最新美国发明专利
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US09209290B2 III-N material structure for gate-recessed transistors
III-N transistors with recessed gates. An epitaxial stack includes a doped III-N source/drain layer and a III-N etch stop layer disposed between a the source/drain layer and a III-N channel layer. An etch process, e.g., utilizing photochemical oxidation, selectively etches the source/drain layer over the etch stop layer. A gate electrode is disposed over the etch stop layer to form a recessed-gate III-N HEMT. At least a portion of the etch stop layer may be oxidized with a gate electrode over the oxidized etch stop layer for a recessed gate III-N MOS-HEMT including a III-N oxide. A high-k dielectric may be formed over the oxidized etch stop layer with a gate electrode over the high-k dielectric to form a recessed gate III-N MOS-HEMT having a composite gate dielectric stack.
US09209282B2 Method of manufacturing thin film transistor substrate and thin film transistor substrate manufactured by the method
The present invention includes at least a step forming a source electrode (32) and a drain electrode (33), each of which is a multilayer film of a first conductive film (32a), (33a) made of titanium or molybdenum, a second conductive film (32b), (33b) made of copper, and a third conductive film (32c), (33c) made of titanium oxide, a step of forming passivation film (18), which is an inorganic insulating film, on an oxide semiconductor layer (13), the source electrode (32) and drain electrode (33), and an annealing step of annealing the oxide semiconductor layer (13).
US09209275B1 Integrated circuits with memory cells and methods of manufacturing the same
Integrated circuits and methods for producing the same are provided. A method for producing an integrated circuit includes removing a central plug from between a first memory cell and a second memory cell to define a center gap. Each of the first and second memory cells include a control gate with a control gate height, a cap overlying the control gate, a select gate adjacent to the control gate, and a select gate dielectric between the control gate and the select gate. The select gate is recessed to a select gate height while the cap overlies the control gate, where the select gate height is less than the control gate height. A memory spacer is formed overlying the select gate dielectric and adjacent to the control gate.
US09209274B2 Highly conformal extension doping in advanced multi-gate devices
The present disclosure provides in various aspects methods of forming a semiconductor device, methods for forming a semiconductor device structure, a semiconductor device and a semiconductor device structure. In some illustrative embodiments herein, a gate structure is formed over a non-planar surface portion of a semiconductor material provided on a surface of a substrate. A doped spacer-forming material is formed over the gate structure and the semiconductor material and dopants incorporated in the doped spacer-forming material are diffused into the semiconductor material close to a surface of the semiconductor material so as to form source/drain extension regions. The fabricated semiconductor devices may be multi-gate devices and, for example, comprise finFETs and/or wireFETs.
US09209272B2 Oxidation and etching post metal gate CMP
A method includes forming a dummy gate of a transistor at a surface of a wafer, removing the dummy gate, and filling a metallic material into a trench left by the removed dummy gate. A Chemical Mechanical Polish (CMP) is then performed on the metallic material, wherein a remaining portion of the metallic material forms a metal gate of the transistor. After the CMP, a treatment is performed on an exposed top surface of the metal gate using an oxidation-and-etching agent comprising chlorine and oxygen.
US09209270B2 MOS devices having non-uniform stressor doping
A device includes a semiconductor substrate, a gate stack over the semiconductor substrate, and a stressor region having at least a portion in the semiconductor substrate and adjacent to the gate stack. The stressor region includes a first stressor region having a first p-type impurity concentration, a second stressor region over the first stressor region, wherein the second stressor region has a second p-type impurity concentration, and a third stressor region over the second stressor region. The third stressor region has a third p-type impurity concentration. The second p-type impurity concentration is lower than the first and the third p-type impurity concentrations.
US09209266B2 High electron mobility transistor and manufacturing method thereof
Disclosed is a manufacturing method of a high electron mobility transistor. The method includes: forming a source electrode and a drain electrode on a substrate; forming a first insulating film having a first opening on an entire surface of the substrate, the first opening exposing a part of the substrate; forming a second insulating film having a second opening within the first opening, the second opening exposing a part of the substrate; forming a third insulating film having a third opening within the second opening, the third opening exposing a part of the substrate; etching a part of the first insulating film, the second insulating film and the third insulating film so as to expose the source electrode and the drain electrode; and forming a T-gate electrode on a support structure including the first insulating film, the second insulating film and the third insulating film.
US09209264B2 Heterojunction bipolar transistor having a germanium raised extrinsic base
Disclosed is a heterojunction bipolar transistor (“HBT”) including an intrinsic base in a SiGe layer. The HBT has a raised germanium extrinsic base over the SiGe layer. A base contact is situated over and contacting the raised germanium extrinsic base. An emitter is situated over the intrinsic base, and a collector is situated under the intrinsic base. The raised germanium extrinsic base has a reduced parasitic base-collector capacitance. The raised germanium extrinsic base is situated between a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer. Spacers are situated adjacent the second dielectric layer. The first dielectric layer can be a nitride based dielectric, the second dielectric layer can be an oxide based dielectric, and the spacers can be a nitride based dielectric.
US09209263B2 Semiconductor memory device
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a semiconductor layer, a control gate electrode, and an organic molecular layer provided between the semiconductor layer and the control gate electrode and having an organic molecule including a porphyrin structure.
US09209261B2 Method for depinning the fermi level of a semiconductor at an electrical junction and devices incorporating such junctions
An electrical device in which an interface layer is disposed in between and in contact with a conductor and a semiconductor.
US09209257B2 Oxide sintered body and sputtering target
An oxide sintered body includes indium oxide and gallium solid-solved therein, the oxide sintered body having an atomic ratio “Ga/(Ga+In)” of 0.001 to 0.12, containing indium and gallium in an amount of 80 atom % or more based on total metal atoms, and having an In2O3 bixbyite structure.
US09209252B2 Formation of nickel silicon and nickel germanium structure at staggered times
Systems and methods are provided for generating a semiconductor device on a single semiconductor substrate. A single semiconductor substrate is generated that includes a Silicon material portion and a Germanium material portion. A first set of source/drain contacts is formed from a first metal on the Silicon material portion. The first set of source/drain contacts is annealed with the Silicon material portion at a first temperature. A second set of source/drain contacts is formed from a second metal on the Germanium material portion after heating the semiconductor substrate to the first temperature, and the second set of source/drain contacts is annealed with the Germanium material portion at a second temperature, where the second temperature is less than the first temperature.
US09209246B2 Accumulation field effect microelectronic device and process for the formation thereof
A gated microelectronic device is provided that has a source with a source ohmic contact with the source characterized by a source dopant type and concentration. A drain with a drain ohmic contact with the drain characterized by a drain dopant type and concentration. An intermediate channel portion characterized by a channel portion dopant type and concentration. An insulative dielectric is in contact with the channel portion and overlaid in turn by a gate. A gate contact applies a gate voltage bias to control charge carrier accumulation and depletion in the underlying channel portion. This channel portion has a dimension normal to the gate which is fully depleted in the off-state. The dopant type is the same across the source, drain and the channel portion of the device. The device on-state current is determined by the doping and, unlike a MOSFET, is not directly proportional to device capacitance.
US09209245B2 Semiconductor device having plural patterns extending in the same direction
A photomask has a mask blank and a light shielding film formed on the mask blank. The light shielding film includes a plurality of opening traces extending in a first direction. An end of a first opening trace in the first direction and an end of a second opening trace in the first direction are in different positions in the first direction. The second opening trace adjoins the first opening trace.
US09209243B2 Method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure
Embodiments of the disclosure include a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure and a method of forming the same. A trench is formed in a substrate. A silicon oxide and a silicon liner layer are formed on sidewalls and a bottom surface of the trench. A flowable silicon oxide material fills in the trench, is cured, and then is partially removed. Another silicon oxide is deposited in the trench to fill the trench. The STI structure in a fabricated device includes a bottom portion having silicon oxide and a top portion having additionally a silicon oxide liner and a silicon liner on the sidewalls.
US09209241B2 Semiconductor devices including a recessed active region, and methods of forming semiconductor devices including a recessed active region
Semiconductor devices are provided. Each of the semiconductor devices may include a substrate including an active region that includes first and second regions. Each of the semiconductor devices may include a device isolation layer between the first and second regions of the active region. Each of the semiconductor devices may include a contact hole defined by recessed portions of the device isolation layer and the first region of the active region, respectively. Moreover, a topmost surface of the first region of the active region may define a bottommost portion of the contact hole. Related methods of forming semiconductor devices are also provided.
US09209235B2 Organic light-emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a substrate; a thin film transistor (TFT) on the substrate; a pixel-defining layer (PDL) disposed on the TFT and comprising a first area having a first thickness and a second area having a second thickness greater than the first thickness, and a via hole in the first area; a pixel electrode disposed on at least a portion of the first area, and electrically connected to the TFT via the via hole; an intermediate layer on the pixel electrode, the intermediate layer comprising an emission layer (EML); and an opposite electrode on the intermediate layer. According to a method of manufacturing the organic light emitting display apparatus, the PDL is formed on the substrate and then the pixel electrode is formed on the first area.
US09209233B2 Method for manufacturing display and display
A method for manufacturing a display, the method including the steps of: disposing a substrate over which a plurality of lower electrodes and a plurality of auxiliary electrodes are formed and a donor film over which a light-emitting functional layer is formed so that the light-emitting functional layer contacts with the lower electrodes and does not contact with the auxiliary electrodes; irradiating the donor film with an energy beam to selectively transfer the light-emitting functional layer onto the lower electrodes; and forming an upper electrode that covers the light-emitting functional layer and the auxiliary electrodes.
US09209226B2 Three-dimensional semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
A 3D semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The 3D semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a common source region formed on the semiconductor substrate and extending in a line shape, an active region formed on the common source region and including a lateral channel region, which is substantially in parallel to a surface of the semiconductor substrate, and source and drain regions that are branched from the lateral channel region to a direction substantially perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a gate formed in a space between the source region and the drain region.
US09209224B2 Semiconductor light-emitting device
A semiconductor light-emitting device comprises: a mounting substrate; a plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements that are arranged on the mounting substrate; a light absorber that is formed so as to cover an entire region between the plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements adjacent to each other on the mounting substrate; and a wiring group including a plurality of wirings wired to each of the plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements.
US09209223B2 Light emitting device and method of manufacturing the same
The present invention relates to a light emitting device. The light emitting device comprises a substrate, an N-type semiconductor layer formed on the substrate, and a P-type semiconductor layer formed on the N-type semiconductor layer, wherein a side surface including the N-type or P-type semiconductor layer has a slope of 20° to 80° from a horizontal plane. Further, a light emitting device comprises a substrate formed with a plurality of light emitting cells each including an N-type semiconductor layer and a P-type semiconductor layer formed on the N-type semiconductor layer, wherein the N-type semiconductor layer of one light emitting cell and the P-type semiconductor layer of another adjacent light emitting cell are connected to each other, and a side surface including at least the P-type semiconductor layer of the light emitting cell has a slope of 20° to 80° from a horizontal plane.
US09209222B2 Surveillance device
A surveillance device includes a circuit card assembly disposed in a housing and a plurality of light emitting diodes disposed on the circuit card assembly, each of the plurality of light emitting diodes configured to emit a narrow beam of light. The surveillance device further includes a diffuser disposed in the housing, the diffuser configured to spread the narrow beam of light and a Fresnel lens disposed in the housing, the Fresnel lens configured to spread and redirect light emitted from the diffuser.
US09209219B2 Thin film transistor array substrate for digital photo-detector
A thin film transistor array substrate for a digital photo-detector is provided. The photo-detector includes a plurality of gate lines to supply a scan signal; a plurality of data lines to output data, the data lines arranged in a direction crossing the gate lines, wherein cell regions are defined by the gate lines and the data lines; a photodiode in each of the cell regions to perform photoelectric conversion; a thin film transistor at each intersection between the gate lines and the data lines to output a photoelectric conversion signal from the photodiode to the data lines in response to a scan signal supplied by the gate lines; and a light-shielding layer over each channel region of the respective thin film transistors. Each light-shielding layer is electrically connected to the respective gate line.
US09209217B2 Image pickup element and image pickup device
Provided is an image pickup element that includes a photoelectric conversion section provided on a semiconductor substrate and including a chalcopyrite-based compound. The photoelectric conversion section has a band gap that is relatively wide on a light incident surface side.
US09209214B2 Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same
A semiconductor device includes a substrate including a front side and a back side opposite the front side, first P-type regions located adjacent to the back side and spaced apart from each other in the substrate, N-type regions located under the first P-type regions and spaced apart from each other in the substrate, and second P-type regions located adjacent to the back side and located between the first P-type regions.
US09209210B2 Photo-detecting pixel, photo-detecting apparatus, and method of driving the photo-detecting apparatus
A photo-detecting apparatus in which the time taken to read out a detection signal is decreased, and thus, a frame rate of the photo-detecting apparatus is improved. A photo-detecting pixel includes a photosensitive device for generating a first detection signal by photoelectrically converting incident light; a first transistor for generating a detection current by receiving the first detection signal generated by the photosensitive device via a gate terminal of the first transistor; a second transistor for forming a first current path with the first transistor, in response to a read signal input via a gate terminal of the second transistor; and a third transistor for delivering a voltage in accordance with the detection current to a data line, in response to a gate signal applied to a gate terminal of the third transistor.
US09209208B2 Display device and manufacturing method thereof
Provided is a display device, including: an insulation substrate; a thin film transistor positioned on the insulation substrate; a pixel electrode connected with the thin film transistor; a first alignment layer positioned on the pixel electrode; a second alignment layer spaced apart from the first alignment layer by a microcavity; a common electrode positioned on the second alignment layer; a roof layer on the common electrode; a liquid crystal injection hole in the common electrode and the roof layer to extend to a part of the microcavity; a liquid crystal layer filling the microcavity; and an overcoat on the roof layer to cover the liquid crystal injection hole to seal the microcavity. Each of the first alignment layer and the second alignment layer includes a plurality of heterogeneous layers.
US09209205B2 Thin film transistor, and thin film transistor array panel and organic light emitting diode display including the same
A thin film transistor includes a semiconductor which is disposed on a substrate and includes a source region, a drain region and a channel region, a gate insulating layer disposed on the semiconductor, a gate electrode disposed on the gate insulating layer, an interlayer insulating layer disposed on the gate electrode, contact holes defined in the interlayer insulating layer, the contact holes respectively exposing the source region and the drain region of the semiconductor, and a source electrode and a drain electrode which are disposed on the interlayer insulating layer and respectively contact the source region and the drain region through the contact holes, where at least one of the contact holes exposing the source region and the drain region obliquely traverses the semiconductor.
US09209191B2 Semiconductor device including gate electrode for applying tensile stress to silicon substrate, and method of manufacturing the same
A gate insulating film and a gate electrode of non-single crystalline silicon for forming an nMOS transistor are provided on a silicon substrate. Using the gate electrode as a mask, n-type dopants having a relatively large mass number (70 or more) such as As ions or Sb ions are implanted, to form a source/drain region of the nMOS transistor, whereby the gate electrode is amorphized. Subsequently, a silicon oxide film is provided to cover the gate electrode, at a temperature which is less than the one at which recrystallization of the gate electrode occurs. Thereafter, thermal processing is performed at a temperature of about 1000° C., whereby high compressive residual stress is exerted on the gate electrode, and high tensile stress is applied to a channel region under the gate electrode. As a result, carrier mobility of the nMOS transistor is enhanced.
US09209186B1 Threshold voltage control for mixed-type non-planar semiconductor devices
A range of lowest, low and regular threshold voltages are provided to three p-type devices and three n-type devices co-fabricated on a same substrate. For the p-type devices, the range is achieved for the lowest using an additional thick layer of a p-type work function metal in a gate structure and oxidizing it, the low Vt is achieved with the thick p-type work function metal alone, and the regular Vt is achieved with a thinner layer of the p-type work function metal. For the n-type devices, the lowest Vt is achieved by implanting tantalum nitride with arsenic, argon, silicon or germanium and not adding any of the additional p-type work function metal in the gate structure, the low Vt is achieved by not adding the additional p-type work function metal, and the regular Vt is achieved with a thinnest layer of the p-type work function metal.
US09209185B2 Method and structure for FinFET device
The present disclosure provides a method for fabricating a fin-like field-effect transistor (FinFET). The method includes forming a first fin structures over a substrate, forming a patterned oxidation-hard-mask (OHM) over the substrate to expose the first fin structure in a first gate region of a n-type FET region, forming a semiconductor oxide feature in a middle portion of the first fin structure in the first gate region, forming a second fin structure in a PFET region, forming dummy gates, forming source/drain (S/D) features, replacing the dummy gates by a first high-k/metal gate (HK/MG) in the NFET region and a second HK/MG in the PFET region.
US09209183B2 Dummy gate for a high voltage transistor device
The present disclosure provides a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a first doped region and a second doped region both formed in a substrate. The first and second doped regions are oppositely doped. The semiconductor device includes a first gate formed over the substrate. The first gate overlies a portion of the first doped region and a portion of the second doped region. The semiconductor device includes a second gate formed over the substrate. The second gate overlies a different portion of the second doped region. The semiconductor device includes a first voltage source that provides a first voltage to the second gate. The semiconductor device includes a second voltage source that provides a second voltage to the second doped region. The first and second voltages are different from each other.
US09209181B2 Methods of forming transistors with retrograde wells in CMOS applications and the resulting device structures
A method includes forming a layer of silicon-carbon on an N-active region, performing a common deposition process to form a layer of a first semiconductor material on the layer of silicon-carbon and on the P-active region, masking the N-active region, forming a layer of a second semiconductor material on the first semiconductor material in the P-active region and forming N-type and P-type transistors. A device includes a layer of silicon-carbon positioned on an N-active region, a first layer of a first semiconductor positioned on the layer of silicon-carbon, a second layer of the first semiconductor material positioned on a P-active region, a layer of a second semiconductor material positioned on the second layer of the first semiconductor material, and N-type and P-type transistors.
US09209174B2 Circuit element including a layer of a stress-creating material providing a variable stress and method for the formation thereof
A transistor includes a source region, a drain region, a channel region, a gate electrode and a layer of a stress-creating material. The stress-creating material provides a stress that is variable in response to a signal acting on the stress-creating material. The layer of stress-creating material is arranged to provide a stress in at least the channel region. The stress provided in at least the channel region is variable in response to the signal acting on the stress-creating material. Layers of stress-creating material providing a stress that is variable in response to a signal acting on the stress-creating material may also be used in circuit elements other than transistors, for example, resistors.
US09209173B2 Single die output power stage using trench-gate low-side and LDMOS high-side MOSFETS, structure and method
A voltage converter includes an output circuit having a high-side device and a low-side device which can be formed on a single die (a “PowerDie”). The high-side device can include a lateral diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) while the low-side device can include a trench-gate vertical diffused metal oxide semiconductor (VDMOS). The voltage converter can further include a controller circuit on a different die which can be electrically coupled to, and co-packaged with the output circuit.
US09209172B2 FinFET and fin-passive devices
A method of forming a semiconductor structure within a semiconductor substrate is provided. The method may include forming, on the substrate, a first group of fins associated with a first device; a second group of fins associated with a second device; and a third group of fins located between the first group of fins and the second group of fins, whereby the third group of fins are associated with a third device. A shallow trench isolation (STI) region is formed between the first and the second group of fins by recessing the third group of fins into an opening within the substrate, such that the recessed third group of fins includes a fin top surface that is located below a top surface of the substrate. The top surface of the substrate is substantially coplanar with a fin bottom surface corresponding to the first and second group of fins.
US09209170B2 Electrostatic discharge protection
A device comprising an electrostatic discharge protection structure (8), an ion sensitive field effect transistor (ISFET) having a floating gate (5,6,7,9,10), and a sensing layer (12) located above the floating gate. The device is configured such that the electrical impedance from the sensing layer to the electrostatic discharge protection structure is less than the electrical impedance from the sensing layer to the floating gate. The device can be fabricated in a standard CMOS process.
US09209165B2 Technique for controlling positions of stacked dies
An assembly component and a technique for assembling a chip package using the assembly component are described. This chip package includes a set of semiconductor dies that are arranged in a stack in a vertical direction, which are offset from each other in a horizontal direction to define a stepped terrace at one side of the vertical stack. Moreover, the chip package may be assembled using the assembly component. In particular, the assembly component may include a pair of stepped terraces that approximately mirror the stepped terrace of the chip package and which provide vertical position references for an assembly tool that positions the set of semiconductor dies in the vertical stack during assembly of the chip package.
US09209164B2 Interconnection structure of package structure and method of forming the same
A package structure including: a first semiconductor device including a first semiconductor substrate and a first electronic device, the first semiconductor device having a first side and a second side, wherein at least part of the first electronic device being adjacent to the first side, and the first semiconductor device has a via-hole formed through the first semiconductor device, wherein the via-hole has a first opening adjacent to the first side; an interconnection structure disposed in the first semiconductor device, wherein the interconnection structure includes: a via structure disposed in the via-hole without exceeding the first opening; a first pad disposed on the first side of the first semiconductor device and covering the via-hole; and a second semiconductor device vertically integrated with the first semiconductor device.
US09209161B2 Stacked package and method for manufacturing the same
The stacked package includes: a substrate having an upper surface formed with connection pads, a lower surface, and four side surfaces; a first semiconductor chip mounted over the upper surface of the substrate; a first adhesive member that covers a portion of the substrate including the first semiconductor chip; and a second semiconductor chip formed with bumps on edges of a first surface and mounted over the substrate with interposition of the first semiconductor chip and the first adhesive member such that a center of the first surface is attached over the first adhesive member and the bumps are bonded onto the connection pads, with a second surface opposing to the first surface being polished evenly.
US09209159B2 Hidden plating traces
A strengthened semiconductor die substrate and package are disclosed. The substrate may include contact fingers formed with nonlinear edges. Providing a nonlinear contour to the contact finger edges reduces the mechanical stress exerted on the semiconductor die which would otherwise occur with straight edges to the contact fingers. The substrate may additionally or alternatively include plating traces extending at an angle from the contact fingers. Extending at an angle, at least the ends of the plating traces at the edge of the substrate are covered beneath a lid in which the semiconductor package is encased. Thus, when in use with a host device, contact between the ends of the plating traces beneath the lid and contact pins of the host device is avoided.
US09209157B2 Formation of through via before contact processing
The formation of through silicon vias (TSVs) in an integrated circuit (IC) die or wafer is described in which the TSV is formed in the integration process prior to contact or metallization processing. Contacts and bonding pads may then be fabricated after the TSVs are already in place, which allows the TSV to be more dense and allows more freedom in the overall TSV design. By providing a denser connection between TSVs and bonding pads, individual wafers and dies may be bonded directly at the bonding pads. The conductive bonding material, thus, maintains an electrical connection to the TSVs and other IC components through the bonding pads.
US09209151B2 Embedded semiconductor device package and method of manufacturing thereof
A package structure includes a dielectric layer, at least one semiconductor device attached to the dielectric layer, one or more dielectric sheets applied to the dielectric layer and about the semiconductor device(s) to embed the semiconductor device(s) therein, and a plurality of vias formed to the semiconductor device(s) that are formed in at least one of the dielectric layer and the one or more dielectric sheets. The package structure also includes metal interconnects formed in the vias and on one or more outward facing surfaces of the package structure to form electrical interconnections to the semiconductor device(s). The dielectric layer is composed of a material that does not flow during a lamination process and each of the one or more dielectric sheets is composed of a curable material configured to melt and flow when cured during the lamination process so as to fill-in any air gaps around the semiconductor device(s).
US09209149B2 Bump-on-trace structures with high assembly yield
A package includes first package component, which further includes a first metal trace at a surface of the first package component, with the first metal trace having a trace width measured in a direction perpendicular to a lengthwise direction of the first metal trace. The first package component further includes a second metal trace at the surface of the first package component. The first metal trace and the second metal trace are parallel to each other. A second package component is overlying the first package component, wherein the second package component includes a metal bump. A solder region bonds the metal bump to the first metal trace, wherein the solder region contacts a top surface and sidewalls of the first portion of the first metal trace. A ratio of a volume of the solder region to the trace width is between about 1,100 μm2 and about 1,300 μm2.
US09209148B2 Semiconductor package
A semiconductor package includes a substrate, a first passivation layer disposed on the substrate, and an under bump metallurgy layer disposed on the first passivation layer. A passive device is disposed on the under bump metallurgy layer, and an additional under bump metallurgy layer is disposed on the first passivation layer, isolated from the under bump metallurgy layer. A conductive pillar is disposed on the additional under bump metallurgy layer, wherein the conductive pillar and the passive device are at the same level.
US09209145B2 Semiconductor memory device having pads
A semiconductor memory device includes a semiconductor circuit substrate having a chip pad forming region. A pair of data lines are formed on the semiconductor circuit substrate at one side of the chip pad region. The pair of data lines extend along a direction that the chip pad region of the semiconductor circuit substrate extends. The pair of data lines are arranged to be adjacent to each other and receive a pair of differential data signals. A power supply line is formed on the semiconductor circuit substrate at the other side of the chip pad region. The power supply line extends along the direction that the chip pad region of the semiconductor circuit substrate extends, and the power supply line receives power.
US09209142B1 Semiconductor bonding with compliant resin and utilizing hydrogen implantation for transfer-wafer removal
A transfer substrate with a compliant resin is used to bond one or more chips to a target wafer. An implant region is formed in a transfer substrate. A portion of the transfer substrate is etched to form a riser. Compliant material is applied to the transfer substrate. A chip is secured to the compliant material, wherein the chip is secured to the compliant material above the riser. The chip is bonded to a target wafer while the chip is secured to the compliant material. The transfer substrate and compliant material are removed from the chip. The transfer substrate is opaque to UV light.
US09209141B2 Shielded package assemblies with integrated capacitor
Package assemblies including a die stack and related methods of use. The package assembly includes a substrate with a first surface, a second surface, and a third surface bordering a through-hole extending from the first surface to the second surface. The assembly further includes a die stack, a conductive layer, and a lid. The die stack includes a chip positioned inside the through-hole in the substrate. A section of the conductive layer is disposed on the third surface of the substrate. A portion of the lid is disposed between the first chip and the section of the conductive layer. The conductive layer is configured to be coupled with power, and the lid is configured to be coupled with ground. The portion of the lid may act as a first plate of a capacitor, and the section of the conductive layer may act as a second plate of the capacitor.
US09209138B2 Integrated circuit shielding technique utilizing stacked die technology incorporating top and bottom nickel-iron alloy shields having a low coefficient of thermal expansion
An integrated circuit shielding technique utilizing stacked die technology incorporating top and bottom nickel-iron alloy shields having a low coefficient of thermal expansion of especial utility in conjunction with magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) and other devices requiring magnetic shielding.
US09209137B2 Multiple seal-ring structure for the design, fabrication, and packaging of integrated circuits
A semiconductor circuit design includes an outer seal-ring and an inner seal-ring for each sub-section of the design that may potentially be cut into separate die. The use of multiple seal-rings permits a single circuit design and fabrication run to be used to support flexibly packaging different product releases having different numbers of integrated circuit blocks per packaged unit.
US09209133B2 Semiconductor apparatus
A semiconductor apparatus includes a semiconductor chip formed with cut fuses over one surface thereof; and migration preventing modules preventing occurrence of a phenomenon in which metal ions of the fuses migrate to cut zones of the fuses; each migration preventing module including: a ground electrode formed in the semiconductor chip to face the fuse with a first insulation member interposed therebetween; a floating electrode formed over the fuse with a second insulation member interposed therebetween to face the ground electrode with the fuse interposed therebetween; and a power supply electrode formed over the floating electrode with a third insulation member interposed therebetween.
US09209131B2 Toroid inductor in redistribution layers (RDL) of an integrated device
Some features pertain to an integrated device that includes a substrate, several metal layers coupled to the substrate, several dielectric layers coupled to the substrate, a first metal redistribution layer coupled to one of the metal layers, and a second metal redistribution layer coupled to the first metal redistribution layer. The first and second metal redistribution layers are configured to operate as a toroid inductor in the integrated device. In some implementations, the integrated device also includes a third metal redistribution layer. The third metal redistribution layer is coupled to the first and second metal redistribution layers. The third metal redistribution layer is a via. In some implementations, the first, second, and third metal redistribution layers are configured to operate as a toroid inductor in the integrated device. In some implementations, the first, second, and third redistribution layers form a set of windings for the toroid inductor.
US09209129B2 Self-aligned via interconnect using relaxed patterning exposure
Self-aligned via interconnects using relaxed patterning exposure. In accordance with a first method embodiment, a method for controlling a computer-aided design (CAD) system for designing physical features of an integrated circuit includes accessing a first pattern for first metal traces on a first metal layer, accessing a second pattern for second metal traces on a second metal layer, vertically adjacent to the first metal layer and accessing a precise pattern of intended interconnections between the first and second metal traces. The precise pattern of intended interconnections is operated on to form an imprecise via pattern that indicates a plurality of general areas in which vias are allowed. The imprecise via pattern is for use in an integrated circuit manufacturing process to form, in conjunction with operations to form the first and second metal layers, a plurality of self-aligned vias for interconnecting the intended interconnections.
US09209128B2 Integrated circuit assembly with cushion polymer layer
A method of forming an integrated circuit assembly includes forming an insulator layer on a preliminary semiconductor assembly. The preliminary semiconductor assembly includes a semiconductor substrate having a first side and a second side opposite the first side, a semiconductor circuitry layer formed on the first side of the semiconductor substrate, and a conductive via extending through the semiconductor substrate from the semiconductor circuitry layer to the second side. The insulator is formed on the second side and an end of the conductive via. The method includes forming a polymer layer on the insulator layer, removing a quantity of the polymer layer sufficient to expose the end of the conductive via through the insulator layer, and forming a conductive contact on the polymer layer and the end of the conductive via.
US09209123B2 Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
Both enhancement of embeddability of a wiring groove and suppression of the generation of a coupling failure between a wiring and a coupling member are simultaneously achieved. In a cross-section perpendicular to a direction passing through the contact and a direction in which the second wiring extends, the center of the contact is more close to a first side surface of the second wiring than the center of the second wiring. In addition, when a region where the first side surface of the second wiring overlaps the contact in the direction in which the second wiring extends, is set to be an overlapping region, at least the lower part of the overlapping region has an inclination steeper than that of other portions of the side surface of the second wiring.
US09209122B2 Bump including diffusion barrier bi-layer and manufacturing method thereof
Provided herein is a bump including a diffusion barrier bi-layer, the bump having: a conductive layer; a first diffusion barrier layer formed on or above the conductive layer, and comprising an alloy of nickel and phosphorus; a second diffusion barrier formed on or above the first diffusion barrier layer, and comprising copper; and a solder layer formed on or above the second diffusion barrier layer. A manufacturing method for producing a bump is also provided.
US09209121B2 Double-sided package
Various embodiments of an integrated device package are disclosed herein. The package may include a leadframe having a first side and a second side opposite the first side. The leadframe can include a plurality of leads surrounding a die mounting region. A first package lid may be mounted on the first side of the leadframe to form a first cavity, and a first integrated device die may be mounted on the first side of the leadframe within the first cavity. A second integrated device die can be mounted on the second side of the leadframe. At least one lead of the plurality of leads can provide electrical communication between the first integrated device die and the second integrated device die.
US09209117B2 No-exposed-pad quad flat no-lead (QFN) packaging structure and method for manufacturing the same
A quad flat no-lead (QFN) packaging structure. The QFN packaging structure includes a metal substrate, a first die coupled to a top surface of the metal substrate, and a plurality of I/O pads formed on the metal substrate, and extending to the proximity of the die. The no-exposed-pad QFN packaging structure also includes a first metal layer containing a plurality of inner leads corresponding to the plurality of I/O pads and extending to proximity of the die and is formed on the metal substrate by a multi-layer electrical plating process. Further, the no-exposed-pad QFN packaging structure includes metal wires connecting the die and the plurality of inner leads, and a second metal layer formed on a back surface of the plurality of I/O pads.
US09209116B1 Semiconductor device package having asymmetric chip mounting area and lead widths
A semiconductor device package includes a solid metal base with a top surface and an electrically conductive chip mounting area on the top surface. First and second pairs of conductive leads are attached to the base and extend away from one another in opposite directions. First and second amplifiers are attached to the top surface and are electrically connected to the first and second pairs of leads. The first pair is separated from the second pair by a horizontal gap between inner edge sides of the leads. A reference line in the horizontal gap that extends perpendicular to edges of the base divides the chip mounting area into first and second chip mounting sections. An area of the first chip mounting section is smaller than an area of the second chip mounting section. The first and second leads have a smaller width than the third and fourth leads.
US09209114B2 Power module package with a fastening unit including a non-conductive portion
Disclosed herein is a power module package including an external connection terminal, a substrate in which a fastening unit allowing one end of the external connection terminal to be insertedly fastened thereinto is formed to penetrate in a thickness direction thereof, and a semiconductor chip mounted on one surface of the substrate.
US09209112B2 Semiconductor device having stacked substrates with protruding and recessed electrode connection
A first substrate with a penetration electrode formed thereon is stacked on a second substrate with a protruding electrode formed thereon. The penetration electrode has a recessed portion. The substrates are stacked with the protruding electrode entered in the recessed portion. A distal width of the protruding electrode is smaller than an opening width of the recessed portion.
US09209105B2 Electronic devices assembled with thermally insulating layers
Provided herein are electronic devices assembled with thermally insulating layers.
US09209101B2 Semiconductor package with a conductive shielding member
A semiconductor package and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor package are disclosed. A semiconductor package in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a substrate, which is formed with a ground circuit and mounted with a semiconductor chip on one surface, a conductive ground layer, which is formed on the other surface of the substrate and connected with the ground circuit, a molding, which seals up the ground layer and the substrate having the semiconductor chip mounted thereon, and a conductive shield, which covers the molding and is connected with the ground layer. With a semiconductor package in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, grounding for shielding is possible even in an entirely molded structure, and a double shielding structure to improve the shielding property.
US09209097B2 Substrate bonding method and substrate bonding apparatus
According to one embodiment, there is provided a substrate bonding method. The substrate bonding method includes disposing a first substrate and a second substrate to face each other. The substrate bonding method includes controlling the first substrate and the second substrate to have a temperature difference. The substrate bonding method includes, in a state where the first substrate and the second substrate are controlled to have the temperature difference, bonding the first substrate to the second substrate by bringing the first substrate into contact with the second substrate while deforming the first substrate so that a central portion of the first substrate is projected toward the second substrate. The central portion of the first substrate is on an inner side of a peripheral portion of the first substrate.
US09209096B2 Photoluminescence measurement
A photoluminescence measurement system can include an optical source.
US09209090B2 Method of forming a semiconductor die
A method of forming a semiconductor die comprises covering a first subset of a plurality of dummy gate electrodes and a second subset of the plurality of dummy gate electrodes with a first mask layer, the mask layer being patterned to expose a third subset of the plurality of dummy gate electrodes. The method also comprises removing the third subset of the plurality of dummy gate electrodes to form a first set of openings. The method further comprises filling the first set of openings with a first metal material to form a plurality of P-metal gate areas covering a first area of the major surface within a first device region over the major surface and to form a plurality of dummy P-metal gate areas collectively covering a second area of the major surface within a second device region over the major surface.
US09209084B2 Maskless hybrid laser scribing and plasma etching wafer dicing process
Maskless hybrid laser scribing and plasma etching wafer dicing processes are described. In an example, a method of dicing a semiconductor wafer having a front surface with a plurality of integrated circuits thereon and having a passivation layer disposed between and covering metal pillar/solder bump pairs of the integrated circuits involves laser scribing, without the use of a mask layer, the passivation layer to provide scribe lines exposing the semiconductor wafer. The method also involves plasma etching the semiconductor wafer through the scribe lines to singulate the integrated circuits, wherein the passivation layer protects the integrated circuits during at least a portion of the plasma etching. The method also involves thinning the passivation layer to partially expose the metal pillar/solder bump pairs of the integrated circuits.
US09209072B2 Global dielectric and barrier layer
Methods of fabricating a semiconductor device are described. The method includes forming a patterned oxide layer having a plurality of openings over a substrate, depositing a metal layer in the openings to form metal plugs, depositing a global transformable (GT) layer on the oxide layer and the metal plugs, and depositing a capping layer directly on the GT layer without exposing the GT layer to ambient air. The GT layer on the oxide layer transforms into a dielectric oxide and the GT layer on the metal plugs remains conductive during deposition of the capping layer.
US09209068B2 Method for the treatment and direct bonding of a material layer
A method for treating at least one first material layer including siloxane bonds, wherein at least one surface can be interlocked with a surface of a second material layer by direct bonding, the method including: at least one forced diffusion at a temperature greater than or equal to 30° C., at least in the first material layer, of chemical species including at least one pair of free electrons and at least one labile proton; and converting at least one portion of the siloxane bonds into silanol bonds in at least one portion of the first material layer extending from the surface to a depth greater than or equal to approximately 10 nm.
US09209061B2 Electrostatic chuck device
An electrostatic chuck device is provided in which it is possible to uniformize an in-plane temperature distribution in a placement surface on which a plate-shaped sample such as a wafer is placed and it is possible to improve in-plane uniformity of plasma etching of the plate-shaped sample by uniformizing plasma density on the plate-shaped sample. The electrostatic chuck device includes an electrostatic chuck section that has an upper surface as a placement surface on which a plate-shaped sample is placed, and is made to have an internal electrode for electrostatic adsorption built-in, and a cooling base section that cools the electrostatic chuck section, wherein a heater element (4) having a heater pattern (21) of a predetermined shape is provided between the electrostatic chuck section and the cooling base section, and an island-shaped portion (24) that is independent from the heater pattern (21) and is made of the same material as the heater pattern (21) is provided in a gap portion (23) of the heater pattern (21).
US09209059B2 Method and eletrostatic transfer stamp for transferring semiconductor dice using electrostatic transfer printing techniques
A transfer stamp that can be charged with a spatial pattern of electrostatic charge for picking up selected semiconductor dice from a host substrate and transferring them to a target substrate. The stamp may be bulk charged and then selectively discharged using irradiation through a patterned mask. The technique may also be used to electrostatically transfer selected semiconductor dice from a host substrate to a target substrate.
US09209057B2 Temperature control method, storage medium storing a program therefor, temperature control apparatus, and heat treatment apparatus
Provided is a method of controlling temperatures of objects to be heated in a heating unit by adjusting a heating rate of each of a plurality of heating elements, based on temperature detection values detected at a plurality of temperature detection elements, wherein the plurality of temperature detection elements are positioned at different positions and the plurality of heating elements are positioned at different positions. The method includes estimating a temperature of each of the plurality of temperature detection elements by using a first estimation algorithm when one of the plurality of temperature detection elements is broken, based on the temperature detection values of the temperature detection elements excluding the broken temperature detection element, and controlling the temperatures of the objects to be heated based on the estimated temperatures.
US09209055B2 Substrate processing apparatus
A bypass route is provided in order to transfer a substrate without passing through the atmospheric pressure transfer chamber, that is, a loader module, from a load lock chamber to a storage. In the bypass route, a sub-transfer unit for transferring the processed substrate from the load lock chamber to the storage is provided. The sub-transfer unit transfers the processed substrate from the load lock chamber to the storage, and a main transfer unit of the loader module returns the processed substrate from the storage to a transport container on holding stage.
US09209053B2 Manufacturing method of a conductive shield layer in semiconductor device
In a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment, a plurality of semiconductor packages each including a semiconductor chip mounted on a wiring board and a sealing resin layer as objects to be processed, and a tray including a plurality of housing parts are prepared. A depressed portion having a non-penetrating shape or a penetrating shape is formed in the housing part. The semiconductor packages are disposed in the plural housing parts respectively. By sputtering a metal material on the semiconductor package housed in the tray, a conductive shield layer is formed.
US09209043B2 Semiconductor manufacturing method and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus
In a semiconductor manufacturing method for performing thermal treatment of a substrate with plasma while moving the substrate on which devices are formed relatively to a plasma generating apparatus which generates the plasma by allowing electromagnetic fields to act on a plasma gas, a second surface of the substrate is irradiated with the plasma of the plasma generating apparatus in a state where the second surface of the substrate which is the opposite side of a first surface of the substrate on which the devices are formed faces the plasma generating apparatus.
US09209042B2 Compound semiconductor device and manufacturing method therefor
A compound semiconductor device includes a compound semiconductor laminated structure, a passivation film formed on the compound semiconductor laminated structure and having a through-hole, and a gate electrode formed on the passivation film so as to plug the through-hole. A grain boundary between different crystalline orientations is formed in the gate electrode, and a starting point of the grain boundary is located apart from the through-hole on a flat surface of the passivation film.
US09209038B2 Methods for fabricating integrated circuits using self-aligned quadruple patterning
Methods for fabricating integrated circuits and for forming masks for fabricating integrated circuits are provided. An exemplary method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a patternable structure having first and second regions and including upper and lower mandrel layers. The method etches upper mandrels from the upper mandrel layer in the first and second regions. The method includes forming first upper spacer structures having a first width adjacent upper mandrels in the first region and forming second upper spacer structures having a second width not equal to the first width adjacent upper mandrels in the second region. The method etches the lower mandrel layer using the first and second upper spacer structures as an etch mask to form lower mandrels. Further, the method includes forming spacers adjacent the lower mandrels and etching a material using the spacers as an etch mask to form variably spaced features.
US09209036B2 Method for controlling the profile of an etched metallic layer
An ashing chemistry employing a combination of Cl2 and N2 is provided, which removes residual material from sidewalls of a patterned metallic hard mask layer without residue such that the sidewalls of the patterned metallic hard mask layer are vertical. The vertical profiled of the sidewalls of the patterned metallic hard mask layer can be advantageously employed to reduce pattern factor dependency in the etch bias between the pattern transferred into an underlying layer and the pattern as formed on the metallic hard mask layer. Further, the ashing chemistry can be employed to enhance removal of stringers in vertical portions of a metallic material layer.
US09209035B2 Photoresist pattern trimming methods
Provided are methods of trimming photoresist patterns. The methods involve coating a photoresist trimming composition over a photoresist pattern, wherein the trimming composition includes a matrix polymer, a thermal acid generator and a solvent, the trimming composition being free of cross-linking agents. The coated semiconductor substrate is heated to generate an acid in the trimming composition from the thermal acid generator, thereby causing a change in polarity of the matrix polymer in a surface region of the photoresist pattern. The photoresist pattern is contacted with a developing solution to remove the surface region of the photoresist pattern. The methods find particular applicability in the formation of very fine lithographic features in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.
US09209033B2 GCIB etching method for adjusting fin height of finFET devices
A gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) etching method for adjusting a fin height in finFET devices is described. The method includes providing a substrate having a fin structure and a gap-fill material layer completely overlying the fin structure and filling the regions between each fin of the fin structure, wherein each fin includes a cap layer formed on a top surface thereof, and planarizing the gap-fill material layer until the cap layer is exposed on at least one fin of the fin structure. Additionally, the method includes setting a target fin height for the fin structure, wherein the fin height measured from an interface between the cap layer and the fin structure, and exposing the substrate to a GCIB and recessing the gap-fill material layer relative to the cap layer until the target fin height is substantially achieved.
US09209030B2 Nonvolatile memory
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile memory includes the following structure. A first gate insulating film, a first floating gate, a second gate insulating film and a gate electrode are stacked on a semiconductor region between source and drain electrodes. A second floating gate is formed on a first side surface of the first floating gate. A first insulating film is formed between the first and second floating gates and has an air gap. A third floating gate is formed on a second side surface of the first floating gate on the opposite side of the first side surface. A second insulating film is formed between the first and third floating gates.
US09209029B2 Asymmetrical gate MOS device and method of making
An asymetric gate MOS device is disclosed. The gate is a metal gate, and the metal gate has a different work function on the source side from that on the drain side of the MOS device, so that the overall performance parameters of the MOS device are more optimized. A method of making an asymetric gate MOS device is also disclosed. In the method, dopant ions are implanted into the gate of the MOS device, so as to cause the gate to have a different work function on the source side from that on the drain side of the MOS device. As a result, the overall performance parameters of the MOS device are more optimized. The method can be easily implemented.
US09209026B2 Method of fabricating a thin-film device
A method of forming a thin-film device includes forming an oxide-semiconductor film formed on the first electrical insulator, and forming a second electrical insulator formed on the oxide-semiconductor film, the oxide-semiconductor film defining an active layer. The oxide-semiconductor film is comprised of a first interface layer located at an interface with the first electrical insulator, a second interface layer located at an interface with the second electrical insulator, and a bulk layer other than the first and second interface layers. The method further includes oxidizing the oxide-semiconductor film to render a density of oxygen holes in at least one of the first and second interlayer layers is smaller than a density of oxygen holes in the bulk layer.
US09209022B2 Semiconductor structure including laterally disposed layers having different crystal orientations and method of fabricating the same
A semiconductor structure includes a substrate and first and second crystalline semiconductor layers. The first crystalline semiconductor layer has a first crystal orientation, and includes a crystallized amorphous region formed on the substrate. The second crystalline semiconductor layer is formed on the substrate, is laterally disposed of the first crystalline semiconductor layer, and has a second crystal orientation different from the first crystal orientation. A method of fabricating the semiconductor structure is also disclosed.
US09209017B2 Advanced ultra low k SiCOH dielectrics prepared by built-in engineered pore size and bonding structured with cyclic organosilicon precursors
Disclosed herein is an ultra-low dielectric (k) film and methods of making thereof. A ultra-low k film has a covalently bonded network comprising atoms of silicon, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, a cyclotrisilane structure, and a plurality of pores having a pore size distribution (PSD) of less than about 1.1 nanometers (nm). The ultra-low k film has a k value of less than about 2.4 and at least about 28 atomic percent of carbon.
US09209016B1 Coating method and coating system
A wafer-level coating method and a coating system are provided. A strip-shaped sprayer is disposed above the wafer, and a length of the strip-shaped sprayer is larger than a diameter of the wafer. Then, a coating process is performed by spraying a material from the strip-shaped sprayer to form a material layer covering a top surface of the wafer and moving the strip-shaped sprayer relative to the wafer in a direction vertical to a length direction of the strip-shaped sprayer for at least a distance equal to or larger than the diameter of the wafer. Next, the moving strip-shaped sprayer and the spraying of the material are stopped after the material layer is formed.
US09209012B2 Selective etch of silicon nitride
A method of etching silicon nitride on patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor and a nitrogen-and-oxygen-containing precursor. Plasma effluents from two remote plasmas are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the silicon nitride. The plasmas effluents react with the patterned heterogeneous structures to selectively remove silicon nitride while very slowly removing silicon, such as polysilicon. The silicon nitride selectivity results partly from the introduction of fluorine-containing precursor and nitrogen-and-oxygen-containing precursor using distinct (but possibly overlapping) plasma pathways which may be in series or in parallel.
US09209007B2 Short arc discharge lamp
A short arc discharge lamp that includes: a body that includes a reflection surface and a front opening, the reflection surface is curved in a concave shape and includes a first reflection surface section having a shape along a first quadric surface of revolution and a second reflection surface section having a shape along a second quadric surface of revolution; a cathode and an anode opposed to each other in discharge space defined by the reflection surface; and a window member covering the front opening. The first reflection surface section has a focal point at a position between the cathode and the anode, and the second reflection surface section is continuous from the first reflection surface section, and has a focal point at a position displaced toward front from the focal point of the first reflection surface section.
US09208990B2 Phase plate and electron microscope
Provided is a phase plate for use in an electron microscope which lessens the problem of image information loss caused by interruption of an electron beam and ameliorates the problem of anisotropic potential distributions. This phase plate comprises openings (23) connected into a single opening, and multiple electrodes (11) arranged in the opening from the outer portion of the opening towards the center of the opening. The cross sections of the electrodes (11) are configured such that a voltage application layer (24) comprising a conductor or a semiconductor is covered by a shield layer comprising a conductor or a semiconductor with an intermediate insulating layer. By this means, this phase plate is capable of lessening electron beam interruption due to the electrodes (11), and of ameliorating the problem of anisotropic potential distributions.
US09208987B2 Radioactive ray generating apparatus and radioactive ray imaging system
A radioactive ray generating apparatus includes a second shielding member, a target, and a first shielding member, which are sequentially disposed from an electron emission source side. A shortest distance from a maximum radiation intensity portion of the target to the first shielding member is shorter than a shortest distance from the maximum radiation intensity portion of the target to the second shielding member.
US09208985B2 Friction driven x-ray source
A high energy radiation generator utilizes sliding friction in a low pressure environment to generate high energy radiation, for example x-rays. The sliding friction may be generated by sweeping one material against a second material, for example rotating a surface of a rotor against a membrane, in the presence of an electron target, which may be one of the first material or the second material, or a different material.
US09208984B2 Magnetron
A magnetron includes a cooling block having an annular continuous portion with opposite end portions opposed to each other, the cooling block being secured to an outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical anode body, the cooling block having a coolant circulation pathway defined therein, a tightening member engageable with the opposite end portions of the cooling block to tighten the cooling block by reducing a distance between the opposite end portions of the cooling block, and a pair of pipe joints each connected to a portion of the cooling block adjacent to one of the opposite end portions so as to communicate with the coolant circulation pathway. The tightening member is disposed between connecting portions of the pair of pipe joints with the cooling block so as to extend in a direction inclined with respect to a plane including an annular direction of the cooling block.
US09208977B2 Switch having a quenching chamber
A switch for polarity-independent multi-pole direct current operation includes at least two switching chambers. Each switching chamber includes a single circuit breaker with a stationary contact having a first contact region and a movable electrically conductive contact part having a second contact region. The stationary contact and movable contact part are configured to create a connection between the first and the second contact regions in the ON state and to disconnect the first and the second contact regions in the OFF state. Each chamber also includes two arc chutes for quenching an arc forming between the first and the second contact regions when switching to the OFF state. At least two magnets are configured to generate a magnetic field so as to exert a magnetic force on the arcs to divert each arc in a direction of an arc chute independent of the direction of current.
US09208976B2 Disconnector, particularly of the double-break double-movement type
A disconnector, including a crossmember, which has contact pins at its opposite ends, C-shaped contact sockets, which are aligned so as to correspond to the pins in order to receive them by insertion, along a trajectory that is circumferential with respect to a first rotation axis of the crossmember, which is substantially transverse thereto, a support of the crossmember that defines for it the first rotation axis, and a second rotation axis, which is substantially longitudinal to the crossmember, elements for the rotation of the crossmember about the first rotation axis and about the second rotation axis, where fixed contacts are connected electrically, in two separate regions, to supporting arms that belong to the sockets, and have a portion that is intermediate with respect to the two regions, is adapted for contact with the moving contacts, and divides the fixed contacts into two opposite conducting arms.
US09208973B2 Sliding contact switch
An electrical sliding contact switch comprises a contact transmitter element with a first and a second rigidly interconnected sliding contact, which are pressed against a corresponding surface designed for a common sliding section by respective contact areas in the same direction, while there is an insulated segment and a contact segment for each sliding contact within the common sliding section respectively, whereby one insulated segment is slid over by a contact area of a sliding contact, when the corresponding other sliding contact is sliding over its contact segment with its contact area, whereby a notch is arranged within the insulating segment which is slid over by a contact area of a sliding contact in case the other sliding contact is sliding over its contact segment.
US09208969B2 Three terminal dispensing switch in an appliance
A dispensing switch in an appliance and a method of controlling a dispensing assembly based on a plurality of outputs of the dispensing switch is provided. A dispensing assembly can dispense ice cubes and/or water from the appliance when the dispensing switch is actuated. The dispensing switch can have a plurality of outputs. For instance, the dispensing switch can provide outputs through a common terminal, a normally open terminal, and a normally closed terminal. When the dispensing switch is actuated, a controller can monitor the plurality of terminals to determine whether a change in the outputs has occurred. After the controller determines that a change in the outputs of the dispensing switch has occurred, the controller can control the dispensing assembly based on the outputs of the dispensing switch.
US09208964B2 Lockout device
A lockout device includes a body, a clamp, and a cover. The body includes a recess and a first lock passage extending from a first opening in an upper surface to a second opening in a rear surface. The clamp is assembled with a clamp retaining portion of the body. The cover is connected with the body and is movable between a lockout position covering at least a portion of the clamp and a release position uncovering the clamp to permit adjustment. The cover includes first and second cutouts. When the cover is in the lockout position, the first and second cutouts align with the first and second openings of the body to permit insertion of a lock member through the first lock passage, thereby preventing movement of the cover from the lockout position to the release position.
US09208962B2 Circuit breaker including an anti-rebound system, anti-rebound system for a circuit breaker and method
A circuit breaker includes a housing, a stationary pole member fixedly mounted in the housing, a moveable pole member shiftably mounted within the housing, and a drive shaft mounted to the housing and operatively connected to the moveable pole member. An inertia latch stop member is mounted to the housing adjacent the drive shaft and an inertia latch is operatively connected to the drive shaft. The inertia latch is configured and disposed to extend from the drive shaft and engage the inertia latch stop member in response to a change in direction of rotation of the drive shaft from an opening direction to a closing direction following a trip event.
US09208961B2 Display and housing thereof
A display and housing thereof is disclosed. The housing is applied for assembling a touch panel, and comprises a first case, a buffering structure and a joint structure. The first case has an accommodating space at one side of the first case to accommodate the touch panel. The buffering structure is made of soft material, and the outer edge of the buffering structure connects the first case, and the inner edge of the buffering structure extends toward the accommodating space. The joint structure is made of hard material, and one side of the joint structure connects with one side of the buffering structure. The touch panel is connected with the first case, and the another side of the joint structure being opposite to the side connected with the buffering structure is connected to the touch panel upon the touch panel being accommodated in the accommodating space.
US09208953B2 Solid electrolyte capacitor
To provide a solid electrolytic capacitor capable of high performance, the capacitor including: an anode element having a dielectric film disposed on a surface thereof; a cathode element; and a solid electrolyte interposed between the anode element and the cathode element, the solid electrolyte being a conductive polymer having a first repeat unit (A) expressed by the following formula (1) and a second repeat unit (B) expressed by the following formula (2): where L is an arbitrarily replaceable alkylene or silyl group having 2 or 3 carbon atoms; and Rx and Ry are each arbitrarily replaceable alkyl groups having a linear or branched structure and having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, each being different from the other.
US09208948B2 Monolithic ceramic electronic component
A method for manufacturing a monolithic ceramic electronic component includes the steps of preparing a first ceramic outer layer, stacking a plurality of inner electrodes and a plurality of ceramic green sheets on the first ceramic outer layer, forming an inner portion, applying first pressing in the stacking direction, forming an outer portion on the inner portion to form a second ceramic outer layer, applying second pressing in the stacking direction to form a multilayer body, cutting the mother multilayer body to obtain individual multilayer bodies, sintering the individual multilayer bodies to obtain ceramic bodies, and forming first and second outer electrodes on the outer surface of each of ceramic bodies.
US09208945B2 Storage unit for storing electrical energy having a low-resistance contacted energy store
A storage unit (1, 2, 3, 4) for storing electrical energy, comprising at least one energy store (5, 6, 7, 11) which has a positive electrical connecting terminal (10) and a negative electrical connecting terminal (12) and is designed to be charged and discharged with electrical energy via the positive connecting terminal (10) and the negative connecting terminal (12).
US09208944B2 Standard capacitance box output device
The invention discloses a capacitance standard box output device. The number of standard capacitors is reduced, so that the structure of a changeover switch is simplified, and the number of connection wires is reduced, so as to improve the shield effect and reduce uncertainty. The technical proposal of the invention is as follows: The capacitance standard box output device comprises a changeover switch and precision capacitors, wherein the changeover switch is placed in a shield box; the shield box has an input terminal and an output terminal; the input terminal is connected to the changeover switch and the precision capacitor; the output is connected to the changeover switch and outputs the capacitance selected by the changeover switch; the selected capacitance is a product of a unit capacitance and an arbitrary integer value between 0 and 10; the number of the precision capacitors is from 4 to 9, and at least one capacitor is of a unit capacitance. The invention is mainly used for the capacitance standard box to output more accurate capacitance.
US09208943B2 Linear row array integrated power combiner for RF power amplifiers
A novel and useful radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM) circuit that provides high linearity and power efficiency and meets the requirements of modern wireless communication standards such as 802.11 WLAN, 3G and 4G cellular standards, BLUETOOTH®, ZIGBEE®, etc. The configuration of the FEM circuit permits the use of common, relatively low cost semiconductor fabrication techniques such as standard CMOS processes. The FEM circuit includes a power amplifier made up of one or more sub-amplifiers having high and low power circuits and whose outputs are combined to yield the total desired power gain. An integrated multi-tap transformer having primary and secondary windings arranged in a novel configuration provide efficient power combining and transfer to the antenna of the power generated by the individual sub-amplifiers.
US09208934B1 Material magnetizer systems
A system relating to improved magnetization of flexible magnetic sheet material, such as magnetic rubber. More particularly, this invention relates to providing a system for magnetization of printed or printable flexible magnetic sheet material.
US09208932B2 Magnetic powder, forming method thereof and magnetic sheet
A magnetic powder comprises a first magnetic particle, one or more inorganic insulating particles and one or more second magnetic particles. The first magnetic particle is made of a soft magnetic metal. The first magnetic particle has a flat shape. The inorganic insulating particles are attached to the first magnetic particle. The inorganic insulating particles partially cover the first magnetic particle. Each of the second magnetic particles is made of a soft magnetic metal. Each of the second magnetic particles has a flat shape. The second magnetic particles are attached to the first magnetic particle via the inorganic insulating particles.
US09208931B2 Voltage switchable dielectric material containing conductor-on-conductor core shelled particles
A composition of voltage switchable dielectric (VSD) material that comprises a concentration of core shelled particles that individually comprise a conductor core and a conductor shell, so as to form a conductor-on-conductor core shell particle constituent for the VSD material.
US09208928B2 Method for producing multilayer graphene-coated substrate
The present invention provides a method of producing a multi-layer graphene-laminated substrate which comprises laminating, on a substrate surface, multi-layer graphenes from a mass of multi-layer graphenes. The method of the present invention can provide an electrically conductive film and a transparent electrically conductive film made of graphenes more easily and stably.
US09208919B2 Aerogels and methods of making same
Provided in one embodiment is a method of making an aerogel, comprising: (A) increasing a concentration of a suspension comprising a gel precursor under a condition that promotes formation of a gel, wherein the gel precursor comprises particulates having an asymmetric geometry; and (B) removing a liquid from the gel to form the aerogel, wherein the aerogel and the gel have substantially the same geometry. An aerogel comprising desirable properties are also provided.
US09208915B2 Ion exchange regeneration and nuclide specific selective processes
A method of processing ion exchange resin radioactive waste, wherein the radioactive waste contains a plurality of fractions of radioactive waste based on density, which may include cation resin waste and anion resin waste, wherein at least one of the plurality of fractions comprises a total concentration of at least one radionuclide, including performing at least one of the following operations (i), (ii) or (iii): (i) separating the at least one of the plurality of fractions from the radioactive waste utilizing a moving freeboard; (ii) separating the radioactive waste into cation resin waste and anion resin waste; or (iii) removing at least a portion of the total concentration of the at least one radionuclide from: the radioactive waste; the at least one of the plurality of fractions separated by the moving freeboard; or at least one of the radioactive waste, the cation resin waste or the anion resin waste.
US09208913B2 Wave-absorbing metamaterial
The present invention relates to a wave-absorbing metamaterial, comprising a substrate which is provided with two opposite lateral surfaces, wherein a plurality of periodically arranged artificial metal microstructures are attached on at least one of the two opposite lateral surfaces; when an electromagnetic wave having an incident direction vertical to the two opposite lateral surfaces of the substrate is transmitted to the wave-absorbing metamaterial, a relative permittivity of the metamaterial is substantially equal to a relative magnetic conductivity of the metamaterial. A wave-absorbing principle different from that of a conventional wave-absorbing material is employed on the wave-absorbing metamaterial; an ideal wave-absorbing effect is achieved by periodically arranging various artificial metal microstructures on the substrate and adjusting the artificial metal microstructures; and the wave-absorbing metamaterial has the advantages of minor weight, small thickness and simply adjustable electromagnetic parameters.
US09208894B2 Methods of charging auxiliary power supplies in data storage devices subject to power on and /or hot plugging and related devices
A method of operating a data storage device can be provided by receiving first power and second power at a data storage device, that includes a semiconductor memory, upon powering on of the data storage device or hot-plugging of the data storage device. The first power can be applied to the data storage device and the second power can be applied after a delay to an auxiliary power supply included in the data storage device based on when an inrush current, generated from applying the first power, occurred. Related devices are also disclosed.
US09208893B2 Read margin measurement in a read-only memory
Read margin measurement circuitry for measuring the read margin of floating-gate programmable non-volatile memory cells. In some embodiments, the read margin of a cell with a floating-gate transistor in a non-conductive state is measured by periodically clocking a counter following initiation of a read cycle; a latch stores the counter contents upon the cell under test making a transition due to leakage of the floating-gate transistor. Logic for testing a group of cells in parallel is disclosed. In some embodiments, the read margin of a cell in which the floating-gate transistor is set to a conductive state is measured by repeatedly reading the cell, with the output developing a voltage corresponding to the duty cycle of the output of the read circuit.
US09208892B2 Operation method of multi-level memory
An operation method of a multi-level memory is provided. A first read voltage lower than a standard read voltage is applied to a doped region in a substrate at one side of a control gate of the memory, so as to determine whether a first storage position and a second storage position are both at the lowest level.
US09208890B2 Semiconductor device and operating method thereof
An operating method of a semiconductor device includes repeating an erase loop operable to lower threshold voltages of memory cells in a selected memory block by applying an erase voltage to the selected memory block and performing an erase verification to determine whether the threshold voltages of the memory cells in the selected memory block are less than or equal to a target level, wherein an erase voltage is increased by a voltage difference wherein the voltage difference is increased between successive applications of two or more of the erase loops, and repeating a program loop including applying a program voltage to a selected word line to increase threshold voltages of memory cells electrically coupled to the selected word line and performing a program verification to determine whether the threshold voltages are greater than or equal to a target level, wherein a program voltage is increased by a voltage difference wherein the voltage difference is increased between successive applications of two or more program voltages.
US09208889B2 Non-volatile memory including bit line switch transistors formed in a triple-well
Non-volatile memory and methods of operating non-volatile memory reduce breakdown and leakage associated with bit line (BL) switch transistors. The BL switch transistors for a memory array are formed in a well that is electrically isolated from a well associated with the memory array. The well of the BL switch transistors may be biased independently of the memory array well. A negative voltage is applied to the BL switch transistor well during programming and reading that creates a negative body bias that may reduce field punch-through leakage of the BL switch transistors. A positive voltage is applied to the BL switch transistor well during erasing that may reduce junction breakdown of the BL switch transistors.
US09208888B1 Techniques for improving reliability and performance of partially written memory blocks in modern flash memory systems
Methods and apparatus to improve reliability and/or performance of partially written memory blocks in flash memory systems are described. In some embodiments, a storage device stores information corresponding to a partial write operation performed on a partially programmed memory block of a non-volatile memory. Memory controller logic then cause application of a reduced voltage level and/or an offset value to portion(s) of the non-volatile memory during a read or write operation to the non-volatile memory based at least in part on the stored information. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US09208887B2 Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
A non-volatile semiconductor memory device according to one embodiment includes: a cell array; and a data writing unit that repeatedly executes a write loop including a programming operation of applying a program voltage to a selected word line and a passage voltage to non-selected word lines during writing of data, in which, when a difference between the passage voltage used in an n-th write loop and the passage voltage used in an n+1-th write loop is expressed as ΔVn and when a condition of L
US09208886B2 Memory system and driving method thereof
A driving method of a nonvolatile memory device includes receiving a program command and an address. The method includes changing a number of adjacent zones of a plurality of zones formed of unselected word lines according to a location of a selected word line corresponding to the received address. The method further includes applying different zone voltages to the number of adjacent zones and remaining zones. The nonvolatile memory device includes a plurality of strings formed to penetrate word lines stacked on a substrate in a plate shape.
US09208883B2 Three-dimensional NAND non-volatile memory devices with buried word line selectors
Three-dimensional NAND stacked memory devices include a stack including alternating word line and dielectric layers and a plurality of NAND strings of memory cells formed in memory holes which extend through the layers. Each memory cell includes a control gate formed by one of the word line layers, and multiple selector devices, each selector device coupled to an end of a corresponding NAND string. The NAND strings are disposed above a substrate, and the selector devices are disposed in the substrate.
US09208881B2 NAND memory array with mismatched cell and bitline pitch
Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatus, and system configurations for NAND memory arrays with mismatched cell and bitline pitch. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09208880B2 Content addressable memory device having electrically floating body transistor
A content addressable memory cell includes a first floating body transistor and a second floating body transistor. The first floating body transistor and the second floating body transistor are electrically connected in series through a common node. The first floating body transistor and the second floating body transistor store complementary data.
US09208878B2 Non-volatile memory based on retention modulation
A mechanism that provides a source of reliability concern is leveraged to establish a non-volatile memory element. A memory cell may be programmed to have a longer retention time or a shorter retention time. Such mechanisms include, but are not limited to, threshold voltage modulation by charge trapping in the gate dielectric of an access transistor of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell. A memory cell is programmed with a voltage pulse into a long retention time mode or into a short retention time mode. The programmed mode of each memory cell may be read by storing electrical charges in the DRAM cells, and by measuring whether the electrical charges remain after a threshold retention time. Further, a dual mode memory cell may be operated as a conventional DRAM cell, or as a non-volatile memory storing retention time as data.
US09208875B2 Resistive nonvolatile memory device having cells programmed to achieve a target resistance value at a target time and writing method thereof
A writing method of a nonvolatile memory device is provided which receiving data, a target time, and a target resistance value; writing the data at a memory cell; calculating a resistance drift coefficient based on resistance values of the memory cell read on at least two times; calculating a resistance value of the memory cell on the target time using the resistance drift coefficient; and determining whether the resistance value calculated satisfies the target resistance value.
US09208872B2 Semiconductor device and information reading method
A semiconductor device includes; a memory device configured to take a plurality of resistance states that are distinguishable from one another; a bias application section configured to apply, in a bias application period, a bias signal to the memory device; and a determination section configured to determine a resistance state of the memory device on the basis of a detection signal, in which the detection signal is generated in the memory device to which the bias signal is applied. The bias application section sets a length of the bias application period in accordance with a resistance value of the memory device, when the resistance state determined by the determination section is predetermined one of the resistance states.
US09208868B2 Semiconductor device including a variable resistance device, and method of controlling the semiconductor device
A memory cell is included which has a selection transistor and a variable resistance device connected to a bit line through the selection transistor. The variable resistance device includes a first electrode which has a first metal material and is connected to the selection transistor, a second electrode which has a second metal material different from the first metal material, and an insulating film which is provided between the first electrode and the second electrode, has a third metal material different from the first metal material and the second metal material, and has oxygen. The second metal material has a greater normalized oxide formation energy than the first metal material.
US09208865B2 Resistance-change memory
According to one embodiment, a resistance-change memory includes a memory cell and a control circuit. The memory cell includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a variable resistance layer which is disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The control circuit sets a current flowing through the memory cell to a first upper limit and applies a first voltage to the memory cell in a first write, and after the first write, the control circuit sets the current flowing through the memory cell to a second upper limit and applies a second voltage to the memory cell in a second write.
US09208859B1 Low power static random access memory (SRAM) read data path
A memory circuit configured for reducing dynamic read power is disclosed that includes a first read global bit line connected to a first sense amp and a second read global bit line connected to a second sense amp. The second read global bit line is adjacent to the first read global bit line. The memory circuit further includes a third read global bit line and logic circuitry connected to the first read global bit line, the second read global bit line, and the third read global bit line. The logic circuitry is configured to determine when both the first read global bit line and the second read global bit line are evaluated as in a high state, and in response to the determining, toggle the third read global bit line to the high state.
US09208856B2 Multiport memory with matching address control
A multiport SRAM has an array of cells, a first port, and a second port. During a period of different row addresses for the ports, the first port uses first word lines and first bit lines. The second port uses second word lines and second bit lines. In response to the second port switching to the same address as the first port to make a row match, the second port and the first port use the first plurality of word lines, but the first port uses the first plurality of bit lines and the second port uses the second plurality of bit lines. If the row match is removed by the first port changing row addresses, a correlation swap is performed so that the first port performs accesses using the second word lines and bit lines and the second port performs accesses using the first word lines and bit lines.
US09208855B2 Weak bit compensation for static random access memory
A static random access memory (SRAM) is provided. The SRAM includes a data line, a data line bar, and a current path block. The current path block includes at least two transistors configured to provide a current path for the data line in transition from a first logic voltage to a second logic voltage, wherein the current path block is connected to the data line and the data line bar during an entire duration of operation of the SRAM.
US09208852B2 Semiconductor memory device, method of controlling read preamble signal thereof, and data transmission system
A system, includes a controller comprising a plurality of first external terminals configured to supply a command and an address, and communicate a data, and communicate a strobe signal related to the data; and a semiconductor memory device including a plurality of second external terminals corresponding to the plurality of first external terminals, at least one of the plurality of first external terminals and at least one of the plurality of second external terminals each being capable of supplying an information specifying a length of a preamble of the strobe signal before the semiconductor memory device communicates the data between the controller and the semiconductor memory device, the semiconductor memory device further including a preamble register configured to be capable of storing the information.
US09208851B2 Semiconductor device and data processing system
Disclosed herein is a semiconductor device comprising local bit lines, a global bit line, local switch control lines, main switch control lines, hierarchical switches controlling electrical connections between the local bit lines and the global bit line in response to potentials of the local switch control lines, local switch drivers driving the local switch control lines in response to potentials of the main switch control lines, and main switch drivers selectively activating the main switch control lines.
US09208850B2 Semiconductor memory device and semiconductor memory system including the same
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of normal word lines and a plurality of redundancy word lines which are disposed adjacent to the normal word lines, a detection block suitable for detecting a first word line whose active history satisfies a predetermined condition and a second word line adjacent to the first word line as a target word line and a target neighboring word line, among the normal word lines and the redundancy word lines, and a control block suitable for sequentially refreshing the normal word lines and the redundancy word lines whenever a refresh command is applied, and additionally refreshing the target word line, the target neighboring word line and a normal word line adjacent to the redundancy word lines among the normal word lines.
US09208848B2 Semiconductor storage device
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor storage device includes a first storage area including a plurality of memory cells each including a resistance change element which stores data; a second storage area including a plurality of memory cells each including a resistance change element which stores data; a sub memory cell array including the first storage area and the second storage area: a memory cell array including a plurality of sub memory cell arrays arranged along a column direction and a row direction; a third storage area which stores redundancy information and to supply the redundancy information to the sub memory cell array; and a control circuit which controls an access operation to the memory cell array.
US09208843B2 Internal address generation circuits
Internal address generation circuits are provided. The internal address generation circuit includes an aging detector and an address decoder. The aging detector generates an aging signal enabled when the number of times that an internal command signal for accessing memory cells is inputted is equal to or more than a reference number. The address decoder decodes an address signal in response to the aging signal to generate an internal address signal.
US09208842B2 Method and system for operating memory
A method and a system for operating a memory are provided. The memory includes a plurality of memory cells which are configured to store data. The method includes the following steps. A counting number recorded in a counter is counted by 1, if the memory is written. The memory is set as a frequently using device, if the counting number recoded in the counter reaches a predetermined value.
US09208832B2 Functional screening of static random access memories using an array bias voltage
A method of testing large-scale integrated circuits including multiple instances of memory arrays, and an integrated circuit structure for assisting such testing. In one embodiment, voltage drops due to parasitic resistance in array bias conductors are determined by extracting layout parameters, and subsequent circuit simulation that derives the voltage drops in those conductors during operation of each memory array. In another embodiment, sense lines from each memory array are selectively connected to a test sense terminal of the integrated circuit, at which the array bias voltage at each memory array is externally measured. Feedback control of the applied voltage to arrive at the desired array bias voltage can be performed.
US09208828B2 Semiconductor device and its manufacturing method
In a semiconductor device including a memory cell array formed of memory cells using a storage element by a variable resistor and a select transistor, a buffer cell is arranged between a sense amplifier and the memory cell array and between a word driver and the memory cell array. The resistive storage element in the memory cell is connected to a bit-line via a contact formed above the resistive storage element. Meanwhile, in the buffer cell, the contact is not formed above the resistive storage element, and a state of being covered with an insulator is kept upon processing the contact in the memory cell. By such a processing method, exposure and sublimation of a chalcogenide film used in the resistive storage element can be avoided.
US09208825B1 Disk drive having a conformal peripheral foil seal having an opening covered by a central metal cap
A novel hermetically sealed disk drive comprises a disk drive enclosure that includes a disk drive base with a bottom face, four side faces, and a top cover. The disk drive also comprises a peripheral foil seal overlapping each of the four side faces and having a first opening therethrough that overlies the upper surface of the top cover. The peripheral foil seal conforms to the disk drive enclosure and is adhered to the top face and to each of the four side faces by a first continuous adhesive layer. The hermetically sealed disk drive also includes a central metal cap completely covering the first opening and being adhered to the upper surface of the top cover through the first opening by a second continuous adhesive layer. The central metal cap is thicker than the continuous metal foil, and the disk drive enclosure is helium-filled.
US09208824B2 Index table generation in PVR applications for AVC video streams
One or more methods and systems of indexing an AVC video stream are presented. In one embodiment, the method comprises identifying one or more fields within a picture of an AVC video stream. In one embodiment, a field of the one or more fields indicates the beginning of each picture. In a second embodiment, a field of the one or more fields indicates a picture type of a picture. In a third embodiment, a field of the one or more fields indicates whether a picture is a reference or a non-reference picture. By determining that a picture is a non-reference picture, the picture may be discarded, thereby reducing the memory required to implement the indexing system while increasing the available memory size. In one embodiment, a system of indexing an AVC video stream comprises a control processor, a memory, and a set of instructions resident in the memory.
US09208816B2 Method, apparatus, and recording medium for recording multimedia content
The invention relates to a method, an apparatus, and a recording medium for recording multimedia content, which allow a controlled access to the multimedia content. According to the invention, the recording medium for recording multimedia content has a content limitation indicator for indicating which multimedia content is allowed to be recorded on the recording medium, which specifies an age rating for the multimedia content. A recording apparatus compares the multimedia content to be recorded with the limitations specified by the content limitation indicator prior to recording the multimedia content on the recording medium.
US09208813B2 Digital optical tape storage system
Digital optical tape archival storage systems and methods are disclosed. A digital optical tape recorder may simultaneously write data and two or more guide tracks onto a digital optical tape recording medium. A digital optical taper reader may include a camera to capture a two-dimensional image of the digital optical tape recording medium, and an image processor to extract the data from the two-dimensional image.
US09208810B1 Data storage device attenuating interference from first spiral track when reading second spiral track
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a disk surface comprising a first spiral track at least partially overwritten by a second spiral track, and a head actuated over the disk surface based on the second spiral track. The first spiral track comprises a periodic pattern written at a first frequency, and the second spiral track comprises a periodic pattern written at a second frequency different from the first frequency.
US09208809B2 Magnetic head and system having offset arrays
In one general embodiment, an apparatus includes at least two modules, each of the modules having an array of transducers, wherein the at least two modules are fixed relative to each other, wherein an axis of each array is defined between opposite ends thereof, wherein the axes of the arrays are oriented about parallel to each other, wherein the array of a first of the modules is offset from the array of a second of the modules in a first direction parallel to the axis of the array of the second module such that the transducers of the first module are about aligned with the transducers of the second module in an intended direction of tape travel thereacross; and a mechanism for orienting the modules about an axis orthogonal to the plane in which the arrays reside to control a transducer pitch presented to a tape.
US09208807B2 Motor polarity testing of a dual stage actuated disk drive head suspension
Methods and apparatus concern testing a disk drive suspension. Testing includes moving a first portion of a suspension relative to a second portion. A pair of motors is mounted on the suspension. The testing further includes measuring an electrical signal that is intrinsically produced by the motors, combined in a circuit, in response to the relative movement. The testing further includes identifying a characteristic of the electrical signal and determining whether an orientation of one or both of the motors is reversed relative to an intended motor orientation based on the characteristic of the electrical signal. The testing can determine whether the orientation of both motors matches the intended motor orientation, whether the orientation of one motor is reversed in a same polarity condition, whether the orientations of both motors are reversed in a mutual reverse polarity condition, or whether the suspension has a mechanical or electrical defect.
US09208805B1 Method for evaluating bit error rate for a magnetic head by using a quasi-static test system, and system thereof
A method for evaluating bit error rate for a magnetic head by using a quasi-static test system, includes step (a), measuring a noise characteristic curve for a magnetic head, and the noise characteristic comprising noise amplitude and maximum noise amplitude; step (b), constructing a noise waveform by appropriately scaling a signal noise ratio of the magnetic head based on the noise characteristic curve measured in step (a); and step (c), injecting the noise waveform constructed in step (b) into a model comprising a transmitter module and a receiver module to evaluate a bit error rate. The method saves testing time, reduces manpower, and obtains accuracy testing result.
US09208802B2 Magnetic recording head and disk drive provided therewith
According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording head includes a main pole configured to apply a recording magnetic field to a recording layer of a recording medium, a trailing shield opposed to the main pole with a write gap therebetween, and a high-frequency oscillator between the main pole and the trailing shield in a range of a width of the main pole in a track width direction, and configured to generate a high-frequency magnetic field. The high-frequency oscillator includes a spin injection layer, an intermediate layer, and an oscillation layer, and at least the oscillation layer comprises divided oscillation regions.
US09208800B2 Recording head with dual coil/dual shield arrangement and high frequency oscillator
According to one embodiment, a recording head includes a main pole, a trailing shield including a first connecting portion and a second connecting portion, and configured to form together with the main pole a first magnetic core, a leading shield including a first connecting portion connected to the main pole through a magnetic material and an end portion opposing to the end portion of the main pole through a non-magnetic material, and configured to form together with the main pole a second magnetic core, and first and second coils wound around the first and second magnetic cores, and a connection terminal configured to flow a current through the main pole, non-magnetic conductive layer, and trailing shield.
US09208799B2 Method and device for estimating a pattern in a signal
The present invention relates to a method for estimating a pattern, in particular a pitch and/or a fundamental frequency, in a signal having a periodic, quasiperiodic or virtually periodic component, wherein the signal is transformed from a time-domain to a frequency-domain to obtain a spectrum of the signal, the spectrum is processed to obtain a zero-phase spectrum of the signal, the spectrum of the signal is transformed to the time-domain to obtain a correlation signal, the spectrum and the correlation signals are combined to a combined spectrum, and the pattern is estimated on the basis of the combined spectrum.
US09208796B2 Estimation of speech energy based on code excited linear prediction (CELP) parameters extracted from a partially-decoded CELP-encoded bit stream and applications of same
Methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable media for estimating speech energy of an encoded bit stream based on coding parameters extracted from the partially-decoded bit stream are disclosed. In an embodiment, a disclosed method includes receiving a CELP-encoded bit stream, partially decoding the bit stream, and estimating the speech energy of the bit stream based a set of four or fewer CELP parameters extracted from the partially decoded bit stream. In another embodiment, a disclosed method includes receiving a CELP-encoded bit stream, partially decoding the bit stream, extracting at least one CELP parameter from the partially decoded bit stream, and estimating the speech energy of the bit stream based on the extracted at least one CELP parameter without calculating a linear prediction coding (LPC) filter response energy.
US09208795B2 Frequency band extending device and method, encoding device and method, decoding device and method, and program
The present invention relates to a frequency band extending device and method, an encoding device and method, a decoding device and method, and a program, whereby music signals can be played with higher sound quality due to the extension of frequency bands.A bandpass filter 13 divides an input signal into multiple sub-band signals, a feature amount calculating circuit 14 calculates feature amount using at least one of the multiple divided sub-band signals and the input signal, a high frequency sub-band power estimating circuit 15 calculates an estimated value of a high frequency sub-band power based on the calculated feature amount, a high frequency signal generating circuit 16 generates a high frequency signal component based on the multiple sub-band signals divided by the bandpass filter 13, and the estimated value of the high frequency sub-band power calculated by the high frequency sub-band power estimating circuit 15. A frequency band extending device 10 extends the frequency band of the input signal using a high frequency signal component. The present invention may be applied to a frequency band extending device, for example.
US09208794B1 Providing sound models of an input signal using continuous and/or linear fitting
Voice enhancement and/or speech features extraction may be performed on noisy audio signals. An input signal may convey audio comprising a speech component superimposed on a noise component. The input signal may be segmented into discrete successive time windows including a first time window spanning a duration greater than a sampling interval of the input signal. A transform may be performed on individual time windows of the input signal to obtain corresponding sound models of the input signal in the individual time windows. A first sound model may describe a superposition of harmonics sharing a common pitch and chirp in the first time window of the input signal. Linear fits in time of the sound models over individual time windows of the input signal may be obtained. The linear fits may include a first linear fit in time of the first sound model over the first time window.
US09208792B2 Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media for noise injection
A method of processing an audio signal is described. The method includes selecting one among a plurality of entries of a codebook based on information from the audio signal. The method also includes determining locations, in a frequency domain, of zero-valued elements of a first signal that is based on the selected codebook entry. The method further includes calculating energy of the audio signal at the determined frequency-domain locations. The method additionally includes calculating a value of a measure of a distribution of the energy of the audio signal among the determined frequency-domain locations. The method also includes calculating a noise injection gain factor based on the calculated energy and the calculated value.
US09208791B2 Orthogonal transform apparatus, orthogonal transform method, orthogonal transform computer program, and audio decoding apparatus
An orthogonal transform apparatus computes either one of the real and imaginary components of the quadrature mirror filter coefficient contained in a first subinterval of a plurality of subintervals among which a coefficient sequence containing a plurality of quadrature mirror filter coefficients is divided so that the values of basis functions are symmetrically placed, by computing a sum of products of the plurality of modified discrete cosine transform coefficients and the basis functions corresponding to the subinterval, computes the other one of the real and imaginary components of the quadrature mirror filter coefficient contained in the first subinterval and the real and imaginary components of the quadrature mirror filter coefficient contained in another subintervals by performing a butterfly operation using a computed value produced as a result of the sum of products and computes each quadrature mirror filter coefficient by combining the real component and imaginary component thereof.
US09208790B2 Extraction and matching of characteristic fingerprints from audio signals
An audio fingerprint is extracted from an audio sample, where the fingerprint contains information that is characteristic of the content in the sample. The fingerprint may be generated by computing an energy spectrum for the audio sample, resampling the energy spectrum logarithmically in the time dimension, transforming the resampled energy spectrum to produce a series of feature vectors, and computing the fingerprint using differential coding of the feature vectors. The generated fingerprint can be compared to a set of reference fingerprints in a database to identify the original audio content.
US09208785B2 Synchronizing distributed speech recognition
Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are disclosed for synchronizing distributed speech recognition (‘DSR’) that include receiving in a DSR client notification from a voice server of readiness to conduct speech recognition and, responsive to the receiving, transmitting by the DSR client, from the DSR client to the voice server, speech for recognition.
US09208783B2 Altering behavior of a multimodal application based on location
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for altering behavior of a multimodal application based on location. The multimodal application operates on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes. The voice mode of user interaction with the multimodal application is supported by a voice interpreter. Altering behavior of a multimodal application based on location includes: receiving a location change notification in the voice interpreter from a device location manager, the device location manager operatively coupled to a position detection component of the multimodal device, the location change notification specifying a current location of the multimodal device; updating, by the voice interpreter, location-based environment parameters for the voice interpreter in dependence upon the current location of the multimodal device; and interpreting, by the voice interpreter, the multimodal application in dependence upon the location-based environment parameters.
US09208778B2 System and method for combining frame and segment level processing, via temporal pooling, for phonetic classification
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for combining frame and segment level processing, via temporal pooling, for phonetic classification. A frame processor unit receives an input and extracts the time-dependent features from the input. A plurality of pooling interface units generates a plurality of feature vectors based on pooling the time-dependent features and selecting a plurality of time-dependent features according to a plurality of selection strategies. Next, a plurality of segmental classification units generates scores for the feature vectors. Each segmental classification unit (SCU) can be dedicated to a specific pooling interface unit (PIU) to form a PIU-SCU combination. Multiple PIU-SCU combinations can be further combined to form an ensemble of combinations, and the ensemble can be diversified by varying the pooling operations used by the PIU-SCU combinations. Based on the scores, the plurality of segmental classification units selects a class label and returns a result.
US09208775B2 Systems and methods for determining pitch pulse period signal boundaries
A method for determining pitch pulse period signal boundaries by an electronic device is described. The method includes obtaining a signal. The method also includes determining a first averaged curve based on the signal. The method further includes determining at least one first averaged curve peak position based on the first averaged curve and a threshold. The method additionally includes determining pitch pulse period signal boundaries based on the at least one first averaged curve peak position. The method also includes synthesizing a speech signal.
US09208774B2 Adaptive vibration damping mechanism to eliminate acoustic noise in electronic systems
A system to eliminate acoustic noise caused by a first Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC) array positioned on a printed circuit board (PCB) is disclosed. The first MLCC array generates a first vibration responsible for the acoustic noise in response to receiving a varying input voltage. A third MLCC array senses the first vibration and generates a feedback signal. An adaptive filter then uses the feedback signal to generate an output signal that is used by a second MLCC to generate a second vibration that acts as a counter to dampen the first vibration. Because the input voltage signal is varying in time, the adaptive filter continually samples the varying input voltage and the feedback signal to generate the output signal that minimizes the acoustic noise. The second and third MLCC arrays are selectively positioned and oriented on the PCB for optimum performance.
US09208771B2 Ambient noise-based adaptation of secondary path adaptive response in noise-canceling personal audio devices
An adaptive noise canceller adapts a secondary path modeling response using ambient noise, rather than using another noise source or source audio as a training source. Anti-noise generated from a reference microphone signal using a first adaptive filter is used as the training signal for training the secondary path response. Ambient noise at the error microphone is removed from an error microphone signal, so that only anti-noise remains. A primary path modeling adaptive filter is used to modify the reference microphone signal to generate a source of ambient noise that is correlated with the ambient noise present at the error microphone, which is then subtracted from the error microphone signal to generate the error signal. The primary path modeling adaptive filter is previously adapted by minimizing components of the error microphone signal appearing in an output of the primary path adaptive filter while the anti-noise signal is muted.
US09208768B2 Acoustical transverse horn for controlled horizontal and vertical sound dispersion
An acoustical horn is disclosed which is configured to re-direct spherical acoustic wave fronts radiated from a transducer with a minimum amount of distortion. The acoustical horn includes top and bottom portion which are asymmetrically-shaped with respect to each other.
US09208759B2 Compound-resonance driver (CRD) bass enhancement system
A compound resonance driver or CRD may be used to enhance the tonal qualities of a bass drum system or other sound system. A CRD may comprise a flex ring having two hinge pieces. The flex ring may further comprise a plurality of magnets and the flex ring may be easily folded and placed in a drum and then unfolded. A fixed circular component with a complementary magnet orientation may secure the flex ring. The fixed circular component may be attached to outwardly facing components that resonate or otherwise improve upon the sound of a drum or any sound producing, or sound shaping device or instrument, encompassing properties of an acoustic enclosure. The mass and shape of the CRD may increase the excursion of a drumhead. This longer excursion produces a more natural low frequency waveform.
US09208750B2 Color temperature adjusting method of display device
A color temperature adjusting method of a display device includes follow steps: generating a color temperature curve in CIE 1931 color space according to a color temperature range, a Planckian locus and a CIE daylight locus in the CIE 1931 color space; calculating a target color coordinate at the color temperature curve corresponding to target color temperature; generating a new brightness ratio of red, green and blue, respectively, according to the target color coordinate and tristimulus values of the brightest red, the brightest green and the brightest blue of the display device; generating a coefficient of red, green and blue, respectively, according to the new brightness ratios of red, green and blue and the tristimulus values of red, green and blue; and adjusting the color temperature of the display device according to the coefficients of red, green and blue.
US09208748B2 Single user input mechanism for controlling electronic device operations
A unique input mechanism for controlling several operations of an electronic device is provided. Using the unique input mechanism, which may be the single input mechanism for providing user inputs to the electronic device, a user may provide different inputs or combinations of inputs to control different operations based on the current mode or capacity of the electronic device. For example, a single, short click of a button may control a media operation (e.g., play/pause) in a media mode, and the same input may control a telephony operation (e.g., initiate/terminate call) in a telephony mode. In some embodiments, different inputs may be associated with different types of operations. The unique input mechanism may include, for example, a button, a switch, a key, or an actuator.
US09208747B2 Control module and control method to determine perspective in the rendering of medical image data sets
In a control method and a control unit for context-specific determination of at least one DESIRED perspective upon rendering of medical image data at a monitor, a graphical symbol is generated at a user interface dynamically and depending on an image status in order to detect a perspective control signal, and is used to control the rendering.
US09208740B2 Gate driver and display device using the same
A gate driver includes a logic circuit for generating a plurality of buffer input signals and a modulation signal, a plurality of buffers each for generating a respective gate driving signal according to a corresponding one of the plurality of buffer input signals, and a switch module for controlling electrical connection between a first voltage source and the plurality of buffers. During a modulation period, the modulation signal indicates the switch module to break the electrical connection, and the plurality of buffer input signals are configured to short output terminals of the plurality of buffers so as to modulate the gate driving signals.
US09208738B2 Display substrate, method of manufacturing the same, and display apparatus having the same
A display apparatus includes a substrate and a display area and a peripheral area on the substrate. The peripheral area is outside the display area, and a gate driving circuit is disposed in the peripheral area. The gate driving circuit includes a first stage coupled to a first gate line and a second stage coupled to a second gate line, and the first stage and the second stage are configured as mirror images of each other.
US09208737B2 Shift register circuit and shift register
A shift register circuit has a plurality of shift registers. Each of the shift registers has at least four input terminals, a signal input terminal, an output terminal, a pull-up circuit, a driving circuit, a stability driving circuit, and a pull-down circuit. The signal input terminal receives an input signal, and the pull-up circuit is configured to pull up a voltage level of a node of the shift register. The driving circuit outputs a gate driving signal according to the voltage level of the node. The pull-down circuit is configured to pull down the voltage level of the node. The stability driving circuit can pull down the voltage of the output terminal according to the voltages of the four input terminals, and, thus, can reduce the response time of the shift register circuit and increase the operation region of the shift register circuit.
US09208736B2 Display device and driving method thereof
A display device includes a display panel having gate lines and data lines, a signal controller driving the display panel, a graphic processing unit transmitting input image data to the signal controller, a gate driver driving the gate lines, and a data driver driving the data lines. The display panel is driven at a first frequency when displaying a moving image and driven at a lower frequency when displaying a still image. The signal controller includes a frame memory storing the input image data, a calculator calculating a representative value of image data stored in the frame memory, a line memory storing the representative value, and a kick-back corrector generating auxiliary image data by correcting the representative value according to a kick-back voltage. The data driver applies an auxiliary voltage corresponding to the auxiliary image data to the data lines in a vertical blank period when displaying the still image.
US09208727B2 Organic light emitting display device and driving method thereof
An organic light emitting display device is disclosed. One inventive aspect includes a plurality of pixels provided at a region sectioned by scan lines and data lines and an initialization power unit. The plurality of pixels are configured to control the amount of a current flowing from a first power source to a second power source through an organic light emitting diode in response to a data signal. The initialization power unit supplies initialization power to a driving transistor within each pixel circuit. The initialization power unit further controls the voltage of the initialization power supply to maintain a substantially constant voltage difference between the second power source and the initialization power.
US09208724B2 Display device and method of driving the same
A display device includes a display panel; and a control signal circuit that supplies a control signal to the display panel. The controls signal circuit includes a plurality of driving units and a plurality of reverse circuit, wherein the driving units are supplied with a clock signal and generate a first output pulse that has the same waveform as the clock signal, and wherein the reverse circuit reverses the first output pulse to generate a second output pulse that is an output of the control signal circuit.
US09208723B2 Semiconductor device including transistor with oxide semiconductor
A semiconductor device of the invention includes a data line, a power source line, a first scan line, a second scan line, a first transistor, a second transistor, a memory circuit, a third transistor, and a light-emitting element. A gate of the first transistor is connected to the data line, and a first terminal thereof is connected to the power source line; a gate of the second transistor is connected to the first scan line, and a first terminal thereof is connected to a second terminal of the first transistor; the memory circuit is connected to a second terminal of the second transistor and the second scan line; a first terminal of the third transistor is connected to the light-emitting element; and the memory circuit holds a first potential inputted from the power source line or a second potential inputted from the second scan line, and applies the potential to a gate of the third transistor to control emission/non-emission of the light-emitting element.
US09208721B2 Organic EL display apparatus and method of fabricating organic EL display apparatus
A method of fabricating an organic EL display apparatus includes: obtaining a representative current (I)-voltage (V) characteristic of a display panel including pixels each having an organic EL device and a driving transistor; dividing the display panel into a plurality of divided regions, and calculating a light-emitting efficiency and a light-emission starting current value for each of the divided regions calculated by a luminance (L)-I characteristic of the divided region; measuring luminance of light emitted from each of the pixels and calculating an L-V characteristic of each of the pixels; calculating an I-V characteristic of each pixel by dividing each luminance value of the L-V characteristic calculated for the pixel by light-emitting efficiency, and by adding a light-emission starting current value; and calculating a correction parameter for each pixel such that the I-V characteristic of each pixel is corrected to the representative I-V characteristic.
US09208719B2 Display device and active matrix driving method thereof
A driving method of a display device is disclosed. According to one aspect, the method includes applying a first voltage of a predetermined level to an anode of a plurality of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) included in a plurality of pixels. A plurality of driving transistors are driven to be connected to the plurality of OLEDs. The method further includes transmitting a first power source voltage of a logic high level to the anode of the plurality of OLEDs as a threshold voltage to compensate a threshold voltage of the plurality of driving transistors, and applying a data voltage to a plurality of pixels as a data writing step turning on a plurality of driving transistors. The second power source voltage applied to the cathode of the plurality of OLEDs is changed to a second voltage of the logic low level in a state in which a plurality of driving transistors are turned on. In the turned on state, light is emitted from the plurality of OLEDs.
US09208717B2 Semiconductor device and driving method thereof
Brightness irregularities that develop in a light emitting device due to is persion among pixels in the threshold values of TFTs used for supplying electric current to light emitting devices become obstacles to improved image quality of the light emitting device. As an image signal input to a pixel from a source signal line, a desired electric potential is applied to a gate electrode of a TFT for supplying electric current to an EL device, through a TFT having its gate and drain connected to each other. A voltage equal to the TFT threshold value is produced between the source and the drain of the TFT 105. An electric potential in which the image signal is offset by the amount of the threshold value is therefore applied to the gate electrode of the TFT. Further, TFTs are disposed in close proximity to each other within the pixel, so that dispersions in the TFT characteristics do not easily develop. A desired drain current can thus be supplied to the EL device even if there is dispersion in the threshold values of the TFTs among pixels, because this is offset by the threshold value of the TFT.
US09208703B2 Methods for the manufacture of high efficiency backlight assemblies for flat panel display assemblies
A backlight assembly is provided for deployment within a flat panel display assembly, as are methods for manufacturing such a backlight assembly. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of fabricating a printed wiring board (PWB) having a display-facing surface, disposing a casing sidewall around the PWB to create light cavity within the backlight assembly, and electrically coupling a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) to the PWB. A reflective solder mask is deposited over the display-facing surface of the PWB, and a first reflective silkscreen layer is applied over the reflective solder mask utilizing a silkscreen process. The first reflective silkscreen layer cooperates with the reflective solder mask to increase the reflectivity of the light cavity over the visible color spectrum.
US09208702B2 Advertising device for diverse terrain
The invention relates to an advertising device that includes: a base having a lower support surface and a longitudinal channel in the upper part thereof for mounting and attaching an advertising poster, three-dimensional advertising designs made of a flexible shape-memory material, a means of attaching the advertising poster to the base, and a means of attaching the base to the ground.
US09208690B2 Calculating time to go and size of an object based on scale correlation between images from an electro optical sensor
A method for calculating a Time To Go value between a vehicle and an intruding object. First and second images of the object are retrieved at first and second points of time. A scaling factor is selected and the second image scaled with the scale factor. The scaled image is resampled to a set position. Correlation values are calculated between the first image and the resampled scaled image for different horizontal displacements and/or different vertical displacements for the resampled scaled image. A maximum correlation value is found based on the correlation values. Selecting the scaling factor, resampling, calculating the correlation values, and finding the maximum correlation values are repeated a second predetermined number of times. A largest maximum correlation value is found among the maximum correlation values and the scale factor associated with the largest maximum correlation value. The Time To Go is calculated based on the associated scale factor.
US09208683B2 Method and apparatus for warning a driver of careless driving
Provided is an apparatus for sensing careless driving using a camera attached to a vehicle and warning a driver of a careless driving state, the apparatus including: a driving state determination unit for sensing a driving state of a vehicle based on a video of lanes; a lane-deviation sensing unit for sensing whether the vehicle deviated from the lane based on the video of lanes received from an image-processing unit; and a careless driving warning unit for generating a warning signal based on driving state information and lane deviation information received from the driving state determination unit and the lane-deviation sensing unit, respectively.
US09208678B2 Predicting adverse behaviors of others within an environment based on a 3D captured image stream
A computer-implemented method, system, and program includes a behavior processing system for capturing a three-dimensional movement of a monitored user within a particular environment monitored by a supervising user, wherein the three-dimensional movement is determined by using at least one image capture device aimed at the monitored user. The behavior processing system identifies a three-dimensional object properties stream using the captured movement. The behavior processing system identifies a particular defined adverse behavior of the monitored user represented by the three-dimensional object properties stream by comparing the identified three-dimensional object properties stream with multiple adverse behavior definitions. In response to identifying the particular defined adverse behavior from among the multiple adverse behavior definitions, the behavior processing system triggers a warning system to notify the supervising user about the particular defined adverse behavior of the monitored user through an output interface only detectable by the supervising user.
US09208677B2 Systems and methods for process alarm reduction
Certain embodiments of the disclosure may include systems and methods for process alarm reduction. According to an example embodiment of the disclosure, a method is provided for process alarm reduction. The method can include generating at least one alarm event modality based at least in part on the received alarm information or alarm events; filtering the received alarm information or alarm events using the at least one alarm event modality; and prioritizing at least a portion of the filtered alarm information or alarm events.
US09208673B2 Monitoring system, monitoring module apparatus and method of monitoring a volume
A monitoring system for a periphery of a structure (100) comprises a monitoring module (102) having a detection and ranging system (304, 308) arranged to support monitoring of a portion of the periphery in order to detect passage of a body beyond the periphery. The detector (304, 308) has an imaging resolution that prevents conclusive visual identification by a human operator of the nature of the body. The monitoring module also comprises a video capture apparatus (312, 314) arranged to provide video data. The system also comprises a monitoring station apparatus (200) arranged to receive data from the monitoring module (102). In response to detection of the passage of the body by the detection system (304, 308), the monitoring station (200) enables the operator to review the video data. The video data enables the operator to identify readily the nature of the body detected and thereby to provide confirmatory visual evidence when the body is human.
US09208671B2 Redundant input pipe networks in aspirated smoke detectors
An aspirated detecting system includes a multi-channel aspirated smoke detector with each channel including an air moving element, such as a fan, first and second sets of substantially identical air flow pipes where each set defines a plurality of spaced apart inflow ports. Control circuits activate a first element and then a second element to establish a transport time associated with at least one inflow port in response to the detector sensing a predetermined smoke condition. The control circuits include a storage unit which includes pre-stored timer values which are associated with respective transport times from an associated inflow port.
US09208667B2 Apparatus and methods for encoding an image with different levels of encoding
A method for verification of alarms is disclosed. The method involves receiving an alarm signal trigger associated with an alarm signal, receiving video data from a premise associated with the alarm signal, rapidly analyzing the video data to test for the existence a significant event, and when a significant event exists, sending a representation of a segment of interest of the video data, the segment of interest being associated with the significant event, to a user.
US09208664B1 Adjusting structural characteristics of a device
A structure of a device, such as a surface coating, is composed of one or more materials that are arranged to change one or more characteristics in response to a stimulus, such as an electrical signal, a magnetic field, application of thermal energy, and so forth. The changed characteristics may include a tactile characteristic, a visual characteristic, or other type of characteristic that is perceivable by a user of the device. A state for the adjustable structure may be determined based on user preference data that is stored on the device or input by a user through a user interface. The state for the adjustable structure may also be automatically determined based on device motion, orientation, environment factors, and so forth.
US09208660B2 Docking device for credit card payment and cash drawer including the same
A docking device for a credit card payment includes a base and a support plate configured to accommodate a smart pad and to slide on the base. When the support plate slides from one side to the other side, the smart pad accommodated on the support plate changes from one state of being inclined toward one person located at the one side to the other state of being inclined toward the other person located at the other side.
US09208658B2 Slot machine including a plurality of video reel strips
Provided is a slot machine capable of reducing unfairness which may result between a player who has made an investment and a player who has not made an investment and allowing a player to proceed with a game by making an investment in expectation of a jackpot at ease. Each money amount which is constant is accumulated independently of a number of bets each time betting is conducted, and upon winning a jackpot, a money amount calculated by multiplying a money amount accumulated until then by a multiplying factor based on the number of bets is provided.
US09208656B2 Slot machine including a plurality of video reel strips
On the slot machine, a slot game including a base game and free games is caused to proceed on a display. On the base game reel strips, on all of a plurality of reels, symbols whose each kind is the same, other than feature symbols and wild symbols, are arranged in succession. On the free game reel strips, on all of a plurality of reels, symbols whose each kind is the same, other than the feature symbols and the wild symbols, are arranged in succession and in addition thereto, only in a case of top symbols whose payout multiplying factor is the highest, the top symbols whose number is larger than a number of top symbols displayed on the base game reel strips are arranged in succession.
US09208655B2 Gaming machine and methods of allowing a player to play gaming machines having synchronized symbols
A gaming machine for providing a game to a player is described herein. The gaming machine includes a display device for displaying the game and a game controller. The game includes a plurality of reels having a predetermined number of elements, wherein each element has an associated symbol from a set of symbols and at least one reel has a run of consecutive elements. The game controller initiates an instance of the game, responsively displays the game on the display device, randomly determines an outcome of the game, and responsively spins and stops the reels to display the outcome. The outcome includes at least two reels having the same symbols being displayed in the same symbol positions. The game controller displays each one of the at least two reels having a run of consecutive elements, and populates the run of consecutive elements with an identical symbol.
US09208654B2 Gaming machine representing various symbols in response to color of light emitted from backlight
The present invention provides a gaming machine provided with a mechanical reel, which expands the variation of the pattern of rearrangement of symbols. The gaming machine includes a reel assembly M1 including a plurality of reels bearing a plurality of symbols on the outer surface thereof, and a backlight device M7 for illuminating each of the reels from inside. The plurality of symbols includes a variable symbol CS for representing various symbols in response to the color of light emitted from the backlight device M7. The variable symbol CS represents a first symbol upon the backlight device M7 emitting first color light, and represents a second symbol upon the backlight device M7 emitting second color light.
US09208652B2 Methods and systems for conducting lottery games with portable devices enabled for near field communication (NFC)
In some embodiments, the instant invention provides for a computer system that includes a processor executing the code to: receive an indication indicating that a player desires to participate in a lottery game based on a near field communication (NFC) between a mobile device of the player and a first game piece associated with the lottery game conducted by a game conducting authority; conduct a drawing in accordance with rules of the lottery game; receive an indication identifying an action performed by the player in accordance with the rules of the lottery game where the action is based on: i) a result of the drawing and ii) NFC communication between the mobile device of the player and a second game piece associated with the lottery game; and distribute a prize to player in accordance with the rules of the lottery game.
US09208649B2 System and method for decoupled and player selectable bonus games
Various embodiments are directed to gaming systems and methods including a bonus game that can be decoupled from base games and/or are player selectable. Bonus features can be added to existing games and player selection of progressive play can be provided. The method and system can further provide switching among possible links without dynamic reconfiguration.
US09208646B2 Electronic gaming device with wheel functionality
Examples disclosed herein relate to systems and methods, which may receive wagers on one or more paylines. The systems and methods may utilize one or more objects in a wheel-based game. The systems and methods may determine one or more payouts based on the one or more wheel positions. The systems and methods may display one or more presentations based on the one or more wheel positions.
US09208636B2 Gaming machine, gaming system, and gaming method
In a gaming system including gaming terminals, each gaming terminal executes a bonus game when the result of a base game satisfies a predetermined condition. If a first gaming machine that does not have an entry right exists among the gaming terminals when the base game is executed, the controller performs drawing of the entry right for the first gaming terminal. The controller sets an award expected in a bonus game of a first case to be greater than an award expected in a bonus game of a second case. The first case is a case that the bonus game is triggered in a gaming terminal that has the entry right when the base game is executed, and the second case is a case that the bonus game is triggered in the gaming terminal that does not the entry right when the base game is executed.
US09208633B2 Information processing device, information processing method and program
There is provided an information processing device including a receiving unit for receiving a command to be input to a first operating system and a command to be input to a second operating system different from the first operating system, a storage unit for storing a table in which given information included in the given command received by the receiving unit and information for identifying an application are related to each other, a generation unit for generating an application selection command for selectively executing the application based on the given command received by the receiving unit and the table stored in the storage unit, and an execution unit for executing the application selection command generated by the generation unit to selectively execute the application.
US09208625B2 Mobile terminal
If identification information is updated periodically, there is such a problem that when another vehicle is receiving driving support based on transmitted identification information of an own vehicle, if the identification information of the own vehicle is updated, the operation of driving support using the identification information becomes unstable because another vehicle can no longer identify the own vehicle.A mobile terminal mounted on a vehicle determines whether or not transmission control of identification information is necessary after determining the possibility of identification information misuse, determining the effect by controlling transmission of identification information, and determining the magnitude of adverse influence on the safe driving support service.
US09208622B2 Resistance estimation apparatus, energy estimation apparatus, system, method and program
According to one embodiment, a resistance estimation apparatus includes a first detection unit, a second detection unit, a third detection unit and a first calculation unit. The first detection unit detects, as an output value, an output of a driving source of a vehicle. The second detection unit detects, as a braking value, a strength of a braking force. The third detection unit detects a speed of the vehicle. The first calculation unit calculates a traveling resistance resulting from a road surface that the vehicle has traveled during a traveling period, using a vehicle characteristic, the output value, the braking value and the speed, the traveling period including a period from a first time point when the vehicle starts and the speed changes from zero to a second time point when the vehicle stops and the speed changes to zero.
US09208617B2 Shape data generation method and apparatus
A shape data generation method includes: identifying, from among a plural vertices of a first shape to be transformed, one or plural first vertices satisfying a predetermined condition including a condition that a normal line of a vertex to be processed crosses with a second shape that is a shape of a transformation target, which is identified from image data; transforming the first shape so as to move each of the one or plural identified first vertices a predetermined distance toward a corresponding normal direction of the identified first vertex; and storing data concerning the plural vertices of the transformed first shape after the identifying and the transforming are executed the predetermined number of times.
US09208613B2 Action modeling device, method, and program
Actions of a player character in a virtual three-dimensional space are determined for each of the extremities. The position of the end portion of each extremity is determined in the local coordinates of the extremity, with the fixed portion being the reference position. The position of the end portion is determined within a pre-defined range of access, then the joint angle of the intermediate portion is fixed, and the position of the intermediate portion is determined from the angle of rotation about the axis connecting the fixed portion and the end portion. The position of the intermediate portion is determined as angular information within the range of motion of the intermediate portion, which is defined in accordance with the position of the end portion. The shape of each extremity of the character is determined by the positional information about the end portion and the angular information about the intermediate portion.
US09208612B2 Systems and methods that generate height map models for efficient three dimensional reconstruction from depth information
Methods of generating a three dimensional representation of an object in a reference plane from a depth map including distances from a reference point to pixels in an image of the object taken from a reference point. Weights are assigned to respective voxels in a three dimensional grid along rays extending from the reference point through the pixels in the image based on the distances in the depth map from the reference point to the respective pixels, and a height map including an array of height values in the reference plane is formed based on the assigned weights. An n-layer height map may be constructed by generating a probabilistic occupancy grid for the voxels and forming an n-dimensional height map comprising an array of layer height values in the reference plane based on the probabilistic occupancy grid.
US09208611B2 System and method for displaying 3-dimension map using texture mapping
A display system and method using texture mapping is provided. The display system, including: a texture maintenance unit maintaining a texture generated based on a characteristic of an object; a texture selection unit selecting a texture based on an object to be displayed; and a texture application unit repeatedly applying the selected texture to at least a portion of a three-dimensional (3D) texture corresponding to the object to be displayed.
US09208610B2 Alternate scene representations for optimizing rendering of computer graphics
Shading attributes for scene geometry are predetermined and cached in one or more alternate scene representations. Lighting, shading, geometric, and/or other attributes of the scene may be precalculated and stored for at least one of the scene representations at an appropriate level of detail. Rendering performance is improved generally and for a variety of visual effects by selecting between alternate scene representations during rendering. A renderer selects one or more of the alternate scene representations for each of the samples based on the size of its filter area relative to the feature sizes or other attributes of the alternate scene representations. If two or more alternate scene representations are selected, the sampled values from these scene representations may be blended. The selection of scene representations may vary on a per-sample basis and thus different scene representations may be used for different samples within the same image.
US09208608B2 Systems and methods for feature tracking
A computer-implemented method for processing, by a graphical processor unit (GPU), a plurality of images of a user. A plurality of features detected by the GPU in a first image of the plurality of images of the user is selected. Each selected feature includes one or more pixels. In a second image of the plurality of images of the user, a search is performed for the plurality of features selected in the first image. A variance is calculated, on the GPU, for each selected feature found in the second image. The variance indicates a degree to which a portion of the second image varies from a corresponding portion of the first image. The calculated variance is stored in a variance file.
US09208604B2 Rendering processing method and apparatus
A disclosed method includes extracting a region from each of plural cross sections in a volume data representing a solid to be rendered, based on data of brightness values of texels for each of the plurality of cross sections, wherein the plural cross sections are perpendicular to an axis set for the volume data; deleting any one of two adjacent cross sections among the plural cross sections based on a correlation between a region extracted for one cross section of the two adjacent cross sections and a region extracted for the other cross section of the two adjacent cross sections; and rendering the solid by using data of the cross sections after the deleting.
US09208601B2 Computing plausible road surfaces in 3D from 2D geometry
Road network data can include two dimensional (2D) coordinates corresponding to junctions and non-junctions in the road network. Height values for roads at junctions can be obtained from optimizing a cost function or as input. Height values for roads at non-junction locations can be obtained from a height function defined using the height values for the junctions. Pitch, yaw, and roll vectors can be obtained for non-junction locations using the height function, the 2D coordinates, and one or more road parameters, respectively. These vectors can define a coordinate frame for the road, along with which a width can provide points for defining polygons for the road. Road surface data can be constructed from the polygons. The polygons can be provided to a device display for rendering of a three dimensional image of navigation data.
US09208599B2 Visual previews
Visual animation platforms may allow users to develop visual media projects, such as movies. Many visual animation platforms may provide animation effects that may be applied to visual elements of a visual media project. Unfortunately, current techniques for providing a preview of an animation effect may be limited. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for presenting a visual preview are disclosed herein. In particular, a snapshot of an original state of a selected visual element may be stored. A referenced animation effect may be applied to the selected visual element to generate an updated visual element that may be used to generate a visual preview of how the referenced animation effect may look as applied to the selected visual element. The snapshot may be applied to the updated visual element to non-destructively revert the updated visual element to the original state.
US09208596B2 Intelligent merging of visualizations
A processor-implemented method for merging a plurality of visualizations is provided. The method may include receiving the plurality of visualizations. The method may further include analyzing a plurality of elements within the plurality of visualizations. Additionally, the method may include unifying the plurality of elements to generate at least one unified visualization, the at least one unified visualization being based on the analyzing of the plurality of elements. The method may also include producing a single output visualization based on the assembling of the at least one unified visualization.
US09208589B2 Optical kerning for multi-character sets
A content processing application that implements a method for displaying characters at least a threshold distance apart. The method receives two consecutive characters. The method automatically identifies a distance between the two consecutive characters and moves at least one of the two consecutive characters to adjust the distance between the two consecutive characters to a threshold distance apart.
US09208584B2 Method and apparatus for describing image
A method and apparatus for describing an image are disclosed. The method for describing an image according to an embodiment of the invention includes: transforming an image from a BGR color space into a Gaussian derivative color model; and transforming the image from the Gaussian derivative color model into an optical reflection invariant color space, wherein the process of transforming the image from the Gaussian derivative color model into the optical reflection invariant color space includes: determining, for each pixel on the image, color channels of the pixel corresponding to the optical reflection invariant color space according to a first coefficient and a second coefficient of the pixel in the Gaussian derivative color model. The embodiments of the invention can alleviate an error in a description of an image of the same contents but with a significant change in color.
US09208579B2 Object tracking device
In an object tracking device, a search region setting unit sets the search region of an object in a frame image at a present point in time, based on an object region in a frame image at a previous point in time, zoom center coordinates in the frame image at the previous point in time, and a ratio between the zoom scaling factor of the frame image at the previous point in time and the zoom scaling factor of the frame image at the present point in time. A normalizing unit normalizes the image of a search region of the object included in the frame image at the present point in time to a fixed size. A matching unit searches the normalized mage of the search region for an object region similar to a template image.
US09208577B2 3D tracked point visualization using color and perspective size
One exemplary embodiment involves receiving a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) track points for a plurality of frames of a video, wherein the 3D track points are extracted from a plurality of two-dimensional source points. The embodiment further involves rendering the 3D track points across a plurality of frames of the video on a two-dimensional (2D) display. Additionally, the embodiment involves coloring each of the 3D track points wherein the color of each 3D track point visually distinguishes the 3D track point from a plurality of surrounding 3D track points, and wherein the color of each 3D track point is consistent across the frames of the video. The embodiment also involves sizing each of the 3D track points based on a distance between a camera that captured the video and a location of the 2D source points referenced by the respective one of the 3D track points.
US09208576B2 Two-stage correlation method for correspondence search
The invention presents a method for comparing the similarity between image patches comprising the steps of receiving form at least two sources at least two image patches, wherein each source supplies an image patch, comparing the received image patches by extracting a number of corresponding subpart pairs from each image patch, calculating a normalized local similarity score between all corresponding subpart pairs, calculating a total matching score by integrating the local similarity scores of all corresponding subpart pairs, and using the total matching score as an indicator for an image patch similarity, determining corresponding similar image patches based on the total matching score.
US09208575B2 Method and device for detecting face, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for executing the method
In the present disclosure, a plurality of frames of input images sequentially received for a predetermined time interval is obtained, and a face detecting operation is performed on a first frame if a full detecting mode is implemented. If a face is detected from a specific region of the first frame during the face detecting operation, a face tracking mode is implemented, a second frame is divided to produce the divided input image portions of the second frame, and the face tracking operation is performed on a surrounding region of the specific region of the divided input image portions of the second frame that corresponds to the specific region in the first frame. If the face is not detected in the face tracking mode, a partial detecting mode is implemented, and the face detecting operation is performed on image portions resized on divided input image portions of a third frame to which a specific region of the third frame corresponding to the specific region of the first frame belongs.
US09208574B2 Method and apparatus for measuring rotation characteristics of rotating body
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for measuring rotation characteristics such as rotation rate, rotation axis, and rotation angle of a rotating body. A method of measuring rotation characteristics includes extracting a rotating-body region from an image of the rotating body; extracting a surface pattern of the rotating body on the basis of brightness values of the extracted rotating-body region and acquiring rotation characteristics of the rotating body on the basis of change in the extracted surface pattern. Accordingly, it is possible to accurately measure rotation characteristics regardless of variation in brightness values of a surface region of the rotating body depending on illumination of a lamp, sensitivity of a camera, and exposure time of a camera.
US09208573B2 Systems and methods for determining motion saliency
Techniques for determining motion saliency in video content using center-surround receptive fields. In some implementations, images or frames from a video may be apportioned into non-overlapped regions, for example, by applying a rectilinear grid. For each grid region, or cell, motion consistency may be measured between the center and surround area of that cell across frames of the video. Consistent motion across the center-surround area may indicate that the corresponding region has low variation. The larger the difference between center-surround motions in a cell, the more likely the region has high motion saliency.
US09208570B2 System and method for performing depth estimation by utilizing an adaptive kernel
A system and method for supporting a depth estimation procedure by utilizing an adaptive kernel includes a capture subsystem for capturing images of a photographic target. The capture subsystem includes an aperture that is adjustable for admitting reflected light from the photographic target to a sensor device. An adaptive kernel is designed in a kernel design procedure based upon symmetry characteristics of the aperture. The adaptive kernel may be designed in either a frequency-domain kernel design procedure or in a spatial-domain kernel design procedure. A depth estimator utilizes the adaptive kernel for performing the depth estimation procedure.
US09208564B2 Method and device for navigating an endoscopic capsule
In a method and system for navigating an endoscopy capsule in a patient, wherein the endoscopy capsule includes a camera, a first image of an object in the interior of the patient is obtained with the camera, in which a re-identifiable structural feature of the object is identified. Successive images of the interior of the patient are then automatically obtained with the camera, and the endoscopy capsule is controlled, for each image, so that the position of the structural feature remains unchanged in the individual images while the image scale is intentionally enlarged or reduced.
US09208563B2 Method for determining a parameter set designed for determining the pose of a camera and/or for determining a three-dimensional structure of the at least one real object
A method for determining a parameter set which is designed to be used for determining the pose of a camera with regard to at least one real object and/or for determining a three-dimensional structure of the at least one real object, comprises the steps of providing a reference image including at least a part of the at least one real object, capturing at least one current image including at least a part of the at least one real object, providing an initial estimate of a parameter set which is including at least the three-dimensional translation in the common coordinate system between the pose of the camera when capturing the reference image and the pose of the camera when capturing the current image, and the depth of at least a first point of the at least one real object in the common coordinate system, and determining an update of the estimate of the parameter set by means of an iterative minimization process, wherein in the iterative minimization process a first set of pixels in the reference image is compared with a computed set of pixels in the current image and the computed set of pixels in the current image used for the comparison varies at each iteration.
US09208562B1 Method for synchronized navigation of sets of two or more biomedical images
A method for concurrent navigation of sets of a plurality of biomedical images includes visualizing, side-by-side or in overlay, sets of two biomedical images that include a reference image A and a comparison image B. The method for visualizing comparison image B is based only on the rigid component of the non-rigid transformation applied to comparison image B.
US09208561B2 Registration method and registration device for a position detection system
A registration method and device for detecting the position and alignment of an object or body part in relation to a position detection system, the method arranging a reference sensor on the object or body part and/or on an image sensor unit, detecting the position of the reference sensor by means of the position detection system, photogrammetrically detecting a surface of the object or body part by means of the image sensor unit, producing a surface model of the object or body part on the basis of the photogrammetrically detected information, determining the position of the reference sensor in the surface model, and correlating the surface model with a coordinate system of the position detection system on the basis of the determined position of the reference sensor in the surface model and on the basis of the position of the reference sensor detected by means of the position detection system.
US09208560B2 Image registration method
An image registration method for registering images into a coordinate system includes the following steps: (a) performing image normalization on a source image and generating a normalized image; (b) retrieving at least one color-deconvoluted image from color-deconvoluting the source image; (c) determining at least one image feature from the at least one color-deconvoluted image; (d) comparing the at least one image feature of the at least one color-deconvoluted image with a target image, and generating a relative matching structural feature result; and (e) transforming the normalized image into a registered image according to the matching structural feature result.
US09208559B1 Method and apparatus for gastric artery chemical embolization
In a method and an apparatus for implementing a gastric artery chemical embolization (GACE) catheterization procedure, an x-ray imaging system obtains a first current image data set of the patient prior to implementing the GACE procedure, and a second current image data set that shows the blood vessels that supply the fundus of the subject. The first and second current image data sets are fused to form a first fusion image data set. A second fusion image data set is then formed by fusion of the first fusion image data set with a catheter-position-indicating data set, obtained during the GACE procedure. The second fusion image data set is displayed during the GACE procedure or control data for a lightweight robot, used to operate and guide the catheter, can be derived from the second fusion image data set.
US09208558B2 Methods and systems for producing an implant
A computer implemented method for determining the 3-dimensional shape of an implant to be implanted into a subject includes obtaining a computer readable image including a defective portion and a non-defective portion of tissue in the subject, superimposing on the image a shape to span the defective portion, and determining the 3-dimensional shape of the implant based on the shape that spans the defective portion.
US09208557B2 System and process for estimating a quantity of interest of a dynamic artery/tissue/vein system
The invention relate to a system and a process for estimating hemodynamic parameters by applying soft probabilistic methods to perfusion imaging. Such a process also makes it possible to estimate arterial input or complementary distribution functions and therefore more generally any quantity of interest. The invention stands out in particular from the known processes in that it requires the introduction, a priori, of soft information of physiological or hemodynamic nature without constraining of forcing the desired estimation through arbitrary or undesirable hypotheses.
US09208554B2 Apparatus for detecting humans on conveyor belts using one or more imaging devices
A system for detecting a class of objects at a location, for example humans on a conveyor belt. A thermal camera may be used to detect objects and to detect the variance of the heat distribution of objects to classify them. Objects detected in an image from one camera may be detected in an image from another camera using geometric correction. A color camera may be used to detect the number of edges and the number of colors of an object to classify it. A color camera may be used with an upright human body classifier to detect humans in an area, and blobs corresponding to the detected humans may be tracked in a thermal or color camera image to detect if a human enters an adjacent forbidden area such as a conveyor belt.
US09208552B2 Method and system for hybrid reticle inspection
A semiconductor inspection apparatus performs a hybrid inspection process including cell-to-cell inspection, die-to-die inspection and die-to-golden or die-to-database inspection. The apparatus creates a golden image of a reticle complimentary to portions of the reticle that can be inspected by cell-to-cell inspection or die-to-die inspection. Alternatively, the apparatus creates a reduced database complimentary to portions of the reticle that can be inspected by cell-to-cell inspection or die-to-die inspection.
US09208543B2 Deblurring images having spatially varying blur
A computer-implemented method and system are described for deblurring an image. The method may include accessing an image having a first blurred region and a second blurred region, and generating a first blur kernel for the first blurred region and a second blur kernel for the second blurred region. Thereafter, the first blur kernel is positioned with respect to the first blurred region, and the second blur kernel is positioned with respect to the second blurred region based on the position of the first blur kernel. The image is then deblurred by deconvolving the first blurred region with the first blur kernel, and deconvolving the second blurred region with the second blur kernel.
US09208534B2 System and method for embedding data
In one embodiment, a watermark is embedded in a sequence of video frames, for each one of the video frames, a set of N rectangular patches, two palettes of pixel values in a selected color space, such that the two palettes are denoted as P0 and P1, and P0≠P1, and in each one of the N patches a processor which chooses one of P0 and P1 according to a value of a payload bit to be encoded, a calculator which calculates one of a variance of pixel values in the frame, and edginess for the pixel values in the frame, thereby determining a calculated value, and a processor which determines if the calculated value is beneath a given threshold value, if the calculated value is beneath the given threshold value the processor is operative to calculate a function of the pixel values, the closest value to a result of the calculation of the function in the chosen palette is chosen, and a replacer which replaces the pixel values within the patch with the chosen closest value. Related systems, apparatus and methods are also described.
US09208533B2 Method for concealing a synthetic hologram in a binary image
The invention relates to a synthetic hologram (64A) comprising first elementary cells wherein first openings are respectively defined, said hologram being integrated into a first portion of a binary motif (60), said binary motif comprising at least one second portion wherein second elementary cells comprising second openings (66) are defined, said second openings having an average size equal to the average size of the first openings, with a 5% margin, and a random phase shift.
US09208531B2 Digital dentistry
The systems and methods disclosed herein employ a scanning system for capturing highly detailed digital dental models. These models may be used within a dentist's office for a wide array of dental functions including quality control, restoration design, and fitting. These models may also, or instead, be transmitted to dental laboratories that may, alone or in collaboration with the originating dentist or other dental professionals, transform the digital model into a physical realization of a dental hardware item.
US09208530B2 Information processing method and device for presenting haptics received from a virtual object
At the time of using a haptic device to present to a user haptics which a first virtual object superimposed on the haptic device receives from a second virtual object superimposed on a real object, the user is enabled to touch within the second virtual object, regardless of the real object. Accordingly, the haptics received from the second virtual object is obtained using a first haptic event model of the first virtual object and a second haptic event model of the second virtual object, and while the first haptic event model corresponds to computer graphics information of the first virtual object, the shape of the first virtual object differs from that of the haptic device, such that instructions can be made regarding the inside of the real object, using the first virtual object.
US09208529B2 Smoothing power output from a wind farm
An apparatus and an article of manufacture for determining consistent wind power output include obtaining forecasted wind power production, actual wind power production from a wind power producer, a variable price of power measurement, a power storage battery state and capacity measurement, and a penalty measurement for wind power change of rate, and analyzing the forecasted wind power production, the variable price of power measurement, the power storage battery state and capacity measurement, and the penalty measurement for wind power change of rate to determine a consistent rate at which wind power is to be exported from the wind power producer to a grid.
US09208528B2 Systems and methods for expense management
Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for expense management are disclosed. A user may submit receipts for one or more transactions into an expense management system. The expense management system may extract information from the receipts and match the extracted information to one or more of a plurality of Records of Charge (ROCs). The expense management system may match the extracted information to a ROC based on vendor name, location, time stamp, and the like. The expense management system may further assign a ROC to an expense category. The expense management system may assign a ROC to an expense category based on a standard industrial classification (SIC) code of a merchant, a category assigned to a different ROC, and a location associated with the ROC. An expense report for all submitted receipts may be generated.
US09208523B2 Low latency financial data network architecture
A financial market data network having a lowered overall latency includes communication interfaces, specialized switches having internal switching fabric, and feed handlers that all facilitate communications between financial exchanges and consumers of financial market data therefrom. A feed handler is situated within or proximate a specialized switch and is arranged to receive raw financial market data directly from financial exchanges without the data first traveling through any switching fabric. The feed handler is adapted to process the received raw financial market data into a normalized format before the normalized financial market data is ever routed through any switching fabric, prior to being sent to consumers. The communication interfaces can include I/O ports located on the specialized switches, and the feed handlers can include one or more computer processors or servers. Additional internal switch components can include packet processors and storage components that store network protocols and/or layer tables.
US09208520B2 Shelf life expiration date management
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for shelf life expiration date management for smart refrigerators. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for shelf life expiration date management for smart refrigerators is provided. The method includes identifying a consumer during a point of sale transaction for purchasing different food items by a point of sale computer system, for example by scanning a bar code or reading a magnetic strip of a loyalty program card or reading a radio frequency identification (RFID) dongle. A list of the different food items can be provided to the smart refrigerator, for example from storage in the loyalty program card or RFID dongle, or as transmitted from the point of sale computer system to the smart refrigerator over a computer communications network. Finally, expiration dates can be determined for the food items in the list and stored in the smart refrigerator.
US09208517B1 System for and method of generating advertising inventory by marketers sharing content with others
A system and method of generating advertising inventory by marketers sharing content with others via a social network or other electronic communication across a network. This embodiment may include allowing one or more content providers, such as a publisher, to provide links to content items, such as articles, news stories, videos, etc. The content items may be provided directly by the content provider or by a clearinghouse entity or other intermediary. A subscriber, such as an advertiser or marketer, may then search for relevant content items from one or more content providers. The subscriber may provide ancillary content, such as an advertisement or other electronic content, for association with the selected content item. Thus, when the subscriber shares a URL identifying the selected content item, such as an article, via a social network, the URL may be encoded with a unique identifier identifying the subscriber. When the URL is clicked by a user, an ad server on the publisher's side may recognize the unique identifier and display the content item with the ancillary content provided by the subscriber.
US09208516B1 Audio system
Methods and systems for providing audio information based on gaze information are described. In an example, a computing device may be configured to receive gaze information indicative of a wearer-view associated with the computing device. Based on the gaze information, the computing device may be configured to determine content displayed in the wearer-view. Further, the computing device may be configured to determine audio information relating to the content and cause an audio stream associated with the audio information to be played at the computing device.
US09208506B2 Geofenced event-based fan networking: methods
The present invention is a fan networking system (FNS), available through a software application, executing on fans' portable smart devices for an event to be held in a venue. A FNS may offer event-customized services to fans, such as messaging, fan groups, mementos, coupons, “friends”, and contests. The level of services might depend on whether a fan is attending; timing (pre-, during, post-performance); for a competitive event, whether the fan affiliates with the home or away team; and the category of fan (e.g., audience, management, performer). Determination of whether a fan is attending may be done with geolocation services, e.g., through GPS. A fan might need to remain within the venue for some period of time to qualify as attending. Services to attending fans may extend for a period beyond the event itself.
US09208502B2 Sentiment analysis
Data is received from multiple data sources. At least one of the data sources is an active audio or video communication. The received data is analyzed by extracting instances of a keyword from the received data and analyzing contextual data near the keyword. Sentiment about the extracted keyword is gauged based on the contextual data. The derived sentiment data from the multiple data sources is aggregated, and an aggregated view of the derived sentiment data is presented.
US09208500B2 Fixed position multi-state interactive advertisement
Computer-based systems and methods for a multi-state advertisement displayed at a fixed position on a primary display space of a display device. The fixed position advertisement remains in its fixed position in view of the user as the user scrolls the web page in various directions. A plurality of events trigger a change in the state of the multi-state advertisement, with the change in state resulting in a change of the advertisement content, shape, size, style and appearance. An embodiment deploys an initial video in combination with a billboard. When the interstitial video ends, the fixed position advertisement is sized down to a less obtrusive size, with the billboard and the interstitial video replaced with a navigation bar.
US09208496B2 Systems and methods to provide a communication reference in a representation of a geographical region
Systems and methods to provide a reference for communication with a business is disclosed here. One embodiment includes providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location within the representation corresponding to a location of the business, tracking usage of the reference, and billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.
US09208493B2 Credit card security system and method
A transaction method, system and apparatus of the present invention employs two electromagnetically read cards. A first card is employed for accessing account data of a corresponding account. A second card effectively carries identity data of the owner/account holder of the first card. During a transaction, the two cards must be used sufficiently in tandem or in proper series order, in order for the card processing center to authorize the subject transaction. In particular, use of the first card accesses a corresponding account to determine if the account is active versus in a halted state (e.g., due to a reported stolen or lost card). Use of the second card spaced apart (in time and/or in distance) from the first card then verifies identity of the user as an authorized person to be accessing the corresponding account and hence authorized user of the first card. As such the second card verifies, validates, authenticates or otherwise confirms identity of the first card owner (also referred to as the corresponding account owner) and serves as an identity data member.
US09208491B2 Format-preserving cryptographic systems
Key requests in a data processing system may include identifiers such as user names, policy names, and application names. The identifiers may also include validity period information indicating when corresponding keys are valid. When fulfilling a key request, a key server may use identifier information from the key request in determining which key access policies to apply and may use the identifier in determining whether an applicable policy has been satisfied. When a key request is authorized, the key server may generate a key by applying a one-way function to a root secret and the identifier. Validity period information for use by a decryption engine may be embedded in data items that include redundant information. Application testing can be facilitated by populating a test database with data that has been encrypted using a format-preserving encryption algorithm. Parts of a data string may be selectively encrypted based on their sensitivity.
US09208489B2 System for secure web-prompt processing on point sale devices
A point of sale system including at least one proxy server having an internet connection, a web browser operative to download web pages from the internet via the proxy server, and a real time user input limiting trusted computing base module communicating with the web browser and being operative to limit user input to the web pages in real time.
US09208486B2 Apparatus and method for increased security of wireless transactions
A mobile communication device with security mechanisms is provided for enabling wireless personal information transfer with increased security. In another embodiment of the disclosure, a mobile communication device is used to confirm a transaction.
US09208485B2 System and method for facilitating online transactions
Methods and systems for facilitating online transactions are disclosed. One method includes supplying content for display in a frame of a website, the website hosted by a third-party. The method also includes receiving transaction information from the third-party, and returning a token to the frame, the token including state information based on the transaction information. The method further includes passing the token from the frame to the third-party. The method optionally also includes receiving the token from the third-party and transferring funds from a first account to a second account based on the transaction information and the state information.
US09208482B2 Transaction token issuing authorities
Systems, methods, apparatus, processes, and computer program code for conducting transactions are described which allow a first party to a transaction to identify a second party to a transaction. In one or more embodiments, a mobile device may be operated to conduct transactions with merchants, service providers, and other devices, such as automated teller machines (ATMs). A transaction token issuing authority associated with a merchant or point of transaction may be determined such that the mobile device may communicate with the appropriate entity or entities to conduct a transaction.
US09208480B2 Mobile deposit system for digital image and transaction management
A central system for receiving captured transaction data from a plurality of remote capture devices over a network, the remote capture devices including a mobile device type and a fixed location device type, the system comprising: a receipt module to receive the captured transaction data; a processing module to process the received captured transaction data; and a storage module to store the processed transaction data such that characteristic data of the mobile device type is associated with the stored transaction data for said processed transaction data originating from a remote capture device of the mobile device type.
US09208474B2 Performance driven compensation for enterprise-level human capital management
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a human resource management platform that includes applications targeted to solve a variety of human resource, compensation, and performance management problems. Applications of the human resource management platform include business applications such as performance driven compensation that may provide a single solution for driving employee performance and organizational success by automation of goal setting, performance measurement, and employee rewards by directly linking performance results to rewards.
US09208469B2 Sharing of information associated with events
Techniques are provided that allow users to collaborate in relationship to data views, application displays, applications or events. A user can type in a text view related to a specific view in an application display, and the information is shared with other users that take part in sharing that view. A user that expresses an interest in an event is notified about the event and has the capability to interact, in relation to the event, with other users (e.g. by text). The particular form of interaction (and sharing) can be selectively specified. This interaction is comparable to a dynamic bulletin board where the subject is event driven, and where a user can specify who are allowed to participate. In the case of an event interest(s), users specify their interest (e.g. in other user application events or system events) and the system automatically alerts them to the occurrence of the event.
US09208467B2 Optimizing inventory in accordance with a constrained network
In one embodiment, optimizing inventory includes accessing service level band sets. Each service level band set is associated with a policy group, and includes service level bands. Each service level band of a service level band set has a service level priority with respect to any other service level bands of the same service level band set. An inventory band set is determined for each service level band set. Each inventory band set includes inventory bands, where each inventory band satisfies a corresponding service level band assuming an unconstrained network. Each inventory band of an inventory band set has an inventory priority with respect to any other inventory bands of the same inventory band set. A feasible supply chain plan that satisfies the inventory band sets is generated in order of the inventory priorities until a constrained network is depleted.
US09208458B2 Methods and apparatus for analyzing locate and marking operations with respect to facilities maps
Methods, apparatus and systems including a computer comprising at least one hardware processor, at least one tangible storage medium (memory), and at least one input/output (I/O) interface for evaluating a quality of a locate and/or marking operation. First information relating to the locate and/or marking operation is compared to second information obtained from at least one facilities map. One or more indications of a quality assessment of the locate and/or marking operation is automatically generated based on such a comparison, and the one or more indications of the quality assessment are electronically stored on the at least one tangible storage medium, and/or electronically transmitted via the at least one I/O interface, so as to provide an electronic record of the quality assessment.
US09208451B2 Automatic identification of information useful for generation-based functional verification
A computer-implemented method, an apparatus and a computer program for automatically extracting useful information for functional verification. The method comprising performing repeatedly both operating an instruction generator associated with a Design Under Test (DUT), whereby a generated instruction is determined, the generated instruction having one or more instruction attributes; and collecting information relating to the generated instruction. Based on the generated instruction and the collected information, a classification technique is utilized to classify the information based on the instruction attributes.
US09208449B2 Process model generated using biased process mining
Embodiments relate to a method, system, and computer program product for a process model. The method includes extracting data associated with a process execution trace of a running process and extracting any prior knowledge data relating to the running process. The method also includes calculating at least one transition confidence parameter for the prior knowledge data; and identifying any existing process models relating to the running process. A confidence trace bias is also generated for any existing process model identified. An enhanced bias value is then calculated by combining the confidence trace bias value and value of the transition confidence parameter. Using as input the extracted process execution trace data, the prior knowledge data, the identified existing model and the enhanced bias value, a learned process model is then generated.
US09208445B2 System and method of quantum computing using three-state representation of a qubit
A method (and structure) of quantum computing. Two independent magnitudes of a three-state physical (quantum) system are set to simultaneously store two real, independent numbers as a qubit. The three-state physical (quantum) system has a first energy level, a second energy level, and a third energy level capable of being degenerate with respect to one another, thereby forming basis states for the qubit.
US09208431B2 Method and apparatus for strategic synaptic failure and learning in spiking neural networks
Certain aspects of the present disclosure support a technique for strategic synaptic failure and learning in spiking neural networks. A synaptic weight for a synaptic connection between a pre-synaptic neuron and a post-synaptic neuron can be first determined (e.g., according to a learning rule). Then, one or more failures of the synaptic connection can be determined based on a set of characteristics of the synaptic connection. The one or more failures can be omitted from computation of a neuronal behavior of the post-synaptic neuron.
US09208430B2 Computer-implemented simulated intelligence capabilities by neuroanatomically-based system architecture
Computer-implemented systems for simulated intelligence information processing comprising: a digital processing device comprising an operating system configured to perform executable instructions and a memory; a computer program including instructions executable by the digital processing device to create a hierarchical software architecture comprising: a software module a functional interpretation of the prosencephalon, or parts thereof; a software module a functional interpretation of the mesencephalon, or parts thereof; and a software module a functional interpretation of the rhombencephalon, or parts thereof; wherein the software architecture simulates vertebrate, mammalian, primate, or human neuroanatomy. In some embodiments, the systems create simulated intelligence.
US09208422B2 Packaging material comprising magnetisable portions
A packaging material comprising a plurality of magnetisable portions thereon comprising at least one detectable magnetisable portion per package to be formed from the packaging material is disclosed. At least one of the magnetisable portions provides a first magnetic mark carrying a magnetic field pattern.
US09208420B2 Techniques for generating customized two-dimensional barcodes
A computer-implemented technique can receive, at a computing device, a uniform resource locator (URL) for a web page and an image. A number of pixels corresponding to a desired resolution for encoding the image is determined and the image is converted to a modified image having the desired resolution. The technique can then generate a two-dimensional barcode by: (i) generating first data representative of the modified image, (ii) appending the first data to either an end of the URL to obtain a first modified URL or after a terminator bit of the two-dimensional barcode, (iii) generating second data representative of the second modified URL or the URL, and (iv) generating third data representative of an error correction code (ECC) based on the first data and the second data, wherein the two-dimensional barcode is generated based on the first data, the second data, and the third data.
US09208417B2 Image processing apparatus, recording method, and storage medium for outputting image data expressing halftone dots
An image processing apparatus configured to generate print data used for recording image data expressing halftone dots by an image forming apparatus includes an input unit configured to input image data expressing halftone dots, an obtaining unit configured to obtain color tone information indicating color tone for each pixel or for each area including a plurality of pixels in the image data, a conversion unit configured to perform multivalue conversion of the image data based on a degree of smoothing according to the color tone information, a color separation processing unit configured to perform color separation on the image data which has been multi-valued by the conversion unit, and a halftone processing unit configured to convert image data which has been color-separated by the color separation processing unit into print data.
US09208416B2 Image processing apparatus performing halftone process on image data based on a corrected tone value and an error value of target pixels
The present invention provides an image processing apparatus that includes a processor. The processor is configured to calculate a corrected tone value of a target pixel using a tone value of the target pixel and an error value of a previously processed pixel; determine a dot value of the target pixel by comparing the corrected tone value with a threshold value; calculate an error value of the target pixel using the corrected tone value and a first density value when the dot value indicates to form a dot and the dot to be formed is a first dot formed in isolation; and calculate an error value of the target pixel using the corrected tone value and a second density value when the dot value indicates to form a dot and the dot to be formed is a second dot formed at a particular location in consecutive dots.
US09208413B2 Color correcting system and image forming apparatus including same
A color correcting system mountable in an image forming apparatus comprises an imaging unit configured to perform image formation and a control unit configured to acquire a control parameter for use in image formation by the imaging unit and a status parameter indicating a status at the time of image formation. If a value for a color in an image formed by the imaging unit does not exceed a first threshold, and at least one member selected from the group consisting of adhering toner amount, gloss, line width, and line position for the image formed by the imaging unit does not exceed a second threshold, the control unit is configured to determine a control parameter on the basis of the acquired control parameter and the acquired status parameter, such that at least a color difference decreases.
US09208410B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing apparatus control method, and storage medium
An image processing apparatus wirelessly communicates with an information processing apparatus without passing through an access point, provides a print service in which predetermined printing is performed in response to a print request from the information processing apparatus via a wireless communication unit, and enables a setting that is used for providing the print service if the setting is disabled when the information processing apparatus establishes communication with the image processing apparatus via the wireless communication unit.
US09208407B2 Image forming apparatus having a display section and a lighting section
An image forming apparatus includes an operating section accepting an operation by a user, a receiving section receiving data for a print job from an externally connected instrument, an image forming section starting an image forming based on a print job if the operating section accepts an operation to start the print job or if the receiving section receives data for the print job, a display section displaying varieties of information for printing on a display area, a lighting section illuminating the display section from a back portion thereof, and a control section causing lighting of the lighting section to be turned off gradually part by part until finally turned off entirely if entire lighting of the lighting section is in a state of keeping being turned on when the image forming section starts an image forming.
US09208405B2 Systems and methods for digital image analysis
Systems and methods for implementing a hierarchical image recognition framework for classifying digital images are provided. The provided hierarchical image recognition framework utilizes a multi-layer approach to model training and image classification tasks. A first layer of the hierarchical image recognition framework generates first layer confidence scores, which are utilized by the second layer to produce a final recognition score. The provided hierarchical image recognition framework permits model training and image classification tasks to be performed more accurately and in a less resource intensive fashion than conventional single-layer image recognition frameworks. In some embodiments real-time operator guidance is provided for an image classification task.
US09208403B1 Systems and methods for processing image data associated with line detection
In a particular embodiment, a method includes receiving line segment data at a processing core. The line segment data is associated with multiple candidate line segments associated with a first group of pixels of an image. The line segment data includes an angle value and/or a distance value for each of the multiple candidate line segments. The method further includes identifying, at the processing core, a set of line segments of the multiple candidate line segments by comparing angle values and/or distance values associated with the multiple candidate line segments. The method also includes determining, at the processing core, a representative line segment based on the set of line segments of the multiple candidate line segments. The method further includes storing, by the processing core, line segment information based on the representative line segment.
US09208401B2 System and method for using an image to provide search results
A system and method uses one or more images provided to an image recognition capable search engine to obtain search results. The image recognition system may use one or more image match algorithms to create one or more possible product match sets. In the event multiple product match sets are created, the search results may be limited to product that appears in one or more of the plural possible product match sets.
US09208396B2 Image processing method and device, and program
In image processing of multi-viewpoint image data including image data captured with different focal lengths, an image of high quality, distance information with high precision, etc., are obtained by utilizing image data with different angles of view (focal lengths). An image processing device for generating combined image data using multi-viewpoint image data including image data acquired with different focal lengths, includes a resolution converting unit configured to perform resolution conversion for at least part of image data in multi-viewpoint image data in accordance with a focal length to be output and an image combining unit configured to generate combined image data with the focal length to be output using the resolution-converted image data.
US09208394B2 Authentication of an article of manufacture using an image of the microstructure of it surface
The present application concerns the visual identification of materials or documents for tracking or authentication purposes.It describes methods to automatically authenticate an object by comparing some object images with reference images, the object images being characterized by the fact that visual elements used for comparison are non-disturbing for the naked eye. In some described approaches it provides the operator with visible features to locate the area to be imaged. It also proposes ways for real-time implementation enabling user friendly detection using mobile devices like smart phones.
US09208392B2 Methods and apparatus for progressive pattern matching in a mobile environment
Methods and apparatus for performing efficient pattern matching in a client-server network are described herein. A communication device acquires an object to be matched. At least one reduced set of features is extracted from the object to be matched and a determination as to whether the object to be matched matches one of a plurality of known objects in a local library stored on the communication device is generated. An indication representing a match of the object is presented if the determination indicates a local match exists in the local library. A match request including the at least one reduced set of features is transmitted for a remote matching determination when the determination indicates that no local match exists in the local library. In accordance with some aspects, a series of one or more match requests may be transmitted for a remote matching determination.
US09208391B2 Biometric authentication device, biometric authentication method, and computer readable, non-transitory medium
A biometric authentication device includes: a first biometric sensor that obtains biometric information of a user; a second biometric sensor that obtains biometric information of a user at a lower degree of reproducibility than the first biometric sensor; an authentication process unit that performs an authentication by comparing with use of the biometric information obtained by the first biometric sensor and the second biometric sensor, wherein the authentication process unit compares biometric information obtained by the second biometric sensor with use of biometric information obtained by the first biometric sensor of a case where a comparing between the biometric information obtained by the first biometric sensor and enrolled information is successful.
US09208389B2 Apparatus and method for recognizing current position of vehicle using internal network of the vehicle and image sensor
An apparatus and method for recognizing a current position of a vehicle are disclosed. The apparatus receive information about an initial position of a vehicle from an external input, and receive an image signal from an image sensor to take a picture of an identifiable object and extract image signal information corresponding to the identifiable object from the image signal, and connect to an internal network of the vehicle of the vehicle and receive information about a traveling state of the vehicle, and calculate the current position of the vehicle based on the information obtained.
US09208388B2 Driver assistance system for a motor vehicle including a camera for detecting roadway markings
The invention relates to a driver assistance system for a motor vehicle including a camera for detecting roadway marking. According to the invention a device is provided for detecting a parked or stopped mode of the vehicle. Furthermore, a control device receives image data of the surroundings of the vehicle from the camera in the parked or stopped mode and analyzes the image data with respect to roadway markings which indicate no-parking and/or no-stopping spots, wherein the control device controls a signaling device such that the signaling device outputs a warning message in the event that a roadway marking indicating a no-parking spot or a no-stopping spot is detected in the surroundings of the stopped or parked vehicle.
US09208387B2 Image processing device and image processing method to estimate movement of a movable body
An image processing device, including a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to extract an edge where positions overlap with each other by comparing a first edge image extracted from an image captured for a first time and a second edge image extracted from an image captured for a second time after the first time, the image for the first time and the image for the second first time being captured from a movable body, remove the extracted edge from at least one of the first edge image and the second edge image, perform matching processing on the first and second edge images in both or one of which the extracted edge has been removed, estimate a movement amount of the movable body, by using a displacement amount between the first edge image and the second edge image which are subjected to the matching processing, and generate a projected image.
US09208383B2 Commodity recognition apparatus and method for recognizing commodity by the same
A commodity recognition apparatus, which recognizes, from an image captured by an image capturing section and stored in a storage section, a commodity imaged in the image, identifies, for each image captured by the image capturing section, an image capturing condition of light source for the image. The commodity recognition apparatus selects the image captured by the image capturing section under a given image capturing condition identified and displays the selected image on a display section.
US09208382B2 Methods and systems for associating a keyphrase with an image
Novel tools and techniques are described for identifying objects and/or persons. In one aspect, a method might comprise obtaining a digital image of an object(s) with a digital image recording device. The digital image may be transmitted to a remote computer system, and compared to multiple preexisting digital images using an image comparison software application running thereon. A set of preexisting digital images matching the digital image of the object(s) may be identified, and a (best match) keyphrase associated with the preexisting digital images may be determined. The keyphrase may be returned to a user computer for user confirmation or rejection. In some embodiments, a point cloud may be generated for each object in the image, and fitted with available 3D models, so as to confirm the keyphrase. In some embodiments, the confirmed keyphrase may be sent to a user computer for implementation in a cadastral survey application.
US09208381B1 Processing digital images including character recognition using ontological rules
Embodiments of methods, systems, and storage medium associated with processing of digital images including character recognition are disclosed herein. In one instance, the method may include identifying at least some components of a plurality of characters included in a digital image of content, based at least in part on comparison of a vector representation of each component with predefined component shape patterns; and determining one or more characters from the identified components. The determining may be based at least in part on evaluating the identified components using predetermined combination rules that define the one or more characters based at least in part on relationships between the one or more components in the identified plurality of characters. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09208380B2 Methods and systems for recognizing handwriting in handwritten documents
The disclosed embodiments illustrate a method for comparing handwriting in a first electronic document and a second electronic document. The method includes extracting, by one or more processors, one or more segments from a first electronic document and a second electronic document. Each of the one or more segments includes a handwritten text. Thereafter, one or more sets of segments are created from the one or more segments. An information indicating categorization of each segment in a set of segments in one or more categories is received. The information is provided by one or more workers based on the handwriting in each segment. A similarity score based on a count of segments in each of the one or more categories is determined. The similarity score is deterministic of a degree of similarity between the first electronic document and the second electronic document.
US09208378B2 Methods of processing data from multiple image sources to provide normalized confidence levels for use in improving performance of a recognition processor
A method comprises receiving from a first data source first recognition results which are associated with the first data source, and receiving from a second data source second recognition results which are associated with the second data source. The method further comprises processing a first set of confidence levels associated with the first recognition results to provide a first set of normalized confidence levels associated with the first data source, and processing a second set of confidence levels associated with the second recognition results to provide a second set of normalized confidence levels associated with the second data source. The method also comprises storing the first set of normalized confidence levels associated with the first data source in a first table of normalized confidence levels and the second set of normalized confidence levels associated with the second data source in a second table of normalized confidence levels.
US09208373B2 Digitally-generated lighting for video conferencing applications
A method of improving the lighting conditions of a real scene or video sequence. Digitally generated light is added to a scene for video conferencing over telecommunication networks. A virtual illumination equation takes into account light attenuation, lambertian and specular reflection. An image of an object is captured, a virtual light source illuminates the object within the image. In addition, the object can be the head of the user. The position of the head of the user is dynamically tracked so that an three-dimensional model is generated which is representative of the head of the user. Synthetic light is applied to a position on the model to form an illuminated model.
US09208372B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method, program, and electronic appliance
There is provided an image processing apparatus including an image processing unit configured to carry out adjustment that makes disparity larger than disparity corresponding to processed images, which are moving images to be processed, based on an amount of change over time in a magnitude of the disparity corresponding to the processed images.
US09208361B1 Magnetic stripe card reader
A magnetic stripe card reader useful for reading magnetic stripe bearing cards having at least one magnetic track, the magnetic stripe reader including a magnetic stripe reader head including multiple magnetic sensors including at least one magnetic track reading sensor for reading data encoded in a magnetic track of a magnetic stripe and at least one magnetic sensor which does not read encoded data, the magnetic stripe reader head providing magnetic sensor outputs including at least one magnetic track sensor reading output and at least one magnetic sensor output which has no encoded data therein and a subtractor operative to subtract at least a portion of the at least one magnetic sensor output, which has no encoded data therein, from the at least one magnetic track sensor reading output having card data encoded thereon, thereby to cancel interference from the at least one magnetic track reading output.
US09208360B2 RFID tag for RFID service and RFID service method thereof
Disclosed are an RFID tag for an RFID service and an RFID service method thereof. The present invention includes a tag storage unit including a TID memory and a user memory; and a tag controller that inserts and stores a content name field including content name information related to an item attached with the corresponding tag in the user memory, wherein the tag controller inserts the content name information in a tag response signal according to the request of a peripheral RFID interrogator and transmits it or permits an access to the memory in which the content name field is inserted. The present invention includes and stores the content name information in the identification data stored in the RFID tag to allow a user to select only the desired tag when the interrogator simultaneously recognizes a plurality of tags and receive the desired contents through the network, making it possible to give convenience to a user and reduce time and the using fee of the network.
US09208359B2 Always-available embedded theft reaction subsystem
A platform including an always-available theft protection system is described. In one embodiment, the system comprises a power management logic to selectively power elements of the system, a disarming logic to disarm the platform from an armed mode when a disarming command is received via an interface, the interface powered when the platform is in the armed and suspecting modes to detect the disarming command. The system further comprises, in one embodiment, a risk behavior logic to detect a potential problem via a interface, the interface powered when the platform is in the armed mode to detect the potential problem, and a core logic component to provide logic to analyze the potential problem, and to move the platform to a suspecting mode, when the potential problem indicates a theft suspicion, the core logic powered when the risk behavior logic detects the potential problem.
US09208356B2 Semiconductor device including encryption section, semiconductor device including external interface, and content reproduction method
A secure LSI device 1 includes an encryption section 2 for encrypting a program, and an external I/F 50 for inputting/outputting a program or data from/to an external memory 100. In the encryption section 2, the operation of a private key arithmetic processing section 20 is prohibited with respect to a sequence whose execution is determined by a key-generation/update sequencer 30 to be impermissible. In the external I/F 50, a program processing section 51 and a data processing section 55 are structured independently from each other.
US09208352B2 LFSR watermark system
In one embodiment, a system including a processor is operative to receive a content item including a watermark encoding a series of data values of an output stream of a linear feedback shift register initialized with a seed including an information element and an assurance value, the shift register having a plurality of states each including a first and second value, identify at least part of the watermark in the content item, extract at least some of the data values from the at least part of the identified watermark, process at least some of the extracted data values yielding the initial state of shift register, and authenticate the first value of the initial state using the second value of the initial state in order to confirm that the first value is indeed the information element included in the seed processed by the shift register.
US09208351B2 Processing information
A method and system for processing information. An apparatus divides target information into N pieces of divided data using a secret sharing scheme in which a predetermined number (K) of pieces of the N pieces of divided data is required to restore the target information, wherein N>K, and wherein the apparatus is an information processing device or an external storage device. The apparatus selects M pieces from the N pieces, wherein KM−K.
US09208350B2 Certificate information verification system
The invention discloses a system and apparatus for detecting problematic certificate action requests and digital certificates. Ideally, the invention will be used to detect a certificate request that will result in security problems and detect issued certificates that lack essential information. The invention uses a proxy system that intercepts certificate requests and transmitted certificates. The proxy system runs a series of checks on the intercepted request and/or certificate. The checks vary depending on the certificate contents, requester, and system providing the request or certificate.
US09208349B1 Securing data gathering devices of a personal computing device while performing sensitive data gathering activities to prevent the misappropriation of personal user data gathered therewith
A functional library can secure data gathering devices of a personal computing device on behalf of a secure application program to provide a more secure computing session during which sensitive data gathering activities are performed using any of those data gathering devices. The functional library, when incorporated within a personal computing device, creates a secure personal computing device on which to execute application programs such as mobile banking applications. The secure functional library acquires exclusive access to one or more of a predetermined plurality of the data gathering devices on behalf of a calling secure software application. Exclusive access is achieved by gaining access to each of the predetermined set and then locking that access throughout either the entire computing session, or at least until the execution of sensitive data gathering activities being performed during that computing session have been completed. The data gathering devices to be included in the predetermined set can be those that are deemed particularly vulnerable to exploitation in view of the types of sensitive data gathering activities to be conducted, or simply all of them for maximum security. The predetermined set can be defined and set for a particular application, or they can be defined more generally within the context of specific sensitive tasks or activities to be conducted.
US09208348B1 Systems and methods for managing encrypted files within application packages
A computer-implemented method for managing encrypted files within application packages may include (1) identifying an individual component within an application package that requires encryption, (2) creating an encrypted file by encrypting the individual component, (3) decomposing the encrypted file into (a) a primary encrypted file that contains an initial portion of the encrypted file that matches a critical attribute of the individual component and (b) an auxiliary encrypted file that contains the remaining portion of the encrypted file, and (4) replacing, within the application package, the individual component with the primary encrypted file and the auxiliary encrypted file. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09208347B2 Updating roles based access
Embodiments for updating roles based system access to a user include systems for identifying an application login event and a role associated with the login event. Further the embodiments include selecting an application shell comprising data for an application, the data being associated with the identified role and where the application is a first version of the application, selecting a second version of the application that is different from the first version, modifying the data of the application shell in response to selecting the second version of the application, and providing the modified data to the application associated with a computing device of a user in response to the login event. In specific embodiments, data unrelated to the identified role is not provided to the application or stored in the computing device.
US09208344B2 Database access using a common web interface
Methods and systems for accessing databases using a common web interface are provided. A method for transmitting data retrieved from an endpoint device to a client device using a common web interface includes providing the common web interface to the client device. The common web interface allows access to a plurality of endpoint devices, each endpoint device comprising a unique endpoint address. The method further includes receiving, by a computer, identification data from the client device, retrieving an endpoint address for one of the plurality of endpoint devices based on the identification data, connecting to the endpoint device corresponding to the endpoint address, retrieving data from the endpoint device, and transmitting the retrieved data to the client device.
US09208337B2 Systems, methods, and software applications for providing and identity and age-appropriate verification registry
Systems, methods and software applications for providing an identity and age-appropriate verification registry. A system for providing an identity and age-sensitive information registry includes various modules. In one implementation, system may include a registration module configured to allow parents and their children to register an account with the registry; and a request processing module configured to enable third parties to query the registry to see if any individual is registered and has authority or consent to access age-sensitive content, products or services or share data that could become publicly available by the third party.
US09208336B2 Extensible markup language document management method and system
An Extensible Markup Language (XML) document management method includes: receiving an XML document management operation request sent via an XCAP protocol, by an XML Document Management Server (XDMS); determining that the XML document management operation request is in an entrustment mode, and determining whether to perform an operation described in the XML document management operation request in accordance with access permission information corresponding to an XML document, by the XDMS.
US09208334B2 Content management using multiple abstraction layers
Systems, devices, methods and computer program products improve various aspects of a content management system. In one scenario, one or more contents are accessed at a content handling device. The content handling device is configured to operate using multiple abstraction layers including an application layer, an operating system layer, a firmware layer and a hardware layer. Content management operations are conducted on the one or more contents using at least two abstraction layers. Such content management operations include conducting watermark extraction and content screening operations at a first layer for a first watermark message having a first value, conducting watermark extraction and content screening operations at a second layer for a second watermark message having a second value, and initiating one or more enforcement actions corresponding to the first value and the second value based at least in-part on respective results of the content screening.
US09208332B2 Scoped resource authorization policies
Resource authorization policies and resource scopes may be defined separately, thereby decoupling a set of authorization rules from the scope of resources to which those rules apply. In one example, a resource includes anything that can be used in a computing environment (e.g., a file, a device, etc.). A scope describes a set of resources (e.g., all files in folder X, all files labeled “Y”, etc.). Policies describe what can be done with a resource (e.g., “read-only,” “read/write,” “delete, if requestor is a member of the admin group,” etc.). When scopes and policies have been defined, they may be linked, thereby indicating that the policy applies to any resource within the scope. When a request for the resource is made, the request is evaluated against all policies associated with scopes that contain the resource. If the conditions specified in the policies apply, then the request may be granted.
US09208326B1 Managing and predicting privacy preferences based on automated detection of physical reaction
Methods for preventing the transmission of sensitive information to locations outside of a secure network by a person who has legitimate access to the sensitive information are described. In some embodiments, in order for an end user of a computing device to establish a secure connection with a secure network and access data stored on the secure network, a client application running on the computing device may be required by the secure network. The client application may monitor visual cues (e.g., facial expressions and gestures) associated with the end user, detect suspicious activity performed by the end user based on the visual cues, and in response to detecting suspicious activity may perform mitigating actions to prevent the transmission of sensitive information such as alerting human resources personnel or requiring authorization prior to sending information to locations outside of the secure network.
US09208323B1 Classifier-based security for computing devices
A security system receives attribute samples from one or more devices configured to simulate one or more states (such as attack states). The attribute samples are aggregated, normalized to a common format, and quantized to lower the resolution of the attribute samples. Outlier attribute samples and attribute samples determined to not be correlated to the simulated states are removed to form a pruned set of attribute samples. A set of classifiers is generated based on a first portion of the pruned set of attribute samples, and the set of classifiers is tested based on a second portion of the pruned set of attribute samples. A subset of the classifiers can be provided to a device configured to monitor attributes associated with the subset of classifiers and to identify an attack state based on the monitor attributes.
US09208320B2 Software distribution system and software distribution method
A software distribution system comprises a computer; a first distribution device; and a second distribution device, wherein the computer includes a first software reception unit configured to receive the software; a second software reception unit configured to receive the test program corresponding to the software; and a software execution unit configured to merge the software described in an executable format and the test program, and execute, the second software reception unit attempts to acquire a test program corresponding to the software at a timing at which the first software reception unit has received the software, and makes repeated attempts at a predetermined interval when the test program cannot be acquired, and the software execution unit merges the software and the test program at a timing at which the second software reception unit has received the test program.
US09208318B2 Method and system for device integrity authentication
A networked device performs integrity authentication by determining, using a processor, a measured integrity value of the device. The measured integrity value is compared by the processor to an embedded integrity value of the device. Application of a policy to the device is facilitated by the processor based on the comparison.
US09208316B1 Selective disabling of content portions
Features are described for detecting and disabling potentially harmful items that are embedded within or referenced by network resources such as web pages. A network node, remote from a user's computing device, can compare content portions to a repository of content portions which are known to be harmful, or to a blacklist of resources which are known to be harmful. The network node can take preventative actions based on the nature of the threat and the nature of the resource. For example, the network node can modify or remove portions of source code, replace interactive content with static images, and/or disable objects. Other features include providing users with a mechanism to override the preventative measures and receive the original unprocessed content. The network node can monitor the user overrides and fine tune its detection of harmful content.
US09208313B2 Protecting anti-malware processes
Anti-malware process protection techniques are described. In one or more implementations, an anti-malware driver is signed using a hash that identifies a manufacturer of the anti-malware driver. The anti-malware driver is then provided to a computing device. The anti-malware driver may be assigned a protection level based on an agreement between the anti-malware manufacturer and an operating system manufacturer, and this protection level effects the operation of the anti-malware program on the computing device.
US09208310B2 System and method for securely managing enterprise related applications and data on portable communication devices
A system and computer-implemented method for securely managing enterprise related applications and associated data on one or more portable communication devices is provided. The system comprises one or more appboxes, residing on the one or more portable communication devices, configured to secure, monitor and collect information related to at least one of: one or more applications and associated data and the one or more portable communication devices. The system further comprises a server configured to facilitate one or more administrators to monitor and manage overall functionality of at least one of: the one or more applications and associated data and the one or more portable communication devices using the collected information.
US09208308B2 Alternate parts signature list file
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing aircraft software parts. In one embodiment, a computer implemented method creates an alternate parts signature list part having a set of signatures for a set of stored aircraft software parts. The alternate parts signature list part is distributed to the aircraft data processing system. Each signature for a set of stored aircraft software parts on the aircraft data processing system is replaced with a corresponding signature in the alternate parts signature list part to form a set of current signatures on the aircraft data processing system.
US09208307B2 Automatic algorithm discovery using reverse dataflow analysis
A system and method for finding vulnerabilities and tracing an end result associated with a vulnerability to its origins in user data. A user data source containing an ordered sequence of user data items may be a data file. In one embodiment the method for identifying, in the user data source, the origins of the end result, includes associating with each user data item a location identifier identifying the location of the user data item in the sequence of user data items executing instructions with a virtual machine, associating with each result the location identifier of the data item when one argument is a user data item and a tag when more than one argument is a user data item. This process may be continued until the end result is obtained. Subsequently, the method may include stepping through instructions with the virtual machine in reverse order, to tracing the origins of the end result to each of the user data items contributing to the result.
US09208306B2 Directional sensing mechanism and communications authentication
The present invention is directed toward an RFID device that includes a motion sensing mechanism. The motion sensing mechanism is adapted to sense motion of the RFID device and then selectively allow or restrict the RFID device's ability to transmit messages, which may include sensitive data, when the RFID device is placed in an RF field. Thus, the motion sensing mechanism is utilized to control access to data on the RFID device to only instances when the holder of the RFID device moves the RFID device in a predefined sequence of motion(s).
US09208304B2 Method for web service user authentication
Disclosed is a method for web service user authentication capable of increasing convenience while providing high security strength. The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a technique for conveniently performing user authentication by alleviating a user inconvenience of a memory of a password, storing a user password in a device which is carried by him/her at all times so as to use a powerful password, and using the password.
US09208300B2 Apparatus and method for secure authentication of a communication device
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, receiving a baseline credential and an external credential, mapping the external credential to the baseline credential in a secure element memory, receiving a request for an authentication from a secure device processor of the communication device where the request for the authentication includes a user credential inputted into the communication device, comparing the user credential with the baseline credential to verify the authentication, and providing the authentication and the external credential to the secure device processor without providing the baseline credential to enable the secure device processor to provide the external credential to an external entity device that is remote from the communication device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09208298B2 Pass through service login to application login
Pass through service login for an application can include receiving, within a client system, a credential from a Web-based service responsive to a successful authentication of a user of the client system to the Web-based service. The user can be logged into the application executing within the client system using the credential.
US09208297B2 One time password inquiry method and token
The invention relates to a one time password inquiry method, including steps of triggering a one time password token, determining whether the trigger is a generation or an inquiry operation, if it is an inquiry operation, inquiring and displaying the latest generated password; otherwise, generating a one time password. Meanwhile, the invention also provides a one time password token with inquiry function, including a trigger module, a determining module, a one time password generating module, a storage module, a display module and an inquiry module. By adding inquiry function, the token meets the need for a user to inquiry a one time password, eliminates the asynchronous problem between the token and a server, and lowers power loss taken by the token.
US09208295B2 Policy-based control layer in a communication fabric
Presented herein are techniques for adding a secure control layer to a distributed communication fabric that supports publish-subscribe (pub-sub) and direct query (synchronization) communication. The secure control layer is configured to perform policy-based authentication techniques to securely manage the exchange of data/information within the communication fabric and enable registration/discovery of new capabilities.
US09208293B1 Authentication for tag-based content delivery
A method of authenticating a content reference that is related to a public information display to reduce third party interference with the content reference is provided. The method comprises reading information from a tag, the information including a content reference, wirelessly transmitting the information, and comparing the information with authentication information associated with the content reference. The content reference identifies a content. The method also comprises sending an authentication result, wherein the authentication result is based on the comparing, and requesting the content when the authentication result is positive.
US09208292B2 Entering a secured computing environment using multiple authenticated code modules
Systems, apparatuses, and methods, and for entering a secured system environment using multiple authenticated code modules are disclosed. In one embodiment, a processor includes a decoder and control logic. The decoder is to decode a secured enter instruction. The control logic is to find an entry corresponding to the processor in a match table in a master authenticated code module and to read a master header and an individual authenticated code module from the master authenticated code module in response to decoding the secured enter instruction.
US09208291B1 Integrating anti-virus in a clustered storage system
A method and system for integrating anti-virus in a clustered storage system. A clustered storage system provides anti-virus scanning with third-party software components. Specifically, the clustered storage system receives a request for data from a client, identifies the data requires scanning and scans the data for viruses with third party software components that have been previously provided by any one of a number of third party software vendors.
US09208289B2 Vehicle system reaction to medical conditions
A computer-implemented method includes registering at least one medical condition associated with a vehicle occupant. The method also includes monitoring environmental conditions for the onset of a trigger likely to cause complications with regards to the medical condition. The method further includes warning the vehicle occupant about the onset of the trigger. The method also includes adjusting a vehicle component or system, via the VCS, in response to the onset of the trigger.
US09208285B1 Healthcare record system and method for providing improved portable data
A health-data-portal aggregator executing a stored program to accept medical information entered by the patient for storage on the electronic computer, upload electronic clinical records generated by a healthcare institution in electronic format viewable in a browser interpreting HTML, and generate a downloaded index file in a format viewable in a browser interpreting HTML, the index file including patient medical data selected from at least one of: (1) the medical information from the patient and (2) the clinical records of the patient and accessible by at least one HTML link.
US09208282B1 Enabling IP execution on a simulation execution platform
In a system and method that simulates a design including a third party IP component, a driver for the IP component is compiled and executed in a workstation implementing the simulation platform for the design. The source code for the driver is modified to allow the simulation to reroute certain functions that would cause the simulator to hang until an event occurs that would unlock the simulation. The rerouting includes storing instruction location, state information, and any other context information needed to restore a paused function. The saved information is stored in a stack that is traversed upon detection of the event.
US09208281B2 Optimizing designs of integrated circuits
Methods and systems for optimizing and/or designing integrated circuits. One exemplary method includes determining fanout of a driving component in a representation of an integrated circuit (IC) being designed, determining for the driving component, the loads in the representation of the IC driven by the driving component, and determining use of existing wiring resources used to connect the loads to the driving component. The method further includes optimizing, based on the use of existing wiring resources, the fanout of the driving component, and the loads being driven by the driving component, a design of the IC.
US09208280B2 Method and system for optimal decomposition of single-qubit quantum circuits using standard quantum gates
The current application is directed to methods and systems which produce a design for an optimal approximation of a target single-qubit quantum operation comprising a representation of a quantum-circuit generated from a discrete, quantum-gate basis. The discrete quantum-gate basis comprises standard, implementable quantum gates. The methods and systems employ a database of canonical-form quantum circuits, an efficiently organized canonical-form quantum-circuit, and efficient searching to identify a minimum-cost design for decomposing and approximating an input target quantum operation.
US09208278B2 Clustering using N-dimensional placement
A method and apparatus to cluster nodes of a hypergraph is described. The method improves the clustering by placing the hypergraph into an N-dimensional space. The method receives a design represented by a hypergraph with a plurality of nodes. The method places the plurality of nodes of the hypergraph into the N-dimensional space, where N is greater than or equal to 2. The method clusters nodes of the hypergraph based on locations of the plurality of nodes in the N-dimensional space.
US09208274B2 Network synthesis design of microwave acoustic wave filters
A method of designing an acoustic microwave filter in accordance with frequency response requirements. The method comprises selecting an initial filter circuit structure including a plurality of circuit elements comprising at least one resonant element and at least one other reactive circuit element, selecting circuit response variables based on the frequency response requirements, selecting a value for each of the circuit elements based on the selected circuit response variables to create an initial filter circuit design, transforming the resonant element(s) and the other reactive circuit element(s) of the initial filter circuit design into at least one acoustic resonator model to create an acoustic filter circuit design, adding parasitic effects to the acoustic filter circuit design to create a pre-optimized filter circuit design, optimizing the pre-optimized filter circuit design to create a final filter circuit design, and constructing the acoustic microwave filter based on the final filter circuit design.
US09208269B2 Boundaries in fluid dynamic systems
A method for treating boundary cells over a time-step in a computational fluid dynamic process employing a computational mesh representation of a fluid system characterized by governing equations and having at least one moving boundary comprises: identifying interior cells, boundary cell faces, boundary vertices, interior vertices and vertex locations at the beginning of the time step; applying a calculation process that includes determining cell volumes based on Lagrangian locations of the interior and boundary vertices and calculating the value of at least one system thermodynamic property; calculating at least one flux value across one or more boundary cell volumes by returning the interior vertices to their initial locations.
US09208258B2 Locking and traversal methods for ordered tree data structures
In one embodiment, two-phase mutation of an ordered tree data structure is performed, wherein a lock can be acquired on a first node in an ordered tree data structure, and an identifier for the first node can be added to a lock path data structure. A second node can also be locked, and an identifier for the second node can be added to the lock path data structure. Subsequently, a set of operations to perform on the ordered tree responsive to a modification of the second node can be determined for each node affected by the modification, and the operation for each node can be stored in the lock path data structure. Once the operations for the nodes have been determined, the operations listed in the lock path can be performed.
US09208255B2 Method of converting data of database and creating XML document
Disclosed herein is a method of converting data of a database and creating an XML document. In the method, a source XML document has user-defined tags is designed. The source XML document is separated into an XML document for normal data conversion which is used when converting normal data, and an XML document for repetitive data conversion which is used when converting repetitive data. An SQL query statement for data to be converted in a DB is generated. The SQL query statement is executed on the DB and thereafter resulting data obtained as a result of executing the SQL query statement is stored in a storage sheet. The structural data of the source XML document is mapped to the resulting data stored in the storage sheet. A new XML document is created by replacing the structural data of the source XML document with the resulting data.
US09208253B2 Efficient transfer of web content to different user platforms
Web content for different user platforms is provided in an efficient way. A request is received for an identified page of content from a client device, through a communication network, at a computer system configured as an application server. The user platform implemented by the client device is identified, from among user platforms supported by the application server. A View of the identified page of content is retrieved from storage by a processor of the computer system. The View of the identified page of content is processed to in a format reproducible on the client device for presentation to a user via execution of the identified user platform. For example, the View of the identified page of content is transmitted through the communication network to the client device in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or Extensible Markup Language (XML).
US09208250B2 System and method for dynamic modification of web page content to ensure consistent response time
Dynamic modification of web page content is necessary especially when the delivery time has to be consistent. The present disclosure describes dynamic modification of web page content. The method for dynamic modification of web page comprises computing a required time by a middleware by considering a plurality of system constraints. Further, an available time is computed by the middleware for a data response by using one or both of the plurality of the system constraints and a target time. Determining an amount of the data response to be provided to a client based on the available time and converting the data response based on the amount of data response to be provided to the client.
US09208244B2 Referencing change(s) in data utilizing a network resource locator
The subject disclosure relates to techniques for referencing a change in data utilizing a network resource locator. An interface component can receive one or more requests that are associated with a data set from a client, and send, based on the one or more requests, a network resource locator and at least one portion of the data set to the client. Further, a data service component can compute a parameter that is associated with a change of the data set, and include the parameter in the network resource locator. In other embodiments, the data service component can receive a request utilizing the network resource locator, determine the change of the data set based on the parameter, and send the change of the data set to the client.
US09208243B2 Systems and methods for processing machine readable codes by a locked device
The disclosed technology includes automatically activating an image capture device responsive to determining that a mobile device in a restricted access state (e.g., a locked mobile device), is being held by a user. The image capture device may take pictures and the mobile device may determine whether the pictures contain a readable code, such as a QR Code or foreign text. Responsive to determining the pictures contain a readable code, the mobile device may process the readable code and display an indication of the readable code, for example, a decoded URL or translated text. In some implementations, the mobile device may automatically exit the restricted access state responsive to detecting or resolving a readable code and launch a corresponding application for viewing the indication of the readable code. In another implementation, the mobile device may wait for an authentication pattern or other confirmatory user input, before exiting the restricted access state and displaying the indication of the readable code.
US09208242B2 Method and apparatus for enabling interaction between a mobile device and another device
A user acquires a data item 36 in a mobile device 2, the data item representing, for example, the right to a digital asset. A web page 34 including bar code symbol 40 is displayed on the display 26 of a further device such as a PC 14. The bar code symbol codes a location of a resource. The mobile device 2 reads the bar code symbol 40 and sends data from the data item to the resource at the location coded by the bar code symbol. The further device 14 subsequently carries out an action using the data-item data received at the resource, or associated data; for example, the further device uses the data to fetch a related digital asset. In one embodiment the location coded by the bar code symbol is that of a database record uniquely associated with the symbol. In another embodiment, the location coded by the bar code symbol is the address on a local network of the further device 14.
US09208241B2 User interface task flow component
A system generates a computer user interface by including a tag in an area of the user interface that corresponds to a task flow component. The task flow component includes a plurality of sub-pages and control flow for the sub-pages. The user interface receives the task flow component and displays a current task flow sub-page within the area of the user interface and enables the control flow.
US09208235B1 Systems and methods for profiling web applications
A computer-implemented method for profiling a web application. A web page containing JavaScript (JS) is crawled. At least a portion of the JS is extracted from the crawled web page. An automated simulation of the extracted JS is executed.
US09208231B1 Identifying languages relevant to resources
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying languages that are relevant to resources. In one aspect, a method includes selecting in a data processing apparatus a first resource; accessing click data that identifies, for each of a plurality of requests for the first resource, a respective search engine user interface from which the request was received; identifying a search engine user interface language for each of the plurality of requests based on the click data; determining a respective language relevance score for the first resource for each identified search engine user interface language; and selecting one or more languages as being relevant to the first resource based on the language relevance scores.
US09208228B1 Searching using social context
In one aspect, a system includes: an indexing engine for indexing a plurality of sources of content, receiving a search query and returning search results; a ranking engine for ranking search results to produce ranked results, the ranking engine coupled to receive search results from the indexing engine; a modification engine for generating modified results using information from additional sources and the ranked results, the modification engine coupled to receive the ranked results from the ranking engine, the modification engine coupled to receive the information from the additional sources; and a presentation engine for sending modified results and an annotation, the presentation engine coupled to receive modified results and the annotation from the modification engine, the presentation engine coupled to provide the modified results and the annotation to a client device. The present disclosure also includes a method for retrieving social videos.
US09208225B1 Incentive-based check-in
Apparatus, systems and methods provide incentive-based usage of an audio recognition system. In an aspect, a system is provided that includes a query component configured to receive an audio sample from a device and a recognition component configured to determine an identification of the audio sample. The system further includes a reward component configured to identify a reward associated with the identification of the audio sample, wherein the query component is further configured to provide a query result to the device, the query result comprising the identification of the audio sample and the reward associated therewith.
US09208222B2 Note management methods and systems
Note management methods and systems are provided. First, inputs are received along a timeline, and at least one note is generated according to the inputs. The at least one note is recorded and arranged along the timeline. In some embodiments, a thumbnail is generated for a respective predefined interval on the timeline according to the at least one note in the respective predefined interval, and the thumbnail of the respective predefined interval is displayed along the timeline.
US09208220B2 Method and apparatus of text classification
The present disclosure provides a technique of text categorization to simplify and optimize the classification. In one aspect, a method parses a given text into one or more words; determines a word vector in a spherical space model for one of the one or more words, a number of dimensions of the spherical space being equal to a number of categories, each category corresponding to a spherical space category vector; for each category, determines a distance between a sum of word vectors of the one or more words and the respective category vector; and classifies the text into one or more categories with the shortest distance. The present disclosure also provides an apparatus used to implement the method.
US09208212B2 Field extensibility in a multi-tenant environment with columnar database support
A multi-tenant environment can support field extensibility via extension tables. An in-memory, columnar database can store a core table being extended as well as the corresponding extension table. Transactional and analytical processing can be performed on the extension fields. A business-objects-based system can take advantage of the technologies to provide greater flexibility, security, and performance improvements.
US09208202B1 Systems and methods for determining interest in an item or category of items
Systems and methods are provided for determining customer interest associated with an item or category of items. In some embodiments, one or more discussion forums associated with each of a plurality of items may be determined. For each item, interest criteria associated with the item may be determined based at least in part on the one or more discussion forums associated with the item. The interest criteria may include the number of user posts in the one or more discussion forums and/or the number of users who have participated in the one or more discussion forums. An interest score associated with each item may be determined based at least in part on the interest criteria. In some embodiments, interest ranking information for an item or category may be generated by comparing the interest score associated with an item or category and interest scores associated with other items or categories.
US09208198B2 Technique for factoring uncertainty into cost-based query optimization
A technique for factoring uncertainty into cost-based query optimization includes: determining the degree of uncertainty involved in the cost estimates for the query, determining the degree of sensitivity the query has to that uncertainty, and determining if there is an access path that performs well across the range of possible conditions that could occur at execution time, reducing the risk of performance spikes and performance volatility. If such an access path exists, select that access path; if not, perform parametric query optimization or query re-optimization.
US09208196B2 Configuration information management apparatus and retrieval method
A configuration information management apparatus includes a control unit which, generates a retrieval formula pattern representing a pattern of a first relationship retrieval formula which has been input, executes retrieval processing on the retrieval formula pattern, measures a state required for the retrieval processing which has been executed, determines whether or not the state satisfies a first condition, and when the first condition is satisfied, stores a retrieval condition relating to a retrieval subject configuration item in the retrieval formula pattern satisfying the first condition in a database as a short retrieval key, and retrieves, when a second relationship retrieval formula is input and a retrieval formula pattern of the second relationship retrieval formula satisfies a second condition, the retrieval subject configuration item in the second relationship retrieval formula, on the basis of the short retrieval key.
US09208191B2 Lock-free, scalable read access to shared data structures
At least one read operation of at least one object of an object graph is initiated. For each corresponding read operation, a reference count of the root object is incremented (with the reference count 1 for the root object initially reflecting a single anchor pointer pointing to the root object). Subsequently, one or more of the objects are changed. Incompatible changes result in the root object, at least one changed object, and any intervening objects within the hierarchy of objects being cloned. The anchor pointer is then linked to the cloned root object. The root object is later dropped when the reference count for the root object is zero. In addition, the object graph is traversed starting at the root object and ending at the at least one changed object removing any edges for such objects. Each object having a reference count of zero is then dropped.
US09208183B2 Data access of slowly changing dimensions
Disclosed is a method including storing selected historical persist dimension attribute data utilizing a row insertion without updating all previous versions of the selected persist dimension attribute, and generating a view of persisted dimension attribute data as dual values utilizing a star join.
US09208180B2 Determination of database statistics using application logic
A database system may provide determination of statistics for a field of a database table. The determination may include determination of whether the field of the table is associated with a check table, and, if the field of the table is associated with a check table, determination of a number of distinct values of the field in the table based on a number of distinct values of the field in the check table.
US09208178B2 Gesture-based image shape filtering
Provided are techniques for gesture-based image shape filtering. At least one keyword in a search request for an image is received. A first set of images that are candidate matches to the requested image are identified based on the at least one keyword. A gesture-based image for a filter request is received. The first set of images are filtered using the gesture-based image to identify a second set of images that are candidate matches to the requested image.
US09208176B2 Gesture-based image shape filtering
Provided are techniques for gesture-based image shape filtering. At least one keyword in a search request for an image is received. A first set of images that are candidate matches to the requested image are identified based on the at least one keyword. A gesture-based image for a filter request is received. The first set of images are filtered using the gesture-based image to identify a second set of images that are candidate matches to the requested image.
US09208174B1 Non-language-based object search
Disclosed are various approaches for searching for electronic information. In one embodiment, a first plurality of objects is presenting for user selection. The first plurality of objects is a first subset of a second plurality of objects that is organized by a plurality of containment categories in a data structure. A plurality of associations is stored, and each association defines a relationship between one of, two different ones of the plurality of categories, or two objects in two different ones of the plurality of containment categories. In response to user selection of one of the first plurality of objects, a second subset of the second plurality of objects is selected. Selection of the objects in the second subset is in part a function of respective weighted relevance values for associations of the selected object to each of the second plurality of objects. The second subset of objects is output.
US09208169B2 Method and system for building a streaming model
A method of constructing a plurality of downloadable files from an application file and a plurality of transcripts. The application file stores data blocks and implements an application. Each of the transcripts stores at least one order in which at least a portion of the data blocks of the application file were accessed by the application when executed previously. The transcripts are combined into a combined transcript storing at least one combined order comprising a combined portion of the data blocks. The data blocks of the combined portion are arranged in a data structure having an origin. A first set of data blocks within a predetermined distance from the origin is stored in at least one initial execution file. A second set of data blocks outside the predetermined distance from the origin is stored in downloadable sequence files.
US09208161B2 Hardware contiguous memory region tracking
Embodiments of the invention relate to performing a scan of a memory region associated with a virtual machine. The scan is performed by a hardware mechanism in response to a call. A data structure that includes information about substrings identified during the scan and a number of replications for each substring is constructed by the hardware mechanism. The data structure is stored by the hardware mechanism at a location determined by the call.
US09208157B1 Spam detection for user-generated multimedia items based on concept clustering
A system, a method, and various software tools enable a video hosting website to automatically identify posted video items that contain spam in the metadata associated with a respective video item. A spam detection tool for user-generated video items based on concept clustering is provided that facilitates the detection of spam in the metadata associated with a video item.
US09208153B1 Filtering relevant event notifications in a file sharing and collaboration environment
Profile information is maintained concerning users and files in the context of a file sharing and collaboration environment. Profile information quantifies each user's interest level in specific files, and levels of similarity between users and between files. Machine learning techniques are applied to monitored actions taken by users directed towards files, and profile information is dynamically updated in response. Natural language processing such as n-gram analysis is applied to files, and file similarity levels are increased in response to requisite amounts of common content. The event notification stream is filtered. For each specific event notification, a relevance value is quantified for each specific user, based on profile information concerning the specific user, the file to which the event is directed, and the user who undertook the event. The corresponding notification is only transmitted to specific users for whom the relevance value exceeds a predetermined threshold.
US09208150B2 Automatic association of informational entities
The invention relates to the field of data storage. In particular, it relates to a method and system for allowing flexible creation and management of associations between informational entities on a computing device, such as a work station, a desktop computer, a tablet PC, a laptop computer and/or a mobile device. A storage system configured for storing a network of informational entities is described. The system comprises a storage medium configured to store a plurality of informational entities; to store a corresponding plurality of association records; wherein an association record corresponding to an entity indicates an association and an association strength between the entity and another entity; and to store a corresponding plurality of frequency indicators, wherein a frequency indicator corresponding to the entity indicates the frequency of access to the entity. Furthermore, the system comprises a processor configured to access the plurality of informational entities.
US09208148B2 Translation system and method
A computer obtains a word from a word list and searches for position codes corresponding to the obtained word in a file. The computer saves remaining position codes corresponding to the obtained word into the word list. The computer converts the file according to the position codes of each word in the word list between simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese, in response to a determination that all of the words in the word list have been obtained.
US09208147B1 Method and apparatus for triggering the automatic generation of narratives
Artificial intelligence methods and systems for triggering the generation of narratives are disclosed. Specific embodiments relate to real-time evaluation and automated generation of narrative stories based on received data. For example, data can be tested against data representative of a plurality of story angles to determine whether a narrative story incorporating one or more such story angles is to be automatically generated.
US09208139B2 System and method for identifying organizational elements in argumentative or persuasive discourse
In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for identifying organizational elements in argumentative or persuasive discourse. A text that has been annotated is received. The annotated text includes argumentative or persuasive discourse that includes claims and evidence and organizational elements configured to organize the claims and evidence. Annotations of the annotated text distinguish the organizational elements from the claims and evidence. A rule set or a feature set is identified from the annotated text, where the rule set or the feature set includes textual patterns or word frequency features related to the organizational elements of the annotated text. A model is built based on the annotations and on the rule set or the feature set. The model is configured to identify organizational elements in a new text. The model is applied to the new text.
US09208136B2 Automated document revision markup and change control
Automated comparison of Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) documents for revision mark-up includes reading document data from first and second DITA documents into respective document object model trees of nodes, and identifying and collapsing emphasis subtree nodes in the trees into their parent nodes, the collapsing caching emphasis data from the identified subtree nodes. A traversal transforms the model trees into respective node lists and captures adjacent sibling emphasis subtree nodes as single text nodes. The node lists are merged into a merged node list that recognizes matches node pairs having primary sort key information and document structure metadata meeting a match threshold, with differences between matching tokens of the node pairs saved. A merged document object model built from the refined merged node list is transformed into a hypertext mark-up language document.
US09208132B2 System and method for concept development with content aware text editor
A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including providing a visual representation of a product concept comprising a textual component comprising at least one dynamic textual element and at least on static textual element and providing text editing functionality of the textual component such that a selection of any text forming a part of the at least one dynamic textual element automatically results in the selection of the entire at least one dynamic textual element wherein the text editing functionality comprises changing a format of at least a part of the at least one dynamic textual element.
US09208129B2 Vehicle event recorder systems and networks having integrated cellular wireless communications systems
Vehicle event recorder systems are arranged to be in constant communication with remote servers and administrators via mobile wireless cellular networks. Vehicle event recorders equipped with video cameras capture video and other data records of important events relating to vehicle use. These data are then transmitted over special communications networks having very high coverage space but limited bandwidth. A vehicle may be operated over very large region while maintaining continuous communications connections with a remote fixed server. As such, systems of these inventions may be characterized as including a mobile unit having: a video camera; a microprocessor; memory; an event trigger; and mobile wireless transceivers, and a fixed network portion including: mobile wireless cellular network, a protocol translation gateway, the Internet and an application-specific server.
US09208126B2 Computing device and method for processing measurement data of objects
A method processes measurement data of an object using a computing device. The method obtains measurement data of preselected feature elements of a measured object, inserts the measurement data of the preselected feature elements into a data list, obtains measured results of the preselected feature elements from a measurement tool, and calculates tolerance values of the preselected feature elements according to the measured results. The method further searches pixel icons of the preselected feature elements according to tolerance values and the measured results, inserts the pixel icons and the measured results into the data list, receives selections of a user and displays the data list in different list modes.
US09208124B2 Reset of processing core in multi-core processing system
This disclosure is directed to performing a controlled reset of one or more cores while maintaining operation of at least one other core in a multi-core processor. An initialization core may include reset logic that may detect a problematic core or core that is unresponsive or otherwise not operating properly. The initialization core may generate a packet that enables communication with the problematic core. The initialization core may send a reset packet to the problematic core to instruct the problematic core to perform a reset.
US09208118B2 Communication device, a method of processing signal in the communication device and a system having the communication device
A mobile terminal including an interface module configured to connect the mobile terminal to a personal computer; a communication unit configured to communicate with the personal computer via a first communication mode, a controller configured to selectively transmit a communication mode change program to the personal computer via the interface module, the communication mode change program instructing the personal computer to communicate with the mobile terminal via a second communication mode that is different than the first communication mode, and a receiving unit configured to receive a mode change instruction from the personal computer instructing the mobile terminal to communicate with the personal computer via the second communication mode.
US09208116B2 Maintaining I/O priority and I/O sorting
Multiple variants of a data processing system, which maintains I/O priority from the time a process makes an I/O request until the hardware services that request, will be described. In one embodiment, a data processing system has one or more processors having one or more processor cores, which execute an operating system and one or more applications of the data processing system. The data processing system also can have one or more non-volatile memory device coupled to the one or more processors to store data of the data processing system, and one or more non-volatile memory controller coupled to the one or more processors. The one or more non-volatile memory controller enables a transfer of data to at least one non-volatile memory device, and the priority level assigned by the operating system is maintained throughout the logical data path of the data processing system.
US09208112B1 Permanent allocation of a large host memory
An add-in card allocates memory from a host computer. An option ROM on the add-in card includes a first interrupt handler for handling an interrupt for resetting a mass storage device that reads a system address map, modifies the system address map by adding an entry for an amount of host memory to be allocated to the add-in card, and stores the modified system address map as a destination system address map. The first interrupt handler also changes the address of an interrupt handler for providing the system address map to the address of a second interrupt handler also stored in the option ROM of the add-in card. When an interrupt is generated that requests the system address map, the second interrupt handler reads the destination system address map, which includes a memory allocation for the add-in card, and provides the destination system address map to the requestor.
US09208111B2 Triggering processing of network requests
A network handler may be triggered to process input/output requests placed on a network queue to reduce latency compared to occasionally polling the network queue for new input/output requests. A method for processing network input/output requests may include receiving, by a processor, an input/output request for a network device; placing, by the processor, on a network queue the input/output request; and triggering, by the processor, a handler for the network queue.
US09208102B2 Overlap checking for a translation lookaside buffer (TLB)
An apparatus includes a translation lookaside buffer (TLB). The TLB includes at least one entry that includes an entry virtual address and an entry page size indication corresponding to an entry page. The apparatus also includes input logic configured to receive an input page size indication and an input virtual address corresponding to an input page. The apparatus further includes overlap checking logic configured to determine, based at least in part on the entry page size indication and the input page size indication, whether the input page overlaps the entry page.
US09208098B1 System and method for improving cache performance
A method, computer program product, and computing system for receiving a read request on a first cache system, wherein the read request identifies previously-written content included within a data array. The previously-written content identified in the read request may be obtained from the data array. The previously-written content identified in the read request may be compressed, thus generating compressed previously-written content. A compression ratio may be determined for the compressed previously-written content.
US09208090B2 Transactional memory proxy
Processors in a compute node offload transactional memory accesses addressing shared memory to a transactional memory agent. The transactional memory agent typically resides near the processors in a particular compute node. The transactional memory agent acts as a proxy for those processors. A first benefit of the invention includes decoupling the processor from the direct effects of remote system failures. Other benefits of the invention includes freeing the processor from having to be aware of transactional memory semantics, and allowing the processor to address a memory space larger than the processor's native hardware addressing capabilities. The invention also enables computer system transactional capabilities to scale well beyond the transactional capabilities of those found computer systems today.
US09208082B1 Hardware-supported per-process metadata tags
A memory controller is used to receive a first request for a portion of a physical memory and metadata associated with the portion of the physical memory. The first request for the portion of the physical memory is translated to correspond to an indirect data structure. The indirect data structure comprises a reference to a data line, and a metadata associated with the data line. The data line is formed within the physical memory.
US09208081B1 Concurrent object management
A processing thread obtains an initial status of a reference field associated with an object having data stored in memory. The reference field represents, at least in part, a status of current modification operations (e.g., a status of moving the object from one location in memory to another), if any, applied to the object. The processing thread applies a sequence of instructions to data retrieved from the object to produce computational results for storage in the object. Prior to storing the computational results in the object, the processing thread can confirm whether the reference field has changed since obtaining the initial status.
US09208079B2 Solid state memory (SSM), computer system including an SSM, and method of operating an SSM
In one aspect, data is stored in a solid state memory which includes first and second memory layers. A first assessment is executed to determine whether received data is hot data or cold data. Received data which is assessed as hot data during the first assessment is stored in the first memory layer, and received data which is first assessed as cold data during the first assessment is stored in the second memory layer. Further, a second assessment is executed to determine whether the data stored in the first memory layer is hot data or cold data. Data which is then assessed as cold data during the second assessment is migrated from the first memory layer to the second memory layer.
US09208078B2 Apparatus and method to share host system RAM with mass storage memory RAM
A method includes, in one non-limiting embodiment, sending a request from a mass memory storage device to a host device, the request being one to allocate memory in the host device; writing data from the mass memory storage device to allocated memory of the host device; and subsequently reading the data from the allocated memory to the mass memory storage device. The memory may be embodied as flash memory, and the data may be related to a file system stored in the flash memory. The method enables the mass memory storage device to extend its internal volatile RAM to include RAM of the host device, enabling the internal RAM to be powered off while preserving data and context stored in the internal RAM.
US09208076B2 Nonvolatile storage device and method of storing data thereof
A data storing method of a nonvolatile storage device that includes a plurality of nonvolatile memory devices electrically connected to a plurality of channels is provided. The data storing method includes allocating part of write data provided from a host to the nonvolatile memory devices to each channel; determining whether at least one channel among the channels is present that is connected to a nonvolatile memory device in a last page offset state; and when the at least one channel is determined to be present, scheduling erase commands on the plurality of channels, scheduling write commands on the plurality of channels with respect to the allocated write data, and executing the erase commands and the write commands on the plurality of channels.
US09208074B2 Updating address mapping in sub-intervals in a flash memory data storage device
A mapping table H2F update technique for a FLASH memory is disclosed. In the disclosed data storage device, when a master buffer block selected from a plurality of blocks of a FLASH memory to buffer write data from a host is full, the controller updates a logical-to-physical address mapping table for the master buffer block in separated update sub-intervals. Between the separated update sub-intervals, the controller responds to commands from the host. In this manner, commands from the host are responded to in a timely manner, without being postponed by a time-consuming mapping-table update of an entire buffer block.
US09208066B1 Run-time code parallelization with approximate monitoring of instruction sequences
A method includes, in a processor that executes instructions of program code, identifying a region of the code containing one or more segments of the instructions that are at least partially repetitive. The instructions in the region are monitored, and an approximate specification of register access by the monitored instructions is constructed for the region. Execution of the segments in the region is parallelized using the specification.
US09208065B1 Correlating out-of-band process data during mobile test automation
Methods and arrangements for testing mobile applications. A mobile application for testing is input at a mobile device. The mobile application is automatically tested using a test script, wherein the testing requires data from an out-of-band channel. The testing includes: invoking a listener module based on the mobile application; using the listener module to automatically obtain data from an out-of-band channel; and communicating the automatically obtained data to the mobile application. Other variants and embodiments are broadly contemplated herein.
US09208064B2 Declarative testing using dependency injection
Methods and systems for declarative testing using dependency injection are described. In one embodiment, a computing system inspects a first annotation that declares an injection point in source code of a test subject and a second annotation that declares a set of test values to be injected at the injection point. The first and second annotations are metadata in an input domain and are added in a designated place in the source code. The computing system executes a test runner that creates a set of one or more tests during a configuration phase based on the inspection of the source code, including the first and second annotations. Each of the set of tests includes one of the test values injected at the injected point as declaratively provided by the second annotation. The set of tests are to be executed during a run phase.
US09208061B2 Partitioning of program analyses into sub-analyses using dynamic hints
An exemplary apparatus and computer program product are disclosed which employ a method that includes performing a first static analysis to locate elements within a program and instrumenting the program to enable a subsequent dynamic analysis based on the located elements. The method includes executing the instrumented program and performing during execution analysis to determine individual sets of statements in the program affected by a corresponding element. The method includes partitioning the sets of statements into partitions based on one or more considerations, each partition including one or more of the elements. The method includes performing a second static analysis on the partitions of the program to produce results and outputting the results. The method may be performed for, e.g., security (e.g., taint) analysis, buffer overflow analysis, and typestate analysis.
US09208059B2 ETL debugger
A computer-implemented ETL debugger for a data flow associated with an extract, transform and load (ETL) process that provides a user with a graphical representation of an ETL job. The graphical representation includes individualized representations of one or more data sources, one or more data destinations, and one or more transform operations for data flowing from a data source to a data destination. The user selects a subset of the transform operations. In response, the ETL debugger generates an execution script based on the received subset, and may initiate a debug process by executing the generated execution script.
US09208058B2 Providing directional debugging breakpoints
Techniques for debugging an application are provided. In some examples, a user interface (such as a graphical user interface) is provided for a user to specify a breakpoint associated with a breakpoint location in an application and a message flow direction associated with the breakpoint. The message flow direction may be selected from one or more message flow directions associated with the breakpoint location. For example, a message flow direction may be a request message flow direction or a reply message flow direction. The breakpoint location may be a logical breakpoint location associated with a component in a component-based application such as an application based on Service Component Architecture (SOA). In an embodiment, an execution of the application is suspended when the breakpoint is reached in connection with the specified message flow direction.
US09208055B2 Importance-based call graph construction
Call graph construction systems that utilize computer hardware are presented including: a processor; a candidate pool configured for representing a number of calls originating from a root node of a computer software application; an importance value assigner configured for assigning an importance value for any of the number of calls represented in the candidate pool; a candidate selector configured for selecting from the number of calls represented in the candidate pool for inclusion in a call graph based on a sufficient importance value; and an importance value adjuster configured for adjusting the importance value of any call represented in the call graph.
US09208051B2 Automatic creation of graph time layer of model of computer network objects and relationships
A method and system create a model of a set of relationships between a set of parent computer network objects and a set of corresponding child computer network objects, over a period of time, and output a user interface graphing the model in a single view to illustrate the set of relationships over the period of time. The parent computer network objects include virtual machines and the child computer network objects include hosts. The user interface includes a search option to provide for a search of problems with the child computer network objects over the period of time.
US09208045B2 Testing integrated business systems
A method of testing a first business system and a second business system is provided herein. The first business system is integrated with the second business system. The method includes performing a test of the first business system. The method further includes recording, during the test of the first business system, one or more calls from the first business system to the second business system. Also, the method includes identifying the one or more calls from the first business system far testing of the second business system.
US09208044B2 Methods for simulating message-oriented services and devices thereof
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus that obtains a request message in a hierarchical format. A set of flat request records is generated based on the request message wherein each flat request record includes at least a key and a value. Each flat request record is compared to a set of criteria records to generate one or more response sets wherein each criteria record includes at least a key, a value, and a response identifier and each response set includes one or more response identifiers. One or more rules are applied to the one or more response sets to identify one or more response identifiers. One or more responses corresponding to the one or more identified response identifiers are optionally assembled and form at least part of an output.
US09208042B2 Dynamic protection of a master operating system image
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for dynamic protection of a master operating system image are provided. Embodiments include monitoring, by an image deployment monitor, an operational state of a deployed copy of a master operating system (OS) image; detecting, by the image deployment monitor, a change in the operational state of the deployed copy of the master OS image; in response to detecting the change, generating, by the image deployment monitor, a configuration recommendation to prevent the change from occurring in operational states of future deployed copies of the master OS image; and providing, by the image deployment monitor, the configuration recommendation to the master OS image.
US09208041B2 Dynamic protection of a master operating system image
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for dynamic protection of a master operating system image are provided. Embodiments include monitoring, by an image deployment monitor, an operational state of a deployed copy of a master operating system (OS) image; detecting, by the image deployment monitor, a change in the operational state of the deployed copy of the master OS image; in response to detecting the change, generating, by the image deployment monitor, a configuration recommendation to prevent the change from occurring in operational states of future deployed copies of the master OS image; and providing, by the image deployment monitor, the configuration recommendation to the master OS image.
US09208039B2 System and method for detecting server removal from a cluster to enable fast failover of storage
Aspects of the disclosure pertain to a system and method for detecting server removal from a cluster to enable fast failover of storage (e.g., logical volumes). A method of operation of a storage controller of a cluster is disclosed. The method includes receiving a signal. The method further includes, based upon the received signal, determining that communicative connection between a second storage controller of the cluster and the first storage controller of cluster is unable to be established. The method further includes determining whether communicative connection between the first storage controller and expanders of first and second enclosure services manager modules of the cluster is able to be established. The method further includes, when it is determined that communicative connection between the first storage controller and the expanders of the first and second enclosure services manager modules of the cluster is able to be established, performing a failover process.
US09208037B2 Duplexed operation processor control system, and duplexed operation processor control method
The present invention provides a duplexed operation processor control system that includes operation processors, an I/O device, and at least one communication path that couples the operation processors to the I/O device, and at least one communication path that couples the operation processors with each other. The duplexed operation processor control system switches over either of the operation processors to be a primary operation processor that executes a control operation for a control target, and the other to be a secondary operation processor that is in a stand-by state, and the secondary operation processor snoops control data synchronously when the primary operation processor acquires the control data from the control target.
US09208036B2 Dynamic lockstep cache memory replacement logic
To facilitate dynamic lockstep support, replacement states and/or logic used to select particular cache lines for replacement with new allocations in accord with replacement algorithms or strategies may be enhanced to provide generally independent replacement contexts for use in respective lockstep and performance modes. In some cases, replacement logic that may be otherwise conventional in its selection of cache lines for new allocations in accord with a first-in, first-out (FIFO), round-robin, random, least recently used (LRU), pseudo LRU, or other replacement algorithm/strategy is at least partially replicated to provide lockstep and performance instances that respectively cover lockstep and performance partitions of a cache. In some cases, a unified instance of replacement logic may be reinitialized with appropriate states at (or coincident with) transitions between performance and lockstep modes of operation.
US09208035B2 Optical information recording and reproducing apparatus, optical information recording and reproducing method, and data library apparatus
An optical information recording and reproducing apparatus and an optical information recording and reproducing method which make it possible to conduct alternation processing efficiently even if a buffer capacity is limited, in retry processing at time when a verify error is detected are provided. In an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus for recording data onto optical information recording media and reproducing data from the optical information recording media, verify processing is conducted in a predetermined recording quantity unit. Upon detection of a verify error in recorded data, a host computer is requested to retransfer data which has caused the verify error, and received data is intruded in a next scheduled recording quantity unit and recorded onto the optical information recording media.
US09208028B2 Recovery code management method and memory system using same
A method managing execution of recovery code in a memory system includes; upon detecting a read error using a CPU and firmware to execute recovery code defining a read recovery operation including a read retry operation, during execution of the recovery code, generating a read request directed to the read retry operation, and immediately thereafter terminating execution of the recovery code, and thereafter, only upon receiving an asynchronous interrupt from the memory controller following completion of the read retry operation, the CPU resumes execution of the recovery code by the firmware, otherwise the CPU performs another task unrelated to execution of the recovery code.
US09208026B2 Utilizing a local area network memory and a dispersed storage network memory to access data
A method begins by a processing module encoding data based on a decode threshold parameter and a pillar width parameter to produce a set of encoded data slices and selecting a local area network (LAN) pillar width value of encoded data slices of the set of encoded data slices for storage in LAN available memories, wherein the LAN pillar width value is based on the decode threshold parameter, the pillar width parameter, and quantities of the LAN available memories. The method continues with the processing module selecting a wide area network (WAN) pillar width value of encoded data slices of the set of encode data slices for storage in a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory of a wide area network, wherein the WAN pillar width value is based on the decode threshold parameter and the pillar width parameter.
US09208017B2 Server and method for protecting against fan failure therein
A method for protecting against fan failure in a server uses a storage unit and a plurality of fans in the server. The method includes the following steps. A rotation speed of each of the plurality of fans is detected. A continuous working time period of each fan is timed. The rotation speed reading and the continuous working time period reading of each fan is compared with predefined rotation speed values and predefined continuous working time periods stored in the storage unit. The results of comparisons are made. A countdown is started when any of the results of comparison falls into one of predefined failure conditions for the fans. Unless a renew or other countdown-amending signal is received, the server is counted down to zero and then shut down. A server equipped to be able to carry out the protecting method is also provided.
US09208016B2 Message sequence generation method and message sequence generation device
A message sequence generation method and a message sequence generation device, by which a message sequence with an error handling added thereto can be efficiently generated. The method includes setting an action for a specific phenomenon in the phenomenon causal relationship model, associating each element included in the message sequence information with each phenomenon to generate element/phenomenon correspondence information, storing the element/phenomenon correspondence information into a memory device, and acquiring the action set for the phenomenon corresponding to each element and the action set for another phenomenon caused by the phenomenon, from the element/phenomenon correspondence information, and adding the actions to the element as an error handling.
US09208013B2 Cross communication of common problem determination and resolution
Approaches for problem determination and resolution process cross communication are provided. Embodiments provide cross communication of a problem determination and resolution among similar data center devices. Specifically, symptoms of an error condition encountered for one data center device are captured by a first enterprise group, along with an associated resolution solution, and made available to an another enterprise group managing a commonly configured data center device, which may be faced with a similar error condition. The error signature and resolution steps captured by the first enterprise group are subsequently made available within and across multiple management domains operating within a common model (e.g., a publication-subscription system). Within this model, both the originator of the error determination and resolution (i.e., publisher), and one or more commonly configured data center devices susceptible to the same error condition (i.e., subscribers), can filter, access, and control the flow of error resolutions.
US09208008B2 Method and apparatus for multi-chip reduced pin cross triggering to enhance debug experience
Embodiments include apparatuses, systems, and methods for reduced pin cross triggering to enhance a debug experience. A time-division packetizing (TDP) technique may be employed to facilitate communication of triggers between integrated circuits (ICs) connected in series forming a TDP communication ring. The ICs on the TDP communication ring may each include a cross trigger interconnect structure for interpreting between trigger signals and hardware core instructions. The serial TDP communication across the ICs on the TDP communication ring allows the ICs to be connected in a manner that each cross trigger interconnect structure on each IC may function as if it were part of a single cross trigger interconnect structure across all of the ICs on the TDP communication ring. The individual ICs may operate asynchronously and a trigger clock may be passed along with other trigger data to implement the debugging techniques uniformly on each IC.
US09208006B2 Recovery Maturity Model (RMM) for readiness-based control of disaster recovery testing
A Recovery Maturity Model (RMM) is used to determine whether a particular Information Technology (IT) production environment can be expected, with some level of confidence, to successfully execute a test for disaster recovery (DR). The RMM provides a quantitative analysis in terms of the extent to which best practices are seen to have been implemented as a set of categories for elements of the environment and multiple elements for each category. A summation of the scoring elements, which may be a weighted summation, results in an overall quantitative metric which is then used to control whether or not testing will proceed.
US09208005B2 System and method for performance management of large scale SDP platforms
Arrangements and methods for employing empirical evidence to estimate the performance of applications with very few data samples, in complex environments such as dynamic SDP environments, using one or more effective data-plotting models.
US09208003B2 Hypervisor to I/O stack conduit in virtual real memory
Provided is conduit configured such that a hypervisor does not need to include logic for communicating directly with an I/O storage device. A virtual Asynchronous Service Interface (VASI) is the interface between a Command/Response Queue (CRQ), which receives CRQ commands from the hypervisor, and a Common Data-Link Interface (CDLI) of a Forwarder. The Forwarder receives I/O commands in a format associated with the CDLI and converts the commands into a generic I/O format understood by a Virtual Block Storage Device (VBSD). The reformatted command is transmitted to the VBSD, which issues commands to the native I/O stack. The hypervisor sends a read or write (R/W) request to the VASI, which passes the request to the Forwarder. The Forwarder converts the request and transmits the converted request to the VBSD. The VBSD transmits the request to the block storage device and returns the response to the Forwarder. The Forwarder replies to the request from the VASI with the response from the ABSD. The VASI then responds to the hypervisor. Also provided is an operation-specific module responsible for understanding and the intelligent processing of data that is transmitted between the hypervisor and the I/O stack.
US09208001B2 Object mediated data transfer between electronic devices
Systems, devices and methods for transferring data between two or more different electronic devices are described further herein. The data transfer is mediated by an object, such as a stylus, having a unique identifier. The same object is used when copying the data from a first electronic device and when pasting the data at a second electronic device.
US09208000B2 Calculating quality indicators of computer applications based on application events
A quality score for a computer application release is determined using a first number of unique users who have launched the computer application release on user devices and a second number of unique users who have encountered at least once an abnormal termination with the computer application release on user devices. Additionally or optionally, an application quality score can be computed for a computer application based on quality scores of computer application releases that represent different versions of the computer application. Additionally or optionally, a weighted application quality score can be computed for a computer application by further taking into consideration the average application quality score and popularity of a plurality of computer applications.
US09207999B2 Integrated link-based data recorder for semiconductor chip
Programmable data recorders are provided in a network semiconductor chip to monitor and record all or portions of data from various interfaces, including the input and output interfaces of network links interfacing the chip. A data recorder is provided for each network link. The data recorders store captured data in storage arrays. Data may be compressed and associated with time stamps to conserve space in the storage arrays. A data recorder manager in the chip may start and stop the data recorders at approximately the same time. The programmable mode of the data recorders determines which interfaces are monitored, the portion of data captured, and the format of the data in the storage arrays.
US09207998B2 Computer-based system management by a separate managing system
In an embodiment, a method is presented for providing managerial access to a managed system. In this method, a definition of a procedure to be performed on the managed system is received into a managing system. A request to perform the procedure is received into the managing system from a user of the managing system. The procedure is performed in response to the request. The performing of the procedure includes initiating a plurality of functions resident in the managed system. Results indicative of the performing of the procedure are presented to the user of the managing system.
US09207990B2 Method and system for migrating critical resources within computer systems
A method and system for migrating at least one critical resource during a migration of an operative portion of a computer system are disclosed. In at least some embodiments, the method includes (a) sending first information constituting a substantial copy of a first of the at least one critical resource via at least one intermediary between a source component and a destination component. The method further includes (b) transitioning a status of the destination component from being incapable of receiving requests to being capable of receiving requests, and (c) re-programming an abstraction block to include modified addresses so that at least one incoming request signal is forwarded to the destination component rather than to the source component.
US09207989B2 System and method for providing virtual device
Disclosed is a system and method for providing a virtual terminal. A virtual cloud server may configure a plurality of virtual terminals by employing a virtual machine in a cloud environment. The virtual cloud server may provide an application of a heterogeneous platform to a terminal that accesses the virtual cloud server. A cooperative middleware apparatus may determine a cloud server suitable for a mobile terminal among a plurality of cloud servers, based on content information of content and virtual terminal information stored in the plurality of cloud servers.
US09207987B2 Dispersion dependency in oracle clusterware
A method and apparatus for resource dispersion in a clusterware system is provided. The resource profiles for resources within a cluster of nodes are stored. Each resource profile includes attributes for a resource. One or more of the attributes in one of the resource profiles includes a dispersion dependency attribute that specifies that the resource is preferably not co-located with another resource. Resources are placed within the cluster based, at least in part, on the dispersion preference.
US09207986B2 Identifying a next window of idle time to perform pre-generation tasks of content portions outside of the displayable region stored in a message queue
In one embodiment, a computing device identifies a portion of a display object to pre-generate. The device may monitor a thread to identify the next upcoming window of idle time (i.e., the next opportunity when the thread will be idle for a minimum period of time). The device may add one or more selected pre-generation tasks to a message queue for execution by the thread during the window. The device may execute the one or more selected pre-generation tasks in the message queue by pre-generating at least one selected element of a display object with content for a portion of the content layout, and then return the display object.
US09207984B2 Monitoring and automatic scaling of data volumes
Aspects of a data environment, such as various capacities of data stores and instances, can be managed using a separate control environment. A monitoring component of the control environment can periodically communicate with the data environment to obtain performance information. The information is analyzed, using algorithms such as trending and extrapolation algorithms, to determine any recommended scaling of resources in the data environment. The scaling can be performed automatically, or as authorized by a customer. A workflow can be instantiated that includes tasks necessary to perform the scaling. The scaling of storage capacity can be performed without affecting the availability of the data store.
US09207978B2 Method and system for efficient execution of ordered and unordered tasks in multi-threaded and networked computing
The present disclosure provides methods for concurrently executing ordered and unordered tasks using a plurality of processing units. Certain embodiments of the present disclosure may store the ordered and unordered tasks in the same processing queue. Further, processing tasks in the processing queue may comprise concurrently preprocessing ordered tasks, thereby reducing the amount of processing unit idle time and improving load balancing across processing units. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also dynamically manage the number of processing units based on a rate of unordered tasks being received in the processing queue, a processing rate of unordered tasks, a rate of ordered tasks being received in the processing queue, a processing rate of ordered tasks, and/or the number of sets of related ordered tasks in the processing queue. Also provided are related systems and non-transitory computer-readable media.
US09207976B2 Management of prioritizing virtual machines in an operating environment
Embodiments directed toward a method, system, and computer program product for placement of a plurality of virtual machines on a hardware resource are provided. The method can also include generating a user location vector for each candidate virtual machine from the plurality of candidate virtual machines by aggregating a plurality of user location metrics for each candidate virtual machine. The method can also include ranking, in response to a performance resource demanded by the plurality of candidate virtual machines being at or above a threshold of the performance resource available on the hardware resource, the candidate virtual machines as a function of an aggregate user location vector for each candidate virtual machine. The method can include selecting a subset of the candidate virtual machines for migration based on the ranking.
US09207970B1 Computerized method of identifying process data exceptions
A method for identifying data exceptions in a process includes: receiving an array of data from a data historian comprising filtered data from the process including one or more dependent variables and one or more independent variables; defining, by a microprocessor, a plurality of time slices or bins within the array of filtered data with a predetermined time period; identifying, by a microprocessor, all variables outside of limits that are continuously updated, based only on data when the process is running; and identifying, by a microprocessor, a date of an exception.
US09207969B2 Parallel tracing for performance and detail
A parallel tracer may perform detailed or heavily instrumented analysis of an application in parallel with a performance or lightly instrumented version of the application. Both versions of the application may operate on the same input stream, but with the heavily instrumented version having different performance results than the lightly instrumented version. The tracing results may be used for various analyses, including optimization and debugging.
US09207967B2 Using nonspeculative operations for lock elision
A method includes identifying a set of instructions to be executed as a transaction that is to access a section of memory, prior to executing the set of instructions as the transaction, facilitating a non-speculative access to a data cache, the data cache comprising a plurality of cache lines, each cache line comprising a lock to lock a respective portion of the memory, determining if the section of memory is available for the transaction in view of locks of the plurality of cache lines, and in response to a determination that the section of memory is not available, causing the non-speculative access to the data cache to be repeated.
US09207966B2 Method and system for providing a high-availability application
A system, method, and techniques for providing high availability to an application are provided. An example system includes a plurality of databases and a persistence layer that generates, based on a request, one or more sets of database commands that is specific to a database. The system also includes a high-availability layer that is an intermediary between the persistence layer and the plurality of databases, and includes a transaction manager and an execution engine. The transaction manager starts a composite transaction including a sub-transaction corresponding to each database of the plurality of databases and determines whether each applied sub-transaction has successfully completed. A sub-transaction includes a set of database commands. The execution engine applies each sub-transaction to its corresponding database.
US09207965B2 Managing multi-application contexts
A method and system for managing software application states selects a plurality of stateful applications for reinstatement at a later time. A set of data contexts is generated based on the selected applications. The set of data contexts is pushed onto a data stack. Thereafter the set of data contexts is popped from the data stack for reinstatement. Each step or function may be initiated automatically or through user input, and may be used in a single-user, multi-user or collaborative setting.
US09207959B2 Creating a virtual disk using set of binding information of a paravirtual network interface card and a physical network interface card
Methods and systems are described for provisioning a common virtual disk to both a physical and a virtual computing machine. These methods and systems can include creating a virtual disk that has binding information for both a paravirtual network interface card and a physical network interface card so that, either a virtual machine having a paravirtual network interface card, or a physical machine having a physical network interface card, may boot from the created virtual disk. Creation of the virtual disk can include exposing the paravirtual network interface card to a physical machine so that an installer program may bind to both the paravirtual network interface card and the physical network interface card.
US09207957B2 Adaptive architecture for a mobile application based on rich application, process, and resource contexts and deployed in resource constrained environments
A method for adapting execution of an application on a mobile device may be performed by a mobile device including a processor and a memory. The method may include receiving an application context, a process context, and one other context. The method also includes analyzing at least one of the application context or the process context together with the one other context. The method also includes dynamically adapting execution of the application on the mobile device based on the analysis. Adapting execution of the application may include transferring processing related to the application to a backend server for processing.
US09207956B2 Class loading device for a java runtime environment, cluster system and method of executing a function
A class loading device for a Java runtime environment, wherein the class loading device is configured to load predetermined source code written in R programming language to parse the R source code and, based on the parsed R source code, generate corresponding bytecode at least of a first Java class and transfer same to the Java runtime environment.
US09207953B1 Method and apparatus for managing a proxy autoconfiguration in SSL VPN
A method and apparatus for managing proxy autoconfiguration for a multihomed client. A client browser may employ a combined autoconfiguration module to split traffic based on a destination address of the traffic. The traffic may be split among at least two proxy servers. A proxy configuration manager may be employed to receive configuration information associated with each of the proxy servers. The proxy configuration manager enables the combined autoconfiguration module to be created based, in part, on the received configuration information. The proxy configuration manager further enables the client browser to split the traffic, based at least in part on the destination address.
US09207949B2 Storage device comprising variable resistance memory and related method of operation
A storage device includes a nonvolatile memory device including a variable resistance memory, and a controller configured to control the nonvolatile memory device. At a booting operation, the controller stores booting information in the variable resistance memory of the nonvolatile memory device. At a rebooting operation, the controller selectively performs a warm boot operation using the booting information stored in the variable resistance memory, based on a comparison result between a booting setting condition associated with the booting operation and a rebooting condition associated with the rebooting operation.
US09207946B2 Auto-cloudifying applications via runtime modifications
An approach is provided in which a distributed runtime environment executes a software application that includes isolated runtime constructs corresponding to an isolated runtime environment. During the execution, the distributed runtime environment identifies isolated runtime constructs included in the software application and selects distributed runtime constructs corresponding to the isolated runtime constructs. In turn, the distributed runtime environment executes the distributed runtime constructs in lieu of executing the isolated runtime constructs.
US09207944B1 Doubling thread resources in a processor
Methods and systems are provided for managing thread execution in a processor. Multiple instructions are fetched from fetch queues. The instructions satisfy the condition that they involve fewer bits than the integer processing pathway that is used to execute them. The instructions are decoded, and divided into groups. The instructions are processed simultaneously through the pathway, such that part of the pathway is used to execute one group of instructions and another part of the pathway is used to execute another group of instructions. These parts are isolated from one another so the execution of the instructions can share the pathway and execute simultaneously and independently.
US09207942B2 Systems, apparatuses,and methods for zeroing of bits in a data element
Embodiments of systems, methods and apparatuses for execution a NAME instruction are described. The execution of a VPBZHI causes, on a per data element basis of a second source, a zeroing of bits higher (more significant) than a starting point in the data element. The starting point is defined by the contents of a data element in a first source. The resultant data elements are stored in a corresponding data element position of a destination.
US09207941B2 Systems, apparatuses, and methods for reducing the number of short integer multiplications
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for calculating a square of a data value of a first source operand, a square of a data value of a second source operand, and a multiplication of the data of the first and second operands only using one multiplication are described.
US09207938B2 Instruction forwarding based on predication criteria
Embodiments herein relate to forwarding an instruction based on predication criteria. A predicate state associated with a packet of data is to be compared to an instruction associated with the predication criteria. The instruction is to be forwarded to an execution unit if the predication criteria includes or matches the predicate state of the packet.
US09207937B2 Apparatus and method for processing a bitfield manipulation instruction having a control value indicating insertion or extraction form
A data processing apparatus comprises a processing circuit and instruction decoder. A bitfield manipulation instruction controls the processing apparatus to generate at least one result data element from corresponding first and second source data elements. Each result data element includes a portion corresponding to a bitfield bf of the corresponding first source data element. Bits of the result data element that are more significant than the inserted bitfield have a prefix value that is selected, based on a control value specified by the instruction, as one of a first prefix value having a zero value, a second prefix value having the value of a portion of the corresponding second source data element, and a third prefix value corresponding to a sign extension of the bitfield of the first source data element.
US09207936B2 Graphic processor unit and method of operating the same
A method of operating a graphic processor unit includes detecting from a program code a code area that instructs a load/store unit to load data stored in a plurality of rows of a memory to registers of a register file using a scheduler; and, using a load/store unit, loading data to the at least one register in response to instructions corresponding to the code area. A second instruction of the instructions instructs the load/store unit to write control information in a control register of the at least one register. The control information includes at least mask bits designating selected rows of the memory that store data to be loaded from the plurality of rows of the memory, a span field representing a relationship of the plurality of rows of the memory to each other and a stride field. A third instruction of the instruction instructs the load/store unit to store the data sequentially from a row of the memory corresponding to an address written in a base register of the register file to a first register of the register file, according to the control information.
US09207926B2 Dynamic image composition system employing fenced applications
The disclosed dynamic image composition system employing fenced applications includes an information handling system (IHS) that may employ an application fencing tool to generate a fenced application. The IHS may also employ a fenced imaging tool to dynamically modify images with fenced applications, statically modify images with fenced applications and/or generate images with fenced applications.
US09207922B2 Compiling method and apparatus for scheduling block in pipeline
Provided is a compiling method and apparatus for scheduling a block in a pipeline. The compiling method for scheduling a block in a pipeline may include profiling, using a processor, an access count of a block in a control flow of a program code, determining that the block is an important block, in response to an edge count of an edge entering the block being greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the edge count being included in the access count of the block, and scheduling the important block based on the access count to prevent a register writeback conflict.
US09207920B2 Systems and methods for remote analysis of software applications
A system for testing a software application receives one or more object spaces extracted from a development or runtime environment of the software application. The extracted object space includes information about various objects associated with the software application, its dependencies, and/or environment, and some of the objects may be dynamically created and/or modified. The extracted object space does not include any source code. A language dependent extraction component can extract the object space using introspections and/or reflection APIs. The extracted object can be translated into a language-independent format and can be analyzed to identify any vulnerabilities in the software application without access to the source code, compiled binary, and runtime environment of the software application.
US09207918B2 Firmware extension method and firmware builder
A firmware extension method is provided, particularly adaptable for an embedded system. Firstly, a baseline firmware image is provided with a header file. Secondly, an extension firmware image is generated based on the header file, comprising one or more extended functions. Thereafter, a callback table is generated, comprising pointers pointing to entries of the extended functions in the extension firmware image. Further, memory allocation parameters are provided. The memory allocation parameters comprise a base address where the extension firmware image starts. The baseline firmware image, the extension firmware image and the callback table are then merged to generate a merged firmware image based on the memory allocation parameters.
US09207917B2 Application generator for data transformation applications
A utility is provided for generating applications for a variety of data conversion or handling application environments. A user can use a graphical user interface to purpose application adaptable modules to define a desired application. In one implementation, the user interface includes a node tree panel and a process assembly panel. The node tree panel lists tool sets including transformations, maps and input-output tools. These tools can then be assembled together with identified data sources and then elements using the assembly panel to define an application. In this manner, an application is generated from a number of generic modules simply by linking the modules to perform a purpose of the desired application. In this manner, an application is generated from a number of generic modules simply by linking the modules to perform a purpose of the desired application.
US09207914B2 Execution guards in dynamic programming
A method for executing a machine code based on a dynamic language is disclosed. An execution guard is created as a value stored in a data structure. The value is representative of an expected condition or a set of conditions for a reusable portion of the machine code. The value representative of the expected condition(s) is compared to an actual value encountered later during execution of a portion of the machine code. The reusable machine code is executed if the actual value corresponds with the value representative of the expected condition(s). The execution guard is invalidated if any of the expected conditions changes.
US09207907B1 Systems and methods for updating schedules
Disclosed is a method of creating and updating schedules. The method comprises receiving a plurality of initial events associated with a plurality of entities, generating an initial schedule that identifies the plurality of initial events, receiving a plurality of subsequent events, processing each initial event of the plurality of initial events to identify a subset of the plurality of initial events that should be maintained based on which entity of the plurality of entities is associated with the initial event, and generating an updated schedule that identifies only the subset of the plurality of initial events and the plurality of subsequent events.
US09207905B2 Method and apparatus for providing synchrony group status information
A system is described for maintaining synchrony of operations among a plurality of devices that have independent clocking arrangements. The system includes a task distribution device that distributes tasks to a synchrony group comprising a plurality of devices that are to perform the tasks distributed by the task distribution device in synchrony. The task distribution device distributes each task to the members of the synchrony group over a network. Each task is associated with a time stamp that indicates a time, relative to a clock maintained by the task distribution device, at which the members of the synchrony group are to execute the task. Each member of the synchrony group periodically obtains from the task distribution device an indication of the current time indicated by its clock, determines a time differential between the task distribution device's clock and its respective clock and determines therefrom a time at which, according to its respective clock, the time stamp indicates that it is to execute the task.
US09207903B2 System and method for display mirroring
A computing system that supports the use of multiple displays in display mirroring mode and extended display mode may automatically determine a display mode in which to configure the system (with little or no user input) based on various characteristics of the displays in the system. For example, the system may determine that a television, projector, or other presentation type display is connected in the system, and in response, may determine that the system should be configured in a display mirroring mode, rather than in an extended display mode. The system may also determine that the presentation type display is the preferred display, and may render image content in a best (or preferred) mode for that display using its native resolution, aspect ratio or color profile. The system may then scale the rendered image content for display on other (non-preferred) displays, such as an internal display, without re-rendering it.
US09207902B2 Method and apparatus for implementing multi-vision system by using multiple portable terminals
A method for implementing a multi-vision system by using a plurality of portable terminals, wherein, if a user applies a touch input to each of the plurality of portable terminals in a state in which the plurality of portable terminals are disposed, each of the plurality of portable terminals transmits information relating to the touch input to a multi-vision controller, and the multi-vision controller determines how the plurality of portable terminals have been disposed by using the touch input information and then transmits picture division information indicating a respective content portion to be displayed by each portable terminal to the plurality of portable terminals, and thus, the user can conveniently and quickly implement the multi-vision system by using the plurality of portable terminals and can select an optimized disposition of the plurality of portable terminals based on the characteristics of the content.
US09207899B2 Management apparatus, system, and method of controlling the same
A management apparatus designates a first installer program for installing a printer driver for a printer in an information processing apparatus, designates at least one second installer program for installing a program related to the printer driver in the information processing apparatus, designates an activation order of the first installer program and the second installer program, creates a setup program that includes the first installer program and the second installer program and is for activating the programs in the designated order, and registers the created setup program in a storage region in the printer.
US09207896B2 Printing apparatus, method and computer-readable storage medium having a data request to a server before reception of a print instruction
A first request is transmitted to a server. Connection is established between a printing apparatus and the server. A second request is transmitted to the server. Image data is received based on the second request and stored in a first memory. It is determined whether image data stored in the first memory includes image data for which a print instruction is received. When the image data stored in the first memory is included in the image data for which the print instruction is received, printing is performed based on the image data stored in the first memory. When the image data stored in the first memory is not included in the image data for which the print instruction is received, a third request is transmitted to the server, and printing is performed based on the image data for which the print instruction is received, after receiving the image data from the server.
US09207886B2 Relaying device, relaying method, image processing apparatus, and image processing system
A relaying device is configured to obtain first data received from one of an image processing apparatus and a server apparatus via a communication unit, convert the first data having a first format to second data having a second format, transmit the second data to the other of the image processing apparatus and the server apparatus. When the transmission process is abnormally terminated, process identification information is transmitted to the image processing apparatus, and the process identification information and the second data are stored in associated manner, and a re-start instruction including the process identification information identifying the transmission process to be re-started is received from the image processing apparatus. When the transmission process is abnormally terminated and the re-start instruction is received, second data associated with the process identification information is obtained, which is transmitted to the other of the image processing apparatus and the server apparatus.
US09207885B2 Image forming system having remotely accessed shared image forming apparatus
An image forming system includes mobile terminals and image forming apparatuses, in which one image forming apparatus receives setting information to be used in order to use the image forming apparatus, the setting information being stored in one mobile terminal and able to be transmitted to another mobile terminal that will use another image forming apparatus based on the setting information. The one image forming apparatus determines whether the setting information is to be changed based on a comparison between the ability of the image forming apparatuses and, when determining that the setting information is to be changed, changes the setting information and send the changed setting information to the other mobile terminal.
US09207881B1 System and method for object management
A method, computer program product, and computing system for defining a first virtual object, wherein the first virtual object includes a first ready state indicator. At least a second virtual object is defined, wherein the at least a second virtual object includes at least a second ready state indicator. The first virtual object and the at least a second virtual object are grouped within a group virtual object.
US09207878B2 Information processing apparatus
When a link unit detects a built-in WLAN memory card by using wireless communication, the link unit determines whether there is a match between the SSID of the detected built-in WLAN memory card and the SSID of the built-in WLAN memory card that is inserted into the PC. If the SSIDs match, it means the built-in WLAN memory card that has been detected using wireless communication is the built-in WLAN memory card that is inserted into the PC and the link unit consequently performs a control such that the WLAN unit does not acquire still images nor moving images.
US09207876B2 Remove-on-delete technologies for solid state drive optimization
Technologies for identifying data stored on a solid state drive (“SSD”) device that correspond to data associated with a delete event, and marking the deleted data stored on the SSD as invalid such that the SSD can avoid unnecessary operations on the invalid data. Included are interfaces operable to communicate invalid data information and providing a remove-on-delete command that provides invalid data information sufficient to identify the SSD data to be marked as invalid.
US09207875B2 System and method for retaining deduplication in a storage object after a clone split operation
Described herein is a system and method for retaining deduplication of data blocks of a resulting storage object (e.g., a flexible volume) from a split operation of a clone of a base storage object. The clone may comprise data blocks that are shared with at least one data block of the base storage object and at least one data block that is not shared with at least one data block of the base storage object. The data blocks of the clone that are shared with the base storage object may be indicated to receive a write allocation that may comprise assigning a new pointer to a indicated data block. Each data block may comprise a plurality of pointers comprising a virtual address pointer and a physical address pointer. As such, data blocks of the clone comprising the same virtual address pointer may be assigned a single physical address pointer. Thus, a new physical address pointer is assigned or allocated once to a given virtual address pointer of data blocks of a clone.
US09207872B2 Remote office duplication
Remote office deduplication comprises calculating one or more fingerprints of one or more data blocks, sending the one or more fingerprints to one or more backup servers via a network interface, receiving from the one or more backup servers an indication of which one or more data blocks corresponding to the one or more fingerprints should be sent to the one or more backup servers, and if the indication indicates one or more data blocks to be sent to the one or more backup servers, sending the one or more data blocks to the one or more backup servers via the network interface.
US09207861B2 Method and mobile terminal for processing touch input in two different states
A method and a mobile terminal for processing touch input are provided. The mobile terminal has a rectangular touch screen with long sides and short sides. The mobile terminal having two state: a first state in which only the short sides are parallel with a horizontal surface and a second state in which only the long sides are parallel with the horizontal surface. The method comprises the following steps of: obtaining from the touch screen a gesture in a first direction as input by a touch object on the touch screen when the mobile terminal is in the first state; triggering a first touch command in response to the gesture in the first direction; obtaining from the touch screen a gesture in a second direction as input by the touch object on the touch screen when the mobile terminal is in the second state, the second direction being the same as the first direction; and triggering the first touch command in response to the gesture in the second direction. According to the embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to achieve a uniform operation gesture for the same operational instruction by means of self-conversion of the mobile terminal, such that the user experience can be improved.
US09207860B2 Method and apparatus for detecting a gesture
A method includes detecting a swipe gesture from an initial touch location on a touch-sensitive display of an electronic device; determining touch attributes for the swipe gesture; and performing a lock function if the touch attributes correspond to a stored swipe gesture associated with the lock function. Further lock functions may be activated by detection of attributes of a further stored swipe gesture.
US09207856B2 Vehicula touch input device with determination of straight line gesture
A vehicle operating device with favorable operability is provided, the operating device having improved recognition accuracy of gestural operation conducted while holding a steering wheel.A vehicle operating device comprises an input unit that is provided on a steering wheel and that detects a user operation; and a control unit that determines the user operation detected by the input unit and that outputs a control signal for controlling a device; wherein, the control unit determines that the user operation is linear when a locus (L) of the user operation does not exceed a certain width (W).1 unit operates the air-conditioner body based on the preset temperature.
US09207853B2 Mobile terminal and method of controlling the same
A mobile terminal including a display; a wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other electronic device; and a controller configured to receive a request signal for requesting an exchange of content data between at least one first electronic device that stores content data and at least one second electronic device that reproduces content data, and to display the at least one first electronic device and the at least one second electronic device on particular areas of the display that intuitively indicate a direction of the exchange of content data.
US09207851B1 Sensing displays utilizing light emitting diodes
A matrix of light emitting diodes is positioned behind a liquid crystal layer of a display device. The light emitting diodes operate in both light emitting and light detecting modes. Consequently, the display device is able to sense objects or fingers approaching or in contact with a front display surface of the display device based on changes in incident light on the matrix that are observed by one or more of the light emitting diodes operating in the light detecting mode.
US09207850B2 Application executing method using fingerprint recognition, device therefor, and computer readable recording medium therefor
An application-executing method using fingerprint recognition includes obtaining an image of a first fingerprint through a fingerprint sensor and recognizing the first fingerprint, executing a first application corresponding to the first fingerprint in a first screen when the first fingerprint is recognized, obtaining an image of a second fingerprint through the fingerprint sensor and recognizing the second fingerprint, determining whether the second fingerprint is recognized within a predetermined time after the first application is executed, and, based on a determination result, when it is determined that the second fingerprint is recognized within the predetermined time after the first application is executed, generating a second screen by splitting the first screen, and executing the first application on one of the second screen, and a second application corresponding to the second fingerprint on the other of the second screen.
US09207844B2 Methods and devices for touch-based media creation
An electronic device with one or more processors and memory displays a first user interface including a plurality of audio tracks, detects a first user input selecting one of the plurality of audio tracks, and, in response to detecting the first user input, displays a second user interface for recording a video clip. The device also detects a second user input to initiate recording of the video clip and detects a third user input to stop recording of the video clip. The device further detects a fourth user input to publish the media item based on the video clip and the selected audio track and, in response to detecting the fourth user input, publishes the media item to a server, including sending to the server information identifying the selected audio track, the video clip, and information related to synchronization of the selected audio track and the video clip.
US09207841B2 Online video distribution
A video player for tagged online video includes a means for receiving a stream of video data and tag data. The tag data includes tag details including for each tag a link to display during video playback and a location at which to display the link. A video display output displays the video data, a user-selectable tag display GUI option, and selectively, the tag data. The video player is adapted to detect a selection of one of at least a first and a second option via the user-selectable tag display GUI option.
US09207837B2 Method, apparatus and computer program product for providing multiple levels of interaction with a program
Provided herein is a method, apparatus and computer program product for providing multiple levels of interaction with a program. In particular methods of example embodiments may include providing for display of a first representation of a first program, where the first representation includes a first interaction level; providing for display of an intermediate representation in response to receiving a first input, where the intermediate representation comprises an intermediate interaction level; and providing for display of a second representation of the first program in response to a second input, where the second representation includes a second interaction level and the second input is different from the first input. The intermediate representation of the first program may be presented in a size that is larger than the first representation of the first program.
US09207832B1 Intelligent social collaboration watchlist that visually indicates an order of relevance
In one embodiment, a method includes within a graphical user interface (GUI) presented to a user of a software application, presenting a watchlist associated with the user, the watchlist comprising first content related to one or more first events associated with one or more entities within an organization, the one or more entities having a relationship with the user within a social graph maintained at least in part by the software application. The method further includes receiving asynchronous notifications of second content for inclusion in the watchlist, the second content related to one or more second events occurring after the first events, and automatically and without input from the user, updating the watchlist to include the second content, the update comprising organizing the watchlist with the first and second content to visually indicate an order of relevance of the first and second content to the user.
US09207831B2 Management of data on related websites
A computer-implemented method, system and/or computer program product manages data in a webpage. A processor receives an input to an input box located in a first webpage on a first network. This input is analyzed to determine whether there is match between a subject topic of the entered data and a first interest window on the first webpage, where the first interest window is reserved for data entries that are described by the subject topic. In response to a processor being unable to determine the subject topic of the entered data in the text entry box, the processor creates a new interest window in the first webpage.
US09207826B2 Touch panel, and touch panel display device
Provided is a touch panel configured to minimize electrode disconnection caused by swelling of the insulating layer during the production process. The touch panel is equipped with: an insulating substrate; first island-shaped electrodes (111) disposed along a first direction; second island-shaped electrodes (121) disposed along a second direction intersecting the first direction; a connecting member (112) for connecting together the first island-shaped electrodes (111); an insulating film (15) formed covering a portion of the connecting member (112); and a relay electrode (122) for connecting together the second island-shaped electrodes (121) over the insulating film (15). The relay electrode (122), in a section thereof that overlaps the connecting member (112) in a plan view, is narrower in width, in a direction perpendicular to the second direction, than the width of the insulating film (15). A pair of edges (15a) and (15b) of the insulating film (15) is covered by the first island-shaped electrode (111), the second island-shaped electrode (121), or the relay electrode (122).
US09207824B2 Systems and methods for touch sensors on polymer lenses
This disclosure generally relates to a system comprising a touch sensor on polymer lens and methods for manufacturing such system. The system comprises at least one polymer lens and at least one touch sensor. The system further comprises at least one frame and a base coat. This disclosure also relates to an optoelectronic system comprising the touch sensor on polymer lens.
US09207822B1 Contact identification and tracking on a capacitance sensing array
The capacitance sensing array comprising a plurality of nodes corresponding to intersections of a first plurality of electrodes with a second plurality of electrodes may be scanned. Capacitance values associated with one or more of the nodes may be measured. The capacitance values may be representative of a touch object proximate to the one or more of the nodes. A peak capacitance value of the capacitance values of one or more of the nodes may be identified. A set of capacitance values comprising cells based on the peak capacitance value may be generated. A portion of the cells of the set are associated with the nodes corresponding to the intersections of the first plurality of electrodes with the second plurality of electrodes and at least one of the cells of the set is associated with a virtual node that does not correspond to the intersections.
US09207821B2 Pressure sensor for touch input devices
A stylus and sensor capable of determining levels of pressure applied to a tip are disclosed. The stylus has a tip configured to interact with and receive a force from a touch surface. The stylus includes a force sensitive resistor configured to vary resistance in an electrical circuit based on the force and a component for determining an amount of pressure corresponding to the force or a change in pressure based on the resistance in the electrical circuit. The stylus can have a chamber housing a slide-able plunger connected to the tip, the plunger being adapted to move in directions perpendicular or tangential to the surface when the force is applied. The resistor is disposed at an end of the chamber. The stylus can have a conductive strip on the resistor and a disc on the strip. The disc is configured to compress when force is applied by the plunger.
US09207820B2 Method and system for multi-touch decoding
A touch sensor capable of detecting multiple touches thereto is coupled with a digital device having multi-touch decoding capabilities. These multi-touch decoding capabilities comprise touch data acquisition, touch identification, touch tracking and processed touch data output to a device associated with the touch sensor. Touch identification comprises touch location(s) peak detection, touch location(s) nudging and touch location(s) interpolation. Touch data acquisition locates potential touches on the touch sensor. Peak detection identifies where potential touch locations are on the touch sensor. Once a potential touch location(s) has been identified, touch location nudging examines each adjacent location thereto and interpolation examines the adjacent touch location values to generate a higher resolution location of the touch. Touch tracking compares time sequential “frames” of touch identification data and then determines which touches are associated between frames for further processing, e.g., determining gesturing actions.
US09207815B2 Input device and method of manufacturing the same
A touch panel includes a transparent panel, a transparent electrode which is formed in a transparent input region on a first surface of the transparent panel, a decorative layer which is formed in a decorative region on the first surface, a wiring layer which is formed on a surface of the decorative layer, and a transparent conductive connection layer which electrically connects the wiring layer and the transparent electrode.
US09207814B2 Single-layer touch sensor
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a touch sensor. The touch sensor is disposed on one or more substrates. The touch sensor includes at least one drive electrode and at least one sense electrode. The drive and sense electrodes each include a base portion and a plurality of digits coupled to the base portion. The spaces between the digits of the drive electrode are partially occupied by a digit of a sense electrode (and vice versa). The drive and sense electrodes occupy the same plane.
US09207811B2 Optical imaging system capable of detecting a moving direction of an object and imaging processing method for optical imaging system
An optical imaging system includes a display panel, a light source module, a touch object, a first image capturing module, a second image capturing module and a control module. The touch object moves from a first position at a first time to a second position at a second time. The first image capturing module and the second image capturing module respectively capture light reflected from the touch object, so as to generate a first signal, a second signal, a third signal and a fourth signal corresponding to the touch object at the first time and the second time. The control module computes a moving direction of the touch object according to variation of the first signal, the second signal, the third signal and the fourth signal.
US09207808B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method and storage medium
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus capable of accessing a first storage medium and acquiring at least one of groups related to a correspondence between one symbol and at least one stroke data, includes an input device and a processor. The input device is configured to input an image. The processor is configured to, if a partial image of the image input by the input device corresponds to a first symbol in a first group or a first image generatable from first stroke data in the first group, associate the partial image and the first stroke data.
US09207805B2 Computer-readable recording medium, information processing apparatus, and correction processing method
A computer-readable recording medium stores a correction processing program causes a computer including a touch panel and a temperature sensor to execute a process. The process includes determining whether a temperature measured by the temperature sensor is lower than a predetermined threshold when a first event completing contact with the touch panel is detected, waiting for a second event starting contact with the touch panel and a third event moving a contact position with the touch panel for a predetermined period of time when it is determined that the measured temperature is lower than the predetermined threshold, and discarding the first event and the second event and notifying an application of the third event, when the second event and the third event are detected during the predetermined waiting period of time.
US09207800B1 Integrated light guide and touch screen frame and multi-touch determination method
A touch screen assembly including a glass screen, LEDs, photo diodes, a transparent plastic frame surrounding the screen, and a light guide that guides light emitted by the LEDs to the photo diodes along light paths that go under the frame on one side, over the screen, and under the frame on the opposite side, and a processor operative to selectively activate LEDs and photo diodes, to identify location of an object touching the screen, based on amounts of light detected by activated photo diodes when light emitted by activated LEDs is blocked along its light path by the object, and to recognize the object touching the frame, based on amounts of light detected by activated photo diodes when light emitted by activated LEDs is absorbed along its light path by the object, thereby providing light-based touch sensitivity to the screen and to the frame.
US09207796B2 Liquid crystal display device with touch screen function
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device with a touch screen function is provided. The LCD device includes a liquid crystal panel layer including a liquid crystal layer filled between first and second substrates, and a touch panel layer which is formed on the first substrate, includes at least one phase compensating means stacked therein, and detects a contact point when an upper electrode and a lower electrode come into contact with each other due to external pressure, wherein the phase compensating means is patterned so that the upper electrode and the lower electrode are able to contact each other, and thus outdoor visibility and viewing angle characteristics can be effectively improved.
US09207795B2 User interface system
Disclosed is a user interface system that includes a sheet that defines a surface and at least partially defines a fluid vessel arranged underneath the surface, a volume of fluid within the fluid vessel, a displacement device that influences the volume of the fluid within the fluid vessel to expand and contract at least a portion of the fluid vessel, thereby deforming a particular region of the surface, and a sensor system that is configured to receive a user input on the surface with a first sensitivity and configured to receive a user input substantially proximal to the particular region of the surface at with second sensitivity higher than the first sensitivity.
US09207792B2 Mobile apparatus having hand writing function using multi-touch and control method thereof
A method of controlling a mobile apparatus having a hand writing function using a multi touch includes detecting a hand writing input that is input to a hand writing input window on a touch screen of the mobile apparatus, determining whether the detected hand writing input is a multi touch input or a single touch input, generating a hand writing output including multi touch output corresponding to the multi touch input and single touch output corresponding to the single touch input; and displaying the hand writing output in an output window on the touch screen.
US09207790B2 Touch display apparatus and method for fabricating the same
A method of fabricating a touch display apparatus is provided which includes: forming a first substrate on a first carrier; forming an assembly part on a second carrier, wherein the assembly part includes a second substrate, a third substrate and a touch sensing layer interposed therebetween, and the third substrate is relatively near a side of the second carrier; assembling the first substrate and the assembly part such that a display layer is formed between the first substrate and the assembly part; and at least removing the first carrier. In addition, a touch display fabricated from the above method is also provided.
US09207789B2 Motor vehicle control interface and corresponding method of manufacture
The present invention relates to a motor vehicle control interface comprising a touch-sensitive tile (2) having a front face (3); a housing (4) housing said touch-sensitive tile (2), said housing (4) having—an opening delimited by an edge (5) via which a user can access the front face (3) of the touch-sensitive tile (2); and a levelling trim (6), peripheral to the touch-sensitive tile (2) and interposed between an edge face (7) of the touch-sensitive tile (2) and the edge (5) of the housing (4), characterized in that said interface further comprises a seal (9) inserted between a rear face (10) of the touch-sensitive tile (2) and a retaining projection (11) of the housing (4), said seal (9) bordering the levelling trim (6) between the rear face (10) of the touch-sensitive tile (2) and the retaining projection (11). The present invention also relates to a method of manufacturing such a control interface (1).
US09207786B2 Mouse house
A mouse house comprises a foam material for surrounding a computer mouse and providing a platform for a user's hand to rest on. The mouse house is wide enough to support all of a person's fingers in a neutral hand position and has side walls to prevent the mouse from tipping laterally. Viscoelastic foam may be used for the top surface for user comfort. The leading edge of the mouse house is set back from the operating keys of the mouse. The mouse house may have a bottom cavity with side fingers for securely gripping a wide variety of computer mice placed therein.
US09207785B2 Voltage generator and organic light emitting display device using the same
A voltage generator includes a DC/DC converter configured to output a first voltage during a first period of a frame period, the DC/DC converter being connected to a first power voltage and to a second power voltage lower than the first power voltage, a first transistor coupled between the DC/DC converter and an output terminal, the first transistor being configured to be turned on during the first period, a second transistor coupled between the output terminal and a third voltage source, the third voltage source being configured to supply a third voltage lower than the first voltage, and the second transistor being configured to be turned on during a third period of the frame period, and a voltage controller coupled to the output terminal, the voltage controller being configured to limit a voltage of the output terminal.
US09207782B2 Remote controller, remote controlling method and display system having the same
Disclosed are a remote controller, a remote controlling method, and a display system having the same. An image displayed on a display apparatus may be converted by using one remote controller. The display system may perform a converting the image by using one remote controller, without implementing a touch screen on the display apparatus or using two or more remote controllers for multi-touch. This may enhance a user's convenience and reduce fabrication costs.
US09207780B2 Systems and methods for hiding and finding digital content associated with physical objects via coded lighting
A method involving: designating, based on an instruction received from a user, an area within an illumination field of a projector; using the projector to project a light encoded with coordinate information; receiving a content or a content information from the user; associating, using the processing unit, the designated area within an illumination field of the projector with the content or the content information received from the user; detecting the light encoded with the coordinate information using a mobile device positioned within the illumination field of the projector; determining a position of the mobile device within the illumination field of the projector based on the detected light encoded with the coordinate information; and causing, on condition that the determined position of the mobile device is within the designated area, the mobile device to display the content.
US09207777B2 Electronic device with predictive URL domain key function
A method, electronic device, processing system, and computer program product, for at least presenting a uniform resource locator (URL) domain extension at a user interface. User input data corresponding to at least a portion of a URL domain is received at the user input interface. A processor concatenates the received user input data into a first character string. The first character string is displayed. The processor predicts a domain URL extension as a second character string that when concatenated with and following the first character string completes at least one of a URL domain and an email address, by comparing the first character string with a set of candidate character strings to find a likely match. The second character string is displayed in visual association with a user input key function of the user input interface.
US09207771B2 Gesture based user interface
A system and method for recognition of hand gesture in computing devices. The system recognizes a hand of a user by identifying a predefined first gesture and further collects visual information related to the hand identified on the basis of the first predefined gesture. The visual information is used to extract a second gesture (and all other gestures after the second) from the video/image captured by the camera and finally interpreting the second gesture as a user input to the computing device. The system enables gesture recognition in various light conditions and can be operated by various user hands including the ones wearing gloves.
US09207768B2 Method and apparatus for controlling mobile terminal using user interaction
A method and apparatus for controlling a mobile terminal through use of user interaction are provided. The method includes operating in a vision recognition mode that generates a vision recognition image through use of a signal output from a second plurality of pixels designated as vision pixels from among a plurality of pixels of an image sensor included in the mobile terminal; determining whether a predetermined object in the vision recognition image corresponds to a person; determining a gesture of the predetermined object when the predetermined object corresponds to the person; and performing a control function of the mobile terminal corresponding to the gesture of the predetermined object.
US09207765B2 Recognizing interactive media input
Techniques and systems for inputting data to interactive media devices are disclosed herein. In some aspects, a sensing device senses an object as it moves in a trajectory indicative of a desired input to an interactive media device. Recognition software may be used to translate the trajectory into various suggested characters or navigational commands. The suggested characters may be ranked based on a likelihood of being an intended input. The suggested characters may be displayed on a user interface at least in part based on the rank and made available for selection as the intended input.
US09207764B2 Orientation adjustable multi-channel haptic device
A system that generates haptic effects on a haptically-enabled device determines an orientation of the haptically-enabled device and obtains one or more haptic effect channels. The system then assigns each of the haptic effect channels to a haptic output device on the haptically-enabled device based on the orientation.
US09207763B2 Systems and methods for providing a haptic manipulandum
Systems and methods for providing a haptic manipulandum are described. In one described system, a lever arm is pivotably coupled to a housing, and configured to apply a processor-controlled force to a substantially-spherical manipulandum to provide a haptic effect. The described system may include a processor in communication with an actuator for providing the haptic effect.
US09207761B2 Control apparatus based on eyes and method for controlling device thereof
The present invention relates to an eye-gaze based control device. The eye-gaze based control device of the present invention may control a control target device according to an eye-gaze point of a user. Here, the eye-gaze based control device controls the control target device by controlling a size of an image displayed to the user, thereby more precisely controlling the control target device.
US09207760B1 Input detection
This disclosure involves proximity sensing of eye gestures using a machine-learned model. An illustrative method comprises receiving training data that includes proximity-sensor data. The data is generated by at least one proximity sensor of a head-mountable device (HMD). The data is indicative of light received by the proximity sensor(s). The light is received by the proximity sensor(s) after a reflection of the light from an eye area. The reflection occurs while an eye gesture is being performed at the eye area. The light is generated by at least one light source of the HMD. The method further comprises applying a machine-learning process to the training data to generate at least one classifier for the eye gesture. The method further comprises generating an eye-gesture model that includes the at least one classifier for the eye gesture. The model is applicable to subsequent proximity-sensor data for detection of the eye gesture.
US09207758B2 Operator assistance methods and systems
Embodiments include systems and methods for assisting an operator (e.g., a pilot) of an apparatus (e.g., an aircraft) that includes a control compartment (e.g., a cockpit). The system includes a near-eye display and a processing subsystem. The near-eye display includes a transparent display panel and is adapted to be worn on a head of the operator. The processing subsystem is adapted to receive layout information defining a physical layout of one or more operational components located within the control compartment. The processing subsystem is further adapted to determine a location for a display indicator on the transparent display panel, where the location is determined to appear to the operator to be in proximity to an operational component. The processing subsystem is further adapted to generate a display signal to cause the near-eye display to display the display indicator in the location.
US09207757B2 Gesture recognition apparatus, method thereof and program therefor
A gesture recognition apparatus detects a locus of a fingertip position of a user from an acquired moving image; sets an effective range configured to set an effective range to detect a locus of the fingertip position of the user from the moving image flap action; determines whether or not the locus of the fingertip position is of the flap action when the locus of the fingertip position is included in the effective range; and recognizes a gesture of the user from the flap action when the locus of the fingertip position is of the flap action.
US09207754B2 Enabling immersive, interactive desktop image presentation
Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for enabling immersive, interactive desktop image presentation are provided. Upon receiving a request for presentation of a background image of a search engine home page as a desktop image, the background image is transmitted for presentation on a desktop associated with a computing device. In embodiments, the background image, and likewise the desktop image, permits user interaction therewith. For instance, a user may zoom into the image, pan around the image or otherwise interact with enabled regions of the background and/or desktop image that offer additional content and/or navigate the user to another location where additional information may be found. In this way, the user is provided an immersive, interactive experience with the image whether at the search engine home page, the desktop, or both.
US09207753B2 Multiple-queue multiple-resource entry sleep and wakeup for power savings and bandwidth conservation in a retry based pipeline
Methods and apparatus relating to multiple-queue multiple-resource entry sleep and wakeup for power savings and bandwidth conservation in a retry based pipeline are described. In one embodiment, a bit indicates whether a corresponding queue entry is asleep or awake with respect to arbitration for resources in a retry based pipeline. Furthermore, multiple entries from different queues may be grouped together and multiple resources may be grouped together. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09207751B2 Semiconductor device
The semiconductor device includes a CPU core having functions of a control unit, an arithmetic unit, and a register; a first memory device including a plurality of blocks each including one or a plurality of rows of memory cells; a second memory device copying data that is to be treated in the CPU core from a first block selected by the CPU core from the plurality of blocks included in the first memory device, and storing the data; a plurality of switches controlling supply of power supply voltage to the respective blocks; a memory management unit recognizing an address of the first block; and a power controller turning off one of the plurality of switches using the address to stop supply of the power supply voltage to a second block of the plurality of blocks which is different from the first block.
US09207750B2 Apparatus and method for reducing leakage power of a circuit
Described is a processor comprising: a plurality of transistors operable to provide dynamically adjustable transistor size, the plurality of transistors coupled at one end to a first power supply and coupled at another end to a second power supply; a circuit coupled to the second power supply, the second power supply to provide power to the circuit; and a power control unit (PCU) to monitor the level of the first power supply, and to dynamically adjust the transistor size of the plurality of transistors so that the second power supply is adjusted to keep the circuit operational.
US09207749B2 Mechanism for facilitating efficient operations paths for storage devices in computing systems
A mechanism is described for facilitating efficient operations paths for storage devices in computing systems according to one embodiment of the invention. A method of embodiments of the invention includes identifying a request for power mode change at a storage device at a computing system. The request for power mode change indicates potential reduced power state of the storage device. The method may further include transferring context information at the storage device to a host memory at the computing system, in response to the first command, and saving the context information at the host memory, wherein the storage device is at reduced power state.
US09207748B2 Systems and methods for a wireless device wake-up process including power-save and non-power-save modes
A system and method for wireless waking computing devices over a computer network is provided. A signal is broadcast over the network that includes one or more device specific wake-up data sequences. Each device specific wake-up data sequence includes multiple iterations of the hardware address of the wireless network card associated with that device. While in a reduced power or “sleep mode”, the wireless network card monitors wireless channels for packets containing a wake-up data sequence. If a wake-up data sequence is received, the sequence is matched against the hardware address information for that network card. If a match is determined, the network card sends a signal to the computing device causing full system power to be restored. A signal is sent to the network confirming that the device has been successfully woken from the sleep mode.
US09207745B2 Methods and systems for managing performance and power utilization of a processor employing a fully-multithreaded load threshold
A method for managing performance and power utilization of a processor in an information handling system (IHS) employing a balanced fully-multithreaded load threshold is disclosed. The method includes providing a maximum current thread utilization (Umax) and a minimum current thread utilization (Umin) among all current thread utilizations of the processor and determining a current performance state (P state) of the processor. The method also includes increasing a current P state of the processor to a next P state of the processor towards a maximum P state (Pmax) of the processor when the current P state of the processor is between Umax and Umin and the current utilization rate of the processor is less than a first threshold utilization rate. The method further includes engaging the processor in a turbo mode when the current P state of the processor reaches the Pmax and the current utilization of the processor is greater than the first threshold utilization rate of the processor.
US09207742B2 Power saving operating method for an electronic device by disabling a connection port to a touch device before the touch device enters power-saving mode
A power-saving operating method for an electronic device is provided. A control chip of the electronic device has an interrupt pin, and the electronic device couples to a touch device through a connection port and the interrupt pin. When the touch device is idle for over an idle time, a BIOS is informed through the interrupt pin to disable the connection port. When a number of touch signals received from the touch device within a first predetermined time is not less than a first predetermined amount, the connection port is enabled. When the number of the touch signals received from the touch device within the first predetermined time is less than the first predetermined amount or none of the touch signal is received within the first predetermined time, a reading operation for reading the connection port is interrupted and the touch device enters a power-saving mode.
US09207737B2 Information processing apparatus, control method thereof, and storage medium
An information processing apparatus (MFP) according to this invention cyclically inquires, of a server, whether to activate the power source during the stop of the second power source functioning as the main power source of the MFP. The NIC of the MFP that operates by using the first power source as a power source establishes a link for an inquiry to the server, and calculates an electric energy consumed for the inquiry based on the link rate of the established link and the time taken for the inquiry. Further, the NIC adjusts the cycle of the inquiry so that the average power consumption of the MFP in the state in which the second power source is stopped, that is determined by the calculated consumed electric energy, does not exceed a threshold corresponding to a target power.
US09207732B1 Optimized fan duty control for computing device
Embodiments generally relate to thermal management in a computing device. The present technology discloses techniques that can enable an effective and reliable control of a fan speed using various factors such as a power loading value provided by a power supply unit. Power loading values can indicate a level of current flowing through the device, which is generally proportional to the amount of heat dissipated by such device.
US09207730B2 Multi-level thermal management in an electronic device
An electronic device is configured to manage heat in the device using a multi level thermal management process. When the temperature of the device reaches a level that requires the device to take action to adjust its thermal behavior, a system level controller identifies a component in the device as being active and that can be controlled to adjust heat generation in the device. Once an active component is identified, a component level controller sets an activity limit for the identified active component that is at or above a minimum activity limit of the component and prevents the component from operating above this activity limit. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09207727B2 Determining air filter replacement conditions using air flow and energy consumption values
A method of determining a condition of a filter located within a system is provided. The method may include determining a first air flow measurement value for a first air flow through the filter, determining a first energy consumption value associated with generating the first air flow through the filter, determining a first ratio between the first air flow measurement value and the first energy consumption value, determining a second air flow measurement value for a second air flow through the filter, determining a second energy consumption value associated with generating the second air flow through the filter, and determining a second ratio between the second air flow measurement value and the second energy consumption value. The filter may then be replaced based on a comparison between the determined first and the determined second ratio.
US09207725B2 Disassembly mechanism for rapidly disassembling an expansion card
The present invention discloses a disassembly mechanism including a plate, at least one guiding component, at least one constraining component and a pushing component. The plate is installed on a circuit board of an electronic device, at least one opening and a slot are formed on the plate. The slot sheathes a socket on the circuit board. The at least one guiding component is for guiding the plate to move in a guiding direction. The at least one constraining component is disposed on the at least one guiding component for constraining movement of the plate in the guiding direction. The pushing component is connected to the plate and is for moving with the plate synchronously, so as to push the expansion card to separate from the socket.
US09207722B2 Tablet and monitor support systems
Support systems and related methods for supporting tablets and monitors. A stand that includes a monitor support portion configured to support a monitor and a tablet support portion configured to support a tablet.
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