel having a plurality of pixels arrayed in a two-dimensional matrix and each configured from a first subpixel for displaying a first primary color, a second subpixel for displaying a second primary color, a third subpixel for displaying a third primary color and a fourth subpixel for displaying a fourth color, and a signal processing section. The signal processing section is capable of calculating a first subpixel output signal, a second subpixel output signal, a third subpixel output signal, and a fourth subpixel output signal. The driving method includes a step of calculating a maximum value (Vmax(S)) of brightness, a saturation (S) and brightness (V(S)), and determining the expansion coefficient (α0). |
| US09035978B2 |
Image display device
The invention provides an image display device that has an especially satisfactory display quality for animated images, and sufficiently suppresses the irregularities of display quality among pixels. The image display device includes a light emitting drive means that drives a light emitting means, based on an analog display signal inputted to the pixels, and a light emitting control switch for controlling a light-on or light-off of the light emitting means on one end of the light emitting drive means in each pixel. |
| US09035972B2 |
Intelligent axis labels
Labels to be displayed along an axis may be obtained as a sequence of labels. If it is determined that the labels in an original sequence of labels overlap, then an alternate sequence of labels that avoids the overlap of the labels may be determined. If it is determined that the labels in the original sequence of labels do not overlap, than the original sequence of labels may be displayed along the axis. If it is determined that the labels in the original sequence of labels overlap, then the alternate sequence of labels may be displayed. |
| US09035971B2 |
Image display apparatus, image display method, and of image display program
An image display apparatus includes a communication unit to communicate with information processing apparatuses; an image synthesizing unit to synthesize a multi-segmented screen image composed of screen images of the information processing apparatuses; a projection unit to project the multi-segmented screen image onto a screen; a functional mode management unit to control switching between a normal projection mode and a multi-segmented screen operation mode; an image capture device to capture the multi-segmented screen image and a hand movement of an operator when switched to the multi-segmented screen operation mode; a designated screen image recognition unit to detect a hand movement of the operator based on the image captured by the image capture device, and to recognize a screen image designated as an active-target image; and a signal control unit to transmit a request of image data transmission to an information processing apparatus corresponding to the designated active-target image. |
| US09035970B2 |
Constraint based information inference
A system for identifying an AR tag and determining a location for a virtual object within an augmented reality environment corresponding with the AR tag is described. In some environments, the location of a virtual object corresponding with a particular AR tag may be determined by identifying a predefined object, determining an orientation and a scale of the predefined object relative to a head-mounted display device (HMD) based on a model of the predefined object, and inferring the location of the virtual object based on the orientation and the scale of the predefined object. In some cases, an identification of the particular AR tag corresponding with the virtual object may be acquired by aggregating and analyzing individual identity determinations from a plurality of HMDs within an augmented reality environment. |
| US09035969B2 |
Method for multiple projector display using a GPU frame buffer
A primary image is transformed into secondary images for projection, via first and second frame buffers and view projection matrixes. To do so, a first image is loaded into the first frame buffer. A calibration data set, including the view projection matrixes, is loaded into an application. The matrixes are operable to divide and transform a primary image into secondary images that can be projected in an overlapping manner onto a projection screen, providing a corrected reconstruction of the primary image. The first image is rendered from the first frame buffer into the second images, by using the application to apply the calibration data set. The second images are loaded into a second frame buffer, which can be coupled to the video projectors. |
| US09035962B2 |
Technique to share information among different cache coherency domains
A technique to enable information sharing among agents within different cache coherency domains. In one embodiment, a graphics device may use one or more caches used by one or more processing cores to store or read information, which may be accessed by one or more processing cores in a manner that does not affect programming and coherency rules pertaining to the graphics device. |
| US09035960B2 |
Technique to share information among different cache coherency domains
A technique to enable information sharing among agents within different cache coherency domains. In one embodiment, a graphics device may use one or more caches used by one or more processing cores to store or read information, which may be accessed by one or more processing cores in a manner that does not affect programming and coherency rules pertaining to the graphics device. |
| US09035959B2 |
Technique to share information among different cache coherency domains
A technique to enable information sharing among agents within different cache coherency domains. In one embodiment, a graphics device may use one or more caches used by one or more processing cores to store or read information, which may be accessed by one or more processing cores in a manner that does not affect programming and coherency rules pertaining to the graphics device. |
| US09035958B2 |
Electronic document delivery
A system, method and computer readable medium for converting paper documents to electronic documents and sending the electronic documents to at least one destination, involves receipt from a remote server of user interface information which provides a user interface for enabling the user to designate a destination of the electronic document, local display of the user interface in accordance with the user interface information, and dissemination of a destination as designated by the user via the displayed user interface. |
| US09035956B1 |
Graphics power control with efficient power usage during stop
In an embodiment, a processor that includes multiple cores may implement a power/performance-efficient stop mechanism for power gating. One or more first cores of the multiple cores may have a higher latency stop than one or more second cores of the multiple cores. The power control mechanism may permit continued dispatching of work to the second cores until the first cores have stopped. The power control mechanism may prevent dispatch of additional work once the first cores have stopped, and may power gate the processing in response to the stopping of the second cores. Stopping a core may include one or more of: requesting a context switch from the core or preventing additional work from being dispatched to the core and permitting current work to complete normally. In an embodiment, the processor may be a graphics processing unit (GPU). |
| US09035954B2 |
Enhancing a rendering system to distinguish presentation time from data time
Techniques are provided for enhancing a digital rendering system to enable the digital rendering system to distinguish Presentation Time from Data Time. |
| US09035950B2 |
Computer-readable recording medium storing information display program, information display method, and information processing apparatus
A computer-readable recording medium storing an information display program for causing a computer to execute a process, the process includes: identifying a first component related to a first character string extracted, referring to a first storage unit that stores a plurality of components constituting the article and character strings that individually represent the plurality of components; obtaining first location information related to the first component from a second storage unit that stores pieces of location information corresponding to the plurality of components in the article; determining an eye direction when a shape of the article is displayed; determining second location information of the first component in the shape of the article related to the eye direction, based on the first location information and the eye direction; and displaying the first character string based on the second location information. |
| US09035948B2 |
Methods and systems for drawing graphics into a data chart
Methods and systems for drawing graphics into a data chart are described. One described method for drawing a graphical element in a chart includes receiving a graphics control call with at least one data value parameter specifying the location of the graphical element One or more operations associated with the graphics control call may be recorded into a data structure. At least one display data range may be determined for the display of data representations and the graphical element, for example by defining an appropriate axis range. The range and data structure may be used to draw and redraw the chart. For example, upon a change to the data, the chart may be redrawn using the new data set and the data structure. As another example, upon a change to a graphical element, the data structure may be changed or replaced and the new or revised data structure used to redraw the chart. |
| US09035947B2 |
Tool for video game application development
Techniques are described that can that can modify content in a video game application executing on a game platform. The technique includes communicatively coupling with the game platform to exchange messages with the game platform. A tool may receive data representative of a version of a screen rendered by the game platform. The tool may then render its own version of the screen and modify the content data that comprises the screen image. The tool may then send a content modification message to the game platform, the message including data representative of the modifications made by the tool. The game platform may then modify and render a new version of the screen in the game platform based on the modification message. |
| US09035944B2 |
3-D model view manipulation apparatus
A 3-D view manipulation apparatus surrounds a 3-D model displayed on a display device, and allows a user to manipulate the view of the model by manipulating the apparatus, without having to divert the user's view from the model. The apparatus is transparent or semi-transparent, such that all of its surfaces are simultaneously visible. The apparatus may include control features on its surface, edges, or corners to facilitate changing the view of the model to a vantage point from or through that control feature. The apparatus may include a set of orthogonal axes at its center, about which the model may be made to rotate. |
| US09035935B2 |
Display apparatus and driving method for display apparatus
There are provided for each column of pixels, a detecting unit which detects a voltage between a gate and a source of a drive transistor when a predetermined current is fed to the drive transistor and a unit which adds a data voltage to the voltage supplied by the detecting unit and supplies a sum to a data line. |
| US09035934B2 |
Voltage biased pull analog interferometric modulator with charge injection control
This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus for driving three-terminal electromechanical systems (EMS) devices. The driving systems and methods described herein include a switched capacitor charge injection circuit that is configured to isolate a single EMS device and transfer a desired amount of charge to the isolated device such that the device can be actuated to produce a desired optical, electrical or mechanical effect. The charge injection circuit can include an operational amplifier and can be connected such that the EMS device is placed in the feedback path of the operational amplifier. |
| US09035930B2 |
Display device and driving method thereof
A display device may have a plurality of pixels of a first group connected to a plurality of first gate lines and first common voltage lines and a plurality of pixels of a second group connected to a plurality of second gate lines and second common voltage lines. The display device drives the first common voltage lines and the second common voltage lines in synchronization with a first clock signal; and drives the plurality of first gate lines and the plurality of second gate lines in synchronization with a second clock signal. I-th first and second common voltage lines (i is a positive integer) are driven to one of a first common voltage and a common reference voltage, and (i+1)-th first and second common voltage lines are driven to one of a second common voltage and the common reference voltage. |
| US09035928B2 |
Display device and output buffer circuit for driving the same
Disclosed herein is a display device including: a plurality of pixel circuits; a power source line connected to corresponding ones of the plurality of pixel circuits; and an output buffer circuit for supplying currents to corresponding ones of the plurality of pixel circuits by alternately applying a first potential applied to a first power source supply terminal, and a second potential applied to a second power source supply terminal to the power source line. The output buffer includes a variable resistance circuit connected to a path between the first power source supply terminal and the power source line, the variable resistance circuit serving to change a resistance value thereof in accordance with a magnitude of a total sum of the currents. |
| US09035926B2 |
Nano crystal display
A nano crystal display includes a display panel including a display area and a non-display area, a data driver which applies data voltages to pixels through data lines, a gate driver disposed in the non-display area and which sequentially applies gate signals to the pixels through gate lines in response to control signals, a control signal line part disposed in the non-display area and which applies the control signals to the gate driver, a cover layer which extends in a column direction and covers the gate driver and the control signal line part, and a sub-electrode which extends in the column direction and covers the cover layer. The pixels display gray scales corresponding to the data voltages provided through the data lines in response to the gate signals. |
| US09035925B2 |
Circuit for controlling non-signal of flat panel display device
Disclosed is a technique, in which when driving chips are used in which control units are respectively merged in driving devices, all modes of the other driving chips are simultaneously converted into a fail safe mode when one driving chip detects a non-signal state. A circuit for controlling a non-signal of a flat panel display device includes a plurality of driving chips. When detecting a non-signal state that the normal signal (LVDS) is not inputted from an outside, each of the plurality of driving chips simultaneously changes potentials of non-signal detection pads of its own driving chip and another driving chip so that all the driving chips are operated in the fail safe mode. |
| US09035923B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device where delay or distortion of a signal output to a gate signal line in a selection period is reduced is provided. The semiconductor device includes a gate signal line, a first and second gate driver circuits which output a selection signal and a non-selection signal to the gate signal line, and pixels electrically connected to the gate signal line and supplied with the two signals. In a period during which the gate signal line is selected, both the first and second gate driver circuits output the selection signal to the gate signal line. In a period during which the gate signal line is not selected, one of the first and second gate driver circuits outputs the non-selection signal to the gate signal line, and the other gate driver circuit outputs neither the selection signal nor the non-selection signal to the gate signal line. |
| US09035921B2 |
Vacuum metalized plating stylus
A metalized plated stylus is described. The stylus includes a pen stem, a metal plating coat adhered to the pen stem, and a conductive rubber stylus tip attached with the pen stem such that the stylus tip is in direct contact with the metal plating coat. Importantly, the metal plating coat is adhered to the pen stem through vacuum metalized plating. |
| US09035920B2 |
Pressure sensitive stylus for a digitizer
A pressure sensitive stylus, comprises a movable tip that recedes within a housing of the stylus in response to user applied contact pressure, wherein a displacement of the tip along an axis on which it recedes is a function of the applied contact pressure, and an optical sensor enclosed within the housing for optically sensing the displacement of the tip and for providing output in response to the sensing. |
| US09035919B2 |
Electrostatics stylus
A handheld, stylus-type input device for interfacing with a touch screen having an array of sensor nodes (e.g., a capacitive touch screen) may include a handheld body having a first end, a tip at the first end, an electrode arranged at least partially within the body, and a circuit configured to produce an electrical potential on the electrode to generate an electric field proximate the stylus tip. When the stylus tip is placed in contact with the touch screen, the electric field activates one or more sensor nodes outside of a physical contact area between the tip and the touch screen, producing an effect on the sensor nodes similar to that of a finger or other object having a larger contact area with the touch screen than the stylus, thus providing activation of the touch screen while providing better view of the screen near the point of contact. |
| US09035915B2 |
Photo sensor type touch panel
A photo sensor type touch panel includes a plurality of readout lines electrically connected in parallel. The overall capacitance of a coupling capacitor between the readout lines connected in parallel and adjacent data lines having one type of polarity is equal to the overall capacitance of a coupling capacitor between the readout lines connected in parallel and adjacent data lines having the other type of polarity. |
| US09035909B2 |
Touch surface with variable refractive index
An apparatus for determining a location of at least one object on a touch surface, comprising: a light transmissive panel defining the touch surface and including a controllable reflective boundary; an illumination arrangement configured to introduce light into the panel; a control device configured to selectively control the reflective boundary such that the light may pass between a first layer and a second layer via an opening in the reflective boundary; a light detection arrangement configured to measure the light passed via the opening and impinged on the touch surface; and a processor unit configured to determine the location as a function of the measured light passed via the opening and the selective control of the reflective boundary. A method and computer readable medium is also described. |
| US09035905B2 |
Apparatus and associated methods
An apparatus, the apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: use a determined user's grip of a portable electronic device as a user input to the portable electronic device to control data streaming functionality provided using the portable electronic device. |
| US09035900B2 |
Touch detector and method of driving the same, display with touch detection function, and electronic unit having plural different drive electrodes
A touch detector capable of achieving high position resolution while improving detection sensitivity to a touch is provided. The touch detector includes: a plurality of drive electrodes arranged side by side to extend in one direction; a detection electrode extending in a direction orthogonal to a direction where the drive electrodes extend, and arranged to form a capacitance at each of intersections with the drive electrodes; and a scanning drive section sequentially selecting a predetermined plural number of target electrodes from the plurality of drive electrodes in a time-divisional manner, and applying a touch detection drive signal with a plurality of pulse waveforms for detecting an external adjacent object to the selected target electrodes to perform a scanning drive. A scanning pitch in the scanning drive is smaller than the total width of the plural number of selected target electrodes. |
| US09035899B2 |
Systems and methods for piezo-based haptic feedback
Systems and methods for piezo-based haptic feedback are disclosed. For example, one described apparatus for piezo-based haptic feedback includes a polymer matrix, and a piezoelectric actuator at least partially embedded within the polymer matrix, the piezoelectric actuator configured to output a haptic effect. |
| US09035897B2 |
Input apparatus and control method of input apparatus
A user interface enabling a user to operate without viewing a screen is generated. An input apparatus 10 according to the present invention includes a touch sensor 103 configured to detect an input position of a touch input, a load detection unit 105 configured to detect a pressure load applied on a touch face of the touch sensor 103, and a control unit 104 configured to, when the load detection unit 105 detects a pressure load satisfying a predetermined standard load, control to generate a virtual user interface having a home position key arranged at the input position. |
| US09035892B2 |
Portable terminal, input control program and input control method
A portable terminal operates while switching first mode for generating, based on a value indicating a degree of contact output by a touchpad, a value indicating degree of the contact for each contacted area and second mode for generating, based on the output value, a value by performing adjustment such that temporal change amount of the value indicating the degree is equal to or less than a predetermined value. When a value of one contacted area generated in the second mode equals or exceeds the first threshold, the portable terminal switches to the first mode, and when a value of one contacted area generated in the first mode falls below the second threshold, the portable terminal switches to the second mode. The portable terminal determines, as a target area to which processing to be performed is allocated, one contacted area having a value that equals or exceeds the first threshold. |
| US09035890B2 |
Mobile device and control method for a mobile device
The present invention relates to a mobile device capable of performing a touch input and a control method thereof. A mobile device according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a display unit configured to display a plurality of objects, a detector configured to detect a pattern surrounding at least one of the objects, and a controller configured to implement a function corresponding to the object surrounded by the pattern. |
| US09035889B2 |
Information processing apparatus and information processing method
An information processing apparatus may include a detection unit and a switching unit. The detection unit detects an amount of change in a position of an object of interest per a predetermined time period. The switching unit switches between a first mode for determining a first operation position on a display surface based on the position and direction of an object of interest and a second mode for determining a second operation position on the display surface based on a position where the object of interest is in contact with the display surface using the detected amount of change. |
| US09035886B2 |
System and apparatus for a multi-point touch-sensitive sensor user interface using distinct digit identification
A computer program product for a multi-point touch-sensitive sensor user interface using distinct digit identification. The computer program product may include a relationship module, an assignment module, a receiving module, a determination module, and an initiation module. The relationship module may determine a relationship between at least two digits. The assignment module may assign a distinct digit identity to each digit of the at least two digits. The receiving module may receive a digit event comprising at least one digit interaction. The determination module may determine a digit identity for each digit involved in the digit event and a digit interaction associated with each digit of the digit event. Finally, the initiation module may initiate a digit event function associated with the determined digit identity and the digit interaction. Therefore, a user has greater control over a device through the interface with each digit having a distinct function and identity. |
| US09035885B2 |
Optical input apparatus
An optical input apparatus is provided and includes an input device for providing data and control signals to a computer; and at least one object sensing module disposed on a top of the input device and each including an optical sensor and a light source. The light source is capable of emitting light upward divergently to create a virtual sensing space above. |
| US09035880B2 |
Controlling images at hand-held devices
Controlling images at hand-held devices using sensor input, for example, as detected by one or more orientation sensors in a hand-held computing device is described. In various embodiments images are displayed at a hand-held computing device according to orientation sensor readings observed at the device and before user input is received at the images. For example, two or more images with different opacities are superimposed and the opacities differentially varied as the hand-held device is tilted. In another example images are placed in a 3D space which is rotated as the device is tilted. In another example, a video is played either forwards or backwards according to an orientation of the device. In various examples the images are displayed as part of a web page by using a template in the web page to control the display of images according to sensor readings. |
| US09035878B1 |
Input system
Methods and systems involving a graphic display in a head mounted display (HMD) are disclosed herein. An exemplary system may be configured to: (1) display a pointer and a graphic object in a graphic display; (2) receive body movement data; (3) use the body movement data as a basis to move the pointer in the graphic display; (4) define an active region in an area of the graphic display, where the graphic object is activated when the pointer is located within the active region; (5) define an expanded active region that encompasses and is larger than the active region; and (6) make the graphic object active in response to the pointer being moved into the active region and keep the graphic object active until the pointer is moved outside of the expanded active region. |