| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07918458B2 |
Article capturing game machine
To enabling actions that meet even diversified display patterns such as a prize hooked on a prize drop hole. An article housing section for storing articles, an article capturing section for capturing an article in the article housing section, lifting device for moving the article capturing section up and down, control device for controlling the movement of the article capturing section by the lifting device, and detection device for detecting that the article capturing section being moved downward by the lifting device strikes against any object including the article in the article housing section are provided. The control device performs control for operating the lifting device to continue to move the article capturing section downward even after the control device receives a detection signal from the detection device, and after the continued downward movement, stopping the downward movement of the article capturing section. |
| US07918457B2 |
Ball-shaped puzzle
The invention relates to a ball-shaped puzzle comprising a spherical support element (1; 31) and a plurality of movable puzzle elements (16; 33) which all have substantially the same size and shape, the movable puzzle elements (16; 33) being slidably engaged in a trajectory (2; 32) on the outside of the spherical support element (1; 31), the trajectory (2; 32) defining a plurality of predetermined positions on the outside of the spherical support element (1; 31) between which the puzzle elements (16; 33) are movable. The spherical support element (1; 31) comprises a core and a plurality of trajectory forming elements (15; 45-46) which form the trajectory (2; 32), the trajectory forming elements (15; 45-46) being fixed onto the core (13; 43-44) by a snap-fitting arrangement (40-41). |
| US07918455B2 |
Chip with insert including an electronic microchip
The chip, in the general shape of a disk, of the type with a body obtained by multiple injection molding of plastics material, includes a core 14 obtained by a first plastics material injection molding operation having a central portion 24 defining the central portion of the body of said chip and a peripheral portion 31 defining, by means of radial projections 18, at least a portion of the edge of the body of the chip. The core 14 incorporates an insert 26 including a contactless electronic microchip identification device 27 that during the first injection molding operation is buried in the central portion 24 and retained at its periphery by projections or fingers attached to the injection-molding mold and defining apertures 36 in the core. The chip body includes a covering layer around the peripheral portion 31 of the core 14 obtained by a second plastics material injection molding operation to produce, with the core, the whole of the edge and the peripheral annular portion of the body of the chip. A decorated label is fixed to each face of the chip.The chip may be used as a gaming chip or a casino chip. |
| US07918454B2 |
Interactive bottle game
An entertaining and romantic game comprises actions and adventures of different categories that are placed in a bottle and spun. Some actions or adventures are pre-printed whereas others are created by the players, thereby personalizing the game. |
| US07918452B2 |
Sheet width aligning device, sheet transport device and image forming apparatus
A sheet width aligning device includes two width aligning members which respectively contact widthwise ends of a sheet to regulate a widthwise position of the sheet. A first detector detects one widthwise end of the sheet and a second detector detects the other widthwise end of the sheet. A moving mechanism moves the first and second detectors located at initial positions at outer sides of the sheet towards the center of the sheet in the widthwise directions. A determining section determines the positions of the width aligning members based on a detection timing, at which the first detector detected the one widthwise end, and a detection timing, at which the second detector detected the other widthwise end. A driving mechanism drives the width aligning members to move to the positions determined by the determining section. |
| US07918448B2 |
Sheet supplying device and image forming system
A sheet supplying device, including a sheet stacking member which can stack various sized sheets, a side edge alignment member which moves perpendicular to a sheet supplying direction and aligns at least one of side edges of the stacked sheets placed on the sheet stacking member, and an auxiliary side edge alignment member which is provided on the side edge alignment member and ejects in a moving direction of the side edge alignment member and which aligns stacked sheets whose width is narrower than that of the stacked sheets which are to be aligned by the side edge alignment member. |
| US07918445B2 |
Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus
A sheet feeding device to feed a sheet in a sheet stack into a sheet feeding path is provided. the sheet feeding device includes a feed roller configured to contact the sheet stack and feed the sheet in a feeding direction, a guide member, having a guide surface, which is configured to contact a side of the sheet fed by the feeding roller, to guide the sheet being fed along a guiding direction, and a shifting unit to shift the feed roller in a direction toward the guide surface before the feed roller is rotated. |
| US07918441B2 |
Sheet finisher, image forming apparatus using the same, and sheet finishing method
A sheet finisher of the invention includes: a fold unit that forms a fold line with a fold rollers; a roller unit that moves a first roller and a second roller along the fold line while pressing the fold line; a drive unit that moves the roller unit along the fold line from a standby position separate from an end of the sheet bundle; a drive motor that separates the first and the second rollers in a thickness direction at the standby position; and a nipping unit that places the sheet bundle on a first nip plate, and nips it by the first and the second nip plates. Both positions of the nip of the fold rollers and a nip of the first and second rollers are disposed to be substantially coincident with a position on an imaginary plane extending from a surface of the first nip plate. |
| US07918440B2 |
Support device for securing workpieces
Workpieces of large dimensions, typically body pressings or fuselage panels, are supported and secured for machining by a device capable of movement in a vertical direction and adaptable thus to the particular geometry of the workpiece. The vertical movement is produced by a rod of which the top end carries a head incorporating a pivotable fixture mechanism, equipped with a suction cup connected to a source of negative pressure by way of a suction duct and activated to clamp the work once the head is in position. |
| US07918436B2 |
Valve element opening/closing device
A valve element opening/closing device may include a main body, an inflow pipe, an outflow pipe, a valve element, and a drive part for driving the valve element to open and close a flow passage. The drive part may include a linearly moving mechanism part for driving the valve element, which may include a rotary power transmission member, a linearly moving member for moving the valve element, a turning prevention mechanism, and an urging member for urging the valve element in a closing direction. The turning prevention mechanism may include a shaft turnably supporting the rotary power transmission member, and a shaft hole formed in the linearly moving member that is supported by the shaft, and the shaft is engaged with the shaft hole to prevent turning of the linearly moving member. |
| US07918432B2 |
Conical washer spring support
This invention relates to a support or hanger utilizing a conical spring washer or set of conical spring washer displaying variable load characteristics. When installed, both types (support or hanger) allow for small movements in pipe, ductwork or equipment (PDE), thus, allowing for the thermal growth of PDE. Conventionally, helical coil spring supports are chosen to meet the load capacities of PDE but are reluctantly used because of their large size. By using conical spring washer s, the size of the support is substantially reduced making it a more useable device. A smaller, more compact design proves to increase the support/hanger's application making it more stable to place under piping and even under reciprocating motion equipment like generators and pumps. For small displacements, it is found that this invention behaves in the same manor as a conventional helical coil spring support under the same applied loads. |
| US07918428B2 |
Supporting apparatus of display device
A supporting apparatus of a display device is provided that includes a fixing unit, one or more sliding units, and a device connecting part. The fixing unit may be fixed to a mounting position. The sliding units may be rotatably connected to the fixing unit. The device connecting part may be rotatable relative to the sliding unit and may be coupled with the display device. The sliding unit may include a first sliding member rotatable relative to the fixing unit, and a second sliding member slidable relative to the first sliding member. |
| US07918427B2 |
Computer dock station
A computer dock station includes a bracket covered with a cover member and having a fence at one side and upright pivot pins on the inside, and a locking mechanism, which includes a motive member, two follower members pivoted to the two opposite ends of the motive member and respectively coupled with the respective sliding slot to the upright pivot pins, two clamps respectively mounted on the follower members outside the bracket, and a screw rod threaded through the motive member and pivoted to the bracket and rotatable to move the motive member and to further turn the follower members about the respective upright pivot pins for adjusting the position of the clamps. |
| US07918425B2 |
Universal antenna mount
A universal antenna mount featuring a first bracket with a concave face between right and left tangs, a reversible second bracket with a concave face and a generally convex opposite face between right and left tangs, and at least one fastener extending through the right tangs of the first and second brackets and at least one fastener extending through the left tangs of the first and second brackets. |
| US07918422B2 |
Transformable intravenous pole
An intravenous (IV) pole system for supporting medical equipment having a base with legs, a mast engaged to the base, and a lifting mechanism including a gas spring engaged to the base and the mast. Each of the legs includes at least one wheel. The lifting mechanism is constructed to position the legs in an extended configuration and a retracted configuration. The lifting mechanism is further constructed to raise the legs and wheels relative to the base and relative to a surface. The lifting mechanism is configured to position the wheels proximate to the mast in the retracted configuration. |
| US07918420B2 |
System and methods for simultaneous momentum dumping and orbit control
The present system and methods enable simultaneous momentum dumping and orbit control of a spacecraft, such as a geostationary satellite. Control equations according to the present system and methods generate accurate station-keeping commands quickly and efficiently, reducing the number of maneuvers needed to maintain station and allowing station -keeping maneuvers to be performed with a single burn. Additional benefits include increased efficiency in propellant usage, and extension of the satellite's lifespan. The present system and methods also enable tighter orbit control, reduction in transients and number of station-keeping thrusters aboard the satellite. The present methods also eliminate the need for the thrusters to point through the center of mass of the satellite, which in turn reduces the need for dedicated station-keeping thrusters. The present methods also facilitate completely autonomous orbit control and control using Attitude Control Systems (ACS). |
| US07918417B2 |
Undercarriage with anticrash and antiresonance skids for a rotary wing aircraft, and an aircraft
An undercarriage (2) having anticrash and antiresonance skids (6) for a rotary wing aircraft (1), the undercarriage including in particular: two landing skids (6) that are elastically deformable in the event of a normal landing; front and rear transverse elements (7, 8) likewise elastically deformable in the event of a normal landing; assembly elements (9, 14) for assembling the transverse elements to a force take-up structure (5) of the aircraft (1); and a connection system (10) suitable for absorbing the energy of a crash landing by controlled plastic deformation and including at least one pair of buckling struts (11) arranged so as to deform in the plastic range by buckling, together with a fastener member (14) of the assembly elements for providing statically-redundant assembly between a structure (5) of the aircraft (1) and a respective one of the front and/or rear elements (7, 8). |
| US07918415B2 |
Convertible aircraft operating method
The invention relates to a convertible aircraft operating method. According to the invention, the aircraft comprises: a fuselage, standard fixed wings which are equipped with ailerons, a tail unit with flight-control surfaces, engines, a rotor with blades, a transmission which is placed between the engines and the rotor and which is equipped with rotor clutch and braking means, a landing gear, means for transition from helicopter mode to autogyro mode and vice versa, and means for direct or reverse transition from autogyro/helicopter mode to aeroplane mode. The lift for a range of low speeds is produced by means of the rotor, while the lift for a range of high speeds is produced by means of the wings. In addition, the lift for a range of intermediate speeds can be produced using the wings and the rotor in autogyro mode simultaneously, and take-off and landing can be performed in autogyro mode or in helicopter mode with the engines coupled to the rotor. The aircraft comprises a hybrid helicopter/autogyro/aeroplane aircraft and, as such, can perform the direct or reverse transition to aeroplane mode from both helicopter mode and autogyro mode. |
| US07918408B2 |
Hand-held showerhead structure
A hand-held showerhead structure includes a handle portion, a water-outlet base, and a rotary member. The rotary member includes an outlet valve and is mounted on the water-outlet base in a rotationally adjustable manner, which is turned by a user to adjust to a desired water-spraying mode. A plurality of annular chambers is defined between a middle cover and a lower cover of the outlet valve. A plurality of arc-shaped flow-guide ribs distributed radially and separated from one another is protruded from a top wall of the lower cover opposing to an annular chamber in an outer peripheral area. A plurality of open-ended arc-shaped flow-guide channels is accordingly defined between the flow-guide ribs. Moreover, a plurality of outlet holes is arranged in flow-guiding directions of the flow-guide channels. Therefore, the showerhead positioned in such a water-spraying mode is capable of achieving a uniform water-spraying effect at a larger spraying area. |
| US07918403B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit device
There are provided an operational amplifier (A1), a capacitor (C1) capable of transmitting an input signal to an inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier, and a feedback path (B11) disposed between an output terminal and the inverting input terminal in the operational amplifier, and a reference voltage is supplied to a non-inverting input terminal. There is provided an input/output stabilizing circuit (B13) for changing a threshold voltage of the operational amplifier, and adding a micro signal input to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier, thereby carrying out an input/output stabilizing control in response to a signal output from the operational amplifier. In response to the signal output from the operational amplifier, the threshold voltage of the operational amplifier is changed and the micro signal is added to the signal input to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifiers so that the input/output stabilizing control is carried out. By the control, the influence of a noise is eliminated and an enhancement in a noise resistance of a receiver circuit is achieved. |
| US07918401B2 |
Multi-level hierarchical radio-frequency communication system
Portable measuring devices which communicate by low power transceivers through a communication controller with a printer device collect weight and size data on articles to be shipped. The collected weight and size data are combined with origin and destination data, and labels are printed bearing pertinent shipping and routing information in machine readable format. The labels are attached to the articles to be shipped and accompany the articles to their respective destinations. At transfer points the labels are read by scanner devices which also communicate by low power transceiver links with the communication controller. The wireless linking of the scanner devices promotes human safety by the absence of cords which could cause entanglement of an operator in mechanized conveying equipment. The communication controllers at each stage of the shipping process have the capability of transferring received and updated status information on the shipped articles to a central data station. |
| US07918397B2 |
Indicia reading system
A method of reading indicia comprising the steps of: displaying a plurality of information data bearing indicia seriatim on a display; reading and decoding the displayed plurality of information data bearing indicia utilizing an indicia reader; and establishing a relationship of data provided in the plurality of information data bearing indicia utilizing a portion of the data provided in each of the plurality of information data bearing indicia. |
| US07918395B2 |
Electronic product identification and price display system employing electronic-ink display labels having a stacked architecture for visually displaying the price and/or promotional information for said consumer product, remotely updated by one or more remote activator modules installed within the retail environment
An electronic product identification price display system for installation in a retail environment storing a plurality of consumer products on shelves. The system includes a plurality of remote activator modules installed within the retail environment, and a plurality of remotely-updateable electronic-ink labels applied to consumer products stored in the retail environment. Each remote activator module sends and transmits electromagnetic signals within the space of the retail environment. Each electronic-ink label employs an addressable display assembly including a layer of electronic ink including a bi-stable non-volatile imaging material. The device includes an integrated circuit structure having a storage element for storing instructions, programs and data, and a programmed processor in communication with storage element. A signal transmitting structure transmits signals from the antenna structure to the remote activator modules. A signal receiving structure receives electromagnetic signals from the remote activator modules, using the antenna structure. An on-board battery power structure, operably connected to the integrated circuit structure, supplies electrical power to the integrated circuit structure. The electronic-ink label applied to each consumer product displays graphical indicia representing the price and/or promotional information for the consumer product, that is remotely updated by one or more remote activator modules installed within the retail environment. |
| US07918389B2 |
Method and system for tracking unfinished ceramic structures during manufacture
A system and method is provided for tracking unfinished ceramic structures moved by a conveyor system through manufacturing loops which preserves both identification and manufacturing information during manufacture, and in particular during mark-obliterating steps. The method includes loading the marked, unfinished ceramic structure at a selected position on the conveyor system; relaying the identification mark and the selected position of the unfinished ceramic structure on the conveyor system; conveying the unfinished ceramic structure through a mark-obliterating manufacturing step, and then identifying the ceramic structure relaying and processing information relating to its position on the conveyor system. The ceramic structure is then re-marked with a second mark after completing all mark-obliterating steps of manufacturing, such as firing and contouring. Both the first and second marks include the combination of a machine-readable and human-readable component, such as the combination of a two-dimensional bar code and an alpha-numeric code. |
| US07918386B2 |
Cash letter print verification
A printed cash letter includes a machine-readable identifier, such as a barcode, identifying the cash letter. Upon printing, information from the identifier is read and stored in a first record. To determine whether the cash letter is a duplicate, a check presentment module compares information from the identifier with information in the first record. If information identifying the cash letter already exists in the first record, the cash letter is a duplicate. To verify cash letter printing, information identifying multiple cash letters to be printed is stored in a second record. Upon printing a portion of the cash letters, information read from identifiers on the printed cash letters is compared with information in the second record. If the second record includes information regarding a cash letter not identified in the information scanned from the barcodes, then the check presentment module identifies the cash letter as having not been printed. |
| US07918382B2 |
Method for attaching a porous metal layer to a metal substrate
A method for attaching a porous metal layer to a dense metal substrate, wherein the method is particularly useful in forming orthopedic implants such as femoral knee components, femoral hip components, and/or acetabular cups. The method, in one embodiment thereof, comprises providing a solid metal substrate; providing a porous metal structure; contouring a surface of the porous metal structure; placing the porous structure against the substrate such that the contoured surface of the porous metal structure is disposed against the substrate, thereby forming an assembly; applying heat and pressure to the assembly in conjunction with thermal expansion of the substrate in order to metallurgically bond the porous structure and the substrate; and removing mass from the substrate after the porous structure is bonded to the substrate, thereby finish processing the assembly. |
| US07918380B1 |
Method and apparatus for manufacturing welded tapered tubes
A tapered tube manufacturing apparatus and method of operation comprises an entry station adapted to receive a tapered tube having an open, longitudinal seam with spaced longitudinal edges extending the length of the tapered tube. A feed line section moves the tapered tube from the entry section into a welding station while maintaining the longitudinal seam coincident with a pass center line which defines a direction of movement of the tapered tube through the entry station, the feed line section and the welding station. A pair of squeeze rolls in the welding station move the tapered tube through the welding station where the edges of the seam are heated, squeezing the open seam closed for welding the edges of the seam together, and then move the welded tapered tube into a cooling and transition station while maintaining the welded seam coincident with the pass center line. A pair of sizing rolls move the welded tapered tube from the cooling and transition station and through the sizing station so that a centerline extending longitudinally through the center of the welded tapered tube is coincident with the direction of movement of the welded tapered tube through the sizing station and the welded tapered tube is squeezed so that all cross sections of the welded tapered tube that are perpendicular to the centerline at any point along the length of tube, have the same shape. |
| US07918379B2 |
Process for working metal material and structures
In a first step, friction stir welding is performed, while supplying a filler into a joining portion, in order to prevent the coarsening of crystal grains of metal materials in a subsequent fusion processing. Then, a fusion processing such as MIG welding is performed. The filler to be added to the joining portion includes a substance that does not chemically react with the metal materials and has a melting point higher than a melting point of the metal materials and a substance in which a misfit with the metal materials is within ±15%. As a result, the coarsening of crystal grains by the fusion processing is inhibited and the joint strength can be increased. |
| US07918376B1 |
Articulated surgical instrument
One example of a surgical instrument may include a handle, an end effector, and a shaft that connects the handle to the end effector, where the shaft includes an articulated region. At least one feeder belt may extend through the lumen of the shaft into the end effector, where at least one feeder belt may include at least one staple frangibly connected thereto. |
| US07918374B2 |
Portable fastener driving device
The present invention includes various embodiments directed to apparatus and methods surrounding a fastener device. In particular embodiments, the fastener device is a quick charging and discharging device that includes a solenoid, a fastener striker, a flash capacitor, and a control circuit. Other novel features of the fastener device exist. In particular embodiments, the present invention also includes apparatus and methods related to deforming staples for securing conduit and the like, and staple insulation and insulated staples that may be discharged by the fastener device. The insulation may be provided in an ordinary staple strip for use in the fastener device. Each insulation form may include deformation voids to assist the adaptation of the insulation about a target object that is being secured by the insulated staple. |
| US07918372B2 |
Apparatus for controlling the lateral offset of webs of material
The present disclosure relates an apparatus for controlling the lateral offset of webs of material. The apparatus can include a support structure for supporting a roll and a mechanism for lifting the web of material off the roll. The support structure can include a fixed portion and at least one movable portion. The roll is preferably journaled to first mountings, the first mountings being attached to the movable portion of the support structure, so that the roll can be moved together with the first mountings. A potential advantage of this design is that the journal bearing of the roll on a respective shaft can be configured more easily and given smaller dimensions. According to a further aspect of the disclosure, the lifting mechanism can include at least two single rollers, rotatably journaled to two lateral supports. Such single rollers are advantageously arranged along a circular-arc plane. The web of material can thus be deflected with as large a radius as possible. This can reduce undesirable back-sway of the sagging portion of the web of material as a result of the intermittent operation. The end portions of the circular-arc plane can also extend tangentially to the provided direction of travel of the web of material, thereby potentially resulting in crease-free deflection of the web of material. |
| US07918367B2 |
Apparatus and method for monitoring bulk tank cryogenic systems
A system for monitoring and controlling the delivery of CO2 from a bulk storage tank to at least one gas-driven pump is disclosed. By monitoring certain conditions, the flow of CO2 can be quickly and easily terminated if necessary, thereby reducing or eliminating undesirable consequences of CO2 gas flow in abnormal operational scenarios. The invention is particularly well suited for deployment in conjunction with beverage dispensing machines and can be configured to shut down the flow of CO2 if a drop in pressure occurs due to a leak in the system or if a syrup delivery system runs out of product. |
| US07918366B2 |
Multiple drop weight printhead and methods of fabrication and use
A printhead includes a chamber layer and at least two orifice layers. A first orifice layer is disposed on the chamber layer, and a second orifice layer is disposed on the first orifice layer. The second orifice layer has at least one counterbore formed therein. A first nozzle is formed through both orifice layers and produces droplets of a first drop weight. A second nozzle is formed through the first orifice layer, coincident with the counterbore, and produces droplets of a second drop weight that is different than the first drop weight. In one embodiment, the printhead is used in a stand-alone fluid-dispensing device. |
| US07918365B2 |
Bottle display and dispenser device and method
A dispenser for storing and dispensing containers has a housing with an inlet opening for loading containers into the dispenser, and an outlet opening for dispensing containers. The dispenser has a passageway connecting the inlet opening to the outlet opening that includes at least one inclined ramp that the containers roll along. The dispenser has a loading mechanism positioned adjacent the inlet opening that is aligned relative to the passageway. The loading mechanism has a contact surface for receiving a container to be loaded into the passageway and maintains the container in a predetermined alignment with the passageway. Movement of the loading mechanism causes the contact surface to urge the container towards the passageway while substantially maintaining alignment of the container with the passageway. |
| US07918364B2 |
Disposable teacup shape paper cup holder
A paper cup holder having a disposable teacup shape for a cup is provided. The paper cup holder includes inner and outer lining portions, finger portions, intermediate supporting portions, first and second half crossing cuts, and fastening portions. The inner lining portion wraps around the cup. The outer lining portion is provided around the inner lining portion, and the outer lining portion is configured to wrap around the inner lining portion so as to shield heat from the cup, and wherein the out lining portion comprises first and second edges. The finger hole portions accept one or two fingers. The intermediate supporting surface is provided between the finger hole portions. |
| US07918362B2 |
Transparent, portable secure container for consumer products not legally purchased by minors
A transparent, portable secure container is configured to accommodate a standard retail package for a consumer product not legally purchased by minors. The container comprises a plurality of panels, a hinge and a lock. Some of the panels are joined to form the container, such that the container conforms to outside dimensions of the standard retail package. One of the panels is coupled to the container via the hinge to form a door. The lock secures the container by locking the door in a closed position. The panels are formed of a lightweight, durable structural material, such that the container is portable. At least one of the panels is transparent, such that the container provides an interior view when the door is in the closed position. |
| US07918361B2 |
Lid storage and washing container
A device for containing plastic container lids for use in an automatic dishwasher or for storage. The device includes an open lattice structure having a top, bottom, back and side walls and a removable door. The lattice members preferably have convex outer surfaces and substantially planar interior surfaces and are configured to maximize water penetration into the device during a wash cycle. Longitudinally-oriented lattice members include projections and grooves that assist in retaining lids in position and maintaining separation between adjacent lids. Concentric circular members may be provided on the sides of the device. |
| US07918357B2 |
Media storage container
A media storage container has a latch that is movable between latched, unlatched, and storage positions. The latch is disposed inside the outer periphery of the container when the latch is in the storage position. A method of using the container includes the steps of moving the latch to the storage position for shipping the container and moving the latch from the storage position to the open position while the container is loaded with media. |
| US07918354B2 |
Container lifter being able to lift two 40 feet containers
The invention is a container lifter which is able to lift two 40 foot containers at a time. It includes two sets of the crane main lifting mechanisms with the wire rope winding systems being separate. Pulleys arranged at the crane upper frame cooperate with two lifting pulley groups arranged on the carrier. The first crane lifting mechanism and the second crane lifting mechanism are equipped with a barrel, a crane lifting mechanism motor, a brake and a crane lifting reduction gear box respectively The two sets of the crane lifting mechanisms are synchronously operated. By using the container lifter of the invention, the efficiency of the load and unload is increased, high repayment is obtained with less increasing the equipment cost, the larger beneficial result is occurred, also it has the wider applicable prospect. |
| US07918351B2 |
Quick-assembly shelf mechanism for optical media
A point of purchase display structure (300) is described incorporating one or more shelves (132) for supporting items, wherein the display structure in a partially assembled configuration is a generally flat structure, and may be converted to a finished structure by movement of an inner slide (150) within an outer sleeve (100). |
| US07918347B2 |
Cleaning apparatus
The invention relates to a cleaning apparatus (1) for removing solid matter from a liquid, especially for a coolant-lubricant circuit (35). Said cleaning apparatus (1) comprises a hollow cylindrical filter member (2) that separates a crude chamber (6) from a pure chamber (7), an inlet (8) which is located on the crude side and is connected to the crude chamber (6), an outlet (9) which is located on the pure side and is connected to the pure chamber (7), a backwashing device (10) for backwashing the filter member (2) segment by segment, and a discharge mechanism (12) for removing clean solid matter from the crude chamber (6). In order to make it easier to remove clean solid matter from the crude chamber (6), the filter member (2) surrounds the crude chamber (6) while the pure chamber (7) surrounds the filter member (2), and the discharge mechanism (12) is equipped with a screw conveyor (13) which feeds the clean solid matter to a discharge port (14). |
| US07918346B2 |
Vibrating screen tensioning apparatus and method
A tensioning apparatus for tensioning a screen in a vibrating screen separator of the type having a box structure defined by two opposing spaced-apart upright side walls separated by at least one screen bed support structure. Included is an actuator support mounted to an exterior surface of a side wall of a box structure for pivotally securing the stationary end of an actuator thereto. The actuator includes a movable end that is cyclically movable from a first releasing position adjacent the sidewall, to a second engaging position, transversely spaced apart from the side wall, responsive to a track follower moving along a track inclined transversely to the side wall of the box. A clamp rail assembly is fixed to the movable end of the actuator to engage and tension a screen responsive to transverse movement of the movable end of the actuator. |
| US07918341B2 |
Wafer container with staggered wall structure
A wafer container comprising a base and a cover that nest together. The base includes a staggered wall structure composed of inner and outer walls. The staggered wall structure is arranged so that forces from side impacts are absorbed principally by outer wall segments. A rib on the cover restrains the outer wall segments from flexing beyond the inner wall diameter. Reference tabs on the base facilitate alignment of the base to the cover. |
| US07918335B1 |
Electromagnetic shielding carrying case for contactless smartcards and personal articles
An electromagnetic shielding carrying case comprising a substantially rigid first and second shielding member hingedly connected to one another and each having an inner and outer surface. Each shielding member comprises a card pocket assembly affixed to their respective inner surfaces into which a plurality of contactless smartcards or regular wallet-sized cards can be slidably inserted and removed. A paper currency pocket is disposed along the outer surfaces of first and second shielding members, and a releasable locking means keeps the first shielding member pivoted closed over top of the second shielding member so the case cannot accidentally open, and shields contactless smartcards contained inside the card pocket assemblies from being powered up by an RFID reader, while also preventing the cards from sliding out of the case. |
| US07918323B2 |
Magnetic resistor control assembly
A magnetic resistor control assembly for a body training machine comprises a main shaft; a rotor, a stator, an adjusting unit, a sliding block set and a controller. An inner disk and an outer disk clamp of the stator clamping the adjusting unit. The sliding block set has guide tracks, an outer lateral wall of each guide track having a track trench. A lower middle portion of the sliding block set has a round hole; the roller being installed and rollable in the guide track; and the retaining rod of the roller is placed within the track trench. A controller is installed at an outer side of the stator; the controller having a transfer pin which displace in the straight grooves. When the transfer pin drives the sliding block set to move in the straight grooves, the gap between permanent magnets and the magnetic isolation ring is changed. |
| US07918321B2 |
Control system for elevators
A control system for elevators is provided with a landing call registration device provided at each of landing floors so as to be operable thereat, a landing call automatic registration portion for setting that one of the landing floors at which the landing call registration device is operated as a car call floor and registering a car call to stop one of cars at the car call floor, a response selection portion for selecting that one of elevator apparatuses which responds to a registered car call as a selected elevator, a passenger traveling time period calculation portion for setting that one of elevator doorways of the selected elevator which is provided at the car call floor as a selected doorway and calculating a passenger traveling time period corresponding to the selected doorway, and an opening/closing control portion for controlling the opening/closing operation of the selected doorway based on information from the selected elevator and information from the passenger traveling time period calculation portion. When the selected doorway is already in a door-open state at the time of registration of the car call, the opening/closing control portion continues to hold the selected doorway in the door-open state until the passenger traveling time period elapses after registration of the car call. |
| US07918315B2 |
Differential transmission with cleaning feature
A limited slip differential transmission of the closed type in which a pressurized lubricant is fed to the rotating gears and a series of limited slip clutch plates. The clutch plates are engaged by pressurized control fluid. A valve assembly having a spool valve is responsive to engagement pressure to permit discharge of a portion of pressurized fluid from the clutch plates to a sump chamber and the transmission to purge debris that may have accumulated in the clutch plates. The spool valve is arranged so that fluid is passed only during an intermediate movement of the valve to minimize any pressure loss from the lubricating fluid for the transmission and limited slip clutches. |
| US07918308B2 |
Sound and vibration transmission pad and system
The present invention is directed to a pad and sound transmission system which is adapted to directly transmit audible sound waves into the body at high intensity levels. In one embodiment, the subject invention includes a back pad and a seat pad. Each pad includes a speaker module having an acoustic speaker disposed within the pad and surrounded by a plurality of different layers. |
| US07918307B2 |
Accelerated weight drop for use as a seismic energy source and a method of operation thereof
The present invention provides an accelerated weight drop for use as a seismic energy source, a method for operating an accelerated weight drop for use as a seismic energy source, and a seismic survey system including the accelerated weight drop. The accelerated weight drop, among other elements, may include a striker positionable over a surface, a compressed gas spring configured to drive the striker toward the surface thus creating seismic waves within the surface, and a cushioning means positioned proximate the compressed gas spring for dissipating reflected energy. In this embodiment the striker is slidably coupled to the compressed gas spring. |
| US07918302B2 |
Seat apparatus
A seat apparatus includes a seat adapted to be arranged on a floor of a vehicle, a motor driving the seat to move, and a control unit supplying electric power to the motor by controlling a duty ratio with duty cycle control. The control unit determines an initial start-up time in which the duty ratio is defined as a first duty ratio over a period between the time the motor is started up after being powered by the control unit and the time before the seat driven by the motor starts moving. The control unit reduces the duty ratio when the initial start-up time elapses and sets the duty ratio to a second duty ratio smaller than the first duty ratio when the seat starts moving. |
| US07918299B2 |
Rear suspension of snow vehicle
A rear suspension of a snow vehicle is provided with a slide rail which guides a track belt. The slide rail is made of metal and formed by extrusion. A bent portion is provided on an end of the slide rail to extend to a tip end thereof with a position toward the end being a starting point of bending. A projection, to which one end side of a torque arm supporting a vehicle body is connected, is arranged toward the end of the slide rail so as to project upwards. The projection includes a bracket provided separately from the slide rail and the starting point of bending is positioned in a length range of the projection. |
| US07918298B2 |
Bi-directional ice-particle spray generating device for snow vehicles
A bi-directional ice-particle spray generating device for use on snow vehicles is disclosed which is primarily constructed of multi-strand wire rope. The use of wire rope as a spring member allows for 360 degree flexibility to enable the design to be compatible with reverse-gear-equipped snow vehicles. A replaceable wear point or points is integral in the design for added durability. |
| US07918297B2 |
Body and front axle bearing for a motor vehicle
A motor vehicle chassis and a water-cooled internal combustion engine attached thereto has a cooling system comprising coolant-conducting pipes least one radiator element, and a coolant pump produces forced flow in the cooling circuit. A portion of the cooling pipe system as a distributor pipe module is attached to the vehicle's axle support. |
| US07918291B2 |
Spring preloaded bearing assembly and well drilling equipment comprising same
A well drilling head comprises a housing and a bearing assembly. The housing has a sidewall structure defining a central bore. The bearing assembly includes an outer barrel, an inner barrel, bearing units and a preload force exerting member. The outer barrel has a central bore and the inner barrel is removably seated within the housing central bore. The bearing units are coupled between the barrels for providing concentric alignment of the barrels and allowing rotation therebetween. A first one of the bearing units is configured for carrying loads exerted radially between the barrels and a second one of the bearing units is configured for carrying loads exerted longitudinally between the barrels. The preload force exerting member maintains force on the longitudinal load carrying bearing unit and said barrels thereby preloading the longitudinal load carrying bearing unit. |
| US07918289B2 |
Method of completing a well with sand screens
A method for drilling and completing a wellbore that includes drilling a wellbore through a subterranean formation with a wellbore fluid, the wellbore fluid comprising: a base fluid; and micronized weighting agent; and disposing a sand screen in an interval of the wellbore with the wellbore fluid is disclosed. |
| US07918288B2 |
Drill bits with enclosed fluid slots and method
Core drill bits with long crown heights are described herein. The core drill bits have a series of slots or openings that are not located at the tip of the crown and are therefore enclosed in the body of the crown. The slots may be staggered and/or stepped throughout the crown. As the cutting portion of the drill bit erodes through normal use, the fluid/debris notches at the tip of the bit are eliminated. As the erosion progresses, the slots become exposed and then they function as fluid/debris ways. This configuration allows the crown height to be extended and lengthened without substantially reducing the structural integrity of the drill bit. |
| US07918281B2 |
Method of treating flow conduits and vessels with foamed composition
The annular surface between the tubing and casing of an oil or gas well as well as flow conduits and vessels may be contacted with a foamed treatment composition containing a gas, a foaming agent and a treatment agent. The treatment agent may be an inhibitor or removal agent for scales, corrosion, salts, paraffins or asphaltenes. The foam, upon destabilization, renders a thin film of concentrated treatment agent on the external surfaces of the tubing, inside the casing and in the perforations of the oil or gas well or on the flow conduits or vessels. |
| US07918276B2 |
System and method for creating a gravel pack
A technique is provided for forming a gravel pack at a well zone. A completion assembly is positioned in a wellbore and cooperates with a service tool engaging the completion assembly. The completion assembly comprises a completion assembly central bore. A return is located radially outward of the central bore at a specific well zone or zones and comprises a flow path for returning a carrier fluid. The location of the return allows flow of the returning carrier fluid to remain outside of the completion assembly central bore at a specific well zone or zones. |
| US07918271B2 |
Method and apparatus to provide electrical connection in a wellhead for a downhole electrical device
Wellhead assembly and method for providing a power connection to a downhole electrical device, such as a heater. Pressure-containing wellhead body members enclose a vertical wellbore and support therein an isolated tubing hanger and a grounding tubing hanger. The isolated tubing hanger suspends a conducting tubing string, while the grounding tubing hanger suspends a grounding tubing string concentrically spaced from the conducting tubing string. The isolated tubing hanger has an outer housing, an inner electrically conducting portion supported by the outer housing operative to provide electrical connection with, and suspend, the conducting tubing string, and insulation between the housing and conducting portion to electrically isolate the housing portion. Hot electrical connection is made for electrical connection to the conducting portion of the isolated tubing hanger or the conducting tubing string. Electrical isolation seals and electrically isolates the hot electrical connection from the wellhead body members. Grounding connection is provided to a wellhead body member. A source of current provides a first connection to the hot electrical connection and a second connection to the grounding connection. |
| US07918266B2 |
Heat exchanger
An evaporator 1 includes a refrigerant inlet header section 5 and a refrigerant outlet header section 6 which are arranged in the front-rear direction, a refrigerant circulation passage for establishing fluid communication between the header sections 5 and 6. First ends of the header sections 5 and 6 are closed with a first cap 19 and the second ends thereof are closed with a second cap 18. A refrigerant inlet 37 and a refrigerant outlet are formed in the first cap 19. A pipe joint member 21, having a refrigerant inflow port 45 communicating with the refrigerant inlet 37 and a refrigerant outflow port 46 communicating with the refrigerant outlet 38, is joined to the first cap 19. Mating concave portions 19a and 19b are formed on the first cap 19. Mating convex portions 21a and 21b which project toward the first cap 19 and which are to be fitted into the mating concave portions 19a and 19b, respectively, are formed on the pipe joint member 21. The second cap 18 has no mating concave portions into which the mating convex portions 21a, 21b are fitted. The evaporator (1) to which the heat exchanger of the present invention is applied can prevent erroneous attachment of the pipe joint member during manufacture thereof. |
| US07918254B2 |
Method and apparatus for creating designs on surfaces
A method for creating a design on a surface comprising providing a template to overlay the surface upon which the design is to be created, forming a pattern of the design on the template for the design which is to be created on the surface, placing the template with the pattern of the design thereon on the surface, with a tool, tracing the pattern of the design on the template to form an impression on the surface below the template and removing the template leaving the impression of the design on the surface. |
| US07918253B2 |
Veneer slicer
A method and apparatus for converting a flitch into sheets of veneer. The method and apparatus include providing a drive mechanism which causes relative motion of a knife in contact with the flitch. The relative motion is relatively slower during one part of the cutting stroke and is relatively faster during another part of the cutting stroke. |
| US07918247B2 |
Garden hose with backbone
An improved garden hose including an elongated generally cylindrical inner core being made of a first material, the inner core having an integrally formed backbone being made of a second material. The second material has a higher durometer than the first material. |
| US07918244B2 |
Microfluidic bubble logic devices
Fluid-based no-moving part logic devices are constructed from complex sequences of micro- and nanofluidic channels, on-demand bubble/droplet modulators and generators for programming the devices, and micro- and nanofluidic droplet/bubble memory elements for storage and retrieval of biological or chemical elements. The input sequence of bubbles/droplets encodes information, with the output being another sequence of bubbles/droplets or on-chip chemical synthesis. For performing a set of reactions/tasks or process control, the modulators can be used to program the device by producing a precisely timed sequence of bubbles/droplets, resulting in a cascade of logic operations within the micro- or nanofluidic channel sequence, utilizing the generated droplets/bubbles as a control. The devices are based on the principle of minimum energy interfaces formed between the two fluid phases enclosed inside precise channel geometries. Various devices, including logic gates, non-volatile bistable memory, ring oscillators, bubble synchronizers, analysis chips, and printers have been designed. |
| US07918242B2 |
Processing solution supply system, processing solution supply method and recording medium for storing processing solution supply control program
A processing solution pressurized at a constant pressure is supplied to improve processing accuracy. A controller receives a pressure signal indicating a measured pressure exerted on a processing solution from a pressure sensor, and controls an electropneumatic regulator on the basis of the pressure signal so that pressure on the discharge side of the electropneumatic regulator is constant. The controller decides whether the processing solution contained in a processing solution tank has been depleted on the basis of a difference between a desired pressure and the pressure measured by the pressure sensor, and switches pressurizing shut-off valves accordingly. |
| US07918238B2 |
Flow controller and its regulation method
A mass flow controller arranged to perform mass flow test operation in the controller itself by incorporating a test tank. The mass flow controller is provided, in a channel (6) for feeding fluid, with a means (8) for detecting the mass flow rate of fluid flowing through the channel and outputting a flow rate signal, and a mechanism (10) for controlling the mass flow rate by varying the valve opening by a valve drive signal. |
| US07918231B2 |
Tobacco articles and methods
Some embodiments of a tobacco article may include tobacco disposed in a porous matrix. The tobacco article may provide tobacco, tobacco constituents, or both tobacco and tobacco constituents to the consumer's mouth in the form of particles, liquid, or vapor so as to provide tobacco satisfaction to the consumer. In some circumstances, the tobacco may be integrally molded with a plastic material so that at least a portion of the tobacco is disposed in pores of the matrix. |
| US07918229B2 |
Method and device to inactivate and kill cells and organisms that are undesirable
A method, means, and apparatus to prevent and treat infections and disorders using germicidal light to inactivate and/or kill the organisms or cells that cause infections and other disorders. The method of treatment comprises irradiating the area to be treated using electromagnetic radiation of a germicidal nature. The method utilizes a previously unrecognized ability of germicidal light to penetrate the skin, nails, and other membranes sufficiently to successfully treat and prevent disorders. The electromagnetic radiation damages the organisms and cells that cause disorders such as skin and nail infections and renders them substantially incapable of reproducing. Without the ability to replicate the organism cannot continue to infest the skin and nails. The damage inflicted can also be sufficient to kill the organism outright. An infection is thereby prevented (if organisms are present, but infection has not yet begun), and the infection is cured if the infection already exists. |
| US07918228B2 |
Musculoskeletal repositioning device
Musculoskeletal repositioning devices are described. The devices are worn in the mouth and cause the lower jaw of the wearer to move into an active optimal position that relieves stress on the temporomandibular joint, causing increased muscular strength and decreased muscular tension. The devices have ramps on their upper surfaces which contact the upper posterior teeth and lingual anatomy and cause the jaw to reposition from a passive bite position to an active optimal bite position. A casting device for forming a musculoskeletal repositioning device and a method for using the casting device are also described. |
| US07918226B2 |
Method and system for detecting breathing tube occlusion
A method for identifying an occlusion in a breathing tube of a ventilator system is disclosed herein. The method includes obtaining data related to a respiratory signal, transferring the data to a processor, and implementing the processor to evaluate the data in a manner adapted to automatically identify the presence of an occlusion in the breathing tube. A corresponding ventilator system is also disclosed. |
| US07918224B2 |
Breathing air filtration system
A nasal air filtration device includes a pair of either planar or concave-convex filters, a support structure incorporating a pair of generally annular bases or sleeves for supporting the filters, and a bridge that couples the bases or sleeves to maintain them in a desired spaced-apart relation and to determine a desired angular relationship. The support structure is insertable into the nasal cavities to position the filters within corresponding nasal cavities. Flexible rims maintain the support structure and the filters in spaced-apart relation to the surrounding nasal wall. The rims conform to surrounding nasal tissue to form seals. The rims can be selectively inclined to facilitate insertion and resist accidental removal. In certain embodiments the device is combined with a filter that covers the mouth to provide an air filtration system. |
| US07918217B2 |
Exhaust gas check valve
Exhaust gas check valve with a movable valve element held by a plurality of return springs, an exhaust gas through-opening closable by the valve element, and a stop element delimiting the stroke of the valve element; in order to improve the service life of the check valve, damping means are provided in the check valve for bringing about a comparatively gentle breaking of the valve element when at the end of its stroke it approaches that position in which the check valve is fully open, the damping means comprising spring elements holding the stop element, and/or a gas space which, when the check valve is open, is defined and at least almost closed by the valve element and the stop element. |
| US07918216B2 |
Exhaust gas recirculation device
The invention relates to an exhaust gas recirculation device (5) for an internal combustion engine (1), especially in a motor vehicle, said device comprising an exhaust gas recirculation line (6) and an exhaust gas cooler (7) which is built into the exhaust gas recirculation line (6) and connected to a cooling circuit (8) operating by means of a liquid coolant. The exhaust gas recirculation cooler (7) comprises a cooler housing (9) which comprises at least one exhaust gas inlet (10), an exhaust gas outlet (11), a coolant inlet (12) and a coolant outlet (13), and through which a coolant flows. In order to be able to improve the adjustment of the cooling power, the exhaust gas recirculation cooler (7) contains, in the cooler housing (9) thereof, a first cooling tube arrangement (14) and a second cooling tube arrangement (15) which enables a larger heating flow between the exhaust gas and the coolant than the first cooling tube arrangement (14). |
| US07918208B2 |
Fuel supply apparatus
A movable portion is movable from a closed position, in which the movable portion is in contact with a valve element, to an opened position so as to supply fuel from a fuel portion to a compression chamber through a fuel passage. A drive control unit supplies of a small driving current, which is sufficient to maintain the movable portion at the closed position, to a coil portion so as to move the movable portion from the opened position to the closed position. The drive control unit switches the supply of the small driving current to supply of the large driving current in the course of the movement of the movable portion to the closed position by supplying the small driving current. |
| US07918206B2 |
Device for reducing soot emissions in a vehicle combustion engine
An internal combustion engine includes a combustion chamber, at least one intake port for directing intake air into the combustion chamber with no/low swirling; a piston with piston bowl, an injector with plurality of orifices arranged to inject fuel with high injection pressure to form spray plumes, each of the plurality of orifices having a central axis oriented at a positive spray angle sufficient to cause the spray/flame to impinge on a piston outer bowl section and a curvilinear shape of the outer bowl section is such that a reflection angle of the impingement of the central axis is positive during at least start of injection in order to increase balance between vertical upwardly directed and tangential movements of the spray/flame and to preserve mixing energy late in the combustion cycle for increased soot oxidation. |
| US07918204B2 |
Mounting bracket
In one implementation, a bracket includes a body having a first connection feature and a second connection feature each adapted to retain a separate portion of a component. The first connection feature is rotationally misaligned relative to the second connection feature so that a portion of the component is received in a first direction in the first opening and then the component is moved in a second direction to receive another portion in the second opening. In one form, the connection features include openings that are arranged such that one portion of the component is first slidably received in the first opening, and then the component is rotated generally about the portion received in the first opening so that another portion of the component can be received in the second opening. |
| US07918203B2 |
Motor oil heating system, product and method
A motor oil heating system for a vehicle comprising one or more solar panels comprised of one or more photovoltaic cells; one or more heaters thermally coupled to the motor oil, wherein the solar panels are electrically coupled to the heaters and power the heaters based on a voltage generated by the solar panel such that the heaters warm the engine oil. |
| US07918201B2 |
Variable valve mechanism for engine
A variable valve mechanism for an engine includes: a rocker shaft; a first rocker arm rotatably supported by the rocker shaft, for transmitting displacement of a first cam to a valve; a second rocker arm rotatably supported by the rocker shaft, for transmitting a displacement of a second cam to the valve; and a switching mechanism for switching a transmitting state and a non-transmitting state. The first rocker arm has a pair of first arm portions and a recess portion in which an upper end of the valve is inserted at an end portion of each of the first arm portions. The second rocker arm has a second arm portion disposed between the first arm portions. The first rocker arm is restricted from movement in an axis direction of the rocker shaft when an inner sidewall of the recess portion is in contact with the upper end of the valve. The second rocker arm is restricted from movement in the axis direction when the second arm portion is in contact with the first rocker arm. |
| US07918200B2 |
Sheet steel rocker arm
A rocker arm (1) made of thin-walled sheet steel which rocker arm is intended for a suspended arrangement together with other like rocker arms under a girder-like carrier (2) of a valve train of an internal combustion engine, the rocker arm having an inverted U-shaped profile, a support (7) for a gas exchange valve is formed on one end (6) of an underside (5) of a crossbar (4) of the rocker arm, an upper side (9) of the crossbar (4) is stamped in the region of the support (7) by a stamping and extrusion molding method toward the underside (5), so that an M-like cross-section with a longitudinal channel (10) formed on the upper side (9) is obtained and at its other end (11), the rocker arm (1) has a fork-shaped, open configuration and merges into a region (12) which is angularly bent towards the underside (5) and on which a roller (13) forming a cam contacting surface is arranged, said rocker arm (1) of this type possesses, among other things, an excellent stiffness, is simple to manufacture and has a small design height requirement. |
| US07918196B2 |
Vertical type engine
A vertical type engine includes: an engine body having a crank chamber and a cylinder bore; and a timing transmission chamber provided above the engine body and housing a timing transmission device that connects between a crankshaft and a cam shaft which are vertically placed, respectively, wherein a generator driven by the crankshaft is placed above the timing transmission device, and a breather chamber communicating with the crank chamber and an intake silencer box is provided between the generator and the crank chamber placed below the generator on the side opposite from the cam shaft with respect to the crankshaft. Hence, a vertical type engine that includes a breather chamber dedicated for gas-liquid separation and is compact can be achieved. |
| US07918194B2 |
Cooling device for vehicle
A cooling device for a vehicle is provided at a vehicle comprising an engine control unit which stops an engine due to establishment of engine stoppage conditions and restarts the engine due to establishment of engine restart conditions. The cooling device for a vehicle is able to cool a coolant within a heat exchanger for cooling by cooling wind, which is guided from an exterior of the vehicle, passing through the heat exchanger for cooling. Cooling by driving force of either one of an electric motor or the engine can be selected in accordance with preset conditions. |
| US07918189B2 |
Cattle handling system and method of installing same
A cattle handling system comprises a plurality of stall dividers positioned side by side and extending generally parallel to each other. Brackets for mounting the stall dividers are connected directly to a concrete slab and allow for connection of the stall dividers to the brackets in a one man operation without the need for embedding vertical members in the slab. The position of the brackets are located on the concrete slab by use of a mounting jig. The brackets may have a vertical adjustment allowing for an increase or decrease in the working height of the stall dividers. |
| US07918185B2 |
Animal-herd management using distributed sensor networks
Methods and systems are provided for monitoring a herd of animals. Each of multiple sensors are attached to one of the animals and is in peer-to-peer communication with another of the sensors to define a dynamically network arrangement of sensors. A base station is in communication with at least one of the sensors to access the networked arrangement of sensors. A central system is in communication with the base station and has instructions to monitor a position of the herd with data collected by the sensors. |
| US07918184B2 |
Liquid reservoir and bird feeder incorporating the same
A bird feeder generally in the form of hopper feeder (10) that is coupled with water reservoir (40). The hopper feeder (10) generally includes pole mount (12), hanger (14), seed silo (16), which is seated on platform (18), perches (19), roof (20), and lid (22). Silo (16) receives and holds bird seed, which is dispensed to the birds by way of feeding stations, such as feeding stations (24). Birds may alight on platform (18) adjacent to feeding stations (24) to feed on perches (19). Hopper (10) further provides drinking water to visiting birds, which is dispensed by water reservoir (40). |
| US07918177B2 |
Boat docking apparatus
A boat docking unit for small boats secures a boat to a dock structure without use of ropes, anchors or fenders. The unit has a pair of docking arms each having an elongated tubular housing, a telescoping member capable of telescoping movement within the housing. A pair of compression springs mounted in the housing in contact with the telescoping member dampens the wave force so as to restrict yaw of the boat docked at the pier. The docking arms pivotally secure the boat to the dock structure allowing a limited pitch motion of the boat. |
| US07918171B2 |
Threading device of sewing machine
A threading device of a sewing machine is provided. The threading device includes a threading hook which moves forward to enter an eye of a needle to catch a needle thread, and moves rearward with the needle thread being caught to insert the needle thread through the eye, a threading shaft which holds the threading hook, an operating member which is operated to move the threading shaft, a threading operation mechanism which transmits the movement of the threading shaft to the threading hook to move the threading hook back and forth, and a restricting device which makes the threading operation mechanism inoperable when the spreader mechanism is attached to the sewing machine main body, and makes the threading operation mechanism operable when the spreader mechanism is detached from the sewing machine main body. |
| US07918170B2 |
Servo driven quilter
A quilting machine has at least one needle and looper set for forming chain-stitched patterns on a thick multilayered material such as a mattress ticking, preferably a panel of the continuous web clamped stationary on a frame. The stitch forming elements are mounted on separate heads that move independently transversely relative to the panel on a bridge that moves longitudinally relative to the panel. The bridge is longitudinally moved by a servo and the heads are transversely moved on the bridge by separate linear servos. The needle and looper are each driven by a linear servo having an armature to which the element is directly fixed to reciprocate without intervening mechanical linkage assemblies. A controller drives the servos to chain-stitch patterns, differentially move the heads transversely to account for transverse needle deflection and to phase the needle and looper to compensate for longitudinal needle deflection. The controller determines or predicts needle deflection, either based on stored empirically determined data or optical sensing, and generates deflection compensation signals to drive the servos. |
| US07918169B2 |
Magnetic fabric retaining device
A device for use with an embroidery machine to hold an item or material to be embroidered between upper and lower hooping members, with the hooping members being secured to one another by use of a magnetic force, preferably with rare earth magnets, is disclosed. The magnets provide a solid, secure mating arrangement between the upper and lower hooping members as well as providing proper alignment of the hooping members. A ridge may be formed in at least one hooping member to securely retain the item or material to be embroidered. One hooping member has interchangeable arms for attaching the mating hooping members to different brands of embroidery machines. |
| US07918167B2 |
Extremely rapid reversible barrier and formation method
Barriers and methods of obstructing apertures. One embodiment provides a temporary barrier that includes a bag, a fluid source, and a shear thickening fluid. The bag is made of fabric and can expand (e.g. inflate) via the fluid source which is in communication with the bag. The shear thickening fluid permeates the fabric of the bag and has two states. In the first state the shear thickening fluid allows the fabric to be flexible. In the second state the shear thickening fluid causes the fabric to be inflexible. To cause the shear thickening fluid to transition to the second state a shear must be present in the shear thickening fluid. A material that is capable of reacting to form a gas may be in communication with the fluid source to provide a gas to expand the bag. A deflation valve may also be included in the barrier. |
| US07918161B2 |
Printing unit having a tubular blanket-changing throw-off configuration allowing the passage of a web of paper and corresponding printing press
A printing unit for printing a web of paper is provided. The printing unit includes a frame and an upper printing group and a lower printing group. The printing unit has at least one throw-on configuration and a blanket-changing throw-off configuration. The blanket cylinders are capable of each receiving at least one tubular blanket. The frame has, in at least one lateral wall, at least one opening to allow the passage of the tubular blankets. In the blanket-changing throw-off configuration, the blanket cylinder of the upper printing group has been moved upwards relative to the position which it occupies in the throw-on configuration and the blanket cylinder of the lower printing group has been moved downwards relative to the position which it occupies in the throw-on configuration, so that an adequate space is provided between the blanket cylinders to allow a web of paper printed by another printing unit to pass between them. |
| US07918156B2 |
Cold beverage dispenser
The invention presents a cold beverage dispenser which uses a heat exchanger to cool incoming water with a very cold closed loop of chilled coolant. Under control of a control system, the cooled water from the heat exchanger is mixed with uncooled in put water to regulate its temperature, then (if desired) carbonated. The regulated temperature water, optionally carbonated, is mixed with a liquid concentrate and dispensed at one or more dispensing stations. Preferably, the temperature, carbonation and strength of the dispensed beverage is controllable by the consumer. |
| US07918154B2 |
Pressure booster
In a pressure booster having a cylinder mechanism, a floating mechanism is disposed between pistons and a piston rod, the floating mechanism being capable of absorbing offset (off centered) loads that are imposed on the pistons from the piston rod. The floating mechanism is constituted from swing bolts connected to both ends of the piston rod, support plates mounted onto end surfaces of the pistons and which swingably support the swing bolts therein, and fixing plates disposed between the ends of the piston rod and the support plates. |
| US07918149B1 |
Machine slide tool assembly and a drive mechanism therefor
A machine slide tool assembly and a drive mechanism that includes a slide plate slideably mounted on guide members connected between opposed end supports and which slide plate is reciprocally driven by a drive assembly. The drive assembly includes a piston and cylinder arrangement disposed between the opposed end supports wherein a piston is displaceable within the cylinder by fluid pressure alternatively acting on the opposed ends of the piston, and which piston includes a gear wheel rotatably journaled thereto which is disposed in meshing relationship with a gear rack connected to the slide plate whereby the reciprocating motion of the piston is transmitted to the slide plate for enhancing the linear displacement of the slide plate relative to the linear displacement of the piston within its cylinder. |
| US07918148B2 |
Wire stripping knife
A wire stripping knife comprises a handle having one end provided with a hanging portion to be hung to a desired position, and the other end fixed with a blade. The end of the handle, which is fixed with the blade, is pivoted with a clamping member. One end of the clamping member, which is adjacent to the blade, is provided with different-sized stripping notches. The handle and the clamping member each are provided with engaging portions for mutual engagement. The distal end of the blade is formed with a cutting surface vertical to the cutting edge for cooperating with a guiding plate at one end of the clamping member to strip off the insulation more quickly with high safety. |
| US07918147B2 |
Removal device for pour top spouts
A removal device for removing an internal seal from a pour top spout, which includes a body having a curved central portion disposed between a first end portion and a second end portion that forms an included angle of less then one hundred and eighty degrees therebetween. At least a portion of the body has a cross section substantially formed in a shape of a closed plane curve and the outer surface of the body is dimensioned to fit within the opening of the ring of the internal seal of the pour top spout along the entire length of the body. |
| US07918146B2 |
Multi-path rotary wing aircraft gearbox
A multi-path split torque gearbox system provides a multiple of three stage torque split power gear trains modules that each transmits torque from a high-speed engine to a main rotor shaft (36). The first stage bevel gear arrangement (30,32) provides a compact packaging arrangement that facilitates various engine mounting locations in all axes. At the second stage, quill shaft assemblies (40) provide equal load balance. At the third stage, each quill shaft assembly includes a multiple of pinion gears (48) in meshing engagement with the final output gear (28). Each torque split modules transfer the power from the high speed input shaft into a multiple of meshing engagements with the final output gear to provide significant torque transfer desired in a single rotor heavy lift rotary wing aircraft embodiment within a compact housing package. |
| US07918145B1 |
Combination shift and brake lever arrangement for a bicycle
A combination shift and brake lever arrangement for a bicycle, includes a single lever. A braking arrangement mounts the single lever for movement in a first pivoting direction to perform a braking operation, and a first shifting arrangement mounts the single lever for movement in a second different pivoting direction. A shift control mechanism controls shifting of gears of the bicycle in a first shifting direction upon movement of the single lever in the second pivoting direction. A second shifting arrangement mounts at least a portion of a reverse shifting lever for linear movement in a first linear direction. A reverse control changes over the shift control mechanism to control shifting of the gears of the bicycle in a second opposite shifting direction upon linear movement of the at least a portion of the reverse shifting lever in the first linear direction. |
| US07918143B2 |
Platform balance
The present disclosure is directed to a platform balance that is suitable for transmitting forces and moments in a plurality of directions. The platform balance is adapted to support a test specimen, such as a large vehicle, in a test environment such as a wind tunnel. The platform balance includes a frame support and at least three spaced-apart transducers coupled to the frame support. Each of the transducers is sensitive about two orthogonal sensed axes. The transducers cooperate to provide signals indicative of forces and moments with respect to at least two orthogonal axes. Each transducer includes a transducer body having a support coupled to a sensor body along an axis of compliance. The sensor body is adapted to deflect about the two orthogonal sensed axes where the sensed axes are mutually orthogonal to the axis of compliance. |
| US07918137B2 |
Method for temperature compensation of a piezoresistive gaged metal diaphragm
There is described a temperature compensation scheme for a pressure sensitive metal diaphragm transducer. The transducer employs a Wheatstone bridge fabricated from p-type piezoresistors. The Wheatstone bridge is glassed directly onto the metal diaphragm. As the temperature of operation increases, the diaphragm exhibits a temperature variation of the Modulus of Elasticity. The Modulus of the metal diaphragm decreases with increasing temperature. Because of this, the same pressure applied to the metal diaphragm causes it to deflect further, which in turns causes increased strain applied to the bridge. Because of this effect, the sensitivity of the transducer increases with increasing temperature. A resistor is now placed in series with the Wheatstone bridge. The resistor is in series with the biasing voltage and because the TCS of the diaphragm is of an opposite sign, the series resistor has an even higher TCR in series with the bridge. In this manner, the bridge voltage is made to decrease with increasing temperature. Due to the fact that the bridge voltage decreases with increasing temperature the change in voltage compensates for the change in the Modulus of the metal diaphragm and therefore provides an accurate output at all temperatures. |
| US07918129B2 |
Diagnostic systems for cooling systems for internal combustion engines
A control system for an engine system includes a temperature sensor and a diagnostic module. The temperature sensor measures an outlet temperature at an outlet of a cooling system. The diagnostic module estimates the cooling fluid temperature, determines the cooling performance based on the outlet temperature and the cooling fluid temperature, and selectively diagnoses a fault in the cooling system based on the cooling performance and a predetermined threshold. |
| US07918128B2 |
Fuel injector with electric shield
A fuel injector for an internal combustion engine is provided. The fuel injector is equipped with a fuel pressure sensor, a sensor circuit such as an amplifier, and a valve actuator such as a piezoelectric actuator. The fuel injector also includes a conductive shield which is disposed between the sensor circuit and actuator drive terminals to supply electric power to the actuator and works to shield the sensor circuit from electric noises arising from the drive terminals, thereby minimizing the addition of the noises to an output of the fuel pressure sensor, as being processed in the sensor circuit, and ensuring the accuracy in determining the pressure of fuel based on the output of the fuel pressure sensor. |
| US07918127B2 |
Test method for the determination of an oil separation tendency of lubricating greases and test device for carrying out the same
The invention relates to a test method and a test device for the determination of an oil separation tendency of lubricating greases under pressure load. In the method, a predetermined test pressure is applied to a test volume (2) filled with lubricating grease (27) over a predetermined test period (32), the lubricating grease (27) of the test volume (2) is contacted with an oil absorption or oil separation element (11), and the change of the test volume (2) is detected on the basis of an absorption or separation of oil (29) separated from the lubricating grease (27) by the oil absorption or oil separation element (11) at the end of the test period (32). To be able to estimate the oil separation tendency of lubricating grease more exactly, in the method according to the invention, the time history of the change of the test volume (2) representative of the oil separation is detected over the test period (32). |
| US07918125B2 |
Methods and devices to test diffusion rates of ocular drug delivery systems
Methods of detecting the discharge and uptake rates of ophthalmic lenses containing pharmaceutical agents are disclosed herein. |
| US07918120B2 |
Die cushion control device
A die cushion controller controls an ascending/descending speed of a die cushion pad based on a preset pressure pattern and positional pattern. A position/pressure control switching unit constantly monitors and compares a first speed command signal υpc corresponding to a pressure deviation signal ep and a second speed command signal υhc corresponding to a position deviation signal eh, and selects a smaller one of the speed command signals to be sent to a speed control unit. |
| US07918118B2 |
Method of using an electromagnetic forming machine to hem a plurality of panels to form a panel assembly
A method of using an electromagnetic forming machine to hem a panel assembly includes providing an inner panel and an outer panel. The outer panel has a plurality of flanges and a plurality of relief areas. An electric forming machine is provided having a coil for discharging electric energy to generate a magnetic field. The inner panel is positioned such that portions of the outer edge of the inner panel are aligned with the flanges of the outer panel to form a loose assembly of panels. The loose assembly of panels is positioned proximate the electromagnetic forming machine such that the coil surrounds the flanges and is disposed substantially coplanar with a plane formed by the relief areas. The electromagnetic forming machine is activated to generate a magnetic field causing the flanges to bend over. |
| US07918117B2 |
Fastener shield device for locks
A lock assembly including a housing, a fastener that has a head, a lock member that is movable between a first position and a second position, and a barrier that is movably disposed within the housing. The barrier is displaceable between a first position at which the barrier at least partially covers the fastener head, and a second position at which the fastener head is generally accessible. The barrier is coupled with the lock member such that the barrier displaces from the barrier first and second positions when the lock member displaces between the lock member first and second positions. |
| US07918116B2 |
Deadbolt lock knob restrictor
A deadbolt knob restrictor used to prevent the rotation of the inside knob on the deadbolt lock. The restrictor includes a ring member designed to fit between the cover plate located on the inside surface of the door. Attached to the ring member are two perpendicularly aligned support arms with a pin-style hinge formed on their distal ends. Attached to the hinge is an L-shaped latch. Formed on the latch is a cam surface which presses against a spring loaded piston disposed between the cam surface and the support arm. The latch includes a long leg that may be disposed transversely over the ring member, and a short leg that may be placed adjacent to the wide surface of the deadbolt lock's turn knob to prevent its rotation. During assembly, the ring member is placed under the locks inside cover plate. During use the piston forcibly holds the latch in a locked or unlocked position against the turn knob. The latch may be rotated in the opposite direction so that the turn knob is free to rotate to the unlock position. |
| US07918106B2 |
Refrigeration system
A refrigerant circuit (15) is provided with a low-pressure stage oil separator (26) for separating refrigerating machine oil out of refrigerant discharged from a low-pressure stage compressor (21) and returning it to the suction side of the low-pressure stage compressor (21), and a high-pressure stage oil separator (36) for separating refrigerating machine oil out of refrigerant discharged from a high-pressure stage compressor (31) and returning it to the suction side of the high-pressure stage compressor (31). The efficiency of oil separation of the low-pressure stage oil separator (26) is set lower than that of the high-pressure stage oil separator (36). |
| US07918105B2 |
Ice making device and refrigerator having the same
An ice making device that is capable of more easily and conveniently separating ice from ice trays through a simple manipulation and a refrigerator having the same are disclosed. The ice making device includes a support frame for rotatably supporting at least one ice tray, at least one manipulation button mounted to the support frame such that the manipulation button can be moved forward and backward, and an interlocking unit for rotating the ice tray with respect to the support frame according to the movement of the manipulation button. |
| US07918103B1 |
Air flow comfort system
This is a device to provide airflow comfort to an individual while sleeping. It will be comprised in part by air flow that is provided by a fan. The air flow may be cooled. The air that is provided escapes through a series of holes on the top of the device. |
| US07918101B2 |
Outdoor unit of air conditioner
A front panel constituted by a synthetic resin molded product is used with respect to a base panel, side panels, and a top panel which are formed of a metal, first retaining means for the side panels and second retaining means for the top panel are provided on the front panel to effect fixation. |
| US07918100B2 |
Vehicular HVAC control systems and methods
Method for controlling a HVAC system in a vehicular compartment includes monitoring temperature of an occupant in the compartment from a location apart from the occupant, and controlling the HVAC system based on the monitored temperature. Occupant temperature may be monitored by infrared sensors, each arranged in an orientation to receive electromagnetic radiation from one or more seating locations in which occupants are likely to be situated. The temperature in each seating location is independently monitored. The HVAC system is controllable for each seating location based on the monitored temperature in that area. When monitoring of temperature in an area in which a driver of the vehicle is likely to be situated indicates presence of the driver, and no other areas indicate presence of a human occupant, the HVAC system is controllable such that all heat or air-conditioning provided by the HVAC system is directed to the driver. |
| US07918096B2 |
Refrigeration system
In a refrigerant circuit (11), a compressor (20) and an expander (30) are provided separately. An expander casing (34) is connected to a delivery pipe (26) of the compressor (20) and high pressure refrigerant passes through the inside of the expander casing (34). Therefore, the compressor casing (24) and the expander casing (34) are equalized in their internal pressure. An oil distribution pipe (41) for connection of an oil sump (27) of the compressor (20) and an oil sump (37) of the expander (30) is provided with an oil regulating valve (52). The oil regulating valve (52) is controlled in response to a signal outputted from an oil level sensor (51). When the oil regulating valve (52) is opened, the oil sump (27) within the compressor casing (24) and the oil sump (37) within the expander casing (34) fluidly communicate with each other whereby refrigeration oil travels through the oil distribution pipe (41). |
| US07918093B2 |
Mobile unit for cryogenic treatment
According to various embodiments, a portable cryogenic treatment system comprises a transportable housing. The transportable housing comprises a plurality of side walls, a front wall, a rear wall, a ceiling and a floor. The transportable housing includes a cryogenic liquid source and a cryogenic treatment chamber in fluid communication with the cryogenic liquid source. The cryogenic treatment chamber is configured to treat a treat able object using a cryogenic liquid. |
| US07918090B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling an internal combustion engine
In a control device for an internal combustion engine having a turbocharger with a variable turbo flow rate, and an intake valve provided with a variable valve mechanism, mirror cycle operation is performed. The control device includes a device which calculates an intake air quantity per unit time and an intake air quantity per cycle on the basis of torque required to the internal combustion engine. The turbocharger is controlled so that, with the calculated intake air quantity per unit time, supercharging pressure is further increased in a range in which the ratio of exhaust pressure to supercharging pressure is equal to or less than a predetermined value. A further device, which controls the variable valve mechanism on the basis of the supercharging pressure and the calculated intake air quantity per cycle. |
| US07918087B1 |
System for relocating and converting potential energy of water without dams
A water energy conversion system for convening the potential energy of water to electrical or mechanical energy, takes water at an inlet (105) from a higher elevation source, through a conduit (110) to a lower location. Then a riser (120) conveys the water up to nearly the same elevation it had at the inlet. The riser acts as a “virtual dam”, delivering the water with nearly the same head as a dam. The water from the riser is delivered to an energy converter (100) which comprises a loop raceway (130) which constrains and guides a plurality of carriage and disc assemblies (135) connected in a continuous train by links (155). An inlet (125) at the top of the energy converter receives the water where it falls downward through a jacket (140) that is constrained by the raceway (140). |
| US07918086B2 |
System and method for determining a NOx storage capacity of catalytic device
Performance characteristics of a catalytic device are determined based on a particle size of a particulate component of the catalytic device. In this way, aging of a catalytic device can be accounted for in the calculation of performance characteristics. |
| US07918083B2 |
Method of controlling air intake flow of an internal combustion engine, in particular for regenerating a nitric oxide adsorber
There is described a method of controlling air intake flow of an internal combustion engine (1), the method including the steps of calculating a reference airflow (AREF) as the sum of a feed-forward contribution (AFF), calculated as a function of the reference air/fuel ratio ((A/F)REF) to be obtained in the combustion chamber, and a feed-back contribution (AFB), calculated as a function of the oxygen concentration (% O2) of the exhaust gas; and closed-loop controlling the air intake flow of the engine so that it equals the reference airflow (AREF). |
| US07918082B2 |
Method and device intended for desulfation of a nitric oxide trap and regeneration of a particle filter
A method is intended for desulfation of a nitric oxide trap (22) and regeneration of a particle filter (24) arranged in an exhaust line (20) for treating exhaust gas from an internal-combustion engine (10), notably a Diesel engine. The saturation rate of the trap and the clogging rate of the filter are evaluated and, as soon as one of the rates reaches a threshold value, the fuel/air ratio of the exhaust gas is increased without it reaching a fuel/air ratio of 1, then desulfation of trap (22) is performed in association with regeneration of particle filter (24). |
| US07918080B2 |
Steerable multi-linked device having a modular link assembly
A steerable multi-linked device. The device includes a first multi-linked mechanism and a second multi-linked mechanism. At least one of the first and second multi-linked mechanisms is steerable and includes a modular link assembly at an end thereof. The modular link assembly includes a base, and a tip removably connected to the base. |
| US07918073B2 |
Floral easel
The present invention relates to an erectable and/or collapsible floral easel for holding a floral object, and more particularly but not by way of limitation, to an erectable or collapsible floral easel for holding a floral object. In one aspect, the present invention relates to a floral easel for holding and/or supporting a floral object. In yet another aspect, the present invention relates to methods of shipping a floral easel, methods of using a floral easel, methods of storing a floral easel, and methods of placing a floral object on a floral easel. |
| US07918071B2 |
Seal integrity for mailpiece envelopes
A method, system and article for producing an envelope having improved seal integrity. A method includes the steps of: disposing at least one material at the interface of the adhesive seal between the flap and the body portion of the envelope, which material radiates thermal energy when combined with an activating agent. The envelope is then sealed by closing the flap onto the body portion of the envelope and combining the material with the activating agent at the sealing interface so as to change the thermal energy radiated therefrom. The seal is then inspected to determine whether the thermal energy radiated from the activated material has changed thereby confirming that a seal has been produced between the flap and body portion of the envelope. The system and article are directed to the various modules of a mailpiece fabrication system employed to produce the mailpiece including an inspection module for confirming that a seal has been formed. |
| US07918069B2 |
Baler with wrapping arrangement for enveloping a bale with an enveloping material
Providing in conjunction with a large round baler is a wrapping arrangement for enveloping a large round bale with an enveloping material. The wrapping arrangement includes a propulsion element, preferably a propulsion roll, that withdraws the enveloping material from a supply, preferably in the form of a roll, and a clutch arrangement effectively connected to the propulsion element. The clutch arrangement is arranged to maintain the force acting upon the enveloping material generally at a constant level once the enveloping material is grasped by the bale during the wrapping process. |
| US07918067B2 |
Grating system with enhanced see-through characteristics
A grating system provides enhanced see through characteristics and typically includes longitudinal deep bars, axial crossbars, axial filler bars between the crossbars and longitudinal joining bars which join the crossbars and filler bars to one another. The deep bars are part of a first subassembly and the other bars are part of a second subassembly which may be lowered to join the two subassemblies to one another. The crossbars and filler bars are seated on the deep bars with the crossbars typically within upwardly opening notches formed in the deep bars. The joining bars are typically above and aligned with the deep bars. The upper surfaces of the crossbars and filler bars are usually substantially flush with one another. The grating system is configured to support vehicular and pedestrian traffic. |
| US07918066B1 |
Concrete vapor barrier integrity system
The present invention provides a device and method to maintain the integrity of a vapor barrier for use with concrete slab on grade construction. In accordance with the present invention an apparatus to repair a punctured concrete slab vapor barrier includes a substantially planar concrete slab vapor barrier patch having a resealable aperture to receive a removable, substantially upright support. The patch is secured to the existing vapor barrier and the concrete is poured and substantially set. The support is removed and the malleable concrete flows, causing the engagement of the resealable aperture, thereby repairing the punctured vapor barrier. |
| US07918065B2 |
Fastening member and external wall construction structure using the same
A fastening member which can fix with sufficient strength siding boards whose lateral joint portions are disposed in a portion where no vertical member is provided and prevent displacement in the vertical direction, is capable of ensuring a ventilation space without using furring strips and has excellent durability, and an external wall construction structure using the same are provided. A fastening member 1 has a long fixing plate portion 11 which is fixed to at least one vertical member 21. On the front surface of the long fixing plate portion 11, a first fastening portion 12 for supporting and engaging the upper end portion in the lateral joint portions 39 of a siding board 3 and the lower end portion of the siding board thereabove, a vertical rising portion 13 for preventing displacement disposed in the lateral joint portions below the first fastening portion 12, and a second fastening portion 14 for engaging the upper end portion of the siding board in the portion other than the lateral joint portions 39 and supporting and engaging the lower end portion are provided. Each fastening portion is provided with a ventilating spacer between itself and the long fixing plate portion 11, thereby ensuring a sufficient ventilation space. |
| US07918061B2 |
Modular basement air circulation and finishing system
A seamless wall finishing system has a plurality of wall panels which are spaced apart from an exterior wall. The spacing creates an air gap which provides an airflow passage between the exterior wall and the second surface of the wall panels. The wall panels have a mold resistant non-organic thread or yarn wall covering which is adhered to a central portion of a first surface of each of the wall panels. The wall panels define a pair of uncovered areas on opposite sides of each of the plurality of wall panels. A vertically extending seam is created between adjacent wall panels which is filled with a seam tape made from the mold resistant nylon yarn wall covering. An air circulation system is provided for circulating air behind the wall panels. A method of assembling the modular basement wall finishing system is also provided. |
| US07918060B2 |
Under-plank for watertight balcony sub-floor system
The present invention relates to a watertight sub-floor system for balcony or roof, in the form of a semi-rigid rollable plank of corrugated polymeric type installed in juxtaposition to form a waterproof flooring between boards and beams. Under-plank are unwrapped and cut at a desired length to avoid transverse junction with respect to water flow. Under-planks overlap parallel to water flow without loss of sealing. The corrugated under-plank has a design of crests and dips, crests widened and sloping to make possible the receiving of screws from deck board, thereby permitting the descent of water trickling from around the damaging screwing of the under-plank, and dips which bear no perforations from screwing and merely allow water to run off to protect wood structures of patios, balconies or terraces against moisture causing premature rot and to protect objects (bike, mowers . . . ) under a deck. |
| US07918059B2 |
Pedestal for ballast block decking
A deck system and pedestal for use in forming an elevated surface are provided. The pedestal for supports blocks, pavers, tiles, or panels a spaced distance above an underlying surface. The pedestal has a base, a reinforcement wall, a support, and a coupler with a flange. The base is at a lower end of the pedestal and has a plate extending outward from a post. The reinforcement wall extends between the plate and the post and has a first eyelet formed therein. The support is located at an upper end of the pedestal for supporting the blocks, pavers, tiles, or panels thereon. It is adjustably mounted relative to the base for altering an overall height of the pedestal. The coupler, having a flange is adjustably located between the support and the base for further altering the overall height of the pedestal. A plurality of spaced-apart second eyelets extend through the flange. |
| US07918057B2 |
Modular floor tile system with sliding lock
The present invention provides floor tiles and modular floors. The floor tiles may include a locking system that allows adjacent tiles to interlock, while also permitting a predetermined amount of lateral sliding relative to one another. The modular tiles may be injection molded, and a minor change in the mold facilitates variation to the amount of lateral slide allowed between interlocked tiles. The floor tiles may also provide three layers of traction, providing more sure footing than previous flooring systems. In addition, the floor tiles may comprise a two-tier suspension system that yields a flex or spring-like effect. |
| US07918055B2 |
Construction spacer
The present invention is related to spacers that can create fluid flow space at a variety of structural interfaces, particularly in building construction. The spacers of the present invention include unique hinges that can physically couple one panel of the spacer to another panel of the spacer in a manner that substantially distortionally separates the two panels. Preferred embodiments include a folded hinge having at least two folds. The spacers of the present invention also include unique panel dimples that help control the rigidity of the panel. In preferred embodiments, elongated dimples are used to help control rigidity. |
| US07918051B2 |
Tomato growing system
A plant growing kit, primarily for growing climbing plants such as tomatoes, is contained in a flat box approximately the shape of a pizza box. In preferred embodiments three legs are included, broken down into sections in the box and directable into a sturdy tripod, over which a flexible vine-attachment element, such as a wire or thin tubular member or plastic coil, is assembled preferably in a tapered helical configuration. Also in the box is a basket, in flattened condition but erectable into a deep configuration and with provision for attachment to the legs, near their bottom ends, the basket being configured to contain a bag of soil, which may remain in the bag. The consumer provides drainage holes in the bag and an opening at top for the plants to grow and to climb up on the tripod and vine-attachment element. With a water-catching saucer under the bag and basket, the directed plant growing assembly can be placed in any desired location, including inside a building. |
| US07918050B2 |
Method and apparatus for extermination of pests
An extermination device for exterminating pests includes a holder, trigger mechanism and a resilient ring mounted on the holder. When a pest actuates the trigger mechanism, the ring is released from the holder onto the pest, thereby killing the pest in a humane manner. A cover may be provided to protect the trigger mechanism from dirt and animals larger than target pest size. A loading device having a tapering body adapted to allow a resilient ring to be expanded from the narrow end to the wide end of the tapering body, wherein the wide end includes a formation adapted to engage with a holder of an extermination device. |
| US07918048B2 |
Moon clip server
A revolver cartridge assembly storing device, that sequentially delivers cartridge assemblies to a consistent point for extraction. The device consists of a guide rail suspended by its ends on a mainframe which is mounted to a user's torso. The cartridge assemblies sit on said guide rail where they are propelled by a means of force to either a left or right extraction point. There they may be freely retrieved to augment the reloading of the revolver. |
| US07918045B2 |
Wristband with slotted identity tag
A cushioned wristband includes a carrier having a multi-layered band portion and a strap sewn to the back of the band portion of the carrier. The band has a surface with loop material and the strap has a surface of hook material, the hook and loop surfaces being intended to secure the band in place as it is wrapped about a patient's appendage. The strap is appropriately sized to insert through one or both of two cinch slots of a self-laminating hang tag which may be printed with patient information and separated from a sheetlet or page sized business form processed through a printer for imaging of patient information thereon. The band portion of the carrier includes a cushioned layer of soft foamy or spongy material for contacting a patient's skin to thereby substantially eliminate any possibility for abrasion, rash, or other irritation or injury to the patient through wearing of the wristband. |
| US07918044B2 |
Tensioned fabric trade show display
A portable display apparatus is disclosed, which includes a flexible frame and a tensioned fabric having a perimeter hem, such that the tensioned fabric is maintained by the flexible frame and integrated with the perimeter hem in order for the tensioned fabric to expand with the flexible frame to produce a display area and reduce with the flexible frame for ease of transport. |
| US07918043B2 |
Scent releasing picture changer
An aroma visual message carrier is shaped into a card device for carrying multisensory messages to deliver two interchangeable images with a scent releasing mechanism linked to the very act of image change by a recipient. The carrier comprises an image changing frame including a still image member with a first image printed on it and a sliding image member with a second image print partially interlaced with the still image member so that a manual sliding action of the still image member brings the two images interchangeably fade in and out laterally through each other. The still image member has a deposit of scent material formed rearward of its visual side, and the sliding image member has at least one rough surface area on its visual side directly facing the scent deposit of the still image member to scratch and release the scent material to ambiance for the recipient to smell and see a creation of multisensory messages of the images and scent on the spot and; a medium holder adapted to be folded rearward of the visual side of the still image member of the image changing frame. The medium holder has a planar pocket for storing an electronic medium, which may be accessed at a later time through an electronic player to present data supplementary to the multisensory messages. |
| US07918040B2 |
Drier installation for drying web
A drier installation (1) for drying web (2), more particularly paper, which installation is provided for drying a maximum web width, the installation (1) comprises gas-heated radiant elements (3) for radiating the web, arranged according to at least one row (4) stretching out in the transversal (5) direction over the substantially entire maximum web width. The installation (1) comprises at least a transversal convective system (7, 36) equipped with suction and blowing devices (8) for sucking at least part of the combustion products produced by the radiant elements (3) by means of a suction duct (13) and for blowing this pa o the combustion products towards the web (2) by means of a blowing duct (14). Both suction (13) and blowing (14) ducts stretch out in the transversal (5) direction of the web (2). The convective system (7, 36 comprising at least a mixing device (12, 22, 28, 37, 46) installed opposite of the passing web (2) in relation to corresponding suction (13) and blowing (14) ducts and arranged so as to suck and/or blow the combustion products. The drier installation as subject of the present invention is characterized in that the vector average of the projections (V1, V2, V3, V5, V6, V7, V8) in a plane (P1) perpendicular to the web ( ) and stretching out in the transversal (5) direction of the web (2), has component (V4) parallel to the web (2) that is smaller than the maximum web width of the web (2), the vectors representing the respective trajectories of the different jets of sucked and/or blown combustion products. |
| US07918036B2 |
Surface shape measuring apparatus and surface shape measuring method
In a surface shape measurement device that measures the surface shape of a sample (W1, W2) by moving a probe (16, 26) in a sliding fashion along the surface of the sample (W1, W2) and thereby detecting the amount of displacement of the probe (16, 26) caused by irregularities on the surface, an initial amount of displacement is detected which is the amount of displacement of the probe (16, 26) when the probe is first placed in contact with a measurement start point on the surface of the sample (W1, W2), and the amount of displacement of the probe (16, 26), detected as it is moved in a sliding fashion along the surface, is compared with the initial amount of displacement to determine whether the probe (16, 26) has reached a measurement end point. |
| US07918033B2 |
Method for correcting the measured values of a coordinate measuring machine, and coordinate measuring machine
A coordinate measuring machine has a probe head, a calibrating body and an apparatus for recording and correcting measured values obtained by the probe head. A mechanical flexibility at predetermined points on the surface of the calibrating body is determined. The mechanical flexibility is stored in the apparatus in the form of a data record. The calibrating body is scanned point by point by means of the probe head in order to obtain the measured values. Thereafter, the probe head is calibrated by correcting the measured values using the data record. A similar approach can also be used on workpieces having a known mechanical flexibility. |
| US07918032B2 |
Ruler with abrasive edge
A ruler has a body with a forward surface and a side surface defining a straight line. An elongate member having an abrasive outer edge is positioned along the side surface. The abrasive edge assists in sharpening a cutting tool moved along the edge. |
| US07918029B2 |
Attachment comb for a hair clipper
An attachment comb for a hair clipper includes a base portion constructed and arranged for releasably engaging the hair clipper, and a plurality of teeth extending from the base portion, each of the teeth including a body portion defined between an upper peripheral edge and a lower peripheral edge, a proximal end adjacent the base portion and a distal end opposite thereof, wherein the body portion includes at least one formation for retaining hair. |
| US07918027B2 |
Razor head
The present invention relates to razor heads and further to razors which include razor heads as defined. In one aspect of the invention the razor heads comprise at least one blade defining a plurality of cutting edges. The cutting edges are arranged to intercept at at least one point at which at least one angle of less than ninety degrees (90°) is formed between the cutting edges. This arrangement enables the cutting edges to impart cutting, sliding and rotary action onto hair being shaved. |
| US07918020B2 |
Method for manufacturing electroconductive material-filled throughhole substrate
Disclosed is a method for manufacturing an electroconductive material-filled throughhole substrate that is free from any void part in the electroconductive material filled into the throughholes. The method comprises forming an electroconductive base layer on one side of a core substrate having throughholes, and precipitating and growing an electroconductive material from one direction within the throughholes by electroplating using the electroconductive base layer as a seed layer to fill the electroconductive material into the throughholes without forming any void part and thus to manufacture an electroconductive material-filled throughhole substrate. |
| US07918015B2 |
Method for making a thin film resistor
A process for making a fluid ejector head for a micro-fluid ejection device. In one embodiment, the process comprises depositing a thin film resistive layer on a substrate to provide a plurality of thin film heaters. The thin film resistive layer comprises a tantalum-aluminum-nitride material consisting essentially of AlN, TaN, and TaAl alloys, and containing from about 30 to about 70 atomic % tantalum, from about 10 to about 40 atomic % aluminum and from about 5 to about 30 atomic % nitrogen. |
| US07918014B2 |
Method of manufacturing a CPP structure with enhanced GMR ratio
A CPP-GMR spin valve having a CoFe/NiFe composite free layer is disclosed in which Fe content of the CoFe layer ranges from 20 to 70 atomic % and Ni content in the NiFe layer varies from 85 to 100 atomic % to maintain low Hc and λS values. A small positive magnetostriction value in a Co75Fe25 layer is used to offset a negative magnetostriction value in a Ni90Fe10 layer. The CoFe layer is deposited on a sensor stack in which a seed layer, AFM layer, pinned layer, and non-magnetic spacer layer are sequentially formed on a substrate. After a NiFe layer and capping layer are sequentially deposited on the CoFe layer, the sensor stack is patterned to give a sensor element with top and bottom surfaces and a sidewall connecting the top and bottom surfaces. Thereafter, a dielectric layer is formed adjacent to the sidewalls. |
| US07918013B1 |
System for manufacturing a group of head gimbal assemblies (HGAs)
A system and method for the production level screening of low flying magnetic heads in the manufacture of disk drive head disk assemblies (HDAs) is disclosed. A test disk is provided and has a plurality of bumps extending from at least one surface thereof to a predetermined height between 2 and 12 nanometers. The test disk is rotated to fly a head of a head gimbal assembly selected from the group adjacent the surface of the test disk. An interaction of the head with one or more of the plurality of bumps may be sensed and the head gimbal assembly may be screened out from the group in response to the sensing of the interaction. |
| US07918011B2 |
Method for providing radiopaque nitinol alloys for medical devices
A radiopaque nitinol medical device such as a stent for use with or implantation in a body lumen is disclosed. The stent is made from a superelastic alloy such as nickel-titanium or nitinol, and includes a ternary element selected from the group of chemical elements consisting of iridium, platinum, gold, rhenium, tungsten, palladium, rhodium, tantalum, silver, ruthenium, or hafnium. The added ternary element improves the radiopacity of the nitinol stent comparable to that of a stainless steel stent of the same and strut pattern coated with a thin layer of gold. The nitinol stent has improved radioplacity yet retains its superelastic and shape memory behavior and further maintains a thin strut/wall thickness for high flexibility. |
| US07918010B2 |
Method for making a radiopharmaceutical pig
A pharmaceutical pig is used to transport a syringe containing a liquid radiopharmaceutical from a radiopharmacy to a medical facility for administration to a patient. The pharmaceutical pig includes an elongate polymer cap that is removably attached to an elongate polymer base. The elongate polymer cap includes a cap shell that completely encloses a cap shielding element and the elongate polymer base includes a base shell that completely encloses a base shielding element. Preferably the polymer utilized for the cap shell and the base shell is polycarbonate resin, e.g., LEXAN®. An inner liner is not utilized and the cap shielding element and the base shielding element, which are preferably, but not necessarily, made of lead, are completely sealed and unexposed. |
| US07918008B2 |
Method of manufacturing column and bed of machine tool
A technique of easy manufacture of a column and a bed of a machine tool in a short time is provided by having an assembly structure of sheet metal members. A column body of the machine tool is constituted by combining a front member with a rear member 130 and mounting a side cover. Its inside is reinforced by a plurality of ribs 150, 160. Each of the members is made by precision laser machining of sheet plate materials. The column body is assembled by inserting projection portions provided on one member into slits formed on the other member. |
| US07917997B2 |
Device for attaching a tool to harness
Device for a portable engine powered tool that is carried by a hook secured to a harness or a strap in order to reduce the loads on the operator. The tool is attached to the hook by a loop (19) placed close to the center of gravity for the tool to facilitate the control of the operator. |
| US07917994B2 |
Hinge for a glass door
The present invention is to provide a hinge suitable for a glass door, having a roller actuating by a spring member and cooperating with a cylindrical surface and slots on the cylindrical surface to hold the glass door in the opened and closed positions, and to make the fluent opening and closing movement of the glass door. |
| US07917993B2 |
Dual display type portable computer and control method for the same
A dual display type portable computer can include a first unit having a first display module and a second unit rotatably coupled to the first unit having a second display module. At least one hinge unit can couple the first unit and the second unit with each other. The hinge unit can be coupled to corresponding positions of the first unit and the second unit to enable the first display module and the second display module to overlap each other or to be unfolded until they are placed in an equal plane. Preferably, at least one of the first display module and the second display module has a touch screen function. Preferably, the touch screen function can selectively change a language of a keyboard image. The first display module and the second display module can display different images or divided portions of one integrated image. |
| US07917992B2 |
Gutter cleaning vacuum system including a novel hinged vacuum manifold assembly
In various exemplary embodiments, the present invention provides a lightweight, maneuverable, thin-walled, transparent apparatus for use with a heavy-duty vacuum system for quickly and easily collecting and storing large volumes of bulky debris, thereby reducing the time needed for cleanup. The present invention also provides an improved vacuum manifold assembly that may be used in conjunction with various gas and electric blower/vacuum motors, both novel and conventional. The present invention further provides various gutter cleaning and other tools that may be used in conjunction with such a vacuum system. The gutter cleaning vacuum system including the improved hinged vacuum manifold assembly of the present invention has sufficient power and is designed such that the various gutter cleaning and other tools are effective, suction-wise, at great distances from the unit, such that an operator may use the gutter cleaning and other tools at great distances over his/her head, for example. |
| US07917989B2 |
Mop system, wringer device and mop
The invention relates to a mop (1) comprising a mop-head plate (2) for a mop cover (3). The mop-head plate (2) comprises a first connector (4), which can be connected to at least one second connector (5) of a wringer device (6) in order to wring out the mop cover (3). The invention also relates to a wringer device (6) for a mop (1) comprising a mop-head plate (2) for a mop cover (3), said plate having two folding mop-head plate parts (7, 8). Said wringer device (6) comprises a funnel-shaped wringer compartment (22). The mop cover (3) can be introduced into said compartment from above and compressed by actuating the wringer device, when the mop-head plate parts (7, 8) are in an essentially vertical position and said cover is partially detached and suspended from said parts. The opposing transversal surfaces (10, 11) of the mop-head plate parts (7, 8) form compression surfaces. The wringer device (6) comprises a lever unit (23) with the second connector (5), said lever unit consisting of an actuating lever (24) and a pressure lever (25) that is connected to the actuating lever (24). The pressure lever (25) forms the second connector (5) and can be connected to the first connector (4). |
| US07917987B2 |
Air-injection type tool for scrubbing off the dirt on a body
The present invention discloses an air-injection type tool for scrubbing off the dirt on a body including: an air-retaining body 2 formed of an elastic material expandable in an air-injection manner, the air-retaining body 2 having a scrubbing towel 40 encompassed on the external surface thereof; a disc-like support body 4 disposed at the inside of the air-retaining body 2 and having a cylindrical coupling protrusion 6 formed at the top central portion thereof, the cylindrical coupling protrusion 6 having a piston A reciprocated therein such that the air generated by the reciprocating motion of the piston A is sent to the air-retaining body 2; and a cover body 12 adapted to be pressurized by a handle 18 screw-coupled with the coupling protrusion 6 of the support body 4 thus to come into close contact with the support body 4 such that the air-retaining body 2 is kept airtight. |
| US07917985B2 |
Wipes with hair and large particle pick-up capabilities
Wipes capable of picking up hair and other large particles, and methods of making same, are provided. A wipe includes a layer of netting material bonded to a substrate, and subsequently stretched via ring rolls such that strands of the netting material break and extend outwardly from the substrate to form teeth. The wipe may be impregnated with one or more chemical ingredients, such as cleaning solutions, soaps, antiseptics, surfactants, tackifying agents, antimicrobial agents, detergents, bleaches, polishes, and facial cleansers. The wipe may be electrostatically charged. |
| US07917981B1 |
Methods of making adjustable air cushion insoles and resulting products
An inflatable inner sole for footwear has a flexible, inflatable enclosure with an inflation system that may includes an on-board air pump and a pressure relief valve. The inflatable enclosure may include a plurality of chambers that are independently adjustable by selectively adding or removing a gas from each chamber. The inflatable enclosure may also include a pressure gauge and an improved pressure relief valve sleeve with a spring seat. The inflatable enclosure may be formed with one or both of first and second sheets formed as contoured prefabricated sheets. Alternatively, the sheets may be flat sheets. A recess is formed in the sheets so that the recess extends out of a plane of intersection between the first and second sheets. The recess may be formed by causing a portion of the first and second sheets to bend out of the plane of intersection of the first and second sheets. |
| US07917980B2 |
Mattress design
A mattress embodying a foam encasement surrounding individually wrapped coils and lacking a barrier separating upholstery layers from the coil assembly. Border material is affixed to sidewalls forming the foam encasement and the upholstery layer is tacked to a base of the foam encasement. |
| US07917975B2 |
Controlled motion bed-frame positioning assembly
Our invention is related to a pop-up bed frame. Aspects of our invention include a bed-frame positioning assembly for raising and lowering an upper frame in a controlled manner. A bed-frame positioning assembly generally includes a set of scissor arms that is operatively coupled to a biasing member. Force exerted on the set of scissor arms by the biasing member either opens or closes the set of scissor arms, thereby either raising or lowering an upper frame coupled thereto. |
| US07921460B1 |
Rate limiting data traffic in a network
A network device coordinates with other devices in a network to create a distributed filtering system. The device detects an attack in the network, such as a distributed denial of service attack, and forwards attack information to the other devices. The devices may categorize data into one or more groups and rate limit the amount of data being forwarded based on rate limits for the particular categories. The rate limits may also be updated based on the network conditions. The rate limits may further be used to guarantee bandwidth for certain categories of data. |
| US07921459B2 |
System and method for managing security events on a network
A computer-implemented system for managing security event data collected from a computing network. The system employs an event managing software module that can reside on a computing network that is being monitored with security devices. The event managing software collects security event data from security devices located in the monitored computing network and can process the security event data. In processing the security event data, the event manager module can format the data and create manageable summaries of the data. The event manager also supports storage of the security event data and the results of any processing performed on the data. Security event data can be identified by the event manager for use in responding to a security event. |
| US07921458B2 |
Packet routing method, computer system, and computer product
A gateway receives from a file server a packet addressed to another gateway in the same alliance, and transfers the packet to the other gateway. The gateway transmits a packet to the file server via another gateway in the same alliance. Upon receiving a packet from another gateway in the same alliance, the gateway transfers the packet to a PPTP server. The PPTP server transmits a packet received from the file server to a gateway via a different gateway in the same alliance. |
| US07921451B2 |
Access authorization having embedded policies
A facility for receiving an embedded policy is provided. The facility checks an application program image for the presence of an embedded policy. If an embedded policy is detected, the facility extracts the policy from within the application program image. The facility may then apply the extracted policy to the application program image before the application program image is loaded and/or executed. Moreover, the facility may check the application program image's integrity prior to extracting the embedded policy. |
| US07921448B2 |
Multicast media distribution system
The present invention provides for methods, systems, and devices for simultaneously receiving and processing multimedia asset packages transmitted by a plurality of multimedia content providers. The methods and systems of the present invention implement a multiport catcher appliance configured to receive a plurality of transmissions, simultaneously, from multiple content providers in a multimedia asset distribution system. The multimedia catcher receiver includes a multimedia network interface unit configured to simultaneously receive multimedia data segments from content providers, a multimedia network interface unit that provides the multimedia data segments to a receive unit, a receive unit configured to reconstruct and validate a multimedia asset package using multimedia data segments transmitted by a content provider, and a content management system to manage multimedia asset packages and provide multimedia asset packages to a multimedia server. |
| US07921446B2 |
Fast-start streaming and buffering of streaming content for personal media player
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. |
| US07921445B2 |
Audio/video speedup system and method in a server-client streaming architecture
A system and a corresponding method for temporal modification of audio signals, to increase or reduce the playback rates of an audio and/or a video file in a client-server environment. The system and method improve the efficiency of serving streaming media to a client so that the client can select an arbitrary time-speedup factor. The speedup system performs many of the pre-calculations once, at the server, so that the bandwidth needs are reduced and the client's computational load is minimized. The final time-scale-modification can be either done completely on the server, thus reducing the client's needs, or partly on the client's computer to minimize latency, and to reduce on-the-fly computational load from the server that serves multiple clients concurrently. |
| US07921443B2 |
Systems and methods for providing video and data services to a customer premises
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods that overcome deficiencies in the prior art. One embodiment of the invention comprises an integrated system for providing video and data services to a customer premises. The integrated system comprises a digital broadcast satellite receiver, a data source, and an integrated network interface device. The integrated network interface device can be coupled to a receiver and/or the data source, and the integrated network interface device can be configured to receive video information from the receiver and data (e.g. Internet Protocol data) from the data source. In certain embodiments, the integrated network interface device can further be configured to distribute the data to the customer premises via a first internal transport medium and/or distribute the video information to the customer premises via a second internal transport medium. In one aspect, network interference devices can be attached to an external wall of customer premises. |
| US07921437B2 |
Optical pick apparatus
An optical pickup apparatus including a first objective lens that focuses first laser light on an information recording layer of a first optical disc in a first mounting state where the first optical disc is mounted on a turntable; a second objective lens that focuses second laser light on an information recording layer of a second optical disc in a second mounting state where the second optical disc is mounted on the turntable, the second optical disc having an information recording format different from that of the first optical disc; and a lens holder that integrally holds the first objective lens and the second objective lens in an adjacent manner on the outside and inside, respectively, along a radial direction of the first optical disc in the first mounting state and of the second optical disc in the second mounting state. |
| US07921435B2 |
Optical disk drive
An optical disk drive according to the present invention includes: an optical pickup 6 including a light source 23 that radiates a light beam 21 to irradiate an optical disk 100, at least one objective lens 22 for converging the beam 21, and an actuator that can move the lens 22 perpendicularly to the disk 100; a transport stage 11 for displacing the pickup 6 in a disk radial direction; a rim detecting section 30 for sensing if the irradiated position of the beam 21 has passed an outer edge of the disk 100 while the pickup 6 is being displaced from an inner area of the disk toward the outer edge thereof to conduct a seek operation; and a control section 40 for getting the lens 22 retracted away from the disk 100 by the actuator and getting the pickup 6 displaced toward the inner area of the disk by the transport stage 11 if the irradiated position of the light beam 21 has been sensed to have passed the outer edge of the disk 100. |
| US07921428B2 |
Multi-registration of software library resources
Data communications, including issuing, by an application program to a high level data communications library, a request for initialization of a data communications service; issuing to a low level data communications library a request for registration of data communications functions; registering the data communications functions, including instantiating a factory object for each of the one or more data communications functions; issuing by the application program an instruction to execute a designated data communications function; issuing, to the low level data communications library, an instruction to execute the designated data communications function, including passing to the low level data communications library a call parameter that identifies a factory object; creating with the identified factory object the data communications object that implements the data communications function according to the protocol; and executing by the low level data communications library the designated data communications function. |
| US07921417B2 |
Method and computer system for activation of source files
Method and computer system for activation of source files. A source file repository stores a plurality of active source files belonging to a component. A central compilation service receives an activation request for at least one inactive source file of the component. In response to the activation request the central compilation service compiles the component using the at least one inactive source file and, in case the compilation is successfully completed, initiates a transfer of the at least one inactive source file to the plurality of active source files. |
| US07921416B2 |
Formal language and translator for parallel processing of data
The present invention, in an example embodiment, provides a special-purpose formal language and translator for the parallel processing of large databases in a distributed system. The special-purpose language has features of both a declarative programming language and a procedural programming language and supports the co-grouping of tables, each with an arbitrary alignment function, and the specification of procedural operations to be performed on the resulting co-groups. The language's translator translates a program in the language into optimized structured calls to an application programming interface for implementations of functionality related to the parallel processing of tasks over a distributed system. In an example embodiment, the application programming interface includes interfaces for MapReduce functionality, whose implementations are supplemented by the embodiment. |
| US07921408B2 |
System and method for applying development patterns for component based applications
A computing device and method for coordinating the development of a client application including application components comprising one or more of at least one of a data component, a message component or a screen component, having corresponding component definitions, or a workflow component comprising a series of instructions. A first development pattern module configured for interaction with a development environment is provided by a computer user interface, the first development pattern module configured for selecting a first pattern from a plurality of patterns based on an application component type central to the client application, the first development pattern module for guiding a user interface with a plurality of predefined steps to coordinate a development of the application components through user input events via the user interface in accordance with the first pattern. |
| US07921405B2 |
Facilitation of multi-project management using throughput measurement
A method on a computer for providing critical chain-based project management is disclosed. The method includes generating a list of sequential time periods for a project comprising a plurality of tasks and calculating a number of tasks for each time period. The method further includes generating a graphic that visually indicates the number of tasks for each time period and a priority of each task and providing the graphic to a user. |
| US07921404B2 |
Method of reusing constraints in PCB designs
A method is disclosed for electronically processing constraints rules defined in a previously developed first PCB design having a first constraints output file, to facilitate the development of a second PCB design having a second constraints output file. The second design has substantially identical topology to the first design and the second constraints output file comprises constraints for signals with identical attributes. The method includes several steps. Firstly, the board file of the first design is compared with the net list file of the second design to identify respective differences between the designs. On the basis of the established differences, a file attributes change report is generated. At least some data from the file attributes change report is stored into an attributes change file. Finally, the method includes the step of processing the first design constraints output file, the second design constraints output file, and the attribute change file to map constraints associated with changed attributes, thus defining a revised constraints output file for the second design. The revised second constraints output file comprises constraints for at least some signals with changed attributes. |
| US07921401B2 |
Stress analysis method, wiring structure design method, program, and semiconductor device production method
A stress analysis method is provided: including dividing, by using a division unit, an inside of a chip into a plurality of analysis areas, deriving, by using a composite property derivation unit, a composite property into which physical property values of a plurality of materials included in an analysis area are compounded, about each of the plurality of analysis areas on the basis of wiring structure data for each of the plurality of analysis areas, and creating, by using a stress analysis unit, a three-dimensional model of a finite element method which uses each analysis area as an element, to apply the composite property to each element, and to perform a stress analysis. |
| US07921400B1 |
Method for forming integrated circuit device using cell library with soft error resistant logic cells
A cell library is disclosed that includes soft error resistant logic cells. The soft error resistant logic cells can be used along with memory cells and conventional logic cells to form integrated circuit designs having increased soft error resistance. A method for forming an integrated circuit device is disclosed in which a first integrated circuit design is formed using conventional logic cells. An iterative process is then performed in which some of the conventional logic cells are replaced with high soft error resistant logic cells to obtain a soft error resistant design. Each soft error resistant logic cell that replaces a corresponding conventional logic cell will have the same cell size as the cell that is replaced, producing a soft error resistant design that does not take up additional surface area on the semiconductor substrate. |
| US07921399B2 |
Method for simplifying tie net modeling for router performance
A method for preprocessing tie net routing data organizes the data into a plurality of tie nets each based on an optimal connection path between a pin or set of pins and the power grid. The router then routs the data embodying the thusly-simplified plurality of tie nets. Once the routing is complete, post processor takes the routed design and returns it to its original net list state while keeping the routing solution. |
| US07921398B2 |
System and medium for placement which maintain optimized timing behavior, while improving wireability potential
A method for determining placement of circuitry during integrated circuit design is presented. The method includes accessing a net list identifying circuitry connections. A plurality of individual net weights are assigned to nets in timing paths within the net list. A composite net weight is determined for said timing paths, the composite net weight being in response to the plurality of individual net weights. Concurrently therewith it is advantageous to utilize our new method of improvements of concurrently proceeding to improve wireability of said design by additional timing optimization and net weight mapping modification steps. |
| US07921397B2 |
Method of designing semiconductor integrated circuits, and semiconductor integrated circuits that allow precise adjustment of delay time
Standard cell libraries and methods of designing semiconductor integrated circuits are provided. At least one of delay-adjusting cell data and load-capacitor cell data is stored in the cell library for a specified type standard cell in addition to the standard cell data. The specified type standard cell may be utilized as a delay-adjusting cell or a load-capacitor cell. Accordingly, precise adjustment of delay times during designing a semiconductor integrated circuit is enabled without requiring registering a new standard cell in the cell library. Semiconductor integrated circuits are also provided that are configured to allow precise adjustment of delay times in the semiconductor integrated circuits. |
| US07921395B2 |
Method for laying out decoupling cells and apparatus for laying out decoupling cells
A method for laying out decoupling cells in a semiconductor integrated circuit including a plurality of paths. The method includes extracting from a timing analysis result a timing slack amount as a timing margin for power supply noise in one of the paths serving as a target path, converting the extracted timing margin to a noise tolerance amount, comparing the noise tolerance amount and a power supply noise amount of the target path, and determining whether or not a decoupling cell must be additionally laid out in the target path based on the comparison result. |
| US07921393B2 |
Tunneling as a boundary congestion relief mechanism
Simultaneous Dynamical Integration modeling techniques are applied to global placement of elements of integrated circuits as described by netlists specifying interconnection of morphable-devices. Solutions to a system of coupled ordinary differential equations in accordance with Newtonian mechanics are approximated by numerical integration. A resultant time-evolving system of nodes moves through a continuous location space in continuous time, and is used to derive placements of the morphable-devices having one-to-one correspondences with the nodes. Nodes under the influence of net attractive forces, computed based on the interconnections between the morphable devices, tend to coalesce into well-organized topologies. Nodes are also affected by spreading forces determined by density fields that are developed based on local spatial node population. |
| US07921391B2 |
Apparatus, method and computer-readable code for automated design of physical structures of integrated circuits
Apparatus, methods, and computer readable code for computing parameters related to layout schemes of integrated circuits are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, an actual layout scheme is computed, for example, for a netlist. In some embodiments, one o or more layout schemes are scored based on, for example, susceptibility to failure and/or yield in manufacturing. |
| US07921389B2 |
Controlling operation of a digital system utilizing register entities
In at least one hardware definition language (HDL) file, at least one design entity containing a functional portion of a digital system is specified. The design entity logically contains first and second latches each having a respective plurality of different possible latch values. With one or more statements, a first Dial instance is associated with the first latch and a second Dial instance is associated with the second latch. A setting of the first Dial instance thus controls which of the plurality of different possible values is loaded in the first latch, and a setting of the second Dial instance controls which of the plurality of different possible values is loaded in the second latch. With a statement, a Register instance is concurrently associated with both the first and the second latches, such that a setting of the Register instance controls the latch values loaded in both the first and second latches. |
| US07921386B2 |
Fabrication method for semiconductor device, exposure method, pattern correction method and semiconductor device
Disclosed herein is a fabrication method for a semiconductor device, including a lithography step of connecting a plurality of mask patterns to each other to form a pattern image of an area greater than the size of the mask patterns. The lithography step includes the steps of: assuring an overlapping exposure region to be exposed in an overlapping relationship by both of two mask patterns to be connected to each other, carrying out exposure transfer of the pattern portions of the two mask patterns to the overlapping exposure region to form a first measurement mark and a second measurement mark in the overlapping exposure region, and carrying out positional displacement measurement of pattern connection by the two mask patterns based on a manner of combination of main marks and sub marks of the measurement marks formed in the overlapping exposure region. |
| US07921385B2 |
Mask-pattern determination using topology types
A method for determining a mask pattern is described. During the method, a first mask pattern that includes a plurality of second regions corresponding to the first regions of the photo-mask is provided. Then, a second mask pattern is determined based on the first mask pattern and differences between a target pattern and an estimate of a wafer pattern that results from the photolithographic process that uses at least a portion of the first mask pattern. Note that the determining includes different treatment for different types of regions in the target pattern, and the second mask pattern and the target pattern include pixilated images. |
| US07921384B2 |
System, methods and apparatuses for integrated circuits for nanorobotics
The invention describes apparatuses for nano-scale integrated circuits applied to nanorobotics. Using EDA techniques, the system develops fully functional nano ICs, including ASICs and microprocessors. Three dimensional nano ICs are disclosed for increased efficiency in nanorobotic apparatuses. Nano-scale FPGAs are disclosed. The nano-scale semiconductors have applications to nano-scale and micro-scale robots. |
| US07921383B1 |
Photolithographic process simulation including efficient result computation for multiple process variation values
A method, system, and related computer program products and computer-readable numerical arrays for computer simulation of a photolithographic process is described. In one preferred embodiment, simulation of a photolithographic process is provided in which a computation time for computing each subsequent result for each subsequent combination of process variation values and/or target depths is significantly less than a computation time for computing an initial result for an initial combination of the process variation values and/or target depths. Accordingly, where computation for the initial combination requires a first time interval T, results for (N−1) subsequent combinations can be achieved such that a total time interval for the N results is substantially less than NT. Computation of a process model used for the computer simulation is also described, as well as calibration of the process model to a physical photolithographic processing system. |
| US07921382B2 |
Method for smooth rotation
A method for smooth rotation of an object viewed from a finite number of angles encompasses resetting the drag origin in response to the pointer exiting a region centered on the drag origin. Upon exiting the region, a new view of the object displays thereby providing the appearance of rotation. |
| US07921380B2 |
Detachable and reattachable portal pages
A portal environment may include at least one detachable and reattachable portal page. The detachable and reattachable portal page may include a detach feature to detach the portal page from the portal environment. A reattach feature may be provided to reattach a detached portal page to the portal environment. In another embodiment, a method to detach and reattach at least one portal page may include detaching a selected portal page in response to activating a detach feature. The method may also include reattaching the detached portal page in response to activating a reattach feature. The selected, detached portal page may be transferred to a window in response to activating the detach feature. Tunneling communication may be provided between the detached portal page and the portal environment. |
| US07921379B1 |
System and method for displaying results of search
The present invention relates to the system and the method for graphically displaying the results of search engine on a terminal of client, so that client can see a search process at first glance and move between a higher category and a lower easily and earn the results of search engine quickly. |
| US07921375B2 |
Integrating user interfaces from one application into another
The invention discloses a system and method for integrating user interfaces (UI) within an application. The invention can be configured to display an UI of a second application within a first application in a manner that the user cannot identify that the second application's UI is displayed on top of a reference window within the first application. The invention can be configured to identify a reference window that is to be replaced by a replacement window of the second application, monitor the reference window, create the replacement window, and align the replacement window over top of the reference window. |
| US07921370B1 |
Object-level text-condition indicators
Novel techniques and tools for indicating, to a user, that a development application has detected a condition of text that is not currently displayed. A user may use the development application to develop other applications at an object level without being distracted by text related to graphical objects in the applications being developed by the user. If the development application detects an undesirable condition in text related to a graphical object, the development application may display a graphical indicator of the detected condition. The user may then interact with the graphical indicator to obtain additional information about the detected condition and to view and modify the text in which the application detected the condition. |
| US07921359B2 |
Computer-implemented system and method for tagged and rectangular data processing
A computer-implemented system and method for tagged data and rectangular data conversions. The system and method receive tagged input data that is in a non-rectangular format and uses a hierarchical arrangement of tags to indicate data relationships. Data directives are used to parse the tagged input data. The data directives indicate which tags in the hierarchical arrangement of tags are to form which columns in the rectangular formatted data output. The rectangular formatted data output is generated based upon the parsed tagged input data. The data directives may also be used to convert rectangular data into a tagged data format. |
| US07921355B2 |
Enhanced human computer user interface system for searching and browsing documents
A system and method for presenting document records to a user through a display interface, comprising means for processing data of the first type through a first applet and data of the second type through a second applet and separately extracting data of the two different types using the separate applets. The user interface provides means for selecting a data file from a plurality of data files, displaying the merged and formatted processed first and second data, and managing a plurality of data files with the host application. Each record on the list may be individually selected, comprising providing at least two distinct categorization inputs from the user, providing an indicia in the record list to indicate a respective record classification, and providing means for selectively processing the records according to a respective classification thereof. The data file employs a standard image format file with an embedded index pointer to segregate two data types. A first data type, preferably an image, is referenced by the index pointer and is located near the terminus of the file. A second data type, for example text, appears immediately after the file header which includes the index pointer, and preferably terminates with an end of file marker. Thus, the single file may be read by both a standard image file reader, and a standard text reader, without parsing or segregation. The two data types are preferably text and image data, and the data file is preferably a tagged image format file (TIFF) file with Group-4 image compression. |
| US07921354B2 |
Computer-readable medium storing program for controlling archiving of electronic document, document management system, document management method, and computer data signal
There is provided a computer-readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for controlling archiving of an electronic document, the program causing the computer to function as: a requirement memory that stores a document archive requirement for each rule; and an archive processor that judges, on the basis of the requirement memory, each document archive requirement corresponding to each rule to be applied to an electronic document to be archived, determines an archive mode which satisfies all of the judged document archive requirements, and executes a process to archive the electronic document in an archiving device in the determined archive mode. |
| US07921352B2 |
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 data and inserting known data place holders to the data packets, and a multiplexer multiplexing the enhanced data packets with main data packets. It further includes an RS encoder which RS-codes the multiplexed data packets, and a data interleaves which interleaves the RS-coded data packets. The RS encoder adds systematic RS parity data to each main data packet and adds non-systematic RS parity place holders to each enhanced data packet. The RS encoder adds the RS parity place holders such that the RS parity place holders are placed after the enhanced data within each interleaved enhanced data packet. |
| US07921351B2 |
Increasing error correction in data streams encoded with linear block code
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for increasing the error correction capabilities of a receiver circuit that receives a data stream of encoded data symbols that are encoded with a linear block code. Analog and digital comparator circuits are used to detect laser clipping or analog to digital converter overloading. Corrupted symbols are detected by comparing in-phase and/or quadrature phase baseband signals with pre-determined threshold limits that indicate that the in-phase and quadrature phase signals have exceeded the normal signal trajectory of an unimpaired signal. Corrupted symbols may also be detected by determining that the laser has been clipped. Corrupted symbols are marked for erasure prior to decoding and error correction. Erasure of corrupted signals increases the error correction capabilities of the decoder circuit. |
| US07921350B2 |
System and method for fault detection and localization in time series and spatial data
A method for fault detection and localization calls for obtaining a data set, smoothing the data set, identifying a plurality of split points within the data set, fitting a piecewise linear function to the plurality of split points; and determining a residual between the function and the smoothed data set. Related systems and computer program products are disclosed and claimed. |
| US07921349B2 |
Mode selection for data transmission in wireless communication channels based on statistical parameters
A method and communication system for selecting a mode for encoding data for transmission in a wireless communication channel between a transmit unit and a receive unit. The data is initially transmitted in an initial mode and the selection of the subsequent mode is based on a selection of first-order and second-order statistical parameters of short-term and long-term quality parameters. Suitable short-term quality parameters include signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), power level and suitable long-term quality parameters include error rates such as bit error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER). The method of the invention can be employed in Multiple Input. Multiple Output (MIMO), Multiple Input Single Output (MISO), Single Input Single Output (SISO) and Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) communication systems to make subsequent mode selection faster and more efficient. Furthermore the method can be used in communication systems employing various transmission protocols including OFDMA, FDMA, CDMA, TDMA. |
| US07921347B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing automatic retransmission request in a mobile communication system
A method and an apparatus are provided for performing Automatic Retransmission reQuest (ARQ) in a mobile communication system including an ARQ layer and a Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) layer. The method includes receiving from an ARQ receiving (Rx) entity a status report indicating a reception status of ARQ packets; detecting an ARQ packet having a transmission completion time going ahead of a generation time of the status report, among the ARQ packets whose transmission was completed by an ARQ transmitting (Tx) entity; and retransmitting an ARQ packet not ACK/NACK-ed by the status report, among the detected ARQ packets. |
| US07921340B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device, nonvolatile memory system, and defect management method for nonvolatile memory device
A life parameter generator generates life parameters related to the life of a nonvolatile memory device by using parameters related to allowable capacity for memory defect and occurrence capacity for memory defect. The life parameters are stored in a life parameter storing block of a nonvolatile memory. An access device reads and displays the stored life parameters. Thus, the user can precisely know the life of the nonvolatile memory device or the moment when a device having a built in nonvolatile memory such as a portable audio becomes unusable. |
| US07921337B2 |
Systems and methods for diagnosing faults in electronic systems
Apparatus, systems, and methods for identifying a fault in an electronic system are provided. One apparatus includes memory storing a model of the electronic system, a processor, and a fault module. The processor is configured to pass system inputs through the model to generate corresponding simulated outputs, and the fault module is configured to determine the fault based on a comparison of the system outputs and the simulated outputs. A system includes an electronic system including multiple components generating system outputs based on system inputs and the apparatus for identifying a fault in the electronic system discussed above. One method includes generating a model of the electronic system, passing one or more inputs to the electronic system through the model to generate corresponding simulated outputs, and determining the fault based on a comparison of the one or more simulated outputs and one or more electronic system outputs. |
| US07921335B2 |
System diagnostic utility
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for performing diagnostic testing for an application executing on a computer. A diagnostic utility executes on the computer. The diagnostic utility includes a graphical user interface and a plurality of diagnostic functions. A selection of the application executing on the computer is received for diagnostic testing through the graphical user interface. Responsive to receiving the selection of the application, a set of diagnostic functions from the plurality of diagnostic functions is identified to test at least one of connectivity, operation of the application, and a presence of a set of needed files for the application to form a set of identified diagnostic functions. The set of identified diagnostic functions are identified using configuration information for the application. The set of identified diagnostic function are executed, wherein a result is generated. A result from executing the set of functions is presented using the graphical user interface. |
| US07921333B2 |
Method and systems for providing data replay, reprocess and retrigger functions in an analyzer
A replay analyzer is disclosed. The replay analyzer is able to capture traffic from a transmission medium such as a buss and store it in a trace buffer. The replay analyzer can replay that captured data repeatedly as desired and can trigger activity based on patterns found in the captured data. If desired, the captured data may be used for purposes of traffic generation. |
| US07921332B2 |
Disc drive failure diagnostic system and method
A system and method, which correctly and easily diagnose all types of failures generated in a disc drive, the system includes an interface, a system controller, a failure type diagnosis unit, and an output unit. The interface transmits an operation state information request signal to the disc drive and receives operation state information from the disc drive. The system controller transmits the operation state information request signal to the interface and generates a failure information file using the operation state information when the operation state information is received from the interface. The failure type diagnosis unit analyzes the failure information file generated by the system controller to diagnose the type of failure of the disc drive. The output unit outputs the result of the diagnosis of the type of failure under the control of the system controller. |
| US07921331B2 |
Write filter cache method and apparatus for protecting the microprocessor core from soft errors
A write filter cache system for protecting a microprocessor core from soft errors and method thereof are provided. In one aspect, data coming from a processor core to be written in primary cache memory, for instance, L1 cache memory system, is buffered in a write filter cache placed between the primary cache memory and the processor core. The data from the write filter is move to the main cache memory only if it is verified that main thread's data is soft error free, for instance, by comparing the main thread's data with that of its redundant thread. The main cache memory only keeps clean data associated with accepted checkpoints. |
| US07921330B2 |
Data migration manager
A method and apparatus for transactions during a data migration. The transfer of data from an old database to a new database is structured as a set of small transactions. The transactions can be structured in a hierarchy of dependent transactions such that the transactions are nested or similarly hierarchical. A migration manager includes a set of data conversion methods or processes that enable the conversion of data from a format of an old database to that of a new database. The conversion process generates the nested transactions to resolve dependencies between records such as primary and foreign keys. The method and system provides a higher level of granularity in transaction size, providing the ability to transfer records individually and resolve the dependencies in such transactions without requiring a large mapping of an entire data set in the old database to an organization in the new database. |
| US07921326B2 |
Spatial monitoring-correlation mechanism and method for locating an origin of a problem with an IPTV network
A spatial monitoring-correlation mechanism and a method are described herein for determining an origin of a problem within an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network by using topology information about the IPTV network and at least one error notification (e.g., packet loss notification-retransmission request) that is generated by at least one component (e.g., set-top box) within the IPTV network. |
| US07921325B2 |
Node management device and method
A device that is communicably connected to each of three or more nodes constituting a cluster system holds resource information, which is information relating to a resource used by an application, in relation to each of the three or more nodes. The device receives resource condition information indicating variation in the condition of the resource from each node, updates the resource information on the basis of the received resource condition information, determines a following active node on the basis of the updated resource information, and notifies at least one of the three or more nodes of the determined following active node. |
| US07921323B2 |
Reconfigurable communications infrastructure for ASIC networks
Reconfigurable communications infrastructures may be implemented to interconnect ASIC devices (e.g., FPGAs) and other computing and input/output devices using high bandwidth interconnection mediums. The computing and input/output devices may be positioned in locations that are physically segregated from each other, and/or may be provided to project a reconfigurable network across a wide area. The reconfigurable communications infrastructures may be implemented to allow such computing and input/output devices to be used in different arrangements and applications, e.g., for use in any application where a large array of ASIC devices may be usefully employed such as supercomputing, etc. |
| US07921322B2 |
Optimize personalization conditions for electronic device transmission rates with increased transmitting frequency
Systems and/or methods that facilitate expediently transmitting and programming data to an electronic device that contains nonvolatile memory are presented. A host component facilitates the determination of different clock frequencies that an electronic device(s) can accommodate for transmitting data to and receiving data from the electronic device. The host component can facilitate transmitting data to the electronic device at a higher clock frequency than the clock frequency utilized to transmit data from the electronic device to the host component in order to facilitate programming large amounts of data to the electronic device efficiently. The host component can select a downlink and/or uplink clock frequency based in part on the type of electronic device(s), the size of a memory buffer associated with the nonvolatile memory device, and/or a type of protocol associated with the electronic device. |
| US07921320B2 |
Single wire serial interface
A single wire serial interface for power ICs and other devices is provided. To use the interface, a device is configured to include an EN/SET input pin. A counter within the device counts clock pulses sent to the EN/SET input pin. The output of the counter is passed to a ROM or other decoder circuit. The ROM selects an operational state for the device that corresponds to the value of the counter. In this way, control states may be selected for the device by sending corresponding clock pulses to the EN/SET pin. Holding the EN/SET pin high causes the device to maintain its operational state. Holding the EN/SET pin low for a predetermined timeout period resets the counter and causes the device to adopt a predetermined configuration (such as off) until new clock pulses are received at the EN/SET pin. |
| US07921318B2 |
Techniques for integrated circuit clock management using pulse skipping
A processor (400) includes a clock source (402), a central processing unit (CPU) (408), and a clock generator (404). The clock source (402) includes an output for providing a periodic clock signal. The CPU (408) includes an input for receiving a CPU clock signal. The clock generator (404) includes a first input coupled to the output of the clock source (402), a second input for receiving a mode signal that indicates an output frequency, and an output coupled to the input of the CPU (408). The clock generator (404) provides the CPU clock signal using periodic pulse skipping such that the CPU clock signal has a number of transitions over a unit of time corresponding to the output frequency. |
| US07921317B2 |
Method and apparatus for synchronizing central processing units in a multiprocessor apparatus
Updating timers of central processing units (CPUs) in a multiprocessor apparatus involves the repeated performance of update operations by a device that is coupled to the CPUs via a memory interface. The operations include selecting one of the plurality of CPUs and determining an offset value that estimates a delay time to process a timer update at the selected CPU. A corrected timer value of the selected CPU is determined based on the offset value and a reference time. The corrected timer value is written to a cache line of the selected CPU to cause the selected CPU to update the timer of the selected CPU. |
| US07921316B2 |
Cluster-wide system clock in a multi-tiered full-graph interconnect architecture
Mechanisms for providing a cluster-wide system clock in a multi-tiered full graph (MTFG) interconnect architecture are provided. Heartbeat signals transmitted by each of the processor chips in the computing cluster are synchronized. Internal system clock signals are generated in each of the processor chips based on the synchronized heartbeat signals. As a result, the internal system clock signals of each of the processor chips are synchronized since the heartbeat signals, that are the basis for the internal system clock signals, are synchronized. Mechanisms are provided for performing such synchronization using direct couplings of processor chips within the same processor book, different processor books in the same supernode, and different processor books in different supernodes of the MTFG interconnect architecture. |
| US07921315B2 |
Managing power consumption in a data center based on monitoring circuit breakers
Managing power consumption in a data center including reporting, by a circuit breaker communications device of one of the circuit breakers to the management module, a current power load of the circuit breaker, the report transmitted from the circuit breaker communications device through a power supply communications device of a power supply currently providing power to a particular computing device and through an out-of-band communications link to the management module, upon receiving the report of the current power load, determining, by the management module, whether the current power load of the circuit breaker is greater than a predetermined threshold; and if the current power load of the circuit breaker is greater than the predetermined threshold, reducing, by the management module, power consumption through the circuit breaker of the particular computing device. |
| US07921314B2 |
Providing power over ethernet cables
A method for power delivery comprises coupling an Ethernet cable comprising four wire pairs to a power delivery system and providing power to a powered device on all of the wire pairs. A power delivery system includes an interface operable to couple to an Ethernet cable comprising four wire pairs and a controller operable to provide power to a powered device on all of the wire pairs. |
| US07921312B1 |
System and method for providing adaptive voltage scaling with multiple clock domains inside a single voltage domain
A system and method is disclosed for providing a plurality of hardware performance monitors for adaptive voltage scaling in an integrated circuit system that comprises a plurality of clock domains. Each hardware performance monitor is associated with one of the plurality of clock domains and provides a signal that measures a performance of its respective clock domain temperature, process corner and supply voltage. The difference between the measured performance and a nominal expected performance for each hardware performance monitor is determined. The largest of the plurality of difference signals is selected and used in an advanced power controller to provide adaptive voltage scaling for the integrated circuit system. |
| US07921311B2 |
Method and apparatus for mitigating current drain in a low-power hand-held device
An authentication device or other type of low-power hand-held device comprises a processor, an external button alternately configurable in an unpressed state and a pressed state, and current drain mitigation circuitry coupled to the external button and a corresponding input of the processor. The current drain mitigation circuitry is configured to connect the input of the processor to a first potential when the external button is in the unpressed state and to connect the input of the processor to a second potential different than the first potential when the external button is in the pressed state, thereby limiting current drain arising from the external button being stuck in the pressed state. |
| US07921310B2 |
Unified powered device (PD) controller and LAN on motherboard (LOM) in a personal computing device (PCD)
A Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) communication system dynamically provides power and data communications over a communications link. In a computing environment made up of one or more personal computing devices (PCD) and/or one or more powered devices (PD), power source equipment (PSE) determines an allocated amount of power to be supplied to each device. The personal computing devices include a unified LAN-On-Motherboard (LOM) that combines the functionality of a powered device (PD) controller of a conventional PD and a LOM of a conventional personal computing device into a single unified subsystem. This allows the personal computing devices to use the existing hardware architecture and software architecture, such as software drivers and Access Protocol Interfaces (API), with few modifications to implement PoE. Further, the personal computing devices provide the power source equipment with access to some of the operational parameters, such as the voltage and the current of the personal computing device, using a communication via the data link layer, also referred to as layer two in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) networking model. Additionally, the power source equipment may dynamically manage the power requirements for the personal computing devices using the data link layer. |
| US07921308B2 |
Power signal merging for network interface devices
Embodiments disclosed herein describe a network interface device including a first powered device controller coupled to first and second power supply lines. A second powered device controller coupled to third and fourth input power supply lines. A dc-dc converter coupled to receive a single signal representing a sum of power signals output by the first and second powered device controllers. |
| US07921307B2 |
Methods and apparatus providing advanced classification for power over Ethernet
A system conducts a plurality of cycles on the powered device. Each cycle has a detection phase and a classification phase. A classification voltage is applied to the conductors during each cycle. The system measures a current in the conductors while the classification voltage is applied. The system determines a final class responsive to a plurality of measured currents. The final class utilized to determine an amount of inline power to deliver to the powered device. |
| US07921305B2 |
Portable information terminal and data protecting method
Even if a portable information terminal is lost or stolen, a third party is prevented from illegally browsing data stored in the portable information terminal. When a control signal is received through wireless communication part and when the received control signal is an instruction signal to execute an encryption process on plaintext data stored in data memory, the plaintext data is encrypted and encrypted data is stored in the data memory. Thereafter, erasing part erases the plaintext data stored in the data memory. |
| US07921303B2 |
Mobile security system and method
A system and method for providing a secure environment for mobile telephones and other devices are disclosed. The system and method may utilize trust zoning, layered memory, and a secure matrix model having, for example, a memory protection module for protecting memory; a secure debug module for ensuring security of the debug module; a secure file system module for protecting the secure file system; and a trusted time source module for protecting components. Embodiments of the present invention may protect against security attacks on a variety of hardware and software components while permitting suitable levels of accessibility for developmental and maintenance purposes. |
| US07921302B2 |
Universal game download methods and system for legacy gaming machines
A universal method and system for downloading game software to ROM based legacy gaming machines, activating selected games and providing new services. The method includes a ROM emulator for replacing the game program image and an NVRAM emulator for swapping the game context and critical meters accordingly. The method includes detection of the state of the current game activity such as to activate a new game only at an authorized time, when no player is playing a game or is carded-in for example. The system includes emulation of the original peripherals fitted to the legacy gaming machine such as to offer extended functionality and services. The universal method and system therefore prolongs the useful life of legacy machines which otherwise would be prematurely retired. |
| US07921298B2 |
Uniform modular framework for a host computer system
A security framework for a host computer system which allows a host to control access to a compliant security token by ensuring enforcement of established security policies administered by a middleware application. Processing between the host computer system and the security token is performed using one or more modular security application agents. The modular security application agents are counterpart applications to security applications installed in the security token and may be retrieved and installed upon to ensure compatibility between counterpart token and host security applications. The security policies are a composite of host security policies and token security policies which are logically combined by the middleware application at the beginning of a session. |
| US07921292B1 |
Secure messaging systems
A system is provided that uses cryptographic techniques to support secure messaging between senders and recipients. A sender may encrypt a message for a recipient using the recipient's public key. The sender may send the encrypted message to the message address of a given recipient. A server may be used to decrypt the encrypted message for the recipient, so that the recipient need not install a decryption engine on the recipient's equipment. |
| US07921285B2 |
Means of mitigating denial of service attacks on IP fragmentation in high performance IPsec gateways
Embodiments of the invention reduce the probability of success of a DOS attack on a node receiving packets by decreasing the probability of random collisions of packets sent by a malicious user with those sent by honest users. The probability of random collisions may be reduced in one class of embodiments of the invention by supplementing the identification field of the IP header of each transmitted packet with at least one bit from another field of the header. The probability of random collisions may be reduced in another class of embodiments of the invention by ensuring that packets sent from a transmitting IPsec node to a receiving IPsec node are not fragmented. |
| US07921283B2 |
Method for real-time data authentication
A digital signature is applied to digital data in real-time. The digital signature serves as a mark of authenticity assuring a recipient that the digital data did in fact originate from an indicated source. The digital signature may be applied to any digital data, including video signals, audio signals, electronic commerce information, data pertaining to land vehicles, marine vessels, aircraft, or any other data that can be transmitted and received in digital form. |
| US07921282B1 |
Using SYN-ACK cookies within a TCP/IP protocol
A method, apparatus, and system are directed toward managing a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) handshake. A SYN-ACK cookie is determined based on a cryptographic operation using a secret key and at least one network characteristic. The SYN-ACK cookie is provided in a SYN message's field. The SYN message is sent from a client to a server. Another sequence number based on the received SYN-ACK cookie is included in a SYN-ACK message. The SYN-ACK message is sent to and received by the client. The other sequence number is validated based on the secret key to generate at least another network characteristic. A TCP/IP connection is established if the network characteristic matches the other network characteristic. In one embodiment, the component sending the SYN message may be a different component than the component receiving the SYN-ACK message. In this embodiment, the secret key may be shared between the two components. |
| US07921280B2 |
Selectively powered retirement unit using a partitioned allocation array and a partitioned writeback array
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a retirement unit to receive and retire executed instructions. The retirement unit may include a first array to receive information at allocation and a second array to receive information after execution. The retirement unit may further include logic to calculate an event associated with an executed instruction if information associated with the executed instruction is stored in an on-demand portion of at least one of arrays. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07921279B2 |
Operand and result forwarding between differently sized operands in a superscalar processor
Result and operand forwarding is provided between differently sized operands in a superscalar processor by grouping a first set of instructions for operand forwarding, and grouping a second set of instructions for result forwarding, the first set of instructions comprising a first source instruction having a first operand and a first dependent instruction having a second operand, the first dependent instruction depending from the first source instruction; the second set of instructions comprising a second source instruction having a third operand and a second dependent instruction having a fourth operand, the second dependent instruction depending from the second source instruction, performing operand forwarding by forwarding the first operand, either whole or in part, as it is being read to the first dependent instruction prior to execution; performing result forwarding by forwarding a result of the second source instruction, either whole or in part, to the second dependent instruction, after execution; wherein the operand forwarding is performed by executing the first source instruction together with the first dependent instruction; and wherein the result forwarding is performed by executing the second source instruction together with the second dependent instruction. |
| US07921277B2 |
Method and apparatus for separate control processing and data path processing in a dual path processor with a shared load/store unit
According to embodiments of the invention, there is disclosed a computer processor architecture; and in particular a computer processor, a method of operating the same, and a computer program product that makes use of an instruction set for the computer. In one embodiment according to the invention, there is provided a computer processor comprising: a decode unit for decoding a stream of instruction packets from a memory, each instruction packet comprising a plurality of instructions; a first processing channel comprising a plurality of functional units and operable to perform control processing operations; a second processing channel comprising a plurality of functional units and operable to perform data processing operations; wherein the decode unit is operable to receive an instruction packet and to detect if the instruction packet defines (i) a plurality of control instructions or (ii) a plurality of instructions one or more of which is a data processing instruction, and wherein when the decode unit detects that the instruction packet comprises a plurality of control instructions said control instructions are supplied to the first processing channel for execution in program order. |
| US07921276B2 |
Applying quality of service (QoS) to a translation lookaside buffer (TLB)
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) having storage locations each including a priority indicator field to store a priority level associated with an agent that requested storage of the data in the TLB, and an identifier field to store an identifier of the agent, where the TLB is apportioned according to a plurality of priority levels. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07921274B2 |
Computer memory addressing mode employing memory segmenting and masking
A computer addressing mode and memory access method rely on a memory segment identifier and a memory segment mask for indicating memory locations. In this addressing mode, a processor receives an instruction comprising the memory segment identifier and memory segment mask. The processor employs a two-level address decoding scheme to access individual memory locations. Under this decoding scheme, the processor decodes the memory segment identifier to select a particular memory segment. Each memory segment includes a predefined number of memory locations. The processor selects memory locations within the memory segment based on mask bits set in the memory segment mask. The disclosed addressing mode is advantageous because it allows non-consecutive memory locations to be efficiently accessed. |
| US07921271B2 |
Hub for supporting high capacity memory subsystem
A high-capacity memory subsystem architecture utilizes multiple memory modules arranged in one or more clusters, each attached to a respective hub which in turn is attached to a memory controller. Within a cluster, data is interleaved so that each data access command accesses all modules of the cluster. The hub communicates with the memory modules at a lower bus frequency, but the distributing of data among multiple modules enables the cluster to maintain the composite data rate of the memory-controller-to-hub bus. Preferably, the memory system employs buffered memory chips having dual-mode operation, one of which supports a cluster configuration in which data is interleaved and the communications buses operate at reduced bus width and/or reduced bus frequency to match the level of interleaving. |
| US07921269B2 |
Storage subsystem and storage system for updating snapshot management information
The first storage subsystem, when new data is written in a first memory device beyond a certain timing, writes pre-updated data prior to update by said new data into a pre-updated data memory region and, in addition, updates snapshot management information that expresses a snapshot of a data group within the first memory device to information that expresses the snapshot at the certain timing and, at a later timing than the certain timing, judges, on the basis of the snapshot management information, in which of either the pre-updated data memory region or the first memory device the data constituting the data group at a certain timing exists, acquires data from the one in which the data exists and writes it into the second memory device of the second storage subsystem, and generates the certain timing repeatedly. |
| US07921268B2 |
Method and system for function-specific time-configurable replication of data
The system and method of the invention provides for function-specific replication of digital data, such as files or objects, with a configurable time delay for each function to be replicated. The system includes a source storage system from which digital data is to be replicated, a destination storage system(s) to which the digital data is being replicated, a replication management module for managing the function specific replication delay and the data replication between the source storage systems and the destination storage system(s). |
| US07921267B1 |
Method and system for fixing a mirror of a dataset
A system and method for fixing data inconsistency between an original dataset stored on a source storage server and a mirror of the original dataset stored on a destination storage server is provided. The method determines whether the mirror is consistent with the original dataset by comparing metadata describing the original dataset with metadata describing the mirror. If the mirror is inconsistent with the original dataset, corresponding block(s) of the original dataset is/are requested and received from the source storage server. The mirror is then fixed according to the received block(s). |
| US07921260B2 |
Preferred write-mostly data cache replacement policies
A computer-implemented method of cache replacement includes steps of: determining whether each cache block in a cache memory is a read or a write block; augmenting metadata associated with each cache block with an indicator of the type of access; receiving an access request resulting in a cache miss, the cache miss indicating that a cache block will need to be replaced; examining the indicator in the metadata of each cache block for determining a probability that said cache block will be replaced; and selecting for replacement the cache block with the highest probability of replacement. |
| US07921253B2 |
Cache coherent switch device
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a switch device to be coupled between a first semiconductor component and a processor node by interconnects of a communication protocol that provides for cache coherent transactions and non-cache coherent transactions. The switch device includes logic to handle cache coherent transactions from the first semiconductor component to the processor node, while the first semiconductor component does not include such logic. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07921252B1 |
USB integrated bidirectional digital isolator channel across an interface between two USB devices
An interface between USB devices employs isolation techniques to provide electrical isolation of a USB signal for transmission of the USB signal between the devices. Unidirectional isolator channels are utilized to transmit the USB signals, and a selection of an isolator channel operating in an intended direction is performed by either direction control logic or a USB hub function. Logic may be employed to detect a device attempting to initiate a USB signal. The logic operates to enable a transmitter on a receiving side and isolate the USB signal through an isolator channel operating in a transmission direction. |
| US07921249B2 |
Weakly ordered processing systems and methods
The disclosure is directed to a weakly-ordered processing system and method of executing memory barriers in weakly-ordered processing system. The processing system includes memory and a master device configured to issue memory access requests, including memory barriers, to the memory. The processing system also includes a slave device configured to provide the master device access to the memory, the slave device being further configured to produce a signal indicating that an ordering constraint imposed by a memory barrier issued by the master device will be enforced, the signal being produced before the execution of all memory access requests issued by the master device to the memory before the memory barrier. |
| US07921245B2 |
Memory system and device with serialized data transfer
A memory system with serialized data transfer. The memory system includes within a memory controller and a plurality of memory devices. The memory controller receives a plurality of write data values from a host and outputs the write data values as respective serial streams of bits. Each of the memory devices receives at least one of the serial streams of bits from the memory controller and converts the serial stream of bits to a set of parallel bits for storage. |
| US07921240B2 |
Method and system for supporting hardware acceleration for iSCSI read and write operations and iSCSI chimney
Certain aspects of a method and system for supporting hardware acceleration for iSCSI read and write operations via a TCP offload engine may comprise pre-registering at least one buffer with hardware. An iSCSI command may be received from an initiator. An initiator test tag value, a data sequence value and/or a buffer offset value of an iSCSI buffer may be compared with the pre-registered buffer. Data may be fetched from the pre-registered buffer based on comparing the initiator test tag value, the data sequence value and/or the buffer offset value of the iSCSI buffer with the pre-registered buffer. The fetched data may be zero copied from the pre-registered buffer to the initiator. |
| US07921230B2 |
USB devices pre-configuration for KVM switch
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the illustrative embodiments provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for configuring devices. Device information for a plurality of devices is retrieved from an object data manager. A determination is made as to whether a keyboard-video-mouse environment exists. If a keyboard-video-mouse environment does not exist, each device in a plurality of devices is configured to either an available state or a defined state. If a keyboard-video-mouse environment exists, each device in the plurality of devices is configured to the available state. A list of all enumerated devices is requested and a determination is made as to whether a particular device is in the list of enumerated devices. If the particular device is not in the list of enumerated devices, a pseudo device is added to the list to form a modified list of all enumerated devices. |
| US07921228B2 |
Modularized electronic switching controller assembly for computer
A modularized electronic switching controller assembly for a computer includes a computer device; a hub positioned at a rear end of the computer device; two sides of the hub unit being installed with tracks which are retained in a machine frame; the machine frame being formed by four supporting posts; a support arm connected between the computer-related assembly and the hub for receiving conductive wires; a switching controller installed at the tracks having two racks of the hub unit; a connecting surface of the switching controller having an electric connector; a rear side of the switching controller being installed with at least one connecting port; moving the switching controller through the tracks will make the switching controller entering from a rear end of the machine case; by the connection of the electric connector and the hub unit, the connecting port can be connected to external peripherals or a server. |
| US07921224B2 |
Method of maintaining traffic services through congestion caused by network failovers
In a method for controlling data traffic in a wireless or other communication network, one or more hardware/software agents are deployed to interface with one or more network entities such as routers, switches, backhaul transmission lines, and wireless base stations. The agents monitor the L1 (physical) and L2 (data link) layers of the network for the presence of indicators associated with network failover operations, such as DS1 alarms and protocol errors, respectively. Based on detected indicators across all monitored network entities, the agents determine if a failover operation has occurred. If so, data congestion associated with the failover operation is controlled according to a failover congestion monitoring and recovery mode (e.g., a data source backoff model), to reduce instances of dropped calls that would otherwise occur if the failover congestion were handled according to a general purpose congestion monitoring and recovery mode of the network. |
| US07921218B2 |
Method and system for generating a space signature
A method and system implementing a process for generating a signature for a network space using existing resources in the space. The process for generating a signature for a space involves discovering the resources in the space and generating a signature for the space using the identification of the devices. |
| US07921216B2 |
System and method for building and using communication binding objects
The present invention provides for an automated, user friendly way of constructing and using a binding object. A developer is presented with and selects binding elements that will ultimately be used to create a runtime communication channel for transporting a message between a client and service endpoint. After receiving the user input, metadata, a channel factory and listener factory are created. The metadata describes binding elements and provides an abstract representation of a protocol stack that implements communication aspects at runtime. The channel factory is configured to use the collection of metadata at runtime to generate the runtime communication channel. Further, the listener factory is configured to accept the runtime communication channel for de-multiplexing the communication aspects in order to process the message at a service endpoint. The present invention also provides for groupings of binding elements and standardized binding objects organized based on industry need. |
| US07921209B2 |
Apparatus and method for integrating authentication protocols in the establishment of connections between computing devices
An apparatus and method for integrating authentication protocols in the establishment of connections between a controlled-access first computing device and at least one second computing device. In one embodiment, network access user authentication data needed to access the at least one second computing device is transmitted to an authentication server automatically if the user has access to use the first computing device, thereby not requiring the user to manually enter the authentication data needed for such access at the first computing device. The network access user authentication data may be, for example, retrieved from a memory store of the first computing device and/or generated in accordance with an authentication data generating algorithm. |
| US07921207B2 |
Imprint client statistical filtering
A method, system, API and computer product for adapting reverse data channel (RDC) utilization by selectively restricting the reporting of statistics data from client devices using a client-side filter adapted in response to configuration data from a file or other source file. |
| US07921200B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for interaction with multi-attribute system resources as groups
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for interacting with multi-attribute managed resources as groups. The apparatus, system and method identify in a repository one or more groups associated with a target attribute. The apparatus system and method further determine a set of managed resources from the repository wherein each managed resource in a set comprises the same value for the target attribute. The apparatus system and method further associate each set of managed resources with a group. The apparatus system and method may subdivide the groups into sub-groups according to additional attributes possessed by members of each group and may display the groups and sub-groups to summarize and highlight the managed resources of each group and sub-group. |
| US07921193B2 |
System and method for leveraging end-users' preferences for efficient communications
A presence server is described herein that implements a method which processes and integrates a presence watcher's communication preferences and a presentity's communication preferences and then distributes the integrated communication preferences along with the presentity's presence information so that the presence watcher can use this information to make a decision on how to contact the presentity. In this way, the presence watcher can achieve promoted communication satisfaction because they know now if they can contact the presentity using their preferred language/device (media type)/security mode (protocol). This enhancement of the communication satisfaction is possible because the integrated communication preferences provided to a presence watcher reflects not only the presentity's communication preferences but also the presence watcher's communication preferences. |
| US07921183B2 |
Communication system, storage device, and control device for accessing external file data on a page unit or sector unit basis
A communication system includes a storage device having a storage area accessed in one of a page unit and a sector unit; a control device operable to request access to data in a file unit; and a predetermined transmission line for transmitting data between the storage device and the control device. The control device transmits to the storage device via the transmission line a request for access to one of each page and each sector forming a file for which access has been requested, and the storage device sequentially accesses one of a requested page and a requested sector, whereby a request for access to the entire file is realized in the storage area. |
| US07921181B2 |
Information processing device, information processing method, and computer program
An information processing apparatus and method for enabling efficient content download and transfer processing operations are provided. In downloading content, a content identifier thereof is acquired, a particular piece of content subject to transfer to an external device is identified on the basis of the acquired content identifier, the identified content is retrieved from a data storage block, and the retrieved content is transferred to the external device or written to an information recording medium, so that the processing of content downloading, the processing of content transfer to an external device and content writing to an information recording medium such as CD can be executed as a sequence of processing operations, thereby providing significantly efficient content download and content transfer or content write processing operations. |
| US07921180B2 |
Method and apparatus for accessing product information using RF tag data
A method and apparatus for convenient and easy access to product- and shipment-related information and/or transactions is disclosed. A radio frequency tag reader is used to read a radio frequency tag having a structured data format. The end device parses one or more particular data entities from the data read. The radio frequency tag reader accesses a URL having at least a portion in common with one or more of the parsed data entities and displays associated web page content or processes an associated transaction. The radio frequency tag reader may sequentially substitute a series of most probable non-common URL portions to locate associated content if the first tried URL does not result in a valid response. Alternatively, a server may provide such search functionality. |
| US07921179B1 |
Reducing latency of access requests in distributed storage systems having a shared data set
Described are methods and apparatus for reducing latency of read and write requests for a set of storage system sites having a shared data set. An owner site may directly write to the shared data set and contains current data regarding the shared data set. The remote sites may experience substantial latency when accessing the shared data set stored at the owner site. Synchronizing and caching methods may reduce overall read latency experienced at remote sites by periodically transmitting images of the shared data set to the remote sites. Also, a migration method may be used to change ownership of the shared data set from a current owner site (that may be receiving a relatively low number of read/write requests) to a new owner site (that may be receiving a relatively high number of read/write requests) to reduce the overall read and write latency experienced in the sites. |
| US07921176B2 |
Mechanism for generating a composite email
A mechanism is disclosed for generating a composite email for an email conversation. The composite email includes content automatically extracted from a plurality of the emails in the email conversation, and may be generated in response to a user accessing just one of the emails in the email conversation. A mechanism is also disclosed for discovering and recovering lost emails in an email conversation. A mechanism is further disclosed for automatically moving emails from one container to another after an email has been read. These and other advantageous email generating, manipulation, and organization mechanisms are disclosed herein. |
| US07921173B2 |
Reducing unwanted and unsolicited electronic messages by exchanging electronic message transmission policies and solving and verifying solutions to computational puzzles
The present invention provides for generating inputs that can be provided to a message classification module to facilitate more reliable classification of electronic messages, such as, for example, as unwanted and/or unsolicited. In one embodiment, a sending messaging server provides an appropriate response to address verification data thereby indicating a reduced likelihood of the sending messaging server using a forged network address. In another embodiment, it is determined if a messaging server is authorized to send electronic messages for a domain. In yet another embodiment, electronic message transmission policies adhered to by a domain are identified. In yet a further embodiment, a sending computer system expends computational resources to solve a computational puzzle and includes an answer document in an electronic message. A receiving computer system receives the electronic message and verifies the answer document. |
| US07921169B2 |
System and method for exactly once message store communication
A system for managing a message store in a network includes an object acting as a message store. In one embodiment, the message store is for Java Message Service. A lead server is selected from several servers. The lead server uses a distributed consensus algorithm to select a host server. The selected host server hosts the message store, providing sole access to the message store. The other servers are notified of the new host by messaging. In one embodiment, servers can send messages to the message store on the host and pick up any messages from the message store. |
| US07921165B2 |
Retaining mail for availability after relay
A processor 104 executes computer-executable instructions to receive messages 302; store 304 the received messages in a foreground memory 108; process 306 the stored messages in the foreground memory 108; send 306 the processed messages; move 308 the sent messages to a background memory 110; evaluate 310, 312 the messages in the background memory with respect to a parameter; and delete 314 selected messages in the background memory as a function of the evaluating. Alternatively, a message queue may be used to track lost messages. |
| US07921162B2 |
Notification system and method for domain name registrars
A system and method of the present invention allow communication via electronic messages between a Customer and a domain name Registrar, avoiding traditional electronic mail (email) communication. Email messages may not be delivered to the Customer for various reasons including the situations where the Customer employs anti-SPAM protective technologies. The system and method of the present invention establish a Communication Link between a Customer's Computer and Registrar's Server, which avoids anti-SPAM protective technologies and email messaging altogether. The implementation of this invention would result in a higher rate of delivered messages to the Customer. |
| US07921161B2 |
Routing T-37 E-mail over an H 323 (VOIP) network
Disclosed are methods and systems for routing T-37 E-mail over an H 323 (VOIP) network. The methods and systems facilitate the obtaining and utilization of data from Gatekeepers with respect to the utilization of Gateways to be utilized to transmit the E-mail from the network over a conventional telephone network to the recipient. They thereby facilitate the choice of a Gateway which is less heavily utilized. |
| US07921150B1 |
Method for viewing videos on distributed networks
A method for viewing digital video assets using a distributed network comprising a user on a first node requesting to view a digital video asset stored on a second node; relaying the request from the first node to the second node; establishing a peer-to-peer link between the first and second nodes; creating a video stream from the requested digital video asset on the second node using a standard video stream server; receiving the video stream using a stream relay client on the second node and converting it into a form that is compatible with the peer-to-peer link; sending the converted video stream to the first node over the peer-to-peer link; receiving the converted video stream using a stream relay server and converting it into a standard video stream form; and viewing the video stream on the first node of the distributed network using a standard video stream client. |
| US07921143B2 |
Declarative pinning
A system and method is provided for efficiently pinning references to the managed heap. The system and method allow for references to managed objects to be declared as pinned during a call to unmanaged code. The references are then reported as pinned to a garbage collector in response to invocation of a garbage collection service. The reference can be declared as pinned by a programmer within the source code or automatically invoked at run-time based on an unsafe condition. The garbage collection service will not move or relocate objects that are referenced by the active pinned local variables. If a garbage collection does not occur, the fact that the local variables are declared pinned is ignored. |
| US07921140B2 |
Apparatus and method for browsing contents
An apparatus and method for browsing contents, the apparatus including: a generation module to generate a key value using metadata of contents as an input value; a management module to manage an index for accessing the key value; and an output module to output a user interface (UI) required to browse the contents using the key value included in a leaf node of the index. |
| US07921138B2 |
Comment processing
Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media employing computer-readable components for localization of data included in software programs are described. The computer-readable components comprise data elements defined based on a software data schema; and an owned comment data element comprising information about the localization of the data included in the software programs and an associated owner with permission to create, access, and manipulate the owned comment data element. The owned comment data element is included in other data elements. The owned comment data element may also be included in a list of owned comment elements comprising at least one owned comment data element. |
| US07921136B1 |
Method and system for using geographic data for developing scenes for entertainment features
A system and method are disclosed for facilitating development of scenes for entertainment features, such as motion pictures or television shows, that depict or represent actual, real world (or imaginary) geographic areas. A source database contains data that represent geographic features in a region including roads in the region. The data in the source database includes attributes suitable for use for providing navigation-related functions. In addition to providing data from the source database for navigation-related functions, data from the source database are also provided for facilitating development of scenes for entertainment features that depict or represent actual, real world (or imaginary) geographic areas. An application programming interface, as well as other tools for handling geographic data, is provided for accessing and processing of the geographic data. |
| US07921124B1 |
Method and system for filtering online content
A method for filtering online content involves uploading application data from a desktop application to a data repository associated with a website, where the application data are associated with a user of the desktop application, and where the website includes a message board associated with the desktop application. The method further involves designating at least part of the application data as message filtering criteria, and filtering messages on the message board based on message filtering criteria, where filtering messages provides a customized experience of the message board for the user. |
| US07921123B2 |
Method and system for processing physician claims over a network
A method and system for gathering, collating and sorting information items distributed among a plurality of databases containing information items regarding physician treatment/billing claims, insurance payments, and provider/patient relations over at least one communication networks is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of creating an intermediate data base containing information items related to physician treatment/billing claim data, insurance payment data, and insurance provider. The information items are further cross-referenced with regard to at least one common information item. The information items in the intermediate data base are then filtered using at least one selected information item contained in the intermediate data base to create at least one file containing cross-referenced data items relating to the filtering criteria, and reporting a selected one of the file. In another aspect of the invention, the created files may be selectively filtered using additional filter criteria. |
| US07921118B2 |
Methods and systems for developing market intelligence
Methods and systems are provided for characterizing market distribution for a business having multiple business representatives. The business is considered to be in competition with one or more competitors, each of which also has multiple representatives. Locations are determined both for the business representatives and for the competitor representatives, and these locations are used to populate one or more databases. A locator identification is assigned to each distinct location and used as a pointer within the databases. The locator identification may be unique to specific street addresses, permitting improved analysis of the market information, particularly analysis derived from the geographical distributions of the business representatives and of the competitor representatives. |
| US07921116B2 |
Highly meaningful multimedia metadata creation and associations
Systems and methods for generating temporal metadata for a media source as a function of detected content. An analysis engine detects content within a media stream of a media source. A metadata creation engine generates temporal metadata as a function of the detected content. The generated temporal metadata may be used to create a media log for the media source, generate metadata subsequent detected content and to compare to media sources. |
| US07921114B2 |
Capturing and combining media data and geodata in a composite file
Systems and methods are provided for capturing and combining media data and geodata into a composite file. The system may include a media data capture module configured to capture media data at a plurality of geographic locations along a path in a geographic area, and to store the media data in a media data stream. The system may further include a geodata capture module configured to capture geodata indicating the geographic locations along the path at which the media data was captured. The system may also include a multiplexing module for interleaving the media data and the geodata into a composite file. |
| US07921113B2 |
Dictionary creation device and dictionary creation method
A dictionary creation device and dictionary creation method which optimally create and update a dictionary for classifying, searching, or extracting text information in accordance with a changes in content of text information groups. The dictionary creation device includes a keyword extraction unit that extracts a keyword from inputted text information; a keyword statistics unit that finds statistics regarding an appearance of the keyword; a keyword assessment value calculation unit that calculates an assessment value of the extracted keyword based on the statistics regarding the appearance of the keyword; a determination unit that determines whether or not to register or delete the keyword based on the calculated assessment value; a dictionary registration and deletion unit which registers or deletes the keyword in or from a dictionary database based on a result of the determination performed by the determination unit; and the dictionary database. |
| US07921109B2 |
Customizable ordering of search results and predictive query generation
In a computerized search system, a document corpus is searched according to a query and results of the search are presentable as an ordered search result set comprising one or more search hits, a search hit being a document of the document corpus or reference thereto. Based on content of the search result set, a number of suggested queries and/or parameter options are presented to a querier, thereby allowing the querier to select a suggested query and/or provide values for the parameters and those selections can be used to reorder the hits of the search result set. The particular suggested queries and/or parameters presented depend on the page elements of the search result set's documents and their categorization. The categorization might be done using concept networks. |
| US07921108B2 |
User interface and method in a local search system with automatic expansion
The invention also provides a method of interfacing with a client computer system, wherein search results include search results with geographic locations outside the first selected area if the number of the search results that have geographic locations within the selected area are less than a predetermined threshold value. |
| US07921103B2 |
Adaptive materialized view selection for databases
Techniques described herein adaptively select materialized view fragments for persistent maintenance. During an interval of time, the selected fragments are persistently maintained in the database system, while the other non-selected fragments are not persistently maintained as materialized view fragments. Over time, the composition of the set of selected fragments may change. As queries are executed in the database system over an interval of time, statistics including the frequency of access of each currently selected fragment during that interval are generated. At the start of the next interval of time, based on these statistics, some currently selected fragments may be unselected. Some currently non-selected fragments of one or more candidate materialized views may be selected based on the statistics. For the next interval, the newly unselected fragments cease to be persistently maintained as materialized view fragments, while the newly selected fragments begin to be persistently maintained as materialized view fragments. |
| US07921100B2 |
Set similarity selection queries at interactive speeds
The similarity between a query set comprising query set tokens and a database set comprising database set tokens is determined by a similarity score. The database sets belong to a data collection set, which contains all database sets from which information may be retrieved. If the similarity score is greater than or equal to a user-defined threshold, the database set has information relevant to the query set. The similarity score is calculated with an inverse document frequency method (IDF) similarity measure independent of term frequency. The document frequency is based at least in part on the number of database sets in the data collection set and the number of database sets which contain at least one query set token. The length of the query set and the length of the database set are normalized. |
| US07921099B2 |
Guided navigation system
A navigation system is used in combination with a data retrieval system to more effectively locate the correct answers or information in search content. The navigation system provides taxonomies that identify different information categories and sub-categories (facets). Classifiers automatically classify the search content by identifying the content corresponding with associated facets. The facets, in conjunction with the associated classifiers, provide robust classification and correlation between both structured and unstructured content. Rules can be used in conjunction with the facets and classifiers to automatically control different navigation operations. The navigation system can also leverage ontologies to dynamically create taxonomies and provides unique facet expansion and intra-document classification operations. |
| US07921098B2 |
Data query and location through a central ontology model
A data query system including a first storage medium including a data schema having a data schema query language associated therewith, a second storage medium including an ontology model including classes and properties, the ontology model having an ontology query language associated therewith, wherein constructs of the database schema are mapped to corresponding classes, properties or compositions of properties of the ontology model, and an ontology query processor generating a query expressed in the data schema query language corresponding to a specified query expressed in the ontology query language. A method is also described and claimed. |
| US07921097B1 |
Systems and methods for generating a descriptive uniform resource locator (URL)
A method for generating a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is described. Content associated with a web page is obtained. A URL is generated based on the content of the web page. The URL includes one or more tokens. The URL is limited to a token threshold. The token threshold is defined as a maximum number of words in the URL. One or more tokens are removed from the URL. The URL is associated with the web page. |
| US07921090B2 |
Cluster delta push
Methods and apparatuses for providing access to data in a cluster database are described. Embodiments of the invention include identifying situations in which many nodes require relatively equal access to a data block, and taking appropriate measures to improve the performance of the system in these situations. For example, a node may automatically downgrade its lock from an X lock to an S lock as soon as it has finished a modification of the data. S locks are sent to other nodes in the system as soon as a modification is complete. Modifications to the data are also sent to other nodes in the system as soon as a modification is complete. Depending on the size of the data modification, the entire data block may be sent, or only the modifications to the data may be sent. |
| US07921089B2 |
Feature based data management
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for data structure locking. In one aspect, a proper subset of variables of a set of variables in a data structure are received. An access privilege to modify variables in the data structure to administrator accounts is assigned. A first administrator access request to modify a variable in the proper subset of variables is received, and the access privilege to modify the variable in the proper subset of variables for the first administrator account. A second administrator access request to modify the variable in the proper subset of variables is received, and an access timer that expires after a time period is initiated; the access privilege is disabled for the first administrator account in response to expiration of the access timer; and the access privilege for the second administrator account is enabled in response to expiration of the access timer. |
| US07921088B1 |
Logical operations encoded by a function table for compressing index bits in multi-level compressed look-up tables
Compressed stride tables in a multi-bit Trie structure perform lookups. An input lookup key is divided into strides including a current stride of S bits. A valid entry in a current stride table is located by compressing the S bits, forming a compressed index of D bits into the current stride table. A compression function logically combines the S bits to generate the D compressed index bits. An entry in a prior-level table points to the current stride table and has an opcode field indicating which compression function and mask to use. Compression functions can include counts of leading-repeated bits, and very complex functions such as hashes, CRC, encryption. A function table stores results of the complex functions that are addressed by the S bits of the current stride. The opcode field in the stride entry selects from among several tables, each storing results for a different function. |
| US07921085B2 |
Method and system for quantifying a data page repetition pattern for a database index in a database management system
A method and system are presented for quantifying a data page repetition pattern for a database index in a database management system. In one embodiment, the method includes identifying a database index to provide a basis for collecting a data page repetition statistic, the database index having a database index key. The method may also include collecting the data page repetition statistic based on the database index key, wherein the data page repetition statistic quantifies a data page repetition pattern associated with database queries that reference sequential entries of the database index. The method may further include optimizing a data page access process based on the data page repetition statistic. In a further embodiment, the method may utilize both cluster ratio and data page repetition statistics to evaluate data page I/O and CPU cost. |
| US07921083B2 |
File management device and electronic equipment
A file management device for a control system, has a file write unit which records data of a file into cluster areas of a recording medium, records file information into a directory area of recording medium, and records FAT chain information into FAT of recording medium; a file delete unit which stores file restoration information having the file information and FAT chain information into a memory area, sends back a restoration descriptor for identifying the file restoration information to control system, and deletes the file information and FAT chain information in recording medium; and a file restoration unit which reads data of deleted file from the recording medium based on the file restoration information and sends the data back to control system, and restores the file information and FAT chain information in the recording medium based on the file restoration information of the file selected by the control system. |
| US07921080B2 |
System and method for a backup parallel server data storage system
A system and method for safe and effective backup and restore of parallel server databases stored in data storage systems. Parallel server databases allow multiple nodes in MPP (Massively Parallel Processor) or SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processor) systems to simultaneously access a database. Each node is running an instance (thread) which provides access to the database. The present invention allows for online or offline backup to be performed from any node in the system, with proper access to all control files and logs, both archived and online, whether the files are stored in raw partitions in the data storage system, or local on certain nodes. Two different types of external restore supported: complete external restore and partial external restore. In a complete external restore, all spaces will be restored to the most recent checkpoint that was generated while creating an external backup. If users lose only a portion of the data (which is more typically the case), a partial external restore may be performed. |
| US07921066B2 |
Characterizing and predicting agents via multi-agent evolution
A method of predicting the behavior of software agents in a simulated environment involves modeling a plurality of software agents representing entities to be analyzed, which may be human beings. Using a set of parameters that governs the behavior of the agents, the internal state of at least one of the agents is estimated by its behavior in the simulation, including its movement within the environment. This facilitates a prediction of the likely future behavior of the agent based solely upon its internal state; that is, without recourse to any intentional agent communications. In the preferred embodiment the simulated environment is based upon a digital pheromone infrastructure. The simulation integrates knowledge of threat regions, a cognitive analysis of the agent's beliefs, desires, and intentions, a model of the agent's emotional disposition and state, and the dynamics of interactions with the environment. By evolving agents in this rich environment, we can fit their internal state to their observed behavior. In realistic wargame scenarios, the system successfully detects deliberately played emotions and makes reasonable predictions about the entities' future behavior. |
| US07921060B2 |
Methods and systems for pricing products that enhance productivity
A method for pricing a productivity enhancing product or method, such as a feed additive, a fertilizer, or the like, that includes consideration of an expected or realized added benefit from the productivity enhancing product or method to an end user and the price that is expected to be received or has been received by the end user. Programs and systems with which such a pricing method are used are also disclosed. |
| US07921058B1 |
Exchangeable equity-linked security
A method of creating, selling, converting, and redeeming exchangeable instruments that may result in favorable tax and/or accounting treatment for a company that is a parent to an issuing subsidiary. The parent company transfers a conversion option to a wholly owned subsidiary. The subsidiary attaches the parent's conversion option to its own nonconvertible debt instrument, creating an exchangeable instrument to be issued to investors. Payment for the exchangeable instrument is remitted to the parent for the value of the conversion option and to the subsidiary with respect to the nonconvertible debt instrument. The split obligations of parent and subsidiary may result in a relatively high tax interest expense and relatively low accounting interest expense. Use of a net share settlement feature may result in reduced dilution of the parent's equity. |
| US07921056B2 |
Processing composite trading orders
An apparatus for processing a composite trading order comprises an interface operable to display a composite value representing a weighted quantity of a plurality of trading products. The apparatus further comprises a processor operable to receive at least one input representing a composite trading order, wherein the at least one input comprises a quantity that is equal to at least a portion of the weighted quantity. The at least one input is usable to generate one or more constituent trading orders that, when filled, combine to satisfy the composite trading order. |
| US07921050B1 |
System and method for analyzing data associated with statistical arbitrage
Providing computer-based systems and methods for analyzing historical performance of financial securities and identifying trades in those securities based on the securities' current position as compared to this historical performance. These computer-based systems and computer-implemented methods include identifying stock pairs to include in a trading portfolio, based on a measure of the pair's relative performance, such as a modified Sharpe Ratio. The value of the stocks in each stock pair in the portfolio is assessed and deviations determined. This assessment can occur daily or at a longer or shorter time step. Stocks are bought or sold based on the current price of the stock as compared to historical performance. The present invention preferably employs a large number of stock pairs in the trading portfolio. This use of a large number of pairs results in a plurality of stocks being in more than one stock pair. |
| US07921049B2 |
Collateralized equity and debt obligation financial product
A financial product is created by receiving funds from investors to purchase collateral, such as stock or bonds, in companies to populate an insurance portfolio and a risk portfolio. Notes backed by the collateral are issued to the investors and pay a coupon amount based on the performance of the collateral. The collateral is monitored over time to determine whether distressed equity events occur which coincide with the collateral value falling below a predetermined amount of its original share price. The number of distressed equity events between companies in the insurance portfolio and risk portfolio offset each other to give a total number of net hits. Subsequently, the total number of net hits is used to calculate an impact on the amount of the coupon pay-out to the investors. |
| US07921046B2 |
High speed processing of financial information using FPGA devices
Methods and systems for processing financial market data using reconfigurable logic are disclosed. Various functional operations to be performed on the financial market data can be implemented in firmware pipelines to accelerate the speed of processing. Also, a combination of software logic and firmware logic can be used to efficiently control and manage the high speed flow of financial market data to and from the reconfigurable logic. |
| US07921044B2 |
System and methods for disseminating real time information
A system and method for real time dissemination of information is provided. One server receives and data bases the information while another server disseminates the information; instead of one server receiving the information, data basing the information, and dissemination the information to all users requesting the information. |
| US07921038B2 |
Conducting commerce between individuals
Receiving payment includes the establishment, at a first server, a transaction record including information identifying a payment amount, a first account to be credited by the payment amount, and a second account to be debited by a debit amount. A financial authorization network performs an authorization analysis on at least the second account. The second account is debited if the authorization analysis is successfully completed, and the first account is directly credited by the payment amount to conclude the transaction. Risk analysis may be performed for each individual. Payment is integrated with shipping. |
| US07921034B2 |
Advertisement platform, system for playing advertisement and method thereof
The present invention discloses an Advertisement Platform (ADP), including an ADP Switch Point (ADP-SP), a voice playing unit and a service logic supporting unit; wherein the ADP-SP connects a call from a calling LS or an MS and initiates an advertisement service call to the service logic supporting unit; upon receiving the advertisement service call from the ADP-SP, the service logic supporting unit returns advertisement service instruction to the ADP-SP after parsing the advertisement service call; upon receiving the advertisement service instruction returned by the service logic supporting unit, the ADP-SP instructs the voice playing unit to play a ring back tone which includes advertisement according to the advertisement service instruction and connects a voice channel used for the voice playing unit playing advertisement with the calling voice channel or the MS voice channel. The present invention also discloses a system and method for playing advertisement. |
| US07921033B2 |
System and method for high-density interactive voting using a computer network
A system and method for facilitating high-density interactive voting (such as during a live event) using a computer network and tabulating and providing voting results in real-time. In general, the high-density interactive voting system of the present invention includes five major components that reside on the voting network: (1) a Live Event Wizard; (2) a Live Event Staging Component; (3) a Live Event Database; (4) a Live Event Object (LEO); and (5) a Live Event Display Engine. The Live Event Wizard is enables a user to quickly and easily create polling questions for distribution and presentation to a voter. The Live Event Staging Component ensures the validity of the polling questions and sends a copy of a live event definition and the polling questions to the Live Event Database. The Live Event Database tabulates current voting results at specified (or pre-determined) time intervals and performs statistical calculations of voting results. The present invention also includes a Live Event Object (LEO) that resides and remains in memory (such as random access memory (RAM)). The LEO establishes and maintains persistent connections with the Live Event Database such that these connections do not have to be continually opened and closed, thus greatly reducing the burden on the server and increasing system performance. The Live Event Display Engine receives the live event definition from the LEO and renders the definition and results on a display device for voters to view. |
| US07921031B2 |
Custom survey generation method and system
A custom survey generation method and system. The system comprises a computing apparatus comprising a list of business processes, reporting outcomes, and groups of questions. The computing system presents to a user the list. The computing system receives from the user a selection for a business process and an associated reporting outcome from the list. The computing system generates a custom survey for the user in response to the selection. The custom survey comprises a first group of questions associated with the associated reporting outcome. The computing system receives from the user a response to each question of the first group of questions. The computing system generates a first benchmarking report based on each said response. |
| US07921029B2 |
Projection factors for forecasting product demand
Projection factors are used to project product sales data from sample retail outlets to the universe of outlets. Weekly forecasts of market conditions and product demand are generated based on the projected product sales data. The projection factors and the weekly forecasts are updated during the course of the forecasted week, for example, daily, as data on actual product sales during the forecasted week is received. |
| US07921028B2 |
Systems and methods of partnering content creators with content partners online
Systems and methods of partnering content creators with content partners online are disclosed. In an exemplary implementation a method may include receiving registration information from a content partner and building a profile describing desired creative content for the content partner and receiving creative content. Based on at least the profile, the method may include determining whether a match exists between a content partner and the creative content. If a match is found, the method may include providing the content partner access to the creative content, and extending an invitation for the content partner to acquire rights in the creative content. |
| US07921024B2 |
IT service management technology enablement
Disclosed are a method and system for transforming organizations from a supply driven to service oriented, demand driven IT organization. The IT Service Management Technology Enablement Model provides a method for supply-oriented customers to move to an advanced, demand driven service utility. The method outlines the key technical enablers that need to be put in place to achieve specific milestones as they move from a supply driven to demand driven model. Key milestones include: aligning IT to the Business (communicate); productizing IT (Structure); IT as a Factory (Standardize); and IT as a Utility (Commoditize). |
| US07921021B1 |
System, method, and manufacture for decreasing the amount of treatment a patient requires from a first care-giver
A process, system, and manufacture are provided for decreasing the amount of treatment a patient requires from a first care-giver. In at least one example, the system comprises a means for receiving a set of records, and the set of records includes at least one representing a treatment prescribed by the first care-giver, and at least one representing at least one patient characteristic. There is also a means for determining, from the set of records, independently of records relating to effectiveness of the treatment prescribed for the patient, and based on a predetermined set of screening criteria, whether a different treatment is appropriate. Further, a means is provided for generating, based on the screening, an eligibility tag associated with the patient for providing notice to the patient associated with the eligibility tag of the different treatment availability at no cost to the patient and of a financial consequence of receipt of the treatment. |
| US07921018B2 |
Translation system and method of providing translation service
A translation system is provided, which comprises: a translation server comprising guidelines for writing original text that serve as criteria for determining whether errors exist in the original text, an original text controller determining whether the original text conforms to the guidelines for writing original text, and a translation engine translating the original text with reference to at least one of a basic dictionary and a plurality of user dictionaries; a user interface comprising an original text processing part receiving and transmitting the original text to the translation server, a translated text processing part outputting the received translated text from the translation server and transmitting a result about whether to approve the corresponding translated text to the translation server, and a user dictionary editing part modifying contents of the user dictionary; and a user community server comprising an original text writing method shared database and a user dictionary shared database. |
| US07921016B2 |
Method and device for providing 3D audio work
A method for providing a 3D audio work includes providing a one-ear HRTF filter and a related function synthesizer storing a related function therein, and inputting sound signals into the one-ear HRTF filter. The sound signals are converted into one-ear output sound signals which are received by one ear and synthesized to output sound signals for the other ear. A method for providing the related function includes inputting sound signals into HRTF filters of opposite ears and obtaining output sound signals which respectively act as raw signals and target signals. The raw signals are synthesized by a synthesizer to output sound signals which compare with the target signals. A related function registered in the synthesizer is accordingly regulated so as to obtain the related function which satisfies a minimum difference between the output sound signals from the synthesizer and the target signals. |
| US07921013B1 |
System and method for sending multi-media messages using emoticons
A system and method of providing sender-customization of multi-media messages through the use of emoticons is disclosed. The sender inserts the emoticons into a text message. As an animated face audibly delivers the text, emoticons associated with the message are started a predetermined period of time or number of words prior to the position of the emoticon in the message text and completed a predetermined length of time or number of words following the location of the emoticon. The sender may insert emoticons through the use of emoticon buttons that are icons available for choosing. Upon sender selections of an emoticon, an icon representing the emoticon is inserted into the text at the position of the cursor. Once an emoticon is chosen, the sender may also choose the amplitude for the emoticon and increased or decreased amplitude will be displayed in the icon inserted into the message text. |
| US07921010B2 |
Information processing apparatus, recording medium, and data signal
An information processing apparatus, comprising: an acquisition section that acquires a plurality of items of document information to be time-sequentially presented and movie information which includes speech that time-sequentially changes in association with the plurality of items of document information; a character string extracting section that extracts, from character strings included in the plurality of items of document information, character strings to be searched for; and a partial selecting section that selects a part of the movie information where at least one of the character strings to be searched for, which are extracted by the character string extracting section, is spoken in the speech included in the movie information. |
| US07921009B2 |
Method and device for updating status of synthesis filters
A method and device for updating statuses of synthesis filters are provided. The method includes: exciting a synthesis filter corresponding to a first encoding rate by using an excitation signal of the first encoding rate, outputting reconstructed signal information, and updating status information of the synthesis filter and a synthesis filter corresponding to a second encoding rate. In the present disclosure, the status of the synthesis filter corresponding to the current rate and the statuses of the synthesis filters at other rates are updated. Thus, synchronization between the statuses of the synthesis filters corresponding to different rates at the encoding terminal may be realized, thereby facilitating the consistency of the reconstructed signals of the encoding and decoding terminals when the encoding rate is switched, and improving the quality of the reconstructed signal of the decoding terminal. |
| US07921007B2 |
Scalable audio coding
The invention relates to an audio encoder and decoder and methods for audio encoding and decoding. In a preferred encoder embodiment an audio signal is encoded by deterministic encoder means to form a first encoded signal part. A spectrum of the audio signal is determined and represented by an excitation pattern, i.e. spectral values corresponding to human auditory filters, as a second encoded signal part. A masking curve is also extracted based on the excitation pattern, thus improving encoding efficiency in terms of bit rate. In a preferred decoder the first encoded signal part is decoded by deterministic decoder means. A noise generator uses the decoded first signal part together with the second signal part, i.e. the excitation pattern for the original audio signal, to generate a noise signal. The noise signal is then added to the first decoded signal part to form an output audio signal. At the decoder side the masking curve is also extracted based on the second encoded signal part, i.e. the excitation pattern. The noise signal is generated so that the output audio signal exhibits an excitation pattern nearly identical to the original audio signal. Thus, a perceived high quality audio is obtained while the encoded signal is scalable since a possible deviation between encoding and decoding of the first signal part is compensated by the noise generator at the decoder side. In preferred embodiments the coding means comprises a sinusoidal coder. |
| US07921002B2 |
Method and system for simulating flow of fluid around a body
A simulation method for flow of fluid around a body, according to the present invention, comprising dividing a target domain of simulation into a plurality of computational unit domains named cubes, generating an uniform number of Cartesian mesh elements named cells, in each of the cubes, performing computation in the cubes in each computational step, and exchanging data between adjacent cubes after completion of each computational step. In dividing the target domain of simulation into cubes, division is repeated while a ratio between adjacent cube sizes is maintained in a certain range until cubes including a boundary between the body and the fluid, is small enough to obtain a desired resolution so that sizes of the cubes are appropriately determined according to a shape of the body. |
| US07921001B2 |
Coupled algorithms on quadrilateral grids for generalized axi-symmetric viscoelastic fluid flows
The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for simulating and analyzing viscoelastic fluid flow. The fluid flows through a channel and is ejected from a channel. The fluid has an interface between a first fluid and a second fluid. The method includes performing finite difference analysis and using a level set projection method to solve equations governing the viscoelastic flow of the fluids through the channel. The equations governing the viscoelastic flow include an azimuthal velocity term that is an approximate description of the azimuthal flow of the fluid. The equations governing the viscoelastic flow also include an approximation of the stress experienced by the fluids being simulated. The equations governing the viscoelastic flow include an advection term that includes an azimuthal velocity term. The finite difference analysis used to solve the governing equations includes a second-order Godunov type upwind scheme to update the advection terms over time. The level set for the first and second fluids is updated periodically during the simulation. |
| US07920999B2 |
Method of predicting internal gettering behavior in silicon substrates and storage medium storing program for predicting internal gettering behavior
Internal gettering behavior in a silicon substrate is predicted by using an arithmetic expression established among an initial iron contamination concentration Cini in the silicon substrate, a density N of oxygen precipitates, a radius R of the oxygen precipitates, internal gettering heat treatment temperature T, internal gettering heat treatment time t, and a concentration C(t) of iron (Fe) remaining in the silicon substrate after a heat treatment. In the prediction of internal gettering behavior in the silicon substrate, an arithmetic expression is added considering a process in which nuclei of a contaminant heavy metal silicide are generated on the surface of the oxygen precipitates, and a process in which the contaminant heavy metal is gettered by the oxygen precipitates having the contaminant heavy metal silicide nuclei generated on the surface thereof. This invention is also applicable for internal gettering of a contaminant heavy metal other than iron (Fe), such as copper (Cu), nickel (Ni) or the like. |
| US07920998B2 |
Diabetes care management system
A medical device for diabetes management, comprising (a) a memory comprising one or more optimal blood glucose values, one or more insulin dose values of a patient, one or more measured blood glucose values, and one or more scaling factors for weighting the impact on a future blood glucose value and that are customizable to an individual patient to predict the effect on the blood glucose of insulin dose actions performed by the individual patient, (b) a microprocessor, in communication with the memory, programmed to calculate a further value, the further value being based on the insulin dose values, the optimal blood glucose values, and the scaling factors, and (c) a display configured to display information according to the further value. |
| US07920994B2 |
Method for the evolutionary design of biochemical reaction networks
The present invention relates to methods for achieving an optimal function of a biochemical reaction network. The methods can be performed in silico using a reconstruction of a biochemical reaction network of a cell and iterative optimization procedures. The methods can further include laboratory culturing steps to confirm and possibly expand the determinations made using the in silico methods, and to produce a cultured cell, or population of cells, with optimal functions. The current invention includes computer systems and computer products including computer-readable program code for performing the in silico steps of the invention. |
| US07920992B2 |
Method and system for modeling uncertainties in integrated circuits, systems, and fabrication processes
A method and system for modeling uncertainties in integrated circuits, systems and fabrication processes may include defining interval values for each uncertain component or parameter in a circuit or system. The method may also include replacing scalar operations with interval operations in an algorithm and discontinuing interval operations in the algorithm in response to a predetermined condition. The method may also include generating a plurality of scalar samples from a plurality of intervals and determine a distribution of each uncertain component or parameter from the scalar samples of the intervals. |
| US07920989B2 |
Remote test facility with wireless interface to local test facilities
A central test facility transmits wirelessly test data to a local test facility, which tests electronic devices using the test data. The local test facility transmits wirelessly response data generated by the electronic devices back to the central test facility, which analyzes the response data to determine which electronic devices passed the testing. The central test facility may provide the results of the testing to other entities, such as a design facility where the electronic devices were designed or a manufacturing facility where the electronic devices where manufactured. The central test facility may accept requests for test resources from any of a number of local test facilities, schedule test times corresponding to each test request, and at a scheduled test time, wirelessly transmits test data to a corresponding local test facility. |
| US07920988B2 |
Capturing system interactions
A computer-implemented method for capturing interactions in a system is disclosed. The method includes receiving a selection of a first component of the system and receiving a selection of a second component of the system. The method further includes receiving a selection of an interaction between the first component and the second component, and displaying a list of functions performed by the selected interaction. |
| US07920986B2 |
Surface shape metric and method to quantify the surface shape of electronic packages
A method of quantifying a shape of a surface includes measuring an elevation (z) of the surface at a plurality of locations in an x-y plane of the surface. The measurement data is fit to a series expansion in terms of one or more base functions that include a series expansion fit. A vector of shape coefficients are calculated from the series expansion fit. A vector of shape coefficients are output. |
| US07920983B1 |
System and method for monitoring resources in a water utility network
A computerized method for monitoring a water utility network, the water utility network comprising a network of pipes for delivering water to consumers and a plurality of meters positioned within the pipes across the water distribution network. The method includes receiving meter data representing parameters measured by the meters, such as flow, pressure, chlorine level, pH and turbidity of the water being distributed through the pipes. The method also includes receiving secondary data from sources external to the meters and representing conditions affecting consumption of water in a region serviced by the water utility network such as weather and holidays. The meter and secondary data is analyzed using statistical techniques to identify water network events including leakage events and other events regarding quantity and quality of water flowing through the pipes and operation of the water network. The events are reported to users via a user interface. |
| US07920979B2 |
Signal generation circuit
A signal generation circuit that uses a waveform generation mechanism to generate predetermined waveform(s) when triggered. A triggering mechanism is configured to repeatedly trigger the waveform generation mechanism at times that are dependent on data provided by a data source. The predetermined waveform may be a bandwidth-limited pulse, but might also be a rising edge or a falling edge of a pulse. Various consecutive waveforms may be summed together to thereby formulate a continuous signal. The waveform may have particular characteristics by design. |
| US07920975B2 |
Methods of detecting anomalies in ambient alternating current fields
Methods of detecting anomalies in ambient alternating current (AC) fields are provided. An exemplary embodiment of such a method includes the steps of placing an AC field sensor in an ambient AC field, generating a signal representative of the ambient AC field received by the sensor, and processing the signal to determine if the ambient AC field includes any anomalies. Various applications for the methods are also provided. |
| US07920974B2 |
Generating a vibration profile for a rotating cooling device in a computer system
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that generates a vibration profile for a rotational device in a computer system. During operation, the system sequentially sweeps a rotation speed of a rotational device over a range of rotation speeds. While driving the rotational device at each rotation speed, the system collects a time-domain vibration signal produced by the rotational device and subsequently computes a frequency spectrum of the time-domain vibration signal. In this way, the system generates a set of frequency spectra associated with the range of rotation speeds. Next, the system combines the set of frequency spectra to generate a composite vibration profile for the rotational device. |
| US07920973B2 |
System and method for converting clearance data into vibration data
Embodiments described herein generally relate to a method of measuring the vibration of an aircraft engine. One embodiment herein provides an engine monitoring system either connected to and/or positioned in close proximity to an aircraft engine. Also provided is a clearance measuring device within the engine monitoring system. The clearanceometer collects clearance data that is later converted into vibration data. |
| US07920970B2 |
Methods and apparatus for characterization of petroleum fluid and applications thereof
An improved method and system for characterizing the compositional components of a hydrocarbon reservoir of interest and analyzing fluid properties of the reservoir of interest based upon its compositional components. |
| US07920964B2 |
Navigation apparatus and navigation processing method
A navigation apparatus includes: a map data obtaining unit that obtains map data; a navigation processing unit that executes navigation processing by using the obtained map data; a search data obtaining unit that obtains search data; a specific data detection unit that detects specific data for a specified search target by using the obtained search data; a correspondence table obtaining unit that obtains a correspondence table indicating correspondence between identification information used to identify individual road units into which each road is divided in predetermined units and map data road unit information related to map data road units defined in the map data individually corresponding to the road units; and a map position determining unit that determines a position of the specified search target in the map data based upon the specific data for the specified search target having been detected and the correspondence table having been obtained. |
| US07920958B2 |
Procedure for starting an internal combustion engine
In order to make a start-up of an internal combustion engine as quick as possible, whereby an electrical power output, which is as small as possible, is required, it is proposed to at least periodically activate a direct starting control device for the generation of a combustion torque and an electrical starter for the generation of a starter torque simultaneously during the start-up. In so doing, the power output of the electric starter is controlled as a function of a current combustion torque, so that the starter is continually operated only at a currently required power output. For this purpose, the electric starter is, for example, controlled in an open- and/or closed-loop in such a way that the current total torque resulting from the current combustion torque and the current starter torque does not undershoot a specifiable set point torque. |
| US07920957B2 |
Method and control device for metering fuel to combustion chambers of an internal combustion engine
A method for metering fuel into a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine is provided, in which a fuel quantity to be metered for a combustion is metered by a preinjection and at least one additional injection, and in which, in the operation of the internal combustion engine, quantity errors of the preinjection are ascertained from the signal of at least structure-borne noise sensor. The method is distinguished in that a correction value is formed as a function of the quantity error of the preinjection, and at least one of the additional injections is corrected using the correction value. A control device is also provided that controls the method. |
| US07920950B2 |
Vehicle drive torque estimation device and drive torque estimation method, and four-wheel drive vehicle
The estimated drive torque calculation unit, is configured such that if the running condition determination unit determines that the transmission mechanism is in gear, and if the speed of rotation of the output shaft of the torque converter measured by the rotation speed measurement sensor is equal to or less than a predetermined speed of rotation, and if the rotation speed of the wheels measured by the wheel speed sensor is equal to or greater than a predetermined rotation speed, the torque combination unit calculates the first estimated drive torque as the engine estimated drive torque even if the slip ratio of the torque converter is equal to or less than a predetermined value, and even if the first estimated drive torque calculated by the first drive torque calculation unit is greater than the second estimated drive torque calculated by the second drive torque calculation unit. |
| US07920948B2 |
Assumption torque setting device, automatic transmission controller, and method for learning internal combustion engine delay model
An assumption torque setting device for an engine that executes a torque reduction process during gear shifting. The device sets a torque assumed to be output by the engine and based on a target torque from which an amount corresponding to the torque reduction process is excluded as an assumption torque during the gear shifting. The device includes an assumption model torque calculation unit which calculates an assumption model torque from the target torque from which an amount corresponding to the torque reduction process is excluded based on an internal combustion engine delay model. An assumption torque calculation unit calculates before torque reduction is performed an assumption torque based on an engine operation state and calculates when the torque reduction is being performed an assumption torque based on the assumption model torque and an assumption torque calculated from the engine operation state. |
| US07920946B2 |
Methods and systems for end of travel harshness reduction
A control system for controlling a steering system is provided. The control system includes a first module that estimates a command adjust value based on a current position of a hand wheel of the steering system relative to an end of travel region. A second module generates a motor assist command based on the command adjust value to control the steering system. |
| US07920944B2 |
Vehicle diagnostic test and reporting method
A system and method for providing user-initiated vehicle diagnostic testing and reporting in a telematics-enabled vehicle. In the method, a request for a vehicle diagnostic test is received from the driver through a user interface of a telematics unit on the vehicle. A simplified initial diagnostic check is made and a first voice message is played for the driver that provides information concerning any detected vehicle problem. The method then undergoes a more complete diagnostic check and the resulting diagnostic information is used to select and play a second voice message that provides instructions for taking corrective action to fix the detected problem. Communication with a live advisor is also provided by way of a cellular or other wireless carrier system. |
| US07920942B2 |
Control of combined storage and generation in distributed energy resources
A microsource is provided, which includes an energy storage device, a power generation device, and a controller. The energy storage device is operably coupled for power transfer to a load through a first power bus. The power generation device is operably coupled for power transfer to the load through a second power bus. The controller determines a mode of operation for the energy storage device and the power generation device based on an energy level of the energy storage device and on the load; determines minimum power set points and maximum power set points for the energy storage device and the power generation device based on the determined mode of operation, on a storage output power measured at the first power bus, and on a generation output power measured at the second power bus; and controls an output power of the energy storage device and an output power of the power generation device based on the determined minimum and maximum power set points. |
| US07920939B2 |
Method and system for creating and manipulating embroidery designs over a wide area network
A method and system are disclosed for creating and manipulating embroidery designs over a wide area network. The method includes steps to transmit various embroidery design data over a wide area network between a client and a server The manner in which the embroidery design data is created, manipulated, and transmitted allows a user to preview photo realistic renderings of possible finished products, and more precisely adjust interpretations through a provided user interface with minimum latency. |
| US07920936B2 |
Volume element printing system for simultaneously printing multiple layers
A three dimensional object creation system for printing a three dimensional object comprised of layers stacked vertically with respect to each other includes a series of printheads for printing the layers, the series of printheads simultaneously printing at least two layers of different vertical positions within the stack; and a semiconductor memory for storing data defining at least one layer. The series of printheads are arranged in groups of one or more printheads per group, each group being fixedly positioned downstream of a preceding group with respect to the three dimensional object. Each group of printheads is adapted to print a layer at a predetermined vertical position within the stack. |
| US07920933B2 |
Digital mixing system with double arrangement for fail safe
A digital mixing system has a console having a display and an operator for transmitting and receiving a control signal, an engine having input channels and output channels for mixing a plurality of audio signals fed from the input channels while exchanging the control signal with the console and feeding the mixed audio signals to the output channels, and peripheral input and output units connected to the input and output channels of the engine, respectively. The console and the engine are located remotely from each other, and a cable connecting therebetween is duplicated for the purpose of fail safe. The engine may be installed in pair. If a main engine fails, a sub engine backs up instantly to continue the mixing operation. The console may be also prepared in pair for the purpose of fail safe. |
| US07920932B2 |
Audio control using a wireless home entertainment hub
A method of controlling presentation of audio data in a home entertainment system using a wireless home entertainment hub comprises obtaining a registration of at least one audio sink device, where the at least one audio sink device is capable of receiving a first number of audio channels used for presenting the audio data to a user in the home entertainment system. The audio data comprising a second number of audio channels, wherein the second number of audio channels is greater than the first number of audio channels, is received from a source device at the wireless home entertainment hub. The audio data received is processed in response to the capabilities of the at least one audio sink device by down-mixing the audio data to the first number of audio channels. The processed audio data is transmitted to the at least one audio sink device for presentation to the user. |
| US07920931B2 |
Recording and playback of video clips based on audio selections
Video clips (160) are selected for viewing or recording in a video system (160) based on songs that are selected for play in an audio system (110). A history (120) of audio selections is maintained, and based on this history (120), the system identifies ‘favorite’ songs. The system searches sources of video material for video clips (160) that are related to the favorite songs, and records the clips (160). When a favorite song is subsequently selected for play (410), the video system is configured to also play (440), or offer to play (430), the corresponding video clip (160). Optionally, the system is configured to store (390) the location of previously recorded video clips, such as the location of the clip in a user's video collection, or the URL of the clip in a computer network, such as the Internet. |
| US07920928B1 |
Passive fixation for epicardial lead
An epicardial lead is passively fixed in a pericardial space by a passive fixation member. The passive fixation member extends from a distal portion of an epicardial lead and acts against a pericardial layer and an epicardial layer to hold the lead in place. The epicardial lead may include an electrode that is connected to a conductor that extends from a distal portion of the lead. In some embodiments the epicardial lead includes a material that promotes fibrosis to fix the lead to heart tissue. The passive fixation member may include a shocking coil. |
| US07920916B2 |
Capacitor and inductor elements physically disposed in series whose lumped parameters are electrically connected in parallel to form a bandstop filter
One or more inductors and one or more capacitors are physically disposed relative to one another in series and are electrically connected to one another in parallel to form a bandstop filter. Chip inductors and chip capacitors having spaced apart conductive terminals are physically arranged in end-to-end abutting relation to minimize electrical potential between adjacent conductive terminals. The bandstop filter may be hermetically sealed within a biocompatible container for use with an implantable lead or electrode of a medical device. The values of the inductors and the capacitors are selected such that the bandstop filter is resonant at one or more selected frequencies, such as an MRI pulsed frequency. |
| US07920913B1 |
Systems and methods for increasing implantable sensor accuracy
Provided herein are implantable systems, and methods for use therewith, that increase the accuracy of measurements produced using an implanted sensor, where the measurements are affected by cycles of a cyclical body function (e.g., heart beat and/or respiration). In accordance with specific embodiments of system, a measurement that is presumed to be accurate is obtained. The measurement can be of a physiologic property, such as, but not limited to, blood oxygen saturation, hematocrit, or blood glucose concentration. Additionally, the implanted is used to produce a plurality of measurements of the physiologic property. Such measurements, produced using the implanted sensor, are compared to the measurement presumed to be accurate to thereby identify when the measurements produced using the implanted sensor are most accurate. Thereafter, the implanted system is configured to use the implanted sensor to produce measurements when the measurements produced using the implanted sensor are most accurate. |
| US07920911B2 |
Interventional MR imaging with detection and display of device position
A magnetic resonance imaging system for interventional MR imaging involves operations to insert a device such as a catheter into an object. According to the system, a tip position of the catheter is detected, data indicative of moved loci of the catheter are produced from data indicative of the detected tip position, and the produced movement locus data are displayed. In addition, even when an operator changes the progress direction of the device such as a puncture needle, an imaging cross-section automatically tracks movements of the device. Appropriate preoperative planning is also provided. |
| US07920905B2 |
Mobile phone holder, especially for mechanical vehicle
Taught is a mobile phone holder, especially for a mechanical vehicle, having a two-part body with side clamps and provided with a coupling/locking module, which has two step-shaped side clamps (10) on both of its sides. The side clamps are provided with a tooth (14) on their upper arm and are coupled with each other by means of unlocking buttons (3). The clamps are also provided with pins, which engage with the guides and the cams in the body and thus make the clamps move with a translational motion towards the inside of the holder combined with a concurrent rotational motion towards the inside of the holder. In the end phase of this motion the clamps are locked thus also locking the mobile phone in the holder. |
| US07920904B2 |
Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal including a terminal case, a microphone located within the terminal case, and a sound guide unit, is provided. The terminal case includes a first case member, a second case member, and a frame member located between the first case member and the second case member. The frame member includes a microphone hole formed on an outer surface thereof for guiding a sound into the terminal case in a first direction. The microphone includes a sound receiving portion disposed in a second direction different from the first direction, for receiving the sound. And the sound guide unit is located between the microphone hole and the sound receiving portion of the microphone, the sound guide unit guiding the sound, which has passed through the microphone hole, along the first direction and the second direction, toward the sound receiving portion of the microphone. |
| US07920903B2 |
Microphone techniques
Among other features, a boom microphone has a microphone connector; an earcup module includes an earcup connector jack to connect to a headphone and a boom lead-in to receive the microphone connector; and a control module communicates voice signals wirelessly between (a) the boom microphone and headphone and (b) a telephone. |
| US07920895B2 |
Method and system for providing broadcast services through a cellular and/or wireless network to a plurality of mobile devices via service provider integration
A system for controlling signal processing in a multi-network device is disclosed and may include one or more circuits that enable receiving of a digital video broadcast signal. The one or more circuits may enable processing a channel of the digital video broadcast signal according to a first selection. At least one channel of the digital video broadcast signal may include broadcast multimedia content. The one or more circuits may enable receiving a cellular communication signal and processing the cellular communication signal according to a second selection. The broadcast multimedia content may include Internet content. The one or more circuits may enable storing at least a portion of the received digital video broadcast signal and at least a portion of the received cellular communication signal in a commonly accessible memory. |
| US07920891B2 |
Stand alone emergency signal device housed in cell phone
The emergency signal device includes an emergency key on the phone, an independent IC chip set controlling the emergency functions, a dedicated memory chip for emergency information and a by-passing outlet to the cell phone's transmitting parts. It is further provided that the device includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, so that the person in danger may always be located. This device utilizes rechargeable solar cells to provide energy. All of its components are powered by a solar cell or solar cell charged battery. |
| US07920888B2 |
Power control and automatic repeat request (ARQ) in a radio communications system
A radio network entity in charge of outer loop power control for a communication with a mobile radio is informed about erroneous data units, requested retransmissions, and/or data units transmission attempts associated with the data units sent by the mobile radio to the radio network. Another radio network entity, which sends a transmission power control signal to the mobile radio to control the mobile's transmit power level based on a target value, detects errors in data units received from the mobile radio and requests retransmission. Information associated with the requested retransmission is used to generate a revised target value. The target value may be revised by an outer loop power controller node or by an outer loop power controller entity in the same node as an ARQ entity that generates the information about erroneous data units, requested retransmissions, and/or data units transmission attempts associated with the data units sent by the mobile radio to the radio network. |
| US07920882B2 |
Human interface device and wireless communication method thereof
Provided are a human interface device and a wireless communication method thereof. The wireless communication method of the human interface includes the steps of: setting up an occupancy channel of the host digital terminal and the wireless input unit by communicating data for setting up the occupancy channel through the emergency channel; transmitting, at the wireless input unit, operation data through the occupancy channel, and receiving, at the host digital terminal, the operation data; and when the operation data is not generated until a predetermined time lapses, enabling the wireless input unit and the host digital terminal to operate in an operation standby state, and confirming whether there is interference on the occupancy channel. Accordingly, efficiency of a frequency band is increased, and cost and size of the product can be reduced. Further, when interference on the occupancy channel is detected, a new occupancy channel can be set up so that reliability and efficiency of the wireless communication can be increased. |
| US07920881B2 |
Clock synchronization for a wireless communications system
A method of clock synchronization for a wireless communications system includes receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal at a base station and at a network reference server (NRS). The NRS is also coupled to receive a reference clock signal. A clock offset value is then calculated in response to the RF signal received at the base station, the RF signal received at the NRS, and the reference clock signal. A local clock signal at the base station is then synchronized with the reference clock signal in response to the calculated clock offset value. |
| US07920877B2 |
Using base-station location to assist mobile-device system acquisition
Methods and systems are provided for using base-station location to assist mobile-device system acquisition. A mobile station, which stores a network identifier, selects a carrier frequency. The mobile station receives, from a base station on a first carrier frequency, geographic coordinates of the base station and a base-station network identifier, and determines whether the base-station network identifier matches the mobile-station network identifier. If the base-station network identifier matches the mobile-station network identifier, the mobile station will scan the indicated home frequency bands and will connect to one of the home frequencies, and if the base-station network identifier does not match the mobile-station network identifier, the geographic coordinates of the base station are used to identify a market area and a most-preferred carrier frequency is selected from the identified market area. |
| US07920874B2 |
Position estimating system
A position estimating system capable of accurately estimating the position assumed by a target terminal user based upon measurement of wireless reception signal levels of signals from a target terminal is provided. The position estimating system includes a target terminal that wirelessly transmits a position estimation request, a plurality of reference terminals disposed at specific positions which, measure the signal strength of wireless signals from the target terminal and a position estimating server that estimates the position of the target terminal based upon the reception signal levels measured in correspondence to each of the reference terminals. The reference terminals each include a reception signal level utilization OK/NG judgment unit that makes a judgment as to whether or not the reception signal level value having been measured is to be used in position estimation based upon an index indicating the level of reliability of the reception signal. |
| US07920872B2 |
Method for the transmisson of location-related information
The supplementary location-related information which may be included in a digital map of the receiver is transmitted in such a way that the location-related information may be downloaded from an Internet page. |
| US07920870B1 |
System and method for adaptive configuration of cell structure based on the position of mobile stations
A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for adaptively configuring the cell structure of a cell having at least two carrier frequencies between an overlaid/underlaid (OL/UL) sub-cell structure and a normal cell structure based on the position of mobile stations within the cell. A Base Station Controller (BSC) for the cell determines the position of all of the mobile stations involved in a call connection within the cell relative to the cell site. If the number of mobile stations within a predefined distance from the cell site is greater than a channel threshold, the BSC adapts the cell configuration to the OL/UL sub-cell structure. The channel threshold is an operator-defined percentage of available channels (throughout the cell or within either the overlaid or underlaid cell). However, if the BSC determines that the percentage of mobile stations closer than the predefined distance is less than the channel threshold, the BSC maintains the normal cell structure. |
| US07920869B2 |
Home network searching when roaming in wireless communications networks
A method in a wireless communications device including determining whether the device is operating in a network other than a home network, determining whether to search for the home network when not operating in the home network by comparing network record information associated with the network in which the device is operating to reference information. In some embodiments, the device indicates that it is operating in a network other than the network in which it is operating. |
| US07920858B2 |
Multiprotocol antenna system for multiple service provider-multiple air interface co-located base stations
In one embodiment of a system for distributing cellular radio frequency signals, a hub unit is configured to digitize first and second analog radio frequency signals in order to generate first and second digital data, respectively, indicative of the first and second analog radio frequency signals. The first and second analog radio frequency signals are broadcast from first and second base stations, respectively, associated with first and second cellular service providers, respectively, using first and second air interfaces, respectively. The first and second digital data are transported to a radio access node from the hub unit using a shared transport medium. The radio access node is configured to reconstruct versions of the first and second analog radio frequency signals from the first and second digital data, respectively, using first and second digital-to-analog converters. |
| US07920857B2 |
Event reminder method
A method is performed by first and second mobile wireless communication devices used respectively by first and second users. In the method, a first user selects, on the first device, a first task for the first user to perform. The first device sends to the second device a request to link the first task to a second task to be performed by the second user. The second device sends to the first device, in response to the second task being completed, a notification to the first device. |
| US07920854B2 |
Printing a map using a mobile device
A system for printing a map on a print medium, the system comprising: a mobile telecommunications device which comprises: a printer module to print the map on the print medium; and, a sensor module to sense a print media identifier of the print medium. |
| US07920853B2 |
Method and arrangement for establishing a conference call
A method and arrangement for establishing a conference call from a mobile station in a call centre environment. A user may choose conference call participants from his mobile phone, and a client application in the mobile phone will communicate relevant parameters to the call centre server, which will then call the conference initiator and other participants via the gateway server. The calls are handed over to the gateway server, which will digitize each call to an audio and/or video stream, typically an RTP stream. The streams are relayed to a computer where the streams are combined to form a successful conference call. The conference call is then recorded to a data file on the computer, and may be sent to participants or stored to a database with relevant metadata. The network infrastructure of the telecommunications network operator need not be consulted, nor is there any need for additional hardware. |
| US07920851B2 |
Secure mobile information management system and method
Information or items that otherwise might be carried in a person's wallet or purse may be managed and stored on a mobile phone. Embodiments include a software application loaded on a mobile phone and an Internet website through which certain information can be transmitted to the phone by the user, third parties, or both. A user may be alerted to certain information or changes in information that meet certain criteria. The website may provide secure storage for information, filter information, and send encrypted and compressed nuggets or fractions of information to the phone for storage based on topic. E-mails may be searched for information, information may be sent to different parties, and signals may be sent locally to exchange information. Personal information may include account information or travel information, for example. |
| US07920850B1 |
Method and system for a hospitality entity to communicate goods and services to a guest
A system and method for a hospitality entity to communicate goods and services to a guest based on events occurring at a facility of the hospitality entity is disclosed herein. The method includes establishing a unique identifier with a mobile phone of a guest and then sending executable offers to the guest which upon acceptance triggers another offer based on the first offer acceptance and events occurring at the time and location of the guest. |
| US07920849B2 |
Method and system for providing advertisements/messages based on wireless data communication technology
An Internet Platform administering an Integrated Network System of Localized (customized) marketing and advertising BLUETOOTH® Broadcasting Points, accessed by cell phone/BLUETOOTH device users in BLUETOOTH Wireless Access Points (BLUETOOTH Hot Spots). The marketing and advertising relies on BLUETOOTH transmissions based on predetermined criteria and can be accomplished in an unlimited number of media formats. |
| US07920846B2 |
Method for implementing access restriction of mobile networks
The present invention discloses a method for implementing access restriction of mobile networks. The method includes the following steps: a Mobile Station (MS) inquiring a list of forbidden Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs) and access technology identifiers, which is saved by itself, when selecting a PLMN network; the MS determining whether the selected PLMN network and the access technology exist in the list of forbidden PLMNs and access technology identifiers, if they exist, the MS will not send a Location Updating Request to a Mobile Switching Center/Serving GPRS Support Node (MSC/SGSN); otherwise, the MS will send the Location Updating Request to the MSC/SGSN in order to access to the network. The present invention makes it possible to implement the access restrictions upon different types of access networks using different restriction rules. Furthermore, during the process of implementing the access restriction, the modification to the existing networks and user terminals is very small, the method is easy to implement and can well satisfy demands on the access restriction of operators. |
| US07920839B2 |
System and method for station detection and seek in a radio receiver
A system for detecting a broadcast channel in a radio receiver includes a receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) element configured to develop an RSSI signal that is representative of a power in a desired channel, a switchable bandwidth channel select filter having a power detector configured to compare a power output of the desired channel and at least one channel adjacent to the desired channel to develop a signal to adjacent channel power ratio (SACPR) signal that is representative of the noise in the desired channel, and a seek element configured to determine whether the RSSI signal is greater than a predetermined RSSI threshold and configured to determine whether the SACPR signal is greater than a predetermined SACPR threshold. |
| US07920836B2 |
System and method for saturation detection, correction and recovery in a polar transmitter
A system for saturation detection, correction and recovery in a power amplifier includes a power amplifier, a closed power control loop configured to develop a power control signal (VPC), and power control circuitry configured to reduce the power control signal if the power amplifier is operating in a saturation mode. |
| US07920830B2 |
Method for performing a radio frequency test on a mobile phone
A method for performing an radio frequency test of a mobile phone (5) includes: setting standard parameters of a transmitter (52); controlling an RF tester (3) to send RF signals to a receiver (53); processing the RF signals and transmitting the processed RF signals to the transmitter, reprocessing the processed RF signals and transmitting the reprocessed signals to the RF tester; obtaining resulting parameters of the RF performance of the transmitter; determining whether the RF performance of the transmitter is acceptable; setting standard parameters of the receiver; controlling the RF tester to send RF signals to a combiner (4), and controlling a disturbance source (2) to send channel noise to the combiner; generating combined signals by combining the RF signals and the channel noise, and transmitting to the receiver; obtaining resulting parameters of the RF performance of the receiver; and determining whether the RF performance of the receiver is acceptable. |
| US07920823B2 |
System capability discovery for software defined radio
Capability checking to examine a computing device's capabilities to determine if the device supports a software defined radio to communicate according to a specific wireless protocol. Applicants have appreciated that as the reliance on software defined radio increases, numerous potential options may be available to a user for performing wireless communication. Applicants have appreciated the desirability of providing the ability to discover the capabilities of a user's computer to determine whether it is capable of supporting one or more wireless protocols. |
| US07920812B2 |
Development device and image forming apparatus that uses this device
A development device provided with a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer, which are laminated so as to overlap one another in a normal direction with respect to the surface of the roller part of the toner bearing roller. A plurality of openings are provided in the second electrode layer, over the entire latent image bearable area of a photosensitive body in the orthogonal-to-movement direction. The toner on the surface of the roller part is caused to hop between a plurality of spots directly beneath the openings that respectively exist directly beneath the plurality of openings in the second electrode layer, and a plurality of spots between the openings that respectively exist between the plurality of openings in the second electrode layer, within the entire area of the first electrode layer which is uniformly formed in the roller circumferential direction. |
| US07920811B2 |
Storage container and image forming apparatus
A storage container includes: a storage container main body; a flow-out opening; a shutter; a seal member; a restricting portion; and an open-close movement restricting portion. |
| US07920810B2 |
Electrophotography device with electric field applicator
Embodiments of an electrophotography device are disclosed. |
| US07920809B2 |
Sheet feeding device, and image recording apparatus with the sheet feeding device
A sheet feeding device includes an inner guide member and an outer guide member that define a sheet feeding path therebetween. The sheet feeding device also includes an engaging member positioned adjacent to one of the inner guide member and the outer guide member, and a receiving portion positioned at the other one of the inner guide member and the outer guide member. The engaging member moves between an engaged position to engage the receiving portion and a disengaged position to disengage from the receiving portion. The inner guide member is selectively connected to the outer guide member via the engaging member and the receiving portion. When the engaging member contacts the sheet in the sheet feeding path, the engaging member is in the disengaged position, and when the engaging member is separated from the sheet in the sheet feeding path, the engaging member is in the engaged position. |
| US07920804B2 |
Developing device and image forming apparatus having the same
A developing device according to the present invention includes a developer storing section storing a developer, a stirring member disposed in the developer storing section and transporting the developer while stirring the developer, a developer carrier receiving the developer from the developer storing section and carrying the developer, a developer regulating member regulating the amount of the developer received by the developer carrier from the developer storing section, and a heat-dissipating member disposed at a position in contact with the developer and capable of dissipating heat of the developer. The heat-dissipating member has a surface in contact with the developer and the contact surface of the heat-dissipating member has an arithmetic surface roughness Ra1 that is set to be equal to or less than ⅓ of the volume average particle size of toner particles contained in the developer. |
| US07920801B2 |
Image forming apparatus and method for controlling image forming apparatus
Related is an image forming apparatus by electrophotography having a function of performing adjustment of image quality when performing image formation. The image forming apparatus includes a detection portion for detecting a fixing temperature of a fixing apparatus; a storage portion for storing an application history of a development bias; a count portion for counting a reposed time from a point when an operation of image formation is ended; a determination portion for determining a change range of the development bias immediately before the end of the operation of image formation; and an execution portion for executing adjustment of image quality by setting the development bias based on a determination result from the determination portion when the reposed time or the fixing temperature exceeds a predetermined value. |
| US07920794B1 |
Free space optical communication
Free space optical communication systems, methods, and apparatuses are provided. A system embodiment includes a photodetector for receiving a beacon signal transmitted from a ground communication apparatus, a light source for emitting a light beam toward a source of the beacon signal, where the light beam includes a signal to be transmitted, and a high speed tracking actuator coupled to the light source for moving the light source to maintain the light beam in a direction toward the source of the beacon signal transmitted from the ground communication apparatus. |
| US07920792B2 |
System and method for managing communication in a hybrid passive optical network
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a system and method for managing communication in a hybrid passive optical network (HPON) is provided. In a particular embodiment, the method includes transmitting, at a first wavelength, a first configuration message on the HPON. The method also includes receiving at one or more of a plurality of receivers at an optical line terminal (OLT) one or more configuration response messages from one or more optical network units (ONUs) in a first set of ONUs. The method further includes, based on the configuration response messages from the first set of ONUs, associating, in a database, each ONU in the first set of ONUs with the first wavelength and with the receiver receiving the configuration response message from the ONU. The method also includes, after transmitting the first configuration message, transmitting, at a second wavelength, a second configuration message on the HPON. The method further includes receiving at one or more of the plurality of receivers at the OLT one or more configuration response messages from one or more ONUs in a second set of ONUs, wherein the ONUs in the second set of ONUs do not belong to the first set of ONUs. The method also includes, based on the configuration response messages from the second set of ONUs, associating, in the database, each ONU in the second set of ONUs with the second wavelength and with the receiver receiving the configuration response message from the ONU. |
| US07920789B1 |
System for communication of video, audio, data, control or other signals over fiber
A system for communication of signals between remote devices and monitoring and control devices via fiber. The system in accordance with one aspect of the invention includes a plurality of remote interface units each coupled to a corresponding one of the remote devices, a base unit coupled to one or more monitoring devices and one or more control devices, and a central hub coupled between the base unit and the plurality of remote interface units. The central hub is coupled to the base unit by a first fiber optic link, and is coupled to the remote interface units by additional fiber optic links. |
| US07920787B2 |
Method for detecting a check-back signal in an optical transmission system
The invention relates to a method for detecting a check-back signal in a transmission system for optical signals. According to said method, a constant proportion of the output in a defined frequency range of the check-back signal is concentrated in a narrow-band spectral range and is determined after a transmission phase by means of a narrow-band detection of the concentrated energy around the spectral range. If no signal is identified during the narrow-band detection, a line interruption is determined and no pump source is switched on for safety reasons. The narrow-band detection of the check-back signal also allows the transmission attenuation of the transmission system to be measured. |
| US07920782B2 |
Imaging device
An imaging device having a shooting optical system, including an imaging element having a pixel array capable of generating image signals regarding light from a subject coming through the shooting optical system, and a focus-detection pixel line having pairs of pixels, the pixels of each of the pairs receiving luminous fluxes from the subject coming through a pair of individually corresponding partial regions of an exit pupil of the shooting optical system; a rapid-fire shooting unit configured to perform rapid-fire shooting to generate image signals at the pixel array on each exposure and to generate certain signals at the focus-detection pixel line; a focus detection unit configured to perform focus detection by a phase-difference detection method on the basis of the certain signals; and a focus adjustment unit configured to perform focus adjustment during each interval of the exposures on the basis of a result of focus detection. |
| US07920778B2 |
Boiler for use in a steam generating device
A boiler (1) for heating water to steam comprises a boiler housing (10) having a bottom wall (12), a top wall (13) and a circumferential wall (14) extending between these walls (12, 13). When the boiler (1) is mounted in a steam generating device for generating steam and supplying steam to an appliance such as a steam iron (20), the boiler (1) is given an inclined orientation. In a lower portion (13a) of the top wall (13) of the boiler housing (10), an inlet opening (15) for letting in water to a boiler space (11) which is enclosed by the boiler housing (10) is arranged. When water is supplied through the inlet opening (15), the water lands on a lower zone (14a) of the circumferential wall (14) and flows further in a downward direction, along the circumferential wall (14). As a result, the water is pre-heated when it reaches the water which is already present in the boiler space (11), and there is no danger of the steam production getting interrupted. |
| US07920776B2 |
Information storage medium and information recording/playback system
There are provided an information storage medium capable of real-time recording/playback of digital moving picture information, and a digital information recording/playback system using this medium. In a medium that records/plays back data including video data and control information, the control information (DA21 in FIG. 4; RTR_VMG in FIG. 30) includes information (VOBU entry in FIG. 31) for accessing a specific portion (VOBU) of the video data. |
| US07920774B2 |
Information storage medium and information recording/playback system
There are provided an information storage medium capable of real-time recording/playback of digital moving picture information, and a digital information recording/playback system using this medium. In a medium that records/plays back data including video data and control information, the control information (DA21 in FIG. 4; RTR_VMG in FIG. 30) includes information (VOBU entry in FIG. 31) for accessing a specific portion (VOBU) of the video data. |
| US07920770B2 |
Reduction of substrate optical leakage in integrated photonic circuits through localized substrate removal
Structures including optical waveguides disposed over substrates having a chamber or trench defined therein, and methods for formation thereof. |
| US07920766B2 |
Surface-plasmon-assisted optical frequency conversion
An optical frequency converter that uses a nonlinear optical process to transfer energy between a surface-plasmon (SP) wave that is guided along an electrically conducting strip and a light beam that is guided along an optical waveguide whose core is adjacent to the electrically conducting strip. The optical frequency converter has a periodic structure that spatially modulates the nonlinear susceptibility of the waveguide core with a spatial period that is related to a momentum mismatch in the nonlinear optical process. The spatial modulation provides quasi-phase matching for the SP wave and the light beam and enables efficient energy transfer between them. |
| US07920762B2 |
Method of sensing coded data on a surface
A method of sensing coded data on a surface is disclosed. Images of the coded data on the surface are captured using a sensor of a sensing device. The coded data is formed from tags, with each tag encoding a unique identity of a region of the surface and the position of the tag within the region. A perspective distortion of the coded data is estimated and compensated for when detecting data elements in the tags. The unique identity of the region from the images is determined, and the position of the sensing device within the region from the position of at least one tag in at least one image captured by the sensor is determined. |
| US07920759B2 |
Triggering applications for distributed action execution and use of mixed media recognition as a control input
A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types. In one embodiment of the present invention, the MMR system includes an action processor and method, and MMR documents with an associated action. The MMR document structure specifies different actions for different MMR documents combined with the ability to create any number of MMR documents for a particular location on any media, which allows the MMR architecture to serve as a universal trigger or initiator for additional processing. In another embodiment, the MMR system, in particular MMR recognition and the input/output capabilities of the capture device, are used as a control mechanism for a third party system. |
| US07920757B2 |
Method for processing a macro block of image data
The image data are coded with field DCT or frame DCT depending on the characteristics of the image data. However different coding types will result in different boundary marks of boundaries between adjacent blocks or adjacent macro blocks. Therefore the de-blocking of a boundary between two adjacent blocks or adjacent macro blocks should be performed according to the format of image data and the coding type of the adjacent blocks or adjacent macro blocks. |
| US07920756B2 |
Image blur detection using cumulative blur widths
A printer fetches a horizontal direction DCT coefficient group and a vertical direction DCT coefficient group for each block from the JPEG data. The printer selects edge patterns similar to the brightness changes expressed by these coefficient groups from a specified table, and records those pattern numbers in a RAM. The printer judges whether or not the brightness changes of the blocks with each other adjacent are continuous based on the pattern number of each block recorded in the RAM. And by connecting the edge patterns when those brightness changes are continuous, the printer accumulates the blur widths that exist extending over the blocks. Then, based on this cumulative value, the printer determines the presence or absence of image blur. It is possible thereby to detect with good precision the blur of images even for high resolution images while reducing the used memory capacity. |
| US07920755B2 |
Video content detector
The invention relates to determining the image content of an incoming bitstream such that various image improvement effects may be accomplished. The invention provides for determining a realness value of an image formed of a plurality of pixels each having associated pixel data by evaluating a spatial distribution of luminance values of the image. Realness values are first determined for subregions of an image frame through an analysis of a luminance histogram generated for each subregion. Subsequently, the subregion realness values are analyzed to generate a total realness value for the image frame and to classify the image content of the image frame. |
| US07920754B2 |
Television image filtering
A digital image filtering method and system are provided. A first matrix of a plurality of pixels is selected from a digital image to be displayed. The luminosity values of each of the pixels in the pixel matrix are analysed and the luminosity difference between the maximum and minimum luminosity values thereof is calculated. The central pixel of the matrix is then classified according to the luminosity difference in comparison to a predetermined threshold luminosity value, and the above selection, analysis and classification is repeated for each of the pixels of the image in turn. A target pixel is then selected from the classified pixels for further analysis, wherein a second pixel matrix of which the target pixel is the central pixel is selected, the classification of the pixels surrounding the target pixel in the second matrix is analysed, and the target pixel is filtered to an extent dependent upon the classification analysis. |
| US07920752B2 |
Image processing device that quickly performs retinex process
An image processing device includes a reduced-image creating portion, a reduced-retinex-image forming portion, a normalizing-parameter setting portion, and an original-image correcting portion. The reduced-retinex-image forming portion calculates reflectance of each pixel in a reduced image based both on a pixel value of a subject pixel in a reduced image and on a peripheral average luminance of the subject pixel, thereby forming a reduced retinex image that is configured of reflectance of each pixel in the reduced image. The normalizing-parameter setting portion obtains frequencies of the reflectance in the reduced retinex image and sets an upper limit and a lower limit for normalization. The original-image correcting portion includes a retinex-image forming portion, a first normalizing portion, and a first correcting portion. The retinex-image forming portion calculates reflectance of each pixel in the original image based both on a pixel value of a subject pixel in the original image and on a peripheral average luminance of the subject pixel. The first normalizing portion normalizes the reflectance of the original image based on the upper limit and the lower limit, thereby obtaining a normalized reflectance for each pixel in the original image. The first correcting portion corrects the original image based both on the normalized reflectance and on the pixel value for each pixel in the original image, thereby obtaining a corrected original image. |
| US07920745B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing constrained spectral clustering of digital image data
A method and an apparatus process digital images. The method according to one embodiment accesses element data representing a plurality of elements belonging to a plurality of digital images; performs a similarity analysis between the elements from the plurality of elements to obtain inter-relational data results relating to the elements; and performs clustering of the plurality of elements, the step of performing clustering including incorporating in the inter-relational data results at least one hard constraint relating to elements from the plurality of elements, to obtain constrained inter-relational data results, performing a spectral analysis to obtain eigenvector results from the constrained inter-relational data results, and performing discretization of the eigenvector results using constrained clustering with a criterion to enforce the at least one hard constraint to obtain clusters. |
| US07920743B2 |
Displaying time sequence of 2-dimensional data
A method of displaying a time sequence of 2-dimensional data represents each data set in the time sequence as a normalized figure based upon a reference set of data. The perimeter of the normalized figure is color coded to represent deviations from a data standard that corresponds to the 2-dimensional data. For subsequent data sets in the time sequence each normalized figure is sized to form a series of concentric figures for display representing all the data sets in the time sequence so that patterns of both rotational and magnitude changes are visually apparent. |
| US07920741B2 |
System and method for image processing using integral histogram convolution
A system and method for performing integral histogram convolution for filtering image data is disclosed. The method may include generating an initial histogram for a kernel region of an input image comprising two or more column histograms. Each histogram may include a plurality of bucket values, each representing a sum of weights associated with pixels having the same value or a count of pixels having the same value. The method may include incrementally generating a region histogram for each successive region of the image as the kernel is passed over the image and applying a convolution operation to it. Generating the new region histogram may involve merging an additional column histogram with the initial or current region histogram, and may also involve subtracting values of a preceding column histogram from the initial or current histogram. The methods may be implemented by program instructions executing in parallel on CPU(s) or GPUs. |
| US07920739B2 |
Automatically selected adjusters
Automatically selected adjusters are described, including selecting an area of an image, determining a characteristic of the area, and selecting an adjuster of a set of adjusters based on the characteristic of the area. |
| US07920729B2 |
Classification methods and apparatus
A method includes using a point spread function based rule to classify regions in a dataset. |
| US07920726B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program
An image processing method and apparatus for reproducing moving image data, the method and apparatus comprising detecting defects in receiving moving image data, determining the priority of each defect if there are a plurality of defects in at least one frame of the received moving image data, and performing interpolation for each defect based on the determined priority. |
| US07920725B2 |
Apparatus, method, and program for discriminating subjects
A characteristic amount calculating means calculates first characteristic amounts, which do not require normalization, and normalized second characteristic amounts. A first discriminating portion discriminates whether a candidate for a face is included in the target image, by referring to first reference data with the first characteristic amounts, calculated from the target image. The first reference data is obtained by learning the first characteristic amounts of a plurality of images, which are known either to be of faces or to not be of faces. In the case that the candidate is included, a second discriminating portion discriminates whether the candidate is a face, by referring to second reference data, obtained by learning the second characteristic amounts of a plurality of images, which known either to be of faces or to not to be of faces. |
| US07920724B2 |
Iris recognition method utilizing matching pursuit algorithm
The present invention disclose an iris recognition method, which utilizes a matching pursuit algorithm to simplify the extraction and reconstruction of iris features and reduce the memory space required by each iris feature vector without the penalty of recognition accuracy. The iris recognition method of the present invention comprises an iris-localization component and a pattern matching component. The iris-localization component locates the iris region via the color difference between different portions of the eyeball. The primary iris features are extracted from iris information and transformed into a sequence of iris feature vectors by a matching pursuit algorithm. Thus, the iris image can be represented by a sequence of atoms, and each atom contains base, amplitude and location. Then, the comparison between the feature vectors of two irises is performed to determine whether the two irises match. |
| US07920723B2 |
Two stage detection for photographic eye artifacts
A digital image acquisition device is for acquiring digital images including one or more preview images. A face detector analyzes the one or more preview images to ascertain information relating to candidate face regions therein. A speed-optimized filter produces a first set of candidate red-eye regions based on the candidate face region information provided by the face detector. |
| US07920721B2 |
Vehicle-use image processing system, vehicle-use image processing method, vehicle-use image processing program, vehicle, and method of formulating vehicle-use image processing system
A system or the like capable of detecting lane marks more accurately by preventing false lane marks from being erroneously detected as true lane marks. A vehicle-use image processing system (100) allows a “road surface cluster” to be extracted from the “histogram” of luminance of each pixel in a “reference area” in a road surface image. Among “primary lane mark candidates,” those that overlap the “reference area” are detected as “secondary lane mark candidates.” Among the “secondary lane mark candidates,” those that have “luminance parameter” values falling within the luminance range of the “road surface cluster” are not detected as true lane marks. Thereby, lane marks are prevented from being erroneously detected (erroneous detection). This allows only lane marks to be detected more accurately. |
| US07920718B2 |
Multi-zone passageway monitoring system and method
A method, computer program product, and machine vision system for monitoring an activity area proximate an actuated passageway for the occurrence of an object-related event. The activity area includes a first activity zone and at least a second activity zone. The first and the at least a second activity zones are essentially parallel to the activity area. The actuated passageway is actuatable with a control signal. The occurrence of an object-related event is detected within the activity area. If the object-related event occurs within the first activity zone, a first algorithm is executed to generate the control signal. If the object-related event occurs within the at least a second activity zone, a second algorithm is executed to generate the control signal. |
| US07920717B2 |
Pixel extraction and replacement
A method for pixel extraction and replacement is disclosed. In one implementation, the method includes generating a set of pixel values and pixel value frequencies for a pixel presented in a series of digital images of a scene. A digital image of the scene which includes a pixel value for the pixel is received and a comparison is made between the pixel value and the set of pixel values. A determination is performed to decide upon substitution of the pixel value with a different pixel value based on the comparison. Other techniques are also disclosed. |
| US07920716B2 |
Vehicle search system and vehicle search method
A vehicle search system is provided, which is capable of easily and efficiently searching for a particular vehicle image based on vague and uncertain information. The vehicle search system includes an image database for accumulating vehicle images photographed by a stationary camera placed on the road under a condition that the vehicle images are associated with at least photographing date and time information and photographing place information of the vehicle image; an image recognizing part for extracting feature information (vehicle color, vehicle shape, etc.) from the vehicle image; an image data managing part for selecting vehicle images from the image database, based on at least one of the photographing date and time information, the photographing place information, and the feature information; and a display processing part for displaying the selected vehicle images in a two-dimensional space or a simulated three-dimensional space on a display, in an arrangement in accordance with similarity of at least one of the photographing date and time information, the photographing place information, and the feature information. |
| US07920709B1 |
Vector sound-intensity probes operating in a half-space
Method and apparatus (333) for measuring the sound-intensity vector in a half space bounded by a surface such as a wall or the ground (100) using an acoustic vector probe (AVP) (40), where the AVP consists of four small omnidirectional microphones (1, 2, 3 and 4) supported on narrow straight tubes at the vertices of an imaginary regular tetrahedron. The tubes are attached perpendicularly to a ring (42) with the microphones all pointing into the half space. The sound-intensity vector measured by the AVP determines the direction of a sound source within the half space. Interference from echoes caused by reflections from the boundary of the half space and from surrounding objects on the boundary can be reduced by attaching a concave solid structure (55) to the base of the AVP at the supporting ring (42). The inside of the concave structure is lined with absorbing material (65) to reduce interference by reflections from the structure. |
| US07920707B2 |
Audio system
The designation of a localization position is received in accordance with an input position on a dashboard image in a localization-position reception window, and delay times for audio signals supplied to respective speakers are set so that the sound image is localized at the received localization position. The position where a sound image aurally perceived is localized is received, on the dashboard image in a localization-position confirmation window, from the user, until the user indicates that the position where the sound image aurally perceived is localized matches the localization position designated in the localization-position reception window. The relationship between the delay times and the localization position is re-estimated so as to correspond to the received localization position and the set delay times. In accordance with the estimated relationship, processing for re-setting the delay times is repeated. |
| US07920706B2 |
Method and system for managing cryptographic keys
A key management of cryptographic keys has a data package including one or more cryptographic keys that are transferred to a personal device 100 from a secure processing point 150 of a device assembly line in order to store device specific cryptographic keys in the personal device 100. In response to the transferred data package, a backup data package is received by the secure processing point 150 from the personal device 100, which backup data package is the data package encrypted with a unique secret chip key stored in a tamper-resistant secret storage 125 of a chip 110 included in the personal device 100. The secure processing point 150 is arranged to store the backup data package, together with an associated unique chip identifier read from the personal device 100, in a permanent, public database 170. |
| US07920702B2 |
Digital rights management system and method
A system and a method for providing variable security mechanisms for securing digital content, in which a single security mechanism is not used for all content. Instead, at least one characteristic or feature of the security mechanism is varied between units, instances or categories of content. Therefore, even if unauthorized access is gained to a single unit of content, the overall integrity and security of the system for content distribution is not compromised. Preferably, security is provided though a general mechanism, which is then varied in order to provide variable, dissimilar security schemes for different types of content. By “type of content”, it is meant any of a single unit of content, a single instance of content or a single category of content. For example, for a category of content, the content may be characterized according to the identity of the content itself, such as the title of a movie for example, and/or according to the owner of a particular copy of the content. Thus, different security schemes may optionally and preferably be generated from a particular root structure. Related apparatus and methods are also provided. |
| US07920700B2 |
System and method for data encryption
A method of processing data from a file includes obtaining a first portion of the file, encrypting the first portion of the file to create a first encrypted portion, obtaining a second portion of the file, encrypting the second portion of the file to create a second encrypted portion, and storing the first and second encrypted portions such that each of the first and the second encrypted portions can be individually accessed. A method of processing data from a file includes receiving a request to access a first portion of the file, wherein data in the first portion of the file is encrypted, and data in a second portion of the file is encrypted, and decrypting the data in the first portion, and not the data in the second portion. |
| US07920696B2 |
Method and device for changing to a speakerphone mode
A method (200), and electronic communication device (100), for automatically selectively changing from one mode of operation to a speakerphone mode of operation after a call on the electronic communication device (100) is established. The method (200), and electronic communication device (100), perform establishing a call (210) using a first mode of operation that is a mode of operation other than the speakerphone mode of operation. Then there is performed changing automatically (235) from the first mode of operation to the speakerphone mode of operation when a signal amplitude provided by a microphone used in the first mode of operation does not reach a threshold level before an expiration of a predetermined time period. |
| US07920694B2 |
Generation of consistent haptic effects
A system generates a consistent haptic effect in a handset that includes an actuator. The system determines performance data for the actuator, and generates haptic effect controller parameters from the performance data by comparing the performance data with reference performance data derived from a reference actuator. The system then stores the haptic effect controller parameters on the handset. |
| US07920693B2 |
Home agent access in call routing management based on caller language
Call center management with at home agent access based on caller language is provided herein. Calls from customers of a client are received at an interactive voice recognition (IVR) system, which determines a language of the caller by detecting the language or language selection by keypad entry. The IVR system determines an available at home agent with the proper language skills and forwards the call to be processed by the at home agent. The at home agents can call the call center to set their status. Information associated with the call may be collected and used by associated system(s) such as quality control, status monitoring, financial processing, and the like. |
| US07920692B2 |
PBX call management
Enhanced call management services to users receiving incoming calls on extensions on a private branch exchange (PBX) is provided by an application server configured to provide call management services to at least one of the users and a protocol proxy configured to receive call information from the PBX according to a protocol for establishing call sessions. The application server is further configured to receive the call information from the protocol proxy. |
| US07920687B2 |
Communication networks including flash hook detectors and methods of operating the same
A communication network that includes a flash hook detector and a communication device is operated by detecting a flash hook of the communication device at the flash hook detector. A signal is transmitted from the flash hook detector to the communication network responsive to detecting the flash hook. The flash hook is processed in the communication network. |
| US07920680B2 |
VoIP caller authentication by voice signature continuity
There are provided methods and systems for authenticating a user. A method includes receiving a voice signature certificate corresponding to a setup portion of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call. The VoIP call further has a voice conversation portion. The voice signature certificate includes a voice signature segment. The method further includes reproducing the voice signature segment to enable verification of voice continuity from the setup portion to the voice conversation portion. The verification is performing by comparing the voice signature segment to a user's voice during the voice conversation portion. |
| US07920676B2 |
CD-GISAXS system and method
CD-GISAXS achieves reduced measurement times by increasing throughput using longer wavelength radiation (˜12×, for example) such as x-rays in reflective geometry to increase both the collimation acceptance angle of the incident beams and the scattering signal strength, resulting in a substantial combined throughput gain. This wavelength selection and geometry can result in a dramatic reduction in measurement time. Furthermore, the capabilities of the CD-GISAXS can be extended to meet many of the metrology needs of future generations of semiconductor manufacturing and nanostructure characterization, for example. |
| US07920674B2 |
Apparatus and method for image processing
An image processing apparatus and an image processing method. The image processing apparatus includes an image obtaining unit to obtain a plurality of X-ray images using a plurality of X-rays corresponding to each of a plurality of energy bands being different from each other, a first processing unit to generate a plurality of material images using the plurality of X-ray images, and a second processing unit to generate a high contrast X-ray image using at least one of the plurality of material images. |
| US07920672B2 |
X-ray detector gain calibration depending on the fraction of scattered radiation
It is described a gain calibration for a two-dimensional X-ray detector (315), in which the gain coefficients for scattered radiation (307b) and direct radiation (307a) are measured or estimated separately. A weighed average may be applied on the appropriate scatter fraction. The scatter fraction depending gain calibration method produces less ring artifacts in X-ray images as compared to known gain calibration methods, which do not take into account the fraction of scattered radiation reaching the X-ray detector (315). |
| US07920669B2 |
Methods, apparatuses and computer readable mediums for generating images based on multi-energy computed tomography data
Methods, apparatuses and computer readable mediums for generating a volume visualization image based on multi-energy computed tomography data are provided. In one method, an image is rendered based on a multi-dimensional graphical representation of the computed tomography data. The computed tomography data includes at least two different energy image data sets and the multi-dimensional graphical representation represents intensity values of each of the at least two different energy image data sets. |
| US07920668B2 |
Systems for displaying images by utilizing vertical shift register circuit to generate non-overlapped output signals
Systems for displaying images are provided. An embodiment of such a system has a dynamic shift register. The dynamic shift register includes a sampling unit, a holding unit, and a first logic circuit. The sampling unit, which is coupled to an incoming signal and a first input terminal of the dynamic shift register, samples the incoming signal according to a first input signal received by the first input terminal to generate a sampled value. The holding unit, which is coupled to the sampling unit, is utilized to hold the sampled value. The first logic circuit, which is coupled to the holding unit and an output terminal of the dynamic shift register, generates an output signal according to the sampled value and a second input signal inputted into the first logic circuit. |
| US07920664B2 |
Clock synchronization circuit
A clock synchronization circuit includes a clock generation circuit generating a sampling clock for sampling a received signal from an output of a local oscillator, a phase error detection circuit finding a phase error between sampling timing of the sampling clock and ideal sampling timing, and a timing correction circuit finding a correction quantity to correct a frequency error between a frequency of the sampling clock and a frequency of the ideal sampling timing and the phase error every sampling timing of the sampling clock, and outputting a sampling value interpolated according to the found correction quantity. |
| US07920663B1 |
Using the AC mains as a reference for frequency comparison
Adjusting a local frequency source is disclosed. A local frequency comparison data is compared with a received frequency comparison data, wherein the local frequency comparison data reflects a difference, if any, between a locally measured AC frequency and a frequency generated using the local frequency source. The local frequency source is adjusted based at least in part on a result of the comparison. |
| US07920654B2 |
Signal processing method and apparatus using bit confidence values
In a UMTS/GSM receiver with EDGE services capability, a data sequence incorporating PSK symbols is separated into bits which are assigned confidence values and input to convoluntional decoder (33) to provide improved decoding. |
| US07920650B2 |
Method and apparatus for evaluating a clock in a satellite
In a system for characterizing a satellite clock in a satellite, the satellite has a transmitting device that emits a transmission signal at a transmission frequency indicative of a state of the satellite clock, and a receiver clock which has a higher precision than the satellite clock. A receiving device is configured to receive the transmission signal and to determine a received signal therefrom, as well as a received signal frequency and/or phase, using the receiver clock. Finally, an evaluation device is configured to determine a frequency offset, drift, and/or an Allan deviation of the transmission frequency from the received signal frequency and/or the received signal phase. The evaluation device determines the stability of the satellite clock, or the validity of its time indication, from the determined frequency offset, frequency drift, and/or the Allan deviation, to thereby characterize the satellite clock. |
| US07920647B2 |
Receiving apparatus and transmitting apparatus
A partial bit demodulation section that demodulates partial bits among a plurality of bits that form 1 symbol of each modulated signal using a detection method different from likelihood detection, signal point reduction sections that reduce the number of candidate signal points using demodulated partial bits, and a likelihood detection section obtains received digital signals by performing likelihood detection based on the Euclidian distances between the reduced candidate signal points and a reception point, are provided. By this, only some bits which are unlikely to be erroneous are found by the partial bit demodulation section, and other bits can be found by the likelihood detection section, enabling bit error rate performances to be effectively improved with a comparatively small computational complexity. |
| US07920646B2 |
Method for selecting switched beam using pilot signal and system thereof
The present invention relates to a system for selecting a switched beam for supplying a maximum received power to a subscriber station, and a method thereof. The number of switched beams used by a base station is limited, and a weight value vector for forming the switched beam is predefined. The subscriber station uses a pilot signal for discerning transmitting antennas to estimate channel values for the respective transmitting antennas, and uses the channel values and the predefined weight value vectors to determine a switched beam for supplying a maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The subscriber station notifies the base station of an identifier of a selected beam by using a feedback channel, and the base station uses the switched beam to transmit traffic data. |
| US07920639B2 |
Reception device, communication control method in mobile communication system
When a closed loop transmission diversity control is performed by controlling the phase of the transmission signals from the plurality of antennas according to feedback information noticed by the mobile station to transmit the signals, an antenna verification on-off control unit 370 controls the on-off of an antenna verification process of estimating the phase of the transmission signals from the plurality of antennas according to the information about the channel of the signals transmitted in the uplink from the mobile station to a radio base station. Thus, depending on the channel type (for example, a packet channel, a voice channel, etc.), the on-off control is performed on the antenna verification process, thereby performing easier and more appropriate control and improving the quality of a channel. |
| US07920637B2 |
Single sideband and quadrature multiplexed continuous phase modulation
A class of bandwidth reduction techniques are used develop a broad class of modulation types collectively called SSB-FM. These signals can be used to construct communication systems that provide bandwidth-normalized performance gains of 10 dB or more when compared to popular prior art modulation methods. An aspect of the invention involves mapping trellis paths in a complex signal space onto corresponding real-valued trellis signals with desirable spectral properties. The invention can be used map continuous phase modulated (CPM) signals onto simpler amplitude-modulated trellis signals having double the channel capacity of prior art CPM signals. Multi-amplitude signaling and frequency division multiplexing may also be incorporated to further accommodate more information per symbol. |
| US07920635B2 |
Method, clipper module, and transmitter
There is provided a method of clipping a transmission signal. The method comprises: providing a residual signal of a complex envelope clipper based on the transmission signal to be clipped; providing a reference signal respective to the residual signal, the reference signal corresponding to an ideal residual signal; forming a clipping signal on the basis of the residual signal and the reference signal; subtracting the clipping signal from the residual signal for removing higher amplitudes of the residual signal; and subtracting the clipping signal from the reference signal for providing a reference signal respective to the clipped residual signal. |
| US07920633B2 |
Method and system for parallel processing video data
Described herein is a method and system for parallel processing video data. The system having parallel encoder devices can create a balance between quality of service and delay. In order to maintain quality, compression parameters in a group of pictures can be produced by one encoder device and used by another encoder device for estimation during the encoding of another group of pictures. Compression parameters of different picture types may be stored separately and used for the encoding of a future pictures of the same type. The generation and passing of compression parameters introduces a delay based on the time it takes to encode one or more pictures. |
| US07920631B2 |
Encoding and decoding methods and systems
Methods and systems enable uncompressed source data, corresponding to previously-compressed data, to be manipulated or otherwise modified, prior to being rendered by a rendering application. For example, audio data can be modified to include additional audio content, and/or video data can be modified to include additional video content. Accordingly, when the modified or manipulated source data is rendered by the rendering application, it can contain additional information that was not part of the previously-compressed data. |
| US07920628B2 |
Noise filter for video compression
A method and system for reducing noise in a video stream comprising images divided into macroblocks, where each macroblock includes luma and chroma blocks and each block is comprised of pixels. The method comprises determining correlation of a macroblock with a reference macroblock, comparing its motion vectors to a predetermined threshold, computing a residual signal of the macroblock by subtracting the macroblock from a predicted macroblock, computing a variance of a residual signal of the macroblock, comparing the variance of the residual signal to another predetermined threshold, determining a filter strength for the macroblock based on one or more of factors such as correlation, motion vector size and variance of the residual signal and filtering the macroblock using a filter of appropriate strength. |
| US07920627B2 |
Motion estimation employing adaptive spatial update vectors
A method for motion estimation and for motion compensated interpolation. By taking a source of video data into account, a size of update vectors to be employed for determining spatial prediction vectors is set in accordance with a detected source mode. By selecting an appropriate update vector size, accuracy of predicted motion and consequently, a picture quality of motion compensated interpolated images can be increased considerably. |
| US07920625B2 |
Method of processing a current field macroblock
In one embodiment, the method includes determining reference picture index numbers in a reference picture list. The reference picture index numbers increase for reference pictures having a decreasing display order with respect to a picture including the macroblock. The reference picture index numbers increase for reference pictures having an increasing display order with respect to the picture including the macroblock, and the reference picture index numbers of the reference pictures having a decreasing display order are greater than the reference picture index numbers of the reference pictures having an increasing display order. The embodiment further includes obtaining motion vector information for the current macroblock, obtaining a field reference picture index associated with the current field macroblock, determining a frame reference picture index based on the field reference picture index divided by 2, selecting a frame reference picture based on the frame reference picture index and the reference picture index number, and selecting a field reference picture based on the selected frame reference picture and the field reference picture index. The current macroblock is decoded based on the motion vector information and the selected field reference picture. |
| US07920621B2 |
Digital adaptation circuitry and methods for programmable logic devices
Equalization of an incoming data signal can be controlled by sampling that signal at times when data values in that signal should be stable (“data samples”) and when that signal should be in transition between successive data values that are different (“transition samples”). A transition sample that has been taken between two successive differently valued data samples is compared to a reference value (which can be one of those two data samples). The result of this comparison can be used as part of a determination as to whether to increase or decrease equalization of the incoming data signal. |
| US07920616B2 |
Laser system
A method/apparatus may comprise a laser light source which may comprise a solid state seed laser system producing a seed laser output having a nominal center wavelength at a pulse repetition rate; a first and a second gas discharge laser amplifier gain medium each operating at a pulse repetition rate less than that of the seed laser system; a beam divider providing each of the respective first and second amplifier gain mediums with seed laser output pulses; a frequency converter modifying the nominal center wavelength of the output of the seed laser to essentially the nominal center wavelength of the amplifier gain medium; a beam combiner combining the outputs of the respective amplifier gain mediums to provide a light source output having the pulse repetition rate of the seed laser; a coherence buster operating on either or both of the output of the seed laser or amplifier gain mediums. |
| US07920610B2 |
Pulse mode modulation in frequency converted laser sources
Methods of operating a frequency-converted laser source are disclosed. According to particular disclosed embodiments, a laser diode is driven in a pulsed mode to define pixel intensity values corresponding to desired gray scale values of image pixels in an image plane of the laser source. The pixel intensity values are a function of a laser control signal comprising a discontinuous pulse component, a relatively constant intensity component I, and a continuously variable intensity component I*. The pulse width w of the discontinuous pulse component is selected from a set of discrete available pulse widths according to a desired pixel gray scale value. A low-end pulse width w of the set of available pulse widths is established for a range of low-end pixel gray scale values and progressively larger pulse widths w are established for ranges of progressively higher pixel gray scale values. The relatively constant intensity component I makes a relatively insignificant contribution to pixel intensity at the low-end pulse width w for the range of low-end pixel gray scale values and assumes a non-zero value for enhanced conversion efficiency at the progressively larger pulse widths w established for the higher pixel gray scale values. The continuously variable intensity component I* varies according to the desired gray scale value of the selected pixel and the contributions of the relatively constant intensity component I and the pulse width w to pixel intensity. |
| US07920604B2 |
Data transmission in an SDH network
A method for the transmission of data in a synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network comprising the steps of transmitting to a node of the network a form of data signal from outside the network, converting the signal into a virtually concatenated information structure and transporting the signal through the network in the virtually concatenated information structure; means for carrying out the method and tributary cards arranged and configured to process signals received in contiguously concatenated form to convert them into virtually concatenated form for transfer across the network; thus providing for data transmitted in high-bandwidth, contiguosly concatenated signals (ie VC-4-4c) to be transported across a SDH network, not itself capable of carrying contiguously concatenated signals. |
| US07920601B2 |
Vehicular communications system having improved serial communication
A communications system for controlling equipment associated with a vehicle, includes a micro-controller (604) and a digital serial communication link (621, 622, 662, 663) using a multiplexed timing signal and first data signal. A camera or image sensor (650) located in the vehicular component communicates with the micro-controller (604) via the digital serial communication link. |
| US07920599B1 |
Methods and systems for synchronizing wireless transmission of data packets
Methods and systems for synchronizing wireless transmission of data packets is provided. Signals having a data packet frame format including a preamble (with a pattern of symbol sequences) and data are received, and patterns of symbol sequences are correlated. A first metric can be calculated that is a ratio of an average of the correlation values and an average of a power of the signals. A second metric can be calculated that defines an average of a power of noise in the signals. The methods include determining an approximate division of the preamble and data in the data packet of each signal based on the first and second metrics. The methods further include determining a cross-correlation between versions of a transmitted signal to produce a number of peaks equal to a number of transmit antennas, generating a third metric based on combinations of cross-correlations, and identifying a position of a maximum peak within the third metric as a fine timing offset amount. |
| US07920594B2 |
Apparatus and methods for incorporating bandwidth forecasting and dynamic bandwidth allocation into a broadband communication system
A method for providing network access to a shared access communications medium for a plurality of users includes the steps of conducting predictive admission control by arbitrating user requests for access to the shared medium based on predicted aggregate demands, conducting lookahead scheduling for use in making user channel assignments by forecasting schedule transmission opportunities one or more channels of the shared medium, and balancing load by making channel assignments such that a plurality users are each assigned a respective channel of the shared medium based upon a predicted need. Congestion parameters can predicted for each channel of the shared medium and mapped to a congestion measure using a mathematical function that takes into account packet loss rate, packet delay, packet delay jitter, and available capacity. |
| US07920592B2 |
Method of bandwidth control and bandwidth control device
A method of bandwidth control and a corresponding bandwidth control device are disclosed, in which a plurality of queues are provided, bandwidth is assigned to each of the queues on the basis of a strict priority scheme, and additional bandwidth is assigned to the queues on the basis of a fair queuing scheme. |
| US07920591B2 |
Device and method for implenting dynamic adjustmenting bandwidth of data in a transmission device
A method and a device for realizing dynamic adjustment of data bandwidth of the invention are disclosed. The method comprises adding a control channel in a PCM trunk link to describe occupancy condition of time slots for current services. The device comprises a control word process circuit, a time slot distribution circuit and a CPU interface circuit, wherein the control word process circuit is designed to complete abstraction and insertion of control information in a control channel of E1/T1 link, the time slot distribution circuit completes separating voice time slots from Ethernet data time slots and rebuilding the data, and the CPU interface circuit implements time slot distribution control. The method and the device can implement dynamic adjustment of Ethernet data bandwidth while ensuring voice services, to make effective use of trunk bandwidth and enhance user's data service bandwidth, without error code and interruption of data service during bandwidth adjustment. |
| US07920584B2 |
Data processing system
A data processing system is provided comprising a main processor operable to perform a plurality of data processing tasks, a data engine having a data engine core operable to perform a number of said plurality of data processing tasks on behalf of said main processor and a data stream processing unit providing a data communication path between said main processing unit and said data engine core. The data stream processing unit has a control interface operable to receive from said data engine core at least one command and a data stream controller operable to receive at least one input data stream and to perform at least one operation on said at least one input data stream to generate at least one output data stream comprising a sequence of data elements. The data stream processing unit is responsive to said at least one command from said data engine core to control said data stream controller to perform said at least one operation. |
| US07920583B2 |
Message sequencing and data translation architecture for telecommunication services
A telecommunications architecture processes telecommunications service requests received from third parties through a secure access gateway. The third parties may be other telecommunications service providers which employ the services to support their own products and services or may be or individual subscribers. The service broker provides a flexible and efficient layer in the telecommunications architecture for processing the service request. The service broker also overcomes the technical problems associated with third party service request processing. In addition to providing technical solutions for efficient and secure processing of service requests for exposed services, the architecture also provides an additional revenue channel for existing telecommunication service providers. |
| US07920574B2 |
Method for transmitting packet from correspondent node to mobile node
A method is disclosed for transmitting a packet from a correspondent node to a mobile node when the mobile node moves from a home network to an external network equivalent to the correspondent node's local network. The method may include securing a Care Of Address (COA) for the mobile node. The COA may be used to forward a packet intended for the mobile node by a home agent in the home network. The method may also include obtaining the COA at the home agent to update binding information on the mobile node, transmitting the updated binding information to a correspondent node, and setting a target IP address for the packet transmitted by the correspondent node. The target IP address may be the COA of the mobile node when the correspondent node's local network is the same as the external network where the mobile node is located. |
| US07920569B1 |
Multi-link transport protocol translation
A device may receive a packet at a network device, and may retrieve from a table, by using information in a header of the packet as keys, records that include communication performance statistics associated with transport protocols. In addition, the device may select, based on the records, a transport protocol with an optimum communication performance statistics among the transport protocols and send the packet in accordance with the selected transport protocol from the network device. |
| US07920565B2 |
Method for updating a data record and device for carrying out the method
When updating a data record identified by a version number, the problem exists that a simple not equal to comparison or greater than comparison is often insufficient for ascertaining the up-to-date nature of the newly received data record, particularly if the data record is transmitted to a receiving station via an unsecured data link and the version number originates from a limited range which is repeatedly run through periodically.The invention solves the problem by virtue of the fact that it divides the range of values of the version number into the ranges “old” and “new”, on the basis of the current value of a version number. The periodicity with which the range of values is run through is taken into account in this case, however. That is to say that the range “old” or the range “new” may perfectly well include the jump from the highest value in the range of values to the lowest value in the range of values. If the version number of the newly received data record lies in the range “new”, the new data record is accepted as a current data record, and if not it is correspondingly rejected. |
| US07920562B2 |
System and method for switching from a unicast to a multicast data transmission session
A communications system and method provide a seamless switch from a first session to a plurality of multicast sessions. A server transmits data over both a first session and alternatingly between a plurality of synchronized multicast sessions. At predetermined time intervals, the server stops transmitting data over the currently active multicast session and starts transmitting over an idle multicast session. The server is further responsive to a request to stop transmitting the data over the first session at a time when the server alternates transmission between the multicast sessions. The time intervals are advantageously sufficient to allow a receiver to join an idle multicast channel and to send a request to stop the data transmission over the first session. |
| US07920559B2 |
Transponder, transmission system, transmission method and transmission program
The transponder includes a 64B/66B code synchronization bit determination circuit 1511a for notifying a PLL selection control circuit of a control signal which instructs on selection of a variable oscillator or a variable oscillator in response to a case where an electric signal sent from an optical signal reception unit 111 includes a 64B/66B code synchronization bit, an A1A2 byte determination circuit 1511b for notifying the PLL selection control circuit of a control signal which instructs on selection of a variable oscillator or a variable oscillator in response to a case where an electric signal sent from the optical signal reception unit 111 includes an A1A2 byte, and the PLL selection control circuit 1512 for controlling a PLL selector 16 and a PLL selector 17 based on a control signal. |
| US07920556B2 |
Method for improving subscriber access capacity, broadband access device and network
A method for improving subscriber access capacity of a broadband access device is disclosed, including: establishing a Virtual Local Area Network Path Identifier (VlanPI) and corresponding VlanPI Tag, establishing a VLAN Circuit identifier (VlanCI) and corresponding VlanCI Tag for each access port of the broadband access device, dividing the access ports into groups and assigning the established VlanPIs to each group; then, before transmitting an ethernet frame, determining the VlanCI which corresponds to the access port and inserting the VlanCI Tag for identifying the VlanCI into the standard ethernet frame, determining the VlanPI corresponding to the group to which the access port belongs and inserting the VlanPI Tag which is used to identify the VlanPI into the standard ethernet frame, and transmitting the ethernet frame to an uplink device through an uplink port by the broadband access device which directly connects with the uplink device. |
| US07920555B2 |
Composite trunking
An Internet router treats plural output ports with a common destination as a composite port. A routing table uses the IP address to determine a composite trunk to which the packet is to be forwarded. A forwarding table identifies a route along a routing fabric within the router to a specific output port of the composite port. Output ports and fabric routes are selected to maintain order within a flow by routing the flow along a single fabric route to a single output trunk. The forwarding table may favor output ports which are nearest to a packet input port, and the forwarding table may be modified to dynamically balance load across the trunks of a composite trunk. |
| US07920554B2 |
Supporting both packet and circuit-based wireless networks
Middleware may accommodate both packet data and circuit data services in the same cellular telephone. A cellular telephone may travel between networks that are packet and circuit data service based. A protocol middleware may determine whether packet data services are available, and, if so, may determine the mobility management state of the system. Depending on the mobility management state of the system, inappropriate applications may be closed or suspended. |
| US07920551B2 |
Multiple access service convergence
A mobile terminal is anchored in a control subsystem, which will function as the mobile terminal's home service subsystem. Call signaling for an incoming call is routed to the control subsystem, which will provide call processing. The call processing may include determining how to route the call to the mobile terminal. Call signaling may be provided to the mobile terminal via the packet subsystem while the bearer path for the incoming call may be established to the mobile terminal though either the circuit-switched subsystem or the packet subsystem. When the mobile terminal is capable of supporting local wireless communications, the bearer paths for incoming calls may be provided via a local wireless subsystem. The subsystem chosen for the bearer path may be based on whether there is sufficient bandwidth to support the bearer path over an available packet-based connection. |
| US07920548B2 |
Intelligent switching for secure and reliable voice-over-IP PBX service
A switching apparatus for switching packetized voice traffic between a plurality of communication devices, the switching apparatus comprises a multi-layer switch, a plurality of communication ports, control means and ingress processing means, said packetized voice traffic comprises call control packets and medium packets which are exchanged between the communication devices via said communication ports, wherein medium packet traffic from a first communication device to a second communication device is split into a first call segment and a second call segment, the first call segment originates from said first communication devices and terminates at said switching apparatus, the second call segment originates from said switching apparatus and terminates at said second communication device, each medium packet from said first communication device is processed by said ingress processing means of said switching apparatus before onward transmission to said second communication device. |
| US07920546B2 |
Automated attendant multimedia session
An automated attendant system is made multimedia capable by adding a combined user agent to the automated attendant. A search is done to verify that the caller to the automated attendant has combined user agent capabilities. If so, the caller receives multimedia content from the automated attendant's combined user agent so that the content may be presented on the caller's computer to assist the caller in navigating through the automated attendant's menus and options. Upon selection of a desired connection from the menus and options, the automated attendant's combined user agent helps the caller be connected by voice to the selected connection. |
| US07920544B2 |
Method and apparatus for enhancing signal-to-noise ratio of position location measurements
A method and apparatus for generating and use of a position location reference signal that allows a receiver to receive position location signals from relatively weak signal generators when in the presence of a strong signal source. The position location reference signals from multiple sources can be synchronized to occur within a scheduled time slot of a time division multiplexed communication system. During the scheduled time slot, each signal source can configure a transmission that includes a media access control address that corresponds to a value reserved for position location signals. Each signal source also configures the transmission to include a position location reference signal that corresponds to the signal source. The position location signals from each of the signal sources is positioned to occur at a time within the data portion of the scheduled time slot that no neighboring signal source transmits its corresponding position location signal. |
| US07920539B2 |
Communication system and method
A system and method is disclosed for allowing communications between a base station and a group of mobile transceivers in a communications network used for a merchant facility. |
| US07920537B2 |
Method and arrangement for mitigation of intercell interference in a cellular communication system
A method (400) and arrangement (200) for mitigation of intercell and intracell interference in a 3GPP cellular communication system (100) by, in a receiver in a cell of the system, deriving for a first channel in the cell a signal, representative of first channel transfer function (A(1)); deriving for at least a second channel originating in a different cell a signal (A(2 . . . M)), representative of second channel transfer function, based on: deriving a cell specific scrambling code (s), deriving a channel impulse response (h), and deriving a channelisation code (c); and performing multi-user detection using the first and second signals. Where the channelisation code is unknown, a substitute channelisation code is preferably substituted. It will be appreciated that the technique can be applied to both downlink and uplink. This provides the advantage that both intra-cell interference and intercell interference are mitigated. |
| US07920535B2 |
Idle connection state power consumption reduction in a wireless local area network using beacon delay advertisement
A novel and useful apparatus for and method of improving idle connection state power consumption in wireless local area network (WLAN) system. Beacon transmission delay information is determined by the access points and advertised to the stations via a Beacon Transmission Delay Information Element. In response, the stations adjust their Wake For Beacon Reception time accordingly to wake up at a time much closer to the actual receipt of the Beacon, thereby reducing power consumption due to the reduced time the receive circuits need to be powered on. |
| US07920533B2 |
Method and apparatus for calibration and channel state feedback to support transmit beamforming in a MIMO system
A method and apparatus for calibration and channel state feedback to support transmit beamforming in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system are disclosed. For radio frequency (RF) calibration, a first station (STA) sends a calibration request to a second STA, and the second STA sends a sounding packet to the first STA. The first STA receives the sounding packet, performs at least one channel measurement and performs calibration based on the channel measurement. For channel state feedback, the first STA sends a channel state feedback request to the second STA. The second STA sends a sounding packet to the first STA. The first STA receives the sounding packet and performs at least one channel measurement with the sounding packet. The first STA then calculates a steering matrix for transmit beamforming based on the channel measurement. |
| US07920532B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing distributed service composition model for ad hoc networks
A method and apparatus for providing a distributed service composition model in accordance with the characteristics of an ad hoc network are provided. The method includes confirming whether an adjacent mobile node exists within a number of hops from a task initiator node so as to execute a task, establishing a flow for executing the task with regard to the adjacent mobile node if it is confirmed that the adjacent mobile node exists, and executing the task using a routing algorithm in accordance with the flow. At least one service necessary to execute the task and an execution order between services are determined based on cooperation between adjacent mobile nodes. |
| US07920531B2 |
Technique for managing wireless networks
Network connectivity may be managed on a computing device. An identifier of each wireless access point or network that is available at a given location is determined. The identifier determined without the device attempting to connect to any available wireless access point or network at the given location. Each determined identifier is compared to one or more network identifiers that are known to the device. The device connects to an available wireless access point having the identifier that is known and detected. |
| US07920529B1 |
Intermediary query manager for 2G and 3G services
An intermediary system that seamlessly evolves the 2G/2.5G storage mediums to the 3G entities (e.g., a logical HSS) and provides subscriber data to 3G services such as IMS, from legacy data sources. An Intermediary Query Manager (IQM) is provided that functions as intermediary/broker system, and supports defined standard 3GPP interfaces specific to the IMS system (utilizing the existing storage medium servicing the PS domain) and also allows the continued support of the 2G/2.5G interfaces to 2G HLRs (servicing the CS domain). The IQM provides the capability to leverage usage of the current subscriber databases without requiring extraordinary efforts to migrate subscriber information to a new dedicated HSS element. The IQM provides data from multiple sources and processes requests necessary to fulfill these requests. The IQM can look like a MSC (Mobile Switching Center), VLR (Visitor Location Register), and/or SCP (Service Control Point) to the HLRs depending on the type of queries. |
| US07920528B2 |
View sharing between in-range devices
A system and method for sharing a view between systems in a dynamic wireless communication network. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise a first system communicating information of a view to a display resource of the first system. The first system may establish a two-way wireless communication link between the first system and a second system in the dynamic wireless communication network. The second system may, for example, communicate a request to the first system for the first system to share a view with the second system. The first system may, for example, receive such a request and respond to such a request by communicating information of a view to the second system. The second system may then communicate information of the view to a display resource of the second system. Various aspects may comprise the first and second systems communicating view modification information between the systems. |
| US07920527B2 |
Real-time/non-real-time/RF IC and applications thereof
A real-time/non-real-time/RF IC includes first and second baseband processing modules, an RF section, a wireline interface, and a bus structure. The first baseband processing module converts real-time outbound data into real-time outbound symbols and converts real-time inbound symbols into real-time inbound data. The second baseband processing module converts non-real-time outbound data into non-real-time outbound symbols and converts non-real-time inbound symbols into non-real-time inbound data. The RF section converts the real-time outbound symbols into real-time outbound RF signals, converts real-time inbound RF signals into the real-time inbound symbols, converts the non-real-time outbound symbols into non-real-time outbound RF signals, and converts non-real-time inbound RF signals into the non-real-time symbols. The wireline interface couples the non-real-time outbound data, the non-real-time inbound data, the real-time outbound data, and/or the real-time inbound data to an off-chip wireline connection. |
| US07920517B2 |
Uplink load control including individual measurements
A technique is disclosed for determining values of different portions of a total uplink interference, which can be used for scheduling and load control at a base station, for example. A disclosed example includes obtaining measurements from individual users and using those measurements to determine corresponding portions of a total uplink interference at the base station. One portion is associated with users that are controlled by a scheduler for that base station. Another portion is associated with users that are not controlled by that scheduler. Determining each of the portions individually and using a received total wideband power measurement allows for determining each of the major portions of the total uplink interference at a base station. |
| US07920516B2 |
Wireless communication mobile station apparatus and control channel decoding method
A wireless communication base station apparatus that allows the number of times of blind decodings at a mobile station to be reduced without increasing the overhead caused by notifying information. In this apparatus, a CCE allocation part (104) allocates allocation information allocated to a PDCCH received from modulation parts (103-1 to 103-K) to a particular one of a plurality of search spaces that is corresponding to a CCE aggregation size of the PDCCH. A placement part (108) then places the allocation information in one of downstream line resources, reserved for the PDCCH, that is corresponding to the CCE of the particular search space to which the allocation information has been allocated. A radio transmission part (111) then transmits an OFDM symbol, in which the allocation information has been placed, to the mobile station from an antenna (112). |
| US07920511B2 |
Method and system for managing channels in a wireless communication system
A method of managing channels in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes generating channel quality feedback comprising a maximum channel quality indicator (CQI) and a delta-CQI value at a subscriber station and transmitting the channel quality feedback to a base station. |
| US07920507B2 |
Time division multiple access for network nodes with multiple receivers
A system facilitates communication among nodes in a wireless network. A timeslot is assigned to each of a group of nodes (201) in the wireless network (400, 800, 1200, 1300). The timeslot is a time for a corresponding node to receive messages transmitted by other nodes (201). A modulation scheme is assigned to each of the nodes (201). A message is transmitted from at least one of the nodes (201), using the assigned modulation scheme, to at least one destination node during a timeslot assigned to the at least one destination node. The messages are received at the at least one destination node from the at least one of the nodes (201). |
| US07920504B2 |
Power save system and method
According to various embodiments of the invention a device can announce broadcast traffic in a global access period. Thus, a destination can change its local communication window every global access period. By announcing a local communication window during a global access period it can be more likely that a source device in a network will receive the information because all devices should be active during the global access period. A device can awaken for its local communication window and during the local communication window a source device can schedule a transmission and transmit information to the device. |
| US07920501B2 |
Method and arrangement for bi-directional relaying in wireless communication systems
A relaying node is in bidirectional communication with at least a first and a second sending/receiving radio node, and the relaying radio node receives at least a first signal carrying at least first data and a second signal carrying at least second data. The relaying node generates a reduced representation of at least the first and second signal, with a reduced information content as compared to the first and second data, by a joint non-linearly encoding operation, and transmits the reduced representation to at least the first and the second communication node. The first and second sending/receiving node can extract data from the reduced representation by a non-linear decoding operation using stored a priori information. |
| US07920500B2 |
Controller apparatus, mobile terminal, and communication control method
A controller apparatus of this invention controls transmission of a packet from a source mobile terminal to a destination mobile terminal through one or more relay mobile terminals in an ad hoc network formed by a plurality of mobile terminals. The controller apparatus includes a packet location information managing unit configured to manage packet location information which shows to which mobile terminal the packet has been transmitted in the ad hoc network. |
| US07920498B2 |
Method and apparatus for decoding a control channel in a wireless communication system
A method of decoding a control channel in a wireless communication system is provided. In the method, a terminal calculates the number of sub-bursts to be used during a next decoding and positions of the sub-bursts, based on a signal-to-noise ratio of at least one of a first burst or a second burst. Then, the terminal compares the calculated number of sub-bursts with a reference value. When the calculated number of sub-bursts is greater than the reference value, the terminal does not receive more bursts or sub-bursts and instead enters into a sleep state. When the calculated number of sub-bursts is smaller than or equal to the reference value, the terminal receives and decodes only sub-bursts at the calculated positions. |
| US07920494B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing mobility measurements in a communication network
A method and apparatus for performing mobility measurement in a communication network (100) is described. The method includes of receiving a subframe sequence pattern from a node in the communication network (100). The subframe sequence pattern indicates types of subframes being transmitted by a neighboring cell node (104) in a neighboring cell (112). The method includes receiving a subframe from a sequence of subframes transmitted by the neighboring cell node (104) in the neighboring cell (112), and determining that the received subframe is a multicast subframe based on the subframe sequence pattern. The method then includes performing a single cell-specific reference symbol measurement in response to determining that the received subframe is the multicast subframe. |
| US07920491B1 |
System and method for split isolation in radio frequency electronics
A system and method for designing a full duplex communications transceiver to enable a reduction in isolation between a transmit signal and a receive signal at a diplexer is disclosed. An RFE transmit filter attenuation level can be determined to be sufficient to attenuate a noise power of the transmitter below a thermal noise floor of the power amplifier. A minimum diplexer transmit filter attenuation level can be calculated to attenuate noise power output from the power amplifier in the receive band to a level below a noise floor of the receiver. |
| US07920490B2 |
Systems and methods for wireless transmission and reception of data including frequency and channel code selection
Systems and methods are disclosed for wireless transmission and reception of data including processing and buffering features. According to one or more exemplary aspects, there is provided a wireless audio receiver for receiving a plurality of packets of encoded audio data. Moreover, the receiver includes at least one receiving component that receives the plurality of packets to generate a plurality of decoded signals, a decoding component that decodes the first packet of encoded data transmitted to produce decoded data, and a selecting component that identifies the mechanisms for receiving additional encoded data. Other exemplary embodiments may include one or more receiving components that processing data regarding antenna, frequencies and channels selected for transmission, as well as an audio component that receives the decoded signals and produces decoded audio signals. |
| US07920487B2 |
Method and apparatus for loop prevention in communication networks
A method and apparatus route data packets in communication network. A current routing topology of the network is analyzed and a digest value representing the current routing topology is determined. The digest value is encapsulated within the data packet. The data packet is forwarded according to the current routing topology. |
| US07920483B2 |
System and method of dynamically optimizing a transmission mode of wirelessly transmitted information
The present invention includes a method of optimizing a transmission mode of wirelessly transmitted data. The method includes selecting a first transmission mode based on a predetermined channel database and a first channel characterization. The first channel characterization can be based upon signals transmitted in an initial mode. An error factor is generated based on a difference between an estimated performance characteristic, and an expected performance characteristic. A subsequent transmission mode is selected based upon the predetermined channel database, the error factor and a subsequent channel characterization. The predetermined channel database can include a predetermined look-up-table that provides transmission mode selections based upon the channel characterizations. The look-up-table generally includes a plurality of quality parameter thresholds that determine the selection of a transmission mode. Another method includes receiving transmission signals that include data encoded in an initial transmission mode. A first quality parameter of the received transmission signals is measured. A subsequent transmission mode is selected based upon the quality parameter. Transmission signals are received having data encoded in the subsequent transmission mode. A second quality parameter is measured. A parameter is adjusted within selection criteria of another subsequent transmission mode based upon the second quality parameter. |
| US07920479B2 |
Cost minimization of services provided by multiple service providers
In one embodiment, a plurality of connections couple to a plurality of service providers (SPs) that each provide services at a cost. The cost of the services of each SP is determined according to a tiered pricing structure that includes one or more tiers. Each tier correlates a particular amount of data transferred with the SP to a particular cost. A data collector collects measurement data that indicates an amount of data transferred with each SP. A processor selects a target tier in the tiered pricing structure of each SP based on the measurement data. The processor also generates a momentary target utilization rate (MTUR) for each SP based on the target tier for the SP and the measurement data. The processor then distributes utilization of services among the SPs based on the MTUR and tiered pricing structure of each SP to minimize the cost of the services provided by the SPs. |
| US07920475B2 |
System and method for adaptive removal of delay jitter effect and low end-to-end delay
Systems, modules, methods and computer readable mediums for adaptive removal of delay jitter and low end-to-end delay are provided. The method may include the following operations at a delay buffer: calculating a holding time for a plurality of packets input into a network; buffering each of the plurality of packets for the duration of the holding time; and arranging the buffered packets in a sequence indicative of an order in which the buffered packets were input into the network. The holding time may be based on a difference between a current maximum delay of the plurality of packets in a current time window and a delay of a first packet of the plurality of packets in the current time window. The method may also include playing back the buffered packets at a selected playback time. Playing back the buffered packets may be performed at a reception mechanism. |
| US07920471B2 |
Call admission control method and system
A call admission control technique allowing flexible and reliable call admissions at an ATM switch in the case of an ATM network including both QoS-specified and QoS-unspecified virtual connections is disclosed. In the case where a QoS (Quality of Service) specified connection request occurs, an estimated bandwidth is calculated which is to be assigned to an existing QoS-unspecified traffic on the link associated with the QoS-specified connection request. A call control processor of the ATM switch determines whether the QoS-specified connection request is accepted, depending on whether a requested bandwidth is smaller than an available bandwidth that is obtained by subtracting an assigned bandwidth and the estimated bandwidth from a full bandwidth of the link. |
| US07920470B2 |
Network adapter with TCP support
A network adapter and corresponding method for its use are disclosed. The network adapter has an operational mode that allows a host CPU to offload transmission of a block of data to the adapter. The adapter segments the block into fragments, and builds a data packet for each fragment. The adapter transmits these packets with an adapter-implemented flow control. This flow control uses: a context engine that tracks flow control variables for a “context” established for the block; a context memory for storing the variables; and a receive filter that updates flow control information for the block based on ACK packets received from the remote endpoint receiving the data packets. Because the network adapter implements flow control for data blocks that the network adapter segments, intermediate ACK packets corresponding to that block can be intercepted by the adapter, before they pass to the host, conserving host resources. An added advantage is that the host CPU can offload data blocks larger than the remote endpoint's receive window size, since the adapter can follow the transmit window and transmit packets at appropriate intervals. This further decreases load on the host CPU, decreases latency, and improves bandwidth utilization. |
| US07920465B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting the control signal of resilient packet ring media access control
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for transmitting control signal of Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) Medium Access Control (MAC), including: encapsulating a control signal of RPR MAC interface to be transmitted into an RPR data frame of predefined format, and directly sending it to a receiving unit through a standard interface. In this invention, an RPR data frame of predefined format is utilized to transmit signals between an RPR MAC and a receiving unit, e.g., an RPR client, via standard interfaces, which may avoid the increase of unstable factors affecting signal transmission and hardware cost caused by the appending of hardware devices in the standard interfaces. Thus, the reliability of signal transmission is enhanced, and the hardware cost of communication system is reduced. |
| US07920461B2 |
Combined echo and crosstalk cancellation
Combined echo and crosstalk cancellation is provided. Frequency domain adaptive filters are used to remove or reduce the effects of echo and crosstalk for a multi-channel and full-duplex communications system. Data from each transmit channel is buffered and converted to the frequency domain. The frequency domain data is multiplied by crosstalk coefficients to obtain a frequency domain correction signal for each channel. Adaptation of the crosstalk coefficients is based on correlations between the error signals and the data from each of the transmit channels. A single frequency domain transform engine, such as a Fast Fourier Transform engine, is employed for all calculations to save power and area. |
| US07920458B2 |
Optical recording medium, and recording and reproducing method
An optical recording medium is provided with at least a substrate, light absorbing and heat generating parts each of which absorbs light and generates heat, and recording parts, and each of the recording parts are formed between two recording tracks. |
| US07920456B2 |
Objective lens for optical pickup device, optical pickup device and optical information recording/reproducing apparatus
An objective lens used for an optical pickup device wherein the optical pickup device includes: light source; and a converging optical system including the objective lens for converging a light beam emitted from the light source to an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and the optical pickup device is capable of recording and/or reproducing information by converging the light beam emitted from the light source to the information recording surface of the optical information recording medium with the converging optical system, the objective lens being a plastic single lens and satisfying following formulas when NA is an image-side numerical aperture required for recording and/or reproducing information to the optical information recording medium and f (mm) is a focal length of the objective lens. Even in a plastic single lens having a high NA, thermal aberration does not increase excessively and in a plastic single lens of a refraction type, thermal aberration within the temperature range of practical use in an optical pickup device is suppressed within an allowable range. NA≧0.8 (1) 1.0>f>0.2 (2) |
| US07920450B2 |
Discrimination method for optical disc types and optical disc apparatus
An optical disc apparatus, which discriminates types of optical discs having different thicknesses of transparent layers by using the same wavelength of laser light, includes an aberration correction unit for correcting spherical aberration, an objective lens for condensing the laser beam onto a recording surface of an optical disc, an actuator for moving the objective lens with respect to the optical disc, a signal detection unit for delivering a focus error signal or a sum light signal, a control unit for controlling the aberration correction unit, the actuator and the signal detection unit. The control unit drives and sets the aberration correction unit so that the laser beam has a predetermined spherical aberration, performs a focus search operation of moving the objective lens to approach the optical disc in a state where the laser beam is projected onto the optical disc, and uses at least one of the focus error signal and the sum light signal delivered from the signal detection unit at a just focus position as an optical disc type discrimination signal. |
| US07920443B2 |
Objective lens, optical pick-up device, and optical disk device
An optical pickup device includes light sources for respectively emitting a plurality of different wavelengths of light, a unit structured for causing at least a part of the light emitted from the light sources to pass a same optical path; and a focusing unit for focusing the light. The focusing unit includes at least first and second focusing parts, the first focusing part being to focus mainly a wavelength of light different from a wavelength of light to be mainly focused by the second focusing part. The optical pickup device and optical disk device are capable of realizing at least one of thickness reduction, size reduction and suppression against characteristic deterioration even where coping with various wavelengths of laser including a blue laser. |
| US07920440B2 |
Method for real-time calculation of receive focusing parameters for beamforming and apparatus thereof
A method and an apparatus for real-time calculation of receive focusing parameters for beamforming are provided. The apparatus is coupled to the signal input end of the receive beamforming module of an ultrasound imaging system as an independent accessory, including a first accumulator and a second accumulator for calculating a quantified focus coordinate (Fx,Fz); a distance determination circuit for calculating the distance between the quantified focus coordinate (Fx,Fz) and quantified coordinate (Elexj,Elezj) of the j-th array element of a probe; a third accumulator for accumulating the value of i*N/2; and a third summator for reading the output results of the third accumulator and the distance determination circuit, adding both output results up and outputting the added-up result as a reading address of echo data calculated in real time. With the present invention, the system memory resource required is reduced, the circuit is simpler, and the parameter loading is faster. |
| US07920438B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having the operating voltage of the memory cell controlled
An SRAM circuit operates at a reduced operation margin, especially at a low operating voltage by increasing or optimizing the operation margin of the SRAM circuit. The threshold voltage of the produced transistor in the SRAM circuit is detected to compare the operating voltage of a memory cell with the operating voltage of a peripheral circuit in order to adjust it to the optimum value, and the substrate bias voltage is further controlled. |
| US07920435B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device comprises a plurality of memory cells connected to a bit line, and a sense amplifier of the current sense type. The sense amplifier includes an initial charging circuit capable of initially charging the bit line with a suppressed value of current only for a certain starting period during an initial charging period. The sense amplifier detects a value of current flowing in the bit line to decide data read out of each of the memory cells. |
| US07920433B2 |
Method and apparatus for storage device with a logic unit and method for manufacturing same
Method and apparatus that relate to a storage device comprising a plurality of memory cells, an interface device configured to connect the storage device to a host system and configured to transmit signals to read and write data from the host system to the memory cells via a first and second data path, and a logic unit. The logic unit is configured to read and write data from the plurality of memory cells via the second data path, and configured to perform logic operations on data stored in the plurality of memory cells. When performing read and write operations, the first data path excludes the logic unit, and the second data path includes the logic unit. Furthermore, the logic unit is communicatively coupled between the interface device and the plurality of memory cells. Additionally, a method for manufacturing the memory device is provided. |
| US07920430B2 |
Integrated circuits and methods for operating the same using a plurality of buffer circuits in an access operation
In an embodiment, an integrated circuit having a memory cell arrangement is provided. The memory cell arrangement may include a plurality of multiple bit information storing memory cells, a plurality of buffer circuits, each buffer circuit being coupled to at least one multiple bit information storing memory cell of the plurality of multiple bit information storing memory cells, and a controller configured to control an access operation to access at least one multiple bit information storing memory cell using the buffer circuit coupled to the at least one multiple bit information storing memory cell to be accessed, and a buffer circuit of at least one other multiple bit information storing memory cell being coupled to at least one other multiple bit information storing memory cell. |
| US07920428B2 |
Methods and apparatuses relating to automatic cell threshold voltage measurement
Methods and apparatuses for automatically measuring memory cell threshold voltages are disclosed. Measurement circuitry includes an internal reference current generator, a plurality of memory cells and a bit line pre-charge reference circuit. If the reference current is greater than the memory cell current, the bit line voltage will increase. Conversely, if the reference current is less than the memory cell current, the bit line voltage will decrease. The reference current is generated in large steps until a comparator, that compares the bit line voltage and a bit line pre-charge reference voltage, is switched. The reference current then generates a current in small steps until the comparator is again switched. The reference current converges on the memory cell current within an accuracy of 10 nA. The memory cell threshold voltage is then determined from the memory cell current. Systems including memory according to an embodiment of the invention are also disclosed. |
| US07920424B2 |
Scalable electrically eraseable and programmable memory (EEPROM) cell array
A non-volatile memory (NVM) system includes a plurality of NVM cells fabricated in a dual-well structure. Each NVM cell includes an access transistor and an NVM transistor, wherein the access transistor has a drain region that is continuous with a source region of the NVM transistor. The drain regions of each NVM transistor in a column of the array are commonly connected to a corresponding bit line. The control gates of each NVM transistor in a row of the array are commonly connected to a corresponding word line. The source regions of each of the access transistors in the array are commonly coupled. The NVM cells are programmed and erased without having to apply the high programming voltage VPP across the gate dielectric layers of the access transistors. As a result, the NVM cells can be scaled down to sub-0.35 micron geometries. |
| US07920423B1 |
Non volatile memory circuit with tailored reliability
A non-volatile memory (NVM) circuit is provided, that includes at least a first and second NVM sub-array. The first sub-array is built from first memory cells. The second NVM sub-array is built from second memory cells that are constructed differently from the first memory cells. The NVM sub-arrays share a support circuit. In some embodiments the sub-arrays can be constructed, so that they exhibit different characteristics tailored to their intended use. For example one sub-array might be tailored for data retention, while the next sub-array for programming endurance, still another for write disturb immunity. |
| US07920421B2 |
Semiconductor memory device provided with memory cells having charge storage layer and control gate
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell, a source line, and a source line control circuit. The memory cell includes a charge storage layer and a control gate and is capable of holding 2 levels or more levels of data. The source line is electrically connected to a source of the memory cell. The source line control circuit detects a current passed to the source line and controls a potential of the source line in accordance with a detected current amount in a reading operation or a verification operation of the data. |
| US07920418B2 |
Nonvolatile memory devices and methods of forming the same
A nonvolatile memory device includes a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type, a plurality of word lines on the semiconductor substrate, each the plurality of word lines including a floating gate of a second conductivity type. A ground select line and a string select line are disposed on respective sides of word lines. An impurity region of the second conductivity type underlies a first word line adjacent the ground select line. The device may further include a second impurity region of the second conductivity type underlying a second word line adjacent the string select line. In still further embodiments, the device may further include third impurity regions of the second conductivity type underlying respective third word lines between the first word line and the second word line. Methods of forming such devices are also provided. |