| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07877816B2 |
Scanning probe in pulsed-force mode, digital and in real time
Microscope, in particular a scanning probe microscope, comprising a programmable logic device. |
| US07877809B1 |
Secure automatable clean boot system
A computer system uses a clean boot technique to protect against malware attacks. Upon certain detection of a malware infection, the computer system is configured to clean boot off of a fixed secure volume containing its own operating system and security software. The security software in the fixed secure volume is usable to remediate the malware attack by itself or by relying at least in part on security software installed in the infected volume. |
| US07877807B2 |
Method of and system for, processing email
A system for processing emails incorporates means for dealing with previously unknown viruses. The system monitors email traffic patterns to identify patterns characteristic of a virus outbreak and takes corrective action when an outbreak is detected. Individual emails are analysed and, if any one of the constituent parts contains content in which it is possible to contain a virus, characteristic data derived from the email is logged to a database which is scanned for outbreak-indicating traffic patterns. |
| US07877805B1 |
Apparatus, method and computer program product for detection of a security breach in a network
A method for detecting a security breach in a network comprises at one of a plurality of transceivers each having a different media access control address, receiving a signal from an access point, the signal representing one or more packets of data, determining a source media access control address for each of the packets, and alerting the access point when the source media access control address of one of the packets is the media access control address of the transceiver. |
| US07877803B2 |
Automated immune response for a computer
Systems, methodologies, media, and other embodiments associated with making an automated immune response on a computer that may be infected with a malicious software like a virus are described. One exemplary system embodiment includes a behavior logic that faciltates identifying that a computer is exibiting a behavior that indicates that the computer may be infected by a malicious software. The exemplary system embodiment may also include an immune response logic that is configured to facilitate identifying a process and/or program related to the behavior. The immune response logic may be configured to automatically make an immune response with respect to the process and/or program. |
| US07877802B2 |
System and method for proactive computer virus protection
A system, method, and computer readable medium for the proactive detection of malware in operating systems that receive application programming interface (API) calls is provided. A virtual operating environment for simulating the execution of programs and determining if the programs are malware is created. The virtual operating environment confines potential malware so that the systems of the host operating environment will not be adversely effected. During simulation, a behavior signature is generated based on the API calls issued by potential malware. The behavior signature is suitable for analysis to determine whether the simulated executable is malware. |
| US07877800B1 |
Preventing fraudulent misdirection of affiliate program cookie tracking
A cookie monitoring manager detects fraudulent updates to cookies on a computer. The cookie monitoring manager monitors cookies, and detects attempted write operations thereto. The cookie monitoring manager determines whether each detected attempted write operation is an attempt to write a fraudulent affiliate identifier to a cookie. The cookie monitoring manager detects fraudulent write attempts, for example, by detecting an attempt to write a known fraudulent affiliate identifier to a cookie, by detecting an attempt to write to a cookie by a process other than a browser or by detecting multiple attempts to write affiliate identifiers to a cookie within a sufficiently short period of time. When the cookie tracking manager detects an attempt to write a fraudulent affiliate identifier to a cookie, it can block the write attempt and/or run an adware removal program on the computer. |
| US07877798B2 |
System and method for connecting gaming devices to a network for remote play
A system and method for connecting remote player devices to regulated host gaming devices in a network to provide remote game play. A host gaming device is configured to provide game information to a plurality of remote player devices to allow remote play of the host game device. Whether each remote player device is permitted to receive gaming data is based upon, at least in part, the geographic location of the remote player device. |
| US07877795B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically configuring firewalls
Methods, systems, and computer program products that automatically configure firewalls are provided. An blocked attempt by a software application executing on a user device to communicate through a firewall is detected. Information about the detected communication attempt is collected. A danger level of allowing the software application to communicate through the firewall is assessed based upon the collected information. The blocking rules/policy of the firewall are automatically modified to allow the software application to communicate through the firewall if the assessed danger level is below a threshold level. |
| US07877792B2 |
System and method for authentication to an application
Authenticating a first user in a protected network to an application in a DMZ network shared simultaneously with a second user in an unprotected network. The first user supplies a userID and a password to a first server within the protected network for authentication for the application. The first server checks authentication of the first user based on the userID and password. If the first user is authentic, the first server forwards to the application an authentication key for the first user and a selection by the first user pertaining to the application. The application checks authentication of the key, and if authentic, complies with the selection by the first user. The second user supplies another userID and another password to the application. If the other userID and other password are authentic, the application complies with a selection made by the second user pertaining to the application. |
| US07877789B2 |
E-mail stamping with from-header validation
Effective aspects of stamping outbound e-mail are combined with a registration system for e-mail senders. A mail sender participates by registering From: line information with a trusted third-party repository known as a stamp authority. When the sender sends an e-mail message, the From: line is compared against the From: line information for the sender stored in the repository. If the result is a match, the e-mail is allowed to be sent. If there is not a match, then the e-mail is prevented from being stamped. |
| US07877782B2 |
Method and apparatus for configuration management of computer system
A management computer collects, from a storage subsystem via a management network, path definition information including the contents of a security setting made to a path accessible to a volume in the storage subsystem, and when the volume in the storage subsystem is an original volume having a replica volume, replica definition information of the original volume. Based on the replica configuration information thus collected from the storage subsystem, the replica relationship between the volumes is to be grasped. Then, based on the path definition information also collected from the storage subsystem, the contents of the path security setting are verified for the volumes under the same replica relationship, and the verification result is output. In such a structure, consistency verification can be easily done for the security setting of the original and replica volumes. |
| US07877779B2 |
Digital cable TV receiver, diagnosis method for the same, and data structure of HDMI status report
A host includes a plurality of High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) ports. A controller is configured to receive a source external to the host. The controller is further configured to collect HDMI information associated with more than one HDMI port in response to the request. |
| US07877776B2 |
Personal media broadcasting system
A personal media broadcasting system enables video distribution over a computer network and allows a user to view and control media sources over a computer network from a remote location. A personal broadcaster receives an input from one or more types of media sources, digitizes and compresses the content, and streams the compressed media over a computer network to a media player running on any of a wide range of client devices for viewing the media. The system may allow the user to issue control commands (e.g., “channel up”) from the media player to the broadcaster, causing the source device to execute the commands. The broadcaster and the media player may employ several techniques for buffering, transmitting, and viewing the content to improve the user's experience. |
| US07877774B1 |
Browsing and retrieval of full broadcast-quality video
A method includes steps of indexing a media collection, searching an indexed library and browsing a set of candidate program segments. The step of indexing a media collection creates the indexed library based on a content of the media collection. The step of searching the indexed library identifies the set of candidate program segments based on a search criteria. The step of browsing the set of candidate program segments selects a segment for viewing. |
| US07877770B2 |
Information descriptor and extended information descriptor data structures for digital television signals
There is provided according to an embodiment, a digital television (DTV) data stream containing a program and system information protocol (PSIP) table associated with content of the DTV data stream, the PSIP table comprising a descriptor which comprises: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor; a descriptor length indicating a total length of the descriptor; and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream, each category code specifying genre, program type, or category information of the associated event. |
| US07877768B2 |
Smart broadcast program recording padding and scheduling system
A smart broadcast program recording padding and scheduling system provides a system for adjusting the start and end times of a broadcast program's recording schedule that has a predetermined start and end broadcast time and resolving any conflicts arising from conflicting scheduled program recordings. An on screen program guide is displayed to the viewer via a monitor or television that lists the predetermined scheduled broadcast times and channels of a plurality of broadcast programs. The viewer selects a particular broadcast program to record and the invention schedules the broadcast program to be recorded by inserting the program's information such as program identifier, start and end times, and storage duration into a recording schedule database. The viewer adjusts the scheduled start and/or end recording times for a specific program or series of programs by specifying the time increment (padding) to add or subtract from the start and/or end recording times and the invention adjusts the recording schedule for the program(s) using the padding values. Conflicts that arise from adjusted recording schedules are resolved using a priority scheme. Conflicting padding values and start and end recording times are adjusted using threshold values or by elimination. Broadcast programs are recorded onto a persistent storage device when the recording schedule indicates that it is time to do so. |
| US07877761B2 |
Optical disc apparatus
To prevent an optical disc from being removed from a clamper even when an impact force is applied in an optical disc apparatus. A displacement amount by which a disc motor is sunk on the bottom case side is suppressed. In more detail, a convex portion which protrudes in the bottom cover direction is provided at a region including the whole or a part of an orthographically-projected surface of the disc motor on a surface of a bottom case opposed to a rear surface of the disc motor, and in a state of recording or reproducing, the sum of a distance between a motor fixing plate and a bottom cover and a distance between the bottom cover and the convex portion of the bottom case is smaller in the rotational axis direction of the disc motor than the sum of a distance between an optical disc and a tray and an insertion depth by which a clamper is inserted into a center hole of an optical disc. |
| US07877760B2 |
Distributed hardware state management in virtual machines
Mechanisms are disclosed herein that manage operations in virtual machine environments. A first partition can have a proxy driver object corresponding to a driver object in a second partition. The driver object can control a physical device, but because of the proxy driver object, the first partition can retain some measure of control over the physical device. The driver object can be surrounded by a first filter object beneath it, and a second filter object above it. The first filter object can provide interfaces to the driver object so that the driver object can perform various bus-related functionalities; and, the second filter object can receive redirected instructions from the first partition and provide them to the driver object, and intercept any instructions originating from within the second partition, such that if these instructions are inconsistent with policies set in the first partition, they can be manipulated. |
| US07877757B2 |
Work item event monitor for procession of queued events
Detailed herein is a technology which, among other things, monitors the flow of events between a front-end application and a backend server. In one approach is technology, a new event is received at the backend server. This new event has an event type, which is used to set a new event flag, indicating that a new event of that type has been received. The new event is added to the queuing table. One or more events from the queuing table are selected, and a failover mechanism is maintained while selected events are being processed. |
| US07877756B2 |
Apparatus and method for inter-object communication
A partnership object is created to manage interactions between objects in an object oriented computing environment. A first object requests to interact with a second object. A partnership object is created and each of the first and second objects is provided with a reference to the partnership object. The request from the first object may include identifiers of licenses associated with the first and second object and the partnership object may be created only if both licenses are validated. The first object then is able to interact with the second object by using the reference to the partnership object. |
| US07877747B2 |
Flexible operating system operable as either native or as virtualized
According to at least one embodiment, a flexible operating system comprises operability for executing in a first manner as a native operating system on a computer system and for executing in a second manner as a virtualized operating system on the computer system. The flexible operating system further comprises code for determining whether it is being used as a native operating system or as a virtualized operating system on the computer system. |
| US07877740B2 |
Handling caught exceptions
Embodiments of the invention relate to exceptions. In a Java embodiment, if the count of a program statement that causes the exception reaches a threshold, then the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) searches for the throw statement corresponding to that program statement. The JVM then identifies the catch clause corresponding to the throw statement, and depending on implementations, the JVM may replace the throw statement with the catch block or replace the throw statement with a jump to the catch block. As a result, in both situations, program execution, when being supposed to execute the throw statement, executes instructions of the catch block, and avoids execution of the throw statement that would invoke the exception handler, which improves system performance. |
| US07877739B2 |
Method of partially copying first and last private arrays for parallelized loops based on array data flow
A computer-implemented method for determining whether an array within a loop can be privatized for that loop is presented. The method calculates the array sections that require first or last privatization and copies only those sections, reducing the privatization overhead of the known solutions. |
| US07877735B2 |
Application cloning
A system and method are described for performing application cloning. In one embodiment, on a client, an application that is already deployed on a server is accessed and then cloned into another application by assigning a new name to the application. The clone application is then deployed on the server where the application and the clone application are simultaneously run. |
| US07877730B2 |
Method for effecting a preliminary software service in a productive system of a software system landscape and computer system
A method for effecting a preliminary software service in at least one productive system of a plurality of logical systems of a software system landscape, wherein the logical systems are interconnected by logical transport paths and each logical system has associated therewith one of a plurality of system roles, the method comprises: providing system role types, each system role being associated to one of the system role types; providing an association of tasks to system role types; providing a transport track that defines a route for software services through logical systems in a particular order and specifies one source system in which software services are permitted, adjacent interconnected systems, and at least one target system; providing a preliminary software service relating to at least one of the code and the data of at least one productive system; and generating a hot fix instance from the preliminary software service, the system role types, the association and the transport tracks, the hot fix instance defining tasks for routing the preliminary software service to at least one productive system and for executing the preliminary software service therein. |
| US07877727B2 |
Hierarchical state programming with a markup language
A method, system and apparatus are directed to application generation, and more particularly, to generating a user interface enabled application for an embedded device. A configuration file defining at least a hierarchical state machine (HSM) is received and/or pre-loaded. Based on the received configuration file, an intermediate version of the HSM is generated, wherein a child state of the intermediate version is enabled to pass an unconsumed event to a parent state of the child state. Based on the intermediate version, an invocation of at least one user interface (UI) element associated with a state of the intermediate version is enabled. The intermediate version may be executed and/or interpreted by an event-state engine on an embedded device. |
| US07877724B2 |
Decision tree representation of a function
An arbitrary function may be represented as an optimized decision tree. The decision tree may be calculated, pruned, and factored to create a highly optimized set of equations, much of which may be represented by simple circuits and little, if any, complex processing. A circuit design system may automate the decision tree generation, optimization, and circuit generation for an arbitrary function. The circuits may be used for processing digital signals, such as soft decoding and other processes, among other uses. |
| US07877718B2 |
Analog IC placement using symmetry-islands
A placement tool searches for an optimal placement for a plurality of device modules within an integrated circuit (IC) including symmetry groups formed by device modules that are to be symmetrically placed. The tool employs a hierarchical B*-tree (HB*-tree) representation of a trial placement wherein each symmetry group and each module not included in a symmetry group is represented by a separate node of the HB*-tree. Each symmetry group node maps to a symmetry island placement for the symmetry group satisfying all symmetry and other placement constraints on the symmetry group. The placement tool employs a simulated annealing technique to iteratively perturb the HB*-tree representation to produce a sequence of trial placements, and uses a cost function to evaluate the quality of each trial placement. |
| US07877711B2 |
Methods of deriving switch networks
A method of determining the lowest possible number of serial switches in a pull-up plane or a pull-down plane of a network implementing a logic function. The same method may be used in any multi-value function. Also, the method may be used in generating switch networks to be implemented as standard cells implementations of combinational logic cells. The minimum number of switches can also be used as a criterion for technology mapping devoted to automatic cell generation. The method is based on the use of a covering table to derive a sum of products where individual cubes have a minimum literal count. |
| US07877709B2 |
Method of placing wires
A method of placing wires for placing a shield wire with respect to a shield subject wire placed on a chip, a method includes setting a plurality of wire tracks on the chip, dividing the chip into at least a first area and a second area according to a division boundary, confirming whether the shield subject wire exists around the division boundary in the second area when the division boundary is not laid on top of the wire track, and determining whether to place the shield wire on a wire track being adjacent to division boundary in the first area based on the confirming. |
| US07877703B1 |
Intelligent rendering of information in a limited display environment
Methods for the intelligent rendering of information in a limited display environment are provided. Display environments, especially in mobile devices, are limited with regard to physical space and technical capability. The present invention provides for the scaling of information in the display in light of those limitations. Additional methods for intelligently determining information to be or not to be displayed in the environment are further provided. Determinations of information to be displayed may be a result of a user-determination or automatic determinations made by a user device. Zooming and ‘quick look’ features are also provided. |
| US07877701B2 |
In-context total document views for manipulating data
A computer-implementable method, system and computer-readable medium for providing in-context total document views for manipulating data are presented. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of: displaying an active context of a software program on a User Interface (UI); receiving a copy command for a copied element from the active context; in response to a control signal, displaying an access view of one or more secondary contexts of the software program; temporarily activating a selected context from the secondary contexts shown in the access view while continuing to display the active context on the UI; and pasting the copied element into the selected context. Preferably, in response to the copied element being pasted into the selected secondary context, the access view is automatically removed from the UI. |
| US07877700B2 |
Adding accessibility to drag-and-drop web content
Techniques for enhancing accessibility to web content are described herein. In some embodiments, a method includes presenting an activation element in association with a web page and detecting activation of the activation element, wherein the detection occurs following an activation event. The method can also include identifying draggable elements and drop zones in the web page and associating identifiers with the draggable elements and the drop zones, wherein the identifiers indicate one or more input events that will move a certain one of the draggable elements to a certain one of the drop zones. The method can also include modifying the web page to display the identifiers in association with the draggable elements and the drop zones, detecting the input events, and moving the certain one of the draggable elements to the certain one of the drop zones. |
| US07877699B2 |
Multilayered task supporting apparatus and method for supporting multilayered task
A multilayered task supporting apparatus includes: a display area that is divided into three or more; an input unit that is provided with a group of control buttons for assigning a display object; and a control unit that controls a content to be displayed on the display area on the basis of an input from the input unit. |
| US07877696B2 |
Multi-frame display system with semantic image arrangement
Methods and systems for managing presentation of digital images using multiple separate digital media frames each positioned in a separate location and providing images that are viewable within a presentation space, the method comprising the steps of providing access to a source of a plurality of digital images; determining a semantic type defining at least one semantic element of the digital images to be presented; determining the number of the multiple separate digital media frames that are available to be used for presenting the digital images; determining the semantic content of the accessed digital images; selecting digital images for presentation having determined semantic content that corresponds to the determined semantic type; determining a manner for presenting the selected digital images using the determined number of number of digital media frames; and, presenting the selected digital images in the determined manner. |
| US07877694B2 |
Hosted notifications templates
Method and systems for generating notifications in a notifications system. A parameter-driven template received from a content provider contains one or more parameters related to a subscription for notifications. The notifications system enables an application based on the received template and executes it to map a recurring event to one or more subscribers as a function of the parameters specified by the content provider. In response to the recurring event, the notification system generates a notification. Other aspects of the invention relate to a computer-readable medium that defines the application for use in a notifications system. |
| US07877693B2 |
Application sharing security
A method, apparatus and computer-readable medium for facilitating application sharing. In operation, a user selects at least one of a plurality of applications operating on a first computer to share with at least a second computer. The user then selects at least one of a plurality of security measures for preventing a user operating the second computer from performing at least one of a plurality of unauthorized operations. Next, the user initiates applications sharing on the first computer, wherein the user operating the second computer may access or observe an application running on the first computer, but may not perform any unauthorized operations on the first computer. |
| US07877689B2 |
Distributed scalable media environment for movie advertising placement in user-created movies
Ads are placed in a movie using a graphical interface that enables selecting of the ads from a set of ads, selecting frames of the movie for the ad, and selecting locations in the frames for the ads. Each of the ad and the movie can be a still image, a full motion video, an audio, a graphic or a combination thereof. An executable command may also be a part of the ad that is inserted, the command being selected for execution by a viewer of the ad when the movie is played to the viewer. |
| US07877684B2 |
Calendar production apparatus
The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for producing a calendar. A report, which includes an image and is contributed by a contributor, is recorded and distributed. The invention counts the number of viewings of the image in the report by a viewer, and acquires information on a photographing density. This photographing density expresses the number of images photographed or contributed in a predetermined period before and after a time and date when the image in the report was photographed or contributed. The invention extracts an image for a calendar on the basis of the number of viewings and the photographing density from among the images contributed or photographed in a predetermined month. When a calendar production instruction is received, the invention produces a calendar for the predetermined month when the image was contributed or photographed using the extracted image. |
| US07877679B2 |
System and method for generating a user profile from layers based on prior user response
A method for optimizing forms includes generating a profile of a user of a web browser on a client computer and loading into the web browser a vendor form including a field to be filled in with information provided by the user. The form also includes a tag invoking a script-based engine. Software code is stored corresponding to a plurality of layers containing interactive instructions for assisting the user in filling in the field. Responsively to the tag, the script-based engine is loaded into the web browser. Responsively to at least one profile parameter of the user, a portion of the software code is selected and downloaded to the web browser, so that a layer from among the plurality of layers is displayed by the web browser. Via the displayed layer, input is received from the user for filling in the field. |
| US07877678B2 |
System and method for rendering of financial data
A method of populating a spreadsheet with financial data, includes, in response to a user's request for financial data, sending a request to a web service for the financial data, receiving a response to the request from the web service, processing the response, retrieving a taxonomy associated with the response and populating the spreadsheet in accordance with the response and the retrieved taxonomy. |
| US07877676B2 |
Data processing device and method for selecting media segments on the basis of a score
A context of media content is represented by context description data having a hierarchical stratum where the lowest hierarchical layer is formed from an element representing a segment of media content which corresponds to a change between scenes of video data or a change in audible tones. A score relating to the context is appended, as an attribute, to individual elements in the lowest hierarchical layer. In a selection step of a data processing method, the context of the media content is expressed, and one or a plurality of scenes of the media content is or are selected on the basis of the score of the context description data. |
| US07877673B2 |
DTV transmitter and method of coding main and enhanced data in DTV transmitter
A DTV transmitter includes a pre-processor pre-processing enhanced data, a data formatter generating enhanced data packets including the pre-processed enhanced data, and a multiplexer multiplexing the enhanced data packets with main data packets. The transmitter further includes an RS encoder RS-coding the multiplexed packets by adding systematic RS parity data to each main data packet and by adding non-systematic RS parity place holders to each enhanced data packet, and a data interleaver interleaving the RS-coded packets. The non-systematic RS parity place holders are placed after the enhanced data within each interleaved enhanced data packet, and a sequence of known data place holders is periodically included in the interleaved enhanced data packets. |
| US07877670B2 |
Error correcting decoding for convolutional and recursive systematic convolutional encoded sequences
The invention relates to error-correcting coding and correct restart of decoding after errors of sequences that are coded by convolutional coders or LFSR based descramblers. The signals can be binary or multi-valued signals. Methods and apparatus to convolutional encode and decode sequences of binary and n-valued symbols are disclosed. The invention further discloses methods and apparatus to identify symbols in error in sequences coded according to methods of the invention. Methods and apparatus to correct these errors are provided. Methods and apparatus to repair errors in a Trellis of received sequences are also provided. Methods and apparatus for n-valued Recursive Systematic Convolutional coders and decoders are disclosed. |
| US07877664B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving signal in communication system
Disclosed is an apparatus and a method for transmitting/receiving a signal in a communication system, which generates an Affine Permutation Matrix-Low Density Parity Check (APM-LDPC) codeword by encoding an information vector in an APM-LDPC encoding scheme which is a preset structured LDPC encoding scheme, and detects the information vector by decoding the signal in a decoding scheme corresponding to the APM-LDPC encoding scheme, thereby making it possible to generate a Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) code in the form of maximizing a girth while minimizing complexity. |
| US07877662B2 |
Reverse concatenation for product codes
A system is provided to encode data for recording onto media whereby modulation and linear constraints from a concatenated code or product code are imposed. A first array of unencoded user data is generated. Each row is modulation encoded to enforce a first modulation constraint; the array is transformed into a second array which is transformed into a third array having predetermined empty locations in each column interleaved with the modulated data. A C2-parity byte is computed for at least some of the empty locations of the third array and a fourth array is generated. C1-parity symbols in each row are computed, generating a fifth array. A second modulation constraint is enforced on each C1-parity symbol in each row of the fifth array, generating a sixth array. The rows of the sixth array are assembled with header and sync fields for recording onto a recording media. |
| US07877660B2 |
Transmitting additional forward error correction (FEC) upon request
Systems and methods for providing forward error correction are disclosed in the present disclosure. In one embodiment, among others, a method comprises transmitting a stream of data packets to a receiver and transmitting a first amount of forward error correction (FEC) to the receiver. The first amount of FEC is designed to restore a first number of dropped data packets. The method also includes a receiving a message from the receiver that the first amount of FEC is not sufficient to restore a detected number of dropped data packets, and then transmitting additional FEC to restore the detected number of dropped data packets. |
| US07877658B2 |
IEEE 1149.1 and P1500 test interfaces combined circuits and processes
In a first embodiment a TAP of IEEE standard 1149.1 is allowed to commandeer control from a WSP of IEEE standard P1500 such that the P1500 architecture, normally controlled by the WSP, is rendered controllable by the TAP. In a second embodiment (1) the TAP and WSP based architectures are merged together such that the sharing of the previously described architectural elements are possible, and (2) the TAP and WSP test interfaces are merged into a single optimized test interface that is operable to perform all operations of each separate test interface. One approach provides for the TAP to maintain access and control of the TAP instruction register, but provides for a selected data register to be accessed and controlled by either the TAP+ATC or by the discrete CaptureDR, UpdateDR, TransferDR, ShiftDR, and ClockDR WSP data register control signals. |
| US07877657B1 |
Look-ahead built-in self tests
A method and apparatus are disclosed for predicting the failure of a functional element of an integrated circuit during operation. The method includes determining whether the functional element of the integrated circuit device is in an idle cycle, performing a stress test of the functional element while the functional element is in the idle cycle, and indicating that the functional element, if it fails the stress test, is a potential future failing element. The stress test can include simultaneously providing a margining test voltage and a stress clock signal to the functional element. The stress test is performed in the background, during continuous operation of the integrated circuit device, such that normal operation of the integrated circuit device is not interrupted. Thereby, the method and apparatus of the present invention allows for failure prediction in a device before it happens, allowing for planned outages or workarounds and avoiding system downtime for unplanned repairs. |
| US07877654B2 |
Selectable JTAG or trace access with data store and output
An addressable interface selectively enables JTAG TAP domain operations or Trace domain operations within an IC. After being enabled, the TAP receives TMS and TDI input from a single data pin. After being enabled, the Trace domain acquires data from a functioning circuit within the IC in response to a first clock and outputs the acquired data from the IC in response to a second clock. An addressable two pin interface loads and updates instructions and data to a TAP domain within the IC. The instruction or data update operations in multiple ICs occur simultaneously. A process transmits data from an addressed target device to a controller using data frames, each data frame comprising a header bit and data bits. The logic level of the header bit is used to start, continue, and stop the data transmission to the controller. A data and clock signal interface between a controller and multiple target devices provides for each target device to be individually addressed and commanded to perform a JTAG or Trace operation. Trace circuitry within an IC can operate autonomously to store and output functional data occurring in the IC. The store and output operations of the trace circuitry are transparent to the functional operation of the IC. An auto-addressing RAM memory stores input data at an input address generated in response to an input clock, and outputs stored data from an output address generated in response to an output clock. |
| US07877650B2 |
Core circuit test architecture
A scan test architecture facilitates low power testing of semiconductor circuits by selectively dividing the serial scan paths into shorter sections. Multiplexers between the sections control connecting the sections into longer or shorted paths. Select and enable signals control the operation of the scan path sections. The output of each scan path passes through a multiplexer to compare circuits on the semiconductor substrate. The compare circuits also receive expected data and mask data. The compare circuits provide a fail flag output from the semiconductor substrate. |
| US07877649B2 |
Method and apparatus for testing a memory chip using a common node for multiple inputs and outputs
An apparatus and methods for testing an integrated device comprising memory a test device are provided. At least two data inputs of the memory are coupled to a data output of the test device. As an alternative, at least two data outputs of the memory are coupled to a data input of the test device. Test data are transferred from the test device to the memory chip and written to memory cells of the memory. Data are read from the memory cells of the memory and transferring from the memory to the test device. The data read from the memory chip are compared with the test data written to the memory in order to identify faults of the memory. |
| US07877646B2 |
Method and system for monitoring a computing device
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a method for monitoring a computing device, that includes receiving, by a data collector, a plurality of system messages from a system controller, wherein the data collector is wired to a serial port component of the system controller, wherein the system controller is factory preconfigured to automatically send the plurality of system messages via the serial port when the data collector is connected to the serial port, wherein the computing device comprises the system controller, and wherein the data collector is independent of the computing device. The method further includes storing data from the plurality of system messages on the data collector, receiving, by the data collector, a data transmit request, and wirelessly transmitting, by the data collector, the data to a field receiver. |
| US07877645B2 |
Use of operational configuration parameters to predict system failures
The use of operational configuration parameters to predict digital system failures is described herein. At least some illustrative embodiments include a method that includes initializing a digital system (the initializing comprising determining an operational configuration of at least part of the digital system), saving the operational configuration to a database stored on the digital system, reading the operational configuration from the database and comparing the operational configuration to a reference configuration, and identifying the digital system as being at risk of a future failure if at least one parameter of the operational configuration differs from the at least one same parameter of the reference configuration by more than a tolerance value. |
| US07877642B2 |
Automatic software fault diagnosis by exploiting application signatures
A method monitors non-faulty application traces of a computer application with the runtime environment during fault-free activities to create non-faulty runtime signatures for the computer application. Once obtained, the method stores the non-faulty runtime signatures. The method then detects a faulty application trace of the computer application and compares the faulty application trace with the non-faulty runtime signatures by comparing a call graph of the faulty application trace with call graphs of non-faulty application traces of the application signatures to identify differences between the two (e.g., fault attributes). Then the invention outputs the fault attributes to allow the user to identify a fault cause. |
| US07877640B2 |
Method and system for providing enhanced exception messages for exceptions thrown by virtual machines
A system and method are provided to provide enhanced exception messages for exceptions thrown by virtual machines. In one embodiment, an exception is detected when it is thrown at a virtual machine when a programming error is detected. A first message is associated to the exception, the first message including a default message. A request is received for a second message to be associated with the exception. The second message is associated to the exception in response to the request, the second message including an extended message explaining the exception. |
| US07877639B2 |
Systems and methods to provide failover support for booting embedded hypervisor from an internal non-volatile memory card
The present disclosure further relates to information handling systems with failover support for booting an embedded hypervisor, the information handling system. For example, an information handling system with failover support may comprise a processor; one or more applications configured to be executed, at least in part, by the processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and comprising a basic input/output system (BIOS), the BIOS comprising a BIOS universal serial bus (USB) driver, the BIOS USB driver comprising a mass storage device driver; a primary internal embedded hypervisor non-volatile memory (NVM) card communicatively coupled to the memory, the first NVM card comprising a first bootable hypervisor image; and a back up internal embedded hypervisor NVM card communicatively coupled to the memory, the second NVM card comprising a second bootable hypervisor image. |
| US07877638B2 |
Apparatus and method for testing computer
An apparatus for testing a computer includes a control module having a power cycling test program and a display driving program therein, a switch module connected to the control module for receiving trigger signals generated from the power cycling test program and powering on or off the computer consequently, a driving module connected to the control module for receiving display driving signals from the display driving program, and a display module connected to the driving module for displaying test parameters. A method utilizing above described apparatus for testing the computer is also disclosed. |
| US07877637B2 |
Multicore abnormality monitoring device
A monitoring side core has an input protection part including an access checking part and an address information storage part. Address information of a count RAM area and an access prohibiting mode to the address are stored in the address information storage part in advance by CPU. The access checking part determines whether an address to be accessed through a first communication path by a monitored side core and an access mode are coincident with the stored address and the stored access prohibiting mode. When the coincidence is determined, the access of the monitored side core to the count RAM area of the monitoring side core is prohibited. |
| US07877636B2 |
System and method for detecting temporal relationships uniquely associated with an underlying root cause
Methods and systems are provided for detecting temporal relationships that are uniquely associated with a selected root cause. The method comprises identifying error codes associated with a root cause, wherein each error code comprises a plurality of event indicators and temporal data describing when the event indicator was generated, analyzing each of the error codes to detect a combination of event indicators that is associated with error codes corresponding to the selected root cause and to a non-selected root cause, and detecting a temporal relationship involving the combination of event indicators, wherein the temporal relationship is uniquely associated with error codes corresponding to the selected root cause. |
| US07877633B2 |
Highly reliable storage system and internal network thereof
The disk controller has a plurality of channel control units, a plurality of cache memories, a plurality of disk control units, and a plurality of internal switch units. Each channel control unit or disk control unit sends to one of the cache memory units a request packet requesting execution of processing. The cache memory unit sends a response packet in response to the received request packet. Each internal switch unit monitors the request packet sent from the channel control unit or disk control unit, and judges whether or not the response packet to the request packet has passed through the internal switch unit within a first given time period since the passage of the request packet. In the case where the response packet has not passed through the internal switch unit within the first given time period, the internal switch unit sends a failure notification. |
| US07877632B2 |
Storage control apparatus and failure recovery method for storage control apparatus
A storage control apparatus of the present invention reduces the frequency of disk drive failures. An error management part manages the number of times errors occur in respective disk drives. A disk drive in which the number of errors meets or exceeds a threshold value is selected as a disk drive to be restarted. A restart control part commences difference management prior to restarting the disk drive targeted for restart. A difference management part manages parity group-related update locations using a difference bitmap. After commencing difference management, the restart control part restarts the disk drive in which the error was detected. This makes it possible to resolve an error caused by a firmware hangup or the like. |
| US07877629B2 |
Facilitating handling of exceptions in a program implementing a M-on-N threading model
A method for facilitating handling of exceptions in object code transformed from a 1-to-1 threading model to a M-to-N threading model comprises transforming object code having a 1-to-1 threading model to a M-to-N threading model, saving context of a Runnable section of the object code into a context object in response to an exception occurring and rethrowing the exception after performing the saving. The transforming includes creating a Boolean enable value in a method context for an exception handler in the method context, mapping an exception type to the exception handler and wrapping a Runnable section of the object code within a respective synthetic exception handler. The respective synthetic exception handler is configured for saving context of the object code Runnable into a context object in response to an exception occurring and rethrowing the exception after performing the saving. |
| US07877625B2 |
Efficient architecture for interfacing redundant devices to a distributed control system
A system and method for interfacing redundant devices to a distributed control system, includes a first and second redundant field bus modules communicably coupled to the distributed control system and to one another via Ethernet switches. A pair of redundant field devices are coupled to the Ethernet switches, one FD having a floating IP address. The FBMs adopt respective roles as master FBM and tracker FBM, so that the master FBM is configured to capture data from the one FD using the floating IP address, and to pass any data changes periodically to the tracker FBM, through the Ethernet switches. The master FBM is configured to point to the other field device in the event the other field device has assumed the floating IP address. The FBMs are configured to switch roles in the event communication is disrupted between the master FBM and the FD having the floating IP address. |
| US07877624B2 |
Faulted circuit indicator monitoring device with wireless memory monitor
A wireless communications system for viewing and modifying memory locations within a power system device is provided including a wireless device and a power system device. The wireless device includes an input mechanism adapted to accept input from a user indicating a memory location the user wishes to view; a first radio frequency transmitter for transmitting a first signal including the memory location within the power system device the user wishes to view; and a first radio frequency receiver for receiving a second signal. The power system device includes at least one randomly accessible memory location and a processor coupled to at least one randomly accessible memory location; a second radio frequency receiver coupled to the processor and a second radio frequency transmitter coupled to the processor for receiving the first signal. The processor retrieves the value of the memory location included within the first signal and activates the second radio frequency transmitter to transmit a second signal including the value of the memory location. The value of the memory location may be a command or control that is executed by the power system device. |
| US07877621B2 |
Detecting software attacks by monitoring electric power consumption patterns
Software attacks such as worms and viruses are detected in an electronic device by monitoring power consumption patterns. In a first embodiment, software attacks are detected by an increase in power consumption. The increased power consumption can be caused by increased network traffic, or by increased activity in the microprocessor. Monitoring power consumption is particularly effective for detecting DOS/flooding attacks when the electronic device is in an idle state. In a second embodiment, a power consumption signal is converted to the frequency domain (e.g., by fast Fourier transform). The highest amplitude frequencies are identified. Specific software attacks produce characteristic frequencies in the power consumption signal. Software attacks are therefore detected by matching the highest amplitude frequencies with frequencies associated with specific worms and viruses. Identification of a particular software attack typically requires matching of 3 or more of the highest amplitude frequencies, and, optionally, amplitude information. |
| US07877617B2 |
Energy-saving mode-equipped apparatus, information processing apparatus, and control method
An energy-saving mode-equipped apparatus for implementing an energy-saving mode for limiting power supply to modules notifies an information specifying a restore time from the energy-saving mode to an information processing apparatus connected via a network before switching into the energy-saving mode. The information processing apparatus transmits a processing request to the energy-saving mode-equipped apparatus after the restore time has elapsed since a launch request was transmitted to the energy-saving mode-equipped apparatus. |
| US07877616B2 |
Data management system, data processing system, and computer-readable medium having on which data management program is recorded
A data management system including a storage and activating an application so that the application accesses contents in the storage and processes the contents. The data management system also monitors access of the application to the contents by associating information for the application brought into an activated status with information for the accessed contents. The data management system also enciphers the contents with the application information when the activated application writes the contents into the storage while deciphering the contents with the application information when the activated application reads out the contents. |
| US07877614B2 |
Process for securing the access to the resources of an information handling system (I.H.S.)
A process for securing the access to the resources of an Information Handling System (I.H.S.) in accordance with the present invention which involves the steps of: initiating a first preliminary qualification process for the purpose of generating a system qualification file (SQF) comprising a list and identifiers of components detected within the system; encrypting the qualification file in order to create a reference system qualification signature (RQS); and storing the reference qualification signature (RQS); and initiating preliminary to a transaction or to a service to be secured, a validation process for the purpose of generating a new system qualification file; encrypting the new system qualification file in order to generate a checking signature; and comparing the checking signature with the reference signature and, in response to the comparison, allowing or denying access to the transaction or service. |
| US07877613B2 |
Protecting mobile code against malicious hosts
Techniques for using a class loader to protect mobile code against a malicious host. The techniques include using the class loader to extend a class used by the mobile code such that a method is added to the code which authenticates the mobile code. When executed, the method provides a dynamic watermark that authenticates the code. The method may be encrypted until it is added to the code. One such method uses a static watermark in the code to determine whether the code has been modified. The techniques also include using a class loader to extend the class such that obfuscated symbolic names in the program that correspond to symbolic names defined by the class can be resolved. A way of doing this is to include a first association between the obfuscated symbolic names and encrypted forms of the corresponding symbolic names in the program and to make a second association between the encrypted forms of the corresponding symbolic names and information used to resolve the symbolic names defined in the class. The loader then uses the first and second associations to resolve the obfuscated names. |
| US07877611B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing on-line fraud using personal digital identification
A distributed Personal Digital Identification (PDI) system and architecture rapidly verifies individuals using biometric data or other tokens prior to approving a transaction and/or granting access to an on-line services and other network services. The architecture that includes a server that has access to template data required to authenticate individuals, and the processing capacity to route authenticated requests to the appropriate downstream entity (Internet Service Provider, Credit Card Company, etc.). The server is connected to requesting users by various network methods to form a client/server architecture. The server and clients each contain discrete subsystems, which provide various levels of authentication services to users of the system. |
| US07877609B2 |
Optimization methods for the insertion, protection, and detection of digital watermarks in digital data
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for encoding digital watermarks into content signals. Also disclosed are systems and methods for detecting and/or verifying digital watermarks in content signals. According to one embodiment, a system for encoding of digital watermark information includes: a window identifier for identifying a sample window in the signal; an interval calculator for determining a quantization interval of the sample window; and a sampler for normalizing the sample window to provide normalized samples. According to another embodiment, a system for pre-analyzing a digital signal for encoding at least one digital watermark using a digital filter is disclosed. According to another embodiment, a method for pre-analyzing a digital signal for encoding digital watermarks comprises: (1) providing a digital signal; (2) providing a digital filter to be applied to the digital signal; and (3) identifying an area of the digital signal that will be affected by the digital filter based on at least one measurable difference between the digital signal and a counterpart of the digital signal selected from the group consisting of the digital signal as transmitted, the digital signal as stored in a medium, and the digital signal as played backed. According to another embodiment, a method for encoding a watermark in a content signal includes the steps of (1) splitting a watermark bit stream; and (2) encoding at least half of the watermark bit stream in the content signal using inverted instances of the watermark bit stream. Other methods and systems for encoding/decoding digital watermarks are also disclosed. |
| US07877600B2 |
Method and apparatus for distributing root certification
An apparatus and method for providing at least one root certificate are disclosed. Specifically, a plurality of root certificates is received and stored. Afterwards, a request is received from a first endpoint device for a desired root certificate, where the desired root certificate is used by the first endpoint device to verify an identity of a second endpoint device. Furthermore, the first endpoint device and the second endpoint device are associated with different certificate hierarchies. The desired root certificate is then sent to at least the first endpoint device. |
| US07877595B2 |
Modular cryptographic device and related methods
A cryptographic device may include a cryptographic module and a communications module removably coupled thereto. The cryptographic module may include a first housing, a user network interface carried by the first housing, a cryptographic processor carried by the first housing and coupled to the user network interface, and a first connector carried by the first housing and coupled to the cryptographic processor. Furthermore, the communications module may include a second housing, a second connector carried by the second housing and being removably mateable with the first connector of the cryptographic module, and a network communications interface carried by the second housing and coupled to the second connector. |
| US07877592B2 |
System and methods for efficient and cooperative operating system switching
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for performing operating system (OS) switching. In one embodiment, the method comprising enabling a plurality of operating systems to run concurrently on a computer, wherein a first operating system in the plurality of operating systems is actively being run, the method comprising, identifying a second operating system of a plurality of operating systems that is to be active next, exchanging information between the first and second operating systems using a storage area accessible by the first and second operating systems, causing the first operating system to become inactive by performing a suspend operation; and causing the second operating system to become active by performing a resume operation to cause the second operating system to resume operation, wherein the information controls which operations are performed as part of one or both of the suspend and resume operations. |
| US07877589B2 |
Configuring a device for operation on a computing platform
A method which includes initializing a device following a power cycle. The initialization includes an agent for the device implementing one or more command sequences to configure the device for operation on a computing platform. The one or more implemented command sequences are recorded and a configuration flag is asserted to indicate the device has been configured for operation on the computing platform. The configuration flag is included in a command configuration register. At least a portion of the recorded one or more command sequences and the command configuration register are stored in a persistent memory that includes non-volatile memory resident on the device. Based on an other power cycle, the device is to access the command configuration register. Based on the command configuration register, the device is to determine whether it is to configure itself by implementing the one or more stored command sequences. The device then configures itself based on that determination. Other implementations and examples are described in this disclosure. |
| US07877587B2 |
Branch prediction within a multithreaded processor
A branch prediction mechanism 16, 18 within a multithreaded processor having hardware scheduling logic 6, 8, 10, 12 uses a shared global history table 18 which is indexed by respective branch history registers 20, 22 for each program thread. Different mappings are used between preceding branch behavior and the prediction value stored within respective branch history registers 20, 22. These different mappings may be provided by inverters placed into the shift in paths for the branch history registers 20, 22 or by adders 40, 42 or in some other way. The different mappings help to equalise the probability of use of the particular storage locations within the global history table 18 such that the plurality of program threads are not competing excessively for the same storage locations corresponding to the more commonly occurring patterns of preceding branch behavior. |
| US07877585B1 |
Structured programming control flow in a SIMD architecture
One embodiment of a computing system configured to manage divergent threads in a SIMD thread group includes a stack configured to store state information for processing control instructions. A parallel processing unit is configured to perform the steps of determining if one or more threads diverge during execution of a conditional control instruction. A disable mask allows for the use of conditional return and break instructions in a multithreaded SIMD architecture. Additional control instructions are used to set up thread processing target addresses for synchronization, breaks, and returns. |
| US07877578B2 |
Processing apparatus for storing branch history information in predecode instruction cache
The present invention provides an information processing apparatus having a predecoder decoding an operation code in an input instruction, generating conditional branch instruction information indicating that the input instruction is a conditional branch instruction and instruction type information indicating a type of the conditional branch instruction when the input instruction is a conditional branch instruction, and writing the input instruction, from which the operation code is deleted, the conditional branch instruction information and the instruction type information to the instruction cache memory, and a history information writing unit writing history information indicating whether or not the conditional branch instruction was branched, as a result of executing the conditional branch instruction stored in the instruction cache memory, to an area in the instruction cache memory, where the operation code of the conditional branch instruction is deleted. |
| US07877576B2 |
Processing system having co-processor for storing data
When an interruption instruction occurs in an information processing apparatus including a CPU and a coprocessor, execution of a single dedicated instruction “GETACX Dm,Dn” performs saving of necessary data from all registers. “Dm” is a value output from a general register group 104 to a first data input bus 120. Each of calculation units implemented in a coprocessor 110 recognizes a value stored therein. If a value “Dm” specifies one of the calculation units, the specified calculation unit outputs, to a selector 116, data stored in a register included in the specified calculation unit. An implemented calculation unit information output circuit 117 stores therein the count of the calculation units implemented in the coprocessor 110. If a value of the first data input bus 120 is greater than the count of the calculation units, the implemented calculation unit information output circuit 117 outputs a value “1” to a flag register 102. Based on the fact that the value stored on the flag register 102 is “1”, a CPU 100 recognizes that saving of the data from the register has been completed. |
| US07877575B2 |
Microprocessor
The invention relates to a microprocessor having a plurality of components which are selected from registers (14,16), arithmetic logic units (30,32), memory (36,38), input/output circuits and other similar components where the plurality of components are interconnected in a manner which allows connection between some of the components to be varied under program control. |
| US07877574B2 |
Relay node communication interface transmitting update packet to higher node by executing chain indivisibility instructions upon receiving data change notification from lower node
A first storing unit stores therein a chain indivisibility instruction. A detecting unit detects a change of first data that is distributed in a node computer. A first designating unit designates, when the detecting unit detects the change in the first data, an indivisibility instruction corresponding to the first data from which the change is detected, by referring to the first storing unit. A first executing unit executes the indivisibility instruction designated by the first designating unit. |
| US07877573B1 |
Work-efficient parallel prefix sum algorithm for graphics processing units
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for computing a parallel prefix sum using one or more cooperative thread arrays (CTA) within a graphics processing unit. The prefix sum input list is partitioned and distributed to each CTA. Within each CTA, the input list is further partitioned for processing by individual threads in a way that avoids access conflicts to memory. Each list partition within the CTA is assigned to one of a plurality of concurrent threads, which executes a prefix sum operation the partition. The final values of the prefix sum operations form a list that is then subjected to a second prefix sum operation. Each element of the second prefix sum operation is added to each element of the subsequent partition, completing the prefix sum operation within the CTA. This technique may be extended to prefix sum operations that span two or more CTAs. |
| US07877571B2 |
System and method of determining an address of an element within a table
In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes executing a single instruction to identify a location within a table stored at a memory. The single instruction is executable by a processor to extract bit field data from a first register and insert the bit field data into an index portion of a second register. The second register includes a table address portion and an index portion. The table address portion includes a table address identifying a memory location associated with a table. The table address and the bit field data combine to form an indexed address to an element within the table. |
| US07877567B2 |
Transporting image files
A method for transporting an image file over a network is provided. The network may include two or more computers, and the image file may include a control stream, a data stream, and a cluster map stream. The method may include parsing the image file into two or more segments. A first segment may include the control stream, the cluster map stream and a first portion of the data stream. A second segment includes a second portion of the data stream. The method may also include sending the first segment from a first computer to a second computer, and sending the second segment from the first computer to the second computer. |
| US07877563B2 |
Programmable memory device security
A removable digital data storage device has a programmable memory controller, a data storage medium and a data destruction means. The memory controller is encoded with a firmware program to provide a computer device driver interface, wherein the firmware program further configures the memory controller to secure data on the medium by querying for a hardware code in response to a data operation request by a computer through the interface and either granting access in response to a hardware code input or, independent of an operational status of the requesting computer, directly instructing the data destruction means to render data residing on the data storage medium unreadable in response to a failure to receive the first hardware code input through the interface. |
| US07877562B2 |
Memory controller, flash memory system, and control method of flash memory
A flash memory stores a boot program of a host system and its backup program. A memory controller determines whether or not the boot program is stored properly in the flash memory when the host system is to be activated. The memory controller reads out the boot program in a case where the boot program is stored properly, and reads out the backup program in a case where the boot program is not stored properly. Then, the memory controller supplies the read-out boot program or backup program to the host system. This makes it possible to avoid a situation that the host system cannot be activated due to the boot program not being able to be executed. |
| US07877560B2 |
Storage system with automated resource allocation
When a plurality of disk control apparatuses function as one disk control apparatus with a mutual connecting network, a processor is used as an independent resource. Moreover, states of use of resources are monitored, and processing from distribution of the resources to allocation of control tasks is optimized promptly so as to be compatible with a user request. By promptly making system performance compatible with the user request according to the present invention, a state in which the user request and the system performance are alienated from each other for a long time is eliminated. |
| US07877559B2 |
Mechanism to accelerate removal of store operations from a queue
A processor includes at least one processing core. The processing core includes a memory cache, a store queue, and a post-retirement store queue. The processing core retires a store in the store queue and conveys the store to the memory cache and the post-retirement store queue, in response to retiring the store. In one embodiment, the store queue and/or the post-retirement store queue is a first-in, first-out queue. In a further embodiment, to convey the store to the memory cache, the processing core obtains exclusive access to a portion of the memory cache targeted by the store. The processing core buffers the store in a coalescing buffer and merges with the store, one or more additional stores and/or loads targeted to the portion of the memory cache targeted by the store prior to writing the store to the memory cache. |
| US07877558B2 |
Memory controller prioritization scheme
A system includes a processor coupled to a memory through a memory controller. The memory controller includes first and second queues. The memory controller receives memory requests from the processor, assigns a priority to each request, stores each request in the first queue, and schedules processing of the requests based on their priorities. The memory controller changes the priority of a request in the first queue in response to a trigger, sends a next scheduled request from the first queue to the second queue in response to detecting the next scheduled request has the highest priority of any request in the first queue, and sends requests from the second queue to the memory. The memory controller changes the priority of different types of requests in response to different types of triggers. The memory controller maintains a copy of each request sent to the second queue in the first queue. |
| US07877553B2 |
Sharing volume data via shadow copies using differential areas
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to sharing volume data via shadow copies. In aspects, an active computer creates a shadow copy of a volume. The shadow copy is exposed to one or more passive computers that may read but not write to the volume. A passive computer may obtain data from the shadow copy by determining whether the data has been written to a differential area and, if so, reading it from the differential area. If the data has not been written to the differential area, the passive computer may obtain it by first reading it from the volume, then re-determining whether it has been written to the differential area, and if so, reading the data from the differential area. Otherwise, the data read from the volume corresponds to the data needed for the shadow copy. |
| US07877552B2 |
Symmetric multiprocessor fault tolerant computer system
A symmetric multiprocessing fault-tolerant computer system controls memory access in a symmetric multiprocessing computer system. To do so, virtual page structures are created, where the virtual page structures reflect physical page access privileges to shared memory for processors in a symmetric multiprocessing computer system. Access to shared memory is controlled based on physical page access privileges reflected in the virtual paging structures to coordinate deterministic shared memory access between processors in the symmetric multiprocessing computer system. A symmetric multiprocessing fault-tolerant computer system may use duplication or continuous replay. |
| US07877551B2 |
Programmable partitioning for high-performance coherence domains in a multiprocessor system
A multiprocessor computing system and a method of logically partitioning a multiprocessor computing system are disclosed. The multiprocessor computing system comprises a multitude of processing units, and a multitude of snoop units. Each of the processing units includes a local cache, and the snoop units are provided for supporting cache coherency in the multiprocessor system. Each of the snoop units is connected to a respective one of the processing units and to all of the other snoop units. The multiprocessor computing system further includes a partitioning system for using the snoop units to partition the multitude of processing units into a plurality of independent, memory-consistent, adjustable-size processing groups. Preferably, when the processor units are partitioned into these processing groups, the partitioning system also configures the snoop units to maintain cache coherency within each of said groups. |
| US07877549B1 |
Enforcement of cache coherency policies using process synchronization services
In general, this disclosure describes techniques of ensuring cache coherency in a multi-processor computing system. More specifically, a relaxed coherency mechanism is described that provides the appearance of strong coherency and consistency to correctly written software executing on the multi-processor system. The techniques, as described herein, combine software synchronization instructions with certain hardware-implemented instructions to ensure cache coherency. |
| US07877548B2 |
Shared buffer having hardware-controlled buffer regions
Buffer memories having hardware controlled buffer space regions in which the hardware controls the dimensions of the various buffer space regions to meet the demands of a particular system. The hardware monitors the usage of the buffer data regions over time and subsequently and automatically adjusts the dimensions of the buffer space regions based on the utilization of those buffer regions. |
| US07877545B2 |
Online restriping technique for distributed network based virtualization
A technique is provided for implementing online restriping of a volume in a storage area network. A first instance of the volume is instantiated at a first port of the fibre channel fabric for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the volume. While restriping operations are being performed at the volume, the first port is able to concurrently perform I/O operations at the volume. |
| US07877539B2 |
Direct data file storage in flash memories
Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host. The file based interface between the host and memory systems allows the memory system controller to utilize the data storage blocks within the memory with increased efficiency. |
| US07877537B2 |
Configurable cache for a microprocessor
A cache module for a central processing unit has a cache control unit coupled with a memory, and a cache memory coupled with the control unit and the memory, wherein the cache memory has a plurality of cache lines, at least one cache line of the plurality of cache lines has an address tag bit field and an associated storage area for storing instructions to be issued sequentially and at least one control bit field, wherein the control bit field is coupled with the address tag bit field to mask a predefined number of bits in the address tag bit field. |
| US07877535B2 |
Processor and interrupt handling method
Disclosed are a processor and an interrupt handling method. The processor of the present exemplary embodiments may include a plurality of processing elements and may predict whether a periodic interrupt occurs during a parallel processing mode before entering a mode in which the plurality of processing elements share a single task to process the single task in parallel. The processor may delay entering the parallel processing mode based on the prediction. The processor may reduce overhead that stores a context of the plurality of processing elements when the interrupt occurs. |
| US07877533B2 |
Bus system, bus slave and bus control method
A bus system includes one or more bus masters, one or more bus slaves, and a response unit. When an access request to a resource of a bus slave is sent from a bus master, the response unit outputs a wait response that is either a blocking wait response to cause the bus master to perform a blocking wait operation or a non-blocking wait response to cause it to perform a non-blocking wait operation to the bus master if the bus slave is in the wait state. |
| US07877529B1 |
Low overhead, data transparent synchronization of streaming serial data
Synchronization management is provided for a continuous serial data streaming application wherein the serial data stream includes a plurality of consecutive, identical-length segments of consecutive serial data bits. Synchronization management bits are provided in each segment. The synchronization management bits are programmed such that the synchronization management bits contained in first and second adjacent segments of the serial data stream will bear a predetermined relationship to one another. At the receiving end, the synchronization management bits are examined from segment to segment. In this manner, synchronization can be monitored, synchronization loss can be detected, and synchronization recovery can be achieved. |
| US07877526B2 |
Data processing system having a channel adapter shared by multiple operating systems
A data processing system including a processing unit on which a control program runs, a plurality of operating systems (OS's) configured to run under control of said control program, a Peripheral Component Interchange (PCI) bus coupled to the processing unit, and a channel adaptor for data transmission/reception, wherein: the channel adaptor is coupled to the PCI bus on a PCI bus side of the channel adapter, and the channel adapter includes only one connecting port on an input/output (I/O) side of the channel adapter; an input/output process is executed between each OS and said channel adaptor by using input/output process control data specifying input/output (I/O) data, the input/output process control data being provided via a Queue Pair having a Queue Pair identifier and including a Send Queue, Receive Queue and Complete Queue; configuration information is provided, exclusively defining the Queue Pair identifier of said Queue Pair of said input/output process control data which is usable exclusively by each respective OS; said channel adaptor can process a plurality of input/output process control data; and each OS uses said input/output process control data corresponding to a unique usable Queue Pair identifier and defined in said configuration information, and thereby a plurality of OS's control input/output process control data having different Queue Pair identifiers relative to said channel adaptor to execute the input/output process without sharing said input/output process control data for said channel adaptor by different OS's. |
| US07877525B1 |
Resuming media objects delivered via progressive downloading services upon data loss events
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for resuming a media object presented following a data loss event are provided. A physical disconnection that occurs at a point during the presentation of the media object is detected. The physical disconnection interrupts the presentation of the media object. Upon detecting the physical disconnection, a reestablishment of the physical connection is detected. Subsequently, an option to resume the presentation of the media object at the interrupted point is presented to a user. |
| US07877524B1 |
Logical address direct memory access with multiple concurrent physical ports and internal switching
A DMA engine is provided that is suitable for higher performance System On a Chip (SOC) devices that have multiple concurrent on-chip/off-chip memory spaces. The DMA engine operates either on logical addressing method or physical addressing method and provides random and sequential mapping function from logical address to physical address while supporting frequent context switching among a large number of logical address spaces. Embodiments of the present invention utilize per direction (source-destination) queuing and an internal switch to support non-blocking concurrent transfer of data on multiple directions. A caching technique can be incorporated to reduce the overhead of address translation. |
| US07877523B2 |
Apparatus, computer program product, and system for completing a plurality of chained list DMA commands that include a fenced list DMA command element
An apparatus and a computer program product are provided for completing a plurality of (direct memory access) DMA commands in a computer system. It is determined whether the DMA commands are chained together as a list DMA command. Upon a determination that the DMA commands are chained together as a list DMA command, it is also determined whether a current list element of the list DMA command is fenced. Upon a determination that the current list element is not fenced, a next list element is fetched and processed before the current list element has been completed. |
| US07877519B2 |
Selecting one of a plurality of adapters to use to transmit a packet
Provided are a method, system, and program for selecting one of a plurality of adapters to use to transmit a packet. A packet is generated by a protocol driver having connection information in a packet header. A determination is made as to whether there is one value in a table for the connection information. The packet and the determined value are forwarded to a network driver in response to determining that the table has one value for the connection information. The network driver uses the forwarded value to determine one of a plurality of adapters to use to transmit the packet over a network. |
| US07877517B2 |
Determining whether to compress data transmitted over a network
Provided are a method, system and program for determining whether to compress data transmitted over a network. A determination is made of compression performance for a compression algorithm to use to compress data to transmit to a target node over a network and of network performance of the network. The determined compression performance and the network performance are used to determine whether to compress the data. The data is compressed in response to determining to compress the data and the compressed data is transmitted to the target node over the network in response to compressing the data. The data is transmitted to the target node uncompressed in response to determining not to compress the data. |
| US07877515B2 |
Identity assignment for software components
Devices, systems, methods and software are described which provide identity assignment and redistribution capabilities for software components of a distributed application. Identity value ranges can be fixed or variable. Identity assignment schemes according to exemplary embodiments facilitate the continuation of traffic between the components and clients during redistribution of the identities. |
| US07877508B1 |
Method and system for intelligently forwarding multicast packets
A routing system utilizes a layer 2 switch interconnecting several routers to intelligently forward multicast packets throughout an internet exchange carrying multicast content. The layer 2 switch performs protocol snooping to extract a lookup key that is based on network layer protocol information. The lookup key is uniquely formulated to support either shared or explicit source distribution trees. The lookup key is used to query a forwarding memory that returns an outgoing port index. The outgoing port index points to one or more outgoing ports that are eligible to receive the multicast packet. The outgoing ports are also connected to the neighboring device(s) that are designated to receive the multicast packet. The routing system also supports real time maintenance and updating of the forwarding memory based on the periodic exchange of control messages. The routing system is configured to support PIM routers operating in PIM SM or PIM SSM modes. However, the routing system can also support other multicast protocols and/or standards. |
| US07877505B1 |
Configurable resolution policy for data switch feature failures
A method for communication includes associating respective feature chains with a plurality of interfaces of a data switch. The feature chains include service features. A respective failure policy is defined for each of one or more of the service features in each of the feature chains. Upon detecting a failure in a service feature in a feature chain associated with one of the interfaces, data packets are routed through the data switch while applying, responsively to the failure, the respective failure policy to the one of the interfaces. |
| US07877501B2 |
Packet prioritization and associated bandwidth and buffer management techniques for audio over IP
The present invention is directed to voice communication devices in which an audio stream is divided into a sequence of individual packets, each of which is routed via pathways that can vary depending on the availability of network resources. All embodiments of the invention rely on an acoustic prioritization agent that assigns a priority value to the packets. The priority value is based on factors such as whether the packet contains voice activity and the degree of acoustic similarity between this packet and adjacent packets in the sequence. A confidence level, associated with the priority value, may also be assigned. In one embodiment, network congestion is reduced by deliberately failing to transmit packets that are judged to be acoustically similar to adjacent packets; the expectation is that, under these circumstances, traditional packet loss concealment algorithms in the receiving device will construct an acceptably accurate replica of the missing packet. In another embodiment, the receiving device can reduce the number of packets stored in its jitter buffer, and therefore the latency of the speech signal, by selectively deleting one or more packets within sustained silences or non-varying speech events. In both embodiments, the ability of the system to drop appropriate packets may be enhanced by taking into account the confidence levels associated with the priority assessments. |
| US07877500B2 |
Packet prioritization and associated bandwidth and buffer management techniques for audio over IP
The present invention is directed to voice communication devices in which an audio stream is divided into a sequence of individual packets, each of which is routed via pathways that can vary depending on the availability of network resources. All embodiments of the invention rely on an acoustic prioritization agent that assigns a priority value to the packets. The priority value is based on factors such as whether the packet contains voice activity and the degree of acoustic similarity between this packet and adjacent packets in the sequence. A confidence level, associated with the priority value, may also be assigned. In one embodiment, network congestion is reduced by deliberately failing to transmit packets that are judged to be acoustically similar to adjacent packets; the expectation is that, under these circumstances, traditional packet loss concealment algorithms in the receiving device will construct an acceptably accurate replica of the missing packet. In another embodiment, the receiving device can reduce the number of packets stored in its jitter buffer, and therefore the latency of the speech signal, by selectively deleting one or more packets within sustained silences or non-varying speech events. In both embodiments, the ability of the system to drop appropriate packets may be enhanced by taking into account the confidence levels associated with the priority assessments. |
| US07877494B2 |
Method, components and system for tracking and controlling end user privacy
A privacy service is provided for use in protection of user data transferred in a network, including a converged network. The privacy service extracts and measures service elements of a message containing user data. The service elements include an identity element, a trust element, a rights element and a security element. The privacy service performs security by comparing service elements with a user defined privacy policy. The privacy policy may also be based on particular factors relating to the application, context, and time of the message. In another embodiment, the privacy service provides controls that indicate when user data is misappropriated as a result of an infringement of the user defined privacy policy. Further the privacy service provides a means to audit and trace deviations from the privacy policy for the purpose of repudiation, or future defense of security threats. |
| US07877490B1 |
Method and apparatus for efficient TCP connection handoff
A method for efficient communications with a cluster-based architecture preserves various aspects of integrity throughout one or more connections with a client, even in the midst of connection migration between nodes in the cluster. According to one aspect, the invention provides a mechanism for preventing the loss of packets arising from a TCP connection migration within the cluster. According to another aspect, the invention provides a mechanism for uniquely identifying conflicting TCP connections migrated to a common node. According to a still further aspect, the invention provides a distributed TCP timestamp mechanism so that the sender and receiver will have a consistent view of the timestamp even when each node has different local clock values and regardless of how many times the socket has been migrated. |
| US07877484B2 |
System and method for bulk processing of semi-structured result streams from multiple resources
A system and associated method for bulk processing of semi-structured results streams from many different resources ingest bytes, parse as many bytes as practical, and return to process additional bytes. The system processes network packets as they arrive from a computing resource, creating intermediate results. The intermediate results are held in a stack until sufficient information is accumulated. The system then merges the intermediate results to form a single document model. As network packets at one connection are consumed by the system, the system can select another connection at which packets are waiting for processing. The processing of a result at a connection can be interrupted while the system processes the results at another connection. In this manner, the system is able to utilize one thread to process many incoming results in parallel. |
| US07877483B1 |
Virtual local area network pruning protocol
In one embodiment, an intermediate network device has a plurality of ports, and at least some of the ports are associated with Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) designations. A spanning tree entity executes a spanning tree protocol to transition the ports among a plurality of spanning tree states. A VLAN port logic circuit is disposed at one or more of the ports and processes control packets advertising VLAN memberships. The VLAN port logic circuit, in response to receiving a control packet broadcast by another intermediate network device, asserts bits in a VLAN wanted vector for which the spanning tree state of the selected port is in the forwarding state, signifying that network messages associated with such VLAN designations are to be forwarded from the respective port. The VLAN wanted vectors may later be transmitted in control messages from the intermediate network device. |
| US07877482B1 |
Efficient application hosting in a distributed application execution system
In a distributed application execution system having an application master and a plurality of application servers, each application server includes one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs. The one of more programs include instructions for storing in non-volatile storage a plurality of applications distributed to the application server by the application master, for loading into volatile storage and executing a respective application in response to a received request, and for returning a result to the request. In addition, the one of more programs include instructions for conditionally retaining the respective application in volatile storage, for responding to a future request, when criteria, including at least predefined usage level criteria, are met by the respective application, and otherwise removing the respective application from volatile storage upon returning the result to the request. |
| US07877481B2 |
Method and apparatus for overflowing data packets to a software-controlled memory when they do not fit into a hardware-controlled memory
A system for managing packets incoming to a data router has a local packet memory (LPM) mapped into pre-configured memory units, to store packets for processing, an external packet memory (EPM), a first storage system to store packets in the LPM, and a second storage system to store packets in the EPM. The system is characterized in that the first storage system attempts to store all incoming packets in the LPM, and for those packets that are not compatible with the LPM, relinquishes control to the second system, which stores the LPM-incompatible packets in the EPM. |
| US07877480B2 |
Method and system for peer-to-peer authorization
An authorization mechanism within a peer-to-peer network is presented. A central server that operates a centralized data repository search engine within a peer-to-peer network performs authentication and authorization operations with respect to users that access its services. A user at a peer node reviews peer-to-peer search results that have been gathered and returned by the centralized search engine. When the user desires to retrieve a file from another peer node, the user's peer node must obtain an authorization token from the central server, which authenticates the user or has previously authenticated the user. The user's peer node then presents the authorization token along with a request to retrieve the file from the other peer node. After verifying the authorization token, the other peer node responds with the requested file. If the other peer node cannot verify the authorization token, then the other peer node denies access to the file. |
| US07877479B2 |
Bandwidth control system and method capable of reducing traffic congestion on content servers
A bandwidth control system controls the bandwidths used by plural web crawlers. The bandwidth control system receives a connection request from one of the web crawlers for establishing a connection between that web crawler and a content server. The control system records each of the web crawlers in association with a content server to which that web crawler is connected. The control system monitors the traffic on the content servers to which the web crawlers are connected. When the traffic on the content server recorded becomes too heavy, the control system disconnects the web crawler from the content server to which the crawler is connected. |
| US07877472B2 |
System and method for displaying historical performance of an element on a network
A method of monitoring an element in a computer network including monitoring a preselected variable relating to that element; defining a threshold for the monitored preselected variable; establishing a sliding window in time; repeatedly generating a time above threshold value, the time above threshold value being a measure of an amount of time during which the monitored variable exceeded the threshold during the sliding window of time; detecting when the time above threshold value exceeds a condition window value; and in response to detecting when the time above threshold value exceeds the condition window, generating an alarm. |
| US07877471B2 |
Detecting system reconfiguration and maintaining persistent I/O configuration data in a clustered computer system
In a clustered computer system with multiple power domains, a bus number manager within each power domain manages multiple nodes independently of other power domains. A node within a specified power domain includes a non-volatile memory that includes bus numbering information for its own buses as well as bus numbering information for two of its logically-interconnected neighbors. This creates a distributed database of the interconnection topology for each power domain. Because a node contains bus numbering information about its logical neighbor node(s), the bus numbers for the buses in the nodes are made persistent across numerous different system reconfigurations. The clustered computer system also includes a bus number manager that reads the non-volatile memories in the nodes during initial program load (i.e., boot) that reconstructs the interconnection topology from the information read from the non-volatile memories, and that assigns bus numbers to the buses according to the derived interconnection topology. |
| US07877469B2 |
Authentication and authorization for simple network management protocol (SNMP)
A system is provided that includes a manager device that executes a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) manager. The system also includes an agent device coupled to the manager device. The agent device executes a SNMP agent that selectively provides access to managed data. The SNMP manager enables a user to issue a login command. The SNMP agent processes the login command and, if the user is authenticated, allows the user to access the managed data using a session identifier. |
| US07877467B2 |
Network equipment system
This network equipment system is a system of a functional processing system, and is configured so that each network device performs a function assigned to itself whereby the whole system performs the predetermined action. Each network device has a function memory part 10, a variable memory exchanger 11, an execution function selector 12, and a function execution part 13. The variable memory exchanger 11 is connected to each network device through a telecommunications line, and it stores a variable necessary for execution of the functions stored in the function memory part 10 of each network device, and it shares the variable among the network devices. The execution function selector refers the variable stored in the variable memory exchanger, and it selects an executable function out of the functions stored in the function memory part. The function execution part executes the function selected by the execution function selector and updates the variable stored in the variable memory exchanger by the execution result. |
| US07877466B2 |
Network topology based storage allocation for virtualization
Methods and apparatus are provided for improving the configuration and allocation of storage resources in a fiber channel fabric. Network topology information and loop topology information is used to increase data availability and data access efficiency. For example, devices in different loops are selected for striping and devices connected to a host through different ports and switches are selected for mirroring. Link speed, quality of service, credits, and the availability of trunking links can also be considered. |
| US07877463B2 |
Method and systems for providing access to dynamic content via static pages
A system and method for providing access to dynamic content via static pages. A page or portion of a page is received containing at least one executable element and at least one static element. The at least one executable element is identified and then processed to produce output. A static page is created comprising the produced output. In some embodiments static elements linked to executable elements are replaced with static links referencing said executable elements. In other embodiments a page comprising a single form is created from a page comprising at least two forms. |
| US07877462B2 |
Managing transiently connected network clients
The present disclosure includes, among other things, systems, methods and program products for delivering data over a computer network. |
| US07877461B1 |
System and method for adding dynamic information to digitally signed mobile applications
Described are systems and methods for adding information to a mobile application. A mobile application is downloaded from a server to a mobile device using a web browser. A web browser cookie associated with the mobile application is stored on the mobile device. A request is sent from the mobile application to the server, where the request includes information from the stored web browser cookie. Mobile application data associated with the stored web browser cookie from the server is received by the mobile application in response to the request. The mobile application is then provided with access to the mobile application data. |
| US07877459B2 |
Method and system for modifying requests for remote resources
Techniques for modifying requests or browser viewable documents (e.g., markup language documents) are described. By modifying requests or browser viewable documents, access to resources residing on remote servers through an intermediate server is facilitated. In one embodiment, Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with requests or markup language documents are modified. The techniques are suitable for both secure and unsecure requests. The techniques can also modify requests or browser viewable documents at the intermediate server, a client device, or both. |
| US07877455B2 |
Remote system override
A system and a method for providing remote supervisory override of a lockout at a workstation is disclosed. The system includes a first workstation and a second workstation. The first workstation has lockout functionality, wherein at least a portion of the functionality of the workstation is locked when a lockout module in the first workstation detects a violation of a predetermined rule. The first workstation includes an override request module that sends an override request message to the second workstation, which is associated with a supervisor. The second workstation includes an override response module that the supervisor uses to send an override response message back to the first workstation. When the first workstation receives an override response message that authorizes overriding the rule, the first workstation is unlocked. |
| US07877445B2 |
Collaboration server, collaboration system, and method and program for collaboration server and system, for reducing network traffic
The present invention provides a collaboration system that reduces communication traffic, is platform- and OS-independent, and has high versatility. There are provided a collaboration server connected with a plurality of terminal apparatuses through a network for obtaining, retaining, and distributing a Web page as a work screen used in collaborative work among the terminal apparatuses, and a chat server for managing chat sessions. The collaboration server participates as a chat client in a chat session managed by the chat server and distributes an operation instruction concerning the work screen as a chat message to each terminal apparatus. The work screen is reloaded into each terminal apparatus according to the operation instruction to allow the collaborative work to progress. |
| US07877442B1 |
Context-aware processes for allowing users of network services to access account information
A system provides account statistics to a user of a network service. The system provides access, to a user, to the network service. The system determines one of an environmental attribute or context associated with the user's access of the network service. The system provides, contemporaneously with the access of the network service, a document to the user, where the document includes account statistics related to the one of the determined environmental attribute or content. |
| US07877427B2 |
Printing apparatus and control method thereof
A printing apparatus manages identifiers of accounting destinations of print jobs. With a Web browser, a client can set update settings (update rules) of an identifier list saved in an identifier saving unit (of a device. An identifier update unit obtains an identifier list from another device, and updates the identifier list by adding or synchronizing identifiers included in the obtained identifier list in accordance with the update settings. |
| US07877422B2 |
Method and system for processing 1:N relationships between data object nodes
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to a method and system for processing 1:N relationships between data object nodes. A first data object and a second data object is provided wherein a first node of the first data object has a 1:N relation with a second node of the second data object. The first node includes a first sync key uniquely identifying a field in the first node. The second node includes n second sync keys, each of the n second sync keys uniquely identifying a field in the second node. A shadow node is generated in the first data object. The 1:N relation is de-normalized to generate 1:1 associations between the first node and the second node, the 1:1 associations being stored in shadow node. |
| US07877421B2 |
Method and system for mapping enterprise data assets to a semantic information model
A method for mapping data schemas into an ontology model, including providing an ontology model including classes and properties of classes, providing a data schema, identifying a primary data construct within the data schema, identifying a secondary data construct within the primary data construct, mapping the primary data construct to a corresponding class of the ontology model, and mapping the secondary data construct to a property of the corresponding class of the ontology model. A system and a computer readable storage medium are also described and claimed. |
| US07877418B2 |
Schema for sharing relational database types
A schema for storing the meta data that describes relational databases. Advantageously, the schema can be used in both database vendor environments and toolkit vendor environments, thereby facilitating the sharing of relational database types. In addition, by describing the schema in a standard modeling language, even among multiple implementations of storage systems designed according to the schema, the conceptual structure and understanding of each storage system can be the same. |
| US07877413B1 |
Path variablizing layered system
The inventions relate generally to layered computing systems that provide public access to the content of the layers. Also disclosed herein are prioritization schemes usable in a layered computing system, including prioritization by layer type, by assigned priority weights, by access type, by sub-layers and by read-write indicators. Processes may further be associated to layers from which they originate, and priority given to associated layers thereby. Association may also be provided for installer services, thereby depositing an applications updates into its layer. Layers may also contain file reference information including exclusion or inclusion entries indicating what files may be written thereto. Paths recorded in layers may also embed variables to true paths on a layered system. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims. |
| US07877411B1 |
System and method for duplication of virtual private server files
A method and system for managing files in a server environment includes launching a plurality of Virtual Private Servers (VPSs) in a computing system; copying a content of a file of a VPS to a shared space; providing access to the file copy in the shared space when the VPS attempts to access the file; detecting files with the same content in other VPSs; and providing access to the file copy in the shared space from the other VPSs when they attempt to access their files with the identical content. |
| US07877407B2 |
Method and apparatus for facilitating use of hypertext links on the world wide web
A database server contains pointers to useful information, such as on the World Wide Web. Users of the server may have hypertext links added automatically into documents they submit. Users may additionally contribute to the link database, thereby extending it, and may add additional qualifying information pertaining to the links. |
| US07877405B2 |
Pruning of spatial queries using index root MBRS on partitioned indexes
A method, system, and computer program product provides improved performance for queries on local partitioned indexes. A method of performing a database query comprises receiving a query of spatial data in a database, the database comprising at least one partitioned spatial index, obtaining metadata relating to all partitions of the spatial index using array-fetching techniques, determining, for each partition, whether the partition is relevant to the query by comparing with “footprint” (root_mbr) information stored in the metadata for the partition, and processing the query on each relevant partition. |
| US07877402B1 |
Method and system for providing network search results based in part on a user's financial data
A method and system for providing relevant search results using financial data includes a process for providing relevant search results using financial data whereby a user's financial transaction data is obtained from one or more sources. A user then initiates a network search using one or more network search parameters such as one or more keywords and/or phrases. The scope of the one or more network search parameters, and therefore the scope of the network search, are then determined and/or modified based, at least in part, on the user's financial data. |
| US07877396B1 |
Method and apparatus for detecting and extracting information from dynamically generated web pages
A method and apparatus for automatically detecting and extracting information from dynamically generated web pages are disclosed. For example, the present method stores user provided information that is entered into a form interface of a web page for a first query. Responsive to the first query, a first response web page is received and stored. The present method then automatically generates a second query to acquire a second response web page that is responsive to the second query. Finally, the present method compares the first response web page and the second response web page. In one embodiment, the present invention extracts information that is dissimilar between the first response web page and the second response web page. This extracted information is deemed to be the pertinent information requested by the user. |
| US07877393B2 |
Method and system for accessing a file system
A method for accessing a file system that includes creating a document index for an active document, identifying a similarity score for each of a plurality of stored documents to generate a list of similar documents, wherein the similarity score is computed by comparing the document index for the active document with a search index for the plurality of stored documents, and displaying the list of similar documents in a file system interface. |
| US07877392B2 |
Centralized web-based software solutions for search engine optimization
A system and method for modifying a parameter of a website in order to optimize an organic listing of the website at one or more search engines is described. Several embodiments include methods and systems for generating scored representations based upon different portions of data associated with a website, and then combining the scored representations to achieve a result. The result indicates a feature of the website that may be modified in order to optimize the organic ranking of the website at one or more search engines. |
| US07877389B2 |
Segmentation of search topics in query logs
A system and method are disclosed for identifying the tasks that a user is attempting to perform when submitting a series of search queries. A task may be categorized hierarchically into a mission and a goal in order to classify a series of queries and determine the user's intent. The user's mission may be an extended task and the user's goal may be a specific task. A pair of queries may be analyzed to determine whether those queries have the same mission and/or the same goal. For a series of queries, boundaries may be identified between the queries to identify where a user has changed her goal or changed her mission. The identification of goals, missions and boundaries may be automated based on an analysis of features of the queries that are compared. |
| US07877385B2 |
Information retrieval using query-document pair information
Information retrieval using query-document pair information is described. In an embodiment, a click record is accessed having information about queries and documents where user clicks have been observed for query-document pairs. A click graph is either formed or accessed. This has nodes connected by edges, each node representing any of a document and a query and each edge representing at least one observed click. Given at least one first node in the click graph, a similarity measure is determined between that first node and each of one or more second nodes. The second nodes are then ranked on the basis of the similarity measure results and the ranking is used to retrieve information from the click record. |
| US07877384B2 |
Scoring relevance of a document based on image text
A method and system for determining relevance of a document having text and images to a text string is provided. A scoring system identifies image text associated with an image of the document. The scoring system calculates an image score indicating relevance of the image text to the text string. The image score may be used in many applications, such as searching, summary generation, and document classification, image search, and image classification. |
| US07877382B1 |
System and methods for detecting images distracting to a user
Methods and apparatus for detecting distracting search engine results are described. In one embodiment, the method includes monitoring the behavior of a user with respect to a group of images that are related in some manner to a query, and using the monitored behavior to calculate the distractiveness of a particular image. The method also includes adding to a group of images related to a query a set of images that are unrelated to the query and monitoring the behavior of a user with respect to all the images. |
| US07877359B2 |
Backup executability judging system
A problem of prior art is that normal backup data is lost as a result of taking a backup by overwriting the normal backup data with data that has been changed greatly from a virus infection or the like. This invention provides a computer system having a storage system. The storage system contains a first storage area and a second storage area for storing a copy of data that is stored in the first storage area at one point in time. Only when the differential amount indicating the difference between data stored in the first storage area and data stored in the second storage area is smaller than a predetermined threshold, the storage system deletes the data which is stored in the second storage area and newly stores a copy of the data stored in the first storage area in the second storage area. |
| US07877354B2 |
Method and apparatus for sending and tracking resume data sent via URL
A resume database system allows for resume records on the resume database system to be viewed by others via a Uniform Resource Locator, URL. In addition, in response to instructions from an authorized user of the resume database system, input from an unauthorized, but otherwise verified, source can be added to the database by the resume database system. The verified user accesses the resume database and completes any necessary forms via a web browser and submits the information. The authorized user defines the actions that the verified user is allowed to take. These actions include, for example, only being able to review resume information, or being able to add information to the resume database without needing training on the operation of the database. A resume database server system coordinates the activity of the authorized and verified users. Communications between all three users is accomplished via a computer network. |
| US07877349B2 |
Methods and apparatus for evaluating semantic proximity
Methods and apparatus to evaluate the semantic proximity between reference free-form text entry and a candidate free-form text request. |
| US07877346B2 |
Method and system for predicting personal preferences
The invention provides techniques for building multiple predictive models of individuals' affinities for attributes of objects and/or services. The accuracies of multiple predictive models are measured and the models are combined based on the measurements, resulting in a more accurate predictive model of individual-specific affinities for attributes of the objects and/or services. |
| US07877345B2 |
Topical sentiments in electronically stored communications
The present application presents methods for performing topical sentiment analysis on electronically stored communications employing fusion of polarity and topicality. The present application also provides methods for utilizing shallow NLP techniques to determine the polarity of an expression. The present application also provides a method for tuning a domain-specific polarity lexicon for use in the polarity determination. The present application also provides methods for computing a numeric metric of the aggregate opinion about some topic expressed in a set of expressions. |
| US07877344B2 |
Method and apparatus for extracting meaning from documents using a meaning taxonomy comprising syntactic structures
Systems and methods are provided for an expert search engine. In one embodiment, a method may employ a computer based system to define a meaning taxonomy including one or more meaning loaded entities, associate documents to the meaning taxonomy based on a set of expert rules and the syntactic structures included in the documents and provide the results to a user. In another embodiment, a system includes interfaces for meaning taxonomy, expert rule and search criteria information. The information provided by these interfaces is then used to determine how a set of documents maps to meaning taxonomy to assist the user in locating documents that are most interesting from a meaning perspective and to provide a user with an interface to navigate the meaning taxonomy as it applies to the set of documents. |
| US07877343B2 |
Open information extraction from the Web
To implement open information extraction, a new extraction paradigm has been developed in which a system makes a single data-driven pass over a corpus of text, extracting a large set of relational tuples without requiring any human input. Using training data, a Self-Supervised Learner employs a parser and heuristics to determine criteria that will be used by an extraction classifier (or other ranking model) for evaluating the trustworthiness of candidate tuples that have been extracted from the corpus of text, by applying heuristics to the corpus of text. The classifier retains tuples with a sufficiently high probability of being trustworthy. A redundancy-based assessor assigns a probability to each retained tuple to indicate a likelihood that the retained tuple is an actual instance of a relationship between a plurality of objects comprising the retained tuple. The retained tuples comprise an extraction graph that can be queried for information. |
| US07877341B2 |
Self-adaptive data pre-fetch by artificial neuron network
When a patient enters a medical situation, healthcare professionals can use various amounts of information in evaluating the situation. However, different information can be beneficial dependent on the medical situation. Moreover, personnel can historically use specific information types regardless of the situation. An artificial neuron network is employed to pre-fetch information that personnel likely will want prior to a request from the personnel. In addition, the artificial neuron network can be trained based on results of presented information. |
| US07877338B2 |
Information processing apparatus, method, and program using recurrent neural networks
An information processing apparatus, includes a lower time series data generation unit having a plurality of recurrent neural networks which learn predetermined time series data, and generating prediction time series data. An upper time series data generation unit has recurrent neural networks which learn error time series data that is time series data of errors raised at the time of the learning by the respective plural recurrent neural networks of the lower time series data generation unit. Generation of prediction error time series data that is time series data of prediction errors; and a conversion unit that performs nonlinear conversion for the prediction errors generated by the upper time series data generation unit. The lower time series data generation unit outputs the prediction time series data according to the prediction errors. |
| US07877336B2 |
Nucleotide sequence screening
A system for screening nucleotide sequences, a method therefor, a program, a recording medium, and a server on which the screening of nucleotide sequences is executed. The solution comprises a step of storing target nucleotide sequence data and a probe nucleotide sequence, a step of generating complementary sequence data from a probe nucleotide sequence that may be bound to the target nucleotide sequence, and storing a maximum acceptable edit distance between the target nucleotide sequence and the probe nucleotide sequence, a step of reading out each nucleotide sequence data and the maximum edit distance from each storing unit, and evaluating the binding possibility of the target nucleotide sequence data and the complementary sequence data in descending order of edit distance, and a step of storing the result of the binding evaluation in a storage unit. |
| US07877334B2 |
Recognizing apparatus and recognizing method
A recognizing apparatus includes a training vector input unit configured to enter training vectors for training, a weak classifier generator configured to obtain weak classifiers based on the value of an element of a dimension common to the training vectors using a learning method, a classifier integrator configured to obtain non-linear mappings for each dimension of the training vectors by combining the weak classifiers, a test vector input unit configured to input a test vector to be classified, a non-linear transformer configured to a transformed vector by transforming the values of the elements of the test vector using the respective non-linear mappings, and a score calculator configured to obtain a classification score by summing the value of the respective elements of the transformed vector and recognize the test vector using the classification score. |
| US07877328B2 |
Communication system communication method, contents processing device, and computer program
A communication system and so forth are provided by which registration or cancellation of a plurality of apparatus owned by a user can be executed efficiently. In the communication system, a content processing apparatus acquires a second source ID list of a content reproduction apparatus. If it is detected based on the second source ID list that the content reproduction apparatus is not yet registered in a management server and a recorder ID of the content processing apparatus is not yet registered in the second source ID list, the content processing apparatus recommends registration. If a registration instruction of the content reproduction apparatus is accepted, the content processing apparatus requests the management server to register the content reproduction apparatus. The content processing apparatus receives registration completion transmitted from the management server and adds a group ID stored in a first source ID list to the second source ID list of the content reproduction apparatus. If the registration instruction of the content reproduction apparatus into the management server is not accepted, then the content processing apparatus adds the recorder ID of the content processing apparatus to the second source ID list. |
| US07877322B2 |
Preferred credit information data collection method
A creditor creates a lock box at a financial institution. The lock box includes an escrow provision. A consumer makes regularly scheduled payments to the financial institution and designates the payment either for the creditor's lock box or for the escrow account. The financial institution reports all payments and escrow events to the creditor and to the credit payment data repository. All credit payment data maintained in the credit data repository is maintained securely and will not be released without the consent of the consumer. The credit data maintained in the repository is used to report a credit score, which occurs only when the consumer authorizes the release of the data. |
| US07877321B2 |
Method of and system for evaluating financial risk associated with a construction project
A system and method for managing a construction payment process. One method embodying the invention can include evaluating financial risk associated with a construction project by electronically aggregating construction project data associated with participants in a construction project, the data aggregated from a software application that manages payment workflows for the construction project; establishing financial metrics based on the project data; and evaluating at least one of either the metrics or the project data to determine financial risk associated with the project. |
| US07877317B2 |
Method and system for finding similar charts for financial analysis
Embodiments of the invention concern finding correlations between related traded items, such as securities, commodities, currencies, or contracts. The pricing information of multiple traded items from one or more markets is analyzed and a user is provided with a listing of pairs or larger groups of traded items which are most closely correlated. Another embodiment of the invention is a system and method for finding the most related traded item to a particular predefined item. Another embodiment of the invention is a system and method for finding the traded item whose trading history is closest to a predefined curve. |
| US07877316B2 |
Reprice-to-block order
A reprice-to-block order and related market center and process are disclosed which automatically reprice a posted limit order to the price of a block trade executed at an inferior price on a market away from the market center that posted the limit order. |
| US07877312B2 |
Apparatus and method for displaying trading trends
The present invention provides an apparatus and method of determining and displaying trading trends for an investment underlying one or more options wherein an opening value and a closing value for the underlying investment for two or more time intervals is obtained. An opening value trend using a market trend indicator and the opening values for the investment is calculated, and a closing value trend using the market trend indicator and the closing values for the underlying investment is calculated. A visual indicator comparing the opening value trend to the closing value trend for the underlying investment is then displayed. This method may be incorporated into a computer program embodied in a computer readable medium using code segments to accomplish the method described above. |
| US07877311B1 |
System and method for analyzing transactions at an electronic exchange
The present invention can provide a market analysis system which includes a computer processor, a computer readable storage medium, a database stored on the computer readable storage medium including a set of transaction data and a software program stored on the computer readable storage medium. The software program can be executable by the computer processor to receive a transaction from an electronic exchange, store the transaction in the database as an addition to the set of transaction data, define a standard pricing group from the set of transaction data, and apply a statistical analysis to the standard pricing group. |
| US07877310B1 |
Systems and methods for determining an earnings portion of a distribution from a 529 plan
A method for determining an earnings portion of a distribution from a 529 plan. The method includes receiving information associated with a plurality of 529 plan accounts, identifying related 529 plan accounts, aggregating the information for related 529 plan accounts, and determining an earnings portion of a distribution from at least one of the 529 plan accounts. |
| US07877308B1 |
Method and system for using risk tolerance and life goal preferences and rankings to enhance financial projections
A system and method directed to improving efforts to plan for investor life goals. The method combines unique approaches of assessing investor risk tolerance using utility theory and investor preferences using conjoint analysis, Analytic Hierarchy Process (“AHP”), or the like in combination with existing industry financial projection methods using linear projections, Monte Carlo simulation, or the like. Further, the method improves upon existing financial projection approaches with the addition of regression techniques to streamline adjustments to the plan objectives, resources, and constraints. The method includes a means of determining an optimal combination of attribute preferences that have an acceptable probability of achieving plan goals while maximizing investor satisfaction as measured by total utility. |
| US07877307B2 |
Method and system for a deferred variable annuity with lifetime benefit payments as a function of a predetermined age-based withdrawal percent table
A computer implemented data processing system and method administers a deferred variable annuity contract during the accumulation phase for a relevant life. The annuity contract has a payment base value, a contract value, and a withdrawal percent for determining a lifetime benefit payment amount available for withdrawal without reduction in the payment base. The withdrawal percent is dependent on the age of a relevant life as of the date of a request made by the relevant life for the withdrawal. |
| US07877306B2 |
Method and system for a deferred variable annuity with lifetime benefit payments as a function of a predetermined time-based withdrawal percent table
A computer implemented data processing system and method administers a deferred variable annuity contract during the accumulation phase for a relevant life. The annuity contract has a payment base value, a contract value, and a lifetime benefit payment amount available for withdrawal without reduction in the payment base. The lifetime benefit payment amount available is based in part on a withdrawal percent determined in accordance with a withdrawal percent relationship that provides a particular withdrawal percent for each respective completed year since the purchase date of the contract. |
| US07877305B2 |
System and method for automatically monitoring the performance of a contractor in the management of an insurance claim
In an exemplary embodiment, a server system stores a plurality of textual scripts in a database server in association with a plurality of contractor actions. Each of the textual scripts comprises an alert notifying the contractor of an obligation to perform the associated contractor action. The server system generates a plurality of deadlines by which the contractor is required to perform the contractor actions, and provides a user interface that allows a user to submit a plurality of notices of completion for the contractor actions. If a particular notice of completion is not submitted by the deadline for the contractor action, the server system selects the textual script associated with the contractor action, converts the textual script to a voice message, and initiates transmission of the voice message to the contractor via a telephone network. |
| US07877304B1 |
System and method for managing consumer information
Method and system of analyzing a consumer's credit is provided. The method includes, answering questions about the consumer's credit; analyzing the answers to determine credit data about the consumer; storing the credit data in a leads database; storing the credit data in a credit analysis database; displaying the credit data to the consumer; inquiring into whether the consumer wants to register for managing credit online; and registering the consumer or sending the credit data to a marketing analysis engine to categorize the credit data for future marketing to the consumer. The system includes a user interface for entering user data; a credit score meter for accessing a credit score; and a processing module for segregating credit data items into categories; wherein the processing module calculates a credit score; an interest rate for each of the categories; and payment amounts for each of the categories. |
| US07877297B2 |
Method and system for conditional transactions
A method and system for conditional transactions are provided. The system provides one or more master accounts wherein each master account is tied to and controlled by one or more subordinated accounts. Each subordinated account may have a configurable/customizable set of permissions defined by the master account. The subordinated account holder would optionally require permission from the master account holder to complete a purchase. The master account holder would have a number of configurable/customizable permission rules to choose from for each subordinate account. |
| US07877291B2 |
Diagnostic data interchange
The present invention provides a bi-directional communication network which provides monitoring, data collection, and control of food service industry operations. The system includes a computer and control logic implemented by the computer which may be configured to perform various tasks. A communication network may be provided linking the computer with equipment and appliances having a microprocessor based controller capable of communicating with the system. In one embodiment, the system automatically verifies the performance of equipment-related manual tasks in food preparation. In another embodiment, the system schedules the maintenance of a plurality of kitchen appliances. In another embodiment, the system provides a hold timer for tracking the hold time of cooked food products and determines when the hold time elapses. In yet another embodiment, the system manages the inventory of cooked food products in a food preparation establishment. |
| US07877290B1 |
System and method for transmitting, receiving and displaying advertisements
Digital data objects containing video-based advertisement information are broadcast via satellite and received by one or more integrated receiver decoders (IRDs). Each IRD selectively discards or caches advertisement objects (AOs) in a local memory. AOs that are incompatible with the sophistication level of the IRD and/or user preferences/characteristics are discarded without being cached and AOs that have a lower priority than currently cached AOs are discarded. The IRD arranges cached AOs into ordered lists to schedule them for display and each ordered list corresponds to a unique display position within a program guide. When the user initiates a program guide session, the IRD cyclically displays the AOs in the program guide according to the ordered lists. |
| US07877287B1 |
System and method for selecting multiple sites using weighted bands
After defining a relevant market area around a selected geographical point, a map is generated using stored geographical map information around a selected geographical point and a geographical area is selected around that point. Multiple bands are formed on the map around the geographical point and market information is gathered from a database for the defined geographical area. The bands are weighted based according to empirical data drawn from within the market area, if available, or from data from a demographically matched location. A net demand model is constructed to perform point studies, comparison studies, area studies, and multi-unit simulations for the selected geographical area. |
| US07877286B1 |
Subset optimization system
A method for computing a preferred set of prices for products in a subset of a plurality of products is provided. Generally, initial prices for a plurality of products are stored. A subset of products of the plurality of products is designated, where the number of products in the subset of products is less than the number of products in the plurality of products. A demand model is created based on Bayesian modeling. Prices for the products in the subset of products are optimized, while maintaining the initial prices of products of the plurality of products that are not in the subset of products, wherein the optimization uses a grid method to determine the optimized prices. |
| US07877285B2 |
System and method for forecasting demanufacturing requirements
Demanufacturing workload is forecast based on anticipated volumes of equipment to be disassembled and/or salvaged, as well as equipment complexity factors determined by disassembly prototyping. Staffing requirements are unique for each customer and are based on the number of pounds needed to be worked during each month and the associated complexity (work content multiplier) for that customer's typical or expected returns. |
| US07877279B1 |
Method and apparatus for improving the loss ratio on an insurance program book
A method of improving the loss ratio on a book of insurance including the use of a computer data base with a user interface display including questions for insured entities making up the book of insurance. Spaces are provided on the display for the input of answers from an insured. A survey is used to question the insured entity, the survey eliciting answers to the questions posed. Data is input from the answers received into the computer data base at the spaces provided for. The answers that are collected are compared with answers contained in written documents having information that was supplied by a third party insurance underwriter. Inconsistent answers are identified and the information obtained is reported to the underwriter who can determine whether or not the insurance premium of the insured should be adjusted. |
| US07877275B2 |
System and method for maintaining and providing personal information in real time
The invention provides a method and system for communicating a vehicle user's medical information stored in a key device to medical caregivers via a wireless communications network. The method comprises receiving vehicle user medical information in a key device, transmitting the medical information from the key device to a storage unit within a vehicle and transmitting the stored medical information from a telematics unit to a call center responsive to an emergency event. |
| US07877274B2 |
Messaging to remote patients in a networked health-monitoring system
A networked health-monitoring system configured to collect and process patient health-related data. A plurality of remote patient sites each includes at least one display, a data management unit for collecting patient health-related data, a memory, and stored program instructions for generating health-monitoring related information on the display. A central server connects to the data management unit at each patient site. The system transmits messages for display at the patient sites and at least one of these messages is a message selected by a health care professional. |
| US07877273B2 |
System and method for evaluating and providing nutrigenomic data, information and advice
A method for minimizing an individual's predisposition for developing a disease including providing personal information of an individual, querying a first database of disease information with the personal information to determine a disease for which the individual has a predisposition for developing, wherein the query produces disease information, querying one or more second databases with at least a portion of the disease information and/or personal information for obtaining second information for reducing the risk for the individual developing the disease and communicating a result of the query of the lifestyle database to the individual. |
| US07877268B2 |
Intelligent pill box
The invention is an effective solution to the medical non-compliance problem. Reducing patients' non-compliance offers them better health, longer life expectancy, and better quality of life. The solution offers these great benefits at a limited cost and can be applied to many diseases. The invention uses a dispensing scheme to help patients keep track of their medicine usage through a series of light-emitting diode (LED) alarm indicator signals and audio alarm indicator signals. If the patient is not following the treatment that was prescribed to him or her, the system has the ability to send patient compliance information over the telephone to a disease management system. |
| US07877261B1 |
Call flow object model in a speech recognition system
Systems and methods are provided for embodiments of a speech recognition system call flow object model. The systems and methods organize and execute, for example, multiple question directed dialogs, overview dialogs, or natural language directed dialogs. In certain embodiments, the organizing and executing of the natural language directed dialogs uses primary and secondary concepts without requiring a structured response. The systems and methods enable the call flow designers to define particular call flows without requiring the designers to perform any programming or coding. |
| US07877260B2 |
Content creation, graphical user interface system and display
The present invention relates to creating a web page and voice browsing of the web page, and more particularly, it improves accessibility for the voice browsing of the web page through a synthetic voice, efficiently with high reliability.A content creation system 20 of the present invention is used for creating a content which may be viewed through the synthetic voice, the system including: a database 22 for storing a structured document; and an information process section 24 for creating a speech node series 18 from the structured document, and calculating a reaching time from starting voice synthesis of the speech node series 18 until each node is outputted as the synthetic voice. The information process section 24 includes a support process section 36 to determine a graphic display corresponding to the reaching time, and to visually display the reaching time to a predetermined node by the voice synthesis on a screen of a display section 26. |
| US07877256B2 |
Time synchronous decoding for long-span hidden trajectory model
A time-synchronous lattice-constrained search algorithm is developed and used to process a linguistic model of speech that has a long-contextual-span capability. In the algorithm, hypotheses are represented as traces that include an indication of a current frame, previous frames and future frames. Each frame can include an associated linguistic unit such as a phone or units that are derived from a phone. Additionally, pruning strategies can be applied to speed up the search. Further, word-ending recombination methods are developed to speed up the computation. These methods can effectively deal with an exponentially increased search space. |
| US07877253B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus for frame erasure recovery
In one configuration, erasure of a significant frame of a sustained voiced segment is detected. An adaptive codebook gain value for the erased frame is calculated based on the preceding frame. If the calculated value is less than (alternatively, not greater than) a threshold value, a higher adaptive codebook gain value is used for the erased frame. The higher value may be derived from the calculated value or selected from among one or more predefined values. |
| US07877252B2 |
Automatic speech recognition method and apparatus, using non-linear envelope detection of signal power spectra
An automatic speech recognition method includes converting an acoustic signal into a digital signal; determine a power spectrum of at least one portion of the digital signal; and non-linearly determining envelope values of the power spectrum at a plurality of respective frequencies, based on a combination of the power spectrum with a filter function. Non-linearly determining envelope values involves calculating each envelope value based on a respective number of values of the power spectrum and of the filter function and the respective number of values is correlated to the respective frequency of the envelope value. |
| US07877249B2 |
Concealment of external array accesses in a hardware simulation accelerator
A circuit arrangement and method detect external requests to access a memory array in a hardware simulation accelerator during performance of a simulation on a simulation model and access the memory array without halting the simulation in response to detecting the external request. Such functionality may be provided, for example, by detecting such external requests in response to processing a predetermined instruction in an instruction stream associated with the simulation model, where the predetermined instruction is configured to ensure a predetermined period of inactivity for the memory array. By doing so, the memory array can be accessed from outside of the hardware simulation accelerator during the processing of a simulation, and without requiring that the simulation be halted, thus reducing overhead and improving simulation efficiency. |
| US07877248B1 |
Modifying block parameters in a discrete event execution domain
A discrete event system (DES) modeling environment models the occurrence of events independent of continuous model time. In a DES modeling environment, state transitions depend not on time, but rather asynchronous discrete incidents known as events. A user may customize selected parameters of a block or other component able to support at least one entity passing therethrough holding a value of arbitrary data type in a DES modeling environment. For example, a user can enable and disable ports a discrete event execution block in a discrete event execution model using a graphical user interface, such as a dialog box. Based on user-selected dialog inputs, a discrete event execution program can automatically update a specification for a block, for example, by adding ports to the graphical representation of the block. |
| US07877243B2 |
Pivotable computer interface
A computer interface for use with a computer simulation system. The interface includes a first grip portion and a second grip portion pivotably coupled to the first grip portion. An actuator is coupled to at least one of the two grip portions and is configured to provide feedback to a user. |
| US07877241B2 |
System and method for identifying behavioral signatures
Psychopharmacological properties of new therapeutic drugs and highly heritable behavior patterns of test subjects are identified based on analysis of monitored exploratory movement to identify behavioral signatures. A test subject in a pen is allowed to explore for a period of time, after injecting it with a candidate drug or control vehicle. The test subject's movement is monitored and its locations stored. The locations are analyzed to separate them into behavioral patterns that are defined based on combinations of behavioral feature. Relative frequencies of performing each behavioral pattern are determined. In each pattern, differences between the relative frequencies in the candidate drug and control groups are tested, and only patterns in which this difference is highly significant are retained. The number of behavioral patterns further is reduced based on the relative frequencies and the correlation of behavioral patterns to one another, with the cells left over corresponding to a set of endpoints that identify a behavioral signature of the effect of the drug. |
| US07877234B1 |
System and method for statistically monitoring and analyzing sensed conditions
A system and method of monitoring and analyzing a plurality of attributes for an alarm condition is disclosed. The attributes are processed and/or unprocessed values of sensed conditions of a collection of a statistically significant number of statistically similar components subjected to varying environmental conditions. The attribute values are used to compute the normal behaviors of some of the attributes and also used to infer parameters of a set of models. Relative probabilities of some attribute values are then computed and used along with the set of models to determine whether an alarm condition is met. The alarm conditions are used to prevent or reduce the impact of impending failure. |
| US07877231B2 |
Electromechanical actuator and effector health management system and method
A system and method are provided for supplying electromechanical actuator (EMA) health status information to a control system. A determination is made as to whether the EMA has experienced a fault. If the EMA has experienced a fault, a fault-based position limit and a fault-based rate limit of the EMA are determined, based on the fault. A design position limit and a design rate limit of the EMA are supplied. An updated position limit of the EMA is determined based on at least the design position limit and the fault-based position limit, and an updated rate limit of the EMA is supplied based on at least the design rate limit and the fault-based rate limit. |
| US07877230B2 |
System and method for attributing a portion of a response time to an element of a virtual network
A system and method for evaluating a portion of a response time of an application that is attributable to an element on a virtual IP network by emulating a condition on a network, running the application on the network under the emulated network conditions and measuring a portion of the response time of the application that is attributable to elements on the network under such emulated conditions. The application may be varied and response times of various network elements may be measured under one or more of the variations. |
| US07877229B2 |
Computational method for load enhancement factors and apparatus for executing same
A method and computer system for executing a program for calculating Load Enhancement Factor that includes the steps of obtaining coupon test data and storing the coupon test data on an information storage device. Analyzing the coupon test data for fit with a Weibull distribution and other analysis criteria and performing either a Modified Joint Weibull analysis or a Weibull Regression analysis or both a Modified Joint Weibull analysis and a Weibull Regression analysis with an accommodation in the analysis for scatter within the coupon testing data. |
| US07877224B2 |
Inclination calculation apparatus and inclination calculation program, and game apparatus and game program
An inclination calculation apparatus sequentially calculates an inclination of an input device operable in terms of a posture thereof. The input device includes acceleration detection means and imaging means. The inclination calculation apparatus sequentially calculates first inclination information representing an inclination of the input device from positions of two imaging targets in a taken image obtained by the imaging means. The inclination calculation apparatus also sequentially calculates second inclination information representing an inclination of the input device from an acceleration detected by the acceleration detection means. The inclination calculation apparatus calculates an inclination of the input device using the first inclination information and the second inclination information. |
| US07877223B2 |
Method and apparatus for geometric rotor stacking and balancing
A computer method or corresponding system for optimally balancing a rotor assembly. The computer system defines a theoretical centerline based on a mathematical model of the rotor assembly. For each disc or component of the rotor assembly, the invention system calculates rotor blade or bolt and washer distribution, based on calculated centerline deviations and angular locations of the discs and effective weights of rotor blade or bolt-and-washer sets. The rotor blade or bolt-and-washer distribution provides locations for placement of the rotor blades or bolts-and-washers so as to offset the centerline deviations and thus correct imbalance of the rotor assembly. |
| US07877222B2 |
Structure for a phase locked loop with adjustable voltage based on temperature
A design structure for an apparatus for utilizing a single set of one or more thermal sensors, e.g., thermal diodes, provided on the integrated circuit device, chip, etc., to control the operation of the integrated circuit device, associated cooling system, and high-frequency PLLs, is provided. By utilizing a single set of thermal sensors to provide multiple functions, e.g., controlling the operation of the integrated circuit device, the cooling system, and the PLLs, silicon real-estate usage is reduced through combining circuitry functionality. Moreover, the integrated circuit device yield is improved by reducing circuitry complexity and increasing PLL robustness to temperature. Furthermore, the PLL circuitry operating range is improved by compensating for temperature. |
| US07877221B2 |
Sensor module and method for correcting sense output signal therefrom
A sense signal outputted from a sensor element and a reference voltage having a constant voltage level are selectively inputted to an amplifier, and amplified signals thereof are sequentially outputted as A/D-converted data by an A/D converter. An average of a predetermined number of A/D-converted data corresponding to the reference voltage is calculated, and a correction value is obtained by subtracting the average from one of the A/D-converted data corresponding to the reference voltage. Corrected data is obtained by subtracting the correction value from each A/D-converted data corresponding to the sense signal outputted from the sensor. |
| US07877214B2 |
Hydrophobic moment of multi-domain proteins
Techniques for protein structure analysis are provided. In one aspect, a method of analyzing a multi-domain protein structure comprises the following steps. For at least one domain, a hydrophobic dipole, e.g., defined as a first-order hydrophobic moment of the domain, is calculated. A score representing the orientation of the hydrophobic dipole of the at least one domain relative to a hydrophobic dipole of one or more other domains of the multi-domain protein structure is then calculated. |
| US07877211B2 |
Downlink based on pump noise
A method for determining a drilling event includes measuring a first signal from a sensor over a first selected time interval, measuring a second signal from the sensor over a second time interval, determining if a noise is reduced in the second signal. |
| US07877209B2 |
Radar collison warning system for rooftop mounted cargo
Rooftop cargo racks, otherwise simply known as roof-racks, provide an option for transporting cargo that does not use space inside a vehicle. However, despite the usefulness of roof-racks, once cargo is secured to a roof-rack on a vehicle there is the added potential for a collision between the cargo and some overhead obstruction—such as, for example only, a garage door, over-hanging sign, public parking structures, and tree branch. Previous collision avoidance systems that employ either ultrasonic acoustic or Doppler-based radar systems are poorly suited for detecting the potential of a collision between rooftop mounted cargo and an overhead obstruction. By contrast, aspects of the present invention provide systems and methods for reducing the risk of a collision between rooftop mounted cargo and overhead obstructions by providing a more suitable radar-based means for detecting overhead obstructions and warning drivers and, if present, passengers in vehicles when there is a risk of a collision. |
| US07877205B2 |
Method for setting destination based on identifier of moving object and method for providing position information
A method for setting a destination based on an identifier of a moving object and a method for providing position information are disclosed. In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for setting a destination based on an identifier of a moving object, including the steps of: a) selecting an identifier of moving object; b) requesting the providing of position information providing to the selected moving object; c) receiving the position information from the selected moving object; and d) setting a destination for the moving object based on the received position information. |
| US07877201B2 |
System and method for dynamically determining vehicle loading and vertical loading distance for use in a vehicle dynamic control system
A control system (18) and method for an automotive vehicle (10) includes a roll rate sensor (34) for generating a roll rate signal, a lateral acceleration sensor (32) for generating a lateral acceleration signal, a longitudinal acceleration sensor (36) for generating a longitudinal acceleration signal, and a yaw rate sensor (28) for generating a yaw rate signal. A safety device or system (44) and the sensors are coupled to a controller. The controller (26) determines an added mass and the height of the added mass on the vehicle, or a roll gradient, a roll acceleration coefficient, and/or a roll rate parameter that take into account the added mass and height from the roll rate, the lateral acceleration, the longitudinal acceleration, and the yaw rate of the vehicle, and controls the safety system in response thereto. |
| US07877197B2 |
Systems and methods for real-time conflict-checked, operationally preferred flight trajectory revision recommendations
Systems and methods for actively seeking and generating real-time, conflict-checked, operationally preferred flight trajectory revision recommendations are disclosed. The system analyzes air traffic based on a plurality of uniquely integrated inputs, to produce at least one conflict-checked, operationally preferred flight trajectory revision opportunity for an operating vehicle, and a communications component configured to communicate the at least one conflict-checked flight trajectory revision. In one embodiment, the system interfaces with the airspace user's operations center (e.g. Airline Operations Center), to communicate the operationally preferred flight trajectory revision opportunity, and allow the operator to make the decision whether to implement, and request the same from the Air Navigation Service Provider. In another embodiment, the system interfaces with the Air Navigation Service Provider, and while considering operator business objectives, and other constraints, directly aides the air traffic controller in determining more optimal flight trajectory revision opportunities. |
| US07877196B2 |
Road congestion detection by distributed vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining traffic condition comprising the steps of determining periodically a position data of a host vehicle 1, wherein the position data includes a time stamp, position, velocity and driving direction of the host vehicle 1, receiving periodically position data of at least an other vehicle 2, 3, 4, wherein the position data includes a time stamp, position, velocity and driving direction of the other vehicle 2, 3, 4, storing the position data of the host vehicle 1 and the position data of at least the other vehicle 2, 3, 4, calculating a relative position data, wherein the relative position data includes relative velocity and relative driving direction between the host vehicle 1 and the other vehicle 2, 3, 4, and judging a traffic condition based on the position data of the host vehicle 1, the position data of the other vehicle 2, 3, 4 and the relative position data. |
| US07877193B2 |
Method for operating a shutoff device for a device, in particular an internal combustion engine and/or an electric machine, as well as a shutoff device
A method for operating a shutoff device for a device, in particular an internal combustion engine and/or an electric machine, in which an operating element for initiating a shutoff operation is provided, and in which a transmission path is provided via which a shutoff signal is transmitted from the operating element to the device in order to deactivate the device. The shutoff device is checked for proper functioning at least in part automatically, by automatically transmitting a shutoff signal, in particular from the operating element via the transmission path to the device. |
| US07877192B2 |
Control for an internal-combustion engine
A rotational speed parameter is detected in accordance with a rotational speed of the engine. A reference value of the rotational speed parameter is calculated. For each cylinder, an error between the reference value and the rotational speed parameter detected every predetermined crank angle is calculated as a relative speed parameter. For each cylinder, an integrated value is calculated by integrating the relative speed parameters over a predetermined period. For each cylinder, an average value per cylinder of the sum of the integrated values of all the cylinders is calculated. For each cylinder, an error between the integrated value of the cylinder and the average value is calculated. For each cylinder, the output of the engine is controlled in accordance with the error calculated for the cylinder such that variations in the output between the cylinders are suppressed. |
| US07877189B2 |
Fuel mass control for ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port fuel injection
A method is described for an engine having a delivery system configured to deliver fuel and a fluid to an engine cylinder, said fluid containing at least some water. In one example, an engine operating parameter may be varied based on an amount of water in said fluid, where said amount is determined based on an operating condition. |
| US07877187B2 |
Driving support method and device
A navigation device provides support for a driver of a vehicle in merging from one road onto another road (main road). The navigation device receives traffic information including at least positions and speeds of other vehicles traveling the main road. The navigation device then detects at least positions of inter-vehicle spaces between those other vehicles, using the traffic information, and determines which one of the detected inter-vehicle spaces is most suitable for the driver's vehicle to enter for merging. A beam radiating unit provided in the driver's vehicle is used to form a moving first entry point mark on the road surface to indicate the inter-vehicle space the driver's vehicle is going to enter upon merging. |
| US07877186B2 |
Method and system for identifying a malfunctioning compressed air consumer circuit in a vehicle electronic compressed air system
To detect a failure of a compressed air consumer circuit in a compressed air system for vehicles, pressure is continuously measured in compressed air consumer circuits and evaluated in an electronic control unit which compares the pressure values and/or determined negative pressure gradients of the compressed air consumer circuits with a respective threshold value and shuts off an air-consumer circuit if the pressure values and/or negative pressure gradients thereof satisfy a circuit-failure criterion. The circuit-failure criterion is satisfied when the pressure values and/or pressure gradients are below the respective threshold value for a time equal to or longer than the time of a dynamic pressure change or of a dynamic pressure collapse. |
| US07877184B2 |
Control apparatus and control method for hybrid vehicle
A control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle includes a required torque calculating portion that calculates required drive torque required of the vehicle; a running mode switching portion that switches between a motor running mode and a hybrid running mode according to the calculated required drive torque; a torque distribution control portion that sets the torque distribution between front and rear wheels according to the switched running mode; a gear noise preventing portion that prevents gear noise in a gear mechanism by changing the set torque distribution between the front and rear wheels when a predetermined gear noise producing condition is satisfied; and a drive torque control portion that calculates drive torques of the front and rear wheels based on the calculated required drive torque and the changed torque distribution and controls the torques of the engine and the electric motor. |
| US07877181B2 |
Scalable grain tank fill level display
An apparatus for indicating a grain tank fill level for a grain tank (20) of an agricultural harvester (10), the harvester (10) having a chassis (12), an operator cabin (18) on the chassis (12); a threshing, separating, and cleaning means (24) on the chassis (12) for processing crop, a grain tank (20) on the chassis (18) for storing harvested grain and having an actual fill level of grain, a display (48) disposed in front of the operator in the direction of travel for displaying a fill level of the grain tank; a calculating means (46) coupled to the display (48) for calculating a fill level of the grain tank to be displayed on the display (48), and an operator input device (70) coupled to the calculating means (46) for selecting between first and second modes of operation, wherein the calculating means (46) is configured to repetitively and automatically calculate the fill level of the grain tank (20) in a first mode of operation and configured to repetitively and automatically indicate a scaled fill level that is scaled to a reference fill level different from the actual fill level in a second mode of operation, and further wherein the operator input device (70) is configured to indicate to the calculating means (46) the reference fill level when the operator input device (70) is selected by the operator. |
| US07877180B2 |
Automatic window repositioning to relieve vehicle passenger cabin wind pressure pulsation
Methods and apparatus are provided for the detection of conditions indicative of a wind pressure pulsation within the passenger cabin of a vehicle, and for the reduction of the intensity of the pressure pulsation via automatic window repositioning. The apparatus comprises vehicle sensors for detection of a pressure pulsation condition, controllers to process sensor data and issue commands, and power-operated vehicle windows. |
| US07877177B2 |
Fault-tolerant vehicle stability control
A system and method for providing a fault tolerant vehicle dynamics control (VDC) is described. The system includes a fault tolerance module that receives an indication of a fault in at least one of the actuators of the VDC and selects a fault compensation mode to maintain the stability of the motor vehicle in light of the received fault indication. The fault tolerance module proceeds by diagnosing at least one fault in at least one of the actuators, selecting a fault compensation mode based on the detected at least one fault and the driving condition, and compensating for the at least one fault by optimally controlling remaining operable actuators according to the fault compensation mode. |
| US07877175B2 |
Imaging system for vehicle
An imaging system for a vehicle includes an imaging array sensor and a control. The image array sensor comprises a plurality of photo-sensing pixels and is positioned at the vehicle with a field of view exterior of the vehicle. The imaging array sensor is operable to capture an image exterior of the vehicle. The control may process the captured images and may determine that the imaging array sensor is not aligned within a desired tolerance when the imaging array sensor is positioned at the vehicle. The control, responsive to a determination of a misalignment of the imaging array sensor at the vehicle, may adjust at least one of the captured images or an image data set and the image processing to at least partially compensate for the determined misalignment of the imaging array sensor. |
| US07877174B2 |
Watercraft speed control device
An automatic speed control system that provides desired watercraft velocity over land. The coupled algorithms correct engine speed and torque using inertia based measurements, GPS, and tachometer measurements, and the corrections are augmented and enhanced by velocity/speed and torque/speed relationships that are dynamically and adaptively programmed with real-time data collected during replicated operations of the watercraft in specified conditions. |
| US07877172B2 |
Pit road display
Instruments or gauges arranged to provide feedback detectable by the peripheral vision of a driver when vehicle operating parameters, such as engine speed, temperature, pressure, and voltage, are in a critical range, include one or more of the following types of instruments or gauges and/or features: (a) a tachometer that not only includes a primary numeric display, but also a secondary display made up of a plurality of discrete lights of different colors, the colors indicating whether the engine speed of a vehicle is within a relatively narrow range of engine speeds acceptable for the roadway leading from a race track to service areas, known as “pit road,” the high and low limits of the range being adjustable to meet pit road requirements at different tracks; (b) an instrument or gauge having a background that illuminates to indicate critical sensor readings; (c) an instrument or gauge having improved handling of sensor abnormalities to prevent false readings; (d) a non-linear analog gauge for a motor vehicle having a higher resolution in a particular range of interest, and a lower resolution outside that range; and (e) a boost pressure gauge that facilitates entry of gear information for use in traction control. The instruments or gauges of the invention are suitable for use in racing vehicles that meet standards established by NASCAR. |
| US07877163B2 |
Method for fast manufacturing and assembling of hot runner systems
The method and apparatus of the present invention includes a computer implemented injection molding configuring subsystem which enables a customer to interactively specify and design a system using a mix of parameters that the customer specifies and are manufacturing process determined. The configuring subsystem is connected to a computer network such as the Internet. The method and apparatus of the present invention further includes a computerized business and processing subsystem in communication with the configuring subsystem. The computerized business subsystem automatically provides a cost and schedule for a system configured by the configuring subsystem and additionally processes an order for the system. The processing subsystem automatically processes the customer's inputs and generates drawings for the configured system. Prior to receiving the customer's order, hot runner system components may be partially manufactured in a first phase and placed in inventory. The partially manufactured hot runner components may then be removed from inventory after receiving a customer's order, and further manufactured and assembled in accordance with the customer's parameters in a second phase. |
| US07877159B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing production history information of pipe or tube and method for producing pipe or tube therewith
The production history information management apparatus 100 comprises: machining an identifier for identifying a pipe or tube in a region of the pipe or tube on which thread cutting is to be performed before an initial production process is performed among production processes which are management targets of the production history information; reading the identifier machined on the pipe or tube before each of the production processes is performed or while each of the production processes is performed; management for storing the production history information of the pipe or tube obtained in each of the production processes and the identifier read from the pipe or tube while the production history information and the identifier are associated with each other; and thread cutting for removing the identifier machined on the pipe or tube in the process of performing the thread cutting on the end portions of the pipe or tube among the production processes which are management targets of the production history information. |
| US07877158B2 |
Method for operating industrial installations
The method was tackled with picking line for generating strip steel for the automobile industry. The initial conditions to which the tandem-type mill coupled with picking line executed using the installation is exposed. The installation receives an input in the form of human resources, energy, media, raw materials, semifinished product, etc., which is converted by the installation into output. Since the plant is a hot rolling mill, the output is in the form of hot rolled strips. The different components of the input can be assigned to the factor markets that are relevant to the real installation. The different components of the output can further be assigned to the product markets that are relevant to the real installation. |
| US07877156B2 |
Audio reproducing apparatus, audio reproducing method, and program
This invention provides an audio reproducing apparatus which reproduces plural digital audio signals and synchronizes them with each other. The audio reproducing apparatus includes a synchronization setting unit 11 which synchronizes the plural audio signals by allocating, on a time axis, plural pieces of audio reproduction time information of the audio signals and in a manner which maintains a difference between reproduction times indicated by adjacent pieces of the audio reproduction time information of each of the audio signals, and an audio synthesis unit 6 which synthesizes the plural audio signals using the plural pieces of the audio reproduction time information allocated on the time axis. |
| US07877155B2 |
Methods and apparatus for controlling display in a networked device
Methods and apparatus for controlling display elements within a networked device. In one embodiment, the network comprises a cable television network, and the device a digital set-top box (DSTB) with front panel display(s). A downloadable software module is provided that is adapted to discover the front panel display capabilities of the device, and control the display accordingly. This approach allows, inter alia, the cable network operator or other entity to manage the user's experience relating to the front panel display(s) on various types of client devices. The module is also optionally platform-agnostic (i.e., “universal”) so that the aforementioned capabilities are provided largely irrespective of the device hardware/software environment. |
| US07877154B2 |
Method and system for controlling a batch process
A first principles model may be used to simulate a batch process, and the first principles model may be used to configure a multiple-input/multiple-output control routine for controlling the batch process. The first principles model may generate estimates of batch parameters that cannot, or are not, measured during operation of the actual batch process. An example of such a parameter may be a rate of change of a component (e.g., a production rate, a cell growth rate, etc.) of the batch process. The first principles model and the configured multiple-input/multiple-output control routine may be used to facilitate control of the batch process. |
| US07877153B2 |
Installation and method for a configuration of a control system
A configuration device is provided for configuring a control system that includes at least one electronic processing unit and at least one associated I/O device. At least a portion of a control program is generated that corresponds to a configuration and is used for controlling the control system. The configuration device has at least one display device. The display device allows at least one I/O access point to be displayed in a model configuration field and/or at least one hardware functionality to be displayed in a function configuration field and/or at least one hardware interface to be displayed in an interface configuration field. It is possible to associate at least one I/O access point and at least one hardware functionality with one another and/or to associate at least one hardware functionality and at least one hardware interface with one another. |
| US07877151B2 |
Strategic combination of conductors in a lead assembly for a medical device
Low voltage conductors in a lead assembly share a lumen in a tube and are separated from adjacent conductors in the tube by an insulative layer. In an embodiment, low voltage conductors are combined with high voltage conductors. In another embodiment, low voltage conductors are combined with other low voltage conductors. |
| US07877150B2 |
Lead electrode for use in an MRI-safe implantable medical device
A neurostimulation lead is configured to be implanted into a patient's body and has at least one distal electrode. The lead comprises at least one conductive filer electrically coupled to the distal electrode, a jacket for housing the conductive filer and a shield surrounding at least a portion of the filer for reducing electromagnetic coupling to the filer. |
| US07877144B2 |
Predicting chronic optimal A-V intervals for biventricular pacing via observed inter-atrial delay
Methods for optimizing the atrio-ventricular (A-V) delay for efficacious delivery of cardiac resynchronization therapy. In CRT devices, the programmed A-V delay starts with detection of electrical activity in the right atrium (RA). Thus, a major component of the A-V delay is the time required for inter-atrial conduction time (IACT) from the RA to the LA. This IACT can be measured during implantation as the time from the atrial lead stimulation artifact to local electrograms in a coronary sinus (CS) catheter. Assuming that the beginning of LA contraction closely corresponds with the beginning of LA electrical activity, the optimal AV delay should be related to the time between the start of RA electrical activity and the start of LA electrical activity plus the duration of LA atrial contraction. Thus ‘during atrial pacing’ the IACT measured at implantation is correlated with the echocardiographically defined optimal paced AV delay (PAV). |
| US07877136B1 |
Enhancement of neural signal transmission through damaged neural tissue via hyperpolarizing electrical stimulation current
Methods and systems of enhancing transmission of a neural signal through damaged neural tissue include providing a stimulator, programming the stimulator with one or more stimulation parameters configured to enhance transmission of a neural signal through the damaged neural tissue, and applying a hyperpolarizing electrical stimulation current with the stimulator to the damaged neural tissue in accordance with the one or more stimulation parameters. |
| US07877133B2 |
Marker or filler forming fluid
A solution for forming a marker or filler mass for an intracorporeal site. The solution contains a polar, water soluble non-aqueous solvent such as dimethyl sulfoxide and a bioabsorbable, essentially water insoluble polymer such as polylactic acid, or copolymers of lactic acid and glycolic acid. The solution may be delivered to the biopsy site by a suitable syringe and delivery tube. The delivery tube is preferably provided with a releasable radiopaque element on the distal tip which can be released within the polymeric marker mass formed in the biopsy cavity. |
| US07877132B2 |
Medical viewing system and method for detecting and enhancing static structures in noisy images using motion of the image acquisition means
A method for use in a medical viewing system for processing for display a sequence of images of a medical intervention comprising manipulating a tool such as a stent (25) within an artery. Two markers (21, 22) are provided on the tool support (10) and the method includes extracting these markers (21, 22) to yield marker location information, from which tool location information can be derived. The image of the tool within the sequence of images is then enhanced relative to the background. The background can be additionally blurred by simulating or effecting relative movement of the image detector and the stent (25) by, for example, zooming in on the stent (25) or rotating the detector relative thereto, during acquisition of the sequence of images. |
| US07877129B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and RF reception coil apparatus
An RF receiving means, which comprise respective at least three RF receiving coils (203, 201 (or 202), 204), (205, 202 (or 201), 206), (207, 201 (or 202), 208) disposed in at least two orthogonal directions (x, y, z), are set to a patient 209, any one direction (x) of the two directions is set as a phase encoding direction, magnetic resonance signals are measured by executing a pulse sequence while thinning phase encoding steps, and the aliasing of an image is eliminated by an arithmetic operation executed using the magnetic resonance signals measured by at least the three RF receiving coils (205, 202 (or 201), 206) disposed in the thus set phase encoding direction and using the sensitivity distributions of the respective RF receiving coils. |
| US07877125B2 |
Portable terminal device
A portable terminal device can extrapolate the position of a sound source in the thicknesswise direction regardless of the use style. A slide type portable terminal has an upper casing, a lower casing, and a coupling part that couples the casings in such a way that their positional relation is changeable. The upper casing has a plurality of first microphones, and the lower casing has a second microphone. In a handhold style, one of the first microphones and the second microphone are lined in the thicknesswise direction of the cellular phone. As the upper casing is slid, the other one of the first microphones and the second microphone are lined in the thicknesswise direction of the cellular phone. The position of a sound source in the thicknesswise direction can be extrapolated from output signals of a formed microphone array in the thicknesswise direction. |
| US07877119B2 |
Mobile communications device with rotatable screen and qwerty keypad
Disclosed is a mobile communication device. The mobile communication device includes a first body section having a keypad arranged on a first upper surface thereof; and a second body section connected to the first body section and having a display screen arranged on an upper surface thereof, the second body section linearly sliding from a first position where the second body section overlays the first body section to a second position where the second body section exposes a first part of the keypad, the first part providing input functions of numerals and letters, the second body section rotating while facing the first upper surface from the first position to a third position where the second body section fully exposes the keypad. The communications device can selectively provide QWERTY keyboard arrangement, thereby allowing increasingly integrated electronics and complex features sufficiently utilized and long text messages easily edited. |
| US07877117B2 |
Method for maintaining wireless network response time while saving wireless adapter power
To reduce the power consumption of a wireless communication hardware device, power conservation scheduling algorithms can be implemented. Reoccurring events, including DTIM intervals and listen intervals can be scheduled as awake times. Similarly expected response intervals can be scheduled as awake times based on information, such as round trip time, that can be passed together with data to be transmitted. The wireless communication hardware device can be placed into a doze state unless it is transmitting data, or unless it is expecting a transmission during one of the scheduled awake times. |
| US07877112B2 |
SIM card data transfer system and methods
System and method for transferring data from a first subscriber identity module (SIM) card to a second SIM card are provided. The first SIM card is inserted into a wireless telephone. Software is downloaded to the wireless telephone. The software converts the data from a format of the first SIM card to a format of the second SIM card. The second SIM card is inserted into the wireless telephone, and the converted data is written to the second SIM card. |
| US07877105B2 |
Method and arrangement for frequency synchronization of a mobile station with a base station in a mobile communication system
In a method for synchronizing a mobile station with the base station in a mobile communication system, a reference-frequency oscillator is re-adjusted. To enable an inexpensive reference-frequency oscillator of simple construction to be used, the frequency variations resulting from a change in the temperature of the mobile station and a change in its location are determined and/or predicted separately. When the frequency variations are large, the mobile station is synchronized with the base station more frequently than when they are small. |
| US07877089B2 |
System and method for continuous broadcast service from non-geostationary orbits
A method, apparatus for providing at least near continuous broadcast services to one or more terrestrial receiver stations is disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of satellites, each satellite in an inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbit, each satellite providing a portion of the at least near continuous broadcast service to the terrestrial receiver. In one embodiment, the system also comprises a receiver station having an legacy antenna modified so as to include a sensitivity pattern substantially matched to the track of the apparent position of the satellites actively broadcasting information to the receiver stations. The present invention is also embodied in a method for receiving at least near continuous broadcast service from at least one of a plurality of satellites at a time, each satellite in an inclined, elliptical, geosynchronous orbit. |
| US07877088B2 |
System and method for dynamically configuring wireless network geographic coverage or service levels
A system and a method for facilitating communication between a remote station and a service network are disclosed. A remote station is associated with a first communicator configured to communicate over a first communication network and a second communicator configured to communicate over a second communication network. A communication controller associated with the remote station and coupled with the first communicator and the second communicator is operable to transmit a first set of signals using the first communicator a second set of signals using the second communicator. A mobile network access point is directable to within a communication range of the second communicator of the remote station when the remote station is outside of an existing communication range of the second communication network and the first set of signals includes a resource request for the second communication network. |
| US07877085B2 |
Portable electronic device capable of receiving distributed contents, content information server, and content list providing method for content distribution system and recording medium recording program for providing content list
Reception of a list including information on a content not receivable at a current location is avoided in acquiring a multicast content list.A portable terminal searches a wireless base station which can communicate with the portable terminal at a current location thereof, and transmits available sector identification information for identifying the searched wireless base station to a content information server. Based on the available sector identification information and multicast detailed information on a content distributed by the wireless base station, the content information server transmits a list of contents receivable at the current location of the portable terminal to the portable terminal. The portable terminal selects a content from the content list in accordance with user's manipulation, and makes transition to a channel where the selected content is distributed based on the multicast detailed information. |
| US07877084B2 |
Method and system for automatic call filtering based on user selectable parameters
The present invention provides a method and system that enables telephone users to specify parameters that will be used in filtering incoming calls to the user's telephone device. The invention can use parameters known in telephone use such as call cost or roaming detection of mobile telephone device and user-defined settings to enable users to control costs and improve efficiency when using their cell telephones especially outside their home network and/or time zone. These call filtering parameters serve to activate the call filtering method of the present invention. The user can choose parameters that specify telephone call cost and user time zone location as threshold parameters that can trigger activation of the call filtering method of the present invention. When those parameters are exceeded, the system will enable the user-defined settings that determine how to process or direct incoming calls. The method and system of this invention can include dynamic parameters (i.e. cost) and/or static parameters (i.e. time of day) as triggering parameters. Further, the method of this invention can be automatically activated by triggers or can be manually activated by the user at any time. |
| US07877081B2 |
Proxy-encrypted authentication for tethered devices
Methods and apparatus are presented herein for allowing a wireless communication device to perform a proxy authentication on behalf of a tethered device and ensure the authentication is encrypted. |
| US07877078B2 |
Power line communication networks and methods employing multiple widebands
Systems and methods for communicating over a power line are configured to substantially simultaneously communicate over a plurality of wideband frequency ranges. Signals may be communicated two or from a communication node at two different frequencies simultaneously. These signals may be exchanged with different nodes and/or include independent data. In some embodiments, some of the wideband frequency ranges are above 30 MHz. |
| US07877074B2 |
Adaptive coherent RFID reader carrier cancellation
Systems and methods for adaptive cancellation of carrier content includes receiving a signal, adaptively detecting an amount of carrier content in the received signal, generating a feedback signal for canceling out the carrier content in the incoming signal, and introducing the feedback signal for canceling out a majority of carrier content in the signal being received. |
| US07877073B2 |
Superheterodyne receiver having at least one downconversion stage empolying a single image reject filter stage and both low-side injection and high-side injection of a local oscillator signal
A multi-channel superheterodyne receiver employs a low intermediate frequency (IF) and both high-side injection and low-side injection of a selected local oscillator (LO) signal into the mixer in order to position image frequencies outside the passband of a single image reject filter. Any channel that falls within a used portion of the image reject filter passband can be downconverted with image rejection if the utilized bandwidth portion is no greater than about 4 times the IF minus the bandwidth of a channel in the filter passband. Low side injection is used for channels falling within the lower half of the passband of the image reject filter, while high-side injection is used for channels falling within the upper half thereof. The image always remains outside the passband and the receiver can accommodate a greatly increased number of channels. |
| US07877068B2 |
Semiconductor device
A demodulation signal is generated by provision of a demodulation signal generation circuit to the semiconductor device capable of wireless communication and by obtainment of a difference between voltages having opposite polarities by the demodulation signal generation circuit. Alternatively, a plurality of demodulation signal generation circuits and a selective circuit which selects a demodulation signal generation circuit depending on characteristics of a received signal are provided, where operation of a second demodulation signal generation circuit stops when a first demodulation signal generation circuit is operated. The selective circuit includes an inverter circuit, a flip-flop circuit, and a selector circuit. When the second demodulation signal generation circuit has a comparator and the like, power consumption thereof is reduced. |
| US07877066B2 |
Techniques to reduce the power consumption of an RF log-amp detector
An embodiment of the present invention provides an RF log-amp detector, comprising a pre-amplifer at the input of the RF log-amp detector, a plurality of limiters with variable gain connected to the pre-amplifier, wherein the gain of the preamplifier is set to its minimum and the dynamic range is expanded by modifying the amplification gain of the plurality of limiters, thereby increasing the dynamic range and reducing accuracy, after which a coarse measurement of a power level is taken and wherein the RF log-amp detector then defines which pre-amplification level is required based on the course measurement to bring the signal at the output of the preamp within an optimum dynamic range of the log-amp and wherein the pre-amplification gain is then set while the gain of the plurality of limiters are set to their minimum value with the RF log-amp then performing a second measurement with higher accuracy and calculating the final measurement from fine measurements and the pre-amplification gain. |
| US07877063B2 |
High-frequency amplifier, and transmission/reception system
In a high-frequency amplifier for amplifying transmission and reception signals, an integrated circuit area is reduced to reduce production costs. A high-frequency amplifier (101) includes a reception signal amplifying part (102), a transmission signal amplifying part (103), and a spiral inductor (104). An output of the reception signal amplifying part (102) is connected with an output of the transmission signal amplifying part (103) to be an output terminal OUT of the high-frequency amplifier (101). The single spiral inductor (104) is connected to the output terminal OUT. This spiral inductor (104) is used as a load common to the reception signal amplifying part (102) and the transmission signal amplifying part (103). Thereby, the area of the integrated circuit is reduced, and the production cost is reduced. |
| US07877059B2 |
Underwater communications system comprising relay transceiver
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. |
| US07877057B2 |
Wireless communication system, relay station device and base station device
A wireless communication system, relay station device, and base station device reduce dead zones in which communication with the base station device is not possible, and enable expansion of service areas. The BS transmits to the RS burst packets and MAP messages including information providing notification of the timing of information transmission and reception. The RS receives the MAP messages and burst packets. The RS stores, in the Preamble Present bits in MAP messages, information providing notification of the preamble transmission timing to control synchronization of reception by the SSs, and transmits the MAP messages to the SSs. The RS transmits burst packets to which preambles are appended to the SSs. |
| US07877050B2 |
Reversible eccentric actuator widens optical sensor setting latitude
An improved flag-actuator (actuator) is provided for use in an electrophotographic marking system. This actuator is reversible providing sides 1 and 2, thereby about doubling the useful life of the actuator. Each side 1 and 2 is mounted at different positions on a shaft and permits a much wider range of actuator adjustment than prior art units. Depending upon a tolerance stack-up within the marking system, the user can determine whether to use either side 1 or side 2. The use of this reversible asymmetrical and eccentric actuator allows for the setting of start actuation for nearly double the tolerance stack-up. |
| US07877034B2 |
Image forming apparatus, sheet finisher and image forming system
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus, a sheet finisher and an image forming system; each of them including: a display for displaying a work item for a maintenance in the form of a guidance display; a detection section for detecting whether the work item is executed or not; an energization controller for supplying/blocking power supply to electric components to be maintained; a connection judging section for judging whether the electric components are electrically connected with the power supply or not; and a controller for controlling the display to switch displays of the work item and for controlling the energization controller, in accordance with a detection result of the detection section; wherein the controller causes the display to display an alarm and a guidance display of a corresponding work, according to a judgment of the connection judging section. |
| US07877030B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a developer carrying member to which a developing bias is applied. A frequency f of a developing bias waveform, a developing area S1 which is a time-integrated value of a difference between a voltage value of the developing bias and a solid electrostatic image potential VL in a developing period of the developing bias, a collecting area S2 which is a time-integrated value of a difference between the voltage value of the developing bias and VL in a collecting period of the developing bias, and a developing contrast value Vcon are used for defining a range of a value of the developing bias frequency f, a range of a value of a voltage change rate α at VL during transition of the developing bias voltage value from a developing-side voltage to a collecting-side voltage, and a range of a value represented by the formula: {(S1−1.28×S2)×f/Vcon}×exp(−2.0×10−5×f/Hz). |
| US07877028B2 |
Apparatus and a method for forming an image on a sheet
In the image forming apparatus according to the invention, a fixer fixes toner on the sheet and presses the sheet, and a media sensor measures a thickness of the sheet before pressurization and a thickness of the sheet after pressurization. Then, by calculating an amount of heat used if the fixer fixes the toner on the sheet on the basis of the measurement result, a control unit is able to control the temperature of the fixer on the basis of the calculated amount of heat. In this manner, it is possible to appropriately calculate an amount of heat per unit area required to fix toner on the sheet. |
| US07877023B2 |
Light detector detecting optical signal loss in an optical communication system
A light receiver has a photoelectric conversion circuit which converts an input optical signal into an electrical signal, an electric amplifier which amplifies the electrical signal output from the photoelectric conversion circuit, a threshold adjustment circuit which outputs a threshold value according to signal information in the optical signal, and an optical signal loss detection circuit which compares amplitude of the electric signal output from the electric amplifier with the threshold value output from the threshold adjustment circuit and outputs results of the comparison. |
| US07877022B2 |
Circuits and methods of thermal gain compensation
Disclosed herein are circuits and methods for reducing a thermally dependent gain swing. Exemplary embodiments include a resonant notch filter in parallel with a thermistor. |
| US07877021B2 |
Electrically programmable pulse generator, in particular a pulse generator of very high resolution phase and intensity profiles
In a pulse generator of very high resolution phase and/or intensity profiles, an active mode-locking laser source (1) emits a first train of optical pulses according to a determined period (To), which is intensity-modulated pulse-by-pulse by a modulator (2). The modulated pulses are transmitted to an optical loop (3) via a coupler (4). The optical length of the optical loop is slightly different from the period (To) of the source. The modulated pulses are transmitted to input B of the coupler. The optical loop connects output D to input A of the coupler. This coupler is commanded such that, according to a first command (k=0), it transmits the light received on its two inputs A, B towards output d, and according to a second command (K=1), it transmits the light received on its input (A) towards output (C). |
| US07877016B2 |
Photonic integrated circuit (PIC) transceivers for an optical line terminal (OLT) and an optical network unit (ONU) in passive optical networks (PONs)
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for a PON transceiver comprises a single monolithic chip having a modulated transmitter laser diode of a first wavelength, λ1, for generating a first communication signal outgoing from the chip via an input/output port and a receiving photodetector for receiving a second communication signal of a second wavelength, λ2, onto chip incoming from the input/output port and a monitoring photodetector for receiving a portion of the first communication signal to monitor the laser diode output power. |
| US07877014B2 |
Method and system for providing a return path for signals generated by legacy video service terminals in an optical network
A return path system includes inserting RF packets between regular upstream data packets, where the data packets are generated by communication devices such as a computer or internet telephone. The RF packets can be derived from analog RF signals that are produced by legacy video service terminals. At a data service hub, a digitized-RF-to-packet converter (DRPC) can convert the RF packets into standard sized packets such as Ethernet packets for processing by a video services controller. In this way, the present invention can provide an RF return path for legacy terminals that shares a return path for regular data packets in an optical network architecture. |
| US07877013B2 |
Method and system for random channel assignment in WDM based passive optical networks
A wavelength division multiplexing based passive optical network is disclosed. The network includes an optical line terminal; a power optical splitter connecting to the optical line terminal by an optical fiber; and several optical network units. Each of the optical network units connects to the power optical splitter by each of other optical fibers by a random process. |
| US07877011B2 |
Optical switch and optical crossconnect apparatus
An optical switch is constructed by: first and second optical switches each having ports of k inputs and k outputs; a third optical switch of k inputs and k outputs which can perform a bi-directional transmission; 2k first optical circulators; 2k second optical circulators; and 2k selecting switches. First to kth interfaces are connected by the first optical switch. (k+1)th to 2kth interfaces are connected by the second optical switch. The first to kth interfaces are connected to one of the (k+1)th to 2kth interfaces by the third optical switch. An optical crossconnect apparatus is also provided. |
| US07877008B2 |
WDM layer-based optical chanel protecting device and method thereof
The present invention discloses a WDM layer-based OChP device and the method thereof, i.e., M protection channels are added in the transmitting module and the receiving module to connect to receiving ends and transmitting ends of M protection channels in the WDM system; a switching device is added so as to switch signals in specified working channels to specified protection channels or switch signals transmitted in specified protection channels back to specified working channels according to switching requests from the WDM system; wherein M and N are natural numbers, and M |
| US07877003B2 |
Devices, systems, and methods regarding images
An illumination and/or imaging system including a dome, a crown, and multiple light sources for illuminating an object. The multiple light sources can include dome lights, diffuse on-axis sources, diffuse off-axis sources, medium-angle direct light sources and low-angle direct light source. The medium- and low-angle sources can illuminate the object from one direction or from multiple directions simultaneously. |
| US07876998B2 |
DVD playback over multi-room by copying to HDD
DVD playback over Multi-room by copying to the hard drive of a primary device in a networked multi-room system (NMS). The DVD content is saved to a hard drive and can then be retrieved by any of the remote devices in the NMS by accessing the program guide or the recorded programs list. The DVD menu can be altered to include previews, contests, products, etc. |
| US07876985B2 |
Optical rotating data transmission device of short overall length
An optical rotating data transmission device comprises a first collimator arrangement for coupling-on first optical waveguides, a second collimator arrangement for coupling-on second optical waveguides, which is supported to be rotatable relative to the first collimator arrangement about a rotation axis, and a derotating element such as a Dove prism in a light path between the collimator arrangements. At least one collimator arrangement comprises a deflecting element which deflects light entering the device from optical waveguides positioned at an angle to the direction of the rotation axis to travel along the direction of the rotation axis, or deflects light traveling along the direction of the rotation axis to exit the device at an angle to the rotation axis towards optical waveguides. |
| US07876979B2 |
Resolution-converting apparatus and method
The resolution-converting method comprises steps of applying an edge-directed interpolation to an input image and producing an intermediate image; converting a sampling rate with respect to the intermediate image and producing an output image having a predetermined resolution; and improving sharpness of the produced output image. The present invention prevents image-quality degradation factors that can occur in the conventional resolution-converting method as well as obtains an output image having a resolution of a desired size. |
| US07876978B2 |
Regions of interest in video frames
A first representation of a video stream is received that includes video frames, the representation expressing the video frames at a relatively high pixel resolution. At least one of the video frames is detected to include a region of interest. A second representation of the video stream that expresses the video frames at a relatively low pixel resolution is provided to a video playing device. Included with the second representation is additional information that represents at least a portion of the region of interest at a resolution level that is higher than the relatively low pixel resolution. |
| US07876976B2 |
Method and apparatus for resizing images using discrete cosine transform
A method for resizing an image using a resizing ratio may include receiving DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) coefficients of an input image; calculating a transformation matrix for transforming the input image to an integer aspect ratio closest to the resizing ratio; performing a coarse resizing on the input image in a DCT domain using the transformation matrix; obtaining a spatial image by performing an IDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform) on the coarse-resized domain; and forming an output image by performing a fine resizing on the spatial image in a spatial domain. |
| US07876972B2 |
Filtering of noisy images
A method for correcting an image from defects and filtering from Gaussian noise corrects each pixel of the image when it is considered defective and filters it from Gaussian noise in one-pass. The one-pass improves the speed for performing the correcting and filtering. The drawbacks associated with choosing incompatible defect correction and filtering operations are overcome. |
| US07876971B2 |
Method and system for signal processing, for instance for mobile 3D graphic pipelines, and computer program product therefor
A system renders a primitive of an image to be displayed, for instance in a mobile 3D graphic pipeline, the primitive including a set of pixels. The system locates the pixels in the area of the primitive, generates, for each pixel located in the area, a set of associated sub-pixels, borrows a set of sub-pixels from neighboring pixels, subjects the set of associated sub-pixels and the borrowed set of pixels to adaptive filtering to create an adaptively filtered set of sub-pixels, and further filters the adaptively filtered set of sub-pixels to compute a final pixel for display. Preferably, the set of associated sub-pixels fulfils at least one of the following: the set includes two associated sub-pixels and the set includes associated sub-pixels placed on pixel edges. |
| US07876962B2 |
Multi-gain photodetection system for array analysis
Methods for evaluating a pixel signal produced during scanning of a chemical array are provided. In general, the methods involve producing at least two analog signals for a pixel using a multi-gain signal detection system, integrating at least one of these signals, and outputting data representing the pixel. Also provided are systems and computer program products for performing the subject methods, and an array scanner containing these systems and program products. |
| US07876961B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing image, and computer program product
A character-edge detecting unit detects a character edge area in an image. A character-inside-area detecting unit detects a character inside area in the image. A density-information detecting unit detects density information in the image. An image processing unit executes a predetermined image processing according to results of detecting the character edge area, the character inside area, and the density information. The image processing unit applies different image processings or different image processing parameters to the character inside area based on the density information. |
| US07876960B2 |
System for recording information
A system for recording information from a surface. The system includes a base having a surface provided with a first position code coding locations of a plurality of first points and. In a zone of the surface, a second position code codes locations of a plurality of second points. The system also includes a sensing device having an image sensor for obtaining an image of the surface. A processor is configured for determining whether or not the second position code is present in the image of the surface, determining a location by means of the second position code and determining whether the sensing device is placed in a field on the surface of the base, wherein the field is associated with a function to be performed by the sensing device. |
| US07876959B2 |
Methods and systems for identifying text in digital images
Aspects of the present invention relate to systems, methods and devices for detection of text in an image using an initial text classification result and a verification process. In particular, a support region of a candidate text pixel in a text-candidate map may be expanded to produce a revised text-candidate map. Pictorial regions in the image may be discriminated based on an entropy measure using masking and the revised text-candidate map, and the revised text-candidate map may be refined based on the pictorial regions. |
| US07876957B2 |
Methods and apparatuses that reduce noise in image signals
Methods and apparatuses for noise reduction include embodiments that use a weighted combination based on the presence of edges of two calculated demosaiced signals to produce a noise reduced signal. The noise reduced signal may be sharpened based on a calculated luminance of the two demosaiced signals. |
| US07876956B2 |
Noise reduction of panchromatic and color image
A method for producing a noise-reduced digital color image, includes providing an image having panchromatic pixels and color pixels corresponding to at least two color photoresponses; providing from the image a panchromatic image and at least one color image; and using the panchromatic image and the color image to produce the noise-reduced digital color image. |
| US07876953B2 |
Apparatus, method and medium displaying stereo image
An apparatus, method, and medium displaying a stereo image compensates for errors between a left image and a right image to reduce eye fatigue experienced by a user. The apparatus includes a feature-point extractor to extract feature points of graphics objects included in a left image and a right image, of a stereo image, a representative-vector determiner to determine a representative vector among vectors between a predetermined point and the feature points, an error-correction unit to correct at least one of a vertical error and a rotation error between the left image and the right image using a difference between the representative vector determined in the left image and the representative vector determined in the right image, and a display unit to display the left image and the right image for which at least one of the vertical error and the rotation error has been corrected. |
| US07876950B2 |
Image capturing for pattern recognition of electronic devices
An image capturing method and apparatus for pattern recognition of an electronic device are provided in which an electronic device is moved relative to a vision system for positioning the vision system over a target position on the electronic device, and when the vision system is positioned to view the target position, the vision system is operative to capture an image of the target position while the electronic device is undergoing relative motion with respect to the vision system without stopping. Thus, the time taken for pattern recognition can be significantly reduced. |
| US07876947B2 |
System and method for detecting tagged material using alpha matting
A method for computer-aided object classification, soft segmentation and layer extraction in computed tomographic colonography includes providing a contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) digital image of the colon, finding a foreground region of voxels with an intensity higher than a pre-defined foreground threshold, creating a 3D trimap of the colon where the image is segmented into the foreground region, a background region, and an unknown region between the foreground and background, starting from the background, extracting successive layers of the unknown region until the foreground region is reached, and classifying each extracted layer as background or foreground, and generating a foreground matte, a background matte, and an alpha matte, where alpha indicates a mixing ration of foreground and background voxels. |
| US07876946B2 |
Method for correcting truncation artifacts
A method is claimed for correcting truncation artifacts in a tomography method, wherein internal checkpoints having a low level of attenuation are selected within the projection image and external checkpoints are defined by extrapolation based on the internal checkpoints. An adaptation function is then tailored to the internal checkpoints and the external checkpoints. This allows truncation artifacts to be effectively suppressed during the reconstruction of sectional images. |
| US07876945B2 |
Method for processing slice images
A method for processing slice images wherein information indicative of at least one quantitative measure is formed from image sets. The image sets are acquired from at least two imaging directions. At least two of the image sets relating to the imaging directions are used for forming the information. A method for reducing misalignments, a module, a system and a computer program product for implementing the method. |
| US07876944B2 |
Method and apparatus for reconstruction of 3D image volumes from projection images
The invention provides improvements in reconstructive imaging of the type in which a volume is reconstructed from a series of measured projection images (or other two-dimensional representations) by utilizing the capabilities of graphics processing units (GPUs). In one aspect, the invention configures a GPU to reconstruct a volume by initializing an estimated density distribution of that volume to arbitrary values in a three-dimensional voxel-based matrix and, then, determining the actual density distribution iteratively by, for each of the measured projections, (a) forward-projecting the estimated volume computationally and comparing the forward-projection with the measured projection, (b) generating a correction term for each pixel in the forward-projection based on that comparison, and (c) back-projecting the correction term for each pixel in the forward-projection onto all voxels of the volume that were mapped into that pixel in the forward-projection. |
| US07876943B2 |
System and method for lesion detection using locally adjustable priors
According to an aspect of the invention, a method for training a classifier for classifying candidate regions in computer aided diagnosis of digital medical images includes providing a training set of annotated images, each image including one or more candidate regions that have been identified as suspicious, deriving a set of descriptive feature vectors, where each candidate region is associated with a feature vector. A subset of the features are conditionally dependent, and the remaining features are conditionally independent. The conditionally independent features are used to train a naïve Bayes classifier that classifies the candidate regions as lesion or non-lesion. A joint probability distribution that models the conditionally dependent features, and a prior-odds probability ratio of a candidate region being associated with a lesion are determined from the training images. A new classifier is formed from the naïve Bayes classifier, the joint probability distribution, and the prior-odds probability ratio. |
| US07876941B2 |
Incorporation of axial system response in iterative reconstruction from axially compressed data of cylindrical scanner using on-the-fly computing
A method and system for reconstructing PET image data from a cylindrical PET scanner by incorporation of axial system response. The method includes the steps of: assuming the decomposition of axial components into individual line-of-response (LOR) contributions, approximating each LOR spreading in image space as depth-independent, implementing each LOR response, combining the LORs to produce large span projection data, implementing the back projector as a transposed matrix, and assembling the LOR projections and spans for each azimuthal angle. |
| US07876939B2 |
Medical imaging system for accurate measurement evaluation of changes in a target lesion
A body part is scanned to produce a first set of imaging data. A target lesion in the imaging data is identified. The body part is rescanned at a subsequent time so as to produce a second set of imaging data. The target lesion is identified in the second set of imaging data and the size of the target lesion is measured in the first and second sets of imaging data to determine two apparent image volumes corresponding to the first and second sets of imaging data. A change in size is estimated by comparing the first and second apparent lesion sizes. A variance on the change in size is estimated so as to determine a bound on the change in size measurement. |
| US07876938B2 |
System and method for whole body landmark detection, segmentation and change quantification in digital images
A method for segmenting digitized images includes providing a training set comprising a plurality of digitized whole-body images, providing labels on anatomical landmarks in each image of said training set, aligning each said training set image, generating positive and negative training examples for each landmark by cropping the aligned training volumes into one or more cropping windows of different spatial scales, and using said positive and negative examples to train a detector for each landmark at one or more spatial scales ranging from a coarse resolution to a fine resolution, wherein the spatial relationship between a cropping windows of a coarse resolution detector and a fine resolution detector is recorded. |
| US07876937B2 |
Localization of nodules in a radiographic image
A method for determining a location of an object in a radiographic image by segmentation of a region in the image comprises the steps of: determining a first image intensity that is characteristic of high image intensities in the region; determining a second image intensity that is characteristic of low image intensities outside of the region; and determining if a pixel is added to or removed from the region based on the similarity of the pixel's intensity to the first and second intensity. |
| US07876936B2 |
Method for segmenting arteries and veins
In a preferred embodiment a radiologist traces the pulmonary artery and pulmonary veins visible in a set of CT images and identifies the arteries and veins. The radiologist's identification of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins is then received by an image analyzer and combined with the analyzer's identification of the pulmonary arteries to form a combined identification; and the analyzer then reviews this combined identification of the pulmonary arteries to detect any pulmonary embolisms. The radiologist's identification of any pulmonary embolisms is compared with the analyzer's identification of any pulmonary embolisms to determine if there are any embolisms identified by the analyzer that were not identified by the radiologist. |
| US07876933B2 |
Methods and apparatus for estimating orientation in an image
Methods and apparatus for estimating an orientation are disclosed. Methods of estimating an orientation include: dividing a fingerprint image into first partial regions, measuring the gradient of each pixel of the fingerprint image, and estimating a representative orientation of each of the first partial regions; obtaining an improved fingerprint image by filtering the fingerprint image using a double orientation filter, and remeasuring the representative orientation of each of the first partial regions by remeasuring the gradient of each pixel of the improved fingerprint image; and dividing the first partial regions into second partial regions, and estimating the representative orientation of the second partial regions with respect to the curvatures of the first partial regions in response to the remeasured representative orientation of each of the first partial regions and the remeasured gradients of the pixels. |
| US07876932B1 |
Method and apparatus for representing an area of a raster image by a centerline
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that can represent an area of a raster image by a centerline. During operation, the system receives a planar map which represents a raster image that contains a region. Note that the region corresponds to a face in the planar map whose edges correspond to the boundaries of the region. Next, the system determines a centerline for a subregion within the region which is currently represented by an outline. The system then transforms the planar map so that the subregion is represented by the centerline. |
| US07876930B2 |
Fingerprint reader combination
The combination of an electronic fingerprint reader and a second electronic transmission device includes a first portion with a top surface and an electronic transmission device disposed therein and a second portion having a top surface with a width between about 2 inches and about 12 inches and a depth between about 1 inch and about 12 inches. A fingerprint reader is disposed in the top surface of the second portion. The top surface of the second portion is disposed at an angle of between about 0° and about 30° with respect to the horizontal such that the top surface of the second portion slants forwardly from the trailing edge of the second portion towards the leading edge of the second portion. The leading edge of the second portion is disposed at an elevation between about 0 inches and about 4 inches above the trailing edge of the first portion. The second electronic transmission device can be an electronic signature pad, a display screen, a keypad, a card reader, a mag-stripe reader or other electronic transmission devices. |
| US07876925B2 |
Runway segmentation using vertices detection
Methods and apparatus are provided for locating a runway by detecting an object (or blob) within data representing a region of interest provided by a vision sensor. The vertices of the object are determined by finding points on the contour of the object nearest for the four corners of the region of interest. The runway can then be identified to the pilot of the aircraft by extending lines between the vertices to identify the location of the runway. |
| US07876923B2 |
Loudspeaker gasketing
A seal consists of an annular thermoplastic body having a relatively thinner annular base and a relatively thicker, compressible annular bead. The annular body has a shape that corresponds to a mounting surface of a loudspeaker.A surface of a rim of a loudspeaker basket is placed in contact with a mold to form a substantially annular cavity, a melted thermoplastic material is injected at low-pressure into the cavity to form a seal adhered to the surface. |
| US07876919B2 |
Hearing aid microphone protective barrier
Embodiments of the invention provide microphone assemblies for hearing aids which are resistant to moisture and debris. An embodiment provides a microphone assembly for a CIC hearing aid comprising a microphone housing including a housing surface having a microphone port, a fluidic barrier structure coupled to the housing surface, a protective mesh coupled to the barrier structure and a microphone disposed within the housing. The microphone housing can be sized to be positioned in close proximity to another component surface such as a hearing battery assembly surface. At least a portion of the housing surface and/or the barrier structure are hydrophobic. The barrier structure surrounds the microphone port and is configured to channel liquid and debris away from entry into the microphone port including matter constrained between the housing surface and another surface. |
| US07876916B2 |
Card-type sound apparatus and electronic appliance provided therewith
A card-type sound apparatus has, on a card-shaped substrate, a combination of a sound signal input portion to which a sound signal is input from outside and a sound generation portion that generates sound according to the sound signal input to the sound signal input portion, or a combination of a sound collection portion that collects sound from outside and converts the sound into an electric signal and a sound signal output portion that outputs to outside the electric signal obtained from the sound collection portion, or both of these combinations. The sound generation portion generates sound by making the card-shaped substrate itself vibrate according to the sound signal input to the sound signal input portion. The sound collection portion collects sound by converting the vibration of the card-shaped substrate itself into an electric signal. |
| US07876912B2 |
Dual mode headset device
The invention provides a headset device. The headset device includes a first headset, a second headset, and a transmission line. The first headset includes a first housing; an interface module for receiving an audio signal; a signal processing module for separating the audio signal into a first channel signal and a second channel signal; an amplifying circuit for respectively amplifying the first channel signal and the second channel signal to generate a first amplified signal and a second amplified signal; and a first speaker for outputting audio according to the first amplified signal. The second headset includes a second housing, and a second speaker for outputting audio according to the second amplified signal. The transmission line is for transmitting the second amplified signal to the second headset. |
| US07876909B2 |
Efficient filter for artificial ambience
A circuit, method, and system for producing artificial ambience effect for an input audio signal, mono, stereo, or surround. The ambience effect enhances artificial reverberation, replaces artificial reverberation, or synthesizes extra audio channels, such as surround channels. The circuit may include a transient reduction module and a reverberation filter. The transient reduction module may be adapted to reduce transients in an input audio signal of one or more channels. The reverberation filter maybe adapted to receive a transient-reduced signal of one or more channels corresponding to the transient-reduced signal. |
| US07876903B2 |
Method and apparatus for creating a multi-dimensional communication space for use in a binaural audio system
Method and apparatus for producing, combining, and customizing virtual sound environments. A binaural sound system (400) includes a transceiver (492) configured for receiving a signal (600) containing at least a first type of information and a second type of information. The first type of information includes enunciated data (602). The enunciated data specifies certain information intended to be audibly enunciated to a user. The second type of information comprises first type of metadata (604-1) and a second type of metadata (604-2). The first type of metadata includes information which identifies a characteristic of the enunciated data exclusive of spatial position information. The second type of metadata identifies a spatial position information associated with the enunciated data. |
| US07876902B2 |
Distribution of encrypted software update to reduce attack window
Software updates remedy vulnerabilities in a computer program that has been distributed and installed on a plurality of computers. The software updates are distributed in encrypted form, and then, after the encrypted update has been delivered to a sufficient number of machines, the decryption key for the update is delivered. Since the key is relatively small, it can be distributed to a large number of machines very quickly, thereby reducing the amount of time between when the update is first known to the public, and the time at which all or most machines have installed the update to protect against the vulnerability. |
| US07876897B2 |
Data security in wireless network system
For data protection in a wireless network system, a frame, including its Medium Address Control (MAC) header and payload, is encrypted with an initialization vector modified at each set state in a wireless network system, such that wirelessly transmitted data is prevented from being exposed to unauthorized users. |
| US07876895B2 |
System, method, and service for performing unified broadcast encryption and traitor tracing for digital content
A unified broadcast encryption system divides a media key tree into S subtrees, divides digital content into segments, and converts some of the segments into variations; the number of segments and variations is q. The system subdivides each of the subtrees into q/|S| subdivided subtrees, assigns a key media variant to each of the subdivided subtrees, and generates a unified media key block (MKBu). The system decrypts digital content by obtaining required key media variants from the MKBu, using the key media variant to find an entry in a variant key table, decrypt a title key, and locate a variant number from the variant key table. The system uses the variant number to identify which of the variations may be decrypted by the title key and uses the title key to decrypt segments and variations. |
| US07876888B2 |
Mobile device calls via private branch exchange
Communication systems and methods are described that enable mobile devices to route telephone calls via an enterprise telephone system. The communication system is configured to receive via a data channel a request from the mobile device. The mobile device corresponds to a user making a call. The server receiving the request includes a private branch exchange (PBX) and one or more other servers hosted by or coupled to the enterprise. A first call leg is initiated over a first voice channel in response to the request. The first call leg is coupled to the server and mobile device. A second call leg is initiated over a second voice channel, and the second call leg is coupled to the server and a client device corresponding to an intended call recipient. A voice conference call is formed between the mobile device and client device by joining the first and second call legs. |
| US07876883B2 |
Mammography X-ray homogenizing optic
A conical anode X-ray source with a spot size approximately one tenth of the size of existing mammography devices. The source produces the same or higher radiance than the prior art. It also produces almost no high-energy Bremstrahlung. The electron beam is directed into a conical anode so that it strikes the reflecting surface at an angle which produces total internal reflection. The X-rays emitted via the reflection would ordinarily exit the small end of the conical anode in a diverging conical pattern—producing an undesirable “ring” configuration at the image plane. A homogenizing optic is therefore preferably added to the small end of the conical anode. The homogenizing optic is sized to reflect the X-rays emerging from the conical anode and thereby create a uniform “spot” source at the far end of the homogenizing optic. |
| US07876876B2 |
Radiation image capturing apparatus
A radiation image capturing apparatus includes a housing for housing a radiation detector. The housing has a wall inclined with respect to a detection surface of the radiation detector, and the wall defines a space inclined with respect to the detection surface. The space allows heat transfer medium such as air of relatively high temperatures (higher than that of outside air, for example) to rise along a slope defined by the space. If the region around the detection surface is heated to high temperatures, airflow is generated within the space, forcing the relatively high-temperature heat transfer medium away from the vicinity of the radiation detector, thereby allowing the whole radiation detector to be cooled in a uniform manner. |
| US07876875B2 |
Computed tomography systems and related methods involving multi-target inspection
Computed tomography (CT) systems and related methods involving multi-target inspection are provided are provided. In this regard, a representative method includes: simultaneously directing X-rays toward multiple targets from an X-ray source; during the directing of the X-rays, independently reorienting the targets with respect to the X-ray source; and obtaining information corresponding to attenuation of the X-rays attributable to the multiple targets for producing computed tomography images of the targets. |
| US07876874B2 |
Radiographing apparatus and image processing program
A radiographing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is characterized in that an image processing device comprises an acquisition device which acquires projection data of a first energy spectrum and projection data of a second energy spectrum, and a synthetic image generating device which synthesizes a first image on the basis of the projection data of the first energy spectrum, and a second image on the basis of the projection data of the second energy spectrum according to a predetermined synthetic condition, and generating a synthetic image, and a display device displays the generated synthetic image. |
| US07876871B2 |
Linear phase frequency detector and charge pump for phase-locked loop
Techniques for achieving linear operation for a phase frequency detector and a charge pump in a phase-locked loop (PLL) are described. The phase frequency detector receives a reference signal and a clock signal, generates first and second signals based on the reference and clock signals, and resets the first and second signals based on only the first signal. The first and second signals may be up and down signals, respectively, or may be down and up signals, respectively. The phase frequency detector may delay the first signal by a predetermined amount, generate a reset signal based on the delayed first signal and the second signal, and reset the first and second signals with the reset signal. The charge pump receives the first and second signals and generates an output signal indicative of phase error between the reference and clock signals. |
| US07876869B1 |
Wideband digital spectrometer
A method for reducing interference, comprising receiving a wideband signal, having at least one large amplitude component; adaptively modifying the wideband signal with respect to at least one high intensity component without substantial introduction of non-linear distortion, while reducing a residual dynamic range thereof; digitizing the modified wideband signal to capture information describing at least the high intensity signal at a sampling rate sufficient to extract modulated information present within the wideband signal at an upper limit of the band. The system analyzes a spectral characteristic of the wideband signal; and extracts adaptation parameters for the adaptive filtering. The system therefore provides both large net dynamic range and wideband operation. Preferably, the digitizer and filter, and part of the spectral characteristic analyzer is implemented in using superconducting circuit technology, with, for example low temperature superconducting digital signal processing components, and high temperature superconducting analog filtering components. |
| US07876868B2 |
System and method for reducing interference in an orthogonal frequency division modulation system
An interference contribution associated with a selected subcarrier of a plurality of subcarriers associated with a previously transmitted OFDM symbol or a current OFDM symbol is determined. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) output for the current OFDM symbol is also determined. The interference contribution is subtracted from the FFT output of the current OFDM symbol to form a modified FFT output. |
| US07876866B1 |
Data subset selection algorithm for reducing data-pattern autocorrelations
A method and apparatus are provided for reducing, and preferably substantially eliminating, data-pattern autocorrelations found in digital communication systems. The method employed is referred to as Data Subset Selection (DSS) and is implemented in the form of DSS engine. Autocorrelations in the data-pattern can cause many digital adaptive systems to converge to an incorrect solution. For example, the LMS method, which is often used in adaptive filtering applications, can converge to an incorrect set of filter coefficients in the presence of data-pattern autocorrelations. Digital timing recovery methods are also susceptible. Other impairments that result from data-pattern autocorrelations include increased convergence time and increased steady-state chatter. DSS reduces, and preferably substantially eliminates, data-pattern autocorrelations by selecting a subset of the data stream that either demonstrates smaller autocorrelations or no autocorrelations, thus improving the performance of the aforementioned digital adaptive systems. |
| US07876862B2 |
Conditionally input saturated Viterbi detector
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for decoding encoded information. For example, a decoder including a branch metric calculator that conditionally calculates a branch metric based on either an actual input or a saturated input. Such a branch metric calculator is operable to receive an actual input, and to compare the actual input with an expected range. At times, the aforementioned comparison yields a comparison result indicating that the actual input is outside of the expected range. A first branch metric associated with a first branch is calculated. Where the first branch has an expected value representing a boundary of the expected range, calculating the first branch metric is done using the saturated input. Further, a second branch metric associated with a second branch is calculated. Where the second branch has an expected value representing something other than a boundary of the expected range, calculating the second branch metric is done using the actual input. |
| US07876858B1 |
Preamble detection with multiple receive antennas
A system comprises a correlation module that receives modulated signals from R antennas, that correlates each of the modulated signals with Y preamble sequences, and that generates Y correlation values for each of the R antennas, where R and Y are integers greater than or equal to 1. A control module generates correlation sums by adding each of the Y correlation values for one of the R antennas to corresponding ones of the Y correlation values for others of the R antennas, that selects a largest correlation sum from the correlation sums, and that detects one of the preamble sequences in the modulated signals when a magnitude of the largest correlation sum is greater than or equal to a first predetermined threshold. |
| US07876855B2 |
Phase modulation power spreading used to reduce RF or microwave transmitter output power spur levels
A two stage mixer is configured to reduce the power levels of out of band spurious output signals or spurs, such as the leakage from the second stage mixer by way of phase modulation power spreading. The local oscillator signal applied to first mixer stage is phase modulated while the local oscillator signal applied to the second mixer stage is inverse modulated. As such, a problematic spur, such as leakage from the local oscillator applied to the second mixer stage is spread so that the power levels of the spur are distributed a wider bandwidth instead of concentrating the power levels at single frequencies, thus reducing the power level at any single frequency. By utilizing phase modulation, the need for relatively complex and expensive filters is eliminated. |
| US07876851B2 |
Apparatus and method for feeding back information on channel state for scheduling in multiple antenna system
An apparatus and method for controlling amount of information to be fed back in a multiple antenna system in a multi-user environment. The apparatus includes a channel estimator which estimates channel values by using an input signal; a Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) operator which decomposes singular values from the estimated channel values; and a feedback determining unit which uses the singular values to compute channel capacity that can be obtained according to the amount of channel information to be fed back, and selects the channel information to be fed back by using the channel capacity. |
| US07876850B2 |
Wireless communication system with diversity/MIMO array branch decoupling
A method and device for determining decoupled signal parameters of received signals associated with individual antenna elements of an antenna array is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of determining a receiving characteristic of the antenna array, establishing an identity characteristic associated with the antenna array, the identity characteristic independently defining each of the plurality of antenna elements, and determining a decoupled signal parameter of the received signals in view of the receiving characteristic, the identity characteristic and a coupled current associated with said received signals. The device comprises a memory and a processor in communication with the memory for executing code for processing coupled signal inputs in view of a receiving characteristic and an identity characteristic of the antenna array, wherein the receiving characteristic includes a measure of coupling among the antenna elements and the identity characteristic independently identifies each of the antenna elements. |
| US07876849B2 |
Data transmission method and apparatus using networked receivers having spatial diversity
A data transmission method and apparatus are disclosed using receivers having spatial diversity, with the receivers communicating with a common client via network communication. Improved systems and methods for data transmission according to the disclosed method and apparatus include at least: a transmission source for transmitting a data signal; a first receiver for receiving the data signal; a second receiver for receiving the data signal, wherein the second receiver is spaced apart from the first receiver thereby providing spatial diversity; and a communication network for facilitating communication between a client and at least the first receiver and the second receiver, as needed, wherein the client is capable of analyzing individual data signals received by the first and second receivers and forming a composite signal of a higher quality than the quality of the individual data signals. |
| US07876836B2 |
Precision timing pulse width communications
Systems and methods are described for pulse communications using precision timing. A method includes digitally pulse coding a data stream; and modulating a carrier signal using the digitally pulse coded data stream. |
| US07876832B2 |
Method for the characterization of a digital image and the applications thereof
A method of characterizing a digital image, in which a point of interest (PI) in the detected in the image. For each θ of a plurality I of different prescribed orientations in the digital image a family {fθ(k)(n)}1≦K≦K of K one-dimensional lines fθ(k)(n) of points is extracted from a region (RPI) of the image along K straight lines of orientation (θ), and for each line fθ(k)(n) and for each sub-sampling level s, a foveal energy signal Eθ,s(k)(n) is calculated using foveal wavelets. The signals Eθ,s(k)(n)) on the K lines and their arguments n are used to calculate a foveal signature SI characterizing the working region. |
| US07876827B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding apparatus 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. |
| US07876824B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding apparatus 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. |
| US07876822B2 |
Video encoding/ decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding apparatus 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. |
| US07876821B2 |
Method and an apparatus for controlling the rate of a video sequence; a video encoding device
A method for rate control for encoding video sequence, wherein the video sequence includes a plurality of Group Of Pictures, wherein each Group of Picture includes at least and I-frame and an Inter-frame, where the rate control method includes the following steps for the encoding of the Inter-frame in the Group of Picture: determining a desired frame rate based on an available bandwidth of a channel for transmitting the video sequence and an available computational resources for the encoding process; determining a target buffer level based on the desired frame rate and the position of the Inter-frame with respect to the I-frame; and determining a target bit rate based on the target buffer level and the available channel bandwidth, wherein the target bit rate is used for controlling the rate of encoding the video sequence. |
| US07876819B2 |
Two pass rate control techniques for video coding using rate-distortion characteristics
This disclosure describes rate control techniques that can improve video coding based on a “two-pass” approach. The first pass codes a video sequence using a first set of quantization parameters (QPs) for the purpose of estimating rate-distortion characteristics of the video sequence based on the statistics of the first pass. A second set of QPs can then be defined for a second coding pass. The estimated rate-distortion characteristics of the first pass are used to select QPs for the second pass in a manner that minimizes distortion of the frames of the video sequence. |
| US07876817B2 |
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. |
| US07876813B2 |
Communication system, device and data transmission method
A communication system comprises a first modem part arranged at a first location and a second modem part arranged at a second location that is remote from the first location. The first modem part and the second modem part in combination perform functionalities of a modem. |
| US07876809B2 |
Code division multiple access (CDMA) receiving device, and path searching method
Upon receiving an instruction to open a radio link, a path management unit designates, for one radio link, a spreading code number for a common pilot channel and a spreading code number for an individual channel to a spreading code generator. The spreading code generator generates spreading codes for the respective channels and sends them to a correlator. The correlator outputs the correlation values between a reception signal (IQ signal), the common pilot channel, and the individual channel. A delay profile unit generates delay profiles concerning the common pilot channel and individual channel by in-phase-adding and power-adding correlation values from the correlator for each channel. The path management unit detects path timings from both the delay profiles concerning the common pilot channel and individual channel, and assigns path timings TM to finger units in descending order of reception power. This improves the stability of reception quality. |
| US07876806B2 |
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-code division multiple access system
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-code division multiple access (CDMA) system is disclosed. The system includes a transmitter and a receiver. At the transmitter, a spreading and subcarrier mapping unit spreads an input data symbol with a complex quadratic sequence code to generate a plurality of chips and maps each chip to one of a plurality of subcarriers. An inverse discrete Fourier transform is performed on the chips mapped to the subcarriers and a cyclic prefix (CP) is inserted to an OFDM frame. A parallel-to-serial converter converts the time-domain data into a serial data stream for transmission. At the receiver, a serial-to-parallel converter converts received data into multiple received data streams and the CP is removed from the received data. A discrete Fourier transform is performed on the received data streams and equalization is performed. A despreader despreads an output of the equalizer to recover the transmitted data. |
| US07876800B2 |
Surface emitting laser
A surface emitting laser having a photonic crystal layer 130 on a substrate 105 with an active layer therebetween, in which the photonic crystal layer includes at least a first periodic structure for resonating in an in-plane direction and a second periodic structure for modulating a light intensity distribution in an in-plane direction. The light intensity in the photonic crystal layer is periodically distributed to a region having high light intensity and a region having low light intensity by the second periodic structure. Further, a conductive film 170 for performing current injection into the active layer is selectively provided just above the region having low light intensity. The surface emitting laser provides suppression of light absorption and highly efficient current injection into an active layer to attain a high power. |
| US07876798B2 |
Nitride semiconductor laser device
A nitride semiconductor laser device is formed by growing a group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure on a substrate containing no Al. The group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure forms a structure including an n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer, and a light emitting layer held between the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer. The n-type semiconductor layer includes an n-type cladding layer containing Al and an n-type guide layer having a smaller band gap than the n-type cladding layer. The p-type semiconductor layer includes a p-type cladding layer containing Al and a p-type guide layer having a smaller band gap than the p-type cladding layer. A removal region is formed by partially removing the layers containing Al in the group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure from the substrate. |
| US07876795B2 |
Semiconductor light source with electrically tunable emission wavelength
A semiconductor light source comprises a substrate, lower and upper claddings, a waveguide region with imbedded active area, and electrical contacts to provide voltage necessary for the wavelength tuning. The active region includes single or several heterojunction periods sandwiched between charge accumulation layers. Each of the active region periods comprises higher and lower affinity semiconductor layers with type-II band alignment. The charge carrier accumulation in the charge accumulation layers results in electric field build-up and leads to the formation of generally triangular electron and hole potential wells in the higher and lower affinity layers. Nonequillibrium carriers can be created in the active region by means of electrical injection or optical pumping. The ground state energy in the triangular wells and the radiation wavelength can be tuned by changing the voltage drop across the active region. |
| US07876794B2 |
Laser light source
The present invention discloses a laser light source for implementing pulsed oscillation of laser light, which has a laser cavity in which a laser medium for generating emitted light with supply of excitation energy is placed on a resonance path; an excitation device for continuously supplying excitation energy to the laser medium; a monitor part for monitoring a power of light extracted at a middle point of the path of the cavity from the laser medium in accordance with the supply of the excitation energy by the excitation device; a Q-switch for modulating a cavity loss of the laser cavity; and a control part for performing such control as to stabilize a peak power or an energy of laser light pulses outputted in a state in which the cavity loss of the laser cavity is set at a second predetermined loss for oscillation of high-power pulses, based on the power of the emitted light monitored by the monitor part in a state in which the cavity loss of the laser cavity is set at a first predetermined loss for non-oscillation of high-power pulses. |
| US07876793B2 |
Micro free electron laser (FEL)
A charged particle beam including charged particles (e.g., electrons) is generated from a charged particle source (e.g., a cathode or scanning electron beam). As the beam is projected, it passes between plural alternating electric fields. The attraction of the charged particles to their oppositely charged fields accelerates the charged particles, thereby increasing their velocities in the corresponding (positive or negative) direction. The charged particles therefore follow an oscillating trajectory. When the electric fields are selected to produce oscillating trajectories having the same (or nearly the same) frequency as the emitted radiation, the resulting photons can be made to constructively interfere with each other to produce a coherent radiation source. |
| US07876789B2 |
Method for synchronizing the presentation of media streams in a mobile communication system and terminal for transmitting media streams
For some mobile communication services, a media stream such as video, will be combined with another media stream such as voice. For example, a user of a first terminal (101) is involved in a voice call over e.g. a circuit switched network (103) with a friend. During the voice call, the user of the first terminal decides to start transmitting another media stream, such as live streamed video, which may be transmitted over a packet switched network (104), to the friend's terminal (102). In such a case there is problem in that the two media streams voice and video may have quite different end-to-end time delays, i.e. the time from a part of the media stream is transmitted from the first user's terminal (101) until that part of the media stream is presented at the friend's terminal (102). Since comments from the first user will be presented to the user's friend earlier than the commented part of the video this will be quite annoying to the friend. To avoid this problem this invention presents the video to the user of the first terminal (101) delayed with a time dependent on the time difference between the end-to-end time delay of video and the end-to-end time delay of voice. Thereby, comments from the user of the first terminal (101) regarding the video will be received at the friend's terminal (102) approximately synchronized with the video. |
| US07876786B2 |
Dynamic time-spectrum block allocation for cognitive radio networks
Dynamic time-spectrum block allocation for cognitive radio networks is described. In one implementation, without need for a central controller, peer wireless nodes collaboratively sense local utilization of a communication spectrum and collaboratively share white spaces for communication links between the nodes. Sharing local views of the spectrum utilization with each other allows the nodes to dynamically allocate non-overlapping time-frequency blocks to the communication links between the nodes for efficiently utilizing the white spaces. The blocks are sized to optimally pack the available white spaces. The nodes regularly readjust the bandwidth and other parameters of all reserved blocks in response to demand, so that packing of the blocks in available white spaces maintains a fair distribution of the overall bandwidth of the white spaces among active communication links, minimizes finishing time of all communications, reduces contention overhead among the nodes contending for the white spaces, and maintains non-overlapping blocks. |
| US07876780B2 |
Method for managing network resources and network management device
The invention relates to a method for managing network resources in a network with a network management device (M), a network component (A), and a further network component (B), and a network management device (M), the method comprising the following steps: transmitting a request for an advance reservation of a network resource by the network component (A) to the network management device (M), wherein the request includes information regarding a reservation start time and a reservation end time; transmitting a request for an ad-hoc reservation of a further network resource by the further network component (B) to the network management device (M); allocating the further network resource to the further network component (B) by the network management device (M); and allocating the network resource to the network component (A) by the network management device (M) at the reservation start time, wherein the network resource comprises a part or all of the further network resource. |
| US07876776B2 |
Local area network of serial intelligent cells
A serial intelligent cell (SIC) and a connection topology for local area networks using Electrically-conducting media. A local area network can be configured from a plurality of SIC's interconnected so that all communications between two adjacent SIC's is both point-to-point and bidirectional. Each SIC can be connected to one or more other SIC's to allow redundant communication paths. Communications in different areas of a SIC network are independent of one another, so that, unlike current bus topology and star topology, there is no fundamental limit on the size or extent of a SIC network. Each SIC can optionally be connected to one or more data terminals, computers, telephones, sensors, actuators, etc., to facilitate interconnectivity among such devices. Networks according to the present invention can be configured for a variety of applications, including a local telephone system, remote computer bus extender, multiplexers, PABX/PBX functionality, security systems, and local broadcasting services. The network can use dedicated wiring, as well as existing wiring as the in-house telephone or electrical wiring. |
| US07876774B2 |
Contention based random access method with autonomous carrier selection
A plurality of user terminals shares an uplink channel having a plurality of subcarriers according to a contention based random access protocol. Each user terminal is assigned one or more primary subcarriers, which are reserved for specific user terminals. In addition, a pool of supplemental subcarriers is available for use by any user terminal. When a user terminal sends a data packet, the user terminal transmits at least a first portion of the data packet on its assigned primary subcarriers. If additional subcarriers are needed, the user terminal autonomously selects one or more supplemental subcarriers from the pool to transmit a second portion of the data packet. The access point knows a priori which ones of the user terminals are assigned to each of the primary subcarriers. When a user terminal selects one or more supplemental subcarriers, the user terminals send to subcarrier selection information to the access point. |
| US07876772B2 |
System, method and apparatus for providing multiple access modes in a data communications network
A system, method and apparatus for providing multiple access modes in a data communications network includes a network access device having a plurality of input ports, a plurality of output ports, and a switching fabric for routing data received on the plurality of input ports to at least one of the plurality of output ports. Control logic within the network access device is adapted to determine whether a user device coupled to one of the plurality of input ports supports a user authentication protocol used by a host network. If the user authentication protocol is not supported, then the input port to which the network access device is coupled is placed in a semi-authorized access state that limits access to a pre-configured network accessible via the host network. |
| US07876768B2 |
Systems and methods of assembling an elementary stream from an encapsulated multimedia transport stream
Systems and methods of assembling an elementary stream from an encapsulated multimedia transport stream are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method is performed in a digital home communication terminal (DHCT). This method comprises the steps of: receiving a layer-2 packet through a binding to a network interface driver; applying at least one filter to the received packet to determine whether the received packet contains one or more multimedia transport packets meeting criteria associated with the filter; and for each multimedia transport packet meeting the applied filter criteria, copying the respective multimedia transport packet to an elementary stream buffer. |
| US07876765B2 |
Method for supporting IP network interconnectivity between partitions in a virtualized environment
A method for preventing loopback of data packets sent between entities residing on a single host. In one embodiment, an auxiliary address shared among entities residing on the host indicates that a data packet is to be routed to an entity residing on the host. In another embodiment, a source address and a target address in a data packet header are switched while being routed to a target entity residing on the host. |
| US07876763B2 |
Pipeline scheduler including a hierarchy of schedulers and multiple scheduling lanes
Disclosed is a hierarchy of individual schedulers with multiple scheduling lanes for scheduling items, such as, but not limited to packets or indications thereof, such that different classes of priority items can be propagated through the hierarchy of schedulers accordingly. A pipeline scheduler typically includes a root scheduler and one or more layers of schedulers with each of these layers including at least one scheduler. Each scheduler is configured to maintain items of different scheduling categories received from each of the particular scheduler's immediate children schedulers within the pipeline scheduler if any and from each immediate external source coupled to the particular scheduler if any, and to schedule the sending of the items of the different scheduling categories currently maintained to its parent schedule or external scheduler client. The items may correspond to packets, indications of packets, or any other entity. |
| US07876761B2 |
System and method for fault tolerant TCP offload
Systems and methods that provide fault tolerant transmission control protocol (TCP) offloading are provided. In one example, a method that provides fault tolerant TCP offloading is provided. The method may include one or more of the following steps: receiving TCP segment via a TCP offload engine (TOE); calculating a TCP sequence number; writing a receive sequence record based upon at least the calculated TCP sequence number to a TCP sequence update queue in a host; and updating a first host variable with a value from the written receive sequence record. |
| US07876759B2 |
Quality of service with control flow packet filtering
A system is provided comprising a fabric coupling together a plurality of computing devices, wherein the fabric transfers a stream of packets between the computing devices. Each computing device comprises a Quality of Service (“QOS”) filter that monitors incoming packets to filter out packets of a maintenance type and permit transfer of packets of a transaction type. |
| US07876757B2 |
Router-assisted fast processing of packet termination in host
A last router in the route of a packet determines when a packet is at the last hop prior to reaching its destination, based on information conveyed in the routing table that the destination is a directly-connected host, and can then convey that information to the host by setting the TTL to zero in the packet being forwarded to its final destination. The host, being so informed that the packet is destined for its IP address, can thereby eliminate the IP address table search for the destination IP address of the incoming packet against the list of its allocated IP addresses to determine if the packet is destined for that host, thereby providing significant performance enhancements to the network system by enabling a receiving host to skip the IP address lookup process and immediately consume the received packet. |
| US07876755B2 |
Method and system for improving quality of communication based on label distribution protocol
A method and system for improving a quality of communication based on a label distribution protocol is provided. The method includes the following: When a local label switching router (LSR) finds out a change of a route at an upstream node in a multicast label switching path (LSP), it calculates and sets up a new optimized multicast LSP according to the label distribution protocol (LDP), and delays to send a withdraw request to the upstream node in the former multicast LSP. An interruption of the data stream in the multicast LSP reconstruction procedures can be avoided or reduced, so that the loss of data packets caused by the multicast LSP adjustment is reduced, and the quality of communication of the multicast is improved. |
| US07876753B2 |
IP multi-cast video ring distribution and protection
An IP Video distribution and protection system provides lower cost by using a reduced number of expensive IP multi-cast router high-speed ports. A multi-cast data source comprises at least one multi-cast router and a multi-cast server. The data source is coupled to a plurality of multi-cast data destinations via a data distribution network comprising a first and a second ring. The data destinations are communicatively linked together in the first ring for data flow in one direction. The second ring network communicatively connects the data source to the last data destination in the first ring for data flow in a different direction though the destinations. Each destination includes switching elements enabling the destinations to provide data in either direction to end users linked to the respective data destinations. |
| US07876752B1 |
Method and system for partition based network routing
Method and system for routing a network packet received at a port within a network is provided. The method includes (a) generating an index value based on a destination identifier for the network packet; (b) generating one or more physical port numbers based on the index value generated in step (a); wherein each port number identifies a port for sending and receiving network packets; and (c) selecting one of the physical port numbers to route the network packet; wherein the port number is selected based on reaction selector signal that is generated from a partition key table based on a partition key value embedded in the network packet. |
| US07876749B1 |
Cross-connect using ethernet multiplexors for a simple metro ethernet network
A metro area network is provided that includes edge and core multiplexors each having a plurality of line ports and one or more uplink ports, a transport network carrying multiplexed traffic between the edge and core multiplexors. In a hard cross connect implementation utilizing source port tagging, a cross-connect device coupled to the core multiplexors provisions or maps communications path between the core multiplexors thereby providing preselected connectivity/mapping of two or more line ports of any of the edge multiplexors. In a soft cross connect implementation utilizing destination port tagging, a cross-connect device includes additional cross-connect multiplexors and functionality to control the destination port tagging performed in the edge, core and cross connect multiplexors thereby provisioning or mapping the desired communications path(s) between various endpoints. |
| US07876748B1 |
Stable hash-based mapping computation for a dynamically varying target set
Mapping a source identifier in a source identifier space to a target identifier in a target identifier space using a hash-based computation that is stable over time with respect to a change in the number of target identifiers. A data item identifiable by a source identifier is associated with some type of computational resource that is represented by a target object identifiable by one or more target identifiers. The set of target objects is dynamically variable. After hashing the source identifier to produce an index position of an entry in a table, a target identifier is retrieved from the table entry. Each entry in the table is related to a single target identifier based on a nearness computation that depends upon the table index position of the table entry and a target identifier for the related target. |
| US07876741B2 |
Method of acquiring uplink synchronization for mobile WiMax system analyzer
Disclosed herein is a method of acquiring Uplink (UL) synchronization for a mobile WiMax system analyzer. When a DL sub-frame is received, the method is performed on a Portable Subscriber Station (PSS) having a test mode function of creating a UL sub-frame through the mobile WiMax system analyzer having signal generating means configured to store the CID information in advance and signal analyzing means configured to receive and analyze the DL sub-frame. The method includes step (a) of the signal generating means continuously D/A converting, RF-modulating and outputting the DL sub-frame, step (b) of the signal analyzing means receiving the UL sub-frame, step (c) of the signal analyzing means continuously demodulating, A/D-converting and capturing the modulated UL sub-frame, and step (d) of the signal analyzing means acquiring UL synchronization by comparing the UL sub-frame with the data captured at step (c) using a time correlation technique. |
| US07876740B2 |
Method and system for synchronization of link layer windows
A method and system for synchronization of link layer windows in a wireless communications system is disclosed. At a transmitter in the wireless communications system, the transmitter transmits a plurality of frames in a transmitter's link layer window, wherein each frame comprises segments and sends a request for an acknowledgement of the plurality of frames to a receiver. Then the transmitter determines a last transmitted segment of an eldest frame of the plurality of frames in the transmitter's link layer window, if a response to the request is not received within a specified time period and sets a synchronization indicator in the determined last transmitted segment of the eldest frame. Finally, the transmitter transmits the determined last transmitted segment of the eldest frame with the synchronization indicator set to the receiver. |
| US07876738B2 |
Preventing an incorrect synchronization between a received code-modulated signal and a replica code
In order to prevent an incorrect synchronization between a received code-modulated signal and an available replica code, partial correlations are performed between a respective subset of samples of the replica code and samples of the received code-modulated signal associated to the respective subset of samples of the replica code at a specific alignment between the received code-modulated signal and the replica code. The results of the partial correlations are then compared to each other, and it may be decided based on this comparison whether the replica code corresponds to a code employed for code-modulating the received code-modulated signal. |
| US07876737B2 |
Methods and apparatus for locationing based NAT access in wireless networks
Methods and systems are provided for location-based network address translation (NAT). The system allows an administrator to logically partition an environment into a plurality of spatial regions. The method then includes specifying, for each of the spatial regions, whether network address translation (NAT) is allowed or not allowed for that spatial region, then performing a locationing procedure to determine in which spatial region the mobile unit is located. NAT is allowed for wireless data communication from the mobile unit if the mobile unit is within one of the spatial regions for which NAT is allowed, and is not allowed for wireless data communication from the mobile unit if the mobile unit is within one of the spatial regions for which NAT is not allowed. The systems and methods are applicable, for example, to networks operating in accordance with 802.11, RFID, WiMax, WAN, Bluetooth, Zigbee, UWB, and the like. |
| US07876736B2 |
Communication system with mobile terminal accessible to mobile communication network and local network simultaneously
An address assignment method for a mobile terminal device capable of accessing both a mobile communication network and a local network simultaneously, the method transmitting to a gateway device an inquiry message for inquiring information regarding a location on networks of a correspondent of packet communications to be carried out, from the mobile terminal device through the local network, receiving a response message in response to the inquiry message through the local network at the mobile terminal device, acquiring an address to be used by the mobile terminal device in the packet communications with the correspondent according to the response message, assigning the address to a first communication interface for the local network at the mobile terminal device, communicating with the correspondent using the address assigned to the first communication interface, and judging a manner of utilizing first packet communications carried out through the first communication interface and second packet communications carried out through a second communication interface provided for the mobile communication network in the mobile terminal device according to a prescribed policy, when both the first packet communications and the second packet communications are possible. |
| US07876735B2 |
Transmitting a communication from a wireless access point indicating available networks and their capabilities
A wireless access point may be configured to advertise, to mobile user devices, multiple wireless networks available through the wireless access point. For example, service set identifiers (SSIDs) may be specified within an information element (IE) of a communication such as, for example, an 802.11 beacon, broadcasted to mobile user devices. Such an IE may utilize the capability provided by IEEE 802.11 itself to use additional and flexible numbers of information elements within a beacon. Accordingly, networks that would otherwise remain hidden due to limitations of known wireless access points are made visible to mobile user devices. Configuring a wireless access point to advertise multiple available wireless networks, for example, by firmware upgrades, may serve as a viable and cost-effective interim solution and/or alternative to replacing a wireless access point with a wireless access point configured to implement virtual wireless access points. |
| US07876731B2 |
Method and apparatus for acquiring code group in asynchronous wideband code division multiple access system using receiver diversity
Disclosed herein are a method and apparatus for acquiring a code group in an asynchronous Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system. A primary synchronization channel search unit achieves primary synchronization channel slot timing synchronization. Then, the 1-1 search unit and 1-2 search unit of a secondary synchronization channel receive secondary synchronization channels from first and second antennas, respectively, start correlation operations between some of the slots of the received channels and code group candidates, and transmit information about candidates having values exceeding a predetermined threshold value to a determination unit. The determination unit transmits the received information about candidates to a second search unit of the secondary synchronization channel. The second search unit of the secondary synchronization channel calculates correlation characteristics based on the received information about candidates and selects a code group candidate having a highest correlation characteristic. |
| US07876728B1 |
Maintaining path optimization during foreign agent handoff
A method, system, and computer-readable media are provided for maintaining optimized communication after a mobile device transitions to a new foreign agent during a communication session. When a mobile device moves to and registers with a new foreign agent within a communication session, the mobile device's home agent multicasts a message to all foreign agents within an optimization cluster informing them of the updated registration. Accordingly, the foreign agents within the optimization cluster can proceed to transmit data packets directly to the new foreign agent servicing the mobile device within the communication session. |
| US07876726B2 |
Adaptive allocation of communications link channels to I- or Q-subchannel
System and method for adaptively allocating channels to subchannels and maintain balance on the subchannels. A preferred embodiment comprises an assignment unit (for example, assignment algorithm unit 717) that receives call/connection requests from a call/connection processing unit (for example, call/connection processing unit 712). The assignment unit may use a lookup table or channel metrics to determine an allocation for the call/connection to maintain a balance across the subchannels. The assignment unit may allocate only the call/connection in the request or it may allocate the call/connection in the request plus the calls/connections that are already allocated to achieve balance. |
| US07876722B2 |
System and method for wireless communication between wired field devices and control system components
A system for transferring a signal between a field device and a control system component includes a field linking unit and a system gateway. The field linking unit is electrically coupled to a field device, and a signal is transferred between the two using a first protocol. The system gateway is electrically connected to a control system component, and the signal is transferred between the two using a second protocol. The field linking unit and the system gateway communicate wirelessly. One of the field linking unit and the system gateway may encrypt the signal before sending, and the other may decrypt the signal upon receipt. The system may also include at least one intermediate node, and the field linking unit and the system gateway may communicate wirelessly via the intermediate node(s). |
| US07876721B2 |
Sleep scheduling for geographically distributed network nodes
Techniques for implementing sleep scheduling in a distributed network environment are described. The sleep scheduling attempts to optimize routing of communication among nodes of the distributed network, while still conserving energy by allowing nodes to occasionally transition to sleep mode. The sleep scheduling is performed as a function of the number of awake neighboring nodes. |
| US07876720B2 |
Method and circuit for differential clock pulse compensation between two clock-pulse systems
A differential clock pulse compensation is performed between the clock-pulse system (23) of a digital line-connected data interface and the asynchronous clock-pulse system (22) of a digital wireless data interface. A characteristic variable (20, 21) for the asynchronous differential clock pulse between the clock-pulse systems (22, 23) is monitored hereby. The data rate of the data (15, 16) transmitted over the line-connected data interface is adapted depending on the characteristic variable (20, 21). |
| US07876719B2 |
Apparatus, and associated method, for configuring an IMS service for use by a circuit-switched device
Apparatus, and an associated method, to facilitate performance of an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) service to a circuit-switched-connected user equipment. The user equipment includes a USSD message generator that generates an initiation message that is sent to a network of a radio communication system. The message is routed through the network to an entity that decodes the USSD message to form an XCAP message. The XCAP message is routed to an associated service node that operates responsive to the XCAP message. |
| US07876718B1 |
Echo reduction
This invention provides a technique to reduce echoes not adequately attenuated by echo cancellers during initial periods of voice communication. Signals transmitted across communication networks are often reflected back to the caller resulting in echo. Echo cancellers are employed in the communication system to cancel this effect in order to maintain a high quality transmission. However, echo cancellers require time to detect, adapt, and effectively remove echo, often resulting in echo during the initial moments of the call and thereby degrading the quality of service. By installing an attenuation device into the communication system, all signals that pass through it are reduced to a preset value for a set period of time. This reduces any echo below a detectable threshold. After the period of time expires, the attenuation device allows the signal to pass unaffected, by which time the echo cancellers have adaptively adjusted to any echoes in the system. |
| US07876716B2 |
Base station apparatus and radio communication method
A base station (10) performs bi-directional radio communications with terminal station apparatuses using communication frames each having time slots and being composed of a first region with a predetermined open-loop period and a second region with an open-loop period shorter than the open-loop period of the first region. A level detecting section (21) detects a received level of an uplink slot configured in the second region. A transmission diversity section (14) performs diversity transmission on a downlink transmission signal assigned to a downlink slot corresponding to the uplink slot, corresponding to a result of detection of the received level. It is thereby possible to enhance the effect of improving the received quality due to transmission diversity without degrading the transmission efficiency. |
| US07876713B2 |
Label switched routing in SAS expanders
The attaching of labels to an OPEN frame and applying label switched routing to SAS expanders is disclosed to eliminate the need for large routing tables in SAS networks. A label stack is inserted into the OPEN frame by the initiator, prior to the OPEN frame being transmitted. Each label contains the egress port for a SAS expander in the transmit path. Each SAS expander to be participating in the connection reads the labels to determine the egress port to connect to and through which data is to be sent. The SAS expander marks its label invalid or discards it and forwards the OPEN frame to the egress port where the next SAS expander will look for the first valid label. The process repeats until the OPEN frame reaches the edge device, at which time all labels are discarded and the OPEN frame is forwarded to the end device. |
| US07876708B2 |
Method and apparatus for discovering network service providers
The present invention discloses a method and a corresponding apparatus for discovering NSPs. The method includes: transmitting, by network-side, information about NSPs supported by the current NAP; transmitting, by the network-side, first change information about NSPs supported by the NAP at a fixed period; obtaining, by a CPE, the first change information about the NSPs supported by the NAP accessible at a current position when accessing a network; determining whether the first change information is consistent with stored change information about NSPs supported by the NAP, if it is, obtaining stored information about NSPs supported by the NAP, otherwise, obtaining information about NSPs supported by the NAP transmitted by the network-side; and adding the obtained information about the NSPs as information about available NSPs discovered. The present invention can reduce extra occupancy of air interface resources and effectively reduce time consumption in the process of network discovering and selecting. |
| US07876704B1 |
Tunneling protocols for wireless communications
A method and apparatus for tunneling protocols are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises broadcasting a message at a repeater to one or more members in a network including a switch, the broadcasted message indicating that the repeater is entering the network, receiving VLAN (virtual local area network) configuration information from the switch in response to the broadcast message, and communicating with the switch using the VLAN configuration information in subsequent communications. |
| US07876701B2 |
Control channel design to support one-to-one, many-to-one, and one-to-many peer-to-peer communications
A protocol is provided that facilitates downlink concurrent peer-to-peer communications (within a time slot or traffic slot) between one device and many terminals as well as uplink concurrent peer-to-peer communications (within a time slot or traffic slot) between a plurality of terminals and one device. The concurrent peer-to-peer communications may take place within an ad hoc network of devices. To facilitate such operation, a time-frequency structure is provided within a control channel that allows the device and terminals to identify the peer-to-peer connections. This time-frequency structure also allows terminals to identify other sibling terminals that have a connection with the same device, thereby allowing to more efficiently performing interference mitigation. That is, sibling peer-to-peer connections with the same device may be treated different from other non-related peer-to-peer connects for purposes of interference mitigation in a wireless network. |
| US07876700B2 |
Method and system for providing default route advertisement protection
A system and method in accordance with exemplary embodiments may include detecting connectivity of a core network element to an internal network. In addition, the system and method may halt advertisement of a default route from the core network element to a network element external to the internal network in response to not detecting connectivity of the core network element to the internal network. The system and method may also allow advertisement of the default route from the core network element to the network element external to the internal network in response to detecting connectivity of the core network element to the internal network. |
| US07876699B2 |
Mobile station and method for verifying access points thereof
A mobile station (200) communicating with an access point (100) includes an association module (202), a mode switching module (204), a verifying module (206), and a recording module (208). The association module associates with the access point via an original address and a virtual address. The mode switching module switches between an active mode and a power saving mode. The verifying module transmits a first test frame, then transmits a data acquiring frame to the access point to acquire the first test frame, presets a period of time for receiving the first test frame, and determines whether a time when the first test frame is received is after or before the preset period of time. The recording module records whether the access point supports Frame Exchange Sequence (FES) to switch between the active mode and the power saving mode according to a determined result of the verifying module. |
| US07876694B2 |
Identifying VPN faults based on virtual routing address and edge interface relationship information
In an embodiment, a network service provider (NSP) operates a provider network to provide VPN services to its customers. A VPN links various customer sites allowing customers to send data between these sites over the NSP network. Each site network includes a customer edge router (CE) while the provider network includes a plurality of provider edge routers (PEs) to communicate with the CEs. The PEs include virtual routing address (VRFs), and the PEs and CEs include interfaces (IFs). A database stores information related to the relationships between the network components (e.g., VPNs, PEs, CEs, VRFs, IFs, etc.), and a management software package (MSP) has access to the database. When a fault occurs, the MSP, based on collected information and information in the database, determines the impacted network components. Other features include classifying the seriousness of the network's faults and representing different faults by a color scheme. |
| US07876692B2 |
Empirical scheduling of network packets using a plurality of test packets
A method of transmitting packets over a network includes steps of transmitting a first plurality of test packets during a first plurality of time locations that are coarsely spaced apart in time; determining which of the first plurality of time locations corresponds to favorable network traffic conditions; transmitting a second plurality of test packets over the network during a second plurality of time locations that are finely spaced apart in time, wherein the second plurality of time locations are selected on the basis of favorable network traffic conditions; determining which of the second plurality of time locations corresponds to favorable network traffic conditions; and transmitting data packets over the network using one or more favorable time locations determined by the finely spaced test packets. The method can be used to “zero in” on congested network periods by detecting differences in packet latencies among test packets. |
| US07876686B1 |
Message processing
Devices, systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with message processing are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an interaction logic to interact with a message associated with an isochronous stream. The message is associated with a class of information provided on the isochronous stream. The apparatus includes a history logic to monitor messages associated with the class of information. The history logic determines a class history for the class of information. The apparatus includes a process logic to selectively process the message based on the class history. |
| US07876685B2 |
System and method for lost packet recovery with congestion avoidance
Devices and techniques for overcoming lost packets and avoiding congestion when conducting media conferences over packet switched networks are described herein. To avoid the problem of lost packets, redundant information is inserted into the media stream that permits the receiver to reconstruct any lost packets from the redundant information. Congestion avoidance techniques include adjusting the bitrate of the media stream to find the highest bitrate that can be supported without packet loss due to congestion. When increasing the bitrate to a higher rate, the additional bits can come from the redundant information used for lost packet recovery so that any lost packets caused by network congestion will not adversely affect the bitstream. |
| US07876684B2 |
Data flow amount control device and method
A data flow amount control device in a mobile communication system includes a plurality of mobile stations, a control station relaying packets to each of the plurality of mobile stations, and a base station temporarily storing the packets transmitted from the control station in a buffer and transmitting the packets to each of the plurality of mobile stations. The data flow amount control device includes a radio condition acquisition unit configured to acquire a radio condition of each of the plurality of mobile stations; a packet transmission frequency calculation unit configured to calculate a transmission frequency of the packets transmitted from the base station to each of the plurality of mobile stations; and a packet transmission amount control unit configured to control a transmission amount of the packets transmitted from the control station to the base station. |
| US07876681B2 |
Systems and methods for controlling network-bound traffic
A network device controls the flow of traffic in a network, such as an Ethernet-based network. The network device detects congestion in the network and identifies at least one upstream device to which to send a flow control message, where the upstream device is a device that is transmitting above a predetermined level. The network device then transmits the flow control message to the identified upstream device. The flow control message instructs the identified upstream device to slow down transmissions to the network device. |
| US07876680B2 |
Method for load balancing in a network switch
A method for load balancing in a link aggregation environment, wherein the method includes the steps of determining if a packet flow in a network switch exceeds a predetermined threshold. Then the method includes the step of determining if the packet flow is a candidate for link switching from a first link to a second link if the packet flow exceeds the predetermined threshold. Additionally, the method includes switching the packet flow from the first link to the second link if the packet flow is determined to be a candidate for link switching. Additionally, a method for load balancing in a link aggregation environment including the steps of determining a length of a first frame and a length of a second frame entering the link aggregation environment. Thereafter, determining a flow rate of the first frame and the second frame entering the link aggregation environment. Then a step of determining if the flow rate exceeds a predetermined flow rate threshold is undertaken, and thereafter, a step of determining if the first frame and the second frame are candidates for link switching is completed. As a final step, the method switches a transmission link for the second frame from a first transmission link to a second transmission link. |
| US07876677B2 |
Transmission control protocol queue sorting
A device that queues and transmits data packets is described. This device includes: a queue configured to store data packets awaiting transmission; a controller configured to dynamically determine an order in which the data packets are transmitted from the queue; and a transmission mechanism configured to transmit the data packets from the queue in the determined order. The transmission order is determined using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sequence numbers and/or TCP timestamps contained in the data packets in the queue in order to provide increased utility without reducing existing fairness between independent data streams. |
| US07876672B2 |
Determining rerouting information for single-node failure recovery in an internet protocol network
For a survivable portion of a network, a backup port for a first router of the survivable network, to reach a destination node in the event of a single node failure, may be determined by (a) accepting a routing path graph having the destination node, wherein the routing path graph includes one or more links terminated by one or more primary ports of the first router; and (b) for each router of at least a part of the routing path graph, (1) assuming that the current router is removed, defining (A) a first part of the routing path graph including the destination node, and (B) a second part of the routing path graph separated from the first part wherein the second part defines one or more sub-graphs, and (2) determining the backup port for the first router by examining at least one of the one or more sub-graphs to find a link to the first part of the routing path graph. |
| US07876670B2 |
Method for transmitting data, method for receiving data, transmitter, receiver, and computer program products
A method for transmitting data comprising a plurality of bits is described wherein the data is mapped to a plurality of modulation symbols, each modulation symbol comprising at least one more significant bit and at least one less significant bit, at least one parity bit is generated for the plurality of bits and the plurality of bits are mapped to more significant bits of the plurality of modulation symbols and the at least one parity bit is mapped to at least one less significant bit of the plurality of modulation symbols. |
| US07876661B2 |
Non-destructive readback for ferroelectric material
An apparatus that provides for non-destructive readback of a ferroelectric material. The apparatus can include a ferroelectric layer with a scannable surface wherein the ferroelectric layer has a compensation charge adjacent the scannable surface. The apparatus also can include an electrode adjacent the scannable surface to sense the compensation charge. A related method is also disclosed. |
| US07876660B2 |
Optical pickup apparatus
An optical pickup apparatus includes: a first light source for emitting a first light flux; a light-converging optical system including an objective lens and a diffractive structure. When the first light flux from an optical information recording medium enters into the diffractive structure, the diffractive structure emits a main light flux and a secondary light flux. The optical pickup apparatus further includes: a first optical element including a first optical area and a second optical area; a second optical element including a third optical area and a fourth optical area; a light-converging element for converging the main light flux at a position between the first optical element and second optical element; a polarization splitting optical member for splitting the main light flux and the secondary light flux each emitted from the first optical element and second optical element; and a photodetector for receiving the main light flux. |
| US07876656B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing defects in recording media, a computer readable medium including computer readable code for the same, and a defect managed recording medium obtained using the same method, apparatus, and computer readable medium
A method, apparatus and computer readable medium for managing recording medium defects and a defect managed recording medium. The recording medium includes a spare area in which a replacement area, which is a substitute for a defective area of the recording medium, is formed, and a temporary defect management area in which temporary management information that specifies the defective area and the corresponding replacement area is recorded, wherein position information and state information regarding the defective area are recorded in the replacement area. Accordingly, it is possible to restore defect information even if recording medium defect management on the recording medium ended abnormally. |
| US07876654B2 |
Optical disk drive control circuit
An IC provided in an optical disk device having an objective lens and a pickup for a disk. The IC has a circuit for holding a signal which drives the objective lens in a focus or tracking direction and for detecting the moving direction of the objective lens, and a circuit for generating a signal which applies an acceleration to the objective lens. When the objective lens passes through a defect on the disk, on the basis of the detected moving direction of the objective lens, the IC applies the acceleration alternately in plus and minus directions to the objective lens to make the objective lens stationary. As a result, after the defect passage, the objective lens can be quickly returned to a focused point or an on-track position and reproducing/recording operation can be resumed. |
| US07876647B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method, program and recording medium
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, a program, and a recording medium that facilitate, for example, identification of information recorded on an recording medium. In a disc formatting process 211, a disc-metadata-file creating unit 181 creates a disc-metadata file including various types of label information, using a PROAV-ID copying unit 192 and a representative-image setting unit 194. Furthermore, in a disc-metadata updating process 212, a disc-metadata-file managing unit 182 updates the disc-metadata file, for example, using the representative-image setting unit 194. A disc-metadata-file recording controller 183 executes a process of comparing PROAV IDs using a PROAV-ID comparing unit 193, and records the disc-metadata file on a disc 132 when the PROAV IDs match. The present invention can be applied to an editing apparatus. |
| US07876642B2 |
Seismic data acquisition and source-side derivatives generation and application
The technologies described herein include systems and methods for encoding/decoding seismic sources and responses, generating and using of source-side derivatives while also generating and using the conventional source response. Sources in an array may be encoded such that activation of each source in the array constitutes a single spike in a sequence orthogonal to another sequence emitted by another source. The responses to these different sources that are in close spatial proximity can be decoded and separated. Source-side derivatives may be calculated and utilized in various applications in combination with the monopole response from the source location, including source-side deghosting, spatial (horizontal and vertical) interpolation and imaging. |
| US07876638B2 |
Storing operational information in an array of memory cells
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, modules, and systems for storing operational information in an array of memory cells. One method embodiment includes storing data units of operational information in memory cells of at least one row of a first block of memory cells. The method also includes using a column scramble to shift the order of the data units. The method includes storing the data units in memory cells of at least one row of a second block of memory cells, wherein an order of the data units stored in the at least one row of the second block is different than an order of the data units stored in memory cells of the at least one row of the first block. |
| US07876631B2 |
Self-tuning of signal path delay in circuit employing multiple voltage domains
Circuits and methods provided in multiple voltage domains that include self-tuning or timing of a signal path are disclosed. A plurality of paths is provided in the circuit. Each path traverses a portion of the multiple voltage domains, which may include any number or combination of the multiple voltage domains. Each of the paths has a delay responsive to at least one of the plurality of voltage domains. A delay circuit is provided and configured to generate a delay output related to the delay in the plurality of paths. In this manner, the delay output of the delay circuit is self-tuned or adjusted according to the delay in the plurality of paths. This self-tuning may be particularly suited to control the delay of a first signal path relative to a second signal path wherein the delay in the paths can vary with respect to each other during operation. |
| US07876630B1 |
Postamble timing for DDR memories
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that isolate an input register from spurious transitions on a DQS signal. One example receives an enable signal from a core. A logic circuit, which may be referred to as a one-half period circuit, shortens enable pulses at their front end by one-half a period. The shortened enable signal is passed to a storage element such as a register. Active pulses of the shortened enable signal clear the register, which provides a control signal closing a switch, such as an AND gate. The switch passes the DQS signal to the input register when closed and isolates the input register from the DQS signal when open. The shortened enable signal prevents the switch from opening early and passing spurious transitions on the DQS signal, for example during back-to-back non-consecutive read cycles. |
| US07876629B2 |
Memory control methods capable of dynamically adjusting sampling points, and related circuits
A memory control method for adjusting sampling points utilized by a memory control circuit receiving a data signal and an original data strobe signal of a memory includes: utilizing at least one delay unit to provide a plurality of sampling points according to the original data strobe signal; sampling according to the data signal by utilizing the plurality of sampling points; and analyzing sampling results to dynamically determine a delay amount for delaying the original data strobe signal, whereby a sampling point corresponding to the delayed data strobe signal is kept centered at data carried by the data signal. |
| US07876628B2 |
Data output circuit
A data output circuit of a semiconductor memory apparatus includes: a control unit that outputs a first standby instruction signal, a second standby instruction signal, a first output instruction signal, and a second output instruction signal in response to an input of a standby instruction signal, an output instruction signal, a first test signal, and a second test signal; a first output driver that causes first data to be output or to enter a standby state according to whether or not the first standby instruction signal or the first output instruction signal is enabled; and a second output driver that causes second data to be output or to enter a standby state according to whether or not the second standby instruction signal or the second output instruction signal is enabled. |
| US07876627B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having a sense amplifier circuit with decreased offset
A semiconductor memory device having high integration, low power consumption and high operation speed. The memory device includes a sense amplifier circuit having plural pull-down circuits and a pull-up circuit. A transistor constituting one of the plural pull-down circuits has a larger constant than that of a transistor constituting the other pull-down circuits, for example, a channel length and a channel width. The pull-down circuit having the larger constant transistor is activated earlier than the other pull-down circuits and the pull-up circuit, which are activated to conduct reading. The data line and the earlier driven pull-down circuit are connected by an NMOS transistor and the NMOS transistor is activated or inactivated to control the activation or inactivation of the pull-down circuit. |
| US07876626B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and semiconductor memory system
A semiconductor memory device comprises a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells arranged at intersections of word lines and bit lines; a read/write circuit operative to execute data read/write to the memory cell; and an operational circuit operative to compare certain length data read out by the read/write circuit from plural ones of the memory cells with certain length data to be written in the plural memory cells to make a decision, and create a flag representing the decision result. The read/write circuit inverts each bit in the certain length data to be written in the memory cells in accordance with the flag, and writes only rewrite-intended data of the certain length data and the flag. The read/write circuit reads the certain length data together with the flag corresponding thereto, and inverts each bit in the certain length data in accordance with the flag. |
| US07876625B2 |
Semiconductor memory device comprising a plurality of static memory cells
A driver power supply circuit stepping down a power supply voltage is arranged at a power supply node of a word line driver. The driver power supply circuit includes a non-silicide resistance element of N+ doped polycrystalline silicon, and a pull-down circuit lowering a voltage level of the driver power supply node. The pull-down circuit includes a pull-down transistor having the same threshold voltage characteristics as a memory cell transistor pulling down a voltage level of the driver power supply node, and a gate control circuit adjusting at least a gate voltage of the pull-down transistor. The gate control circuit corrects the gate potential of the pull-down transistor in a manner linked to variations in threshold voltage of the memory cell transistor. |
| US07876624B2 |
Data input circuit and semiconductor memory device including the same
A semiconductor memory device capable of reducing a whole area thereof includes a plurality of data input circuits configured to reflect inversion information on data inputted thereto, a plurality of global lines for transferring data outputted from the plurality of data input circuits, and a plurality of memory banks for storing data transferred from the plurality of global lines. |
| US07876623B2 |
Program method with optimized voltage level for flash memory
A non-volatile memory device and programming process is described that increases the programming voltage of successive programming cycles in relation to the percentage of the data bits that failed programming verification during the previous programming cycle and were not correctly programmed into the memory array. This allows for a faster on average program operation and a more accurate match of the subsequent increase in the programming voltage to the non-volatile memory device, the specific region or row being programmed and any changes due to device wear. In one embodiment of the present invention the manufacturing process/design and/or specific memory device is characterized by generating a failed bit percentage to programming voltage increase profile to set the desired programming voltage delta/increase. In another embodiment of the present invention, methods and apparatus are related for the programming of data into non-volatile memory devices and, in particular, NAND and NOR architecture Flash memory. |
| US07876620B2 |
Read disturb mitigation in non-volatile memory
Read disturb is reduced in non-volatile storage. In one aspect, when a read command is received from a host for reading a selected word line, a word line which is not selected for reading is randomly chosen and its storage elements are sensed to determine optimized read compare levels for reading the selected word line. Or, a refresh operation may be indicated for the entire block based on an error correction metric obtained in reading the storage elements of the chosen word line. This is useful especially when the selected word line is repeatedly selected for reading, exposing the other word lines to additional read disturb. In another aspect, when multiple data states are stored, one read compare level is obtained from sensing, e.g., from a threshold voltage distribution, and other read compare levels are derived from a formula. |
| US07876617B2 |
Apparatus and method for providing power in semiconductor memory device
An apparatus for applying power in a semiconductor memory device includes a first power pin for receiving a first power at a first voltage from an external device, a second power pin for receiving a second power at the first voltage, a memory array block connected to the first power pin, the memory array block writing input data, outputting read data, and refreshing regularly to sustain stored data, a peripheral logic block connected to the first power pin for receiving the first power and communicating with the memory array block to perform data write and read operations, a data output driver connected to the second power pin and driving a data output pin, and a switch for electrically connecting the first power pin and the second power pin by performing a switching operation during a refresh operation of the memory array block. |
| US07876612B2 |
Method for reducing leakage current of a memory and related device
A method for reducing leakage current of a memory device includes supplying a first voltage to a main wordline driver, supplying a second voltage greater than the first voltage to a local wordline driver, and employing a transistor in the local wordline driver with a threshold voltage greater than a specific value. |
| US07876610B2 |
Memory cell array with specific placement of field stoppers
A plurality of first transistors formed on a substrate share a gate electrode. Isolation regions isolate the plurality of first transistors from one another. In the region where the plurality of first transistors, an impurity region is formed in such a manner that it includes the source and drain regions of the plurality of first transistors and that the depth of the impurity region is greater than the depth of the source and drain regions. The impurity region sets the threshold voltage of the first transistors. |
| US07876609B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device and related methods of operation
In a nonvolatile memory device, a program operation is performed on a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells by programming data having a first logic state in a first group among a plurality of selected memory cells selected from the plurality of nonvolatile memory cells during a first program interval of the program operation, and thereafter, programming data having a second logic state different from the first logic state in a second group among the selected memory cells during a second program interval of the program operation after the first program interval. |
| US07876608B2 |
Method for programming a multilevel phase change memory device
A method of programming a phase change device includes selecting a desired threshold voltage (Vth) and applying a programming pulse to a phase change material in the phase change device. The applying of the programming pulse includes applying a quantity of energy to the phase change material to drive at least a portion of this material above a melting energy level. A portion of the energy applied to the phase change material is allowed to dissipate below the melting energy level. The shape of the energy dissipation from the phase change material is controlled until the energy applied to the phase change material is less than a quenched energy level, to cause the phase change device to have the desired Vth. A remaining portion of the energy applied to the phase change material is allowed to dissipate to an environmental level. |
| US07876606B2 |
Integrated circuit for programming a memory cell
An integrated circuit includes an array of resistance changing memory cells. The array includes a first portion. The integrated circuit includes a circuit configured to apply a set pulse having a first pulse width to a first memory cell in the first portion to set the first memory cell. The first pulse width is based on a predetermined error percentage for the first portion. |
| US07876602B2 |
Single-event upset immune static random access memory cell circuit, system, and method
A circuit and method are provided in which a six-transistor (6-T) SRAM memory cell is hardened to single-event upsets by adding isolation-field effect transistors (“iso-fets”) connected between the reference voltage Vdd and the field-effect transistors (“fets”) respectively corresponding to first and second inverters of the memory cell. According to certain embodiments, the control gates of first and second P-iso-fets are respectively tied to the control gates of first and second pull-up P-fets. According to certain embodiments, first and second N-iso-fets are connected between the output nodes of the memory cell and the pull-down N-fets respectively corresponding to the first and second inverters. The control gates of the first and second N-iso-fets are respectively tied to the control gates of the first and second pull-down N-fets. Again according to certain embodiments, one or more of the iso-fets are physically removed from the proximity of other transistors which comprise the memory cell. |
| US07876597B2 |
NAND-structured series variable-resistance material memories, processes of forming same, and methods of using same
A variable-resistance material memory array includes a series of variable-resistance material memory cells. The series of variable-resistance material memory cells is in parallel with a corresponding series of control gates. A select gate is also in series with the variable-resistance material memory cells. Writing/reading/erasing to a given variable-resistance material memory cell includes turning off the corresponding control gate, while turning on all other control gates. Devices include the variable-resistance material memory array. |
| US07876596B2 |
Memory element and method for manufacturing same
A novel nonvolatile memory element, which can be manufactured by a simple and high yield process by using an organic material and has a high on/off ratio, and a method for manufacturing such nonvolatile memory element. A switching layer (14) made of an electrical insulating radical polymer is provided between an anode layer (12) and a cathode layer (16). Further, a hole injection transport layer (13) is provided between the switching layer (14) and the anode layer (12), and an electron injection transport layer (15), between the switching layer (14) and the cathode layer (16). An intermediate layer is provided between the switching layer and the adjacent layer. The radical polymer is preferably nitroxide radical polymer. The switching layer (14), the hole injection transport layer (13) and the electron injection transport layer (15) are formed by being stacked by a wet process. |
| US07876593B2 |
LED chip package structure with an embedded ESD function and method for manufacturing the same
An LED chip package structure includes a conductive unit, a first package unit, an ESD unit, a second package unit, a light-emitting unit and a second package unit. The conductive unit has two conductive pins adjacent to each other which form a concave space between each other. The first package unit encloses one part of each conductive pin in order to form a receiving space communicating with the concave space and to expose an end side of each conductive pin. The ESD unit is received in the concave space and electrically connected between the two conductive pins. The second package unit is received in the concave space in order to cover the ESD unit. The light-emitting unit is received in the receiving space and electrically connected between the two conductive pins. The third package unit is received in the receiving space in order to cover the light-emitting unit. |
| US07876592B2 |
System and method for supporting standard and voltage optimized DIMMs
A device includes a dynamic random access memory and a voltage regulator. The dynamic random access memory has a first input terminal connected to a first plurality of dual in-line memory module voltage pins, and a second input terminal. The dynamic random access memory is configured to receive a first voltage on the first input terminal. The voltage regulator has an input terminal connected to a second plurality of dual in-line memory module voltage pins, and an output terminal connected to the second input terminal of the dynamic random access memory. The voltage regulator is adapted to receive a second voltage, and configured to provide a third voltage to the second input terminal of the dynamic random access memory. |
| US07876589B2 |
Semiconductor circuit device and data processing system
Occurrence of power supply noise arising in connection with a step-down action at the time of turning on power supply is to be restrained. A step-down unit is provided with a switched capacitor type step-down circuit and a series regulator type step-down circuit, and stepped-down voltage output terminals of the step-down circuits are connected in common. The common connection of the stepped-down voltage output terminals of both step-down circuits makes possible parallel driving of both, selective driving of either or consecutive driving of the two. In the consecutive driving, even if the switched capacitor type step-down circuit is driven after driving the series regulator type step-down circuit first to supply a stepped-down voltage to loads, the switched capacitor type step-down circuit will need only to be compensated for a discharge due to the loads, and a peak of a charge current for capacitors can be kept low. When operation of the switched capacitor type step-down circuit is started, no large rush current arises, and occurrence of noise is restrained. |
| US07876585B2 |
Voltage providing circuit and related method thereof
A voltage providing circuit for generating an output voltage, which includes: a plurality of oscillating circuits, for providing clock signals with different frequencies; a detection circuit, for generating a detection result according to a reference voltage and the output voltage; a selecting unit, coupled to the oscillating circuits and the detection circuit, for selecting one of the clock signals according to the detection result; and a charge pump circuit, for controlling a charge pump according to the clock signal selected by the selecting unit to generate the output voltage. |
| US07876580B2 |
Rotating cable strain relief
Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for a cable strain relief. One embodiment includes a cable strain relief having a body for supporting cables connected to a computer. A bracket and arm connect to the body so the body can rotate to plural different locked positions. |
| US07876578B2 |
Insertion slot shielding mechanism for an electronic device
An insertion slot shielding mechanism for an electronic device is used to shield an insertion slot provided in an opening of a casing of an electronic device. The insertion slot shielding mechanism includes a shielding means and an elastic pushing piece. The shielding means corresponds to the opening and is slidably connected to the opening of the casing. One end of the elastic pushing piece is connected to a side wall within the electronic device corresponding to the opening of the casing, and the other end thereof is kept to abut against the shielding means. The elastic force of the elastic pushing piece allows the shielding means to be located in a position to shield the opening of the casing. |
| US07876577B2 |
System for attaching electronic components to molded interconnection devices
A system for connecting electrical devices to one another is provided. This system includes a horizontal or non-horizontal substrate and an anchor connected to or formed integrally with the substrate. The anchor is either a raised structure or a recessed structure, and further includes at least one retention member formed integrally with the anchor. At least one electronic component is mounted within the anchor and the at least one retention member secures the component to the substrate. At least one electrical trace is disposed on the substrate and the at least one electrical trace extends into the anchor, contacts the at least one electronic component, and forms an electrical connection between the substrate and the at least one electronic component. |
| US07876575B2 |
Substrate housing container
The present invention includes a ceiling portion 8, bottom portion 9, a substrate housing portion 3 formed by a side walls 5 to 7, a plurality of wafer slots 11 arrayed in parallel on the inner surface of the side walls 6 and 7, a slit portion 12 formed in an extended manner along the array direction of the wafer slots 11 on each of a second side wall 6 and a third side wall 7, a slide portion 18 movably arrayed along each of the slit portions 12, a plurality of substrate securing pieces arrayed with substantially the same intervals with the intervals of the wafer slots 11 on the inner surface of the slide portion 18, in which, with the slide portion being in a substrate securing position, the substrate housing pieces press and secure the substrate on the wafer slot 11, and in a substrate securing releasing position, the substrate housing pieces move separately from a circumferential portion of the substrate and releases a securing state of the substrate. In accordance with the present invention, it is possible to provide a substrate housing container which is able to hold the wafer in a predetermined position even in a case in which the substrate housing container is moved in which a lid body is released. |
| US07876573B2 |
Stacked mounting structure
A stacked mounting structure includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and an intermediate substrate which has a space accommodating therein components to be mounted. A first contact (connecting) terminal and a second contact (connecting) terminal are formed on the first substrate and the second substrate, and have a wire which is formed on a side surface of the intermediate substrate. By formation of the intermediate substrate to be on an inner side than an edge surface of the substrates, a part of the two contact terminals respectively are exposed. One end of the wire is connected to an exposed portion of the first contact terminal, and the other end of the wire is connected to an exposed portion of the second contact terminal. |
| US07876568B2 |
Electronic device
The electronic device has: a housing having an opening; a lid attached to the housing to cover the opening; a first substrate fixed in the housing; and a second substrate that has a first electronic component mounted on a first surface thereof, a first component mounting part on the first surface on which a second electronic component is removably mounted, and a third electronic component mounted on a second surface thereof and is fixed in the housing with the first surface facing the opening and the first component mounting part exposed in the opening. |
| US07876564B2 |
Method and apparatus for cooling computer memory
A method and apparatus for cooling chips on a computer memory module. The apparatus includes a primary and secondary heat spreaders, at least a first heatpipe coupled to the primary heat spreader and having a remote portion spaced apart from the primary heat spreader and thermally contacting the secondary heat spreader, and a coolant within the first heatpipe and the primary heat spreader so as to absorb heat from the primary heat spreader and conduct the heat to the secondary heat spreader. The primary heat spreader has at least two panels configured to engage the memory module therebetween, with facing contact surfaces of the panels adapted for thermal contact with the module chips. The secondary heat spreader is configured to increase surface dissipation of heat from the first heatpipe into the environment. The coolant has a boiling point at or below a maximum preselected operating temperature of the module chips. |
| US07876561B2 |
Cooling systems for variable speed drives and inductors
A plastic liquid cooled variable speed drive or inductor provided. The cooler provides lightweight, space conservative, corrosive free cooling to the components as well as provides a mounting area for modules. A cooler can be mounted to the core of an inductor to absorb heat generated by the core losses. |
| US07876557B2 |
Disk array device
A disk array device comprises: a hard disk drive module including a disk for recording information thereon and having one side that has a length substantially equal to the diameter of the disk; a battery nodule; an operation module; a fan module having at least one cooling fan; a controller module having a controller; a power supply module provided for supplying power to the modules; a circuit board to which the above-mentioned modules are connected via electrical connectors; and a substantially box-shaped chassis in which the modules and the circuit board are housed. A front surface and a rear surface of the chassis are opened in a rectangular shape. A length of one side of the opened front surface of the chassis is substantially the same length as the one side of the hard disk drive module. |
| US07876552B2 |
Support structure for display device and display device using same
A support structure for supporting a display panel includes a rotatable base, a first supporting assembly, a second supporting assembly, and a connecting portion. The first supporting assembly includes a first sleeve and a first connector moveably coupled to the first sleeve along a first direction. The first sleeve is fixed to the rotatable base. The second supporting assembly includes a second sleeve and a second connector moveably coupled to the second sleeve along a second direction. The second direction is perpendicular to the first direction. The second connector is slidably coupled to the display panel along a third direction. The third direction is perpendicular to a plane cooperatively defined by the first direction and the second direction. The connecting portion fixedly connects the first connector to the second sleeve. A display panel using the support structure is also provided. |
| US07876551B2 |
Hinge assembly and computer housing using the same
A hinge assembly includes a base, a rotating member, and a connecting member connecting the base to the rotating member. The connecting member is slidably positioned on the base. The rotating member is rotatably positioned on the connecting member. The rotating member relative to the connecting member is able to move to be on an outer side of the base with sliding movement of the connecting member relative to the base. |
| US07876550B1 |
Transparent cover with access to multi-way navigation assembly
A cover for an electronic device made of a transparent material and having a form factor that protects function buttons of the device from inadvertent actuation. The cover has an opening of a size, shape and location to afford access to an interface device for multi-way navigation with the cover in place. Protrusions in tabs at the sides of the cover snap into cutouts located midway along the side of the electronic device and may be used to hold the cover in place. The cover may be stored on the back of the device while the device is in use. The transparent nature of the cover affords viewing of a display screen with the cover in place. |
| US07876548B2 |
Niobium solid electrolytic capacitor and its production method
Disclosed are a niobium solid electrolytic capacitor capable of reducing leak current that may occur in high heat treatment in a reflow process and capable of preserving the capacity before and after heat treatment, and a method for producing it. The niobium solid electrolytic capacitor comprises an anode containing an oxide of niobium monoxide or niobium dioxide and a metal of niobium or a niobium alloy, a dielectric layer formed on the surface of the anode, and a cathode formed on the dielectric layer, wherein the dielectric layer contains fluorine. |
| US07876546B2 |
Component module for a reduced pressure treatment system
A connectable component module for a reduced pressure treatment system is provided. The module includes a housing with a rim, a recessed end surface, and an extension. A mounting assembly is fixed to the recessed end surface and includes extendable latches. The latches include a fastener bar that is flush with the rim when the latches are not extended. The module also generally includes a control system contained within the housing. The control system has a communication controller, a communication plug coupled to the communication controller and protruding through an aperture in the mounting assembly and recessed end, and a communication port coupled to the communication controller and exposed to an aperture in the extension. |
| US07876543B2 |
Gas discharge lamp power supply
A gas discharge lamp power supply having a base, a pair of opposed side walls extending from the base, and opposed first and second end walls extending from the base between the opposed side walls. The first end wall has a sloped wall extending angularly between the side walls, and two input terminals are mounted on the sloped wall. In another embodiment, the power supply has a control with a nonvolatile memory for storing an error code in response to a detected fault condition, thereby permitting the error code to be displayed upon power being removed from and then, subsequently reapplied. |
| US07876542B2 |
Generator for gas turbine engine having DC bus fault short circuit control using a battery
An aircraft electrical system comprises a generator to be driven as part of a gas turbine engine. The generator supplies electrical power to a plurality of accessories associated with the gas turbine engine, and to an aircraft DC bus in parallel to the supply to the accessories. A battery supplies voltage to a control circuit for the generator through a selectively opened and closed switch. A control detects a short circuit on the aircraft DC bus. The battery switch allows power from the battery to flow to provide control voltage for the generator when the control detects a short circuit on the aircraft DC bus. |
| US07876539B2 |
Electrical apparatus with current dampening device
Various electrical apparatuses which include a current dampening device are disclosed. In one embodiment, an electrical apparatus is provided which includes a motor and a switch having an “on” position and an “off” position to control the operation of the motor. A current dampening device is connected in parallel with the motor downstream from the switch to dampen transient current. In another embodiment a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) is electrically connected to the motor upstream from the switch. |
| US07876534B2 |
Magneto-resistive effect device of the CPP type, and magnetic disk system
A magnetoresistive device comprising a magnetoresistive unit, an upper shield layer and a lower shield layer stacked such that the magnetoresistive unit is held between them. The magnetoresistive unit comprises a nonmagnetic metal intermediate layer, a first ferromagnetic layer and a second ferromagnetic layer stacked with the nonmagnetic metal intermediate layer in the middle. When no bias magnetic field is applied, the first and second ferromagnetic layers have mutually antiparallel magnetizations. The magnetoresistive unit further comprises first and second side shield layers, and first and second biasing layers located to be magnetically coupled to the first and second side shield layers, wherein magnetic fluxes fed from the bias magnetic fields pass through the first and second side shield layers positioned in proximity to the magnetoresistive unit such that the magnetizations of the first and second ferromagnetic layers become substantially orthogonal to each other. |
| US07876527B2 |
Magnetic disk device
Embodiments in accordance with the present invention improve bonding reliability in a feedthrough sealing portion. According to one embodiment of the present invention, an opening of a through hole is provided on the bottom of the base of the magnetic disk device and a feedthrough mounting plane which is one of the steps formed toward the outside of the device is provided around the opening. The feedthrough includes a flange and pins which are fixed to the flange by a glass material and pass an electric signal. The flange is larger in outer shape than the opening of the base. The periphery of the flange of the feedthrough is mounted on the feedthrough mounting plane of the base from the outside and bonded thereto by solder. |
| US07876526B2 |
Fill-port assembly with reflowed seal member
A fill-port sealing assembly for sealing a housing, such as a hermetically sealed housing of a data storage device. A fill port body extends through an opening in a substrate and has a central bore communicating between a first side and a second side of the substrate. A compression member threadingly engages the central bore to compress an annular seal member and seal against passage of a low density gas through the central bore. |
| US07876523B1 |
Disk drive initializing position feedforward compensation with velocity feedforward compensation
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk comprising a plurality of spiral tracks, wherein each spiral track comprises a high frequency signal interrupted by a sync mark at a sync mark interval. The head is positioned over the disk and used to read the spiral tracks to detect a plurality of spiral-to-spiral times each representing a time between consecutive spiral crossings. A velocity of the head is estimated in response to the spiral-to-spiral times, and velocity feedforward compensation values are generated from the estimated head velocity. A control signal is generated to position the head over the disk in response to the velocity feedforward compensation values. When the detected spiral-to-spiral times are substantially constant, position feedforward compensation values are initialized in response to the velocity feedforward compensation values. |
| US07876521B2 |
Servo control in tape drives
Servo control methods and apparatus for a tape drive. A read/write head reads and writes data on magnetic tape with at least one servo track providing transverse position information. At least two servo readers arranged for reading a servo track associated with the read/write head operate concurrently to generate servo read signals. A position estimator processes each servo read signal to generate a series of position values corresponding to respective time instants indicative of their transverse positions. A servo controller calculates a skew value indicative of tape skew relative to the read/write head and a tension variation value indicative of variation of tape tension. The servo controller is adapted to account for cross-coupling between tape skew and tension variation. |
| US07876520B1 |
Programmable high pass amplifier for perpendicular recording systems
A system comprises a read element, a first differential amplifier, and a second differential amplifier including inputs that communicate with outputs of the first differential amplifier. First and second resistances communicate with the inputs of the first differential amplifier, respectively, and communicate with the outputs of the first differential amplifier, respectively. First and second capacitances communicate with the inputs of the first differential amplifier, respectively. Third and fourth resistances communicate with the first and second capacitances and with the magneto-resistive read element, respectively, and communicate with the outputs of the second differential amplifier, respectively. |
| US07876519B2 |
Self-spinning disk bulk erasure for hard disk assembly
A method for erasing a disk of a hard disk drive. The method includes moving the hard disk drive adjacent to an erasure head that emanates a magnetic field. The magnetic field and moving hard disk drive cause a disk of the hard disk drive to spin under a Lorentz force created by the magnetic field and moving disk. The magnetic field is applied by the erasure head for a duration that causes erasure of the entire disk. The spindle motor is not activated during the entire process. Not activating the spindle motor eliminates any Faraday coupling from the erasure head into the motor. |
| US07876514B2 |
Lens barrel
A lens barrel has an elastically deformable moving frame which is a cylindrical frame member having a first groove group, in which a plurality of grooves formed in the circumferential direction are arranged in the optical axis direction, at the outer periphery thereof, and an elastically deformable rotating frame which is a cylindrical frame member engaging with the outer periphery of the moving frame and having a second groove group, in which a plurality of grooves formed in the circumferential direction are arranged in the optical axis direction so as to face to the first groove group, at the inner periphery thereof, the rotating frame being movable relative to the moving frame without interference of the second groove group with the first groove group during the ordinary operation. |
| US07876513B2 |
Camera module and method for manufacturing the same
The camera module comprises: an insulating substrate 13 having an imaging device 18 on a front face thereof and a plurality of solder balls 21 on a rear face thereof; a cylindrical lens holder 14 securely fixed on the substrate 13, composed of an upper large-diameter portion 14-1 and a lower small-diameter portion 14-2 and having a lens 15 therein; a cylindrical shield 12 fitted onto the small-diameter portion 14-2 of the lens holder and composed of a cylindrical side portion 12-2 fixed on the large-diameter portion 14-1 of the lens holder and a plate-shaped bottom portion 12-1 in contact with the rear face of the insulating substrate 13 and having an opening 12-1a for conduction; and a mounting board 11 connected with the insulating substrate 13 by the plurality of solder balls 21 formed on the rear face of the insulating substrate 13. |
| US07876508B2 |
Lens drive unit, lens barrel, and image forming device
A lens drive unit is configured to move a lens holding frame to a desired position by the engagement between a cam groove of a rotary cylinder and a cam follower of the lens holding frame. The lens drive unit includes a second linearly-moving guide cylinder arranged between the lens holding frame and a first linearly-moving guide cylinder. The second linearly-moving guide cylinder can be moved in the optical a direction with rotation of the rotary cylinder by the engagement of a cam follower of the second linearly-moving guide cylinder with a second cam groove of the rotary cylinder. The lens holding frame is guided in the optical axis direction by the second linearly-moving guide cylinder and moved in the optical axis direction with rotation of the rotary cylinder by the engagement of a cam follower of the lens holding frame with a first cam groove of the rotary cylinder. |
| US07876507B2 |
Zoom lens
A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit of negative refractive power, a second lens unit of positive refractive power, and a third lens unit of positive refractive power. The zoom lens changes the distances between the lens units during zooming. The following condition is satisfied: 0.3<|f1 |/fT<0.5, where f1 is a focal length of the first lens unit, and fT is a focal length of the zoom lens at a telephoto end. |
| US07876506B2 |
Electro-wetting display device
An exemplary electro-wetting display (EWD) device includes a plurality of sub-pixel units. Each sub-pixel unit defines two opposite long sides and two opposite short sides. Each sub-pixel unit includes a first substrate, a second substrate facing toward the first substrate, a conductive first liquid and a polar second sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate, and an electrode. The first and second liquids are immiscible. The electrode is disposed at a surface of the second substrate facing the first liquid. The electrode defines an opening. A length of the opening as measured parallel to the nearest short side is not less than 0.8 times a length of the nearest short side. |
| US07876505B1 |
Objective lens simultaneously optimized for pupil ghosting, wavefront delivery and pupil imaging
An objective lens includes multiple optical elements disposed between a first end and a second end, each optical element oriented along an optical axis. Each optical surface of the multiple optical elements provides an angle of incidence to a marginal ray that is above a minimum threshold angle. This threshold angle minimizes pupil ghosts that may enter an interferometer. The objective lens also optimizes wavefront delivery and pupil imaging onto an optical surface under test. |
| US07876504B2 |
Optical die with variable refractive index, adaptive of angle of incidence, and method of fabricating such a die
An optical die, which is intended to be placed in front of an optical sensor of a semiconductor component, has an optically useful zone having an optical axis and exhibiting a variable refractive index. Specifically the refractive index of the die is variable in an annular peripheral zone lying between a radius Ru enveloping the useful zone and a smaller radius Ro. The index is varies as a function of radial distance from a higher value near the smaller radius Ro to a lower value near the radius Ru. The function of the variable refractive index lies between a maximum and minimum profile. |
| US07876503B2 |
Broadband asymmetric mirrors
An asymmetric mirror is composed of a dielectric substrate [500] and a coating [502] on the dielectric substrate. Within an operational wavelength range Δλ, the mirror has a transmission symmetry ΔT=0% and a reflection asymmetry ΔR>10%, where the reflection asymmetry ΔR varies by less than 5% within the operational wavelength range Δλ. In addition, the wavelength range Δλ is substantially broad, i.e., satisfies Δλ/λmax>10%. The coating [502] is a metamaterial having structural features smaller than the smallest operational wavelength, e.g., a nano-structured metamaterial such as a photonic crystal or a disordered nano-composite of a metal and a dielectric. In a preferred embodiment, the coating [502] is semi-continuous with a filling factor p between 70% and 75%. The dielectric may be, for example, air, vacuum, an electro-optic polymer, an optical gain material, an electro-active material, or a semiconductor. |
| US07876502B2 |
Optical film, polarizing plate and liquid crystal display
An optical film is provided and includes a transparent polymer film. The optical film has at least an A1 value defined by Re (450)/Re (550) of from 0.10 to 0.95 and A2 value defined by Re (650)/Re (550) of from 1.01 to 1.50. Re (λ) represents the retardation value of the film with respect to light having a wavelength of λ nm; and Rth (λ) is the retardation value in the thickness direction of film with respect to light having a wavelength of λ nm. |
| US07876501B2 |
Optical sight having an unpowered reticle illumination source
An optical sight includes an optical train having an optical path therethrough, an entrance, and an exit. A reticle is visible through the exit of the optical path. An unpowered reticle illumination source has a first light source that illuminates the reticle responsive to the level of ambient light, and a second light source that illuminates the reticle with an unpowered light source. The reticle illumination source preferably has a light filter positioned so that ambient light entering the ambient-light receiver is incident upon the light filter, whereupon the light filter transmits filtered light, a light-gathering prism that receives the filtered light and has a diffusing surface disposed to illuminate the reticle using the filtered light, and an unpowered light source positioned to emit light through the diffusing surface to be incident upon the reticle. The unpowered light source may be a tritium light source. |
| US07876500B2 |
Microscope apparatus and microscope system
It is possible to check for observation success or failure and the observation history without waiting for observation to be completely finished, thus saving time and energy required for observation, and avoiding lost opportunities for observation of precious samples etc. Provided is a microscope apparatus including an image acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of frame images while varying a plurality of parameters; an image saving unit for successively saving the frame images acquired by the image acquisition unit; a property-information saving unit for saving property information in which identifying information of the saved frame images is associated with the parameters; and a control unit for controlling these units, wherein the control unit saves updated property information in the property-information saving unit each time the frame image is saved in the image saving unit. |
| US07876499B1 |
Objective lens
An objective lens and a method for using same. The objective lens has a first end, a second end, and a plurality of optical elements. The optical elements are positioned between the first end and the second end and are at least substantially symmetric about a plane centered between the first end and the second end. |
| US07876498B1 |
Pulse-energy-stabilization approach and first-pulse-suppression method using fiber amplifier
In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus and process wherein excess stored optical energy is removed from one or more stages in a fiber-amplifier, in order to stabilize the gain and obtain a constant level of energy per pulse. In some embodiments, a method of the invention includes providing a gain fiber, optically pumping the gain fiber using pump light, amplifying seed-signal pulses having a signal wavelength using the gain fiber to obtain amplified output pulses, and automatically limiting a gain of the gain fiber. In some embodiments, an apparatus of the invention includes a gain fiber, a source of pump light coupled to the gain fiber, a source of seed-signal pulses having a signal wavelength coupled to the gain fiber, wherein the gain fiber outputs amplified signal pulses, and an automatic-gain-control mechanism configured to limit gain of the gain fiber. |
| US07876488B2 |
Mirror device having vertical hinge
The present invention provides a mirror device, comprising: a substrate; a mirror disposed approximately in parallel to the substrate above the substrate; and a hinge supported on and extended approximately perpendicularly from the substrate for supporting the mirror, wherein the hinge is connected to the mirror with a first edge part of the hinge buried in the mirror. |
| US07876487B2 |
Optical beam scanning device and image forming apparatus provided with the same
A technique is provided which can improve optical characteristics by suppressing the occurrence of an error in attachment of a rotary deflector that deflects a light flux from a light source and scans it in a main scanning direction. There are provided a rotary deflector that deflects the light flux from the light source and scans it in the main scanning direction, an imaging optical system that images the light flux scanned by the rotary deflector onto a specified scanning object, a support part that supports the rotary deflector rotatably, and a positioning part that comes in contact with the support part at plural contact positions and positions the support part, in which a shortest distance between the plural contact positions in an optical axis direction of the imaging optical system is longer than a shortest distance between the plural contact positions in the main scanning direction. |
| US07876482B2 |
Method for wavelength mismatch compensation in a holographic storage system
A method for compensating for a wavelength mismatch between a readout reference beam and a recording reference beam in a holographic storage system is described. In order to compensate for a wavelength mismatch in a first step the wavelength mismatch is determined. In a second step the direction of at least part of the readout reference beam is adjusted relative to a holographic storage medium in dependence on the determined wavelength mismatch by defocusing the readout reference beam or by adjusting the focal length of an objective lens for focusing the readout reference beam into the holographic storage medium. |
| US07876480B2 |
Apparatus, method, and computer program for processing information
An information processing apparatus includes a selector for selecting removal information concerning contents to be removed, the removal information prepared on a per content basis for the contents to be removed and including a value uniquely determined from data within a data range of whole or part of a content to be removed, a first range that is the data range, and a second range that is a removal range represented by the position of the first range, a detector for detecting a range at a predetermined position within the whole content, having the same range as the first range contained in the removal information selected by the selector and the same value as the value uniquely determined and contained in the removal information, and a remover for removing a predetermined content based on the second range contained in the removal information selected by the selector if the detector detects the range at the predetermined position. |
| US07876479B2 |
Automatic document feeder and image forming apparatus having the same
An automatic document feeder of an image forming apparatus capable of improving a duplex scanning or printing (copying) efficiency includes a single scan path having a document admission passage to admit a document to a document scanning part and a document discharge passage to discharge the scanned document, a duplex scan path having a first document reversing and waiting passage diverged separately from the document discharge passage on the single scan path at the rear of the document scanning part to reverse the document, one surface of which is scanned, and admit the reversed document again to the document scanning part, and a document re-reversing path having a second document reversing and waiting passage diverged separately from the document discharge passage on the single scan path at the rear of the document scanning part to reverse the document, both surfaces of which are scanned, again and send the re-reversed document to the document discharge passage. |
| US07876475B2 |
Printer controller for a pagewidth printhead having halftoner and compositor unit
Provided is a printer controller for controlling a pagewidth printhead. The controller includes an interface for receiving an image having a bi-level black data layer compressed in an Edge Delta and Runlength (EDRL) compression format and a continuous tone (contone) CMYK data layer. Also included is an EDRL expander and a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) decoder unit for expanding the image by simultaneously decompressing the two data layers in parallel, as well as a halftoner and compositor unit for halftoning the contone CMYK data layer into bi-level CMYK data layer and compositing the bi-level black data layer over the bi-level CMYK data layer to form a composited bi-level CMYK image. The controller further includes a processor and memory arrangement configured to control the interface, the expander and decoder unit, and the halftoner and compositor unit, and further configured to transmit the composited bi-level CMYK image to a memory buffer of the pagewidth printer via a printhead interface. |
| US07876474B2 |
Image processing device capable of suppressing over-correction in Retinex process
A first lower-range generating portion generates a pixel value of an output image based on a first nonlinear function in a first lower range where a pixel value of a subject pixel is lower than a predetermine value. The first upper-range generating portion generates the pixel value of the output image based on a first monotonically increasing function in a first upper range where the pixel value of the subject pixel is greater than or equal to the predetermine value. The pixel value of the output image increases toward a first maximum output luminance value as the pixel value of the subject pixel increases. The first maximum output luminance value is greater than a luminance value obtained by correcting a maximum pixel value of the original image based on the first nonlinear function. The first maximum output luminance value is proximate to the maximum pixel value of the original image. |
| US07876473B2 |
Apparatus and method for information burying
A dot pattern including a set of plural dots arranged substantially periodically is formed. When positions of the plural dots are shifted dot by dot, a combination of an amount and a direction of shift of dot positions to be shifted is changed. A pattern obtained by repeating, for each predetermined period, a pattern processed in this way is superimposed on an image. Sizes of the respective dots are the same and only dot positions of the dots are shifted. Therefore, plural dot patterns having different amounts and directions of shift of dot positions visually look like uniform patterns and a sense of hindrance is low. |
| US07876472B2 |
Handheld printer and method of operation
A handheld portable printer includes a top member, a front member, a bottom member and a handle that are joined together to form a generally O-shaped device. The top member defines a hole through which a scroll dial protrudes and is adapted to support a retractable display on its top surface. The front member provides an area for storing consumables, a battery, and houses a projector to project an image on the print surface of the image to be printed. The bottom member houses optical sensors to detect and measure movement of the handheld printer; and a print head for outputting ink on the print surface. The handle provides additional buttons for inputting command to lock an image or begin printing, and in one embodiment housing electronics for control and projection of the image to be printed, providing user feedback, and communicating with other devices. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including: a method for printing an image with a handheld printer, a method for projecting an image to be printed, and a method for registering a location of a printer and portions of a printed image. |
| US07876470B2 |
Printing method, printing control apparatus, printing apparatus, and control method therefor
It is an object of this invention to provide a user-legible print result in consecutively printing a plurality of pages of images. To this end, it is checked whether there is continuity between data to be printed at the lower end portion of a page and data to be printed at the upper end portion of the next page. If there is continuity, a page break is inserted before the data at the lower end portion of the page, and an image of the data at the lower end portion is printed on the next page. Controlling a printing method in this manner makes it possible to prevent character split due to printing across pages and provide a user-legible print result. |
| US07876468B2 |
Line utilization in integrated document delivery method and apparatus
A document delivery network server having a set of integrated functions including sending, receiving, routing and filing of FAXes and e-mails to other users which achieves numerous advantages over the prior art. The document delivery system is based on a client/server model having both analog and digital Fax line capabilities. The server side provides very highly integrated systems functionality based on industry standard, commercially available hardware and a mix of industry standard and proprietary software components including integrated FAX/modem modules, an embedded OS, embedded plug-and-play driver sets, embedded e-mail gateways, an embedded FAX archive, embedded back-up/restore, proprietary high efficiency line utilization and highly efficient load balancing. |
| US07876464B2 |
Combined interface for specifying separate characteristics for multiple copies of an electronic document
A method for specifying handling characteristics for multiple printed copies of an electronic document is disclosed. According to one aspect, a user interface is displayed. The user interface comprises user interface elements through which a user can specify, for each copy of two or more printed copies of an electronic document, a separate handling characteristic (e.g., a source tray and/or an output tray) for that copy. The handling characteristics for each copy of the electronic document may differ. Through the user interface, separate handling characteristics for each copy of the two or more copies are received. Print data, which causes the printing device to print the two or more copies in accordance with the handling characteristics, in sent to a printing device (e.g., a printer). Consequently, users are not required to repetitively activate the “print” control of an application program for each copy that is to be handled differently. |
| US07876460B2 |
Print structure, printing method and reading method for medium surface with print-formed dot pattern
With the aim of realizing an easy and inexpensive method of realizing a “stealth” dot pattern, whose presence on a medium surface is not visually recognizable, merely through minor improvements in the existing printing technology, the present invention provides dots which form a dot pattern by printing these dots using an ink of any color reactive in the infrared or ultraviolet wavelength range on a medium surface on which a dot pattern is to be formed, for use with a dot pattern reading system that irradiates infrared or ultraviolet light on a medium surface having a dot pattern provided thereon, recognizes the dot pattern by reading the reflections of the light with an optical reading means, converts the dot pattern into the corresponding data, and outputs the text, voice, images and so forth contained in the data. |
| US07876459B2 |
Printing apparatus, print processing system and print processing method for processing print files having different file formats
A print processing system includes a plurality of terminal apparatuses and a printing apparatus capable of communicating with the plurality of terminal apparatuses via a network, wherein, to process a print file having a format unprocessable on the printing apparatus, the printing apparatus appropriately specifies a terminal apparatus capable of processing the file format; instructs the terminal apparatus to print the file; and executes the print process using print job data transmitted from the terminal apparatus according to the print instruction. |
| US07876458B2 |
Highlighting gaps in a surface
A surface gap detector facilitates determining conformance of a surface of an object by providing a light source integrated into the detector that diffusely illuminates the surface of the object so that a user may observe the light that passes between the detector and the object when the surface of the object is aligned in substantial contact with a gap detecting edge of the surface gap detector. |
| US07876457B2 |
Laser metrology system and method
A laser metrology system for determining a location of a target utilizes a laser projector having a laser source for projecting a laser beam. A rotating head directs the laser beam in a lateral direction. A sensor associated with the laser projector is capable of sensing the laser beam. A reflective target is configured to reflect the laser beam projector from the laser source toward the sensor in a manner indicative of the angle of the rotating head and the pulse of the laser beam to determine location of the target. |
| US07876454B2 |
Method and system for measurement of a cutting tool
A method for measurement of a cutting tool is provided. The method comprises positioning the cutting tool on a moveable stage, performing a first rotary scan of a first section of the cutting tool to generate a first scanning point cloud, segmenting the first scanning point cloud, performing a second rotary scan of the first section based on the segmentation of the first scanning point cloud, and extracting the parameters of the first section based on the second rotary scan of the first section. A system for extracting parameters of a cutting tool is also presented. |
| US07876453B1 |
Laser ultrasonic multi-component imaging
Techniques for ultrasonic determination of the interfacial relationship of multi-component systems are discussed. In implementations, a laser energy source may be used to excite a multi-component system including a first component and a second component at least in partial contact with the first component. Vibrations resulting from the excitation may be detected for correlation with a resonance pattern indicating if discontinuity exists at the interface of the first and second components. |
| US07876445B1 |
Two-photon-absorption magneto-optic dispersion spectrometer
A tunable optical spectrometer is disclosed that includes a medium configured to perform polarization rotation within a frequency band on a linearly polarized test beam, wherein the medium is circularly birefringent, and wherein the polarization rotation is achieved based on two-photon-absorption. The medium includes a gaseous substance, a reference laser beam of circular polarization and a longitudinal magnetic field. The test beam propagates through the medium twice, once in the same direction as the magnetic field, and once in the opposite direction of the magnetic field. The test beam undergoes polarization rotation an amount that depends upon the frequency of the test beam. |
| US07876443B2 |
Multipass optical device and process for gas and analyte determination
A torus multipass optical device and method are described that provide for trace level determination of gases and gas-phase analytes. The torus device includes an optical cavity defined by at least one ring mirror. The mirror delivers optical power in at least a radial and axial direction and propagates light in a multipass optical path of a predefined path length. |
| US07876439B2 |
Multi layer alignment and overlay target and measurement method
A target system for determining positioning error between lithographically produced integrated circuit fields on at least one lithographic level. The target system includes a first target pattern on a lithographic field containing an integrated circuit pattern, with the first target pattern comprising a plurality of sub-patterns symmetric about a first target pattern center and at a same first distance from the first target pattern center. The target system also includes a second target pattern on a different lithographic field, with the second target pattern comprising a plurality of sub-patterns symmetric about a second target pattern center and at a same second distance from the second target pattern center. The second target pattern center is intended to be at the same location as the first target pattern center. The centers of the first and second target patterns may be determined and compared to determine positioning error between the lithographic fields. |
| US07876437B1 |
Glass container wall thickness measurement using fluorescence
An apparatus and method for measurement of the stress in and thickness of the walls of glass containers is disclosed that uses fluorescence to quickly and accurately ascertain both the thickness of the stress layers and the wall thickness in addition to the stress curve in glass containers. The apparatus and method may be used to quickly and accurately measure both the stress in and the thickness of the side walls of glass containers throughout the circumference of the glass containers. The apparatus and method are adapted for large scale glass container manufacturing, and are capable of high speed measurement of the stress in and the thickness of the side walls of glass containers. |
| US07876436B2 |
Irradiation unit for a flow-cytometry-based analytical instrument and analytical instrument including the same
Disclosed is an irradiation unit for a flow-cytometry-based analytical instrument and analytical instrument including the same. The irradiation unit includes a light source, a light beam focusing module for focusing the illuminating light beam on an irradiated area, and a light beam shaper disposed between the light source and the light beam focusing module. The light shaper is used for flattening the distribution of light intensity on the irradiated area in a third direction X that is perpendicular to both a first direction in which the light beam spreads and a second direction in which cells to be detected flow. The irradiation unit and the analytical instrument including the same enable the illuminating light beam to form the irradiated area with the uniform distribution of intensity in a predetermined direction to avoid misjudging particles of the same kind entering into different positions of the irradiated area as different, thereby improving accuracy. |
| US07876429B2 |
Method and apparatus as well as corrective optical system for evaluating restoration-premised lens
The evaluating apparatus evaluates a restoration-premised lens which is employed in an image forming system that converts an optical image into an electronic image and then enforces a restoration processing on the electronic image in order to obtain a sharp image, is actually manufactured based on such design as premised on the restoration processing. The evaluating apparatus includes an evaluating corrective optical system, measuring section and evaluating section. The evaluating corrective optical system, when it is combined with a lens manufactured just as designed, forms a sharp optical image. The measuring section measures the optical characteristics of a composite optical system provided by combining together the evaluating corrective optical system and the manufactured lens. The evaluating section evaluates the manufactured lens according to measured results provided by measuring section. |
| US07876425B2 |
Method and apparatus for surface enhanced raman spectroscopy
A test cell comprises a test chamber at least partially enclosed by a wall. The test chamber holds a test fluid, and a test material is placed within the test chamber such that at least a portion of the test material is contact with the test fluid and at least a portion of the test material is in optical register with a window of the wall. A first conductive element is in electrical communication with the test fluid but is separated from the test material by a space, and extends to an outside of the cell. A second conductive element is in electrical communication with the test material and also extends to the outside of the cell. |
| US07876421B2 |
Light meter apparatus and system
A light meter for measuring photometric quantities includes a telephotometer having a photo detector to receive light energy entering the telephotometer. A light metering valve, for the purpose of providing a variable field of view, is located in the body of the telephotometer generally at the focal plane of the objective lens of the telephotometer. A controller, which includes a digital processor in communication with the photo detector will process information from the photo detector and from a range finder included in the system to output light intensity of a target light source. |
| US07876420B2 |
System and method utilizing an electrooptic modulator
A system and method utilize a dynamically controllable optical element that receives an electrical field, which changes an index of refraction in at least one direction within the optical element. The change in index of refraction imparts a change to a beam of radiation passing through the optical element. The electric field is controlled by a feedback/control signal from a feedback system that includes a detector positioned proximate an image plane in the system. The optical element can be positioned in various places within the system depending on what light characteristics need to be adjusted, for example after an illumination system or after a light patterning system. In this manner, the optical element, under control of the dynamic electric field, can dynamically change its propagation characteristics to dynamically change either a beam of illumination from the illumination system or a patterned beam of radiation from the patterning system, such that they exhibit desired light characteristics. |
| US07876419B2 |
Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method
An exposure apparatus including a projection optical system and configured to expose a substrate to light via the projection optical system includes a support configured to support the projection optical system, an object supported by the support and movable relative the support, an actuator configured to drive the object, a detector configured to detect a relative position between the object and the support, and a controller configured to perform a control of the actuator based on an output of the detector to cause the object to follow the support. The controller is configured to perform an estimation of a vibration of the support based on an output of the detector in parallel with the control to cause the object to follow the support. |
| US07876418B2 |
Optical element and projection exposure apparatus based on use of the optical element
A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system (PL) which projects an image of a pattern onto a substrate (W) and a unit (5) which supplies a liquid (7) between an optical element (4) at the end of the projection optical system (PL) and the substrate (W). A corrosion-resistant film composed of an oxide is formed on the surface of the optical element (4) to prevent corrosion by the liquid (7). Consequently, a desired performance of the projection optical system can be secured for a long time even where a full field exposure in the step-and-repeat manner or a scanning exposure in the step-and-scan manner is performed in a liquid-immersion state. |
| US07876416B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight disposed at a rear surface of the liquid crystal display panel. The backlight includes a light source, a frame housing the light source, a heat dissipating plate disposed inside the frame, and a reflective sheet disposed at a surface of the heat dissipating plate on the liquid crystal display panel side. The heat dissipating plate is formed with a heat dissipating fin protruding to a surface of the frame on the side opposite to the liquid crystal display panel through an opening formed through the frame in a portion corresponding to the upper portion thereof and formed with an opening which is closed with the frame and the reflective sheet in a portion corresponding to the lower portion thereof. |
| US07876414B2 |
Liquid crystal display device, method for fabricating the same, and portable telephone using the same
A liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display panel and a semiconductor integrated circuit for driving and controlling the liquid crystal display panel. The number of input/output wires connected to I/O terminals (bonding pads) of the semiconductor integrated circuit is reduced so as to simplify wiring patterns of the I/O wires, whereby degrees of freedom in arranging the I/O wiring patterns are enhanced. The panel has a pair of insulating substrate, and the semiconductor integrated circuit is mounted on one of the paired substrates. The semiconductor integrated circuit has a mode terminal which is fixed to a power supply potential or to a reference potential during operation of the integrated circuit, and power supply dummy terminals connected to the power supply potential or reference potential inside the semiconductor integrated circuit. The wiring patterns formed on the paired insulating substrates connect the mode terminal to the power supply dummy terminals. |
| US07876413B2 |
Electronic apparatus with a flexible printed circuit and a transparent conductive layer
A height difference under a sealant is reduced in a case where lines are present under the sealant.There is provided a substrate having an active matrix display circuit and peripheral driving circuits, a counter substrate having a counter electrode provided on the substrate in a face-to-face relationship therewith, a sealant provided between the substrate and the counter substrate such that it surrounds the active matrix display circuit and peripheral driving circuits, a liquid crystal material provided inside the sealant, a plurality of external connection lines provided on the substrate under the sealant with a resin inter-layer film interposed therebetween for electrically connecting the active matrix display circuit- and peripheral driving circuits to circuits present outside the sealant and an adjustment layer provided in the same layer as the plurality of external connection lines. |
| US07876404B2 |
Transflective LCD device and fabrication method thereof
A transflective liquid crystal display device including: first and second transparent substrates facing each other with a reflective portion and a transmissive portion; gate and data lines over the first transparent substrate perpendicularly crossing each other and defining pixel regions; a thin film transistor connected to the gate and data lines in the pixel region; an insulator in the thin film transistor on the first substrate covering the gate line; a passivation layer in the reflection portion on the insulator and on the thin film transistor, a pixel electrode in the reflective and transmissive portions, wherein the pixel electrode contacts both the passivation layer in the reflective portion and the insulator in the transmissive portion; a reflector on the pixel electrode in the reflective portion; color filters on a rear surface of the second transparent substrate, the color filters having through holes; column spacers formed between the reflector and the color filters, each column spacer corresponding in position to each through hole; a common electrode under the color filters; and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the common electrode and the pixel electrode. |
| US07876400B2 |
Optical modulation system
Embodiments including a charge responsive optical material are disclosed. |
| US07876399B2 |
Liquid crystal display with split electrode
A light shutter includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a third electrode, wherein the first and second electrodes are capacitively coupled to each other by the third electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode can be segmented and the segments separately addressed. In a display having a light shutter and an EL panel stacked on the same side of a substrate, there is a common front electrode and separate rear electrodes for operating the light shutter and the EL panel. The common electrode is electrically floating and the rear electrodes are capacitively coupled to each other by the common front electrode. The rear electrodes can be segmented and the segments separately addressed. |
| US07876397B2 |
Backlight for 3D display
A backlight (5) for a 3D display device, the backlight (5) comprising a planar light guide (7) through which light is guided transversely by internal reflection. The light guide (7) is provided with a plurality of grooves (8), which are configured to direct light propagating within the light guide (7), out of a face (7f) of the light guide (7) so as to form a plurality of line light sources. |
| US07876392B2 |
Liquid crystal display and height adjustable base of the panel thereof
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel and a height adjustable base. The height adjustable base further includes a main base, a fixing frame and an elastic locating device. The main base provides at least a sliding rail, which has a stationary member attached to the main base and a movable member capable of sliding along the stationary member. The fixing frame is connected to the movable member for being mounted with the liquid crystal panel. The elastic locating device provides an acting end, which is disposed against the fixing frame for supplying an elastic ascending force to the fixing frame, and a joining end, which is detachably connected to the main base with an elastic coupling force for restoring the elastic ascending force automatically. Therefore, the liquid crystal display can be simply operated to release or restore the ascending elastic force needed at the time of height adjusting the liquid crystal panel. |
| US07876390B2 |
Liquid crystal display fabrication method
A method of fabricating an LCD includes providing first and second substrates. A gate electrode, a gate line, a connection electrode, a common electrode and a pixel electrode are formed on the first substrate through a first making process. A first insulation film is formed on the first substrate. A first insulation film pattern having multiple contact holes are formed through a second masking process. An active pattern is formed on the first substrate and source and drain electrodes are operationally connected with the active pattern through some of the contact holes. A gate electrode, a common electrode, and a pixel electrode may be formed substantially together through a slit exposure. An active pattern and source and drain electrodes may be formed substantially together. The number of masks needed to fabricate the display may be reduced to simplify a fabrication process and protect a channel region. |
| US07876389B2 |
Display substrate and display device having the same
A display may include a plurality of pixels disposed in a matrix. Each pixel may include a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode to be charged with a different voltage than the first sub-pixel electrode. A portion of each of the first sub-pixel electrode and the second sub-pixel electrode is V-shaped and the V-shaped portion of the first sub-pixel electrode faces the V-shaped portion of the second sub-pixel electrode. The display further includes a gate line extending in a first direction, a first storage electrode line and a second storage electrode line extending in the first direction and capacitively coupled to the first sub-pixel electrode and the second sub-pixel electrode, respectively, a charge control line extending in the first direction and coupled to the pixel, and a first data line and a second data line extending in a second direction and intersecting the gate line. TFTs may be disposed separately in an area non-overlapped by a sub-crossing pixel electrode. |
| US07876388B2 |
Array substrate capable of improving display quality
The charging voltage of a pixel electrode varies when there is a photo-misalignment of the pixel electrode, and such variation degrades the display quality. An array substrate that prevents fluctuation in the charging voltage of a pixel electrode is presented. The array substrate includes a pixel electrode, a gate wiring formed on the pixel electrode, and a data wiring that includes a first data line and a second data line formed two sides of the pixel electrode. A first voltage-maintaining electrode is separated from a first side of the first data line by a first distance, and a second voltage-maintaining electrode is separated from a second side of the first data line by a second distance. Both voltage-maintaining electrodes are electrically connected to the pixel electrode. A thin-film transistor is electrically connected to the gate wiring, the data wiring and the pixel electrode. |
| US07876383B2 |
Digital broadcasting receiver to search channels in parallel and channel searching method thereof
A digital broadcasting receiver includes a RF switch to divide an entire channel range of an input broadcasting signal into at least two channel ranges for at least one of a received air broadcasting signal and a cable broadcasting signal, at least two channel searching parts to search each channel range distributed from the RF switch and to check channels in sequence from a lowest channel to a highest channel within the channel range to determine whether one of the digital broadcasting signal and the analog broadcasting signal is received, a memory to record information on a valid channel through which one of the digital broadcasting signal and the analog broadcasting signal is received in the entire channel range of the broadcasting signal, and a CPU to control the at least two channel searching parts in parallel to search each distributed channel range for the valid channel, and to determine the valid channel if the channel searching parts determine that a certain broadcasting signal is received, and to record the result into the memory, thereby, reducing the time taken to search a digital broadcasting channel and an analog broadcasting channel received through air and cable broadcasting signal. |
| US07876378B1 |
Method and apparatus for filtering video data using a programmable graphics processor
Video filtering using a programmable graphics processor is described. The programmable graphics processor may be programmed to complete a plurality of video filtering operations in a single pass through a fragment-processing pipeline within the programmable graphics processor. Video filtering functions such as deinterlacing, chroma up-sampling, scaling, and deblocking may be performed by the fragment-processing pipeline. The fragment-processing pipeline may be programmed to perform motion adaptive deinterlacing, wherein a spatially variant filter determines, on a pixel basis, whether a “bob”, a “blend”, or a “weave” operation should be used to process an interlaced image. |
| US07876375B2 |
Focusing device that adjusts focus based on a measured luminance value and method for the same
An automatic focus adjustment device has an image sensing element for converting an object optical image into an electrical signal, and outputting an image signal, a filter for extracting high-frequency components of the image signal obtained by the image sensing element, an integrator for integrating the high-frequency components extracted by the filter and outputting an integrated value, a peak hold circuit for detecting and outputting a peak value of the high-frequency components extracted by the filter, a discrimination unit for discriminating the luminance distribution of the object optical image, and a focus adjustment unit for making focus adjustment using one of the integrated value output from the integrator and the peak value output from the peak hold circuit in accordance with the discrimination result. |
| US07876374B2 |
Image display system, display apparatus, and display method
Disclosed herein is an image display system including a display apparatus, an imaging apparatus placed on a movable body; and a server apparatus. The display apparatus and the imaging apparatus are capable of communicating with the server apparatus. The imaging apparatus includes: an imaging section; a speed detection section; and a control section that controls transmission of image data and speed information to the server apparatus. The server apparatus includes: a movable body speed management section that manages the moving speed of the movable body using the speed information; and a control section that identifies an imaging apparatus that matches speed specification information, and causes image data to be transferred from the identified imaging apparatus to the display apparatus. The display apparatus includes: a display section; and a control section that performs a speed specification process, an image request transmission process, and a display process. |
| US07876371B2 |
Systems and methods to perform digital correlated double sampling using successive approximation analog to digital conversion techniques
An imager includes a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (SA-ADC) and an arithmetic memory. The successive approximation analog-to-digital converter converts analog representations of pixel reset and image signals for a pixel to digital representations of the pixel reset and image signals. The arithmetic memory generates a difference signal that represents the difference between the digital representations of the pixel reset signal and the pixel image signal using a most-significant-bit-first (MSB-first) calculation. |
| US07876366B2 |
Electronic camera
An electronic camera includes an imaging device. The imaging device carries out an exposing operation for exposing an object scene and an amplifying operation for amplifying a raw image signal generated by the exposing operation, according to a set imaging parameter. A CPU selects one program chart satisfying a parameter condition, from a plurality of program charts stored in a flash memory, and extracts three imaging parameters from the selected program chart. The extracted imaging parameters are set to the imaging device. The imaging parameter here includes exposure time, amount of aperture, and AGC gain as parameter elements. In addition, the parameter condition includes an AGC gain condition in that each of three AGC gains defining respectively the three imaging parameters is equal to or less than a predetermined value and an exposure time condition in that three exposure times defining respectively the three imaging parameters are shorter. |
| US07876364B2 |
False color suppression method for digital image
A false color suppression method for a digital image is described. The method is performed in a digital camera, for suppressing the false color of the digital image shot by the digital camera. The method includes separating a luminance part and a chrominance part of a digital image; extracting the chrominance part, and calculating a first color gamut component and a second color gamut component in the chrominance part; setting a critical value according to a photosensitivity during shooting by the digital camera; performing a corresponding pixel uniformization action on the pixel according to a relation between a difference between the pixel and adjacent neighboring pixels and the critical value respectively for the first color gamut component and the second color gamut component; and combining the uniformized chrominance part and the luminance part of the digital image to a suppressed image. |
| US07876362B2 |
High speed CMOS image sensor circuits with block memory readout
An image sensor circuit includes a pixel array, a plurality of column analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) circuits, and at least two memory blocks. Each column ADC circuit is connected to receive analog pixel signals provided from corresponding pixel circuits of the pixel array, and is configured to convert the received analog pixel signals into digital pixel signals. Each memory block is connected to receive digital pixel signals provided from corresponding column ADC circuits of the plurality of column ADC circuits. At least two of the at least two memory blocks are connected to receive digital pixel signals that are provided from corresponding column ADC circuits that are located to a same side of the pixel array. Each memory block of the at least two memory blocks includes a plurality of memory cells, one or more sense amplifiers connected to the memory cells by a readout bus, and a memory controller. |
| US07876361B2 |
Size calibration and mapping in overhead camera view
To calibrate images from an overhead camera, two equal-length reference lines at different heights relative to the floor plane are imaged. By comparing the resultant image-width of each of these lines in the view provided by the camera, the effective focal point of the camera is determined. In a preferred embodiment, a doorframe is used to provide equal-length lines at different heights parallel to the floor. The threshold of the doorway at the floor plane is used as a reference plane, and a parallel calibration line at a known/measured height in the doorway is defined. The image produced by a vertically oriented camera of these two equal length lines will show a longer line at the elevated position, the different widths of the images of these lines being dependent upon the camera's effective focal point. From these two projections of the equal-length lines at different heights, the camera's focal point distance from the reference floor plane is determined. |
| US07876359B2 |
Cooperative nesting of mechanical and electronic stabilization for an airborne camera system
A method and system for stabilizing images being taken by a video camera using electromechanical stabilization. The stabilization system performs inter-frame stabilization based on the velocity of a vehicle on which the video camera is mounted and the pan rate of a line-of-sight controller of the video camera. The inter-frame stabilization is performed by a software component by moving a display area (or viewport) within a larger image area. The stabilization system converts an inter-frame stabilization adjustment into a pan rate adjustment so that the line-of-sight controller will keep the desired object within the image area of the camera. |
| US07876356B2 |
Methods and systems for display color calibration using remote control
A method and corresponding systems for using remote control to realize standard colors on displays. Two examples of remote controls are provided, one with color sensors and the other with white LEDs. For each example a calibration pattern is displayed which allows a user to calibrate the display color conveniently. For using the remote control with color sensors, an algorithm for the display to adjust the input RGB color, based on the color measurements from the remote control is provided. This allows the display output RGB color so that the display shows the same color as the input RGB signal is sent to standard color display. |