| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07987516B2 |
Software application access method and system
An access method and system. The method includes receiving from a first user, by a software application within a computing system, a request for access to the software application. The software application determines a first domain associated with a first current location of the user. The software application determines a home domain associated with the user. The software application retrieves a set of login process rules associated with a combination of the first domain and the home domain. The software application enforces the set of login process rules. The software application transmits results of enforcing the set of login process rules. |
| US07987515B2 |
Electronic transmission device, and signal transmission method
An electronic signal transmission apparatus executes an authentication process with a transmitting electronic device over a transmission line and receives an encrypted signal and first and second key information therefrom. The encrypted signal is decrypted based on the first key information, displayed and/or recorded, and re-encrypted using the second key information. The encrypted signal is transmitted to another electronic transmission apparatus if that apparatus does not have a recording capability and determined to be authorized using a second authentication process. The re-encrypted signal is sent to the another electronic transmission apparatus if that device has a recording capability and is authorized. |
| US07987512B2 |
BIOS based secure execution environment
Techniques to provide a secure execution environment are described. In an implementation, a method includes initiating a hardware interrupt by an embedded controller of a computing device. In response to the interrupt, a module is executed that is stored in a basic input/output system (BIOS). The module, when executed, determines whether constrain functionality of the computing device based on a balance. |
| US07987511B2 |
E-mail with secure message parts
A method for preventing a recipient of an electronically transmitted message from taking at least one action in relation to the message is disclosed. The message has at least two parts with one of the parts having a higher level of security than the other part. The method includes the step of extracting information from the message. The information indicates that the higher level security part is not permitted to have the action taken on it while the other part is so permitted. The method also includes the step of preventing the higher level security part from having the action taken on it in reaction to said recipient making an offending request. |
| US07987509B2 |
Generation of unique significant key from URL get/post content
Generating a unique URL key for a web document according to an obtained key generating policy. The URL of a web page is parsed according to the policy in order to generate the URL key. Preferably, the key generating policy is obtained from a well known source associated with the web page. |
| US07987507B2 |
Multipoint server for providing secure, scaleable connections between a plurality of network devices
A method and system for implementing secure communications between a plurality of devices are provided. The method and system generally include the provision of at least one common encryption parameter to each of the plurality of devices, as well as an identification of the plurality of devices to one another. This information can be maintained and shared by interaction of the plurality of devices with a designated server device. In this way, a secure, point-to-point connection between at least two of the plurality of devices can be established. |
| US07987506B1 |
Methods and systems for dynamically updating a routing table in a virtual private network
A method, system, and computer program product for dynamically updating a routing table in a virtual private network including a concentrator with a routing table and one or more security associations is provided. A change is identified in the virtual private network, and related network information is also identified. A notification update message is created, including (i) a type of change to be made to the routing table based on to the identified change and (ii) the related network information. The notification update message is sent to the concentrator, which updates the routing table according to the notification update message. During the updating of the routing table of the concentrator, current security associations of the virtual private network tunnel are maintained. |
| US07987505B2 |
Apparatus and method for triggering session re-negotiation between access network and access terminal in a high rate packet data system
The invention relates to a method for triggering re-negotiation of a session when an Access Terminal moves from one access network (source AN) to another access network (target AN) having different capabilities in high rate packet data system. According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the source AN is allowed to store all the protocol subtypes, protocols and applications that AT is capable of and also allowing the AT to send this information in priority order during session negotiation and hence facilitating the transfer of this information from source AN to target AN during session transfer when AT moves from one AN to another AN. An alternate embodiment is to let the AT send the protocol subtypes, protocols and applications and other AT capable information to target AN after it moves to a new AN or by letting the Rev-A capable AN query the AT's capability information and then the AT providing this information. In another exemplary embodiment, the invention includes re-negotiation by introducing a revision (like Protocol revision) information in overhead information messages that an AN broadcasts to all ATs. |
| US07987503B2 |
Firewall control system based on a next generation network service and method thereof
The invention provides a firewall control system based on a Next Generation Network (NGN) service and a method thereof. The method includes: resolving an application layer signaling, performing a security inspection of a signaling flow and determining requirements of a service media flow on security level; determining controlment of the service media flow on security level according to a stored policy and the requirements of the service media flow on security level; performing a security inspection of the service media flow passing by, according to the controlling information of the service media flow on security level. In embodiments of the invention, a Packet-filter-based Firewall is enabled to perform a fine granularity security hierarchy processing of each subscriber and each session in the NGN, and dynamically select working mode of firewall packet filtering of different security levels according to a subscriber requirement and a session type to prevent network attacks. |
| US07987502B2 |
Secure streaming container
A system and method for securely streaming encrypted digital media content out of a digital container to a user's media player. This streaming occurs after the digital container has been delivered to the user's machine and after the user has been authorized to access the encrypted content. The user's operating system and media player treat the data stream as if it were a being delivered over the Internet (or other network) from a streaming web server. However, no Internet connection is required after the container has been delivered to the user and the data stream suffers no quality loss due to network traffic or web server access problems. In this process of the invention, the encrypted content files are decrypted and fed to the user's media player in real time and are never written to the user's hard drive or storage device. This process makes unauthorized copying of the digital content contained in the digital container virtually impossible. |
| US07987501B2 |
System and method for single session sign-on
A method and system for cross-system authentication or credentialing of clients. Credentials from one system (e.g., system 2) are placed on a client, such as with a cookie on a browser, and the credentials are then extracted by another system (e.g., system 1), and used by system 1 to impersonate the client to system 2. If the client's credentials with system 2 are valid, system 2 provides that information to system 1 (which is impersonating the client), and system 1 uses the validity of the credentials from system 2 to grant the client access to protected resources on system 1. |
| US07987491B2 |
Method and apparatus for browsing using alternative linkbases
Systems and methods for navigating hypermedia using multiple coordinated input/output device sets. Disclosed systems and methods allow a user and/or an author to control what resources are presented on which device sets (whether they are integrated or not), and provide for coordinating browsing activities to enable such a user interface to be employed across multiple independent systems. Disclosed systems and methods also support new and enriched aspects and applications of hypermedia browsing and related business activities. |
| US07987489B2 |
Legacy device bridge for residential or non-residential networks
A legacy device bridge for use in a network, such as a wired or wireless residential network, is provided. The legacy device bridge performs protocol conversion to enable a network-attached entity that uses a packet-based communication protocol to communicate with and control legacy devices, such as consumer electronics, that rely exclusively on infrared (IR) or serial communication protocols. The legacy device bridge also performs a virtualization function that allows legacy devices to be advertised to the network as devices that comply with a packet-based discovery and control protocol, and to be controlled as such. The legacy device bridge is also adapted to probe, deduce and publish information relating to the state of a legacy device to other entities on the network. |
| US07987482B2 |
Promoted listings
Promoted listings are defined in terms of priorities, which may be static, geographically dynamic, or demographically dynamic. The priorities are associated with program data that describes media programs that are scheduled for broadcast or other type of transmission. The program data and priorities are transmitted to client devices that are configured to generate a display of the program data based, at least in part, on the priorities. |
| US07987470B1 |
Converting heavyweight objects to lightwight objects
Converting heavyweight instances to lightweight instances is disclosed. An indication is received to convert one or more heavyweight instances to corresponding one or more lightweight instances. One or more sharable parent instances is/are created. One or more lightweight instances is/are created. For each lightweight instance, one of the one or more sharable parent instances is/are designated as a parent to create a lightweight composite instance. Each of at least a subset of the one or more sharable parent instances is shared by two or more lightweight instances. And, the created lightweight composite instances are configured to provide the functionality provided by the one or more heavyweight instances. |
| US07987469B2 |
RDMA (remote direct memory access) data transfer in a virtual environment
In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method provides determining that a message has been placed in a send buffer; and transferring the message to an application on a second virtual machine by bypassing use of an operating system to process the message by directly placing the message in an application memory space from which the application can retrieve the message. |
| US07987463B2 |
Device management scheduling method and apparatus thereof
Device management commands to be executed within a terminal and conditions included within a scheduling context for executing such commands are provided to the terminal ahead of time. A server generates a scheduling context (or other type of scheduling information) that includes device management scheduled by the server to allow more effective scheduling to be performed by the terminal. A terminal receives the scheduling context from the server and performs the scheduled device management procedures accordingly. |
| US07987462B2 |
Method for automatic throttling of work producers
A method for automatic throttling of work producers by actively monitoring the amount and rate at which work is both produced and consumed relative to a threshold value, the consumer thread can calculate the subset of the ‘N’ threads which can be placed in a temporary sleep condition, wherein the duration of sleep is determined to give the consumer thread processing time to catch up, keeping the process from being overrun. ‘N’ is the number of unique producer threads. |
| US07987461B2 |
Automated design for deployment of a distributed application using constraint propagation
A system and method for automated design deployment for distributed applications includes providing a node with at least one requirement attribute in an application description. A repository for infrastructure elements is searched for candidate infrastructure elements for that satisfy the at least one requirement attribute. A candidate infrastructure element that best satisfies the at least one requirement attribute in the application description is substituted in place of the node with the at least one requirement attribute. |
| US07987459B2 |
Application programming interface for identifying, downloading and installing applicable software updates
An application programming interface (API) provides a set of functions for application developers to build software programs that automatically detect, download, and install desired software updates. |
| US07987458B2 |
Method and system for firmware image size reduction
Embodiments described herein disclose the use of a compiler pre-processing component for the optimization of a firmware image so that it can be made to take up less space in a memory device without the use of compression. Embodiments identify repeated modules or common components across previously separate binary firmware modules within a body of software and automatically and seamlessly merge the content of these modules so they occupy less space in their binary form. The overhead footprint of the binary is reduced without modifying the pre-existing source code defining the individual components. In general, the resulting space savings is additive to the savings provided by existing compression savings techniques. |
| US07987454B2 |
System and method for emulating the processing of java server pages
The processing of server pages is emulated at run time. The system includes a library of custom tags, and a server page emulator for reading the server page, including identifying any calls to the library of custom tags, and further for emulating any calls to the custom tags identified in the server page; and thereby generating and processing the server pages dynamically at runtime. Each server page is parsed to create a tree of nodes for each element of the page, and each node identified as one of template text, custom tag start, custom tag end, and expression language (EL) expression. For each template text node, text is written directly to final markup. For each custom tag node, a return code indicates that the body should be skipped, processed normally, or provided as bulk data to the tag implementation. For each EL expression node, the EL expression is evaluated and the result written to final markup. |
| US07987453B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining computer program flows autonomically using hardware assisted thread stack tracking and cataloged symbolic data
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for determining computer flows autonomically using hardware assisted thread stack and cataloged symbolic data. When a new thread is spawned during execution of a computer program, new thread work area is allocated by the operating system in memory for storage of call stack information for the new thread. Hardware registers are set with values corresponding to the new thread work area. Upon context switch, values of the registers are saved in a context save area for future restoration.When call stack data is post-processed, the operating system or a device driver copies call stack data from the thread work areas to a consolidated buffer and each thread is mapped to a process. Symbolic data may be obtained based on the process identifier and address of the method/routine that was called/returned in the thread. Corresponding program flow is determined using retrieved symbolic data and call stack data. |
| US07987447B2 |
Approach for automatically generating program code
Programming the creation of a software system is facilitated by automating the generation of some of the program code that is necessary for the software system. The generation of program code may be automated based on a software design specification that can be created by developers. The software design specification may be scanned and code may be generated for implementing the software system based on information obtained from scanning the software design specification. |
| US07987432B1 |
Seamless integration and installation of non-native application into native operating system
A method, system and computer program product recorded on a computer-readable medium for execution on at least one processor, for seamless integration of a non-native application into a host OS, including launching a first Virtual Execution Environment (VEE) on a computing system that has a host operating system and a host desktop displayed to a user; displaying a window corresponding to the VEE on the host desktop; upon a user invoking a user application that is non-native to both the host OS and the first VEE, (a) installing a second VEE that is compatible with the user application, (b) installing the user application into the second VEE, (c) launching the application inside the second VEE, and (d) displaying the non-native application window within a window of the second VEE. The VEE can be a Virtual Private Server or a Virtual Machine. |
| US07987427B1 |
Graphical editor for program files
An editor for creating and editing user-guidance information employs multiple interrelated interfaces. One such interface allows the user to create a user-guidance sequence from a series of component script file module objects and panel display objects. Each object is assigned a graphical icon. The user constructs the sequence by stringing together the icons to implement the desired sequence. The user may maintain a customized file of frequently used component script files objects and panel display objects. The user may add an object from the customized file to a sequence currently being edited by “dragging” its associated icon from the file to the sequence. The user may perform editing on individual display objects within the above described sequence of display objects by “clicking” on one of the display objects. This invokes a separate editor which displays the contents of the display object. The editor operates on information in parse tree format. |
| US07987426B2 |
Personalising content provided to a user
A method for personalizing content such as user interface items provided to a user during a session of an interactive application is disclosed. One or more environmental context attribute values for the session are determined. Responsive to a request for content, for at least one item of the content, each of the environmental context attribute values ate mapped to respective values indicating a users level of interest in the item for the environmental context attribute values. Content is retrieved from a content database and the content is personalized as a function of the users level of interest in the item for the environmental context attribute values before being returned to the application. |
| US07987425B2 |
Methods and systems for handling hidden dialogs in a media centered graphical user environment
An exemplary method for handling a hidden dialog in a media centered graphical user environment is presented including: detecting the hidden dialog; determining whether the hidden dialog is an approved dialog; if the hidden dialog is an approved dialog, providing a notification to a user of the hidden dialog such that the media centered graphical user environment is interrupted; and if the hidden dialog is not an approved dialog, ignoring the hidden dialog such that the media centered graphical user environment is uninterrupted. In some embodiments, the hidden dialog originates from any WINDOWS™ compatible program. In some embodiments, the hidden dialog is a pop-up notification. In some embodiments, the approved dialog is user configurable. In some embodiments, the approved dialog may be: a programmatic subscription dialog, a programmatic update dialog, a programmatic alert dialog, and a system alert dialog. |
| US07987421B1 |
Method and apparatus to dynamically provide web content resources in a portal
To display content in a user's preferred language, a content provider locates a layout information file to determine how to display the content. A layout strings file storing a layout string in a specific language is selected, according to the user's preferred languages. The content from a content provider and the layout string are then formatted as specified by the layout information file, and presented to the user. |
| US07987420B1 |
System, method, and computer program product for a scalable, configurable, client/server, cross-platform browser for mobile devices
Described herein are systems, methods, computer program products, and combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for enabling web content (as well as other objects) to be loaded on mobile devices (as well as other types of devices), and for users of mobile devices to operate with such web content on their mobile devices in an interactive manner while in an off-line mode. |
| US07987418B2 |
Automatic bibliographical information within electronic documents
A method that enables automatic retrieval and transfer of bibliographical information whenever content is copied from a web page. During creation of a web page, the meta data defining each independent portion of the content is linked via paired comments or meta tags to bibliographical information associated with the content. When a person accesses the web site and copies the content from the site, the bibliographical information is automatically appended to the content. If that content is then pasted into a different document, e.g., within a word processing application, the bibliographical information is automatically transferred to a location for such information within the document. Also, if the content is saved, the bibliographical information is saved along with the content. |
| US07987416B2 |
Systems and methods for modular information extraction
Embodiments of the present invention include a computer-implemented method of extracting information. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises defining a plurality of reusable operators, wherein each operator performs a predefined information extraction task different from the other operators. Composite annotators may be created by specifying a composition of the reusable operators. Each operator may receive a searchable item, such as a web page or an annotation, and may generate one or more output annotations. The output annotations may be further processed by other reusable operators and the annotations may be stored in a repository for use during a search. |
| US07987411B1 |
Method and apparatus for writing data to MPE buffer and an MPE-FEC system
A method for writing data to a multi-protocol encapsulation (MPE) buffer includes the steps of determining whether an error is generated in address information of an MPE section by comparing a location of an erasure table referring to the address of the MPE section, with address information of the MPE section, and when the error is generated in the address information of the MPE section, preventing writing data of the MPE section to a location of the MPE buffer referring to the address information of the MPE section, and when the error is not generated, writing the data of the MPE section to the location of the MPE buffer. |
| US07987410B2 |
Systems and methods for decreasing latency in a digital transmission system
Disclosed herein are various embodiments of methods, systems, and apparatus for encoding OFDM packets in a digital communication system. In one exemplary method embodiment, LDPC codewords in an IEEE 802.11 wireless transmission are shortened, decreasing the iterations necessary to insure accurate communications. The codewords are shortened by adding known bits in predetermined locations in the last data symbol of a packet. |
| US07987407B2 |
Handling of hard errors in a cache of a data processing apparatus
A data processor includes a cache record error storage and a hard error storage having at least one record error storage and at least one hard error record, respectively, both for keeping track of errors detected when accessing cache records. When an error is first detected, one of the error records in the cache record error storage is allocated to store a cache record identifier for that cache record, and an associated count value is set to a first value. If an error is detected when accessing a cache record, a correction operation is performed in respect of that currently accessed cache record, and access to that currently accessed cache record is then re-performed. If the count value reaches a predetermined threshold value, then the cache record identifier is moved from the cache record error storage to an error record of the hard error storage. |
| US07987405B2 |
Method and system for calculating and verifying the integrity of data in a data transmission system
A method is described of calculating and verifying the integrity of data in a data communication system. The system comprises a base station and one or more remote stations, such as in an RFID system. The method includes transmitting a select instruction from the base station to the one or more remote stations, the select instruction containing a data field which matches a portion of an identity or other data field in one or more of the remote stations; transmitting from a selected remote station or stations a truncated reply containing identity data or other data of the remote station but omitting the portion transmitted by the base station; calculating in the base station a check sum or CRC from the data field originally sent and the truncated reply data received and comparing the calculated check sum or CRC with the check sum or CRC sent by the remote station. |
| US07987404B2 |
Information recording device, data-flow controller and data flow controlling method
A method for transferring corrected data to an external buffer within a tape drive is provided. After the receipt of data from a data recording medium, the data are stored in an external buffer. The data are then transferred from the external buffer to an error correction code (ECC) device. Any error in the data within the ECC device are corrected. The corrected data are subsequently divided into multiple sub-units, and a transfer flag is added to each of the sub-units having corrected data. Only the sub-units having corrected data are transferred from the ECC device back to the external buffer. |
| US07987402B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having burn-in test mode and method for driving the same
A semiconductor memory device includes: a pattern selector configured to receive a first test control signal and a second test control signal to output a plurality of pattern selection signals and a selection end signal in response to an entry signal; a shifting controller configured to receive the first test control signal and the second test control signal to output a shifting control signal in response to the selection end signal; and a pattern test signal generator configured to select a stress pattern corresponding to the pattern selection signals to generate a plurality of test mode signals for controlling a sequential entry into a plurality of test modes for executing the stress pattern in response to the shifting control signal. |
| US07987396B1 |
Reducing bit-error rate using adaptive decision feedback equalization
The present specification describes techniques and apparatus that adjust filter tap values to be used in filtering a data value input to a detector and/or that increase or decrease a threshold value used to determine whether to adjust the filter tap values. |
| US07987394B2 |
Method and apparatus for expressing high availability cluster demand based on probability of breach
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions are provided for expressing high availability (H/A) cluster demand based on probability of breach. When a failover occurs in the H/A cluster, event messages are sent to a provisioning manager server. The mechanism of embodiments of the present invention filters the event messages and translates the events into probability of breach data. The mechanism then updates the data model of the provision manager server and makes a recommendation to the provisioning manager server as to whether reprovisioning of new node should be performed. The provisioning manager server makes the decision and either reprovisions new nodes to the H/A cluster or notifies the administrator of detected poisoning problem. |
| US07987392B2 |
Differentiating connectivity issues from server failures
A status of connectivity between servers of different sites (locations) is used to infer whether a network or a server failure has occurred such that data between the servers can be routed more efficiently reducing unnecessary network traffic due to duplicate messages. Servers may be grouped based on location or other characteristics and connectivity status determined based on the communication status of individual servers and their respective groups. |
| US07987391B2 |
Fault tolerance using digests
A method and apparatus are provided, the method and apparatus comprising running a plurality of identical programs on a plurality of identical computers and recording information about at least some state updates done within each of the plurality of the identical programs running on the plurality of the identical computers using a plurality of digests of the at least some state updates. The method and apparatus also comprises comparing the plurality of the digests to determine whether at least one of the plurality of the identical programs running on the plurality of the identical computers has failed. |
| US07987387B2 |
File sharing system and method for storing and managing failure information based on statuses of a main control and a power supply
There is provided a file sharing system which allows accessing a memory that stores failure information and using the failure information even in a case where a CPU is shut down. When a failure occurs on a substrate, a control circuit on the substrate detects the failure and stores the information on the failure to an NVRAM. In a normal case, an OS loads the failure information and transmits it to a PC for maintenance. Upon shut down of the OS, a BMC loads the failure information from the NVRAM according to an instruction from the PC for maintenance. If an operator operates a manual switch upon power shut down, the BMC operates with the power supply from a battery, and the failure information is obtained from the NVRAM. |
| US07987386B2 |
Checkpoint/resume/restart safe methods in a data processing system to establish, to restore and to release shared memory regions
A method is provided in which checkpointing operations are carried out in data processing systems running multiple processes which employ shared memory in a manner which preserves data coherence and integrity but which places no timing restrictions or constraints which require coordination of checkpointing operations. Data structures within local process memory and within shared memory provide the checkpoint operation with application level information concerning shared memory resources specific to at least two processes being checkpointed. Methods are provided for establishing, restoring and releasing shared memory regions that are accessed by multiple cooperating processes. |
| US07987385B2 |
Method for high integrity and high availability computer processing
A method of providing high integrity checking for an N-lane computer processing module (Module), N being an integer greater than equal to two. The method comprises the steps of: detecting, by a data Output Management unit (OM), when any of the N processing lanes sends different output data; configuring each Hosted Application as either normal or high integrity; for the Hosted Applications configured as high integrity, running an identical version of the software source code targeted for similar or dissimilar microprocessors on all N processing lanes, and activating a Time Management Unit, Critical Regions Management Unit, data Input Management Unit and data Output Management Unit for each of the N processing lanes; and for the Hosted Applications configured as normal integrity, running a copy of the software on one of the N processing lanes, and not activating the Time Management Unit, Critical Regions Management Unit, Input Management Unit and Output Management Unit for the one activated processing lane while that Hosted Application is running. |
| US07987383B1 |
System and method for rapid indentification of coredump disks during simultaneous take over
A multiple node storage system cluster that allows for a takeover by a takeover node simultaneously with a failing node resetting its storage adapters is provided. A takeover monitor on the failing node initiates a “coredump” procedure by selecting a coredump disk. After selecting the coredump disk, the failing node determines the world wide name (WWN) of that disk and sends this information in a message across the cluster interconnect to the takeover node. In response to receipt of this message, the takeover node begins takeover procedures with respect to all disks except for the coredump disk. The failing node simultaneously resets its storage adapters and writes is memory to the coredump disk. The failing node later updates a completion header on that disk. The takeover node completes the takeover without waiting for the storage adapter reset, and subsequently reads the completion header and copies coredump information into its memory. |
| US07987381B2 |
Cyclemaster synchronization in a distributed bridge
A method of synchronizing cyclemasters over a distributed bridge is disclosed. The method comprises: a local portal sending a synchronization signal to a peer portal through a bridge fabric upon occurrence of a cycle synchronization event on the local portal; the peer portal sampling its local cycle timer to obtain a sample value when the peer portal receives the synchronization signal; a bridge manager at an upstream portal communicating the sample value to a bridge manager at an alpha portal; the bridge manager at the alpha portal using the sampled time value to compensate for delays through a bridge fabric, calculate the correction to be applied to a cycle timer associated with the alpha portal, and correct the cycle timer. |
| US07987375B2 |
Communication apparatus, control method thereof and computer readable medium
If electronic certificate data containing a private key and public key to be used to add an electronic signature to data with timer transmission setting is deleted, no electronic signature can be added at the set timer transmission time. To accomplish this, when timer transmission and electronic signature addition using stored key information and electronic certificate are set for transmission target data (YES in S38), deletion of the stored key information and electronic certificate to be used for generating an electronic signature is restricted (S40). |
| US07987364B2 |
Method of detecting and authenticating connection target for wireless communication apparatus
This invention is directed to simplify operation to be performed by an operator and allow authentication processing between two apparatuses while each apparatus uses a single wireless communication unit. For this purpose, when an authentication start instruction button is operated, a host apparatus decreases its RF power to set a communication range to about several ten cm. The host transmits an inquiry signal containing verification data and time interval data. A device which has received this inquiry signal transmits an inquiry response signal containing verification data and information for specifying itself at instructed time intervals. The host transmits authentication information only when this inquiry response is received at the set time intervals, the inquiry response contains verification data, the reception signal intensity changes in a predetermined range, and the inquiry response is sent from one device. |
| US07987360B2 |
Method for implementing grouping devices and interacting among grouped devices
In a method for implementing device grouping and interactions between grouped devices a device creating a device group sends an advertisement message carrying identification information of a device group to which it belongs, to the network. After receiving the advertisement message, a network device joins the device group by the corresponding advertisement message. When two grouped network devices interact with each other, the method further comprises: sending an access request to an accessed device; judging by the accessed device whether the device sending the request is a trusted device and if so, interacting by both parties with each other; otherwise, denying the access request, or determining by the initiating device and the accessed device, a common trusted third party; acquiring by the initiating device, key information of the accessed device from the common trusted third party, and interacting with the accessed device by using the acquired key information. |
| US07987357B2 |
Disabling remote logins without passwords
A method and apparatus for disabling password-less remote logins. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a remote login request at a first computing system from a user of a second computing system. Both of the first computing system and the second computing system mount home directories from a file sever. The request includes a public key associated with the user. An authorized key file associated with the user is located in the home directories. The authorized key file has zero length and owned by a root user of the file server. The method further comprises prompting the user of the second computing system for a password in response to the request. |
| US07987346B2 |
Method and apparatus for assigning thread priority in a processor or the like
In a multi-threaded processor, thread priority variables are set up in memory. The actual assignment of thread priority is based on the expiration of a thread precedence counter. To further augment, the effectiveness of the thread precedence counters, starting counters are associated with each thread that serve as a multiplier for the value to be used in the thread precedence counter. The value in the starting counters are manipulated so as to prevent one thread from getting undue priority to the resources of the multi-threaded processor. |
| US07987335B1 |
Techniques for virtualizing data
Techniques for virtualizing data are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for virtualizing data comprising identifying source data to be virtualized, intercepting an input/output (i/o) request to the source data, determining whether the input/output request is a read request or a write request, in the event the input/output request is a write request, storing one or more changes contained in the write request, and in the event the input/output request is a read request, determining whether a portion of data requested has been modified and responding to the read request. Responding to the read request may comprise providing stored data in the event a portion of the data requested has been modified, and utilizing source data in the event the data requested is unmodified. |
| US07987330B2 |
Apparatus for migrating data between heterogeneous data storage devices
A method for migrating data between heterogeneous data storage devices within a storage area network is disclosed. A first virtualizer presents stored data as a first virtual disk, and then communicates a managed disk representation of the first virtual disk to a second virtualizer. After receiving the managed disk representation, the second virtualizer virtualizes the stored data from the managed disk representation as a second virtual disk. At such point, the stored data can be progressively migrated from the first virtualizer to the second virtualizer. |
| US07987327B2 |
Backup system and associated methodology for storing backup data based on data quality
In a backup system, a backup request device includes: a storage section that stores a piece of content data; and a transmission section that regards the piece of content data as a piece of backup target data and transmits, along with a piece of device identification information, a piece of backup information including a piece of data quality information and a piece of content identification information, while a backup device includes: a storage section that stores a piece of backup data that is the same content as the piece of backup target data and whose data quality is higher than or equal to the piece of backup target data such that it is associated with the piece of content identification information; and a control section that stores the received piece of backup information in the storage section such that it is associated with the received piece of device identification information. |
| US07987326B2 |
Performing backup operations for a volume group of volumes
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for performing backup operations for a volume group of volumes. Information on a volume group associating a plurality of volumes and backup settings is maintained. A volume group is selected to which the backup settings apply. A volume group associates hosts and volumes, indicating the hosts that are enabled to access the volumes in the volume group. Automatic backup operations for the selected volume group are invoked to generate backup information for the volume group indicating backups performed with respect to the volumes associated with the volume group, process the backup information for the volume group to determine whether to perform a backup with respect to the volume group according to the backup settings, and backup each volume in the volume group in response to determining to perform the backup operation for the volume group. |
| US07987325B1 |
Method and apparatus for implementing a storage lifecycle based on a hierarchy of storage destinations
A method and apparatus for implementing a storage lifecycle policy based on a hierarchy of storage destinations to improve storage lifecycle management is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises specifying at least one source copy for at least one storage lifecycle operation in a storage lifecycle policy to generate a storage destination hierarchy using the at least one specified source copy and performing the at least one storage lifecycle operation using the storage destination hierarchy. |
| US07987323B2 |
System and method for storing storage operating system data in switch ports
A computer server system and a method for operating the system are described. An address and a status of each computer device of a plurality of computer devices accessible to a switch is written into a memory in the switch. The status of a first computer device which is off line is set to indicate that the first computer device is off line. The status information is read from the memory in the switch by a second computer device so that the second computer device knows that the first computer device is off line. Embodiments are described where the status of a data storage device and the status of a server are written to the memory in the switch. |
| US07987322B2 |
Snoop request management in a data processing system
Snoop requests are managed in a data processing system having a cache coupled to a processor that provides access addresses to the cache. Snoop queue circuitry provides snoop addresses to the cache via an arbiter. The snoop queue circuitry has a snoop request queue for storing a plurality of entries. Each entry of the snoop request queue that corresponds to a snoop request includes a snoop address and a corresponding status indicator. The corresponding status indicator indicates whether the snoop request has zero or more collapsed snoop requests having a common snoop address which have been merged to form the snoop request. The status indicator is used for debug and by fullness management logic to manage the capacity of the snoop request queue. A general collapsed status signal is generated to indicate whenever any snoop queue entry collapsing occurs. |
| US07987319B2 |
System and method for improved media identification in a storage device
Systems and methods are provided for improved identification of removable storage media. A scanner may be used to read an identifier, such as a barcode, on a removable storage media. In the event that the scanner reads the identifier incorrectly due to a defect in the barcode, such as a damaged label, misaligned identifier, or because the scanner is incapable of reading the identifier type or the scanner's field of view is incorrect, a media management component receives the scanned identifier data and matches it to a known set of media identifiers to create a subset of matching identifier data. A closest matching media identifier may be identified from the subset of matching identifier data. An index may be updated with information indicating the closest matching media identifier and a location of the removable storage media. |
| US07987316B2 |
Programming device for non-volatile memory and programming method thereof
The invention presents a programming method for a non-volatile memory with a bit signal to be programmed unidirectionally. The method includes the steps of a) providing first data each having a first number of sequential bits of first status in a data page in a non-volatile memory, b) decoding the first number of sequential bits of the first status in the first data into a second number of sequential bits of second status, and c) programming second data in a portion of the data page where the first status has been decoded to the second status. |
| US07987315B2 |
Data storage apparatus with block reclaim for nonvolatile buffer
An embodiment of a data storage apparatus includes a storage medium, a flash memory buffer configured to store write data to be written in the storage medium, and a controller configured to compare the amount of unused space in the flash memory buffer to a first reference value, compare the amount of valid data in the flash memory buffer to a second reference value, and in response to the comparisons, conducts either a block reclaim operation on the flash memory buffer or a buffer flush operation to transfer valid data from the flash memory buffer to the storage medium. An embodiment of a method for managing a data storage apparatus includes determining when to perform a reclaim operation on a nonvolatile memory buffer, and performing the reclaim operation by moving data either physically or virtually within the nonvolatile memory buffer. |
| US07987310B2 |
Self-configuring bus for connecting electronic devices
An apparatus for connecting electronic devices having a flexible cable bus housing containing a plurality of same or different communication and power channels extending along a length thereof and a plurality of bus ports at different locations along the bus housing length. Each bus port is capable of being operatively connected to one of the communication or power channels. The apparatus further includes a plurality of device connectors adapted to connect to a bus port at one end thereof and to a discrete device at another end thereof. Each connector at the device end has a different plug conforming to one of the communication or power channels. The apparatus preferably further includes a switch for connecting each bus port to the communication or power channel conforming to the device end plug when a device connector is connected to the bus port on the bus housing. |
| US07987309B2 |
Dockable handheld computing device with graphical user interface and methods for use therewith
A handheld computing device includes a handheld memory for storing at least one handheld application. A handheld processing module executes the handheld application. A physical docking interface facilitates co-processing with an extended processing module of an extended computer unit in a physical docked mode, when the handheld computing unit is coupled to the extended computer unit via the physical docking interface. A quasi docking interface facilitates co-processing with the extended processing module in a quasi docked mode when the handheld computing unit is coupled to the extended computer unit via the quasi docking interface. A graphical user interface presents a selectable quasi docking interface graphic for display to a user and responds to a user selection of the selectable quasi docking interface graphic by generating a quasi docking command. The quasi docking interface couples the handheld computing unit to the extended computing unit in response to the quasi docking command. |
| US07987307B2 |
Interrupt coalescing control scheme
In an embodiment, a method is provided. The method of this embodiment provides determining a flow context associated with a receive packet; and if the flow context complies with a dynamic interrupt moderation policy having one or more rules, generating an interrupt to process the receive packet substantially independently of an interrupt generated in accordance with an interrupt coalescing scheme (“coalesced interrupt”). Other embodiments are disclosed and/or claimed. |
| US07987306B2 |
Hiding system latencies in a throughput networking system
A method for addressing system latency within a network system which includes providing a network interface and moving data within each of the plurality of memory access channels independently and in parallel to and from a memory system so that one or more of the plurality of memory access channels operate efficiently in the presence of arbitrary memory latencies across multiple requests is disclosed. The network interface includes a plurality of memory access channels. |
| US07987303B2 |
Medical interface with multiple communication channels having diferent data rates wherein one channel is always active
An ultrasound measurement system including a handheld display and processing means, an ultrasound transducer, a processing means of a substantially similar weight to the handheld display and processing means, and a transmission cable interconnecting the handheld display and processing means with the ultrasound transducer and processing means, the cable being of sufficient length to provide a means to mechanically locate the system around the neck of a user. |
| US07987299B2 |
Data processing apparatus and method thereof
A method of configuring and performing stream data processing linked to a series of process points for high portability uses a link module to connect process points, called peer modules, to configure a stream data path. A single execution context is used for scheduling to enable high-performance processing. These constituent features are provided in a layer configuration to realize high portability and ease of development. |
| US07987297B2 |
Electrical field device and method for establishing a data link between a data interface of the electrical field device and a data memory inside the device
An electrical field device has a microprocessor-controlled control device, a data memory which is inside the device and is connected to the control device via a first memory controller, and a data interface which is connected to the control device and is intended to connect external devices to the electrical field device. In order to ensure access to the data memory inside such a field device even when the control device or internal power supply device is not in working order, the data interface is connected to the data memory inside the device via a second memory controller. There is also disclosed a method for establishing a data link between a data interface of an electrical field device and a data memory inside the device. |
| US07987294B2 |
Unification of multimedia devices
Described herein are various methods and systems relating to the unification of media devices, and more specifically to the provision of wireless audio systems. In overview, two or more wireless speaker subsystem units substantially autonomously form a single wireless audio system having its own control interface. This control interface is used to apply operational changes across the wireless audio system, such as volume adjustment. That is, an operational change may be applied to the system as a whole, and this change is subsequently implemented by each of the individual wireless speaker subsystem units. |
| US07987286B1 |
Distributed situation awareness ping-based communication system (DAPICS)
A communication method comprising the steps of: a) receiving object of interest detection data from a sensor that is operatively coupled to a first computer node in a wireless network of Unix-like computer nodes; b) transforming the object of interest detection data into an informational payload of a ping packet; and c) propagating the payload via echo-replies and echo-requests to all computer nodes in the network. |
| US07987283B1 |
System and method for transferring data between a user space and a kernel space in a server associated with a distributed network environment
A system (150) and method are disclosed that provide for the transfer of at least one packet (194) comprising data between a user space (152) and a kernel space (154) associated with a server (156) that is positioned in a distributed network arrangement (192) with a plurality of clients (158, 160, 162, 164). A distribution program (168) associated with the user space (152) is operable to accumulate the at least one packet (194). An application program interface (174) associated with the user space (152) transfers the at least one packet (194) to the kernel space (154) with a number of software interrupts (204). A driver (176) associated with the kernel space (154) is operable to distribute the at least one packet (194) to a subset of the plurality of clients (158, 160, 162, 164) in response to receiving the number of software interrupts (204). The number of software interrupts (204) is less than one software interrupt per packet per client. |
| US07987280B1 |
System and method for locating and capturing desired media content from media broadcasts
A media agent that monitors multiple broadcast transmissions and a method for the same. The media agent establishes connections with broadcast transmissions and then identifies characteristics of the media content contained within the broadcast transmission. The association between the identified characteristic of the media content and the connected broadcast transmission is maintained to allow the information gathered from the broadcast transmission to be used meaningfully. |
| US07987278B2 |
Web services device profile on a multi-service device: dynamic addition of services
A technique is provided for implementing multiple Web services on a multi-functional device (MFP) executing multiple service applications. A Device Facility Manager (DFM) executing on the MFP represents the MFP by responding to discovery, metadata, and logging requests with device location, metadata and logging information. When a client application discovers the services provided by the MFP, the client application may communicate directly with a service application executing on the MFP. The client application requests the service metadata of the service application and then transmits SOAP requests, which the service application processes. The implementation of one or more Web Service specifications may be packaged into one common module so that the complexity of the Web Services is hidden from developers. New services may be added to the MFP and existing services may be updated through communication with the DFM. |
| US07987276B2 |
Dynamic modification of a subscriber connection
In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving a request to modify a subscriber connection to a network element. The method also includes modifying attributes of the subscriber connection, within a memory of the network element, without disconnecting the subscriber connection from the network element. |
| US07987275B2 |
Method, apparatus and computer program product implementing a chat application proxy and a chat application wrapper in a chat system
Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement a chat proxy component and a chat wrapper component. The chat proxy component controls interactions with a chat application by external users. The chat proxy component receives chat requests from external users and initiates a chat session only if a user is validated as a valid user. User validation may be performed by a chat payment application that validates a user only if payment is received for chat services, or by an external user validation system that validates users as, for example, employees authorized to use the chat application. Once a chat session is established, chat operations are managed on a session-specific basis. The chat wrapper component manages communication between the chat proxy component and the chat application. The chat wrapper component also permits the user-facing chat application to be situated on a remote computer. |
| US07987273B2 |
Server apparatus, mobile terminal, electric appliance, communication system, communication method, and program
A server apparatus, a mobile terminal, an electric appliance, a communication system, a communication method and a program for notifying a mobile terminal user in the open of the cause of a failure of P2P connection. In a communication system, an electric appliance (101), a server apparatus (103) and a mobile terminal (105) each detect a failure in preparation for P2P connection between the electric appliance (101) and the mobile terminal (105). When the electric appliance (101) detects the failure, it notifies the mobile terminal (105) of the failure via the server apparatus (103). When the server apparatus (103) detects the failure, it notifies the mobile terminal (105) of the failure. The mobile terminal (105) notifies the user of the failure detected by the mobile terminal itself or of the failure notified of by the server apparatus (103). |
| US07987270B2 |
Apparatus, and associated method, for facilitating QoS and bearer setup in an IP-based communication system
Apparatus, and an associated method, for generating a bearer setup request in a mobile, or other, communication system. An application-level bearer setup request generator is positioned at the application level of the communication system. A request is forwarded to a transport level. And a bearer setup request signal generator, located at the transport level, generates a transport-level bearer setup request that is routed to the bearer manager. Bearer setup is performed by the bearer manager and a response is provided through the transport layer to the application level, and back to a communication node when the bearer setup is performed. |
| US07987268B2 |
Methods and systems for dynamically reconfigurable load balancing
Techniques for serving data to a plurality of clients in a client-server environment are provided. In one aspect of the invention, the technique provides a plurality of versions of data in which different versions have different overheads associated therewith. Individual clients are assigned to one of a plurality of quality-of-service classes. Requests are satisfied so that a client belonging to a high quality-of-service class is given preferential access to data versions which require higher overheads to serve. |
| US07987267B2 |
Apparatus for defining a set of rules for a packet forwarding device
There are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for defining a policy including a set of rules for a packet forwarding device by receiving information sufficient to enable a first rule related to one of security or traffic management to be defined, and based on the received information, enabling a corresponding second rule related to the other one of security or traffic management to be defined. |
| US07987265B2 |
Aggregation system
An aggregation system includes: a load balancer for distributing accesses to a plurality of user proxy server devices, the accesses including operation information and ID numbers; a plurality of user proxy server devices, wherein the user proxy server devices include program device for identifying a user management server device where a user management server device number corresponds to a remainder M based on the remainder M obtained by dividing the ID number by a number N of the user management server devices, and for transferring the accesses to an identified user management server device; and a plurality of user administration server devices. The user administration server devices include computers sequentially assigned with the user management server device number, and program devices for functioning as a memory device and as a user management device for memorizing the operation information together with elapse time information. |
| US07987264B1 |
Testing policies in a network
A device may include first logic configured to receive a data unit and to receive a network policy. The device may include second logic configured to identify how the data unit will be handled by the network policy and to generate a result that includes information about how the data unit will be handled by the network policy. |
| US07987260B2 |
System and method for updating information using limited bandwidth
A system and method detects an amount of data attributed to a device including reports sent to the device, and reduces the amount of data being used to provide reports to the device if the amount of data attributed to the device exceeds an amount assigned to the device. Data uploaded from the device is also minimized. |
| US07987257B1 |
Automatic establishment of network performance monitoring communities using routing protocols
Techniques are described for monitoring performance of a network. Particularly, network devices within the network exchange routing communications in accordance with one or more routing protocols, such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), to automatically establish a community for monitoring performance throughout the network. Upon establishing the community, the network devices of the community exchange performance probes to collect comprehensive performance information for the network. This performance information may be aggregated via one or more computing devices. Using the aggregated performance information, numerous network performance characteristics may be computed, including delay, jitter, throughput, availability and packet loss. |
| US07987255B2 |
Distributed denial of service congestion recovery using split horizon DNS
A method for congestion recovery during a denial of service attack involves creating a split horizon zone on a server, where the split horizon zone includes a fictitious zone mapped to a fictitious address, receiving and investigating requests from clients, designating a malicious client based on investigating the requests, where the malicious client is associated with a client address, assigning the client address to the fictitious zone, and routing network traffic from the malicious client to the fictitious address. |
| US07987254B2 |
Automation network, remote access server for an automation network and a method for transmitting operating data between an automation system and a remote computer
There is described an automation network, a remote access server for an automation network and a method for transmission of operating data between an automation system with one or more automation devices and a remote computer with the operating data of the automation device being transmitted via the Internet or an intranet and displayed and/or changed on the remote computer by an Internet browser. The remote access server provides the operating data for the remote computer and, for a session-oriented access, creates a software object as an image of the automation device and, if changes are to be made to the operating data by the access, a software object for simulation of the automation device and/or of the process to be controlled by the automaton device, so that any changes can be checked for permissibility and/or validity before being forwarded to the automation device. |
| US07987252B2 |
Method and system for constraining server usage in a distributed network
A “velvet rope” mechanism that enables customers of a shared distributed network (such as a content delivery network) needing to control their costs to control the amount of traffic that is served via the shared network. A given server in the distributed network identifies when a customer is about to exceed a bandwidth quota as a rate (bursting) or for a given billing period (e.g., total megabytes (MB) served for a given period) and provides a means for taking a given action based on this information. Typically, the action taken would result in a reduction in traffic served so that the customer can constrain its usage of the shared network to a given budget value. |
| US07987251B2 |
Validation of domain name control
A system, operable on one or more computers, and a computer-readable media are presented for validating an assertion made by a user that he or she controls a domain name. The system comprises an assertion receiver, authorization code generator, and a validation component. The assertion receiver receives either an explicit or an implicit indication that a particular user exercises control over a domain name. The authorization code generator provides an authorization code, to be electronically published in a Domain Name System (DNS) record associated with the domain name. After the authorization code has been inserted in a DNS record, the validation component accesses the DNS record to determine presence of the authorization code within the DNS records. If the authorization code is present, control of the domain by the user is established. |
| US07987249B2 |
Soft system failure recovery for management consoles supporting ASF RMCP
A management console in support of RMCP with RSP is provided with an enhanced management session create function that determines whether the creation of a management session with a managed remote client is being performed following a system failure, and to orchestrate a soft recover, on so determining. In one embodiment, the soft recovery includes sending an authenticated message to the managed remote client, using certain persistently saved session data of a prior open management session with the managed remote client, with the authenticated message being sent in a manner that circumvents the anti-replay protection mechanism of RSP. |
| US07987246B2 |
Method and system for client browser update
A method and system for browser notification of a change in browser information content and update of the browser information content. A browser establishes an http connection with a server and loads a web page with information content. At the same time, the server and client also establish a socket connection to pass messages from the server to the client over the socket connection. When the server determines that browser content needs update or has changed, the server sends a change notice message over the socket connection. Upon browser receipt of the change notice message, the browser initiates an refreshes the information content over the http connection. |
| US07987244B1 |
Network repository for voice fonts
A method, system, and machine-readable medium are provided for utilizing a network repository having stored voice font data. A request for a response, including the voice font data stored in the network repository; is received via a network. The voice font data stored in the network repository is accessed. The response, including the voice font data, is sent via the network. |
| US07987243B2 |
Method for media discovery
A method including receiving a request for a web page; communicating with a content server by receiving content associated with the requested web page; determining whether the content includes particular content requiring plug-in support; initiating a native plug-in to handle the particular content; receiving a request for additional content from the native plug-in; retrieving the additional content for the native plug-in; monitoring the additional content to determine whether the additional content includes media content; and updating the content for the requested web page based on the monitoring. |
| US07987242B2 |
Caching of private data for a configurable time period
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for generating cookies. A cookie value is retrieved in response to receiving the request. An expiration for the cookie value is set based on a time period in which the request is received. A set of unique identifiers, including the expiration, are added to the cookie value and a cookie name to form a cookie. A response to the request is sent to an intermediate server. The response includes data responsive to the request and the cookie. The validity of the data for the response is related to the expiration. |
| US07987240B2 |
Dynamic data access in a computer system via remote services
The present invention relates to the field of network computing. In particular, it relates to a method and respective system for providing access for an application program to remote resources located in an electronic computer network, wherein said application program is implemented on a computer residing in said network. A mechanism is provided to enable local running application programs to dynamically use URL-addressed data in the Internet or an Intranet without any change in their program source code. |
| US07987238B2 |
Managing content remotely on a device
An on-line service manages downloads of digital content in response to user requests. User requests to download digital content include parameters defining conditions for downloads. Parameters may define the device to which the requested content is to be downloaded and the time that the download is to take place. The requests and related parameters are maintained in a queue which may be centrally managed and maintained. The queue is monitored and downloads executed consistent with the user-specified parameters. Digital content is downloaded to devices other than from which the request was made and at times specified by the user. |
| US07987234B1 |
Monitoring alert conditions
Graphical means for setting up, monitoring and issuing alerts for data conditions are described. |
| US07987231B2 |
Facilitating interaction between web browsers
Users browsing the same website may join in a single communication forum by navigating to a predefined communication web server or website. Navigating to the predefined communication web server includes transmitting an access request to the web server. The access request includes various information including identification information associated with the referring website. Based on the identity of the referring website, the web server joins users into an appropriate communication forum. If a pre-existing communication forum corresponding to the referring website is unavailable, a new communication forum corresponding to the referring website may be created. The communication forum allows users viewing the same referring website to interact and communicate in a variety of ways. |
| US07987230B2 |
Containment of network communication
Invention selectively enables usage of services and communication conduits in a computer network, wherein the enablement is contingent on usage conditions, resulting in containment of the spread of unauthorized activity within a networked computer system and limiting the scope of results when an element becomes part of a hostile execution environment. Instead of protecting individual networked elements from a potentially hostile execution environment, the elements' usage of the networked environment is restricted to the extent of selectively allowing usage of needed resources explicitly authorized for use by such elements. |
| US07987227B1 |
Dynamic distribution for distributed arrays and related rules
The present invention provides a method and system for the dynamic distribution of an array in a parallel computing environment. The present invention obtains a criterion for distributing an array and performs flexible portioning based on the obtained criterion. In some embodiment analysis may be performed based on the criterion. The flexible portioning is then performed based on the analysis. |
| US07987225B2 |
Method for remembering resource allocation in grids
A grid manager manages numerous submissions of a job request in view of maintaining a high degree of performance continuity in the execution of the numerous submissions of the job request by one or more job handlers. To this end, the grid manager receives an initial submission of the job request specifying one or more resource selection parameters, and selects one or more job handlers for executing the initial submission of the job request based on the specified resource selection parameter(s). To facilitate a high degree of performance continuity in the execution of a resubmission of the job request, the grid manager assigns a job request identification corresponding to a resource selection parameter compilation including the specified resource selection parameter(s) as well as each resource selection parameter unspecified in the job request that facilitates a selection of one or more job handlers for executing the resubmission of the job request. |
| US07987220B2 |
Computing filter coefficients for an equalizer in a communication receiver
The present invention provides an equalizer (200) and a method for computing equalizer filter coefficients in a communication receiver. The equalizer filter coefficients are computed on the basis of a real matrix T which is generated from channel estimation vector f, which is derived from the channel estimation inputs. |
| US07987215B2 |
Efficiently marking objects with large reference sets
Adding references to objects to a mark stack. A limited number of references to objects referenced by an object with a large number of object references are added to the stack. An object is accessed. A determination is made that references in the object should be added to a mark stack using a reference in the mark stack to the object in conjunction with a pointer. The pointer is used to track which references in the object have been placed on the mark stack. A reference to the object on the mark stack is accessed. A pointer is initialized. A reference to another object referenced by the object is pushed onto the mark stack. The pointer is incremented. It is then determined that that more references should be pushed to the mark stack. Acts of pushing references onto the mark stack and incrementing the pointer are repeated. |
| US07987212B2 |
Merging data from survey devices
Tools for synchronizing survey data between one or more survey devices and a surveying office application. The disclosed tools can help to ensure that each of the devices, and the office application, have consistent data. An exemplary tool might detect a change to data in an office application, identify any affected files on one or more survey devices, and ensure that the affected files are updated with the appropriate information. Conversely, in other aspects, a data inconsistency (which might be caused by a data change in the office application and/or on one or more of the survey devices) might be detected, and tools might be provided to enable a user to ensure that the correct version of the data is maintained by the system. |
| US07987211B2 |
System and method for automated deployment of an information handling system
A system and method for automated deployment of an information handling system are disclosed. A method for managing the deployment of an information handling system may include executing a deployment application on an information handling system, the deployment application including one or more tasks associated with the deployment of the information handling system. The method may further include automatically determining for a particular task whether an execution time for the particular task is within a predetermined range of execution times. The method may further include automatically performing an error-handling task in response to determining that the execution time for the particular task is not within the predetermined range of execution times. |
| US07987208B2 |
System and method for a modular used controlled search engine
Method and system for delivery of personal search services and advertising. The method includes collecting information from the user about the user's personal search engine, including, but not limited to digital content data sources, link crawl depth of those digital content data sources, and time interval to refresh the index of the digital content data sources created. In one embodiment of the present invention user's do not pay a fee in return for allowing the provider to present advertising to the user as the user uses the invention. In another embodiment, advertisers purchase advertising display services from the provider to be displayed to specific users. |
| US07987200B2 |
Method and apparatus for predicting selectivity of database query join conditions using hypothetical query predicates having skewed value constants
A database management system predicts a selectivity for database query conditions requiring a join of records from different tables. The system identifies at least one skewed value in a field specified in the join condition, and constructs, for each skewed value, a set of hypothetical query predicates in which the field specified in the join condition is replaced with a constant equal to the skewed value. The system then predicts the selectivity for the hypothetical predicates, using any appropriate prediction technique. The selectivities of the hypothetical predicates are used to predict a selectivity for the original query. |
| US07987192B2 |
Hybrid data model and user interaction for data sets in a user interface
A first data model in which a large dataset is stored is maintained, wherein a first set of operations is allowed to be performed on the first data model. The first data model is reduced to a second data model that is of a smaller size than the first data model. Selected operations of the first set of operations are restricted from being performed on the second data model. A second set of operations is performed on the second data model, wherein the second set of operations is a subset of the first set of operations, and wherein the second set of operations does not include the selected operations that have been restricted from being performed on the second data model. |
| US07987191B2 |
System and method for generating a relationship network
A computer-implemented system and process for generating a relationship network is disclosed. The system provides a set of data items to be related and generates variable length data vectors to represent the relationships between the terms within each data item. The system can be used to generate a relationship network for documents, images, or any other type of file. This relationship network can then be queried to discover the relationships between terms within the set of data items. |
| US07987190B2 |
Filesystem having a filename cache
A system comprising a processor, a data storage device that is accessible by the processor, and filesystem software that is executable by the processor to organize files on the data storage device are provided. The filesystem software is executable to maintain a filename cache having variable size filename entries. The filename entries may include a filename header section and a name section storing an entire filename of a corresponding file. |
| US07987187B2 |
Quantity offsetting service
Embodiments include a system for providing a set of services that retrieve requested data and calculate a requested value. The data retrieval service may traverse a set of related data structures such as data in a document or in a database to accumulate and return requested data. The data calculation service may determine an appropriate algorithm based on the data being processed and return a value. The data calculation service may call the data retrieval service to obtain the necessary data. These services may be independent services separate from other software applications. These services provide standard data determination and calculation functions across multiple applications and are accessible in a common software layer. |
| US07987182B2 |
System and method for recommending items of interest to a user
A embodiment is disclosed for learning user interests based on user actions and then applying the learned knowledge to rank, recommend, and/or filter items, such as e-mail spam, based on the level of interest to a user. The embodiment may be used for automated personalized information learning, recommendation, and/or filtering systems in applications such as television programming, web-based auctions, targeted advertising, and electronic mail filtering. The embodiment may be structured to generate item descriptions, learn items of interest, learn terms that effectively describe the items, cluster similar items in a compact data structure, and then use the structure to rank new offerings. |
| US07987173B2 |
Systems and methods of handling internet spiders
Aspects relate to identifying Internet spiders with an approach involving a plurality of instances of one or more URLs, which reference resources available from a first domain. Instances of the URLs are distributed at other Internet domains. Spiders crawling those domains will activate those URL instances, resulting in requests for the resources referenced by the URLs. A generator of a number of requests for the same resource, from a potential multitude of URL instances, can cause the generator to be categorized as a spider. Similarly, a generator of a number of requests for resources identified by different URLs also can be categorized as spider behavior. In some cases, the first domain may not have a browseable site infrastructure with, such that a spider would not readily crawl it by following internal links. The URLs can refer to custom queries created by various users, who can provide the URLs on their pages, such as on social networking sites. |
| US07987171B2 |
Providing parallel generic web site supporting anonymous or semi-anonymous internet activity
Parallel generic and non-generic versions of a Web site allow a user of the site to either remain anonymous (if accessing the generic version) or allow user information to be collected (if accessing the non-generic version). In one exemplary embodiment, a Web site may provide a user an interface for entering and processing a search query. A search query processed by a generic version of the Web site includes a marker that informs a Web server supporting the generic Web site that the user wishes to remain anonymous. A parallel non-generic version of the Web site may also interface with the same Web server as interfaced by the generic Web site, but permit a data collecting scheme at the Web server to collect user-specific or user-identifiable information. Such user information, if collected, can be used by the Web server to enhance the user's experience with the Web site. |
| US07987168B2 |
Method for managing information
A method for managing the exchange of information is provided, wherein the method includes receiving at least one information location identifier, wherein the at least one information location identifier may be associated with at least one information portal and associating with at least one network browser. The method further includes generating an information location identifier template responsive to the at least one information portal and communicating with the at least one information portal to identify resultant information. |
| US07987167B1 |
Enabling a clustered namespace with redirection
Provided is a method and system for redirecting data access requests in a clustered computing environment. A clustered namespace applied to the clustered computing environment includes multiple modules for storing and manipulating data. The clustered namespace is enabled by using a replicated storage location repository listing storage locations distributed throughout the clustered computing environment. When searching for data, pathnames to storage locations are examined and compared with values listed in the storage location repository to identify a storage location to visit. A module associated with an identified storage location is visited to satisfy a data access request. If a redirection identifier is encountered when examining the metadata of the identified storage location, then the storage location repository is examined to find the next storage location to visit to satisfy the data access request. |
| US07987163B2 |
Apparatus and method for dynamic web service discovery
An apparatus and method is provided to dynamically search for available Web services by persistently searching a distributed multi-level UDDI registry chain, interrogating their published technical specifications and enabling the consumer to find, bind, and invoke the desired Web service in real-time and without intervention by the consumer. The search criteria includes identifying candidate published services that fall within an acceptable margin of error based on information previously published within a consumer service profile. The measure of conformance between the registry semantic map and consumer service profile is parameterized and chosen by the consumer in advance. The service profile includes an XML schema which exposes consumer profile metadata and corresponding information sets used by a rules engine for pattern matching purposes. |
| US07987155B2 |
Network extensible reconfigurable media appliance
Extensible reconfigurable media appliance for security and entertainment captures images digitally for storage. Digital effects and filters are applied to incoming video stream on-the-fly or to video data stored in memory. Digital effects and filters are dynamically stored, modified, updated or deleted, providing extensible reconfigurable effects studio. Digital media appliance communicates wirelessly with other media appliances, computers, security systems, video storage, email, chat, cellular services or PDAs to provide seamless integration of captured video stream. |
| US07987154B2 |
System, a method and a device for updating a data set through a communication network
A system for updating a data set through a geographical communication network. The data set is stored in a recovery storage unit located in a recovery data center and has to be updated with data blocks generated by a processing system located in a primary data center. The recovery data center is associated through the geographical communication network to a device provided with a temporary storage area for temporarily storing in corresponding storage locations the incoming data blocks generated by the processing system and directed to update the data set, wherein a first synchronous acknowledgement signal is provided to the primary data center acknowledging the successful writing in the temporary storage area of the data blocks as soon as the data blocks are written in the temporary storage area so as not to block or slow down the normal way of operating of the processing system, and wherein the locations of the temporary storage area occupied by the data blocks are made available for new incoming data blocks when a second acknowledgement signal is received acknowledging the successful updating of the data set. |
| US07987148B2 |
Systems and methods for prioritizing media files in a presentation device
Disclosed are embodiments of systems and methods for prioritizing mobile media player files by providing for the automated addition and/or deletion of media items for a mobile media player. In some embodiments, a statistical method may be provided for inferring which media items on a mobile media player should be deleted based on, for example, user taste data. In some embodiments, new media items may be loaded onto a user's mobile media player by creating one or more playlists from a playlist builder. The playlist(s) may be created by using user taste data. Rankings may also be created to determine an order for deletion of the media items currently on a mobile media player and/or for addition of new media items to the device. |
| US07987147B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program based on operator probability using sensors
The present invention provides an information processing apparatus for carrying out processes in response to how a user behaves. The information processing apparatus includes a sensor device, operator probability computation means, and processing means. The sensor device is configured to sense conditions. The operator probability computation means is configured to compute an operator probability representing how likely each of at least one target is to be an operator operating the information processing apparatus on the basis of an output of the sensor device, the target being the user staying close to the apparatus. The processing means configured to perform a predetermined process based on the operator probability. |
| US07987145B2 |
Target trajectory generator for predictive control of nonlinear systems using extended Kalman filter
A model predictive controller (MPC) for predictive control of nonlinear processes utilizing an EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) and a nominal trajectory generator. The nominal trajectory generator includes another instance of EKF, a linear corrector, and a time-varying deviation model. A nominal control trajectory can be predicted and an optimal solution for the time-varying deviation model can be computed based on an approximation of a system inverse known as signal de-convolution. The EKF can be utilized to estimate a current process state by supplying a measured output and to predict a future nominal trajectory by supplying a reference output. A Kalman smoother can also be utilized for the signal de-convolution in order to obtain enhanced trajectory estimates. |
| US07987139B2 |
Advertising revenue sharing
A method for compensating all parties involved in producing the income stream for a content distributor is presented where the content-hosting site, the content writer and the user doing the interaction with paid contents receive a fair share of the generated income stream. |
| US07987138B2 |
Recurring transaction processing
Techniques for processing of recurring payments are provided that do not require merchants to update consumer account information when a consumer is issued a new account number for a payment card or the like. For example, when a consumer is issued a new account number by an issuer, the new account number can be provided to a payment processing network. A server computer in the payment processing network then identifies any recurring payments associated with the user's old account number and provides the consumer with a list of merchants for which the consumer had established recurring payments associated with the old account number. The consumer is then provided the opportunity to select those merchants for whom the consumer wishes to continue the recurring payments using the new account number. The payment processing network then creates a mapping between the old account number and the new account number for the merchants designated by the consumer and continues to process recurring payment authorization requests received from the designated merchants using the old account information. As a result, the merchants do not need to make any updates to the consumer account information maintained by the merchants, and the consumer is provided with the ability to easily select which merchants can continue processing recurring payments using the old account number. |
| US07987136B2 |
Systems and methods for providing customized financial products and for hedging risk exposure
Systems and methods for creating and managing user-customized financial products are operable to create a plurality of user-customized financial products, each a discrete financial instrument comprising a baseline financial product comprised of a combination of one or more underlying product components, where each underlying product components comprises one or more user-customized component parameters. Once created, the plurality of user-customized financial products are disaggregated into their respective underlying product components and associated component values. Next, all component values associated with each of the underlying product components are aggregated, and at least one back-to-back hedging transaction for the aggregated component value of at least one of the underlying product components is executed. |
| US07987126B2 |
Interest rate swap index
A set of indices is provided which allows accurate tracking of interest rate swap (IRS) markets. The indices are calculated using market data and synthetic purchasing and selling of synthetic interest rate swaps utilizing the present market data. The value of the synthetic interest rate swaps are the basis for the value of a particular index. The purchasing and selling of the synthetic interest rate swap occurs at a frequency to minimize effects of shortening terms on the index. One subset of the IRS indices reflects a plain-vanilla swap for a specific term of years. Another subset of the IRS indices reflects a spread between two specific terms of years. A third subset of the IRS indices reflect two spreads, sometimes referred to as a butterfly, between a middle term of years and a shorter term of years and the same middle term of years and a longer term of years. |
| US07987125B2 |
System and method for special accounts
This invention provides methods and system for facilitating funding, disbursing, and accessing consumer tax preferential accounts wherein funding or disbursing is related to consumers POS transactions. Novel network computer systems and methods of their include a POS CS and a central CS. The central CS receives consumer purchase transaction data records from the POS CS. The central CS stores consumer data that may include consumer purchase transaction data records, sponsor accounts including at least one HSA sponsor account, and HSA accounts. The central CS applies funding and/or disbursing criteria to fund and/or disburse funds based upon consumer data records. |
| US07987122B2 |
Shared usage telecommunications billing system and method
In a particular embodiment, the disclosure is directed to a method of providing a bill to a telecommunications subscriber. The method includes distributing a bill using shared account information to the telecommunications subscriber. The shared account information identifies shared telecommunications units used in connection with a first subscriber service and a second subscriber service. The first subscriber service is distinct from the second subscriber service. In another embodiment, the disclosure is directed to a telecommunications subscriber service package. The subscriber service package includes an allocation of shared account units. At least a portion of the allocation of shared account units is available for use of a first subscriber service and available for use of a second subscriber service. The first subscriber service is distinct from the second subscriber service. |
| US07987121B2 |
Systems and methods for generating an accounting document
Systems and methods are provided for generating an accounting document. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided. A message is received that includes operational data. An accounting notification is generated that includes the operational data using a first business object. The accounting notification is processed and the accounting document is generated using a second business object. The accounting document includes a number of posting lines corresponding to the operational data. The accounting document is processed and a set of third business objects is assigned to each posting line. The set of third business objects includes at least one general ledger account business object and a plurality of sub-ledger account business objects. One or more data processing tasks are delegated to the one of the third business objects that are assigned to the given posting line. |
| US07987117B2 |
System and method for providing an auction of real estate
The present invention provides a system and method for providing a real estate auction system. In architecture, the system includes a server device on a network comprising a mechanism for posting a real estate property for auction, a mechanism for acquiring a plurality of data items describing the real estate property for auction from a seller remote device, a mechanism or making the real estate property available at auction to a bidder remote device; and a mechanism for accepting a bid on the real estate property for auction from at least one potential buyer for a predetermined period. The present invention can also be viewed as a method for providing a real estate auction. The method operates by (1) posting a real estate property for auction; (2) acquiring a plurality of data items describing the real estate property for auction; (3) making the real estate property available at auction; and (4) accepting a bid on the real estate property for auction from at least one potential buyer for a predetermined period. |
| US07987113B2 |
System and method of creating an adjustable commission
A method of determining a commission comprises providing a plurality of selectable variables. The plurality of variables are associated with an asset. A commission associated with a sale of the asset based at least partially on a selection of at least one variable from the plurality of variables is calculated. Calculating the commission includes assigning a value to each variable selected from the plurality of variables. |
| US07987112B2 |
Method and system of utilizing print device consumption information for pricing and service
A method of providing a discount may include monitoring at least one resource via a communication network. A usage profile may be received from the at least one resource. The usage profile may include a measurement of consumption of a consumable over a period of time for the at least one resource. A first factor may be determined based on the usage profile. A second factor may be determined based on one or more of an ownership level and a participation level of the at least one resource. A discount for a future purchase may be provided based on the first factor and the second factor. |
| US07987111B1 |
Method and system for characterizing physical retail spaces by determining the demographic composition of people in the physical retail spaces utilizing video image analysis
The present invention is a method and system for characterizing physical space based on automatic demographics measurement, using a plurality of means for capturing images and a plurality of computer vision technologies. The present invention is called demographic-based retail space characterization (DBR). Although the disclosed method is described in the context of retail space, the present invention can be applied to any physical space that has a restricted boundary. In the present invention, the physical space characterization can comprise various types of characterization depending on the objective of the physical space, and it is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide the automatic demographic composition measurement to facilitate the physical space characterization. The demographic classification and composition measurement of people in the physical space is performed automatically based on a novel usage of a plurality of means for capturing images and a plurality of computer vision technologies on the captured visual information of the people in the physical space. The plurality of computer vision technologies can comprise face detection, person tracking, body parts detection, and demographic classification of the people, on the captured visual information of the people in the physical space. |
| US07987109B2 |
Model and method for channel-based workforce sourcing
A model and method for channel-based workforce sourcing is provided. In one aspect, a computer model is populated to create a baseline capacity, including a current number of resources in each of a plurality of skill, sets for each of a plurality of available channels. The computer model is also populated with one or more modulators that affect business-defined values. A desired channel mix, for example, for a given time period may also be recommended and specified in the model. The model is validated and updated with additional or new information. The model and method then automatically generates a starting headcount based on the baseline capacity and ending headcount based on the one or more modulators. The model and method may also generate a targeted plan over a given period for achieving the ending headcount from the starting headcount according to desired channel mix. |
| US07987104B2 |
Systems and methods for providing supplemental insurance for leased vehicles
Methods of the present invention are designed to offer insurance to lessees of vehicles to cover up front, out-of-pocket lease expenses in the event of a total loss, e.g., theft, and preferably include steps performed by a vehicle leasing dealer as well as steps performed by one or more participating insurers. The steps are preferably performed with the aid of computing devices which are in communication. When the lease is prepared, the relevant information about the lease and the lessee is submitted by the lease dealer to the participating insurers. The insurers determine the cost of supplemental insurance based on this information and, if the cost is acceptable, offer insurance coverage to the lessee. |
| US07987101B2 |
Electronic beneficiary successor planning
Beneficiary successor planning is performed by the examination of beneficiary data from a new benefits request and determining available succession benefit plans. The successor planning includes re-using existing beneficiary data associated with the request as well as determining the current requested benefits plan. From this information, the successor planning includes generating successor benefit plans which can re-use the beneficiary information that is available and may also indicate triggering events that, when these events occur, would render the successor plan in effect. Through this planning, manual data entry is reduced and the successor benefit plans are automatically generated. |
| US07987099B2 |
Dental data mining
Systems and methods are disclosed providing a database comprising a compendium of at least one of patient treatment history; orthodontic therapies, orthodontic information and diagnostics; employing a data mining technique for interrogating said database for generating an output data stream, the output data stream correlating a patient malocclusion with an orthodontic treatment; and applying the output data stream to improve a dental appliance or a dental appliance usage. |
| US07987097B2 |
Method for decoding an audio signal
The invention relates to a method for decoding an audio signal, to allow an audio signal to be compressed and transferred more efficiently. The inventive method comprises steps of receiving an audio signal with spatial information signal, obtaining location information using the number of time slot and parameter of audio signal, establishing a multi-channel audio signal by applying spatial information signal to down-mix signal, and performing a multi-channel array for a multi-channel audio signal in response to the output channel. |
| US07987095B2 |
Method and system for dual mode subband acoustic echo canceller with integrated noise suppression
Certain aspects of a method and system for a dual mode subband acoustic echo canceller with integrated noise suppression may include splitting an input signal into a lowband component and a highband component. The subbands of each of the lowband component and the highband component may be processed in order to reduce an echo associated with the input signal and to suppress the noise associated with the input signal. |
| US07987091B2 |
Dialog control device and method, and robot device
A robot can make a dialog customized for the user by first storing various pieces of information appendant to an object as values of the corresponding items of the object. A topic that is related to the topic used in the immediately preceding conversation is then selected. Then, an acquisition conversation for acquiring the value of the item of the selected topic or a utilization conversation for utilizing the value of the item of the topic that is already stored is generated as the next conversation. The value acquired by the acquisition conversation is stored as the value of the corresponding item. |
| US07987084B2 |
Using a suggested solution to speed up a process for simulating and correcting an integrated circuit layout
One embodiment of the invention provides a system for speeding up an iterative process that simulates and, if necessary, corrects a layout of a target cell within an integrated circuit so that a simulated layout of the target cell matches a desired layout for the target cell. The system operates by determining if the target cell is similar to a preceding cell for which there exists a previously calculated solution. If so, the system uses the previously calculated solution as an initial input to the iterative process that produces the solution for the target cell. |
| US07987079B2 |
Tracking a surface in a 3-dimensional scene using natural visual features of the surface
A facility for determining the 3-dimensional location and orientation of a subject surface in a distinguished perspective image of the subject surface is described. The subject surface has innate visual features, a subset of which are selected. The facility uses the location of the selected visual features in a perspective image of the subject surface that precedes the distinguished perspective image in time to identify search zones in the distinguished perspective image. The facility searches the identified search zones for the selected visual features to determine the 2-dimensional locations at which the selected visual features occur. Based on the determined 2-dimensional locations, the facility determines the 3-dimensional location and orientation of the subject surface in the distinguished perspective image. |
| US07987077B2 |
System and method for simulating an LIOB protocol to establish a treatment plan for a patient
A system and method are provided for simulating a Laser Induced Optical Breakdown (LIOB) protocol to establish a surgical LIOB treatment for a patient. In the system, a library of finite element models characterizing various visual defects in corneas are programmed into a computer. Further, a library of nomograms indicating specific LIOB protocols for correcting respective visual defects are programmed into the computer. As a result, a model and a corresponding nomogram may be selected in view of a patient's diagnostic information. Further, the selected model may be individualized with the diagnostic information to more precisely characterize the patient's visual defects. Thereafter, the computer simulates the indicated LIOB protocol on the individualized model in order to achieve a desired corneal configuration. When the desired corneal configuration is achieved, the final treatment plan may be determined. |
| US07987070B2 |
Eyewear having human activity monitoring device
A method for monitoring human activity using an inertial sensor includes obtaining acceleration measurement data from an inertial sensor disposed in eyewear. The acceleration measurement data is processed to determine a user activity statistic. The user activity statistic includes at least one of a current user activity, periodic human motion count, total distance traveled, vertical distance traveled, current speed and average speed. |
| US07987067B2 |
Method and apparatus for optimizing wind turbine operation
A method for optimizing an operation of at least one wind turbine includes defining a plurality of test parameters that include a plurality of test points for at least one wind turbine operational parameter, wherein each test point includes a plurality of test values for the wind turbine operational parameter, and defining at least one test sequence of the plurality of test points. The method also includes initiating a test that executes the plurality of test points within the at least one randomized test sequence and measures at least one operating condition of the at least one wind turbine at each test point. |
| US07987056B2 |
Mixed-library parallel gene mapping quantitative micro-array technique for genome-wide identification of trait conferring genes
The present disclosure concerns methods and compositions relating to mixed-library parallel gene trait mapping. In particular embodiments, the methods concern quantitative microarray hybridization techniques for genome-wide identification of trait conferring genes. In other embodiments, the compositions concern genetic elements that confer or are associated with a trait. In an exemplary embodiment, the trait is enhanced growth rate. In another exemplary embodiment, genetic elements that confer enhanced bacterial growth rate comprise part or all of the sequences of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:5. In other embodiments, the genetic elements that confer enhanced bacterial growth rate correspond to the YliF, adrA, yeaP, yddV or ydeH genes of E. coli. |
| US07987054B2 |
Efficient multiple prediction in two and three dimensions
A method is disclosed that uses (a) source-receiver reciprocity and (b) a method such as ISR DMO (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0098529) that allows reconstruction of densely sampled gathers at arbitrary surface locations, to efficiently predict multiple reflections, either surface related or interbed multiples, in seismic data. For each reconstructed gather and each output (field) trace, two traces are extracted corresponding to the field source and receiver positions of the output trace, then they are convolved and the convolution result is added (summed) to that obtained by applying this procedure to previously reconstructed gathers. The efficiency results from the fact that the convolutions are performed by looping over all traces for each “bounce” point, with the outer loop being over bounce points. Once all the reconstructed gathers are processed, multiple predictions are obtained for the whole survey by conventional means. |
| US07987053B2 |
Monitor units calculation method for proton fields
A method for determining a monitor unit that is associated with a process using ions, includes obtaining a depth dose curve, determining a characteristic parameter based on the depth dose curve, and using the characteristic parameter to determine a first monitor unit factor. A system for determining a monitor unit that is associated with a process using protons, includes a processor that is configured for obtaining a depth dose curve, determining a characteristic parameter based on the depth dose curve, and using the characteristic parameter to determine a first monitor unit factor. |
| US07987051B2 |
Method and system for determining an average walk distance to a service
A system for determining an average walk distance for a plurality of users of print-related services may include a processor, a processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processor and an output device in communication with the processor. The processor-readable storage medium may include programming instructions for identifying a plurality of print-related services in a facility and identifying a total number of users associated with the plurality of services. For each identified user, the processor-readable storage medium may include programming instructions for identifying the services used by the user, determining a usage level associated with the services, determining a distance between the user and the service, determining an average walk distance for the users and displaying, on the output device, the average walk distance. |
| US07987049B2 |
GPS-based attitude determination system with self-diagnosis function
A GPS-Based ADS for determining attitude and heading of a moving body comprises a GPS receiver, an inertial sensor unit, a blockage area calculator, a sensor anomaly detector and a monitor. The GPS-Based ADS provides information useful for making a judgment on appropriateness of installation sites and mounting conditions of a GPS antenna and inertial sensors based on blockage area information concerning each satellite signal blockage area obtained by the blockage area calculator and sensor signal anomaly information concerning each inertial sensor anomaly obtained by the sensor anomaly detector. |
| US07987047B2 |
Navigation equipment
A navigation equipment includes a user position observing unit 15 for calculating the position of the navigation equipment by using the pseudo range and position of each GPS satellite, and a pseudo range error, a user velocity and heading observing unit 16 for calculating the velocity of the navigation equipment from a measured range rate, the position of each GPS satellite, and the position of the navigation equipment, and a user heading searching unit 17 for, when a multipath error is smaller than a specified value, searching for, as the heading of the navigation equipment, a heading whose range rate, which is calculated from a relative movement between the navigation equipment when the navigation equipment changes its heading within a predetermined angle range and a GPS satellite, matches the measured range rate. |
| US07987044B2 |
Control device for internal combustion engine
A control device 10 for an internal combustion engine 80 includes an injector drive circuit 90 that drives an injector 30 that injects fuel and a temperature detection device that at least detects timing when a temperature condition that the temperature of the injector drive circuit 90 exceeds predetermined temperature is satisfied. The control device 10 includes a heat-generation-suppression control means 104 that performs control for suppressing the heat generation of the injector drive circuit 90. The heat-generation-suppression control means 104 selects, on the basis of a driving state of a vehicle, at least one parameter among an electric current applied to the injector, fuel pressure supplied to the injector 30, the number of revolutions of the internal combustion engine, and voltage from a battery to be boosted and performs control for limiting a value of the selected parameter on the basis of the timing. |
| US07987043B2 |
Fuel injection control apparatus for internal combustion engine
A fuel injection control apparatus for an internal combustion engine injects fuel from a fuel injection valve in each cylinder in a fuel injection mode in which an amount of fuel in the combustion chamber corresponds to a required value for starting the internal combustion engine when fuel in the combustion chamber is combusted in each cylinder after a crankshaft angle is determined through cranking for starting the internal combustion engine. When the fuel has a high alcohol concentration and is combusted after the determination of the crankshaft angle, the control apparatus sets the fuel injection mode for fuel with a high alcohol concentration as the fuel injection mode in which the amount of fuel in the combustion chamber corresponds to the required value for starting the internal combustion engine. |
| US07987039B2 |
Air-fuel ratio controller for internal combustion engine
In a system where an air-fuel ratio feedback correction amount is learned when its variation width is within a stable determination value, the stable determination value is set at larger value when a deviation amount of the correction amount becomes larger. When the air-fuel ratio feedback correction amount is rapidly changed after the learning is completed, the stable determination value is increased to moderate the learning condition and accelerate the learning speed (update speed of the learning value). Hence, the air-fuel ratio feedback correction amount is immediately learned. Furthermore, when a behavior of the air-fuel ratio feedback correction amount is stable, the stable determination value is made small to avoid an erroneous learning of the air-fuel ratio feedback correction amount. |
| US07987027B2 |
Systems for processing machine health information
Methods and systems are provided for providing machine health information. In one embodiment, a machine may include a storage device that is configured to store collected machine health data. The storage device has a module that is configured to determine a data characteristic and a communication characteristic. The storage device is further configured to determine, based on the data characteristic and the communication characteristic, whether to transmit a set of machine health data to an off-board system. Further, the storage device is coupled to a transmitter that is configured to transmit the set of machine health data to the off-board system. |
| US07987015B2 |
Method and apparatus for manufacturing optical elements
In a method for producing optical elements, material on a blank (20) is removed with an abrasive liquid jet (32). The liquid jet (32) has a jet thickness (d) which is greater than the dimension (D) of the blank (20) in a plane (E) perpendicular to the direction (R) of the liquid jet. Predefined removal profiles in aspherical form can be achieved by the liquid jet (32) being guided onto the blank (20) at different angles of incidence (α). |
| US07987013B2 |
Estimating yield fluctuation for back-end planning
A method for production planning includes receiving a first order quantity of a first device. A first yield estimate of the first device from a production line is determined. The first yield estimate is adjusted based on a first confidence factor associated with the first order quantity. A dispatch quantity for processing in the production line is determined based on the first order quantity and the adjusted first yield estimate. |
| US07987008B2 |
Apparatus and method of processing an audio signal
In one embodiment, the method includes receiving the audio signal including at least one block of audio data and configuration information, and reading coding type information from the configuration information. The coding type information indicates an entropy coding scheme used in encoding the audio signal. Partitioning information is read from the configuration information, and the partitioning information indicates whether the block is divided into sub-blocks. The partitioned sub-blocks are decoded based on the entropy coding scheme if the block is divided into sub-blocks. |
| US07987007B2 |
Memory module with audio playback mode
A memory module with a playback mode for audio signals through a playback port, and having an input port for input of both analogue and data signals as well as power, the power being from a separate power source. The input port may be a USB or IEEE1394 port and may be used with a battery pack and cradle having a female socket for receiving therein the connector. The input port includes at least four terminals being: ground, power, and two differential data terminals; the differential data terminals carrying signals at frequencies in the range of from 1 to 480 MHz. The input port is also for passing power from the battery pack and cradle to the memory module. |
| US07987004B2 |
Scalability related to controller engine instances
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates providing manageability within an industrial environment. A controller can execute with a real-time operating system such that the controller can include two or more controller engine instances executing as processes on the controller. A distribution component can divide a portion of the industrial environment into at least two or more units based at least in part upon scale data, the two or more units include respective dedicated execution space. |
| US07986992B2 |
Apparatus and method for treating atrial fibrillation and atrial tachycardia
An apparatus for treating atrial fibrillation or atrial tachycardia comprises means for dynamically steering or selecting two or more current vector paths sequentially or simultaneously for defibrillation to change the transmembrane potential in the left and right atria sufficiently to halt AF or AT. The apparatus is useful to treat AF or AT in patients. |
| US07986991B2 |
System and method for prediction of cognitive decline
A system and method for prediction of cognitive decline, comprises an input receiving input data corresponding to brain activity of an individual and a processor coupled to the input for analyzing the input data to obtain a selected set of features, the processor comparing the selected set of features to at least a portion of entries in a database corresponding to brain activity of a plurality of individuals, wherein entries in the database have been separated into a plurality of categories corresponding to one of a degree of cognitive decline and a propensity for future cognitive decline of individuals relating to the entries, the processor determining, based on the comparison, a category most closely corresponding to the selected set of features. |
| US07986988B2 |
Reference height calibration scheme for modular multi-modality medical imaging system
A reference height calibration procedure obtains a reference error value, which can be used to adjust a height calibration parameter for registering the fields of view (FOVs) of the modules of a multi-modality medical imaging system such as a SPECT-CT imaging system. |
| US07986979B2 |
Wireless headset having improved RF immunity to RF electromagnetic interference produced from a mobile wireless communications device
A wireless headset has improved immunity to RF electromagnetic interference produced from wireless communications devices. A headset body is adapted to be worn by a user and includes a microphone and earpiece. An antenna receives wireless communication signals and passes them to RF and audio circuitry mounted within the headset body. The RF and audio circuitry include a Bluetooth module operatively connected to the antenna for transmitting and receiving wireless communication signals, an audio CODEC connected to the Bluetooth module, and audio connection lines connected between the CODEC and the earpiece and between the CODEC and the microphone. A filter is connected into each of the audio connection lines at the earpiece and microphone and operative for reducing the RF coupling from a mobile wireless communications device. |
| US07986978B2 |
Hands-free apparatus
A hands-free apparatus determines whether there is an incoming call, and then determines whether the incoming call is to be answered by switching from a current call or to be rejected. When the incoming call is determined to be answered, the current call in a hands-free communication is put on hold for switching to the incoming call, and call partner information of the current call is spared from being displayed on a display unit to represent that the incoming call is now being established. |
| US07986974B2 |
Context specific speaker adaptation user interface
A method for providing a context specific speaker adaptation user interface is disclosed. The method allows a specific user of a voice activated system to train a voice recognition system to understand specific uttered commands by receiving a training sequence initiation input, sending at least one command to be trained, receiving a selection input, prompting a verbal input, recording the verbal input, and linking a voice input with an instruction corresponding with the command input. |
| US07986972B2 |
Method for transmitting data in a communication system
A method is provided a method for transmitting data in a MIMO communication system. The method includes receiving feedback information including channel quality information of transmission antennas from terminals; selecting one of a multi-user mode and a single user mode according to the channel quality information; extracting information for the selected mode from the feedback information; selecting at least one terminal and a preceding matrix of at least one transmission antenna through which data is transmitted according to the extracted information and the selected mode; and transmitting data using the selected precoding matrix and information of the selected terminal. |
| US07986968B2 |
Control of field device on low power wireless networks
A control system uses a wireless network to provide communication between a host computer and field devices. The host and the field devices communicate with one another using control messages and response messages based upon a known control system protocol. The control and response messages are embedded as a payload within a wireless message that is transmitted over the wireless network. When the wireless message is received at its ultimate destination, the control or response message is separated from the wireless message and is delivered to the intended recipient (either a field device or the host computer). |
| US07986965B2 |
Self defense cell phone with shocking circuitry
The present invention teaches an economical disposable emergency cellular telephone. A major object of this invention is a shocking self-defense capability. A further object is a cell phone which launches projectiles to deliver the shocking voltage. A further object of the invention is a new technique for having a large number of cellular phones share the same small group of access numbers and serial numbers in order to reduce the monthly charges to zero for the end consumer. This makes it more practical to use cellular phones for data transmission and monitoring applications. |
| US07986964B2 |
System and method for providing SMS2PSTN united messaging service using SMS/MMS gateway
The present invention relates to a method and system for providing an SMS2PSTN united messaging service using an SMS/MMS gateway. The present invention includes an SMS2PSTN service providing server for providing at least one ID information among an e-mail ID, an IM ID, a personal mobile telephone number, a general telephone number information, or a Web address related to the called party telephone number; a database for storing membership registration in-formation, charging information, SMS2PSTN service type, the e-mail ID, the IM ID, the personal mobile telephone number, the general telephone number information or the Web address; and a SMS/MMS gateway for querying with the called party telephone number extracted from the received SMS or MMS messages to the SMS2PSTN service providing server, and transmitting the converted result to the e-mail ID, the IM ID, the personal mobile telephone number, the general telephone number or the Web server. |
| US07986961B2 |
Mobile computer communication interface
A system and method is provided for a mobile computer communication interface. One embodiment includes a mobile computer communication interface. The mobile computer communication interface comprises a transceiver operative to send and receive wireless communications to and from a host computer. The mobile computer communication interface may also comprise a touch-screen display, the touch-screen display being operative to receive inputs from a user and remotely display outputs provided by the host computer. The mobile computer communication interface may also comprise a controller operative to wirelessly access and remotely control the host computer in response to inputs from the touch-screen display. |
| US07986959B2 |
Preamble based uplink power control for LTE
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate utilizing power control preambles with closed loop power control techniques in a wireless communication environment. An uplink grant can be transferred over a downlink (e.g., a first uplink grant after uplink inactivity), and a power control preamble can be sent over an uplink in response to the uplink grant. According to an example, transmission of the power control preamble can be explicitly scheduled and/or implicitly scheduled. The power control preamble can be transmitted at a power level determined by an access terminal utilizing an open loop power control mechanism. A base station can analyze the power control preamble and generate a power control command based thereupon to correct the power level employed by the access terminal. The access terminal can thereafter utilize the power control command to adjust the power level for uplink data transmission. |
| US07986953B2 |
Location determination with geographic and bias tuning
A method for determining location of an observer device is disclosed. The method includes receiving basestation distance data for the observer device and applying a location algorithm to the basestation distance data to determine a computed location of the observer device. The method further includes determining whether the basestation distance data correlates to any of a plurality of observer device conditions. Upon determining the basestation data correlates with one of the observer device conditions, a location bias associated with that observer device condition is employed to correct the computed location of the observer device and produce a corrected location. |
| US07986949B2 |
Method for performing handover in broadband wireless access system
A method of entering sleep mode in a mobile subscriber station in performing handover from a first base station (BS) to a second BS is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes entering sleep mode in the first base station and transmitting from the first base station sleep mode information in the first base station during handover, while receiving from a second base station sleep mode entry information in the second base station. The method further includes entering sleep mode based on the information the sleep mode entry information received from the second base station. |
| US07986947B2 |
Device management network with support for roaming
A device management network that supports roaming selectively conducts device management activities on a mobile device when it is roaming. The mobile device is capable of determining that it is roaming and communicating the information to the DM server in order to allow the DM server to execute an operator specified policy (or policies) to determine if device management activities need to be conducted when the device is roaming. Later, when the mobile device is no longer roaming, but back in the home network, then the mobile device communicates another message to the DM server to inform it (or other servers that need to know) that the mobile device is no longer roaming. In another embodiment, the DM server is capable of detecting that the mobile device is roaming and acts according to policies. |
| US07986946B2 |
Evaluation of random access preamble codes
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for gathering statistics relating to random access operation in a cell of a cellular radio communication network and supervising such random access operation. Statistics are gathered (301), per random access preamble code, relating to random access detections associated with one or more random access preamble codes used in the cell. Based on such gathered statistics, random access operation in the cell may be supervised by evaluating (311) the gathered statistics and, upon determining (312) that the random access detections associated with a specific random access preamble code exhibit an abnormal behaviour likely to be caused by false random access preamble detections, initiating (313) at least one of issuing a corresponding operation and maintenance alarm signal and automatically blocking further use of said specific random access preamble code in the cell. |
| US07986943B2 |
Electronic file transfer for a communications device
Systems and methods are provided for identifying an electronic file that is accessible by a communications node to be transmitted to a recipient. A communications device sends an identification of the electronic file. The communications node receives the identification of the electronic file, identifies the electronic file based on the identification, and accesses the electronic file for transmission to the recipient. The electronic file is not transmitted from the communications device to the communications node. |
| US07986942B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing message history data for a mobile communication device
A method and apparatus for managing history data of messages received from and transmitted to other users by a user of a mobile communication device is provided. Message history data is extracted from received and transmitted messages and stored such that a user of the mobile communication device may easily input a conditional request to the device and view message history data associated with a specific other user or message history data identified by conditional data input to the device. |
| US07986939B2 |
System and method for handling restoration operations on mobile devices
Systems and methods for handling restoration operations for a mobile device. A mobile device receives a kill pill command, wherein the command causes some or all data on the mobile device to be wiped. An indicator is stored to indicate that the kill pill command was sent to the mobile device. The indicator is used to determine whether a program should be wiped from the mobile device. |
| US07986935B1 |
Service plan optimizer
A service plan optimizer is provided. The service plan optimizer includes a storage device, a processor, an optimizer engine, and a user interface. The storage device stores usage data for a communication device. The optimizer engine is executed by the processor to compare a current service plan for the communication device with available service plans based on the stored usage data. The optimizer engine is also executed by the processor to form a recommendation based on the comparison. The user interface displays the recommendation. |
| US07986932B1 |
Fixed point FIR filter with adaptive truncation and clipping and wireless mobile station using same
A fixed point finite impulse response (FIR) filter comprising: 1) an input stage for receiving an input signal as a sequence of input samples comprising: i) delay elements connected in series for receiving and shifting N sequential input samples; ii) multipliers, each multiplier receiving a selected one of the N sequential input samples from the delay elements and multiplying the selected input sample by a corresponding coefficient to produce an intermediate product; and iii) a summer for receiving and adding N intermediate products from the multipliers to produce an output sum signal comprising a sequence of output sum samples; and 2) an output stage for truncating k least significant bits (LSBs) from each of the output sum samples, wherein k is a variable number. |
| US07986931B2 |
RFID reader and circuit and method for echo cancellation thereof
An echo cancellation circuit for an RFID reader and the method thereof are provided. The echo cancellation circuit includes a gain calculator, a gain adjustment circuit, and a subtraction circuit. The gain calculator provides a complex gain value according to a carrier signal and a received signal through an adaptive algorithm. The gain adjustment circuit is coupled to the gain calculator. The gain adjustment circuit multiplies the carrier signal by the complex gain value, and outputs the result of the multiplication. The subtraction circuit is coupled to the gain adjustment circuit. The subtraction circuit subtracts the output of the gain adjustment circuit from the received signal, and then provides the result of the subtraction as the output signal of the echo cancellation circuit. |
| US07986924B2 |
Impedance control apparatus and method for portable mobile communication terminal
An impedance control apparatus and method for portable mobile communication terminal is disclosed capable of accurately adjusting impedances relative to environment when the portable mobile communication terminal is being used, wherein an impedance of a first variable impedance matching part is varied to receive a reception impedance correction signal transmitted by a base station and to detect a reception strength, an impedance of the first variable impedance matching part is set by a impedance value of the largest reception strength out of the reception strengths, the portable mobile communication terminal varies the impedance of a second variable impedance matching part to transmit a transmission impedance correction signal to a base station and to allow the base station to detect the reception strength, and the impedance setting of the second variable impedance matching part is performed using the reception strength detected by the base station. |
| US07986922B2 |
Jammer detection and suppression for wireless communication
Techniques for detecting and suppressing jammers are described. A receiver may perform post-FFT jammer detection and pre-FFT jammer suppression. The receiver may transform an input signal to obtain a frequency-domain signal and may detect for jammers in the input signal based on the frequency-domain signal. The receiver may determine powers of a plurality of carriers based on the frequency-domain signal and may detect for jammers based on peaks in the powers of these carriers. The receiver may filter the input signal (e.g., with a notch filter) to suppress the detected jammers. Alternatively or additionally, the receiver may perform post-FFT jammer detection and post-FFT jammer suppression. The receiver may determine whether jammer is present on each carrier based on data power and channel power for that carrier. The receiver may modify (e.g., zero out or reduce) the frequency-domain signal on carriers with detected jammers. |
| US07986921B2 |
Wireless device with privacy screen
A cellular telephone including a medical device to monitor the medical or health condition of a user is provided. The cellular telephone is provided with a keypad that is movable from a first position, where a first display and keypad is exposed, to a second position where a second display and keypad is exposed. In the first position, the cellular telephone operates in a conventional cellular telephone manner. In the second position, the cellular telephone operates as the medical device. The second display and/or keypad is hidden from public view when the keypad is in the first position. |
| US07986913B2 |
Method and apparatus for identificaton of broadcast source
A user (102) hears an audio program being broadcast and can record a sample of the audio. The sample is then conveyed to an analyzing means (106) to determine to which broadcast station the user is listening. The analyzing means monitors many broadcast channels. Thus, characteristics of the audio sample and samples taken from the broadcast channels can be compared to find a match. Broadcast information pertaining to the broadcast channel from which the match was found may then be reported back to the user, combined with an advertisement of a promotion, prize notification, discount offers, and other information specific for a certain radio station for example. |
| US07986906B2 |
Image-forming device having mechanism for separating developing rollers from photosensitive drums
A laser printer includes a contact/separation mechanism that linearly moves developing cartridges between contact positions where the developing cartridges contact corresponding photosensitive drums and separating positions where the developing cartridges separate from the photosensitive drums. The contact/separation mechanism includes a pair of contact/separation members and a synchronous moving mechanism. The contact/separation members are disposed one on one side of the developing cartridges and another on another side of the developing cartridges. The synchronous moving mechanism is for linearly moving the contact/separation members in synchronization with each other. |
| US07986905B2 |
Image forming apparatus
Disclosed an image forming apparatus including: an image forming section to form an image on a sheet based on an input image data; an additional information position instruction section to instruct a position of an additional image indicating additional information to be formed with the image data; a sheet-cutting position instruction section to instruct a sheet-cutting position on the sheet; and a control section to calculate an image formable region where the additional image can be formed based on the sheet-cutting position instructed by the sheet-cutting position instruction section, to set the position instructed by the additional information position instruction section within the image formable region as a position where the additional image is formed, to combine the additional image with the image data at the set position, and to control the image forming section to form the combined image data on the sheet. |
| US07986904B2 |
Image forming apparatus
In an image forming apparatus, a plurality of photoconductors arranged in the apparatus is supported by a support frame which is allowed to be pulled out from a body of the apparatus; and an endless intermediate transfer belt looped around a first roller and a second roller is in contact with each of the plurality of photoconductors. The first roller is supported by the body of the apparatus and retained in a position fixed relative to the body of the apparatus, and the support frame comprises a positioning portion which is configured to support a roller shaft of the second roller or a bearing part of the roller shaft of the second roller and to retain the intermediate transfer belt in a position fixed relative to the plurality of photoconductors. |
| US07986901B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus having removable/replaceable process cartridges is provided. One of the removable/replaceable process cartridges is removed/replaced from a panel which is different than a panel from which the other removable/replaceable process cartridges is removed/replaced. One of the removable/replaceable process cartridges is associated with an exposure device which is only used to expose a portion of that process cartridge while the other removable/replaceable process cartridges are associated with at least one other exposure device. An image forming apparatus may include two or more different types of exposure devices. An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of guide members for guiding portions of an exposure device arranged on a panel of the image forming apparatus such that when the door or panel is arranged on the image forming apparatus, the exposure device is guided into position by the guide members. |
| US07986898B2 |
Image forming apparatus with contacts for memory chips
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes: plural photosensitive members aligned in a first direction; plural developing units for the photosensitive members, respectively, each of the developing units including a developer supplier, and a housing which holds the developer supplier; a translation member which moves the developing units between a contact position in which the developer suppliers contact the photosensitive members and a separated position in which the developer suppliers are separated from the photosensitive members by a linear reciprocating movement in the first direction; plural memory chips provided on the housings of the developing units, respectively; plural contacts provided on the translation member, each of the contacts configured to contact the corresponding memory chips; and a wiring provided on the translation member and electrically connected to each of the contacts. |
| US07986897B2 |
Image forming apparatus, developer cartridge and photosensitive unit
An image forming apparatus is described. The image forming apparatus may include a developer cartridge and a photosensitive unit. The developer cartridge may include a first casing accommodating a developing agent, a developing agent carrier supported by the first casing and carrying the developing agent, a memory element storing predetermined information, and a first terminal electrically connected with the memory element. The photosensitive unit may include a second casing to which the developer cartridge is detachably attached, a photosensitive member, with which the developing agent carrier is brought into pressure contact when the developer cartridge is attached to the second casing, supported by the second casing, and a second terminal electrically connected with the first terminal when the developing agent carrier is brought into pressure contact with the photosensitive member. |
| US07986896B2 |
Image forming apparatus to control noise and method thereof
Provided is an image forming apparatus and a method of controlling the same. When an external power is supplied to a heating resistance member of a fusing unit in the image forming apparatus that is in a standby mode, a power supply unit supplies an internal power to a different load (for example, an exposure unit, a developing unit, or a transfer unit) in one or more time sections so as to supply the internal power to the load at a continuously changing operating frequency. |
| US07986894B2 |
Power supply device, fixing device and image forming apparatus
A disclosed power supply device includes a voltage resonance circuit configured to include an output coil for boosting an input direct-current voltage to a predetermined voltage and outputting the boosted voltage to a load and also include a capacitor connected to the output coil; and a switching unit configured to be turned ON/OFF so as to control electric current supply to the output coil. An auxiliary resonance circuit is connected in parallel with the output coil so as to reduce switching losses without using a power control circuit for switching control. |
| US07986888B2 |
Image processor having a judging unit
An image processor includes a main body and a consumable product which is replaceably installed to the main body is provided with a storage configured to store a table to which a record indicative of a usage status of the consumable product is to be successively added, an installation detection unit configured to detect that the consumable product is newly installed, a judging unit configured to judge whether the newly installed consumable product has been used in the main body continuously or discontinuously when the detection unit detects that the consumable product is newly installed. A usage status detection unit detects the usage status of the consumable product. A controller updates the latest record of the table if the consumable product has been continuously used, while creates a new record to be added to the table if the consumable product has been used discontinuously. |
| US07986885B2 |
Method and apparatus for control of DPSK and DQPSK receivers and transmitters
An optical communication device such as a transmitter or receiver has a control loop for controlling relative phase of two related optical signals based on signal peak intensity. An optical transmitter measures the signal peak intensity of a combined optical signal representing two data channels to adjust relative phase as desired. An optical receiver measures the signal peak intensity of combined electrical signals, single electrical signals or single optical signals to adjust relative phase as desired. Signal peak intensity is minimized or maximized by adjusting the relative phase, depending upon the modulation configuration used. The feedback control provides a consistent and robust control to stabilize the optical communication device in the presence of variables such as temperature changes, aging and manufacturing tolerances. |
| US07986882B2 |
Output current pumping circuit and remote controller using the same
A current pumping circuit includes a voltage detector, a boost circuit, and an output circuit. The voltage detector detects a level of a power voltage and outputs a corresponding control signal. The boost circuit controls the power voltage to be maintained at a predetermined level based on the control signal. The output circuit provides an output signal regardless of the level of the detected voltage. The output circuit may include or be coupled to a data converter, which generates the output signal based on a transmission signal and the boosted power voltage. The transmission signal may be one output from a predetermined control circuit. |
| US07986877B2 |
Imaging apparatus with display and image display apparatus
A digital camera is provided with a vertically long camera body having an approximately rectangular solid shape. An LCD panel provided in a rear surface of the camera body is arranged such that longitudinal directions of the display screen and the camera body correspond to each other. The digital camera is operated through a touch panel provided in a lower portion of the display screen. In a taking mode, an image is displayed in a small size on an upper portion of the display screen. In reproducing, the camera body is rotated sideways by 90 degree. In a reproducing mode, display posture of the image is also rotated by 90 degree, and the image is displayed in a large size on the entire display screen. |
| US07986875B2 |
Sound-based focus system and focus method thereof
A sound-based focus system includes an imaging device and focus controller. The imaging device is configured for capturing an image. The focus controller includes a sound detecting module and a control module. The sound detecting module is configured for obtaining the position coordinates of a sound source. The control module is configured for controlling the imaging device to focus on the sound source according to the position coordinates thereof. |
| US07986869B2 |
Varying properties along lengths of temperature limited heaters
A system for heating a subsurface formation is described. The system includes an elongated heater in an opening in the formation. The elongated heater includes two or more portions along the length of the heater that have different power outputs. At least one portion of the elongated heater includes at least one temperature limited portion with at least one selected temperature at which the portion provides a reduced heat output. The heater is configured to provide heat to the formation with the different power outputs. The heater is configured so that the heater heats one or more portions of the formation at one or more selected heating rates. |
| US07986868B2 |
Scheduling the recording of a program via an advertisement in the broadcast stream
A closed caption tagging system provides a mechanism for inserting tags into an audio or video television broadcast stream prior to or at the time of transmission. The receiver receives the broadcast stream and detects and processes the tags within the broadcast stream which is stored on a storage device that resides on the receiver. The tags contain command and control information that the receiver translates and acts upon. A one-touch recording option is provided. An icon is displayed to the viewer telling the viewer that an advertised program is available for recording at a future time. The viewer presses a single button on an input device causing the receiver to schedule the program for recording. |
| US07986865B2 |
Imaging device and recording control method
The recording operation can be rapidly started and a notification about the operating state during the recording operation can be realized without adding a new component, whereby a target scene of a subject can be recorded reliably. When a video signal captured by a camera unit 10 is compressed and encoded and is recorded on a DV tape, a control unit 100 controls a compression/decompression unit 40 and a tape deck unit 60 to compress and encode the video signal and record as DV data without using compressed data already recorded on the DV tape. In other words, the control unit 100 controls the operation of compressing and encoding video data to be newly recorded in such a manner that compressed data already recorded on the DV tape is not read out, thus reducing the time until recording of the video data on the DV tape is started. |
| US07986860B2 |
Laser generated synthetic mega scale aperture for solar energy concentration and harnessing
Systems and methods are described that employ high-intensity lasers to set up a thin plasma sheet, also called a waveguide or “hot shell”, in the atmosphere as a function of beam intensity and geometry. A laser beam can be spread and directed with physical optics (e.g., lenses, mirrors, other optical elements, etc.) to generate a thin inverted cone-shaped hot shell waveguide in the atmosphere. The hot shell of the waveguide has a different index of refraction (n) from that of the surrounding air layers and as such serves to internally reflect portions of the entering solar rays entering an aperture in the hot shell, toward the tip of the cone and a solar energy storage component positioned there, thus providing a virtual solar energy concentration system. In another embodiment, the solar energy storage component shuts down or otherwise rejects incoming solar energy when fully charged, to mitigate damage to system components. |
| US07986859B2 |
Converting bayer pattern RGB images to full resolution RGB images via intermediate hue, saturation and intensity (HSI) conversion
In one embodiment, R and B values for each G pixel element are interpolated and the RGB values are converted to HSI values. The converted HSI values are interpolated to determine interpolated HSI values for the R and B pixel elements and then the interpolated HSI values are converted to RGB values. |
| US07986854B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving quality of composite video signal and method and apparatus for removing artifact of composite video signal
A method of improving picture quality in a composite video burst signal includes dividing the composite video burst signal into a plurality of frequency bands using a low pass filter and a high pass filter, performing wavelet packet filtering of frequency bands including a chrominance signal having energy higher than a specified threshold among the plurality of frequency bands, and performing Wiener filtering of frequency bands including a chrominance signal having energy lower than a specified threshold. |
| US07986852B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method for adjusting a lightness and an input image
The invention discloses an image processing apparatus for adjusting the lightness of an input image which has a hue. The image processing apparatus includes a look-up table, a processing unit and an adder. The look-up table records M lightness, N hues and M*N corresponding lightness offset values. The processing unit is used for storing the look-up table and for selecting a corresponding lightness offset value from the look-up table according to the lightness and the hue of the input image. The adder is coupled to the processing unit and used for adding the selected lightness offset value to the lightness of the input image, so as to obtain an adjusted lightness. Accordingly, the image quality is improved. |
| US07986850B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method of controlling image processing apparatus
A noise elimination method capable of handling even beat noise occurring in an oblique direction is proposed. In an image processing apparatus that is provided with a correcting unit that subtracts cyclic data of beat noise from effective pixel data included in inputted digital image data, the correcting unit comprises: a distributing unit that sequentially and cyclically distributes optical black area pixel data included in the digital image data; an integrating unit to which the optical black area pixel data distributed by the distributing unit is sequentially inputted; a first calculating unit that divides the integration result of the integrating unit by the number of integrations; a minimum value detecting unit that detects a minimum value of the output of the first calculating unit; and a second calculating unit that calculates the minimum value and the division result to obtain the cyclic data of the beat noise. |
| US07986848B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for a multi-resolution storage scheme for historical data
A method, system, and computer program product for a multi-resolution storage scheme for historical data are provided. The method includes dividing the historical data into a plurality of time frames and determining an amount of compression for each of the time frames, where at least two of the time frames have a different amount of compression. The method further includes applying the amount of compression to each of the time frames, resulting in multi-resolution historical data, and storing the multi-resolution historical data. |
| US07986847B2 |
Digital video camera with a moving image encoding feature and control method therefor, that selectively store decoded images as candidate reference images
Detects from camera information frames of probable low continuity, such as frames in which a strobe is flashed, and does not use such frames as candidate images for a reference image. As a result, the possibility that the candidate images in the frame memory are images of high continuity with a frame to be encoded increases, enabling efficient motion vector detection and making possible low data-generation-volume encoding. |
| US07986844B2 |
Optimized video compression using hashing function
A video redirection system redirects an incoming video stream to a remote console. The video redirection system samples the video stream to generate a currently sampled frame comprising a plurality of tiles, and calculates a current hash value for each of the tiles. The video redirection system compresses the tile if the current hash value is different from a reference hash value locally stored inside the video redirection system. A difference in the hash value indicates that there is a change in the tile of the currently sampled frame from the corresponding tile of the previously sampled frame. Thus, it is no longer necessary to compare the currently sampled frame with a reference frame in the memory. Accordingly, the amount of memory access is reduced. |
| US07986843B2 |
Digital image archiving and retrieval in a mobile device system
A computer-implemented method of managing information is disclosed. The method can include receiving a message from a mobile device configured to connect to a mobile device network (the message including a digital image taken by the mobile device and including information corresponding to words), determining the words from the digital image information using optical character recognition, indexing the digital image based on the words, and storing the digital image for later retrieval of the digital image based on one or more received search terms. |
| US07986839B2 |
Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and storage medium
In the image processing apparatus of the present invention, when a document is read, a document matching process section determines whether the document is similar to a reference document or not. When the document is similar to the reference document, the document matching process section further determines whether the document has been zoomed (size of the document has been changed). When the document has been zoomed, an editing process section restores the size of the document to the size of the reference document. This provides an image processing apparatus capable of restoring the changed size of a document in a predetermined format such as a form document and an application document to its original size. |
| US07986838B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
The present invention provides an image processing apparatus capable of preventing deterioration of judgment accuracy when performing document matching process. To be more specific, when selecting feature points in the neighborhood of a target feature point, a predetermined number of feature points are selected after excluding a prespecified number of feature points in turn from the feature point nearest to the target feature point. For example, when the plurality of feature points are selected, the plurality of feature points, after excluding at least a feature point existing at a position nearest to the target feature point, are selected. Thereby, without increasing the amount of feature points for calculation of features (feature vectors), it is possible to prevent the deterioration of judgment accuracy. |
| US07986835B2 |
Color processing apparatus and method for performing color correction according to color stabilization accuracy of an image output device
A color processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit configured to acquire color conversion data corresponding to an image output device, a color stabilization accuracy calculating unit configured to calculate a color stabilization accuracy of the image output device, and a correcting unit configured to correct the color conversion data according to the color stabilization accuracy. The correcting unit is configured to correct the color conversion data such that an output color saturation in a low color saturation region becomes lower when the color stabilization accuracy is low than when the color stabilization accuracy is high. |
| US07986830B2 |
Radiometric calibration from a single image
Radiometric calibration of an image capture device (e.g., a digital camera) using a single image is described. The single image may be a color image or a grayscale image. The calibration identifies and analyzes edge pixels of the image that correspond to an edge between two colors or grayscale levels of a scene. Intensity distributions of intensities measured from the single image are then analyzed. An inverse response function for the image capture device is determined based on the intensity distributions. For a color image, the radiometric calibration involves calculating an inverse response function that maps measured blended colors of edge pixels and the associated measured component colors into linear distributions. For a grayscale image, the radiometric calibration involves deriving an inverse response function that maps non-uniform histograms of measured intensities into uniform distributions of calibrated intensities. |
| US07986827B2 |
System and method for multiple instance learning for computer aided detection
A method of training a classifier for computer aided detection of digitized medical image, includes providing a plurality of bags, each bag containing a plurality of feature samples of a single region-of-interest in a medical image, where each region-of-interest has been labeled as either malignant or healthy. The training uses candidates that are spatially adjacent to each other, modeled by a “bag”, rather than each candidate by itself. A classifier is trained on the plurality of bags of feature samples, subject to the constraint that at least one point in a convex hull of each bag, corresponding to a feature sample, is correctly classified according to the label of the associated region-of-interest, rather than a large set of discrete constraints where at least one instance in each bag has to be correctly classified. |
| US07986824B2 |
Predetermined site luminescence measuring method, predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus, expression amount measuring method, and measuring apparatus
An object of the present invention is to provide a predetermined site luminescence measuring method and a predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus, which allow for determining whether, when the luminescence from the predetermined site in live samples is measured, a photoprotein is localized at the predetermined site in the same ones as the samples. An predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus 100 in the present invention is comprised of: a the sample 102 into which a fused fusion gene is introduced, the fusion gene being obtained by fusing a fluorescence-related gene that expresses a fluorescence protein in addition to a targeting base sequence and a luminescence-related gene; a container 103 for storing the sample 102, a stage 104 on which the container 103 is arranged; a luminescent image capturing unit 106 which captures a luminescent image of the sample 102 (the objective lens 106a to the CCD camera 106c, and the imaging lens 106f); a fluorescent image capturing unit 108 which captures a fluorescent image of the sample 102 (the objective lens 108a to shutter 108f); and an the information communication terminal 110. |
| US07986821B2 |
Processes and apparatus for imaging protocols and analysis
Systems, processes and apparatus are described through which signals are modified within a system. A process for image conditioning in a nondestructive imaging system includes acts of: (i) selecting a protocol from a group of protocols, each protocol of the group being structured to provide multiple coordinated views of a particularized anatomical region and to facilitate automated characterization of an aspect of the anatomical region; (ii) opting for at least one of a plurality of viewing modalities for review of images associated with the selected protocol; and (iii) displaying the images in conformance with the at least one viewing modality. |
| US07986820B2 |
Method for comparing features extracted from images of fingerprints
Features are extracted from a test and reference image to generate a test and reference record. Each feature has a location, and orientation, and furthermore, the features of the reference records also have associated weights. The features of the test record are approximately aligned with the features of the reference record. Then, differences between the locations and orientations of the features of the reference record and the features of the test record are measured, and the weights of all features of the reference record that are less than a predetermined difference when compared with the features of the test record are summed to determine a similarity score that the test record matches the reference record. |
| US07986819B2 |
Electronic apparatus and video display method
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes an indexing module, an image display processing module, a playback processing module, and a emphasizing processing module. The indexing module extracts face images which appear in a sequence of moving image data, and outputs time stamp information indicating a timing of appearance of each of the extracted face images. The image display processing module displays the extracted face images on a first display area. The playback processing module plays back the moving image data and displays the moving image data on a second display area. The emphasizing processing module emphasizes, when the moving image data is played back, a face image on the first display area, which appears within a predetermined period corresponding to a present playback position of the moving image data, based on the time stamp information corresponding to each face image which belongs to the extracted face images. |
| US07986813B2 |
Object pose estimation and comparison system using image sharpness differences, object pose estimation and comparison method using image sharpness differences, and program therefor
A pose estimation and comparison system has a pose estimation and comparison unit. The pose estimation and comparison unit has an pose candidate decision unit which decides an pose candidate. According to the generated pose candidate, a comparison image generation unit generates a plurality of comparison images close to the input image, while projecting a three-dimensional object model obtained from a three-dimensional object model storage unit to a two-dimensional image. A sharpness extraction unit extracts a first sharpness amount reflecting the sharpness from each of the generated comparison images. A weighted difference calculator calculates a plurality of weighted differences by weighting the first sharpness amount to the difference between the input image and each of the comparison images. A determination unit selects a comparison image having the smallest weighted difference as the comparison image closest to the input image, thereby performing the pose estimation and comparison. |
| US07986808B2 |
Image-capturing device, image-processing device, method for controlling image-capturing device, and program for causing computer to execute the method
An image-processing device having a function that performs detection processing on a first image signal to detect a specific target region of a subject includes an image-signal generating unit that generates a second image signal different from the first image signal based on the first image signal, a target-region detecting unit that performs detection processing on the first and second image signals to detect the specific target region of the subject, and a control unit that selects the results of detecting the target region from either the first or second image signal. |
| US07986806B2 |
Paper products and physical objects as means to access and control a computer or to navigate over or act as a portal on a network
The claimed invention relates generally to steganography and watermarking. One claim recites: a method including: using an electronic application program to compose an electronic version of a document; providing the document onto a substrate, the provided substrate being steganographically encoded with plural-bit auxiliary data, the steganographically encoded plural-bit auxiliary data is substantially imperceptible to casual human inspection, but is detectable through visible light imaging of the document and processing of image data thereby produced; and storing at least some of the plural-bit auxiliary data in association with data identifying a location at which the electronic version of the document is stored. Of course, other combinations are provided and claimed as well. |
| US07986803B1 |
Ear bud speaker earphone with retainer tab
An ear bud earphone having an outer portion, which may be a microphone or sound input or a contact for wires or acoustic tubes, a central body portion, an ear canal main body and a tab. The ear canal main body of the earphone has flexibility to conform to the ear anatomy. The ear (pinna) has a helix, an anti-helix, a concha including the anatomical elements of a cymba and a cavum, and an ear canal. The ear canal main body is partially inserted into the concha and ear canal opening, with the tab resting on or under the anti-helix. |
| US07986801B2 |
Device having a point and a spatial sound generating-means for providing stereo sound sensation over a large area
A device is described, having a first (2) and a second (4) sound-generating means and an input for a stereo signal (S) comprising left (L) and right (R) sound signals. The device has an interconnected first (1) and second (3) part comprising a first (2) and a second (4) sound-generating means, respectively. The first part (1) is formed so as to couple soundwaves generated by the first sound-generating means (2) into a surface (6) when placed upon said surface (6), and the device has means (5) for sending a first signal (S1), which is a composite of the left (L) and right (R) sound signals, to the first sound-generating means (2) of the first part (1), and a second signal (S2), which is a different composite of the left (L) and right (R) sound signals, to the second sound generating means (4) of the second part (3). |
| US07986796B2 |
Apparatus to generate multi-channel audio signals and method thereof
An apparatus and method of generating multi-channel audio signals includes a voice signal removal unit to generate a first signal by removing one or more components of a plurality of frequency bands corresponding to a voice frequency range from an input signal, a voice signal amplification unit to generate a second signal by calculating a sum of channel signals of the input signal and amplifying one or more components of the plurality of the frequency bands corresponding to the voice frequency range of the sum signal, a control filter to generate a third signal by compensating for a level of the first signal, and a multi-channel audio generation unit to generate a center-channel audio signal and a front-channel audio signal using the second, third, and fourth signals. |
| US07986782B2 |
Method and system for managing rights in digital information over a network
A method and system for distributing digital information is disclosed. Preferably, a user acquires a tangible object which contain a code authorizing access to the digital information. The user reads the tangible object through a reader, which sends the code to a server on which the digital information is stored. The server then authorizes access to the digital information to one or more access devices listed in registries belonging to the user. The user may use the digital information on the terms he agrees to, and, while in use by the user, access to the digital information to other users or other playback devices is disabled. Once the user no longer is using the digital information, the access device erases the digital information, and signals the server that the digital information is no longer in use, thereby re-enabling access to the digital information by the other playback devices listed in the registry. |
| US07986776B2 |
Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection
In the method of the present invention, a customer of a service provider would be placed in hold while waiting to speak to a customer service representative. The method and system of the invention would recognize the telephone number of the caller using a “caller ID” system. If this call is the first time the caller has ever called, the caller would be presented with an audible listing of listening choices that would include but not be limited to the latest news, the weather (of the caller's location), financial headlines, or a selection of music stations (via cable radio, for example). The caller would then speak or type his/her preference into the keypad and the selection would be played. If the caller does not like the selection, the caller can then speak another selection or type the new selection as many times as the caller prefers. The caller selection is recorded in a caller preference database. Finally, when the same customer calls one or more additional times, the system would retain the caller's number and preferred listening selection, based on caller ID value. The listening selection would automatically be played on subsequent calls. |
| US07986775B2 |
Method for realizing ring back tone in communication system
A method for realizing ring back tone in communication system, enabling that the calling user can only hear the ring back tone triggered by the primary called user no matter whether the call is forwarded or how it is forwarded. In the present invention, service control unit sets a mark indicating not to request ring resource in Invite message initiated to the forward user, and indicating the backward service control unit not to request triggering the ring resource. Optionally, service control unit only sends ringing message forwardly when it receives the backward ringing message and succeeds to request ring resource, and when it receives the backward ringing message, if service control unit has ever initiated call forward, then it deactivates backward ring resource. Optionally, each service control unit requests ring resource respectively, and forwards it when it receives 200 OK, where a mark indicating it coming from ring resource is set; service control unit deactivates backward ring resource, if it finds the mark in the backward 200 OK. |
| US07986774B2 |
Method and system for detecting a change in at least one telecommunication rate plan
A call schedule is received that includes a plurality of sample calls to be made by an automated calling station. The plurality of sample calls are automatically placed on the network using the automated calling station. At least one final billing record corresponding to the at least one completed sample call is received. The call data is processed to determine billed cost data. The billed cost data is compared to the previous cost data and a change in the rate plan is detected based on the comparison of the billed cost data to the previous cost data. |
| US07986772B2 |
Saving information from information retrieval systems
A method and system for allowing a calling party to save information obtained from an information retrieval system. The caller may select options to save the information to a memory location, e.g., the caller's own network-based voice mail system or a temporary voice mailbox provided for the caller by the information provider, from which the caller can subsequently retrieve and review the information. The information may be saved to an Internet-based website from which the caller may subsequently retrieve the information. The information may be forwarded to a separate telephone directory number for receipt by a third person or for storing on a remote voice mail system. Additionally, the information may be electronically mailed to the caller's electronic mail address for subsequent retrieval. Discussions with a live attendant may be recorded and stored, as audio files or as converted to text, for access by or delivery to the caller. |
| US07986764B2 |
X-ray laminography device, object imaging system, and method for operating a security system
An x-ray laminography device includes at least one x-ray detector and at least one x-ray source coupled in coordinated traversal with the at least one x-ray detector. The at least one x-ray source is configured to generate and transmit x-rays. The at least one x-ray detector and the at least one x-ray source traverse an at least partially radial travel path in unison about an object such that the object is illuminated with x-rays from a plurality of oblique radial angles defined between the at least one x-ray source and the object. |
| US07986756B2 |
Method and apparatus for filtering noisy estimates to reduce estimation errors
Techniques for filtering noisy estimates to reduce estimation errors are described. A sequence of input values (e.g., for an initial channel impulse response estimate (CIRE)) is filtered with an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter having at least one coefficient to obtain a sequence of output values (e.g., for a filtered CIRE). The coefficient(s) are updated based on the sequence of input values with an adaptive filter, a bank of prediction filters, or a normalized variation technique. To update the coefficient(s) with the adaptive filter, a sequence of predicted values is derived based on the sequence of input values. Prediction errors between the sequence of predicted values and the sequence of input values are determined and filtered to obtain filtered prediction errors. The coefficient(s) of the IIR filter are then updated based on the prediction errors and the filtered prediction errors. |
| US07986754B2 |
Method and/or apparatus for stabilizing the frequency of digitally synthesized waveforms
An apparatus including a first circuit, a second circuit, a third circuit, and a fourth circuit. The first circuit may be configured to generate a demodulated signal in response to a modulated signal and a seed value selected in response to a first control signal. The second circuit may be configured to generate a second control signal in response to the demodulated signal. The third circuit may be configured to generate the first control signal in response to the second control signal, a compensation signal, and the first control signal, where generation of the first control signal includes adding the second control signal, the compensation signal, and a latched version of the first control signal. Generation of the latched version of the first control signal may include sampling the first control signal in response to a clock signal. The compensation signal may compensate for variation in the clock signal. |
| US07986753B1 |
Modified branch metric for decoders and equalizers
A modified branch metric for decoders and equalizers is described. In one embodiment the branch metric includes determining a set of branch metric values for symbols of a received digital signal, the branch metric values indicating a correlation between symbols obtained using a reduced calculation set, the reduced calculation set being obtained by adding a common term to all of the branch metric values before determining the correlation. The branch metric may be followed by determining path metrics for paths through a decision tree using the branch metric values, and selecting a path and a corresponding symbol sequence in the received digital signal using the path metric values. |
| US07986746B2 |
Content differentiated hierarchical modulation used in radio frequency communications
The present invention employs hierarchical modulation to simultaneously transmit data over different modulation layers using a carrier RF signal. Each modulation layer may be of a higher or lower order than the other modulation layers. Certain embodiments of the present invention may transmit different information on the different modulation layers. Other embodiments of the present invention may use the different layers for processing different information streams. |
| US07986745B2 |
Encoder apparatus and decoder apparatus
An encoding apparatus that converts input digital data and an input clock into three-bit six-state transition encode outputs and outputs them is disclosed. The encoding apparatus has a first state transition control section, second state transition control section, and an output selection section. The first state transition control section changes a state of first data at a positive edge of the input clock. The second state transition control section changes a state of second data at a negative edge of the input clock. The output selection section alternately selects the state of the first state transition control section and the second state transition control section. |
| US07986739B2 |
Detect-and-avoid method and architecture for ultra-wideband system
A method and system for detecting the presence of narrowband transmitters utilizing frequencies also utilized by wider band communication systems. In some embodiments an ultrawideband transceiver detects signals at specific frequencies within a spectrum of frequencies, and analyzes the signals to determine if the signals indicate transmissions by a narrowband transmitter in a narrowband communication system. In further embodiments transmission circuitry reduces signal components at frequencies occupied by the narrowband transmitters. |
| US07986738B2 |
Peak to average power ratio reduction apparatus and method for a wireless OFDM transmitter
An OFDM symbol comprises information subcarriers which carry the information to be transmitted, accompanied by edge subcarriers, which are selected to minimize the PAPR of the transmitted signal. The selection of edge subcarriers which minimizes PAPR enables either higher power transmission for the same information content, or lower power consumption for the same transmitted symbol power. |
| US07986734B2 |
Video codecs, data processing systems and methods for the same
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a data processing system which may include a task scheduler for enabling a plurality of independent data processing units to be operable in pipelining streams and/or controlling pipelined operations to be differentiated by tasks, and a memory pool for storing data from the data processing units. The data processing units may perform tasks in response to task start signals provided from the task scheduler. The data processing units may complete the tasks as instructed by the task scheduler, transmit task end signals to the scheduler and transition into standby states. |
| US07986729B2 |
High bandwidth data transport system
The present invention provides for a methods, system, and apparatus relating to data transmission. One method of the present invention includes representing data using at least one ultra wideband pulse, sending the at least one ultra wideband pulse over an electrically conductive guided media, and recovering the data from the at least one ultra wideband pulse. The present invention can be used in conjunction with telephony applications, cable TV applications, power line applications, fiber optic applications, and data bus applications. |
| US07986728B2 |
Equalizer with combined CCK encoding-decoding in feedback filtering of decision feedback equalizer
A decision feedback equalizer includes a chip estimate buffer that forms chip estimates into a vector. A CCK decoder decodes the vector of chip estimates, and a CCK encoder, connected with the CCK decoder, re-encodes the vector of chip estimates into a valid CCK code word. At the same time, a chip slicer provides direct sliced chips from the chip estimates. An update module then forms a hybrid vector from the valid CCK code-word and the direct sliced chips for input to the feedback filter of the decision feedback equalizer. The hybrid feedback filter input vector reflects the CCK coding gain of its re-encoded portion thereby reducing the estimated chip error rate to improve the performance of the decision feedback equalizer. |
| US07986727B2 |
In-band method to configure equalization levels
An in-band configuration technique configures a data communications link for high-speed data communications between at least a first and second integrated circuit using in-band communications between the first and second integrated circuits. The technique configures at least one equalizer of the data communications link with predetermined equalizer settings selected from a plurality of predetermined equalizer settings based on a selected rate of data communications for the link. |
| US07986726B2 |
CMOS transceiver for communication system
A direct conversion ultrawideband transceiver employing three phase locked loops (PLLs). The PLLs are preferably fixed-frequency PLLs that operate continuously, at different frequencies, with a selected frequency determined by selecting the output of one of the three PLLs. The use of three PLLs is suitable for use in a communication system employing frequency hopping across three bands or sub-bands. |
| US07986725B2 |
Spread spectrum transmission systems
A code phase signalling module arranged to provide code phase signalling to assist in signal acquisition of direct sequence spread spectrum signalling received by a receiver module from a transmitter module. The code phase signalling is arranged to be used by the receiver module to synchronise the phase of a synchronisation code provided from within the receiver module with the phase of a modulation code of the direct spread spectrum sequence signalling received by the receiver module. The synchronisation code sequence corresponds to the modulation code sequence. The code phase signalling module is arranged to provide code phase time signalling representing the offset time of the synchronisation code from a reference time. The reference time is associated with the time of transmission of a particular reference portion of the modulation code of the direct spread spectrum signaling. |
| US07986723B2 |
Delay estimation apparatus and method
Delay estimation apparatus and method, comprising: a correlation step which a correlation function between a received signal and a supplied template waveform is generated, AD conversion step at which said correlation output generated at said correlation step is uniformly sampled into discrete samples; and arithmetic operation step at which a time delay estimate of the received signal based on said discrete samples generated at said AD conversion step is computed, wherein a selection criterion depending on the digital sampling frequency used at said AD conversion means is checked, if said selection criterion is satisfied, computes the time delay estimate based on the direct pick method, and if said selection criterion does not hold, computes the time delay estimate based on the simplified maximum likelihood (ML) method. |
| US07986721B2 |
Semiconductor optical device including a PN junction formed by a second region of a first conductive type semiconductor layer and a second conductive type single semiconductor layer
In a semiconductor optical device, the first conductive type semiconductor region includes a first semiconductor portion and a second semiconductor portion. The first and second regions of the first semiconductor portion are arranged along a predetermined plane. The second semiconductor portion is provided on the first region of the first semiconductor portion. The active layer is provided on the second semiconductor portion of the first conductive type semiconductor region. The second conductive type semiconductor region is provided on the second region of the first semiconductor portion of the first conductive type semiconductor region. The side of the second semiconductor portion of the first conductive type semiconductor region, the top and side of the active layer, the second region of the first conductive type semiconductor region and the second conductive type semiconductor region constitute a pn junction. The first distributed Bragg reflector portion includes first distributed Bragg reflector layers and second distributed Bragg reflector layers which are arranged alternately. The second distributed Bragg reflector portion includes third distributed Bragg reflector layers and fourth distributed Bragg reflector layers which are arranged alternately. The first conductive type semiconductor region, the active layer and the second conductive type semiconductor region are provided between the first distributed Bragg reflector portion and the second distributed Bragg reflector layers. |
| US07986719B2 |
Packet header compression for lossy channels
The disclosed systems and methods provide for the compression and decompression of packet headers. An uncompressed header can be compressed in size to form a smaller, compressed header, such that the compressed header can include values that can be used to re-produce the uncompressed header. A compressed header can include at least two such values. A first value of the at least two values can be computed based on a second, earlier uncompressed header and can be used to derive the uncompressed header. Similarly, a second value of the at least two values can be computed based on a third uncompressed header and can be used to derive the same uncompressed header. Accordingly, the uncompressed header can be derived based on the first value and the second uncompressed header, or based on the second value and the third uncompressed header. The uncompressed header, second uncompressed header, and third uncompressed header can be associated with different packets. |
| US07986714B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting packets in wireless network
Provided is an apparatus and method for transmitting packets in a wireless network. The apparatus includes a motion calculation unit, a transmission repetition adjustment unit, and a packet transmission repetition unit. The motion calculation unit calculates the motion value of a mobile terminal. The transmission repetition adjustment unit receives N-value determination information and determines the number of repetitions (N value) of transmission of a packet transmitted and received by the mobile terminal based on the received N-value determination information, and the motion value calculated by the motion calculation unit. The packet transmission repetition unit repeatedly transmits the packet, which is received from a data link layer, to a physical layer according to the N value determined by the transmission repetition adjustment unit. |
| US07986710B2 |
Communication system for providing updatable information via polling communication
In a communication system, an information processing apparatus communicates with an information management apparatus via polling communication. In the information management apparatus, specification information including information specifying a timing condition of polling communication is stored, and the specification information is transmitted to the information processing apparatus in response to a request from the information processing apparatus. Transmission of the specification information is performed each time the request is issued via polling communication by the information processing apparatus when the specified timing condition is met. In the information processing apparatus, if the specification information is received, the timing condition is set such that next polling communication is performed when the time condition specified by the specification information is met. The polling communication is started when the timing condition set by the setting unit is met to request the provision of specification information specifying the timing condition of further next polling communication. |
| US07986709B2 |
Systems and methods for increasing the capacity of a channel in a communications system
In accordance with a method for increasing the capacity of a channel in a communications system, characteristics of a channel may be evaluated. The channel may include a plurality of slots, and the slots may have a slot format among a set of slot formats. A slot format among the set of slot formats may be selected. The selection may be based on the evaluated characteristics of the channel. Selecting the slot format may include selecting the position of a signal within each of the plurality of slots. The position of the signal may be different for each of the slot formats. The signal may be transmitted in each of the plurality of slots over the channel. |
| US07986708B2 |
Local area network of serial intelligent cells
A serial intelligent cell (SIC) and a connection topology for local area networks using Electrically-conducting media. A local area network can be configured from a plurality of SIC's interconnected so that all communications between two adjacent SIC's is both point-to-point and bidirectional. Each SIC can be connected to one or more other SIC's to allow redundant communication paths. Communications in different areas of a SIC network are independent of one another, so that, unlike current bus topology and star topology, there is no fundamental limit on the size or extent of a SIC network. Each SIC can optionally be connected to one or more data terminals, computers, telephones, sensors, actuators, etc., to facilitate interconnectivity among such devices. Networks according to the present invention can be configured for a variety of applications, including a local telephone system, remote computer bus extender, multiplexers, PABX/PBX functionality, security systems, and local broadcasting services. The network can use dedicated wiring, as well as existing wiring as the in-house telephone or electrical wiring. |
| US07986706B2 |
Hierarchical pipelined distributed scheduling traffic manager
A hierarchical pipelined distributed scheduling traffic manager includes multiple hierarchical levels to perform hierarchical winner selection and propagation in a pipeline including selecting and propagating winner queues of a lower level to subsequent levels to determine one final winning queue. The winner selection and propagation is performed in parallel between the levels to reduce the time required in selecting the final winning queue. In some embodiments, the hierarchical traffic manager is separated into multiple separate sliced hierarchical traffic managers to distributively process the traffic. |
| US07986699B2 |
Method for downlink packet scheduling using service delay time and channel state
The present invention provides a method for downlink packet scheduling for scheduling a real-time service and a non-real-time service. The method for downlink packet scheduling includes steps of: a) classifying inputted packets based on a type of packet and storing a maximum delay time information of the packets; b) determining a user urgency of the packets by using the maximum delay time information and a channel state by using an instantaneous channel state, an average channel state, or a ratio of the instantaneous channel state and the average channel state; c) determining a priority based on the user urgency and the channel state; and d) transmitting the packets according to the priority. |
| US07986697B2 |
Method for processing information fragments and a device having information fragment processing capabilities
A device and method for processing information fragments, the method includes: receiving multiple information fragments from multiple communication paths; wherein the each information fragment is associated with a cyclic serial number indicating of a generation time of the information fragment; storing the multiple information fragments in multiple input queues, each input queue being associated with a communication path out of the multiple communication paths; determining whether at least one serial number associated with at least one valid information fragment positioned in a head of one of the multiple input queues is located within a pre-rollout serial number range; mapping, in response to the determination, serial numbers associated with each of the valid information fragment positioned in the heads of the multiple input queues to at least one serial number range that differs from the pre-rollout serial number range; and sending to an output queue information fragment metadata associated with a minimal valued serial number out of the serial numbers associated with each of the valid information fragment positioned in the heads of the multiple input queues. |
| US07986695B1 |
Automatic selection of site-IDs for virtual private networks
Techniques are described for automatically selecting virtual private network (VPN) site-IDs for each customer site within a VPN established over a network. The techniques described herein enable a network router within a VPN to automatically allocate unique site-IDs for each customer site included in the VPN in a dense manner. In some cases, the VPNs may comprise virtual private local area network (LAN) service (VPLS) domains that transmit layer two (L2) traffic between customer sites, i.e., VPLS sites, via the network. For example, a network service provider may configure a network device, such as a router, to belong to one or more VPNs. When a customer site within one of the VPNs connects to the router, the router configures the customer site on the router. The router then automatically selects a site-ID for the customer site configured on the router. |
| US07986690B2 |
Inter-gateway cloned device detector using provisioning request analysis
In one embodiment, a cloned cable modem detector is configured to assemble a table associating cable modem physical addresses to Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTSs) according to provisioning requests forwarded from the CMTSs. When one of the provisioning requests associates a cable modem physical address with a different CMTS than an existing association in the table, the detector outputs an indication of cable modem cloning. |
| US07986687B2 |
Multicast data transfer
An edge router (6) for multicast data transfer comprises a cache (10). In response to a request for a file from a host (3a), the router (6) retrieves the file from a content provider (2). The file, comprising data packets A-G, is stored in the cache (10) before transmission to host (3a) to allow the receipt of requests for the same file from other hosts (3b, 3c). A timer is activated to count down through a predetermined waiting period T. A file delivery group is defined, comprising host (3a). Any other hosts (3b, 3c) located in the same cell as host (3a), requesting the same file during period T are added to the group. When a predetermined number of requests have been received or, alternatively, when the waiting period T expires, the file is retrieved from the cache (10) and forwarded to the hosts (3a, 3b, 3c), in the group. |
| US07986686B2 |
Techniques for distributing network provider digital content to customer premises nodes
Techniques for distributing digital content include receiving provider content over a network connection at a customer premises node located on premises of a first customer. The provider content is offered by a network service provider different from the first customer. Provider data based on the provider content is stored in non-volatile storage on the customer premises node of the first customer. It is determined whether conditions are satisfied for sending the provider content to a second customer different from the first customer. If it is determined that such conditions are satisfied, then the provider data is retrieved from the non-volatile storage, and data based on the provider data is sent over the network connection for receipt by the second customer. Thereby a customer premises node serves as a cache of provider content for other customer premises nodes on the same last mile segment or access network. |
| US07986683B2 |
System for setting router identifier in network supporting at least one protocol and method of controlling the same
A system for setting a router identifier in a network supporting at least one protocol. The system includes an interface storage storing information about at least one port and its Internet protocol address, a router identifier storage storing information about a reference router identifier, an interface manager referring to the interface storage to set information about the Internet protocol address of the port having the highest priority as the reference router identifier, and storing a value of the reference router identifier in the router identifier storage, and at least one daemon process accessing the router identifier storage when automatically setting the router identifier in conjunction with the generation of an event, looking up the value of the reference router identifier, and setting the stored reference router identifier as the router identifier thereof. |
| US07986682B2 |
Error control method, medium access control (MAC) frame designing method, and terminal registration method in wireless communication system, and recording medium
In a method of registering with an access point in a terminal of a wireless communication system, a frame includes a downlink sub-frame including a broadcast interval and a first management connection interval, and an uplink sub-frame including an access interval and a second management connection interval, the broadcast interval being used for transmitting a map message, the method includes: sending a first ranging request message to the access point using the access interval; receiving allocation information of a ranging slot from the access point using the map message; performing ranging through the ranging slot; sending a registration request message to the access point using the second management connection interval; and receiving information on whether to permit the registering from the access point using the first management connection interval. |
| US07986681B2 |
Subframes in a cellular communications system
The invention discloses a method for a cellular communications system, in which traffic is sent in frames, each frame comprising a first number of subframes, with a second number of said subframes being available for at least either uplink or downlink traffic. At least one of said second number of subframes is made to comprise at least three parts, as follows: One part which is utilized for uplink traffic, One part which is utilized for downlink traffic, One part which is utilized as a guard period, with said guard period part being scheduled between the uplink and the downlink parts. The duration of at least two of said three parts may be varied to fit the current system need. |
| US07986678B2 |
System and method for implementing local base stations
A wireless communication system includes mobile devices and a local area network. Local base stations are coupled to the local area network. Each base station has a unique address on the network and is configured to transmit and receive data packets to and from the mobile devices and to transfer the data packets between local base stations over the network using the unique address. A subscription server operates on the network. The subscription server is configured to store data identifying the unique address of the local base station covering each of the mobile devices. The subscription server is further configured to enable the local base stations to locate any one of the mobile devices. A redirection software module is configured to send and receive data packets over a wide-area wireless network to and from mobile devices that are not within range of any of the local base stations. |
| US07986676B2 |
Techniques to manage communication rates in a wireless network
System, apparatus, and method to manage data communication rates in a wireless network are described. In an embodiment, a system may include multiple antennas, multiple transceivers to connect to the multiple antennas; and a media access controller to connect to the transceivers. The media access controller may send a first physical protocol data unit having a first number of media access control protocol data units using the transceivers. The media access controller may receive an acknowledgement message to indicate a second number of media access control protocol data units received from the first physical protocol data unit. The media access controller may select a third number of media access control protocol data units for a second physical protocol data unit using the second number. |
| US07986665B2 |
Conferencing PSTN gateway methods and apparatus to facilitate heterogeneous wireless network handovers for mobile communication devices
A mobile communication device operating in a wireless local area network (WLAN) of a communication network maintains an inter-enterprise voice call via its WLAN interface (e.g. 802.11/VoIP/SIP) with another communication device in the communication network. During the voice call, a handover of the voice call from the WLAN to a wireless wide area network (WWAN) (e.g. GSM/GPRS) is identified. In response to identifying a handover indication, the mobile device causes a request message (e.g. a SIP INVITE message) to be sent over the WWAN to the conferencing gateway for establishing a first connection leg through the WWAN via its WWAN interface with a conference room of the conferencing gateway. The mobile device also causes a re-routing message (e.g. a SIP REFER message) to be sent to the communication device, so that a second connection leg between the communication device and the conference room may be established. |
| US07986664B2 |
Point to point radio bearers for a broadcasting service
A method for establishing a connection between user equipment (UE) and an associated network includes receiving at the UE a service announcement providing a description of an available broadcast service and at least one identifier which identifies the broadcast service, and receiving at the UE a setup message which establishes a point-to-point radio bearer between the UE and the network, such that the setup message includes the identifier which is used to identify that the radio bearer carriers the broadcast service. |
| US07986663B2 |
Apparatus for setting communication channels adaptively to a radio wave environment to improve the degree of freedom of deployment and a method therefor
A wireless LAN includes two interfaces with a transmitter-receiver function and a channel controller. One of the two interfaces employs one communication channel to search for a communication channel being used by a destination communication unit. The channel controller determines a surrounding radio wave condition based on the communication channel obtained by the searching, and controls channel setting so that the respective communication channels of the two interfaces differ from each. |
| US07986657B2 |
Selective activation of field devices in low power wireless mesh networks
A control system uses a wireless network to provided communication between a host computer and field devices. The field devices are normally maintained in a lower power or sleep state. Only field devices that will be involved in a communication with the host computer are turned On and maintained On until communication between the field devices and the host computer is completed. |
| US07986656B2 |
Method and system for inter-network mobile number portability
A method for inter-network communication between a first and second user. The method includes receiving a first request for a location associated with the second user from a first switching system for a first network in response to a second request. The method processes information associated with the first request and determines a network identifier for a second network related to the location associated with the second user, and sends the first switching system a location message, including the network identifier for the second network. The method includes receiving a third request for routing information associated with the second user from a second switching system for the second network. The method determines a location directory in the second network for the second user and receives the roaming information for the second user from the location directory. The method then sends the roaming information to the second switching system. |
| US07986654B1 |
Methods, computer program products and apparatus providing low complexity determination of cross-correlations
The exemplary embodiments of the invention provide methods, computer program products and apparatus for determining cross-correlations between the received signals in a set of users. An exemplary method includes: receiving an input signal comprising a plurality of user signals, selecting a first received signal and a second received signal from the plurality of user signals, determining a timing offset between the first signal and the second signal, and using the determined timing offset, a first identification of the first signal, and a second identification of the second signal as indices to retrieve at least one cross-correlation coefficient from a memory. |
| US07986653B2 |
Wireless data transmission between base station and transponder with transmission parameter adjusted based on transponder operating information
Data encoded in packets modulated onto a carrier wave is transmitted between a base station and a transponder. Each packet includes a header section that contains at least a reference symbol and that serves for adjusting one or more transmission parameters, and a further section such as a data section. The transponder transmits data back to the base station through modulation and backscattering of the carrier wave. During the transmission of the header section by the base station, the transponder transmits transponder operating information relating to the processing of data to be received and/or transmitted by the transponder, by corresponding modulation and backscattering of the carrier wave. In response to and dependent on the received transponder operating information, the base station adjusts at least one transmission parameter, whereby the highest data transmission rate within the capabilities of the particular transponder can be achieved. |
| US07986646B2 |
Communication apparatus, communication method, communication circuit, mobile phone, program, and computer readable recording medium with program recorded therein
A communication apparatus (1) is a primary station for communicating with a secondary station, and includes: a first protocol control section (111) for transmitting, at a time when communication connection is to be established with the secondary station, (i) a station discovery command with which to confirm a presence of the secondary station, and (ii) a first connect request command, after the station discovery command is transmitted, so as to carry out connection processing; second protocol control means (112) for transmitting, at a time when communication connection is to be established with the secondary station, a second connect request command so as to carry out connection processing; and a protocol switching section (113) for (i) causing the first protocol control section (111) to initially transmit the station discovery command, and in a case where a response to the station discovery command has not been received after an elapse of a predetermined time since the station discovery command was transmitted, (ii) causing the second protocol control section (112) to transmit the second connect request command. |
| US07986644B2 |
Multi-fidelity conferencing bridge
Embodiments according to the present invention allow multiple parties equipped with telecommunications devices (endpoint devices) of similar or differing audio capabilities to join in a conference call and enjoy the fidelity associated with their equipment. Rather than operating with the frequency and fidelity limits of traditional telecommunications circuits (for example, about 300-3500 Hz), at least a portion of a conference bridge according to the present invention operates at higher frequencies. Conference participants using high-fidelity endpoint devices hear each other with greater clarity and reproduction accuracy. Conference participants using conventional interfaces send and receive lower-fidelity audio, but it affects only their own participation and not that of the entire conference. Participants can connect via for example, wireline, wireless Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or via networks such as the Internet. Multiple voice encoding schemes are accommodated. |
| US07986643B2 |
Determining and distributing routing paths for nodes in a network
Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, computer-storage media, mechanisms, and means associated with determining and distributing routing paths for nodes in a network. For each route computational node of multiple route computational nodes in a network: a tree of paths between itself and each of multiple nodes in the network is determined. A particular tree of paths is determined for a particular node of these multiple nodes to the other nodes based on at least two of the determined trees of paths for the route computational nodes. The particular node then sends a packet towards a destination based on the particular tree of paths determined for the particular node. |
| US07986638B2 |
Method to dynamically create a virtual network
A method creates a virtual network dynamically, with automated configuration for the new virtual network to function. The virtual network creation is initiated by a network node sending a request for a virtual network to a network controller. The network controller services the request, creating the virtual network by automatically configuring at least one network switch in the physical network. The network controller automatically determines a configuration for the virtual network using virtual network information, and creates the virtual network by configuring network switches according to the configuration. The virtual network can be configured for particular applications. From a user's point of view, the user connects to a network node. The network node then initiates the creation of the virtual network transparently to the user. The resource-intensive manual configurations of the conventional approach in creating new virtual networks are thus avoided. |
| US07986635B2 |
Wireless communication apparatus, communication control program, and communication control method
A wireless communication apparatus wirelessly communicable with a plurality of communication devices including an identifier naming unit configured to give each of the plurality of communication devices at least one local identifiers allowed to be set optionally, a communication device management unit configured to associate the local identifier with a pre-assigned identifier to each of the plurality of communication devices, and to manage a relation between the plurality of communication devices with the local identifiers, and an identifier display control unit configured to control a display device to display the local identifier in place of the pre-assigned identifier as information specifying a currently wirelessly communicable communication device among the plurality of communication devices. |
| US07986634B2 |
Apparatus and method for measuring quality of sound encoded with a variable band multi-codec
Provided are a method and apparatus for measuring sound quality in a variable band multi-codec. The sound quality measurement apparatus includes: a recording file receiving/generating unit receiving a first recording file in which a natural sound is recorded, and a second recording file obtained by converting the natural sound into digital data using the variable band multi-codec, receiving information obtained by encoding the natural sound using the variable band multi-codec, in the format of a Real Time Protocol (RTP) packet, unpacking the RTP packet, decoding the RTP packet using the variable band multi-codec, and generating a third recording file; a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) value calculating unit repeatedly selecting a file from among the first recording file, the second recording file, and the third recording file, or selecting two files from among the first recording file, the second recording file, and the third recording file, and calculating a MOS value by obtaining a difference between the selected results; and a MOS value comparison unit comparing a plurality of MOS values generated by the MOS value calculating unit, with each other, and detecting a cause of sound quality deterioration. |
| US07986633B2 |
Method of controlling data transmission for multimedia and broadcasting services in a broadband wireless access system
The present invention relates to a method of controlling data transmission for a multimedia and broadcasting service in a broadband wireless access system. As an aspect of the present invention, a base station receives feedback information including burst profile information with which a terminal can receive MBS data without errors and the base station configures an appropriate burst profile and transmit the MBS data using the burst profile to the terminal, thereby reception errors in the terminal can be minimized and radio resources can be used efficiently. |
| US07986628B2 |
Communication apparatus and program therefor, and data frame transmission control method
A communication apparatus including a physical layer processing unit that transmits data to a communication medium and a lower-layer processing unit that performs transmission control is provided. The transmission control includes at least one of aggregated-frame transmission control in which a data frame is supplied to the physical layer processing unit as an aggregated frame by aggregating the data frame with at least one other data frame, and single-frame transmission control in which the data frame is supplied to the physical layer processing unit as a single frame. The lower-layer processing unit determines whether to supply the data frame to the physical layer processing unit as the aggregated frame by performing the aggregated-frame transmission control or as the single frame by performing the single-frame transmission control based on a type of data contained in a payload of the data frame. |
| US07986625B2 |
Resource-aware system, method and program product for managing request traffic based on a management policy
Under the present invention, the performance of a set of system resources is monitored in response to incoming request traffic. When a system resource is approaching an overload condition, a corrective action is identified and implemented. Overload thresholds for each system resource and appropriate corrective actions are contained within a management policy. Based on a performance history of the corrective actions, the management policy can be changed/revised. |
| US07986621B2 |
Apparatus and method to set the signaling rate for a plurality of data storage devices
A signaling speed module wherein that signaling speed module sets the signaling rate for each of a plurality of data storage devices. In certain embodiments of the invention, the signaling speed module comprises a memory device encoded with a pre-determined signaling rate. In other embodiments of the invention, the signaling speed module comprises a speed selection module, wherein that speed selection module sets the signaling rate for each of a plurality of data storage devices. |
| US07986618B2 |
Distinguishing between link and node failure to facilitate fast reroute
Systems and methods for distinguishing a node failure from a link failure are provided. By strengthening the assumption of independent failures, bandwidth sharing among backup tunnels protecting links and nodes of a network is facilitated as well as distributed computation of backup tunnel placement. Thus a backup tunnel overlay network can provide guaranteed bandwidth in the event of a failure. |
| US07986614B2 |
Delay restricted channel estimation for multi-carrier systems
A method is disclosed that includes channel estimation for a multi-carrier modulation of a plurality of subcarriers. The method includes performing a first channel estimation to obtain a first estimate of a channel based on a received signal. The method further includes suppressing a portion of elements of the first estimate of the channel to obtain a suppressed estimate of the channel. The method also includes multiplying the suppressed estimate of the channel by a first matrix to obtain a delay restricted estimate of the channel. |
| US07986612B2 |
Communication terminal apparatus, base station apparatus and reception quality reporting method
A communication terminal apparatus that can eliminate the waste of reception quality report, suppress the interference of an upstream network, perform an optimum assignment using a scheduling, prevent the loss of resources, and ensure the fairness of transmission assignment using the scheduling. In this apparatus, a reception quality determining part (110) uses a pilot signal, which is included in a received signal, to determine the reception quality for each of subcarrier blocks. A CQI generating part (111) generates CQIs each of which is the information indicative of a result of the determination by the reception quality determining part (110). A sorting part (112) sorts the CQIs in descending or ascending order of the reception quality. A control part (113) instructs, based on information about the number of subcarrier blocks in which the CQIs have been transmitted, collision information and scheduling information, the sorting part (112) with respect to the number of subcarrier blocks in which the CQIs are outputted. |
| US07986611B1 |
High-density optical recording media and method for making same
The present disclosure provides a high-density optical storage medium which comprises a substrate structure having a thickness of 1.0 mm or more and including one or more information layers, a high-density information layer bonded via an adhesive spacer layer to the substrate structure, and a cover layer over the high-density information layer. The high-density information layer can be formed by transferring a reflective film to the substrate structure from a substrate formed of a material (such as polymethyl methacrylate) that does not bond well with the reflective film. |
| US07986610B2 |
Adaptive writing method for high-density optical recording apparatus and circuit thereof
An adaptive writing method of a high-density optical recording apparatus and a circuit thereof. The circuit includes a discriminator for discriminating a magnitude of a present mark of input NRZI data and magnitudes of leading and/or trailing spaces of the input NRZI data, a generator for controlling the waveform of a write pulse in accordance with the magnitude of the present mark of the input NRZI data and the magnitudes of the leading and/or trailing spaces of the input NRZI data to generate an adaptive write pulse, and a driver for driving a light source by converting the adaptive write pulse into a current signal in accordance with driving power levels for respective channels of the adaptive write pulse. The widths of the first and/or last pulses of the write pulse waveform are varied in accordance with the magnitude of the present mark of input NRZI data and the magnitude of the leading and/or trailing spaces, thereby minimizing jitter to enhance system reliability and performance. |
| US07986608B2 |
Laminated wave plate and optical pickup device using the same
A laminated wave plate of the present invention includes a first wave plate having a phase difference of Γ1 and a second wave plate having a phase difference of Γ2 with respect to a wavelength λ, the first wave plate and the second wave plate being bonded together so that an optical axis of the first wave plate and an optical axis of the second wave plate intersect each other to function as a quarter-wave plate as a whole, the laminated wave plate comprising following equations from (1) to (6): Γ1=360×(n1+1) . . . (1); Γ2=90×(2×n2+1 . . . (2); ΔΓ1=(Γ12a−Γ11a)/(λ12−λ11) . . . (3); ΔΓ2=(Γ12b−Γ11b)/(λ12−λ11) . . . (4); cos 2θ1=1−(1−cos ΔΓ2)/{2×(1−cos Δθ1)}. . . (5); and θ2=45°±5°. . . (6), wherein θ1 is an optic axis orientation of the first wave plate, θ2 is an optic axis orientation of the second wave plate, and each of λ11≦λ≦λ12, n1, and n2 is a natural number starting from 1. |
| US07986601B2 |
Multi-purpose high-density optical disc
An optical recording medium includes a first half-disc and a second half-disc. The first half-disc includes a substrate and an information layer (including a reflective layer) formed on a first side of the substrate. The second half-disc is bonded by an adhesive to a second side of the substrate of the first half-disc. In addition, a cover layer is formed over the first reflective layer. The cover layer has a thickness of approximately 0.1 mm. The substrate of the first half-disc has a thickness in a range of 0.3 mm to 1.0 mm. The first and second half-discs together have a combined thickness in a range of 0.8 mm to 1.3 mm. |
| US07986598B2 |
Recording methods and devices for recording information on dual layer recordable disks
The invention relates to recording methods for recording information on a dual layer recordable disk, and to corresponding recording devices. In one such method and recording device the OPC-area is variably located on a layer of the disk. In a preferred embodiment the OPC-area is located relative close to the radius where the data stream switches from the first layer to the second layer. This reduced additional time required for jumping to a fixed OPC-area. Furthermore, in another such method and device the information to be recorded is equally divided over both layers of the dual layer disc. This avoids additional time required for finalization. |
| US07986594B2 |
Optical pickup
An optical pickup has a lens actuator, at least one suspension wire having a first end and an opposite second end, the lens actuator being held by the wire at the first end, and a support base to which the wire is fixed at the second end. The support base has at least one cutaway section provided as corresponding to the wire, having a concavity to receive at least partially the wire in cross section orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the wire, the concavity curving in a direction parallel to the cross section of the wire, and a land formed around the cutaway section, the wire being soldered to the land at the second end while the wire is being received at least partially by the concavity. |
| US07986578B2 |
Low voltage sense amplifier and sensing method
Systems and methods of sensing a data state coupled to a digit line and for coupling a digit line to a sense amplifier. In sensing the data state coupled to the digit line, the digit line is coupled to a sense node and driving voltages provided to the sense amplifier. The data state is latched in response to the driving voltages. In coupling the digit line to a sense amplifier, the digit line is coupled to the sense amplifier for a first time period and decoupled from the sense amplifier for a second time period. The digit line is coupled to the sense amplifier at a controlled rate following the second time period. |
| US07986577B2 |
Precharge voltage supplying circuit
A precharge voltage supplying circuit comprises a control signal generating unit for generating a first control signal in response to a power-up signal and a clock enable signal, and a precharge voltage control unit having a bleeder circuit and driving the bleeder circuit in response to the first control signal to control a precharge voltage. The precharge voltage supplying circuit can be widely used in various devices which need the generation of a voltage, a level of which is adjustable according to a PVT characteristic change, and a range of change of which is not so large. |
| US07986576B2 |
Digit line equilibration using access devices at the edge of sub-arrays
A method of equilibrating digit lines, a memory array, device, system and wafer for digit lines configured in an open digit line architecture. The digit lines are equilibrated by coupling a terminated end of a first digit line to an equilibration reference and coupling an unterminated end of a second digit line to the terminated end of the first digit line. The memory array is configured with the first and second digit lines arranged directly adjacent to each other. |
| US07986575B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and redundancy method therefor
A memory cell array is formed by arranging memory cells at intersections of plural first wirings and plural second wirings, and a rectifying element and a variable resistive element are connected in series in the memory cell. The variable resistive element has at least a first resistance value and a second resistance value that is higher than the first resistance value. The control circuit selectively drives the first wirings and the second wirings. The control circuit can perform a short-circuit failure countermeasure program operation. In the short-circuit failure countermeasure program operation, the variable resistive element of the memory cell whose rectifying element is in a short-circuit failure state is programmed from the first resistance value to the second resistance value. |
| US07986573B2 |
Programming memory with direct bit line driving to reduce channel-to-floating gate coupling
During programming of storage elements, channel-to-floating gate coupling effects are compensated to avoid increased programming speed and threshold voltage distribution widening. In connection with a programming iteration, unselected bit lines voltages are stepped up to induce coupling to selected bit lines. Dedicated power supplies can be used to provide the step up to avoid a risk that the unselected bit lines begin floating due to pre-charging of other bit lines The selected bit lines are coupled higher as a function of their proximity to unselected bit lines, and in preparation for applying a program pulse. Coupling may be used for slow and fast programming modes. A dedicated power supply can be provided for driving slow programming mode bit lines at a level which provides coupling compensation. |
| US07986570B2 |
Very small swing high performance asynchronous CMOS static memory (multi-port register file) with power reducing column multiplexing scheme
The present invention relates to a multi-port register file memory or SRAM including a plurality of storage elements and other circuitry that operate synchronously or asynchronously. The storage elements are arranged in rows and columns and store data. Two read port pairs are coupled to each of the storage elements and a differential sensing device or circuit. The read port is coupled to the storage elements in an isolated manner, enabling a plurality of cells to be arranged in such rows and columns. The sensing device is adapted to sense a small voltage swing. A column mux circuit is coupled to each column and the sensing device. Performance is not degraded unusually as the power supply voltage is reduced due to bus drop or inductive effects. |
| US07986567B2 |
Read buffering systems for accessing multiple layers of memory in integrated circuits
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to data storage and computer memory, and more particularly, to systems, integrated circuits and methods for accessing memory in multiple layers of memory implementing, for example, third dimension memory technology. In a specific embodiment, an integrated circuit is configured to implement write buffers to access multiple layers of memory. For example, the integrated circuit can include memory cells disposed in multiple layers of memory. In one embodiment, the memory cells can be third dimension memory cells. The integrated circuit can also include read buffers that can be sized differently than the write buffers. In at least one embodiment, write buffers can be sized as a function of a write cycle. Each layer of memory can include a plurality of two-terminal memory elements that retain stored data in the absence of power and store data as a plurality of conductivity profiles. |
| US07986563B2 |
NAND flash memory programming
A method of charging a floating gate in a nonvolatile memory cell comprises bringing a substrate channel within the memory cell to a first voltage, bringing a control gate to a programming voltage, and floating the substrate channel voltage while the control gate is at the programming voltage. Memory devices include state machines or controllers operable to perform the described method, and operation of such a state machine, memory device, and information handling system are described. |
| US07986560B2 |
Flash memory devices that utilize age-based verify voltages to increase data reliability and methods of operating same
Disclosed is a method of verifying a programmed condition of a flash memory device, being comprised of: determining a level of an additional verifying voltage in response to the number of programming/erasing cycles of memory cells; conducting a verifying operation to programmed memory cells with an initial verifying voltage lower than the additional verifying voltage; and selectively conducting an additional verifying operation with the additional verifying voltage to the program-verified memory cells in response to the number of programming/erasing cycles. |
| US07986559B2 |
Method of operating nonvolatile memory device
A method of operating a nonvolatile memory device includes performing a first program operation and a first verification operation on memory cells until a cell, having a threshold voltage higher than a first reference voltage, occurs and, when a cell having the threshold voltage higher than the first reference voltage occurs, performing a second program operation and performing a second verification operation using a second reference voltage higher than the first reference voltage. |
| US07986557B2 |
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and nonvolatile semiconductor memory system
A memory may include word lines; bit lines; cells provided corresponding to intersections between the word lines and the bit lines; sense amplifiers detecting data; a column decoder selecting a certain bit line for the sense amplifiers to output read data or receive write data; a row decoder configured to select a certain word line; a charge pump supplying power to the sense amplifiers, the column decoder, and the row decoder; a logic circuit controlling the sense amplifiers, the column decoder, and the row decoder based on an address selecting the memory cells; a first power source input applying a voltage to the logic circuit; and a second power source input applying a voltage higher than a voltage of the first power source input to the charge pump, and to supply power to the charge pump at least at a data reading time and a data writing time. |
| US07986556B2 |
Methods of operating non-volatile memory devices
Methods of operating non-volatile memory devices are described. The memory devices comprise memory cells having an n-type semiconductor substrate and p-type source and drain regions disposed below a surface of the substrate and separated by a channel region. A tunneling dielectric layer is disposed above the channel region. A charge storage layer is disposed above the tunneling dielectric layer. An upper insulating layer is disposed above the charge storage layer, and a gate is disposed above the upper insulating multi-layer structure. A positive bias is applied to a word line of the memory device in a selected memory cell and a negative bias is applied to a bit line in the selected cell. In another memory device, opposite polarity voltages are applied to the bit line and the word line. |
| US07986553B2 |
Programming of a solid state memory utilizing analog communication of bit patterns
Memory devices adapted to receive and transmit analog data signals representative of bit patterns of two or more bits facilitate increases in data transfer rates relative to devices communicating data signals indicative of individual bits. Programming of such memory devices includes preprogramming erased memory cells that are to be programmed to a known Vt that is less than the smallest Vt of the possible programmable states. Thus, the subsequent programming pulses start programming all cells from the known threshold voltage. |
| US07986552B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device and method of operation to program/read data by encoding/decoding using actual data and random data for program/read operation
A nonvolatile memory device includes a data conversion unit including an encoder and a decoder. The encoder sets data for each of word lines and creates second data to be programmed into a plurality of memory cells by performing a logical operation on the set data and first data input for programming. The decoder creates the first data by performing a logical operation on the second data that is read from the memory cells and the set data. |
| US07986547B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array having a plurality of read word lines, a plurality of first and second read bit lines, and a plurality of memory cells arranged in array. The memory cell includes a first and a second cell node in complementary pair, a first drive transistor controlled by the second cell node, and a second drive transistor controlled by the first cell node. The read word line and the first read bit line are connected with each other via the first drive transistor. The read word line and the second read bit line are connected with each other via the second drive transistor. |
| US07986539B2 |
Method and apparatus for maximum power point tracking in power conversion based on dual feedback loops and power ripples
A method and apparatus for converting DC input power to AC output power. The apparatus comprises a conversion module comprising an input capacitor, and a first feedback loop for determining a maximum power point (MPP) and operating the conversion module proximate the MPP. The apparatus additionally comprises a second feedback loop for determining a difference in energy storage and delivery by the input capacitor, producing an error signal indicative of the difference, and coupling the error signal to the first feedback loop to adjust at least one operating parameter of the conversion module to drive toward the MPP. |
| US07986532B2 |
Split thin film capacitor for multiple voltages
An apparatus includes a split thin film capacitor for providing multiple power and reference supply voltage levels to electrical devices such as integrated circuits. Such capacitor may be useful in space restricted applications, and in applications that require very close electrical connections between the power consumer and the power supply. An example of both a space restricted application and a close coupling application may be an integrated circuit (IC) such as a microprocessor. The capacitor supplying and moderating power to the microprocessor needs to be closely coupled in order to respond to instantaneous power demands that may be found in high clock rate microprocessors, and the space inside a microprocessor package is very restricted. The microprocessor may use a lower voltage power supply level for minimum sized fast transistors in the fast core logic portions of the microprocessor, and a more normal voltage power supply voltage level for the cache memory and I/0 transistor portions of the microprocessor. Thus a compact capacitor with multiple power and reference supply levels may be needed to provide the required power for a high frequency IC. |
| US07986528B2 |
Cooling plate structure of cooling apparatus and transmitter with the cooling apparatus
A cooling plate structure of a cooling apparatus includes a cooling plate and at least one refrigerant circulating conduit disposed in the cooling plate. The conduit includes refrigerant introducing and discharging ports disposed side by side on an outer surface of the cooling plate in an exposed state, a flow-in part extending from the introducing port to an intermediate position between the introducing port and the discharging port in the cooling plate, and a flow-out part extending along the flow-in part from the intermediate position to the discharging port such that flow-out part is separated from the flow-in part. Heat generating elements are disposed along the circulating conduit at an intermediate portion between a flow-in part corresponding portion and a flow-out part corresponding portion, both corresponding to the flow-in part and flow-out part of the circulating conduit, on the outer surface of the cooling plate. |
| US07986525B2 |
Support mechanism and electronic device using the same
A support mechanism includes a connecting portion and a support member. The support member includes a main body rotatably connected to the connecting portion and a support portion extending from one end of the main body. A first magnet is positioned on the connecting portion. A second magnet is positioned on the support member. The magnetic force generated between the first magnet and the second magnet rotates the support member relative to the connecting portion. An electronic device using the same is also provided. |
| US07986522B2 |
Portable terminal device
A portable telephone 1 is a portable terminal device in which a telephone receiving housing 2 is coupled to a telephone transmitting housing 3 by a coupling portion 4 such that they can be opened and closed. In the telephone receiving housing 2, a projecting portion 21 is formed on an end portion of a first face S1, which faces the telephone transmitting housing 3 in the closed state. In the telephone transmitting housing 3, a notched portion 22 is formed in an end portion thereof, in which the projecting portion 21 is arranged such that the projecting portion is rotatably coupled to notched portion 22. A switch is provided inside the projecting portion 21 and a sub-key capable of depressing this switch is provided to the projecting portion 21. The sub-key is provided on a surface of the projecting portion 21 in such a manner that a depression direction of the sub-key coincides with a depression direction of the main key in the opened state. |
| US07986521B2 |
Heat dissipation device and computer using same
A heat dissipation device includes a fin unit, a fan and a fan duct. The fin unit includes a plurality of fins stacked together. An airflow channel is defined between each two neighboring fins. The fan includes an air inlet and an opposite air outlet. The fan duct communicates the airflow channels of the fin unit and the fan. The fan duct includes a first flue connected to the air inlet of the fan and a second flue connected to the fin unit. The second flue includes a first side plate and a second side plate covering on two neighboring sides of the fin unit, respectively. |
| US07986517B2 |
Notebook computer
A notebook computer includes a main body, two connecting assemblies, and a display. The main body comprises an upper surface and two first joint members disposed on two corners of the upper surface. Each of the connecting assemblies includes an arm, a connecting shaft, and a stop cover. One end of the arm is rotatably connected to a first joint member. The connecting shaft is perpendicularly is connected to the arm, and adjacent to a distal end of the arm from the first joint member. The stop cover is rotatably disposed on the distal end. The display defines a pair of axle holes at one sidewall. The display is disposed between the two arms of the two connecting assemblies, and each connecting shaft of each arm is rotatably inserted in the axle hole. |
| US07986511B2 |
Slide mechanism for slide-type portable electronic device
A slide mechanism used in portable electronic device is described including a main plate, a slide plate, a parallelogrammically-shaped slider, and two guiders. The slider is attached to the slide plate. The guiders are attached to the main plate and configured for deformably guiding the slider to move therealong. The slider is positioned between the guiders. During the sliding process of the slide plate with respect to the main plate, two corners of the slider deform the guiders to slide the slide plate along the main plate. |
| US07986509B2 |
Composite electrode comprising a carbon structure coated with a thin film of mixed metal oxides for electrochemical energy storage
A composite electrode is created by forming a thin conformal coating of mixed metal oxides on a highly porous carbon structure. The highly porous carbon structure performs a role in the synthesis of the mixed oxide coating and in providing a three-dimensional, electronically conductive substrate supporting the thin coating of mixed metal oxides. The metal oxide mixture shall include two or more metal oxides. The composite electrode, a process for producing said composite electrode, an electrochemical capacitor and an electrochemical secondary (rechargeable) battery using said composite electrode are disclosed. |
| US07986506B2 |
Systems and methods for arc energy regulation and pulse delivery
An apparatus for interfering with locomotion of a target by conducting a current through a load that includes an ionizable path. The apparatus includes, according to various aspects of the present invention, an energy source, an ionization detector, a charge detector, a controller, and a pulse generator. The controller determines, in response to the detector and by trial and error, a respective quantity of energy for each pulse of a plurality of pulses to be generated. For each pulse of the plurality, the pulse generator receives the respective quantity of energy from the energy source, provides in response to the quantity of energy a respective voltage to ionize the ionization path, and provides the current through the load. The charge detector detects a charge provided through the load. The processor sets the voltage for charging for a next pulse in response to the charge detected by the charge detector. |
| US07986500B2 |
Ground fault detection in an ungrounded electrical system
An ungrounded electrical power distribution system may experience a single line to ground fault. Such a fault may not disrupt operation of the system, but its presence may raise a risk of additional problems if left uncorrected. A system for progressively grounding the ungrounded system may be initiated when a line to ground fault is suspected. As grounding through successively lower impedance proceeds, fault current may increase and detection of severity of the line to ground fault may be more readily achieved, thus facilitating localization of the fault. |
| US07986499B2 |
Current limiting circuit and voltage regulator using the same
Techniques pertaining to a voltage regulator with a current limiting circuit having low quiescent current are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a current limiting circuit is provided for limiting a current passing through an output pass circuit of a voltage regulator, the current limiting circuit comprises: a current sampling circuit for sampling the current passing through the output pass circuit to obtain a duplicated current being proportional to the current passing through the output pass circuit; a current mirror circuit for producing a mirror current being proportional to the duplicated current with the duplicated current as a reference current; a current to voltage converter for producing a voltage being proportional to the mirror current; and a voltage comparator for comparing the voltage produced by the current to voltage converter with a threshold voltage and turning off the output pass circuit when the voltage produced by the current to voltage converter is larger than or equal to the threshold voltage. |
| US07986496B2 |
Disk drive device and ramp used therefor
Embodiments of the present invention help to prevent data error occurrence in a hard disk drive by reducing the generation of dust caused by friction between a magnetic disk and a ramp. According to one embodiment, a hard disk drive comprises an enclosure, a motor for rotating a magnetic disk, an actuator for supporting a head slider for accessing the disk, and a ramp for loading/unloading the head slider disposed in the enclosure. The ramp comprises a tab slide formed of a resin material having a sliding characteristic to slide a tab at a tip end of the actuator at a specific velocity, and a slit on which a reinforcement made of a resin material with higher mechanical strength than the tab slide is formed. |
| US07986479B2 |
Circuit for correcting signal distortions
A corrector circuit for correcting second harmonic distortions is provided. The corrector circuit includes a transconductance circuit having an input transconductance with a transresistance load for receiving a distorted voltage signal having a second harmonic component. The transconductance circuit is adapted to generate a corrected voltage signal having the second harmonic component that is reduced from the distorted voltage signal as a function of the input transconductance. The corrector circuit further includes biasing means for providing a biasing current to the transconductance circuit (with the input transconductance that depends on the biasing current). The biasing means includes means for providing a fixed component of the biasing current, means for providing a variable component of the biasing current (being a function of the distorted voltage signal according to a proportionality coefficient) and means for programming the proportionality coefficient. |
| US07986478B2 |
Lens drive device
A lens drive device includes a lens holder for holding a lens; a cabinet to which the lens holder is attached so as to be capable of being displaced in a direction of an optical axis of the lens; and a drive part that uses a magnetic driving force to displace the holder in the direction of the optical axis. The drive part includes a magnet disposed on the lens holder and a coil opposed to the magnet. Here, the cabinet has a shape of an almost square in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis. Further, the drive part is disposed in a region R between an outer edge of the lens holder and a corner of the cabinet. |
| US07986472B2 |
Optical element module
There is provided an optical element module comprising a first optical element and an optical element holder. The first optical element has a first coefficient of thermal expansion. The optical element holder holds the first optical element and has a second coefficient of thermal expansion, the second coefficient of thermal expansion being adapted to the first coefficient of thermal expansion. The optical element is directly contacting the optical element holder in a wide contact area. The contact area is defined by a first contact surface of the first optical element and a second contact surface of the optical element holder, wherein the second contact surface matches the first contact surface. Thus, favorable rigidity and deformation behavior is provided. |
| US07986470B2 |
Aperture stop and lens module
An annular aperture stop includes a first annular portion and a second annular portion. The first annular portion extends and slowly tapers towards the center of the aperture stop. The second annular portion extends inwards from the first portion and sharply tapers off to the innermost boundary of the aperture stop and defines a tapering angle. The radial thickness of the second portion is smaller than a predetermined tolerance of about 0.035 mm of the inner diameter of the aperture stop. The tapering angle is smaller than a predetermined threshold of about 70 degrees, whereby the innermost boundary of the aperture stop is protected from flashes during molding the aperture stop. |
| US07986469B2 |
Lens barrel and imaging device
An interchangeable lens unit comprises a second lens group unit, a focus lens unit, a fourth lens group unit, a zoom ring unit, and a focus motor. The zoom ring unit mechanically transmits operational force inputted to a zoom ring to the second lens group unit and the fourth lens group unit. The focus motor electrically drives the focus lens unit in the Z axis direction with respect to the second lens group unit. When the zoom ring is operated in a state in which no power is being supplied to the focus motor, a gap is always ensured in the Z axis direction between the focus lens unit and the second lens group unit. |
| US07986468B2 |
Lens barrel and imaging device
A lens barrel including: an imaging optical system; a tube configured to contain the imaging optical system; a holder configured to hold a lens included in the imaging optical system in the tube in such a way that the lens is movable along a direction of an optical axis of the imaging optical system; a sensor unit configured to output a cyclic detection signal whose peak value changes depending on a movement amount of the holder; a memory unit configured to store a relationship between peak values of the detection signal and a position of the holder in the direction of the optical axis in advance; and an arithmetic processor configured to calculate a position of the holder in the direction of the optical axis from a peak value of a detection signal detected by the sensor unit in movement of the holder based on the relationship stored in the memory unit. |
| US07986464B2 |
Imaging system
An image system adapted to a projection display apparatus includes a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, an aspheric reflector, and a curved reflector. The second lens group includes an aspheric lens which is the nearest to the light valve in the second lens group. A material of the aspheric lens includes glass, the thermal-optical coefficient of the glass is between 1.0×10−6/K and 12.5×10−6/K, and the refractive index of the glass is between 1.482 and 1.847. The aspheric reflector is disposed front of the first lens group for reflecting the image beam passing through the first lens group and second lens group. The curved reflector is disposed above the first lens group for reflecting the image beam reflected by the aspheric reflector onto the screen. The image system has a good imaging quality. |
| US07986458B2 |
Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus
A zoom lens and an image pickup apparatus are disclosed. The zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens group having a positive refractive power, a second lens group having a negative refractive power, a third lens group having a positive refractive power, a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power, and a fifth lens group having a positive refractive power. The fifth lens group includes a fixed group having a negative refractive power, and a movable group having a positive refractive power and being movable in a direction substantially orthogonal to the optical axis. The image formed on an image surface is movable in a direction substantially orthogonal to the optical axis by moving the movable group of the fifth lens group in the direction substantially orthogonal to the optical axis. The fifth lens group is satisfied predetermined conditions. |
| US07986449B2 |
Induced resonance comb drive scanner
Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a MEMS based scanning platform is arranged to have increased efficiency by driving a first frame of the scanning platform directly by applying a drive voltage to a set of comb fingers disposed on the first frame to cause the first frame to oscillate via torsional rotation of a first flexure and by driving a second frame of the scanning platform indirectly via mechanical coupling of the second frame with the first frame via a second flexure, wherein damping losses and work capacity are such that the operation of the scanning mirror is more efficient than if the set of comb fingers were disposed on the second frame and directly driven by the drive voltage. The scanning platform may comprise a 1D scanner, a 2D scanner, or a multiple-dimensional scanner. |
| US07986442B2 |
Apparatus and method to generate a halftoning screen and image forming apparatus for same
An apparatus to generate a halftoning screen and an image forming apparatus. The apparatus to generate a halftoning screen includes a dot center setting unit to set locations of dot centers according to a plurality of grey levels of print data, and a screen generating unit to grow dots from the locations of the dot centers that are set for each of the plurality of grey levels of the print data. |
| US07986441B2 |
Embedding watermark into halftone image with low distortion using parity values for overlapping groups of candidate sites
System and methodologies are provided herein for low-distortion image watermarking. Parity relationships between multiple pixels and/or regions of an image can be leveraged as described herein to reduce the amount of toggling required to embed a watermark in an image, thereby increasing watermark efficiency and reducing visual artifacts introduced in a watermarked image. Various algorithms for leveraging parity relationships are described herein, including a Block-Overlapping Parity Check (BOPC) algorithm, a Champagne Pyramid Parity Check (CPPC) algorithm, and a Tree-Based Parity Check (TBPC) algorithm. |
| US07986440B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and control method thereof, which form an image by applying N-ary processing
In order to form a high-quality image, upon execution of multi-pass printing using a printing head with a plurality of nozzles, an image processing apparatus calculates, using a scan duty setting unit, scan duty data for respective nozzles for each scan of the printing head in accordance with input image data. A halftone processor generates a dot pattern to be formed by applying N-ary processing based on predetermined constraining condition information to the calculated scan duty data. A constraining condition information calculation unit generates constraining condition information to be referred to by the halftone processor at the time of the next scan. The constraining condition information is set so that the phase of a next dot pattern to be generated has an opposite phase relationship in a low frequency region with respect to the already printed dot pattern. |
| US07986439B2 |
Resource entity using resource request entity for verification
A first entity is provided having a first bit-pattern, resource data, a first base key, and a first variant key which is the result of applying a one way function to a second base key and the first bit-pattern. The first entity is configured to receive a request from a second entity to perform an operation on the resource data, where the second entity has a second bit-pattern and a second variant key which is the result of applying a one way function to the first base key and the second bit-pattern, perform the operation in the request to generate a response, digitally sign the response using the first base key to generate a digital signature, and send the response and the digital signature to the second entity so the second entity can verify the response using the second variant key. |
| US07986435B2 |
Color processing apparatus and color processing method
A color processing apparatus includes a calculation unit configured to calculate a correction value from reference color information in an input color gamut and reference color information in a reference color gamut, a correction unit configured to correct reference target color information in the reference color gamut based on the correction value to calculate target color information, and a color conversion unit configured to convert an input color in the input color gamut into an output color within an output color gamut by using the target color information. |
| US07986434B2 |
System and method for color space transformation employing three dimensional linear interpolations
The subject application is directed to a color space transformation system and method employing multiple three-dimensional linear interpolations. First, N-channel multi-dimensional color space color image data is received into a color lookup table, which includes entries having values in a multi-dimensional color space corresponding to selected values in an N-channel multi-dimensional color space, with N being any integer greater than 2. Values in the color lookup table are then addressed in accordance with the received image data. Next, 2N/8 three-dimensional interpolations are then applied to an output of the lookup table corresponding to the received image data. Thereafter, (2N/8−1)*3 linear interpolations are then performed among outputs from the three-dimensional interpolation. Transformed image data is then output in accordance with an output of the linear interpolation. |
| US07986433B2 |
Image printing apparatus and method of adjusting and correcting main-scanning offset in image printing apparatus
This invention is directed to an image printing apparatus which can print images without any halfway offset or obverse/reverse pixel offset at a low cost. An image printing apparatus includes a clock generating section which generates a dot clock as the basis of each pixel forming an image, an image printing section which prints a one-line image in a main scanning direction in accordance with image data with reference to the dot clock output from the clock generating section, and prints a one-page image by repeating in the sub-scanning direction one-line image printing performed in the main scanning direction, and a clock control section which changeably controls the frequency of the dot clock during scanning of one line in the main scanning direction. |
| US07986427B2 |
System for copying interactive documents
A system is provided for copying interactive documents which has a copier for scanning a surface of a document, a computer system networked with the copier and a printer networked with the computer system. The document is printed with document content and a plurality of coded tags. Each tag encodes an identity of the document and the position of that tag on the document. The copier incorporates a sensor for sensing the coded tags. The computer system identifies a digital version of the document from the document identity of a sensed tag and determines user input, requesting copy content and/or coded data from the computer system, on the scanned document using the tag position of the sensed tag. The printer prints a copy of the scanned document to incorporate the scanned document content and coded tags and the requested copy content and/or coded data. |
| US07986426B1 |
Distributed computer architecture and process for document management
A system and/or method enables a typical PC user to add electronic paper processing to their existing business process. The system and/or method extends the notion of copying from paper passing through a conventional copier, to a process that involves scanning paper from a first device and copying the image of that paper to a remotely-located second device. The system and/or method can optionally copy paper from a first device directly into a business application residing on a network or on the Internet, or visa versa. The system and/or method includes software that manages paper so that it can be electronically and seamlessly copied in and out of devices and business applications without needing to modify the devices or applications. |
| US07986423B2 |
Image reprinting apparatus and method
An image reprinting apparatus and method thereof. The apparatus includes an image-processing information storage unit storing processing information of an image when the image is processed, a print history search unit searching the image-processing information storage unit to determine whether an input image has been printed before, a display unit processing the input image based on previous processing information of the input image if the print history search unit determines that the input image has been printed before and displaying the processed image, and an image-printing unit printing the displayed image. In the reprinting apparatus, information regarding the processing of an image that has been printed before is stored. When a user desires to reprint the image, the user can reprint the image without reprocessing the image, which enhances user convenience. |
| US07986422B1 |
Messaging service system and method to be performed in such a system
The invention relates to a method and a Messaging Service system which includes one or more Messaging Service terminals and a control means being adapted for communication with a printing means. The Messaging Service terminal is adapted to send a message to the control means, which message contains a print-related information section and a message content section representing the message content. The print-related information section contains print-related information and designates the delivery of the message content section to the printing means or to a second Messaging Service terminal. The system is preferably implemented as a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) system. The message content section may represent one or more images. The print-related information section is preferably contained in a header of the message, and may contain authorization information related to printing or copying rights for printing or copying the message content, preferably the image or images represented by the message content section, by the second Messaging Service terminal. |
| US07986419B2 |
Performance optimization method for network printers
A method for optimizing the performance of a network printer comprising: scanning the input print data stream in a raster image processor and processing the entire input print data stream in a page parallel processing pathway where said input print data stream is in a page independent form; otherwise selecting the processing pathway corresponding to a lower processing time period and thereafter processing the entire input print data stream using said selected processing pathway. |
| US07986418B2 |
Driver apparatus, process control method, process control program
A technique is provided that contributes to improvement in convenience of a setting screen for carrying out setting for a function executable in an image processing apparatus. A driver apparatus that causes plural functions executable in an image processing apparatus to be executed in accordance with a setting content set in a setting screen corresponding to each function is provided. |
| US07986417B2 |
Laser projection systems and methods
A laser imaging system and method of projecting a laser template on a surface, including independently determining a position and orientation of the surface using an external metrology device, independently determining a position and orientation of a laser projector using the metrology device, generating a signal from the metrology device to a computer and orienting the laser projector relative to the surface to project a laser template. The apparatus includes a plurality of metrology transmitters at fixed locations, a plurality of metrology receivers at fixed locations relative to the surface and a plurality of metrology receivers at fixed locations relative to either the laser projector or laser targets within a field of view of the laser projector. A laser projector and frame assembly is also disclosed, wherein the metrology receivers are located on the frame and the frame includes laser targets for correcting laser drift. Kinematic supports for the metrology receivers are disclosed as well as an independent laser tracker. |
| US07986414B2 |
Measurement of multiple surface test objects with frequency scanning interferometer
A frequency scanning interferometer is arranged for simultaneously measuring multiple surfaces of a test object through a wide range of expected offsets. Knowledge of the expected locations of the test surfaces is compared with a sequence of ambiguity intervals based on a synthetic measurement wavelength to center the test surfaces within the ambiguity intervals. |
| US07986413B2 |
Methods and apparatus for rapid scanning continuous wave terahertz spectroscopy and imaging
Methods and apparatus are provided employing rapid scanning continuous wave terahertz spectroscopy and imaging for the non-destructive evaluation of materials such as animal hides and natural cork, and explosive detection, concealed weapon detection, and drug detection. A system employing an aperiodic detector array and implementing phase modulation at 100 kHz significantly reduces the imaging time and enables interferometric images of a THz point source to be obtained at several frequencies between 0.3 and 0.95 THz. |
| US07986412B2 |
Interferometric defect detection and classification
Systems and methods for using common-path interferometric imaging for defect detection and classification are described. An illumination source generates and directs coherent light toward the sample. An optical imaging system collects light reflected or transmitted from the sample including a scattered component and a specular component that is predominantly undiffracted by the sample. A variable phase controlling system is used to adjust the relative phase of the scattered component and the specular component so as to change the way they interfere at the image plane. The resultant signal is compared to a reference signal for the same location on the sample and a difference above threshold is considered to be a defect. The process is repeated multiple times each with a different relative phase shift and each defect location and the difference signals are stored in memory. This data is then used to calculate an amplitude and phase for each defect, which can be used for defect detection and classification. This method is expected to detect much smaller defects than current inspection systems and to find defects that are transparent to these systems. |
| US07986410B2 |
Method for detecting a fibrous web tear in a drying section of a machine for producing the fibrous web and apparatus for performing said method
This invention relates to a method for detecting a tear in a fibrous web in a drying section of a machine for producing the fibrous web, whereby the fibrous web is passed through the drying section by way of at least one dryer fabric, whereby the tear is detected by at least one optical web tear detection device, which includes at least one luminous source and one detector, and whereby a cut-off apparatus for the fibrous web is directly or indirectly activated by the web tear detection device. The optical web tear detection device is operated over an extended wave length range in order to detect a tear in the fibrous web reliably. In addition, the invention relates to an apparatus for performing the inventive method. |
| US07986409B2 |
Method for determining the centrality of masks
A method for determining the centrality of masks is disclosed. The mask is positioned in a coordinate measuring device on a measurement table displaceable in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of an imaging measurement system in an interferometrically measurable way. The position of a mask coordinate system with respect to the measuring device coordinate system is determined based on at lest two structures on the mask. The relative distance from one of the at least first and second outer edges to the at least two structures is determined. The coordinate measuring machine determines the actual coordinates of the at least two structures with respect to the respective outer edges, which must not exceed a predetermined deviation from a desired value. |
| US07986407B2 |
Method and apparatus using volume holographic wavelength blockers
The invention disclosed here teaches methods to fabricate and utilize a non-dispersive holographic wavelength blocker. The invention enables the observation of the Raman signal near the excitation wavelength (˜9 cm−1) with the compactness of standard thin film/holographic notch filter. The novelty is contacting several individual volume holographic blocking notch filter (VHBF) to form one high optical density blocking filter without creating spurious multiple diffractions that degrade the filter performance. Such ultra-narrow-band VHBF can be used in existing compact Raman instruments and thus will help bring high-end research to a greater number of users at a lower cost. |
| US07986406B2 |
Method and apparatus for spectroscopic analysis
Apparatus for obtaining the gas-phase electromagnetic radiation spectrum of a liquid sample, including an analysis chamber having an inlet and an outlet, wherein the inlet and analysis chamber are such that, in use, liquid sample is drawn into the inlet through capillary action and vaporized therein. The vaporized liquid sample is maintained in the gas-phase within the inlet and the analysis chamber. |
| US07986399B2 |
Portable sample preparation and analysis system for micron and sub-micron particle characterization using light scattering and absorption spectroscopy
There is provided a method and device for remote sampling, preparation and optical interrogation of a sample using light scattering and light absorption methods. The portable device is a filtration-based device that removes interfering background particle material from the sample matrix by segregating or filtering the chosen analyte from the sample solution or matrix while allowing the interfering background particles to be pumped out of the device. The segregated analyte is then suspended in a diluent for analysis. The device is capable of calculating an initial concentration of the analyte, as well as diluting the analyte such that reliable optical measurements can be made. Suitable analytes include cells, microorganisms, bioparticles, pathogens and diseases. Sample matrixes include biological fluids such as blood and urine, as well as environmental samples including waste water. |
| US07986398B2 |
Gas velocity sensor
A method and apparatus for determining gas velocity, which includes generating transmitted radiation having an expected transmission frequency, detecting backscattered radiation, and determining gas velocity in dependence upon any Doppler shift of the frequency of the backscattered radiation, determining a transmission frequency of the transmitted radiation; detecting any difference between the measured transmission frequency and the expected transmission frequency and generating a feedback signal therefrom, and determining gas velocity using said feedback signal. |
| US07986395B2 |
Immersion lithography apparatus and methods
A lithography apparatus includes an imaging lens module; a substrate table positioned underlying the imaging lens module and configured to hold a substrate; and a cleaning module adapted to clean the lithography apparatus. The cleaning module is selected from the group consisting of an ultrasonic unit, a scrubber, a fluid jet, an electrostatic cleaner, and combinations thereof. |
| US07986394B2 |
Flexural liquid crystal panel and liquid crystal device
The object of the invention is to provide a liquid crystal display device having a flexural panel formed by bending the normal plan liquid crystal panel, which possesses an excellent display quality without the leakage of the light. The technical solution thereof is: the entire liquid crystal panel is bent to form a concave shape bend at the observer's side of the liquid crystal panel, that is, at a side of the CF substrate, towards the observer, so that the pitch at the horizontal direction of the respective pixels on the CF substrate is shorter than the pitch at the horizontal direction of the respective pixels on the TFT substrate, or to make said the same as each other and the width at the horizontal direction of the black matrix existing in both left and right end regions of the horizontal direction on the CF substrate, which is bent to a concave shape, is greater than the width at the horizontal direction of the black matrix disposing in the central section region. |
| US07986391B2 |
Liquid crystal display having branched wiring between IC bonding regions and FPC bonding regions
An exemplary liquid crystal display (50) includes plural integrated circuit bonding regions (51), plural flexible printed circuit bonding regions (52), and plural wires (53). Each of the wires includes a first branch (535) connecting to a corresponding one of the integrated circuit bonding regions, and two second branches (538). Each of the second branches connects between the first branch and a corresponding one of the flexible printed circuit bonding regions. The liquid crystal display can provide high reliability. |
| US07986387B2 |
Transflective liquid crystal display device and method of fabricating the same
An array substrate for a transflective liquid crystal display device includes: a substrate; a gate line and a data line on the substrate, the gate line and the data line crossing each other to define a pixel region including a transmissive area and a reflective area surrounding the transmissive area; a thin film transistor having a gate insulating layer, the thin film transistor electrically connected to the gate line and the data line; a first passivation layer having a drain contact hole exposing a drain electrode of the thin film transistor and a through hole exposing the substrate in the transmissive area; a pixel electrode on the first passivation layer, the pixel electrode contacting the substrate in the transmissive area through the through hole; and a reflective plate on the pixel electrode, the reflective plate being electrically connected to the drain electrode through the drain contact hole and to the pixel electrode. |
| US07986386B2 |
Display substrate, method of manufacturing the display substrate and liquid crystal display device having the display substrate
A base substrate includes a transmissive area and a reflective area. An insulation layer is formed on the base substrate to have an embossed pattern in correspondence with the transmissive area. A first pixel electrode includes a first transmissive electrode formed on the insulation layer of the embossed pattern, and a first reflective electrode formed on the base substrate in correspondence with the reflective area. A second pixel electrode includes a second transmissive electrode formed on the insulation layer of the embossed pattern corresponding to the transmissive area, and a second reflective electrode corresponding to the reflective area. |
| US07986378B2 |
Liquid crystal display device, its drive method, liquid crystal panel drive device, and liquid crystal panel drive method
An active matrix substrate is provided to be opposed to a counter substrate with a liquid crystal layer therebetween, the liquid crystal layer being in an OCB mode in which orientation is spray orientation when no voltage is applied and the orientation is changed to bend orientation when a voltage is applied. A storage capacitor bus line is provided on a pixel electrode so as to be opposite to the counter substrate and an opening is provided at a part of the pixel electrode at a region where the pixel electrode and the storage capacitor bus line intersect. A liquid crystal control circuit and a relay circuit are provided for applying a transition voltage to the storage capacitor bus line so as to apply an electric field between the pixel electrode and the storage capacitor bus line, and after a certain period in which liquid crystal molecules have responded, applying a transition voltage to the counter electrode so as to apply an electric field between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode. |
| US07986376B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
It is possible to realize a driver circuit which exhibits low power consumption and high image quality in a liquid crystal display device used in miniaturized portable equipment. In a liquid crystal display device which includes a liquid crystal display element and a liquid crystal driver circuit, the liquid crystal driver circuit is mounted on one side of a liquid crystal display panel. The liquid crystal driver circuit can output counter electrode voltages of two systems and hence, the liquid crystal driver circuit can select a first mode in which the first counter voltage and the second counter voltage have the opposite polarities from each other and a second mode in which the first counter voltage and the second counter voltage have the same polarity. Due to such constitution, while driving the liquid crystal display device in the first mode, the second mode is selected depending on a video signal thus realizing power saving. |
| US07986375B2 |
Multi-view autostereoscopic display device having particular driving means and driving method
A multi-view autostereoscopic display device (101) comprises: an image forming means (103); a view forming means (109,117); and a driving means (119). The driving means is arranged to: in a first portion of a driving cycle, drive a first group of display pixels (105) with display data for a first plurality of views and in a second portion of the driving cycle, drive the first group of display pixels with display data for a second plurality of views The second plurality of views are projected in different directions to the first plurality of views, thereby broadening a viewing angle of the device. |
| US07986374B2 |
Autostereoscopic display device using controllable liquid crystal lens array for 3D/2D mode switching
An autostereoscopic display device has an array (9) of lenticular elements (11) overlying a display panel (3), the lenticular elements comprising electro-optic material (23) and being switchable to enable 2D and 3D viewing modes. The electro-optic material, for example liquid crystal material, is contained adjacent an optically transparent layer in the form of a lenticular body (21). A birefringent material is utilized for the lenticular body, preferably with the ordinary and extra-ordinary index of refraction substantially matching that of the electro-optic material. |
| US07986371B2 |
Video signal processing device, method of the same and vehicle-mounted camera system
A video signal processing device, which includes: a plurality of imaging devices outputting mutually asynchronous interlace video signals; input buffers temporarily storing field by field the video signals outputted from the respective imaging devices; and an output image generating device generating field by field video signals of output target images from the video signals stored in the input buffers, wherein each of the video signals of the output target images is generated when all of the latest video signals to be components thereof are stored in the input buffers. |
| US07986363B2 |
High dynamic range imager with a rolling shutter
A high dynamic range imager operates pixels utilizing at least a short integration period and a long integration period. The pixel reading circuits of the imager are adapted to process pixel signals corresponding to the integration periods in parallel. The pixel signals are converted into digital values in parallel. The digital values are each linear functions of the incident light and therefore suitable for use with conventional color processing algorithms. A pipelined rolling shutter operation may be employed where the short integration period of one row of pixels is performed simultaneously with the long integration period of another row of pixels. |
| US07986362B2 |
Image pickup apparatus maintaining constant potential of load-transistor main electrode
There is provided an image pickup apparatus including a pixel including a photoelectric conversion element and an amplification element for amplifying and outputting a signal generated at the photoelectric conversion element, a load transistor for controlling an electric current flowing at the amplification element, and a potential control element for suppressing potential fluctuation in a first main electrode region of the load transistor which is an output side of the amplification element. |
| US07986357B2 |
Image processing method for converting non-linear RGB image data to L*a*b* image data
An image processing method includes the steps of linearizing a Color Filter Array image having non-linear RGB pixel data to generate a linearized image, the step of linearizing using at least one lookup table for each of the three RGB colors, the step of linearizing further performed using an address for current RGB pixel data being read to index the lookup tables and incrementing the addresses for the RGB pixel data; generating a histogram for each of three RGB image color planes of the linearized image data, and storing at least a high and a low threshold for each histogram; planarizing the linearized image using the high and the low thresholds to generate a planarized linear RGB image; and transforming the planarized linear RGB image from planarized linear RGB form to L*a*b* form. The step of transforming the planarized linear RGB image from planarized linear RGB form to L*a*b* form performs additional steps of white balancing, range expansion, resampling, color conversion, and sharpening. The additional steps read and write to a plurality of buffers such that the additional steps are performed in parallel. |
| US07986349B2 |
Recording device, reproducing device, image file generating method, and display controlling method
A recording device including: a recorder recording data onto a recording medium on which tracks as units of audio data are grouped and managed by management information; and a controller generating an image file in which image data associated with one of each track recorded on the recording medium and each group managed by the management information is collected, and recording the image file onto the recording medium by the recording means. |
| US07986348B2 |
Photometric device
A photometric device includes a storage-type photometric sensor, a first control means that performs accumulation control on the photometric sensor based upon an average value of an output of the photometric sensor, a second control means that performs accumulation control on the photometric sensor based upon a maximum value of the output of the photometric sensor, and an accumulation control means that controls the second control means to perform next accumulation control, if the maximum value of the output of the photometric sensor on which the accumulation control is performed by the first control means exceeds a saturation output level of the photometric sensor, and controls the first control means to perform next accumulation control, if the maximum value of the output of the photometric sensor does not exceed the saturation output level of the photometric sensor. |
| US07986345B2 |
Image pickup apparatus, image processing method, and program
An image pickup apparatus having an image capturing unit capturing an image, a first recording unit temporarily recording an original image signal output from the image capturing unit, a processing unit performing predetermined signal processing upon the original image signal output from the image capturing unit, and an instructing unit instructing the processing unit to capture a still image. When the processing unit is instructed to capture a still image by the instructing unit while performing moving image signal processing upon the original image signal output from the image capturing unit, the processing unit may cause the first recording unit to record the original image signal output from the image capturing unit. In addition, the processing unit may read out the recorded original image signal from the first recording unit and perform still image signal processing upon the read out original image signal while suspending the moving image signal processing. |
| US07986344B1 |
Image sample downloading camera, method and apparatus
A digital camera is provided, comprising a body containing an image sensor, a lens attached to the camera body and configured to focus a scene onto the image sensor. The digital camera also includes a wireless communication unit for communicating with a service host. In addition, the digital camera includes a control unit and a download setting unit. The digital camera also contains executable program code embodied in a computer readable medium and configured to cause the download setting unit to select a subset of digital images to download from a communication network in response to a user query. |
| US07986343B2 |
Multi-eye imaging apparatus
A multi-eye imaging apparatus comprises a plurality of imaging systems (106a, 106b) each including an optical system (107a, 107b) and an imaging element (108a, 108b) and having a different optical axis. The plurality of imaging systems (106a, 106b) include a first imaging system (106b) having a pixel shift means (101) for changing a relative positional relationship between an image formed on the imaging element (108b), and the imaging element (108b), and a second imaging system (106a) in which a relative positional relationship between an image formed on the imaging element (108a), and the imaging element (108a), is fixed during time-series image capture. |
| US07986341B2 |
Pen-shaped modular camera assembly
Provided is a hand-held modular camera assembly with a camera module, a printer module, and a dispenser module. The assembly has a central processor which includes a RISC processor core, and a memory operatively storing operating instructions for the processor core and image data for manipulation by said core. The central processor also includes a serial bus interface for communicating with the camera module, the printer module and the dispenser module. |
| US07986340B2 |
Arrangement for and method of projecting a color image by switching scan directions in alternate frames
A lightweight, compact image projection module, especially for mounting in a housing having a light-transmissive window, is operative for causing selected pixels in a raster pattern of scan lines to be illuminated to produce an image of high resolution in color. The direction of scanning of the scan lines is switched between alternate frames, and the resulting image is the superposition of successive frames integrated for viewing by the human eye. |
| US07986336B2 |
Image capture apparatus with indicator
An integrated image capture apparatus for use in a two-way communication with a remote display, includes an image capture device for capturing still or video images including a system for sending the captured still or video images to the remote display and for receiving and displaying images from a remote location, a face recognition system provided in the integrated image capture device for detecting faces in the captured image; and an indicator responsive to face detection for indicating that a face has been captured by the image capture device. |
| US07986334B2 |
Image forming apparatus, optical writing device, and optical writing method
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image carriers and an optical writing device including light sources that emit light beams of different wavelengths, a deflector that deflects the light beams emitted from the light sources and synthesized on an identical axis in a sub-scanning direction, a first beam separator, a second beam separator, a first imaging device, and a second imaging device. The first beam separator and the second beam separator are located between the first imaging device and the second imaging device and transmit or reflect the light beams according to travel directions or wavelengths thereof. One of the targets is scanned with the light beam transmitted through the second beam separator. Another target is scanned with the light beam reflected by the second and first beam separators. The first and second imaging devices narrow the beams in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, respectively. |
| US07986332B2 |
Environment-compliant image display system, projector, and program
An environment-compliant image display system, projector, and program that enables the reproduction of appropriate colors even when affected by ambient light. The projector has a color control processing update section that corrects colors by adjusting a LUT in a 3D-LUT storage section and brightness by adjusting a grayscale characteristic in a ID-LUT storage section, in order to increase the output in at least a lower grayscale range if the environment is affected by ambient light, based on environmental information that has been measured by a color light sensor. |
| US07986329B2 |
Document edit device, program, and storage medium
A document edit device includes: a memory configured to store a plurality of data sets, each of which includes identifiers of at least two colors; a color information obtaining unit configured to obtain color information indicating at least one reference color as a color of an element among elements included in a document as an edit target; an extraction unit configured to extract a data set including an identifier of an approximate color, from among the data sets stored in the memory, the approximate color being a color having the shortest color distance to the at least one reference color indicated by the color information obtained by the color information obtaining unit; and a first color determination unit configured to determine a color of an other element included in the document, based on at least one of a color difference vector between two colors included in the data set extracted by the extraction unit and a color difference vector between the approximate color and the reference color. |
| US07986327B1 |
Systems for efficient retrieval from tiled memory surface to linear memory display
Embodiments of the present invention set forth a technique for optimizing the on-chip data path between a memory controller and a display controller within a graphics processing unit (GPU). A row selection field and a sector mask are included within a memory access command transmitted from the display controller to the memory controller indicating which row of data is being requested from memory. The memory controller responds to the memory access command by returning only the row of data corresponding to the requested row to the display controller over the on-chip data path. Any extraneous data received by the memory controller in the process of accessing the specifically requested row of data is stripped out and not transmitted back to the display controller. One advantage of the present invention is that the width of the on-chip data path can be reduced by a factor of two or more as a result of the greater operational efficiency gained by stripping out extraneous data before transmitting the data to the display controller. |
| US07986325B1 |
Loading integer-based data into a graphics processing system
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for improving the flexibility and programmability of a graphics pipeline by enabling full access to integer texture maps within a graphics processing unit (GPU). A new mechanism for loading and unloading integer texture images is disclosed that enables the shader units within the GPU to have full access to integer values stored within an integer image buffer in a GPU local memory. New integer formats are added to the graphics API that indicate that data should be loaded and processed without the prior art conversion to a floating-point representation, thereby enabling the use of these new integer data types. |
| US07986322B1 |
Parallax compensation
Parallax compensation is described, including magnifying a portion of a region of a display using a lens, receiving a request to move the lens in a direction, and moving the portion relative to the lens in the direction in response to the request to move the lens to compensate for parallax at a first edge of the region. |
| US07986321B2 |
System and method for generating structured light for 3-dimensional image rendering
A system and method for illuminating an object in preparation for three-dimensional rendering includes a projection device configured to project at least three two-dimensional structured light patterns onto a 3-dimensional object. At least two cameras detect light reflected by the object in response to the at least three structured light patterns. Each structured light pattern varies in intensity in a first dimension and is constant in a second dimension. A single line along the first dimension of a given structured light pattern is created from a superposition of three or more component triangular waveforms. Each component triangular waveform has an amplitude, a periodicity (frequency), and a phase shift which is implemented as a pixel shift. Each component triangular waveform may be subject to one or more waveshaping operations prior to being summed with the remaining component triangular waveforms. The summed waveform itself may also be subject to waveshaping operations. |
| US07986320B2 |
3D image displaying method and apparatus
A method of displaying 3D image on a 3D image displaying apparatus that produces a parallax at least in one direction, the method includes displaying by a displaying unit 2D information that is viewed as a 2D content by a viewer in such a manner that a 2D information angle (θ_2D) formed with a virtual display surface of the 2D information and a real horizontal plane satisfies θ_D<θ_2D≦90°, wherein a display surface is arranged at an angle (θ_D) formed with the real horizontal plane in a real space, where 0°≦θ_D<90°. |
| US07986317B2 |
Organic light emitting display and driving method thereof, including compensating to display images of desired luminance
An display and a driving method thereof are capable of displaying images of desired luminance. The display includes a scan driver connected to scan lines, a data driver connected to data lines, pixels connected to the scan lines and the data lines, the pixels being adapted to generate light while supplying an electric current from a first power source to a second power source, a power source unit for generating the first power source, and a compensating unit adapted to control a voltage value of the first power source. |
| US07986316B2 |
Method and apparatus for power level control in a display device
The invention relates to a method for power level control of a display device and an apparatus for carrying out the method. Classically, a power level mode defining a subfield organization to be used for subfield coding is selected as a function of the average power level of the picture to be displayed for keeping constant the power consumption of the display device. According to the invention, it is proposed to select the power level mode as a function of the input frame frequency in such a way as to have as little as possible deviations from nominal peak white and full white values at the same time that an overloading of the panel power supply is prevented. More particularly, the number of sustain pulses within the video frame and selected by the power level mode is modified as a function of the input frame frequency. |
| US07986305B2 |
Method for searching menu in mobile communication terminal
The present invention relates to a method for searching a menu in a mobile communication terminal, wherein a plurality of main menus and sub menus of each main menu are simultaneously searched on a single menu screen using various navigational keys. |
| US07986302B2 |
Function command system, function command device, function command analysis system, presentation system, and computer readable medium
A function command analysis system includes an image input unit, a position information extraction unit, a function command specification unit and a function command output unit. The image input unit inputs an image containing an image generated by light emitted from a light emission device. The position information extraction unit extracts position information of the image, which is generated by the light emitted from the light emission device emits, from the image input by the image input unit. The function command specification unit extracts a mode of the image, which is generated by the light emitted from the light emission device, from the image input by the image input unit to specify a function command input by an operator. The function command output unit outputs the position information extracted by the position information extraction unit and the function command extracted by the function command specification unit. |
| US07986297B2 |
Image display apparatus utilizing electrophoresis
Each of first electrodes has a width smaller than the width of each of second electrodes in one direction on the plane of a display substrate. The second electrodes are applied with a voltage which is modulated independently on a pixel-by-pixel basis to move electrophoretic particles, thereby displaying an image. |
| US07986293B2 |
Driving method for liquid crystal display device assembly
A driving method for a liquid crystal display device assembly that includes a transmissive-type liquid crystal display device, a planar light source device including P×Q planar light source units, and a drive circuit that drives the two devices is disclosed. The driving method includes the step of, when the value of an input signal input into the drive circuit is indicated by x, in each of the display area units, when the value x of the input signal for any of the pixels is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, such a value being indicated by xU-max, controlling the luminance level of the planar light source unit corresponding to the display area unit so that luminance levels of the pixels, assuming that the control signal corresponding to the input signal having a value greater than the value xU-max is supplied to the pixels, can be obtained. |
| US07986289B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
An object of the invention is to repair a drain signal line easily. Each region enclosed by two gate signal lines adjacent to each other and two drain signal lines adjacent to each other that are formed on the liquid-crystal-side surface of one of transparent substrates that are opposed to each other with a liquid crystal interposed in between is made a pixel region. Each pixel region is provided with a switching element that is driven being supplied with a scanning signal from one of the two gate signal lines and a pixel electrode that is supplied, via the switching element, with a video signal from one of the two drain signal lines. A repair conductive layer is formed so as to be contained in each drain signal line when viewed perpendicularly with an insulating film interposed in between. |
| US07986286B2 |
Organic electro-luminescent display and method of making the same
An organic electro-luminescent display and a making method of the same. The organic electro-luminescent display according to the present invention includes a luminance control unit including a data sum-up unit to generate a frame data; a look-up table for storing an information corresponding to the light emission control signal to correspond to the frame data; an operator unit to generate a look-up table by using a value at the beginning step of luminance reduction, a value at the final step of luminance reduction, a pulse width of the light emission control signal at the beginning step of luminance reduction, and a pulse width of the light emission control signal at the final step of luminance reduction; and a luminance control signal driver for outputting a luminance control signal using the information corresponding to the light emission control signal stored in the look-up table. |
| US07986284B2 |
Plasma display apparatus and method of driving the same
A plasma display apparatus and a method of driving the same are disclosed. The plasma display apparatus includes a plasma display panel including an address electrode and a data driver. The data driver supplies a rising signal gradually rising from a first voltage to a second voltage during a first sustain period and a falling signal gradually falling from the second voltage to a third voltage during a second sustain period following the first sustain period to the address electrode. |
| US07986279B2 |
Ring-slot radiator for broad-band operation
One embodiment is a ring-slot radiator having: at least one radiating element having a characteristic of dual resonance, double-tuned in which an open ended strip and a cavity are structured to resonate at at least two different frequencies. Another embodiment may have: a ring-slot structure having at least one ring-slot opening on an infinite ground plane that forms a radiating element; a probe-fed strip structure that excites the slot; another ground plane underneath the strip; and a plurality of suppression elements around the ring slot to suppress parallel plate and surface wave modes. |
| US07986277B2 |
Communication device with rotatable antennas
A communication device includes an enclosure and two antennas rotatably attached to each fixing member. The enclosure includes a pair of sidewalls and a pair of fixing members projecting from a first end portion of each of the sidewalls. Each fixing member includes a plurality of projections spaced from each other. Each of the antennas includes a main body including a first end portion and an adjusting member projecting from the first end portion to adjust the antenna to be in a preferable position to optimize transmission and reception of signals. Each adjusting member includes hooking portions with grooves defined therebetween. The projections move in the adjusting member, resulting in rotation of the antennas relative to the enclosure. Each of the projections is received in a corresponding groove to allow the pair of antennas to be in the preferable position. |
| US07986276B2 |
Electronic equipment
In electronic equipment using a fuel cell as a power source, an antenna and a fuel cell, which are provided in a lower case of a main body receiving electronic parts, are arranged at a given distance from each other. An acceptable communication state can be established in the electronic equipment. |
| US07986275B2 |
Dual-band antenna
The present invention discloses a dual-band antenna integrated with GSM wireless communication apparatuses, comprising: a first radiation unit; a first connecting portion; a second radiation unit; a second connecting portion; a grounding unit; a grounding extension unit; a signal feed-in terminal; and a signal grounding terminal. Therefore, the dual-band antenna integrated with GSM wireless communication apparatuses of the present invention has a broad effective operating band to significantly enhance the transceiving performance. |
| US07986268B2 |
GPS RF front end and related method of providing a position fix, storage medium and apparatus for the same
A GPS RF front-end is disclosed comprising an antenna for receiving GPS signals, an analog to digital converter for sampling received GPS signals and interface circuitry for outputting the GPS signal samples. The GPS RF front-end is configured to vary the sample resolution of GPS signal samples outputted. Also disclosed is a corresponding method of providing a position fix, storage medium and apparatus for the same. |
| US07986266B2 |
Method and system for selecting optimal satellites in view
A system and method for determining one or more satellites in view of a wireless device. A request for satellite assistance data may be received from a requesting entity and a reference location determined as a function of the request. A set of satellites may be determined as a function of the reference location. Subsequent cached information may be determined for each satellite in the set of satellites if cached information already existing for each satellite in the set of satellites has been cached for greater than a predetermined time period. This subsequent cached information may then replace the previously existing cached information for the reference location. One or more satellites in view of the wireless device may then be determined as a function of either the subsequent cached information or previously existing cached information, and assistance data may be provided to the requesting entity to determine an estimated location of the wireless device. |
| US07986263B2 |
Method and apparatus for a global navigation satellite system receiver coupled to a host computer system
The present invention provides a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver apparatus, such as a GPS receiver, operable with a host computer system equipped with a real time clock configured to provide a time signal to the GNSS receiver apparatus. The time signal is used to facilitate acquisition of navigation and global timing information through observation of satellite signals. The global timing information is used to adjust the time signal and/or the real time clock to improve subsequent acquisitions of navigation and global timing information. |
| US07986257B2 |
Comparator circuit and analog digital converter having the same
A comparator circuit includes a first comparator comparing an input signal to a first comparison value and generating a first determination signal, a second comparator comparing the input signal to a second comparison value different from the first comparison value and generating a second determination signal, and an output selecting circuit selecting a signal generated first from the first determination signal and the second determination signal, and outputting the selected signal as a determination signal. |
| US07986256B2 |
A/D converter
An external input operation clock signal is required for operating a conventional A/D converter, and the performance of the A/D converter is undesirably determined by the characteristics of the external input operation clock. A clock generator circuit for automatically generating an operation clock is provided inside an A/D converter to make the A/D converter require no external input operation clock. Further, a circuit for detecting the operation times of the constituents of the A/D converter is provided to generate a clock with which the A/D converter is optimally operated, thereby realizing high-speed operation and low power consumption. |
| US07986254B1 |
Auto-measurement and calibration of DC resistance in current sensing applications
The present invention pertains to calibration in current sensing applications. Power conversion systems such as those used in computer architectures may employ step down converters such as buck converters or other types of converters. The present invention provides calibration processes and devices to account for various parasitic resistances which are found in such systems. A calibration circuit may be coupled to the buck converter or other power conversion to determine a calibrated voltage signal for the output of the power converter. An effective DC resistance may be determined and programmed for use by a control device used. In this way, the parasitic resistances are taken into account to obtain an accurate estimate of the actual current. In turn, this enables power converters and other devices to operate within specification requirements. |
| US07986251B2 |
Input/output (IO) interface and method of transmitting IO data
An input/output (IO) interface includes a data encoder which encodes each of a plurality of pieces of parallel data having different timings and generates a plurality of pieces of encoded data, and an alternating current (AC) coupling transmission unit which transmits the plurality of encoded data in an AC coupling method. The data encoder compares first parallel data with second parallel data from among the plurality of pieces of parallel data on a bit-by-bit basis and obtains the number of bits whose logic states have transited between the first parallel data and the second parallel data. When the number of bits whose logic states have transited is greater than or equal to a reference number of bits, the data encoder inverts bit values of the second parallel data to generate the encoded data. When the number of bits whose logic states have transited is less than the reference number of bits, the data encoder maintains the bit values of the second parallel data to generate the encoded data. |
| US07986242B2 |
Electrical connector assembly suitable for a bed footboard
An electrical connector assembly includes a first connector subassembly associated with a removable component, and a second connector subassembly associated with a host component to which the removable component is removably connectable. One and only one of the first and second connector subassemblies is floatable relative to its associated component. |
| US07986239B2 |
Methods and apparatus to visualize locations of radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged items
Methods and apparatus to visualize locations of radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged items are described. One example method includes receiving a request from a portable electronic device to access product information associated with an individual radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged item, determining a location of the product information in a database, transmitting the located product information to the portable electronic device for display thereon, receiving modified product information associated with the individual RFID tagged item from the portable electronic device, and storing the modified product information to the location of the product information in the database. |
| US07986231B1 |
Acoustic sensor network
Each one of a plurality of communication devices that are located at different physical locations contains an acoustic sensor for monitoring the physical location of its communication device, and reports acoustic events detected by its acoustic sensor to a manager. The manager displays a map which shows the physical locations, the events detected by the acoustic sensor in each communication device, sent notification messages, and received response messages. |
| US07986230B2 |
Apparatus and method for finding a misplaced object using a database and instructions generated by a portable device
The basic invention uses a portable device that can contain a camera, a database, and a text, voice or visual entry to control the storage of an image and its location into a database. The database can be distributed over several memory arrays in different devices. Furthermore, the stored image can be associated with text, color, visual or audio data. The stored images can be used to guide the user towards a target if the user does not recall the current location. The user's commands can be issued verbally, textually or by scrolling through the target images in the database until the desired one is found. This target can be shoes, pink sneakers, a toy or some comparable items, etc. that the user desires to find. |
| US07986229B2 |
Apparatus for storing sensing data in tag and method thereof
An apparatus for storing sensing data in a tag and a method thereof are provided. According to the present invention, data measured by the sensor is stored in volatile memory and important data from among the data stored in the volatile memory is stored in non-volatile memory according to a pre-set data loss prevention mechanism so that a battery and the tag including the battery have a longer life and stability of data can be secured. |
| US07986226B2 |
Remote output system and method
An ambient condition monitoring system includes a plurality of detectors such as smoke detectors, gas detectors, or fire detectors. Each of the detectors has two sets of input/output ports. One port can communicate with a system control unit. The second port can communicate with a local wired network to which is coupled a plurality of output devices. The output devices can be activated by the respective detector using a modulated control signal. |
| US07986224B2 |
Environmental monitoring device
The disclosure is directed to a sensor device including processing circuitry, at least one sensor coupled to the processing circuitry, a serial data interface coupled to the processing circuitry and memory responsive to the processing circuitry. The memory includes a static unique identification number. The serial data interface provides access to retrieve the static unique identification number and sensed data measured with the at least one sensor from the memory. |
| US07986223B2 |
Automatic signaling system for vehicles
An automatic signaling system for a vehicle having a turn signal light, includes a sensor configured for sensing at least a portion of a lane, and a processor coupled to the sensor, wherein the processor is configured to activate the turn signal light of the vehicle based at least on a signal received from the sensor. A method for activating a turn signal light of a vehicle includes sensing at least a portion of a lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and automatically activating a turn signal light of the vehicle based at least on the sensed portion of the lane. |
| US07986220B2 |
Automatic door system
Whether interruption is present in the connections of automatic door constituting units is detected.A plurality of automatic door constituting units (4, 8, 10, 12, 20, 24 and 26) are interconnected in such a manner that they can communicate with each other via a bus (2). The automatic door constituting units include a door controller (4) for controlling opening and closing of a door. The door controller (4) successively calls the other automatic door constituting units one by one via the bus (2), and the other automatic door constituting units send a response to the calling via the bus (2). The door controller (4) judges that the automatic door constituting unit the door controller (4) called is disconnected from the bus (2), when said called automatic door constituting unit does not send a response within a predetermined time after the calling. |
| US07986219B2 |
Power line communication system
A power line communication system includes: a first electronic instrument and a second electronic instrument, wherein information is received or transmitted between the first electronic instrument and the second electronic instrument which are connected through a communication line using a power line, wherein the first electronic instrument comprises: a key operation unit for accepting a key operation performed by a user; and a transmission unit for transmitting a power-on request signal for requesting the second electronic instrument to be turned on, to the second electronic instrument through the power line based on the key operation in the key operation unit, and the second electronic instrument comprises: a reception unit for receiving the power-on request signal transmitted from the first electronic instrument through the power line; and a power-on control unit for turning on the second electronic instrument based on the power-on request signal received by the reception unit. |
| US07986217B2 |
Mitigating processing latency in RFID exchanges
In a radio frequency identification (RFID) system that requires an RFID reader to receive a response from an RFID tag and then transmit a command to the RFID tag within a certain time period, the RFID reader may place an initial part of the command transmission in the RFID reader's transmit chain before receiving the entire response from the RFID tag, and complete the command transmission after receiving the entire response. |
| US07986213B2 |
Multi-layered component with several varistors having different capacities as an ESD protection element
An electrical component includes a first varistor and a second varistor. The first varistor includes first electrodes and ceramic between the first electrodes. At least part of the first electrodes overlap vertically. The second varistor includes second electrodes and ceramic between the second electrodes. The second electrodes are in a substantially same horizontal plane. |
| US07986209B2 |
Inductor using bulk metallic glass material
Inductors using bulk metallic glass (BMG) material and associated methods are generally described. In one example, an apparatus includes an electrically conductive core material, an electrically insulative material coupled with the electrically conductive core material, and a magnetic bulk metallic glass (BMG) material coupled with the electrically insulative material, wherein the electrically conductive core material, the electrically insulative material, and the magnetic BMG material form an inductor. |
| US07986206B2 |
Magnet cap
One or more method(s), system(s), and/or device(s) produces an assembly for securing a product to a dissimilar material, such as a magnet to plastic. A magnet assembly may include a plastic cap having one or more wings extending laterally from a side surface of the plastic cap. A plastic holder defines a product cavity and has one or more grooves formed to integrally fit with the one or more wings of the plastic cap. A magnet is positioned within the product cavity. The plastic cap is joined to the plastic holder, such as through staking or welding, to capture the magnet within the product cavity. |
| US07986205B2 |
Magnetic field control method and magnetic field generator
There is provided a magnetic field generator 10 which is capable of varying an orientation of a magnetic field at a target position P easily in all directions. The magnetic field generator 10 includes a pair of magnetic field generating units 16a, 16b which are disposed coaxially so that their respective first main surfaces 28a, 28b oppose in parallel to each other, with a gap G in between. The magnetic field generating units 16a, 16b are rotated by rotation drive units 20a, 20b respectively in Arrow A directions. By rotating each of the magnetic field generating units 16a, 16b in the same one direction of the Arrow A directions by the same angle, the orientation of the magnetic field at the target position P is varied on an X-Z plane. On the other hand, by rotating at least one of the magnetic field generating units 16a, 16b in an Arrow A direction so as to change positional relationship between the magnetic pole of the field generating unit 16a and the magnetic pole of the magnetic field generating unit 16b, the inclination of the orientation of the magnetic field at the target position P with respect to the X-Z plane is varied. |
| US07986204B2 |
Relay with a contact arrangement consisting of contact springs
A relay has a main body with a base. An electromagnetic switching mechanism is arranged on the base. A contact arrangement includes at least one stationary contact spring and at least one moveable contact spring arranged on a first side of the main body. The moveable contact spring has a first portion extending substantially perpendicular to the base that is actuatable by the electromagnetic switching mechanism and a second portion extending substantially parallel to the base that extends from the first side of the main body to an opposing second side of the main body. A terminal contact extends from the second portion on the second side of the main body. |
| US07986197B2 |
Compact distributed ladder attenuator
Simple and compact structures for an attenuator or resistor ladder can be implemented in a standard integrated circuit process as well as hybrid, thick or thin film ceramic processes, which allows metallization along with resistive components. The structure has the mathematical property that it attenuates an applied reference voltage logarithmically/exponentially along its length because of the natural solution of the Laplace equation for this type of geometry and contact configuration. |
| US07986189B1 |
Amplifier with feedback
A circuit includes a first resistive element coupled to a diode, a second resistive element, a first transistor having a first current electrode coupled the second resistive element, a second transistor having a first current electrode coupled to the first resistive element and a second current electrode coupled to the control electrode of the first transistor, a third resistive element coupled to a node, a third transistor having a first current electrode coupled to the node and having a control electrode and a second current electrode each coupled to the control electrode of the second transistor, a fourth transistor having a first current electrode coupled to the second resistive element and a control electrode coupled to the control electrode of the second transistor, and a fifth transistor having a first current electrode coupled to the node and a control electrode coupled to the second current electrode of the fourth transistor. |
| US07986188B2 |
Non-inverting amplifier circuit, semiconductor integrated circuit, and phase compensation method of non-inverting amplifier circuit
A circuit includes a differential amplifier unit that receives an input signal at a non-inverting input thereof, a constant current source, a load circuit, an output transistor that receives an output of the differential amplifier unit as an input and drives a load circuit, a phase compensation circuit including a variable resistor and a capacitor connected in series between the input of the output transistor and a feedback path, an output current monitor circuit that detects an output current flowing through the output transistor, and a bias voltage generation circuit that varies a resistance value of the variable resistor in accordance with a result of the detection of the output current by the output current monitor circuit. A signal obtained by voltage dividing an output of the output transistor by resistors is supplied to an inverting input of the differential amplifier unit. |
| US07986185B2 |
Rail-to-rail Miller compensation method without feed forward path
A rail-to-rail Miller compensation method without feed forward path includes forming a first compensation branch including a first amplifier, wherein an input of the first amplifier is electrically connected with an output of a second stage gain amplifier, the second stage gain amplifier is electrically connected the first stage gain amplifier in series forming an operational amplifier; and forming a second compensation branch including a second amplifier, wherein a dual relation is provided between an input stage of the first amplifier and that of the second amplifier, namely, if the input stage of the first amplifier is N-type, the input stage of the second amplifier is P-type, and vice versa. The present invention is capable of achieving the rail-to-rail output range without affecting the system stability. The N-type and P-type inputs are simultaneously applied to the input of the amplifier of the compensation branches. |
| US07986184B2 |
Radio frequency amplifier with effective decoupling
A variety of circuits, methods and devices are implemented for radiofrequency amplifiers. According to one such implementation, a radiofrequency amplifier circuit is implemented in a SMD package. The circuit amplifies a radiofrequency signal having a base-band portion and a plurality of carrier signals frequency-spaced larger than the base-band bandwidth. The circuit includes a radiofrequency transistor connected to a circuit output having a parasitic output capacitance. The source-drain terminal is electrically connected to the circuit output. An internal shunt inductor provides compensation for the parasitic output capacitance. A high-density capacitor is connected between the internal shunt inductor and a circuit ground. The high-density capacitor has a terminal with a surface area can be at least ten times that of a corresponding planar surface. |
| US07986183B2 |
Amplifying circuit and amplifying method
An amplifying circuit includes: a waveform modifying unit which changes the signal value in the second section in such a manner so as to reduce the difference between the signal strength of a DC component of the input signal and the limit value that limits the variation range of the signal value in the first section; a DC component removing unit which removes the DC component of the input signal after the input signal has been modified by the waveform modifying unit; and an amplifying unit which amplifies the input signal whose DC component has been removed. |
| US07986182B2 |
Fully differential demodulator with variable gain, and method for demodulating a signal
A demodulator is provided for demodulating an amplitude-modulated input signal defined by a carrier signal having a carrier frequency modulated by a modulating signal, the demodulator including an amplifier stage having a gain and structured to receive the amplitude-modulated input signal, and a gain control stage coupled to the amplifier stage and configured to vary the gain of the amplifier stage according to the carrier frequency of the carrier signal. |
| US07986181B2 |
Calibration circuit for an adjustable capacitance
A calibration circuit for calibrating an adjustable capacitance of a circuit having a time constant depending on the adjustable capacitance, the calibration circuit generating a calibration signal for calibrating the capacitance and including a calibration loop, suitable to carry out a calibration cycle in several sequential steps. The calibration circuit includes a controllable capacitance for receiving a control signal and including an array of switched capacitors selectively activated by the control signal to connect to a first common node that conducts a voltage value depending on the total capacitance value of the activated capacitors; an assessment unit for comparing this voltage value with a reference voltage to output a logic signal that can transition between first and second logic levels; a control and timing unit to receive the logic signal and change the control signal to carry out a subsequent calibration step that is provided at the end of the integration interval during a comparison interval of a preset duration, which allows a transition of the logic signal to occur prior to the beginning of the consecutive calibration step. |
| US07986176B2 |
Clock generating apparatus and clock generating method
A clock generating apparatus includes a phase-difference measuring device for measuring a difference in phase between a reference clock and a feedback clock generated by a divider with a high-speed clock generated by a multiplier, an averager for averaging the measured phase difference, and an output clock generator for returning a self-generated output clock to the multiplier and the divider and generating an output clock synchronized with the reference clock by using the averaged phase difference and a generated operation clock. The multiplier generates the high-speed clock by multiplying the returned output clock, and the divider generates the feedback clock by dividing the returned output clock A frequency of generation of the output clock in the output clock generator is increased. |
| US07986171B2 |
Mixed-voltage I/O buffer
A mixed-voltage input/output (I/O) buffer includes an output buffer circuit. The output buffer circuit includes an output stage circuit, a gate-tracking circuit and a floating N-well circuit. The output stage circuit includes stacked pull-up P-type transistors and stacked pull-down N-type transistors, in which a first P-type transistor of the stacked pull-up P-type transistors and a first N-type transistor of the stacked pull-down N-type transistors are coupled to an I/O pad. The gate-tracking circuit controls gate voltage of the first P-type transistor in accordance with a voltage of the I/O pad to prevent leakage current. The floating N-well circuit provides N-well voltages for an N-well of the first P-type transistor and an N-well of a second P-type transistor, controlling gate voltage of the first P-type transistor, of the gate-tracking circuit to prevent leakage current. |
| US07986168B2 |
Semiconductor apparatus and anomaly detection method of the same
A semiconductor apparatus includes an arithmetic circuit that executes a program based on an operating clock signal input through a clock transfer node, an internal oscillator that generates an internal clock signal to be used internally, a watch dog timer that counts the internal clock signal, detect that a count value reaches a predetermined value of an execution time of the program in the arithmetic circuit and output a notification signal, and a clock monitor circuit that detects presence or absence of the operating clock signal in response to the notification signal. |
| US07986164B2 |
Integrated circuit with pin-selectable mode of operation and level-shift functionality and related apparatus, system, and method
An apparatus includes a digital interface circuit configured to provide a digital interface. The digital interface is configurable based on a mode of operation of the digital interface circuit. The apparatus also includes input and output level-shift circuits. The input level-shift circuit is configured to shift a voltage level of an input signal for the digital interface circuit. The output level-shift circuit is configured to shift a voltage level of an output signal from the digital interface circuit. The input level-shifting and the output level-shifting are based on first and second level-shift input voltages. The apparatus further includes a mode detector configured to identify at least two modes of operation for the digital interface circuit based on the first and second level-shift input voltages. For example, the digital interface circuit could be configured to function as a serial or parallel interface depending on which level-shift input voltage is greater. |
| US07986163B2 |
Scalable non-blocking switching network for programmable logic
A scalable non-blocking switching network (SN) having switches and intermediate (stages of) conductors that are used to connect a first plurality of conductors to other multiple sets of conductors in a generally unrestricted fashion within respective interconnect resources constraints. The SN can be applied in a wide range of applications, in tandem or hierarchically, to provide a large switch network used in network, routers, and programmable logic circuits. The SN is used to connect a first set of conductors, through the SN, to multiple sets of conductors in a given logic circuit hierarchy whereby the conductors in each of the multiple sets are equivalent or exchangeable, which in term, by construction, makes the first set of conductors equivalent when used in the next level of circuit hierarchy. The SN is scalable for large sized sets of conductors and can be used hierarchically to enable programmable interconnections among large sized circuits. |
| US07986162B2 |
Interface circuit
An interface of the present invention includes a first inverter circuit that inverts a logic level of an input signal given to an external input terminal and outputs the inverted logic level, a second inverter circuit that outputs a potential in which a logic level of an output signal of the first inverter circuit is inverted, that is, a potential higher or lower than a logic of an input signal applied to the first inverter circuit by the amount of a predetermined potential, and a feedback path that positive feedbacks an output signal of the second inverter circuit to the external input terminal. The interface circuit of the invention positive-feedbacks a potential of the output signal of the second inverter circuit and shifts the potential of the external input terminal in a floating state to an H or L level potential. |
| US07986161B2 |
Termination resistance circuit
A termination resistance circuit includes a control signal generator for generating a control signal whose logical value changes when a calibration code has a predetermined value, a plurality of parallel resistors which are respectively turned on/off in response to the calibration code, and a resistance value changing unit for changing the total resistance value of the termination resistance circuit in response to the control signal. |
| US07986160B2 |
Apparatus and methods for adjusting performance characteristics and power consumption of programmable logic devices
A PLD includes at least one IP block or circuit, and at least one I/O block or circuit. The performance of the at least one IP block is adjusted in order to meet at least one performance characteristic by changing a supply level of the at least one IP block, by adjusting at least one body bias level of the IP block, or both. The performance of the at least one I/O block is adjusted by changing a supply level of the at least one I/O block, by adjusting at least one body bias level of the I/O block, or both. |
| US07986156B2 |
Semiconductor device including address signal generating protion and digital-to-analog converter
An exemplary aspect of an embodiment of the present invention is a semiconductor device including a plurality of test elements formed in an array on a semiconductor substrate, an address signal generating portion that generates an address signal corresponding to each of the test elements, and a digital-to-analog converter that converts the address signal into an analog signal and outputs the converted analog signal. The present invention enables to recognize which DUT is being measured. |
| US07986154B2 |
Capacitive sensing slide detection
A circuit includes a first capacitor having first and second capacitive sensing strips positioned on first and second sliding portions of the slider type mobile device. In the closed position, the first and second capacitive sensing strips overlap one another and in an open position the first and second capacitive sensing strips have no overlap with one another. A voltage divider having a voltage VIN(+) comprised of a first resistor network is coupled with the first capacitor. A voltage comparator having two inputs VIN(+) and VIN(−) is used to determine a high or low state. A second resistive network is used to set VIN(−). The voltage comparator will return a digital high condition indicative of the slider being in the open position when VIN(+) is greater than VIN(−) and a digital low condition indicative of the slider being in the closed position when VIN(+) is less than VIN(−). |
| US07986148B2 |
Arc fault detector
An arc fault detector, as a stand alone device or in combination with a circuit interrupting device such as a ground fault interrupter (GFCI), protects from potentially dangerous arc fault conditions. The device utilizes a line side or load side series connected inductance having an air or magnetic core to generate the derivative di/dt signal of the arc current in the conductor. The derivative signal is fed to an arc fault detector where it is analyzed for the presence of arcing. The device can have two series connected inductors inductively coupled to each other such that the signal from one inductor is inductively coupled into the other inductor for coupling to the arc fault detector. |
| US07986147B1 |
Fast cable tester
A physical layer (PHY) device including a first transmitter, a first analog-to-digital converter (ADC) module, and a control module. The first transmitter is configured to transmit a first pulse on a first conductor of a first pair of conductors of a cable. The first ADC module is configured to generate a first set of outputs, in response to the transmission of the first pulse, by sampling an input from a second conductor of the first pair of conductors a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval. The control module is configured to determine a first distance from the PHY device to (i) an open-circuit, (ii) a short-circuit, or (iii) a termination of the first pair of conductors based on the first set of outputs. |
| US07986144B2 |
Sensor and insulation layer structure for well logging instruments
A logging sonde includes a tube defining a sealed chamber inside. An isolation layer is disposed on an exterior of the tube. At least one sensor is disposed on an exterior of the isolation layer. The sensor includes a lead in passing through a wall of the tube. An elastomer jacket is disposed on an exterior of the sensor and the isolation layer. A method for making a sonde includes affixing an electrically insulating isolator to an exterior of a tube. An hydraulic seal layer is affixed over an exterior of the isolator. A sensor is affixed over the exterior of the seal layer. An electrical connection is made from the sensor to an interior of the tube through the hydraulic seal layer and through the isolator. An elastomer jacket is applied over the exterior of at least part of the sensor and the exterior of the seal layer. |
| US07986143B2 |
Multicoil low-field nuclear magnetic resonance detection and imaging apparatus and method
A multicoil NMR detection and imaging apparatus allows multicoil NMR detection and imaging to be performed efficiently at low operating frequencies. The apparatus comprises an AC voltage generator, a transmit switching circuit, a coil switching network, an array of two or more detection coils, a set of receive switching circuits with one switching circuit for each detection coil, and a set of preamplifier circuits with input impedance substantially greater than the impedance of each respective detection coil at the intended operating frequency. The AC generator produces an alternating current waveform that is routed through one of more detection coils during transmit mode while the preamplifier circuits are isolated from the detection coil(s). During receive mode the AC generator is isolated from the detection coils to prevent noise from the transmitter from degrading the quality of received signals. |
| US07986139B2 |
Position sensor having stacked flat coils
A plurality of layers of flat coils are stacked and connected in series with each other to form a single coil pole, and the coil pole is energized by an A.C. signal. Magnetism-responsive member, provided to be opposed to the coil pole in a non-contact manner, is displaced relative to the coil pole, so that correspondency, to the coil section, of the magnetism-responsive member varies in response to variation in the relative position and thus impedance variation occurs in the coil pole. Position detection signal is provided on the basis of an output signal, responsive to the impedance variation, taken out from the coil pole. |
| US07986138B2 |
Method and device for measuring the pole position angle of a magnetic levitation vehicle of a magnetic levitation system
A method for measuring the pole position angle between the magnetic field of a track-side stator of a magnetic levitation train track and the magnetic reference axis of a magnetic levitation vehicle located on the track. When the levitation magnet of the magnetic levitation vehicle is energized, a direction component of the magnetic field of the stator, which component is predefined by a preferred measurement direction of the magnetic field sensors, is measured using a pair of magnetic field sensors, and the pole position angle is determined using the measured values of the two magnetic field sensors. The preferred measurement direction is set in such a way that at least one of the two magnetic field sensors has a minimum measurement sensitivity for the magnetic field of the levitation magnet. |
| US07986136B2 |
Switching mode power supply apparatus and power supply method thereof
A switching mode power supply apparatus includes a conversion unit to convert input power into output power having a predetermined voltage by performing a switching operation; a light emitting unit to emit light if the voltage of the output power exceeds a predetermined threshold voltage; a light receiving unit to receive the light emitted from the light emitting unit and output a signal indicative of the voltage of the output power; a switching controller to control the switching operation of the conversion unit according to the voltage of the output power indicated by the signal output from the light receiving unit; and a disconnection unit to disconnect power applied to the light receiving unit if a voltage of the power applied to the light receiving unit exceeds a predetermined trigger voltage. |
| US07986129B2 |
Method and system for float charging a battery
Float charging a battery comprises charging a battery to a reference voltage that is less than a maximum voltage of the battery. A power source provides power to a charging circuit. The circuit supplies a reference voltage. An operational amplifier float charges the battery to the reference voltage. A comparator determines whether the battery's voltage exceeds the reference voltage. Another comparator determines whether current through the battery exceeds a reference current. A thermistor determines whether the battery's temperature exceeds a safe range. A microprocessor monitors the inputs from the comparators and the thermistor and outputs of the circuit. If the comparators or the thermistor reports a safety fault to the microprocessor, the microprocessor shuts down the charging current to the battery. If an output circuit draws too much current from the battery, the microprocessor can disconnect the battery from the output circuit. |
| US07986127B2 |
Communication device with a USB port for charging
An adapter for providing a source of power to a mobile device through an industry standard port is provided. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the adapter comprises a plug unit, a power converter, a primary connector, and an identification subsystem. The plug unit is operative to couple the adapter to a power socket and operative to receive energy from the power socket. The power converter is electrically coupled to the plug unit and is operable to regulate the received energy from the power socket and to output a power requirement to the mobile device. The primary connector is electrically coupled to the power converter and is operative to couple to the mobile device and to deliver the outputted power requirement to the mobile device. The identification subsystem is electrically coupled to the primary connector and is operative to provide an identification signal. |
| US07986124B2 |
Electrical systems, battery assemblies, and battery assembly operational methods
Electrical systems, power supply apparatuses, and power supply operational methods are described. According to one aspect, an electrical system includes an electrical entity configured to utilize electrical energy, and wherein the electrical entity comprises a communications interface, and a power supply apparatus configured to provide the electrical energy for use by the electrical entity, and wherein the power supply apparatus comprises a support system, a plurality of battery assemblies configured to be removably coupled with and supported by the support system, wherein individual ones of the battery assemblies comprise at least one rechargeable electrochemical device configured to provide the electrical energy, at least one power terminal configured to couple with the electrical entity and to provide the electrical energy from the electrochemical device to the electrical entity, and a communications interface configured to implement communications with the communications interface of the electrical entity, and wherein the electrical entity and the power supply apparatus are configured to implement the communications comprising at least one of status information regarding the power supply apparatus from the power supply apparatus to the electrical entity and a command regarding an operation of the power supply apparatus from the electrical entity to the power supply apparatus. |
| US07986123B2 |
Apparatus and method for the power management of operatively connected batteries respectively on a handheld electronic device and a holder for the handheld electronic device
A handheld electronic device in conjunction with a holder for the handheld electronic device that together form an electronic device. The handheld electronic device includes a first battery and the holder includes a second battery and a charging apparatus. When the handheld electronic device and the holder are electrically connected together, such as when the handheld electronic device is received in a cavity formed in the holder the charging apparatus charges the first battery on the handheld electronic device from the second battery on the holder when the first battery charge has been depleted to a given level and the second battery charge is above a second given level. Alternatively, if the first battery charge is above a third given level the first battery charges the second battery if the second battery is not fully charged. |
| US07986119B2 |
Motor control system
A motor control system includes an MMI (man machine interface), an upper-controller, and a motor driver connected in that order. The upper-controller includes a motherboard, a communication control module, and a servo driven control card connected in that order. The motherboard is connected to the MMI and includes a processor. The communication control module includes a plurality of control cards. A control signal is inputted into the MMI and sequentially processed by the processor, the communication control module, and the servo driven control card. A driven signal is outputted from the servo driven control card to the motor driver to drive a motor. |
| US07986117B2 |
Apparatus for carrying out improved control of rotary machine
In an apparatus, a phase setter sets, based on a deviation between a generated torque and a request torque for a rotary machine, a phase of a vector of a variable output voltage of a power converter in a two-phase rotating coordinate system defined in a rotor of the rotary machine. A norm setter sets, based on the phase set by the phase setter and a rotational velocity of the rotor, a norm of the vector of the output voltage in the two-phase rotating coordinate system. A drive signal determiner determines, based on the phase set by the phase setter and the norm set by the norm setter, a drive signal, and applies the drive signal to the switching member to thereby drive the switching member such that the generated torque is adjusted to a request torque. |
| US07986115B2 |
Safety device for detecting inadequate electric braking and commutation to a safety brake
A device is provided for detecting inadequate electric braking and commutation to a safety brake is intended for a vehicle with electric traction, in particular a rail vehicle, which is provided with a traction chain, the system including a first electric, non-safety brake which is integrated in the traction chain and a second safety brake. The device includes a member for commutation from the first brake to the second brake, a device for monitoring the braking performance of the first brake using data for measurement of the intensity of a current, a decision device for commutating from the first brake to the second brake when a predetermined threshold value is exceeded and a device for transmitting a commutation command to the at least one commutation member. |
| US07986114B1 |
Fast startup supply for chip initialization
A motor driver comprises a first power supply, a second power supply, a multiplexer, and an output power module. The first power supply provides a first power signal after a first period. The second power supply provides a second power signal after a second period, where the second period is longer than the first period. The multiplexer initially selects the first power signal and then selects the second power signal. An output power module controls a motor and receives power from an output of the multiplexer. |
| US07986110B2 |
Light source driving device
A light source driving device for driving a light source includes a power stage circuit, a transformer circuit, a control circuit, and a fault detecting circuit. The power stage circuit converts an external electrical signal to an alternating current (AC) signal. The transformer circuit is connected between the power stage circuit and the light source to convert the AC signal to a high voltage electrical signal adapted for driving the light source. The fault detecting circuit detects whether the light source is nonfunctional, and outputs a fault signal upon the condition that the light source is nonfunctional. The fault detecting circuit includes a voltage level comparison circuit and a variable-benchmark voltage circuit. The control circuit is connected between the fault detecting circuit and the power stage circuit to output a control signal to the power stage circuit based on the fault signal. |
| US07986108B2 |
LED driver and start-up feedback circuit therein
An LED driver includes a start-up feedback circuit, an operating feedback circuit and a multiplexer. The start-up feedback circuit has first terminals for receiving LED feedback voltages each delivered from at least one LED coupled to an output terminal for outputting an output voltage, of the LED driver, and generates a start-up feedback voltage accordingly. The operating feedback circuit has second terminals for receiving the LED feedback voltages, and generates an operating feedback voltage accordingly. The multiplexer selects the start-up feedback voltage for initial boost of the output voltage when the LED driver is initially activated, and selects the operating feedback voltage for following boost of the output voltage when the output voltage increases to a certain value. |
| US07986107B2 |
Electrical circuit for driving LEDs in dissimilar color string lengths
An electrical circuit is disclosed for driving color strings that have at least one lamp, preferably a light emitting diode (LED). The color strings can be different lengths. In some embodiments, a switch is coupled in parallel to one of the LED strings to shunt power away from the LED string to a power supply or to one or more other LED strings. In some embodiments, a current injector is configured to remove current from or inject current into a node adjacent to an LED string. Methods are disclosed for producing a desired light output utilizing color strings that may be of dissimilar length and that may contain light emitting diodes of different colors. |
| US07986100B2 |
LED string
A light-emitting diode (LED) string is provided. The LED string includes a power plug configured for connecting with a power source to power the LED string; one or more LED sockets configured for electrically connecting with the power plug; one or more LEDs configured for being installed on and electrically connecting with the LED sockets; and a control module configured for being electrically connected with anyone of the LED sockets. The control module includes a control circuit, an input terminal and an output terminal, the control circuit electrically connects with one of the LED sockets via the input terminal and the output terminal and controls a current flowing through the LED string to change from a first value to a second value, thereby controlling the LED string to light. |
| US07986098B2 |
Cathode potential control device, self-luminous display device, electronic equipment and cathode potential control method
Disclosed herein is a cathode potential control device for controlling a common cathode potential applied to a self-luminous display panel adapted to drive and control the light emission status of each of the pixels by active matrix driving, the cathode potential control device including: a cathode potential determination section adapted to read a cathode potential level from a table memory according to a current panel temperature, the cathode potential level being associated with a panel temperature so as to cancel the temperature dependent characteristic of a voltage which develops between anode and cathode electrodes of a self-luminous element during light emission, the level causing a drive transistor of the self-luminous element to operate in the saturation region; and a cathode potential application section adapted to develop a cathode potential associated with the determined cathode potential level and supply the potential to a common cathode electrode of the self-luminous display panel. |
| US07986095B2 |
Organic light emitting diode with enhanced luminance and light uniformity
An organic light emitting diode display with enhanced luminance and light uniformity is presented, along with a method of manufacturing the display. The display including: a substrate, a first signal line formed on the substrate and a second signal line extending perpendicularly to the first signal line, and thin film transistors formed on the substrate and electrically coupled to the first signal line and the second signal line. A planarization member is formed on the same layer as the first signal line and/or the second signal line, such that it does not overlap the first signal line, the second signal line, and the thin film transistors. An insulating layer is formed on the first signal line, the second signal line, the thin film transistors, and the planarization member. Two electrodes are formed on the insulating layer connected to one of the thin film transistors and sandwiching a light emitting member. |
| US07986087B2 |
Color conversion media and EL-display using the same
Disclosed is a color conversion member which is improved in the prevention of a deterioration in color conversion function, the prevention of reflection of external light, and color rendering properties. The color conversion member comprises a transparent substrate, two or more types of color conversion layers, and a color filter layer. The color conversion layers function to convert incident lights for respective pixels to outgoing lights of colors different from the incident lights. The two or more types of color conversion layers are arranged on said transparent substrate. The color filter layer is provided on the transparent substrate side of any one of the color conversion layers or between the above any one of the color conversion layers and the color conversion layers adjacent to the above any one the color conversion layers. |
| US07986084B2 |
Field emission lamp
A field emission lamp includes a transparent glass tube, a cathode, and an anode. The anode and cathode are both disposed in the transparent glass tube. The cathode includes an electron emission layer. The anode includes a carbon nanotube transparent conductive film located on an inner wall of the transparent glass tube and a fluorescent layer located on the carbon nanotube transparent conductive film. |
| US07986080B2 |
Electron-emitting device
An electron-emitting device and a fabricating method thereof are provided. First, a substrate, having a first side and a second side which is opposite to the first side, is provided. Afterwards, a first electrode pattern layer is formed on the first side of the substrate. Next, a conductive pattern layer is formed on the substrate and the first electrode pattern layer. After that, an electron-emitting region is formed in the conductive pattern layer. Then, a second electrode pattern layer is formed on the second side of the substrate and partially covers the conductive pattern layer. The fabricating method has a simple fabricating process and a low fabricating cost. |
| US07986078B2 |
Lamp with heat sink configuration and method of manufacturing same
A lamp including a plurality of light emitting devices and heat sinks can be configured to dissipate heat generated by the plurality of light emitting devices. The heat sinks can be branched into a generally Y-shaped configuration as viewed in a section that includes a primary optical axis of the vehicle lamp. One of the light emitting devices is connected to one of the branched parts of the heat sinks. Another light emitting device is connected to the other branched part of the heat sinks. |
| US07986077B2 |
Tuning fork type quartz piece and oscillator comprising such tuning fork type quartz piece
Grooves (2a, 3a) are formed in the tines (2, 3) of an oscillator, side surface electrodes (2e, 3e) are formed on the side surfaces of the tines, and groove electrodes (2d, 3d) are formed in the grooves, respectively. The width of the tines (2, 3) is fixed through the whole length of the tines, while, in a part close to the lower end of the tine, the width of the grooves (2a, 3a) is gradually reduced toward the lower end, whereby a trapezoid region (D) is formed between the side surface of the tine and the groove in this part, and a part of the region (D) is used as an arrangement region of an electrode (5c) which connects the groove electrode and the side surface electrode. |
| US07986076B2 |
Energy harvesting device
The present invention discloses an energy harvesting device that converts small magnitude and low frequency vibrations into electrical energy. The device can include a base, a low frequency element, and a piezoelectric element. The low frequency element can be movably attached to the base and the piezoelectric element can also be attached to the base and be spaced apart from the low frequency element with a vacant space therebetween. Upon vibration of the low frequency element resulting from environmental vibrations, the low frequency element can impact the piezoelectric element and cause elastic deformation thereto. |
| US07986071B2 |
Arrangement for closure of slots
An exemplary slot closure arrangement has a sliding block and a pressure piece. At least one spring element is arranged in between them and can be prestressed by at least one attachment, which interacts with the sliding block and the pressure piece, thus creating a prefabricated assembly. Once the slot closure arrangement has been positioned in a slot, the attachment can be mechanically moved from a first position to a second position, which can be monitored, after positioning of the slot closure arrangement, for activation of the spring forces of the at least one spring element. |
| US07986068B2 |
Motor
A motor including: a rotatably supported shaft; and a rotor section press-fitted and fixed coaxially to the shaft, wherein the rotor section is provided with: a rotor yoke; a housing hole formed on an end surface of the rotor yoke along the axial direction of the shaft; a permanent magnet housed within the housing hole; and a pair of end surface plates: that have a ring-shaped plate that is provided so as to cover at least an opening section of the housing hole and that is made of a non-magnetic material, and a supporting plate that supports the ring-shaped plate, that is press-fitted and fixed on the shaft, and that has a coefficient of linear expansion equivalent to that of the shaft; that are provided on axial end portions of the rotor yoke; and that clamp the rotor yoke so as to hold the permanent magnet within the housing hole. |
| US07986058B2 |
Method for operating a device with redundant power supply units and a power supply apparatus with redundant power supply units
A method for the alternating operation of power supply units for a device which has at least two power supply units is disclosed. An alternating operation of the at least two power supply units is supplied by a switchover between the two power supply units if the two power supply units are functional. With alternating operation, the power supply unit that is in operation contributes to the power supply for the device, whereas the power supply unit that is not in operation, is cut off from supplying power to the device. In the case of a failure of the power supply unit which is in operation at the moment, an immediate switchover between the at least two power supply units is provided for. |
| US07986046B2 |
Semiconductor module and method of producing the same
A semiconductor module including: a semiconductor chip in which an integrated circuit is formed; an electrode formed on the semiconductor chip and electrically connected to the integrated circuit; an insulating film formed on the semiconductor chip and having an opening positioned corresponding to the electrode; an elastic protrusion disposed on the insulating film, a surface of the elastic protrusion opposite to the insulating film being convexly curved; an interconnect extending from over the electrode to over the elastic protrusion; an elastic substrate on which a lead is formed, the lead being in contact with part of the interconnect positioned on the elastic protrusion; and an adhesive maintaining a space between a surface of the semiconductor chip on which the elastic protrusion is formed and a surface of the elastic substrate on which the lead is formed. The elastic substrate has a first depression formed by elastic deformation. The lead is in contact with the interconnect on a surface of the first depression. |
| US07986045B2 |
Semiconductor device having an increased area of one of the opposing electrode parts for preventing generation of unconnected positions the electrodes on the bonded wafers
In this semiconductor device, connection parts between wafers are electrically insulated from each other, and a junction face shape of second electrical signal connection parts is larger than the shape of a positioning margin face that is formed by an outer shape when the periphery of a minimum junction face, which has half the area of a junction area of the first electrical signal connection part, is enclosed by a same width dimension as a positioning margin dimension between the first wafer and the second wafer. |
| US07986041B2 |
Semiconductor device
As etch-stop films or Cu-diffusion barrier films used in insulation films constituting conductor layers of a stacked structure, films having smaller dielectric constant than silicon nitride films are used, and an insulation film at a lower-layer part of the stacked structure is made to have smaller dielectric constant than that at an upper-layer part thereof, and further this insulation film is a silicon oxide (SiO) film and has, in the interior thereof, nano-pores of from 0.05 nm or more to 4 nm or less in diameter as chief construction. This makes it possible to dramatically reduce effective dielectric constant while keeping the mechanical strength of the conductor layers themselves, and can materialize a highly reliable and high-performance semiconductor device having mitigated the wiring delay of signals which pass through wirings. |
| US07986040B2 |
Method of reducing erosion of a metal cap layer during via patterning in semiconductor devices
During the patterning of via openings in sophisticated metallization systems of semi-conductor devices, the opening may extend through a conductive cap layer and an appropriate ion bombardment may be established to redistribute material of the underlying metal region to exposed sidewall portions of the conductive cap layer, thereby establishing a protective material. Consequently, in a subsequent wet chemical etch process, the probability for undue material removal of the conductive cap layer may be greatly reduced. |
| US07986034B2 |
Power semiconductor module and method for producing the same
A method for producing a power semiconductor module including forming a contact between a contact region and a contact element as an ultrasonic welding contact via a sonotrode. The ultrasonic welding operation also being used for joining the contact regions with the contact ends and consequently for joining the contacts and the foot regions. |
| US07986033B2 |
Three-dimensional multichip module
A three-dimensional multichip module includes a first integrated circuit chip having at least one first high-temperature functional area and one first low-temperature functional area, and at least one second integrated circuit chip having a second high-temperature functional area and a second low-temperature functional area. The second high-temperature functional area is arranged opposite the first low-temperature functional area. As an alternative, at least one low-temperature chip having only one low-temperature functional area can also be arranged between the first and second chips. |
| US07986031B2 |
Resin molding part and manufacturing method thereof
A primary molding product is formed by integrally forming a first lead frame and a second lead frame with a primary molding resin portion. In addition, in order to prevent separation of the first lead frame and the second lead frame from the primary molding resin portion, a hook-and-hold portion for preventing separation of the first lead frame from the primary molding resin portion and separation of the second lead frame from the primary molding resin portion is provided on an outer surface of each of the first lead frame and the second lead frame. Thus, a resin molding part capable of achieving suppression of increase in a thickness thereof without deformation or displacement of a lead frame and a manufacturing method thereof can be provided. |
| US07986026B2 |
Semiconductor device including metal-insulator-metal capacitor arrangement
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor substrate, a multi-layered wiring construction formed over the semiconductor device, and a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor arrangement established in the multi-layered wiring construction. The MIM capacitor arrangement includes first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth electrode structures, which are arranged in order in parallel with each other at regular intervals. The first, second, fifth and sixth electrode structures are electrically connected to each other so as to define a first capacitor, and the third and fourth electrode structures are electrically connected to each other so as to define a second capacitor. |
| US07986022B2 |
Semispherical integrated circuit structures
A diode comprises a substrate formed of a first material having a first doping polarity. The substrate has a planar surface and at least one semispherical structure extending from the planar surface. The semispherical structure is formed of the first material. A layer of second material is over the semispherical structure. The second material comprises a second doping polarity opposite the first doping polarity. The layer of second material conforms to the shape of the semispherical structure. A first electrical contact is connected to the substrate, and a second electrical contact is connected to the layer of second material. Additional semiconductor structures are formed by fabricating additional layers over the original layers. |
| US07986017B2 |
Semiconductor sensor and method for manufacturing the same
A semiconductor sensor includes: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of piezoelectric thin films layered on the semiconductor substrate, the plurality of piezoelectric thin films including at least a pair of the piezoelectric thin films layered above and below; a pair of electrodes that are formed at an interface of at least the pair of the piezoelectric thin films layered above and below and excite surface acoustic waves; a thin film directly under a lowest-layer piezoelectric film of the piezoelectric thin films; a metal thin film that is formed at an interface of the lowest-layer piezoelectric thin film and the thin film, and facilitate a growth of a ridge-and-valley portion on a surface of an uppermost-layer piezoelectric thin film of the piezoelectric thin films; and a sensitive film for molecular adsorption formed on at least the ridge-and-valley portion on the uppermost-layer piezoelectric thin film. |
| US07986016B2 |
Semiconductor device and associated manufacturing methodology for decreasing thermal instability between an insulating layer and a substrate
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including: a substrate that includes a semiconductor region including Ge as a primary component; a compound layer that is formed above the semiconductor region, that includes Ge and that has a non-metallic characteristic; an insulator film that is formed above the compound layer; an electrode that is formed above the insulator film; and source/drain regions that is formed in the substrate so as to sandwich the electrode therebetween. |
| US07986013B2 |
Semiconductor device having SiGe semiconductor regions
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor region having a channel region, and containing silicon as a main component, second semiconductor regions sandwiching the first semiconductor region, formed of SiGe, and applying stress to the first semiconductor region, cap layers provided on the second semiconductor regions, and formed of silicon containing carbon or SiGe containing carbon, and silicide layers provided on the cap layers, and formed of nickel silicide or nickel-platinum alloy silicide. |
| US07986012B2 |
Semiconductor device and process for manufacturing same
A semiconductor device 100 includes a first gate 210, which is formed using a gate last process. The first gate 210 includes a gate insulating film formed in a bottom surface in a first concave portion formed in the insulating film; a gate electrode formed over the gate insulating film in the first concave portion; and a protective insulating film 140 formed on the gate electrode in the first concave portion. In addition, the semiconductor device 100 includes a contact 134, which is coupled to the N-type impurity-diffused region 116a in the both sides of the first gate 210 and is buried in the second concave portion having a diameter that is large than the first concave portion. |
| US07986010B2 |
High-voltage variable breakdown voltage (BV) diode for electrostatic discharge (ESD) applications
Formation of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device having a desired breakdown voltage (BV) is disclosed. The breakdown voltage (BV) of the device can be set, at least in part, by varying the degree to which a surface junction between two doped areas is covered. This junction can be covered in one embodiment by a dielectric material and/or a semiconductor material. Moreover, a variable breakdown voltage can be established by concurrently forming, in a single process flow, multiple diodes that have different breakdown voltages, where the diodes are also formed concurrently with circuitry that is to be protected. To generate the variable or different breakdown voltages, respective edges of isolation regions can be extended to cover more of the surface junctions of different diodes. In this manner, a first diode can have a first breakdown voltage (BV1), a second diode can have a second breakdown voltage (BV2), a third diode can have a third breakdown voltage (BV3), etc. This can provide substantial efficiency and cost savings where there may be varying ESD requirements. |
| US07986004B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacture thereof
In a high withstand voltage transistor of a LOCOS offset drain type having a buried layer, a plurality of stripe-shaped diffusion layers are formed below a diffusion layer ranging from an offset layer to a drain layer and a portion between the drain region and the buried layer is depleted completely; thus, a withstand voltage between the drain region and the buried layer is improved. By the formation of the stripe-shaped diffusion layers, the drain region becomes widened; thus, on-resistance is reduced. Further, the buried layer is made high in concentration so as to sufficiently suppress an operation of a parasitic bipolar transistor. |
| US07985999B2 |
Semiconductor device having capacitor
A semiconductor device having a capacitor and a method of fabricating the same may be provided. A method of fabricating a semiconductor device may include forming an etch stop layer and a mold layer sequentially on a substrate, patterning the mold layer to form a mold electrode hole exposing a portion of the etch stop layer, etching selectively the exposed etch stop layer by an isotropic dry etching process to form a contact electrode hole through the etch stop layer to expose a portion of the substrate, forming a conductive layer on the substrate and removing the conductive layer on the mold layer on the mold layer to form a cylindrical bottom electrode in the mold and contact electrode holes. The isotropic dry etching process may utilize a process gas including main etching gas and selectivity adjusting gas. The selectivity adjusting gas may increase an etch rate of the etch stop layer by more than an etch rate of the mold layer by the isotropic wet etching process. |
| US07985998B2 |
Trench-type semiconductor device structure
A trench-type semiconductor device structure is disclosed. The structure includes a semiconductor substrate, a gate dielectric layer and a substrate channel structure. The semiconductor substrate includes a trench having an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper portion includes a conductive layer formed therein. The lower portion includes a trench capacitor formed therein. The gate dielectric layer is located between the semiconductor substrate and the conductive layer. The substrate channel structure with openings, adjacent to the trench, is electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate via the openings. |
| US07985996B2 |
Semiconductor device comprising capacitive elements
A technology capable of reducing the fraction defective of a MOS capacitor without the need to perform a screening is provided. A MOS capacitor MOS1 and a MOS capacitor MOS2 are coupled in series between a high potential and a low potential to form a series capacitive element. Then, a polysilicon capacitor PIP1 and a polysilicon capacitor PIP2 are coupled in parallel with the series capacitive element. Specifically, a high-concentration semiconductor region HS1 constituting a lower electrode of the MOS capacitor MOS1 and a high-concentration semiconductor region HS2 constituting a lower electrode of the MOS capacitor MOS2 are coupled. Further, an electrode E1 constituting an upper electrode of the MOS capacitor MOS1 is coupled to the low potential (for example, GND) and an electrode E3 constituting an upper electrode of the MOS capacitor MOS2 is coupled to the high potential (for example, power source potential). |
| US07985992B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same
A semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same, which forms a contact hole, a via hole or a via contact hole with multiple profiles with various taper angles. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a thin film transistor formed on the substrate and having a semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer, a gate electrode, and an interlayer dielectric, and a contact hole penetrating the gate insulating layer and the interlayer dielectric and exposing a portion of the semiconductor layer. The contact hole has a multiple profile in which an upper portion of the contact hole has a wet etch profile and a lower portion of the contact hole has at least one of the wet etch profile and a dry etch profile. |
| US07985991B2 |
MOSFET package
A semiconductor device features a semiconductor substrate with a MOSFET, an electrode for main current of the MOSFET disposed on a first major surface of the substrate, an electrode for control of the MOSFET disposed on the first major surface, a rear plane electrode of the MOSFET disposed on a second, opposing surface of the substrate, and an external connection terminal electrically connected to the rear plane electrode, the external electrode contains a first part, a second part and a third part, the first part is positioned over the rear plane electrode, the third part is positioned below the second major surface and the third part is connected via the second part to the first part. |
| US07985985B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same
A semiconductor device according to one embodiment includes: a semiconductor substrate; a first impurity diffusion suppression layer formed on the semiconductor substrate for suppressing diffusion of a channel impurity; an impurity channel layer formed on the first impurity diffusion suppression layer and containing the channel impurity; a second impurity diffusion suppression layer formed on the impurity channel layer for suppressing diffusion of the channel impurity; a channel layer formed on the second impurity diffusion suppression layer; a gate insulating film formed on the channel layer; and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film. |
| US07985982B2 |
Etchant composition, patterning conductive layer and manufacturing flat panel, display device using the same
An etchant composition that allows simplification and optimization of semiconductor manufacturing process is presented, along with a method of patterning a conductive layer using the etchant and a method of manufacturing a flat panel display using the etchant. The etchant includes nitric acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, and an acetate compound in addition to water. |
| US07985979B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting device with light extraction structures
Structures are incorporated into a semiconductor light emitting device which may increase the extraction of light emitted at glancing incidence angles. In some embodiments, the device includes a low index material that directs light away from the metal contacts by total internal reflection. In some embodiments, the device includes extraction features such as cavities in the semiconductor structure which may extract glancing angle light directly, or direct the glancing angle light into smaller incidence angles which are more easily extracted from the device. |
| US07985975B2 |
Light emitting package and light emitting package array formed by coupled electrodes
Example embodiments may include a light emitting device package. The light emitting device package may include a light emitting device, a package body-including a cavity having a bottom surface on which the light emitting device is mounted and a side surface for reflecting light emitted from the light emitting device, a first electrode protruding from the package body, and a second electrode coupled with the package body. The first and second electrodes may be designed to couple respectively with the second and first electrodes of another light emitting device package, thereby forming an array of light emitting device packages. |
| US07985973B2 |
Semiconductor light-emitting device and method of fabricating the same
The invention provides a semiconductor light-emitting device package structure. The semiconductor light-emitting device package structure includes a substrate, N sub-mounts, and N semiconductor light-emitting die modules, wherein N is a positive integer lager than or equal to 1. Each of the sub-mounts is embedded on the substrate and exposed partially. Each of the semiconductor light-emitting die modules is mounted on the exposed surface of one of the sub-mounts. |
| US07985969B2 |
Transistor and display and method of driving the same
A field-effect transistor including an electrically conductive substrate; a first insulating film coating the electrically conductive substrate; a gate electrode disposed on the electrically conductive substrate with the first insulating film interposed therebetween; a source electrode; a drain electrode opposing the source electrode with the channel therebetween; a second insulating film covering the gate electrode; and a semiconductor layer having a width larger than a width of the gate electrode in the channel width direction and being partly provided on the gate electrode with the second insulating film interposed therebetween so that the gate electrode, the second insulating film, and the semiconductor layer are laminated in the channel. |
| US07985954B2 |
X-ray detection panel and X-ray detector
An X-ray detector includes a plurality of bias connection lines that connect both ends, respectively, of a bias line for applying a bias voltage to a PIN diode. The bias line includes first and second bias lines. |
| US07985951B2 |
Mass spectrometer
A radio-frequency ion guide (20) for converging ions by a radio-frequency electric field and simultaneously transporting the ions into the subsequent stage is composed of eight rod electrodes (21 through 28) arranged in such a manner as to surround an ion optical axis (C). Each of the rod electrodes (21 through 28) is disposed at a tilt with respect to the ion optical axis (C) so that the radius r2 of the inscribed circle (29b) at the end face of the ion exit side is larger than the radius r1 of the inscribed circle (29a) at the end face of the ion injection side. Accordingly, the gradient of the magnitude or depth of the pseudopotential is formed in the ion's traveling direction in the space surrounded by the rod electrodes (21 through 28). Ions are accelerated in accordance with this gradient. Therefore, even in the case where the gas pressure is relatively high and ions have many chances to collide with gas, it is possible to moderate the ions' slowdown and prevent the ions' delay and stop. |
| US07985950B2 |
Parallel mass analysis
A system and method of mass spectrometry is provided. Ions from an ion source are stored in a first ion storage device and in a second ion storage device. Ions are ejected from the first ion storage device to a first mass analysis device during a first ejection time period, for analysis during a first analysis time period. Ions are ejected from the second ion storage device to a second mass analysis device during a second ejection time period. The ion storage devices are connected in series such that an ion transport aperture of the first ion storage device is in communication with an ion transport aperture of the second ion storage device. The first analysis time period and the second ejection time period at least partly overlap. |
| US07985947B2 |
Photoelectric conversion apparatus and image pickup system using photoelectric conversion apparatus
It is a main object of the present invention to suppress the differences of color ratios of B/G and R/G when the film thicknesses of antireflective films and insulation films vary at a processing process. The present invention is a photoelectric conversion apparatus including a plurality of light receiving portions arranged on a semiconductor substrate, antireflective films formed on the light receiving portions with insulation films put between them, and color filter layers of a plurality of colors formed on the antireflective films, wherein film thicknesses of the insulation films and/or the antireflective films are changed such that changing directions of spectral transmittances at peak wavelengths of color filters on sides of the shortest wavelengths and at peak wavelengths of color filters on sides of the longest wavelengths after transmission of infrared cutting filters may be the same before and after changes. |
| US07985946B2 |
Solid state imaging device in digital camera including a correlate double sampling circuit
A solid-state imaging device including: pixel section having two-dimensionally arranged pixels, each pixel containing photoelectric conversion device, charge retaining section, amplification section, and reset section controlled by reset control signal applied on control terminal, pixel section having vertical signal line and constant current supply; CDS circuit for outputting pixel signal corresponding to light signal by computing difference between first signal outputted from the pixel immediately after applying first potential to control terminal and second signal outputted from pixel corresponding to signal charges; and reset section control section taking potential of reset control signal at the time of cutting off connection between the one end and the other end of reset section as second potential, for applying third potential being intermediate potential between first potential and second potential to control terminal between a timing of outputting the first signal and a timing of outputting the second signal. |
| US07985945B2 |
Method for reducing stray light in a rapid thermal processing chamber by polarization
Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus and method for reducing noises in temperature measurement during thermal processing. One embodiment of the present invention provides a chamber for processing a substrate comprising a chamber enclosure defining a processing volume, an energy source configured to direct radiant energy toward the processing volume, a spectral device configured to treat the radiant energy directed from the energy source towards the processing volume, a substrate support disposed in the processing volume and configured to support the substrate during processing, and a sensor assembly configured to measure temperature of the substrate being processed by sensing radiation from the substrate within a selected spectrum. |
| US07985940B2 |
Welder with internal shielding gas regulator
A welder having an internal shielding gas regulator is disclosed. The welder has an internal gas cylinder and an internal regulator disposed in an enclosure. The welder may be equipped with an auxiliary shielding gas cylinder inlet so that a bulk shielding gas cylinder can be attached thereto and have a flow therefrom regulated by the internal shielding gas regulator. The welder constructed according to the invention is highly transportable, compact, and self-sufficient. |
| US07985936B2 |
Apparatus for indicating closing operable state for air circuit breaker and air circuit breaker having the same
Disclosed is an apparatus for indicating a closing operable state for an air circuit breaker and an air circuit breaker having the same. The apparatus for indicating a closing operable state for the air circuit breaker comprises a micro switch installed at a switching mechanism providing a driving force for switching contactors, provided with a lever extended into the switching mechanism so as to receive the driving force, generating and outputting an electric signal for indicating that the air circuit breaker is in a closing operable state, and provided with a signal transmitting terminal for transmitting the electric signal to a remote place, and an on coupling pressing the lever of the micro switch so that the micro switch generates and outputs the electric signal only when a closing spring for providing elastic energy for switching the contactors charges elastic energy and the air circuit breaker is opened. |
| US07985933B2 |
Assembling structure of a quick installation/uninstallation switch
An assembling structure of a quick installation/uninstallation switch, including a layout fixing seat formed with a central opening and a transverse insertion slot intersecting the central opening. A locating member is inserted through the transverse insertion slot. The locating member is formed with a central hole corresponding to the central opening. A resilient locating member and at least one lateral projecting section with a guide slope are disposed on the circumference of the central hole. At least one resilient restoring member is disposed between the locating member and the layout fixing seat for restoring the locating member to its home position. A connecting end of a switch main body is fitted in the central opening. A lateral locating section with a guide slope is formed on a circumference of the connecting end corresponding to the lateral projecting section. A locating transverse slot is formed on the circumference of the connecting end. The resilient locating member is inlaid in the locating transverse slot. |
| US07985931B2 |
Enclosure for a connector
An enclosure for a connector is disclosed.The enclosure includes two or more enclosure parts, each having a joint such that the enclosure parts are fit together to constitute the enclosure. The joint may have a continuation of linear segments to form a shape like mountains, wherein the length of each segment is smaller than a wavelength corresponding to an operational frequency. |
| US07985928B2 |
Gap free anchored conductor and dielectric structure and method for fabrication thereof
A microelectronic structure and a method for fabricating the microelectronic structure use a dielectric layer that is located and formed upon a first conductor layer. An aperture is located through the dielectric layer. The aperture penetrates vertically into the first conductor layer and extends laterally within the first conductor layer beneath the dielectric layer while not reaching the dielectric layer, to form an extended and winged aperture. A contiguous via and interconnect may be formed anchored into the extended and winged aperture while using a plating method, absent voids. |
| US07985927B2 |
Ceramic substrate grid structure for the creation of virtual coax arrangement
Signal line conductors passing through vertical vias in an insulative substrate for supporting and interconnecting integrated circuit chips are provided with shielding conductors in adjacent vias that link respective power and ground planes. The shielding conductors' presence in positions around a signal via is made possible through the employment of power plane and ground plane conductive grids that are laid out in rhomboid patterns. The power plane and ground plane grids possess a left-right mirror relation to one another and are displaced to place the rhomboid's corners to avoid overlapping any of the grid lines. |