| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07664701B2 |
Masking private billing data by assigning other billing data to use in commerce with businesses
A method and apparatus for shielding a user's private billing data, such as credit card information, or other billing arrangements, but distributing different billing data to businesses during commerce therewith. Also disclosed is assigning the different billing data through real-time and advance distribution of the different billing data to a user, as well. Also disclosed is validating the correctness of a charge through confirmation of the charge with a financial institution, such as a bank, and by comparing itemized charges against expected charges identified by the user. |
| US07664699B1 |
Automatic generation of temporary credit card information
Temporary credit card information is automatically obtained and input to online credit card purchases allowing users to protect their actual credit card information from interception while shopping online. |
| US07664693B1 |
Financial methodology for the examination and explanation of spread between analyst targets and market share prices
A financial methodology for examining, explaining and predicting the spread between analyst targets and stock prices, by analyzing how investor confidence is impacted by media coverage and correlating this to the spread. The methodology is based on a quantitative approach suitable for numerical processing. It measures the confidence along several categories, and allows for industry benchmarking. |
| US07664685B1 |
Computer-implemented system for recording oil and gas inspection data
A system for recording oil and gas inspection data comprising an inspection database server; a server-side vendor inspection database; at least one inspector client device; an inspector-side vendor inspection database; at least one customer client device; wherein at least one inspector inputs oil and gas inspection data to the inspection database server; wherein the inspection database server comprises computer instructions for instructing the inspection database server to provide at least one report; wherein the at least one inspector client device and the at least one customer client device are operable to access the oil and gas inspection data, the at least one report, or combinations thereof; and wherein the computer instructions instruct the inspection database server to formulate the at least one report for selected oil and gas inspection data and communicate the at least one report for viewing by at least one customer upon demand. |
| US07664684B2 |
Method and system for catch-weight management
A multiple transaction quantity inventory management system including an inventory management component to store and manage inventory information using a base unit of measure (“UOM”) and in a valuation UOM related by at least one conversion factor for each of a plurality of goods; a material management component connected to the inventory management component, the material management component to monitor and maintain information on the plurality of goods in the base UOM and in the valuation UOM for each of the plurality of goods; a sales delivery component connected to the inventory management component, the sales delivery component to receive and process sales orders in the base UOM; a warehouse management component connected to the inventory management component, the warehouse management component to control stock information for the plurality of goods in a single UOM; and a financial component connected to the inventory management component, the material management component, the sales delivery component, and the warehouse management component, the financial component to value movement of the plurality of goods using the valuation UOM. |
| US07664682B2 |
Methods and systems for electronic commerce facility client-based presentation offer management
A method, system and computer readable medium for facilitating interactive electronic commerce transactions over an electronic commerce network between a plurality of sellers and a plurality of buyers via an independent service provider. A request is received from a seller over the electronic commerce network to generate an auction program process associated with the seller. The auction program process associated with the seller is generated by an electronic commerce computer of the independent service provider. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) hyperlink associated with the auction program process is generated by the electronic commerce computer. The URL hyperlink is communicated to the seller for insertion into a web page hosted on a website other than the independent service provider's website, wherein the web page displays information about an item for sale. The auction program process generated by the electronic commerce computer of the independent service provider is activated when a buyer clicks on the inserted hyperlink on the hosting website. |
| US07664678B1 |
Directing internet shopping traffic and tracking revenues generated as a result thereof
A system having a client, a host server, a sponsor server, and a video server, and authoring toolkit, which are all interconnected via the Internet, which operate seamlessly together in order to provide video content to an end user at the client allowing the end user at the client to purchase products and/or services from the sponsor that are featured in the video content provided by the video server. As the user views video content on their computer or mobile device, images associated with segments of the content are periodically provided in conjunction with the video content. Each image contains an image map, which defines areas in the image. Each defined area, associated with a product which is displayed in that area of the image, is anchored to a hyperlink which links to web content from a sponsor server allowing for purchase via web connected computer or mobile device. |
| US07664675B2 |
Distribution aiding method, distribution aiding server, recording medium, distribution aiding program, and dealer terminal
The present invention relates to a distribution aiding system, a distribution aiding server, a distribution aiding method, and a distribution aiding program capable of selling articles without individual trading conditions being known to a maker, other users or other dealers, and is so configurated that a user retrieves or selects a necessary article, the user registers order information according to the selected article, and a dealer in charge of the user registers order-acceptance condition information to be added to the order information, and notifies the user of the order-acceptance condition information. |
| US07664670B1 |
Product development and assessment system
The present invention discloses a method, program product and system for conducting product assessment and development. One preferred embodiment relates to a concept and product development technique. An exemplary system and method relates to a web-based survey technique that facilitates developing and testing new products, business investments, and value propositions, as well as testing existing products, businesses, and value propositions. This technique includes systematic solicitation of potential customers or other targeted respondents, eliciting data from customers, automatic processing, interpretation, and scoring of the data, and automatic report generation. The disclosed technique advantageously makes use of continuous metric scales to enable respondents to rate new or existing products. Using an on-line system, this embodiment of the invention provides a fast, engaging, and inexpensive way to gauge customer acceptance and use. |
| US07664661B2 |
Electronic method and system that improves efficiencies for rendering diagnosis of radiology procedures
An electronic method and system for improving radiologists' efficiencies when viewing radiology procedures and rendering diagnosis in a manner that emulates current methods and apparatus. The method of the present invention includes reviewing electronic radiology images and reports contained in a patient's digital master folder (an information object invented to manage the patient's radiology information), comparing images from the current procedure to specific images from prior procedures in a specified order, and dictating the procedure's diagnosis into the digital master folder. The apparatus of the present invention includes a flat panel monitor for the viewing and manipulation of digital master folders, a dictation trackball device for manual and voice enabled operation and navigation of the system, and multiple high-resolution computer monitors functioning as a “light-box” for the viewing of radiology images. |
| US07664658B2 |
Method for enabling or blocking an operating mode of a medical diagnostic device
A method for the enabling or blocking of an operating mode in a medical diagnostic device enables the operating mode of the diagnostic device only after successful verification of the consumable material required for the operational mode. The consumable material is identified by a machine-readable identification tag, which is read off by a reading device. |
| US07664656B2 |
Method of sorting waste utilizing removable liners
Methods for using a liner in a waste sorting and disposal system are provided. The liner includes an internal space and an opening that provides access to that internal space. In some embodiments, the liner may also include a machine-readable identification key that is configured to identify a type of waste that the liner may receive. In some embodiments, the machine-readable key is optical, color-coded, alphanumeric or graphical. The liner can include one or more closure members to allow a user to securely seal the liner when it is removed from the container. In some embodiments, the liner can include a flange, lip, hook or other protrusion to secure its position relative to a container. |
| US07664655B2 |
Electronic service of process system and method for carrying out service of court papers
A system and method for online creation and integration of service of process functions is provided, for use in conjunction with paper or electronic filing of court papers. By logging on to a web page, the user can access a rules and decision matrix database providing the rules and requirements for process service by jurisdiction and type. Such rules can be incorporated into process requests using online tools and document management software. Once entered, the requests are compiled in a database, and a system controller coordinates with affiliated process servers to procure process service in the desired jurisdiction. |
| US07664653B2 |
System and method for electronic, web-based, address element correction for uncoded addresses
Systems and methods for correcting addresses to contain a code representing a delivery segment (ZIP+4™ code) within a defined geographic location (ZIP Code™) include determining whether the address is already matched with a ZIP+4™ code and contains a valid delivery point. Further, if a match the address cannot be made, the systems and method may correct or adjust the address and check if a match can be made after correcting and/or adjusting the address. If no match can be made after correcting and/or adjusting, the systems and methods may send the address to a district office and/or delivery unit to determine the ZIP+4™ code and the delivery point. |
| US07664652B2 |
Record-keeping system for transmission and production of content
A system for producing content, the content depicting at least one person, includes: means for producing content; a first database; first input means for providing information pertaining to a person to be depicted in the content to the first database; and means for providing a signature of the person to the first database. |
| US07664643B2 |
System and method for speech separation and multi-talker speech recognition
A method, and a system to execute this method is being presented for the identification and separation of sources of an acoustic signal, which signal contains a mixture of multiple simultaneous component signals. The method represents the signal with multiple discrete state-variable sequences and combines acoustic and context level dynamics to achieve the source separation. The method identifies sources by discovering those frames of the signal whose features are dominated by single sources. The signal may be the simultaneous speech of multiple speakers. |
| US07664642B2 |
System and method for automatic speech recognition from phonetic features and acoustic landmarks
A probabilistic framework for acoustic-phonetic automatic speech recognition organizes a set of phonetic features into a hierarchy consisting of a broad manner feature sub-hierarchy and a fine phonetic feature sub-hierarchy. Each phonetic feature of said hierarchy corresponds to a set of acoustic correlates and each broad manner feature of said broad manner feature sub-hierarchy is further associated with a corresponding set of acoustic landmarks. A pattern recognizer is trained from a knowledge base of phonetic features and corresponding acoustic correlates. Acoustic correlates are extracted from a speech signal and are presented to the pattern recognizer. Acoustic landmarks are identified and located from broad manner classes classified by the pattern recognizer. Fine phonetic features are determined by the pattern recognizer at and around the acoustic landmarks. The determination of fine phonetic features may be constrained by a pronunciation model. The most probable feature bundles corresponding to words and sentences are those that maximize the joint a posteriori probability of the fine phonetic features and corresponding acoustic landmarks. When the hierarchy is organized as a binary tree, binary classifiers such as Support Vector Machines can be used in the pattern classifier and the outputs thereof can be converted probability measures which, in turn may be used in the computation of the aforementioned joint probability of fine phonetic features and corresponding landmarks. |
| US07664640B2 |
System for estimating parameters of a gaussian mixture model
A signal processing system is disclosed which is implemented using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based Hidden Markov Model (HMM), or a GMM alone, parameters of which are constrained during its optimization procedure. Also disclosed is a constraint system applied to input vectors representing the input signal to the system. The invention is particularly, but not exclusively, related to speech recognition systems. The invention reduces the tendency, common in prior art systems, to get caught in local minima associated with highly anisotropic Gaussian components—which reduces the recognizer performance—by employing the constraint system as above whereby the anisotropy of such components are minimized. The invention also covers a method of processing a signal, and a speech recognizer trained according to the method. |
| US07664639B2 |
Apparatus and methods for speech recognition
A telephone dialing speech recognition method includes determining a location associated with a cellular telephone from geographic indications provided by the cellular telephone, and selects associated search information as a function of the location. Speech based dialers operating in a car environment often have difficulty determining the digits said since some digits have similar sounding names in certain languages. To improve recognition performance, constraints are added to the recognition process, based on the natural constraints of the dialing process. The method utilizes the selected associated search information when recognizing the incoming speech signal. For speech dialing, if the user defines a location where the phone is used, then the “numbering plan” of that country may be used to constrain certain digits. Such constraining of the speech recognizer significantly improves the recognition results. |
| US07664637B2 |
Audio-visual codebook dependent cepstral normalization
An arrangement for yielding enhanced audio features towards the provision of enhanced audio-visual features for speech recognition. Input is provided in the form of noisy audio-visual features and noisy audio features related to the noisy audio-visual features. |
| US07664636B1 |
System and method for indexing voice mail messages by speaker
The invention provides a system and method for indexing and organizing voice mail message by the speaker of the message. One or more speaker models are created from voice mail messages received. As additional messages are left, each of the new messages are compared with existing speaker models to determine the identity of the callers of each of the new messages. The voice mail messages are organized within a user's mailbox by caller. Unknown callers may be identified and tagged by the user and then used to create new speaker models and/or update existing speaker models. |
| US07664635B2 |
Adaptive voice detection method and system
A system for detecting a voice signal includes: a first integrator for receiving an input signal and for providing a first integrator output signal, wherein the first integrator includes a first attack time; a second integrator for receiving the input signal and for providing a second integrator output signal, the second integrator including a second attack time that is substantially slower than the first attack time; and a comparator configured for receiving the first and second integrator output signals and for providing a comparator output signal indicating detection of a voice signal when the first integrator output signal exceeds the second integrator output signal by at least a threshold amount. |
| US07664633B2 |
Audio coding via creation of sinusoidal tracks and phase determination
Coding of an audio signal represented by a respective set of sampled signal values for each of a plurality of sequential segments is disclosed. The sampled signal values are analyzed (40) to determine one or more sinusoidal components for each of the plurality of sequential segments. The sinusoidal components are linked (42) across a plurality of sequential segments to provide sinusoidal tracks. For each sinusoidal track, a phase comprising a generally monotonically changing value is determined and an encoded audio stream including sinusoidal codes (r) representing said phase is generated (46). |
| US07664628B2 |
Electronic dictionary with illustrative sentences
When two or more retrieval words are entered through an entry unit of an information display control device, illustrative sentences containing all the retrieval words are extracted from an illustrative sentence data table and illustrative sentences corresponding to source entry words identical to the retrieval words are displayed in the order in which the retrieval words are entered and when a source entry word is selected, explanatory information of the meaning number identical to the source meaning number is displayed on a display unit, whereby the appropriate meaning of a word contained in an retrieved sentence is displayed. |
| US07664625B2 |
Molecular modeling for metalloproteins
A method for designing a metal ion for use in a molecular dynamics simulation can include the steps of building a metal ion molecule having a center atom and a dummy atom, assigning a van der Waals radius to the center atom, and assigning a charge to the dummy atom. A metal ion molecule may have the center atom covalently linked to one or more dummy atoms resulting in the metal ion molecule having a polyhedron geometry. New force field parameters may be used in methods for designing metal ions for use in molecular dynamics simulations. |
| US07664623B1 |
Efficient simulation of manufacturing process of shapeable material using finite element analysis
Shapeable materials of interest are modeled with a rectangular mesh having N columns and M rows of substantially similar shell elements. The shapeable materials of interest are held in tension between a sink and a source. A column of fictitious elements is added to make the mesh wrapped-around continuous. The fictitious elements are marked as inactive, while other elements are marked as active. As the simulation moves on, the active elements are marched in the product producing direction of the machinery. When a pre-defined distance has traveled in the simulation the present invention performs the following: Activate inactive elements at the source; Copy all history data including stresses from the last column of active elements to newly activated elements; Deactivate the lead column of active elements at the sink; and Move the set of nodal boundary conditions to newly established boundary nodes at the sink and the source. |
| US07664619B2 |
Fault detection unit for rotation angle detecting device
A fault detection unit detects a fault occurred in a detecting device which detects a rotational angle of a rotor with respect to a stator from sine and cosine wave signals having amplitudes modulated in a sinusoidal wave shape in a cycle of rotation of the rotor. The unit produces a judging value from the signals, judges occurrence of a fault from the value placed out of a normal range, and judges the device to be in a tentative fault state when the judgment is continued. After this judgment, when the rotational angle is changed over its entire range while the value is placed within the normal range, the unit judges the device to have returned to a normal state. In contrast, when the judgment is still continued, the unit judges the device to be in a determinate fault state and decides the occurrence of the fault. |
| US07664614B2 |
Method of inspecting photomask defect
A method of inspecting defect of a mask is provided. In this method, a database for storing a plurality of virtual simulation models is created. The virtual simulation models are determined by a plurality of factors including an optical effect and a chemical effect during the transferring the pattern of a mask to the photoresist layer on a wafer. A mask defect image is acquired. A simulation contour of the mask defect image is generated from at least one virtual simulation model in the database. Next, the acceptability of the mask is determined. |
| US07664613B2 |
System and method of data harvesting
Data harvesting can be carried out relative to performance or reliability information associated with one or more groups of electrical units. Ambient condition detectors associated with a variety of industrial or commercial installations and subject to a variety of different conditions can be returned for performance and reliability testing after predetermined usage intervals. Analysis of test results can be maintained in a database. Customers can be provided multilevel access to the information in the database. Reliability and test results for a class of detectors can be provided to a number of customers that have provided samples for evaluation. Application specific information can be limited to a particular customer or customers. |
| US07664605B2 |
Absolute calibration process and device for a tissue modulated Raman spectrometer
A calibrator suitable for calibrating a noninvasive analyte detector, such as a Raman spectroscopy device, allows the user of the detection device to establish standard measurements of the analyte to be detected, thereby providing assurance that appropriate analyte measurements are obtained at the time of sampling. The calibrator is simple to use, making it suitable for home use by individuals regardless of medical or technical skill level. In particular, the calibrator can be used with a noninvasive glucose detection system, such as for monitoring of blood glucose levels in diabetics. For use with noninvasive detectors designed for obtaining measurements from a subject's fingertip, the calibrator can be formed into a shape that reasonably mimics a fingertip in size, texture and/or spectral properties. |
| US07664601B2 |
Weather incident prediction
A method for short-term prediction of storm cells in aircraft using a modified weather radar system, and a modified weather radar system embodying the method. The storm cell prediction method including the operations of accessing first and second weather radar images generated relative to the aircraft and having a similar relationships to the aircraft; mapping the first weather radar image onto the second weather radar image; comparing the first and second weather radar images; forecasting information describing a weather condition represented by the first and second weather radar images; retrieving a phase of flight of the aircraft; and generating a warning as a function of the forecast information describing a weather condition and the aircraft phase of flight. |
| US07664600B2 |
Obstacle detection device
Each of plural detection units performs a signal transmission-reception operation responding to at least one of a plurality of kinds of operation timing signals repeated at a predetermined periodicity. The number of continuous reception times of the reflection signal is counted and used to determine obstacle detection when the number of counts is larger than or equal to a predetermined value. The transmission-reception operations are controlled by an operation timing signal having a periodicity shorter than the predetermined periodicity. |
| US07664599B2 |
Apparatus for generating digital lane mark
A digital lane mark generation apparatus generates a highly accurate and inexpensive three-dimensional mathematical expression orbit map (a digital lane mark). The apparatus includes a GPS coordinate reception unit obtaining GPS coordinates (X, Y, Z), a gyro sensor calculating measurement values of a gradient (ψ, θ, φ), a camera device, a distance meter measuring a driving distance measuring point (l), a speed meter measuring a speed, a steering angle sensor measuring a steering angle (ρ), a road surface roughness sensor detecting a road surface roughness (δ), an IC tag information reception unit detecting IC tag position information, an internal timer, and a digital lane mark generation unit generating the digital lane mark by relating obtained information to a standard time, and by using a line segment, a circular arc, and/or a clothoid curve. |
| US07664598B2 |
Guiding device and guiding method
The present invention provides a guiding device that can induce a user to move according to a guiding route.The guiding device according to the present invention is a guiding device which guides a user, including an acquisition unit (101) which acquires a guiding route for the user, a recognition unit (102) which recognizes an object which exists in the user's vicinity, a management unit (104) which manages an object and an adjustment method for adjusting an influence that the object has on the movement of the user, by associating the object and the adjustment method in advance, a judgment unit (103) which judges whether or not the object recognized by the recognition unit (102) exists within the guiding route acquired by the acquisition unit (101), and an adjustment unit (110) which executes a specified adjustment process based on the judgment made by the judgment unit (102), and on the adjustment method managed in association with the object recognized by the recognition unit (102). |
| US07664596B2 |
Air traffic demand prediction
Systems and methods for airspace demand prediction with improved sector level demand prediction are provided. In one embodiment, an air traffic demand prediction system (10) operable to predict demand within an airspace divided into sectors includes an expanded route predictor (14) operable to generate predicted two-dimensional expanded route information (40) associated with at least one requested flight (34), a trajectory modeler (16) operable to generate predicted four-dimensional expanded route information (46), a sector crossing predictor (18) operable to generate predicted sector crossing information (48), a departure time predictor (22) operable to generate predicted departure time information (54), and a demand modeler (62) operable to generate a demand model (28), the demand model (28) including predicted time intervals associated with the at least one requested flight indicating when it is expected to be present within one or more sectors of the airspace. |
| US07664595B2 |
Fault code memory manager architecture concept consisting of a dedicated monitoring unit module and a fault memory manager administrator module for heavy duty diesel engine
A fault code memory manager architecture for heavy duty diesel engines consisting of a dedicated monitoring unit module and at least one fault code memory manager administrator module. |
| US07664594B2 |
Starting system and method of internal combustion engine
In a starting system of an internal combustion engine, an injector for injecting fuel directly into a combustion chamber and an ignition plug for igniting an air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber are provided, and a throttle device is provided in an intake pipe. During stopping of the engine, the starting system operates the throttle device to open a throttle valve to a predetermined throttle opening at a throttle opening speed that is set based on the intake pressure. Upon a start of the engine, the starting system actuates the injector to inject the fuel into a cylinder that is in the expansion stroke, and actuates the ignition plug to ignite the mixture in the combustion chamber. |
| US07664593B2 |
Method and system for estimating exhaust gas temperature and internal combustion engine equipped with such a system
A method for estimating temperature of an internal combustion engine exhaust gases, a system for estimating exhaust gas temperature, and an engine equipped with such a system. The method uses an estimator with a neural network provided with a feedback loop returning directly or indirectly in the network input one or more quantities of the network output. |
| US07664591B2 |
Engine control apparatus
An apparatus and a method of control of the engine for separating and detecting the fuel remaining in the engine and in the intake passages before the start of the engine and also detecting the fuel property, and calculating a parameter such as an optimum fuel injection quantity when the engine is started, and thus enabling an efficient exhaust performance and a good running performance to be compatible at start-up. The engine control apparatus has a unit for detecting or estimating a burned fuel quantity of the engine, and a unit for separating and detecting a burned fuel quantity supplied from the fuel injection valve and a burned quantity of fuel other than the fuel supplied from the injection valve. |
| US07664584B2 |
Steering control system
A steering control system comprises a steering component, a turning component, and a backup mechanism for alternately mechanically separating and linking steering and turning components. A steer-by-wire control unit is provided for executing steer-by-wire control of a turning actuator to a turning angle corresponding to a steering condition and control of a steering reaction force actuator for imparting steering reaction force corresponding to the turning condition. A steering assistance control unit is selectively linked to the backup mechanism to executing steering assistance control for at least one of the steering reaction force actuator and the turning actuator. A control switching unit is provided for controlling a shift, under predetermined conditions, between control by the steer-by-wire control unit and control by the steering assistance control unit. |
| US07664582B2 |
Automobile and control method of automobile
In an automobile of the invention, a cornering drag estimator 61 estimates a cornering drag from measurements of steering angle θ and vehicle speed V. A gain multiplier 62 multiplies the estimated cornering drag by a preset gain K to reduce the estimated cornering drag. A phase adjuster 63 adjusts the phase of the rest of the estimated and reduced cornering drag. An implementation system 70 receives the sum of the output of the gain multiplier 62 and the output of the phase adjuster 63 and regulates the throttle opening of an engine according to the received sum. This adjusts the phase and the degree of reduction of the estimated cornering drag. This arrangement of the invention attains the adequate levels of pitching and rolling, which may be caused in the vehicle in the turning state. |
| US07664581B2 |
Method and device for changing over a first mode of a control device to a second mode, via a data bus
A method and a system for switching between a first operating mode and a second operating mode of a target control device connected to a data bus are provided. After activation of the target control device, a test device generates a predefined signal to be transmitted on the data bus, the predefined signal having a predefined frequency and a predefined pulse-duty factor. The target control device is switched from the first operating mode to the second operating mode in response to detecting the predefined signal transmitted on the data bus. |
| US07664578B2 |
Optimizing initial inclinations and RAANs of a satellite constellation
A method for minimizing the amount of propellant required to be carried onboard the satellites of an Earth orbiting satellite constellation to maintain the minimum angle of elevation between a selected geographical area of the Earth and at least one satellite of the constellation during the life of the constellation includes establishing an optimal initial inclination and RAAN of each satellite of the constellation. The method enables the satellites of the constellation to carry additional hardware and other payload mass, or alternatively, the design life of the constellation to be increased. |
| US07664575B2 |
Contingency mode operating method for air conditioning system
An air conditioning apparatus including a heater or furnace includes a controller for receiving control signals from a thermostat and from a user interface for initiating a contingency mode of operation when a signal from the thermostat is not available. The user interface includes a visual display and multiple keys for entering the contingency mode which includes selecting a capacity of heat output of the apparatus and a duty cycle. The user interface may be disposed in the apparatus cabinet and connected directly to a microprocessor based controller for the apparatus. The contingency mode is automatically aborted if a fault signal is received by the controller, a signal is received from a thermostat or power to the apparatus is interrupted. |
| US07664574B2 |
Method for representing a building system enabling facility viewing for maintenance purposes
A method of displaying information regarding a building includes a step of storing a model of a building system in a memory, the model comprising a plurality of building objects. The building objects include building space objects and building automation device objects. Each object has a first field referencing at least one related object. The method also includes generating display information regarding a first object. The method further includes identifying a second object referenced in the first field of the first object and generating display information regarding the second object. |
| US07664571B2 |
Controlling a robot using pose
Systems and methods are presented that enable robot commands to be determined based on the pose of an object. A method is described for determining the orientation and pose of an object using indistinguishable points. The resolution of the pose detection is based on the robot'command vocabulary. A system is described for controlling a robot by pose detection using unlabelled points. |
| US07664566B2 |
Graphical automated machine control and metrology
A graphical programming system allows a user to place geometric shapes onto a scaled image, the shape having associated behavior that operates on the image or on the object of which the image is formed. In a preferred embodiment, the shapes are objects in the Visio program by Microsoft Corporation. The shapes are dragged from a stencil onto an image provided by ion beam or electron microscope image. The shape invokes software or hardware to locate and measure features on the image or to perform operations, such as ion beam milling, on the object that is imaged. |
| US07664565B2 |
Method for compensating wear of a finishing tool
The invention is a method of creating greater accuracies for wear compensation of a finishing tool during the finishing of workpieces, in which a reference surface is ablated by initially traversing the finishing tool over the reference surface and determining the actual wear of the finishing tool as a result of this initial feed motion of the finishing tool controlled by an NC feed program of an NC machine. The actual measured wear of the finishing tool as a result of the initial traversing feed motion over the reference surface is compared to a known empirical wear trend line for the workpiece and the feed motion of the NC feed program for the next workpiece is recalculated as a function of the comparative actual wear of the finish tool with respect to the known empirical wear trend line. |
| US07664564B2 |
Device, method and program for designing knit product
A setting area is stored in association with the external shape of a knitted fabric, and the setting area is altered as the external shape is altered. A unit pattern is vertically copied repeatedly in the setting area. When setting patterns exist on both sides of the boundary between front and rear knitted fabrics, the boundary being a start point of circumferential formation, the setting pattern on the start section side is shifted upward by one course. The range for providing the setting pattern therein can be altered automatically when the external shape of the knitted fabric is altered. Furthermore, the setting pattern does not become discontinuous in a course direction at the boundary between the front and rear knitted fabrics. |
| US07664562B2 |
Automatic defect review and classification system
The invention proposes a system that interrupts a processing associated with an ADC having low priority when an ADC processing cannot catch up with ADR by an ADC alone that is not under execution but uses an ADC for an ADR having high priority. To preferentially execute ADR/ADC having high priority, the invention employs an algorithm for serially selecting ADR/ADC in the order of higher processing capacity (in the order of greater numerical values in the expression by a DPH unit) from among ADR/ADCs that have the lowest priority, no matter whether the ADR/DC is now under execution or not. |
| US07664560B2 |
Portable media player with common earphone transmission port and signal adaptor cable thereof
A portable media player comprises an earphone transmission port, a detection circuit, a switch circuit, and a processor. The earphone transmission port mounted on the portable media player is electrically connected to a connector for receiving a signal or power transmitted from the connector. The detection circuit electrically connected to the earphone transmission port is used to detect a type of the connector for sending an informing signal. The switch circuit electrically connected to the earphone transmission port is used to switch between a signal inputting status and a signal outputting status according to the type of the connector. The processor electrically connected to the detection circuit and the switch circuit is used to receive the informing signal for turning on or off the switch circuit. |
| US07664552B2 |
Neurostimulation site screening
The disclosure describes a process for non-invasively screening a patient to select a stimulation site for treatment of head, neck or facial pain and tension symptoms caused by disorders such as occipital neuralgia. The screening process involves application of a transcutaneous stimulation screening device, a percutaneous micro-electrode screening device, and a temporary implantable screening device to the patient to select a site for chronic implantation. |
| US07664549B2 |
Cardiac rhythm management system with arrhythmia classification and electrode selection
A system, method, or device classifies an arrhythmia according to the temporal order in which a depolarization wave associated with a particular heart contraction is received at a plurality of electrodes. One or more antiarrhythmia therapies is mapped to each arrhythmia classification. When a particularly classified arrhythmia is detected, the correspondingly mapped therapy list is selected and an appropriate antiarrhythmia therapy delivered. In one example, the particular therapy delivered in response to an arrhythmia depends at least in part on its historical success in treating arrhythmias of that classification. |
| US07664548B2 |
Distributed neuromodulation system for treatment of cardiovascular disease
A distributed system is described that employs electrical neural stimulation to modulate autonomic activity and which allows titration of the neural stimulation therapy in accordance with physiological measurements reflective of autonomic activity and/or physiological variables affected by the neural stimulation. Such a system may include a plurality of implantable neuromodulation units that communicate with one another over a network. |
| US07664543B2 |
CT scanner for and method of imaging a preselected portion of the lower abdomen region of a patient
A CT scanner and method are designed to scan a preselected portion of a patient's lower abdomen. The scanner may include a source and detector array designed to rotate about a rotation axis oriented substantially parallel to or coincident with the hips of the a patient so that a scanning plane does not pass through the patient's pelvic bones Higher-resolution image CT images can be achieved by using a detector array of the type used for digital radiography. The presence of prostatic cancer can be detected by first injecting the patient with a material including a high contrast material for X-ray imaging and a material for binding the high contrast material to a specific biological site if present in the preselected portion of the lower abdomen of the patient; and generating a CT image of the preselected portion of the lower abdomen. |
| US07664540B2 |
Bluetooth earphone set with wire control function
A Bluetooth earphone set, which includes a main unit that houses an auto-reversible first winding mechanism and an auto-reversible second winding mechanism, an earphone cable coupled to the auto-reversible first winding mechanism for voice output, a signal connector cable coupled to the auto-reversible second winding mechanism and connectable to a cell phone, a switch, which is switched between a first position for enabling the earphone cable to output voice signal that is received wirelessly from a cell phone by the main unit and a second position for enabling the earphone to output voice signal that is received from a cell phone through the signal connector cable. |
| US07664537B2 |
Performance and efficiency of wireless devices
A wireless input device may negotiate a predefined transmit/receive schedule with a receiving device (i.e., PC, PDA, cellular device). To conserve power, the wireless components of the input device are powered down during periods of non-transmission. The wireless input device detects intermediate user input and corresponding data according to a detection rate during periods of non-transmission. The intermediate data is then transmitted to the receiving device during a transmission period along with a current data detected at the time of transmission. The wireless device may further discard any intermediate data which does not reflect a significant change. Additionally, the system and method may include a detection rate that adapts to degrees of user activity detected by the wireless input device. |
| US07664536B2 |
Character communication device
A character communication device which is connected to a network and enables at least communication by using characters. The device comprises a candidate term display means (S104) for displaying a group of candidate terms prepared for message communication in a candidate term display area (52) of the screen, a term selecting means (2b) for outputting a term which is selected by the operator from the group of candidate terms, and a message generating means (S108) for generating a message by serially displaying a plurality of outputted terms in a message editing area (53) of the screen and sending the generated message to a transmitting/receiving means. |
| US07664529B2 |
Methods and apparatus for data communication for mobile electronic devices
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for discovering the presence of at least one source and target mobile device, automatically displaying a graphical interface to show the dataset from the source mobile device, and initiating the transmission of data between the mobile devices, is provided. The method further includes automatically receiving the dataset from the source mobile device, where the dataset is at least a representation of the data on the source device. In one embodiment, the representation is a subset of the data on the device and/or a description of the data on the mobile device. In another embodiment, a method for a navigation system to discover the presence of at least one mobile device, to automatically receive data from the mobile device, and to process the data with navigation operations, is provided. |
| US07664527B2 |
Network identity and timezone (NITZ) functionality for non-3GPP devices
A system that provisions a multimode mobile or converged device with local time information and network provider identification when the multimode mobile device is operating within the purview of a wireless local area network (WLAN). The system includes components that receive protocol data and that extract network provider identification from the received protocol data as well as utilizing the received protocol data to ascertain the local time. |
| US07664523B2 |
Base station and mobile apparatus
When a judging unit judges that there is no mobile-apparatus transmission data, a first generating unit decreases a reference value for generating a transmission-power control command, by a value equivalent to an amount of an outer-loop adjustment. A second generating unit compares generated reference value and a line quality that is measured by a measuring unit, when the former is larger than the latter, generates a transmission-power control command for reducing a transmission power of the mobile apparatus, and when the former is smaller than the latter, generates a transmission-power control command for increasing the transmission power of the mobile apparatus. |
| US07664521B2 |
Target value control system for transmission power control and method thereof and base station and mobile communication terminal
In the mobile communication system, a total reception quality between a terminal and a base station is converged into a target quality, thereby suppressing a period in which the transmission power of a distant station becomes excessive.In a mobile communication terminal, when a target SIR for the transmission power control in a down link from a radio base station is controlled, when a transmission power control system using a moving average is adopted, an error occurrence situation is detected by a reception quality calculating unit, and when many errors occur in the short time in the shadow of a building and the like, the number of errors is replaced with a predetermined upper limit value, and the reception quality of the moving average is calculated by an up/down adjusting unit, and when this calculating result is better than a target reception quality, the going down timing and down width of the target SIR are changed, and the target SIR at that time is decided and controlled by a target SIR deciding unit. In this way, the period in which the transmission power of the radio station becomes excessive can be suppressed. |
| US07664519B2 |
Power control for multiple transport channels in a wireless communication system
Techniques are provided to control the transmit power for data transmission on multiple transport channels having different signal quality (SIR) targets. A single SIR target is maintained for all transport channels, and this SIR target is adjusted based only on active transport channels. For each update interval, a data processor processes at least one data block received in the current update interval on at least one of the transport channels and provides the status of each received data block. A controller increases the SIR target based on an up step if any received data block is erased and decreases the SIR target based on a down step if all received data blocks are good. If any received data block is erased, the down step used to adjust the SIR target may be set to the smallest down step size required by all transport channels with erased data blocks. |
| US07664518B2 |
Group call server, group call system, terminal, and group call control method
An object of the present invention is to be able to rejoin a group call by spontaneous operation from the terminal side at an optional timing.The group call server provides a plurality of mobile communications terminals with a function of a group call between the terminals through a communications network, and comprises: an ID granting unit that grants the group call to be established a call ID that identifies the group call; an ID notification unit that gives the terminals participating in the group call to be established the call ID granted to the group call by the ID granting unit; a rejoin request receiving unit that receives requests to rejoin the group call that have been transmitted from a terminal disconnected from the group call and that include the call ID; and a rejoin control unit that allows the terminal that transmitted the request to rejoin the group call related to the call ID included in the rejoin request received by the rejoin request receiving unit. |
| US07664517B2 |
Wireless communication system utilizing a persistence value for group communication requests to reduce latency
A system and method for minimizing latency for direct group communications, such as push-to-talk (PTT) calls, among a group of wireless telecommunication devices on a wireless telecommunication network. The wireless telecommunication device selectively requests and then receives an open dedicated broadcast channel for an outgoing communication, which can include a group communication stream to a communication server that receives and creates a group communication to all wireless telecommunication devices of the designated group. The wireless telecommunication device selectively receives a broadcast channel based upon a predetermined probability, and assigns a greater probability of receiving an open broadcast channel for requests to transmit group communication streams than for requests to open a broadcast channel that are not for a group communication. |
| US07664504B2 |
Virtual cells for wireless networks
In a network having multiple wireless transmitters, a mobile device operating with the network may be assigned one or more wireless transmitters as a virtual cell. Transmissions to the mobile device may be broadcast from several cells simultaneously, so that the mobile device will receive the transmissions in any of the areas covered by the cells. When the network determines that the mobile device is moving out of one cell area and into another, the virtual cell may move as well. The virtual cell may consist of one or many areas covered by a wireless network, and may have a shape that is determined by geography, trajectory, wireless coverage, or other factors. |
| US07664502B2 |
Radio network controller and method for handover of mobile terminal
In a radio network controller (100), a buffer (161) for buffering data received from a mobile terminal (MT) via different base stations (BS1 and BSX) is expanded in accordance with the magnitude of the difference between the data transmission time from the base station (BS1) to the radio network controller (100) and the data transmission time from the base station (BSX) to the radio network controller (100). |
| US07664493B1 |
Redundancy mechanisms in a push-to-talk realtime cellular network
Redundant mechanism in a push-to-talk (PTT) realtime architecture. Redundancy is provided in core delivery systems, which are employed for the emulation of “walkie-talkie” service with circuit switched duplex calls in the carrier network. The disclosed architecture provides for geographic and/or realtime mated redundancy. In one implementation, realtime redundancy is offered in an active-active scenario, although other scenarios are possible. Similarly, redundancy is provided in a roaming gateway implementation of the PTT network. |
| US07664490B2 |
Method for instant scheduling of conference calls
A method, system and computer program product for establishing a call in a communication system including an Instant Messaging (IM) application provided by a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) server connected to a number of IM clients, each associated with at least one conference endpoint managed by one or more management systems at least adapted to schedule and/or investigate possibilities for a conference between two or more individuals. |
| US07664489B2 |
Method for communication between cellular phones
A method for a communication between two cellular phones is provided, in which the communication between the cellular phones includes an intercom communication and a telephone communication. The method includes steps of providing a telephone number of one cellular phone and an intercom number associated with the telephone number in the other cellular phone, dialing the telephone number of the one cellular phone by the other cellular phone to activate a calling to the intercom number associated with the telephone number, determining whether the cellular phones are within an intercom communication area, and performing the intercom communication therebetween while the cellular phones are within an intercom communication area, or performing the telephone communication therebetween while the cellular phones are without an intercom communication area. |
| US07664487B2 |
Mobile terminal and method of managing data reception using the mobile terminal
In sending an e-mail to the mobile phone, the e-mail is first sent to the server apparatus. After the server apparatus identifies the sender, it sends a mail presence notice (MPN) to the mobile phone. When receiving the MPN, the mobile phone memorizes a mail ID included in the MPN in association with user identification of a SIM card. Then, the mobile phone sends a request for header data to the server apparatus based on the mail ID. When receiving the header data completely sent from the server apparatus upon the request, the mobile phone deletes the mail ID which it has memorized in association with the user identification data. |
| US07664481B2 |
Remote personnel tracking
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for remote personnel tracking. A computer-implemented method of tracking a field-based employee includes, in a server system, receiving from a remote access device, a user identification (ID) representing the field-based employee, a first series of digits and a location code, generating a second series of digits in response to the received location code, a time representing receipt of the location code, and a remote access device ID associated with the location code, and storing the time and user ID associated with the location ID if the received first series of digits match the second series of digits. |
| US07664479B2 |
Receiver and method for scanning and receiving wake-up signals with multiple configurations
A method for receiving first signals and further signals using a receiver, the first and further signals differing in at least one of the transmission parameters data rate, modulation type, wake-up criterion, synchronization and threshold value, comprises the steps of: in a first step, in a quiescent mode of the receiver, receiving and searching for a wake-up criterion (A) is performed intermittently using a first preset adjustable configuration of transmission parameters, and when no signal is received and no wake-up criterion (A) is found, the system switches to at least one further configuration and a search is made for a wake-up criterion (B). |
| US07664475B2 |
Multi-band wireless transceiver and method of controlling the same
A multi-band wireless transceiver having a plurality of signal-processing paths, and further having a function of making wireless communication through a plurality of frequency bands by selecting one of the signal-processing paths, includes a band identification circuit for identifying a frequency band, the band identification circuit identifying a frequency band in dependence on a frequency-band information received from a controller which controls an operation of the multi-band wireless transceiver, and selecting one of the signal-processing paths in accordance with the identified frequency band. |
| US07664474B2 |
Portable electronic device and a method in a portable electronic device
A method in a portable communication device for displaying information includes encoding data and transmitting the encoded data to a display associated with a vehicle. The encoded data is received by a receiver associated with the display, decoded and displayed. |
| US07664468B2 |
Wireless transceiver system
A wireless transceiver system, for compensating a transport loss, includes an antenna (300), a transceiver (100), a tower mounted amplifier (TMA) (200), and a transport loss detector (400). The transceiver transmits a first signal at a transmit power. The first signal is changed into a second signal after the cable attenuation from the transceiver. The TMA, connected to the transceiver via a cable, receives the second signal and amplifies the second signal. The transport loss detector, connected between the TMA and the transceiver, detects a transmission state of the transceiver, and calculates a transport loss between the transceiver and the TMA. The TMA transmits signals to the antenna or receives signals from the antenna according to the detected result of the transport loss detector, and compensates the transport loss according to the calculated result of the transport loss detector. |
| US07664460B2 |
Systems and methods for terrestrial reuse of cellular satellite frequency spectrum in a time-division duplex and/or frequency-division duplex mode
A space-based component, such as a satellite, is configured to receive wireless communications from radiotelephones in a satellite footprint over an uplink satellite radiotelephone frequency, and to transmit wireless communications to the radiotelephones over a downlink radiotelephone frequency. An ancillary terrestrial network, that may include one or more ancillary terrestrial components, is configured to transmit wireless communications to, and receive wireless communications from, the radiotelephones over the uplink satellite radiotelephone frequency in a time-division duplex mode. An interference reducer is configured to reduce interference from the wireless communications that are received by the space-based component from the second radiotelephone and/or from the ancillary terrestrial network over the uplink satellite radiotelephone frequency, using the wireless communications that are transmitted by the ancillary terrestrial to, and/or received by the ancillary terrestrial network from, the second radiotelephone over the uplink satellite radiotelephone frequency. |
| US07664456B2 |
System and method for streaming data between a portable server computing device and a client computing device
A system and a method for streaming data between a portable server computing device and a client computing device are provided. The method includes transmitting an RF signal having streaming data from a first audio file from the portable server computing device to a client computing device. The method further includes emitting sound corresponding to the streaming data in the RF signal from the client computing device, in response to the client computing device receiving the RF signal. |
| US07664450B2 |
Image fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus
An image fixing apparatus stably maintains high efficiency in heat generation and reduces excessive heat and loss of electric power consumption for fixing image. In at least one embodiment, the image fixing apparatus includes a magnetic flux generating member to generate a magnetic flux, and a heat member to generate heat with the magnetic flux. The heat member includes a first heat layer and a second heat layer having a relatively higher volume resistivity than the first heat layer, and having different thickness and/or different volume resistivity depending on a position in the width direction of the second heat layer. Portions of the magnetic flux generating member face different sides of the heat member. |
| US07664448B2 |
Apparatus and method of heating image on recordable material
An image heating apparatus includes a pressure roller, a belting film to circulate while partially connecting with the pressure roller, a support member to be provided in the belting film and comprises a guide to guide the circulating of the belting film, a nip spring to comprise a nip portion to form a nip between the belting film and the pressure roller, and a support portion to support the nip portion against the support member, and a heater to be provided adjacent to the nip spring and transfer heat to the image through the belting film. |
| US07664444B2 |
Image forming apparatus with multiple image forming modes
An image forming apparatus comprising first and second image bearing members, an intermediate transfer belt, a secondary transfer unit, a belt contacting and separating unit, a supporting member, and a separating unit, wherein, when the toner images are primarily transferred from the first and second image bearing members onto the intermediate transfer belt in a state where the intermediate transfer belt is in contact with the first and second image bearing members, the separating unit separates the supporting member from the intermediate transfer belt, and when the toner image is primarily transferred from the second image bearing member onto the intermediate transfer belt in a state where the intermediate transfer belt is away from the first image bearing member, the supporting member supports an inner surface of the intermediate transfer belt between the first and second image bearing members. |
| US07664436B2 |
Color electrophotographic image forming apparatus
A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus which simplifies a configuration in which a rotary is rotated to change over respective developing devices to a development position to reduce the costs and save the space, and which simplifies the changeover operation to reduce an operating time. The image forming apparatus sequentially moves and changes over the respective developing devices supported by the rotary to the development position which faces a photosensitive drum by the rotation of the rotary. The rotary is rotated to move the developing devices. A cam is rotated integrally with the rotary, and thereby abutment portions of the cam are abutted against a regulating rotatable member so that the developing devices are spaced from a photosensitive drum. In a state in which the developing devices are abutted against the photosensitive drum, the cam is spaced from the regulating rotatable member by recesses of the cam. |
| US07664434B2 |
Charging member, process cartridge and electrophotographic apparatus
A charging member is provided in which a toner, an additive for use in the toner, or the like is hard to adhere to the surface even under repeated use for a long time, and hence the charging and image output are made stable for a long time even if the charging member is used in the DC contact charging method. Also provided are a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus having the charging member. The charging member includes a support, a conductive elastic layer formed on the support, and a surface layer formed on the conductive elastic layer, characterized in that the surface layer contains a polysiloxane having a fluoroalkyl group and an oxyalkylene group, and a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus having the charging member. |
| US07664428B2 |
Electrophotographic image forming apparatus and process cartridge
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus to which a process cartridge is detachably mountable, the process cartridge can be positioned with high accuracy in a simple construction in an apparatus main body. The process cartridge is put on a cartridge tray, and the process cartridge is replaced by a front access. Furthermore, the process cartridge is moved in conjunction with opening/closing operations of a door member so that a photosensitive drum and a transfer belt are brought in contact with each other. |
| US07664424B2 |
Cleaning device and image forming apparatus
A cleaning device includes a cleaning component that cleans the surface of a charging component that charges an image carrier that has a surface on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed. The cleaning component is a hollow body that cleans the surface of the charging component while being rotated by rotation of the charging component. |
| US07664423B2 |
Image forming device including a cleaning member
An image forming device includes a photoconductive drum, a discharge electrode which discharges corona onto a surface of the photoconductive drum, and a cleaning member which cleans the discharge electrode by moving on the discharge electrode. The image forming device further includes a detection device, which is arranged on one of a first side and a second side in a moving direction of the cleaning member, and detects a current value of an electric current discharged from the discharge electrode. |
| US07664422B2 |
Image forming system and sheet humidifying apparatus
An image forming system, comprises an image forming section to form an image on a sheet; a fixing section to fix the image formed on the sheet; a sheet conveying passage to convey the fixed sheet; a humidifying roller arranged on the sheet passage and to humidify the sheet; a water supplying tank to feed water to the humidifying roller; an electric component; and a waterproofing member to protect the electric component from water. |
| US07664419B2 |
Work flow management apparatus and work flow management method
An apparatus manages a usage amount associated with each of a plurality of functions included in a work flow. The work flow is executed after it is determined whether an operation of each step included in the work flow can be executed or not. |
| US07664412B2 |
Image forming apparatus that adjusts operating conditions based on a density detection result of a patch image
An image forming apparatus and an image forming method, which are capable of forming images at stable image quality by executing adjustment of operating conditions at appropriate timings, are provided. When a Vsync count corresponding to an integrated value of a rotation count of an intermediate transfer belt reaches a predetermined value V1 or V2, a charging current Iw is increased by one level and an adjusting operation of a developing bias is executed (at a time t4 or t5), to thereby stabilize an image density. Further, when remaining service life of a developer reaches a predetermined value (50%) (at a time t6), if the Vsync count at that moment suggests that the time to change the charging current Iw is drawing near, the change thereof is executed ahead of the schedule, whereby the adjusting operation of the developing bias, which should otherwise be executed at the time t7, is omitted. |
| US07664410B2 |
Image forming apparatus with control of power to a fixing unit
An image forming apparatus including a main power supply unit, a chargeable auxiliary power supply unit, a fixing unit including a heater configured to receive power from at least one of the main power supply unit and the auxiliary power supply unit, and a voltage or temperature detecting part configured to detect a voltage input to the main power supply unit from a commercial power supply or to detect a voltage of the auxiliary power supply unit or to detect an environment temperature. Energy accumulated in the auxiliary power supply unit can be controlled to not be supplied to the fixing unit at a time of starting the fixing unit if the voltage or temperatures detected are less than predetermined values. |
| US07664407B2 |
Method and apparatus for image forming capable of effectively performing color image position adjustment
A color image forming apparatus including a plurality of image forming devices, a transfer device including a transfer belt, a test pattern forming device configured to form, on the transfer belt, a test pattern including a plurality of marks formed by the image forming devices, an optical sensor configured to read the plurality of marks, and a checking device configured to determine whether reading by the optical sensor is performed correctly or not. |
| US07664403B2 |
Synchronizing nodes in an optical communications system utilizing frequency division multiplexing
Attenuation caused by dispersion in an optical fiber communications system is compensated. A number of low-speed channels is to be transmitted across an optical fiber. Each low-speed channel is allocated a different frequency band for transmission. The attenuation caused by dispersion is estimated for each of the frequency bands. The power of each low-speed channel is adjusted to compensate for the estimated attenuation. The power-adjusted low-speed channels are frequency division multiplexed together to produce an electrical high-speed channel suitable for transmission across the communications system. |
| US07664400B1 |
Integrated electro-optic hybrid communication system
A system according to embodiments of the invention may comprise a first communication path that converts an optically-modulated source signal to a radio signal based on a detected degradation in a quality of a received optical signal, and a second communication path that converts a radio-modulated source signal to an optical signal based on a detected degradation in a quality of a received radio signal. The system may therefore adapt to diverse weather conditions to improve the reliability of a communication link. |
| US07664399B2 |
Optical communication device
An optical communication device whereby optical attenuation characteristics are linearized to suppress optical level variations among wavelengths attributable to the attenuation characteristics and thereby enable long-distance transmission. Optical attenuators attenuate optical signals of respective wavelengths in accordance with optical attenuation data output from a control data converter. An optical multiplexer multiplexes the optical signals, and an optical amplifier amplifies the multiplexed signal. A control data output unit outputs optical signal control data based on differences between a set optical level and the optical levels of respective wavelengths input to the optical amplifier. A data table holds data for converting the optical signal control data to the optical attenuation data so that the optical attenuation amounts of the attenuators may be linearized with respect to the optical signal control data. A control data converter looks up the data table to convert the optical signal control data to the optical attenuation data. |
| US07664398B2 |
ONU management method and optical line termination
In a PON system, a PON-ID assigned to a connected ONU before replacement is assigned to a newly connected ONU after the replacement and, setting data before the replacement is succeeded also after the replacement. An OLT includes a PON-ID state where a management state of the PON-ID is stored, a PON-ID management table where the PON-ID and an ONU serial number of the connected ONU and setting data are correspondingly stored and, a delete ONU table where the PON-ID and an ONU serial number of a replacement object are correspondingly stored. When the OLT receives an ONU replacement instruction from an operation system, the PON-ID assigned to the ONU of the replacement object is assigned to an ONU newly connected during the ONU replacement. |
| US07664394B2 |
Testing of receivers with separate linear O/E module and host used in communication links
A receiver for a communications link includes a receiver module and a host receiver. These two components can be tested independently. In one embodiment, the receiver module is characterized with respect to noise and distortion. The noise performance can be determined by comparing input and output signals of the receiver module, to determine the relative noise of the receiver module. The distortion performance can be determined by comparing the distortion of input and output signals of the receiver module, using a reference host receiver that includes an equalizer. The host receiver can be tested by using a reference receiver module. |
| US07664392B2 |
Automatic power restoring method and optical communication system
The present invention provides an automatic power restoring method capable of reliably detecting continuity by the dissolution of a line fault, to restore the optical power, even in a structure including an optical amplification medium on an optical transmission path and an optical communication system using the method. To this end, in an optical communication system to which the automatic power restoring method of the invention is applied, a pilot signal having a low transmission rate, a wavelength of which is set based on loss wavelength characteristics obtained by combining loss wavelength characteristics of an optical fiber used for the optical transmission path and loss wavelength characteristics of the optical amplification medium on the optical transmission path, is transmitted and received between an optical transmitting station and an optical receiving station when a line fault occurs, and a detection of continuity is thus performed. According to the result of the continuity detection, the power state at the occurrence of line fault is automatically restored to the power state at a time of normal operation. |
| US07664389B2 |
System and method of photography using desirable feature recognition
To improve the quality of photographs of people, the disclosure describes a system and method of photography using desirable feature recognition. The system and method recognize when the subject persons in a photograph possess one or more desirable features for a desirable photograph, such as when they are all smiling and/or not blinking. The system and method may be applied either to individual or group photographs. The system and method of the present invention may operate in a “Full Mode”, in which a picture is taken when all subject persons possess the desirable feature(s). The system and method also may operate in a “Proportional Mode”, in which a picture is taken when a set proportion of the subject persons possess the desirable feature(s). The system and method also may operate in a “Best Picture Mode”, in which multiple photographs are imaged, and the best photograph is selected for keeping, as measured by the photograph containing the highest proportion of subject persons who possess the desirable feature(s). The system and method also may operate in a timer mode, which permits the camera user to appear in the photograph. |
| US07664386B2 |
Electronic device having light source and heat transmission member
An electronic device includes a heat generating member arranged in a body, and a heat transmission member of a shape of a three-dimensional body having at least a first surface that is joined to the heat generating member and a second surface that is joined to an inner surface of the body. The first surface of the heat transmission member has an area greater than or equal to an area of the heat transmission member joined to the heat generating member, and an entire area of the second surface is joined to the inner surface of the body. |
| US07664385B2 |
Image capture device and associated method of compensating backlash
An image capture device includes a focusing unit, a focus driving unit and an autofocus control unit; the focusing unit is provided to focus on a subject. The focus driving unit is provided for driving the focusing unit to driving-target position. The autofocus control unit is provided to control driving of the focus driving unit according to a determination of executing or omitting a one-way-driving-control. One-way driving control controls driving direction of the focus driving unit into a predetermined direction at a peripheral range before driving-disactivation of the focus driving means, determined based on a shooting-condition. |
| US07664384B2 |
User defined autofocus area
A device allows a user to select an arbitrary portion of a scene being previewed for picture taking. In one implementation, the device includes a camera; a display to preview a scene associated with the camera; an interface configured to allow a user of the device to select a portion of the scene; and autofocus logic to adjust the focus of the camera based on the selected portion of the scene. |
| US07664382B2 |
Electronic blur correction device and electronic blur correction method
In an electronic blur correction device, imaging for a time-division exposure time is repeated m times (m is an integer of 2 or more), captured images are amplified by a factor of m to obtain a plurality of time-divided images, and an image for which blur is corrected is generated from the plurality of time-divided images. Here, the time-division exposure time is an exposure time that is obtained by dividing a proper exposure time by m and is shorter than a blur tolerable limit exposure time. |
| US07664380B2 |
Camera module
A camera module comprises a main body, a cone disposed in the main body to accommodate a lens, a base joined to the cone, a frame movably disposed on the base, an image detection unit fixed to the frame and moving on the base via the frame, a first circuit board joined to the image detection unit and moving on the base via the image detection unit, a second circuit board disposed on the main body, and a flexible circuit board with one end connected to the first circuit board and the other end connected to the second circuit board. The flexible circuit board has a plurality of slits dividing the flexible circuit board into a plurality of strips. The slits are parallel and extend from the first circuit board to the second circuit board. |
| US07664379B2 |
Fan heater
A fan heater including a housing through which air is able to flow in a longitudinal direction, a blower to propel the air and at least one heating element mounted elastically in the housing by means of a fixing element. Moreover the heating element is a PTC element and the blower is mounted separately from the PTC element in the housing. An assembly is also disclosed, which includes a fan heater as aforesaid, wherein at least two adapter plates, each exhibiting at least one fastening element for fixing the fan heater to a location intended for it and devices for fixing optionally one of the adapter plates to a housing in the fan heater, are provided. |
| US07664362B2 |
Cable management panel with sliding drawer and methods
An optical fiber cable management panel includes drawer assemblies, each including a drawer slidable within a chassis. The drawer assemblies are secured together by a bracket that includes an interlock arrangement with the chassis. Such an interlock arrangement includes a non-threaded stud engaging a hole. Radius limiters may be part of the drawer assembly and include a cable entry aperture have a closed perimeter and a flared cable guide surface around most of, and preferably all of, the closed perimeter to allow for the entry of cables from all directions. A control mechanism controls movement of the radius limiter relative to the drawer assembly. The control mechanism includes a rotating member that has an axis of rotation transverse to the slidable motion of the radius limiter and normal to the radius limiter. |
| US07664360B2 |
Fiber optic drop terminal mounting plate
There is provided fiber drop terminal (“FDT”) assemblies for providing selective connections between optical fibers of distribution cables and optical fibers of drop cables, such as in multiple dwelling units. The FDT assemblies include a mounting plate that enables the FDT to be conveniently and securely mounted to a generally vertical surface, such as a wall. The mounting plate is structured such that the base of the FDT must be removed before the mounting plate can be removed, and the cover of the FDT is structured that neither the base nor the mounting plate can be removed without first removing the cover. The cover may be selectively locked to the base and/or mounting plate with a locking fastener; therefore, only technicians able to remove the locking fastener may remove the cover, base, and/or mounting plate of the FDT assembly. |
| US07664357B2 |
Vertical-type photonic-crystal plate and optical device assembly
Provided are a photonic-crystal plate that forms an optical waveguide and an optical device assembly using the same, and more particularly, a vertical-type photonic-crystal plate and an optical device assembly configured to be easily integrated with surface-emitting light source devices and surface-receiving light detector devices. The photonic-crystal plate includes a plurality of cylindrical through holes formed in a thickness direction and arranged in a periodic crystal lattice structure. The plate further includes: a main crystal lattice defect that forms a main optical waveguide for passing lights in a direction perpendicular to the photonic-crystal plate; and a sub-crystal lattice defect that forms a sub-optical waveguide for causing light in a specific wavelength band among the lights passing through the main optical waveguide to be optically coupled and passing the coupled light in the direction perpendicular to the photonic-crystal plate. |
| US07664356B2 |
Hollow waveguide and method of manufacturing the same
A hollow waveguide has a metal-clad pipe having an inside metal layer and an outside metal layer, and a hollow region formed inside of the metal-clad pipe. The metal-clad pipe is formed by pressure-bonding metal pipes each of which is made of a metal material different from each other. |
| US07664353B2 |
Optical waveguide structure including at least first, second and third waveguides and coupling waveguide
The present invention disclosed is an optical waveguide structure that has a first waveguide provided with the opposite ends A and B, a second waveguide with the opposite ends C and D, a third waveguide with the opposite ends E and F, and a coupling waveguide having its first beam incoming/outgoing end connected to the end B of the first waveguide and its second beam incoming/outgoing end connected to the end C of the second waveguide and the end E of the third waveguide. The optical waveguide is characterized in that the first waveguide and the coupling waveguide are longitudinally dimensioned so that light beam at its peak of light intensity can transit the point of axial mal-alignment at the end A of the first waveguide and further transit the axial zone at the second beam incoming/outgoing end of the coupling waveguide. |
| US07664349B2 |
Beam steering element with built-in detector and system for use thereof
An all-optical cross-connect switching system provides optical switching that may reduce processing requirements by three orders of magnitude over conventional techniques by associating at least one optical detector with an optical beam steering element. In one embodiment, a first beam steering element, having a reflective surface in optical association with a first optical fiber array, and a second beam steering element, having a reflective surface in optical association with a second optical fiber array, are optically arranged to direct an optical beam from a first optical fiber in the first optical fiber array to a second optical fiber in the second optical fiber array. The optical detector provides information about a first position of the optical beam on the second beam steering element. Based on this information, the angle of the first beam steering element may be adjusted to cause the optical beam to change to a second position on the second beam steering element. |
| US07664348B2 |
Optical switch with reconfigurable broadcasting and combining capabilities
An optical switch provides the ability to broadcast one input signal to multiple output channels and to combine multiple input signals into single output channel. The signal broadcast pattern is reconfigurable. One or more diffractive optical elements are used in the switch. |
| US07664344B2 |
Electro-optic modulator
An electro-optic modulator includes a substrate made of a material which has an electro-optic effect and a pyroelectric effect. In the substrate, an optical waveguide is formed to have at least a pair of optical paths. On the substrate and on the optical waveguide, a transparent buffer layer is formed to cover the optical waveguide. On the buffer layer, first and second electrodes are formed so that the first and the second electrodes are arranged to cause refractive index changes in the pair of optical paths in response to electrical fields surrounding the electro-optic modulator. The buffer layer is a mutual diffusion layer. The mutual diffusion layer is made from laminated films having at least one transparent insulator film and at least one transparent conductor film but has no clear boundary between the transparent insulator film and the transparent conductor film. |
| US07664343B2 |
Modified Levenshtein distance algorithm for coding
Methods and systems of mapping of an optical character recognition (OCR) text string to a code included in a coding dictionary by supplementing the Levenshtein Distance Algorithm (LDA) with additional information in the form of adjustments based on particular character substitutions, insertions and deletions together with weighting based on multiple alternatives for the OCR text string. In one embodiment, an OCR text string mapping method (100) includes receiving (110) an OCR text string, comparing (120) it with selected text strings from a coding dictionary, computing (130) modified Levenshtein distances associated with the comparisons by determining (140) substitution penalties, determining (150) insertion penalties, determining (160) deletion penalties and combining (170) the penalties, selecting (180) the best matching text string from the coding dictionary based on the modified Levenshtein distances, determining (190) whether a maximum threshold distance is met, and assigning (200) a code associated with the best matching text string to the OCR text string when met, and assigning (210) a null or no code when not met. |
| US07664342B2 |
Information processing system, information processing apparatus, and method
An information processing system, an information processing apparatus and method for transmitting image data from a portable terminal apparatus, to a different apparatus through a network so that the image data may be managed by the different apparatus. A camcorder image station has a folder for each user of a camcorder and has, in each of the folders, 10 sub folders of album 1 to album 10 to each of which a name is applied in advance. The user of the camcorder transmits images picked up by the user to the camcorder image station so that the images are registered into a predetermined album. The camcorder has an album list of 10 albums of album 1 to album 10 in advance and selects an album of one of the names from within the list to designate an album into which image data should be uploaded. |
| US07664337B2 |
Film grain generation and addition
High-frequency noise is generated that approximates the appearance of traditional “film grain” for a digital video signal. By adding a relatively small amount of film grain noise, the video can be made to look more natural and more pleasing to the human viewer. The digital film grain generation can be used to mask unnatural smooth artifacts in digital video such as “blockiness” and “contouring” in the case of compressed video and/or used to provide visual enhancements or special effects to any digital video stream. The digital film grain generator can control grain size and the amount of film grain to be added. |
| US07664326B2 |
Method and apparatus of image processing to detect and enhance edges
A method for detecting and enhancing edges in an ultrasound image includes the steps of applying an edge detection filter to at least one of a plurality of pixels of an ultrasound image to compute an edge detection value having a magnitude and a direction; and applying either a directional edge enhancement filter or a non-directional smoothing filter to at least one of the plurality of pixels of the ultrasound image. |
| US07664321B2 |
Image processing method, system, program, program storage medium and information processing apparatus
This invention provides the following environment. That is, an original document file corresponding to a document to be copied is specified from image data of that document to be copied, and a print process is made based on the specified file so as to prevent deterioration of image quality. Also, when a document to be copied is not registered, a registration process is executed to suppress deterioration of image quality in an early stage. Furthermore, since the document is converted into vector data, re-use of such document is facilitated, and deterioration of image quality can be suppressed even when an image process such as enlargement or the like is made. To this end, when an original digital file cannot be specified, an apparatus of this embodiment executes a vectorization process (S54), converts the obtained vector data into a data format that can be re-used by an application (S55), and registers the converted file in a file server (S56). With this registration process, since the location of the file is settled, that location information is composited on an image to be scanned using an identifier such as a two-dimensional barcode or the like (S48), and the composite image can be printed (S49). Even when the printed document is scanned again, a registered digital file can be easily specified. |
| US07664317B1 |
Video analysis
A method is provided including capturing a frame from a first video device, the frame representing a test pattern and determination is made of at least one captured color for at least one pixel of the captured frame. A reference pixel is provided including at least one reference color, the reference pixel being determined by statistical analysis of the first signals from a population of second video devices that have received the test pattern. A relation is determined between the captured color value and said reference color and the relation is compared with a threshold value. The relation is stored. |
| US07664316B2 |
Image processing apparatus, imaging apparatus, image processing method, image processing program and recording medium
The data interpolation section 6 includes: a direction data calculation section 61 for calculating a plurality of direction data, each of the plurality of direction date indicating a directional amount along a plurality of directions including at least one of an upper right direction and a lower right direction within the vicinity of a target pixel; a direction detection section 62 for detecting at least one direction of the edge within the vicinity of the target pixel by using the plurality of direction data calculated by the direction data calculation section 61; a direction color signal calculation section 63 for calculating at least one color signal corresponding to the at least one direction detected by the direction detection section 62; and a target pixel color signal calculation section 64 for calculating a color signal for the target pixel by using the at least one color signal calculated by the direction color signal calculating section 63. |
| US07664313B1 |
Text-to scene conversion
The invention relates to a method of converting a set of words into a three-dimensional scene description, which may then be rendered into three-dimensional images. The invention may generate arbitrary scenes in response to a substantially unlimited range of input words. Scenes may be generated by combining objects, poses, facial expressions, environments, etc., so that they represent the input set of words. Poses may have generic elements so that referenced objects may be replaced by those mentioned in the input set of words. Likewise, a character may be dressed according to its role in the set of words. Various constraints for object positioning may be declared. The environment, including but not limited to place, time of day, and time of year, may be inferred from the input set of words. |
| US07664312B2 |
Information input and output method using dot pattern
Making a dot pattern so that misalignment in a x direction and a y direction is alternately generated for every adjacent information dots on a virtual grid line, the misalignment is alternately generated in the x direction and the y direction for each dot and this results in that the alternate information dot is necessarily arranged on the same grid line. Therefore, in the case that an optical reading apparatus reads the dot pattern, a search algorithm of a virtual grid line is simplified on an image memory. As a result, the grid point on the image memory is also easy. Therefore, without using a complicated program, it is possible to speed up the reading speed of the dot pattern. |
| US07664309B2 |
Reticle inspecting apparatus and reticle inspecting method
The present invention efficiently suppresses a false defect and realizes reticle inspection where a defect can be detected with high detection sensitivity. In a reticle inspecting method, reticle inspection data generated based on reticle design data is captured. Also, drawing position accuracy measurement data of the reticle is captured to obtain a first correction amount for correcting a position accuracy component of the reticle. Based on the first correction amount, the inspection data is corrected. Based on the corrected inspection data, a defect on the reticle is detected. |
| US07664302B2 |
Simultaneous grayscale and geometric registration of images
Simultaneous grayscale and geometric registration of images, such as mammograms, facilitates temporal comparison and enhances the speed and reliability of computer aided diagnosis (CAD) detection of medical abnormalities. The method generally includes optimizing a merit function, e.g., sum of squared errors, containing parameters associated with a transformation function for simultaneous geometric and grayscale registering of the images, the optimizing of the merit function being performed by determining optimal values of the parameters using data in the images and registering one image to the other by applying the geometric and grayscale transformation function using the optimal values of the parameters. The optimizing may be performed iteratively from coarse to fine resolutions using a modified Levenberg-Marquardt method for optimizing nonlinear parameters with linear regression for optimizing linear parameters. A final iteration may be performed after removing pixel value pairs from the images that correspond to outliers of a joint pixel value histogram. |
| US07664301B2 |
Method and apparatus for enhancing image quality of a two-dimensional ultrasound image
The present invention relates a method and an apparatus for enhancing ultrasound image quality through a post-processing. A method for enhancing an image quality of a two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound image, comprises the steps of: a) decomposing the 2D ultrasound image into a plurality of images having a multi-resolution by N levels, wherein N is a positive integer; b) determining characteristics of each pixel in the decomposed image; c) performing an enhancement process for the decomposed image based on the pixel characteristics; d) performing 1st-level composition for the decomposed image; and e) repeatedly performing steps b) to d) until a size of the composed image is identical to that of the 2D ultrasound image. |
| US07664299B2 |
Apparatus that prepares information relating to image data
An image storing apparatus for storing at least one image based on an image data generated by an imaging apparatus is provided. The image storing apparatus includes a receiving unit, a processor, and a storage device. The receiving unit is configured to receive the image data. The processor is configured to prepare image-relating information and prepare a data set including the image-relating information and the image data following the image-relating information. The processor prepares leading information leading to the image data as part of the image-relating information. The storage device is configured to store the data set. |
| US07664297B2 |
Three-dimensional joint structure measuring method
A method enabling a destroyed part of a joint or joint cartilage to be extracted accurately and at a high speed with a good repeatability and enabling quantitative and simple 3D analysis of the joint and the destroyed part, that is, a method of 3D image processing comprising filling in a medullary cavity region, comprised of a hollow region inside a joint, of a digitalized image of a cross-section of the examined joint using the Expansion and Shrinkage method, performing 3D labeling by a 3D image obtained by stacking digitalized images of cross-sections of the examined joint generated at a step of extracting a contour of the cross-sectional image of the joint or digitalized images of cross-sections of the examined joint not pre-processed, and defining the joint image to be evaluated. |
| US07664296B2 |
Image recording method and system, image transmitting method, and image recording apparatus
An input apparatus reads a patient ID from an ID card and transmits it to a computer. On the basis of the patient ID, the computer obtains corresponding patient information containing a photograph of the patient's face and the patient's name, from a medical database, and then transmits the patient information to the digital camera together with the patient ID. The digital camera displays the patient information to enable confirmation of the patient to be photographed. After the patient has been confirmed, the patient ID is filled in a header part of an image file for the image photographed using the digital camera, and the image file is transmitted to the medical database or the like. Thus, the input of the identification information input before photographing and the subject to be photographed can be easily confirmed. |
| US07664295B2 |
Image processing method, image processor, photographic apparatus, image output unit and iris verify unit
An iris region of an eye is detected from an original image (S1) and image conversion is performed to the detected iris region so that feature data unique to the person can not be extracted (S2). For example, the iris region is divided into a plurality of portions and respective images of divided portions are re-arranged in a predetermined order or at random. |
| US07664294B2 |
System for automatic quality inspection of a printed image, comprising an image sensor, evaluation unit and display
A system is provided for inspecting a printed image. The system is provided with at least one evaluation unit, a display device and an image scanner. That scanner takes an image that represents, at least partially, a printed image. The copied printed image belongs to a sequence of images printed on a print carrier by a printing machine. The evaluation unit receives data that is correlated to an image which has been taken, and evaluates that data by comparing it with recorded data of at least one preceding image, or with a reference image. The display device is provided with a graphic display surface that is comprised of several areas which are controlled, in a different manner, by the evaluation unit, and which are preferably simultaneously displayed. A first area displays several images, such as the just taken image, the preceding image and the reference image. The second area includes an input field or a control point for adjusting or controlling the evaluation unit or for adjusting or controlling the printing machine. |
| US07664289B2 |
Methods and apparatus for analyzing operational and analyte data acquired from optical discs
Methods and apparatus for analyzing nonoperational data acquired from optical discs, and in particular, trackable optical discs having concurrently readable nonoperational structures are provided. Analysis can involve identifying patterns in the data that reproducibly distinguish underlying structures, or identifying patterns in the data that report physical properties of the nonoperational structures. When an optical disc has a plurality of physically nonidentical concurrently readable nonoperational structures, analysis can involve identifying patterns in the data that distinguish among the physically nonidentical nonoperational structures. Also, relative physical locations of nonoperational structures on the disc can be calculated. A system for remotely analyzing data in order to expedite complex data analysis and reporting the results thereof is also provided. |
| US07664288B2 |
Digital watermarking method robust against local and global geometric distortions and projective transforms
A method of digital watermarking which can resist against local geometrical distortions such as random bending attack, global geometrical distortions as well as projective transforms, but does not necessary require the recovering of global affine transform or even the repetition of the same watermark pattern. Further, the watermark can resist common global affine transformations such as rotation, scaling, and changes of aspect ratio, cropping as well as other types of operations such as filtering, lossy compression, printing/scanning or detection of watermark in front of video, web or photo camera or any imaging device. |
| US07664287B2 |
Headset capable of receiving signals from an electronic device, method of manufacturing same, and ear loop and earplug capable of removable engagement with same
A headset capable of receiving signals from an electronic device includes a body (110), a neck (120) protruding from the body, a speaker (130) coupled to the neck, an ear loop (140) removably attached to the neck, and an earplug (150) removably attached to the neck. The ear loop can include an attachment portion (810) including a substantially circular arc, and an ear engagement portion (820) coupled to the headset attachment portion and including a flexible wire (821) surrounded by a coating (822). The earplug can include a neck attachment portion (1110) and an ear engaging portion (1120) adjacent to the headset engaging portion and having a protruding lip (1121). |
| US07664285B2 |
Boundary layer adapter
There is provided an interface adapter for receiving a microphone, wherein the interface adapter has a receiving unit with a through hole for receiving a microphone and an arresting unit for arresting a received microphone. That permits the microphone to be easily fixed on a boundary surface or interface, such as for example on a table top, a glass plate, tiles, wooden floors, concrete floors and the like. In other words the use of the interface adapter defines an interface which plays an important part in audio recording. |
| US07664283B2 |
Devices and transducers with cavity resonator to control 3-D characteristics/harmonic frequencies for all sound/sonic waves
The invention concerns an acoustic device with electro-acoustic transducers and with a cavity resonator that provide extreme tri-dimensional to concentrate/diffuse infrasonic, sonic and ultrasonic waves. It also concerns many structural designs in which some models of cavity resonators and all their transducers are appropriately arranged on the basis of the different uses; so doing it is possible to achieve numerous interacting operational set-ups (basic configuration systems) that can be used in the medical sector, in industry or in the home, in entertainment and leisure. Differently to previously known techniques the acoustic device according to this patent is also a highly sophisticated cybernetic apparatus for the reproduction of various tri-dimensional sound fields that are identical to the original ones, or for generating completely new ones. This acoustic device can be compared to a Helmholtz resonator that transmits sound-waves/harmonic frequencies rather than receiving them. |
| US07664282B2 |
Sealing retainer for extended wear hearing devices
An embodiment provides a seal for retaining a hearing device within the ear canal comprising a curved shell having an opening at a shell apex portion. The shell defines a cavity for retention of a device component. An interior surface of a shell wall has a scalloped shape configured to distribute compressive forces applied to the shell perimeter such that when the shell is positioned in the canal, the shell wall conforms to the shape of the canal to maintain an acoustical seal between a shell exterior surface and the canal walls. The scalloped shape can be configured to produce a substantially constant amount of inward deformation of a shell wall independent of a force application point on a shell perimeter. The shell can include a coating to retain the seal in the canal and/or to promote asparagine growth into the coating to fastenly retain the seal in the canal. |
| US07664279B2 |
Equipment for fitting a hearing aid to the specific needs of a hearing impaired individual and software for use in a fitting equipment for fitting a hearing aid
The invention relates to equipment for fitting a hearing aid to the specific needs of a hearing impaired individual. The equipment comprising a computer or similar device with soft-ware, where the device has display means for visual display of data, data entry means for entering hearing aid programming data into the device, data storing means, and data output means for outputting programming data to the hearing aid. According to the invention means are provided for selecting simultaneous settings relating to two or more different parameters relating to the processing of sound in the hearing aid to be programmed. |
| US07664278B2 |
Acoustic device and flat speaker thereof
A flat speaker includes a casing with a display window, a vibratory sound panel mounted to the display window and having a display region and an exciter mount region, a display screen disposed internally of the display region, and an exciter mounted to the inner surface of the exciter mount region. A dust barrier is disposed to isolate a first space defined between the display region and the display screen from a second space surrounding the first space. The dust barrier has a dust barrier member disposed between the display region and the exciter mount region and extending across the vibratory sound panel to inhibit dust particles from moving from said exciter mount region to said display region within said casing. The dust barrier member is yieldingly deformable in response to vibration of said vibratory sound panel. |
| US07664271B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing sound signal
A method for processing sound signal including an L side enhanced difference signal comprising a sum of a signal being removed low frequency component from L−R signal and an L+R signal, an R side enhanced difference signal comprising a sum of a signal being removed low frequency component from R−L signal and an R+L signal, an L side output signal comprising a subtraction of signals, in which said R side enhanced difference signal being delayed to remove low and high ranges and amplified by a predetermined amplifying rate for a purpose of cross cancellation talk is subtracted from said L side enhanced difference signal and an R side output signal comprising a subtraction of signals, in which said L side enhanced difference signal being delayed to remove low and high ranges and amplified by a predetermined amplifying rate for a purpose of cross cancellation talk is subtracted from said R side enhanced difference signal. |
| US07664268B1 |
Conditional access system for digital receivers
A method for providing conditional access (i.e., managing access) to a received scrambled audio/visual (A/V) signal from a variety of sources by utilizing secret sharing for key recovery. Secret sharing eliminates the necessity to protect and transfer the complete descrambling keys between devices, because a portion of the key is stored in the device or a smart card coupled thereto. |
| US07664265B2 |
Controlling communications between stations
The present invention relates to relocation of the control of communication between a first station and a second station from a first communication system controller to a second communication system controller. The communication is ciphered by means of a first ciphering key. In the method, after the initiation of the relocation of control of the communication from the first controller to the second controller a request for relocation is transmitted to the second controller. The request contains the first ciphering key and at least one other ciphering key. |
| US07664264B2 |
Utilizing data reduction in steganographic and cryptographic systems
The present invention relates to methods for protecting a data signal using the following techniques: applying a data reduction technique to reduce the data signal into a reduced data signal; subtracting the reduced data signal from the data signal to produce a remainder signal; embedding a first watermark into the reduced data signal to produce a watermarked, reduced data signal; and adding the watermarked, reduced data signal to the remainder signal to produce an output signal. A second watermark may be embedded into the remainder signal before the final addition step. Further, cryptographic techniques may be used to encrypt the reduced data signals and to encrypt the remainder signals before the final addition step. The present invention also relates to a system for securing a data signal including: computer devices for applying a data reduction technique to reduce the data signal into a reduced data signal; means to subtract the reduced data signal from the data signal to produce a remainder signal; means to apply a first cryptographic technique to encrypt the reduced data signal to produce an encrypted, reduced data signal; means to apply a second cryptographic technique to encrypt the remainder signal to produce an encrypted remainder signal; and means to add the encrypted, reduced data signal to the encrypted remainder signal to produce an output signal. |
| US07664262B2 |
Playback apparatus and playback control method
According to one embodiment, there is provided a playback apparatus which plays back content including an encrypted video object and an encrypted resource file, including a memory including a file cache area, a module configured to decrypt the video object, a playback process module configured to play back the decrypted video object and to output a resource file acquisition request, a module configured to determine whether the resource file is decrypted, to decrypt the resource file, to write the decrypted resource file over the encrypted resource file, to update the management information, and to send the decrypted resource file to the playback process module, and a module configured to determine whether the resource file is decrypted, to encrypt the decrypted resource file, to write the encrypted resource file over the decrypted resource file, to update the management information, and to send the encrypted resource file to the storage. |
| US07664260B2 |
Signature generation device, key generation device, and signature generation method
A signature generation apparatus preventing an transcript attack on signature data. The signature generation apparatus for generating signature data for message data (i) acquires, according to a predetermined acquisition method, a private key, which is different from a private key used in a previous digital signature operation, from among a plurality of private keys generated using a key generation method of a signature scheme in which the plurality of private keys correspond to a single public key, and (ii) performs, using the acquired private key, a digital signature operation on the message data according to a signature method of the signature scheme to generate the signature data. |
| US07664251B2 |
Abbreviated dialing between PBX and Centrex systems using a VoIP platform
An abbreviated dialing feature over a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platform facilitates abbreviated dialing between a first phone system that serves a first customer location and a second phone system that serves a second customer location. The first and second phone systems may comprise two Centrex groups, two PBXs or a Centrex group and a PBX. |
| US07664243B2 |
3-way call detection system and method
Disclosed herein is a three-way call detection system and method for detecting the addition of a third party to a pre-existing telephonic connection between a first party and a second party. The system includes a meter for measuring the amplitude of a line voltage of a telephonic connection between two parties, a first filter to remove a frequency band from the line voltage, a white noise generator for generating a low level white noise signal in the removed frequency band, a coupler for combining the white noise signal with the filtered signal, to create an additive line voltage, a second filter that passes only a portion of the additive line voltage including at least a portion of the white noise signal, and a processor for monitoring the passed signal for a shift in amplitude level associated with the addition of a third party to the connection. |
| US07664242B2 |
System and method for anonymous telephone communication
The present invention comprises a system and method for masking the identity of a user of a calling telephone. Preferably an information processor is provided to receive over a public switched telephone network a telephone call from the calling telephone. The information processor receives from the user of the calling telephone a destination telephone number and a user-defined telephone number that is to be transmitted to a telephone at the destination telephone number. When the destination telephone answers, the user-defined telephone number is displayed. |
| US07664240B2 |
Method and apparatus for administration of circuit inventories in telecommunications networks
Telecommunications customers must frequently utilize the facilities of many different telecommunications service providers in order to transmit data from one location to another. When a telecommunications customer encounters a network problem, that customer usually must navigate a complicated web of service providers and equipment owners in order to receive meaningful technical assistance from a human technician. The present invention is designed and intended to facilitate human interactions for technical support and administrative tasks by associating customer, contract, circuit, equipment, key personnel, billing, and telco information in a database for efficient data presentation and information retrieval. Resolution of the logistical problem of tracking circuit information is achieved by organizing the information and displaying important data concurrently. Toward that end, the system modules comprising the invention share all of the circuit inventory data available, and graphical user interfaces for each module display relevant information together. Examples of features in the present invention include: simultaneous display of circuit and contact information for key personnel, a reminder function for tracking changes in important service characteristics, and customer-specific formatting for billing. |
| US07664237B1 |
Method and apparatus for providing emergency ring tones for urgent calls
A method and apparatus for enabling calling parties to request the VoIP network to provide a special ring tone to be signaled as the occurrence of an urgent call to called parties are disclosed. Alternatively, a high frequency intercept tone or call waiting tone is also provided when the called parties are already engaged in conversation when an urgent call is incoming. |
| US07664236B2 |
Forked-call ringback replacement system
A system for customizing a communications network, the system including a first communications station associated with a calling party, a second communication station associated with a called party, a storage device containing at least one announcement, and a communications device for initiating a forked or forwarded call to locate the called party at the second communications station. The forked or forwarded call is initiated by the calling party whereby at least a portion of a call signal is replaced with at least a portion of the announcement. The announcement is associated with the calling party and is chosen by the called party and played to the calling party after initiation of the call but prior to active communication with the called party. Also, the call signal is selected from one of ringback signals, busy signals, network redirect signals, call progress signals, network announcement signals, or dial tone signals. |
| US07664234B2 |
Method for confirming end point location of 911 calls
Certain exemplary embodiments comprise a method comprising receiving, from a user-operated telecommunications device, a user-initiated communication to a non-911 communications address. The method can comprise automatically providing a user with a current location of a user-associated telecommunications device. The method can comprise requesting, from the user, verification of the current location of the user-associated telecommunications device. |
| US07664231B2 |
Method and device for quality evaluation of an audio signal and device and method for obtaining a quality evaluation result
A quality evaluation device for quality evaluation of an audio signal transmitted via an audio signal channel includes a unit for providing contacting information to a remote user, wherein the contacting information includes a contact address. A measurement server includes an interface designed to be a final point of the audio signal channel after an access with the contact address by the remote user, wherein a starting point of the audio signal channel is the remote user, and wherein the measurement server is further designed to subject the signal provided by the remote user via the audio signal channel to the quality measurement. The quality evaluation device further includes a unit for sending a quality evaluation result generated by the measurement server from the measurement server to the remote user. This allows any user able to access the measurement server, for example per internet, to evaluate and compare qualities with any terminals, any transmission channel settings, various telephone providers. |
| US07664221B2 |
Method and computed tomography unit for producing computed tomograms of a patient's beating heart
A method and computed tomography unit are disclosed for producing computed tomograms of a patient's beating heart by voxelwise reconstruction of volume data records from prescribed cardiac cycle phases. Firstly, a multiplicity of voxelwise partial reconstructions are calculated from projection segments substantially smaller than 180° in accordance with small cardiac phase segments. The complete voxel data that cover overall at least 180° and originate from a preselected cardiac phase are subsequently summed up per cardiac phase to be considered from the pool of the incomplete reconstructed voxel data. |
| US07664217B2 |
Digital PLL circuit
A DPLL circuit is provided for making it possible to inhibit an initial frequency offset during holdover. The DPLL circuit includes a slave oscillator for generating a frequency signal corresponding to the size of a control signal value; a phase difference detection circuit for detecting the difference in phase between the output of said slave oscillator and the inputted reference clock, and outputting a digital signal of the prescribed number of bits corresponding to said detected phase difference; and a holdover unit for generating a correction value based on the output of said phase difference detection circuit, wherein when the holdover is detected, said holdover unit periodically adds the correction value to the output of said phase difference detection circuit to obtain a control value for said slave oscillator. |
| US07664207B2 |
Decoding GPS satellite data at low signal to noise levels by computing total probability of current data bit at current time epoch
A method of decoding a GPS carrier signal comprising: (A) receiving a phase modulated GPS signal by using a GPS antenna; (B) extracting a GPS data from the received phase modulated GPS signal; and (C) computing a total probability of a current GPS data bit being “one” or “zero” at a GPS time epoch by using a decoding algorithm. |
| US07664206B2 |
GPS front end having an interface with reduced data rate
A radio frequency integrated circuit for a global positioning system (GPS) application mixes radio frequency GPS signals from an external source with a predetermined intermediate frequency that is less than 4fo. In one embodiment, the intermediate frequency is selected to be 1.5fo. An intermediate frequency filter then band-limits the intermediate frequency GPS signals, rolling off at a frequency in the vicinity of 2.5 MHz to achieve substantial attenuation at 3.5-4.0 MHz. An automatic gain control circuit amplifies the filtered intermediate frequency GPS signals to proper voltage levels. The amplified intermediate frequency GPS signals is then digitized by an analog-to-digital converter at a predetermined sampling rate more than twice the intermediate frequency to provide samples of a predetermined number of bits, which are then provided for base band processing by a general purpose microprocessor over an industry-standard serial bus. |
| US07664205B2 |
Frequency-shift-keying demodulator and method of frequency-shift-keying
A frequency-shift-keying demodulator including a phase shifter for shifting the phase of an input signal by a predetermined degree and outputting a shifted signal, a combining unit for combining the input signal and the shifted signal and for outputting a corresponding signal, and a low-pass filter for filtering the signal output by the combining unit and outputting a low-pass filtered signal, the bandwidth of the low-pass filter being matched with the bandwidth of a data signal included in the input signal, such that the combining unit includes at least one adder for adding the input signal and the shifted signal, and outputting an added signal, and at least one square law detector for receiving the added signal output by the adder and outputting a squared signal which is the square of the added signal, wherein the combining unit outputs the squared signal to the low-pass filter. |
| US07664203B2 |
Simultaneous tuning of multiple channels using intermediate frequency sub-sampling
Methods and systems for processing a single sub-channel that includes two or more combined channels. Using intermediate frequency sub-sampling, two or more channels from a broad band signal are combined into a single sub-channel for further analog and digital processing. Each of the two or more channels is down converted to an intermediate frequency, filtered to remove certain undesired channels, and combined such that the two or more channels are adjacent to each other. A digital representation of the sub-channel is produced from the combined intermediate frequency channels. Each channel within the digital representation is down converted to baseband, and the in-phase and quadrature components are separated from each other. Compared to one direct down conversion technique, intermediate frequency sub-sampling as described in the application may reduce the number of analog to digital converters and control amplifiers used in analog processing by a factor of four. |
| US07664198B2 |
System and method for broadcasting data over a wireless network using rateless codes
A system and method for broadcasting content data to a plurality of mobile devices. The content data is arranged into data blocks, and each data block is broadcast using an initial set of rateless transmission symbols. Mobile devices that did not receive a sufficient number of initial symbols respond with a no acknowledgment (“NACK”) message, and a NACK rate for the broadcast system is monitored. Responsive to the NACK rate, additional symbols may be broadcast or otherwise transmitted to mobile devices, and, the NACK rate is used to determine when to terminate transmission of additional symbols for a particular data block. An initial set of symbols for the next data block may be transmitted concurrently with the additional symbols for one or more previous data blocks. The NACK rate may also be used as feedback to the broadcast system to adjust the transmission scheme. |
| US07664194B2 |
Combining space time block code (STBC) with spatial multiplexing for MIMO transmission
A STBC-based transmission method and transmission system provides equal protection on all data streams such that all streams operate at the same SNR. STBC and spatial multiplexing are combined in a transmitter which provides equal STBC coding protection on all data streams. Such a combination of STBC with spatial multiplexing for MIMO transmission results in performance enhancements, such as in high throughput WLANs. |
| US07664193B2 |
Multiplexing of real time services and non-real time services for OFDM systems
For certain embodiments of the present disclosure, a method and apparatus for generating pilots in a wireless multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) communication system is provided. The method comprises obtaining at least one pilot symbol for each antenna of a plurality of antennas, obtaining an orthogonal sequence for each antenna in the plurality of antennas, and covering the at least one pilot symbol for each antenna with the orthogonal sequence to obtain a sequence of covered pilot symbols for each antenna to obtain at least one covered pilot symbols for each of the plurality of antennas. |
| US07664191B2 |
Method of symbol detection for MIMO dual-signaling uplink CDMA systems
The invention provides a block-wise successive interference cancellation (SIC) detection algorithm for a general multi-input multi-output (MIMO) CDMA system over the frequency-selective channels, in which each user's data stream can be simultaneously applied with orthogonal space-time block encoding for transmit diversity or spatially multiplexing for high spectral efficiency according to the channel conditions. For such the considered dual-signaling system, the receiver could suffer from the large dimension data processing. A two-stage approach for block-wise SIC detection algorithm is thus proposed to further reduce the computational complexity. |
| US07664190B1 |
Multi-carrier receiver with dynamic power adjustment and method for dynamically adjusting the power consumption of a multi-carrier receiver
A method for dynamically adjusting the power consumption of a multi-carrier receiver and a multi-carrier receiver with dynamically power adjustment. The method includes receiving a multi-carrier signal, wherein the multi-carrier signal comprises a plurality of sub-carriers. Channel characteristics of each sub-carrier are estimated according to the demodulated multi-carrier signal. ICI strength is estimated from the demodulated multi-carrier signal. A system performance is detected. The estimated ICI is subtracted when the ICI strength exceeds an ICI threshold and the system performance is less than a system performance threshold. The demodulated multi-carrier signal is then equalized is based on the estimated channel characteristics, and the system performance is updated according to the equalized multi-carrier signal. |
| US07664187B2 |
Memory reduction in digital broadcast receivers
An input random access memory (RAM) module of a fast Fourier transform (FFT) engine of a DVB receiver is used to store, during a first time period, delayed versions of an input signal that includes a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbol and a cyclic prefix therefor received at the receiver, and samples for a second OFDM symbol to be demodulated using the FFT engine during a second time period. Delayed versions of the input signal are stored in the input RAM module of the FFT engine in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) fashion for signal acquisition and for FFT processing. Similarly, an output RAM module of the FFT engine is used to store moving averages of an autocorrelation of the input signal with its cyclic prefix computed over presumed guard intervals and over multiple symbols. |
| US07664185B2 |
Systems and methods with error resilience in enhancement layer bitstream of scalable video coding
A scalable layered video coding scheme that encodes video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video, adds error resilience to the enhancement layer. Unique resynchronization marks are inserted into the enhancement layer bitstream in headers associated with each video packet, headers associated with each bit plane, and headers associated with each video-of-plane (VOP) segment. Following transmission of the enhancement layer bitstream, the decoder tries to detect errors in the packets. Upon detection, the decoder seeks forward in the bitstream for the next known resynchronization mark. Once this mark is found, the decoder is able to begin decoding the next video packet. With the addition of many resynchronization marks within each frame, the decoder can recover very quickly and with minimal data loss in the event of a packet loss or channel error in the received enhancement layer bitstream. The video coding scheme also facilitates redundant encoding of header information from the higher-level VOP header down into lower level bit plane headers and video packet headers. Header extension codes are added to the bit plane and video packet headers to identify whether the redundant data is included. |
| US07664180B2 |
Moving picture coding method and moving picture decoding method for performing inter picture prediction coding and inter picture predection decoding using previously processed pictures as reference pictures
A coding control unit (110) and a mode selection unit (109) are included. The coding control unit (110) determines the coding order for a plurality of consecutive B-pictures located between I-pictures and P-pictures so that the B-picture whose temporal distance from two previously coded pictures is farthest in display order is coded by priority, so as to reorder the B-pictures in coding order. When a current block is coded in direct mode, the mode selection unit 109 scales a forward motion vector of a block which is included in a backward reference picture of a current picture and co-located with the current block, so as to generate motion vectors of the current block, if the forward motion vector has been used for coding the co-located block. |
| US07664173B2 |
Method and apparatus for cached adaptive transforms for compressing data streams, computing similarity, and recognizing patterns
A method and apparatus for cached adaptive transforms for compressing data streams, computing similarity, and recognizing patterns have been disclosed.In one embodiment of the invention an encoder and decoder begin with a baseline transform. As data is transferred an algorithm is arranged so that the encoder and decoder adapt toward a superior basis than the baseline, with a corresponding reduction in the encoding bit rate. That is the algorithm adapts to the incoming data stream and can use a custom basis. We deliberately avoid having to send the custom basis itself (when possible), because sending the basis vectors consumes precious bandwidth and may defeat the goal of compression. The encoder and decoder can bootstrap themselves into using one or more better bases.In one embodiment of the invention there is no beginning baseline transform shared between the encoder and the decoder. |
| US07664169B2 |
Method and system for improving modem performance, computer program product therefor
A method controls performance of modem arrangements wherein a plurality of tones having associated gains with a maximum reachable value are used for carrying respective bitstreams. The method includes at least one of selectively swapping bits between the tones in the plurality and selectively changing the tone gains to optimized an error parameter. The method also includes: determining the current values for the associated gain, determining the gain margins between the maximum reachable values and the current values, and performing, to optimize the error parameter as a function of the margins, at least one of: varying the number of bits allocated to the tones, and performing a transmitted power variation by varying the gains. |
| US07664164B1 |
Correlation apparatus and method for accomodating spreading code frequency offset
An apparatus and method for correlating a signal over a correlation interval while accommodating spreading code frequency offset is described. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a plurality of correlators, where each correlator forms a correlation result corresponding to a unique code frequency offset hypothesis. Each correlator selects samples from a tapped delay line at a tap position moved along the delay line at a rate corresponding to the correlator unique code frequency offset hypothesis. |
| US07664161B2 |
Pulse generator and the transmitter with a pulse generator
A pulse generator for UWB transmission, lower power consumption, and suppression of LO leakage by nonuse of the LO signal. The pulse generator includes a clock generator (CLK) for giving clock of a predetermined period; a delay circuit (DLY) equipped with a function of controlling a delay time and for delaying the clock; a square-wave pulse generation circuit (SWPG) that receives information being spread by a spread code and modulates phases of square wave pulses that have a pulse width corresponding to a differential delay for one stage of the delay circuit; and an amplitude control unit (AMPC) that outputs an impulse sequence having the pulse width of the square wave in a predetermined amplitude and combines the impulses; and outputs pulses that have a predetermined envelope form. |
| US07664160B2 |
Transmitting device, receiving device, and communication system
A transmitting device includes a continuous pulse generating unit, modulating unit, and output unit. The continuous pulse generating unit continuously generates multiple impulse waveforms at arbitrary time intervals but shorter than the pulse string repetition cycle. The modulating unit modulates continuous pulses generated by the continuous pulse generating unit, using transmission data. The output unit outputs a modulated pulse modulated by the modulating unit. The receiving device includes a modulated pulse receiving unit that receives a modulated pulse transmitted from the above-mentioned transmitting device; and a demodulating unit that receives transmission data by demodulating a modulated pulse received by the modulated pulse receiving unit. |
| US07664159B2 |
Thermal distortion compensation for laser mirrors
A laser mirror assembly is disclosed with improved pointing stability. An elongated mirror includes a concave reflecting portion. A pair of elongated planar portions extend parallel to the concave reflecting portion on either side thereof. The planar portions are stepped down from the reflecting portion. The mirror is formed from copper. A pair of stainless steel strips are connected to planar portions. The bimetallic effect between the copper mirror and the stainless steel strips operates to counteract the warping of the mirror due to differential heating effects which arise during operation. In an alternate embodiment, a pair of aluminum strips are mounted on the rear surface of the mirror. |
| US07664155B2 |
Gas laser oscillating unit
A gas laser oscillating unit having a gas junction part where gas flow may be stable, whereby a stable laser beam output and/or a laser beam that does not fluctuate very much may be achieved. The laser gas, flowing through first and second excitation parts, is introduced into the first and second tapered gas flow passages. After that, the two gas flows are mixed at or near the center point of a gas junction part and the mixed gas flows in a next flow passage. Then, one of the gas flows from the first excitation part is biased toward the −X direction by a first biasing member arranged in the first gas flow passage, and the other gas flow from the second excitation part is biased toward the +X direction by a second biasing member arranged in the second gas flow passage. |
| US07664153B2 |
Laser diode array, optical scanning device and printing apparatus
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser diode array including: a laser array chip including: a substrate; and at least three of laser diodes that are formed on the substrate; first electrodes that are formed on each of the laser diodes so as to be isolated from one another; a sub-mount; and second electrodes that are formed on the sub-mount so as to correspond to the first electrodes and so as to be isolated from one another, wherein the laser array chip is mounted on the sub-mount through the first electrodes and the second electrodes, and wherein, among contacting surfaces between each of the first electrodes and a corresponding one of the second electrodes, a contacting area of a central one of the contacting surfaces is larger than that of an end one of the contacting surfaces. |
| US07664150B2 |
Diode laser electrical isolation system
A system is provided that electrically isolates a diode laser when the health of the diode laser deteriorates past a preset value. In addition to the diode laser and its power supply, the system includes a monitoring system that monitors the voltage across the diode laser and/or the voltage across a series resistor and/or the operating temperature of the diode laser and/or one or more characteristics of the output beam of the diode laser and/or the temperature of the diode laser coolant and/or the flow rate of the diode laser coolant. The system also includes a power supply controller and associated control circuit that is activated upon receipt of a trigger signal from the monitoring system. |
| US07664148B2 |
Passive Q switch laser device
A laser apparatus 10 includes: a laser medium 11 arranged between a pair of reflecting means 12A and 12B of an optical resonator 12 and adapted to be excited to emit light; a saturable absorber 14 arranged on the optical axis L of the optical resonator 12 between the pair of reflecting means, the transmissivity thereof being adapted to increase with the absorption of emitted light 21 from the laser medium; and an excitation light source unit 13 adapted to output light 22 having a wavelength that excites the laser medium. The saturable absorber 14 is a crystalline body having first to third mutually perpendicular crystallographic axes and is arranged in the optical resonator 12 in such a manner as to have different transmissivities for emitted light in two mutually perpendicular polarization directions. In this case, a laser oscillation occurs for emitted light in the polarization direction that shows the greater transmissivity, and it is therefore possible to obtain laser beams having a stabilized polarization direction. |
| US07664147B2 |
Phase matching of high order harmonic generation using dynamic phase modulation caused by a non-collinear modulation pulse
Phase matching high harmonic generation (HHG) uses a single, long duration non-collinear modulating pulse intersecting the driving pulse. A femtosecond driving pulse is focused into an HHG medium (such as a noble gas) to cause high-harmonic generation (HHG), for example in the X-ray region of the spectrum, via electrons separating from and recombining with gas atoms. A non-collinear pulse intersects the driving pulse within the gas, and modulates the field seen by the electrons while separated from their atoms. The modulating pulse is low power and long duration, and its frequency and amplitude is chosen to improve HHG phase matching by increasing the areas of constructive interference between the driving pulse and the HHG, relative to the areas of destructive interference. |
| US07664144B2 |
Packet-switched network synchronization system and method
A synchronization system and method for use in a packet switched communication network are provided. The synchronization system comprises a transmitter-identification system, a packet-boundary detection system and a storage-access system. The transmitter-identification system enables each receiving terminal within the network to know the identity of the originating transmitter terminal for a given packet of information, prior to the reception of this packet of information. The packet-boundary detection system enables detection of packet synchronization parameters for all transmitter-receiver pairs of terminals within the network. The storage-access system stores the detected packet synchronization parameters and allows the receiver to access the packet synchronization parameters. According to one embodiment of the invention, the synchronization method comprises the step of detecting synchronization parameters and, for a given receiver terminal, establishing the identity of the originating transmitter for an incoming packet of information, accessing synchronization parameters corresponding to the identified transmitter, adjusting receiver based on accessed synchronization parameters and decoding the incoming packet of information. |
| US07664142B2 |
Digital subchannel transceiver for transmitting data
A system for transmitting subchannel data over the same media as high speed data, especially DC balanced high speed data. A digital transmitter receives subchannel data and modulates it onto a subchannel carrier as the host signal in the preferred embodiment using frequency shift keying. The FSK subchannel carrier is added by superposition to the high speed data signal. Because of the ability to have very narrow bandwidths for the passbands of digital IF filters, the receiver is more sensitive and less susceptible to the need for tuning to accommodate manufacturing variations in the rise times of the high speed data signals. |
| US07664141B2 |
Method and device for decreasing a transmission delay in a multi-channel data transmission
The present invention relates to a method and a device to improve the transmission characteristics of physical layer (PHY) hybrid automated repeat request (HARD) in multi subchannel frequency division duplex (FDD) links. The present invention provides a method for decreasing a transmission delay in a multi-sub-channel data transmission of physical layer frames using hybrid automated repeat request with acknowledgement signaling, wherein said method comprises: determining, if no physical layer frame needs to be transmitted in a provided sub channel, determining, if there is a physical layer frame of another sub-channel with pending acknowledgement, selecting said physical layer frame with pending acknowledgement, if no physical layer frame needs to be transmitted in the provided sub-channel, and transmitting said selected frame in said provided sub-channel. The method can also or additionally comprise determining a threshold number, based on the number of sub-channels in said multi-sub-channel data transmission, determining the number of physical layer frames to be transmitted in all subchannels, and controlling the transmission power of the transmission of the physical layer frames, on the basis of the relationship between said threshold number and said determined number of physical layer frame. |
| US07664131B2 |
Channel resource assignment method for fair channel resource reservation and QoS in mesh WPAN
Provided is a channel resource assignment method for fair channel resource reservation in a mesh WPAN, in which the amount of channel resources is fairly reserved when devices share the channel resources. The channel resource assignment method in a mesh Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) includes the steps of: (a) transmitting beacons of all devices and adding an amount of channel resource to be reserved to the beacons so as to assign the channel resource for fair channel resource reservation between corresponding devices and adjacent devices when a mesh network is configured; (b) accumulating the amount of the channel resources reserved by all the adjacent devices except the corresponding device; and (c) determining the amount of the channel resources to be reserved. |
| US07664127B1 |
Method for resolving mutex contention in a network system
A method of resolving mutex contention within a network interface unit which includes providing a plurality of memory access channels, and moving a thread via at least one of the plurality of memory access channels, the plurality of memory access channels allowing moving of the thread while avoiding mutex contention when moving the thread via the at least one of the plurality of memory access channels is disclosed. |
| US07664124B2 |
Methods, systems, and products for sharing content
Methods, systems, and products share content between a device and a media delivery device. The media delivery device includes a content sharing application stored in memory and a processor communicating with the memory. The processor sends a presence update message to indicate the media delivery device is active and available to receive content. The processor receives an invite, and the invite requests a session between the media delivery device and the device. The processor sends an accept message to accept the invitation. The processor receives the content and receives a message that terminates the session. |
| US07664123B2 |
Generalized virtual router
A generalized virtual router is disclosed. A routing and switching apparatus includes a switching fabric and a matrix of switching and routing elements. At least some of the elements are interconnected by the switching fabric. A router control provides control for the switching fabric. The apparatus has both cross-connect and routing functionality. |
| US07664121B2 |
Method and router for switching data between a local area network and an external appliance
A method is provided for switching data between appliances in a packet-oriented local area network and an external appliance connected to the local area network via a router. The appliances in the local area network, including the router, respectively have a network address and an appliance address. The external appliance has an associated network address. An appliance address request relating to the assigned network address is responded to with the appliance address of the router. The router forwards packets containing the assigned network address and the appliance address of the router as destination addresses from the local area network to the external appliance. |
| US07664118B2 |
System and method for high precision clock recovery over packet networks
An innovative system and method for achieving high precision clock recovery, i.e. reconstruction of the clock signal having the same frequency, over a packet switched network. The proposed method utilizes a minimum network delay approach, which overcomes the problems caused by delay variation of the network and filters out network jitter, such as noise jitter and other “singular” anomalies causing latency deviations. Minimum network delay is defined herein as the time delay in which a packet remains in the network under assumption that all transmission queues through which the packet passes are empty. |
| US07664115B1 |
Method and apparatus for merging virtual connections
A method and apparatus for merging a plurality of virtual connections to form a merged virtual connection is presented. As cells for each of the plurality of virtual connections are received, they are buffered into a corresponding plurality of cell buffers, where each virtual connection has a corresponding cell buffer. When enough cells to constitute a complete packet are buffered for a particular virtual connection in its corresponding cell buffer, the identity of that virtual connection is queued into a queue, which may take the form of a linked list. A plurality of linked lists may be included such that differentiation between various virtual connections based on class is possible, where the class division may be based on a number of different factors. Prioritization information for the merged virtual connection is then obtained, where in the case where a plurality of classes are supported, the prioritization information includes class prioritization information. A cell stream for the merged virtual circuit is then generated based on the prioritization information and the virtual connection identities currently stored in the queue structure. The cell stream is generated such that entire packets are included in the cell stream in a continuous manner and no intermingling of cells corresponding to different packets occurs. |
| US07664110B1 |
Input/output controller for coupling the processor-memory complex to the fabric in fabric-backplane interprise servers
A hybrid server and multi-layer switch system architecture, referred to hereinafter as the Enterprise Fabric (EF) architecture, forms the basis for a number of Enterprise Server (ES) chassis embodiments. Each ES embodiment generally includes one or more Processor Memory Modules (PMMs, each generally having one or more symmetric multiprocessor complexes), one or more Network Modules, and a System Control Module (SCM). The SCM includes a cellified switching-fabric core (SF) and a System Intelligence Module (SIM). Each PMM has one or more resident Virtual IO Controller (VIOC) adapters. Each VIOC is a specialized I/O controller that includes embedded layer-2 forwarding and filtering functions and tightly couples the PMM to the SF. Thus the layer-2 switch functionality within the ES chassis is distributed over all of the SCM, NM, and PMM modules. Through the use of VIOC/VNIC device drivers, host operating system software (Host O/S) running on the PMMs is presented with a plurality of Virtual Network Interface Cards (VNICs). In some embodiments, each VNIC behaves as a high-performance Ethernet interface at the full disposal of the Host O/S. In other embodiments, at least some of the VNICs behave as high-performance Fiber Channel Host Bus Adapters. |
| US07664108B2 |
Route once and cross-connect many
The present invention relates generally to high-speed packet forwarding (switching/routing) system such as the present IP (Internet Protocol). More particularly, the invention encompasses a protocol that includes having the capabilities of high-speed IP packet forwarding to over come network delays. The invention further includes a protocol that allows for an easy and transparent implementation on current IP networks or any packet switching system/device so that one can route once (at a certain level) and cross-connect many (at a lower layer) (ROACM). |
| US07664107B2 |
Self-stabilizing and fast-convergent structured peer-to-peer overlays
A self-stabilizing overlay maintenance protocol in structured peer-to-peer overlay system stabilizes any initially connected overlay topology to a correct topology. According to the protocol, a node in the overlay system periodically pings neighboring nodes in the leafset of its routing table, who respond with a pong message containing the recipient's view of the ping sender's leafset. The protocol further conserves connectivity when removing a directed link to another node, by first creating a link to a replacement node that in turn has a link to that node. The protocol uses a ping-pong-notify message exchange to track sink and source sets of the directed links between nodes. The protocol also achieves fast convergence, such as in the partition healing scenario, by leveraging the finger set in the routing table to establish and quickly spread healing points from which the protocol can stabilize the structure. |
| US07664106B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing E911 services via network announcements
A method and apparatus for providing emergency services, e.g., E911 services, for nomadic users by utilizing network announcements to remind customers to update location information used to provide services on packet networks, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks, are disclosed. For example, the method enables the VoIP or SoIP service provider to detect a change in the IP address associated with either the broadband modem or the router through which a terminal adaptor is used to access services when a customer is logging on from a new location. In turn, the method sends a reminder network announcement message to the terminal adaptor, e.g., to be played when the terminal adaptor goes off-hook. |
| US07664104B2 |
PPP terminating equipment, network equipment and method of responding to LCP echo requirement
In a PPP terminating equipment 100 connected with a switch fabric and terminating PPP link, the PPP terminating equipment 100 has an LCP echo requirement detecting section 20 detecting whether or not a received packet is the LCP echo requirement packet, and an LCP echo response producing section 40 producing a response packet to the LCP echo requirement by rewriting the LCP header of the received LCP echo requirement packet. The PPP terminating equipment 100 thereby produces and returns the response packet to the LCP echo requirement. |
| US07664102B1 |
System and method for providing a plurality of multi-media services using a number of media servers to form a preliminary interactive communication relationship with a calling communication device
A system and method for processing a plurality of requests for multi-media services received at a call control element (CCE) defined on the system from a calling communication device. The system includes a Network Routing Element, a Service Broker (SB), at least a primary media severs (MS) and at least a secondary MS, a plurality of application servers (ASs) and a plurality of border elements, all of which are coupled to the CCE. The SB is adapted to receive a plurality of requests including parameters for requesting multi-media services, via the CCE, and to selectively redirect the requests to one or more ASs for providing feature processing for the requests. The ASs can instruct either the primary MS or secondary MS, via the CCE, to form a preliminary interactive communication path with the calling communication device for collecting caller-entered data, which can be validated prior to providing the feature processing. |
| US07664098B2 |
Systems and methods for gathering usage detail information for packet-based networks
The present invention relates to systems and methods for recording usage of real-time audio, video and data communication services over packet-based networks. The present invention can collect call detail record information from a network gatekeeper and analyze the call detail record information to determine its validity. After checking validity, the invention can combine the call data with information retrieved from a customer database and store the combined record in billing database. The billing database can be accessed by modular billing modules to generate a customized invoice. |
| US07664097B2 |
Telephone service via networking
A system and method for providing telephone type services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as the internetwork commonly known as the Internet. In preferred embodiments, public switched telephone networks utilizing program controlled switching systems are arranged in an architecture with the Internet to provide a methodology for facilitating telephone use of the Internet by customers on an impromptu basis. Provision is made to permit a caller to setup and carry out a telephone call over the Internet from telephone station to telephone station. Calls may be made on an inter or intra LATA, region or state, nationwide or worldwide basis. Billing may be implemented on a per call, timed, time and distance or other basis. Calls may be made front telephone station to telephone station, from telephone station to computer or computer to telephone station. |
| US07664095B2 |
Systems and methods for registering a client device in a data communication system
A two-way wireless communication system comprises a central authority in communication with a plurality of client devices via both a circuit switched data communication system and a packet switched data communication system. The packet switched communication system can assign packet switched network addresses to the client devices dynamically. Therefore, the central authority can be configured to send a circuit switched message, through the circuit switched data network, to a client device requesting the client device to register with the central authority through the packet switched data network. |
| US07664085B2 |
Wireless communication device and method for coordinating communications among wireless local area networks (WLANs) and broadband wireless access (BWA) networks
Embodiments of methods for coordinating communications among wireless networks and a co-located wireless communication device are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. In some embodiments, frame-timing parameters are reported by a broadband wireless access (BWA) network node to a node of a wireless local area network (WLAN), and the WLAN node may transmit the frame-timing parameters to an access point ad the WLAN. The BWA network node and the WLAN node may be co-located within the wireless communication device. The transmission time of downlink transmissions for receipt by the WLAN node may be selected by the access point based on the frame-timing parameters to reduce interference caused by concurrent uplink transmissions by the BWA network node. |
| US07664084B2 |
Techniques for selecting an access point apparatus based on an allowance area
A wireless station that includes an access point apparatus detection section which detects a usable access point apparatus from among a plurality of access point apparatuses; an allowance area calculation section which calculates an allowance area according to received signal strength indicator, frequency, and frequency bandwidth of a radio wave transmitted by a rogue access point apparatus whose frequency bandwidth overlaps with that of the usable access point apparatus, as well as according to received signal strength indicator, frequency, and frequency bandwidth of a radio wave transmitted by the usable access point apparatus; and an access point apparatus selection section which selects one access point apparatus based on the allowance area. |
| US07664082B1 |
Method of scheduling with multiple radios per node in a wireless multihop network
A method of scheduling transmission from radios having multiple radios is provided, where the number of radios is smaller than then number of neighbours to which transmission needs to occur. Scheduling blocks are identified consisting of sets of neighbours that can be transmitted to simultaneously without interference. Then, the scheduling blocks are used for scheduling purposes. |
| US07664081B2 |
Wireless gateway for enabling wireless devices to discover and interact with various short-range services/devices
A portable gateway apparatus communicates with devices coupled to a first network and devices coupled to at least a second network. The gateway provides an interface to a mobile phone to discover services/devices within both the first and the at least second networks and interacts with them. The mobile phone includes a service/content directory enabling a user to select preferred services. The gateway conducts service discovery to identify services and devices responsive to the user request. The services and description are provided to the user for selection, after which a service-specific interface is displayed to enable the mobile phone to control the execution of the discovered services. |
| US07664079B2 |
Adjusting link layer control frame to facilitate data throughput
A base station subsystem includes logic to change the modulation and coding scheme for radio communications, and logic to communicate with a switching GSM to cause a change in link layer control frame size to reflect the change in modulation and coding scheme. |
| US07664078B2 |
Method and apparatus for efficient sharing of communication system resources
A method for accessing a reverse channel for communication from a remote unit to a base station is disclosed. The method includes waiting a random period of time in response to determining that the reverse channel is available at a first time. The method also includes monitoring a forward channel after expiration of the random period of time to determine whether the reverse channel is available at a second time. The method further includes transmitting a first portion of data on the reverse channel in response to determining that the reverse channel is available at the second time. |
| US07664077B2 |
Information transmission method, mobile communications system, base station and mobile station in which data size of identification data is reduced
In an information transmission method, a radio communications system, a base station and a mobile station, a TBS size, a modulation scheme and the number of codes in a multicode are converted into identification data having a relatively smaller data size before being transmitted to a destination of communication. The TBS size is identified by using, in combination, an identification code identifying a channelization code set, an identification code identifying a modulation scheme, and an identification code obtained by converting a combination of the number of codes in a multicode and a modulation pattern identification (TFRC) into a corresponding code. Accordingly, the data size for TBS size identification is reduced. |
| US07664076B2 |
Random access apparatus and method
A random access apparatus for supporting a variety of access service classes includes a radio frequency (RF) transmitting/receiving unit for receiving a preamble introduction broadcasting signal from a base station and transmitting a random access preamble to the base station, an introduction broadcasting signal processing unit for extracting a random access usage relating to M-sequences and hadamard sequences from the received preamble introduction broadcasting signal, a selecting unit for selecting a plurality of M-sequences and a hadamard sequence corresponding to a random access purpose based on the extracted random access usage, and a preamble producing unit for generating the random access preamble using the selected plurality of M-sequences and the selected hadamard sequence. |
| US07664074B2 |
System for packet data service in the mixed network of asynchronous communication network and synchronous communication network and hand-over method thereof
Disclosed herein is a mobile communication terminal and handover method therefor. In the mobile communication system, a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) of the asynchronous network is connected to a Packet Data Service Node (PDSN) of the synchronous network. Accordingly, as a mobile communication terminal, using packet data service in the asynchronous mobile communication system, moves into an area of a synchronous mobile communication system, the synchronous mobile communication system sets control signals and traffic to transmit packet data in response to a request from the asynchronous mobile communication system. Further, if forward and reverse channels are assigned between the mobile communication terminal and the synchronous mobile communication system, call setup is performed to provide the packet data service, and then a node B of the asynchronous mobile communication system releases the connection to the mobile communication terminal. |
| US07664072B1 |
Virtual streams for QoS-driven wireless LANs
A virtual stream (VS) in a basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) that exists solely within the medium access control (MAC) sublayer of the WLAN. The VS includes a unidirectional path in the wireless network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS. The VS is defined by a VS identifier (VSID) that is unique within and local to the BSS, an address of the sourcing station, and an address of the at least one receiving station. The VS can be a virtual down-stream (VDS), a virtual upstream (VUS) or a virtual side-stream (VSS). The VS can be a unitcast or a multicast VS. |
| US07664069B2 |
Method and system for preventing call drop by limiting search time of 1x system during 1x EV-DO system traffic state
Disclosed is a method and a system for preventing a call drop by limiting a search time for a 1X system during a 1xEV-DO system traffic state. The system comprises a hybrid access terminal, supporting both a 1xEV-DO system and a 1X system, for periodically switching over to the 1X system while in traffic with the 1xEV-DO system, updating an overhead message, checking a search time and switching over to the 1xEV-DO system based on a result of the search time; a base station transceiver subsystem including a 1xEV-DO transceiver subsystem for exchanging a packet data with the hybrid access terminal and a 1X transceiver subsystem for exchanging a voice or data with the hybrid access terminal; a base station controller including a 1xEV-DO controller for controlling a packet data transmission service of the 1xEV-DO transceiver subsystem and a 1X controller for controlling transmission service of the 1X transceiver subsystem; and a packet data serving node connected to the 1xEV-DO controller for exchanging the packet data with the 1xEV-DO system. |
| US07664068B1 |
Voice data integrated multiaccess by self-reservation and contention algorithm
Certain exemplary embodiments provide a method for providing multiple access to a communication channel, the method comprising: sending a reservation request of a first type into a first selected minislot of a selected frame of an uplink channel when information of a first type is to be sent, the uplink channel having a plurality of frames, each frame having a first selectable number of minislots and a second selectable number of slots, the reservation request of the first type requesting an assignment of at least one slot for transmitting information of the first type in at least one frame that is subsequent to the selected frame. |
| US07664067B2 |
Preserving socket connections over a wireless network
A system, apparatus, and method for maintaining a socket connection over a wireless network. For example, one embodiment of the invention is a wireless data processing device for emulating a socket connection comprising: a wireless radio for establishing a wireless communication channel with a wireless service provider over a wireless network; a network protocol stack including at least one layer configured to establish a socket connection with a remote server over the wireless network, the network protocol stack further including an application layer for executing applications capable of transmitting and receiving data over the socket connection; and a resumable socket module configured to emulate an open socket connection transparently to applications within the application layer, even when the wireless communication channel is temporarily lost, the resumable socket module counting a number of bytes transmitted or to be transmitted to the remote server and maintaining a buffer containing the bytes transmitted or to be transmitted. |
| US07664058B1 |
Method and apparatus for providing spontaneous multi-way telephone conversation with inserted messaging
The present invention provides a method for simultaneously broadcasting a message to a plurality of end-point devices. More specifically, the present invention receives a request to initiate a teleconference from a subscriber. The plurality of end-point devices is then invited to join the teleconference. |
| US07664057B1 |
Audio-to-video synchronization system and method for packet-based network video conferencing
Synchronizing audio and video streams in packet-based networks requires synchronization of packet timestamps. The present invention provides such synchronization without resort to a network time standard. In one embodiment of the present invention, pairs of timestamp synchronized signals, such as audio and video signals, not having a common timestamp clock are mixed. One of the signals, for example, the audio signals, is mixed first while preserving the original audio timestamps. The preserved timestamp information is then used to synchronize the timestamps of the unmixed signals, in this example the video signals, to provide synchronization of all signals. In another embodiment, the present invention uses packets containing calibration of timestamps to reduce jitter. The present invention also includes specifications for a packet for transmitting timestamp information. |
| US07664051B2 |
Method for implementing virtual network element and system thereof
A method for implementing a virtual Network Element (NE), including: constructing type definition information of a virtual NE and a virtual board, which has all type parameters of an actual NE and board of the same type; obtaining the type definition information to construct a virtual NE entity and a virtual board entity which has property information of an actual NE; configuring service and protection information for the constructed virtual NE entity. A network management system for implementing a virtual NE is also disclosed. It is possible to construct and maintain a virtual NE which can simulate actual NE devices completely in accordance with the present invention. |
| US07664049B1 |
Multilayer telecommunications network
A communications system comprising: a first network comprising a plurality of first network subscriber units and a first network sink node unit capable of wireless communication with the first network subscriber units; and a second network geographically at least partly overlapping the first network and comprising a plurality of second network subscriber units and a second network sink node unit capable of wireless communication with the second network subscriber units; and a dedicated connection between the first network sink node unit and a second network unit capable of communication in the second network, whereby a first network subscriber unit may be provided with a communication path to another second network unit. |
| US07664045B2 |
Sampling to a next hop
Samples from an addressed data forwarding devices, such as a router, are forwarded to a specified next hop address and/or out a specified next hop interface. However, the sampling and/or next hop forwarding is suppressed if the specified next hop address is unstable or unresolved. |
| US07664044B2 |
Method of failure detection in an IP forwarding plane
A method of failure detection on an Internet Protocol (IP) forwarding plane, which includes: IP nodes of the two ends obtain Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) identifier information which is used in the BFD, moreover start a BFD session, encapsulate and transport a BFD packet between the IP nodes running the BFD session and implement the failure detection according to the BFD packet transported between the IP nodes. The method of this invention realizes the failure detection via starting the BFD session and via transporting the BFD packet between the inter-domain IP nodes or the intra-domain IP nodes. |
| US07664043B1 |
Method and apparatus for performing reachability testing within the context of customer virtual private networks
In one embodiment, the invention comprises a method and apparatus for verifying connectivity in a network comprising a plurality of provider edge routers and a plurality of customer edge routers facilitating communication within at least one customer virtual private network. In another embodiment, the invention comprises a method for determining respective operational statuses of edge communication links between provider edge routers and customer edge routers. In another embodiment, the invention comprises a method for verifying site-to-site reachability within the context of customer virtual private networks. |
| US07664041B2 |
Distributed stream analysis using general purpose processors
Methods and apparatuses for directing data transferred in a network to multiple analysis processors for network analysis processing. A network processor is configured to receive network data transferred in a network link. The network processor is configured to transmit the network data and a path control signal to a distribution module coupled to the network processor. The distribution module is configured to receive the path control signal and receive the network data from the network processor. The distribution module is further configured to route the network data to multiple outputs based on the path control signal received. A plurality of analysis processors are coupled to the distribution module for receiving the network data from a different output of the distribution module. Each analysis processor analyzes the network data received by the analysis processor for errors, purposes of detecting or measuring errors, performance, security, compliance, statistics, or patterns. |
| US07664036B2 |
Dynamic real-time quality management of packetized communications in a network environment
The present invention provides a dynamic real-time quality management of packetized communications in a network environment. Packetized communications are monitored by and exchanged between wireless Access Points (APs) and wireless terminals or by quality monitoring modules located within network segments or at network vertices. The processing unit analyzes the packetized communications to identify communication signatures associated with the packetized communications. The processor then uses these signatures to identify network impediments to the exchange of the packetized communications. These impediments may take the form of coding problems in which case an appropriate coding scheme is employed by the programmable COder/DECoder (CODEC) to convert incoming packetized communications to incoming user communications, and outgoing user communications to outgoing packetized communications. These impediments may also take the form of communication problems along and between the various network segments. In these cases, the processor may choose a more appropriate communication pathway with which to route the packetized communications. |
| US07664032B2 |
Communication terminal and communication network
Each node or terminal in a communication network is capable of generating routing information for routing packets from an arbitrary source terminal to an arbitrary destination terminal on both a single-path route and a multipath route. The routing information is placed in packets transmitted to neighboring communication terminals, and analyzed in packets received from neighboring terminals. The single-path route is spatially or temporally separated from the multipath route so that the single-path route does not receive interference from the multipath route. Temporal separation may be effected by suspending the transmission of packets temporarily at each communication terminal on the multipath route. Spatial separation may be effected by using the routing information to designate different zones in the network, the single-path route being disposed in one zone, the multipath route in another zone. |
| US07664031B2 |
Wireless probe
The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications and more particularly to systems and methods for monitoring wireless traffic in wireless local area networks. The present invention addresses shortcomings of the prior art by providing methods and apparatus for the calculation of more meaningful performance values for a wireless network reflective of the consumption of time on the wireless medium. These performance values may then, for example, be used to control access to the network or displayed graphically to show a user the performance of the network. |
| US07664028B1 |
Apparatus and method for metering and marking data in a communication system
A system and/or method for metering and marking packets of data incoming into a communication system having in some embodiments primary and secondary meter selectors, primary and secondary metering processors and a pipeline and wrapper interface controller. Further methods involve measuring an incoming microflow against one or two specified temporal profiles using a two-level metering hierarchy. |
| US07664025B2 |
Packet network telecommunication system
Packet network telecommunication systems, especially Internet Protocol (IP) telephony removes the need of explicit installing of TSP (TAPI service provider) software or other telephony software at each workstation. Application server software or corresponding control software is arranged to take care of all call control actions on behalf of the phone client software so that the phone client software only needs to receive and transmit speech data streams, and to communicate all control messaging from and to the particular phone client software via the communication link between the control software and the phone client software. Since modern operating systems include support for the user interface devices as well as transmitting and receiving real-time data streams, the phone client software does not require any specific interfacing software to be installed on the client workstation. |
| US07664021B2 |
Recording and reproducing apparatus and file transfer method
A recording and reproducing apparatus includes a file recorder, an interface, and controller which, upon receipt of content file with copy control information, records the content file in the recorder by adding thereto identification information M requesting transfer upon confirmation that a round-trip response time to a destination is not longer than a predetermined time, so that upon receipt of an instruction for transfer of the content file to an external device on the network, the controller determines whether the external device has a function of measuring and determining the round-trip response time to the destination, and in the case where the external device has function of measuring and determining the round-trip response time to the destination, transfers the content file to storage area of the external device, after measuring the round-trip response time and confirming that the measurement is not longer than predetermined time. |
| US07664003B2 |
Objective lens and optical pickup apparatus
An objective lens for use in an optical pickup apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information on a first optical information recording medium having a protective substrate with a thickness t1 using a light flux with a wavelength λ1, on a second optical information recording medium having a protective substrate with a thickness t2 using a light flux with a wave length λ2 and a third optical information recording medium having a protective substrate with a thickness t3 using a light flux with a wavelength λ2, the objective lens includes: an optical surface including a central area and a peripheral area, wherein when the objective optical lens forms the portion of the light flux with the wavelength λ2 passed the central area into a converged spot through a substrate with a thickness t4, the objective optical lens makes a spherical aberration of the converged spot a minimum value. |
| US07663994B2 |
Data recording method and data recording equipment
A frequency characteristics compensation method that can be applied to various waveforms (strategies). When determining the amount of frequency compensation, a deteriorated part by frequency characteristics is compensated for with respect to the difference between the pulse power to be compensated and the power level immediately before it. The present invention can also be applied to variations in the performance, aged deterioration, and temperature characteristics. |
| US07663993B2 |
Disk device for recording and reproducing disks with adaptive rotation control
A disk device is arranged to select an appropriate rotation control method according to a kind of an optical disk, a recording format or a recording method so that a recording operation for a certain amount of information may be completed as fast as possible, even if a waiting time takes place until the rotation is set. The disk device includes a unit for selecting the rotation control method for recording a certain amount of information more efficiently and rapidly in light of time according to a kind of an optical disk, a recording format or a recording method. The selected rotation control method is executed to control the rotation of the optical disk when recording information on the disk. |
| US07663991B2 |
Write-once recording medium preserving data-recording status, method of preserving data-recording status of a write-once recording medium, medium including computer readable code for the same, and recording and/or reproducing apparatus therefor
A method of reproducing a recording medium having finalized recorded data. Data is read from the recording medium and a determination is made whether the recording medium is further recordable based on whether a temporary defect management area includes repetitions of a predetermined value or based on whether another predetermined value is recorded in response to a finalization command previously recorded. |
| US07663989B2 |
Method of setting defect management information, method of recording data, computer program product, computer readable storage medium, and information recording apparatus that properly records plural types of data for different uses on the same information recording medium
An information recording apparatus that records information on an information recording medium includes a setting mechanism that sets defect management information including information with respect to a specific area in a recording area of the information recording medium in which a defect detection process need not be performed, a recording mechanism that records data in the recording area, and a determining mechanism that determines whether to perform the defect detection process in a recording target area in the recording area in which the data is recorded, based on the defect management information and information with respect to the recording target area. By setting an AV data area as a specific area and by setting a PC data area as a defect management area, the continuity of data recorded in the AV data area is achieved, and the reliability of data recorded in the PC data area is ensured. |
| US07663988B2 |
Optical disc apparatus and method of setting defocus value thereof
An optical disc apparatus is disclosed that comprises a jitter value detecting circuit that detects a jitter value based on the signal read out from an optical disc; and a defocus value setting circuit that adjusts a defocus value used for moving an objective lens along the direction of a light axis when focusing of the objective lens to the optical disc is performed, based on the signal that has gone through the jitter value detecting circuit, and causes a defocus adjustment to be made based on the defocus value. |
| US07663986B2 |
Servo control signal generation device and an optical disk device using the same
A servo control signal generation device for discriminating a kind of an optical disk, changing over between top and bottom envelope signals of an RF signal, and generating a defect signal and a mirror signal includes an RF generator for generating the RF signal from reflected light of an optical disk, a disk discriminator for discriminating a kind of the optical disk from the RF signal, and a top envelope generator and a bottom envelope generator respectively for generating the top and bottom envelope signals of the RF signal. If the disk has reflectance after recording which is lower than that before recording, the defect and mirror signals are generated respectively from the top and bottom envelope signals. If the disk has reflectance after recording which is higher than that before recording, the defect and mirror signals are generated respectively from the bottom and top envelope signals. |
| US07663985B2 |
Information recording and reproduction method and information recording and reproduction device
The focus offset FE0 corresponding to minimum jitter is learned in advance. When performing spherical aberration adjustment for each disk, the spherical aberration is adjusted so that the jitter reaches a minimum, while maintaining the focus offset at FE0. The invention provides a method for performing high-precision adjustment of the focus offset and spherical aberration, even in the case of a disk which does not have data recorded on it. |
| US07663984B2 |
Optical pickup actuator for driving an objective lens
An optical pickup actuator which includes a base, a blade having an objective lens mounted thereon, a plurality of suspensions supporting the blade to be movable with respect to the base and forming an electroconductive path, and a magnetic circuit driving the blade according to a driving signal applied through the respective suspensions. The magnetic circuit includes a magnet fixed to the base, and a fine pattern coil installed on the blade at a position facing the magnet and having a track pattern coil, a focus pattern coil, and a tilt pattern coil independently driven by current applied through the suspensions and providing driving forces in a track direction, a focus direction, and a tilt direction of the blade. |
| US07663983B2 |
Optical information storage medium and optical information storage medium reproducing apparatus
An optical information storage medium includes a light transmitting layer, a first information storage layer, an intermediate layer mainly made of resin, a second information storage layer, and a substrate. The light transmitting layer, the first information storage layer, the intermediate layer, the second information storage layer, and the substrate are layered in this order from a reproduction light incident side. Each of the first information storage layer and the second information storage layer includes: a light absorbing film that absorbs reproduction light to generate heat; and a reproduction film that is heated by the heat generated by the light absorbing film so as to reproduce a signal shorter in mark length than a resolution limit of an optical system of a reproducing apparatus. |
| US07663982B2 |
Light delivery module, method of fabricating the same and heat-assisted magnetic recording head using the light delivery module
A light delivery module, a method of fabricating the same, a heat-assisted magnetic recording head using the light delivery module are provided. The light delivery module delivers light emitted from a light source. The light delivery module includes an optical waveguide having an inclined plane of an angle Φ with respect to an incident light axis to deliver an incident light, and a nano aperture changing an energy distribution of the light delivered through the inclined plane to generate an enhanced near-field. The heat-assisted magnetic recording head is mounted on one end of a slider with an air bearing surface to perform a recording operation on a recording medium. The heat-assisted magnetic recording head includes a magnetic path forming unit forming a magnetic field for recording, a light source emitting light for heating a predetermined region of a recording surface of the recording medium, and the light delivery module. |
| US07663980B2 |
Audio system for storing audio data files
A audio data collection and management system is provided for extracting music data from an optical media and managing the music data. The system is configured to extract at least a portion of an initial track of music data at an extracting rate that is different than the recording rate. The system simultaneously records the extracted portion of the initial track of music data to a storage media at the extracting rate while performing the extracting. The system is configured to be implemented in an automobile, a home stereo system, or a personal computer system. |
| US07663978B2 |
Drive control apparatus, electronic apparatus, method of controlling drive of electronic apparatus, drive control program, and recording medium
In an electronic device 1 comprising a battery 200 and a piezoelectric actuator A, a power source voltage before drive control is started is maintained by a sample holding circuit 102, a reference voltage is set by a reference voltage generating circuit 103 on the basis of the power source voltage, and a control circuit 106 stops driving when the power source voltage falls below a drive stop voltage as compared by a second comparison circuit 105, and begins driving the piezoelectric actuator A again when the power source voltage exceeds the reference voltage as compared by a first comparison circuit 104. Therefore, the device can be more easily reduced in size by using a small power source, and the driving time can be markedly reduced using an intermittent driving procedure that corresponds to the conditions of the battery voltage. |
| US07663970B2 |
Method for passive seismic emission tomography
A method for seismic event mapping includes transforming seismic signals recorded at selected positions into a domain of possible spatial positions of a source of seismic events. An origin in spatial position and time of at least one seismic event is determined from space and time distribution of at least one attribute of the transformed seismic data. |
| US07663969B2 |
Use of Lamb waves in cement bond logging
A method and apparatus useful to determine the integrity of a cement bond log disposed in the annular space between a casing and a wellbore. The method and apparatus induce a Lamb wave in the casing and into the wellbore. The Lamb wave attenuates upon passage through the cement bond log. The integrity of the cement bond log can be determined through an analysis and evaluation of the attenuation results. |
| US07663968B2 |
Method of processing geological data
There is provided a method of processing geological data during drilling of a borehole for improving accuracy of the geological data. The method includes a first step of determining from instrumentation (100) associated with a string (50) of drilling pipes a spatial trajectory of a borehole (20, 200) in a subterranean region. A second step of the method involves determining from the spatial trajectory one or more points (P1, P2, P3) with reference to the geological data whereat the trajectory changes direction in one or more layers of strata (F) of the subterranean region. A third step of the method involves subdividing an offset log generated by the instrumentation (100) in response to the one or more points (P1, P2, P3) to generate corresponding sections of offset log. A fourth step involves mutually comparing the subdivided sections of offset log to find a condition of best comparison therebetween and thereby generate one or more error terms (E). A fifth step involves, in response to the one or more error terms (E), updating the geological data to improve its accuracy. Beneficially, the method includes a sixth of repeating the second to fifth steps until the one or more error terms (E) are minimized. The method is relevant for a drilling rig (40) to enhance its drilling accuracy into the subterranean region. |
| US07663965B2 |
Memory with clock-controlled memory access and method of operating the same
An integrated circuit memory with clock-controlled memory access includes at least one data connection to input/output data, a memory cell array including memory cells to store data, a clock generator circuit to generate a clock signal, a memory circuit to store data, a control circuit to control storage of data in the memory circuit and to control output of data from the memory circuit. The memory circuit is connected to the memory cell array and to the at least one data connection. During read access to the memory cells, first and second data supplied to the memory circuit from the memory cell array are buffer-stored in the memory circuit upon first and second edges of the clock signal. The first and second data are output from the memory circuit and supplied to the at least one data connection upon third and fourth edges of the clock signal. |
| US07663960B2 |
Voltage supply circuit and semiconductor memory
A voltage supply circuit that switches and outputs multiple set voltages from an output terminal, has a boosting circuit that boosts a voltage supplied from a power supply and outputs the voltage to the output terminal; a voltage detecting circuit that outputs a first flag signal when detecting that the voltage outputted from the boosting circuit is not lower than the set voltage, outputs a second flag when detecting that the voltage outputted from the boosting circuit is not lower than a frequency adjusting voltage set lower than the set voltage; and a control circuit that controls an operation of the boosting circuit in response to the set voltage and the output signal of the voltage detecting circuit. |
| US07663951B2 |
Semiconductor memory apparatus
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a main bank configured to combine a first sub bank and a second sub bank. A center bitline sense amplifier array is arranged in a region where the first sub bank meets the second sub bank. A first precharge section is arranged above the first sub bank and a second precharge section is arranged below the second sub bank. The first precharge section precharges local input/output lines of the first sub bank and the second sub bank and the second precharge section precharges the local input/output lines. |
| US07663949B2 |
Memory row architecture having memory row redundancy repair function
The present invention discloses a memory row architecture having memory row redundancy repair function. The memory row architecture includes a plurality of normal memory sections and a plurality of redundancy memory sections, wherein a number of the plurality of normal memory sections is more than two, a number of the plurality of redundancy memory sections is equal to the number of the plurality of normal memory sections, and a redundancy memory section is implemented in one side of each of the plurality of normal memory sections. In addition, the plurality of normal memory sections and the plurality of redundancy memory sections respectively having an odd serial number make up a first memory row redundancy repair module, and the plurality of normal memory sections and the plurality of redundancy memory sections respectively having an even serial number make up a second memory row redundancy repair module. |
| US07663947B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device is disclosed which increases the data transfer rate in transferring data output from an input/output sense amplifier via a global data bus line by reducing the swing width of the data placed on the global data bus line. The semiconductor device may include a data transfer unit which receives first data, and outputs second data obtained by driving the first data to a predetermined level to a data transfer line; a data receiver which receives the second data transferred via the data transfer line; a delay which outputs a plurality of delay signals respectively obtained by delaying the second data outputted from the data transfer unit by different delay periods; a delay controller which selects one of the delay signals in accordance with an operation mode of the semiconductor device, and outputs at least one adjustment signal for adjusting a driving period of the data transfer unit for the first data based on the delay period of the selected delay signal; and a transfer controller which receives the first data and the at least one adjustment signal, and outputs at least one transfer control signal for controlling the operation of the data transfer unit, based on the received first data and adjustment signal. |
| US07663939B2 |
Voltage stabilizer memory module
A memory module is disclosed. The memory module comprises a voltage supply; a memory interface coupled to the voltage supply; a plurality of memory components; and a voltage stabilizer converter (VSC) coupled to the memory interface and to the plurality of memory components, the VSC for ensuring that the plurality of memory components operate at their optimum performance level. A voltage stabilizer memory module (VSMM) in accordance with the present invention includes a printed circuit board (PCB) that contains memory chips, discrete components, a voltage stabilizer converter, and other related components. The voltage stabilizer converter uses system voltage supply as its input and its output is the voltage supply for the DRAM components. Accordingly, the VSSM is more adaptable, more stable and has better performance than conventional memory modules. |
| US07663937B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory having a plurality of memory cells coupled to bit lines includes a bit line selecting circuit, a latch circuit, and a switching circuit. The bit line selecting circuit is disposed in a cell area where the memory cells are formed. The bit line selecting circuit is configured to select one of the bit lines in response to a first control signal. The latch circuit is disposed in a surrounding circuit area. The latch circuit is configured to perform a program operation or a read operation on the memory cells corresponding to the bit line selected by the bit line selecting circuit. The switching circuit is disposed in the surrounding circuit area, and is coupled between the bit line selecting circuit and the latch circuit. The switching circuit is configured to switch between the bit line selecting circuit and the latch circuit in response to a second control signal. |
| US07663933B2 |
Memory controller
A memory controller for controlling data access to a memory comprises a refresh controller. A read count memory part included in the refresh controller counts the number of read operations on each page of the memory and stores the read count therein. If the read count for any page exceeds a predetermined number, the refresh controller rewrites data stored in this page into the memory. |
| US07663929B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A memory cell array forms a plurality of control areas in a direction orthogonal to the direction of extension of a bit line. A sense amplifier initially charges a bit line in each control area in the memory cell array with a charging voltage controlled by a respective individual bit-line control signal. Bit-line control signal generator circuits are provided plural in accordance with the control areas in the memory cell array. Each bit-line control signal generator circuit receives the potential on a cell source line in a corresponding control area, individually generates and provides the bit-line control signal in the each control area in accordance with the received voltage on the cell source line in each control area. |
| US07663926B2 |
Cell deterioration warning apparatus and method
Memory devices and methods adapted to process and generate analog data signals representative of data values of two or more bits of information facilitate increases in data transfer rates relative to devices processing and generating only binary data signals indicative of individual bits. Programming of such memory devices includes programming to a target threshold voltage range representative of the desired bit pattern. Reading such memory devices includes generating an analog data signal indicative of a threshold voltage of a target memory cell. Warning of cell deterioration can be performed using reference cells programmed in accordance with a known pattern such as to approximate deterioration of non-volatile memory cells of the device. |
| US07663924B2 |
Non-volatile memory devices having multi-page programming capabilities and related methods of operating such devices
Methods of programming a non-volatile memory device having at least one memory block with a plurality of memory cells located at intersections of rows and columns is disclosed. Pursuant to these methods, at least two addresses that select corresponding rows of the memory block may be received and temporarily stored. Then, the rows selected by the temporarily stored addresses may be simultaneously activated, and at least some of the memory cells in the activated rows are simultaneously programmed. Corresponding non-volatile memory devices are also provided. |
| US07663923B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and control method thereof
This invention provides a semiconductor memory device in which standby current is suppressed to a small level. A ROM device includes memory cells for reading data corresponding to impedance between a terminal connected to bit lines and a source terminal and source power lines connected to the source terminal. In this ROM device, bias voltage is applied between the terminals of selected memory cells. |
| US07663922B2 |
Non-volatile semiconductor memory devices with lower and upper bit lines sharing a voltage control block, and memory cards and systems having the same
A non-volatile semiconductor memory device includes a page buffer comprising a lower latch block and an upper latch block, and a memory array that is connected to the lower latch block via a lower common bit line and that is connected to the upper latch block via an upper common bit line. The memory array includes a plurality of non-volatile memory cells, a lower even bit line and a lower odd bit line that are selectively connectable to the lower common bit line, an upper even bit line and an upper odd bit line that are selectively connectable to the upper common bit line, a first switch that electrically connects the lower even bit line to the upper even bit line in response to a first connection control signal and a second switch that electrically connects the lower odd bit line to the upper odd bit line in response to a second connection control signal. |
| US07663921B2 |
Flash memory array with a top gate line dynamically coupled to a word line
Systems and methods are disclosed including memory cells arranged in sectors. In one exemplary implementation, each memory cell may include a top gate, a source, a top gate line coupling memory cells in a sector, and a word line coupling memory cells together. Moreover, the top gate line may be dynamically coupled to the word line. Other exemplary implementations may relate to drivers for driving the word line and/or top gate line, multilevel memory cell, and/or floating gate line features. |
| US07663920B2 |
Memory system and data reading and generating method
An object of the present invention is to provide a memory system that offers enhanced security of ROM code that is data whose contents can be utilized for a given purpose in its intact form. In a memory system, data is read from a memory according to at least two or more addresses outputted from an address generator, from individual pages uniquely specified respectively by the addresses. A data generator generates one piece of data on the basis of the at least two or more pieces of data read from the individual pages. |
| US07663918B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device and method of programming/reading the same
A nonvolatile memory device includes a first memory block including a plurality of memory cells provided between a first drain selection transistor and a source selection transistor; and a second memory block including a plurality of memory cells provided between a second drain selection transistor and the source selection transistor. The first and second memory blocks share the same source selection transistor that is supplied with a voltage via a source selection line. |
| US07663917B2 |
Non-volatile static memory cell
A static memory cell comprising a pair of cross-coupled inverters (10, 12) which is “shadowed” with non-volatile memory elements (14, 16) so that data written in the static memory can be stored in the non-volatile cell, but also can be recalled later. The non-volatile cells (14, 16) are programmed with opposite data to increase the robustness of the retrieval process, and they are cross-coupled to the internal nodes (A, B) of the static memory cell, one the non-volatile cells (14) having a control gate connected to B and its source to A, and the other non-volatile element (16) having a control gate connected to A and its source to B. The drain of each non-volatile element (14, 16) is connected by means of a respective pMOS transistor (18, 20) to a program supply means. |
| US07663916B2 |
Logic compatible arrays and operations
An array of memory cells arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns are provided. The array includes a first program line in a first direction, wherein the first program line is connected to program gates of memory cells in a first row of the array; a first erase line in the first direction, wherein the first erase line is connected to erase gates of the memory cells in the first row of the array; and a first word-line in the first direction, wherein the first word-line is connected to word-line nodes of the memory cells in the first row of the array. |
| US07663911B2 |
Isolation structure for deflectable nanotube elements
Nanotube-based switching elements and logic circuits. Under one embodiment of the invention, a switching element includes an input node, an output node, a nanotube channel element having at least one electrically conductive nanotube, and a control electrode. The control electrode is disposed in relation to the nanotube channel element to controllably form an electrically conductive channel between the input node and the output node. The channel at least includes said nanotube channel element. The output node is constructed and arranged so that channel formation is substantially unaffected by the electrical state of the output node. |
| US07663906B2 |
Semiconductor memory device, data storage device and method for controlling semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device includes: a memory section; and a control section that controls writing and reading of data with respect to the memory section, wherein the memory section includes a first memory region formed from nonvolatile memory cells, each of the memory cells storing binary data corresponding to a first polarization state and a second polarization state; and the control section controls, for all of the memory cells included in the first memory region, such that, before writing data to each of the memory cells based on new data externally inputted, the memory cell is polarized in the first polarization state, and then the memory cell is further polarized in the second polarization state. |
| US07663904B2 |
Operating method of one-time programmable read only memory
The present invention provides a method of operating a one-time programmable read only memory (OTPROM). The OTPROM includes at least a select transistor, an electrode and a dielectric layer disposed on a substrate, wherein the electrode is set up on the source region of the select transistor and the dielectric layer is set up between the electrode and the source region. The method of operating the one-time programmable read only memory includes performing a programming operation to write a digital data value of ‘1’ into the memory and performing a programming operation to write a digital data value of ‘0’ into the memory. |
| US07663903B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having improved voltage transmission path and driving method thereof
Provided are a semiconductor memory device and a method of driving the device which can improve a noise characteristic of a voltage signal supplied to a memory cell of the device. The semiconductor memory device includes a first semiconductor chip and one or more second semiconductor chips stacked on the first chip. The first chip includes an input/output circuit for sending/receiving a voltage signal, a data signal, and a control signal to/from an outside system. The one or more second semiconductor chips each include a memory cell region for storing data. The second semiconductor chips receive at least one signal through one or more signal paths that are formed outside the input/output circuit of the first chip. |
| US07663902B2 |
Memory device in which data is written or read by a switching operation of a bit line that is inserted into a trench formed between a plurality of word lines
A memory device and a method for fabricating the same provide a device capable of increasing or maximizing the performance of a microstructure device. The device includes: a plurality of word lines formed with a gap therebetween and extending in parallel with each other in a first direction of extension; and a bit line insulated from the plurality of word lines, intersecting the plurality of word lines and extending in a second direction of extension, a transition electrode portion of the bit line positioned in the gap and spaced apart from the plurality of word lines by a predetermined distance, the transition electrode portion of the bit line configured and arranged to be bent toward any one of the plurality of word lines in response to an electrical signal applied to at least one of the plurality of word lines. |
| US07663901B2 |
Techniques for implementing accurate device parameters stored in a database
Memory modules and methods for fabricating and implementing memory modules wherein unique device parameters corresponding to specific memory devices on the memory modules are accessed from a database such that the device parameters may be implemented to improve system performance. The device parameters may include sizes, speeds, operating voltages, or timing parameters of the memory modules. Memory modules comprising a number of volatile memory devices may be fabricated. Device parameters corresponding to the specific memory devices on the memory module may be stored in a database and accessed during fabrication or during implementation of the memory modules in a system. System performance may be optimized by implementing the unique device parameters corresponding to the specific memory devices on the memory modules. |
| US07663898B2 |
Switching power supply with direct conversion off AC power source
A power supply circuit, comprising a first reverse blocking transistor coupled to an AC power line; a second reverse blocking transistor coupled to the AC power line; a first inductor provided between the first reverse blocking transistor and the AC power line and configured to store energy; a first diode having a first terminal that is coupled to one end of the first inductor; a first capacitor having a terminal that is coupled to a second terminal of the first diode; and a first output terminal provided between the first diode and the first capacitor. The first and second transistors are arranged in an anti-parallel configuration and together define an AC switch. |
| US07663890B2 |
Printed circuit boards for use in optical transceivers
One example of an optical transceiver includes a housing and an optical transmitter and optical receiver disposed within the housing. A PCB is also disposed in the housing. The PCB has front and side edges, as well as circuitry in communication with the optical transmitter and the optical receiver. The PCB also includes a group of plated contact pads, each of which includes a front-most extremity that terminates short of the front edge. Finally, the PCB includes a group of traces, one of which leads from one of the side edges of the PCB to a via that is connected with the circuitry, and another of which leads from the via to one of the plated contact pads. |
| US07663888B2 |
Printed circuit board thickness adaptors
A printed circuit board card comprising: a printed circuit board having a first thickness and having first and second edges for inserting into respective channels of card guides, the channels of the card guides for receiving printed circuit boards having a second thickness, the second thickness being greater than the first thickness; and, first and second thickness adaptors each having a third thickness applied at the first and second edges, respectively, a sum of the first and third thicknesses approximating the second thickness, to thereby align the printed circuit board in the channels of the card guides. |
| US07663880B2 |
Holder for external keypad for portable electronic device
A holder (35) includes a base (33), an orientation block (36), a located block (37) and two magnets (38, 39). The base includes a mounting portion (40) and a securing portion (50). The orientation block is fixed in the mounting portion. The located block is slidably engaged in the securing portion. One of the magnets is disposed adjacent to the securing portion, the other of the magnets is disposed in the located block. The magnets are attracted to each other and configured for adjusting a distance between the orientation block and the located block. |
| US07663875B2 |
Computer enclosure with airflow-guiding device
A computer enclosure includes a chassis, an airflow-guiding device, and a mounting mechanism. The chassis includes a mounting bracket. The mounting bracket defines a receiving slot therein. The airflow-guiding device is mounted to the chassis adjacent to the mounting bracket. The mounting mechanism is installed on the airflow-guiding device. The mounting mechanism includes a hook received in the receiving slot and configured to mount the airflow-guiding device to the chassis. The mounting mechanism is configured to slide on the airflow-guiding device to disengage the hook from the receiving slot. |
| US07663874B2 |
Electronic apparatus
A second enclosure is coupled to a first enclosure for relative rotation around a rotation axis. The second enclosure rotates around the rotation axis in the opposite directions from a reference attitude. The second enclosure is prevented from further rotating in the first direction beyond the first rotation angle from the reference attitude. The second enclosure takes the first angular attitude. The second enclosure is also prevented from further rotating in the second direction opposite to the first direction beyond the second rotation angle from the reference attitude. The second enclosure takes the second angular attitude. The displaying unit indicates either of the first and second directions at least when the second enclosure takes the first angular attitude. The displaying unit in this manner enables the user to easily recognize an acceptable direction for the rotation of the second enclosure. |
| US07663867B2 |
Secondary circuit terminal block design for fixed type circuit breakers
A circuit breaker apparatus is provided and includes a circuit breaker, having a housing surface perpendicular to a plane of a front side of the circuit breaker and internal components, a terminal block structurally coupled to the housing surface, first terminal housings arrayed on the terminal block to each support first components and to be receptive of second terminal housings each of which supports second components, at least some of which are electrically coupled to the internal components, to be electrically coupled to at least some of the first components, and an access block. The access block is disposed on the terminal block and has apertures defined therein to provide for front-side access to the first terminal housings. |
| US07663866B2 |
Remote control duo power set
A remote control duo power set comprises one first power outlet which has one first housing, a plurality of first sockets being set on one surface of said first housing, a power cord extending from one side of said first housing; one connecting cord of which one end is connected to the other side of said first housing; and one second power outlet, which is connected to the other side of said connecting cord and has one second housing, a plurality of second sockets and at least one power switch being provided at a side of the second housing. User can easily supply power to the electronic devices by said second power outlet. Furthermore, users can also easily control the supply of power by said power switch. |
| US07663865B2 |
Electrolytic capacitors comprising means in the form of a multilayer polymeric sheet for the sorption of harmful substances
Electrolytic capacitors are provided having an airtight housing, electrodes immersed in an electrolytic solution, electrical contacts connected to the electrodes, and a device for sorption of harmful substances. The device is made of a multilayer polymeric sheet (10), which is formed of an inner layer (12) of polymeric material, containing particles of one or more getter materials (11) for sorption of the harmful substances, and at least one protective layer (13) of a polymeric material impermeable to the electrolyte. All of the polymeric materials are permeable to the harmful substances. |
| US07663861B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the semiconductor device
An MIM capacitance element (capacitance lower electrode, capacitance insulation film and capacitance upper electrode) is provided on a first insulation film on a semiconductor substrate. An interlayer insulation film is provided so as to cover the MIM capacitance element and flattened. The interlayer insulation film is provided with a first connection plug connected to the capacitance upper electrode, a first wiring layer, and a second wiring layer. A second insulation film is provided on the interlayer insulation film. The second insulation film is provided with first and second openings. A wiring pull-out portion which connects the first connection plug and the second wiring layer to each other is provided on the second insulation film. |
| US07663859B1 |
Electrostatic footwear
Electrostatic footwear in the form of a cover with a sole and an upper having an opening to receive the foot or shoe of a user. The opening may be provided with elastic or an elastic cuff for retention about the user. The cover may be worn over the foot or the shoe of a user. The cover has an excess electrical charge to attract particulate matter including but not limited to dust, dirt, pollen, and dander. The electrostatic charge causes the particulate matter to be drawn and held thereon as the user moves about. The sole may include anti-skid material over a limited portion thereof to prevent the user from sliding or slipping. |
| US07663857B2 |
Load driver circuit and ignition device using the same
A protection circuit can be prevented from malfunctioning due to the parasitic operation attributable to the unstable base potential of a transistor. In one embodiment, the protection circuit can be constituted by a reverse transistor system where the bases of transistors are connected to the collectors so that bases and collector potentials are the same. With the above configuration, the base potential is stabilized, and even if a parasitic potential is applied to the base as noise, malfunction associated with transistors turn on due to parasitic operation can be prevented. Since the base potential is stabilized, the protection circuit transistors turn on with greater certainty when a surge current occurs such that the surge current is absorbed by the protection circuit and flows to GND. |
| US07663856B2 |
Spark gap comprising an optically triggered power semiconductor component
A surge protector (1) has a spark gap (2) that is provided with two opposite electrodes (3), a circuit (5) for triggering the spark gap (2), and a light source connected to a protective device (13) on ground potential in order to generate a triggering light which can be delivered with the aid of at least one optical waveguide (15) of a receiver unit of the triggering circuit (5), the spark gap (2) and the triggering circuit (5) being on a high voltage potential. In order to make the surge protector (1) reliable and inexpensive, the receiver unit is provided with at least one power semiconductor component (16) that can be moved, with the aid of the triggering light, from a locked position in which current conduction via the power semiconductor component (16) is interrupted into an open position in which current conduction via the power semiconductor component (16) is made possible. |
| US07663853B2 |
On-chip latch-up protection circuit
An on-chip latch-up protection circuit. The lath-up protection circuit includes a core circuit, a power switch, and a current extractor. The power switch controls major current flowing through the core circuit. The current extractor detects amplitude of the major current. The power switch, the core circuit and the current extractor are coupled in series between a relatively-high power line and a relatively-low power line. When the major current surpasses a predetermined amplitude, the power switch is turned off, causing latch-up stops. |
| US07663846B2 |
Magnetoresistive sensor having an enhanced lead overlay design and shape enhanced pinning
A magnetoresistive sensor having a lead overlay defined trackwidth and a pinned layer that extends beyond the stripe height defined by the free layer of the sensor. The extended pinned layer has a strong shape induced anisotropy that maintains pinning of the pinned layer moment. The extended portion of the pinned layer has sides beyond the stripe height that are perfectly aligned with the sides of the sensor within the stripe height. This perfect alignment is made possible by a manufacturing method that uses a mask structure for more than one manufacturing phase, eliminating the need for multiple mask alignments. The lead overlay design allows narrow, accurate trackwidth definition. |
| US07663845B2 |
Current-perpendicular-to-plane magneto-resistive element including multilayer lower magnetic shielding film
A current-perpendicular-to-plane magneto-resistive element includes a magneto-resistive film and a pair of upper and lower magnetic shielding films holding the magneto-resistive film therebetween for current feeding. The lower magnetic shielding film has an at least two-layer structure including a crystalline material layer and an amorphous material layer disposed below the crystalline material layer. |
| US07663844B2 |
Actuator arm with arm hole to improve dynamic characteristics and actuator assembly having the same
An actuator assembly usable un a hard disk drive includes an actuator arm having an arm hole to improve dynamic characteristics. The actuator arm of the actuator assembly has an arm hole having first, second, and third extended portions, and two members positioned at both sides of the arm hole. The first extended portion is formed at an edge positioned at a leading end of the arm hole so that each of leading ends of the two members has a first reduced width, the second extended portions are formed at edges positioned at a rear end of the arm hole so that each of rear ends of the two members has a second reduced width, and the third extended portions are formed at both sides of a middle portion of the arm hole so that each of middle portions of the two members has a third reduced width. The third width is smaller than the second width and larger than the first width, so that a displacement of a read/write head in a major resonance mode is minimized, a bandwidth for position control of the read/write head is widened, and a position error signal is decreased when the hard disk drive operates. |
| US07663840B2 |
Storage apparatus having a recording medium with a thermal insulation barrier
A method for fabricating a patterned recording medium includes providing a workpiece with a non-magnetic substrate and at least one overlying magnetic layer, laminating a thermal insulation barrier partially in a soft under layer of one of the at least one magnetic layers and forming a topographical pattern including a plurality of trenches in the soft under layer. Blocks of track triplets are formed between adjacent trenches that are magnetically and thermally insulated from other adjacent blocks of track triplets. |
| US07663834B2 |
Data sector phase correction method and disk drive apparatus using the same
A method to correct a phase of a data sector due to rotational slip of a disk includes measuring a difference in the phase of a servo sector between a plurality of disks and adjusting an amount of cylinder skew of a logical data sector between the plurality of disks based on the measured difference in the phase of a servo sector between the plurality of disks. |
| US07663831B2 |
Reproduction device and method, recording medium, and program
The present invention relates to a reproducing apparatus which, in a case where a burst error has occurred, corrects an error preceding a synchronization pattern detected thereafter to have less errors. A bit slip judging section 81 in a bit slip correcting section 53 calculates a bit slip correction amount and a bit slip correction position on the basis of phase error signals detected by a phase error detecting section 51, synchronization pattern signals detected by a synchronization detecting section 52, reproduced clocks and detected data. A FIFO control section 82 controls a FIFO buffer 83 on the basis of the bit slip correction amount and the bit slip correction position, to perform bit slip correction. As a result, in the case where a burst error has occurred, an error preceding a synchronization pattern detected thereafter is corrected, whereby an error reduction can be implemented. The present invention is applicable to a reproducing apparatus. |
| US07663830B2 |
Method of forming servo data of HDD and self servo write method using the same
A method of forming servo data, and a self-servo write method using the same, the method including partial response maximum likelihood (PRML)-coding servo data into m bits in n-bit units; multiplying each bit of the PRML-coded result by an o multiple; and converting a bitsream obtained in the multiplying to ((m/n)−p) bits in m/n-bit units. |
| US07663827B2 |
Method of initializing perpendicular magnetic recording medium, perpendicular magnetic recording medium and magnetic recording apparatus
The present invention provides a method of initializing a perpendicular magnetic recording medium in which a magnetic field having a magnetic field strength Hex is applied to a perpendicular magnetic recording medium having a magnetic layer having a coercive force Hc to initialize the magnetic layer, the method comprising the steps of: controlling a magnetic field strength HexP in a direction parallel to the medium surface of the magnetic field so that HexP>1.3×Hc; and controlling a magnetic field strength HexV in a direction perpendicular to the medium surface of the magnetic field so that HexV |
| US07663819B2 |
Lens barrel assembly of camera module and laser apparatus for assembling the same
A lens barrel assembly of a camera module and a laser apparatus for assembling the lens barrel assembly are provided. The lens barrel assembly of a camera module includes: at least one lens; a barrel provided with a lens exposing hole having a predetermined size which is formed to penetrate a central portion of a closed upper surface of the barrel, wherein the lens is inserted from an lower opening of the barrel toward the lens exposing hole; and a stopping protrusion which is formed by fuse-securing a fused material on a boundary region between an outer circumference of the lens and an opened inner surface of the barrel by illumination of a laser beam on the opened inner surface of the barrel. |
| US07663818B2 |
Voice coil type lens drive assembly
By maintaining a relative position of coils of a movable unit with respect to fixed magnets in a normal state to stabilize a relative position of the movable unit with respect to the whole of a lens drive assembly, the lens drive assembly is provided as an assembly capable of adjusting the focus of a lens in a satisfactory manner. In a voice coil type lens drive assembly for adjusting the focus of a lens, a spring 6, a yoke 6 with magnets 5 and a movable unit M1 attached thereto, and electrically conductive springs 2, are accommodated in this order on a base 1 and a connecting portion of a cover frame 8 and that of the base 1 are connected together to unite the two components. At the same time, cut-in portions 6d formed in end portions of the yoke 6, which is a metallic yoke, are fitted on projections 1e of the base 1 and both are joined together with connections to the cover frame 8 as guide. |
| US07663812B2 |
Lens module with spacer
A lens module comprises a first lens, a second lens, a spacer, an adhesive and a lens barrel. The spacer is sandwiched between the first lens and the second lens, and includes a first surface, an opposite second surface, a lateral surface, a through hole and a plurality of cutouts. The lateral surface interconnects the first surface and the second surface. The through hole is defined in a central portion of the spacer. The cutouts are defined in the lateral surface. The adhesive is applied in the cutouts and interconnects the first lens with the second lens. The lens barrel receives the first lens, the second lens, the adhesive and the spacer therein. |
| US07663810B2 |
Lens barrel and method for manufacturing the same
To provide a lens barrel having an improved assembly accuracy. The lens barrel is provided with: a stationary part; a movable part provided movably relative to the stationary part, its movement moving a lens relative to the stationary part; a rotary member to transfer to the movable part a driving force for moving the movable part relative to the stationary part; and a supporting part provided integrally with the stationary part to support a rotary axis of the rotary member. |
| US07663808B2 |
Zoom lens, imaging device, and personal digital assistant
The invention provides a zoom lens including at least a first lens group having a positive refracting power, a second lens group having a negative refracting power, a third lens group having a positive refracting power, in order from an object side, and an aperture stop between the second lens group and the third lens group, wherein, in changing magnification from a wide angle end toward a telephoto end, at least the first lens group and the third lens group move toward the object side so as to increase a spacing between the first lens group and the second lens group, and to decrease a spacing between the second lens group and the third lens group. |
| US07663806B2 |
Projection lens and projection type display device using the same
A projection lens includes, in order form a magnification side: a first lens group having negative refractive power; and a second lens group having positive refractive power. An aspheric lens is arranged on the most magnification side of the first lens group. The conditional expressions 3 |
| US07663803B2 |
Laminated diffraction optical element
A multi-layered diffraction optical element, comprises a transparent substrate, a first layer having a diffraction grating shape at least on one face and comprised of a relatively high refractive index and low dispersion material, and a second layer having a diffraction grating shape at least on one face and comprised of a relatively low refractive index and high dispersion material, wherein the first and second layers are laminated on the transparent substrate so that the respective diffraction grating shapes are mutually opposed to each other with no space therebetween, and, the first layer is comprised of a first organic resin including a first inorganic fine particle, and the second layer is comprised of a second organic resin including a second inorganic fine particle different from the first inorganic fine particle. |
| US07663797B2 |
Multicolor display element
Multicolor display elements are disclosed that are adapted to full color electric papers, which comprises a display electrode, counter electrode, electrolyte, and display layer, wherein the counter electrode is disposed oppositely to the display electrode, the electrolyte is filled into a space provided between the display electrode and the counter electrode, the display layer is disposed on the surface, which faces the counter electrode, of the display electrode, the display layer contains plural electrochromic compositions in a condition that the plural electrochromic compositions are separated into plural layers within the display layer or are mixed together within the display layer, and at least one of threshold voltage for coloring condition and threshold voltage for decoloring condition, or at least one of charge amount required for coloring into a sufficient color density and charge amount required for sufficiently decoloring, are substantially different each other between the plural electrochromic compositions. |
| US07663796B2 |
Electric-field-driving reflective display apparatus
An electric-field-driving reflective display apparatus is provided. The electric-field-driving reflective display apparatus includes a barrier wall which has a plurality of driving grooves and first and second surfaces, a reflecting member which is disposed within the driving groove and has an electric charge, a first electrode which is disposed on the first surface of the barrier wall, and a second electrode which is disposed on the second surface of the barrier wall, wherein areas of cross sections of each driving groove parallel to the first and second surface are equal to each other. |
| US07663789B2 |
Method of printing security documents
A method of providing a security document having a security feature includes creating the security document and determining an identity associated with the security document. The identity is then used to generate a digital signature of at least part of the identity. Coded data is generated including a number of coded data portions, each of which is indicative of the identity of the security document and, at least part of the signature. The coded data is then printed on the security document. |
| US07663787B2 |
Document deciding apparatus, document reading apparatus, image forming apparatus and document deciding method
A document deciding apparatus includes: a light source; a light-quantity detection unit detecting a reference light quantity based on irradiation of the light source, and respective light quantities of plural colors based on reflection from or transmission through a document; a decision unit deciding whether the document is colorless or colored, in accordance with a predetermined criterion on the basis of the light quantities of plural colors detected by the light-quantity detection unit; and a control unit performing a control so as to alter the criterion of the decision unit or a value corresponding to the light quantities detected by the light-quantity detection unit, on the basis of a change of the reference light quantity detected by the light-quantity detection unit. |
| US07663786B2 |
Image-forming apparatus and method of controlling operations in automatic document feeder mode thereof
An image-forming apparatus having an Automatic Background Removal (ABR) function in an automatic document feeder mode and an operation control method thereof. The image-forming apparatus includes a first movement unit to move a document loaded in a document tray from a first position to a second position; a second movement unit to move a carriage containing a light source from the first position to the second position; an image processing part to process an image of the document into predetermined image data; and a control part to control the image processing part to process an image of a specific portion of the document read out by the carriage fixed at the first position and to process an entire image of the document read out by the carriage fixed at the second position in use of a predetermined contrast equalization pattern selected based on a image processing result of the specific portion. The present general inventive concept can adjust the movements of the carriage and a document to perform the Automatic Background Removal function in the automatic document feeder mode to read out the image of the document with the document moving while the light source is fixed. |
| US07663784B2 |
Method of storing and displaying photos on a digital photo frame
A method of storing and displaying photos on a digital photo frame is provided. The digital photo frame has a photo-sized display screen rotatably mounted on a support such that the display screen is configurable in landscape-viewing or portrait-viewing orientations by rotation of the screen. The method comprises the steps of: (i) storing photo image files tagged as either landscape orientation or portrait orientation in an internal memory of the digital photo frame; (ii) receiving an instruction to display photos stored in the internal memory; (iii) determining an orientation of the display screen; (iv) retrieving only photo image files from the internal memory that are tagged with an orientation corresponding to the orientation of the display screen; and (v) displaying the retrieved photo image files as photos on the display screen. |
| US07663771B2 |
Control method and device, and method for setting up a control system
A device is used for controlling an installation that is comprised of several units. A common control system, that is provided with a central data memory, in which current real values and/or set points are filed as process variables for several units, is allocated to several of these units. The data memory encompasses a storage area for the process variables. The data structure of this storage area can be configured even by using a set of data that describes the projected installation. |
| US07663767B2 |
Apparatus and method for measuring displacement, surface profile and inner radius
An apparatus and a method are proposed for measuring displacement, surface profile and roughness of a moving object or an inner radius of a hollow cylinder. The apparatus includes a light emitting unit, a light dispersing unit for receiving light from the light emitting unit and focusing rays with different wavelengths into different focal points with different intervals, and a wavelength measuring unit for measuring wavelengths of the rays. When the moving object is moving within a dispersing range of the focal points, the rays with different wavelengths are reflected or scattered, and the displacement of the moving object is learned from variation of the wavelengths being measured by the wavelength measuring unit. Given that a reflecting component is disposed in the centre of an inner circle of the hollow cylinder, the inner radius of the hollow cylinder can be measured by the principle of the apparatus for measuring displacement. |
| US07663765B2 |
Refractive-index measurement system and method for measuring refractive-index
A refractive-index measurement system includes a light source, a first beam splitter, a first reflective mirror, a second reflective mirror, a second beam splitter, a container, a first polarizer, and a second polarizer. The first beam splitter splits light emitted from the light source into first and second light beams. The first light beam and the second light beam are reflected by the first reflective mirror and the second reflective mirror, respectively, incident into the second light beam splitter. The container is positioned along an optical pathway of first light beam. The container accommodates a lens and is filled with a medium having a refractive index substantially the same as a theoretical refractive index of the lens. The first polarizer is positioned along the optical pathway of the first light beam. The second polarizer is positioned along an optical pathway of the second light beam. |
| US07663763B2 |
Semiconductor solid-state laser gyro having a vertical structure
A laser gyro includes a semiconductor medium and assembled discrete elements, thus offering the possibility of producing large cavities for achieving the desired precision. More precisely, the laser gyro includes an optical ring cavity and a semiconductor amplifying medium with an external cavity having a vertical structure. The semiconductor amplifying medium which is used in reflection includes a stack of plane gain regions that are mutually parallel, and the dimensions of the cavity being substantially are larger than those of the amplifying medium. |
| US07663761B2 |
Beam analyzing system and method for analyzing pulsed particle or laser beams
The present invention relates to a beam analyzing system and a method for analyzing pulsed particle or laser beams. The inventive beam analyzing system comprises a detector unit, a unit for generating a pulsed reference laser beam, a first electro-optical modulator and a first read-out photo detector, wherein the optical input of the first electro-optical modulator is connected with the unit for generating a pulsed reference laser beam, wherein the optical output of the first electro-optical modulator is connected with the first readout photo detector and wherein the signal input of the first electro-optical modulator is connected with the detector unit. In the inventive method for analyzing a pulsed particle or laser beam first voltage pulses are generated by means of a detector unit, the intensity of a pulsed reference laser beam is modulated by the first voltage pulses, the intensity of the modulated reference laser pulses is measured and the phasing of the first voltage pulses relative to the reference laser pulses is deduced from the intensity of the modulated reference laser pulses. |
| US07663759B2 |
Displacement sensor
An image taken by an imaging device is displayed on a display unit. When a confirmation instruction is inputted through an input unit, image teaching is performed while the image displayed on the display unit is set to a setting object image. A measurement item which is of a candidate of a measurement process including specification of a reference position is displayed as the measurement process to accept selection. Specification of cutout area which constitutes one measurement target region is accepted, a measurement point including a local region or a feature point which is used for the measurement is automatically set in the measurement target region based on pieces of information on the set measurement process and reference position. |
| US07663754B2 |
Fluid flow visualization and analysis
This document discusses, among other things, systems, devices and methods for fluid flow analysis for example, in an education environment. The light source, for example, a laser, is housed to illuminate particles in a fluid while minimizing exposure to the user. A control unit is provided that is remote from the fluid flow device. The fluid flow device further includes a removable fluid obstacle such that different fluid flow effects can be obtained. |
| US07663753B2 |
Apparatus and methods for detecting overlay errors using scatterometry
Disclosed are techniques, apparatus, and targets for determining overlay error between two layers of a sample. Target A is designed to have an offset Xa between its first and second structures portions; target B is designed to have an offset Xb; target C is designed to have an offset Xc; and target D is designed to have an offset Xd. Each of the offsets Xa, Xb, Xc and Xd is preferably different from zero; Xa is an opposite sign and differ from Xb; and Xc is an opposite sign and differs from Xd. The targets A, B, C and D are illuminated with electromagnetic radiation to obtain spectra SA, SB, SC, and SD from targets A, B, C, and D, respectively. Any overlay error between the first structures and the second structures is then determined using a linear approximation based on the obtained spectra SA, SB, SC, and SD. |
| US07663750B2 |
Two-dimensional spectral imaging system
Systems, including methods, apparatus, and algorithms, for spectrally imaging a two-dimensional array of samples. |
| US07663749B2 |
Method and system to measure the concentration of constituent elements in an inhomogeneous material using LIBS
A system and method to improve the accuracy of the measure of constituent element(s) in a sample containing domains potentially including the constituent element(s) are described herein. For each domain, the volume of the domain is estimated and the concentration of the constituent element(s) in the domain is determined using LIBS. When all the domains have been analyzed, the volumetric concentration of the domains is summed and divided by the total volume of the sample. Accordingly, by limiting the concentration analysis to separate domains, it is possible to improve the accuracy of the concentration analysis. |
| US07663745B2 |
Plural light source and camera to detect surface flaws
A method for detecting specular surface flaws on a coated substrate includes impinging visible non-integrated electromagnetic radiation from a first source onto the coated substrate, reflecting the visible non-integrated electromagnetic radiation off the coated substrate into a first photosensitive device, forming a recorded high frequency surface flaw image, and impinging visible coherent electromagnetic radiation from a second source onto a coated substrate at an oblique angle. The visible non-integrated electromagnetic radiation and the visible coherent electromagnetic radiation on the coated substrate are collocated but not combined on the substrate. The visible coherent electromagnetic radiation is reflected off the coated substrate onto a screen material to form a low frequency surface flaw image. The low frequency surface flaw image is recorded to form a recorded low frequency surface flaw image. |
| US07663744B2 |
Integrating photometer for measuring total flux of light generated from light source to be measured, and method for measuring total flux of light through use of the same
A mirror is provided with a light source window and an illumination window each establishing communicative connection between an inner face side and an outer side of a hemispherical unit. The light source window is an opening to which a light source OBJ to be measured is attached mainly. The illumination window is an opening for guiding a flux of light from a correcting light source used for measurement of self-absorption toward the inner face of the hemispherical unit. A self-absorption correcting coefficient of the light source OBJ is calculated based on an illuminance by a correcting flux of light in a case where the light source to be measured OBJ in a non-light emitting state is attached to the light source window and an illuminance by a correcting flux of light in a case where a calibration mirror is attached to the light source window. |
| US07663736B2 |
Laser radar driving apparatus
A laser radar driving apparatus applying a laser beam to a target object and detecting the laser beam reflected and returned from the target object to measure a distance to the target object, at least comprising: an optical member that the laser beam is applied to; a main body member that the optical member is mounted to; and a coil capable of manipulating the main body member, a drive assembly being configured with mounting the optical member and the coil to the main body member. |
| US07663735B2 |
Microlithographic projection exposure apparatus with immersion projection lens
A microlithographic projection exposure apparatus includes an illumination system and a projection lens which images a reticle onto a photosensitive layer. The projection exposure apparatus further includes an immersion arrangement for introducing an immersion liquid into an immersion interspace between a last optical element of the projection lens on the image side and the photosensitive layer. A transmission filter is designed and arranged in the projection lens in such a way that rays which enter the immersion interspace from the last optical element at an angle of incidence α are attenuated more strongly the smaller the angle of incidence α is. The transmission filter may be arranged e.g. in a pupil plane of the projection lens and may have a transmittance which increases with increasing distance from an optical axis of the projection lens. In this way compensation is provided for angle-dependent absorption in the immersion liquid. |
| US07663734B2 |
Pattern writing system and pattern writing method
In a pattern writing method for writing a pattern on a substrate by the use of projection patterns output from a mirror device including two-dimensionally arranged micromirrors, exposure is implemented by ON/OFF controlling each micromirror and partly overlapping the projection patterns from the mirror device at least in a one-dimensional direction, thereby accurately controlling the exposure of intermediate amounts of light. |
| US07663733B2 |
Method of illuminating at least two illumination points
A method of illuminating at least two illumination points by means of at least one spatial light modulator, said at least one spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of light modulators, whereby a predefined amount of energy transmitted to said points is at least partly controlled by varying the number of said light modulators illuminating said point. |
| US07663731B2 |
System and method for manufacturing liquid crystal display panel, and liquid crystal display panel using the same
A method of processing substrates for a liquid crystal display panel includes providing a first loader having a first port and a second port, concurrently inputting and outputting first substrates between a cassette at the first port and a processing assembly, and, processing the first substrates in the processing assembly. |
| US07663723B2 |
In-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device and fabrication method thereof
A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate and a second substrate; a gate line and a data line on the first substrate crossing each other to define a pixel region; a switching element in the pixel region; a black matrix formed along the gate line and the data line on the first substrate, the black matrix having a portion that covers an upper side of the gate line and extends into the pixel region; a color filter located at the pixel region; a common electrode and a pixel electrode located on the color filter for generating an electric field within the pixel region; and a liquid crystal layer formed between the first and second substrates. |
| US07663722B2 |
Optical element
An optical element including: an alignment substrate; a liquid crystal layer formed on the alignment substrate, made by forming and curing a film of a liquid crystalline material; and a protective layer having high hardness, formed on the liquid crystal layer. The protective layer is for protecting the liquid crystal layer from being deformed by externally exerted forces. Preferably, the protective layer has a modulus of elasticity (=(elastic deformation)/(total deformation)) of 0.6 or more and a plastic deformation of 0.5 μm or less as determined by pushing an indenter into the protective layer with a test force of 2 mN in accordance with the universal hardness test method. The optical element has the advantages that the film thickness distribution of the liquid crystal layer remains uniform even when forces are externally exerted to the optical element in the process of production of the optical element or in the course of incorporation of the optical element in a liquid crystal display, and that the optical element can maintain its high displaying quality even when incorporated in a liquid crystal display. |
| US07663721B2 |
Multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal display panel
A multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal display panel comprising a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer and a plurality of phase-compensating protrusions is provided. The second substrate is configured above the first substrate. The liquid crystal layer is formed between first substrate and the second substrate. The phase-compensating domain regulating protrusions are formed on at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate. The phase-compensating domain regulating protrusions have a plurality of anisotropic birefringence molecules. The slow-axes of the anisotropic birefringence molecules are in a different direction from the slow-axes of the liquid crystal molecules near the phase-compensating protrusions. Therefore, the plurality of anisotropic birefringence molecules can compensate for the phase retardation here, thereby improving the light leakage in the dark state. |
| US07663719B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel
A liquid crystal display panel structured such that a liquid crystal layer is held between paired electrode substrates, comprises a support base member of a nearly rectangular shape provided in at least one of the paired electrode substrates, a counter electrode supported by the support base member, and an alignment film which is located within a surface of the counter electrode in contact with the liquid crystal layer. The rubbing direction of the alignment film is parallel to one side of the support base member and the counter electrode has a nonlinear edge extending in the rubbing direction of the alignment film. |
| US07663714B2 |
Backlight device and color liquid crystal display apparatus
Disclosed is a backlight device used for a color liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus. The red light, green light and blue light, generated by a light source, made up by a red light emitting diode (21R), a green light emitting diode (21G) and a blue light emitting diode (21B), respectively, are mixed together to generate white light. The red light has a half-value width hwr such that 15 nm≦hwr≦30 nm, and the green light has a half-value width hwg such that 25 nm≦hwg≦50 nm. The blue light has a half-value width hwb such that 15 nm≦hwb≦30 nm. The white light illuminates a transmissive color liquid crystal display panel (10) from its back side. The transmissive color liquid crystal display panel includes a color filter (19) made up by a tristimulus filter for wavelength-selecting and transmitting red light, green light and blue light. |
| US07663710B2 |
Liquid crystal display device of horizontal electric field type and fabricating method thereof
A liquid crystal display device of horizontal electric field type and a fabricating method thereof is provided.The liquid crystal display device includes a plurality of gate lines. Data lines cross in such a manner to insulate with the gate lines to define a pixel area. A first short preventive hole is arranged between a (n−1)th gate line and a (n)th gate line of the plurality of gate lines. And a bifarious pixel area is arranged between the (n)th gate line and a (n+1)th gate line of the plurality of gate lines. |
| US07663709B2 |
Electro-optical device, manufacturing method thereof, and electronic apparatus
An electro-optical device includes a plurality of pixel electrodes, storage capacitors which are provided below the plurality of pixel electrodes with an inter-layer insulating layer disposed therebetween and in which a lower electrode, a dielectric film, and an upper electrode are sequentially laminated, an extending section extending from the dielectric film, a first conductive film disposed above the extending section of the dielectric film, a second conductive film disposed below the extending section of the dielectric film, and a relay layer disposed above the first conductive film, formed of the same film as the plurality of the pixel electrodes, and electrically connecting the first conductive film to the second conductive film, wherein the plurality of pixel electrodes and the storage capacitors are provided in a pixel area on a substrate, and the extending section, the first conductive film, the second conductive film, and the relay layer are disposed in a peripheral area located around the pixel area. |
| US07663708B2 |
Multi-domain liquid crystal display
A multi-domain liquid crystal display includes a plurality of first and second picture elements and a plurality of first and second auxiliary electrodes. The first and second picture elements have opposite polarities under the same frame of an inversion drive scheme. The first auxiliary electrodes are connected to the first picture elements and at least partially surround each of the second picture elements, and the second auxiliary electrodes are connected to the second picture elements and at least partially surround each of the first picture elements. |
| US07663706B2 |
In-wall type multi-functional television set
An in-wall type multi-functional television set being embedded in the wall of home, accommodated and withdrawn from the wall. The in-wall type multi-functional television set includes a main body having an accommodating part provided at a front side of the main body, an input part with a plurality of input keys provided at a side of the main body, a television signal receiving circuit for receiving and outputting a broadcast television signal, speakers for outputting an audio signal received from the television signal receiving circuit, and a controller for controlling the in-wall type multi-functional television set, a monitor, accommodated in and withdrawn from the accommodating part of the main body, for displaying the video signal received from the television signal receiving circuit, and a connecting part having an end portion connected to the accommodating part and the other end portion connected to the monitor. |
| US07663699B2 |
Television unit
Disclosed herein is a television unit including a thin platelike display unit, a stand for rotatably supporting the display unit, and a speaker. The stand has a mounting portion adapted to be mounted at a suitable position and a swiveling portion rotatably connected to the mounting portion for supporting the display unit. The speaker is provided in the swiveling portion of the stand. |
| US07663698B2 |
Genlock device having log and alarm functions
A genlock device comprises: means (31) for inputting an external reference signal; means (32,33,34,36,39,40,41,42,44) for generating a master reference clock signal synchronized in phase with the external reference signal; and means (37) for storing a genlock state. The genlock state includes, for example, absence of a synchronization signal in the external reference signal. The genlock device can further comprise: means (45) for storing a voltage value determined so that a voltage controlled oscillator (40) oscillates a signal having a frequency higher or lower by a predetermined value than a reference frequency of the voltage controlled oscillator; and means (44) for judging whether a voltage value which controls the voltage controlled oscillator is larger or smaller than the voltage value. |
| US07663689B2 |
Method and apparatus for optimizing capture device settings through depth information
A method for adjusting image capture settings for an image capture device is provided. The method initiates with identifying a scene. Then, an image of the scene is captured. The method includes generating a depth mask of the scene from data defining the image of the scene. Then, pixel values corresponding to objects within any one or both of a foreground region and a background region of the captured image are adjusted based upon bit values of the depth mask. An image capture device and a system are provided. |
| US07663687B2 |
Variable speed, variable resolution digital cinema camera system
A digital cinema camera includes a plurality of imagers and a plurality of shutters mounted radially on a frame. A beam splitter disposed at a center of the frame rotates to provide an input optical beam sequentially to the plurality of imagers. When the input optical beam is aligned with a particular one of the imagers, a corresponding one of the shutters is triggered to apply the optical beam on the particular one of the imagers. The electrical signals generated by the imagers are first stored in RAM, and then transferred to a hard disk drive disposed in a removable magazine. This way, the magazine can be replaced with a new magazine, and the latent image data can be downloaded out of the removed magazine for post-processing while new image data is being stored in the new magazine. |
| US07663686B2 |
Lens module and camera employing the same
A lens module includes a barrel defining a through hole, at least one plastic lens accommodated in the through hole and a UV/IR cut filter mounted on the barrel and configured for preventing entry of both UV light and IR light into the barrel. The lens module has a UV/IR cut filter mounted on the barrel configured for preventing entry of both UV light and IR light into the barrel, so it can prevent UV light damaging plastic lenses, and accordingly can improve the useful life of the lens module. |
| US07663683B2 |
Solid state image sensing device which performs a linear conversion operation and a logarithmic conversion operation
A solid state image sensing device includes an MOS transistor T2 that has a source thereof connected to a drain of an MOS transistor T1 being provided with a transfer gate which is connected to an embedded photodiode PD; an MOS transistor T5 that has a gate thereof connected to the drain of the MOS transistor T1; and a condenser that has a source thereof connected to the MOS transistor T5. When a linear conversion operation is performed in an entire range of luminance, the MOS transistor T2 works, serving as a switch for resetting, and at least when a logarithmic conversion operation is performed in a part of the range of luminance, the MOS transistor T2 works in a sub-threshold region. |
| US07663674B2 |
Image processing device supporting variable data technologies
A method for processing image data using a digital camera includes providing a digital camera having a first transformation program as a default program, the first transformation program supporting a first transformation technology. A first communication link is formed between the digital camera and a first remote image processing device. Transformation-related information is obtained from the first remote device, the transformation-related information including information about one or more transformation technologies supported by the first remote device. Whether the first transformation program is supported by the first remote device is determined. A second transformation program supported by the first remote device is searched if the first transformation program is determined not to be supported by the first remote device, the second transformation program supporting a second transformation technology. |
| US07663672B2 |
Image pickup apparatus and recording control apparatus
In an electronic camera, an image file can be erased, and when the image file is erased, a state of notification to the user is changed in accordance with the data attached to an image. In the electronic camera, the data attached to the image indicates whether or not the image file previously has been transferred from a storing area where the image is stored at present to another storing area. |
| US07663671B2 |
Location based image classification with map segmentation
In methods and systems for classifying capture records, such as images. A collection of capture records is provided. Each capture record has metadata defining a map location. This metadata can be earlier determined from a stream of data transmissions, even if there are gaps in transmission. The provided capture records are clustered into groups based on capture locations. A map, inclusive of the capture locations, is segmented into a plurality of regions based on relative positions of the capture locations associated with each group. The regions are associated with the capture records of respective groups. |
| US07663670B1 |
Methods and systems for embedding camera information in images
The present invention is related to providing, in association with an image, information related to the image capture device used to capture the image. In one embodiment, information related to a first static camera characteristic and camera setting information related to a first captured digitized image is embedded in the first captured digitized image using a watermark. The watermarked information may be used to identify the source or owner of the picture, and/or to aid in the more accurate reproduction of the image. |
| US07663668B2 |
Imaging device
An imaging device has color signal generating means (20) for outputting first color signals (R5, G5, B5) corresponding to incident light, and matrix operation means (67) for performing a matrix calculation including multiplication of the first color signals, color signals obtained by raising the first color signals to a power with a first constant (i) as an exponent, color signals obtained by raising the first color signals to a power with a second constant (j) as an exponent, and corresponding matrix coefficients to obtain second color signals (R6, G6, B6). The first and second constants and the matrix coefficients are determined so that the total characteristics of the color signal generating means and the spectral sensitivity characteristic correction means (6) approximate human chromatic curves or spectral sensitivity curves obtained by a linear transformation thereof. Good color reproducibility can be obtained without the use of an infrared cut filter for chromatic correction in the imaging device, and high-sensitivity imaging can be performed under dark conditions. |
| US07663662B2 |
High and low resolution camera systems and methods
Systems and methods provide high and low resolution cameras. For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a camera system provides wide and narrow fields of view simultaneously. An operator may select different views to be provided by the camera system (e.g., a wide field of view, a narrow field of view, or the combination of the wide and narrow field of views). |
| US07663661B2 |
Feed-customized processing of multiple video streams in a pipeline architecture
A pipeline architecture for analyzing multiple streams of video is embodied, in part, in a layer of application program interfaces (APIs) to each stage of processing. Buffer queuing is used between some stages, which helps moderate the load on the CPU(s). Through the layer of APIs, innumerable video analysis applications can access and analyze video data flowing through the pipeline, and can annotate portions of the video data (e.g., frames and groups of frames), based on the analyses performed, with information that describes the frame or group. These annotated frames and groups flow through the pipeline to subsequent stages of processing, at which increasingly complex analyses can be performed. At each stage, portions of the video data that are of little or no interest are removed from the video data. Ultimately, “events” are constructed and stored in a database, from which cross-event and historical analyses may be performed and associations with, and among, events may be made. |
| US07663658B2 |
Image forming apparatus to carry out position determination of a rotating body
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image carrier units and a position determining unit. The image carrier units form toner images in a sequential manner, and each of the plurality of image carrier units includes an image carrier and a supporting member to support the image carrier. The position determining unit includes a holding member having a plurality of openings for receiving the supporting members of the respective image carriers and a pressure mechanism. Each of the plurality of openings has a predetermined shape to sustain a weight of a corresponding one of the plurality of image carrier units through a corresponding one of the supporting members in a vertical direction and to grip the corresponding one of the supporting members in a horizontal direction. The pressure mechanism presses the supporting members held through the plurality of openings of the holding member to fix the image carriers at respective specific positions. |
| US07663655B2 |
Light-emitting device and image forming apparatus
A light-emitting device has a plurality of pixel circuits arranged in one direction, each of the plurality of pixel circuits having a light-emitting element that emits light according to the amount of driving current, a driving transistor that supplies the driving current to the light-emitting element, a holding transistor that supplies a data signal supplied via a data line to the driving transistor, and a connecting line that connects the driving transistor to the holding transistor. The holding transistor, the light-emitting element, and the driving transistor are arranged in a direction crossing the arrangement direction of the plurality of pixel circuits. The light-emitting element is provided between the holding transistor and the driving transistor. |
| US07663654B2 |
Image formation device and method for correcting periodic variations
An image-forming device which is equipped with an image-holding member, an exposure section provided with plural light-emitting portions arranged in a first direction, a movement section that relatively moves the exposure section and the image-holding member in a second direction that intersects with the first direction, and a light-emission control section. The light-emission control section causes the plural light-emitting portions to periodically emit light in accordance with image data representing an image that is to be formed on the image-holding member, to form the image on the image-holding member. The light-emission control section varies a light-emission period during formation of the image, so as to correct for periodic fluctuations within the image of at least one of density and magnification ratio in the second direction. |
| US07663653B2 |
Optical head and image forming apparatus incorporating the same
An optical head is adapted to form an electrostatic latent image on an image carrier. A transparent substrate has a first face adapted to oppose the image carrier and a second face opposing the first face. An organic EL photo emitter is disposed so as to oppose the second face of the substrate. In the photo emitter, a light emitting layer is adapted to emit light irradiating the image carrier to form the electrostatic latent image. An electrode layer is laminated on the light emitting layer. A reflection reducer eliminates stray light generated when the light emitted from the light emitting layer is reflected by at least the electrode layer. |
| US07663647B2 |
Model based compositing
Digitally compositing an object from an input image onto a destination image is disclosed. The object is composited from an image having an arbitrary or non-uniform colored background containing some non-static elements onto a destination image with reduced effects from shadows cast by the object and with reduced gaps or holes within the object. The effect of shadows emanating from the object is reduced so that the composited object in the destination image contains only the object clearly outlined by the object's physical boundaries without the effect of shadows cast by the object. |
| US07663646B2 |
Device, system and method for realizing on screen display
A device for realizing on screen display (OSD) in video signals includes a comparator (430) and an outputting control unit (440). The comparator (430) is used for receiving OSD signals and identification signals on a background color selected to be transparent in the OSD signals, identifying the background color in the OSD signals based on the identification signals, and generating a control signal based on the identification. The outputting control unit (440) is connected to the comparator (430), and is used for receiving UV components of the OSD signals, UV components of the video signals, and the control signal, and for selectively outputting UV data of the video signals or UV data of the OSD signals according to the control signal. The device simulates translucent OSD by preparing the Y and UV components of displayable YUV signals respectively from the video signals and the OSD signals. |
| US07663643B2 |
Electronic album display system, an electronic album display method, and a machine readable medium storing thereon a computer program for displaying an electronic album
An electronic album display system for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album having an image storing unit for classifying each of the plurality of images into a plurality of groups and storing each image, an image selecting unit for selecting an image to be displayed, an image display unit for displaying the image selected, an operation unit for receiving a display operation for said image display unit controlled by a viewer when one image is being displayed, an interest detecting unit for detecting an interest of the viewer in the one image on the basis of the display operation received by the operation unit, and an interest storing unit for storing the interest for each of the plurality of images, wherein the image selecting unit selects an image classified in a group including an image in which the viewer has an interest based on the interest stored in said interest storing unit. |
| US07663642B2 |
Systems and methods for rendering a polygon in an image to be displayed
Polygon rendering systems for rendering a polygon in an image to be displayed include a rasterizer unit, a first memory buffer, and one or more additional memory buffers. The rasterizer unit is configured to generate one or more low resolution fragments representing a portion of the polygon at a low resolution and one or more high resolution fragments representing a portion of the polygon at one or more higher resolutions. The first memory buffer is configured to store the low resolution fragments as pixels. The first memory buffer is further configured to store data based on the one or more high resolution fragments. The one or more additional memory buffers are configured to store the high resolution fragments as high-resolution sub-pixels. Methods of rendering a polygon in an image to be displayed include generating one or more low resolution fragments that represent a portion of the polygon at a low resolution and one or more high resolution fragments that represent a portion of the polygon at one or more higher resolutions, storing the low resolution fragments as pixels and data based on the one or more high resolution fragments in a first memory buffer, and storing the high resolution fragments as high resolution sub-pixels in one or more additional memory buffers. |
| US07663634B2 |
Drawing processing apparatus and drawing processing method for multipass rendering
A drawing processing apparatus capable of executing a drawing processing program having conditional branches efficiently by multipass rendering. The drawing processing apparatus comprises arithmetic processing parts including an object input part, a primitive generating part, a raster part, a pixelation part, a distribution part, and a shader which constitute pipeline stages. The shader divides the program into and executes the same in a plurality of passes depending on conditional branches. The shader generates enable flags determining whether or not respective pixels satisfy branch conditions. The flag generating part generates bind enable flags which are the enable flags on the pixels bound into the processing granularities of the pipeline stages, and feeds back the same to the respective pipeline stages. The arithmetic processing parts in the individual pipeline stages refer to the bind enable flags and limit the submission of data not targeted for arithmetic processing in the branched passes. |
| US07663630B2 |
Apparatus and method for processing collision information in graphic system
An apparatus processes collision information in a graphic system, and includes a first storage unit for loading geometry information of primary and secondary object graphics inputted from outside, and outputting the geometry information of the primary object graphics and geometry information of a plurality of secondary object graphics in which a collision detection operation with the primary object graphics is to be performed; a transformer for transforming coordinates of the secondary object graphics to be coincided with a coordinate system that is based on the primary object graphics; a processor for acquiring a collision point, collision presence information, and a collision depth between the primary and the secondary object graphics simultaneously based on the geometry information of the inputted primary object graphics and that of each of the coordinate-transformed secondary object graphics by using a collision detection operation technique determined by the geometry information properties of the primary and the secondary object graphics; a second storage unit for storing the collision information separately, wherein the collision depths before/after update are stored in two areas separately; and an updating unit for updating the collision point and the collision presence information whenever they are newly outputted from the processor, wherein the collision depth is updated based on the result of comparison with the previously stored collision depth. |
| US07663628B2 |
Apparatus and method for efficient animation of believable speaking 3D characters in real time
An apparatus for animating a moving and speaking enhanced-believability, character in real time, comprising a plurality of behavior generators, each for defining a respective aspect of facial behavior, a unifying scripter, associated with the behavior generators, the scripter operable to combine the behaviors into a unified animation script, and a renderer, associated with the unifying scripter, the renderer operable to render the character in accordance with the script, thereby to enhance believability of the character. |
| US07663627B2 |
Graphic drawing program, method, and apparatus
A graphic drawing apparatus for drawing a graphic representation in which a plurality of evaluation objects are drawn by lines connecting scores with respect to a plurality of evaluation items executes a drawing-position adjusting to adjust drawing positions for each of the evaluation items where the scores of the evaluation objects are plotted with respect to each of the evaluation items so that the drawing positions do not overlap each other according to the scores of the evaluation objects with respect to an evaluation item. |
| US07663626B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing a network traffic composite graph
A method and apparatus for providing network traffic composite graphs for packet networks are disclosed. The graph enables analysts to visually determine the relative size of an event in relation to other traffic activity. For example, a user or a network analyst creates categories of applications for the river-chart graph and optionally enters a weight factor for each of the application categories. The method then gathers records for flows, number of bytes (or packets), etc. from monitoring device(s) in a predetermined interval. The expected values are determined and composite volumes are calculated for each protocol and/or port. The method then updates the cumulative river-chart bands and the cumulative expected values for historical and predicted time periods in the river-chart graph. |
| US07663625B2 |
Collaborative design
A method, system and apparatus for use in computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, computer-aided engineering and product lifecycle management. An efficient, non-centralized communications framework makes “synchronous” collaborative design possible. Users are resident at workstations that are connected in a peer-to-peer arrangement. In a collaborative design session, the model is resident in memory at each workstation. Modifications are made at any workstation, and commands, which are interpreted at each workstation to effect the modifications, are transmitted over the network. In addition, cell descriptors may be used to identify one or more geometric cells of a model. The cell descriptors are in the form of scripts specifying constraints or filters for identifying cells. The constraints are based on characteristics of items in the model, or associations between items in a model, that are readily discernable to the user, and are therefore easily written and susceptible to easy distribution to other systems. |
| US07663622B2 |
Unified framework based on extensible styles for 3D non-photorealistic rendering and method of configuring the same
There are provided a unified framework based on extensible styles for 3D non-photorealistic rendering and a method of configuring the framework. The unified framework includes: 3D model data processing means for generating a scene graph by converting a 3D model input into 3D data and organizing the scene graph using vertexes, faces, and edges; face painting means for selecting a brusher to paint faces (interiors) of the 3D model using the scene graph; line drawing means for extracting line information from the 3D model using the scene graph and managing the extracted line information; style expressing means for generating a rendering style for the 3D model and storing the rendering style as a stroke, the rendering style being equally applied to a face-painting method and a line-drawing method; and rendering means for combining the stroke and the selected brusher to render the 3D model using both the face-painting method and the line-drawing method. The framework can be used to develop tools and new rendering styles for non-photorealistic rendering and animation. |
| US07663618B2 |
Power-efficient, pulsed driving of capacitive loads to controllable voltage levels
Power-efficient, pulsed driving of capacitive loads to controllable voltage levels, with particular applicability to LCDs. Energy stored in a portion of the capacitive load is recovered during a recovery phase. Time-varying signals are used to drive the load and to recover the stored energy, thus minimizing power losses, using processes named adiabatic charging and adiabatic discharging. |
| US07663616B2 |
Data driving circuit, organic light emitting diode display using the same, and method of driving the organic light emitting diode display
A data driving circuit for displaying an image with a desired brightness comprises: a current digital-analog converter for generating a gradation current corresponding to external data, and for receiving a first current corresponding to the gradation current from a pixel via a data line; a current control unit for receiving a pixel current from the pixel via the data line, and for selectively increasing and decreasing a level of the first current in accordance with the received pixel current; and a selection unit for selectively connecting the data line to either the current digital-analog converter or the current control unit. An organic light emitting diode and a method of driving same are similarly configured. With these configurations, an image is displayed with desired brightness. |
| US07663609B2 |
Touch input device
A touch input device for use with a display that shows a plurality of items. The touch input device is operated by a user to select an item shown on the display. The touch input device includes a sensor having an operation plane for touching by the user with a finger. The sensor generates a sensor signal indicating contact area of the finger with the operation plane. The operation plane is pressed by the finger when the user selects an item from the display. When an increase rate of the finger contact area over a predetermined time period becomes greater than an increase rate threshold, the touch input device determines that the operation plane of the sensor has been pressed by the user to select an item. |
| US07663606B2 |
Apparatus and method for configuring a touch screen
In a method for determining an operating frequency of a touch screen unit a first set of sinusoidal signals may be provided to a plurality of electrodes of a touch screen, each sinusoidal signal in the first set of sinusoidal signals having a first frequency, and a first value indicative of the amount of current flowing from the plurality of electrodes when the touch screen is not being touched by a person and when the first set of sinusoidal signals is provided to the plurality of the electrodes may be determined. A second set of sinusoidal signals may be provided to the plurality of electrodes of the touch screen, each sinusoidal signal in the second set of sinusoidal signals having a second frequency, and a second value indicative of the amount of current flowing from the plurality of electrodes when the touch screen is not being touched by the person and when the second set of sinusoidal signals is provided to the plurality of the electrodes may be determined. An operating frequency of sinusoidal signals to be provided to the plurality of electrodes may be determined based on the first value and the second value. |
| US07663605B2 |
Biomechanical user interface elements for pen-based computers
The present invention is a system that uses natural user position and natural user motion to position and layout interface elements for a pen-based computer display. Graphical user interfaces, such as a slider or menu, are popped-up at a position convenient to the user, such as at the current position of the cursor. A rectilinear interface is oriented along a natural motion arc of the user, such as an elbow arc. An arc shaped interface can also be positioned along a natural motion arc, such as the elbow arc, and be shaped according the elbow are or be shaped by another natural motion arc such as a wrist arc of the user. The interface arc, whether shaping or orienting the interface, can be a single motion arc, such as an elbow arc, a composite arc of an elbow arc and a wrist arc, a sequence of an elbow arc and a wrist arc, a compound arc where an elbow arc blends into a wrist arc or an arc followed by a linear interface section. |
| US07663602B2 |
Removable wireless keyboard with base
Keyboard input functionality is provided when a removable portion of the keyboard is docked into the base unit. The removable portion may be the undocked from the base unit. A keyboard removable portion may include alphanumeric functionality and may be of a reduced size for off-desk implementation. Since the base of the keyboard may be wired, it may also charge the removable portion of the keyboard. The base may also include the wireless receiver for cooperating with a wireless keyboard or wireless mouse. |
| US07663600B2 |
Dead front mouse
A mouse configured to display an icon including a top housing that is semi-opaque; and an icon indicator disposed under the top housing, the icon indicator including a light source and an icon plate. The light source is configured to light the icon plate to display an icon through the top housing. The icon indicator and icon are substantially not visible through the top housing if the light source is not lighted. |
| US07663599B1 |
Driving circuit for LED backlight system
A driving circuit for an LED backlight system is disclosed. The driving circuit includes an input voltage, an input resistor, an operational amplifier, a first transistor and a current calculation unit. The operational amplifier has a positive input terminal electrically connected to the input voltage through the input resistor, and an output terminal electrically connected to its negative input terminal thorough a feedback network. The first transistor is utilized for draining a reference current to control an output voltage of the operational amplifier according to the input voltage and the input resistor. The current calculation unit is utilized for generating a plurality of working currents proportional to the reference current to drive a plurality of LED strings according to the output voltage of the operational amplifier. |
| US07663596B2 |
Trans-reflective liquid crystal display device for improving color reproducibility and brightness and method for driving thereof
The trans-reflective liquid crystal display device of this invention includes a plurality of data and gate lines defining a plurality of pixels, the pixels having a reflection region and a transmission region; a timing controller that receives, converts, and outputs image data; a switching unit that determines the output signal of the timing controller according to a transmission mode or reflection mode; a gate driver that receives a gate signal from the timing controller; a data driver that receives a data signal from the timing controller; a liquid crystal display panel with a TFT array substrate and a color filter substrate, the liquid crystal display panel displaying the image according to a gate pulse and a data voltage applied by the gate driver and the data driver; a sequential backlight including red, green, and blue lamps wherein, the backlight is turned on in a transmission mode to sequentially transmit the light into the transmission region and is turned off in a reflection mode. |
| US07663595B2 |
Common voltage adjusting circuit for liquid crystal display
A common voltage adjusting circuit (200) includes a delta adder (21), a sigma adder (22), a sigma latch (23), and a quantization circuit (24). The delta adder includes a first input terminal configured for receiving a binary signal, a second input terminal, and an output terminal. The sigma adder includes a first input terminal connected to the output terminal of the delta adder, a second input terminal, and an output terminal. The sigma latch includes a first input terminal connected to the output terminal of the sigma adder, and an output terminal connected to the second input terminal of the delta adder and the second input terminal of the sigma adder. The quantization circuit includes a first input terminal connected to the output of the sigma latch, and an output terminal connected to a common electrode of a TFT-LCD. |
| US07663594B2 |
Liquid crystal display device with charge sharing function and driving method thereof
A liquid crystal display device with a charge sharing function is suitable for reducing the power consumption below a predetermined limit. In the liquid crystal display device, a pair of pixels adjacent along the data line is charged with pixel data voltages of polarity opposite to that of another pair of pixels adjacent to the pair of the pixels. A charge sharing unit selectively allows the data lines to share charges at intervals between periods in which the pixel data voltages are supplied to the pair of the pixels adjacent along the data line. |
| US07663592B2 |
Systems involving signal driving circuits for driving displays
Systems for driving displays are provided. In this regard, an representative system for driving a display comprises a signal driving circuit having a first shift register and a second shift register coupled in series to the first shift register. The signal driving circuit is operative to drive a display according to inputs provided by only two clock signals. |
| US07663591B2 |
Display device and method of driving same
A display device is made up of (i) a source driver made up of source driver ICs each driving an identical number of data signal lines, the source driver ICs being grouped into at least a first individually-driven circuit group and a second individually-driven circuit group, and (ii) a control circuit that outputs a first start pulse and a first latch pulse for controlling the first individually-driven circuit group and a second start pulse and a second latch pulse for the second individually-driven circuit group. With this, it is possible to provide the display device that can reproduce images without adopting complicated circuitry and elongating one horizontal period, when the source driver has dummy signal lines. |
| US07663587B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A liquid crystal display device has a gradation display function of at least an n-number of gray levels and has a viewing angle characteristic of Mi/Mj≦1.3 in a case where a display luminance range in a normal direction to a display surface in a gradation range of predetermined gray levels i to j is Li to Lj and a display luminance range in an oblique viewing-angle direction of 30° or more is Mi to Mj (where n, i and j are real numbers, and n≧i>j≧0). The liquid crystal display device has a display mode in which a display image is displayed with a display luminance range of the display image being limited to Li to Lj. |
| US07663586B2 |
Reference voltage generation circuit, display driver, electro-optical device, and electronic instrument
A reference voltage generation circuit, including: first to Jth (J is an integer greater than one) gamma correction data registers in which gamma correction data for generating a plurality of reference voltages is set; and a reference voltage select circuit which selects K select voltages from first to Lth (L is an integer greater than two, and K is a natural number smaller than L) select voltages arranged in potential descending order or potential ascending order and outputs the K select voltages as first to Kth reference voltages in potential descending order or potential ascending order, based on the gamma correction data set in one of the first to Jth gamma correction data registers, wherein the first to Kth reference voltages are output as the reference voltages. |
| US07663585B2 |
Television apparatus having liquid crystal display
A television apparatus having a liquid crystal display includes a signal processing portion for reproducing a received video signal, a liquid crystal cell for displaying a video reproduced by the signal processing portion, backlight light sources arranged on a back surface side of the liquid crystal cell for illuminating the liquid crystal cell, drivers for driving the liquid crystal cell, and an inverter for driving the backlight light sources. A transmittance of the liquid crystal cell can be increased because low color-purity cells having a color purity in a range of 40% to 60% is used as the liquid crystal cell. Also, reduction in a color reproductivity of the video caused due to the low color purity can be avoided because a color correcting circuit is provided to the signal processing portion to execute color correcting process on the video signal. |
| US07663584B2 |
Field sequential liquid crystal display
A field sequential LCD includes a reset selector supplying a reset signal having a higher voltage level than a data signal to the liquid crystal. The reset selector selects the reset signal in response to a reset control signal, and supplies the selected reset signal to a data line. |
| US07663583B2 |
In-Plane Switching mode liquid crystal display device
An IPS mode LCD device is disclosed in which a common voltage drop and delay is decreased. The LCD includes gate and data lines crossing each other to define pixel regions. Thin film transistors are formed at crossing portions of the gate and data lines. Common lines are parallel with the gate lines and common electrodes project from the common lines parallel with the data lines. Pixel electrodes connected with drain electrodes of the thin film transistors are formed in the pixel regions between the parallel common electrodes. A first common voltage supplying line applies a first common voltage or a second common voltage to a closed circuit formed by grouping the adjacent odd numbered common lines. A second common voltage supplying line applies the second common voltage or the first common voltage to a closed circuit formed by grouping the adjacent even numbered common lines. |
| US07663581B2 |
Light emitting panel and light emitting display
A light emitting display increases the lifetime of a light emitting element by reverse biasing the light emitting element without using an additional power source and a power source line. The light emitting element is reverse biased without using the power source and the power source line for the reverse bias because a low level light emitting scan signal is used. The aperture ratio, contrast ratio, and lifetime of the light emitting display are increased. |
| US07663580B2 |
Light emitting display and driving device and method thereof
A driving device for a light emitting display, which includes a plurality of scan lines for transferring a selection signal, comprises: a first driver for shifting a first signal having a first integer multiple of first pulses by a first period, and sequentially outputting the first signal; a second driver for shifting a second signal having a second pulse by a second period, and sequentially outputting the second signal; and a third driver for sequentially outputting the selection signal having a second integer multiple of third pulses corresponding to at least one of the first integer multiple of first pulses, and a fourth pulse corresponding to the second pulse, in response to the first signal and the second signal. |
| US07663576B2 |
Video data correction circuit, control circuit of display device, and display device and electronic apparatus incorporating the same
Accumulated usage data of each pixel of the correction circuit is divided into a plurality of data portions, each of which is stored in a different storing means. For example, the accumulated usage data is divided into the upper bit and the lower bit to be stored separately, and the upper bit of the accumulated usage data is obtained by adding the upper bit to a half carry generated by the calculation of the lower bit of the accumulated usage data. A degradation coefficient selected based on the thus obtained accumulated usage data is multiplied by video data to obtain corrected video data. The invention also provides a control circuit of a display device integrated with such a correction circuit. |
| US07663573B2 |
Plasma display panel and driving method thereof
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel and driving method thereof, which involves controlling the time points when data signals are applied to the data electrodes during an address period, thereby reducing the noise that otherwise affects the waveforms applied to the Y electrodes and the Z electrodes. This, in turn, stabilizes the address discharge and prevents damage to the scan board and/or the sustain board. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the data electrodes are divided into a plurality of electrode groups, where each of the electrode groups receives the data signal at an application time point that is different from the remaining electrode groups. |
| US07663572B2 |
Color display device and color display method
The color display device includes a colored light generation unit for repetitively generating a plurality of colored lights in a time sequence with a predetermined frequency, and an image generation unit for processing said plurality of colored lights, so as to generate an image corresponding to each of the plurality of colored lights generated in a time sequence. The said predetermined frequency is 180 Hz or more. |
| US07663569B2 |
Image display apparatus, image display system, and image display method
An image display apparatus includes a memory for holding in advance, of the one or more information terminal apparatuses connected via a network, information of information terminal apparatuses whose connection to the network is desired, a controller for reading out the information of the information terminal apparatuses stored in the memory, and display section for displaying a list of the information of the information terminal apparatuses. In this case, the image display apparatus further includes selector for selecting one information terminal apparatus from the list displayed on the display section, it is able to change the connection of the information terminal apparatus to desired information terminal apparatus by manipulation of the selector on a display screen. |
| US07663568B2 |
Antenna apparatus
An antenna apparatus is disclosed that includes a synthetic resin case having an antenna element accommodating portion and a ground element accommodating portion, an antenna element made of punched sheet metal that is accommodated within the antenna element accommodating portion, a ground element made of punched sheet metal that is accommodated within the ground element accommodating portion and aligned with the antenna element, a surface mount coaxial connector that is mounted over an interface between the antenna element and the ground element, and a cover that covers the antenna element and the ground element. |
| US07663567B2 |
Antenna structure, transponder and method of manufacturing an antenna structure
An antenna structure (106) comprising a first electrically conductive element (102) having a first end and a second end, a second electrically conductive element (103) having a first end and a second end, and a coupling structure (104) short-circuiting the first electrically conductive element (102) with the second electrically conductive element (103) by means of electrically connecting the electrically conductive elements (102, 103) at positions between the first and the second ends, wherein an integrated circuit (105) is connectable between the first end of the first electrically conductive element (102) and the first end of the second electrically conductive element (103). |
| US07663564B2 |
Method for making smart cards capable of operating with and without contact
The invention concerns a method for making smart cards capable of operating with or without contact called mixed cards and contactless smart cards. In order to avoid the risk of deteriorating the antenna the method consists in producing an antenna comprising at least two turns, on a support sheet, said antenna having its turns located outside the connecting pads, and in providing an insulating bridge so as to connect each of the antenna ends to a connection pad respectively. |
| US07663560B1 |
Antenna pointing aid
A satellite system 10 includes an outdoor unit that has an LNB 24. The antenna of the outdoor unit is aligned using a microwave energy-absorbing cap. The microwave-absorbing cap has microwave-absorbing material therein or thereon. A signal strength meter is used to measure the signal strength with the cap on so that the signal strength meter is less likely to be saturated during the alignment process. |
| US07663558B2 |
Tag reader with conformal antenna stand
A mobile device includes a housing having a transceiver configured to transmit and/or receive a signal. A stand attachable to the housing has a profile that increases stability of the housing in a resting position. The stand may also be attachable to a further housing such as an interface device configured for connection or attachment to the housing of the mobile device. The stand may include a first portion connectable to the wireless mobile device, a second portion, and an antenna having holes and being sandwiched between the first portion and the second portion. The antenna holes may be configured for allowing passage of liquid material during molding together the first portion, the second portion and the antenna to form a molded stand. The antenna may be operationally coupled to the transceiver. A base plate having hole(s) and connector(s) may also be sandwiched between the first portion and the antenna. |
| US07663556B2 |
Antenna configured for low frequency application
An antenna configured for low frequency applications on a mobile device includes an antenna element coupled to a conductive structure which, in turn, is coupled to the user of the mobile device such that the user of the mobile device effectively becomes part of the antenna. The conductive structure can include, for example, the device housing being made from a conductive material, a conductive structure embedded inside the device housing, or conductive pads exposed in the device housing. The antenna element is electrically connected to the conductive structure and the user can be coupled to the conductive structure either through direct contact or through capacitive coupling. |
| US07663554B2 |
Wireless communication device
In a liquid crystal television device that is a wireless communication device, speaker storage sections are integrally formed with a main body section containing parts such as a liquid crystal panel section. Although the main body section is electromagnetically shielded, the speaker storage sections are not electromagnetically shielded. Antennas are provided along with speakers in speaker storage sections so as to have directions of installation different from each other by 90 degrees. This realizes a wireless communication device including an antenna structure capable of improving transmitting/receiving sensitivity in all directions. |
| US07663551B2 |
Multiband antenna apparatus and methods
A multiband antenna, and component for implementing a multiband antenna for, e.g., a small-sized radio device. In one embodiment, the antenna component comprises a simple and reliable dielectric substrate, the conductive coating of which forms a radiating element. This has a plurality (e.g., two) resonances for forming separate operating bands. The lower resonance is based on the entire element, and the upper resonance on the head part of the element. The conductive coating has a pattern, which functions as a parallel resonance circuit between the head part and the tail part of the element. The natural frequency of this parallel resonance circuit is in the range of the upper operating band of the antenna. The resonance frequencies of the antenna and thus its operating bands can be tuned independently of each other so that the tuning cycle need not be repeated. |
| US07663549B2 |
Incoming direction estimation apparatus
An incoming direction estimation apparatus estimates an incoming direction of a radar wave using three or more sensors or antennas simultaneously. An arithmetic expression for estimating an incoming direction of a radar wave is configured as sin−1((1/2πa)*tan−1b). The “a” is d/λ determined by an antenna interval and by a wavelength λ of a carrier, or such, carrying the radar wave. A simultaneous use of three antennas makes it possible to set the a as a value depending on a value d0=a0λ based on the interval between first antennas and value d1=a1λ based on the interval between second antennas. Therefore, if a wide field of vision of an incoming direction is needed, it is only necessary to adjust (d1−d0)/λ=(a1−a0), in place of the absolute interval of antennas a=d/λ, thereby making it possible to lessen a limitation on the design of antennas and set a field of vision of the incoming direction appropriately. |
| US07663548B2 |
Switched combiner GPS receiver system
A receiving system includes a combiner configured to receive signals from two or more antenna elements and to generate sum and difference outputs, and a switch configured to sequentially provide the sum and difference outputs as inputs to a receiver. |
| US07663546B1 |
Real-time autonomous beam steering array for satellite communications
A phased array satellite communication (SATCOM) system for ground stations receives information signals and a beam from a satellite and autonomously steers communication signals by phase information toward a satellite extracted from the received satellite beam. The new phased array eliminates the need for phase shifters to control a beam. The new phased array satellite communications system avoids delay in digital signal processing or feedback systems to find satellite locations, enabling autonomous real-time electronic beam steering with no delay. The new system is also used to handle signals from and to multiple satellites simultaneously. The new system is useful in other applications where an enhanced point-to-point communication link is required. |
| US07663544B2 |
Antenna system for sharing of operation
An antenna system for sharing of operation employs contiguous transmit frequencies. Transmit frequencies are separated into non-contiguous sub-groups isolated from one another by filters 158(+) and 160(−) associated with positive and negative polarization. Received frequencies are filtered and split into five signals for input to base station receive ports. Non-contiguous transmit frequency sub-groups are combined by a quadrature hybrid 110 and pass with 90 degree relative phase shift to mutually orthogonal antenna stack ports P(+) and P(−) associated with orthogonally polarized sets of antenna elements AS(+) and AS(−): the ports P(+) and P(−) are isolated from one another by the hybrid 110. The 90 degree phase shift results in one transmit subgroup being radiated with left hand circular polarization and the other transmit subgroup being radiated with right hand circular polarization. Changing the relative phase shift changes the radiated polarization to linear or elliptical, and signal amplitude weighting provides control of antenna beam polarization direction. |
| US07663543B2 |
Alignment method for multi-satellite consumer receiver antennas
A method, apparatus and system for aligning an antenna reflector with satellites in a satellite configuration. A method in accordance with the present invention comprises aligning the reflector in azimuth and elevation with a first signal transmitted by a first satellite in the satellite configuration, and aligning the reflector in tilt with a second signal transmitted by a second satellite in the satellite configuration, wherein aligning the reflector in azimuth and elevation with the first signal and in tilt with the second signal aligns the reflector with at least a third signal transmitted from a third satellite. |
| US07663542B1 |
Antenna autotrack control system for precision spot beam pointing control
The present invention provides a system and a method for improving spacecraft antenna pointing accuracy utilizing feedforward estimation. The present invention takes advantage of the fact that spacecraft antenna pointing error has periodic behavior with a period of 24 hours. Thus, unlike the prior art feedback systems which blindly correct antenna pointing error continuously reacting only to presently sensed error, the present invention takes an intelligent approach and learns the periodic behavior of spacecraft antenna pointing error. Then, an estimate of antenna pointing error at a particular time going forward is predicted based on the learned model of the periodic behavior of the antenna pointing error. The predicted estimate is then used to correct or cancel out the antenna pointing error at a particular time in the future. The result is more accurate correction of spacecraft antenna pointing error by more than a factor of two. |
| US07663541B2 |
Method of tracking radio frequency signals
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a method of keeping track of and staying tuned to a transmitter even when a receiver is moving at a relatively high speed. Electronic equipment carried on fast moving vehicles and comprising receiving means can experience a shift in the frequencies received due to Doppler shift. Embodiments provide a way of taking such a Doppler shift into account by means of acceleration measurements of the electronic equipment. Some embodiments may be used in electronic equipment containing a GPS receiver or the like, where re-tracking of satellites can be power and time consuming. |
| US07663537B2 |
Target detecting apparatus using electronically agile radar
A target detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle has an electronically agile radar detecting a beat signal indicating a difference in frequency between transmission and reception signals and producing a time series of N reception data from the beat signal, a determining unit determining search areas placed at different ranges of distance from the vehicle while considering a running state of the vehicle and determining a data length for each search area, an extracting unit extracting (N−M+1) time series of short time data, respectively, having the data length corresponding to M reception data from the N reception data for each search area, a producing unit producing phase information from the short time data for each search area, and a detecting unit determining a target distance and a target bearing from the phase information and detecting a target from the target distance and the target bearing. |
| US07663535B2 |
System and method to position register and phase synchronize a monitoring network
A system is disclosed for position registration and phase synchronization of monitors in a monitor network. Each monitor includes a transceiver having a transponder circuit with a calibrated transponder delay. To measure a distance between monitors, an oscillator at a first monitor generates a measurement signal which is transponded by a second monitor for receipt by the first monitor. A phase difference between the received signal and the first monitor oscillator is determined and used with the signal velocity and transponder delay to calculate the distance between monitors. The measured distances are combined with other data (e.g. monitor elevations) to calculate monitor locations. A phase delay is then measured by transmitting a signal from the first to the second monitor for comparison with the second monitor oscillator. A phase difference between oscillators (for use in synchronizing the monitors) is then calculated using the phase delay, separation distance and signal velocity. |
| US07663533B2 |
Radar system for motor vehicles
A radar system for motor vehicles, having a least one radar sensor having a range of less than 50 m for monitoring traffic in an adjacent lane, wherein the radar sensor has a phase-controlled antenna and a control device for setting a plurality of radar lobes having different geometries. |
| US07663532B2 |
Method for measuring distance and position using spread spectrum signal, and an equipment using the method
By using the delay profile created by delay profile creating section 102 and the first threshold value 330 received from the first threshold value calculation 105, the first threshold value timing detection section 103 selects only the earliest receive timing exceeding the first threshold value, from all the timing that the correlation value in the delay profile becomes a maximum. By using the receive timing and the second threshold value 331 received from the second threshold value calculation section 107, reference timing calculation section 106 selects the reference timing required for calculating the receive timing for the incoming wave of the minimum propagation delay time. The timing delayed by previously set timing behind said reference timing is sent from receive timing calculation section 108 as the receive timing 113 of the incoming wave of the minimum propagation delay time. |
| US07663530B2 |
System and method for monitoring targets
A system comprising a moving radar, a processing device, and a phase difference determination device is used to monitor a target. The moving radar has first and second phase centers that transmit and receive signals normal to a direction of movement of the radar. The processing device receives first and second ones of the received signals from the first and second phase centers, respectively, and performs a target motion compensation and target acceleration correction for each of the first and second received signals to produce first and second images. The phase difference determination device determines a phase difference image from a comparison of the first and second images. |
| US07663528B1 |
Missile boost-ballistic estimator
A hostile missile engager senses the missile and supplies kinematic data to an interceptor missile fire control processor, which predicts the target's future location with the aid of a powered/unpowered identifier. The identifier passes the kinematic data through filters having lags for powered and unpowered operation, to produce residuals and residual covariances. The probabilities of powered and unpowered motion are determined, and thresholded. If the probability of powered motion or unpowered motion exceeds its threshold, the motion is deemed known. If the target is deemed to be powered, a set of the three-dimensional kinematic features is applied to a nine-state Kalman filter to produce an optimal state. If the target missile is unpowered, a set of the three-dimensional kinematic features corresponding to the second lag is applied to a six-state Kalman filter to produce an optimal state for the unpowered motion. The optimal states control the interceptor toward the target. |
| US07663521B2 |
Oversampling PID controller for integration with a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter
An embodiment of the invention relates to a controller that includes a delta-sigma modulator to produce a one-bit, oversampled signal representing a measured characteristic of a process, and a delta-sigma modulator to produce a one-bit, oversampled signal representing a set-point value for the characteristic. A multiplexer selects a partial sum based on a difference of the oversampled signals to produce a control signal for the process. The controller that produces the control signal for the process can be a PID controller. |
| US07663519B2 |
Analog to digital converter using arrangement of stators and AD converting method
An Analog to Digital (AD) converter and an AD converting method are provided. The AD converter includes one or more stators, and one or more actuators that move according to an input voltage. The digital output of the AD converter is determined based on an arrangement of the stators and the positions of the actuators relative to the stators. The AD converter can achieve high resolution and/or high speed with lower power consumption. |
| US07663518B2 |
Dither technique for improving dynamic non-linearity in an analog to digital converter, and an analog to digital converter having improved dynamic non-linearity
An analog to digital converter comprising a conversion engine having redundancy therein; and a dither device for applying a dither to the conversion engine; and a controller adapted to operate the conversion engine to perform a successive approximation conversion of the analog input, and wherein the dither is removed prior to completion of the analog to digital conversion. |
| US07663517B1 |
Accurate hardware Power OK (POK) generation methodology for processors with varying core voltage requirements
A method for configuring a circuit for providing a power OK (POK) signal is described. The method includes identifying a voltage range and voltage interval, dividing the voltage range into a plurality of segments, selecting a reference voltage for each segment, and selecting resistor values for a plurality of voltage dividers for dividing an output voltage from a precision voltage reference into each of the reference voltages. A power OK signal generator and method for generating a power OK signal are also described. |
| US07663516B1 |
Scheme for non-linearity correction of residue amplifiers in a pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
In a method and apparatus for compensating non-linearity of a gain of a residual amplifier (RA), a pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) converts an analog input to a digital output (DO). The ADC includes a plurality of pipelined stages (PPS). Each stage, which includes an instance of the RA, provides a digital code corresponding to an output of the RA included in a preceding stage. A memory stores a piecewise linear representation for modeling the non-linearity of the gain. A calibrated gain of the RA corresponding to each region of a plurality of linear operating regions of the RA is stored in the memory. A gain adjuster adjusts the digital code for each one of the PPS in accordance with a gain factor derived from the calibrated gain for each one of the PPS. A constructor constructs the DO from the adjusted digital code received from each one of the PPS. |
| US07663515B2 |
High-speed serial interface circuit and electronic instrument
A high-speed serial interface circuit includes a data receiver circuit, a clock signal receiver circuit, a logic circuit block that includes at least a serial/parallel conversion circuit, a free-running clock signal generation circuit, a clock signal detection circuit, and an output mask circuit. The clock signal detection circuit compares a received clock signal from the clock signal receiver circuit with a free-running clock signal from the free-running clock signal generation circuit to detect whether or not clock signals are transferred through differential clock signal lines. When the clock signal detection circuit has detected that the clock signals are not transferred through the differential clock signal lines, the output mask circuit masks an output signal from the logic circuit block so that the output signal is not transmitted to a circuit in the subsequent stage. The present invention can prevent a partial characteristic variation by NBTI by inputting a free-running clock into a logic block, and operating it. |
| US07663514B2 |
Encoding processing apparatus and decoding processing apparatus
An encoding processing apparatus includes a first storing section for storing first encoded information and second encoded information, a second storing section for storing a table indicating association relation between the first encoded information and the second encoded information, an arithmetic section for calculating the second encoded information by reading the first encoded information stored in the first storing section and searching the table stored in the second storing section, a third storing section for storing by associating the first encoded information previously read from the first storing section and the second encoded information, a first control section for reading the second encoded information associated with the first encoded information from the third storing section, and a second control section for storing by associating the first encoded information with the second encoded information in the third storing section. The arithmetic section performs processing of searching the table stored in the second storing section and calculating the second encoded information. |
| US07663508B2 |
Vehicle location information notifying system
When searching of a location of a vehicle is commanded, a vehicle search signal is transmitted from a portable device. The vehicle search signal includes an ID code of the portable device. When a vehicle side communication unit receives the valid ID code, the vehicle side communication unit transmits a vehicle side response signal to the portable device. The portable device computes a distance from the portable device to the vehicle based on a signal level of the received vehicle side response signal. A notifying device notifies the computed distance. |
| US07663505B2 |
Traffic management device and system
A smart traffic control device transmits information to approaching vehicles regarding its current and future state enabling vehicles to control their speed to avoid arriving at the traffic control device until it permits the passage of traffic, thus avoiding stopping, idling and reaccelerating when reaching the traffic control device. In other embodiments the traffic control device or systems receives information from vehicles, transmitting it to other vehicles. |
| US07663504B2 |
Emergency vehicle warning system
An emergency vehicle transmits a Vehicle Present Signal when in transit on public roads responding to an emergency. The signal can include information relating to the type of emergency vehicle, local highway and terrain data, and the location, speed and direction of travel of the emergency vehicle. When the Vehicle Present Signal is detected by a first vehicle, a functional circuit within the first vehicle calculates the distance between the emergency vehicle and the first vehicle. If the vehicles are within a predetermined distance, a warning signal activates one or more warning systems, thereby notifying the driver of the first vehicle that an emergency vehicle is in the vicinity. A dead-band defined by first and second predetermined distances can be incorporated to prevent rapid cycling of the warning signal. |
| US07663501B2 |
Apparatus and method of controlling emitting color of visible light according to a current communication state in a VLC device
An apparatus and method for controlling the emitted color of visible light according to the current communication state in a visible light communication (VLC) device. The method includes storing one or more communication states and emitting colors that are correspondingly matched to the one or more communication states to indicate each of the various communication states. The VLC also checks, which can be based upon selection of a VLC mode, the current communication state and an emits a color that corresponds to the current communication state and emits the checked color of light to provide a visible light signal that indicates communication status to a user. |
| US07663500B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing a notification appliance with a light emitting diode
A method and apparatus for providing a strobe alarm unit employing at least one light emitting diode. |
| US07663497B2 |
Container and information provision system
One of the embodiment of present invention includes at least one transmitter-receiver set including a transmitter and a receiver opposed with an object to be measured therebetween; and a transmission device that estimates the amount of the object based on the attenuation of electromagnetic waves that are transferred between the transmitter and the receiver of the transmitter-receiver set, and transmits information on the estimated amount of the object to be measured. |
| US07663494B2 |
Networked RF tag for tracking people by means of loyalty cards
The invention disclosed provides a method, system, and tag for detection and tracking of objects. The method includes the steps of: a) attaching to each of the objects a low radio frequency detection tag having an antenna, a transceiver, a data storage device operable to store data including identification data, a programmed data processor, and an energy source; b) storing, in the data storage device of each tag, shipping data; c) commingling the objects in a repository provided with a large loop field antenna; d) reading the identification data and shipping data from the transceiver of each tag by interrogating all tags commingled in said repository with data signals via said field antenna; and e) transmitting the identification data and shipping data from each tag to a central data processor to provide a tally of the objects in said repository. |
| US07663493B2 |
Child car seat alert system
A system and method to warn that a child has been left unattended in the vehicle when the ignition is off. The system includes a sensing device to detect if a child is in the infant seat, an ignition detection device to detect that the ignition is off, a delay timer to provide a certain period of time for the caregiver to remove the child from the car seat or put the child in the infant/booster seat and then to generate an alarm, a speaker to sound the alarm, and a switching assembly to detect when the dome light goes on, or if the dome light is operable. |
| US07663491B2 |
Substrate damage detection mechanism using RFID tag
Disclosed is a substrate damage detection mechanism using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag including a substrate, at least one RFID tag with a RFID chip, a RFID transmitter and at least one data input/output port and at least one conducting circuit loop arranged to cover the substrate and provided with a first end that is electrically connected to a reference voltage and a second end that is electrically connected to the data input/output port of the RFID tag. The RFID chip generates a conductive code when the conducting circuit loop is originally conducting and generates a open-circuit code when the conducting circuit loop becomes open circuit resulting from the damage of the substrate in which both the conductive code and the open-circuit code are transmitted by the RFID transmitter and received by a RFID reader to determine the damage of the substrate. |
| US07663490B2 |
Methods and apparatus for efficiently tracking activity using radio frequency identification
A wearable data processing system includes a high power radio module and a low power radio module. The high power radio module may retrieve data from radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags. The low power radio module may transmit data to a base station data pertaining to the detected RFID tags. The low power radio module may also receive a power management signal from a gate radio. The gate radio may have an adjustable range. A power management engine in the wearable data processing system may determine whether the low power radio module is receiving the power management signal from the gate radio. The power management engine may also activate and deactivate the high power radio module, depending on whether the low power radio module is receiving the power management signal from the gate radio. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07663488B2 |
System and method of virtually packaging multimedia
Embodiments include systems and methods of accessing multimedia content. One embodiment includes a system for accessing multimedia data. The system includes a tangible object comprising at least one proximity device embedded within the tangible object. The tangible object is configured to provide identification information of the tangible object. The system further includes a reader configured to wirelessly detect the tangible object based upon the proximity device and receive the identification information. The system further includes a device configured to receive a signal from the reader in response to detecting the tangible object and configured to access multimedia data based upon the provided identification information. |
| US07663486B2 |
RFID tag user memory indication
A system and method in a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag for writing and erasing user memory. A write command is received at the tag to write data into user memory of the tag. Based on receipt of the write command, a user memory flag in a first memory bank of the tag is set, and the data is written into a second memory bank of the tag. An erase command is received at the tag to erase data stored in the user memory of the tag. Based on receipt of the command to erase, the user memory flag in the first memory bank is cleared, and data stored in the second memory bank is erased. |
| US07663485B2 |
Apparatus for identifying objects using radio frequency and apparatus and method for tracking position of object using the same
A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag based object position tracking apparatus and method are provided. The apparatus includes a position recognizer including at least one radio frequency identification unit for reading information data on an object through a sensor; and a path analyzing and processing unit for allocating each unique coordinates to the radio frequency identification units based on a relative position in a space where a position recognizer is disposed and recognizing the position of the object and analyzing the path based on the object information data received by the sensor in the radio frequency identification unit corresponding to the unique coordinate. Thus, it is possible to track the path of an object with a low density of RFID tags. |
| US07663481B2 |
Method for sensor node roaming in wireless sensor network environment
Provided is a method for mobile sensor node roaming in an environment of first and second adjacent wireless sensor networks having a plurality of sensor nodes. The method includes the steps of: periodically performing energy detection scan and active scan operations, at the mobile sensor node forming an association with a parent node of the first wireless network, and obtaining energy values of selected channels and link quality indications (LQIs) for the channels; when the sensor node moves to the second wireless sensor network, periodically performing energy detection scan and active scan operations, at the sensor node, and obtaining energy values of selected channels and link quality indications (LQIs) for the channels after movement; comparing, at the sensor node, the energy values and link quality indications (LQIs) of the selected channels before and after movement. |
| US07663480B2 |
Wire emulation through a network for propagation of failure information
An optical transponder, system, method, and program wherein the transponder monitors for at least one of a failure or an alarm signal. In response to detecting a failure or alarm signal (communication), the transponder performs at least one of a predetermined action and propagating an alarm communication to a network, based on a configuration property. The transponder can have a configuration property specifying a predetermined action for shutting off a laser if an alarm signal indicating a network failure is detected. As an example, some transponders can be configured to either provide an alarm communication, and/or shut off a laser, depending upon which communication interface detects a network failure or receives an alarm signal. Also, other transponders can be configured to propagate existing alarm communications, without generating new alarm communications or shutting off lasers. In this manner, the number of alarm signals and laser shut offs can be reduced when a network failure is propagated through the network. |
| US07663477B2 |
Turn signal control device for vehicle
In a turn signal control device for a vehicle having an automatic canceling function, a switch operating element is carried on a pivot shaft mounted in a fixed switch case so that the switch operating element can be returned and pushed-in between a returned position and a pushed-in position. The switch operating element is swingable at the returned position between a neutral position and a left-turn indicating position and a right-turn indicating position. The switch operating element is pushed-in to the pushed-in position by push-in operation at the returned position. The switch operating element is resiliently urged toward the neutral position and there turned position. A winker switch is operatively connected to the switch operating element so as to break the connection of a left-turn indicating means or a right-turn indicating means to a flasher unit in response to push-in of the switch operating element to the pushed-in position. Thus, a switch and an electric circuit for manual canceling are not required to improve reliability. |
| US07663471B2 |
In-vehicle device remote control system and method
In an in-vehicle device remote control system, a vehicle-side device determines in which detection area an electronic key exists based on a response signal transmitted from the key in response to request signals, and a control door to be operated in correspondence to the detection area in which the key exists. The vehicle-side device notifies a user that the key is an authorized one by light, sound, display or the like on the determined control door. With this operation, it is readily recognized by the user because the user is approaching the control door. |
| US07663470B2 |
Trimming circuit and electronic circuit
A trimming circuit and an electronic circuit that decreases the resistance of an activated transistor while reducing the number of resistors. The trimming circuit includes a plurality of series-connected units. Units for respectively changing adjusting resistances of Runit/2, Runit/4, Runit/8, and Runit/16 are each formed by a transistor, a series-connected resistor circuit, which has resistance Rt and which is connected in series to the transistor, and a parallel-connected resistor circuit, which has resistance Rm and which is connected to the transistor and the series-connected resistor circuit. The resistances Rm and Rt are determined in each unit such that the difference between the resistance Rm when the transistor is off and the resistance of the entire unit when the transistor is on determines the adjusting resistance. |
| US07663464B2 |
Inductance component
The inductance component has a base material, a coil formed in the base material and an electrode electrically connected to the coil. In addition, an impact-absorption layer is disposed between the electrode and the base material. Forming impact-absorption layer between the base material and the electrode allows the base material to have flexibility even if an impact is given on the base material, providing the component with high impact-resistance. |
| US07663462B2 |
Inductive rotating transmitter
The invention relates to an inductive rotating transmitter, comprising a fixed piece and a rotating piece, whereby the fixed piece and the rotating pierce have a common virtual rotational axis and the rotating piece rotates about the fixed piece. The data transmission is carried out over at least one data transmission path by means of at least one inductive element and the data transmission path is arranged outside the rotational axis of the rotating transmitter. |
| US07663460B2 |
Planar transformer and switching power supply
A planar transformer comprises a primary coil board including a primary coil, a secondary coil board including a secondary coil, a heat sink integrally having a spacer portion, and a magnetic core assembly mounted to the primary coil board and the secondary coil board. The spacer portion is inserted into a gap between and facing the primary coil board and the secondary coil board and at least a surface of the heat sink is electrical insulating. |
| US07663455B2 |
Band-pass filter element and high frequency module
A high frequency module incorporates a layered substrate, a plurality of elements mounted on a top surface of the layered substrate, and a metallic casing that covers these elements. The plurality of elements mounted on the top surface of the layered substrate include a band-pass filter element. The band-pass filter element includes a plurality of conductor layers for band-pass filter and a plurality of dielectric layers for band-pass filter that implement a function of a band-pass filter, but does not include any conductor layer that functions as an electromagnetic shield. A conductor layer for grounding that the layered substrate includes and the casing are each opposed to the band-pass filter element, and thereby function as an electromagnetic shield for the band-pass filter element. |
| US07663454B2 |
Discrete dielectric material cavity resonator and filter having isolated metal contacts
A discrete resonator is provided, including a dielectric base having a dielectric constant. A metal contact formed on a major surface of the dielectric base has a predetermined area and is positioned at a predetermined location on the dielectric base to provide a predetermined loaded Q for the resonator. A metal ground coating is formed on the outer surface of the dielectric base with the exception of an isolation region surrounding the metal contact that is free of the metal ground coating. The area of the isolation region is sufficient to prevent significant coupling between the metal contact and the metal ground coating. The dielectric constant of the material used for the base, and the width and length of the dielectric base are each selected such that the resonator resonates at least at one predetermined resonant frequency in the GHz frequency range. |
| US07663450B2 |
Monolithic duplexer
A subminiature, high-performance monolithic duplexer is disclosed. The monolithic duplexer includes a substrate, a transmitting-end filter formed in a first area on an upper surface of the substrate, a receiving-end filter formed in a second area on the upper surface of the substrate, a packaging substrate, bonded on an area on the upper surface of the substrate, for packaging the transmitting-end filter and the receiving-end filter in a sealed state, and a phase shifter, formed on one surface of the packaging substrate and connected to the transmitting-end filter and the receiving-end filter, respectively, for intercepting a signal inflow between the transmitting-end filter and the receiving-end filter. |
| US07663444B2 |
Amplifying circuit utilizing nonlinear gate capacitance for enhancing linearity and related method thereof
An apparatus for amplifying an input signal is disclosed. The apparatus includes a first amplifying circuit and a first resonating circuit. The first amplifying circuit includes a first transistor having a first gate for receiving the input signal. The first amplifying circuit amplifies the input signal to generate a first output signal. The first resonating circuit is coupled to the first amplifying circuit, wherein a first resonating frequency of the first resonating circuit is not equal to the operating frequency. |
| US07663443B2 |
Active balun circuit
There is provided an active balun circuit including: a load circuit unit including a first and a second load; a differential amplifying unit including a first amplifying unit connected to the first load, and a second amplifying unit connected to the second load and forming a differential amplifying unit together with the first amplifying unit, the differential amplifying unit differentially amplifying an input signal, and outputting first and second output signals out-of-phase with each other through first and second output terminals, respectively; a current source connected between a ground and a common connection node of the first and second amplifying units, and maintaining a constant amount of current flowing through the differential amplifying unit; and a compensation amplifying unit amplifying the input signal supplied through the input terminal, transmitting the amplified input signal to the second amplifying unit, and rejecting common mode noise of the differential amplifying unit. |
| US07663440B2 |
Amplifier circuit, semiconductor device, and controlling method
An amplifier circuit including a plurality of CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) inverter circuits connected in parallel with each other. The CMOS inverter circuits each include a first PMOS (P-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistor, a first NMOS (N-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistor, gates of the first PMOS and NMOS transistors, a second PMOS transistor, a first switch connected to a gate of the second PMOS transistor, a second NMOS transistor, and a second switch connected to a gate of the second NMOS transistor. |
| US07663436B2 |
Power amplifier with distortion compensation circuit
A power amplifier negates a memory effect and is applied a linearizer using a digital predistortion system even in an inexpensive device. The power amplifier compares an input signal power against a sampled component of an output power, and provides predistortion to the input signal power so as to minimize a difference as a result of the comparison. The power amplifier comprises a gain lookup table storing a gain coefficient value corresponding to a temperature address determined for an input power; a phase lookup table storing a phase coefficient value corresponding to the temperature address determined for the input power; a transversal filter, which is input with the input power, and which outputs the temperature address; and a coefficient multiplier modulating the input signal using a gain coefficient value and a phase coefficient value, which correspond to the temperature address and which are read out from the gain coefficient lookup table and the phase lookup table. |
| US07663429B2 |
Driver amplifier circuit having reduced DC bias
A driver amplifier circuit is provided which includes a voltage level shifting circuit and an Op-Amp. A positive power supply terminal and a negative power supply terminal of the Op-Amp receive a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage outputted from the voltage level shifting circuit, causing a DC voltage level of an output signal to be equal to 0V. Meanwhile, the absolute value of a voltage difference between the first reference voltage and the second reference voltage is equal to VDD, meaning that elements in the circuit operate without risking a high-voltage damage. |
| US07663428B2 |
Boosting charge pump circuit
In order to resolve a problem of the conventional technique in which there is a charge pump capacitance which is not used when a boosting method of the charge pump is changed, in a charge pump circuit unit, a connection switching terminal selects a power source voltage, a logically-inverting buffer gate and a capacitor to conduct an operation of boosting the power source voltage so as to be twice the power source voltage, and a connection switching terminal outputs the boosted voltage as a boost control voltage. In a charge pump circuit unit, a connection switching terminal selects the boost control voltage outputted from the charge pump circuit unit, and a logically-inverting buffer gate and a capacitor conduct an operation of boosting the inputted voltage so as to be 3×VDD. An internal voltage is generated by outputting the boosted voltage to an internal power line via a NMOS transistor. |
| US07663427B2 |
Booster circuit
A charge pump type booster circuit generates a positive or negative boosted output voltage by switching booster paths one by one. This charge pump type booster circuit includes a plurality of booster paths, each of the plurality of booster paths including at least one booster capacitor, wherein a number of the booster capacitor at each of the plurality of booster paths is different between one booster path and the other booster path. This makes it possible to suppress an increase in a number of an external capacitor for setting an output voltage of the booster circuit constant. |
| US07663424B2 |
Circuit and method for reducing charge injection and clock feed-through in switched capacitor circuits
A low charge injection, low clock feed-through switch (1) has an input signal (Vin) applied both to the sources of first (S1) and second (2) switching transistors. A first clock signal (P) having pulses of a first duration ts is applied to a gate of the first switching transistor, and a second clock signal (Pcoarse) having pulses of a second duration m×ts substantially less than the first duration is applied to a gate of the second switching transistor. A capacitor (C) is charged toward the input voltage through both the first and second switching transistors during the pulse of the second clock signal. The capacitor is charged further toward the input voltage during a remaining portion of the pulse of the first clock signal. |
| US07663420B2 |
MOS resistance controlling device and MOS attenuator
A MOS resistance controlling device includes: a plurality of MOS transistors having a first MOS transistor to N-th (the integer N is larger than 1) MOS transistor being serially connected, the source of the first MOS transistor being set to a first reference potential, the drain the N-th MOS transistor being set to a second reference potential, and the drain of an I-th MOS transistor being connected to the source of an I+1-th MOS transistor, where I is an integer from 1 to N−1; a current source which is electrically disposed at connection node between the drain of the N-th MOS transistors and the second reference potential; and an operational amplifier having a first input terminal being supplied with a third reference potential, a second input terminal connected with the connection node and an output terminal being connected with gates of the MOS transistors. |
| US07663416B2 |
Apparatus and related method for generating output clock
An apparatus for generating an audio output clock is disclosed. The apparatus at least includes a plurality of dividers and a frequency synthesizer. The apparatus utilizes the dividers to achieve dispersive frequency-division operations such that the anti-noise ability of the apparatus can be improved. In addition, the apparatus also utilizes dynamic phase adjustment to increase accuracy of the frequency of the audio output clock. |
| US07663415B2 |
Phase locked loop (PLL) method and architecture
A phase locked loop (PLL) architecture provides voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) gain compensation across process and temperature. A simulator may be used to calculate the control voltages for the maximum and minimum output frequency of the VCO for each combination of the process and temperature corners. The maximum and minimum values of control voltage are then selected from these control voltages. Using a counter, the number of cycles of VCO in some cycles of the PLL input clock are counted in binary form and stored in latches for the extreme control voltages. The difference between them and the corresponding difference for typical process and temperature corner is used to modify the charge pump to change the current delivered to the loop filter. After the charge pump bits have been decided, the input control voltage of the VCO connects to the charge pump output to start the normal operation of the PLL. |
| US07663414B2 |
Prescaling stage for high frequency applications
A prescaling stage includes bistable circuit in turn including respective master and slave portions inserted between a first and a second voltage reference and feedback connected to each other. Each portion is provided with at least one differential stage supplied by the first voltage reference and connected, by a transistor stage, to the second voltage reference, as well as a differential pair of cross-coupled transistors, supplied by output terminals of the differential stage and connected, by the transistor stage, to the second voltage reference. Advantageously, each master and slave portion includes a degeneration capacitance inserted in correspondence with respective terminals of the transistors of the differential pair. |
| US07663411B2 |
Semiconductor device with a logic circuit
The logic gate of the present invention is of a configuration that includes a first transistor, a second transistor, and a connection-switching unit. The first transistor receives a first voltage at its source, a first input signal at its gate, and supplies a first output signal from its drain. The second transistor receives a second voltage that is lower than the first voltage at its source, receives a second input signal at its gate, and supplies a second output signal from its drain. The connection-switching unit is connected between the drains of the first transistor and the second transistor for connecting and cutting off the first transistor and the second transistor. |
| US07663409B2 |
Voltage/current converter circuit and method for providing a ramp current
A voltage/current converter circuit includes a bridge configuration having a first current path with a first resistor, a first transistor, and an input node to receive a ramp voltage to be converted, and a second current path with a second resistor and a second transistor. A current passes through the second current path. An amplifier arrangement balances the bridge configuration by providing an output signal to a control terminal of the first transistor and/or to a control terminal of the second transistor. |
| US07663399B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having output drive and delay unit
An output driver for use in a semiconductor memory device includes a pull-up metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor for pulling-up a voltage loaded on an output node in response to a pull-up control signal; a pull-up linear element connected between the pull-up MOS transistor and the output node for increasing a linearity of an output current; a pull-down MOS transistor for pulling-down the voltage loaded on the output node in response to a pull-down control signal; and a pull-down linear element connected between the pull-down MOS transistor and the output node for increasing the linearity of the output current, wherein the pull-up MOS transistor and the pull-up linear element are different typed MOS transistors and the pull-down MOS transistor and the pull-down linear element are different typed MOS transistors. |
| US07663396B2 |
Substrate for electro-optical device, electro-optical device, and checking method
A substrate for an electro-optical device includes a plurality of scanning lines arranged in rows; a plurality of data lines arranged in columns and grouped into blocks, each of the blocks including n data lines, where n indicates an integer of 2 or more; a plurality of terminals that receive data signals for the corresponding blocks; a demultiplexer that selects a data line designated by a control signal from among the n data lines within each of the blocks and that supplies to the data line selected in the block the corresponding data signal received by the corresponding terminal for the block; a plurality of pixels disposed in association with intersections of the plurality of scanning lines and the plurality of data lines, some or all of the plurality of pixels performing display in accordance with the data signals supplied to the data lines when selection of the corresponding scanning lines is performed; and a checking circuit. The checking circuit includes n read lines; a plurality of first switches each provided for a different data line, one end of each of the plurality of first switches being connected to a corresponding data line and the other end of each of the plurality of first switches being connected to one of the n read lines such that the other ends of the plurality of first switches corresponding to the n data lines belonging to an identical block are connected to different read lines; and a shift register that selects one of the blocks so as to allow conduction of first switches whose other ends are connected to the n data lines belonging to the selected block. |
| US07663395B2 |
Display device, display panel therefor, and inspection method thereof
A display panel is provided, which includes: a plurality of gate lines; a plurality of data lines intersecting the gate lines; a plurality of switching elements connected to the gate lines and the data lines; a plurality of pixel electrodes connected to the switching elements; a plurality of driving signal lines transmitting a plurality of driving signals; a plurality of test pads for test signals disposed near an edge of the panel; and a gate driver generating and applying gate signals to the gate lines responsive to the driving signals transmitted from the driving signal lines. |
| US07663394B2 |
Start signal detector circuit
A variation of a threshold of diode-connected transistors is compensated for to maintain a constant rectification efficiency of a rectifier circuit, thereby enabling stable detection of a start signal. A constant voltage is applied to DC bias terminal 103 of cascaded half-wave voltage doubler rectifier circuits (including MOS transistors M1 to M4 and capacitors C1 to C4) forming a rectifier circuit, and a voltage equal to the sum of the constant voltage applied to DC bias terminal 103 and a variation ΔVt of a threshold voltage of the MOS transistors is applied to DC bias terminal 104 of cascaded half-wave voltage doubler rectifier circuits (including MOS transistors M5 to M8 and capacitors C5 to C8) forming a bias circuit. |
| US07663393B2 |
Mobility measurements of inversion charge carriers
A method and device for determining the quality of the interface surface between a layer of a dielectric material and the top surface of the semiconductor substrate are disclosed. In one aspect, the method comprises providing a semiconductor substrate with a top surface whereon a layer of a dielectric material is deposited thereby forming an interface surface, the surface of the layer of the dielectric material being or not in direct contact with the semiconductor substrate defining a top surface. A charge is then applied on a dedicated area of the top surface. A voltage Vs is measured on the top surface. The dedicated area is illuminated to define an illuminated spot. The photovoltage is measured inside and outside the determined illuminated spot during the illumination of the area. |
| US07663391B2 |
Test system and method for reducing test signal loss for integrated circuits
An integrated circuit test system includes a probe card, a driver, a receiver, and a first switch. The driver is coupled to the probe card via a first signal line. The receiver is coupled to the probe card via a second signal line. The first switch is coupled between the probe card and the first signal line. After the driver outputs a test signal to a device under test via the first signal line, the first switch is turned off, and then the receiver reads the test signal via the second signal line. Thus, the test signal loss can be reduced. |
| US07663385B2 |
Apparatus and method for electrical characterization by selecting and adjusting the light for a target depth of a semiconductor
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus that enable characterization of an electrical property of a semiconductor specimen, e.g., dopant concentration of a near-surface region of the specimen. In exemplary method, a target depth for measurement is selected. This thickness may, for example, correspond to a nominal production thickness of a thin active device region of the specimen. A light is adjusted to an intensity selected to characterize a target region of the specimen having a thickness no greater than the target depth and a surface of the specimen is illuminated with the light. An AC voltage signal induced in the specimen by the light is measured and this AC voltage may be used to quantify an aspect of the electrical property, e.g., to determine dopant concentration, of the target region. |
| US07663384B2 |
Method and apparatus for measuring metallic area-specific resistance
A simple method and apparatus for measuring the low area specific resistance of a metal plate, particularly in high temperature (<962° C.) environment, are provided. The metal plate, which may include a coating, is used in high temperature environment for electric conduction. Silver paste is applied on the metal surface. Paste sintering processes to minimize contact resistance are described. These sintering processes cause negligible change to the original metal condition, thus accurate and precise area specific resistivity of the metal plate can be obtained. |
| US07663382B2 |
High-speed capacitor leakage measurement systems and methods
Systems and methods according to aspects of the present invention are described. The systems and methods enable charging, soaking, and measuring of capacitors to be conducted quickly. Charging and soaking typically occurs in parallel and certain embodiments facilitate the measuring of capacitor leakage by sequentially disconnecting each capacitor and measuring the time for voltage on the capacitor to reach a predetermined threshold. Further, all capacitors can be disconnected from a charging source simultaneously and voltages can be measured for each capacitor simultaneously. Monitoring can be periodic in nature. Substantial time savings in the calculation device of leakage values and parameters can be attained. |
| US07663381B2 |
Electrical condition monitoring method for polymers
An electrical condition monitoring method utilizes measurement of electrical resistivity of a conductive composite degradation sensor to monitor environmentally induced degradation of a polymeric product such as insulated wire and cable. The degradation sensor comprises a polymeric matrix and conductive filler. The polymeric matrix may be a polymer used in the product, or it may be a polymer with degradation properties similar to that of a polymer used in the product. The method comprises a means for communicating the resistivity to a measuring instrument and a means to correlate resistivity of the degradation sensor with environmentally induced degradation of the product. |
| US07663372B2 |
Resistivity tools with collocated antennas
A resistivity tool for use in a wellbore is provided. The resistivity tool, in one embodiment, may include a longitudinal tool member, a first set of slots at a selected location in the longitudinal tool member and a conductor associated with the first set of slots to form a first antenna having a first orientation, and a second set of slots substantially at the selected location of the longitudinal tool member and a second conductor associated with the second set of slots to form a second antenna having a second orientation, thereby forming co-located antennas having different orientations. |
| US07663369B2 |
Patient couch, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, and MRI method
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus provides a belt-tension varying unit including a belt winding mechanism that performs reeling and unreeling a belt, a belt driving unit that drives the belt winding mechanism, and belt controlling unit that varies a tension of the belt corresponding to any one of a body length, a body weight, and a part to be imaged of a subject. The belt controlling unit varies the tension of the belt in such a manner that the belt controlling unit makes the tension of the belt large under a circumstance having high possibility where the subject moves, and makes the tension of the belt small under a circumstance having low possibility where the subject moves. |
| US07663367B2 |
Shaped MRI coil array
An MRI rf coil array is comprised of a large number of separate coil elements that are supported on a substrate that is shaped to the contour of the anatomy being imaged. The coil elements overlap each other to reduce mutual inductance and their location is determined by tiling the surface of the substrate with regular, substantially same sized polygons. The center of each coil element is aligned with the center of a polygon. By using a mixture of different polygons, such as hexagons and pentagons, an arrangement of coil elements may be formed that cover a surface with non-zero Gaussian curvature where each coil is overlapped with its neighbors such that their mutual inductance is nulled. |
| US07663365B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and analysis method for fat suppression effect in magnetic resonance imaging apparatus
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit which performs imaging more than once with respect to an imaging target while changing a central frequency of a fat suppression pulse, a generation unit which generates a plurality of images based on magnetic resonance signals obtained by imaging performed more than once, and a calculation unit which calculates factor information of spatial inhomogeneity of a fat suppression effect based on the plurality of images. |
| US07663363B2 |
Method and apparatus for high signal-to-noise ratio NMR well logging
A method for measuring nuclear magnetic properties (NMR) properties of a formation, the method including applying a magnetic field to nuclei of the formation during a polarizing interval, the magnetic field having a polarizing intensity; changing the magnetic field to a measurement intensity, the measurement intensity applied to the nuclei of the formation during a measurement interval; applying to the formation at least one radio frequency (RF) pulse train during the measurement interval; and measuring an NMR signal from the formation. |
| US07663358B2 |
Current sensor and molding method thereof
A current sensor which can measure accurately current of a wide range, at low cost. A C-shaped shield plate is positioned around a flow direction of a current of the bus bar. When the current flows through the bus bar, magnetic flux density of a magnetic field is generated. A magneto-electronic conversion element detects the magnetic flux density of the magnetic field, and converts the magnetic flux density into an electric signal. Furthermore, the magneto-electronic conversion element is arranged near a position where the previously measured magnetic flux density of the magnetic field, which is generated when a current flows through the bus bar, is minimized between the conductor and the shield plate. |
| US07663357B2 |
Signal readout circuit for amperometric sensor
A signal readout circuit for amperometric sensor for reading a readout signal of a sensor includes an amplifier, a first transistor, a second transistor, and a first resistor. A negative input end of the amplifier receives an input voltage, and a positive input end of the amplifier is connected to a reference electrode of the sensor. Gates of the first transistor and the second transistor are connected to an output end of the amplifier, a drain of the first transistor is connected to a counter electrode of the sensor, and a drain of the second transistor is connected to the first resistor. |
| US07663355B2 |
Power supply apparatus
In a power supply apparatus that is so configured as to produce from an input voltage an output voltage Vo within a predetermined permissible variation range, the output voltage Vo is so controlled as to decrease within the permissible variation range as the output current Io increases. This configuration offers an output voltage with an improved transient characteristic against an abrupt variation in the output current and simultaneously permits reduction of the power consumed when the output current increases. |
| US07663354B2 |
Voltage clamp circuit, a switching power supply device, a semiconductor integrated circuit device, and a voltage level conversion circuit
The present invention provides a voltage clamping circuit which is operated in a stable manner with the simple constitution and a switching power source device which enables a high-speed operation. In a switching power source device, one of source/drain routes is connected to an input terminal to which an input voltage is supplied, a predetermined voltage to be restricted is supplied to a gate, and using a MOSFET which provides a current source between another source/drain route and a ground potential of the circuit, a clamp output voltage which corresponds to the input voltage is obtained from another source/drain route. The switching power source device further includes a first switching element which controls a current which is made to flow in an inductor such that the output voltage assumes a predetermined voltage and a second switching element which clamps an reverse electromotive voltage generated in the inductor when the first switching element is turned off to a predetermined potential. In such a switching power source device, the voltage clamping circuit is used in a feedback route for setting a dead time. |
| US07663353B2 |
Circuit arrangement for voltage regulation
A circuit arrangement for voltage regulation comprises an output, a controllable output transistor connected to the output, an error detection circuit, and a monitoring control circuit. A voltage-regulated output potential can be tapped off the output, the controllable output transistor is connected to the output on a load side and the output transistor comprises a control terminal. The error detection circuit provides a regulating signal if a deviation between the output potential or a potential derived from the output potential and a desired value occurs. By means of the regulating signal the control terminal can be charged or discharged dependent on the deviation and the monitoring control circuit monitors the regulating signal and performs, if the regulating signal lies outside a predetermined range, an additional charging or discharging of the control terminal until the regulating signal lies within the predetermined range. |
| US07663352B2 |
Control circuit for measuring and regulating output current of CCM power converter
A switching control circuit is provided for measuring and regulating an output current of a power converter. The power converter is operated under continuous current mode. A detection circuit generates a continuous-current signal and a peak-current signal by detecting a switching current of an inductive device. An integration circuit generates an average-current signal in response to the continuous-current signal, the peak-current signal and an off time of a switching signal. The switching control circuit generates the switching signal in response to the average-current signal. The switching signal is coupled to switch the inductive device and regulate the output current of the power converter. A time constant of the integration circuit is correlated to the switching period of the switching signal, therefore the average-current signal will be proportional to the output current. |
| US07663350B2 |
External electrical energy supply for field device
A field-device electronics for a field device. The field device electronics is supplied from an external electrical energy supply providing a supply voltage and delivering a variable supply current driven by the supply voltage. The field-device electronics includes an internal control unit for controlling the field device, as well as at least one internal supply circuit feeding the internal control unit. The supply current is a mixed current formed by superimposing and/or modulation of an alternating current portion onto a direct current portion. The internal supply circuit uses, at least at times and/or at least in part, also the alternating current portion of the mixed current for covering an instantaneous energy requirement of the control unit. |
| US07663344B2 |
Method for managing a pool of rechargeable batteries according to priority criteria determined based on a state of health of batteries
The management of a pool of batteries is an intelligent management taking account of the state of health of all the batteries of the pool and of the evolution thereof with time. The method for managing includes determination of priority criteria and charging of a battery selected according to the priority criteria. After the selected battery has been charged, electrical parameters representative of the battery are measured, then the state of health of the selected battery is analyzed according to the measured electrical parameters. The priority criteria are then updated according to the state of health of the battery. Selection of the next battery to be recharged is performed according to the updated priority criteria. The measured parameters used for analyzing the state of health are preferably representative of a coup de fouet effect during a partial discharge of a fully charged battery. |
| US07663342B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for controlling multiple power supplies
In an electrical power supply having a plurality of switching power converter circuits and configured to supply a voltage to an electrical load, a method of controlling a duty cycle of at least one switch of one of the plurality of switching power converter circuits includes determining a storage voltage produced by the one of the plurality of energy storage devices. The method further includes determining an average storage voltage corresponding to an average of storage voltages produced by each of the plurality of energy storage devices. The method further includes determining at least one control signal as a function of the storage voltage, the average storage voltage, and a reference voltage. The method further includes controlling the duty cycle of the at least one switch of the one of the plurality of switching power converter circuits based upon the at least one control signal. |
| US07663338B2 |
Method and apparatus for handling a charging state in a mobile electronic device
In accordance with the teachings described herein, a method and apparatus for handling a charging state in a mobile electronic device is provided. A universal serial bus (USB) interface may be used for connecting the mobile device to a USB host. A processing device may be used to execute programs and to control operation of the mobile device. The processing device may be operable to receive an enumeration acknowledgement signal from the USB host via the USB interface and generate an enable signal upon receiving the enumeration acknowledgement signal. A rechargeable battery may be used to power the processing device. A battery charger may be used to receive a USB bus voltage from the USB interface and use the USB bus voltage to power the processing device and to charge the rechargeable battery. The battery charger may be further operable to receive a charge enable signal that enables and disables the battery charger from powering the processing device and charging the rechargeable battery. A timing circuit may be used to detect the USB bus voltage and to measure the passage of a pre-determined amount of time upon detecting the USB bus voltage. A battery charger enabling circuit may be used to generate the charge enable signal to control the battery charger, the battery charger enabling the battery charger if the timer has measured the passage of the pre-determined amount of time or the enable signal is received from the processing device. |
| US07663337B2 |
Frequency converter, motor, motor drive system and maintenance method for motor drive system
A frequency converter for outputting a power to drive a motor, having: an inverter unit for inverting a d.c. power to an a.c. power; a control unit for controlling the inverter unit; and a housing for supporting at least the inverter unit and control unit, wherein a rise time change unit is provided in the housing, the rise time change unit changes a rise time of a waveform of a voltage output from the inverter unit. |
| US07663336B2 |
Control apparatus for vehicle
In a control apparatus for a vehicle having an electric motor for driving the wheels of the vehicle, an electric power source for energizing the electric motor, a motor torque target value calculation unit for controlling the electric power source, and a field current target value calculation unit, the motor field current is momentarily decreased when the difference between the actual motor armature current and the motor armature current target value exceeds a predetermined value or when the wheels are deemed to slip, and the motor field current is increased as the actual armature current of the motor substantially follows the motor armature current target value. |
| US07663333B2 |
Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot
A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to effectively cover a given area by operating in a plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as spiraling (45), or other modes are also used to increase effectiveness. In addition, a behavior based architecture is used to implement the control system, and various escape behaviors are used to ensure full coverage. |
| US07663329B2 |
Motor control unit and vehicle equipped therewith
A motor unit and a vehicle equipped with the unit according to the invention includes a control unit that selects a switching frequency, that is, a carrier frequency, in accordance with a rotation speed of the motor and a torque required from a motor. When an inverter temperature becomes high, the control unit limits the torque of the motor to suppress further increase in the inverter temperature. A limit value used in restricted operation is determined in accordance with the temperature and the carrier frequency of the inverter. |
| US07663328B2 |
Multi-phase, multi-frequency controller
Reference signals are combined with a chop frequency signal in a pulse width modulator (PWM) to provide plural inputs to a multi-phase H-bridge amplifier. Also provided to the bridge amplifier is a high voltage DC input which is converted by the pulsed inputs to the bridge amplifier to a variable AC voltage for driving a motor. The AC drive voltage is also provided to a variable frequency voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) in a feedback arrangement, with the variable frequency VCO outputs heterodyned with each of plural outputs of a multi-phase ring oscillator to provide plural baseband signals having a constant phase relationship at a high frequency. The baseband signals form the aforementioned reference signals provided to the PWM in the feedback arrangement with closed loop control and frequency and phase discrimination using phase lock loop techniques for synchronous motor control over a range of DC-100 kHz with 0-25 MHz VCOs. |
| US07663323B2 |
Monitoring device for an array of electrical units
A monitoring device for monitoring an array (4) of electrical units, in particular an array of high capacity light emitting diodes (LEDs) (4.1-4.12). The electrical units are connected in series and driven by a constant electric current (I). The monitoring device has a bypass means (4.1a-4.12a) for each electrical unit (4.1-4.12), operable to bypass the respective electrical unit in case of a disconnection of the respective electrical unit, and an evaluation unit (3) connected in parallel with the array (4) of electrical units, said evaluation unit (3) being adapted to determine a total voltage (UT) of the array (4) of electrical units and to output a control signal (CS) indicative of a function status of the array (4) of electrical units in accordance with a value of the total voltage (UT) relative to a predetermined threshold value (VREF). Thus is provided an electric circuitry which allows an easy and reliable detection of a malfunction of the array of electrical units, e.g. due to failure of individual LEDs because of short circuits and/or disconnection, while ensuring a continued operation of the array in case of only minor problems. The monitoring device can advantageously be used in signalling devices, in particular for railway signalling purposes. |
| US07663318B2 |
HID lamp with rapid relight aid
The restrike time for re-light up of an arc discharge lamp may be decreased by including at least one refractory bimetallic start up electrode that provides a shorter arc path intermediate the main arc path in a cool state, but when heated withdraws to have a relatively longer arc path. The longer arc path in the hot state results in a relatively higher path impedance that can be used by itself or in combination with a supplemental impedance device to extinguish the starting arc in favor of the main arc. The withdrawn bimetallic starting electrode then does not interfere with the main arc function. |
| US07663311B2 |
Organic light emitting display (OLED) device and method of fabricating the same
An organic light emitting display (OLED) device having a simple process of fabrication and improved lifetime and reliability, and a method of fabricating the same are disclosed. The OLED device comprises: a substrate; a sealing member which seals a plurality of pixels arranged on a pixel region; and a sealing material which bonds the substrate and the sealing member. Each of the pixels includes a thin film transistor disposed on the substrate, an EL device including a lower electrode connected to the thin film transistor, a pixel isolation layer exposing a portion of the lower electrode, an organic layer formed on at least the exposed portion of the lower electrode, and an upper electrode. A pad interconnection line of a pad interconnection region is covered by a first insulating layer, and a pad of a pad region is covered by a second insulating layer so as to expose a portion of the pad. The first insulating layer and the second insulating layer are formed of the same material as a lower layer of the pixel isolation layer. |
| US07663308B2 |
Plasma display panel
A plasma display panel may include a first substrate, a second substrate opposite to the first substrate with a predetermined space therebetween, the space being partitioned into a plurality of discharge cells, a phosphor layer formed in the discharge cells, address electrodes extending in a first direction on the first substrate to correspond to the discharge cells, and a first electrode and a second electrode extending in a second direction crossing the first direction at the first substrate side, spaced apart from the address electrodes, formed opposite to each other, and projecting toward the second substrate with a discharge space formed therebetween, wherein the address electrodes include protrusions disposed adjacent to the second electrodes and protruding toward the inside of the discharge cells, and wherein at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode includes protrusions protruding toward an inside of a respective one of the discharge cells. |
| US07663305B2 |
Light emitting device and method of manufacturing the same
In a top emission structure, there has been a problem in that a wiring, a TFT, or the like is provided in regions other than a light emitting region so that light reflected by the wiring reaches eyes of an observer. The present invention prevents light that is reflected by a wire from reaching eyes of an observer by providing a light-absorbing multilayer film (61) in regions other than a light emitting region. Specifically, the light-absorbing multilayer film (61) is used as an upper layer of a partition wall (also called as a bank or a barrier) that covers ends of a first electrode (66b) whereas an organic resin film (67) is used as a lower layer of the partition wall. The partition wall in the present invention is characterized by being a laminate of three or more layers formed of different materials. |
| US07663302B2 |
Organic light emitting display (OLED) and its method of fabrication
An Organic Light Emitting Display (OLED) and its method of fabrication includes: a transparent substrate; a photochromatic layer formed on a first surface of the transparent substrate; at least one transparent Thin Film Transistor (TFT) formed on a first surface of the transparent substrate, and an organic light emitting device formed on and electrically connected to the transparent TFT. |
| US07663301B2 |
Porphyrin compositions
Novel metal porphyrin compositions useful as organic phosphors are provided. The novel compositions are prepared from commercially available porphyrin-containing starting materials. In one instance a novel palladium-containing porphyrin composition having a number average molecular weight of greater than 12,000 grams per mole was prepared from 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3′,5′-di(hydroxy)phenyl)-21H-23H-porphyrin by reaction first with palladium(II) acetylacetonate, followed by reaction with 2-bromo-2-methylpropionyl bromide, and subsequent group transfer reaction of the alpha-bromo ester groups with 9,9-dioctyl-2-vinylfluorene in the presence of CuBr as a radical initiator. The product polymer exhibited a number average molecular weight of 12,884 grams per mole, a weight average molecular weight of 14,338 grams per mole, and a robust red phosphorescent emission. Porphyrin containing copoylmers comprising structural units derived from 9,9-dioctyl-2-vinylfluorene and 9-anthracenylmethyl methacrylate were prepared in a similar fashion. |
| US07663299B2 |
Full-color organic electroluminescence display panel having sub pixel regions
A full-color organic electroluminescence (OEL) display panel includes a substrate and a plurality of full-color OEL pixel devices in a matrix form as a display frame. Each of the pixel devices is composed of a plurality of sub-pixel regions, corresponding to R, G or B colors. Each of the specific color sub-pixel regions in the pixel device abuts the same specific color sub-pixel region of the adjacent pixel device thereof to form a double-sized emission area. With this arrangement of sub-pixel regions, it is easier to manufacture (a) high-resolution full-color OLED panels by a metal-mask alignment process, and (b) high-resolution full-color PLED panels by an ink-jet printing process. |
| US07663295B2 |
Method and system for measuring physical parameters with a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever in a gaseous or liquid environment
A piezoelectric bimorph cantilever is used for determining physical parameters in a gaseous or liquid environment. The sensor works as a driven and damped oscillator. Contrary to common cantilever sensor systems, the piezoelectric film of the bimorph cantilever acts as both a sensor and an actuator. Using at least two resonance mode of the bimorph cantilever, at least two physical parameters can be measured simultaneously in a gas or a liquid. An optimized piezoelectric cantilever and a method to produce the cantilever are also described. |
| US07663292B2 |
Ultrasonic actuator
An ultrasonic actuator includes: a piezoelectric element 10 producing stretching and bending vibrations; driver elements 2, 2 placed on the piezoelectric element 10 so as to be actuated in accordance with the vibrations of the piezoelectric element 10, thereby outputting a driving force; a case 12 for supporting the piezoelectric element 10; and wall-surface supporters 6A and 6B, top-surface supporters 7A and 7B and a bottom-surface supporting part 8 all placed between the case 12 and the piezoelectric element 10 to previously apply compressive forces to non-node parts of the vibrations of the piezoelectric element 10 along the directions of the vibrations. |
| US07663288B2 |
Betavoltaic cell
High aspect ratio micromachined structures in semiconductors are used to improve power density in Betavoltaic cells by providing large surface areas in a small volume. A radioactive beta-emitting material may be placed within gaps between the structures to provide fuel for a cell. The pillars may be formed of SiC. In one embodiment, SiC pillars are formed of n-type SiC. P type dopant, such as boron is obtained by annealing a borosilicate glass boron source formed on the SiC. The glass is then removed. In further embodiments, a dopant may be implanted, coated by glass, and then annealed. The doping results in shallow planar junctions in SiC. |
| US07663287B2 |
Motor
A motor includes a stator and a bus bar supported axially above the stator. The bus bar includes a concave portion arranged in a lower surface thereof facing toward coils of the stator. In a gap defined between the coil and the concave portion, a portion of the wire extracted from the coil and wound in the circumferential direction (i.e., a crossover wire portion) is accommodated. The bus bar includes a wire-positioning hole through which the wire is led to a terminal to be connected with the wire. |
| US07663285B2 |
Brushless motor
This brushless motor according to the present invention is provided with: a tubular stator case; a stator core; a rotor; a plurality of teeth which are integrally formed on an inner peripheral surface of the stator core; a coil bobbin mounted between the mutually adjacent teeth, which has a winding portion around which a coil is wound; a lead wire; and a wiring substrate which relays a connection between the lead wire and the coil, wherein: the coil bobbin has flange portions; one of the flange portions which is located on the inward in the radial direction has an enlarged member which protrudes outward from the surface of the flange portion; a pair of terminals which is connected to the wiring substrate is provided on the enlarged portion so as to be located more inward than a tip of the tooth in the radial direction. |
| US07663284B2 |
Bobbin for stator of motor
A bobbin includes a bobbin body, two top sidewalls, two bottom sidewalls, four top tabs and four bottom tabs. The bobbin body includes a top surface formed at one end of the bobbin body, a bottom surface formed at an opposite end of the bobbin body and a side surface located between the top surface and the bottom surface. The top sidewalls extend radially outward from the top surface of the bobbin body. The bottom sidewalls extend radially outward from the bottom surface of the bobbin body. The bottom sidewalls are staggered so that there is no overlap area between the top sidewall and the bottom sidewall along an axial direction of the bobbin body. Four top tabs extend away from the top surface at a position where there is no top sidewall. Four bottom tabs extend away from the bottom at a position where there is no bottom sidewall. |
| US07663283B2 |
Electric machine having a high-torque switched reluctance motor
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an electric machine comprises a stator and a rotor. The stator has at least one stator pole with a first leg and a second leg. The rotor has at least one rotor pole. The rotor rotates relate to the stator. The at least one rotor is configured to rotate between the first leg and the second leg of the at least one stator pole. |
| US07663280B2 |
Spindle motor and disk drive device using the same
A spindle motor and a disk drive device are provided that have a high operation efficiency of the motor, that does not leak oil, and that has an improved stability by decreasing a runout component in the direction of the rotation axis. The spindle motor includes a rotor hub (20) composed of a disk-like flange (201) and a cylinder-shaped shaft (203); a ring-shaped rotating magnet (16) fastened on one main surface of the flange (201); an armature (14) facing the rotating magnet (16); a sleeve (80) rotatably supporting the shaft (203); and a chassis (15) fixing the armature (14) and the sleeve (80). The flange (201) and the shaft (203) are integrally formed with magnetic material; a protrusion is not provided between a mounting surface (204) for mounting the rotating magnet (16) thereon and a counter-face surface (205) facing the end surface of the sleeve; and the mounting surface (204) and the counter-face surface (205) are orthogonal to the direction of the central axis (A-A′) of the shaft (203), and in a level plane; or the mounting surface (204) is recessed stepwise from the counter-face surface (205) toward the disk mounting portion (202). |
| US07663270B2 |
Canned linear motor armature and canned linear motor
In the canned linear motor armature, both the side surfaces of the armature winding (18) are fixed by two winding fixing frames (4) so as to sandwich the armature winding in between them in the longitudinal direction. A refrigerant passage (5) is provided in a space between the can (3) and the winding fixing frame (4). A seal material (24) is provided in a gap between a case (2) and the winding fixing frame (4) to prevent a refrigerant supplied to the refrigerant passage (5) from leaking to the armature winding (18) sandwiched in between the two winding fixing frames (4) to impregnate the armature winding (18) with the refrigerant. A waterproof film is adhered onto a surface of the winding fixing frame (4) where the refrigerant comes into contact. |
| US07663269B2 |
High bandwidth linear actuator for steering mirror applications
A printed circuit board (PCB) coil linear actuator is disclosed. The actuator includes a coil assembly and a magnet assembly. The coil assembly includes a plurality of PCB coils electrically connected in series. The PCB coils arranged in a row and adjacent PCB coils are separated by a gap. Each PCB coil includes a low aspect ratio, multi-layer coil member disposed on a board member. The actuator assembly includes a plurality of magnet units arranged in a row, wherein adjacent magnet units are separated by a gap. When the actuator is assembled, the PCB coils arranged in alternating sequence with the magnet units. The PCB coil linear actuator is intended to replace traditional slotted bobbin voice coil actuators (VCAs) and is particularly useful in fast steering mirror (FSM) applications. The PCB coil linear actuator provides many advantages over a VCA of an equivalent motor constant, including improved performance, lower weight and a lower profile. |
| US07663268B2 |
Converters for high power applications
Multilevel high power converters, referred to as hexagram converters, which preferably include a combination of six three-phase converter modules, are provided herein. The three-phase converter modules are interconnected and can be configured as any three-phase converter for any given application. One or more inductors can be used in the interconnections between the six modules to suppress potential circulating currents. Numerous applications exist in which the described converters can be implemented. |
| US07663263B2 |
Wind turbine power module mounted on the tower foundation
The invention relates to a method of constructing a wind energy plant and to a wind energy plant as such. In one aspect, the invention provides a method for constructing wind energy plants at lower expenses and more rapidly. According to one embodiment, a method for constructing a wind energy plant that comprises a tower that is based on a foundation and an electrical power module, the power module is mounted on the tower foundation before the tower itself is constructed. The power module includes a transformer and may optionally an inverter and/or other electrical installations, such as for example switch cabinets, that are provided for controlling the wind energy plant and/or for guiding the electrical power that is provided by the generator of the wind energy plant and that is fed to a network. |
| US07663262B2 |
System and method for converting wind into mechanical energy for a building and the like
A system for converting an airflow into mechanical or electrical energy and dimensioned to be attachable to a structure. The system includes a leading edge member, a pair of drawtube arrays, and an energy conversion device located between the pair of drawtube arrays and configured to convert an airflow through the channel into mechanical or electrical energy. |
| US07663261B2 |
Flow development and cogeneration chamber
A fluid handling and cogeneration system has an inlet conduit receiving a fluid, a housing having a inlet end, a outlet end and an interior surface. The housing encloses an inner body which together with the housing is arranged to form an annular space between the interior surface of the housing and an exterior surface of the inner body. The system also includes at least one diverter configured such that the fluid is directed to circulate around the inner body and traverse the annular space from the diverter toward the outlet end of the housing in an organized fashion. A generator is provided within the housing to harness the fluid traversing the annular space to generate electrical power. |
| US07663259B2 |
Self-powered miniature liquid treatment system
A liquid treatment system that may be self-powered includes a filter, an ultraviolet light source and a hydro-generator. A flow of liquid may be filtered with the filter and used to rotate the hydro-generator to generate electric power. The ultraviolet light source may be energized by the electric power generated by the hydro-generator when the magnitude of electric power of the hydro-generator enters a determined range. The flow of liquid may be subject to ultraviolet energy generated by the ultraviolet light source. |
| US07663258B2 |
Miniature hydro-power genteration system power management
A miniature hydro-power generation system may include a hydro-generator, a control circuit and an energy storage device. A flow of liquid may be used to rotate the hydro-generator to generate electric power. The control circuit may switch the electric power to charge the energy storage device and/or to supply the electric power to an electrical load. The control circuit may also selectively switch the energy storage device to supply electric power to the electrical load. Further, the control circuit may disable both the hydro-generator and the energy storage device from supplying electric power to the load. |
| US07663254B2 |
Semiconductor apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
There is provided a semiconductor apparatus which includes a substrate, a semiconductor chip mounted above the substrate, a first resin filled between the substrate and the semiconductor chip, and a second resin formed on the substrate and extending from a side surface of the semiconductor chip toward an outer edge of the substrate. The second resin extends from an intersection of an extension of the side surface of the semiconductor chip and the substrate toward the outer edge of the substrate so that a first stress generated on a contact surface between the first resin and the semiconductor chip and a second stress generated on a contact surface between the first resin or the second resin and the substrate balance out each other. |
| US07663252B2 |
Electric power semiconductor device
An electric power semiconductor device including first and second circuit patterns formed on main surfaces of first and second insulating substrates, respectively, first and second semiconductor chips mounted on the first and second circuit patterns, respectively, a multilayer electrode plate assembly disposed between the first and second insulating substrates, having first, second and third electrode terminals provided with a distance from each other, a first connecting conductor made by wire bonding for connecting the first and second semiconductor chips to the first and second electrode terminals, and a second connecting conductor having an extending portion extended from a part of the third electrode terminal to be connected to the second circuit pattern, and the connection between the extending portion of the third electrode terminal and the second circuit pattern is implemented by a solder. |
| US07663247B2 |
Semiconductor intergrated circuit device
A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes a semiconductor chip, a memory cell array arranged on the semiconductor chip and first and second decoder strings arranged along both ends of the memory cell array. The arrangement position of the first decoder string is deviated from the arrangement position of the second decoder string and a space caused by the deviation is arranged in the corner of the semiconductor chip. |
| US07663246B2 |
Stacked chip packaging with heat sink structure
A stacked package structure with leadframe having bus bar, comprising: a leadframe composed of a plurality of inner leads arranged in rows facing each other, a plurality of outer leads, and a die pad, in which the die pad is provided between the inner leads and is vertically distant from the inner leads; a bus bar being provided between the inner leads and the die pad; an offset chip-stacked structure stacked by a plurality of chips, the offset chip-stacked structure being fixedly connected to a first surface of the die pad and electrically connected to the inner leads; and an encapsulant covering the offset chip-stacked structure, the inner leads, the first surface of die pad, and the upper surface of bus bar, the second surface of die pad and the lower surface of bus bar being exposed and the outer leads extending out of the encapsulant. |
| US07663245B2 |
Interposer and stacked chip package
An interposer may include a base substrate supporting an array of conductive lands. The conductive land may have an identical shape and size. The conductive lands may be provided at regular intervals on the base substrate. The conductive land pitch may be determined such that adjacent conductive lands may be electrically connected by one end of an electric connection member. Alternatively, each conductive land may provide respective bonding locations to which ends of two different electric connection members may be bonded. A stacked chip package may include an interposer that may be fabricated by cutting an interposer to size. In the stacked chip package, electrical connections may be made through the interposer between an upper semiconductor chip and a package substrate, between the upper semiconductor chip and a lower semiconductor chip, and/or between the lower semiconductor chip and the package substrate. |