| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07870889B2 |
Heat dissipation device with a heat pipe
A heat dissipation device comprises a radiator comprising a collar, a core received in the collar and a helical heat pipe embedded in a circumferential face of the core. The collar has a receiving hole and a plurality of fins extending radially and outwardly from an outer face of the collar. The core together with the heat pipe is received in the receiving hole of the radiator. The core has a flat bottom face and a top face opposite to the bottom face. The heat pipe is located between the radiator and the core and thermally contacts the collar of the radiator and the core. The heat pipe extends from the bottom face of the core to the top face of the core, and has a flattened bottom face coplanar with the bottom face of the core for contacting with an electronic device. |
| US07870882B2 |
Process and apparatus for forming tubular labels of heat shrinkable film and inserting containers therein
A process for labelling containers or bottles by applying tubular labels made of heat shrinkable film which completely surround an outer surface area of the bottle. The process and machine include winding a precut label from a reeled film on a rotating tubular round plate supported by a roundabout labelling machine, the bottle abuts on the round plate and the label is wound on the underlying tubular portion. The tubular surface of the round plate is provided with a plurality of holes alternatively supplying or drawing air for establishing a positive or negative pressure respectively on the label surface. The overlapped vertical ends of the label are heat sealed by an electrically heated bar located at each round plate or are chemically bonded. The tubular round plate and the container on it can vertically move to transfer the container into the tubular label. |
| US07870876B2 |
Hose
A hose having both excellent flexibility and shape retainability and advantageous in construction efficiency and cost efficiency. The hose comprises hard synthetic resin reinforcement material (2) spirally fed and having, on both sides of the top part (2D) thereof in the tube axial direction, receiving surfaces (2a) and (2b) positioned on the radial inner side toward the end part thereof and a soft synthetic resin hose body for covering the spirally fed reinforcement materials (2). The reinforcement materials (2) are spirally fed in the state of the top parts being positioned on the radial outer side thereof, a soft synthetic resin tape material (3) is fed to the fed reinforcement (2), and while covering parts (3A) projected in a generally arc shape to the center of the reinforcement materials (2) by melting the tape material or with an adhesive agent. |
| US07870874B2 |
Systems and methods for pipeline rehabilitation
The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems for pipeline rehabilitation. The methods and systems disclosed herein permit the rehabilitation of long lengths of previously installed pipe and minimize the need for creating multiple access points to the pipeline. The disclosed systems and methods are particularly suited for rehabilitating buried and undersea pipelines or pipelines installed in areas of restricted access. |
| US07870868B1 |
Water conservation kit
An apparatus and method for capturing filtered rainwater during wet weather, storing the filtered rainwater in an elevated storage tank, conveying the filtered rainwater by gravity to a toilet tank and controlling its introduction into the toilet tank. The apparatus preferably comprises an inline filter for installation in a horizontal or sloping section of a rain gutter, a storage tank that is mountable at an elevation higher than the elevation of the toilet tank, water transfer tubing or piping for conveyance of filtered rainwater to the storage tank, water supply tubing or piping for conveyance of stored water to the toilet tank, and a control valve for introducing the stored water into the toilet tank when it is needed. In a preferred embodiment, the components of the apparatus are provided to the consumer in the form of an easily installed kit. |
| US07870867B2 |
Curb box lock
A curb box lock that includes a body portion and a plurality of slidably extendable claws within the body portion. The claws being extendable from the body portion to selectively engage side walls of a curb box. The lock also includes an adjustment mechanism operatively connected to the claws and the body portion. The adjustment mechanism selectively extends the claws such that the claws can be maintained in engagement with the side walls at all times when the lock is deployed within a curb box to prevent removal of the lock. |
| US07870866B2 |
Valve stem assembly for clamping a tire pressure detector
A valve stem assembly for clamping tire pressure detector has a valve stem and a fastener. The valve stem has an outer section and an inner section. The inner section has a distal end, an outlet hole, a sidewall and a side fixing hole. The distal end has a domical surface. The outlet hole is centrally formed through the domical surface. The side fixing hole is formed in the inner section, is oblique to the outlet hole and communicates with the outlet hole inside the inner section. The fastener corresponds to the outlet hole and the side fixing hole and is selectively and detachably and selectively screwed into the outlet hole or the side fixing hole to hold a tire pressure detector on the valve stem assembly. |
| US07870863B2 |
Multi-use sump for a drawer-type dishwaher
A drawer-type dishwasher includes a frame assembly, a wash tub, a plurality of wash system components and a sump. The sump is either integrally formed with or separately formed and mounted to a bottom wall portion of the tub, while being provided with a plurality of fluid conduits that extend from a central intake ring to a respective plurality of attachment flanges. A wash pump and a drain pump are supported by respective ones of the plurality of attachment flanges so as to direct a flow of wash fluid into and out of the wash tub. The sump also includes structure for mounting a heater and a filter housing, as well as other wash and safety system components. |
| US07870859B2 |
Patient contacting seal and mask using same
A seal and a respiraoty mask having a seal adapted for confronting engagement with a surface of a user to form an interface therewith. The seal includes a first portion defined by a gel substance. In one embodiment, the seal includes a selectively formable substance adapted to be molded from a first pattern into a second pattern and to retain the second pattern responsive to being so molded. The seal and mask having the seal in this embodiment is tailored to patient by causing the formable portion of the seal to be placed in a malleable state, applying the seal to the patient while the formable portion is in the malleable state, and causing the formable portion to be placed in a fixed state to retain a shape generally conforming to the portion of the patient underlying the seal. |
| US07870858B2 |
Apparatus and method for driving a sensor in a ventilator
A ventilator includes a sensor to monitor a characteristic associated with the delivery of gas to the patient, such as pressure. A sensor power supply (100, 130) is feeding a sensor in the form of a Wheatstone bridge. A first end (104) of the bridge is coupled to a first positive voltage source (112, 142) and a second end (116) is coupled to a second positive voltage source (118, 156, 180). A capacitor (120) is coupled to the second end of the bridge. A controller (50) controls the first and the second positive voltage sources so as to (a) disable the sensor by causing the first positive voltage source to provide substantially zero voltage to the first end of the Wheatstone bridge and by causing the second positive voltage source to provide a positive voltage to the second end of the capacitor, and to (b) enable the sensor by causing the first positive voltage source to provide a positive voltage to the first end of the Wheatstone bridge and by causing the second positive voltage source to provide a decreasing voltage to the second end of the capacitor. |
| US07870854B2 |
Closed-loop control system for heating systems
An exemplary heating system can be configured with a control system configured for controlling the heating system to reduce inefficiencies, and/or allow the heating system to operate in a relatively optimum manner. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a closed-loop control system may be configured to control various portions of the heating system based, at least in part, upon signals and/or information received from various sensors of the heating system. For example, among various other types of information provided within a closed-loop feedback, control may be configured based upon the pressure within the combustion chamber. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the closed-loop control system may determine a portion of the heating system is not operating properly, based at least in part upon feedback from one or more sensors configured within the heating system. |
| US07870853B2 |
Block splitting assembly and method
The invention relates to equipment and related methods for producing concrete blocks. The equipment and methods described herein utilize splitting assemblies having larger projections and/or smaller projections or peaks disposed on at least one side of a splitting line and which engage the workpiece as it is split into at least two pieces. |
| US07870850B2 |
Crankcase ventilation system with pumped scavenged oil
A crankcase ventilation system for an internal combustion engine has a jet pump suctioning scavenged separated oil from the oil outlet of an air/oil separator and pumping same to the crankcase. |
| US07870848B2 |
Reducing fuel-vapor emissions by vortex effect
A system for managing fuel-vapor emission from a fuel tank of a vehicle using a vortex-effect flow separator coupled in the fuel-vapor purging system of the vehicle. The warmer-flow outlet of the separator is coupled to the engine intake, and the cooler-flow outlet is coupled to the fuel tank. In this way, less fuel vapor is delivered to the engine intake. |
| US07870846B2 |
Method and device for ascertaining one or more starts of combustion in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine from a provided cylinder-pressure curve
A method for determining a point in time of a start of combustion in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine includes: providing a base compression pressure model which gives a curve of a compression pressure in the cylinder as a function of the operating point; adjusting the base compression pressure model using measured cylinder pressures of at least one operating state of the internal combustion engine at points in time at which no combustion is taking place in the cylinder, in order to obtain an adjusted compression pressure model; and determining a point in time of a start of combustion with the aid of a pressure curve determined by the adjusted compression pressure model. |
| US07870838B2 |
Collapsible practice barrels for equine barrel racing
A collapsible barrel is provided for use in training for equine barrel racing. The collapsible barrel is configured and sized to approximate the dimensions of a conventional barrel used in the sport of equine barrel racing, but is constructed of sturdy, lightweight materials that enable the barrel to be transformed between a fully deployed state and a collapsed state. The collapsible barrel of the present invention is sufficiently lightweight and dimensioned, when in a collapsed state, to be easily transported, deployed for training and later stored. The flexibility of the collapsible barrel makes training ideal because it eliminates injury to the legs of the rider and the body of the horse. |
| US07870831B2 |
Anchor with snag release mechanism
An anchor incorporates a release mechanism that is releasably assembled to a shank. An anchor chain is affixed to a crown section of the anchor. The chain is slideably inserted through a tubular release mechanism body. A tension controlling mechanism is elastically coupled between the release mechanism and the anchor chain. A pair of release interface notches is formed within the proximal end of the release mechanism; the slots are placed on opposing sides of the release mechanism. A pair of release interface fasteners is disposed along a distal end of the shank. The release mechanism is held in a mooring configuration by engaging the release interface notches and the release interface fasteners. The release mechanism maintains the chain in a mooring configuration until the release mechanism is rotated perpendicular to the shank, wherein the release interface notches disengage from the release interface fasteners changing a tensile force from an anchor engaging direction to a releasing direction. |
| US07870830B2 |
Pontoon with integrated lifting strake and method for making the same
A pontoon with an improved running surface and methods for construction the same are provided. The pontoon comprises an interior concave main running surface formed along the longitudinal centerline of the pontoon which is bounded by two sponsons, which in turn are bounded by two distal concave surfaces, or integrated lifting strakes. The associated methods provide a process for retrofitting prior art pontoons or constructing the pontoon to avoid the need for welds below the waterline of the pontoon. The pontoon provides improved pontoon boat performance by maximizing lift and minimizing leakage. The pontoon also reduces construction costs by lowering the number of welds required to form a pontoon with lifting strakes. |
| US07870828B2 |
Device for producing thread-stitched book blocks
A device for producing thread-stitched book blocks from a stack of signatures are arranged flat one on top of the other and are stitched together by stitched seams formed at right angles to the folds by a binding thread passed repeatedly in double strands through the folds of the signatures. The device has a first stitching needle that inserts the binding thread and a second stitching needle that draws the binding thread through the fold from the inside. A punch needle, which passes through the fold from the inside edge to form a punched hole, is arranged opposite the first and second stitching needles, each of which forms a stitched seam. The section of the needle that is used to pierce a fold has a polygonal cross-sectional shape. |
| US07870827B2 |
Agricultural implement for delivering ammonia gas to soil
An agricultural implement for delivering ammonia gas to soil includes a soil cutting device for forming a furrow in the soil to be fertilized, a closing device trailing the cutting device for closing the furrow, and an ammonia gas delivery tube extending downwardly into the furrow between the cutting device and the closing device, and then extending rearwardly along the furrow to the closing device for delivering ammonia gas onto at least one wall of the furrow rearwardly of the trailing end of the cutting device and of the leading end of the closing device. A discharge nozzle is mounted on the trailing end of the ammonia gas delivery tube for discharging ammonia gas onto the bottom and/or sides of the furrow. The ammonia gas delivery tube and the discharge nozzle may be made of non-metallic material, such as polymeric material, to reduce or avoid freezing of soil and moisture on the implement. |
| US07870819B2 |
Piston device and manufacturing method thereof
A piston device and its manufacturing method are disclosed. The piston device comprises a piston body having at least one annular groove on the side wall of the piston body, and at least one piston ring made of flexible material and mounted in the annular groove. The outer diameter of the piston ring mounted on in the annular groove is larger than the diameter of the piston body, so that the piston ring contacts with the inner wall but the piston body has no contact with the inner wall while the piston device moves reciprocally at the axial direction of the cylinder. |
| US07870816B1 |
Continuous alignment system for fire control
In a first aspect, an automated method for engaging a target comprises: slewing a weapon to an estimated target state; and aligning the weapon's boresight with the actual target state. Aligning the weapon's boresight with the actual target state includes designating the target to obtain the actual target state; and zeroing an offset between the actual target state and the estimated target state. In a second aspect, an apparatus, comprises: means for slewing a weapon to an estimated target state; and means aligning the weapon's boresight with the actual target state. The aligning means includes designating the target to obtain the actual target state; and zeroing an offset between the actual target state and the estimated target state. In a third aspect, a weapon system comprises: a targeting sensor capable of designating a target; a weapon; and an alignment sensor associated with the weapon, and capable of receiving the designation and aligning the weapon's boresight with the designated target. In a fourth aspect, a laser rangefinder, comprises: a laser designator capable of designating a target from an estimated target state; and a quad cell detector capable of receiving the designation. |
| US07870815B2 |
Gun flash hider
A gun flash hider, formed to include a first expansion chamber, a first flow divider, a plurality of first exhaust passages, an exhaust head, a second expansion chamber, a plurality of second exhaust passages and a second flow divider, whereby high-temperature high-pressure gas produced after firing a bullet undergoes two expansion decompressions and two flow diversion decompressions, through which the gas is sequentially discharged from the first exhaust passages and the second exhaust passages, thereby substantially reducing sonic boom volume, amount of flame and recoil force produced when firing the bullet, and increasing stability and shooting accuracy when using a gun. |
| US07870810B2 |
Rotary knob for electrical system
A rotary knob for an electrical system includes a body containing a rotary maneuvering member which actuates a cam-driving part and bears one or more electrical units. A cup is defined between an outer cylindrical flange of the body and an inner cylindrical sleeve, and contains a spring either of a helical type for urging a sliding ring separate from the driving part, or of a torsion type to return the maneuvering member. The ring provides a sensitivity function. The cylindrical sleeve defines in a central opening thereof a centering seat of the shank of the maneuvering member. |
| US07870804B2 |
Multi-speed dual clutch transmission
A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, a dual clutch assembly, a plurality of countershafts, a plurality of co-planar gear sets, a plurality of interconnecting members, and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. The torque transmitting devices include synchronizer assemblies. |
| US07870801B2 |
Rotational power transfer device and related manufacturing method
A rotational power transfer device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The rotational power transfer device includes a first rotary member and a second rotary member. The first rotary member has an inner periphery formed with a solid lubricating layer composed of a chemical film and molybdenum disulfide. The second rotary member has an outer cylindrical periphery applied with a layer of grease including a mixture of oil with a higher frictional coefficient than that of lubricating oil and molybdenum disulfide. The second rotary member is press fitted to the first rotary member to allow the outer cylindrical periphery thereof to be placed in face-to-face relation to the inner cylindrical periphery of the first rotary member, enabling a rotational power in excess to be stably absorbed without causing any increase in the rotational power at which the slippage occurs. |
| US07870792B2 |
Forming limit strain analysis
In the computed-based analysis of forming processes, for example, manufacturing sheet metal parts for the automobile industry, the material loading is represented by major and minor strains εI, εII and is visualised with respect to a forming limit strain curve. In the method according to the invention, one proceeds from a target state (4n) of the material, as has been determined in the computed simulation of the forming process. A proportional trajectory of a loading and thus of the state variables of the material, in particular of the stresses (σ), is determined, which leads to the same target state. The associated proportional strain trajectory is evaluated for this proportional loading trajectory. The strain state (4p) which results from this strain trajectory, is called the equivalent strain state (4p) and may be used in the forming limit strain diagram for assessing the target state. Thereby, the equivalent strain state is set in relation to the forming limit strain curve (1) for the proportional trajectories. |
| US07870790B2 |
Method and apparatus for evaluating feeling of hitting generated by golf club
A method for evaluating feeling of hitting of a golf club, includes: measuring vibration of a golf club appearing in a circumferential direction of a shaft when a golf ball is hit by the golf club having the three-axis accelerometer attached to the shaft by a three-axis accelerometer; analyzing the vibration of the golf club along the circumferential direction of the shaft measured by the three-axis accelerometer by a hand-arm vibration measurement filter; and evaluating feeling of hitting of the golf club in accordance with a result of analysis of vibration of the golf club appearing along the circumferential direction of the shaft by the hand-arm vibration measurement filter. |
| US07870786B2 |
Detection device, sensor, and electronic instrument
A detection device includes a detection circuit and a reference voltage supply circuit. The detection circuit includes an amplifier circuit, a synchronous detection circuit, and a filter section. The reference voltage supply circuit includes a first supply circuit which includes a reference-voltage first-type operational amplifier and supplies an analog reference voltage to the amplifier circuit, and a second supply circuit which includes a reference-voltage second-type operational amplifier and supplies the analog reference voltage to the filter section. When a channel width and a channel length of a differential-stage transistor of a differential section of the first-type operational amplifier are respectively referred to as W1a and L1a, a bias current flowing through the differential section is referred to as Ia, a channel width and a channel length of a differential-stage transistor of a differential section of the second-type operational amplifier are respectively referred to as W1b and L1b, and a bias current flowing through the differential section is referred to as Ib, W1b×L1b>W1a×L1a and Ia>Ib are satisfied. |
| US07870784B2 |
Method and apparatus for measuring wind velocity
A sensor assembly for use in measuring wind velocity is described that includes a body that includes at least one surface a flow path defined at least partially by the at least one surface. The sensor assembly further includes a wire extending from the at least one surface, and the wire further extends at least partially through the flow path. The sensor assembly is configured to determine wind velocity when a current is induced to the wire as air flows through the flow path. |
| US07870781B2 |
Method for monitoring the tire condition in vehicles
In a method for monitoring the tire condition in a vehicle, the vertical acceleration is measured at one axle of the vehicle, a reference stiffness value is determined from the vertical acceleration, and a tire pressure is assigned to the reference stiffness value. In the case of a detected tire pressure loss, the tire pressure is assigned to the tire of the wheel having the pressure loss. |
| US07870776B1 |
Calibrating a scale without a calibration weight by inverting the scale
A weighing scale that is calibratable without a calibration weight that is separate and distinct from the scale. The scale has a weighing mode and a self-calibration mode and includes a base that supports a load cell, which in turn supports a mass receiver. Electronic circuitry within the scale is configured so that, during the calibration mode, the sprung weight of the base when the scale is inverted and supported by the mass receiver can be used to calibrate the scale. This avoids the need to maintain a calibration weight external to the scale. A process of calibrating the scale includes inverting the scale during the self-calibration process and allowing the circuitry to acquire a calibration parameter that is based on the inverted sprung weight. |
| US07870774B2 |
Roller hemming apparatus and roller hemming method
In an initial state of roller hemming processing, an erected flange 65 begins to be bent by a roller 48. At this time, a first plate 63 and a receiving face 15 are brought into tightly contact with each other at a contact point 70 between the roller 48 and the erected flange 65 by strongly pinching by the roller 48 and an auxiliary roller 51. On the other hand, in portions other than the contact point 70, the receiving face 15 tends to be separated from the first plate 63 by reaction. Since slider blocks 22 and 22 are movable along rails 21 and 21 on a side of the receiving die 10, the receiving die 10 rotates clockwise in the drawing about the contact point 70. A tight contact in the contact point 70 is guaranteed as the receiving die 10 rotates about the contact point 70. As a result, the hemming processing with a good shape can be achieved without wrinkling, ruffling, or deformation. |
| US07870772B1 |
Exterior lever lock device with a clutch assembly
An exterior lever lock device with a clutch assembly is mounted on a door, is connected to a bolt and an indoor lever lock device and has a lever assembly, a driving assembly, a clutch assembly and a driven assembly. The driven assembly has an inner sleeve and a locking panel fastened to the clutch assembly and selectively engaging the inner sleeve. Therefore, whenever the lever lock is locked or unlocked, as long as there is a turning force applied to the lever assembly, the lever assembly turns and is not broken easily. An endurance of the exterior lever lock device is prolonged for improved lock performance. |
| US07870771B2 |
Lock device with a lock cylinder and a key
A lock device having a key and a lock cylinder. The lock cylinder includes a fixed cylinder housing and a cylinder core mounted to rotate therein. The key shaft (10.3) has an edge profile and may be inserted in a key way of the cylinder core in which displaceable tumblers (41, 42) are located transverse to the above. The key shaft (10.3) has profiled recesses running in the longitudinal direction. The recesses have a pair of follow points for each tumbler (41, 42) for coding the key, whilst the tumbler (41. 42) has a pair of counter follow points which are the basis of the corresponding counter coding. A space-saving design of the lock device is achieved with a large range of variation for the coding wherein both follow points are on the key shaft (10.3) in the form of recesses, arranged on opposing lateral surfaces to an edge (57.2; 57.3) of the edge profile of the key shaft (10.3). A web (22: 23) is thus generated in the corner region of the edge profile between both recesses. The web functions as a code web (22; 23), as the opposing web edges serve for the coding. The corresponding tumblers (41, 42) have a cut-out, which in use enclose the code web (22; 23) on opposing web edges. The lateral limits of the cut-out form the counter follow points in the tumblers (41, 42). |
| US07870770B2 |
Three mode lock
A door lock (10) having a lock body (11), an external handle and an internal handle (12), a rotatable interconnecting member (13) to interconnect the internal handle and the external handle, and a mechanism to allow the lock to have a passage mode, and a privacy mode and a deadlock mode, in one embodiment the mechanism comprises an outer hub (14) and an internal hub (15) which are inside the lock body, in a second embodiment a remote control arrangement is provided to allow at least some of the modes to be operated manually or by remote control. |
| US07870769B2 |
Electromechanical lock device
A lock device comprises a housing (2) which includes an opening (4) and a core (10) which is rotatably disposed in the opening and which includes a key way (12) for reception of a key. A latching element (20) co-acts between the housing (2) and the core (10) and is movable between a release position in which the core is rotatable relative to the housing, and a latching position in which rotation of the core relative to the housing is blocked. An electronically controllable actuator (30) is disposed in the core and is rotatable between an opening-registering-position in which the latching element is movable to the release position, and a latching position in which movement of the latching element to said release position is blocked. A spring (46) abuts an abutment portion (30c) of the actuator. Since the spring is provided with two mutually parallel leg portions (46d, 46e), which abut radially opposite surfaces of the abutment portion of the actuator, several advantages are obtained. Firstly, the damping spring is easily assembled without any fixation in the core. Furthermore, the balancing ensures that a predetermined force is exerted on the neck portion, which increases the accuracy and thereby the performance. |
| US07870767B2 |
Lockout device
A lockout device is provided for an instrument having a body and an actuating member extending from the body for operating the instrument. The lockout device includes a bottom member, a cover member, and a flexible member. The bottom member and cover member are adapted to receive a cinching portion of the flexible member between first and second cinching features. One of the first and second cinching features includes at least one pin, and the other of the first and second cinching features includes at least one corresponding recess configured to receive the at least one pin. When the flexible member is wrapped around a portion of the body and received between the first and second cinching features and the cover member is in a closed position, the first and second cinching features prevent movement of a cinching portion of the flexible member. |
| US07870764B2 |
Cable lock with resettable combination
A lock body includes a lock mechanism adapted to fix and maintain an inserted securement member, such as a cable or shackle, in position within the lock body. The lock mechanism may be coupled to a combination lock adapted to release the securement member upon entry of a proper combination. |
| US07870762B2 |
Drum washing machine with steam injection lattice
The present invention relates to a drum washing machine capable of re-circulating wash water to clean laundry with a relatively less amount of water. The drum washing machine includes a body, a drum rotatable in the body, wherein the drum comprises an opening formed in a predetermined portion of a circumference thereof and a hole formed in one side of the drum, a motor assembly mounted adjacent to the other side of the drum, wherein the other side of the drum is opposite to the hole, and an injection unit adjacent to the hole, wherein at least one of wash water or steam is injected into the drum through the hole. |
| US07870760B2 |
Knitting element with rotor and knitting machine
The knitting element has a rotor capable of rotating about an axis and makes a stitch by using rotational motion of the rotor. The knitting element has a rotor having a rotating shaft which protrudes in the direction of the axis and a bearing which slidably supports the circumferential face of the rotating shaft. An engagement recess capable of engaging knitting yarn is formed in the circumferential face of the rotor. |
| US07870756B2 |
Refrigerator featuring recirculated air cooling
A refrigerator includes an evaporator zone and a cooling zone separated from each other in a refrigerator housing. A fan drives a cold air flow from the evaporator zone into the cooling zone via a central inlet port that is arranged next to a heat-insulating partition located between the evaporator zone and the cooling zone. A distributing device that diverts a partial air flow into a distributor pipe that extends along a wall of the cooling zone is mounted upstream of the central inlet port in the direction of flow of the cold air. The distributor pipe is provided with holes that are distributed along the height of the wall and extend into the cooling zone. |
| US07870749B2 |
Beverage dispensing apparatus and method for beverage dispensing
A method of regulating the refrigerant temperature for a beverage machine, including a refrigeration system for producing a frozen beverage, operating at least one compressor at a speed to flow the refrigerant through the refrigeration system of the beverage machine and cooling the refrigerant with at least one condenser. The method may also include controllably varying the flow of air across the at least one condenser or the speed of the at least one compressor. |
| US07870746B2 |
System and method for liquid air production, power storage and power release
Systems and methods for releasing and replacing stored energy comprise capturing inlet air from the ambient environment so the inlet air flows in a first general direction. Released liquid air flows in a second general direction, the second general direction being substantially opposite to the first general direction. The released liquid air is pumped to pressure, and the released liquid air and inlet air flow past each other such that heat exchange occurs. The inlet air warms the released liquid air such that the released liquid air is substantially vaporized, and the released liquid air cools the inlet air. Moisture and carbon dioxide are removed from the inlet air, and the inlet air is compressed and cooled such that the inlet air is substantially liquefied. The substantially liquefied air replaces a portion of the released liquid air; and the substantially vaporized released liquid air is combusted with fuel to produce electricity. |
| US07870745B2 |
Thermoelectric device efficiency enhancement using dynamic feedback
A cooling system is disclosed including a first heat exchanger, a second heat exchanger, a means for regulating a flow of a fluid, and a thermoelectric device for cooling a fluid, wherein a difference in temperature between a hot side and a cold side of the thermoelectric device is minimized and an efficiency of the thermoelectric device is maximized. |
| US07870741B2 |
Turbine engine valve assembly and method of assembling the same
A method of assembling a crank assembly for a turbine engine. The turbine engine includes a valve assembly including an outer fairing and an inner fairing coupled to the outer fairing with a strut. The valve assembly further includes an annular slide valve coupled between the inner and outer fairings. The valve assembly is positioned within a duct having a radially outer duct wall and a radially inner duct wall. The method includes coupling a first arm of a crank assembly to the annular slide valve, and coupling a second arm of the crank assembly to the outer fairing such that the crank assembly controls movement of the annular slide valve and for moving the outer and inner fairings between a first operational position and a second operational position to facilitate regulating an amount of airflow channeled through the turbine engine. |
| US07870740B2 |
Turbojet engine comprising an afterburner duct cooled by a variable-throughput ventilation stream
An afterbody for a turbojet engine is disclosed. The afterbody includes an afterburner casing, a thermal protection liner, and a diaphragm-forming assembly interposed between the liner and the casing. The diaphragm-forming assembly defines a flow area which is traversed by a ventilation stream. The diaphragm-forming assembly includes two annular plates overlapping one another, each being perforated with a plurality of apertures and being mounted on the liner and the casing respectively. The apertures jointly define the flow area of the assembly. Furthermore, the assembly is designed such that the expansion of the liner causes an angular displacement of the plate with respect to the plate, leading to an increase in the size of the flow area. |
| US07870739B2 |
Gas turbine engine curved diffuser with partial impingement cooling apparatus for transitions
A curved diffuser (210) in a gas turbine engine (201) directs a primary portion of air flow from a compressor (202) through a curved discharge opening (213) into a plenum (220). The curved diffuser (210) also comprises ports (217) through which a secondary portion of air passes into confined space (225) that is defined in part by a pressure boundary element that may be comprised of at least one plate (222) or at least one conduit (306). The at least one plate (222) and the at least one conduit (306) respectively comprise apertures (246, 312) through which pass the secondary portion of air to provide impingement-type cooling to transitions (230, 320). In various embodiments the velocity of the air between adjacent transitions (230, 320) may flow at relatively uniform velocity along the longitudinal distance of the respective transitions (230, 320). |
| US07870734B2 |
Steam driven turbine generator system
A system for generating electricity from steam power, which includes a steam source communicated with a steam load, the steam load requiring steam at a load pressure lower than the steam source; a pressure reduction valve communicated between the steam source and the steam load, and adapted to reduce steam pressure to the load pressure; and a pressure reduction valve bypass circuit including a steam turbine for converting steam to electric power, the turbine being communicated with an electric power load to provide power to the load. The turbine is advantageously positioned vertically above a motor. |
| US07870733B2 |
Fluid machine for rankine cycle
It is an object to provide a fluid machine, which is simple in structure and in which lubricating oil containing smaller amount of the working fluid is supplied to sliding portions of an expansion device. The fluid machine has the expansion device for generating a driving force by expansion of the working fluid, which contains the lubricating oil and is heated to a gas phase condition. The fluid machine further has an electric power generating device driven by the driving force of the expansion device and generating electric power. An oil pooling portion is formed in a fluid passage, through which the working fluid discharged from the expansion device flows, such that the lubricating oil contained in the working fluid is brought into contact with at least one of sliding portions of the expansion device and the electric power generating device. And a heating unit is provided to heat the working fluid in the oil pooling portion. |
| US07870726B2 |
Local backup hydraulic actuator for aircraft control systems
A backup system is provided that has a local electric motor and pump for some or all of hydraulic actuators. A local backup hydraulic actuator has two power sources, hydraulic as primary and electrical as backup. During normal operation, the hydraulic actuator receives pressurized fluid from a hydraulic system and the fluid flow to the chambers is controlled by a servo valve. If the hydraulic system fails, the electronic controller detects the failure by observing the signal indicative of the pressure from the pressure sensor, and the controller powers the local hydraulic pump to provide high pressure hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic actuator via the servo valve. |
| US07870725B2 |
Exhaust mounting system
An exhaust mounting system includes an exhaust component having a pair of ridges along an outer perimeter. A mounting band is disposed around the outer perimeter of the exhaust component between the ridges. An isolation pad is disposed between the exhaust component and the mounting bracket for absorbing vibration energy between the mounting band and the exhaust component. |
| US07870724B2 |
Lean NOx trap with PGM zoned axially
The present invention provides a thermally stable catalyst for treating automobile exhaust by-products is provided. The catalyst of the invention comprises a first section that includes a precious metal present in a first concentration and a second section that includes a precious metal present in a second concentration. The catalyst of the invention is characterized by a unique precious metal concentration profile in which the first concentration of the precious metal is lower than the second concentration of the precious metal. When placed with an automobile exhaust system, the second section is positioned downstream of the first section. The present invention also provides a lean NOx trap utilizing the unique precious metal concentration profile. The NOx trap is found to possess improved NOx conversion performance relative to a NOx trap with the same total amount of precious metal deposited uniformly over the volume of the trap. |
| US07870722B2 |
Systems and methods for passively directing aircraft engine nozzle flows
Systems and methods for passively directing aircraft engine nozzle flow are disclosed. One system includes an aircraft nozzle attachable to an aircraft turbofan engine, with the nozzle including a first flow path wall bounding a first flow path and being positioned to receive engine exhaust products, and a second flow path wall bounding a second flow path and being positioned to receive engine bypass air. The first flow path wall is positioned between the first and second flow paths, and the second flow path wall is positioned between the second flow path and an ambient air flow path. Multiple flow passages can be positioned in at least one of the first and second flow path walls to passively direct gas from a corresponding flow path within the flow path wall through the flow path wall to a corresponding flow path external to the flow path wall. Neighboring flow passages can have neighboring circumferentially-extending and circumferentially-spaced exit openings positioned at an interface with the corresponding flow path external to the flow path wall. |
| US07870720B2 |
Inlet electromagnetic flow control
A method to manipulate boundary layer conditions within a ducted fluid flow is provided. This method may be used to attach fluid flow to ducted surfaces bounding the fluid flow. This involves flowing a fluid over the surface wherein the fluid contains positively charged ions and electrons. An electric field accelerates ions and electrons in directions parallel to the electric field. The accelerated positively charged ions accelerate low energy air within lower regions of a boundary layer over the ducted surfaces bounding the ducted fluid flow. A magnetic field at the surface redirects ions and electrons based on their velocity and charge. The magnetic field imparts little force on the relatively heavy and slow moving positive ions but has a significant impact on the relatively fast moving, light weight electrons. |
| US07870717B2 |
Advanced hydrogen auxiliary power unit
An auxiliary power unit includes an autothermal reformer for producing a reformate from fuel; a turbine; a combustor for burning the reformate to power the turbine; a recuperator for obtaining thermal energy to improve the efficiency of the auxiliary power unit; a steam generator for using thermal energy from the recuperator to produce steam from a water supply; a condenser for recovering the water from turbine exhaust; and an electrical generator coupled to the turbine for producing electrical power. Recovered heat and water are used with the autothermal reformer to produce rapid and complete combustion of the fuel with a relatively low concentration of emissions. |
| US07870716B2 |
Surgical cartridge wall expander
A pocket-sizing apparatus for a device that inserts staple drivers into pockets aligned to form a slot in a surgical staple cartridge. A fin extends from a driver guide fixture for insertion into the slot. The fin increases the size of the slot, thereby aiding in inserting drivers into the pockets. Preferably a second fin extends from the driver guide fixture adjacent the fixture passage and aligned with the first fin. A gap is formed between the first and second fins, extending from a first edge to an opposite edge of the fixture passage. The driver is driven through the gap. The fins are substantially equal to the thickness of the driver. The fins have tapered leading edges to aid cartridge insertion and removal, and a lip extends from the driver guide fixture for preventing the fins from widening the slot too much and for narrowing an overly wide slot. |
| US07870715B2 |
Steel cord
There is provided a steel cord including a plurality of untwisted core filaments of steel aligned in parallel, and a layer of sheath filaments of steel twisted around the core filaments so as to be unevenly distributed around the core filaments, wherein interstices between the filaments are maintained during vulcanization thereby achieving improved rubber penetration (sufficiently adhering rubber to the core filaments). Since the cross sectional length of the steel cord 10 is greater than the minimum cross sectional length, interstices A are maintained between sheath filaments 14 under the tension and pressure p of the surrounding rubber 16 applied to the steel cord 10 during vulcanization. Rubber 16 penetrates into the steel cord 10 through the interstices A, and sufficiently adhere to core filaments 12 to achieve high rubber penetration. |
| US07870711B2 |
Switch assembly for flip-up mower deck
A mower deck is selectively coupled to the front of a propelling vehicle. The deck includes an electric mowing height adjustment assembly to permit the user to vary the cutting height of the mower deck. The deck is movable about a lift shaft from a generally horizontal use position to an upright storage/servicing position while the deck is coupled with the vehicle. An electric actuator and a switch mount of the mowing height adjustment assembly not only provide the user with a way to adjust the cutting height but also cooperate with the remainder of the mowing height adjustment assembly to allow movement of the deck from the use position to the storage/servicing position. Movement of the switch mount from a generally horizontal, engaged use position to a unengaged position permits the deck to be moved from the use position to the upright storage/servicing position. |
| US07870709B2 |
Automatic lateral tilt control of a header in stubble height mode using machine level sensor
A system and method for controlling the lateral tilt of a header of an agricultural plant cutting machine, such as, but not limited to, a combine, windrower or the like, and more particularly, to an automatic lateral tilt control system for precisely controlling an angle of lateral tilt of the header relative to the machine based on a lateral tilt angle of the machine relative to a reference and at least one additional characteristic such that, when the machine is disposed on a laterally inclined surface, and the machine is at a tilt angle differing from an angle of the laterally inclined surface, the angle of lateral tilt of the header relative to the machine is responsively adjusted so an angle of the lateral tilt of the header relative to the reference is substantially equal to the angle of the laterally inclined surface, the system especially useful when operating in a stubble mode and traversing inclined surfaces. |
| US07870706B2 |
Method for packaging and curing manufactured stone products
A method of packaging and curing manufactured stone can include packaging a plurality of partially cured de-molded manufactured stones in a curing container having airflow apertures therein. The loaded container is then loaded into a drying oven for further curing for a suitable period. After curing in the oven, the curing container is removed and may be shipped to a customer without unpacking and repacking the manufactured stones. |
| US07870699B2 |
Siding having indicia defining a fastening zone
Siding panels having indicia indicating a zone into which fasteners should be placed, and methods for manufacturing and installing the panels are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the siding includes a panel of siding material having a first edge extending along a first dimension, a second edge spaced apart from the first edge a first distance, and a first side with indicia. The indicia define a zone into which at least one fastener should be placed to install the panel. The zone extends along the first dimension and has a width of approximately 0.2 inch to approximately 0.3 inch. The zone has a center line spaced apart from the first edge a second distance of approximately 7 percent to approximately 22 percent of the first distance. The siding material is composed of a continuous, single fiber-cement compound including cement, silica, and cellulose fiber. |
| US07870696B2 |
Panel assembly for decoration glass
A panel assembly for decoration glass is disclosed herein, which is to be attached to a side of a pane of transparent glass. The panel assembly includes a panel piece and at least one embedding piece. The panel piece is a thin plate and has at least one through hole. The embedding piece is corresponding to and fitted in the through hole. The embedding pieces are configured as a pattern or a character and have various colors. When the panel assembly is attached to the glass, it gives the glass a vivid appearance. The individual embedding pieces or the whole panel assembly may be replaced with other colors or patterns to make the glass present a diverse appearance. |
| US07870691B2 |
Green roof tile system and methods of use
Green roof systems are provided comprising a plurality of tile sheets. Each tile sheet in turn may comprise a plurality of tiles. The tiles are connected to one another by one or more bridges. The tile sheets may be disposed above a layer of growing medium. The tiles are spaced apart from one another so as to form a channel between each tile. The channels formed between the adjacent tiles are contiguous with neighboring channels and are arranged so as to form a circuitous pathway for water runoff. The channels so formed allow plant growth between each tile. Advantages of certain embodiments include improved strength, reduced weight, reduced costs, increased life spans, reduced maintenance, easier installation, improved building energy conservation, reduced urban island heat effect, improved sound insulation, improved water retention, improved environmental aspects, improved irrigation, and reduced erosion of the growing medium. |
| US07870686B2 |
Lighted subway signage
A subway tunnel light box for displaying a back-lighted image to a viewer inside of a subway car traveling in the subway tunnel in which a transparent video display for displaying a number of images, such as an LCD, is mounted in the light box and a narrow light source, preferably having a width of one pixel, is positioned in the box behind each of the images at a distance less than a typical viewing distance so that each image is illuminated by an associated narrow light source with an associated narrow light source horizontal illumination angle substantially the same as a preselected perceived horizontal viewing angle calculated for the typical viewing distance based upon a physical height of the transparent video display and a desired aspect ratio of a perceived image. |
| US07870683B2 |
Method of trenching below the water table
A method for trenching below the water table in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Florida Keys is shown. A first pass made by a trencher digs a first trench from the surface to the water table. During the first pass, relatively dry spoil is removed from the first trench. Next, a much deeper second trench is dug below the first trench; however, wet spoil remains in the now combined first and second trench, the combined first and second trench being large enough to accumulate the wet spoil with expansion. Thereafter, the combined first and second trench may be filled with the relatively dry spoil, packed and driven upon. Later, the packed spoil may be removed and water pipes, electric cables, sewer lines or the like buried in the trench. According to the requirements of the work area, the spoil may be used to partially fill the combined first and second trench or be hauled away. |
| US07870679B2 |
Tape measures
A tape measure having a support structure and an elongate spike mountable on the support structure. The elongate spike is moveable relative to the support structure for mounting in any selected one of two or more positions relative to the support structure. The two positions can include a position can include a position for use and a storage position. |
| US07870678B2 |
Hybrid sensor module and sensing method using the same
Provided is a hybrid sensor module including first and second sensors that are attached on one surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) so as to detect two-axis signal components parallel to the PCB; a third sensor that is attached on one surface of the PCB such that the axial direction of the third sensor is tilted at a predetermined angle from a vertical direction of the PCB, the third sensor detecting a signal component sensed in the axial direction; and a signal correction unit that is connected to the first to third sensor and corrects signal components, detected from the respective sensors, into signal components of an orthogonal coordinate system. |
| US07870675B1 |
Beveled blade flute cutter
A blade shank that can be used for cutting corrugated sheets incorporating improvements to blade design and cutting geometries for an improved cutting action on corrugated sheets; that may include a handle, but does include a blade shank or blade base, at least one cutting edge, at least one guide member attached to the blade base or blade shank; the blade shank can be attached to a handle with the cutting edge facing rearward while the guide member is directed rearward wile the guide member straddles the cutting edge or edges. |
| US07870670B2 |
Process including intermetallic titanium aluminide alloys
The invention proposes a process for producing components (10) or semi-finished products which contain intermetallic titanium aluminide alloys, which includes the following process steps: rough contouring of a plurality of plate-like bodies (11) so as to correspond to a desired final shape of the component (10) or semi-finished product, some of these plate-like bodies or all the plate-like bodies consisting of titanium aluminide alloys; carrying out surface-to-surface joins between the plurality of plate-like bodies (11) stacked on top of one another so as to form an overall body (10); and forming the desired final shape of the overall body (10). The invention also concerns a component, in particular for jet engines, which is produced using this process. |
| US07870662B2 |
Terminal insertion apparatus
A terminal insertion apparatus having a wire holding unit holding two wires, each wire having a terminal, a connector holding unit holding a connector housing having at least two holes for receiving terminals, and a terminal insertion head is disclosed. The terminal insertion head has a wire gripping unit having a first holder and a second holder. The first holder and second holder are movable in a vertical direction toward and away from the wire holding unit and are movable in a horizontal direction toward and away from the connector holding unit. The first holder has an outer grip and an inner grip that together hold one of the two wires while the second holder has an outer grip and an inner grip that together hold the remaining of the two wires. |
| US07870661B2 |
Die machine for manufacturing a laminated iron core
A die machine for manufacturing a laminated iron core includes a first working row for punching out iron core pieces from a steel sheet material and a second working row for punching out electrically insulating sheet pieces from an electrically insulating synthetic resin sheet material. Each iron core piece includes a spindle hole and a plurality of slot holes for receiving coil windings. Each electrically insulating sheet includes a spindle hole and a plurality of slot holes which have a substantially similar configuration to, but are smaller than, the slot holes of the iron core pieces. The die machine includes a stacking die mold for selectively receiving the iron core pieces and the electrically insulating sheet pieces such that successive stacks of iron core pieces are sandwiched between electrically insulating sheet pieces. |
| US07870655B2 |
Process of endforming a tubular assembly
A method for endforming a tubular member for use assembly for a hydraulic system comprises (1) a connector member having an inner surface exhibiting a stepped configuration and a fixing member at the distal end thereof, and (2) an endform tubular member having an outer surface corresponding to the inner surface of the connector member, wherein the endform tubular member mates with inner surface of the connector member to provide an endform tubular assembly having an improved design for conveying fluids in a hydraulic system. The endform tubular assembly has inherent features therein that are measured to provide quantified values for assessing the robustness of the assembly and predict the performance of such assembly in high pressure applications for prolonged periods of time. |
| US07870649B2 |
Waterproof slide fastener
A waterproof slide fastener in which an entire surface of a fastener tape is covered with elastomer, through holes are made in a side edge of the fastener tape, and fastener elements each comprising a coupling head, a neck portion, an engaging projection, a leg portion and a tongue piece, are molded by injection molding so as to cover the through holes. Reinforcing portions are provided projectingly from sides of the leg portion so as to cover at least a part of each of the through holes in a longitudinal direction of the through holes made in the fastener tape so that the reinforcing portions surround the through holes, so the reinforcing portions prevent the through holes from being exposed even when the fastener tape is bent, thereby maintaining water-tightness and airtightness. |
| US07870646B2 |
In-mold hinge assembly and method of fabricating the same
A molded hinge assembly is provided. The molded hinge assembly includes a male portion, a female portion formed unitarily with the male portion, a swivel shaft formed unitarily with the male portion, the swivel shaft including a plurality of channels defined along a rotational axis thereof. The molded hinge assembly also includes a plurality of molding gates formed at an intersection between each respective channel and the female portion, the female portion being subsequently rotatable with respect to the male portion after the molding gates are broken. During operation, the swivel shaft is friction fit within the female portion after the subsequent rotation of the female portion to break the molding gates. |
| US07870645B2 |
Hinge device and mobile apparatus having the same
A mobile device has a first object, a second object, and a hinge device to slide open and close the second object with respect to the first object. The hinge device has a sliding unit that is slidable with respect to a first object, and a rotary unit that is rotatable with respect to the sliding unit, and engaged with the second object. The hinge device requires a relatively smaller space to be installed in the mobile apparatus so that the mobile apparatus can be smaller. Furthermore, there is no installation line for the hinge device so that the aesthetic design of the mobile apparatus is more refined. |
| US07870637B2 |
Stacked tank arrangement for a cleaning apparatus
A cleaning apparatus for cleaning a surface in which cleaning solution is dispensed to the surface and substantially simultaneously extracted along with the dirt on the surface in a continuous operation is provided. The cleaning apparatus includes a base portion for movement along the surface and a handle pivotally connected to the base portion. A solution tank for supplying a flow of cleaning solution to the surface is removably mounted to the handle. A recovery tank is removably mounted to the handle. A suction nozzle is secured to the base portion and in fluid communication with the recovery tank. A suction source is in fluid communication with the suction nozzle for generating suction to draw dirt and liquid through the suction nozzle and into the recovery tank. The recovery tank and solution tank are in an aligned stack arrangement when the handle is in both the upright and working positions. |
| US07870636B2 |
Wringer
A wringer has a support surface and a first wringer surface depending from the support surface to a second wringer surface having perforations and curving to a free edge substantially below the support surface. The second wringer surface may be curved in an approximately 180 degree arc. The first wringer surface may be flat and also perforated. The support surface may be formed as an inverted channel structure with a closed upper surface and an angled surface extending away from the first wringer surface. The angled surface may extend at an angle approximately 45 degrees. The wringer may be used with one or more buckets, where the wringer is supported from the rim of one bucket or from the adjacent rims of two buckets. A flat first wringer surface may be used to ring a flat mop, and the curved second wringer surface may be used to wring a round mop. |
| US07870635B2 |
Cleaning tool sheet and cleaning tool
The present invention relates to a cleaning tool sheet and a cleaning tool capable of use for wiping cleaning by contacting the surface of objects to be cleaned in various locations. In a cleaning tool sheet (1), fiber bundles (3) are laminated on one side face of a base sheet (2); the central parts in the direction of flow of the fibers constituting the fiber bundles (3) are joined by a central joining part (4) continuously formed in the central part of the base sheet (2) and joined at a spot-form joining part (7) formed intermittently on a parallel line between the central joining part (4) and two end edges (2a, 2b) parallel therewith. The two ends (31a, 31b) in the direction of flow of the fibers of the fiber bundles (3) are not joined to the base sheet (2). An attaching part (8) for attaching onto a holding member is provided at both ends of the base sheet (2). |
| US07870634B2 |
Dust mop with multiple handle holders
The dust mop with multiple handle holders is a dust mop having a handle, a dust mop frame, and a dust mop head. The frame has multiple handle holders, including a central handle holder in the center of the fame and another handle holder at one or both ends of the frame so that the handle can be attached to the central handle holder for general use, and may optionally be attached to a handle holder at the end of the frame to dust under objects raised above the floor and in areas too narrow to accommodate a conventional dust mop. The dust mop head is a fabric cover supported on the frame, and has an opening through which the handle can be connected to the handle holders. The handle may have a quick connect, clip-type fitting at one end for attachment to the handle holder. |
| US07870633B2 |
Applicator for make-up remover
An applicator includes a support on one face of which is attached a resiliently deformable applicator element presenting an application surface opposite the support. The support has a preferential folding axis such that, in response to a folding force exerted on the support, the applicator element is deformed so as to modify the transverse curvature of the application surface observed transversely to the axis. The lengthwise curvature of the application surface observed axially along the axis is also modified. |
| US07870629B2 |
Portable docking station
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for providing a portable docking station function for transferring items. The portable docking station may be suitably sized for the application of interest; however, for the preferred embodiment the portable docking station is about the size of a typical parking space. Embodiments of the invention include devices comprising a ramp with an automatic lowering system, lifting system and electronic modules for performing a variety of functions. |
| US07870626B2 |
Mattress having a spring unit with a single upper peripheral border rod locked within a chamber of a synthetic foam plastic material housing
A mattress includes a chamber defined by upper and lower panels and a peripheral border all constructed from synthetic polymeric/copolymeric plastic material and housing therein a spring unit. The spring unit includes a plurality of springs having upper ends connected to a peripheral border rod. The spring unit is devoid of a peripheral border rod at lower ends of the springs. Upper edges of the spring unit can be deformably gripped by the upper panel, the peripheral border and/or both to prevent “swimming pool” effect. |
| US07870624B1 |
Height-adjustable examining table
An examination table for use in the medical field comprising integral adjustment mechanisms for raising, lowering, and tilting a head cushion portion, is herein disclosed. The adjustment mechanisms further comprise an internal hydraulic moving means. The height adjustment mechanism would allow the tabletop to vary in height from approximately eighteen (18) to thirty-six (36) inches. In this manner, the table would allow a patient to simply sit down and then be elevated to a suitable height for a doctor or other medical personnel to perform needed medical procedures. Such a feature is envisioned as being invaluable to those who are handicapped, elderly, or small in stature. |
| US07870621B2 |
Temperature difference swimming pool
A temperature difference swimming pool comprises a plurality of spaced apart water curtain controlling devices arranged at a bottom of the pool, and a temperature regulating system. Each of the water curtain controlling devices includes two juxtaposed pipes, a series of intermittent holes is formed in a top surface of the pipes, the pipes each has a closed end, and another end of the pipes is connected to a pump. Water is suctioned by the pump into one pipe and is then spurted out of the other pipe, thus making the water circulate and forming a water curtain. Since the water curtain stops the convection of the water, and the temperature regulating system is used to heat the water in one end of the swimming pool while cooling the water in the other end, thus forming a cold water region and a warm water region in one swimming pool. |
| US07874012B2 |
Privileged access to encrypted data
Content processing is disclosed. An indication that a sender desires to send encrypted content to a destination is received. An agreement is obtained from the sender to provide an access key to a node other than the destination and to encrypt content sent to the destination using an encryption key selected such that the access key is usable to decrypt the content. |
| US07874007B2 |
Providing guest users access to network resources through an enterprise network
Guest user are enabled to access network resources through an enterprise network using a guest user account. A guest user account may be created for a guest for a limited time. Guest account credentials of the guest account may be provided to the guest to use the guest account using any of a variety of techniques described herein, for example, by scanning a guest access card, credit card or mobile telephone of guest user, and providing the guest account credentials to the user based on the information obtained. A guest access management server may be configured to generate and maintain guest accounts, authenticate guest users, and track and log guest activity. A VLAN technology may be used to separate guest traffic from host enterprise traffic on the host enterprise network. After a guest user is authenticated, communications to and from the guest user may be routed to a guest VLAN. |
| US07874000B1 |
Reducing false positives generated by a database intrusion detection system
A false positive reduction manager reduces false positives generated by database intrusion detection systems. In one embodiment, the false positive reduction manager monitors attempted database activities executed by a plurality of users. The false positive reduction manager detects at least one attempt by at least one user to execute suspicious database activity, and determines whether the at least one attempt to execute suspicious database activity is legitimate responsive to whether a threshold of users in the same group as the at least one user attempt substantially similar suspicious database activity. |
| US07873999B1 |
Customized alerting of users to probable data theft
Computer-implemented methods, systems, and computer-readable media for determining (200) an action time when an action is taken regarding an executable content; storing (205) the action time with an indication of the executable content; storing (215) an entry time and an indication of the entered data source when the data processing system enters one of the plurality of data sources; receiving (220) an indication that the executable content is infected with a malicious code; receiving (225) an indication of a data source targeted by the malicious code; scanning the data processing system for the malicious code at a scan time; storing (230) the scan time; determining (245) whether one of the plurality of data sources corresponds to the targeted data source; and when it is determined that one of the plurality of data sources corresponds to the targeted data source, determining (255) whether the entry time occurs after the action time and before the scan time; and when it is determined that the entry time occurs after the action time and before the scan time, sending (260) a warning regarding the potential threat. |
| US07873997B2 |
Deterministic packet marking
The deterministic packet marking (DPM) method is based on marking packets with the partial address information of ingress interface only. The attack victim is able to recover the complete address(es) information after receiving several packets from a particular attacking host or hosts. The full path is not really essential for the traceback since it can be different for different packets for different reasons. |
| US07873995B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating and reinforcing user passwords
A method and apparatus are provided for generating passwords that may be memorized by a user, yet not easily guessed by an attacker. A user is presented with one or more textual, audio or visual hints. A password is automatically generated based on the selected hint (and possibly further input from the user). The presented hints may include poems, songs, jokes, pictures or words. The generated password and selected hint can be presented to the user during enrollment for further reinforcement and stored in a user database for subsequent reinforcement and verification. The enrollment process may schedule the sending of one or more reminder messages to the user containing the hint to reinforce the password in the user's memory. |
| US07873994B1 |
Management of session timeouts in an SSL VPN gateway
A network device may manage communication sessions with clients so that attempts at the client to automatically keep the session alive can be ignored for purposes of timing out the session. The device may examine resource requests received from the client as uniform resource locators (URLs) and determine whether the URLs include a context variable. The device may determine whether to reset a timeout period for the communication session based on a presence of the context variable in the URL. At the client side, the context variable may be attached to URLs that are part of functions configured to automatically access the network device. |
| US07873993B2 |
Propagating black hole shunts to remote routers with split tunnel and IPSec direct encapsulation
Remote routers are configured to block the return path to malicious websites with the use of split tunneling while allowing paths to third party resource websites. The iBGP protocol runs on the agent's router, advertises routes and enables the head-end to set up a policy at each remote router. Enterprise policies for blocking access to “blackholed” website addresses are centrally administered but third party website traffic is not routed to the enterprise's network resources. Since remote offices may connect directly to third party websites, latency is minimized and network resources at the enterprise are not unduly burdened. |
| US07873989B2 |
Wireless access device
An access device includes means for receiving, via a wireless communication link, a key and validity information. The access device also includes wireless communication means for establishing a connection with another party, and for providing the key and validity information to that party. If the key and validity information are determined by the other party to be valid access is provided. |
| US07873987B2 |
Content distribution system and distribution method, and content processing device and processing method
In a content delivery system including a server and content processing apparatus connected to each other across a network, a content delivered by the system is encrypted with a content key Kc, and supplied along with a sublicense encrypted with a work key Kw to a DTV. The sublicense includes a second use condition under which a content is used and a content key Kc for decrypting an encrypted content. The work key Kw for decrypting an encrypted content is included in a main license. The main license is supplied to the DTV separately from the content. The main license includes, in addition to the work key Kw, a first use condition under which a content under a subscription contract is used. |
| US07873985B2 |
IP based security applications using location, port and/or device identifier information
Methods and apparatus for determining, in a reliable manner, a port, physical location and/or device identifier, such as a MAC address, associated with a device using an IP address and for using such information, e.g., to support one or more security applications is described. Supported security applications include restricting access to services based on the location of a device seeking access to a service, determining the location of stolen devices, and verifying the location of the source of a message or other IP signal, e.g., to determine if a prisoner is contacting a monitoring service from a predetermined location. |
| US07873982B2 |
Method and apparatus for creating and viewing customized multimedia segments
A system for creating and viewing customized multimedia segments allows a user to create event identification data from in-band data in a program stream. The in-band data is processed and compiled into event identification data associated with the content stream. The event identification data identifies patterns or sequences of in-band data associated with events in the content stream. Metadata are also included in the event identification data. The event identification data is provided to multimedia devices which receive multimedia content streams containing content streams with in-band data. The in-band data are parsed and compared to the event identification data. If a match occurs, the multimedia device uses the metadata to identify events or perform specified actions. |
| US07873977B2 |
Method for controlling a multi-tuner signal receiving apparatus
A multi-tuner signal receiving apparatus enables signal distribution in a household and/or business dwelling, and can be effectively controlled by users via one or more remote control devices. According to an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus includes a plurality of tuners and a controller including a memory for storing association data indicating an association between a remote control device and a first one of the tuners. The controller causes the first tuner to tune to a particular channel responsive to a control signal from the remote control device selecting the particular channel. |
| US07873976B2 |
Digital subscriber line communication system
A digital subscriber line communication system (DCLCS) provides voice and data services to a subscriber premises within a building and to high speed data communication devices in the subscriber premises using in-building wiring and to-building wiring without having high speed communication equipment inside the subscriber premises. |
| US07873975B2 |
Television broadcast receiver
A television receiver is connected to a multi-directional antenna, and stores, in a memory, a receiving direction table containing: channel numbers; best receiving directions of the multi-directional antenna for receiving the respective channels; and register channel information indicating whether the channels are registered as selectable or non-selectable. The receiving direction table is used for selecting each channel. Based on the operation of a user interface by a user (S42), the register channel information of the receiving direction table can be changed (S44, S46), so that the user can optionally set selectable channels. Best receiving directions of channels registered in the receiving direction table as non-selectable are deleted from the receiving direction table (S45), so that the amount of information stored in the memory can be reduced, thereby saving capacity of the memory. |
| US07873972B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating a mosaic style electronic program guide
In one embodiment, there is provided a method for operating a decoder. The method comprises receiving, on a first channel, an electronic program guide data stream comprising multiple video streams which have been encoded and multiplexed for transmission on the first channel, each video stream comprising a low resolution version of a high resolution video stream which is being simultaneously received on a separate channel; decoding the electronic program guide data stream into frames, each frame defining a mosaic-style image comprising image areas for images in the electronic program guide data stream corresponding to images from each of the multiple video streams; and displaying each of the frames on a display screen coupled to the decoder. |
| US07873970B2 |
Optical pickup device and optical disc drive apparatus
The present invention provides an optical pickup device employing a disc protector that includes a plurality of first protrusions and at least one second protrusion disposed on the lens holder, wherein the first protrusions are formed by applying a first adhesive to a plurality of areas of a top surface of the lens holder, wherein the first protrusions are arranged at different locations in the tracking direction such that the objective lens is sandwiched between the first protrusions, wherein the at least one second protrusion protrudes is formed by applying a second adhesive to at least one area of the top surface of the lens holder, and wherein tips of the first protrusions are closer to the optical disc than a tip of the at least one second protrusion. |
| US07873969B2 |
Transducer assembly for thermally assisted writing and read back in data storage devices
A transducer assembly for a data storage system comprises a first transducer for directing electromagnetic radiation onto a storage medium adjacent to a write pole, and a second transducer for directing electromagnetic radiation onto a storage medium adjacent to a read sensor. A data storage apparatus that includes the transducer assembly is also included. |
| US07873968B2 |
Position detecting device of an optical drive
A position detecting device of an optical drive utilizes a simple wire to connect a CPU of the optical drive to a latch part and a fixing part, such that the latch part, the CPU and the fixing part, which are original parts of the optical drive, form a detecting circuit. When the latch part clasps or releases a tray, the latch part latches or releases the fixing part to close or open the detecting circuit so that the CPU can correctly judge whether the tray enters for positioning, and thus start or shut down the optical drive. In addition, the members such as a flexible cable, a casing and a mainboard may replace parts of the wire to simplify the detecting circuit. |
| US07873954B2 |
Stack unique signatures for program procedures and methods
Stack signature marking segments are inserted into re-entrant programming source code modules prior to compilation of the modules at each code module entry point and at each code module exit point, followed by producing one or more executable programs from the programming source code modules. Upon execution of instances of the executable programs, the inserted segments assign unique, non-duplicated module identifier values to the instances of the code modules, generate an instance count for each instantiation of executable code module in the stack signature for each object instance dynamically created during runtime of a re-entrant executable code module, and push onto a processing stack the module identifier values and the instance counts within stack frames allocated to each of the executable program instances. |
| US07873953B1 |
High-level language code sequence optimization for implementing programmable chip designs
Methods and apparatus are provided for implementing a programmable chip using a high-level language. Code sequences such as high-level language software critical loops are converted into read/transform/write (RXW) processes with buffer based flow control between the processes. Having separate read and write processes allows an arbitrary number of sequential reads/writes to occur in any order, subject to buffer size, allowing bursting/sequential transactions that are more efficient than random accesses. |
| US07873952B2 |
Code transformation to optimize fragments that implement constant loading
A code, which may be a post-link binary or a pre-link object file, can be transformed to optimize code fragments that implement loading a constant from memory. A constant loading code fragment includes address computing operations that compute (or copy) an address representation of a constant for consumption by a memory access operation, and the memory access operation that loads the constant. Information from control flow analysis, data flow analysis, and binary structure/configuration analysis are examined to identify code fragments of a code that implement constant loading. A tool transforms the code to convert the identified code fragments. To optimize, the tool may convert operations, eliminate operations, convert indirect calls to direct calls, inline functions called indirectly, eliminate unused constant data, modify relocations, etc. This optimization can also be applied recursively. The same tool or another tool can subsequently analyze the transformed code one more times to identify additional opportunities for optimizations revealed by the transformation or to apply the transformation for a different profile of the application. |
| US07873947B1 |
Phylogeny generation
A method is provided for comparing malware or other types of computer programs, and for optionally using such a comparison method for (a) searching for matching programs in a collection of programs, (b) classifying programs, and (c) constructing a classification or a partitioning within a collection of programs. In general, there are three steps to the comparison portion: selecting and extracting tokens from a pair of programs for comparison, building features from these tokens, and comparing the programs based on the frequency of feature occurrences to produce a similarity measure. Pairwise similarity is then used for optionally searching, classifying, or constructing classification systems. |
| US07873945B2 |
Automatically generating test cases for binary code
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically generating test cases for binary code. Embodiments of the present invention can automatically generate test inputs for systematically covering program execution paths within binary code. By monitoring program execution of the binary code on existing or random test cases, branch predicates on execution paths can be dynamically inferred. These inferred branch predicates can then be used to drive the program along previously unexplored execution paths, enabling the learning of further execution paths. Embodiments of the invention can be used in combination with other analysis and testing techniques to provide better test coverage and expose program errors. |
| US07873939B2 |
Processing logic modeling and execution
Provides processing logic modeling and executing methods, systems and apparatus. These facilitate collaboration between business analyst and IT staff for process modeling and maintenance of the consistency between business level design and IT implementation design. A task is decomposed into sub-tasks and is represented by a tree. Annotations to the nodes of the tree are used to represent the relations between the sub-tasks. A processing logic is thus completed. When executing the processing logic, traversing the tree follows according to the annotations. |
| US07873933B2 |
Computer program for balancing power plane pin currents in a printed wiring board
A computer program for balancing power plane pin currents in a printed wiring board (PWB) provides for reduction in pin counts required for power plane (including ground plane) connections and/or reduction in requirements for connector current handling per pin. One or more slots is introduced in the metal layer implementing the power plane that alter the current distribution in the power plane. The per-pin current profile for connector pins connected to the power plane is equalized by tuning the length of the slot(s). The slots may be dashed or made internal to the power plane metal layer to avoid weakening the metal layer for laminated multi-layer PWBs and may be shaped around a connector end when the power plane pin allocation is not uniform at the connector ends. The resulting equalization reduces either pin count required for carrying the power plane current or reduces connector pin current requirements. |
| US07873926B2 |
Methods for practical worst test definition and debug during block based statistical static timing analysis
Methods for analyzing timing of an integrated circuit using block-based static statistical timing analysis and for practical worst test definition and debug. The method includes building a timing graph, determining a slack for each of the nodes in the timing graph, and identifying a statistically worst slack for at least one of the nodes. The method further includes replacing this statistically worst slack with a proxy worst slack. |
| US07873916B1 |
Color labeling in a graphical user interface
A method for providing visual cues to a user of a graphical user interface (GUI) for a computer system is disclosed. The visual cues indicate a relationship with an icon having text and/or image elements. In some embodiments, the method receives a color for labeling an icon that has a text-element and an image-element. The method applies the color to a background-region of the text-element of the icon without applying the color to the image-element. In some embodiments, the method does not affect the font of the text. In some embodiments, the method receives a selection of an icon. The icon has a background-region that has a first color. The method changes the first color of the background-region to a second color but retains the first color in a section of the background-region. In some of these embodiments, the method outlines the section of the background-region with a third color. |
| US07873915B2 |
Suppressing dialog boxes
A method for browser software with a tabbed interface to suppress, or delay, the display of a dialog box that is initiated by an inactive, or background, tab. An indication may be provided to the user that a dialog box needing user attention may be provided. When that tab becomes active, and the web page on that tab becomes visible, the dialog box is then displayed. This suppression method may be applied to a variety of application programs. |
| US07873913B2 |
Content scrolling system and method
An exemplary content scrolling system includes a display unit for displaying content, a scroll bar for scrolling the displayed content, and a processing unit for scrolling the displayed content based on a scroll input of the scroll bar. The processing unit includes a scroll amount calculating module and a content scrolling module. The scroll amount calculating module is for calculating for calculating a scroll amount mapping to the scroll input according to a particular formula. The content scrolling module is for scrolling the displayed content according to the scroll amount. Related exemplary content scrolling methods are also provided. |
| US07873908B1 |
Method and apparatus for generating consistent user interfaces
A method is disclosed for generating a consistent user interface for an HTML-based application program, without extensive coding of Java Server Pages and other elements. In one approach, business objects each define a user action for the application program, and metadata elements defining parameters for the user actions of the business object. A controller is communicatively coupled to one or more actions, widgets, and panels. A user request is received from a browser and dispatched to one or the actions. Using the actions, one or more parameter values are obtained from the business objects. The business object parameter values are associated with a widget selected from among the one or more widgets. The selected widget is associated with a panel selected from the one or more panels. An HTML user interface page that includes the selected panel is generated. The widgets represent properties of the business objects as HTML elements, automatically generate client-side executable code for performing data validation, and convert values received in users requests into programmatic objects of appropriate data types for use by the application program. |
| US07873907B2 |
Technique for searching for a specific object in an ISPF panel for automated testing
A method, apparatus and article of manufacture, implementing the method, finds one or more objects in a scrollable list of a character-based panel for automated testing. The scrollable list comprises objects. A subset of the objects of the scrollable list is displayed in the panel. A first target area in the panel is searched for a first target object. The first target area displays at least a portion of the subset of objects of the scrollable list. When the first target object is not found, a next page command is supplied to display a second subset of objects of the scrollable list and the searching is repeated. |
| US07873903B2 |
Method for entering text
A method of providing selected text into a computer includes selecting a character in a range of characters and selecting a word as a function of the selected character. The word is presented to the user and an action is received from the user pertaining to the selected character. |
| US07873902B2 |
Transformation of versions of reports
A method of transforming reports from one version of software to another version is disclosed. The method exports existing report objects in an existing first version report into XML format to a transformation tool and then to a layout transformation tool. An XML object is created and is imported into a report in the second version. |
| US07873889B2 |
JTAG bus communication method and apparatus
The present disclosure describes using the JTAG Tap's TMS and/or TCK terminals as general purpose serial Input/Output (I/O) Manchester coded communication terminals. The Tap's TMS and/or TCK terminal can be used as a serial I/O communication channel between; (1) an IC and an external controller, (2) between a first and second IC, or (3) between a first and second core circuit within an IC. The use of the TMS and/or TCK terminal as serial I/O channels, as described, does not effect the standardized operation of the JTAG Tap, since the TMS and/or TCK I/O operations occur while the Tap is placed in a non-active steady state. |
| US07873884B2 |
Wireless embedded test signal generation
An RF/Microwave on-chip signal source for testing an integrated circuit embedded in a substrate is provided. The signal source includes an on-chip antenna embedded in the substrate to receive a signal from a signal source external to the substrate. The signal source also includes a frequency divider circuit also embedded in the substrate. The frequency divider converts one or more frequencies of the signal into an operating frequency of the integrated circuit, the signal at the operating frequency of the integrated circuit defining an on-chip test signal. The signal source further includes one or more output buffers embedded in the substrate to provide a signal interface with the integrated circuit. |
| US07873881B2 |
Reconfigurable bit-manipulation node
A reconfigurable bit-manipulation node is disclosed. The node includes an execution unit configured to perform a number of bit-oriented functions and a control unit configured to control the execution unit to allow one of the bit-oriented functions to be performed. The execution unit includes a number of elements interconnected with one another to allow the bit-oriented functions to be performed. The elements include a programmable butterfly unit, a number of non-programmable butterfly units, a number of data path elements, a look-up table memory, and a reorder memory. The execution unit is capable of engaging in one of a number of operating modes to perform the bit-oriented functions. The operating modes include a programmable mode and a number of fixed operating modes including Viterbi decoding, turbo decoding and variable length encoding and decoding. The data path elements include a programmable shifter and a programmable combiner. |
| US07873879B2 |
Mechanism to perform debugging of global shared memory (GSM) operations
A host fabric interface (HFI) enables debugging of global shared memory (GSM) operations received at a local node from a network fabric. The local node has a memory management unit (MMU), which provides an effective address to real address (EA-to-RA) translation table that is utilized by the HFI to evaluate when EAs of GSM operations/data from a received GSM packet is memory-mapped to RAs of the local memory. The HFI retrieves the EA associated with a GSM operation/data within a received GSM packet. The HFI forwards the EA to the MMU, which determines when the EA is mapped to RAs within the local memory for the local task. The HFI processing logic enables processing of the GSM packet only when the EA of the GSM operation/data within the GSM packet is an EA that has a local RA translation. Non-matching EAs result in an error condition that requires debugging. |
| US07873869B2 |
Checkpointing a hybrid architecture computing system
A method, apparatus, and program product checkpoint an application in a parallel computing system of the type that includes a plurality of hybrid nodes. Each hybrid node includes a host element and a plurality of accelerator elements. Each host element may include at least one multithreaded processor, and each accelerator element may include at least one multi-element processor. In a first hybrid node from among the plurality of hybrid nodes, checkpointing the application includes executing at least a portion of the application in the host element, configuring and executing at least one computation kernel in at least one accelerator element, and, in response to receiving a command to checkpoint the application, checkpointing the host element separately from the at least one accelerator element upon which the at least one computation kernel is executing. |
| US07873867B2 |
Power saving method in NAS and computer system using the method
Provided is a computer system which includes plurality of computers including a first, second, and third computers, and a storage device coupled to the plurality of computers via a network, in which: the first computer is configured to: access data in a storage area of the storage device; cut, based on settings information and loads on the plurality of computers, at least a part of electric power supplied to the first computer; and send, before cutting the at least a part of electric power supplied to the first computer, a takeover request to the second computer; and the second computer accesses the data within the storage area after receiving the takeover request. With the configuration as described above, power consumption in NAS is reduced. |
| US07873865B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling data recovery
A control apparatus comprises a priority determination unit for determining the priority of each of a plurality of applications that use data in different logical volumes constituting a volume group, and a restoration instruction unit for issuing a restoration instruction to a storage system to execute restoration on the plurality of logical volumes constituting the volume group in sequence from a logical volume used by an application having a high priority. |
| US07873859B2 |
Restarting failed IMS auto-restart batch applications
A transfer of control to a batch application is intercepted, wherein a batch front-end routine receives control in place of the batch application and performs initialization processing. This initialization processing comprises issuing a DLI restart call and issuing a DLI checkpoint call. If the DLI restart call returns a checkpoint ID, then one or more databases associated with the batch application are repositioned. The transfer of control to the batch application is then resumed, whereby the batch application restarts from the checkpoint ID, if the checkpoint ID was returned by the DLI restart call, in a manner transparent to the batch application. |
| US07873856B2 |
Microcontroller unit having power supply voltage monitor
The single chip microcontroller unit includes a processing unit having normal power mode of operation and a low power mode of operation. Analog circuitry and digital circuitry are connected to the processing unit. Monitoring circuitry determines if a chip supply voltage level exceeds a threshold level necessary to maintain operation of the digital circuitry. |
| US07873847B2 |
Method of power state control for a server blade in a blade—server chassis system
A method for controlling the different power states of a ClientBlade™ from a remote desktop environment is described. A remote user is permitted to control the different power states of the ClientBlade™ remotely via a remote client having an operating system or a thin client (or decompression brick) with no operating system. Administered authentication of the remote user is required before access is granted to the management module in the BladeCenter™ environment to enable the changes to the power state of the ClientBlade™. |
| US07873844B2 |
Physical separation and recognition mechanism for a switch and a power supply for power over Ethernet (PoE) in enterprise environments
A Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) communication system dynamically provides power and data communications over a communications link. In an enterprise environment, a table top network switch uses a power supply to provide power for PoE and data communications to one or more powered devices (e.g., personal or laptop computers). To reduce the amount of heat generated in the table top network switch, the power supply is located external to the table network switch. The table top network switch may also include enterprise equipment, such as a video projector, a monitor for a personal computing device, another personal computing device to provide some examples. The power supply for the enterprise equipment may be included within the table top network switch to provide additional integration. The power for PoE and data communications to a limited number of powered devices (e.g., personal or laptop computers) may be included within the table top network switch to provide even further integration. |
| US07873843B2 |
Static power reduction for midpoint-terminated busses
A memory system is disclosed which is comprised of a memory controller and addressable memory devices such as DRAMs. The invention provides a programmable register to control the high vs. low drive state of each bit of a memory system address and control bus during periods of bus inactivity. In this way, termination voltage supply current can be minimized, while permitting selected bus bits to be driven to a required state. This minimizes termination power dissipation while not affecting memory system performance. The technique can be extended to work for other high-speed busses as well. |
| US07873841B2 |
Method of maintaining a USB active state without data transfer
A USB bus-powered device in Suspend state that requires active bus state power levels, but has no data transfer need, may initiate Resume signaling to return a USB bus segment to active state, without transferring any data across the bus. A device driver considers both USB device power needs and data transfer activity in deciding to Globally or Selectively Suspend a bus or bus segment. In particular, upon deciding to Suspend a bonus or bus segment, the device driver queries a USB bus-powered device. If the device will require active bus mode power within a predetermined duration, the device will indicate to the device driver to remain an active mode. In this case, the device driver does not direct the USB host to Suspend the bus. |
| US07873837B1 |
Data security for electronic data flash card
An electronic data flash card includes a random number generator that generates a random number stored in the card and a host system each time the card is accessed by the host system. The random number is used by the host system to encrypt a logical branch address, a user password, and user data that is written to and stored in a secure area of the card. The random number is encrypted using a key associated with the card, and the encrypted random number is stored by the card with the associated encrypted data. The random number is not stored in the host system. A new random number is generated each time the card is queried. In a read process the host system decrypts the encrypted random number using the key, then uses the random number to decrypt the associated encrypted data. Access to read/write processes are password protected. |
| US07873835B2 |
Accessing data storage devices
Restricting access to a device includes obtaining a passphrase for a user, obtaining access credentials for the user, obtaining a PIN value for the user, one-way encrypting at least the access credentials and the PIN using a secret key provided with the device. The user is allowed access to the device if the result of one-way encrypting equals the passphrase. The user is denied access to the device if the result of one-way encrypting does not equal the passphrase. The device may be a storage device. The access credentials may include a username that identifies the user and may include a role for the user. The access credentials may include a time period for which access is allowed. Access may be subsequently revoked in response to the current date and time being greater than the time period for which access is allowed. |
| US07873833B2 |
Detection of frequent and dispersed invariants
A scalable method and apparatus that detects frequent and dispersed invariants is disclosed. More particularly, the application discloses a system that can simultaneously track frequency rates and dispersion criteria of unknown invariants. In other words, the application discloses an invariant detection system implemented in hardware (and/or software) that allows detection of invariants (e.g., byte sequences) that are highly prevalent (e.g., repeating with a high frequency) and dispersed (e.g., originating from many sources and destined to many destinations). |
| US07873831B2 |
Digests to identify elements in a signature process
A signature system with a mechanism to identify element(s) of a signed document includes a sender having a signature module with a digest generator. The digest generator generates digests for identifying selected elements of the document. The resulting “identifying” digests are then used in generating a signature in which the sender signs the digests rather than the original elements. The receiver can then process the signature and use these digests to distinguish between elements, as needed. |
| US07873823B2 |
Dynamically reconfigurable power-aware, highly scaleable multiplier with reusable and locally optimized structures
A large bit width multiplier with multiple copies of a core small bit width multiplier and ROM cells. The present invention provides a power system that trades off processing speed against power dissipation. The present invention reduces power dissipation to about half of the best industry implementation at about half the speed. Its power dissipation is 10% of another industry standard implementation at 1.5 times the speed. The present invention has a gate count that is about twice the gate count for these implementations. |
| US07873822B2 |
System comprising electronic device and external device storing boot code for booting system
An electronic information system comprises an external storage device and an application processor. The external storage device stores boot code and the application processor is adapted to receive the boot code from the external storage device and to perform a system booting operation during a power-up operation by executing the boot code. |
| US07873818B2 |
System and method for search area confined branch prediction
A system and method for performing search area confined branch prediction in a processor are provided. The system includes a branch target buffer (BTB) to hold branch information for branch prediction, where the branch information includes a branch address. The system also includes search logic for searching the BTB to locate a branch address. The system additionally includes throttle logic to stop searching the BTB in response to reaching a predefined search limit. |
| US07873814B1 |
Microcode based hardware translator to support a multitude of processors
An apparatus comprising a circuit configured to translate instruction codes of a first instruction set into sequences of instruction codes of a second instruction set that emulate a functionality of the instruction codes of the first instruction set. |
| US07873812B1 |
Method and system for efficient matrix multiplication in a SIMD processor architecture
The new system provides for efficient implementation of matrix multiplication in a SIMD processor. The new system provides ability to map any element of a source vector register to be paired with any element of a second source vector register for vector operations, and specifically vector multiply and vector-multiply-accumulate operations to implement a variety of matrix multiplications without the additional permute or data re-ordering instructions. Operations such as DCT and Color-space transformations for video processing could be very efficiently implemented using this system. |
| US07873805B2 |
Data recovery systems and methods
Nearline disaster recovery (“nearline DR”) storage systems and methods that permit the use of previously restored stored data from a near time period by virtual applications operating off a backup storage location during the period of disaster recovery at a primary site. This is generally referred to as a “nearline DR storage process.” |
| US07873803B2 |
Nonvolatile memory with self recovery
A nonvolatile memory array includes two or more devices, each device containing data that is scrambled using a different scrambling scheme. When the same data is provided and stored in both devices, different data patterns occur in each device, so that if one of the patterns causes data pattern induced errors, the original data can be recreated from another copy that does not share the same data pattern. |
| US07873797B2 |
Memory controller
The present invention relates to a memory controller for an IC with an external DRAM, where the external DRAM has at least one memory bank and communicates with the IC via at least one channel. In line with the invention, the memory controller has a command scheduler which prioritizes the transmission of memory bank commands on the basis of a static priority allocation for commands and a dynamic priority allocation for channels. |
| US07873794B2 |
Mechanism that provides efficient multi-word load atomicity
Disclosed is an apparatus, method, and program product that provides atomic, multi-word load support without incurring additional memory utilization. A double-word is atomically loaded without the use of one or more additional fields and without a lock. An invalidity marker is used in connection with a cache miss time to ascertain whether a loaded double-word has been stored and loaded atomically, and is thus, valid. |
| US07873789B2 |
System controller, identical-address-request-queuing preventing method, and information processing apparatus having identical-address-request-queuing preventing function
In a system controller including a CPU-issued request queue having a circuit that processes plural requests having identical addresses not to be inputted to the CPU-issued request queue, a latest request other than a cache replace request is retained by an input-request retaining section. Consequently, even if an address of an issued request for cache replace request matches an address of a request retained by the CPU-issued request queue, the issued request for the cache replace request is not retried but is queued in the CPU-issued request queue when the address of the issued request for the cache replace request does not match the entire address retained by the input-request retaining section. |
| US07873784B2 |
Method and apparatus for evaluating and improving disk access time in a raid system
Techniques for improving access time in data storage systems are disclosed. These techniques can be used to prevent undesirable access delays that are often experienced in conventional storage systems. “Slow-access” can be defined as an access operation that does not successfully complete within a predetermined amount of time. The “slow-access” time can, for example, be defined based on a system requirement, specification, or a particular need of a specific application. As such, when detected “slow-access” indicates a potential performance problem that can manifest in undesirable effects. A data storage system is evaluated for potential performance problems by scanning it for “slow-access.” In addition, preventative measures are taken to prevent occurrence of a “slow-access” once it has been identified. These measures can prevent the undesirable effects experienced in conventional storage systems. This also means that specific system or application requirements can be certified and met. |
| US07873780B2 |
Searching a content addressable memory
A device for performing searches includes a comparand data register configured to store a comparand received from a host processor where the comparand includes a collection of bits. The device also includes logic configured to generate a modified comparand corresponding to the comparand and based at least in part on a comparand overlay data value. The logic is also configured to search the CAM with the modified comparand. |
| US07873778B2 |
Apparatus for storing page data
A method of operating a non-volatile memory can include backing-up first data successfully programmed to a first target page of a non-volatile memory to provide local back-up data. A determination can be made that programming of second data to the first target page has failed and the local back-up data can be programmed to a second target page in a second block of the non-volatile memory. |
| US07873763B2 |
Multi-reader multi-writer circular buffer memory
A system for managing a circular buffer memory includes a number of data writers, a number of data readers, a circular buffer memory; and logic configured to form a number of counters, form a number of temporary variables from the counters, and allow the data writers and the data readers to simultaneously access locations in the circular buffer memory determined by the temporary variables. |
| US07873762B2 |
Digital phase relationship lock loop
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a first clocked storage device operable in a first clock domain corresponding to a first clock signal. The first clocked storage device has an input coupled to receive one or more bits transmitted on the input from a second clock domain corresponding to a second clock signal. The apparatus further comprises control circuitry configured to ensure that a change in a value of the one or more bits transmitted on the input meets setup and hold time requirements of the first clocked storage device. The control circuitry is responsive to a sample history of one of the first clock signal or the second clock signal to detect a phase relationship between the first clock signal and the second clock signal on each clock cycle to ensure the change meets the setup and hold time requirements. |
| US07873760B2 |
Expedited digital signal decoding
Expedited digital signal decoding. A multicast or unicast data stream is sent from a headend to a set-top box at a natural rate. A decoder buffer in the set-top box begins to fill. Once the buffer is partially full, a decoder begins to decode the data at a rate lower than the natural rate. Images are displayed to the user before the buffer is full, allowing for a faster channel change. |
| US07873758B2 |
Cellular phone and portable storage device using the same
A cellular phone. The cellular phone comprises a connector, a first memory module, a second memory module, and a controller. The connector is used for physically connecting the cellular phone to an external device. The first memory module stores phone data. The second memory module stores application data received from the external device. The controller determines whether the connector is connected to the external device. If the connector is not connected to the external device, access right of both the first and second memory modules is granted exclusively to the cellular phone. If the connector is connected to the external device, access right of the first memory is granted exclusively to the cellular phone, and access right of the second memory module is granted exclusively to the external device. |
| US07873756B2 |
Image processing apparatus and control method of the same
This invention increases the design efficiency of an upper layer such as a job control means. To accomplish this, an image processing apparatus having a plurality of types of external interfaces (a USB and LAN) different in protocol has an external interface adaptor 203 which dynamically allocates external interfaces as objects of processing to lower layer IDs within a predetermined range, and a job controller 202 which controls execution of various types of jobs by using the lower layer IDs, and a value which the lower layer ID can take is constant regardless of the type of external interface. |
| US07873755B2 |
Semiconductor device, reproduction device, and method for controlling the same
A method for controlling a reproduction device which reproduces data held in a USB device connected to a USB terminal is provided. The method includes: detecting that the USB device is connected to the USB terminal; transmitting a call to the USB device, if the connection of the USB device is detected; detecting, during a first waiting time, a response from the USB device to the call transmitted to the USB device; detecting, during a second waiting time, different from the first waiting time, a response from the USB device to the call transmitted to the USB device, if the response from the USB device is not detected during the first waiting time; and reproducing the data held in the USB device, if the response from the USB device is detected during the first waiting time or during the second waiting time. |
| US07873753B2 |
Memory subsystem capable of accessing a plurality of memory bank identifications and method thereof
A controller and a memory subsystem including a plurality of memory banks each having a plurality of memory devices, in which the controller includes a memory device configured to store an identification (ID) of each of the plurality of memory banks; and a control logic configured to read an ID of a memory bank to be accessed among the plurality of memory banks from the memory device, then output the ID, and then output a command. Each of the plurality of memory devices includes an input port, a register configured to store an ID of each memory device, and a determination circuit configured to receive and compare an ID input via the input port with the ID stored in the register and to generate a control signal according to a result of the comparison. The input port is enabled or disabled in response to the control signal. |
| US07873752B2 |
Handling procedure instruction device and method of instructing handling procedure, and program and recording medium thereof
The present invention relates to a handling procedure instruction device that displays information on a handling procedure of electronic equipment only when a user is not familiar with the handling procedure of the electronic equipment. The device determines whether or not the equipment is connected with the instruction device, and then reads, from the equipment, information on whether or not the handling procedure of the equipment is known to the user of the equipment to determine whether or not an instruction for the handling is require. If it wads information indicating that the handling procedure of the equipment is known to the user of the equipment, the device aborts a display process of previously-stored handling procedure instruction information. If the display process of the previously-stored handling procedure instruction information is aborted, the device displays information to be displayed after the handling procedure instruction information on a display portion. According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce needless operations by a user who is familiar with the handling procedure. |
| US07873750B2 |
Server system having I/O interface unit
A disclosed server system has a processor blade in which a processor is mounted and an interface unit that is connected to an external device, and a serial interface connects between these units. Multiple serial interfaces are bundled to enable expansion of a band. The processor blade and the interface unit connect fellow connectors back to back. |
| US07873740B2 |
Method and system for enhancing live stream delivery quality using prebursting
The subject matter herein relates to a method to “accelerate” the delivery of a portion of a data stream across nodes of a stream transport network. A portion of a live stream is forwarded from a first node to a second node in a transport network at a high bitrate as compared to the stream's encoded bitrate, and thereafter, the stream continues to be forwarded from the first node to the second node at or near the encoded bitrate. The disclosed technique of forwarding a portion of a stream at a high bitrate as compared to the encoded bitrate of the stream is sometimes referred to as “prebursting” the stream. This technique provides significant advantages in that it reduces stream startup time, reduces unrecoverable stream packet loss, and reduces stream rebuffers as the stream is viewed by a requesting end user that has been mapped to a media server in a distributed computer network such as a content delivery network. |
| US07873739B2 |
Voting mechanism for transmission schedule enforcement
Method and systems of transmission schedule enforcement in a hub-based network is provided. Method includes receiving guardian messages from one or more of a plurality of nodes, implementing a voting function, voting the received guardian messages using the voting function, and when a clear winner of the received guardian messages is detected, enabling a port indicated by the clear winner to propagate. The guardian messages are received outside of TDMA communications. The guardian messages contain information pertaining to the next slot or slots to transmit. |
| US07873733B2 |
Load distribution method, load distribution device, and system including load distribution device
A load distribution device that receives processing requests from terminals and that allocates and transfers the processing requests to at least one of a plurality of servers. The load distribution device includes a monitoring unit, a request receiving unit, an update server determining unit, a distribution ratio setting unit, a load distribution unit, a notification unit and an update completion detecting unit, whereupon receipt of a notification that the update of the server to be updated is completed, the update server determining unit determines that the update to the server to be updated is completed, determines a new server to be updated and a new server to be updated next, and instructs the distribution ratio setting unit to set the distribution ratios. |
| US07873730B2 |
Method and system for collaborative computing environment access restriction and orphan data management
A method and system for collaborative computing environment access restriction and orphan data management is provided in the form of establishment and implementation of a data handling policy in which the data handling policy for one of a person and a role is stored on a computer storage medium. The data handing policy is implemented in the collaborative computing environment by providing access to data in accordance with the established data handling policy. Access to the data handling policy is provided to a person affected by the data handling policy in which the access to the data handling policy includes allowing the affected person to view the data handling policy. |
| US07873729B2 |
Server scanning system and method
A technique for quickly locating, diagnosing and fixing problems with one or more servers is presented. The technique improves upon prior art techniques by providing a centralized utility by which multiple servers may be viewed and modified. More particularly, the technique allows a user to view, in a consolidated format, features of multiple servers and to modify parameters of such servers from a remote location. |
| US07873728B2 |
Method and apparatus for extracting and visualizing execution patterns from web services
One embodiment of the present method and apparatus for extracting and visualizing execution patterns from Web Services collects data relating to one or more transactions executed in accordance with one or more Web Services-based applications (e.g., messaging systems or other services). One or more patterns is then extracted from the collected data, where the patterns are representative transactions commonly executed in accordance with the Web Services configuration under analysis. |
| US07873725B2 |
System and method for directing attention to web site content
Attention of a user is direct to content offered via a Web site by monitoring interactions of a user with a currently displayed Web site page to determine if the user has indicated a desire to exit from the currently displayed Web site page. When it is determined that the user has indicated a desire to exit from the currently displayed Web site page, the Web site page is automatically caused to be scrolled to thereby cause a display, for a predetermined period of time, of content that is located in a portion of the Web site page that is not currently being viewed by the user. |
| US07873716B2 |
Method and apparatus for supporting service enablers via service request composition
A computer system includes a composition enabler configured to enforce an execution policy associated with a responder in response to a request from a requestor, configured to send the request to the responder, and configured to compose a response with a function from the group: a function that must be executed before the request reaches the responder, a function that must be executed after a response from the responder. |
| US07873711B2 |
Method, system and program product for managing assignment of MAC addresses in a virtual machine environment
A method, system and program product for managing assignment of virtual physical addresses. The method includes requesting, using a services function provided by a virtual machine operating system, a MAC address assignment for a real device and searching, in a MAC assignment table created and stored within a virtual memory space, to determine whether or not an explicit MAC address is assigned to the device. If an explicit MAC address is determined to be assigned to the device, retrieving the explicit MAC address upon verifying that the MAC address is not in use by another device and forwarding, using the services function, the explicit MAC address retrieved for assignment to the real device. If an explicit MAC address is not assigned to the device, retrieving an available MAC address from a MAC address pool table and forwarding the available MAC address retrieved for assignment to the real device. |
| US07873710B2 |
Contextual data communication platform
Systems and methods for a contextual data platform are provided. According to one embodiment, a request is received from a client at a server. Responsive to the request, the client is caused to display a customized menu structure by transmitting to the client contextual menu information based in part on a resource associated with the request. According to another embodiment, an augmented HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) request is received from a client application. The augmented HTTP request identifies a resource and indicates a desired action to be performed on the resource. Personalization information is identified and extracted from HTTP header fields associated with the request. The personalization information includes one or more of personal and preference information, device information and location information. Then, the content associated with the resource and/or a format in which the content is delivered to the client application is customized based on the personalization information. |
| US07873705B2 |
System and method for identifying content service within content server
The present invention discloses a new method for identifying current content service visited by a mobile device user within a content server through a cellular network. According to this method the received content from the content provider server is parsed for identifying embedded hyperlinks and respective link titles. The parsed content is analyzed for identifying chosen hyperlinks of previous received content, recording thereof and identifying mobile device location within content server site according to the sequence of at least two successive hyperlinks titles. |
| US07873704B2 |
Communication system, relay device, and communication control method
A communication management table is provided to a gateway server 400 relaying data communication between Java-enabled MS 600 and Java-enabled CS 200. Gateway server 400 refers to Java application related information included in a request message sent from the Java-enabled MS 600 and to a communication management table stored in gateway server 400, thereby determining whether to permit the communication request. In a case that the communication request is determined to be rejected, gateway server 400 does not transmit the request message RQ to Java-enabled CS 200; instead, the gateway server sends a response message to Java-enabled MS 600, indicating that the communication request will be rejected. |
| US07873703B2 |
Method and apparatus for broadcasting information
A method of transmitting a web object over a broadcast standard channel to a remote mobile device, the method comprising the steps of accessing one or more web objects from a web server, wherein each web object has an address, determining a hierarchy and an address linkage pattern for the one or more web objects, identifying a closed web site from the one or more web objects, translating the address of one of the web objects in the closed web site to an indicator which is based on the hierarchy and address linkage pattern of the web objects; storing the closed web site such that the web object is stored with its associated indicator, and transmitting a required web object from the stored closed web site at a frequency and a repetition rate which is determined from the indicator. |
| US07873701B2 |
Network on chip with partitions
A design structure embodied in a machine readable medium is provided. Embodiments of the design structure include a network on chip (‘NOC’), the NOC comprising: integrated processor (‘IP’) blocks, routers, memory communications controllers, and network interface controller, each IP block adapted to a router through a memory communications controller and a network interface controller, each memory communications controller controlling communication between an IP block and memory, and each network interface controller controlling inter-IP block communications through routers; the network organized into partitions, each partition including at least one IP block, each partition assigned exclusive access to a separate physical memory address space; and one or more applications executing on one or more of the partitions. |
| US07873700B2 |
Multi-protocol storage appliance that provides integrated support for file and block access protocols
A multi-protocol storage appliance serves file and block protocol access to information stored on storage devices in an integrated manner for both network attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) deployments. A storage operating system of the appliance implements a file system that cooperates with novel virtualization modules to provide a virtualization system that “virtualizes” the storage space provided by the devices. Notably, the file system provides volume management capabilities for use in block-based access to the information stored on the devices. The virtualization system allows the file system to logically organize the information as named file, directory and virtual disk (vdisk) storage objects to thereby provide an integrated NAS and SAN appliance approach to storage by enabling file-based access to the files and directories, while further enabling block-based access to the vdisks. |
| US07873699B2 |
Network control system for home appliances
Disclosed is a network control system for home appliances that satisfies the characteristics of low-cost and high-efficiency with respect to currently used appliances adopting a low-performance microcomputer. The system is constructed to define a master/slave type communication structure with respect to the respective appliances; construct a network by connecting the appliances through the serial communication function; and enable the appliances to communicate with one another if a predetermined communication event is produced. According to the system, an optimized network for the home appliances can be implemented, and operation states of the respective appliances can be displayed through the co-operation among the appliances, thereby maximizing the user convenience. |
| US07873697B2 |
Locating and sharing geospatial information in a peer-to-peer network
Methods and apparatus are provided for searching, obtaining, and distributing geospatial information in peer-to-peer networks. A geospatial information application identifies regions of geospatial information available at various peer nodes. The regions may be multidimensional and time varying and are typically associated with associated with information layers and/or components. Regions that overlap with or otherwise correspond to a user requested target region are obtained from peer nodes. The obtained regions may be combined, displayed, marked, and/or stitched to respond to a request. Various content types such as raster or feature based geospatial content from various sources such as files, databases or Web services can be shared within the distributed network. |
| US07873696B2 |
Scalable software blade architecture
A system and method for servicing user accounts are disclosed. The system includes one or more blades for servicing the user accounts, where each blade includes software components and hardware components, and each blade serves a group of user accounts, a blade manager for managing states of the one or more blades, and logic for incrementally adding one or more new blades in response to increase in the number of new user accounts. |
| US07873695B2 |
Managing connections and messages at a server by associating different actions for both different senders and different recipients
A method and apparatus for managing connections and messages at a server by associating different actions for both different senders and different recipients is disclosed. The server manages connections from different senders by receiving incoming connections from the different senders and determining sender identifiers for the incoming connections. The server inspects a mapping of sender identifiers to actions to identify which action should be applied to each incoming connection. The server applies the actions, such as accepting the connection, rejecting the connection, relaying the connection, or refusing the connection. Also, the server manages electronic messages for different recipients by determining recipient identifiers for the electronic messages. The server inspects a mapping of recipient identifiers to actions to identify which action should be applied for the recipients of the email messages. The server applies the actions, such as accepting or rejecting the email message for delivery to a recipient. |
| US07873693B1 |
Multi-chassis fabric-backplane enterprise servers
Multi-chassis fabric-backplane enterprise servers include a plurality of chassis managed collectively to form one or more provisioned servers. A central client coordinates gathering of provisioning and management information from the chassis, and arranges for distribution of control information to the chassis. One of the chassis may perform as a host or proxy with respect to information and control communication between the client and the chassis. Server provisioning and management information and commands move throughout the chassis via an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol. Alternatively, the client may establish individual communication with a subset of the chassis, and directly communicate with chassis in the subset. Server provisioning and management information includes events generated when module status changes, such as when a module is inserted and becomes available, and when a module fails and is no longer available. Each chassis includes a switch fabric enabling communication between chassis modules. |
| US07873690B2 |
Method for managing requests for obtaining peer identifiers to access stored contents in P2P mode, and associated management device and network equipment
A management device (D) that is part of a communication network (R1) to which can be connected items of communication equipment (T1-T4) constituting peers storing content data and operating in P2P mode. This device (D) comprises analysing means (MA) adapted to, in the case of reception of a request for obtaining peer identifiers, said request designating content, from a peer (T1), i) to access a tree structure comprising leaves (associated with peer identifiers storing content associated with content identifiers) and location nodes (associated with location information, representative of location of peers associated with leaves that are attached to them, and with content information, representative at least of content identifiers that store these peers), in order to determine the location of the leaf associated with the content identifier designated in the received request, then the peer identifiers associated with leaves that are attached to this determined location node and said content identifier, and ii) order the transmission to the requesting peer (T1) of the determined peer identifiers. |
| US07873689B2 |
Distributed set-expression cardinality estimation
A method and system for answering set-expression cardinality queries while lowering data communication costs by utilizing a coordinator site to provide global knowledge of the distribution of certain frequently occurring stream elements to significantly reduce the transmission of element state information to the central site and, optionally, capturing the semantics of the input set expression in a Boolean logic formula and using models of the formula to determine whether an element state change at a remote site can affect the set expression result. |
| US07873688B2 |
Processing method and computer system for summation of floating point data
A computer system execute summation processing even if the computing sequence is not adhered to in a system for computing a sum of floating point data of a plurality of nodes. Each node sends floating point data to a reduction mechanism, and the reduction mechanism computes the sums only for a group of which exponent sections have a highest value and a group of which exponent sections have a second highest value, and adds the sum of the group of which the exponent sections have a highest value and the sum of the group of which the exponent sections have a second highest value. By this, the consistency of the computation result can be guaranteed even if the sum is computed regardless the computing sequence of the values. |
| US07873685B2 |
System and method for flexible path handling
A method for a computer system includes receiving a mapping schema between a plurality of asset-types within an asset-type hierarchy and a plurality of paths within an on-disk storage structure, receiving an asset-type definition list from a user, wherein the asset-type definition list comprises an asset-type from the plurality of asset types, and determining at least one path from the plurality of paths for providing access to assets of the asset-type in response to the mapping schema and the asset-type definition list. |
| US07873682B2 |
System and method for creating and manipulating information containers with dynamic registers
A search query may be run against a plurality of container registers encapsulated and logically defined in a plurality of containers to identify one or more container registers responsive to the search query. Thereafter, a list characterizing the identified containers may be provided. Related methods, apparatus, computer program products, and computer systems are also described. |
| US07873680B2 |
Hierarchical inherited XML DOM
A method for providing processed data definition documents (DDDs) or processed document object models (DOMs) for object oriented programming. The use of these processed data definitions simplifies the data structures and streamlines programming to access the data. A standard DDD/DOM has a hierarchical branched structure having a number of levels each with elements/nodes and attributes. The DDD is written in a platform independent markup language. An element/node is selected and its attributes are identified. All ‘children’ of the selected element/node are identified. The attributes of the selected element/node (parent) are then copied to each child for all children in the DDD/DOM. This is repeated for all elements/nodes in the DDD/DOM to result in a processed DDD/processed DOM which is now structured to allow program access to data in a more direct manner. |
| US07873679B2 |
Business object document mapper
In accordance with an embodiment, an architecture for directly interfacing Business Object Documents (BODs) may include a BOD mapper which employs the BOD for input and output. A model object definable by class is created corresponding to the data contained in the BOD. System logic for the local domain is provided with communication with the BOD mapper through a BOD mapper application programming interface. The logic operates on the model object and a mapping configuration is provided for relating elements of the BOD to the model object. An addressing element communicates with the BOD mapper to define the mapping configuration for the BODs operated on by the BOD Mapper for input/output and mapping for a map call and parsing for a list call is accomplished for the contents from the BOD to the model object as defined by the BOD mapping configuration. |
| US07873674B2 |
Plural/alternate files registry creation and management
Disclosed are a method of and system for managing plural files registries, for use with a computer operating system having a user/group management operation. The method comprises the steps of creating a plurality of files registries, and providing an administrator with access to each of said plurality of files registries independent of all of the others of said plurality of file registries. Preferably, this is done by inserting, for each of said plurality of files registries, a respective one instruction into the user/group management operation specifying a base directory path to said each of said plurality of files registries. |
| US07873673B2 |
Method and system for data aggregation in a sensor network
A sensor profile based data aggregation method for aggregating data in a sensor network, which includes a plurality of sensor nodes, is provided. This method includes steps of determining types of sensors included in the sensor nodes, and generating a sensor profile that includes information on each type of the sensors. The information includes a filtering criterion and aggregation operators defined for the each type of the sensors. Once the sensor profile is created, the profile is parsed into a header file, and the header file is compiled with other sub-modules to generate a sensor profile based aggregation module. The sensor profile based aggregation module is installed in each of the sensor nodes. Whenever, sensor data is received in the sensor node, the data is filtered according to the filtering criterion defined in the sensor profile, and data aggregation is simultaneously with given operators. |
| US07873669B2 |
Direct write back systems and methodologies
Provided are systems and methods that facilitate direct write back in a multi-dimensional database. The system includes a delta cache component that receives a user request to change an original cell value and determines a delta value based at least in part upon the changed cell value. Also included is a write back partition component that selectively updates a data cell based at least in part upon the delta value without updating corresponding data cell values. The system and methods allow attributes to be added to any dimension of a cube without affecting the write back data. Adding, modifying or removing a hierarchy has no affect on write back data nor does deleting a dimension that is not referenced by a write back. |
| US07873668B2 |
Application data binding
A method and apparatus for providing information by merging of an arbitrarily shaped data source with an arbitrary display hierarchy, including binding data in a source data file to application or content code. In one embodiment, the data source is an XML data file and the application is a rich Internet application provided by a presentation server. The method includes the steps of providing a structured data file; and merging the structured data file with a source file, the source file including at least one display element definition including an expression that refers to an arbitrary position or range within the data file. In another aspect, the invention is an apparatus. The apparatus includes one or more storage devices, and one or more processors in communication with said one or more storage devices. In this aspect, the processors perform a method comprising the steps of: accessing a mark-up language description of said particular content including at least one declaration of data in an XML document; and compiling said mark-up language description of said particular content to create executable code that provides said particular content, said step of compiling is performed at said server in response to said request. |
| US07873667B2 |
System and method for electronic submission, procurement, and access to highly varied test data
A method and data repository for the delivery, storage, maintenance and controlled access to test data, stored in a centrally administered data repository. The system allows entities to store individual collections of data which may be public or private in keeping with their business needs, while permitting them to have or obtain access to other data within the repository in which they might have an interest. Reflecting the natural flow of information, the system uses a data storage schema that permits the storage of a virtually unlimited variety of test results in a series of compact structures. To do so, the schema utilizes a series of metadata structures that describe collections of instance specific information. |
| US07873666B2 |
Methods and computer systems for data conversion
Methods and computer systems are provided for data conversion. In one embodiment, a conversion engine receives from an application a conversion request for data stored in a database and invokes the database to export the data into a conversion source file. The conversion engine may receive a set of rules from the application and convert the data of the conversion source file according to the set of rules. Thereafter, the converted data may be stored in a conversion target file. |
| US07873664B2 |
Systems and computer program products to browse database query information
Systems and computer products that efficiently determine how columns, tables, and queries associated with a database are related to each other. The present invention enables a user to see at a glance in which queries certain columns and tables are used. The present invention may be implemented with a query miner module that includes a query browser module that improves browsing through queries and their components over the past. The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an easy to use graphical interface showing the queries, tables, and columns in a tree structure. Further, the preferred embodiment of the present invention presents information about relationships and dimensions associated with a database and about columns, tables, and queries to the user without discernable lag time between the user's request and the generated information. |
| US07873662B2 |
Link between a central system and a satellite system for executing operations of the central system
In order to have operations of a central system executed by a satellite system, a linking structure is located between the central system and the satellite system. The linking structure includes: a communications link between the central system and satellite system; a control card, in the central system, that places said operations in one or more data blocks; and a coupler, in the satellite system, that sends through the link to the control card at least one read command to which the control card responds by sending said data block or blocks through the link to the coupler. |
| US07873660B1 |
Enforcing data privacy aggregations
Described herein is an approach that may be used to control access to information requested by a query, where access is granted or denied to all the information requested based on factors that relate to information requested as a whole rather than on individual-by-individual row basis. Also described is a mechanism in which a database server dynamically creates and computes another query in response to receiving a query, and then uses the computed results to determine whether access to the data requested by the received query may be granted. |
| US07873659B2 |
Database management system, database management method and database management program
A meta-information storing section records a plurality of pieces of taxonomy data in ranks. A plurality of pieces of leaf meta-data respectively correspond to pieces of the lowest taxonomy data. A database records a plurality of pieces of real data which respectively correspond to pieces of leaf meta-data. A server control section searches for upper taxonomy data corresponding to the keyword included in a search request and acquires lower taxonomy data associated with the upper taxonomy data. The server control section is capable of repeatedly acquiring further lower taxonomy data until the lowest taxonomy data is specified, and as a result, acquiring leaf meta-data. The server control section samples real data corresponding to all of the leaf meta-data from the database and outputs it. |
| US07873657B2 |
Method and system for processing, by an information retrieval system, user input modifying the information retrieval system
In a method and system for hosting a programming environment and processing user input within an information retrieval system, a definition of an expression is received from a user, during a first session between the user and an information retrieval system, the definition specifying an expression format, a response type, and a display format. The definition is stored. During a second session between the user and the information retrieval system, an expression having a semantic structure is received. The semantic structure of the expression is evaluated. A response to the expression is displayed to the user in a user interface according to the display format specified by the definition of the expression type. |
| US07873653B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information acquiring method, and computer program product
A request receiving unit receives requested information input by a user. A corresponding-program acquiring unit acquires processing-program identification information corresponding to the requested information from a corresponding-program storing unit. A processing-program reading unit reads a processing program corresponding to the processing-program identification information from a processing-program storing unit. The request receiving unit acquires information corresponding to the requested information from the information storing unit by executing the processing program read by the processing-program reading unit. |
| US07873646B2 |
Method for modifying notifications in an electronic device
An embodiment relates to a novel apparatus and method for changing modes of notification in an electronic device. An electronic device includes a calendar application and a variety of other applications such as the message reader application or the daily alarm application. The device is configured to use the calendar application to track whether and how the user is notified of the receipt of an electronic. In one embodiment, the user specifically associates a profile behavior to the calendar entry when the calendar entry is first created. |
| US07873645B2 |
Method and mechanism for handling arbitrarily-sized XML in SQL operator tree
Disclosed is a method and mechanism for processing expressions and operator trees. An approach is particularly useful to optimize processing of XML statements with respect to SQL operators. A top-down processing approach can be taken to directly output data from operators to a data stream. In addition, multiple processing approaches can be taken within a single expression tree, with some operators processed using the top-down approach and other operators processed with the bottom-up approach. Even data that can not be streamed is copied fewer times using this approach, intermediate values from bottom-up processing may still be streamed if it is used by an operator that is eligible for top-down processing. |
| US07873636B2 |
Method, system and program product for matching a network document with a set of filters
Under the present invention, a set of filters (e.g., one or more) is associated with a hierarchical tree, which includes sets of namespace nodes, element nodes and variable nodes. Once the set of filters is associated with the hierarchical tree, a network document is parsed and compared to the hierarchical tree to identify a set of corresponding filters. Each corresponding filter is then evaluated based on the network document to determine which, if any, are “satisfied.” The network document is then communicated to the user(s) that correspond to the satisfied filter(s). |
| US07873630B2 |
Methods and systems for managing data
Systems and methods for managing data, such as metadata or index databases. In one exemplary method, a notification that an existing file has been modified or that a new file has been created is received by an indexing software component, which then, in response to the notification performs an indexing operation, where the notification is either not based solely on time or user input or the notification includes an identifier that identifies the file. Other methods in data processing systems and machine readable media are also described. |
| US07873627B2 |
Relational database scalar subquery optimization
When two or more scalar subtrees in an execution plan are directed towards the same data set, but request different data from the data set, the two subtrees are replaced in the execution plan with a new subtree which queries the data set only once. This new query to the data set covers all data required by the different subtrees. A pivoting step then is used to separate the data which would have been sought by each subtree. The pivoting step also yields data in the same form as would have resulted from the original subtrees. |
| US07873626B2 |
Method and system for a pattern matching engine
A system and method directed to a matching engine for finding the best match for an input string from among a group of predefined string patterns is disclosed. The predefined patterns may include one or more wildcard characters. A metric value is computed for every predefined string pattern. If the input string matches more than one predefined pattern, then the pattern with the highest metric value is determined as the best match to the input string. Additionally, information of different types may be attached to the predefined patterns and used for further processing of information, for example, to make routing decisions or to run a program module. |
| US07873625B2 |
File indexing framework and symbolic name maintenance framework
The present invention provides a file management system that includes a file indexing framework that allows third parties to contribute index handlers that are responsible for populating index entries for the artifacts they own and/or generate. The framework manages the creation, maintenance, and update of the index, and calls the index handlers at appropriate times so they can parse files that they understand for values that need to be stored in the index. The framework also provides APIs for querying the standardized fields of the index, so applications can search for standard types of data contributed for any of the indexed files. The present invention also provides a mechanism to keep track of symbolic name associations for every file/entity in the system. Specifically, the present invention provides a session-based and transient shadow table of symbolic names previously used by the files (even beyond the lifetime of the files themselves). |
| US07873619B1 |
Managing metadata
A method is used in managing metadata. Data of an object is stored in a magnetic hard disk set in an object addressable data storage system. Metadata for the object is stored in an SSD set in the object addressable data storage system. The metadata includes information necessary for determining the location of the data of the object in the magnetic hard disk set. |
| US07873618B2 |
Map information distribution system, map information distribution method, and computer-readable recording medium
A map information distribution system carries out a search based on search criteria that is input from a first terminal device, outputs predetermined map information for displaying search results to the first terminal device, causes the first terminal device to display a map based on the map information for displaying search results, and distributes predetermined map information for distribution in response to a distribution request. This map information distribution system includes a discrimination information outputting unit that outputs discrimination information to the first terminal device, and causes the first terminal device to display a discrimination indication based on the discrimination information before the map information for distribution is distributed. The discrimination information is designed to distinguish the area that can be displayed by a second terminal device that can use the map information for distribution, from the other portions in the map displayed by the first terminal device based on the map information for displaying search results. |
| US07873617B2 |
Device and method for coordinating a machine fleet
A device for coordinating a machine fleet includes a memory for storing a large number of data records, an interface for communicating with several users who are capable of making changes to the data records, in the case of which each data record represents a given portion of the working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet, and the changes relate to the assignment of the portion of the working capacity represented by the data record to the users making the change, and an administration unit designed to allow a change to be made to a data record by a user requesting the change if the data record is not assigned to any other user and an urgency of the change indicated by the requesting user reaches a threshold specified for the particular portion. |
| US07873613B2 |
Providing storage control in a network of storage controllers
An apparatus for providing storage control in a network of storage controllers is disclosed. The apparatus includes an owner storage controller; an I/O performing component, an ownership assignment component, a lock manager and a messaging component. The ownership assignment component assigns ownership of metadata for data to an owner storage controller. The lock manager controls the locking of metadata during I/O. The messaging component passes messages among storage controllers to request metadata state, to grant locks, to request release of locks, and to signal lock release. The I/O is performed on data whose metadata is owned by an owner storage controller, subject to compliance with metadata lock protocols controlled by the owner storage controller, and any copy of the data held from time to time is maintained in a coherency relation with the data. |
| US07873609B2 |
Contents distribution management system with multi-service type management function and method thereof
Provided is a contents distribution management system and method for supporting a plurality of global servers that provide the contents and managing the contents by applying different policies based on the global server and service type of the contents. The inventive system comprises a plurality of global servers for supplying contents to a plurality of local servers, each global server having a large capacity contents library, and the local servers for managing the contents provided from the global servers based on global servers and service types using contents tables, and providing a contents service in response to a contents streaming service demand from a last terminal using a local contents cache. |
| US07873608B2 |
Pattern matching algorithm to determine valid syslog messages
A method for validating a syslog message having a plurality of message components. The method includes providing a meta regular expression. The meta regular expression is formed from a set of regular expressions with each of the regular expressions corresponding to one of the plurality of message components. The meta-regular expression represents a plurality of message component patterns, each of the message component patterns representing a different ordering of individual regular expressions of the set of regular expressions. The method further includes comparing the syslog message with the meta regular expression. The syslog message is deemed valid if the syslog message matches one of the plurality of message component patterns represented by the meta regular expression. |
| US07873604B2 |
Batch recovery of distributed transactions
A recovery manager detects that a distributed transaction is unresolved for a first participant of said distributed transaction. The recovery manager identifies that the distributed transaction is unresolved for a second participant of said distributed transaction. The recovery manager generates a list of participants for which the distributed transaction is unresolved, the list including an entry for the first participant and an additional entry for the second participant. The recovery manager determines a result of the distributed transaction based on information received from a remote coordinator of said distributed transaction. The recovery manager notifies each participant identified in the list of the result. |
| US07873601B1 |
Backup of incremental metadata in block based backup systems
Performing a backup is disclosed. A changed portion of a file system tree is determined based at least in part on a stored state of the file system tree at a time a prior block based backup of the file system tree was performed. Incremental metadata associated with the changed portion is obtained. The obtained incremental metadata is stored where there is at least some metadata associated with an unchanged portion of the file system tree that is not stored when storing the obtained incremental metadata. |
| US07873596B2 |
Extending cluster allocations in an extensible file system
An extensible file system format for portable storage media is provided. The extensible file system format includes the specification of primary and secondary directory entry types that may be custom defined. The primary and secondary directory entry types can be further classified as critical and benign directory entries. The directory entry types can define whether a cluster chain corresponding to a file can be contiguously allocated. |
| US07873593B2 |
Vehicle information display
A communication system for a vehicle includes an interior assembly and an in-vehicle communication control that is located in the vehicle remote from the interior assembly. A human-machine interface is located at the interior assembly and is connected to the in-vehicle communication control via a connective link to communicate at least one human-machine interface signal between the human-machine interface and the in-vehicle communication control. A global positioning system control in the vehicle communicates at least one GPS-derived signal to one of the interior assembly and the in-vehicle communication control via the connective link and the at least one human-machine interface signal and the at least one GPS-derived signal share the connective link such that the connective link comprises a shared common connective link between the in-vehicle communication control and the interior assembly. |
| US07873590B2 |
Methods and systems for a decision client
The present invention is directed to a decision client computer application providing a single point for making decisions in a company. The decision client may comprise a centralized tool to connect employees needing decisions on various aspects of their jobs to decision makers, such as managers. The users of the system can be identified by a digital signature. In one embodiment, when the client application receives a request for decision, it routes the request to the person responsible for the decision. Requests can automatically be passed to an alternative decision maker when an employee is out of the office. |
| US07873589B2 |
Operation and method for prediction and management of the validity of subject reported data
A system for developing and implementing empirically derived algorithms to generate decision rules to predict invalidity of subject reported data and fraud with research protocols in surveys allows for the identification of complex patterns of variables that detect or predict subject invalidity of subject reported data and fraud with the research protocol in the survey. The present invention may also be used to monitor invalidity of subject reported data within a research protocol to determine preferred actions to be performed. Optionally, the invention may provide a spectrum of invalidity, from minor invalidity needing only corrective feedback, to significant invalidity requiring subject removal from the survey. The algorithms and decision rules can also be domain-specific, such as detecting invalidity or fraud among subjects in a workplace satisfaction survey, or demographically specific, such as taking into account gender or age. The algorithms and decision rules may be optimized for the specific sample of subjects being studied. |
| US07873585B2 |
Apparatus and methods for predicting a semiconductor parameter across an area of a wafer
Apparatus and methods are provided for predicting a plurality of unknown parameter values (e.g. overlay error or critical dimension) using a plurality of known parameter values. In one embodiment, the method involves training a neural network to predict the plurality of parameter values. In other embodiments, the prediction process does not depend on an optical property of a photolithography tool. Such predictions may be used to determine wafer lot disposition. |
| US07873580B2 |
Merchant system facilitating an online card present transaction
An online card-present transaction system facilitates card-present type transactions with a merchant over a public network. A host system is configured to accept authentication data from a user via an authentication device. The host system, after authenticating a user is configured to retrieve the user's account information from a user database system and translate a user account number into a temporary transaction number. The temporary transaction number is then transmitted directly from the host system to the merchant, thereby eliminating the need for the user to send to the merchant over the internet, the user's transaction account number. |
| US07873578B2 |
Buy once play anywhere
An on-line service manages downloads of purchased digital content. Information regarding the digital content items that are purchased by each user and the terms of use of those purchased items is maintained. Information regarding the formats of digital content items that each device is adapted to receive is maintained. Upon determining that a user wishes to download a digital content item, the requested digital content is downloaded in an appropriate format for a particular digital device provided the recorded information indicates the content item has been purchased by the user and the download is within the quantity of downloads authorized by the terms of the purchase. |
| US07873576B2 |
Financial document processing system
A system for processing deposits and/or withdrawals in a financial institution accepts a plurality of documents, including currency bills, at an input receptacle of a document-processing device, converts the image of at least some of the documents to electronic data representing the image. The currency bills are denominated by the document processing device, and the total value of the bills included in each deposit is accumulated. Whenever the total value of the bills in a deposit exceeds a prescribed value, a report may be generated containing at least an identification of the specified account, the total value of the bills in the deposit, and the serial numbers of the bills. The serial numbers may be extracted from images of the bills. |
| US07873575B1 |
Dynamic credit spread model
Systems and methods for calculating a value of a credit hybrid. The value of the credit hybrid is determined based on a model of the forward hazard rate that is based on a stochastic differential equation that includes a jump term for the hazard rate. The jump term may be based on a non-negative function of the hazard rate and a Poisson process. In addition, the stochastic differential equation may include a drift term for the hazard rate and a Brownian motion term for the hazard rate. The value of the credit hybrid may be determined by calibrating the model using calibration data and then calculating the value of the credit hybrid using the calibrated model. Both the calibration and the valuation steps may utilize Monte Carlo simulations. |
| US07873574B1 |
Method and system for using reward points to liquidate products
A user selects a product to be liquidated from a product provider and then designates to the transacting entity that reward points are to be used towards the purchase of the liquidated product. The transacting entity acts to decrease the number of reward points in the user's reward account by the required number of points. The reward account holder conveys consideration to the transacting entity equivalent to the par value of the reward points consumer obtains the product in exchange for reward points having a retail value equivalent to what he would have otherwise paid for the product, while the reward account holder is required to convey only the par value of the points. The product provider is able to liquidate the product and obtain payment equivalent to what it would otherwise have obtained in a prior art liquidation process, auction or trading environment. |
| US07873573B2 |
Virtual pooled account for mobile banking
A virtual pooled account is used in operating a system having multiple financial partners. In a specific implementation, the system is a mobile banking system. Instead of maintaining separate general ledgers for each financial institution, the system will keep one general virtual pooled account. This will reduce the settlement and operational costs of the system. The owner of the virtual pooled account will receive the float on the virtual pooled account, and this float will be distributed to the multiple financial partners according to a formula. |
| US07873569B1 |
Web-based loan auctions for individual borrowers and lenders
A web-based loan auction system is available to individual borrowers and individual lenders and is particularly well-suited for individual borrowers that cannot meet the standards of conventional lending institutions. The system is also attractive to potential lenders that desire to achieve a higher return on their investment than currently offered by banks. The potential borrower submits a web-based loan application to the auction system. Once the loan application information is verified (a function performed by the agency offering the auction service), the application is translated into an “anonymous” version, where the personal information of the borrower himself is replaced by “placeholders” known and controlled by the auction service. The “anonymized” version of the loan application is then posted on the auction's web site for bidding by potential lenders. |
| US07873565B2 |
Composite trading order processing
A system for processing a composite trading order comprises a memory operable to store market data received from one or more market centers. The system further comprises a processor operable to generate a composite value based at least in part on the market data. The processor is further operable to receive a composite trading order associated with at least a portion of the composite value. The processor is further operable to generate a plurality of constituent trading orders that, when filled, combine to satisfy the composite trading order. |
| US07873563B2 |
Systems and methods for automatically backing out buy orders
A system and method for identifying a candidate set of at least one buy order associated with an investment account, determining a back out target value that identifies a fiscal amount by which the candidate set must to be reduced, and progressively decrementing a respective initial asset quantity of one or more buy orders of the candidate set until the back out target value is achieved at a final asset quantity of the one or more buy orders. The candidate set of buy orders can then be modified by replacing the respective initial asset quantity with the respective final asset quantity for at least one of the one or more buy orders. The modified candidate set of buy orders can then be provided for trade execution. |
| US07873558B1 |
Methods and apparatus for determining an effect of a selection
A method, computer program product, and system are disclosed. The method comprises receiving a selection of a first object. The first object is associated with a value, and receiving the first object is controlled by one or more parameters. The first object is used to select a second object, thereby affecting the state of the first object. The second object is obtained using the first object. An effect the obtaining of the second object has on the first object is determined, and the value associated with the first object is revised based on the effect. |
| US07873555B1 |
System and method for automatically rebalancing portfolios by single response
A system and method capable of automatically rebalancing financial portfolios to optimality, are disclosed. Using stored customer-defined optimization data, the system determines if the current portfolio is imbalanced beyond a customer-defined tolerance level and if so, it transmits a “rebalancing-needed” alert message and a list of recommended rebalancing transactions via customer-defined communications methods. The customer reads the message and decides if he wishes to authorize portfolio rebalancing. To authorize portfolio rebalancing, the customer merely responds to the alert message. In a preferred embodiment, the customer's response may constitute performing a single action, such as pressing a button or speaking a sound. After the authenticity of the received customer response is verified, the system implements the customer's single response by transmitting execution instructions to an electronic trading system, which in turn executes the rebalancing transactions to optimize the portfolio. |
| US07873554B2 |
Method and system for providing a fixed rate annuity with a lock-in interest rate feature
A data processing method and system administers a deferred annuity product during the accumulation phase of a contract term. The annuity product permits the client to select both an interest rate which is reset periodically (reset rate) and an interest rate which is guaranteed for multiple years (MYG rate), during the same contract term. The client may elect to automatically switch from the reset rate to the MYG rate, for the remainder of the contract term, when the reset rate falls below the MYG rate. |
| US07873553B2 |
Methods and systems for authorizing imaging device concurrent account use
Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems, methods and devices for allowing a plurality of concurrent users to use a single imaging device account. |
| US07873552B2 |
Recommending waste reductions and credit purchases for business units
In an embodiment, revenue loss functions associated with business units are determined and waste credit constraints associated with the business units are received. A recommended waste credit purchase amount and recommended waste credit reduction amounts associated with the business units are calculated by minimizing a sum of the revenue loss functions and a purchase function, subject to the waste credit constraints, a purchase constraint, and a reduction goal constraint. In various embodiments, the recommended waste credit purchase amount and the recommended waste credit reduction amounts are presented, the amount of waste credits specified by the recommended waste credit purchase amount are purchased, and the business units reduce their waste emissions by their respective recommended waste credit reduction amounts. In an embodiment, the minimization is perfumed via a quadratic programming algorithm. |
| US07873551B2 |
Method and apparatus for payment retrieval and review collection
A method for conducting a review including the step of detecting a payment request from a vendor; generating a review based on the payment request; and, transmitting a reference to the review to a customer, wherein the reference provides a link to retrieve the review. A system for performing the method is also described. |
| US07873549B1 |
Product dimension correction
A computer-implemented method for automatically correcting item dimension values may facilitate operations of a materials handling facility. Such a method may include recommending a container for handling one or more items dependent on currently stored item dimension values and determining if any of the item values are inaccurate dependent on an actual container used to handle the one or more items. In some embodiments, the method may include calculating a volumetric utilization of an actual and a recommended container and comparing the two utilizations to determine if the recommended container was too large or too small. If the recommended container was too large or too small, the method may include flagging one or more of the items for measurement and/or correcting item dimensions for one or more of the items. Items may be flagged for measurement in response to a single mismatch between recommended and actual containers or multiple mismatches. |
| US07873548B2 |
Method and system of placing an order for a custom stamp using an identifier
A method of placing an order for a custom stamp, including purchasing a standard stamp mount where each stamp mount has associated with it a separate discreet identifier. Under control of a client system, information for ordering the custom stamp is displayed and a request to order the custom stamp is sent using the separate discreet identifier to a server system. Under control of the server system, the request is received and additional information previously stored and identified by the identifier is retrieved. Under control of the client system, a custom impression is designed and previewed. Under control of an ordering component of the server system, the request is received and identifying information to identify a purchaser is requested. An order to produce the custom impression for the purchaser is generated. Under control of a manufacturing component of the server system, the generated order to complete the purchase of the custom impression is fulfilled, and the custom impression is mailed to the purchaser. |
| US07873547B2 |
Enhanced shopping and merchandising methodology
An enhanced shopping system for facilitating grocery shopping and in-store advertising is disclosed. The system utilizes uniquely changes (1) the way grocery retail industry captures and retains customers, (2) how customers organize their shopping efforts in grocery stores, (3) the approach to advertising and reaching customers, and (4) the information available to retailers and merchandisers related to customer (a) shopping patterns, (b) responses to merchandising and advertising, and (c) specific impact of discounting/coupons. |
| US07873545B1 |
Selecting prospective bidders to whom to promote an online auction based upon bidding history
A facility for identifying users to whom to promote a selected auction is described. The facility maintains a representation of bidding histories of a plurality of users. At a point at which certain users have already bid in the selected auction, the facility identifies users that have not already bid in the selected auction that have bidding histories that are similar to those of users that have already bid in the selected auction. The facility then promotes the selected auction to the identified users. |
| US07873540B2 |
Virtual terminal payer authorization systems and methods
A method of obtaining payer authorization for a purchase instrument transaction with a customer includes using a wireless device of a merchant to contact a virtual terminal service to process the transaction, entering transaction information into the wireless device, which transaction information includes an account identifier relating to the purchase instrument of the customer, forwarding the transaction information from the wireless device to the virtual terminal service, receiving at the wireless device a request from the virtual terminal service to receive payer authorization information from the customer, receiving the payer authorization directly from the customer into the wireless device of the merchant, forwarding the payer authorization from the wireless device to the virtual terminal service, and receiving an approval message from the virtual terminal service at the wireless device of the merchant. |
| US07873539B2 |
Sales slip processor using sales slip processing method, and storage medium used for sales slip processing method
In response to inputting order, a sales slip processor issues a sales slip with a slip code and a table code of a table at which the order is accepted, and stores order data in a sales holding file. In order to balance or rewrite sales slips, an operator inputs a sales slip code or a table code. The processor calls order data sets with a table code corresponding to the input code from the sales holding file and numbers the sets to create and store an edit data group in an edit file. One edit data set is selected and displayed on a screen display part. A data set next to the displayed edit data set can be retrieved from the edit file through one touch operation that designates a subsequent or previous slip with an input unit and displayed on the screen to thereby facilitate the retrieval of the order data with the same table code. |
| US07873538B2 |
Method of creating incentives for establishing hotspot locations
A process of creating incentives for wireless hotspots by a service provider is disclosed. An access point is provided to a wireless hotspot for wireless devices to wirelessly connect to a larger network in a publicly accessible location. Use of the access point for a portable device is authenticated by requesting submission of an account identifier to the service provider and billing data for a user of the portable device for use of the access point is generated. Use statistics are evaluated of the access point of the wireless hotspot by portables devices and an inducement is provided to the publicly accessible location based on the evaluated use statistics. |
| US07873536B2 |
Systems and methods for providing advertisements in a communications network
A system provides advertising links. The system may received a query and provide a number of advertising links in response to the query. The number of advertising links may be dynamically adjusted based at least in part on the commercial-ness of the query. The display format of the advertising links may also be altered based at least in part on the commercial-ness of the query. |
| US07873526B2 |
Medical report producing apparatus, medical report referencing apparatus, and method for producing medical report
A link corresponding range is identified in a string in a finding section of a medical report display screen. A content is specified and dragged and dropped onto the area in which link corresponding range is displayed. When the string is specified, address information on the content is attached to the string. At the same time, the string in the link corresponding range is identified and displayed. The present apparatus subsequently determines whether or not to display information related to the linked reference content. If a display instruction has been given, a protocol that allows the related information to be automatically acquired and displayed is embedded in the hyperlink. When report production is completed, a file is saved to finish the series of processing operations. The file is then transferred to, for example, a trace reading report production requester. |
| US07873524B2 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring and responding to land use activities
The invention provides a method and apparatus for monitoring the use of land. More specifically, the invention monitors the use of land at a specified site, as well as at adjacent sites. The invention answers the question of how to manage risks resulting from external activities and how to intervene proactively. |
| US07873520B2 |
Method and apparatus for tagtoe reminders
A network-based text-to-speech (TTS) TagToe alert system is configured to take a user's textual and/or multimedia input to a TagToe user interface to schedule delivery of text-to-speech-converted TagToe information to one or more telephone call recipients. The text-to-speech converted TagToe information optionally includes e-commerce specific, location-specific, and/or product-specific information which may be presented to the one or more call recipients as additional voice information or interactive voice response (IVR) information. The TagToe alert system can be configured to provide an advanced level of integration between IP telephony and electronic transactions and online services for optimized efficiency and improved revenue to e-commerce. |
| US07873511B2 |
Audio encoder, audio decoder and audio processor having a dynamically variable warping characteristic
An audio encoder, an audio decoder or an audio processor includes a filter for generating a filtered audio signal, the filter having a variable warping characteristic, the characteristic being controllable in response to a time-varying control signal, the control signal indicating a small or no warping characteristic or a comparatively high warping characteristic. Furthermore, a controller is connected for providing the time-varying control signal, which depends on the audio signal. The filtered audio signal can be introduced to an encoding processor having different encoding algorithms, one of which is a coding algorithm adapted to a specific signal pattern. Alternatively, the filter is a post-filter receiving a decoded audio signal. |
| US07873504B1 |
Computer-implemented methods, carrier media, and systems for creating a metrology target structure design for a reticle layout
Computer-implemented methods, carrier media, and systems for creating a metrology target structure design for a reticle layout are provided. One computer-implemented method for creating a metrology target structure design for a reticle layout includes simulating how one or more initial metrology target structures will be formed on a wafer at different values of one or more parameters of one or more fabrication processes that will be used to form a metrology target structure on the wafer based on the one or more fabrication processes, one or more parameters of the wafer, and one or more initial metrology target structure designs. The method also includes simulating one or more spectra that will be produced by a predetermined metrology system configuration for each of the simulated one or more initial metrology target structures. In addition, the method includes creating the metrology target structure design based on the one or more spectra. |
| US07873502B2 |
Creation and maintenance of a history list in a method and apparatus for integrated modeling, simulation and analysis of chemical and biological systems
A system for modeling, simulating and analyzing chemical and biochemical reactions includes a modeling environment for constructing a model of a chemical or biochemical system comprising a plurality of chemical reactions. The system also includes a simulation engine accepting as input the constructed model of the chemical or biochemical system and generating as output an expected result. Each time a chemical reaction executes during a simulation of the chemical or biochemical system, the simulation engine stores the reaction time and an identifier for the reaction that executes at that reaction time to produce a time-ordered history list. The history list can be replayed by simulating the reactions as the reactions occur in the history list to produce the same state sequence as the original simulation. |
| US07873501B2 |
Crack growth evaluation apparatus, crack growth evaluation method, and recording medium recording crack growth evaluation program
The analysis model generation unit generates an analysis model for use in an analysis by a finite-element method. A stress distortion analysis unit analyzes a stress and a distortion occurring in finite elements of a continuum by a load using the analysis model for each load cycle cyclically applied to the continuum by the finite-element method. An element damage evaluation unit evaluates a damage by the distortion on the finite elements of the continuum based on the analysis result for each load cycle. A crack growth display unit displays the growth of a crack occurring in the continuum based on a result of the evaluation of the damage. |
| US07873494B2 |
Method and apparatus for an aircraft location position system
A computer implemented method for identifying location information of an unknown point on an aircraft. The unknown point on the aircraft is identified. A plurality of reference points is identified for the aircraft located in a three-dimensional model of the aircraft, wherein the plurality of reference points have known locations described using a three-dimensional coordinate system to form a plurality of identified reference points. The plurality of identified reference points is displayed on a set of images of the aircraft. A measurement of distance to each of the plurality of identified reference points is obtained to form a plurality of measurements in response to displaying the plurality of identified reference points on the set of images. The location information of the unknown point is identified using the plurality of measurements. |
| US07873490B2 |
Solar access measurement device
A Solar Access Measurement Device (“SAMD”) located at a predetermined position is disclosed. The SAMD may include a skyline detector enabled to detect a skyline of a horizon relative to the SAMD, an orientation determination unit enabled to determine the orientation of the skyline detector, and a processor in signal communication with the skyline detector and orientation determination unit. |
| US07873488B2 |
On-site calibration method and object for chromatic point sensors
A chromatic point sensor (CPS) calibration object and characterizing data are provided. The calibration object comprises a flat base plane with steps extending from it. Step measurement points provided by the steps and base plane measurement points provided by portions of the base plane are intermingled along a measurement track. The characterizing data characterizes known heights of the measurement points. A calibration method acquires measurement data such that some base plane measurement points should be at nearly the same measurement distance and therefore have the same common mode errors relative to known base plane measurement point heights. If such base plane measurement points exhibit minimal error variations, then measurements for those and proximate measurement points may provide reliable calibration data. In contrast, error variations outside an expected range indicate unreliable measurements that should be screened or replaced by new calibration measurements. |
| US07873487B2 |
Position detecting device and method
A position detecting device for a motor includes a resolver, amplifiers and a microcomputer. The microcomputer corrects an amplified sine wave signal to have the same amplitude in both positive and negative polarities, and corrects an amplified cosine wave signal to have the same amplitude in both positive and negative polarities. The microcomputer further corrects the corrected sine wave signal or the corrected cosine wave signal to have the same amplitude therebetween. The rotation position is determined accurately based on the sine wave signal and the cosine wave signal of the same amplitude, even if the amplifiers have different operation characteristics. |
| US07873485B2 |
Indicating physical site energy usage through a virtual environment
Real world energy usage can be reduced using a virtual environment. A virtual universe energy conservation system (“system”) can determine comprehensive energy usage at a physical site where a client accessing a virtual universe is located. The system can determine that the comprehensive energy usage at the physical site exceeds an energy usage threshold. The system can also notify a virtual universe user account associated with the client that the comprehensive energy usage at the physical site exceeds the energy usage threshold. |
| US07873481B2 |
System and method for analyzing a sample using chromatography coupled mass spectrometry
A method for analyzing a test sample is disclosed, the test sample comprising at least one compound. A test sample comprising at least one compound is provided. Next, the at least one compound in the test sample is determined, thereby generating raw results. The generated raw results are analyzed, wherein the analysis of the test sample is accompanied by an analysis of at least one reference sample. The test sample and the reference sample are analyzed in an identical sequence in each step of the method. A system for carrying out the method is also disclosed. |
| US07873480B2 |
Systems and methods for automated analysis of cells and tissues
Systems and methods for rapidly analyzing cell containing samples, for example to identify morphology or to localize and quantitate biomarkers are disclosed. |
| US07873478B2 |
Mass spectrometric differentiation of tissue states
The invention relates to the determination and visualization of the spatial distribution of tissue states in histologic tissue sections on the basis of mass spectrometric signals acquired so as to be spatially resolved. The invention provides a method which determines the tissue state for the tissue spots as a state characteristic, which is calculated as a mathematical or logical expression from at least two mass signals of this tissue spot, and which indicates the tissue state as a gray-level or false-color image in one or two dimensions. |
| US07873477B1 |
Method and system using systematically varied data libraries
Methods and systems for providing biological results in the form of systematically varied libraries of sequences or as data representing sequences or physical preparations of systematically varied libraries and/or selections from systematically varied libraries. |
| US07873476B2 |
Well log correlation
A method of automatically correlating well logs includes selecting well loops from the well logs and creating a set of possible marker positions for each well log in each well loop. From the possible marker positions, alternate marker sets are iteratively selected. A well tie error on each loop is calculated for each selected marker set, summed over all loops and minimized. |
| US07873472B2 |
Methods and systems for implementing an iterated extended Kalman filter within a navigation system
Methods and systems for implementing an iterated extended Kalman filter within a navigation system are provided. In one embodiment, a Kalman filter programmed with time updating error states and measurement updating error states relating to received data sets is provided. The said Kalman filter configured to: iterate both the time updating error states and the measurement updating error states based on a first criteria; and iterate only the measurement updating error states based on a second criteria. |
| US07873467B2 |
Sensor device for a motor vehicle system
A sensor arrangement which contains for a vehicle control system, comprises a buffer for geographic information, whereby the geographic information is suitable to describe at least one possible route of the vehicle. An input interface selects subsets of the geographic information stored in the buffer in response to at least one position-related parameter which is entered at the input interface. An output interface selects subsets of the geographic information corresponding to the parameter values provided, which subsets are transmitted for further processing in the vehicle control system. |
| US07873465B2 |
Method of generating improved map data for use in navigation devices
An end-user can input a correction to a map error, directly on the device. The device is then able to use the correction without external processing of the correction. Hence, it is no longer necessary for an end-user to simply report errors to the map vendor over a web link then wait for that map vendor to verify the error, update its maps and finally supply the end-user with updates—a cycle that can take months and sometimes years to complete. Instead, the navigation device can use the correction immediately. End-users can also share corrections with other end-users and also with a shared remote server that aggregates, validates and distributes corrections. |
| US07873464B2 |
Block heater usage detection and coolant temperature adjustment
A control system for an engine includes a block heater determination module, an adjustment module, and an engine control module. The block heater determination module generates a block heater usage signal based on ambient temperature, measured engine coolant temperature, and a length of time of the engine being off prior to engine startup. The adjustment module generates a temperature signal based on the ambient temperature. The engine control module determines a desired fuel mass for fuel injection at engine startup based on the temperature signal when the block heater usage signal has a first state. The engine control module determines the desired fuel mass at engine startup based on the measured engine coolant temperature when the block heater usage signal has a second state. |
| US07873458B2 |
Device for measuring incline under acceleration
The device is for monitoring the pitch angle of an accelerating vehicle in substantially real time and using the data or output obtained to affect engine, braking, or suspension changes to correct or otherwise changing the vehicle's pitch angle. |
| US07873457B2 |
Clutch control system for power transfer unit in four-wheel drive vehicle
A power transfer assembly for use in a four-wheel drive vehicle has a torque transfer mechanism equipped with a power-operated clutch actuator for controlling adaptive engagement of a friction clutch and a control system for controlling actuation of the clutch actuator. The control system and its method of operation are adapted to control actuation of the clutch actuator based on whether the vehicle is operating in an engine drive mode or an engine coast/braking mode. |
| US07873456B2 |
Agricultural harvesting machine with transfer device
An agricultural harvesting machine, in particular a self-propelled forage harvester for picking up and processing crop material has a transfer device—which is located downstream from feeder and chopping devices and is swivelable around a horizontal and vertical axis—for transferring the crop material, and at least one dampening device—which is located between the vehicle body and the transfer device—for dampening the vibrations of the transfer device. The dampening device may be adjusted as a function of specified operating criteria in order to dampen the vibrations of the transfer device. |
| US07873453B2 |
Control apparatus for electric power steering apparatus
The present invention provides a control apparatus for an electric power steering apparatus comprises: a steering assist command value calculating section; a current control section that calculates a voltage command value; and a motor driving section that drives a motor based on the voltage command value, wherein an assist power from the motor is applied to a steering system, the control apparatus is characterized in that an SAT measuring section, that inputs an angular speed and an angular acceleration of the motor, the steering assist command value and the torque signal therein so as to estimate an SAT, is provided, and the SAT obtained by the SAT measuring section is feedbacked to the steering assist command value via a feedback section composed of a phase compensating section and a gain section. |
| US07873451B2 |
Air supply mechanism for a vehicle seat, and method for the operation thereof
An air supply mechanism for a vehicle seat comprises a control device for driving a fan and a heating element connected downstream of the fan. When the vehicle is unlocked, a vehicle door is opened and/or a folding-top switch is actuated in order to open the folding-top, the control device causes a heating element to be preconditioned. When there is a switching-on signal for the air supply mechanism, the control device ends the preconditioning and switches on the heating element and the fan. The heating element and fan are subsequently regulated by the control device as a function of vehicle speed and external temperature. In this manner, a seat occupant does not experience an initial draft or a delayed switching-on reaction but rather experiences a pleasant warmth even immediately after the air supply mechanism is switched on. |
| US07873450B2 |
System and method for an integrated interface for systems associated with locomotive operation
An integrated interface system is provided for a plurality of systems associated with locomotive operation. The integrated interface system includes a main controller with a main display and an interface between each system and the main controller. Each interface is configured to communicate a respective set of time-dependent diagnostic information for each system to the main controller. |
| US07873449B2 |
Vehicle safety system with advanced tire monitoring
A control system (11) for a vehicle (10) includes vehicle dynamics sensors (35-47) providing a vehicle dynamics signal. Tire monitoring system sensors (20) in each wheel generate tire signals including temperature, pressure and acceleration data. A controller (26) communicates with the tire monitoring system sensors (20) and at least one vehicle dynamics sensor, and generates a tire abnormality value as a function of the multi-axis acceleration data of the tire signals. Tire multi-axis acceleration data is also used to detect a roadway departure, and an oversteer or understeer event. |
| US07873448B2 |
Robot navigation system avoiding obstacles and setting areas as movable according to circular distance from points on surface of obstacles
The content of the voice designation of a designator is recognized by a voice recognition part 130 at the time of controlling a robot, and the content of the indication of gesture or the like is recognized by an image recognition part 120. A movement destination and a map around the specific position designated are referred from a map data base 150 registering the position of an obstacle and the current position estimated by a self-position estimation part 140. After movement ease is decided by a movement ease decision part 112, the behavior is decided. When movement designation is given to the robot, correspondence according to a situation can be performed. |
| US07873445B2 |
Governor for a rotor with a variable maximum collective pitch
A governor configured to regulate the rotational velocity of one or more rotors of an aircraft by adjusting a collective blade pitch of the one or more rotors. In one embodiment, the governor comprises a control monitor, a maximum pitch module, a rotor module, and a pitch adjustment module. The control monitor is configured to monitor one or more flight control inputs that are controllable by an operator of the aircraft. The maximum pitch module is configured to dynamically determine a maximum collective blade pitch based on the one or more flight control inputs monitored by the control monitor. The rotor module is configured to monitor information related to the rotational velocity of the one or more rotors. The pitch adjustment module is configured to (i) receive information related to the rotational velocity of the one or more rotors from the rotor module and (ii) adjust the collective blade pitch of the one or more rotors to regulate the rotational velocity of the one or more rotors. |
| US07873444B1 |
Controlling movement of an unmanned vehicle
An unmanned vehicle (UV) embodiment can include a motor for movement of the UV in at least two dimensions, a receiver mechanism for receiving communication from the control station, a control unit for controlling the actuation of the motor, and memory having instructions stored thereon and executable by the control unit to, utilize environmental information to maintain the UV in a stable position and to move the UV according to control information received from the control station. |
| US07873440B2 |
Variable toe angle control system for a vehicle
A variable toe angle control system for a vehicle that can be incorporated with a fail-safe mechanism. When a fault of the system is detected, at least one of toe-angle actuators is actuated to make toe angles of two wheels agree with each other. When one of the wheels has become fixed in position without regard to a control signal supplied to the corresponding actuator, the actuator for the other wheel is actuated so as to make the toe angles of the two wheels equal to each other. When at least one toe-angle sensor is found faulty, the actuators are both actuated until the actuators reach positions corresponding to stoppers. When information for determining target values of the toe angles of the right and left wheels is found faulty, the actuators are both actuated until the actuators reach positions corresponding to prescribed reference toe positions. |
| US07873439B2 |
Robot turning compensating angle error using imaging
A robot apparatus includes a moving unit configured to move in a moving plane on flooring, and turn in horizontal direction of the flooring about a rotation axis vertical to the flooring; an imaging unit configured to take images in a direction horizontal to the moving plane, and rotate in horizontal direction of the flooring about the rotation axis; a storage unit configured to store the image taken by the image processor when the moving unit receives a turning request of a command angle; a detector configured to detect a rotation angle of the imaging unit relative to the moving unit; a controller configured to control a turning of the moving unit and a rotating of the imaging unit based on a common value which makes the moving unit turn in a direction of the command angle and which makes the imaging unit rotate in an opposite direction, and based on a rate value which changes turning of the moving unit or rotating of the imaging unit so as to compensate a gap determined by comparing the taken image with the stored image; and a stop unit configured to stop the turning of the moving unit and the rotating of the imaging unit, when the command angle corresponds to the rotation angle detected by the detector. |
| US07873438B2 |
Mobile apparatus and control program therefor
A mobile apparatus capable of moving or acting autonomously while flexibly avoiding contact with a moving object in accordance with various situations is provided. In a case where a second safety condition is not satisfied because, e.g., a first target trajectory cannot be found, a second target trajectory causing a first spatial element to approach the boundary of an element passing region is searched for and determined. A robot autonomously approaches the boundary of the passable region in accordance with the second target trajectory determined as a provisional target trajectory, and stops at the position corresponding to the end point of the second target trajectory. Such movement of the robot along the second target trajectory increases the space, making it possible to prompt an object to move through the space. |
| US07873433B2 |
Production optimization using data received from a removable component
This invention relates to a system and a method for optimization of the process performance of a web-processing machine, in particular a machine for the production or further processing of paper, paperboard or tissue, including the following steps: storage of specific data of a component on a data storage unit fitted to the component; and/or measurement of relevant properties of the component by way of a sensor unit fitted to the component; sending of the specific data and/or the measured relevant properties to an open-loop control unit and/or a closed-loop control unit; and optimization of the process performance by way of the open-loop control unit and/or the closed-loop control unit using specific data and/or the measured properties of the component. |
| US07873428B2 |
Automated job management
A method and apparatus are disclosed for improving the implementation of automated job management for equipment in a factory. A software library is provided that allows a job management client, such as a thin station controller client, to communicate with an equipment server, such as an equipment interface bridge (EIB). The job management client can create, control and monitor jobs conveniently and efficiently utilizing industry standard protocols. The equipment server communicates directly in real-time with factory equipment. By providing an interface between a job management client and an equipment server, data consumer clients are effectively decoupled from job management clients, allowing next generation station controllers for monitoring and controlling equipment processing to be easily implemented. Layers of expensive and complex code currently in use for job management can be replaced with a superior and cost-effective thin-client, distributed architecture. Such a system may operate in conjunction with legacy station controllers, or the station controller can be eliminated and replaced by multiple modules that distribute the many types of functions typically incorporated into conventional station controllers. |
| US07873427B1 |
Audio feedback test
Methods and systems provide automated testing of computer facilitated audio input and output devices. A tone is converted from a digital to analog signal and is sent to a sound mixing device. At the sound mixing device, the analog tone is looped back through a recording line to an analog to digital converter. The recorded tone is converted from a time domain to a frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis. The frequency, and if desired, the intensity of the recorded tone is compared against the known frequency and at the desired intensity of the played tone. If the recorded tone is the same as the played tone, the ability of the sound card to play the tone is designated as passing. |
| US07873420B2 |
Password protection for cochlear implant
An implant system includes an external portion adapted for placement external to a user, and an implantable portion adapted for placement internal the user. One of the internal portion and the external portion includes a first password for transmitting to the other one of the internal portion and the external portion. The other one of the internal portion and the external portion includes a second password. A match between the first password and the second password causes a first mode of operation. |
| US07873419B2 |
Retinal prosthesis and method of manufacturing a retinal prosthesis
An improved package and configuration for an implantable retinal prosthesis includes an electrode array suitable to be mounted in close proximity to a retina, an electronics package, and an inductive receiving coil mounted next to each other on a strap surrounding the sclera so that the height above the sclera of the prosthesis is minimized. |
| US07873418B2 |
Variation of neural stimulation parameters
Techniques for varying stimulus parameters used in neural stimulation to improve therapy efficacy, minimize energy consumption, minimize undesired side effects, and minimize loss of therapeutic effectiveness due to physiologic tolerance to stimulation. Neural stimulation is provided having a stimulation amplitude, a stimulation frequency, a stimulation pulse duration, an electrode-firing pattern, and a set of electrode-firing-polarity conditions. At least one of the stimulation parameters is pseudo-randomly varied. A second stimulation parameter is changed based upon having pseudo-randomly varied the first stimulation parameter and based upon a predetermined relationship specifying how changes in the first parameter affect desirable values for the second parameter. |
| US07873416B2 |
Method and apparatus for protecting a function mode of a medical device
Methods and apparatus for protecting a function mode of a medical device are described. A method can include steps of: when an operator selects to use a function mode that needs protection in the medical device, presenting the operator information on a specified operation for entering the selected function mode; receiving an operation of the operator; determining whether the received operation of the operator is identical to the specified operation; and starting the selected function mode, if the determining result is confirmative. |
| US07873415B2 |
Cardiac rhythm management system and method
A system and method for cardiac rhythm management, which includes an electrode system having at least one electrode and control circuitry coupled to the electrode system from which a first cardiac signal is sensed. The control circuitry includes a pulse circuit to produce electrical pulses at a first value to be delivered to the electrode system in a first cardiac region. At least one cardiac signal is sensed from a second cardiac region, where the cardiac signal includes indications of cardiac depolarizations from the second cardiac region which occurs in direct reaction to the electrical pulses delivered to the first cardiac region. The first value of the electrical pulses are then modified by a pulse adjustment circuit when a cardiac depolarization which occurs in direct reaction to the electrical pulse delivered to the first cardiac region is detected from the second cardiac region. |
| US07873413B2 |
Closed loop neural stimulation synchronized to cardiac cycles
Various aspects of the present subject matter relate to a method. According to various method embodiments, cardiac activity is detected, and neural stimulation is synchronized with a reference event in the detected cardiac activity. Neural stimulation is titrated based on a detected response to the neural stimulation. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein. |
| US07873409B2 |
Invasive cardiology digital signal amplifier and acquisition device
The digital signal amplifier and acquisition system includes at least one catheter input module (CIM) configured to receive, route and digitize incoming analog cardiac signals from a number of catheters, as well as outgoing stimulator pulses. A plurality of CIMs are mechanically stacked and electrically daisy-chained and coupled with a mounting. The mounting platter is clamped to the bedrail and provides a single digital output cable to the base. The system also includes an acquisition device and the aforementioned base, which is configured to collect, filter and distribute the acquired data. Lastly an analog output module receives filtered digital signals from the base and is configured to reconstruct analog representations of such filtered digital signals for outside devices. |
| US07873408B2 |
Bioimaging apparatus
To improve image quality as well as considering miniaturization. In the top surface 2A of a housing 2, a placing part 7 is provided near other end of shorter side ED2. A reflective board 6 is provided between an imaging opening part 3 facing to the above placing part 7 and one end of shorter side ED1. And in the housing 2 at a lower part of the above imaging opening part 3, a CCD image pickup device 4 for transmitting near infrared lights that passed through a finger FG placed on the placing part and was refracted by the reflective board 6 as a blood vessel image signal S1 is provided. |
| US07873405B2 |
Automated detection of Alzheimer's disease by statistical analysis with positron emission tomography images
A method for detecting Alzheimer's disease using positron emission tomography. A normal population mean is obtained using PET. The normal population mean is obtained through the assimilation of a number of normal brain scans. Non-AD images and AD images are compared to observe differences in the uptake of FDG. PET scan results are expressed as relative uptake intensities and indexed by Brodmann's areas. An image is tested by comparing the distance of each mean for each Brodmann's area from the normal distribution. A Receiver Operating Characteristic curve is plotted based on the variation of deviation for the total population of both normal and probable Alzheimer's brain images. Variations in FDG uptake in a brain image as compared to the normal distribution confirms the probability of AD. |
| US07873403B2 |
Method and device for determining a three-dimensional form of a body from two-dimensional projection images
A method for determining a three-dimensional form of a body from two-dimensional projection images includes producing at least one projection image of the body and producing corresponding model projection images from a generic model of the body. The body projection images and the model can be input into a computer-assisted processing unit and the generic model can be adjusted to the body by comparing image contents of the body projection images with the model projections images at a two-dimensional level only. The three-dimensional form of the body can be determined from the adjusted generic model. |
| US07873401B2 |
System and method for a magnetic catheter tip
A system whereby a magnetic tip attached to a surgical tool is detected, displayed and influenced positionally so as to allow diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to be performed rapidly, accurately, simply, and intuitively is described. The tools that can be so equipped include catheters, guidewires, and secondary tools such as lasers and balloons, in addition biopsy needles, endoscopy probes, and similar devices. The tip position and orientation information and the dynamic body part position information are also utilized to provide a display that allows three dimensional viewing of the magnetic tip position and orientation relative to the body part. |
| US07873400B2 |
Adapter for surgical navigation trackers
An adapter can be easily used to assist a surgical navigation system to determine the effector axis or the effector plane of a surgical instrument. The adapter has a body with a geometrical feature, the geometrical feature has a known relation with a navigation tracker device that can be attached to the adapter. When the adapter is held against a surgical instrument in a non-fixed manner, the effector axis or the effector plane of the instrument can be tracked by the surgical navigation system. The method includes a calibration method to determine the known relation between the effector axis or the effector plane and the location of the navigation tracker. |
| US07873389B2 |
Radio base station apparatus, radio terminal apparatus, mobile communication system, and reception operation control program
In response to a connection request from a terminal, a base station provides a signal indicating a reception operation adapted to a transmission operation of the base station to the terminal. Based on the indicating signal, the terminal selects and performs the optimum reception operation. The terminal also provides its own reception operation information in advance to the base station. Based on the reception operation information, the base station transmits a reception operation indication to the terminal. These processes are realized with software by DSP (12, 14) and the like. |
| US07873386B2 |
Dual mode wireless data communications
A dual mode mobile unit is arranged to communicate in either a first or second data communications standard, such as combined Bluetooth and 802.11 operation. An interface unit converts received Bluetooth or 802.11 format signals into 802.11 frame format data signals to be provided to a digital signal processor which is programmed to process signals in either standard. The dual mode mobile unit can operate in the 802.11 standard to reserve a time interval for Bluetooth activity during which other 802.11 units will avoid transmissions to avoid interference. |
| US07873385B2 |
Antenna sharing techniques
Antenna sharing techniques are described. A mobile computing device may comprise an antenna, a switch to couple to the antenna, and multiple transceivers to couple to the switch. The mobile computing device may also comprise an antenna management module to couple to the switch and the transceivers. The antenna management module may control the switch to electrically connect one of the transceivers to the antenna. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US07873383B2 |
Wireless communication device, controlling method and program therefor
To make is possible to perform communication adapted to changes in a communication environment, a wireless communication device comprises a wireless communication unit for performing communication with another communication device through a wireless communication network, a communication quality evaluation unit for generating an evaluation value with regards to a communication quality of the communication, a communication mode switch unit for switching communication modes for use in the communication according to the evaluation value. |
| US07873381B2 |
Wireless communication control system, radio base station, and wireless communication control method
A radio communication control system (10) which controls a transmission power of a shared control channel for transmitting a control signal to a plurality of mobile stations, includes: a new transmission power setting section (13) configured to set a new transmission power of the shared control channel by adding an offset to a transmission power of a dedicated channel to be transmitted dedicatedly to each of the plurality of mobile stations; wherein the offset is set in accordance with a propagation environment of a radio communication. |
| US07873380B2 |
Method of communication and base station
There are provided a method of communication which can reliably transmit information from a base station to a wireless terminal in a system which can reduce power consumption by intermittent operation in which the wireless terminal repeats operating state and suspended state by power on and off and the base station used for the method. The method includes the steps of storing base station information such as a command or data supplied to the wireless terminal in the base station, transferring the wireless terminal from the suspended state to the operating state to transmit information from the sensor to the base station, coupling the base station information stored in the base station to a response signal to transmit it to the wireless terminal in the operating state for transmitting the sensor information, and returning the wireless terminal to the suspended state after completing the transmission of the base station information and sensor information. |
| US07873372B2 |
Transmitting content to a mobile computing device
A method and system for targeting content (e.g., a service or an advertisement) according to location-based information derived from a mobile wireless transceiver device. Position information as a function of time is used to calculate a rate of travel and a direction of travel. This information can be used to identify a likely mode of transportation. Geographical information can be used to further refine the mode of transportation. Thus, in addition to the position of the wireless transceiver devices, factors such as the rate of travel, the direction of travel and the likely mode of transportation are also considered to more precisely identify the appropriate service. Moreover, a potential destination can be predicted, allowing further refinement of the targeted service. |
| US07873370B2 |
Location information system and method for performing notification based upon location
A system and method for performing a notification based upon location in a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) network which is provided with a SUPL Location Platform (SLP) and a SUPL Enabled Terminal (SET) to thus perform a privacy authentication based upon a location of the SET, wherein when a client requests positioning of the SET, the SLP transmits a notification mode parameter to the SET through a session initial message, whereby it can be predefined whether the notification is performed based upon a location or a user when the SLP (i.e., server system) notifies the SET (or the SET user) of the positioning of the SET requested by the client (i.e., a client system), thus to enable the SET to determine a time point of a notification response. |
| US07873364B2 |
Apparatus and method for accounting in wireless communication system
The present invention relates to an accounting method and an accounting apparatus in a mobile communication system. The amount of radio resources and traffic used by a mobile terminal of each subscriber accessing a base station can be measured and analyzed without changing a structure of the mobile communication system. In addition, since a provider who does not own an IP network and thus uses a leased network of an existing provider can measure and analyze the amount of traffic used by a mobile terminal in the leased network regardless of an IP network of the existing provider, a more precise accounting reference can be provided to the corresponding provider. |
| US07873359B2 |
Mobile broadband wireless access system for transferring service information during handover
The present invention is related to transmitting quality of service (QoS) information of a target base station for admitted service flows during a handover operation. The invention comprises providing a service to a mobile station from a serving base station and receiving at the serving base station a handover request from the mobile station. The serving base station the provides a handover notification to a target base station, wherein the handover notification comprises a QoS parameter associated with the service. The serving base station then receives from the target base station a handover notification response, wherein the handover notification response comprises service level prediction information that is determined in response to the QoS parameter associated with the service. Finally, the serving base station provides a handover response to the mobile station, the handover response comprising the service level prediction information. |
| US07873351B2 |
Communication restriction control system and communication restriction control method
The present invention provides a communication restriction control system and a communication restriction control method capable of performing communication restriction control depending on circumstances of communication restriction control area. The mobile terminal transmits a response request signal to a radio response equipment provided in the communication restriction control area which transmits a response signal including identification information as a response to the response request signal. A communication system discriminating equipment which is provided with a database in which the identification information is associated with one of allowed communication circumstances, and allowed communication circumstance is determined by referring to the database according to the identification information, and communication restriction control of the mobile terminal according to the determined result is performed. |
| US07873350B1 |
End-to-end secure wireless communication for requesting a more secure channel
The present invention is a system and method for establishing a secure connection using a public a wireless telephone network. The method utilizes a proxy base station and establishes an encrypted session over the public wireless network between a wireless handset and the proxy base station. The proxy base station further establishes a connection with second communication station such as a landline phone. The proxy base station determines a most secure channel between the base station and the second communication station by consulting a database of channels and associated measures of security. |
| US07873349B1 |
System, method, and device for intelligence gathering and position tracking
A mobile communication device that may be used by an investigator to secretly record a suspect and track the investigator's location includes a microphone for detecting sounds, a communication component for transmitting signals or data representative of the sounds to one of the portable computers via the wireless communication network, a display for displaying information related to operation of the device, a computing device, and a computer program implemented by the computing device. The computer program is operable to place the device in a stealth mode in which the display is turned off or otherwise deactivated to make the entire device appear to be turned off while the microphone continues to detect sounds and the communication component continues to transmit signals or data representative of the sounds to a surveillance or support team operating one of the portable computers. The mobile communication device may also include a location-determining component for determining geographic locations of the device and for transmitting location data to the portable computer. |
| US07873347B2 |
Method for implementing a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) gateway system
The invention of present provides for a real-time authentication and billing gateway for WLAN traffic. Notably, the improved method for implementing a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) gateway system enables telecommunications network operators (and like entities) to rate and bill for services accessed by the wireless user. The logic of the invention supports and furthers the art in regards to advanced real-time rating/billing in addition to providing for a variety of replenishment mechanisms for casual users via pre-paid vouchers and credit cards. |
| US07873346B2 |
Arrangement and method for determining charging in a telecommunications system
The present invention relates to a method and arrangements for determining charging related to a data bit transfer session from a traffic source (209) to a client (213), said bit transfer session involving bit transfer over a wireless communications link (214f) under the control of a radio resource managing unit (204). According to the method of the present invention the radio resource managing unit (204) sends information regarding the bandwidth on the wireless link that the bit transfer session currently is allowed to use to a charging logic (212). This bandwidth information from the radio resource managing unit (204) is used by the charging logic (212) to determine the charging related to the bit transfer session. Thereby a fair charging of the session may be achieved, which is adapted to the quality of service actually obtained by the end-user for the session. |
| US07873343B2 |
Communication network terminal with sleep capability
Improved apparatus for a radio communication system having a multiplicity of mobile transceiver units selectively in communication with a plurality of base transceiver units which, in turn, communicate with one or more host computers for storage and manipulation of data collected by bar code scanners or other collection means associated with the mobile transceiver units. A network controller and an adapter which has a simulcast and sequential mode provide selective interface between host computers and base transceivers. A scheme for routing data through the communication system is also disclosed wherein the intermediate base stations are organized into an optimal spanning-tree network to control the routing of data to and from the RF terminals and the host computer efficiently and dynamically. Additionally, redundant network and communication protocol is disclosed wherein the network utilizes a polling communication protocol which, under heavy loaded conditions, requires that a roaming terminal wishing to initiate communication must first determine that the channel is truly clear by listing for an entire interpoll gap time. In a further embodiment, a criterion used by the roaming terminals for attaching to a given base station reduces conflicts in the overlapping RF regions of adjacent base stations. |
| US07873340B2 |
Method to track analog gain step magnitudes online during operation of wireless mobile devices
Systems and methods are provided for tracking and compensating for analog gain mismatches or changes in a receiver. In an embodiment, a method is provided to track analog gain step magnitudes during operation of a device. The method includes employing an error signal between an automatic gain control (AGC) output and a reference level as input to a gain step magnitude tracking component. This also includes determining at least one compensation value from the AGC output to update a nominal gain step magnitude that tracks an actual gain step magnitude. |
| US07873339B2 |
System for determining total isotropic sensitivity (TIS) using target received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value and related methods
A test method is for determining total isotropic sensitivity (TIS) of a mobile wireless communications device using an RF source controllable to a plurality of source values having a relatively small uncertainty associated therewith. The mobile wireless communications device may includes an antenna and a RF receiver coupled to the antenna and outputting an RSSI value having a relatively large uncertainty associated therewith. The method may include measuring a sensitivity of the RF receiver, and measuring an antenna gain pattern for the antenna based upon controlling the RF source to respective source values causing the RE receiver to generate a same target RSSI value as the RF source and wireless communications device are angularly moved relative to one another to thereby reduce the relatively large uncertainty of the RSSI value. The TIS may be determined based upon the measured sensitivity of the RF receiver and the measured antenna gain pattern. |
| US07873336B2 |
Frequency offset compensation for communication systems
In communications between a pair of stations using modulated carrier signals, a first station estimates the carrier frequency offset with respect to the second station and transmits signals that are responsive to the estimated carrier frequency offset. The first station may adjust the carrier frequency of the signals it transmits in response to the estimated carrier frequency offset, and/or transmit data to the second station representing the estimated carrier frequency offset. The second station adjusts the carrier frequency of the signals it transmits to the first station, and/or compensates for carrier frequency offset in its processing of received signals, in response to estimated carrier frequency offset data received from the first station. |
| US07873332B2 |
Method and system for mitigating a voltage standing wave ratio
Methods and systems for mitigating a voltage standing wave ratio in a transmitter are disclosed and may comprise calibrating an output power of a power amplifier integrated within a chip using a resistor that models an impedance of an antenna that is externally coupled to the amplifier while the antenna is decoupled. The gain and output power of the amplifier may be determined utilizing the known resistance and a voltage that is measured at an input of the power amplifier, or at a number of points prior to the power amplifier. When the antenna may be coupled to the transmitter, the transmitter output power may then be controlled utilizing the voltage measurements prior to the power amplifier to avoid measuring reflected waves in instances when the antenna impedance may vary. The power amplifier may be of a design that comprises reverse isolation to reduce reflected waves from the antenna. |
| US07873331B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for multi-path orthogonal recursive predistortion
System and methods are provided for multi-path orthogonal recursive predistortion. The systems and methods may include generating a first orthogonal signal and a second orthogonal signal, where the first and second signals are orthogonal components of an input signal and processing, at a first predistortion module, the first orthogonal signal and a first error correction signal to generate a first predistorted signal. The system and methods may also include processing, at a second predistortion module, the second orthogonal signal and a second error correction signal to generate a second predistorted signal, and providing the generated first and second predistorted signals to a nonlinear device, where the nonlinear device generates an output based upon the first and second predistorted signals, where the first error correction signal is determined based upon an analysis of the output and the first predistorted signal, and where the second error correction signal is determined based upon an analysis of the output and the second predistorted signal. |
| US07873330B2 |
Transceiver for reducing current consumption in a wireless communications network
A transceiver circuit and a method in a wireless communication network are provided, where a signal power level for a signal received at the transceiver circuit is measured and compared to a predefined threshold power level. At least two groups of power amplifiers may be used, where one group is optimized for high efficiency above the predefined threshold power level, and one group is optimized for high efficiency below the predefined threshold power level. The amplifiers may be used to amplify the received signal depending on the signal power level in relation to the predefined power threshold level. The signal may then be filtered by duplex filters and forwarded to a diversity antenna or a main antenna where it is transmitted over an air interface. |
| US07873328B2 |
Subscriber unit for performing an access procedure
A base station for controlling transmission power during the establishment of a communication channel utilizes the reception of a short code during initial power ramp-up. The short code is a sequence for detection by the base station which has a much shorter period than a conventional access code. The ramp-up starts from a power level that is lower than the required power level for detection by the base station. The power of the short code is quickly increased until the signal is detected by the base station. Once the base station detects the short code, it transmits an indication that the short code has been detected. |
| US07873326B2 |
RFID beam forming system
A multi-protocol, multi-band array antenna system may be used in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system reader and sensory networks. The antenna array may include array elements with an integrated low noise amplifier. The system may employ digital beam forming techniques for transmission and steering of a beam to a specific sensor tag or group of tags in an cell. The receive beam forming network is optimized for detecting signals from each sensor tag. Narrow and wideband interferences may be excised by an interference nulling algorithm. Space division multiplexing may be used by the antenna system to enhance system processing capacity. |
| US07873322B2 |
Ingress susceptibility on return path
The testing device of the present invention includes an RF input for connecting to a subscriber network, which has been disconnected from a communication network, for receiving ingress RF signals leaked into the subscriber network from outside sources. The device includes a signal processor for scanning the RF signals for power levels at a plurality of frequencies, and generating power level signals based at least in part on the power levels. Ideally, the power levels are compared to a threshold power level representing an acceptable amount of ingress, and a pass/fail indicator is displayed based on whether the power levels exceed the threshold power level. |
| US07873318B2 |
Radio-frequency communication device
A radio-frequency communication device arranged to transmit a transmitted signal from a transmitter antenna device toward a communication object, and to receive through a receiver antenna device a reply signal transmitted from the communication object, for radio communication with the communication object, the radio-frequency communication device including a transfer-function calculating portion operable to calculate a transfer function indicative of a relationship between a signal input to the transmitter antenna device and a signal generated by the receiver antenna device due to the signal input to the transmitter antenna device, and a receiver-circuit-constant setting portion operable to set a receiver-circuit constant for improving a quality of the reply signal received by the receiver antenna device, on the basis of the transfer function calculated by the transfer-function calculating portion, and the signal input to the transmitter antenna device. |
| US07873317B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for communicating with wireless peripheral devices
A wireless communication system includes a wireless peripheral device, a computer device, and a wireless interface capable of communicating with the peripheral device and the computer device. The wireless interface is configured to receive a communication directed to the wireless peripheral device from the computer, transmit wireless signals using a plurality of wireless technology standards at the same time to the wireless peripheral device, and receive an acknowledgement message from the wireless peripheral device. The acknowledgement message identifies at least one wireless technology standard utilized by the wireless peripheral device. The wireless interface is further configured to cancel transmission of any unacknowledged wireless signals, the unacknowledged wireless signals being those wireless signals not utilized by the wireless peripheral device, and forward the communication to the wireless peripheral device using one of the at least one wireless technology standards utilized by the wireless peripheral device. |
| US07873316B2 |
Underwater communications system
An underwater communications system is provided that transmits electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals to a remote receiver. The transmitter includes a data input. A digital data compressor compresses data to be transmitted. A modulator modulates compressed data onto a carrier signal. An electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna transmits the compressed, modulated signals. The receiver that has an electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna for receiving a compressed, modulated signal. A demodulator is provided for demodulating the signal to reveal compressed data. A de-compressor de-compresses the data. An appropriate human interface is provided to present transmitted data into text/audio/visible form. Similarly, the transmit system comprises appropriate audio/visual/text entry mechanisms. |
| US07873313B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming control method, and recording medium recording image forming control program
An image forming apparatus that includes an image forming component, a flash fixing component and a control component is provided. The image forming component forms toner images using at least two toners respectively having different colors and transfers the formed toner images onto a recording medium. The flash fixing component emits a flash light onto the recording medium onto which the toner images have been transferred by the image forming component and fixes the toner images. The control component that controls the image forming component to form the toner images so that, among the toner images, a second color toner is adhered to a surface of a toner layer formed by a first toner color at a region at which the toner layer formed by the first toner color is formed, the absorbance of the second color toner being lower than that of the first color toner. |
| US07873304B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and process cartridge
To provide an image forming apparatus including: a latent electrostatic image bearing member; a charging unit configured to charge the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member; an exposing unit configured to expose the charged surface of the latent electrostatic image to form a latent electrostatic image thereon; a developing unit configured to develop the latent electrostatic image with a toner to form a visualized image; a transferring unit configured to transfer the visualized image onto a recording medium; and a fixing unit configured to fix the visualized image transferred onto the recording medium, wherein the toner includes a binder resin and a coloring agent, and the binder resin includes a polyester resin obtained by condensation polymerization of an alcohol component and a carboxylic acid component containing a (meth)acrylic acid modified rosin. |
| US07873302B2 |
Cleaning device and image forming apparatus
A cleaning device includes a cleaning blade, a receiving member, an inlet seal, an adhering member, and an end seal. The cleaning blade is brought into contact with a photosensitive drum to remove residual toner therefrom. The receiving member receives the residual toner. The inlet seal guides the residual toner to the receiving member. The adhering member adheres the inlet seal to the receiving member. The end seal is arranged along the end portions of the cleaning blade and the inlet seal. The inlet seal covers the end seal and extends out from the end seal in its longitudinal direction. |
| US07873293B2 |
Image heating apparatus and heater for use in image heating apparatus
The heater includes an elongated substrate, two electrodes disposed along a longitudinal direction of the substrate, and a heat generation resistive member connected between the two electrodes. The heat generation resistive member is formed on the substrate by one of a sputtering method and a vapor deposition method. The uniform heat generation distribution of a heat generation resistive member in a heater can be achieved so as to reduce a temperature difference between a pass-through area through which a recording material passes and a no sheet pass-through area through which the recording material does not pass. |
| US07873292B2 |
Image forming apparatus and transfer method thereof
An image forming apparatus includes a moving unit which includes a conveyer belt to move a recording medium, an attraction unit which is disposed at a front head in a moving direction of the recording medium and attracts the recording medium to the conveyer belt, a plurality of transferring units including a photosensitive material and a transfer roller to perform a transferring process of the recording medium according to a plurality of colors, a power supply to supply power to form an electric field in the transferring unit and the attraction unit to perform transfer and attraction of the recording medium, and a controller to control the power supply to supply the power to the plurality of transferring units corresponding to resistance values of second transferring units among the plurality of transferring units, the second transferring units disposed apart from a first transferring unit that is located closest to the attraction unit with respect to the moving direction of the recording medium. |
| US07873290B2 |
Dynamic process control for image printing devices in the presence of reload defects based on customer image content
A method and system for controlling an image printing system in the presence of reload defects are provided. The method comprises placing toner images on an image bearing surface moving in a process direction, determining the density of the toner image or a portion thereof being printed on the image bearing surface, and printing a scheduled control patch at a location in the cross-process direction on the image bearing surface, wherein the location where each control patch is printed is dynamically changed based on the density of the toner image adjacent the control patch or a portion thereof. |
| US07873286B2 |
Optical receiver systems and methods for polarization demultiplexing, PMD compensation, and DXPSK demodulation
A simplified optical receiver architecture capable of tracking and demultiplexing polarization-multiplexed signals, dynamically compensating for PMD using a variety of polarization controller technologies, and reducing the number of delay line demodulators by two for both DPSK and DQPSK modulation is illustrated. Once polarization is stabilized at the first stage of the cascaded system of the present invention, subsequent stages can be simplified and cost reduced. |
| US07873285B2 |
Anti clipping circuit for laser transmitters
This anti clipping circuit is for a laser transmitter used to transmit sub-carrier multiplexed signals for CATV applications. The circuit design is based on actual clipping measurements showing the specific time and duration of the clipping events is random. The individual clipping pulses interval is fixed, every 4 us. A PHEMT peak detection circuit is used in conjunction with a missing pulse detector/timer to catch all the clipping events. Thus the laser bias current is adjusted automatically at the specific time of the clipping event and for the duration of all the clipping pulses in the event. The controlled increase and decrease of the lasers bias current is DC coupled back into the normal DC bias path via a diode. This gives the anti clipping circuit noise isolation when there are no clipping events and avoids laser clipping during the laser current recovery time as when using an AC coupling scheme. |
| US07873280B2 |
Method and apparatus for free-space optical interconnects between arbitrary locations in a field using lenses, steering elements and a curved reflecting surface
A method and apparatus for achieving high-density and misalignment tolerant short-reach free-space optical interconnects between arbitrary locations in a field, using microlenses, steering elements and a curved reflecting surface. |
| US07873274B2 |
Methods and systems to stabilize an optical network against nodal gain changes
The present invention provides methods and systems to stabilize an optical network against nodal gain changes through two nested control loops for controlling node gain and node output power. The present invention includes two nested control-loops running at different update speeds including: an inner, faster, control-loop which sets the gains and losses within a node to achieve a node-gain target, and a node-gain target for the inner loop is set by an outer, slower, control loop that whose target is the node output power. Advantageously, the present invention reduces the problem of concatenated overshoot by minimizing the control-loop response to events that occur at other nodes. |
| US07873271B2 |
Photography apparatus and photography method
Two photography operations are performed without emitting flash during a second photography operation, to obtain image signals P1 and P2. A flash influence signal value F1 is calculated in image signal P1. A flash influence signal value F2, which is the amount of influence due to flash in the case that flash was emitted during the second photography operation, is calculated based on the differences between the imaging conditions of the first photography operation and the second photography operation and the flash influence signal value F1. An image signal P2″, which is an image signal which is estimated to be obtained in the case that flash was emitted during the second photography operation, is obtained by adding flash influence signal value F2 to image signal P2 obtained by the second photography operation. A dynamic range expanded image signal Pc is calculated based on image signal P1 and image signal P2″. |
| US07873269B2 |
Micro camera module with discrete manual focal positions
A novel micro camera module that is manually adjustable between a close-up mode and an infinite mode includes a lens assembly adjustably mounted within a sleeve that is adjustably mounted into a housing. In a particular embodiment the sleeve includes a channel (cam groove) that is engaged by a plurality of pins fixed to the housing. Further, a biasing member is disposed between the sleeve and the housing such that an upward force will enable the pins to firmly engage the lower portion of the channel. In a more particular embodiment, the channel defines two detents that secure the sleeve into predetermined positions with respect to the housing. In an even more particular embodiment, the channel is sloped such that upon rotation of the sleeve, the distance between the lens assembly and an image capture device is changed. In another particular embodiment, the camera module includes an electrical mode detecting switch that is indicative of the position of the camera module. |
| US07873263B2 |
Multiplexing method preventing overflow of audio decoder buffer
A time zone start time point calculating unit calculates a time zone to be set in a VOBU in accordance with audio bit rate. A time zone comparing unit compares a time point at which an audio pack is to be multiplexed with the time zone calculated by the time zone start time point calculating unit. A flag setting unit sets whether the audio pack is to be completed or not in accordance with the result of comparison by the time zone comparing unit. Therefore, a completing process takes place before a VOBU boundary, and a completed PCK will not be generated immediately after the VOBU boundary. Thus, generation of a buffer overflow can be prevented. |
| US07873262B2 |
Data processing method, device thereof and program
An optical disk device 4 for acquiring a file path to an AV file data corresponding to a designated data UMID in an optical disk, based on management data MD read out from the optical disk, in response to a request REQ from a computer 3 and further accessing AV file data recorded at a physical address acquired based on the file path. |
| US07873261B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for providing alternative media content
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media provide for the display of overlying alternative media content in real time upon the initiation of a fast-forwarding action associated with underlying media content. According to implementations, a method includes displaying underlying media content at a first playback rate. A modification of the playback rate, from a first rate to a second rate, is detected. As a result of detecting the second playback rate, alternative media content is retrieved and displayed. According to one aspect, the underlying media content is television programming while the alternative media content is screen frames selected from the television programming at predetermined time intervals. According to another aspect, the alternative media may include media content that is unrelated to the television programming. |
| US07873259B2 |
Synching a recording time of a program to the actual program broadcast time for the program
A recording system receives a broadcast signal from at least one service provider. An offset controller of the recording system samples a portion of the current broadcast signal on a particular channel over a particular interval of time. The offset controller then compares the sampled portion with a selection of features anticipated to be broadcast during the particular interval of time. Next, if the offset controller detects that a particular feature from among the selection of features matches within the portion of the current broadcast signal, then the offset controller calculates an offset time from a difference between an expected time for broadcast of the particular feature and an actual time of broadcast. The recording time for a program to be recorded is initially set to the start time and end time from a predetermined broadcast schedule. The offset controller adjusts the recording time of the program that is affected by the offset time so that the recording time of the program is synched to the actual broadcast time of the program on the particular channel. |
| US07873255B2 |
Fiber distribution hubs
A fiber distribution hub includes a swing frame chassis pivotally mounted within an enclosure. The swing frame chassis includes a splitter mounting location at which optical splitters can be mounted and an optical termination field. The optical termination field includes multiple fiber optic adapters. |
| US07873253B2 |
Adapter panel with lateral sliding adapter arrays
An adapter panel arrangement including a chassis and a panel of adapters. The adapters defining rearward cable connections and forward cable connections of the panel arrangement. Openings permitting access to the rearward and forward cable connections of the adapters are provided. The chassis further including a removable rear chassis portion to provide access to cable routing areas within the chassis interior. |
| US07873248B2 |
Ferrule for optical connector
A ferrule includes a recess formed on an obliquely polished surface to house a protrusion formed on an obliquely polished surface of another ferrule, so as to avoid an angular change at an interface between end surfaces of the pair of obliquely polished end surfaces of the ferrules facing each other. |
| US07873245B2 |
Optoelectric composite substrate and method of manufacturing the same
An optoelectric composite substrate of the present invention includes an insulating film, an optical waveguide embedded in the insulating film in a state that an upper surface is exposed from the insulating film, a via hole formed to pass through the insulating film, a conductor formed in the via hole, and a connection terminal on which an optical device is mounted and which is connected to an upper end side of the conductor, wherein the connection terminal is embedded in an upper-side portion of the via hole or is projected from the insulating film. |
| US07873239B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image direction determining method, and computer program product
A first direction determining unit determines, with respect to each of directions in image data corresponding to an image that contains text, a degree of certainty that the direction corresponds to a predetermined direction of the image to obtain a first direction with the highest degree of certainty and a second direction with the second-highest degree of certainty. When the first direction is opposite to the second direction, a second direction determining unit determines whether the predetermined direction corresponds to the first direction or the second direction based on a position of a text line extracted from the image data. |
| US07873236B2 |
Systems, methods and apparatus for consistency-constrained filtered backprojection for out-of-focus artifacts in digital tomosythesis
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments during backprojection of filtered two-dimensional into three dimensional image each voxel is analyzed for inconsistent contributions based on at least two criteria and each of the inconsistent contributions is either replaced or excluded from the backprojection. |
| US07873235B2 |
Fog isolation and rejection filter
An imaging processing system adapted for use with a vehicle is provided in one aspect of the present invention. The system generally includes an image capturing device and an image processing device. The image capturing device is operable to capture an original image of a scene exterior to the vehicle. The captured original image is generally defined by a group of pixels. The image processing device is operable to receive the captured original image and morphologically process the captured original image to remove distortion from the captured original image to produce a final filtered image. |
| US07873234B2 |
Input compensating for imaging distortion
Certain aspects can relate to obtaining at least some input compensating information at least partially based on the distortion characterizing imaging information that when applied to an imaging modality used to obtain the at least one image information can limit distortions to the at least the portion of the at least one image information resulting from at least a portion of at least one distorting feature, wherein the at least some input compensating information is characterized based at least in part on the at least one relative orientation of the at least the portion of the at least one distorting feature relative to the at least one image information. |
| US07873230B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing images using black character substitution
An image correction section in an image processing section performs a resolution-enhancing process for an input R signal from a RED photodiode array 9R1, an input G signal from a GREEN photodiode array 9G1 and an input B signal from a BLUE photodiode array 9B1, using an input K signal from a BLACK photodiode array 9K1. The image correction section outputs four signals: an Rc1 signal, a Gc1 signal and a Bc1 signal, which are subjected to the resolution-enhancing process, and the K signal that is used for the resolution-enhancing process. |
| US07873226B2 |
Image encoding apparatus
An image encoding apparatus includes a detection unit detecting edge block candidates as blocks including an edge in an image composed of plural blocks, and a determination unit excluding an edge block candidate that is recognized as no necessity of image quality improving processing executed in image encoding processing from the detected edge block candidates and determining a remaining edge block candidate as edge block to be targeted in the image quality improving processing. |
| US07873225B2 |
Video coding system providing separate coding chains for dynamically selected small-size or full-size playback
Embodiments of the present invention provide a coding system that codes data according to a pair of coding chains. A first coding chain generates coded video data that can be decoded by itself to represent a source video sequence of a small size, such as a size sufficient to support the real time playback and display features of a video editing application. The second coding chain generates coded video data representing supplementary data, which when decoded in conjunction with the coded video data of the first coding chain, yields the source video sequence for full-size display. The output of the first coding chain may be stored in memory in a file structure that can be accessed independently of the second chain's output and, therefore, it facilitates real time decoding and playback. |
| US07873222B2 |
Fail safe image processing apparatus
Methods of capturing image pixel data representing a scene may be practiced using a camera and may be implemented as software, such as an application program executing within the camera. The methods are particularly advantageous where user modification to the camera control parameters leads to a difference between the values of the pre-capture control parameters for the camera when compared to the pre-capture control parameters that the camera would determine in fully automatic mode. The measured difference may be compared to one or more predetermined threshold values. |
| US07873221B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, program for image processing method, and recording medium which records program for image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes: an image acquisition section which acquires an original image; a resolution conversion section which converts the resolution of the original image acquired by the image acquisition section and generates a plurality of reduced images having different resolutions; a detection section which processes by template matching the plurality of reduced images generated by the resolution conversion section and detects an area occupied by a picked-up image of a particular object corresponding to the template, from the reduced images; and a detection result processing section which detects the area occupied by the picked-up image of the particular object on the original image, by processing a detection result obtained by the detection section, the detection section detecting the area occupied by the picked-up image of the particular object by processing the plurality of reduced images in an order in which resolution sequentially varies on a step-by-step basis. |
| US07873213B2 |
Systems and methods for color-deficient image enhancement
Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems and methods for processing images for enhanced viewing by color-deficient viewers. |
| US07873211B1 |
Content-aware video resizing using discontinuous seam carving
A video is resized while preserving salient regions within the video. The dimensions of the video are reduced by selectively removing unimportant, or less salient, pixels from the video in a manner that diminishes any resulting spatial and temporal artifacts. More specifically, “seams” of pixels are selectively removed from frames of the video, where a “seam” is a horizontal or vertical chain of pixels through a frame. A seam can be selected from among all possible pixels in a row or column, thereby allowing discontinuous seams. Seams are selected using a technique that encourages the seam to pass through less-salient regions of the frame, and that reduces spatial artifacts when the video is played. |
| US07873208B2 |
Image matching system using three-dimensional object model, image matching method, and image matching program
Even when only a small number of reference images are available for each object, it is possible to search at high speed a reference image stored in a database from an input image of an object imaged with a different pose and a different illumination condition. A reference image matching result storage section (50) inputs reference images from a reference image storage section (70) and stores in advance results of matching of the input images with representative 3-dimensional object models of a representative 3-dimensional object model storage section (20). According to each representative 3-dimensional object model, image generation means (30) generates a comparison image having an input condition similar to the input image obtained from the image input means (10). Image matching means (40) calculates similarity between the input image and the image generated. Result matching means (60) calculates similarity between the matching result of the image matching means (40) and the reference image stored in the reference image matching result storage section (50), extracts reference images having similar matching results in the descending order of the similarity, and displays them on result display means (80). |
| US07873207B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing program for multi-viewpoint image
An image processing apparatus according to this invention includes an information generation unit which generates correspondence information representing correspondence between first images whose viewpoints are different each other, and a selection unit which selects, out of the first images on the basis of the correspondence information, second images whose viewpoints have a predetermined relationship. |
| US07873201B2 |
Reconstruction of x-ray images into basis function components using multiple-energy sources
An inspection system that forms material sensitive X-ray images of items under inspection. The images are decomposed into basis function images using basis functions representative of materials of interest. The decomposed images may be processed separately to detect concentrations of a material of interest corresponding to one or more of the basis functions. When operated in this mode, the inspection system may be used in applications such as material sorting or security screening. At least one basis function is selected to distinguish a material of interest from other materials likely contained with the item, allowing one of the basis function images to be analyzed to obtain information about a specific material of interest. The images may be automatically analyzed or may be superimposed for display with different visual characteristics assigned to the components associated with each basis function for analysis by a human operator. |
| US07873199B2 |
Method and device for verifying valuable documents
A method and apparatus for checking value documents having an authenticity feature in the form of at least one luminescent substance, includes forming a measuring vector from the measuring values corresponding to different frequencies and/or frequency domains of the luminescence radiation, and performing an allocation of the measuring vector to one of a plurality of given reference vectors corresponding to different authenticity features by allocating at least one object allocation area to each reference vector and checking which object allocation area the measuring vector is located in. |
| US07873196B2 |
Medical imaging visibility index system and method for cancer lesions
A visibility index for medical images. The method includes generating a visibility index from a training set of images; making a number of measurements of a set of features from an image of an abnormality that is not a member of the training set; and combining the number of measurements to generate a visibility score mapped to the visibility index. |
| US07873195B2 |
Conformal segmentation of organs in medical images
A method and an apparatus for segmenting contours of objects in an image is disclosed. It particularly applies to the segmentation of body organs or parts depicted in medical images. An input image containing at least one object comprises pixel data sets of at least two dimensions. An edge-detected image is obtained from the input image. Markers are selected in the edge-detected image, and assigned respective fixed electrical potential values. An electrical potential map is generated as a solution to an electrostatic problem in a resistive medium having a resistivity dependent on the edge-detected image, with the markers defining electrodes at the respective fixed potential values. Object contours are estimated, for example by thresholding, from the generated potential map. |
| US07873194B2 |
Method and system for automatic analysis of blood vessel structures and pathologies in support of a triple rule-out procedure
A method of automatically performing a triple rule-out procedure using imaging data is provided. Imaging data is received that includes a heart region, a pulmonary artery region, an ascending aorta region, and a thoraco-abdominal aorta region of a patient. The heart region, an ascending aorta object, an abdominal aorta object, a left main pulmonary artery object, and a right main pulmonary artery object are identified from the imaging data. The identified heart region is analyzed to detect a coronary pathology. The identified ascending aorta object and the identified abdominal aorta object are analyzed to detect an aortic dissection. The identified left main pulmonary artery object and the identified right main pulmonary artery object are analyzed to detect a pulmonary embolism. A report is generated that includes any detected coronary pathology, any detected aortic dissection, and/or any detected pulmonary embolism. |
| US07873192B1 |
Method for providing a smoothed image
A method of and apparatus for enhancing an array of values, which may be tomographic data, are disclosed. The values are divided into categories. Values in at least one first category are smoothed by replacing an original individual value with a new individual value determined from a plurality of neighboring values. The values in at least one second category are retained relatively unsmoothed. |
| US07873181B1 |
Visual image sensor organ replacement: implementation
Method and system for enhancing or extending visual representation of a selected region of a visual image, where visual representation is interfered with or distorted, by supplementing a visual signal with at least one audio signal having one or more audio signal parameters that represent one or more visual image parameters, such as vertical and/or horizontal location of the region; region brightness; dominant wavelength range of the region; change in a parameter value that characterizes the visual image, with respect to a reference parameter value; and time rate of change in a parameter value that characterizes the visual image. Region dimensions can be changed to emphasize change with time of a visual image parameter. |
| US07873177B2 |
Headphone apparatus and headphone system
An ear-hanger headphone apparatus includes ear hangers each having a predetermined shape, housings integrally attached to the ear hangers, respectively, and driver units attached to the housings swingably relative thereto so as to closely overlap with ear conches without clearance, respectively, when the headphone apparatus is worn. |
| US07873176B2 |
Electrostatic microphone
An electrostatic microphone has a capsule housing and a diaphragm, a rigid electrode, and an electrical circuit on a printed circuit board arranged in the capsule housing. The diaphragm is connected to a ring shoulder provided on the front side of the capsule housing. Preferably, the capsule housing is divided into a housing bottom and a capsule lid, and the ring shoulder is provided on the capsule lid. |
| US07873175B2 |
Multiplexed microphone signals with multiple signal processing paths
A multiplexed microphone signal with multiple signal processing paths is disclosed. Each signal processing path has it own priority and other characteristics. A signal path is selected based on the application of the processed signal. Similar processes within different paths may be shared to reduce computation workload. |
| US07873172B2 |
Modified volterra-wiener-hammerstein (MVWH) method for loudspeaker modeling and equalization
A method and apparatus for adaptive precompensation is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises modifying operation of a predistortion filter in response to previous predistorted values and an original input signal, determining a precompensation error between the original input samples and the predicted loudspeaker output, and substantially reducing the precompensation error by using the exact inverse of a loudspeaker model that is a cascaded arrangement of at least one linear system with a non-linear system. |
| US07873171B2 |
Multichannel spectral mapping audio apparatus and method
A method and circuit for deriving a set of multichannel audio signals from a conventional monaural or stereo audio signal uses an auxiliary multichannel spectral mapping data stream. Audio can be played back in stereo and multichannel formats from a conventional stereo signal on compact discs, FM radio, or other stereo or monaural delivery systems. The invention reduces the data rate needed for the transmission of multichannel digital audio. |
| US07873168B2 |
Secret information management apparatus and secret information management system
In a secret information management system, a secret information management apparatus comprises a secret distribution unit which secretly distributes a data key k using a (k, n) threshold secret sharing scheme and creates n distributed keys B1, B2, . . . , Bn in the decryption of data D input from a user terminal, an encryption unit which creates n encrypted distributed keys EP1(B1), EP2(B2), . . . , EPn(Bn) using n distributed manager public keys P1, P2, . . . , Pn, and an encrypted data storage unit which stores encrypted data EK(D), an encrypted data key EPx(K) and the n encrypted distributed keys in association with each other. |
| US07873166B2 |
Method for undetectably impeding key strength of encryption usage for products exported outside the U.S
In one embodiment, a communication device includes a key strength controlling agent 308 operable to (i) receive a request for a cryptographic key; (ii) determine, from a restriction identifier, whether the cryptographic key strength is restricted; (iii) when the cryptographic key is restricted, cause the use of a second cryptographic key having a second key strength; and (iv) when the cryptographic key is not restricted, cause the use of a first cryptographic key having a first key strength. The first and second key strengths are different. |
| US07873164B1 |
Method and apparatus for configuring network devices
A method for authenticating a network device includes determining that a network link that uses a primary signaling technology and a secondary signaling technology is coupled to the network device; obtaining, using the secondary signaling technology, a unique link identifier that is associated with the network link using the secondary signaling technology; establishing the unique link identifier as a unique device identifier; and authenticating the network device to a service provider by communicating the unique device identifier to the service provider over the network link using the primary signaling technology. In one approach, the primary signaling technology is ADSL and the secondary signaling technology is ISDN. The unique link identifier may be an ISDN telephone number for an ISDN line which is obtained using caller ID techniques. |
| US07873159B2 |
Portable electronic apparatus
A portable electronic apparatus, a mobile phone and a method of selecting a function in a portable electronic apparatus are disclosed. The portable electronic apparatus comprises a body and a lid pivotally mounted to the body with a hinge. Changes in the position of the lid around the hinge are detected and one of at least two possible functions available for a user is selected according to the detected change in the position of the lid. |
| US07873158B2 |
Polled geofencing and distinguished ring-back
The apparatus may have: a telecommunication network having a tracking calling terminal and a tracked called terminal; a polled geofencing system associated with at least one predetermined area having a predetermined boundary, the tracked called terminal having a location relative to the predetermined boundary; and at least first and second predetermined ring-back tones having a functional relationship with the at least one predetermined boundary, the first predetermined ring-back tone being utilized when the tracked called terminal is within the predetermined boundary, and the second predetermined ring-back tone being utilized when the tracked called terminal is outside of the predetermined boundary; wherein the at least first and second predetermined ring-back tones alert the tracking calling terminal to a location, relative to the predetermined boundary as determined by the polled geofencing system, of tracked called terminal during a call setup between the designated tracked called terminal and the tracking calling terminal. |
| US07873152B1 |
System, method, and computer program product for rating based on a receiver offer
A rating system, method, and computer program product are provided. In use, a phone call is identified between a caller and a receiver. An offer associated with the receiver is then determined. Thus, the phone call is rated based, at least in part, on the offer associated with the receiver. |
| US07873151B1 |
User-controlled personalized announcements for account-based services
System for providing a custom message to a calling card account for a user to receive the custom message upon usage of the calling card account include at least two data databases on data storage devices, wherein the databases are in communication with a processor and an interface. One database includes calling card accounts. The other database includes custom messages. The interface allows the user to query the custom message database for custom messages and displaying the results. A custom message can be selected and associated with one or more calling card accounts. |
| US07873148B2 |
Handset originated programmable ringback replacement system
A handset-originated ringback replacement system for modifying or replacing certain communications network tones is disclosed. Communications devices activate and interact with the handset-originated ringback replacement system to allow for modification of the network service. |
| US07873143B2 |
Sliding sample cell insertion and removal apparatus for x-ray analyzer
A sample cell insertion and removal apparatus for an analysis instrument, including a horizontally sliding frame; a sample cell carriage movably mounted to the sliding frame, the sample cell carriage including an area to hold a sample cell; wherein upon sliding into and out of the instrument, the sample cell carriage is moved horizontally and vertically into and out of an analysis position. This instrument may include a radiation shielded enclosure into and out of which the apparatus slides, and an x-ray analysis engine which transmits x-rays upwards towards the sample cell which projects from a bottom of the apparatus. The disclosed sample cell is especially suited for an x-ray analysis engine having a focal spot requiring alignment with the sample in the sample cell. |
| US07873131B2 |
Phase splitter using digital delay locked loops
A phase splitter using digital delay locked loop (DLL) to receive complementary input clock signals to generate a plurality of output signals having different phase shifts. When the DLL is locked, the delay resolution of the phase splitter is equal to two delay stages of the DLL. |
| US07873127B2 |
Weighting a signal received by an antenna array to enhance the signal and suppress interference
Sample vectors of a signal received simultaneously by an array of antennas are processed to estimate a weight for each sample vector that maximizes the energy of the individual sample vector that resulted from propagation of the signal from a known source and/or minimizes the energy of the sample vector that resulted from interference with propagation of the signal from the known source. Each sample vector is combined with the weight that is estimated for the respective sample vector to provide a plurality of weighted sample vectors. The plurality of weighted sample vectors are summed to provide a resultant weighted sample vector for the received signal. The weight for each sample vector is estimated by processing the sample vector in accordance with the expression: min w _ , c _ X * Y w _ - ( C 0 c _ 0 + C c _ ) p where c0=1 and 0 |
| US07873126B2 |
Method and system for automatic gain control with intelligent selection of signal samples
The disclosure is directed to a mobile communication device that includes automatic gain control (AGC) circuitry. Every n samples of the broadcast signals, an energy estimate of the AGC output signal is used to calculate and update a gain control value. Instead of using all n samples occurring subsequent to a previous gain control value update, only a subset of those n samples are used. In particular the first half of the n samples may be discarded in the energy estimate calculation while only the second half of the n samples may be used. |
| US07873125B2 |
Method and system for sliding window phase estimator for WCDMA automatic frequency correction
Aspects of a method and system for a sliding window phase estimator for wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) automatic frequency correction are presented. Aspects of the system may include one or more circuits that enable adjustment of a current demodulation frequency for receiving at least one subsequent symbol based on a computed weighted sum of a plurality of computed frequency error values. Each of the plurality of computed frequency error values may be derived from a current symbol, a corresponding previous symbol, and/or a previous frequency error value. The current symbol may include a current received symbol segment and one or more previously received symbol segments. |
| US07873123B2 |
Null detector and method thereof
A null detector and its corresponding method are provided. The null detector includes a power detector, a smoother, and an overlapper. The power detector outputs a power level signal according to the power level of a received signal. The smoother is coupled to the power detector for determining according to the power level signal whether the received signal is transmitting a null symbol, and then the smoother outputs a null detection signal at a first state value or a second state value indicating the result of the determination. The overlapper is coupled to the smoother for providing the duration and position of the null symbols transmitted by the received signal according to the null detection signal. |
| US07873119B2 |
Input drive control for switcher regulated power amplifier modules
Various embodiments described herein relate to a power management block and an amplification block used in the transmitter of a communication subsystem. The power management block provides improved control for the gain control signal provided to a pre-amplifier and the supply voltage provided to a power amplifier which are both in the amplification block. The power expended by the power amplifier is optimized by employing a continuous control method in which one or more feedback loops are employed to take into account various characteristics of the transmitter components and control values. |
| US07873114B2 |
Method and apparatus for quickly detecting a presence of abrupt noise and updating a noise estimate
An apparatus (100) and method (200) for detecting the presence of abrupt noise is provided. The method can include estimating (210) a subband energy of the signal, calculating (220) a peak-to-peak energy difference (345), and calculating (230) a spectrum deviation (426). A request to update a noise channel estimate can be declared if a) a total estimated channel energy is greater than a predetermined noise floor (442), and b) the spectrum deviation is less than a predetermined variance threshold (444), and c) the peak-to-peak energy difference is less than a predetermined peak-to-peak threshold (446), or d) if a voice metric is less than a voice level threshold (448). |
| US07873113B2 |
Radio communication method, transmitter, and receiver
Of the antenna group composed of multiple ones of the transmission antennas and multiple ones of the reception antennas, the present method selects an antenna group which satisfies a first criterion relating to communication quality. Out of combinations of transmission antennas and reception antennas included in the selected antenna group, combinations which satisfy a second criterion relating to communication quality are selected. Using a part of or all of the selected combinations of transmission antennas and reception antennas, the above-mentioned communication is performed. As a result, selection of optimal transmission antennas and reception antennas according to radio communication environment can be performed with high speed with a smaller amount of operation amount than the previous art. |
| US07873110B2 |
MPEG smart video transport processor with different transport packet handling
An interrupt sensitive extract byte instruction scheme is presented herein. The interrupt sensitive extract by instruction extracts bytes from data, depending on the presence of an interrupt. The extract byte instruction extracts bytes from data in the absence of the interrupt and does not extract bytes in the presence of the interrupt. The interrupt can be triggered by a set of counters that count the number of extracted bytes. By loading the counters with a particular number, the interrupt can be generated when the particular number of data bytes is extracted. |
| US07873109B2 |
Video encoding/ decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding method includes selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations. Each combination includes a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture. A prediction picture signal is generated in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination. A predictive error signal is generated representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal. Encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination is included. |
| US07873108B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus
A video encoding method comprises selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations each including a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture, generating a prediction picture signal in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination, generating a predictive error signal representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal, and encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination. |
| US07873107B2 |
Tertiary content addressable memory based motion estimator
Presented herein are Tertiary Content Addressable Memory based motion estimator(s). In one embodiment, there is presented a method for encoding a picture. The method comprises storing a reference picture in a memory; taking samples from at least one line of a prediction block, wherein each of the samples comprises a plurality of bits, the plurality of bits comprising most significant bits and least significant bits; concatenating the samples; replacing the least significant bits of the samples with “don't cares”, thereby generating at least one data word; addressing the memory with the at least one data word; receiving one or more addresses, said one or more addresses associated with one or more blocks; replacing a portion of the “don't cares” with a portion of the least significant bits of the samples, thereby generating another one or more data words; and addressing the memory with the another one or more data words. |
| US07873106B2 |
Method and apparatus for synchronized recording of audio and video streams
A method for synchronized recording of audio and video signals is disclosed. The video signals are grouped into a plurality of video frames. The method includes incrementing a counter value of an audio counter when at least an audio frame associated with the audio signals is encoded, and recording the current counter value of the audio counter when a video frame is received. |
| US07873103B2 |
Digital broadcast transmitter/receiver having improved receiving performance and signal processing method thereof
A digital broadcast transmitter/receiver, and a signal processing method thereof, includes a randomizer randomizing a dual transport stream which includes a normal data packet and a robust data packet and into which stuff bytes are inserted, a stuff-byte exchanger replacing the stuff bytes of the randomized data with known data, a first RS encoder performing RS-encoding of data output from the stuff-byte exchanger, a packet formatter performing an interleaving of the robust packet of the data output from the first RS encoder and reformatting the packet, an interleaver interleaving data output from the packet formatter, a trellis encoder performing a trellis encoding of interleaved data, a second RS encoder changing a parity by performing an RS encoding of the robust data of the trellis-encoded data, and a modulator modulating data output from the trellis encoder and RF up-converting the modulated data. |
| US07873097B1 |
Systems and methods for concatenation in spread spectrum systems
A receiver despreads a spread spectrum sequence by partially despreading the spread spectrum sequence using an outer spreading code, and then despreading the partially despread sequence using an inner spreading code. This can advantageously save processing power. In one embodiment, the outer spreading code is despread with an analog circuit, and an inner spreading code is despread with a digital circuit. A modulator for a transmitter can generate a spread spectrum sequence by direct-sequence spreading data to generate a partially spread sequence and then spreading the partially spread sequence to generate the spread spectrum sequence. |
| US07873094B2 |
Compact Mid-IR laser
A compact mid-IR laser device utilizes a quantum cascade laser to provide mid-IR frequencies suitable for use in molecular detection by signature absorption spectra. The compact nature of the device is obtained owing to an efficient heat transfer structure, the use of a small diameter aspheric lens and a monolithic assembly structure to hold the optical elements in a fixed position relative to one another. The compact housing size may be approximately 20 cm×20 cm×20 cm or less. Efficient heat transfer is achieved using a thermoelectric cooler TEC combined with a high thermal conductivity heat spreader onto which the quantum cascade laser is thermally coupled. The heat spreader not only serves to dissipate heat and conduct same to the TEC, but also serves as an optical platform to secure the optical elements within the housing in a fixed relationship relative on one another. A small diameter aspheric lens may have a diameter of 10 mm or less and is positioned to provided a collimated beam output from the quantum cascade laser. The housing is hermetically sealed to provide a rugged, light weight portable MIR laser source. |
| US07873093B2 |
Method and apparatus for carrying out a laser operation and use of a quick-change filter in such a laser operation
A method and apparatus for carrying out a laser operation, wherein a laser source is provided, wherein lasing gas is supplied from at least one lasing gas source to the laser source for the formation of a laser beam, wherein, with the aid of the laser beam, an operation is carried out, such as for instance a welding, a drilling, a cutting or a lighting operation, wherein the lasing gas which comes from the at least one lasing gas source is fed through at least one lasing gas filter before the gas is supplied to the laser source. The invention further relates to the use of a quick-change filter for cleaning gases consumed in laser processing apparatuses. |
| US07873092B2 |
Laser diode
The present invention provides a laser diode realizing improved light detection precision. The laser diode includes a stack structure in which a first semiconductor layer of a first conduction type, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer of a second conduction type are included in this order; a photodetection layer; and a plurality of light absorption layers provided on the corresponding position of antinodes or nodes of standing waves of light output from the active layer. |
| US07873091B2 |
Laser diode illuminator device and method for optically conditioning the light beam emitted by the same
A laser diode illuminator device and a method for optically conditioning the output beam radiated from such a device, so that highly-demanding illumination application requirements that call for high output powers within a specified field of illumination can be addressed. At the heart of the device is a two-dimensional stack of laser diode bars wherein the linear array of beamlets radiated by each laser diode bar is optically conditioned through its passage in a refractive-type micro-optics device followed by a cylindrical microlens. The micro-optics device performs collimation of the linear array of beamlets along the fast axis of the bars, and it also acts as a beam symmetrization device by interchanging the divergences of the laser beamlets along the fast and slow axes. The cylindrical microlens is for collimation of the beamlets along the slow axis. The optical conditioning is performed individually for each linear array of beamlets so that the radiance or brightness of the laser diode illuminator can be optimized while any specified field of illumination can be filled with an excellent uniformity of the radiant intensity. |
| US07873087B2 |
Light source, light source device, laser image forming device and integrated circuit
The light sources according to the present invention include a laser oscillator including a semiconductor laser, a drive circuit for the semiconductor laser, an ACC circuit, an APC circuit, and a switch, and a starting drive current storage device, and is controlled in such a manner that the driving current at the start of the laser driving be always constant, and after the start of the lighting, it is switched to the APC operation to carry out the power control of the laser light output. |
| US07873081B1 |
Compact and high performance wavelength tunable laser
A tunable laser cavity utilizes a dispersion compensated acousto-optic tunable filter. The wavelength accuracy and stability is achieved by a wavelength locker utilizing two separate intracavity light beams without the need to use beam splitters to significantly reduce the space typically needed by a conventional wavelength locker, and provide more stable operation and easy assembly. The acoustic optical tunable filter is constructed in such a way that two transducers are bonded on the same crystal opposite to each other to create two counter propagating acoustic waves. Dispersion occurs after the collimated light diffracted by the first acoustic wave and is compensated by the second acoustic wave traveling in the opposite direction. By using different laser gain mediums, acoustic wave driving frequencies and acousto-optical crystals, this invention can be used to make tunable lasers in wide range of optical wavelengths. |
| US07873080B2 |
Wavelength or pulsewidth tunable mode-locked fiber laser system
A wavelength-tunable mode-locked fiber laser system is provided and includes an optical cavity. The optical cavity outputs an output laser pulse having an adjustable principal wavelength, and includes a short-wavelength-pass filter, a polarization controller, an optical gain fiber and a fiber. The short-wavelength-pass filter produces an intracavity laser pulse. The fiber has a length, and connects the short-wavelength-pass filter, the polarization controller and the optical gain fiber in series. The optical cavity has an anomalous dispersion range and a net group-velocity dispersion being within the anomalous dispersion range due to the length of the fiber. The optical cavity causes the intracavity laser pulse to propagate therein for providing the output laser pulse, providing a first laser pulse, a second laser pulse and a third laser pulse to the short-wavelength-pass filter, the polarization controller and the optical gain fiber respectively, and adjusting the intracavity laser pulse. |
| US07873075B2 |
Data segmentation method in a telecommunications system
In a telecommunications system a larger higher layer data unit is segmented into smaller segments on the lower layer. A segmentation length information is used to indicate the lengths of the segments in a lower layer protocol data unit. Specific values of segmentation length information are employed to indicate, when necessary, special information about the upper layer data unit, such as whether the upper layer data unit ends in the current data segment in the lower layer protocol data unit or continues to the next lower layer protocol data unit. This information is needed in the receiver to correctly assemble the segmented data. |
| US07873074B1 |
Adaptive selection of bandwidth parameters to meet a service provider pricing model
The present invention provides methods and systems for managing bandwidth use in a VoIP network. More specifically, a user or enterprise may monitor the amount of voice bandwidth that is utilized throughout a period along with the total amount of bandwidth utilization. Based on a determined likelihood of exceeding a predetermined bandwidth allocation for a given period, the amount of voice bandwidth utilized on a per call basis is adjusted. |
| US07873072B2 |
System and method for digital multimedia broadcasting confinement service
Disclosed are a system and method for providing digital multimedia broadcasting confinement service. The system includes: a relay center side system, which is adopted to the relay center, according to the relay center side packet identification description (PID) key, for modifying the PID of transport stream and generating the distorted program specific information (PSI); and a terminal side system, which is adopted to the DMB terminal, according to the terminal side PID key, for recovering the distorted PSI of the transport stream received from the relay center and decoding it. The method includes the steps of: identifying whether the actual PID of the TS is consistent when the TS is demultiplexed by audio/video PID acquired through the program map table (PMT) analysis of the TS; generating a preset alarm signal; modifying the PID of the audio/video data in the PMT according to the terminal side PID; and demultiplexing the TS according to the modified PID value. |
| US07873068B2 |
Flexibly integrating endpoint logic into varied platforms
An integrated endpoint having a virtual port coupled between an upstream fabric and an integrated device fabric that includes a multi-function logic to handle various functions for one or more intellectual property (IP) blocks coupled to the integrated device fabric. The integrated device fabric has a primary channel to communicate data and command information between the IP block and the upstream fabric and a sideband channel to communicate sideband information between the IP block and the multi-function logic. |
| US07873065B1 |
Selectively enabling network packet concatenation based on metrics
A method, system, and apparatus are directed towards selectively concatenating data into a packet to modify a number of packets transmitted over a network based on a combination of network and/or send-queue metrics. In one embodiment, Nagle's algorithm is used for concatenating data into a packet. The concatenation may be selectively enabled based on heuristics applied to the combination of metrics. In one embodiment, the result may indicate that there should be a concatenation, or that data should be sent immediately, or that a current state for whether to concatenate or not should be maintained. The heuristics may include an expert system, decision tree, truth table, function, or the like. The heuristics may be provided by a user, or another computing device. In another embodiment, the concatenation may be enabled based on a conditional probability determined from the combination of metrics. |
| US07873064B1 |
Adaptive jitter buffer-packet loss concealment
An audio decoding system comprises a buffer module, an audio decoding module, a packet loss concealment module, an uncompressed adjustment module, and a playout control module. The buffer module receives packets including audio data. The audio decoding module decodes the audio data and outputs decoded audio samples. The packet loss concealment module outputs adjusted audio samples based on the decoded audio samples. The adjusted audio samples include reconstructed samples when packet loss occurs. The uncompressed adjustment module incorporates the adjusted audio samples into an output stream of audio samples at a first rate. The playout control module regulates the first rate based on packet delay information. |
| US07873062B2 |
Modular outlet
In conjunction with a wiring in a house carrying data network signal, a modular outlet comprising of a base module and interface module. The base module connects to the wiring and attached to a wall. The interface module provides a data unit connection. The interface module is mechanically attached to the base module and electrically connected thereto. The wiring may also carry basic service signal such as telephone, electrical power and cable television (CATV). In such a case, the outlet will provide the relevant connectivity either as part of the base module or as part of the interface module. Both proprietary and industry standard interfaces can be used to interconnect the module. Furthermore, a standard computer expansion card (such as PCI, PCMCIA and alike) may be used as interface module. |
| US07873059B2 |
Gateway device
Provided is a gateway device for interconnecting an IEEE1394 network and an IP network, which automatically detects and operates an AV device connected to the IEEE1394 network from a player device connected to the IP network, thereby enabling the player device to watch and hear contents stored in the AV device. The gateway device interconnects a network, to which an AV/C installed IEEE1394 device is connected, and a network, to which a player device compliant with a UPnP is connected, and includes: a conversion unit for converting Plug-and-Play processing of the IEEE1394 device to each step of Plug-and-Play of the UPnP; a conversion unit for converting an action of a UPnP AV to an AV/C command of the IEEE1394 device; and a stream transfer unit for transferring stream data transmitted from the IEEE1394 device to the IP network. |
| US07873057B2 |
Power over ethernet management devices and connection between ethernet devices
In one embodiment, a connection is maintained between a pair of ethernet ports that have circuitry connected in series with the ports and receiving power-over-ethernet (PoE) from one of the ports, by providing a controllable bypass circuit coupled to the pair of ethernet ports in parallel with the circuitry receiving power-over-ethernet, sensing a preselected condition, and opening and closing the bypass circuit in response to the presence or absence of the preselected condition. Power sourcing equipment (PSE) may supply the one of the ports with power over ethernet, and the circuitry may transports data between the pair of ethernet ports. The circuitry may also supply the switch with a control signal in response to the detection of the preselected condition. |
| US07873054B2 |
Pattern matching in a network flow across multiple packets
Pattern matching for a network flow includes storing a representation of the pattern. The representation of the pattern includes hash values representing blocks of data in the pattern. Hash values are calculated for blocks of data in the network flow. The blocks of data are spread across multiple packets in the network flow. The calculated hash values for the blocks of data in the network flow are compared to the hash values in the representation of the pattern to detect the pattern in the network flow. |
| US07873051B2 |
Method for receiving data sent in a sequence in a mobile radio system with reception gaps
Methods for receiving data sent by a first emitter of a mobile telephony system to a first resource element of a resource, via a receiver, radiopockets being created during the reception, and data which is not received during the creation of the radiopockets being reconstructed by the receiver are provided. The data which is not received by the first emitter is received by a second emitter, in a temporarally offset manner, on the same resource element of the resource, between the radiopockets, and is used to reconstruct the sequence of data. A conversion is especially advantageous for carrying out a receiving method in UMTS compression mode during the reception of data which is sent continuously independently of the compression mode. |
| US07873044B2 |
Method for transmitting/receiving data in a communication system
Provided is a method for transmitting/receiving data in a communication system providing Multicast/Broadcast Service (MBS). The method includes, generating transmission data to be transmitted to a receiver; allocating the transmission data to a frame; setting a MAP message that includes information on a frame offset related to the frame; and transmitting to the receiver the MAP message. |
| US07873043B2 |
Digraph network superframes
A method of assigning cells in a superframe using digraph link information in a network of nodes is disclosed. The method comprises determining a total number of desired digraph links in the network of nodes wherein a digraph link is a directional link specifying routing information at each node in the network between said node and a second node, and wherein the network of nodes includes a plurality of nodes each with a plurality of digraph links. The method further comprises selecting a superframe size at least large enough to accommodate the total number of desired digraph links and assigning each desired digraph link to a cell in the superframe wherein each cell in the superframe specifies a synchronized time and frequency communication plan. |
| US07873042B2 |
Multi-layered packet security
Methods and media for multi-layered packet security control are described. In one embodiment, a header of a packet is modified to include an identifier that identifies a manner in which the packet should be subject to a particular set of a plurality of sets of rules. The particular set of rules dictates how the packet is to be handled. Further, in one embodiment, the packet is communicated to a routing component, and the routing component is configured to reference the identifier to determine which, if any, of the plurality of sets of rules to apply to the packet. |
| US07873036B2 |
Method and apparatus to provide group management of multiple link identifiers for collective mobility
A method includes connecting a mobile router (MR), also referred to herein as a gateway mobile terminal, of a mobile network (MONET) to an access point (AP) of an access network (AN) that includes an Access Router (AR); making a request to obtain a plurality of link addresses from a link address manager of the AN; allocating individual ones of the plurality of link addresses to individual ones of network nodes of the MONET; and performing a neighbor discovery procedure with the AR to send at least one neighbor advertisement to declare the allocated individual ones of the assigned plurality of link addresses. |
| US07873035B2 |
Method and apparatus for voice-over-IP call recording and analysis
A method and computer-readable medium for obtaining information associated with a VoIP communication session includes tapping the computer network passively to obtain signaling and media information in a first format, separating the signaling and media information, determining transport information from at least one of the signaling and media information, transcoding the media information to a second format, and storing the transcoded media information in the second format. The media information includes data, voice, audio, and/or video information. A system obtain information associated with a VoIP communication session on a computer network includes a tapping device to passively tap the computer network to obtain signaling and media information in a first format, a processing device to transcode the media information from the first format to a second format, separate the signaling information from the media information, and determine transport information from at least one of the signaling and media information, and a storage device to store the transcoded media information in the second format. |
| US07873034B2 |
System and method for providing feature mediation and orchestration on internet protocol service networks
Systems and methods for providing feature mediation and orchestration on SIP-enabled networks are shown. In one exemplary embodiment, a method may include providing a first telephony services application, providing a second telephony services application, and combining a feature of the first telephony services application with a feature of the second telephony services application to form a logical telephony services application. In another exemplary embodiment, a system may include an application server platform and a feature mediation layer operable upon the application server platform, where the feature mediation layer provides a subscriber with a feature of the first telephony services application and a feature of the second telephony services application. |
| US07873033B2 |
Method and system for supporting shared local trunking
An approach is described for providing shared trunking between a telephony gateway and an end office switch. The telephony gateway processes a packetized voice call, and interfaces a shared trunk to an end office switch (e.g., Class 5 switch) configured to switch calls over a circuit-switched telephone network. The trunk utilizes out-of-band signaling (e.g., Primary Rate Interface (PRI) signaling) in support of call establishment or teardown of the packetized voice call. |
| US07873031B1 |
Methods and systems for converting signals
Certain exemplary embodiments provide a method, comprising: receiving, at a subscriber interface line card, an analog signal from a POTS subscriber loop circuit; quantizing the analog signal into a plurality of digital samples; encoding the plurality of digital samples via codec instructions running on a digital signal processor installed on the subscriber interface line card; and converting, via conversion instructions running on the digital signal processor, the encoded plurality of digital samples to a plurality of VoATM packets. |
| US07873030B2 |
VoIP call routing information registry including hash access mechanism
A VoIP call routing information registry including a hash access mechanism. In particular implementations, a method includes receiving a telephone number; computing a hash of the telephone number; accessing a registry wherein the registry comprises a plurality of entries, and wherein each entry comprises a hash of a telephone number and data associated with that telephone number, or a prefix and data associated with that prefix; searching the registry for a matching entry; and until a matching entry is found or the telephone number has been stripped down to a minimum number of digits, stripping the last digit of the telephone number, re-computing a hash of the stripped-down telephone number, and re-searching the registry for a matching entry. |
| US07873026B2 |
Apparatus and method for scheduling data in a modem
A scheduling method is provided for processing data in a communication system. The method includes performing downlink MAP (DL-MAP) decoding; generating a configuration table through the DL-MAP decoding; and processing data in a predetermined unit according to the generated configuration table. |
| US07873019B2 |
Systems and methods for establishing gateway bandwidth sharing ad-hoc networks
Sytems and methods for establising gateway bandwidth sharing ad hoc networks. In a first aspect, a method includes establishing a relationship with a gateway that retrieves data from a remote location and divides the data into at least a first portion and a second portion. The method further includes establising an ad hoc network comprising at least one local lender, receiving the first portion from the gateway via the at least one local lender, receiving the second portion from the gateway, and joining the first portion and the second portion to re-create the data. |
| US07873018B2 |
Scheduling data transmissions to improve power efficiency in a wireless network
Various embodiments are disclosed relating to scheduling data transmissions to improve power efficiency in a wireless network. In an example embodiment, uplink transmissions may be scheduled after the downlink transmissions within the frame sequence. One or more nodes having only scheduled downlink transmissions during the frame sequence may be scheduled for downlink transmissions at or near the start of the downlink transmissions. In another embodiment, one or more nodes having only scheduled uplink transmissions during the frame sequence may be scheduled for uplink transmissions at or near the end of the uplink transmissions. In yet another embodiment, one or more nodes having scheduled both downlink and uplink transmissions during the frame sequence may be scheduled for transmissions near a transition from downlink to uplink transmissions. |
| US07873017B2 |
Limited-use data rates in a wireless local area network
A wireless access point advertises data rates that it supports. A mobile station is permitted to communicate with the access point at one or more of the lower data rates only if the mobile station satisfies one or more conditions. |
| US07873016B2 |
Method and system for utilizing tone grouping with givens rotations to reduce overhead associated with explicit feedback information
Aspects of a method and system for utilizing tone grouping with Givens rotations to reduce overhead associated with explicit feedback information are presented. In one aspect of the invention, Givens matrices may be utilized to reduce a quantity of information communicated in explicit feedback information via an uplink RF channel. The explicit feedback information may include specifications for a feedback beamforming matrix that may be utilized when transmitting signals via a corresponding downlink RF channel. The feedback beamforming matrix may represent a rotated version of an un-rotated matrix. The Givens matrices may be utilized to apply one or more Givens rotations to un-rotated matrix. The rotated matrix may reduce the quantity of information communicated in the explicit feedback information. The quantity of information communicated in the explicit feedback information may be further reduced by utilizing tone grouping. |
| US07873011B2 |
Apparatus, method and computer program product for bi-directional resource allocation to decrease signaling for retransmissions
Methods and apparatus operative in a wireless communications system divide a communications resource available for performing information transmission and retransmission operations into a plurality of communication resource units. The units are ordered in a predetermined order. A first group of communication resource units are selected from the communication resource in ascending order and assigned to a first group of communications devices to perform information transmission operations in a first time period. A second group of communication resource units are selected from the communication resource in descending order and assigned to a second group of communications devices to perform information transmission operations in a second time period. At least a portion of the first group of communication resource units is assigned to the first group of communication resource units to perform retransmission operations. In operation often the first group of communication resource units will be available to perform retransmission operations in the second time period. In such a manner a non-adaptive HARQ retransmissions can be accommodated in a 3GPP LTE OFDM based wireless communications system. |
| US07873007B2 |
Method for retransmitting data in the multi-carrier system
A method for modifying a synchronous non-adaptive retransmission scheme to solve the limitation of the synchronous non-adaptive retransmission scheme is disclosed. A method for indicating not only the new data transmission but also the retransmission using a data scheduling message is disclosed. A method for determining whether there is an error in the ACK signal transmitted from a data reception end using another message to -be received later is disclosed. The retransmission method for a multi-carrier system includes: receiving a grant message including scheduling information for transmitting uplink data wherein a retransmission scheme for the uplink data is predetermined by a first retransmission scheduling, transmitting the uplink data according to the scheduling information and retransmitting the uplink data according to second retransmission scheduling by receiving the second retransmission scheduling information associated with the uplink data with retransmission request. |
| US07873003B2 |
Method for allocating IP address to mobile station in mobile communication system
Provided is a method for allocating an Internet protocol (IP) address to a mobile station in a mobile communication system. The method includes the steps of: a) receiving an “Activate Packet Data Protocol (PDP) request” message including router solicitation from the mobile station; b) acquiring a global IP address of the mobile station by performing the router solicitation and a router advertisement procedure instead of the mobile station; and c) loading the acquired global IP address in an “Activate PDP context Accept” message and transferring the “Activate PDP context Accept” message to the mobile station. |
| US07873001B2 |
System and method for enabling VPN-less session setup for connecting mobile data devices to an enterprise data network
A mobile application gateway configured to interconnect mobile communication devices on a cellular network with an enterprise network is provided. The mobile application gateway includes a voice and data signaling gateway configured to provide routing functionalities, service functionalities and admission control. A gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) is configured to establish a secure data session between one or more of the mobile communication devices and the enterprise network by establishing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel between a carrier-hosted serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and the GGSN. |
| US07873000B2 |
Random access method and radio communication terminal device
There are disclosed a random access method for establishing an individual channel between a radio communication terminal device and a base station device in a short time and a radio communication terminal device executing the random access method. In this device, in step ST320, a RACH sub-channel allocation unit (211) allocates a transmission packet inputted from a replication unit (202) to an arbitrary sub-carrier at the RACH arbitrary time slot at random. In step ST330, an allocation unit (210) judges whether an overlap is generated in the allocation result obtained by the RACH sub-channel allocation unit (211). When the allocation unit (210) judges that an overlap is generated in the allocation result, the allocation unit (210) causes one of the RACH sub-channel allocation units (211) which has caused the overlap to again perform allocation of step ST320. On the other hand, when judgment is made that no overlap is generated in the allocation result, step ST340 is executed. |
| US07872998B2 |
Mobile communication system and apparatus used for same, and control program
An object of the present invention is to provide technology in which an HA is capable of efficiently maintaining registration information of an MR, and communication efficiency in registration/update processing between the HA and the MR is improved.A mobile node has a representative home address, a subsidiary home address, and a care-of address, and registers information (joint information) showing the relation between the representative home address, and all subsidiary home addresses, and the care-of address with the home agent, each time the mobile node moves to other network and is assigned a new care-of address. The home agent receives a registration request for the joint information, and stores the registered information, and if a packet destined for the representative home address, or any subsidiary home address arrives from any correspondent node, retrieves the joint information including the address from the registered information maintained thereby, and transfers the packet to the corresponding care-of address. |
| US07872997B2 |
Multiple receiver aggregation
A technique for multiple receiver aggregation that allows for multiple immediate responses of acknowledgements or block acknowledgements. The technique uses a spoofed network allocation vector (NAV) implemented within an aggregate's PLCP header to protect the aggregate and all of the immediate responses from multiple receivers. The immediate responses are scheduled, the information indicating the scheduled offset time and granted transmission duration for response of each receiver being included in the physical sublayer data unit (PSDU) headers within the aggregate. |
| US07872990B2 |
Multi-level interconnection network
A method and system for providing a multi-level interconnection network is provided. A multi-level interconnection network comprises basic cells that are aggregated into higher level cells at each level of the network. At the first level, the basic cells are aggregated into first level cells. Each first level cell is an aggregation of a number of basic cells that is one more than the number of devices in a basic cell. The basic cells of a first level cell are fully connected; that is, each basic cell has a first level link or connection to each other basic cell. In a first level cell, each device of a basic cell has a first level link to each other basic cell. The multi-level interconnection network has higher level cells that are aggregations of lower level cells in a similar manner. |
| US07872985B2 |
System for multi-frame alignment
A bidirectional communication system is provided. In one embodiment, a system comprises a host and a plurality of remote units, wherein a plurality of tones is shared among the plurality of remote units in order to communicate with the host using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, wherein the plurality of tones is shared in a manner that permits at least two of the remote units to transmit to the host at any one time using the plurality of tones. The host causes at least one remote unit to adjust a timing of symbols transmitted on at least one of the plurality of orthogonal tones in order to improve an alignment of multiframes received at the host. |
| US07872983B2 |
Reliability metrics in an IP network
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to characterizing reliability associated with a network. To characterize the reliability, an edge-pair reliability metric is determined for service edge point pairs. An end-to-end reliability metric is computed based on a distribution of the edge-pair reliability metric for the service edge point pairs and a threshold value. |
| US07872981B2 |
Rate selection for eigensteering in a MIMO communication system
Techniques for selecting rates for data transmission on eigenmodes of a MIMO channel are described. An access point transmits an unsteered MIMO pilot via the downlink. A user terminal estimates the downlink channel quality based on the downlink unsteered MIMO pilot and transmits an unsteered MIMO pilot and feedback information via the uplink. The feedback information is indicative of the downlink channel quality. The access point estimates the uplink channel quality and obtains a channel response matrix based on the uplink unsteered MIMO pilot, decomposes the channel response matrix to obtain eigenvectors and channel gains for the eigenmodes of the downlink, and selects rates for the eigenmodes based on the estimated uplink channel quality, the channel gains for the eigenmodes, and the feedback information. The access point processes data based on the selected rates and transmits steered data and a steered MIMO pilot on the eigenmodes with the eigenvectors. |
| US07872976B2 |
System and method for multi-protocol label switching network tuning
A system for and method of multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network tuning. In one embodiment, the system includes a hot zone clearing subsystem that recursively identifies label switched paths (LSPs) to be rerouted from a defined hot zone subject to edges to be avoided. In that embodiment, the system further includes an LSP ordering subsystem, which is coupled to the hot zone clearing subsystem, that orders the LSPs to be rerouted to yield a migration sequence. The migration sequence is employable to reduce a load of the hot zone. |
| US07872972B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving scheduling in packet data networks
A method of scheduling packet data delivery by a communication network node uses knowledge of the incoming delays and corresponding delay budgets associated with the packet data to be scheduled. For example, a wireless communication network base station may serve a plurality of users via a time-multiplexed packet data channel, and may schedule the delivery of packet data targeted to individual ones of those users based on determining the allowable scheduling delays for the incoming packet data it receives for those users. The allowable scheduling delays for packet data received on a given data connection may be determined based on the incoming delays associated with that packet data and the corresponding end-to-end delay budget defined for that packet data. The incoming delays may be calculated from packet time information, e.g., timestamps, and/or may be estimated based on call type, network type, network distances/locations, network conditions, etc. |
| US07872969B2 |
Method and apparatus for auto detection of AAL5 type frames for VCC and VPC switches
In Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) communications networks, certain congestion control features, such as Partial Packet Discard (PPD) and Early Packet Discard (EPD), operate on ATM cells that have been segmented from ATM Adaptation Layer #5 (AAL5) frames (packets). AAL5 frames are automatically detected by observing transitions of an indicator in the ATM cell header unique to AAL5 traffic. Automatic detection of AAL5 traffic allows enablement of packet-aware cell discarding techniques such as PPD and EPD on a Virtual Channel Connection (VCC) basis, whether in a switch for a VCC or for a Virtual Path Connection (VPC) to which the VCC belongs. |
| US07872964B2 |
File transmission terminal
A file transmission technique that does not make retransmission control complex even in a case in which a transmission error occurs is provided. A communication terminal executes a transmission job for transmitting an inspection indication file to the apparatus. When there is an error either in transmitting the inspection indication file or in receiving an inspection result file, the communication terminal executes a retransmission job after a predetermined time lapses. At this time, if there is a new transmission job generated for the same apparatus, the retransmission job is deleted. Alternatively, if there is a different retransmission job for the same apparatus, a retransmission job that has been generated first is deleted. |
| US07872963B2 |
MIMO-OFDM system using eigenbeamforming method
Disclosed is a MIMO-OFDM system, wherein the transmitter comprises a serial/parallel converter for converting continuously inputted symbols of the number of subcarriers to K parallel signals; a signal reproducer for reproducing K parallel signals by the number of transmit antennas L an eigenmode generator for generating eigenbeam of the reproduced signals outputted from the signal reproducer at each subcarrier, on the basis of Nf eigenbeam forming vectors which are fed back long-term and information of a best eigenbeam forming vector at each subcarrier which is fed back short-term, through the feedback device; and a plurality of inverse Fourier converters for receiving the signals outputted from the eigenmode generator and generating an OFDM symbol. |
| US07872960B2 |
Recording medium with a linking area thereon and apparatus and methods for forming, recording, and reproducing the recording medium
A recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recording medium including a data area including at least two data sections and a linking area to link neighboring data sections, the linking area including user data and parity data, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, and reproducing the recording medium. |
| US07872958B2 |
Optical information recording/reproducing device, optical element for the same, and design method of the same
In an optical information recording/reproducing device which executes information reading or writing on multiple types of optical discs having different data densities by selectively using first through third light beams having first through third wavelengths, respectively, at least one side of an optical element is provided with a step structure including a plurality of concentric refracting surfaces and steps between them. The steps include first steps each giving a first optical path length difference specified by a first optical path difference function, second steps each giving a second optical path length difference specified by a second optical path difference function, and special steps each giving an optical path length difference obtained by the sum or difference of/between the first and second optical path length differences. Annular zone widths between adjacent steps are set at 10 times the first wavelength or more. |
| US07872951B2 |
Actuator for optical pickup
An actuator capable of providing movement forces in a first direction, a second direction, and a third direction is provided. The actuator includes two sets of repelling permanent magnets and yokes, a focusing coil, a tracking coil, and a tilting coil. The repelling and attractive fields generated by the permanent magnets enable the coils to generate independent movements in three axial directions. The two sets of permanent magnets are placed in a repelling position, with a small space between the two magnets to generate a field whose magnetic forces repel and attract within the surrounding range. The focusing, tilting and tracking coils are engaged with the lens holder whose movements in the first, second and third directions are determined by the amplitude and direction of the electric current in the focusing, tilting and tracking coils respectively. |
| US07872948B2 |
Acoustic wide area air surveillance system
A method and apparatus for detecting an aircraft. The method is provided for wide area tracking of aircraft. An acoustic emission of the aircraft is detected from a plurality of locations. A position of the aircraft at a set of times is estimated by comparing a set of harmonically related Doppler shifted frequencies for the acoustic emission to an expected zero Doppler shifted frequency of the aircraft to form an estimated position. The position of the aircraft and a heading of the aircraft are tracked using the estimated position. The aircraft type is classified based on the corresponding set of zero Doppler frequencies at each acoustic sensor. |
| US07872944B2 |
Method of monitoring microseismic events
A microseismic method of monitoring fracturing operation or other passive seismic events in hydrocarbon wells is described using the steps of obtaining multi-component s-wave signals of the event; and using a linear derivative of S-wave arrival times of the signals in a first direction, an S-wave velocity and an s-wave polarization to determine at least two components of the S-wave slowness vector. |
| US07872942B2 |
Method for imaging a sea-surface reflector from towed dual-sensor streamer data
A pressure wavefield and a normal velocity wavefield measured on a smoothly shaped acquisition surface by towed dual-sensor marine seismic streamers are decomposed into up-going and down-going pressure and particle velocity components on an observation level between the acquisition surface and a sea surface of undetermined shape. The up-going and down-going pressure and particle velocity components are extrapolated iteratively in steps from the observation level toward the sea surface. An image point and a reflection coefficient of the sea surface at the image point are determined from the iteratively extrapolated up-going and down-going pressure and particle velocity components. |
| US07872940B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and method for testing the same
Semiconductor memory device and method for testing the same includes a unit for characterized in that a burst length is increased in a test of a read operation and a write operation and a unit for connecting a plurality of banks to one data pad by sequentially and outputting the data. |
| US07872938B2 |
Soft error robust static random access memory cell storage configuration.
A Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell storage configuration is described, having an improved robustness to radiation induced soft errors. The SRAM cell storage configuration comprises the following elements. First and second storage nodes are configured to store complementary voltages. Drive transistors are configured to selectively couple one of the first and second storage nodes to ground. Load transistors are configured to selectively couple the other one of the first and second storage nodes to a power supply. At least one stabilizer transistor is configured to provide a corresponding redundant storage node and limit feedback between the first and second storage nodes, the redundant storage node being capable of restoring the first or second storage nodes in case of a soft error. |
| US07872931B2 |
Integrated circuit with control circuit for performing retention test
An integrated circuit includes an array of memory cells, a clock generator configured to generate a clock signal, and a control circuit configured to perform a retention test on the array of memory cells based on the clock signal. A period of the clock signal defines a retention period for the retention test. |
| US07872930B2 |
Testing a memory device having field effect transistors subject to threshold voltage shifts caused by bias temperature instability
A supply voltage is set for a memory device at a first supply voltage level. Test data is written to the memory device at the first supply voltage level in response to setting the supply voltage. The supply voltage is decreased for the memory device to a second supply voltage level below the first supply voltage level in response to writing the test data. The test data is read from the memory device at the second supply voltage level in response to decreasing the supply voltage. The supply voltage is increased for the memory device to a third supply voltage level above the second supply voltage level in response to reading the test data. The test data is read from the memory device at the third supply voltage level in response to increasing the supply voltage. The test data written to the memory device at the first supply voltage level is compared to the test data read from the memory device at the third supply voltage level in response to reading the test data from the memory device at the third supply voltage level. |
| US07872929B2 |
Accessing memory cells in a memory circuit
Techniques for accessing a memory cell in a memory circuit include: receiving a request to access a selected memory cell in the memory circuit; determining whether the selected memory cell corresponds to a normal memory cell or a weak memory cell in the memory circuit; accessing the selected memory cell using a first set of control parameters when the selected memory cell corresponds to a normal memory cell, wherein the selected memory cell provides correct data under prescribed operating specifications when accessed using the first set of control parameters; and accessing the selected memory cell using a second set of control parameters when the selected memory cell corresponds to a weak memory cell, wherein the selected memory cell provides correct data under the prescribed operating specifications when accessed using the second set of control parameters and provides incorrect data under the prescribed operating specifications when accessed using the first set of control parameters. |
| US07872926B2 |
Input buffer and method with AC positive feedback, and a memory device and computer system using same
An input buffer having a comparator that receives an input signal, a reference signal and a positive feedback. The comparator compares the input signal relative to the reference signal and generates an output signal transitioning between a first logic state and a second logic state responsive to the magnitude of the input signal transitioning through the magnitude of the reference signal. The comparator intensifies the output signal in response to the positive feedback from the output of the comparator while the output signal transitions from the first logic state to the second logic state. |
| US07872922B2 |
Memory system and method of writing into nonvolatile semiconductor memory
A memory system includes a nonvolatile semiconductor memory which includes a first original block composed of n (n being natural number) write unit areas and a first subblock composed of a plurality of write unit areas. A controller writes data having one of first to p-th (p being natural number smaller than n) addresses into the first original block. The controller writes data which has a first write address of one of the first to p-th addresses into the first subblock when the controller receives request to write data having the first write address and data having the first write address exists in the first original block. |
| US07872919B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device includes a sense amplifier which senses identical multilevel data, which is stored in a memory cell, a plurality of number of times at a time of read, and a n-channel MOS transistor which has a current path one end of which is connected to the sense amplifier and the other end of which is connected to a bit line. The device further include a control unit which applies a first voltage to a gate electrode of the n-channel MOS transistor, thereby setting the n-channel MOS transistor in an ON state, and applies a second voltage which is higher than the first voltage, to the gate electrode during a period after first sense and before second sense. |
| US07872909B2 |
Memory device and memory data read method
Provided are memory devices and memory data read methods. A method device may include: a multi-bit cell array; a decision unit that may detect threshold voltages of multi-bit cells of the multi-bit cell array to decide first data from the detected threshold voltages, using a first decision value; an error detector that may detect an error bit of the first data; and a determination unit that may determine whether the decision unit decides second data from the detected threshold voltages using a second decision value, based on a number of detected error bits, the second decision value being different from the first decision value. Through this, it is possible to reduce time spent for reading data stored in the multi-bit cell. |
| US07872906B2 |
Unidirectional-current magnetization-reversal magnetoresistance element and magnetic recording apparatus
A memory for which writing is conducted by using a unidirectional write current. Currents which differ in current pulse width are applied to a magnetoresistance element in a film thickness direction of the magnetoresistance element consisting of a first ferromagnetic layer having a fixed magnetization direction, a second ferromagnetic layer having a variable magnetization direction, a third ferromagnetic layer having a variable magnetization direction, a first non-magnetic layer located between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer, and a second non-magnetic layer located between the second ferromagnetic layer and the third ferromagnetic layer, to reverse a magnetization direction of either the second ferromagnetic layer or the third ferromagnetic layer by using a spin-transfer torque. |
| US07872901B2 |
Programmable-resistance memory cell
A memory cell (10) includes a resistive structure (1), and at least two electrodes (2) coupled to the resistive structure (1), wherein: the resistive structure (1) includes hydrogen, and the resistive structure (1) includes a material that exhibits a hydrogen ion mobility value of at least 10−8cm2/Vs. |
| US07872894B2 |
SRAM memory cell protected against current or voltage spikes
A memory cell is protected against current or voltage spikes. The cell includes a group of redundant data storage nodes for the storage of information in at least one pair of complementary nodes. The cell further includes circuitry for restoring information to its initial state following a current or voltage spike which modifies the information in one of the nodes of the pair using the information stored in the other node. The data storage nodes of each pair in the cell are implanted on opposite sides of an opposite conductivity type well from one another within a region of a substrate defining the boundaries of the memory cell. |
| US07872891B2 |
Semiconductor device
A technology that makes it possible to reduce fluctuation in operating voltage for operating the circuits formed in the core region of a semiconductor device is provided. This semiconductor device is so arranged that the core region is divided into multiple functional blocks and power can be supplied and this power supply can be interrupted with respect to each of the divided functional blocks. The core region formed in the semiconductor chip is divided into multiple functional blocks. A power switch row in which multiple power switches are arranged is disposed in the boundaries between the divided functional blocks. These power switches have a function of controlling the supply of reference potential to each of functional blocks and the interruption of this supply. A feature of the invention is that reference pads are disposed directly above the power switch rows. This shortens the wires coupling together the reference pads and the power switches. |
| US07872890B1 |
Counter circuit for regular expression search engines
A counter circuit is configured to simultaneously maintain individual character match count values for a plurality of overlapping substrings of an input string of characters that match a portion of a regular expression stored in a plurality of rows of content addressable memory (CAM) cells of a ternary CAM device. The counter circuit is selectable between a normal operational mode in which all matching portions of the input string are identified, and a minimum match length operational mode in which only matching portions of the input string that have at least a specified minimum number of characters are identified. |
| US07872886B2 |
Quasi-parallel voltage regulator
Improved regulation and transient response are provided by a power supply architecture providing both unregulated and regulated voltage converters in parallel but deriving input power from separate power supplies connected in series wherein regulated and unregulated branches each provide a substantially fixed and constant proportion of the output current. The series connection of input power sources may provide a further feedback mechanism in addition to feedback for regulation which enhances overall performance. As a perfecting feature of the invention, inductor-less resonant converters which are switched in an interleaved fashion may be used in the unregulated branch while substantially cancelling the characteristic large output voltage ripple thereof. |
| US07872879B2 |
Switched mode power converter and method of operation thereof
A switched mode power converter is provided which includes a transformer (2) having a primary winding (2a) and at least one secondary winding (2b); a primary side active switch device (S1) coupled to the primary winding for selectively applying an input voltage to the primary winding; and a secondary side rectifier circuit including an output filter (6, 12) coupled to the at least one secondary winding (2), and first and second active switch devices (16, 14) coupled between the at least one secondary winding (2b) and the output filter. The switch devices are arranged such that each one is operable independently of the other to block current between the at least one secondary winding and the output filter in an opposite direction to the other. This facilitates better regulation of the converter and avoids the occurrence of voltage spikes encountered in existing configurations. |
| US07872877B2 |
Plasma display apparatus
A PDP apparatus has a plurality of address driving modules (ADMs) connecting a PDP, a chassis, PDP address electrodes with an address driving circuit of the chassis side. The ADM has a flexible substrate on which wiring and a driver IC are mounted and an address substrate formed by a metal plate for holding/fixing the flexible substrate. With respect to a bracket of an attachment part of the chassis, the two adjacent ADMs are positioned by positioning pins and elongated holes at both ends of the address substrates, and attached and held/fixed by common fastening using a female screw portion, chipped portions, and a screw part. Reduction in the number of required parts and work man-hours, stable holding/fixing, etc. are realized in a driver module of a PDP apparatus. |
| US07872875B2 |
Mounting board, height adjusting apparatus and mounting method
An electronic part having mounting terminals made of a thermally-meltable bonding material is mounted on a mounting board. A structural part is used for moving a height-adjusting member to a position under the electronic part in a process of heating and melting the thermally-meltable bonding material so as to maintain a predetermined distance between the electronic part and the mounting board. |
| US07872870B2 |
Heat dissipation device with fastener
An electronic device comprises a printed circuit board, an electronic component mounted on the printed circuit board, a heat dissipation device dissipating heat generated by the electronic component and a plurality of wires on the printed circuit board. The heat dissipation device comprises a heat sink and a pair of fasteners securing the heat sink to the printed circuit board. Each fastener comprises a frame body having a gap defined at a top portion thereof. The wires in a form of a wire harness extend through the gap of the frame body and into the frame body. |
| US07872868B2 |
Mounting structure for power module, and motor controller including the same
A mounting structure for a power module, in which a power module and a heat sink can be easily separated without additional labor and time and without requiring an extra disassembly space in a product and in which parts are not damaged during the disassembly. In the heat sink (5a), screw holes (7a) having female screw threads into which power module fixing screws (2a) are screwed are formed so as to penetrate a power module mounting surface (5c) of the heat sink (5a) and heat radiation fins (9a). The power module fixing screw (2a) is constructed such that, to mount the power module (3) on the heat sink (5a), the screw head of the power module fixing screw (2a) is tightened from the printed circuit board (4a) side with a tool (8a) and that, to remove the power module (3) from the heat sink (5a), the power module fixing screw (2a) is loosened with the tool (8a) from the heat radiation fin (9a) side on the opposite side of the screw head. |
| US07872865B2 |
Disk array device and electronic device
Provided is a disk array device or an electronic device having an enhanced cooling performance with lower noises. The disk array device has doors in the front side and in the rear side of the device, each of the doors is formed with outside openings which are louver-like or bend-like, the louver- or bend-like openings in the doors being directed in directions which are opposite to each other between the door on the suction side and the door on the exhaust side. |
| US07872864B2 |
Dual chamber sealed portable computer
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a laptop computer that can allow for enhanced cooling of a passively cooled notebook while maintaining the desired waterproof and dust resistance of the design. This is achieved by creating a separate cooling channel where air can flow through to provide cooling to an electronics enclosure connected thereto. The cooling channel may utilize membranes (e.g., hydrophobic membranes) to protect again water and dust penetration. In some cases, two fans are used in opposite directions in order to automatically clean the membranes from dust accumulation. |
| US07872859B2 |
Sealed circuit breaker
A sealed electrical enclosure used in hazardous locations for enclosing circuit breakers having a bottom housing and a top housing with a labyrinth seal or joint formed therebetween, the bottom housing adapted to receive one or more circuit breakers, a first metal bus extending from a point internal to the bottom housing through a first end wall to a point external thereto, and a second metal bus extending from a point internal to the bottom housing through a second end wall to a point external to thereto, where the first and second metal buses are adapted to contact first and second electrical terminals of a circuit breaker when placed within the bottom housing, and a first vent positioned on the top housing for dissipating pressure buildup, wherein the top housing is removably secured to the bottom housing to allow for removal and replacement of a circuit breakers within the housing. |
| US07872854B2 |
Semiconductor ceramic, monolithic semiconductor ceramic capacitor, method for manufacturing semiconductor ceramic, and method for manufacturing monolithic semiconductor ceramic capacitor
A semiconductor ceramic comprising a donor element within the range of 0.8 to 2.0 mol relative to 100 mol of Ti element contained as a solid solution with crystal grains, a first acceptor element in an amount less than the amount of the donor element is contained as a solid solution with the crystal grains, a second acceptor element within the range of 0.3 to 1.0 mol relative to 100 mol of a Ti element is present in crystal grain boundaries, and the average grain size of the crystal grains is 1.0 μm or less. A monolithic semiconductor ceramic capacitor is obtained by using this semiconductor ceramic. To form the semiconductor ceramic, in a first firing treatment to conduct reduction firing, a cooling treatment is conducted while the oxygen partial pressure at the time of starting the cooling is set at 1.0×104 times or more the oxygen partial pressure in the firing process. In this manner, a SrTiO3 based grain boundary insulation type semiconductor ceramic having a large apparent relative dielectric constant ∈rAPP of 5,000 or more and a large resistivity log ρ (ρ: Ω·cm) of 10 or more even when crystal grains are made fine to have an average grain size of 1.0 μm or less, a monolithic semiconductor ceramic capacitor including the semiconductor ceramic, and methods for manufacturing them are realized. |
| US07872852B2 |
Conductive structure having capacitor
A three-dimensional conductive structure has a first electrode and a second electrode of a capacitor structure, and thereby defines a capacitor space. At least a signal line is further included in the capacitor space where both the first electrode and the second electrode can cross and detour round the signal line. Therefore, the signal line can go directly through the capacitor space for transferring various signals without making a detour to avoid the whole capacitor structure. |
| US07872849B2 |
Laser engagement stun system
The Laser Engagement Stun System, which is a man Worn Apparatus is designed for Training exercises in Force-on Force or One-on-One training. The L.E.S.S. system receives and analyzes incoming laser light signals while disregarding ambient light signals from the environment. It then generates a High Voltage low amperage pulsed shock or stun that is delivered to the person wearing the LESS. Each person in the exercises will be equipped with the Laser Engagement Stun System. A component and vital part of the system is the weapons mounted Visible Laser Light device attached to each persons weapon. The attached laser light device will be activated when the individual person pulls the trigger on their weapon and cause a Blank Round to be discharged or from a Dry Fire. When the person so equipped as described above with LESS, and weapons mounted Laser Light device, the person may aim his weapon at the opponent and shoot a blank or dry fire and if the aim was true and the laser light strikes the Sensor on the LESS, the person wearing the LESS will feel a mild electrical shock or stun to simulate a bullet hitting that person. Realism during training has become more and more valuable in preventing lives being lost, wounds and other injuries from being sustained because of the lack of realism during training. Only a system wherein the person experiencing the Tactile notification of being hit by a bullet and killed or wounded can prevent the possibility of that reality. Laser Engagement Stun System can address the Age Old problem of FRATRICIDE OR FRIENDLY FIRE. A back Sensor panel and rear helmet Sensor can detect and stun a friendly in a special location that can be immediately identified as FRIENDLY FIRE. |
| US07872847B2 |
Electric-charge protective equipment
Protective equipment for safely discharging electrical potential comprises an interface (10, 50, 60) adapted to be in contact with a wearer. A conductive path in the interface contacts the wearer, the conductive path reaching a ground. A first circuit device (30) is provided in the conductive path. The first circuit device (30) has at least one variable resistance so as to oppose a first level of variable resistance to decrease a conductivity in the conductive path as a function of an increase in potential difference between the wearer and the ground, to allow static discharge through the protective equipment. |
| US07872845B2 |
Control system
One embodiment relates to a control system. In one embodiment, a control system is configured to drive a load based on a set-point of the load, a measured load characteristic and a supply voltage of the load. The controller is configured to determine a duty cycle based on the load characteristic, the set-point, and the supply voltage. The controller is further configured to drive the load in response to the duty cycle. |
| US07872843B2 |
Telecom power distribution unit with integrated filtering and telecom shelf cooling mechanisms
The present invention provides highly efficient system level EMI filtering in a dual feed Power Distribution Unit (PDU) using custom designed magnetic components that are uniquely designed to provide excellent performance under various load conditions. The PDU of the present invention includes filters for providing the necessary EMI filtering at all frequencies in the range between 200 Hz and 200 MHz under all load conditions including a single feed failure. Additionally, the present invention provides mechanisms for cooling EMI components using a combination of natural convection and conduction techniques at the board level to ensure no loss of EMI filtering performance. The present invention also includes blank panels made of formed Aluminum alloy sheet metal pieces or the like to direct air flow to components on printed wiring boards (PWB's) using air director plates. |
| US07872841B2 |
In package ESD protections of IC using a thin film polymer
A packaged semiconductor device (200) with a substrate (220) having, sandwiched in an insulator (221), a flat sheet-like sieve member (240) made of a non-linear material switching from insulator to conductor mode at a preset voltage. Both member surfaces are free of indentations; the member is perforated by through-holes, which are grouped into a first set (241) and a second set (242). Metal traces (251) over one member surface are positioned across the first set through-holes (241); each trace is connected to a terminal on the substrate top and, through the hole, to a terminal on the substrate bottom. Analogous for metal traces (252) over the opposite member surface and second set through-holes (242). Traces (252) overlap with a portion of traces (252) to form the locations for the conductivity switches, creating local ultra-low resistance bypasses to ground for discharging overstress events. |
| US07872838B2 |
Uniformity in CCP magnetic read head devices
Improved performance uniformity among CPP magnetic read devices that include an oxide barrier has been achieved by fabricating the oxide layer from at least two separately formed CCP layers. Each CCP layer is given its own PIT and IAO treatment which is of shorter duration than the PIT/IAO treatment that is used when only a single CCP layer is formed. |
| US07872834B1 |
Head suspension with asymmetric linkage and asymmetric microactuator in plane of mounting region to provide a pseudosymmetric configuration
A dual stage microactuated head suspension includes a base plate, a mounting region attached to the base plate, a load beam coupled to the mounting region, a flexure supported by the load beam and the mounting region, and a microactuator mechanically and electrically coupled to the mounting region. The mounting region is oriented in a plane and includes a microactuator slot for receiving the microactuator such that the microactuator lies substantially or entirely in the plane of the mounting region. The head suspension includes a microactuator support structure provided for mechanically and electrically coupling the microactuator to the mounting region. |
| US07872833B2 |
Head with a transducer overcoat having a trailing air flow dam that is shallowly recessed from an air bearing surface
A head includes a transducer and a slider having an air bearing surface (ABS) and a trailing face. The slider has an overcoat layer that includes the trailing face and that overcoats the transducer. The ABS includes a trailing pad having a major surface adjacent the transducer, with the major surface lying in a primary plane. The ABS also includes a sub-ambient pressure cavity disposed upstream of the overcoat layer and being recessed from the primary plane by a cavity depth in the range 0.8 to 2 microns. The overcoat layer includes a trailing air flow dam being recessed from the primary plane by a step depth in the range 0.05 to 0.5 microns. The overcoat layer also includes a corner region recessed from the primary plane by at least the cavity depth. |
| US07872831B2 |
Thin-film magnetic head having a recording head portion configured to record magnetic information on a patterned media, head gimbal assembly, and hard disk system
The invention provides a thin-film magnetic head wherein the combined release angle Φ for a dominant recording magnetic field generated from a magnetic pole layer toward a patterned media for the purpose of recording magnetic information is set to within an angle range of 35° to 65° with respect to a patterned media surface. It is thus possible to invert, with efficiency and reliability, the directions of magnetization of isolate bits lined up on the patterned media for high-density recording. |
| US07872828B1 |
Flying height measurement
Some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a disk drive system comprising a disk drive system comprising a disk having a track upon a surface of the disk, the track including a first data-storing sector and a second data storing sector, and a servo sector located between the first data-storing sector and the second data-storing sector, the servo sector including a first flying height (FH) field having a predetermined pattern. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. |
| US07872826B2 |
Disk storage device and control method for the same
Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a disk storage device and a control method for the disk storage device, which are capable of precluding an off-track write resulted from stick-slip caused by thermal distortion. A magnetic disk device is provided with a magnetic disk, a head that makes a writing to the magnetic disk, and a temperature sensor that detects the temperature inside of the magnetic disk device. Moreover, the magnetic disk device 1 changes determination requirements for use to make a determination whether or not to prohibit the writing by the head to the magnetic disk based on a measurement temperature detected by the temperature sensor and an amount of temperature change calculated using the measurement temperature. |
| US07872824B1 |
Setting an operating bias current for a magnetoresistive head by computing a target operating voltage
A disk drive is disclosed having a disk, and a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a magnetoresistive (MR) element. Control circuitry within the disk drive sets an operating bias current for the MR element by computing a target voltage for the MR element, applying a bias current to the MR element, measuring a voltage across the MR element corresponding to the bias current, and adjusting the bias current applied to the MR element until the measured voltage substantially equals the target voltage. |
| US07872823B2 |
AGC loop with weighted zero forcing and LMS error sources and methods for using such
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for gain control. For example, some embodiments of the present invention provide variable gain control circuits. Such circuits include a zero forcing loop generating a zero forcing feedback and a least mean square loop generating a least mean square feedback. An error quantization circuit generates a hybrid feedback based upon a threshold condition using the zero forcing feedback and the least mean square feedback. A variable gain amplifier is at least in part controlled by a derivative of the hybrid feedback. |
| US07872821B2 |
Systems and methods for Nyquist tone harmonic measurements
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for determining changes in fly-height. For example, various embodiments of the present invention provide storage devices that include a storage medium, an offset frequency, a read/write head assembly, and a harmonic fly-height change detection circuit. The storage medium includes a periodic data pattern that repeats at a data frequency. The read/write head assembly disposed in relation to the storage medium such that it senses the periodic data pattern and provides a sensed periodic data pattern. The harmonic fly-height change detection circuit samples the sensed periodic data pattern at an aggregate frequency to yield a first set of samples and a second set of samples. The aggregate frequency is the data frequency adjusted by the offset frequency. The harmonic fly-height change detection circuit calculates a first magnitude of the first set of samples and a second magnitude of the second set of samples. |
| US07872820B2 |
Lens barrel and image pickup apparatus
An image pickup apparatus enabling construction of a small bending optical system with high magnification. A first lens group is movably disposed toward an object on a first optical axis. A second lens group is movably disposed radially inward of the first lens group. The second lens group comprises a drive frame drivingly controlled along the first optical axis and a lens holding frame for holding the second lens group. A prism is disposed on the first optical axis, for bending light incident on the prism to thereby guide the light along a second optical axis. The prism is retracted along the second optical axis in a non-shooting state. In the non-shooting state, the second lens group is retracted and accommodated in a space defined by the drive frame and the lens holding frame and a space occupied by the prism in a shooting state. |
| US07872818B2 |
Apparatus for coupling first lens to second lens
An exemplary apparatus for coupling a first lens to a second lens includes a base, a first plate, a second plate, a recess, and an elastic member. The base has a top surface. The first plate protrudes from the top surface. The second plate is opposite to the first plate and protrudes from the top surface. The recess is defined in the top surface and positioned between the first plate and the second plate. The recess is configured for receiving the second lens. The elastic member is positioned on the top surface. A first end of the elastic member is connected with the first plate. The elastic member is configured for exerting a force on the first lens such that the first lens can be cooperatively clamped between a second end of the elastic member and the second plate. |
| US07872817B2 |
Lens barrel, image pickup device, and lens barrel manufacturing method
A lens barrel includes a fourth lens, a prism, and a sixth lens. The fourth lens receives a light flux incident along a first optical axis. The prism includes a reflecting surface reflecting the light flux passing through the fourth lens to a direction along a second optical axis intersecting with the first optical axis. The sixth lens receives the light flux reflected by the prism. A second group frame includes an opening portion, a prism retaining frame that is arranged in a more inner position than the opening portion and in which the prism is contained, and a plurality of adhesive pockets arranged on an area around the prism retaining frame and being open to the side of the opening portion. Adhesive agent is filled in the adhesive pockets. |
| US07872816B2 |
Turning mechanism
A turning mechanism is adapted to a projector including a base and a zoom lens set in a base for turning a zoom bar of the zoom lens. The turning mechanism includes a fixed element and a movable element. The fixed element is suitable to be fastened to the base and has a pair of slide tracks. The movable element has a pair of slide edges, a pair of slide hooks, and a turn portion. The slide hooks lock the slide tracks respectively, and the slide edges are supported by the slide tracks respectively. Therefore, the movable element substantially slides around a light axis of the zoom lens relative to the fixed element, so as to move the turn portion to turn the zoom bar. |
| US07872808B2 |
Zoom lens system and camera including the same
A zoom lens system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit having positive optical power, a second lens unit having negative optical power, and a rear unit including at least one lens unit. During zooming, at least two lens units move so that intervals between the lens units adjacent to each other change. In such a zoom lens system, the second lens unit consists of a negative lens component formed of at least one material and a positive lens element, which are arranged in the stated order from the object side to the image side. A refractive index and an Abbe number of the at least one material forming the negative lens component and a refractive index of a material forming the positive lens element are appropriately set, whereby high optical performance is obtained. |
| US07872805B2 |
Lenticular lens medium
A lenticular lens medium forms a lenticular lens which includes a plurality of semicylindrical-shaped or arc-shaped elongated convex parts. The lenticular lens medium has a volume resistivity of 1×107-1×1014 Ω·cm and a surface resistivity of 1×108-1×1015Ω/□. |
| US07872804B2 |
Encoded particle having a grating with variations in the refractive index
Microparticles 8 includes an optical substrate 10 having at least one diffraction grating 12 disposed therein. The grating 12 having a plurality of colocated pitches Λ which represent a unique identification digital code that is detected when illuminated by incident light 24. The incident light 24 may be directed transversely from the side of the substrate 10 with a narrow band (single wavelength) or multiple wavelength source, in which case the code is represented by a spatial distribution of light or a wavelength spectrum, respectively. The code may be digital binary or may be other numerical bases. The micro-particles 8 can provide a large number of unique codes, e.g., greater than 67 million codes, and can withstand harsh environments. The micro-particles 8 are functionalized by coating them with a material/substance of interest, which are then used to perform multiplexed experiments involving chemical processes, e.g., DNA testing and combinatorial chemistry. |
| US07872800B2 |
Device and method for the presentation of static or moving images
The invention relates to a device and method for displaying a static or moving picture, wherein the inventive device comprises a laser light source and a screen and is characterized in that said screen has a structure at which the illuminated parts simultaneously reflect or transmit light in different directions inside a beam width. |
| US07872798B2 |
Microscopic apparatus and observing method
A microscopic apparatus and an observing method can obtain information of a super-resolved image of an object under observation with a high SN ratio. Therefore, the microscopic apparatus including an illuminating optical system that illuminates a specimen plane of a sample with line-shaped illuminating light, a modulating unit that spatially modulates the illuminating light in a lengthwise direction, an image-forming optical system that forms an image of light from the specimen plane illuminated with the spatially modulated illuminating light, and a detector that detects light from the specimen plane. Accordingly, a confocal effect is obtained with respect to an unstructuring direction of an illuminated area. The essential contrast of the structured illumination of the illuminated area is enhanced by the confocal effect, and thus the modulated image of the illuminated area is detected with a high SN ratio. |
| US07872788B2 |
Method of digitally processing optical waves in integrated planar optical devices that operate on the principle of digital planar holography
A method of digitally processing light waves passing through a planar structure having given functions fin(x, y, ω) and fout(x, y, ω) and consisting of a light-propagating and distributing layer. This layer contains a plurality of interconnecting pattern elements of a holographic pattern and a plurality of planar optical elements arranged in a predetermined pattern on the aforementioned light-propagating and distributing layer. The method consists of calculating positions and shapes of the interconnecting pattern elements of the holographic pattern based on the aforementioned given functions by solving an inverse problem. The interconnecting pattern elements have refractive indices different from the refractive indices of the light-propagating and distributing layer and are manufactured on the basis of the results of the calculations. The aforementioned continuous function is digitized, and the obtained digitized planar holographic pattern is used for converting the function fin(x, y, ω) into the function fout(x, y, ω). |
| US07872782B2 |
Optical scanner and method of controlling optical scanner
An optical scanner has an oscillation-type optical scanning mechanism which includes a movable member which resonates at a predetermined resonance frequency, a drive signal generator which generates a drive signal for allowing the movable member to resonate at the resonance frequency, and an oscillation signal generator which generates an oscillation signal in response to a change of the radiation direction of the light beams. Here, the oscillation signal generator includes a dot clock generator which generates a dot clock which becomes the reference of time-series processing by setting a frequency of the oscillation signal as a reference frequency. |
| US07872781B2 |
Artifact scanning with infrared radiation generated within a cold cathode lamp
Visible and infrared radiation is generated from phosphors within a cold cathode lamp. At least partially transparent media is irradiated with the visible and infrared radiation from the cold cathode lamp. Infrared radiation that passes through the at least partially transparent media is sensed, and an artifact signal is generated from the sensed infrared radiation. The artifact signal corresponds to one or more unwanted artifacts on the at least partially transparent media. |
| US07872776B2 |
Methods, systems and apparatus to control hue variation for multiple marking engine printing systems
Disclosed are methods, systems and apparatus to control hue variation for multiple marking engine printing systems. According to one exemplary method, hue variations associated with two or more color marking engines is controlled by adjusting a color separation error envelope which quantifies color separation error differences between the two or more color marking engines. |
| US07872771B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for customizing driver
An information processing apparatus, system and method which obtains restrictive print information determined for each user who operates a printer driver, and customizes a printer driver by setting a print setting value, as an initial value for the printer driver, which does not conflict with a condition indicated by the restrictive print information. |
| US07872768B2 |
Image forming apparatus capable of notifying user of exit status of discharged sheet, image forming method, and program product
An image forming apparatus that warns that a JOB fails to be pulled out is provided. Warning processes executed by a CPU of a printer that is one example of the image forming apparatus includes the steps of determining whether a JOB list is updated, setting a job counter JB_S_CTA for checking JOB at an initial value “1” and setting an upper limit counter JB_S_CTB at an upper limit value when the JOB list is updated, executing a failure-to-pull-out warning process if JOBs counted by JB_S_CTA belong to the same client, and incrementing the JB_S_CTA by “1”. |
| US07872760B2 |
Method and device for detecting the contour data and/or optical characteristics of a three-dimensional semi-transparent object
A method and device for detecting the contour data and/or optical characteristics of an object, such as a tooth or a tooth restoration, based on an interference and/or autocorrelation measurement using an image sensor. To permit an exact surface detection in addition to a determination of the optical characteristics of the object, individual light beams strike the object, which are located at a distance from one another in such a way that no impact of reflected individual light beams takes place on immediately adjacent pixels of the image sensor. |
| US07872757B2 |
Apparatus and method for ranging and noise reduction of low coherence interferometry LCI and optical coherence tomography OCT signals by parallel detection of spectral bands
Apparatus and method for increasing the sensitivity in the detection of optical coherence tomography and low coherence interferometry (“LCI”) signals by detecting a parallel set of spectral bands, each band being a unique combination of optical frequencies. The LCI broad bandwidth source is split into N spectral bands. The N spectral bands are individually detected and processed to provide an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of N. Each spectral band is detected by a separate photo detector and amplified. For each spectral band the signal is band pass filtered around the signal band by analog electronics and digitized, or, alternatively, the signal may be digitized and band pass filtered in software. As a consequence, the shot noise contribution to the signal is reduced by a factor equal to the number of spectral bands. The signal remains the same. The reduction of the shot noise increases the dynamic range and sensitivity of the system. |
| US07872754B2 |
Optical measurement device
An optical measurement device for measuring an optical appearance of a surface of a sample, in particular the surface of a human skin, wherein the optical measurement device comprises: a first illumination device (16) for illuminating the surface (14) with a first illumination beam (22), wherein the first illumination beam (22) is incident at a first angle of incidence (38) onto the surface (14); and a detection device (28) for detecting a response beam (22), wherein the response beam (42) is a response of the sample (12) to the first illumination beam (22), comprising at least one screen (27) for intercepting the response beam (42) and at least an image detection component (29). The optical measurement device (10) comprises a second illumination device (18), wherein the second illumination device (18) is providing a second illumination beam (24) with a second angle of incidence (54) at the surface (14), wherein the first angle of incidence (38) is different from the second angle of incidence (54). |
| US07872753B2 |
Method and apparatus for establishing reflection properties of a surface
A method for establishing light reflection properties of a specific surface, by measuring, for a plurality of comparison surfaces, the r-tables in accordance with CIE standard recommendations, measuring, for the same plurality of comparison surfaces, a light reflection parameter for selected angles (γ) of incident light and angles (90°−α) and (β) of reflected light, using a ‘portable’ measuring apparatus, measuring in situ, on multiple measuring points of said specific surface, said parameter for said angles (γ), (α) and (β), using said ‘portable’ apparatus, comparing the angular distribution of said parameter for the specific surface with that for said comparison surfaces, to select the comparison surface showing the best distribution fit, optionally taking into account a rescaling factor on luminance coefficient Q0, and assigning to said specific surface the ‘r-table’ corresponding to said selected comparison surface, with said optional rescaling factor. |
| US07872751B2 |
Fast sample height, AOI and POI alignment in mapping ellipsometer or the like
A sample investigation system (ES) in functional combination with an alignment system (AS), and methodology of enabling very fast, (eg. seconds), sample height, angle-of-incidence and plane-of-incidence adjustments, with application in mapping ellipsometer or the like systems. |
| US07872750B1 |
Space radiation detector with spherical geometry
A particle detector is provided, the particle detector including a spherical Cherenkov detector, and at least one pair of detector stacks. In an embodiment of the invention, the Cherenkov detector includes a sphere of ultraviolet transparent material, coated by an ultraviolet reflecting material that has at least one open port. The Cherenkov detector further includes at least one photodetector configured to detect ultraviolet light emitted from a particle within the sphere. In an embodiment of the invention, each detector stack includes one or more detectors configured to detect a particle traversing the sphere. |