| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07992528B2 |
Stress-induced bandgap-shifted semiconductor photoelectrolytic/photocatalytic/photovoltaic surface and method for making same
Titania is a semiconductor and photocatalyst that is also chemically inert. With its bandgap of 3.0, to activate the photocatalytic property of titania requires light of about 390 nm wavelength, which is in the ultra-violet, where sunlight is very low in intensity. A method and devices are disclosed wherein stress is induced and managed in a thin film of titania in order to shift and lower the bandgap energy into the longer wavelengths that are more abundant in sunlight. Applications of this stress-induced bandgap-shifted titania photocatalytic surface include photoelectrolysis for production of hydrogen gas from water, photovoltaics for production of electricity, and photocatalysis for detoxification and disinfection. |
| US07992527B2 |
Water feed controller for a boiler
A water feed controller which can provide for the addition of a preset fixed amount of water to be added after a low water condition is removed. This system provides for a preset fixed amount of water to be added to a boiler above the amount which triggers the low water condition. This generally inhibits excess cycling from the boiler operating at its minimum safe water level as well as inhibiting overfilling of the boiler. Further, there is discussed a water feed controller which can measure the amount of water added over a prior predetermined period (such as 30 days) which serves as a floating window of time so that a leak or other condition resulting in overly frequent filling can be detected quickly. |
| US07992526B2 |
Condensing water heater
A flue system is provided for a water heater having improved heat exchange efficiency. The flue system includes an upstream heat exchange portion providing a first pass for heat exchange with water in the water heater. The flue system further includes a downstream heat exchange portion providing a second pass for heat exchange with water in the water heater and a blower positioned between the upstream heat exchange portion and the downstream heat exchange portion. The blower is configured to urge combustion products from the upstream heat exchange portion to the downstream heat exchange portion. |
| US07992525B1 |
Animal training device
A device for humanely controlling an animal's behavior while on a restraining device such as a leash by using the resistant force between animal and restraint to engage a trigger that activates release of a distracting or deterrent spray or gas, or a sound. The device is attached to the animal's body, with the triggering mechanism against the animal's skin. In its application as a means to train dogs to walk on a loose leash, the trigger may be situated inside a collar, such that triggering occurs when the dog pulls the leash taut. Triggering can also occur if the user pulls back on the leash to administer a correction. The trigger's springiness additionally provides shock-absorbing protection to the animal's neck. Embodiments with enhanced features, based on the same mechanical principle, are also described. |
| US07992523B1 |
Radiography imaging system
An outer capsule terminates in a closed bottom section. An upper section is formed with an open threaded top. The top has a removable cap. An inner capsule has a lower section and an open upper section. The lower section terminates in an open bottom. An aperture is provided in the closed bottom section of the outer capsule for the passage of a lower most extent of the inner capsule and the securement there between. The capsules are fabricated of a transparent material. A bevel extends through the lower section of the outer capsule. A hose couples the bevel and the inner capsule. A wad of cotton is provided in the lower open end of the capsule. |
| US07992519B2 |
Arrangement and method in a milking system
An arrangement is provided in a milking system for simultaneous milking of a plurality of milking animals, wherein the milking system comprises a plurality of milking positions (P1-P24) and an arrangement for establishing identities of and expected milking times for the milking animals. Each of the milking positions is provided with teat cups, which are attached to the teats of a milking animal and are connected to a source of vacuum to milk the milking animal. The inventive arrangement comprises means (10) for determining a milking position, at which the milking animal having the longest expected milking time is present, based on the established identities and expected milking times; and a device (11, 13, 17; 20) for performing an action with respect to the milking system in response to the determination. |
| US07992512B2 |
Boat mounted interface for directing a bend in a flexible element
An interface between the gunwale or other surface of a boat and a tool such as a electronic device such as a fish finder. The interface is tucked under the mount of the electronic device and includes an opening running radially from the interior of the interface to and beyond an outer diametrical portion of the mount such that a power cord and/or other electrical connections can run from a power source in an inner portion of the boat, then to a central portion of the interface, then to the portion of the interface disposed beyond the outer diametrical portion of the mount, and then to the electrical device. |
| US07992510B2 |
Personal watercraft
A personal watercraft is provided that is capable of achieving high speeds. The craft can operate on a surface of a body of water or beneath the surface of the body of water. The personal watercraft includes a hull, a streamlined water tunnel disposed within the hull, a plurality of fins extending from the hull, a propeller disposed within the water tunnel, a motor disposed within the hull and outside of the water tunnel, a water intake at the front of the water tunnel and at the front and bottom of the hull, first and second water exhausts at the rear of the water tunnel and at the rear and bottom of the hull, and first and second handgrips located at the rear of the hull. The propeller can pull water into the water tunnel via the water intake, and the amount of water entering the watercraft at any given time is substantially the same as the amount of water exiting the watercraft via the water tunnel and the water exhausts. |
| US07992508B1 |
Remotely operated watercraft docking mechanism having fuel saving and theft thwarting attributes
A docking mechanism comprises first and second units, operative to firmly attach and release a watercraft such as a ferry boat to a dock. This action can be produced by actuators that may be hydraulic or pneumatic actuators, or by other means such as manually actuated levers, electric motors or solenoids. A moveable locking piston acts to push locking cylinders or other locking members such as movable links against watercraft lock channels mounted upon the watercrafts. The apparatus results in very firm coupling of a watercraft to the dock, beneficially permitting ferry boats to load and unload cargo without keeping their engines running which wastes fuel and pollutes the environment. The lock channels on the watercraft are however configured to permit relative vertical motion between the watercraft and the latching assembly to account for water level changes and yet maintain very firm coupling of the watercraft to the dock. |
| US07992507B2 |
Forced air cavity and control system for watercraft
The forced air cavity and control system for watercraft provides a source of compressed air against the hull, the compressed air being distributed via a pivotally adjustable air scoop mounted proximate the front of the boat, to which is connected a series of conduits (air passageways) leading downwardly from the housing. The conduits exit at openings in a V-shaped step in the hull of the watercraft to emit high pressure air against the hull to thereby reduce friction caused by hull contact with the water. A hydraulic ram operably connected to the air scoop provides a means of pivotal adjustment. A plurality of ice runners is provided on the bottom of the watercraft to increase stability of control under reduced water friction conditions. |
| US07992504B2 |
Farm implement with coupling device
A farm implement includes a chassis, a wheeled section, a tool section, and a fifth wheel coupling device for receiving and coupling with a complimentary coupling pin on a semi-trailer. A fifth wheel coupling system includes a fifth wheel coupling plate having a slot designed to receive a coupling pin of a semi-trailer, a latching mechanism designed to latch onto the coupling pin of the semi-trailer, and a coupling device interface designed to connect the fifth wheel coupling plate and latching device to a farm implement. A method of connecting a semi-trailer to a farm implement having a fifth wheel coupling device includes aligning and connecting a coupling pin of the semi-trailer with a coupling device of a farm implement. A farm implement includes a coupling device designed to connect with a complimentary coupling device of a trailer having a storage tank with a capacity greater than 1,000 gallons. |
| US07992500B2 |
Method and apparatus for self-destruct frangible projectiles
The present invention discloses and claims an apparatus and method for delivering a wide array of selected agents to a target from stand-off distances. The apparatus includes a self-destruct frangible projectile made of primary, binding, and active components. The primary component generally has a specific gravity greater than lead, and the binding component generally has a specific gravity less than lead. The active component may be a metal for penetrating the target, a dye for optically marking the target, or another specially selected agent for delivery to the target, depending on the particular embodiment. The frangible projectile self-destructs upon contact with the target, in proximity to the target, or after passing the target, depending on the particular embodiment. |
| US07992495B2 |
Detonation of explosives
A chemical detonator includes a housing, having an open end and a closed end; and a detonation element located in the housing, into which a shock tube for initiating the detonation element intrudes, wherein the housing and the shock tube are of plastics construction and the housing is substantially cylindrical cup shape, and wherein the shock tube intrudes into, and is welded to, the open end to hold the shock tube at a desired spacing from the detonation element. The detonator includes a detonation element that includes a series of charges. |
| US07992492B2 |
Web offset printing press and method for operating a web offset printing press
A web offset printing press that prints and processes at least one material web and has printing units and/or printing unit assemblies, at least one folder, and transport elements operates by transporting the at least one material web by the transport elements through a web of the printing press into the at least one folder, electrically driving the at least one folder, the printing units and/or printing unit assemblies and the transport elements at least partially mechanically independently of each other, and synchronizing during printing operation via specified setpoints values of at least one master axis with an electronically generated synchronization clock, and starting from a initial state of the at least one folder in which the master axis and/or condition of motion of the folder are independent of each other, adapting by the at least one folder its initial state to or synchronizing by the at least one folder its initial state with setpoint value assignments of the master axis, by performing compensating motions. |
| US07992491B1 |
Engineered top infeed hopper system
A baler for making compacted bales of a cellulosic and preferably woody biomass material, the baler comprising: a housing defining a compaction chamber therein, wherein the housing comprises a top wall, an infeed opening defined in the top wall for introducing the material into the compaction chamber, and a hopper system comprising: first and second doors pivotably attached to the housing in opposing array over the infeed opening, wherein each door comprises a pivot having a plurality of fingers extending in planar array therefrom and defining a plurality of recesses disposed therebetween, and wherein the fingers of the first and second doors are staggered such that the fingers of each door are positioned opposite to and receivable by the recesses of the other door, and actuator means for pivoting the doors upwardly to form a chute for directing the material toward the infeed opening, and downwardly to intermesh and preferably interlock the fingers and substantially cover the infeed opening. |
| US07992488B2 |
Process for generating milk froth from milk powder and milk froth generating device and coffee machine suitable for performing this process
Milk froth generating device for generating milk froth from milk powder (7) and hot water comprises a hot water supply and a water heater. For simply obtaining milk froth of high quality, the milk froth generating device comprises a substantially rotation-symmetrical hot water sprayer head having hot water channels (9, 12) downwardly directed and open at the bottom. Some of them are disposed close to an outer convex surface (10) of the hot water sprayer head and some extending close to a central axis of the hot water sprayer head (1). The hot water channels are connected via a hot water distribution chamber (16) in the hot water sprayer head, and the hot water supply (17) with a hot water pressure generator and the water heater. |
| US07992486B2 |
Calibrated handheld espresso tamper
An espresso tamper including a force calibration means is shown. The tamper is optimally handheld. Upon force of a desired magnitude being applied by a user, at least one discrete signal, such as an audible, visual, tactile or electrical signal is emitted. The tamper handle includes an anti-rotation feature. The handle is flared to avoid pinching the user's fingers during operation and to stop the user's fingers from sliding down the handle or in any way touching the base, thereby rendering the tamper more effective and safe. The tamper and force-calibration kit and method of use optimize espresso making. |
| US07992485B2 |
Apparatus for compensating and/or transmitting forces or torques and rotational movements between two components
An apparatus for compensating and/or transmitting forces/torques and rotational movements between two components, particularly for compensating for vehicle movements, in which at least one joint module is situated between the two components, which joint module converts a translational and/or rotational movement of a piston, to which a pressure medium is applied, into a rotational movement of at least one first rotatable shaft or of a first and a second rotatable shaft. |
| US07992482B2 |
Apparatus for cutting substrate and method thereof
An apparatus for cutting a substrate includes first and second belt conveyers for conveying the substrate thereon, a scriber for scribing the substrate along a cutting-reserved line, the scriber provided between the first and second belt conveyers and being spaced apart from the first and second belt conveyers, and a substrate support for securing the substrate, the substrate support provided between the first and second belt conveyers along a scribing direction of the substrate. |
| US07992481B2 |
Panel cutting apparatus
A panel cutting apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a bench and a rail mounted to the bench, and adapted to guide a saw along the rail. A bench aligner displays a visual indication of a desired cut line of said workpiece. A positioning guide allows for convenient repositioning of a workpiece, allowing a user to make accurate, repeatable cuts in a workpiece, such as a panel material or sheet of plywood. |
| US07992479B2 |
Table saw
A table saw includes a base assembly, a table assembly supported by the base assembly, a saw assembly connected to at least one of the base assembly and the table assembly, the saw assembly having a blade extending through the table assembly, a height adjustment assembly for adjusting the height of the blade, the height adjustment assembly comprising a height adjustment wheel, and bevel adjustment assembly for adjusting the bevel angle of the blade, the bevel adjustment assembly comprising a bevel adjustment wheel. The height and bevel adjustment wheels are disposed at the front of the base assembly. The position of the height and bevel adjustment wheels relative to the front of the base assembly does not change regardless of the blade height and bevel angle. |
| US07992474B2 |
Cover structure and machine tool with the cover structure
A separator chute is placed at a standby position while a part is machined, and when the processing of the part is completed, the separator chute is swung and moved to a reception position to receive the part separated from a spindle. An opening portion of a cover structure, formed near a pivot shaft of the separator chute, is formed in the size through which the machined part can be discharged. The opening portion is closed by the separator chute when the chute is in the standby position and opened when the chute is in the reception position. |
| US07992473B2 |
Pipe cutting apparatus and method of using the same
An apparatus for cutting a pipe includes a housing with a central aperture for holding the pipe in a fixed position. A rotatable collar is mounted on the outer surface of the fixed housing, with a cutting head attached to the collar. The cutting head is configured to translate forward and backward such that the combination of the rotational movement of the collar and the translational movement of the cutting head is capable of performing complex cuts without ever moving the pipe. A number of different cutting tools (laser, plasma, etc.) may be attached to the cutting head, and a variety of different tasks may be performed including cutting completely through the entire pipe, inscribing on the pipe surface, forming through-holes along the pipe, and the like. |
| US07992469B2 |
Screw feeding device in continuous screw driving tool
A screw feeding device includes a feeder box, a stopper member, an operating member, and a resilient member. An adjustment slot is formed in the stopper member, and has two closed ends and alternate large-diameter and small-diameter slot portions. An operating protrusion of the operating member has a large-diameter protrusion portion and a small-diameter protrusion portion. The operating protrusion is biased by the resilient member away from the feeder box. The operating member is movable relative to the feeder box between a first position whereat the large-diameter protrusion portion is disposed within a selected one of the large-diameter slot portions, and a second position whereat the small-diameter protrusion portion is disposed in the adjustment slot. |
| US07992459B2 |
Shifting claw transmission and shifting method therefor
In a shifting claw transmission for a motor vehicle including a main shaft and a countershaft and an electric motor for rotating the countershaft or being rotated thereby with freely rotatable gear wheels supported on the counter shaft and engageable with the countershaft by claw engagement structures, the speed of the countershaft is adjustable by the electric motor to be close to, but somewhat different from, the speed of the freely rotatable gear wheels to be engaged in order to facilitate shifting but avoid a tooth-on-tooth problem which would inhibit shifting. |
| US07992457B2 |
Actuator device
An actuator device (1) comprising an actuator housing (2), a driving motor (4) attached to the actuator housing (2), which driving motor (4) is provided with a motor spindle (28), the motor spindle (28) being displaceably engaged with an actuator spindle (6) via a nut (38), and where an auxiliary frame (8) which can be displaced relative to the actuator spindle (6) and biased by use of the driving motor (4), and which can be releasably coupled to the actuator housing (2), is arranged to displace the actuator spindle (6) independently of the motor (4), and where the nut (38) is releasable coupled to the actuator spindle (6), thereby being arranged to bias the auxiliary frame (8) while disengaged from the actuator spindle (6). |
| US07992454B2 |
Airflow bench with laminar flow element
A testing system includes a single air collection box and a laminar flow system for obtain an airflow measurement. The single airflow box has air inlet and outlet ports at opposite ends. The laminar flow element has a laminar flow element inlet in fluid communication with the air collection box and a laminar flow element outlet sealed with the air outlet port of the air collection box. A blower in fluid communication with the laminar flow element outlet draws airflow into the air collection box through a unit under test and out of the air collection box through the laminar flow element. A pressure transducer senses the differential air pressure across the laminar flow element and enables a determination of the airflow rate. |
| US07992450B2 |
Device and method for measuring amounts of milk in particular during the milking process
The invention relates to a device for measuring the mass flow, in particular of a foaming liquid, comprising a measuring device with two electrodes and at least one electrical means for generation of an electrical parameter and an analytical device. The electrical means is connected to the first electrode at two remote points, such as to be wired in parallel with the first electrode. The second electrode is connected to the first electrode by means of the analytical device. |
| US07992443B2 |
Sensor element for capacitive differential-pressure sensing
A sensor design, respectively a micromechanical sensor structure for capacitive relative-pressure measurement, that will allow very small pressure differentials to be reliably recorded at high absolute pressures even in harsh, particle-laden measuring environments. For that purpose, the micromechanical sensor element includes a deflectable diaphragm structure which is provided with at least one deflectable electrode, and a fixed support structure for at least one fixed counter-electrode which is located opposite the deflectable electrode. The diaphragm structure includes two mutually parallel configured diaphragms that are joined rigidly to one another via at least one connecting crosspiece, so that each application of force to one of the two diaphragms is directly transmitted to the respective other diaphragm. The first diaphragm is able to be pressurized by a first measuring pressure emanating from the front side of the sensor element, and the second diaphragm is able to be pressurized by a second measuring pressure emanating from the rear side of the sensor element. The fixed counter-electrode is located in the sealed volume between the two diaphragms of the diaphragm structure. |
| US07992442B2 |
Component and method for its manufacture
A method for reducing microcrack formation and crack growth in the glass carrier of a component having a micromechanical sensor element that is bonded to the glass carrier. The upper side of the glass carrier acts as a bonding surface for the sensor element. The rear side of the glass carrier, situated opposite the upper side, acts as a mounting surface for the component, and the glass carrier has side surfaces that connect the upper side and the rear side. In particular, the glass carrier is formed by a segment of a glass wafer into which at least the contours of the glass carrier have been stamped, so that at least the areas produced in this way of the side surfaces of the glass carrier and the rear side of the glass carrier form a surface that is largely closed and free of microcracks. |
| US07992432B2 |
Method for operating an internal combustion engine for a motor vehicle, and control or regulating device for an internal combustion engine for a motor vehicle
A method for operating an internal combustion engine for a motor vehicle, in which a first signal is determined, which characterizes a torque of the internal combustion engine. In order to provide a method for operating an internal combustion engine for a motor vehicle in which a torque of the internal combustion engine is determined even more precisely, in particular in the region of a zero crossing of the torque, a second signal, which characterizes a state variable of the internal combustion engine and/or the motor vehicle that differs from the torque is determined from the first signal, at least one third signal is recorded, which characterizes a measured value of the state variable, the second signal and the third signal are compared to one another, and the first signal is corrected on the basis of the comparison. |
| US07992429B2 |
Chromatography system with fluid intake management
A liquid chromatograph includes a mobile phase supplying apparatus including liquid-feeding pumps to feed mobile phases, liquid-feeding flow paths, a mixer to mix the mobile phases, at least one control device to control each liquid-feeding pump, flow rate measuring sections provided downstream in each liquid-feeding flow path configured to measure an actual flow rate and to detect a back-flow, and actual flow rate computing sections configured to compute an actual flow rate in the corresponding liquid feeding flow path. Also included are a sample injecting section downstream of the mobile phase supplying apparatus, a separating column for separating an injected sample into its constituents, and a detector for detecting each of the separated constituents. When one of the actual flow rate measuring sections detects a back-flow, the corresponding actual flow-rate computing section computes an actual back-flow rate and outputs a signal to the corresponding control device to cancel the back-flow. |
| US07992426B2 |
Apparatus and method for increasing the selectivity of FET-based gas sensors
A FET gas sensor having a relatively low operating temperature, for example, room temperature, is free from cross sensitivities from interfering gases by a preceding in-line filter. The sensor's service life is substantially stabilizable by using fabric-like activated charcoal filters which can be regenerated by a moderate temperature increase, and by limiting the diffusion of the analyte gas, which is made possible by the relatively small amount of gas detectable on the sensitive layer of the sensor. This substantially increases the service life of the filters. The gas sensor eliminates cross sensitivities to thereby increase the detection reliability thereof. Also, the gas sensor has relative long term stability and is economical to build. The gas sensor can read relatively weak signals generated by gas-sensitive layers, for example, without other stronger gas signals interfering with the weak signals. |
| US07992422B2 |
Breath-based sensors for non-invasive molecular detection
A method of diagnosing the health of an individual by collecting a breath sample from the individual and measuring the amount of each of a plurality of analytes in the sample. The amount of each analytes is measured by fitting a time response curve of a sample-evaluation fuel cell in which the fuel cell sample electrode is contacted with the sample with the analysis based on a function of standard time response curves for an equivalent fuel cell configuration obtained separately for each of the analytes on a fuel cell with equivalent construction as sample-evaluation fuel cell. Each of the plurality of analytes is generally indicative of an aspect of the individual's health. Suitable analytes include, for example, inorganic compounds as well as compositions that exhibit negative reduction reactions at least for a portion of the time response curve. In particular, acetone exhibits a negative potential/current peak when it is an analyte in a fuel cell in an sample electrode with a counter electrode exposed to oxygen, which may or may not be introduced in the form of air. Various forms of analysis to estimate acetone concentrations in the breath can be used. |
| US07992418B1 |
Sheet material
A sheet of cold rolled material having on both of its surfaces rows of projections and rows of depressions, the projections on one surface corresponding with the depressions on the other surface, the relative positions of the projections and depressions being such that lines drawn on a surface of the sheet between adjacent rows of projections are non-rectilinear, the sheet having a base gauge G, wherein each projection has a substantially continuous region of peak plastic strain at, toward or about its apex and/or is thinned by no more than 25% of its base gauge G. Methods of forming the sheet material and tools for forming the sheet material are disclosed. |
| US07992417B2 |
Method for producing ultra thin wall metallic tube by cold rolling method
An aspect of the present invention provides a method for producing an ultra thin wall metallic tube by a cold rolling method with significant wall thickness reduction. In a method for producing the metallic tube with a cold pilger mill, a wall thickness is reduced to perform elongation while a wall thickness center diameter is expanded using a pair of rolls, which has a tapered groove die whose diameter is gradually expanded or reduced from an engaging inlet side of the roll toward a finishing outlet side thereof, and a tapered mandrel bar, whose diameter is gradually expanded from an engaging inlet side of the tapered mandrel bar toward a finishing outlet side thereof. |
| US07992416B2 |
Ultrasonic peening treatment of assembled components
Ultrasonic peening treatment is desirable where an application of a compressive stress is helpful to reduce the incidence of crack formation on highly stressed parts. Ultrasonic peening treatment can be performed in field applications without requiring a rotor to be removed from the machine. The system includes an acoustic element that excites peening media within a peen chamber. A frame is attachable to an assembled turbine rotor component and includes support structure engageable with the acoustic element. The frame is cooperable with a chamber tooling that defines and encloses the peen chamber together with the turbine rotor component. |
| US07992415B2 |
Jacquard thread-guide bar for warp knitting textile machines
A jacquard thread-guide bar (2) for warp knitting textile machines, comprising a supporting body (7) provided with a plurality of housing seats (5) configured and arranged so as to engage each removably a mounting body (6) of a single piezoelectric actuator (3) and to carry out an individual removable mounting of the single piezoelectric actuator (3) onto said supporting body (7), the housing seats (5) extending perpendicularly to the main longitudinal extension of the bar (2) and being configured and arranged so as to guide the sliding of the mounting body (6) between a mounting position and a disengaged position. |
| US07992414B2 |
Automatic threading device
A strand forming and chopping apparatus includes a bushing for forming a continuous strand, a size applicator for applying a size to the strand, a chopping device for chopping the strand into individual segments and a thread-up apparatus for directing the strand into the chopping device. The thread-up apparatus includes a cot incorporating a cot shoe and a strand guide displaceable between a rest position and a thread-up position where the strand guide holds the strand in a feed position from which the strand is engaged by the cot shoe and delivered to the chopping device. |
| US07992412B2 |
Process for producing glass shaped material and process for producing optical element
Disclosed are a process for producing a glass shaped material having high quality and high mass accuracy and a process for producing an optical element, which includes the preparation of a glass shaped material having high quality and high mass accuracy, the heating of said glass shaped material and the precision-press-molding thereof.The present invention provides a process for producing a glass shaped material including the separation of a predetermined amount of a molten glass gob from the forward end of a molten glass flow flowing down from a flow pipe, by a specific means and the shaping thereof into the glass shaped material, a process for producing a glass shaped material including the dropping of a molten glass drop from a flow pipe, the receipt thereof with a shaping mold that ejects a gas, by a specific means, and the shaping thereof into the glass shaped material while it is caused to float, and a process for producing an optical element including the precision press-molding of a preform obtained by one of these processes. |
| US07992407B2 |
Refrigerator having ice bank
A refrigerator having an ice bank includes a rotation shaft to which a transfer unit for transferring ice pieces in the ice bank is connected, and having a coupling groove on an outer circumferential surface of the end thereof; a joint penetrated by the rotation shaft; a driving shaft connected to the joint, and transmitting a driving force of a motor to the joint; and a coupling ring coupled to the coupling groove of the rotation shaft penetrating the joint. Since the coupling ring is locked by the joint, the rotation shaft is prevented from being arbitrarily separated from the joint. The rotation shaft can be rotated in forward and backward directions. Furthermore, since the rotation shaft has a length shorter than a rotation shaft having screw threads and nuts, the motor can have a compact configuration. |
| US07992406B1 |
Multi-stage direct evaporation cooling system and method
A multi-stage evaporative cooling system and method employing direct evaporative cooling at each stage. An exhaust fan is located between stages to expel warm air and partially depressurize the vapor space. An aspect of the present disclosure also describes the application of evaporative cooling to a pet shelter. |
| US07992402B2 |
Cold aisle isolation
A data center cooling solution providing techniques for using baffles, doors and roof sections to prevent warm air from being entrained into a cold aisle in a data center, wherein the data center generally contains an air cooling system and a raised floor structure. The raised floor structure is configured to deliver cool air into the data center through a plurality of grates and perforated tiles in the floor. Electronic equipment racks are disposed around the grates and perforated tiles, such that the front faces of the equipment racks face the grates and perforated tiles. A collection of baffles, doors or roof sections inhibit the mixing of the cool air delivered by the air cooling system and the warm air exhausted by the electronic equipment. |
| US07992399B2 |
Pressure equalization component for a compressor
A system to equalize pressure connected to a compressor for use in HVAC&R system is provided. The system includes a component in fluid communication between a high pressure side and an intermediate pressure side of the compressor. The component is configured to permit flow of refrigerant between the high pressure side and the intermediate pressure side at least when the compressor is not in operation. |
| US07992392B2 |
Method for regulating the flow rate of fuel to a turboshaft engine in acceleration or in deceleration
Apparatus for regulating the flow rate of fuel to a turboshaft engine in acceleration or in deceleration, the engine having a free turbine and a core engine, the apparatus comprising sensors transmitting information to regulator means, said information relating: to a first speed of rotation NTL of said free turbine; to a second speed of rotation Ng of said engine's gas generator; to an internal temperature T4 of the gas at the inlet to the free turbine; to the external pressure; and to the external temperature. The apparatus further comprises control means activated by said regulator means to actuate a fuel metering system of the engine. In addition, the regulator means evaluates the flow rate of fuel to be supplied to the engine in acceleration or in deceleration on the basis of at least one optimum regulation relationship, said regulation relationship determining a main modulated flow rate as a function of a modulated speed of rotation. |
| US07992380B2 |
Emission control system implementing reduction agent injection
An emissions control system is disclosed. The emissions control system may have a power source that creates a flow of exhaust, an SCR catalyst situated to receive the flow of exhaust, and an injector configured to inject a reduction agent into the flow of exhaust in the presence of the SCR catalyst. The emissions control system may further have a controller configured to calculate a spatially dependent surface coverage of the reduction agent on the SCR catalyst and substantially stop injection of the reduction agent when the spatially dependent surface coverage of the reduction agent exceeds a maximum surface coverage of the reduction agent at one or more spatial locations. |
| US07992379B2 |
Exhaust purification device for engine
An exhaust purification device for an engine comprises a catalytic device for purifying exhaust by using an additive, a deflecting device for allowing the exhaust to flow through and causing the exhaust to be agitated, upstream of the catalytic device, an additive injection device for injecting an additive, downstream of the deflecting device, a temperature detection device for detecting exhaust temperature, downstream of the deflecting device, and a control unit for controlling the additive injection device on the basis of the exhaust temperature detected by the temperature detection device. The temperature detection device has a temperature detection part located within a region where the exhaust having passed through the deflecting device has increased velocity. |
| US07992374B1 |
Agricultural plant cutting header with fore and aft adjustable flexible cutterbar having automatic preload adjustment
A flexible cutterbar header for an agricultural plant cutting machine, includes a plurality of elongate, telescoping support arms pivotally connected to a floor of the header and supporting a flexible cutterbar for upward and downward, and fore and aft movements relative thereto, apparatus extending between at least some of the support arms configured and operable for controlling the telescoping thereof substantially uniformly, and a preload adjusting system configured and operable for applying a preload force against the cutterbar through the support arms in a manner to automatically increase as the support arms telescopically increase in length, and automatically decrease as the support arms telescopically decrease in length. |
| US07992373B2 |
Lawn mower with grass collecting unit support
A connecting mechanism (60) is provided for detachably connecting A grass collecting unit (30) to a chassis (4), and the connecting mechanism (60) includes a connecting unit (40) at the grass collecting unit side provided in a support frame assembly (31), and a connecting unit (50) at the vehicle body side provided in the chassis (4). The support frame assembly is vertically movable by the driving unit with the grass container (32) being supported to the ground through a support (70), which selectively achieves a connecting operation performed by the connecting mechanism (60) for connecting the connecting unit (40) at the grass collecting unit side to the connecting unit (50) at the vehicle body side, and a releasing operation performed by the connecting mechanism (60) for releasing connection between the connecting unit (40) at the grass collecting unit side and the connecting unit (50) at the vehicle body side. |
| US07992371B2 |
Stalk roll with coating
A stalk roll for an agricultural harvester row unit comprising a plurality of longitudinal extending knife edges about its circumference, in which one of the leading and trailing sides of the knife edges is coated with a first wear resistant coating over substantially its entire length, and in which the other of the leading and trailing sides is coated with a second wear resistant coating over at least one of a front portion thereof and a rear portion thereof. |
| US07992369B2 |
Agricultural harvester and header height control system
An agricultural harvester comprises an agricultural harvester vehicle and a harvesting head mounted on the vehicle, the header height control system including at least one sensor disposed to sense the height of the ground in the path of a drive wheel of the agricultural harvester vehicle, and a header height control system including an electronic circuit configured to lower the harvesting head as a wheel or wheels approach or engage a protrusion on the ground indicated by the sensor, and to raise the harvesting head as the wheels approach or engage a depression in the ground indicated by the sensor. |
| US07992367B2 |
Flexible forward substrate for a treeless western saddle
A treeless western saddle comprising a flexible base coupled to an underside of a flexible substrate. A seat section is integrally formed in the flexible substrate. A pommel section is integrally formed in the flexible substrate. The flexible base has an upper stirrup aperture and a lower stirrup aperture formed in a lateral side of the flexible base. The underside of the flexible substrate has a cavity formed in a lateral side of the underside of the flexible substrate, the cavity to extend from the upper stirrup aperture to at least the lower stirrup aperture. |
| US07992366B2 |
Dally horn wrap
The present invention is a wrap designed to protect the saddle horn when a lariat rope is dallied around it and pressure applied, as when roping cattle in the sports of team and calf roping. The horn wrap consists of a strap having desired elasticity and durability, as well as a sufficient coefficient of friction. The horn wrap can have one or two apertures at the tips which can be pulled over the saddle horn and act to attach the horn wrap to the saddle horn. Generally anticipated to be in a generally bell shape, the attachment pieces act to protect the saddle pommel near the base of the saddle horn. The horn wrap may be beveled near its edges so as to allow for smooth layers on the saddle horn which can increase the contact of the rope to the saddle horn to increase the friction resisting the dally sliding when weight is applied to the rope. |
| US07992359B2 |
Alignment brace for insulated concrete walls and method of construction
An alignment brace for multi-level insulated concrete form walls that utilizes a cured base level wall for anchoring the brace that will be used to brace and align a succeeding wall level comprising, a bracing beam having first and second sections that are pivotally interconnected at a pivot point, an elongated adjustment beam disposed in spaced relation from the bracing beam and co-planar therewith where the adjustment beam is pivotally interconnected to the bracing beam at the pivot point and where the adjustment beam carries at its distal ends a jack screw assembly for expanding or contracting the spacing between the distal ends of the adjustment beam and the bracing beam. |
| US07992357B2 |
Safety device for use with prestressing cables
Safety equipment for use with prestressing cables as used in civil engineering and building structures, the safety equipment having two principle parts adapted to fit over a cable at a point where the cable interfaces with anchoring members or walls, the safety equipment configured to take over from original anchoring elements in the event of a rupture of the cable. |
| US07992356B2 |
Structural roof venting system for grain bin and associated method
A roof system for a grain storage structure. The roof system includes a plurality of enclosures defined between adjacent roof panel surfaces. Each enclosure includes opposed exterior and interior wall segments oriented at an angle relative to the panel surfaces. The exterior and interior wall segments have cooperating indents that are fastened to one another to secure adjacent roof panels against relative movement. |
| US07992355B2 |
Drive-thru system and method
A vehicular drive-thru food ordering and delivering system and method are provided. The system includes a lot, a drive-thru lane and a building for receiving and filling drive-thru orders. The building has a primary food delivery window for passing ready orders to drive-thru customers, and a downstream in-line parking area for drive-thru vehicles having a delayed order. Proximate to and downstream from the primary food delivery window is a doorway for attendant access from the primary food delivery window to the downstream in-line parking area. An attendant runway is proximate and downstream of the doorway and proximate to the in-line vehicle waiting area. A customer with a delayed order can be directed to wait in the downstream in-line waiting area. When the delayed order is ready for delivery, an attendant can deliver the ready order via the proximate doorway and proximate attendant runway to a vehicle waiting in the in-line vehicle waiting area. |
| US07992353B2 |
Space frame hub joint
A hub joint includes a metal rod and pin for joining tubular members in three-dimensional space for assembling a frame structure. The hub joint enables rapid assembly, rapid reconfiguration, and rapid disassembly without using any specialized tools. Multiple hub joints may be used to form geodesic domes, freestanding trusses, space frame slabs, tetrahedrons, and pentahedrons. The hub joints allow different frame configurations that are lightweight, strong, durable, scalable, expandable, and portable. |
| US07992348B2 |
High-frequency measuring enclosure for measuring large test objects
A high-frequency measuring enclosure for measuring large test objects is formed by an air-supported membrane or textile construction of a spherical or ellipsoidal contour, which is substantially pervious to electromagnetic radiation. For absorption of residual electromagnetic radiation that may be reflected by the interior of the surface, the floor is covered with absorber material. |
| US07992347B2 |
Structural door module
A structural door module for a motor vehicle door, comprising of a carrier plate with a plurality of door hardware components mounted to the dryside and wetside surfaces of the carrier plate. The carrier plate includes a number of preformed components that allow door subsystems to be pre-mounted to the door module and tested prior to mounting the structural door module in the motor vehicle door body. An energy absorbing area is molded into the carrier plate. Additionally, a protruding arm rest support is designed to collapse during a side-impact collision. |
| US07992335B2 |
Modular insertion trigger method and apparatus
A trigger assembly comprising a housing adapted to mount a trigger, hammer and sear therein. The housing has an adjustment feature adapted to fixedly mount the housing within the trigger chamber portion of the firearm. The trigger assembly is particularly conducive for an AR-15 type rifle and the various sear engagement surfaces are adapted to be adjustable irrespective of the various dimensions and tolerances of the underlying firearm. A safety system is employed that adjustably allows proper engagement of the trigger tail to properly engage and disengage the safety mechanism. |
| US07992333B1 |
Vehicle identifier
A vehicle identification device includes one or more clips configured to attach the device to a vehicle door or window. The identification device optionally includes reflective material so that the vehicle is more easily seen. The identification device optionally includes identification indicia such as letters or numbers. The identification device is optionally deployed from within the vehicle, thus improving safety. |
| US07992331B2 |
Magical image cups and containers with 3D displays
An optical illusion device such as a drinking glass/cup for providing a multi-dimensional visual display. The device includes a body with tubular sidewalls extending from an opening at a first end to an opening at a second end. A base assembly is provided at the second end. The base assembly includes a top wall, a bottom wall, and a sidewall that together form or define an inner chamber. A visual display assembly is provided with a mirror element with a convex reflective surface or mirror positioned within the chamber with the reflective surface facing the top wall of the base assembly. A primary image element is provided proximate to the reflective surface such that the primary image and mirror element can be observed via the opening in the body. A framing element is included proximate to the top wall of the base assembly including background images facing the reflective surface. |
| US07992330B2 |
Display assembly for printed materials
A display for printed materials includes a pocket mounting panel having a plurality of indexing holes, which may be arranged in columns and rows, and a plurality of pockets adapted to receive printed materials. The pockets include at least one rearwardly extending pocket engaging clip having a resiliently deformable member that is adapted to be received by an indexing hole. Pockets may be installed in a vertically cascading arrangement and individual pockets may be removed from the pocket mounting panel without removing adjacent installed pockets by manually engaging and deforming the resiliently deformable member(s) of the target pocket through access windows provided in the rear panels of the pockets. |
| US07992329B2 |
Single pointed ripper bucket excavation tool
A single pointed ripper bucket excavation tool (SPRB) for use mounted to an arm of an excavation machine has a body mounted for rotation from the arm and a pair of generally flat, side plates mounted to the body and narrowing from a first width in a region of the body to a second, relatively smaller width at a tip region spaced from the body. A single ripper tooth is mounted in the tip region of the ripper bucket. One or more plates are mounted to span a region between the side plates, rearward of the ripper tooth in a direction of ripping motion, to define, with the side plates, a ripper bucket volume for receiving material ripped from the substrate during ripping motion. |
| US07992327B2 |
Snow plow rebound apparatus
A snow plow rebounding system is provided. A cushion block and shock-absorbing springs serve to cushion a snow plow rotating about a horizontal axis. |
| US07992326B2 |
Sports shoe, in particular an alpine ski shoe
The invention relates to a sports shoe (1), in particular an alpine ski shoe (2), with an adjusting means (3) for varying the stiffness of the sole system (4) as and when necessary. This adjusting means (3) comprises at least one profiled tension element (19) which remains essentially dimensionally stable when forces act on it and which is connected at its oppositely lying end portions to a front sole platform (10) on the one hand and to a rear sole platform (11) of the sole system (4) on the other hand, its middle portion extending freely between the front and the rear sole platform (10, 11). The tension element (19) is mounted so as to be relatively displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the sole system (4) in order to apply adjustable positioning forces relative to at least one sole platform (10, 11), and an individually adjustable tensing force can be expended between the front and the rear sole platform (10, 11) via the tension element (19). This tensing force can be adjusted so that at least one load-induced tendency of a distance (25) between the front and rear sole platform (10, 11) to become bigger is counteracted or a tendential vertical lifting of the middle portion of the sole system (4) is induced. |
| US07992325B2 |
Flexibly rigid personal protective equipment components
The subject invention improves traditional safety equipment intended to protect the lower leg, ankle, foot, and toes applicable in industrial and commercial as well as casual and athletic uses. The personal protective equipment (PPE) of the subject invention comprises a soleplate, a metatarsal component, a toe cap, and a tibia-fibula component; these components can be implemented alone or in combination within a shoe or boot providing for various levels of protection depending on the desired application. Further embodiments provide for both the implementation of the protective components within the footwear as well as components that can be worn in conjunction with pre-existing shoes or boots. |
| US07992324B2 |
Stable footwear that accommodates shear forces
A shoe sole is described that provides both cushioning and stability. The sole has a plurality of layers, including a transition layer which allows relative motion between the layers adjacent to the transition layer. The relative motion between the layers of the sole reduces the impact of horizontal shear stresses on the wearer's feet and ankles. One such transition layer includes pliable material and deformable holes within the pliable material. Another transition layer includes at least two rigid plates held together by less rigid grommets or sidewalls. The transition layer may be disposed beneath the entire shoe or only portions of the shoe, with either a more conventional sole structure or rigid support members completing the sole. |
| US07992323B2 |
Structure of ventilating insole
An improved structure of ventilating insole, which is composed of a shoe-shaped lower insole, an air permeable layer (cloth or leather) in shoe-shaped and a sponge is placed between the lower insole and the air permeable layer, its features are as follows, a concave trough with casing is set in the central part of the lower insole when molding it in one-body-type, an elastic, porous sponge which is trough-shaped in equal thickness is placed onto the trough of the lower insole, then casing around trough is glued to the air permeable layer with air inlet ports at the heel and air outlet ports at the toe portions, a ventilating insole is then finished. Such an insole provides for pumping cool air into the interior of the shoe as a result of the normal walking action, thus, the shoe can keep ventilating properly. |
| US07992321B2 |
Laundry dryer having three roller drum support system and reversing idler assembly
A laundry dryer includes a cylindrical drum shell mounted for rotation on front and rear stationary bulkheads of the dryer. A drive system is configured to rotate the drum in first and second opposite directions. Three rollers are arranged about a lower portion of the drum circumference, on the rear bulkhead, to stably support the rotatable drum during rotation in the first and second directions. The arrangement can also avoid potential flexing and distortion of a cylindrical drum shell of relatively large diameter. In addition, a reversing idler assembly is provided for maintaining proper tension on a drive belt during drum rotation in the two directions. The assembly provides a biased mount for two pulleys on a pair of arms integrally formed with a spring as a single piece, in lieu of separate articulated mounting arms and a separate biasing spring. |
| US07992320B2 |
Clogging detection method for dryer
A clogging detecting method for a dryer, which can accurately determine a clogging degree of an air passage, even when there is an operation deviation of a temperature control member, is disclosed. The clogging detecting method includes determining operating characteristics of a temperature control member turning on/off in accordance with a temperature of an air passage, determining a clogging degree of the air passage in accordance with a clogging reference corresponding to the determined operating characteristics, and displaying the determined clogging degree of the air passage. |
| US07992318B2 |
Heating apparatus, heating method, and computer readable storage medium
A disclosed heating apparatus for heating a substrate on which a film is coated includes a process chamber having a gas supply opening for supplying a first gas to the process chamber and a gas evacuation opening for evacuating the first gas from the process chamber; a heating plate that is arranged in the process chamber and includes a heating element for heating the substrate; plural protrusions arranged on the heating plate so as to support the substrate; plural suction holes formed in the heating plate so as to attract by suction the substrate toward the heating plate; and a gas inlet adapted to supply a second gas to a gap between the heating plate and the substrate supported by the plural protrusions. |
| US07992308B1 |
Extended reach hedge trimmer
The present invention is an extended reach power tool apparatus. The apparatus includes a powerhead and a yoke. The powerhead includes a motor which is enclosed by a casing. The yoke includes a base portion configured for being secured to a pole. The yoke also includes a boss configured for being pivotally secured to the powerhead. Further, the powerhead may be rotatable about the boss. The boss may form an aperture configured for receiving wiring, such that the wiring may be routed from a source, through the pole, and to the powerhead. |
| US07992307B2 |
Hair clipper with motorised cutting guide
The invention concerns a hair clipper comprising a device for adjusting the position of a powered cutting guide slaved to an electronic device, automatically adapting the position of said cutting guide based on the option selected by the user. |
| US07992306B2 |
Heated line cutter and whipper
An exemplary embodiment includes a heated blade for cutting a synthetic line or rope as well as heated sealing cylinders for sealing the cut or raw ends against raveling. The cutter can accommodate lines of a variety of diameters. The cutter is powered by a rechargeable battery and is portable and safe for use in a marine environment. Other embodiments seal the raw ends by shrinking a heat-shrinkable tubing over the raw ends. |
| US07992303B2 |
Hair clipper with improved blade control structures
An electric hair clipper with improved blade control structures for adjusting a scissors kit includes a combination housing provides a knob fitting portion, a pivot portion, an axial guiding slot, a motor receiving portion and a motor fixing portion. An adjusting knob provides a knob body and a pivot portion that pivots on the pivot portion of the combination housing, a turning operation portion around the adjusting knob for the finger to fiddle with and a pusher driving portion formed continuous various distance radially from the center of the pivot portion, an elastic orientation part is placed between the knob body and the combination housing. A motor unit is provided in the combination housing. A sliding pusher provides a body; a driven link portion that driven by the pusher driving portion of the adjusting knob to make the sliding pusher slide, a push head can push against the scissors kit. |
| US07992299B2 |
Method for the economical production of heat exchanger tubes bent in a u-shape
The invention relates to a method for the manufacture of tubes bent in a U-shape (hairpin tubes) from a nonferrous metal, immediately following a tube production line. For that purpose, according to the invention, the method for the manufacture of tubes bent in a U-shape from a nonferrous metal, immediately following a tube production line, has the consecutive steps of: a) uncoiling the drawn tube material from a basket winder, b) straightening the drawn tube material, c) annealing and subsequently cooling the drawn tube material before or after cutting, for separation into tube portions, to the starting length for a tube bent in a U-shape, and d) bending the tube portions into a U-shape. |
| US07992296B2 |
PCB and manufacturing method thereof
A printed circuit board and a manufacturing method thereof are disclosed. The method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: providing a substrate on which a first insulation layer, a first circuit pattern, a second insulation layer and a resin layer are successively laminated; boring a through-hole penetrating the substrate; forming roughness on the resin layer by a desmear process; forming a via making an electrical connection between layers through the through-hole; and forming a second circuit pattern on the resin layer having roughness formed thereon. |
| US07992295B2 |
Method for interconnecting tracks present on opposite sides of a substrate
A method and device for making an electrically conductive connection between two electrically conductive tracks present on two opposite sides of a dielectric substrate. The method: a) provides the substrate, with at least one first electrically conductive track present on one side thereof and at least one second electrically conductive track present on the other side of the substrate opposite the one side, b) forms a through hole through the substrate and through two opposite parts of a first track and a second track, respectively, and c) makes an electrically conductive connection via the through hole between the first track through which the through hole has been formed and the second hole through which the through hole has been formed. |
| US07992293B2 |
Method of manufacturing a patterned conductive layer
According to embodiments of the present invention, a method for manufacturing a pattern of conductive elements on a substrate is provided. The method includes applying a coating layer of electrically conductive transparent compounds onto a substrate; depositing in a vacuum deposition chamber an electrically conductive material onto the coating layer to form an electrically conductive layer; applying an etch-resist material on selective areas of the electrically conductive layer, wherein the selective areas are substantially areas pre-designed to carry the conductive objects; and chemically etching the electrically conductive material from exposed areas of the electrically conductive layer that are not covered by the etch-resist material. |
| US07992290B2 |
Method of making a flexible printed circuit board
An exemplary method of making an FPC includes forming a substrate comprising metal foil layers interleaved with intervening layers by: (a) laminating intervening layers with metal foil layers; (b) adhering a covering film to outermost surfaces of the substrate; (c) defining a hole in one side of the substrate through the covering film and at least two metal foil layers and the intervening layer between the at least two metal foil layers by etching or laser technology; and (d) plating a portion of an inner wall of the hole with conductive material to form a via to electrically connect the at least two metal foil layers. |
| US07992282B2 |
Reversible flange plate methods
Methods of refinishing differently configured brakes are disclosed that include constructing a reversible flange plate by forming a body with a hollow bore extending through the center of the body, installing rings adjacent a hollow bore in the body, and manipulating the body in such a way as to allow the body to be mounted on a brake lathe to refinish differently configured brakes. |
| US07992275B1 |
Method for thruster withdrawal for maintenance or vessel transit without the need for an external crane, remote operated vehicle, or diver
A method is disclosed herein for lifting thrusters on vessels enabling for on vessel maintenance at sea. The method can include engaging a thruster mounting flange with a thruster well bottom flange; installing alignment guide plates to provide a rough alignment; positioning a seal to provide a connection; installing fasteners to secure the flanges; actuating clamps to secure the flanges while compressing the seal; raising the thruster out of the thruster well; transporting the thruster to a deck of the floating vessel; actuating clamps to hold the flanges; removing the fasteners; flowing water into the thruster well; disengaging the clamps; and lifting the thruster with the lifting means. |
| US07992273B2 |
Crimping apparatus for reducing size of a stent
An apparatus for manipulating a medical device is formed of at least three coupled movable blades which are disposed about a reference circle to form an aperture whose size may be varied. The aperture capable of being sized to contain a medical device. Each blade is in communication with an actuation device which is capable of moving the blade to alter the size of the aperture. Each blade includes a single radial point which a) lies on the circumference of the reference circle prior to movement of the blade, and b) may be moved only along a radius of the reference circle on movement of the blade. |
| US07992268B2 |
Fastening clip device
A fastening clip device comprising arms of different length pivoted together about a transverse pin on one and the other side thereof, and elastic means which maintain two facing portions of said arms spaced apart, one end of one of said arms being bent substantially to U-shape to retain the end of the other arm against the action of said elastic means, characterized in that the arm of smaller length comprises two apertures positioned on one and the other side of the pin about which the two arms are pivoted, and by comprising a flexible puller which passes through said apertures, extends between the pin and the arm of greater length, and is fixed to the curved portion of said arm. |
| US07992263B2 |
Belt connector
To connect a belt connecting member (4) of a first member (1) with a snap hook (5) of a second member (2), a neck portion (21) having a circular cross section is provided so as to project from a connecting portion of the snap hook (5), a bulging portion (22) is provided on a tip end of the neck portion (21) so as to radially bulge to define an engaging portion (23), a fitting hole (13) is provided on a connecting portion of the belt connecting member (4) with an engaged portion (15) that is engageable with the bulging portion (22), the engaged portion (15) and the engaging portion (23) are formed in an oval shape having a long axis (L, L′) in a flush plane of the belt connecting member (4) and the snap hook (5) and a short axis (S, S′) in orthogonal planes of the belt connecting member (4) and the snap hook (5), and the engaging force can be largest when the snap hook (5) is in its most general state in use where the belt connecting member (4) and the snap hook (5) are orthogonal. |
| US07992260B1 |
Binder clip with label holder
An improved binder clip is provided. The binder clip includes a clamping means, opposed gripping means attached to the clamping means, and a label holder that is attached to, or that is integral with, the clamping means. An identifying label is inserted into the label holder for easy identification of the material that is bound by the binder clip. |
| US07992255B2 |
Hinge and interference apparatus for the same
A hinge includes a first bracket, a second bracket, a shaft, and first and second interference elements. The shaft is fixed to the first bracket. The second bracket rotationally fit about the shaft. The first interference element is rotationally mounted on the shaft and fixed to the second bracket, and defines two unleveled surfaces at one side. The second interference element is immovably mounted on the shaft beside the first interference element, and defines two unleveled surfaces at one side facing and corresponding to the unleveled surfaces of the first interference element. |
| US07992254B2 |
Caster device
There is provided a caster device including a caster, a crank shaft, a rotating member, a pushing member and a connecting rod. The crank shaft is coaxially coupled to a reciprocatingly rotatable cam element of the caster. The rotating member is rotatably coupled to a movable object. The rotating member has a plurality of pins spaced apart from one another in a circumferential direction. The pushing member is vertically movably coupled to the movable object. The pushing member rotates the rotating member by contact with the pin. The connecting rod and the crank shaft convert a rotation of the rotating member to a reciprocating rotation of the cam element. The caster is set to one of a plurality of operating modes according to the reciprocating rotation of the cam element. |
| US07992253B2 |
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner is provided. The vacuum cleaner includes a cleaner body, in which a dust collector mount part is formed, a dust collector that is removably mounted on the dust collector mount part and having a dust storage part in an inside thereof, at least one compressing member that reduces a volume of dust stored in the dust storage part of the dust collector, a power transfer device that transfers a driving force to the at least one compressing member from outside connected with the at least one compressing member, and a controller that decides an amount of dust stored in the dust storage part. |
| US07992252B2 |
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner is provided. The vacuum cleaner may include a dust separation device that separates dust and a dust container in which the dust separated in the dust separation device may be stored. |
| US07992245B2 |
Cleaning tool and cleaning device having such a cleaning tool
The invention relates to a cleaning tool for a cleaning device, the cleaning tool being subject to wear during operation. In order to make it easier to identify wear, the invention proposes that the cleaning tool comprise a sensor device with a sensor element which has a physical characteristic variable which changes as a function of the degree of wear of the cleaning tool. The invention also proposes a cleaning device having such a cleaning tool, the cleaning device having a detector device which is coupled to the sensor device for the purpose of sensing the change in the physical characteristic variable of the sensor element, and having an indicator device which is connected to the detector device. |
| US07992244B2 |
Electric toothbrushes
In a first embodiment an electric toothbrush having a housing containing an electric motor, the motor being drivingly connected to a first brush head rotatably mounted on an end of the toothbrush remote from the motor and adjacent to at least one other rotatable brush head. In a second embodiment a packaged electric toothbrush including a “try me” facility for remotely testing the operation of the toothbrush, which “try me” feature comprises a two-sided metal strip such as aluminum foil, separated by a dielectric material, respective sides of the strip being connected at one end to respective parts used to operate the electric toothbrush and the other end of the strip being folded over and including a centrally disposed aperture onto which is a bendable metal connector such that upon bending or pressing of the connector the two sides of the strip are electrically connected together to temporarily operate the toothbrush whilst still in its packaging. |
| US07992239B2 |
Laterally rotating patient support apparatus
A patient support apparatus comprises a lower frame, a lift mechanism, a drive mechanism, and an upper frame. The lower frame includes a lift drive configured to at least one of expand and contract the lift mechanism. The lift mechanism is pivotably coupled with the lower frame to rotate about a rotational axis. A drive mechanism is coupled between the lift mechanism and the lower frame. The drive mechanism is configured to rotate the lift mechanism about the rotational axis. The upper frame is supported on the lift mechanism and responsive to the rotation of the lift mechanism to rotate a patient about the rotational axis. |
| US07992238B2 |
Rotatable surgery table
A surgical table for infants and small animals has a bed assembly that is rotatable. The bed assembly includes a stationary plate and a rotating plate with a brake that controls rotation. The bed assembly may be connected by a clamp to the frame of a conventional operating table and supported alongside or above. The bed assembly may also be permanently mounted on its own vertical support. The bed assembly may also be permanently mounted to the operating table by an articulated clamp that allows the bed assembly to be stored alongside. A central opening is present in both plates so that hoses and wires connected to the patient will pass through this opening to permit rotation of the patient with the table with no stress on the hoses or wires where they connect to the patient. |
| US07992225B2 |
I-pocket for a garment
The present invention is a securing pocket for attachment to a garment that supports a small hands-free electronic device. The pocket further comprises an opening within the garment for supporting the pocket. The opening is dimensioned and contoured to support the electronic device. The pocket further comprises a first covering and a second covering dimensioned and contoured to support the electronic device. The second covering overlays the first covering and have a seamless attachment thereto with an edge being left unattached for receiving and removing the electronic device. The first cover has slightly larger dimensions than the opening and overlays the opening and has a seamless attachment thereto. |
| US07992224B2 |
Crown of waterproof cap
The present invention is aimed to provide a crown for waterproof cap. The crown (20) consists of six panels (21˜26), inside the crown there are diagonal seams (27) intersected. These seams can be sealed by stickers (41˜43) contain thermoplastic membrane (40). Whereby the seams are connected with panels (21˜26) to achieve waterproof effects. In manufacturing, high frequency circular wheel cuts and melts between panels (21˜26), leftovers cut off and thrown out, piled sides of panels are welded to form a seam (27). Stickers contain thermoplastic membrane can be heated inside the crown between two adjacent panels, where a roller rolls over to press down the sticker to cover up the seams. Thereby, a crown is completed. |
| US07992223B2 |
Protective athletic band
A thin athletic band which is economical to manufacture yet provides considerable impact protection coupled with effective perspiration removal. |
| US07996916B2 |
Process verification
A disclosed gaming machine provides methods and apparatus of verifying the authenticity of gaming software stored in and executed from RAM on the gaming machine. When presenting a game on the gaming machine, a master gaming controller may dynamically load gaming software applications into RAM and dynamically unload gaming software applications from RAM. The authenticity of the gaming software applications temporarily stored in RAM may be verified by using methods to compare it with certified gaming software stored on one or more local or remote file storage devices accessible to the master gaming controller on the gaming machine. The verification process may be used to satisfy gaming regulatory entities within various gaming jurisdictions that require certified gaming software to be operating on the gaming machine at all times as well as to prevent tampering with the gaming machine. |
| US07996912B2 |
Method and system for monitoring online computer network behavior and creating online behavior profiles
A method and system for monitoring users on one or more computer networks, disassociating personally identifiable information from the collected data, and storing it in a database so that the privacy of the users is protected. The system receives a user identifier and uses it to creates an anonymized identifier, defined as a user identifier stripped of all personally identifiable information. The anonymized identifier is then associated with one or more users' computer network transactions. The data is stored by a collection engine and then aggregated to a central database server across a computer network. |
| US07996909B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method
An information processing apparatus for determining whether or not to transmit a predetermined content to a reception apparatus connected to a network, in accordance with a response time taken to respond to a predetermined command, including: reception means receiving a response to a command; measuring means measuring the response time to the command; authentication means authenticating the reception apparatus; generation means generating authentication data to be inserted into the command; transmission means transmitting the command including predetermined one of the authentication data; storage means storing the authentication data contained in the command and the response data contained in the response; request means requesting the reception apparatus for transmission of the authentication data and the response data; and determination means determining whether the authentication data and the response data transmitted from the reception apparatus, and determining transmission permission/inhibition of a content to the reception apparatus. |
| US07996906B2 |
System and method for automatically altering device functionality
A system and method for automatically altering device functionality based on the occurrence of certain predetermined conditions. A link may be established between a device and a trusted server to provide an association between various conditions that may be detected at the device and actions that are to be taken on the device. In particular, software traps can be set up and linked to device functionality such that execution of the trap may automatically disable or enable certain device capabilities. Some aspects of the invention are directed to a system and method for remotely setting software traps for detecting software viruses and, upon execution of the traps, several methods for establishing a quarantine on infected devices. |
| US07996902B1 |
System and method for certifying that data received over a computer network has been checked for viruses
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for certifying that content available on a host site is free from viruses identified by an anti-virus database. Content configured for publication on a host site is scanned for viruses. The scanned content is loaded onto the host site if no viruses are identified. Further, a certificate is displayed identifying the content on the host site as being scanned for viruses. |
| US07996895B2 |
Method and apparatus for protecting networks from unauthorized applications
A traffic controller is provided which integrates black-box tests of unauthorized applications to extract application characteristics from associated Internet traffic, exploits the networking information learned by host clients, actively scans and controls hosts on the corporate network, and dynamically configures a corporate firewall to block traffic to and from critical application network elements. As a result, the traffic controller effectively manages unauthorized applications and their associated traffic in a corporate environment. |
| US07996893B2 |
Determining roles for automated tasks in a role-based access control environment
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for performing an automated task in a role-based access control environment. A set of roles is assigned to a user to form assigned roles, wherein the role-based access control environment allows the user to assume a subset of the assigned roles at a given time. Responsive to receiving a request to execute an automated task, an identity of the user creating the automated task is identified. Responsive to determining that the user creating the automated task is not logged in, a set of session roles are identified based on the identity of the user. A session is created for the automated task. The automated task is performed in the session using the set of session roles. |
| US07996884B2 |
Method and arrangement for server-controlled security management of services to be performed by an electronic system
An arrangement for providing data in the context of security management for a franking system has a remote data center at which a list of data sets is stored the data sets containing security information as well as information regarding associated security policies, appertaining at least to security measures and the location of their storage in the franking system. A method for server-controlled security management of performable services in an electronic system includes the steps of receiving a request for a desired service, determining a security feature to be selected and generating a data set corresponding thereto, selecting a logical channel and transferring to data set via that channel establishing the service end, and waiting for receipt of a further service request or for the ending of the communication connection. |
| US07996882B2 |
Digital asset distribution system
Digital asset distribution systems and methods are provided. The method may include receiving a digital asset and associated permissions from each of a plurality of publishers, and hosting the digital assets received from each publisher on a digital asset server system. The method may further include receiving a request from a user to access a requested digital asset via the digital asset server system, determining whether the user is authorized to access the requested digital asset according to the permissions for the digital asset. If the user is not authorized, the method may include displaying a substitute to the user. The substitute may include a link to the digital asset server system by which the user may obtain authorization to download the digital asset. |
| US07996881B1 |
Modifying a user account during an authentication process
Techniques are described for repairing some types of user account problems that interfere with granting a user access to a computer system and doing so during a process to authenticate the user in a way that does not require the user to re-enter authentication information or require the user to restart a communication session with the computer system. In response to a determination that a user's account has a problem during an authentication process, techniques are provided to enable a user to execute an appropriate process or processes to fix the user account, after which the authentication process continues. In this way, the correction to the user account may appear to be seamless to the user. |
| US07996878B1 |
System and method for generating coded video sequences from still media
The invention provides a system and method that transforms a set of still/motion media (i.e., a series of related or unrelated still frames, web-pages rendered as images, or video clips) or other multimedia, into a video stream that is suitable for delivery over a display medium, such as TV, cable TV, computer displays, wireless display devices, etc. The video data stream may be presented and displayed in real time or stored and later presented through a set-top box, for example. Because these media are transformed into coded video streams (e.g. MPEG-2, MPEG-4, etc.), a user can watch them on a display screen without the need to connect to the Internet through a service provider. The user may request and interact with the desired media through a simple telephone interface, for example. Moreover, several wireless and cable-based services can be developed on the top of this system. In one possible embodiment, the system for generating a coded video sequence may include an input unit that receives the multimedia input and extracts image data, and derives the virtual camera scripts and coding hints from the image data, a video sequence generator that generates a video sequence based on the extracted image data and the derived virtual camera scripts and coding hints, and a video encoder that encodes the generated video sequence using the coding hints and outputs the coded video sequence to an output device. The system may also provide customized video sequence generation services to subscribers. |
| US07996877B2 |
System and method for facilitating fast-forwarding of first-run programs
A system and method are disclosed for facilitating fast-forwarding by viewers through a first-run program beyond the current broadcast point. In one embodiment, the first-run program is distributed before its scheduled publication time, and may be viewed at any time after the publication time. In a second embodiment, content is distributed on or after the publication time, but at a rate greater than the normal viewing rate. In a third embodiment, content is distributed on demand after the publication time by a media distribution server. In a fourth embodiment, a viewer participating in a multicast session of the content requests content beyond the current broadcast point. The viewer is switched to a unicast session, and the requested content is transmitted to the viewer. In alternative embodiments, a release code may be provided to control the time after which the viewer will be permitted to view program segments beyond the current broadcast point. |
| US07996876B1 |
Managed cooperative downloading of digital cinema content
A method for distributing a digital motion picture to multiple theaters in a region via terrestrial wireless communication. The motion picture is divided into chunks, and the chunks are transmitted to particular initial seed theaters in the region. To facilitate the initial seeding, downlink bandwidth on various wireless links is dynamically increased. Once the initial seeding is complete, the downlink bandwidth is decreased and is preferably equalized substantially with uplink bandwidth. The theaters in the region are then directed to begin peer-to-peer sharing of the chunks with each other, possibly through use of BitTorrent or other cooperative downloading process from the initial seed theaters. Ultimately, all of the theaters in the region thereby obtain all of the chunks of the motion picture and can conveniently present the motion picture to audiences. |
| US07996872B2 |
Method and apparatus for switching program streams using a variable speed program stream buffer coupled to a variable speed decoder
Various embodiments for switching programs streams using a variable speed program stream buffer coupled to a variable speed decoder are described. In one or more embodiments, the variable speed program stream buffer may be arranged to receive multiple program streams, such as video program streams, and to buffer historical frames comprising at least one anchor frame. The variable speed program stream buffer may be arranged to always comprise at least one anchor frame and may be implemented by running and/or elastic buffers corresponding to an active channel program stream and one or more alternate channel program streams. Upon detecting a channel switch point, the historical frames comprising the anchor frame up to the channel switch point may be provided to the variable speed decoder in an accelerated manner. The historical frames may be provided to the variable speed decoder in a very short time instant or burst, such as within a time interval of one frame count or less, to enable the variable speed decoder to catch up to the notion of real time. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07996870B2 |
Information process device, mutually connected through a network and receiving delivery information such as movies or music through a network, and a method and program for the same
An information processing apparatus carries out a process using delivery information delivered through a network. Only divisional delivery information used in the process of an n-time speed and acquired through a network by dividing the delivery information when the process is carried out at the n-time speed (where n>1) is acquired. Confirmation information used in confirming whether or not the divisional delivery information thus acquired is normally acquired through the network then is acquired, and the confirmation process of whether or not the divisional delivery information is normally acquired is carried out using the confirmation information. A processor carries out the process of the n-time speed using the divisional delivery information when the divisional delivery information is determined to have been normally acquired. |
| US07996869B2 |
Automatically reconfigurable multimedia system with interchangeable personality adapters
A TV-set is equipped with HDMI and USB connections that allow it to display and run audio-video content from a variety of conventional consumer devices. The TV-set is further equipped to provide a secure HDMI-USB interface that will allow the transfer of licensed high definition content and Internet subscriber services. Such secure HDMI-USB interface also enables a selection of proprietary application modules to be attached. Downloadable user interface templates, much like XML style sheets, are rendered to a user interface displayed on the screen. These are associated with corresponding thumbnails and URI's that allow a user to surf through lists and catalogs of materials, and then to play them in the appropriate formats and provide the machine with a customized controller. A remote commander is simplified, yet expanded to control all the attached devices through interactions with the user interface. The functions of the remote commander's keys change depending on where the user is navigating and what device is being controlled, similar to so-called soft-keys. |
| US07996868B2 |
System and method of accessing digital video broadcasts within an information handling system
A system and method of accessing digital video broadcasts within an information handling system is disclosed. In one form, a digital video broadcast processing system can include a digital video broadcast receiver module operable to process a first digital video broadcast data received within a multiple channel digital video broadcast signal and to output the first digital video broadcast data to an interconnect bus of a computer system. The digital video broadcast processing system can also include a communication interface operable to be removably coupled to an interconnect bus interface of the computer system. The communication interface can be operable to communicate the first digital video broadcast data, including an interconnect dependent data format, from the digital video broadcast receiver module to a digital video processing application of the computer system. |
| US07996865B2 |
Method for providing program guides and image display apparatus using the same
A method for providing program guides and an image display apparatus using the method, are provided where a displayed program guide screen is formed in a shape in which a program guide on a first channel surrounds the outer periphery of a program guide on a second channel according to formation information set for formation of the program guides. An electronic program guide EPG is thereby formed using a concentric circle layout with respect to multiple channels and a broadcast program screen of a selected channel is displayed at a central portion of the EPG, so that the recognizability and the readability are improved as well as the convenience for a user. |
| US07996864B2 |
Method and apparatus for displaying television programs and related text
A television viewer uses a PIP format for display of program related information such as television program listings from a program schedule data base in the background and moving, real time or stored video clip images of a program selected from the displayed listings in the PIP window. All the text of the background information lies outside the PIP window. In one embodiment, as the viewer selects a particular program from the display of current television program listings by means of a cursor or a code number, the corresponding program automatically appears in the PIP window. |
| US07996857B2 |
Optical disc apparatus
The invention makes it possible to carry out an emergency eject motion without attaching and detaching teeth between gears in a transmission system of a driving force of a loading motor, in an optical disc apparatus. At least one of gear units in a gear train constructing a transmission system between a loading motor and a disc moving mechanism is structured such that a driving gear is coupled in an inner diameter side of a large diameter driven gear in such a manner as to be movable in an axial direction and be rotatable integrally with the driven gear, and the driving gear moves and displaces in an axial direction with respect to the driven gear, thereby being canceled the coupling with the driven gear while keeping an engagement with a gear in the next stage, canceling the coupling by an external force by a manual operation so as to set the transmission system to a disconnection state at a time of an emergency eject, making the disc moving mechanism carry out a disc discharge motion by the external force, and discharging an optical disc out of the apparatus. |
| US07996855B2 |
Personal messaging application programming interface for integrating an application with groupware systems
A personal messaging application programming interface can be utilized by a developer in order to add groupware functionality to an application. The interface can include various schemas and providers that allow the schemas to connect to a collaboration server which provides the groupware functionality. The schemas can further include item and container classes and can extend other schemas so as to provide functionality that is more specific to the collaboration server. The items and containers can represent various entities on the collaboration server. The providers can use stubs in order to create connections to the collaboration server and can implement the schema hierarchy so as to map the functionality defined by the schema into various core calls on the collaboration server. |
| US07996854B2 |
Information processing apparatus, method, and program for controlling resource access by application program
A method executed in an information processing apparatus for controlling resource access by an application program running on the information processing apparatus is provided. A change in connection statuses or operating statuses of a device connected to the information processing apparatus is first detected. In response to the detection, a resource access condition to be applied to the information processing apparatus is selected based on certain criterion. The selected resource access condition is stored in a condition storage unit. Then, in response to capture of a function call for resource access issued to an operating system by the application program, the resource access condition is read from the condition storage unit, and it is determined on the basis of the resource access condition whether the captured function call is allowed. If it is determined that the captured function call is not allowed, the function call is rejected. |
| US07996851B2 |
Locally providing globally consistent information to communications layers
Globally consistent information is locally provided to communications layers. Globally consistent information is stored in a Network Availability Matrix, which is locally accessible by a communications layer. If an event is detected, the communications layer is automatically notified by the Network Availability Matrix, and is able to use the information in the Network Availability Matrix to quickly take action. |
| US07996850B2 |
Dynamic business object properties for SOA architectures
This disclosure involves dynamic business object properties for Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA) or other Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) architectures. For example, a method for dynamically modifying an interface in a SOA can comprise receiving a request for an interface associated with a business object, where the interface includes a plurality of fields configured to receive information from a client. The method can further identify current values of one or more attributes associated with the business object and dynamically modify at least one of the fields of the interface based, at least in part, on one or more of the current values. |
| US07996844B2 |
Load distribution control system and method
Processing time for job execution is shortened by using computation capability to the maximum extent possible.When a user makes a job request, the job request is sent from an LDS program of a first computer to a second computer; the second computer executes data preparation processing and empty area reservation processing with regard to a storage unit (disk A) and stores the results to an the FIFO of the first computer; when the output from the FIFO is transferred via a job release program to the LDS program, the transferred content is then transferred to a third computer; and the third computer selects a computer that should execute the job, from among a group of computers and commands the selected computer to execute the job. |
| US07996837B2 |
Recovery mechanism for transactions
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for recovering from an incomplete transaction. These mechanisms and methods can enable embodiments to detect incomplete transactions when recovering from a server crash or other catastrophic event. Some embodiments can automatically re-establish interrupted connections when incomplete transactions have been detected. The ability of embodiments to detect incomplete transaction can allow recovery to initiate substantially immediately upon server restart and adapter redeployment. |
| US07996832B2 |
Workstation deployment
Deployment of a workstation includes receiving data related to the computing environment of workstations, organizing the workstations into groups based on at least one selectable common attribute among the data, and producing a deployment schedule based on the groups. |
| US07996829B2 |
Managing software revisions for servers in an infrastructure
A method and system manages revisions of software code for one or more servers in an infrastructure. An indication of the version of the code currently residing with one of the servers is transmitted to the infrastructure. An indication of the version of the code currently residing with the infrastructure for the server's type is also transmitted to the one of the servers. A determination is made as to whether the server's version should be updated to the infrastructure's, whether the infrastructure's version should be updated to the server's, or neither based on the transmitted indications in view of a set of preconfigured update rules. If the infrastructure's version should be updated to the server's, the image of the code currently residing with the infrastructure is replaced with an image of the code currently residing with the server. If the server's version should be updated to the infrastructure's, the image of the code currently residing with the server is replaced with an image of the code currently residing with the infrastructure for the server's type. |
| US07996820B2 |
Determining proportionate use of system resources by applications executing in a shared hosting environment
Determining proportionate use of system resources by applications executing in a shared hosting environment, including executing monitor agents, one monitor agent for one or more instances of the applications, including collecting by the monitor agents data describing each instance of use of a system resource by an instance of the applications; storing by the monitor agents the collected data in data records, each data record representing a use of the system resources by a using instance of an application, the using instance comprising an instance of an application that uses a resource as represented by a data record; and storing by the monitor agents in the data records monitor tags, the monitor tags identifying each data record and identifying each using instance of an application for each data record. |
| US07996819B2 |
Generating functional test scripts
A method for eliminating ambiguity and incorrectness of the specification determined in a requirement defining phase in developing an information system, and systematically verifying whether an automatically executed test scenario agrees with the original requirements in a functional testing phase, includes extracting an input variable, an output variable, and the respective types of the variables from a specification file in screens; extracting screen-transition information from a composite functional specification containing specifications in screens; and executing the following processes from the top for each screen that appears in screen transition. For the input variable, the apparatus generates a test script indicative of an action (clicking or a character set) corresponding to an object associated with the input variable. For the output variable, the apparatus generates a test script for comparing text information displayed on a screen with an expected value determined from the output variable. |
| US07996818B1 |
Method for testing using client specified references
A method for testing interactions between a server and a client computer is provided in which a client computer transmits a unique request identification (ID) and a unique response to a server computer. The unique request identification ID indicates actual production commands, and the unique response code indicates responses to be provided by the server computer. With a valid request ID, the server simulates its behavior as defined by the response code, and responds to the client computer pursuant to the behavior. Upon receiving an invalid request ID, the server responds to the client computer with an error code so that the client can correct the unique request ID. |
| US07996817B1 |
Automatic validation of test results using componentized software object reflection
A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing automatic validation of test results using componentized software object reflection, is presented. An application is run and at least one resultant data structure is generated from the running of the application. The at least one resultant data structure is converted in to at least one componentized software object. Results are obtained from the at least one componentized software object and the results from the at least one componentized software object are verified. |
| US07996816B2 |
Method and apparatus for dynamically binding service component implementations for specific unit test cases
The present invention enables a component under test to bind to a single component, that is capable of simulating most depended upon services, including the details of their interface, whether or not they return explicit results or cause side effects, and regardless of the state of their implementation. This invention includes features that allow for dynamic reconfiguration to meet the needs of both manual and automated testing, including the ability to control normal and exceptional results, as well as features to support both unit and integration testing. |
| US07996811B2 |
Power managers for an integrated circuit
A system for an integrated circuit comprising a plurality of power islands includes a first power manager and a second power manager. The first power manager manages a first power consumption for the integrated circuit based on needs and operation of the integrated circuit. The second power manager communicates with the first power manager and manages a second power consumption for one of the power islands. |
| US07996800B2 |
Computer program product for design verification using sequential and combinational transformations
System and software for verifying that a model of an integrated circuit satisfies its specification includes performing a sequence of at least one sequential transformation on a sequential model of the integrated circuit to produce a simplified sequential model of the integrated circuit. Thereafter, the simplified sequential model is unfolded for N time steps to create a combinational representation of the design. A sequence of at least one combinational transformation algorithms is then performed on the unfolded design to produce a simplified unfolded model. Finally, an exhaustive search algorithm is performed on the simplified unfolded model. The sequence of sequential transformations may include a sequential redundancy removal (SRR) algorithm and/or another sequential algorithm such as a retiming transformation. The combinational transformations may include a combinational redundancy removal algorithm or a logic re-encoding algorithm. The exhaustive search includes performing an exhaustive satisfiability search by propagating a binary decision diagram (BDD) through the netlist. |
| US07996798B2 |
Representing binary code as a circuit
A high level intermediate representation of a binary is generated. Circuit nodes from the high level intermediate representation are built, wherein a circuit node represents an operation in the high level intermediate representation. The circuit nodes are connecting using a flow analysis of the binary to build a circuit that represents the binary. |
| US07996797B1 |
Method and apparatus for performing multiple stage physical synthesis
A method for designing a system on a target device includes entering the system. The system is synthesized. The system is mapped. The system is placed on the target device. The system is routed. Physical synthesis is performed on the system immediately after more than one of the entering, synthesizing, mapping, placing and routing procedures. |
| US07996793B2 |
Gesture recognizer system architecture
Systems, methods and computer readable media are disclosed for a gesture recognizer system architecture. A recognizer engine is provided, which receives user motion data and provides that data to a plurality of filters. A filter corresponds to a gesture, that may then be tuned by an application receiving information from the gesture recognizer so that the specific parameters of the gesture—such as an arm acceleration for a throwing gesture—may be set on a per-application level, or multiple times within a single application. Each filter may output to an application using it a confidence level that the corresponding gesture occurred, as well as further details about the user motion data. |
| US07996792B2 |
Voicemail manager for portable multifunction device
A computer-implemented method for management of voicemail messages, performed at a portable electronic device with a touch screen display, includes: displaying a list of voicemail messages; detecting selection by a user of a respective voicemail message in the list; responding to the user selection of the respective voicemail message by initiating playback of the user-selected voicemail message; displaying a progress bar for the user-selected voicemail message, wherein the progress bar indicates the portion of the user-selected voicemail message that has been played; detecting movement of a finger of the user from a first position on the progress bar to a second position on the progress bar; and responding to the detection of the finger movement by restarting playback of the user-selected voicemail message at a position within the user-selected voicemail message corresponding substantially to the second position on the progress bar. |
| US07996789B2 |
Methods and apparatuses to control application programs
Methods and apparatuses for controlling application programs are described. A first item and a docking interface having a second item are displayed on a screen space. A selection of the first item is received. A proxy of the first item is positioned over the second item. Next, a window is displayed in response positioning. An application is executing to display the window. In another embodiment, synchronizing a first docking interface on a first screen space of a first machine to a second docking interface on a second screen space of a second machine is performed. The first docking interface has an item that identifies a first application supported by the first machine and the second docking interface has another item that identifies a second application supported by the second machine. |
| US07996787B2 |
Plug-in architecture for window management and desktop compositing effects
A system and method that relates to a plug-in architecture that enables accelerated rendering and compositing of one or more graphical effects instantiated by one or more separate visual effect plug-ins. The plug-in architecture enables setting up visual effects, accepting graphical output requests, customizing visual effects, and/or allowing enhanced graphics rendering for desktop usage, among other things. The invention provides a modular approach to customizing and rendering visual effects. The plug-in architecture enables plug-ins to be exchanged, modified, removed, and added, among other things. |
| US07996786B2 |
Dynamically rendering visualizations of data sets
Computerized methods and systems for dynamically rendering visual representations of data sets are provided. Upon receiving a request for a particular data set (for instance, in response to receiving a search request), a data set is identified and a minimum portion thereof is retrieved that is necessary to render a visual representation of the data set. In this regard, items sharing a common characteristic may be grouped with one another so that only a single visual identifier of a group of data items may be displayed. In this way, a larger portion of the entire data set may be represented in a single view. |
| US07996783B2 |
Widget searching utilizing task framework
A task framework and a semantic reasoning engine are combined to provide a scalable mechanism for dealing with extremely large numbers of widgets, allowing users to both find a widget and automatically fill-in whatever functionality is available on the widget. Calling applications are employed to obtain task information from each widget. The calling application also receives user queries that can be resolved by a widget. A task reasoning process based on an adaptive semantic reasoning engine utilizes the task information to select a widget best suited to respond to a user's query. The task reasoning process can also be employed to determine “best-guess” slot filling of the selected widget. The calling application can then invoke the selected widget and, if available, fill appropriate slots with information to facilitate user interaction with the selected widget. Instances can be client- and/or server-side based. |
| US07996778B2 |
Central internet browser control for multiple browsers enabled system
An information handling system having multiple browser applications includes a browser management utility for selecting one of the browsers as a default browser. The browser management utility provides a central access point for accessing the multiple browsers. The browser management utility enables a user to port settings from one browser application to another browser application. The browser management utility also includes a configurable option which provides the guidance novice users while enabling more experienced users more control over the selection of browser and which information is ported from one browser to another. Additionally, such a system provides a user with a single location to store and manage common browser application settings such as bookmarks, passwords, and cookies. |
| US07996775B2 |
Instant messaging communication system and method
A method of providing instant messaging communication between a first user and at least one other user via a communication network. The method comprises: executing an instant messaging client at a user terminal of the first user, the instant messaging client having a user interface comprising a message composition region; the instant messaging client receiving a selection of media for insertion into the instant messaging communication from the first user; the instant messaging client generating a link comprising the address of the selected media at a network element and creating a selectable control with the link embedded therein; inserting the selectable control in the message composition region of the instant messaging client; the instant messaging client receiving user-viewable text entered by the first user into the message composition region in addition to the selectable control; and the instant messaging client transmitting the contents of the message composition region of the instant messaging client to the at least one other user over the communication network responsive to a command from the first user. |
| US07996772B2 |
Apparatus, method, and medium for providing guideline for arranging images with story
One or more embodiments relate to a method, apparatus, and medium for providing a guideline for arranging images with a story. An apparatus for providing a guideline for arranging images with a story according to an aspect of the present invention includes a guideline control module controlling a guideline selected by a user according to a user's input or a content acquisition situation, an apparatus adaptive module automatically setting a state of an apparatus according to the guideline selected by the user, and a context processing module acquiring contents relative to the guideline. |
| US07996769B2 |
Handheld electronic device and method for performing spell checking during text entry and for providing a spell-check learning feature
A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with a disambiguation routine that is operable to disambiguate text input. In addition to identifying and outputting representations of language objects that are stored in the memory and that correspond with a text input, the device is able to perform a spell check routine during input of a text entry and to learn and automatically correct mistakes typically made by the particular user. |
| US07996767B2 |
System and method for generating electronic patent application files
The present invention provides a method for generating electronic patent application files, which includes steps of: creating multiple extensible markup language (XML) templates; setting basic requirements of drafted files; mapping the XML templates to chapter headers in the drafted files; analyzing and verifying whether the drafted files meet the basic requirements; parsing contents of the drafted files into corresponding XML templates if the drafted files meet the basic requirements; and generating XML patent application files according to the XML templates. A related system is also disclosed. |
| US07996766B2 |
Server side web browsing and multiple lens system, method and apparatus
A user may access a host server and receive display information within a single browser window. The display information includes at least one lens, wherein each lens controls server side web browsing and allows the user to view a separate web page from the Internet. The host server provides personalized web browsing capability specific to a particular user independent of the browser, device or location of the user. After the user submits a request to view a particular web page, the web page information is retrieved by the host server and transmitted to the user for display within a selected lens. Each lens controls server-side web browsing through independent navigational controls, such as a horizontal and vertical scroll bar, a resize button and the like. One lens may also control the web content displayed in another lens. The host server may reformat entire web pages so that they can be displayed within a lens without the need for scrolling. Additionally, each lens may have multiple cookies associated therewith. Users may further submit bookmarks which are applicable to one or more of the lenses. Bookmarks may be recognized through initiating a single command. |
| US07996764B2 |
Apparatus, program and method for accepting a request from a client computer via a network and executing a web application
A web application server executes a process appropriately also with respect to an access from a terminal device which was not recognized by the web application when the application was designed. The web application server includes a DLG file storage unit 12 having stored a DLG file in which a business logic of the web application is described in a definition in an abstract representation, a DLG execution unit 13 for using this DLG file and executing a business process of the web application in response to a request from a client, a view specializer 14 for generating a view consistent with attributes of the client with JSP based on a result of the process by the DLG execution unit 13, and a response generation unit 16 for using the view with a JSP file generated at the view specializer 14 to generate and return a response to the client. |
| US07996761B2 |
Table format data processing method and table format data processing
A method of automatic data input/output to/from another document format or data file with a high visibility and an easy document format definition operation, even in a document format having a derivative area as a second data description area in a single cell. The method includes performing an item definition for correlating data or a data field with an item name in a document format, and specifying a difference condition as a description condition unique to the derivative area against a main area as a first description area in the same cell, for the data field having the derivative area as a second data area in a single cell. According to the specified item definition and the difference condition, data or a record as a set of data description areas to be simultaneously referenced at the document data input/output is identified for each of the derivative areas. |
| US07996759B2 |
Data insertion from a database into a fixed electronic template form that supports overflow data
One embodiment in accordance with the invention relates to inserting data (e.g., XML data) from a database into an electronic template form that includes a table. Furthermore, each table can expand to fit any amount of inserted data and can also expand onto additional pages. The additional pages may have the format of supplemental pages that include the expanded table or that of duplicate pages that also include the other information (e.g., brief description of the table, letterhead, etc.) that was included on the first page. The font size and space can be calculated along with the line wrap for the supplemental page format or duplicate page format. |
| US07996758B2 |
Methods and apparatus for storing data associated with an electronic form
The disclosed system empowers technical and non technical users to author logical business objects, author intelligent business forms, and create automated workflows. The logical business objects include data definitions and methods from existing and new data sources. An object broker interprets the business object definition and brokers data/information and method calls to the data sources. The intelligent business forms are created by an information worker in a rich web-based tooling environment. Each form is intelligent enough to recognize other forms that it might co-exist with on a single page, as well as how to react based on events that occur on these related forms. The automated workflow tools include process discovery features that assist users during the process identification phase. The tools assist both technical and non technical users to identify processes within the organization, including supporting solution artifacts such as forms, rules, actions, outcomes and business objects involved. Process modeling features include the ability to combine defined artifacts into a process model that can be published into a runtime environment where it can be executed and used by business users in the organization. |
| US07996741B2 |
Method and apparatus for low-pin-count scan compression
A low-pin-count scan compression method and apparatus for reducing test data volume and test application time in a scan-based integrated circuit. The scan-based integrated circuit contains one or more scan chains, each scan chain comprising one or more scan cells coupled in series. The method and apparatus includes a programmable pipelined decompressor comprising one or more shift registers, a combinational logic network, and an optional scan connector. The programmable pipelined decompressor decompresses a compressed scan pattern on its compressed scan inputs and drives the generated decompressed scan pattern at the output of the programmable pipelined decompressor to the scan data inputs of the scan-based integrated circuit. Any input constraints imposed by said combinational logic network are incorporated into an automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) program for generating the compressed scan pattern for one or more selected faults in one-step. |
| US07996739B2 |
Avoiding race conditions at clock domain crossings in an edge based scan design
A structure, system, and method block clock inputs to clock domains (using a computer). While the clock domain inputs are blocked, the structure, system, and method perform a first timing test only of signals that are transmitted within the clock domains (using the computer) by only observing latches that receive signals from sources within the clock domains. The structure, system, and method also unblock the clock inputs to the clock domains (using the computer). While the clock domain inputs are unblocked, the structure, system, and method perform a second timing test only of signals that are transmitted between the clock domains by only observing latches that receive signals from other clock domains. |
| US07996738B2 |
Semiconductor chip with a plurality of scannable storage elements and a method for scanning storage elements on a semiconductor chip
A semiconductor chip subdivided into power domains, at least one of the power domains is separately activated or deactivated and at least a part of the scannable storage elements are interconnected to one or more scan chains. At least one scan chain is serially subdivided into scan chain portions and the scan chain portion is arranged within one of the power domains. For at least one scan chain portion a bypass line is provided for passing by scan data and at least one select unit is provided for selecting between the bypass line and the corresponding scan chain portion in dependence of the activated or deactivated state of the corresponding power domains. |
| US07996737B2 |
Fingerprinted circuits and methods of making and identifying the same
A circuit having a fingerprint for identification of a particular instantiation of the circuit is disclosed. The circuit may include a plurality of digital circuits or gates. Each of the digital circuits or gates is responsive to a configuration voltage applied to its analog input for controlling whether or not the digital circuit or gate performs its intended digital function and each of the digital circuits or gates transitioning between its functional state and its at least one other state when the configuration voltage equals a boundary voltage. The boundary voltage varies between different instantiations of the circuit for a majority of the digital circuits or gates and these differing boundary voltages serving to identify (or fingerprint) different instantiations of the same circuit. |
| US07996734B2 |
Memory having an ECC system
An error correction code system for a memory is provided. The memory is provided with a parity array that is directly accessible. An embodiment of the error correction code system includes writing and reading test data directly to the parity array. The data read from the parity array is compared with the test data written to the parity array to detect errors. |
| US07996731B2 |
Error detection in high-speed asymmetric interfaces
A system and method for detecting errors in high-speed asymmetric interfaces are described. Embodiments include transmitting digital data between a first system component and a second system component over a bidirectional interface, wherein the first component is significantly more intelligent than the second component. The first component controls many operations of the second component, including receiving a signature from the second component over an existing line of the interface. The signature received is compared to a signature stored by the first component. Both signatures correspond to a transaction over the interface. Based on the comparison, the first component determines whether the transaction was successful, and directs the second component as necessary. |
| US07996728B2 |
Computer system or performance management method of computer system
This invention provides a system including a computer and a storage-subsystem comprising at least either a first storage area for storing data sent from the computer or a second storage area to be associated with the first storage area, for storing replicated data of data stored in the first storage area. This system includes a replication processing status referral unit for referring to a replication processing status of data of the first storage area and the second storage area to be associated, and an output unit for outputting first performance information concerning data I/O stored in the first storage area, and outputting second performance information concerning data I/O stored in the second storage area together with the first performance information when the replicated data is being subject to replication processing from the first storage area to the second storage area as a result of referring to the replication processing status. |
| US07996724B1 |
System and method for logging disk failure analysis in disk nonvolatile memory
A system and method for logging and storing failure analysis information on disk drive so that the information is readily and reliably available to vendor customer service and other interested parties is provided. The information, in an illustrative embodiment, is stored on a nonvolatile (flash) random access memory (RAM), found generally in most types of disk drives for storage of updateable disk drive firmware. A known location of limited size is defined in the flash RAM, to form a scratchpad. This scratchpad is a blank area of known addresses, formed during the original firmware download onto the memory, and which is itself free of firmware code. This scratchpad is sufficient in size to write a series of failure codes in a non-erasable list as failures/errors (and user/administrator attempts to unfail the disk) are logged. The log of failures always travels with the drive, and can be read by the vendor to determine the general nature of the most recent failure(s) and whether these failures represent a problematic history for the drive. |
| US07996714B2 |
Systems and methods for redundancy management in fault tolerant computing
Systems and methods for redundancy management in fault tolerant computing are provided. The systems and methods generally relate to enabling the use of non-custom, off-the-shelf components and tools to provide redundant fault tolerant computing. The various embodiments described herein, generally speaking, use a decrementer register in a general purpose processor for synchronizing identical operations across redundant general purpose processors, execute redundancy management services in the kernels of commercial off-the-shelf real-time operating systems (RTOS) running on the general purpose processors, and use soft coded tables to schedule operations and assign redundancy management parameters across the general purpose processors. |
| US07996711B2 |
Memory errors
The present invention provides a method of protecting against errors in a boot memory, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code: accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory; performing an error check on a plurality of the portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion; and booting the processor using the valid portion of boot information. |
| US07996706B2 |
System to recover a failed flash of a blade service processor in a server chassis
A system for recovering a server blade, in a multiple server blade computer, that is lost during a flash update operation on a service processor in the server blade. Because of the flash update failure, the lost server blade is unaware of its location on a management pathway, which in an exemplary form may be a midplane or a bus, which connects the server blade and a management module in a server blade chassis. The lost server blade puts a signal on the management pathway indicating that the flash failed. The signal is put on a special channel reserved for such messages. The management module receives the signal, and then determines which of the multiple server blades are lost due to the flash update failure. |
| US07996704B2 |
Asynchronous first in first out interface and operation method thereof
The invention provides an asynchronous first in first out (FIFO) interface and operation method wherein a read-out clock and a write-in clock of the asynchronous FIFO interface is asynchronous. The asynchronous FIFO interface comprises a FIFO buffer, a clock controller and a variable integer divider. The FIFO buffer inputs at least one data with the write-in clock, and outputs the at least one data with the read-out clock. The clock controller outputs a clock control signal according to a number of data stored in the FIFO buffer. The variable integer divider divides a first signal to generate the read-out clock or the write-in clock by an integer divisor controlled by the clock control signal in order to adjust the number of data stored in the FIFO buffer. |
| US07996701B2 |
Automated clock relationship detection
Automated clock relationship detection may quickly and reliably detect a clock relationship with minimal latency while reducing problems due to metastability occurring at a solitary instant or extended over multiple clock periods. Automated clock relationship detection between two clocks may comprise (a) a shift register synchronizer that reduces the possibility of metastability while capturing and temporarily storing samples of the first clock in response to cycles of the second clock and (b) an evaluator that processes the samples to determine the relationship. A clock relationship detector may also determine the relationship of two clocks by arbitrating a plurality of preliminary determinations of the relationship. Delays may be applied so that each of several detectors receives a clock at a different time, which may avoid metastability in the majority of detectors. The relationship may be used to reliably determine an operating mode of logic driven by one of the clocks. |
| US07996697B2 |
Matching system of electronic device and peripheral device and matching method thereof
A matching system of an electronic device and a perpheral device and a matching method thereof are described. The system includes and electric device, having an identification mechanism for identifying a specific identification code and generating a control signal or a control instruction according to an identification result; and a peripheral device, electrically coupled to the electronic device selectively. The peripheral device includes an identification code unit for storing a group identification code; and a power control unit, for controlling an operation state of the peripheral device according to the control signal or the control instruction, when the peripheral device is electrically coupled to the electronic device. If the identification result is that the specific identification code is consistent with the group identification code, the power control unit controls the entire peripheral device to work normally according to the control signal or the control instruction. |
| US07996696B1 |
Updating kernel affinity for applications executing in a multiprocessor system
A multiprocessor system dynamically updates CPU affinities for processes executing on processors of the multiprocessor system based on an external signal. The external signal is generated by a monitor device. The external signal identifies the processors and the processes that require updating. In response to the external signal, the multiprocessor system redistributes the processes identified in the external signal and powers on or off one or more processors based on a processor threshold associated with the multiprocessor system. |
| US07996694B2 |
Dark wake
Exemplary embodiments of methods, apparatuses, and systems for powering up select components of a computer from a sleep state, maintaining a network state, and powering down the select components of the computer to return the computer to the sleep state are described. For one embodiment, a network interface and a fan controller receive power during the network state maintenance but a display or audio components do not receive power during the network state maintenance. |
| US07996693B2 |
Integrated circuit environment initialization according to information stored within the integrated circuit
A method for automatically initializing the operational settings of a system from information stored within a non-volatile storage of an integrated circuit so that the operational requirements of the integrated circuit, which may be a microprocessor, are met by the system when the system is operating. During manufacturing test, environmental requirements of the integrated circuit are determined and stored within the non-volatile storage of the integrated circuit. During system initialization, environmental control values such as required operating voltage and frequency and cooling requirements are determined from the test values, which are read from the integrated circuit. The values are read by an interface of the system from an interface of the integrated circuit. System settings are controlled by the values to provide the required operating environment and the values may be captured within the system for subsequent operations and initialization sequences. |
| US07996689B2 |
System and method for power control for ASIC device
A system and method for power control for ASIC device is disclosed. According to an embodiment, the present invention provides a system for adjusting power consumption of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) device. The system includes a first buffer that is configured to receive and store data. For example, the first buffer can be characterized by a first buffer level. The method also includes a controller configured to generate a control signal. According to an embodiment, the controller is coupled to the first buffer. The system additionally includes a power supply component, which is configured to receive the control signal and to provide at least at a first voltage and a second voltage. For example, the first voltage and the second voltage are different. The system further includes a processing unit coupled to the first buffer, the processing unit further being configured to receive the data from the first buffer and to process the data, the processing unit being electrically coupled to the power supply component. |
| US07996684B2 |
Apparatus and method for a programmable security processor
A digital logic circuit comprises a programmable logic device and a programmable security circuit. The programmable security circuit stores a set of authorized configuration security keys. The programmable security circuit compares the authorized configuration security keys with an incoming configuration request, and selectively enables a new configuration for the programmable logic device in response to the configuration request. In another exemplary embodiment, a programmable security circuit also stores a set of authorized operation security keys. The programmable security circuit compares the authorized operation security keys with an incoming operation request from the programmable logic device, and selectively enables an operation within the programmable logic device in response to the operation request. |
| US07996679B2 |
System and method for performing a trust-preserving migration of data objects from a source to a target
A data migration system performs a tamper-resistant data migration for regulatory compliance systems. The system generates a secure hash for the data object, adds a timestamp to the hash, produces a signature for the data object using a private key, and includes the signature in a signature summary of data objects. Immediately prior to data migration, the system signs the signature summary of the set of data objects to be migrated. The signature of the data object maintains integrity of the data object by preventing undetectable modification to a data object during migration. The signed signature summary maintains completeness by preventing undetectable removal of a data object from or insertion of a data object into the set of data objects during migration. |
| US07996676B2 |
Masked digital signatures
The present invention relates to digital signature operations using public key schemes in a secure communications system and in particular for use with processors having limited computing power such as ‘smart cards’. This invention describes a method for creating and authenticating a digital signature comprising the steps of selecting a first session parameter k and generating a first short term public key derived from the session parameter k, computing a first signature component r derived from a first mathematical function using the short term public key, selecting a second session parameter t and computing a second signature component s derived from a second mathematical function using the second session parameter t and without using an inverse operation, computing a third signature component using the first and second session parameters and sending the signature components (s, r, c) as a masked digital signature to a receiver computer system. In the receiver computer system computing a recovered second signature component s′ by combining a third signature component with the second signature component to derive signature components (s′, r) as an unmasked digital signature. Verifying these signature components as in a usual ElGamal or ECDSA type signature verification. |
| US07996674B2 |
LDAP user authentication
A computer implemented method and data processing system for authenticating a user. A control module receives a user authentication request. The control module retrieves a server's parameters, and uses the server's parameters to form a customized user authentication request. The control module sends the customized user authentication request to the server, and receives an authentication response from the server. |
| US07996673B2 |
System, method and computer product for sending encrypted messages to recipients where the sender does not possess the credentials of the recipient
A system for encrypting and decrypting messages using a browser in either a web or wireless device or secure message client software for transmission to or from a web server on the Internet connected to an email server or message server for the situation where the sender does not possess the credentials and public key of the recipients. The encryption and decryption is conducted using a standard web browser on a personal computer or a mini browser on a wireless device, or message client software on either a personal computer or wireless devices such that messages transmitted to the web or wireless browser or message client software can be completed and encrypted and signed by the user such that encrypted and signed data does not require credentials and public key of the recipients. A method for delivering and using private keys to ensure that such keys are destroyed after use is also provided. A method of transmitting encrypted messages to a web or wireless browser or message client and decrypting and verifying such messages by recipients who do not possess or who are not enrolled in a PKI and do not have private keys. A method for authenticating the sender/user of the browser, and a method for accessing or generating public and private keys for encrypting and decrypting messages for recipients who are not enrolled in a public key infrastructure. |
| US07996670B1 |
Classification engine in a cryptography acceleration chip
Provided is an architecture for a cryptography accelerator chip that allows significant performance improvements over previous prior art designs. In various embodiments, the architecture enables parallel processing of packets through a plurality of cryptography engines and includes a classification engine configured to efficiently process encryption/decryption of data packets. Cryptography acceleration chips in accordance may be incorporated on network line cards or service modules and used in applications as diverse as connecting a single computer to a WAN, to large corporate networks, to networks servicing wide geographic areas (e.g., cities). The present invention provides improved performance over the prior art designs, with much reduced local memory requirements, in some cases requiring no additional external memory. In some embodiments, the present invention enables sustained full duplex Gigabit rate security processing of IPSec protocol data packets. |
| US07996668B2 |
Distributed system and computer program product for establishing security in a publish/subscribe data processing broker network
A technique for establishing security in a publish/subscribe data processing broker network is presented. The technique includes providing a security extension module from a publisher to a broker of the network, wherein the security extension module is for a topic asset of the publisher. The broker employs the security extension module, responsive to receipt of a request from a subscriber for the topic asset, to authenticate the request at the broker before pushing the topic asset of the publisher to the subscriber. In addition to authenticating the request, the security mode extension can be employed to authorize the request, and to automatically forward messages to the publisher providing information on when topic asset access by a subscriber begins and ends. |
| US07996664B2 |
Method and system for improved communication network setup
Aspects of a method and system for improved communication network setup may comprise receiving authentication enablement information from a configurator station comprising indication of a current state of a configurator timing window. In response to input at a client station to communicate authentication response information to the configurator station, receiving at the client station, configuration information and/or status information resulting from input at the client station. Other aspects of the invention may comprise responding to input at a configurator station to transmit authentication enablement information comprising indication of a current state of a configurator timing window, receiving authentication response information from the client station based on the transmitted authentication enablement information, and transmitting to the client station configuration information and/or status information from the configurator station based on the received authentication response information. |
| US07996661B2 |
Loop processing counter with automatic start time set or trigger modes in context reconfigurable PE array
A dynamic reconfigurable circuit that implements optional processing by dynamically switching a processing content of a reconfigurable processing element (PE) and a connection content between the PEs in accordance with a context, includes: a configuration register section for setting a content of loop processing on the basis of the context, the loop processing content including an output source of an output signal from each of a set of the reconfigured PEs, an output destination of the output signal, and a condition for outputting the output signal to the output destination; and at least one counter circuit including a loop control section and an output register section that implement the set loop processing, that count the number of implementations of the loop processing implemented by the loop control section, and that output the output signal to the output destination based on the counted number of implementations and the condition. |
| US07996660B2 |
Software controlled CPU pipeline protection
A processor in a digital system executes instructions in an instruction execution pipeline. The processor detects a pipeline protection directive while executing instructions and sets a pipeline protection mode in accordance with the directive. The processor then continues to fetch and execute instructions in an unprotected manner if the pipeline protection mode is off and continues to fetch and execute instruction in a protected manner if the pipeline protection mode is on. |
| US07996658B2 |
Processor system and method for monitoring performance of a selected task among a plurality of tasks
A processor system includes a processor to execute a plurality of tasks by switching to one another, a task ID storage section to store a task ID to identify a task executed in the processor, an evaluation ID storage section to store an evaluation ID to be compared with an at least partial area of the task ID, a counter to measure a performance measurement value of a task executed in the processor, and a matching section to check a task ID stored in the task ID storage section against an evaluation ID stored in the evaluation ID storage section and operate the counter in accordance with a check result. |
| US07996657B2 |
Reconfigurable computing circuit
A reconfigurable computing circuit for reducing the amount of dummy data to be stored in data registers, which is required when the wiring is shared by the configuration information bus and scan chain. When data is to be stored in data registers and configuration registers constituting the scan chain in reconfig computing block 2010, reg setting data selecting unit 3400 selects either a value stored in reg setting data storage unit 3000 or an initial value output from data reg data generating unit 4000, based on the information stored in reg type managing unit 1100 that indicates the types of registers and the connection order of the registers in the scan chain, and outputs the selected value in sequence to the scan chain under control of scan/reconfig control unit 1000. Each register in the scan chain then shifts data stored therein to the next register in the scan chain in sequence. |
| US07996655B2 |
Multiport execution target delay queue FIFO array
One embodiment provides a method of forwarding data in a processor. The method generally includes providing at least one cascaded delayed execution pipeline unit having at least a first pipeline and a second pipeline for executing first and second instructions in a common issue group, wherein the second pipeline executes the second instruction in a delayed manner relative to the execution of the first instruction in the first pipeline, storing results generated by an execution unit of the first pipeline in a first-in first-out (FIFO) storage target delay queue, determining if the target delay queue contains source data for executing the second instruction, and if the target delay queue contains source data for the second instruction, forwarding the source data for the second instruction from the target delay queue to an execution unit of the second pipeline. |
| US07996653B2 |
Shared resources in a chip multiprocessor
In one embodiment, a node comprises a plurality of processor cores and a node controller configured to receive a first read operation addressing a first register. The node controller is configured to return a first value in response to the first read operation, dependent on which processor core transmitted the first read operation. In another embodiment, the node comprises the processor cores and the node controller. The node controller comprises a queue shared by the processor cores. The processor cores are configured to transmit communications at a maximum rate of one every N clock cycles, where N is an integer equal to a number of the processor cores. In still another embodiment, a node comprises the processor cores and a plurality of fuses shared by the processor cores. In some embodiments, the node components are integrated onto a single integrated circuit chip (e.g. a chip multiprocessor). |
| US07996652B2 |
Processor architecture with switch matrices for transferring data along buses
A processor architecture includes a plurality of elements arranged in an array of rows and columns and a plurality of first and second bus pairs with the first pair being located between different adjacent rows of the array and having first and second buses running in opposite directions and the second bus pair being located between different adjacent columns of the array and having third and fourth buses running in opposite directions and intersecting the first and second buses. A plurality of switch matrices located at an intersection of one of the first bus pairs and one of the second bus pairs includes inputs and outputs for first, second, third and fourth buses and switch elements for switchably connecting the inputs and outputs. |
| US07996651B2 |
Enhanced microprocessor or microcontroller
An n-bit microprocessor device has an n-bit central processing unit (CPU); a plurality of special function registers and general purpose registers which are memory-mapped to a plurality of banks, with at least two 16-bit indirect memory address registers which are accessible by the CPU across all banks; a bank access unit for coupling the CPU with one of the plurality of banks; a data memory coupled with the CPU; and a program memory coupled with the CPU, wherein the indirect address registers are operable to access the data memory or program memory and wherein a bit in each of the indirect memory address registers indicates an access to the data memory or to the program memory. |
| US07996650B2 |
Microprocessor that performs speculative tablewalks
A microprocessor performs a speculative page tablewalk. The microprocessor includes a tablewalk engine that determines whether at least one of a predetermined set of conditions exists with respect to characteristics of the page of memory whose physical address specified by a memory access instruction is missing in the TLB, performs operations of the tablewalk in an out-of-order manner with respect to the execution of unretired program instructions older than the memory access instruction while none of the predetermined set of conditions exists, and waits to perform the operations of the tablewalk until the microprocessor has retired all program instructions older than the memory access instruction when at least one of the predetermined set of conditions exists. The predetermined set of conditions may include the tablewalk needing to load information from a strongly-ordered page, update page mapping information, or access a global page. |
| US07996649B1 |
Translation look-aside buffer with look-up optimized for programmable logic resource utilization
A dual-port block random access memory (BRAM) can include first and second sections including direct mapped cache entries. The dual-port BRAM further can include third and fourth sections including translation look-aside buffer entries, wherein entries of the third section are associated with entries of the fourth section and wherein an entry of the third section and an associated entry of the fourth section collectively specify complete translation look-aside buffer data. The dual-port BRAM also can include first and second address ports concurrently accessing at least one of the first, second, third, or fourth sections of the dual-port BRAM to locate a virtual address to be translated. |
| US07996648B2 |
Coupled symbiotic operating systems
A single application can be executed across multiple execution environments in an efficient manner if at least a relevant portion of the virtual memory assigned to the application was equally accessible by each of the multiple execution environments. A request by a process in one execution environment can, thereby, be directed to an operating system, or other core software, in another execution environment and can be made by a shadow of the requesting process in the same manner as the original request was made by the requesting process itself. Because of the memory invariance between the execution environments, the results of the request will be equally accessible to the original requesting process even though the underlying software that responded to the request may be executing in a different execution environment. A similar thread invariance can be maintained to provide for accurate translation of requests between execution environments. |
| US07996646B2 |
Efficient encoding for detecting load dependency on store with misalignment
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a queue comprising a plurality of entries and a control unit coupled to the queue. The control unit is configured to allocate a first queue entry to a store memory operation, and is configured to write a first even offset, a first even mask, a first odd offset, and a first odd mask corresponding to the store memory operation to the first entry. A group of contiguous memory locations are logically divided into alternately-addressed even and odd byte ranges. A given store memory operation writes at most one even byte range and one adjacent odd byte range. The first even offset identifies a first even byte range that is potentially written by the store memory operation, and the first odd offset identifies a first odd byte range that is potentially written by the store memory operation. The first even mask identifies bytes within the first even byte range that are written by the store memory operation, and wherein the first odd mask identifies bytes within the first odd byte range that are written by the store memory operation. |
| US07996641B2 |
Structure for hub for supporting high capacity memory subsystem
A design structure is provided for a hub for use in a high-capacity memory subsystem in which memory modules arranged in one or more clusters, each attached to a respective hub which in turn is attached to a memory controller. Within a cluster, data is interleaved so that each data access command accesses all modules of the cluster. The hub communicates with the memory modules at a lower bus frequency, but the distributing of data among multiple modules enables the cluster to maintain the composite data rate of the memory-controller-to-hub bus. Preferably, the memory system employs buffered memory chips having dual-mode operation, one of which supports a cluster configuration in which data is interleaved and the communications buses operate at reduced bus width and/or reduced bus frequency to match the level of interleaving. |
| US07996637B2 |
Storage system and remote copy recovery method
Data written in the primary logical volume of the first storage device are transmitted to the third storage device via the second storage device, the data being written in the same location as the primary logical volume within the secondary logical volume in the third storage device; when transmission of the data stops among the first to the third storage devices, the respective second storage device and the third storage device manage locations in the secondary logical volume where the data held thereby are to be written; and, when transmission of the data resumes among the first to the third storage devices, the locations in the secondary logical volume managed by the respective second and the third storage devices are aggregated, the data to be written in the respective aggregated location in the secondary logical volume being transmitted from the first storage device to the third storage device via the second storage device. |
| US07996636B1 |
Uniquely identifying block context signatures in a storage volume hierarchy
A technique uniquely identifies block context signatures in a storage volume hierarchy of a storage system. In particular, the technique assigns unique volume identifiers (“IDs,” e.g., buffer tree or “bufftree” IDs) to volumes of the storage volume hierarchy, and allows clone volumes to determine that data blocks belong to an appropriate ancestor volume (e.g., and were written by the ancestor volume prior to creation of the clone). In this manner, the novel technique may uniquely identify and accurately determine whether an accessed data block is a correct data block (e.g., alleviating occurrences of data ID aliasing). |
| US07996633B2 |
Sequencing transactions and operations
Systems and techniques for sequencing transactions and operations. In one aspect, an article includes one or more machine-readable media storing instructions operable to cause one or more machines to perform operations. The operations include identifying a delta of a first data store, and replicating the delta, including the transaction, to a second data store. The delta comprising a collection of changes to the first data store since a previous replication. The delta includes a transaction that began before the previous replication but did not commit before the previous replication replicated data from the first data store. |
| US07996629B2 |
Multiprocessor computing system with multi-mode memory consistency protection
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for protecting memory consistency in a multiprocessor computing system, relating to program code conversion such as dynamic binary translation. The exemplary multiprocessor computing system provides memory and multiple processors, and a set of controller/translator units TX1, TX2, TX3 arranged to convert respective application programs into program threads T1, T2, etc., which are executed by the processors. Each controller/translator unit sets a first mode where a single thread T1 executes on a single processor P1, orders a second mode for two or more threads T1, T2 that are forced to execute one at a time on a single processor P2 such as by setting affinity with that processor, and orders a third mode to selectively apply active memory consistency protection in relation to accesses to explicit or implicit shared memory while allowing the multiple threads T1, T2, T3, T4 to execute on the multiple processors. |
| US07996624B2 |
Prefetch unit
In one embodiment, a processor comprises a prefetch unit coupled to a data cache. The prefetch unit is configured to concurrently maintain a plurality of separate, active prefetch streams. Each prefetch stream is either software initiated via execution by the processor of a dedicated prefetch instruction or hardware initiated via detection of a data cache miss by one or more load/store memory operations. The prefetch unit is further configured to generate prefetch requests responsive to the plurality of prefetch streams to prefetch data in to the data cache. |
| US07996619B2 |
K-way direct mapped cache
A method and apparatus for a k-way direct mapped cache organization is herein described. Control logic coupled to a cache may associate an address to a way within a plurality based on a first portion of the address. The control logic may match the first portion of the address to a predefined value in a mapping table, wherein the predefined value in the mapping table is associated with the way. In addition, the control logic may map the address to a set within cache based on a second portion of the address. |
| US07996617B2 |
Multithreaded clustered microarchitecture with dynamic back-end assignment
A multithreaded clustered microarchitecture with dynamic back-end assignment is presented. A processing system may include a plurality of instruction caches and front-end units each to process an individual thread from a corresponding one of the instruction caches, a plurality of back-end units, and an interconnect network to couple the front-end and back-end units. A method may include measuring a performance metric of a back-end unit, comparing the measurement to a first value, and reassigning, or not, the back-end unit according to the comparison. Computer systems according to embodiments of the invention may include: a random access memory; a system bus; and a processor having a plurality of instruction caches, a plurality of front-end units each to process an individual thread from a corresponding one of the instruction caches; a plurality of back-end units; and an interconnect network coupled to the plurality of front-end units and the plurality of back-end units. |
| US07996610B2 |
Transparent backup service for networked computers
In a specific embodiment, the present invention provides a method of providing transparent file backup service based on networked computers. The method includes establishing an online redundant array of independent disks (RAID) of a plurality of networked computers maintained by a central service controller on a server. The plurality of networked computers belong to one or more subscribed users. The method further includes storing backup files of each subscribed user on the online RAID. Each subscribed user dedicating at least a portion of storage spaces on corresponding computers to the online RAID for backup files of one or more alternative subscribed users. The central service controller in conjunction of a client software running on each user's computer is configured to coordinate backup file distribution and restoration. |
| US07996608B1 |
Providing redundancy in a storage system
A system, method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are described for providing redundancy in a storage system. According to one method, maps are generated and stored that define stripe patterns for storing data on the storage nodes of a storage cluster. The maps are defined such that when a new storage node is added to the cluster, no movement of data occurs between two storage nodes that existed in the cluster prior to the addition of the new storage node during re-striping, and such that the data stored on each storage node is mirrored on another storage node. Storage nodes may also be designated as an owner or a peer for each storage zone. Input/output operations received at an owner node are fielded directly and mirrored to the peer node, while input/output operations received at a peer node are redirected to the owner node for processing. |
| US07996607B1 |
Distributing lookup operations in a striped storage system
The present invention provides a mechanism for storing and accessing attributes of a data container (e.g., characteristics such as a name of a data container used to perform a lookup operation against the data container) in cache memory within storage systems in a cluster of storage systems. Further, a mechanism is provided so that an attribute of a data container is inserted into a cache memory of preferably one storage system (in the cluster) that caches metadata of the data container (e.g., information describing the data container). As a result, a lookup operation for a data container is directed to and served by the storage system that caches the metadata and the attribute of the data container. |
| US07996606B2 |
System and method for writing data and a time value to an addressable unit of a removable storage medium
A system (and associated method) comprises a storage drive and a central processing unit (“CPU”). The storage drive is adapted to accommodate a removable storage medium. The CPU is configured to cause the CPU to write data and a time value to each of a plurality of addressable units of the storage medium in which data is written. The time value is indicative of the time at which each addressable unit was written with data. |
| US07996605B2 |
Storage controller and method for controlling the same
A storage controller and a method for controlling a storage controller, including a plurality of nonvolatile memory modules having a plurality of nonvolatile memory chips for storing data from a host computer and a nonvolatile memory control unit for controlling data input to and output from the host computer by controlling a power source for the nonvolatile memory modules. The nonvolatile memory control unit, when reading or writing data from or to a designated nonvolatile memory module at a specified time in response to a data read/write request from the host computer, controls the power source for only the designated nonvolatile memory module to be turned on that can maintain its performance and reduce power consumption and thereby realize large capacity and low power consumption. |
| US07996604B1 |
Class queue for network data switch to identify data memory locations by arrival time
A shared memory switch is provided for storing and retrieving data from BlockRAM (BRAM) memory of a PLD. A set of class queues maintain a group of pointers that show the location of the incoming “cells” or “packets” stored in the memory in the switch based on the time of storage in the BRAM. A non-blocking memory architecture is implemented that allows for a scalable N×N memory structure to be created (N=number of input and output ports). A write controller stripes the data across this N×N memory to prevent data collisions on read in or read out of data. The data is scheduled for read out of this N×N shared memory buffer based on priorities or classes in the class queues, with priorities being set by a user, and then data is read out from the BRAM. |
| US07996594B2 |
Interrupt-driven link status feedback mechanism for embedded switches
A computer implemented method, a tangible computer readable medium, and a data processing system intelligently propagate link status information received by a blade server to the various ports of an embedded multi-port switch. The link status of a switch port in an external switch module can be communicated to the operating systems of individual blade servers that are affected by that link status. When an external switch module is unplugged from a server blade chassis, the bus controller broadcasts a link down event, such as a link down interrupt, to the individual server blades where it is received by the embedded multi-port switch for those server blades. The embedded multi-port switch translates the link down interrupt into a hardware link down event, and forwards the hardware link down event to the other elements connected to the embedded multi-port switch. |
| US07996593B2 |
Interrupt handling using simultaneous multi-threading
Disclosed are a method, information processing system, and computer readable medium for managing interrupts. The method includes placing at least one physical processor of an information processing system in a simultaneous multi-threading mode. At least a first logical processor and a second logical processor associated with the at least one physical processor are partitioned. The first logical processor is assigned to manage interrupts and the second logical processor is assigned to dispatch runnable user threads. |
| US07996592B2 |
Cross bar multipath resource controller system and method
A cross bar multipath resource controller system and method permit multiple processors in a computer system to access various resource of the computer system, such as memory or peripherals, with zero blocking access. In particular, each processor has its own bus so that the processors can each independently access different resources in the computer system simultaneously. |
| US07996591B2 |
Computing device with flexibly configurable expansion slots and method of operation
A computing device that allows for a flexible allocation of bandwidth among peripheral devices using a peripheral bus is disclosed. The computing device includes a peripheral bus and at least two slots. The computing device may be used with a single peripheral card or multiple peripheral cards. In a multi-card configuration the invention allows the bandwidth on the peripheral bus to be shared by all the cards. In a single-card configuration, the computing device allows available bandwidth on the peripheral bus to be used by a single card. The device is particularly useful with PCI express compliant expansion cards, such as graphics adapters. |
| US07996590B2 |
Semiconductor memory module and semiconductor memory system having termination resistor units
A semiconductor memory module includes a memory module board having at least one semiconductor memory device. The semiconductor memory device includes a data input buffer that receives data and a first reference voltage via first and second input terminals, a command/address buffer that receives a command/address signal and a second reference voltage via first and second input terminals, and a first termination resistor unit connected to the first input terminal of the data input buffer. The semiconductor memory module further includes a second termination resistor unit located on the memory module board and connected to an internal command/address bus. The first termination resistor unit includes a first resistor connected between a first voltage source and the first input terminal of the data input buffer, and the second termination resistor unit includes a second resistor connected between a second voltage source and the first input terminal of the command/address input buffer. |
| US07996589B2 |
Auto-suggest lists and handwritten input
An interface is provided between a handwriting receiving panel and an auto complete process. A user writes onto the handwriting receiving panel which recognizes the handwritten text. The handwritten text is forwarded to the auto complete process which provides suggested content to the user based on the handwritten text. The user can select the suggested content for use with another application. Alternatively, the user may add additional information to the handwriting receiving panel to enable the auto complete process to provide more or different suggested content. |
| US07996579B2 |
Apparatus, methods, and computer-code for handling an impending decoupling between a peripheral device and a host device
Apparatus, methods and computer-code are disclosed where an impending decoupling between a peripheral device and a host is detected. In some embodiments, in response to the detected impending disconnection, a user alert signal is generated. In some embodiments, an ‘onboard detector’ that is associated with housing of the peripheral device and operative to detect the impending disconnection is provided. In some embodiments, the user alert signal is generated in accordance with inter-device data flow between the host and the peripheral device. Exemplary peripheral devices include but are not limited to transient storage devices such as a USB flash drives (UFD). |
| US07996578B2 |
Methods and systems to dynamically manage performance states in a data processing system
Data processing systems which operate in different modes, including a mode which supports providing an output of images through a port on the systems. In one embodiment, a data processing system includes a processing system, a cellular telephone transceiver, and a port which is configured to provide, as an output from the handheld data processing system, data representing movie video images. Methods and machine readable media are also described. |
| US07996577B2 |
Automatically switching console connection
A method and system for configuring a network device is provided. In one implementation the method and system may include directing, via a multiplexer, a group of signals defined by a serial communication format from a primary serial configuration interface to a communication port in a CPU. A universal-serial-bus-to-serial (USB) signal may be detected at a USB interface and converted by a USB-to-serial converter circuit to the serial communication format and directed, via the same multiplexer, to the universal-asynchronous-receiver-transmitter instead of the serial signals from the primary serial configuration interface. A detection signal may be communicated from the USB-to-serial converter circuit to the multiplexer. Alternatively, the detection signal may be directed to the CPU, which may then communicate a selection signal to the multiplexer. |
| US07996573B2 |
Method and system for supporting read operations with CRC for iSCSI and iSCSI chimney
Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for performing SCSI read operations with a CRC via a TCP offload engine. Aspects of the method may comprise receiving an iSCSI read command from an initiator. Data may be fetched from a buffer based on the received iSCSI read command. The fetched data may be zero copied from the buffer to the initiator and a TCP sequence may be retransmitted to the initiator. A digest value may be calculated, which may be communicated to the initiator. An accumulated digest value stored in a temporary buffer may be utilized to calculate a final digest value, if the buffer is posted. The retransmitted TCP sequence may be processed and the fetched data may be zero copied into an iSCSI buffer, if the buffer is posted. The calculated final digest value may be communicated to the initiator. |
| US07996571B2 |
Wireless coordination of apparatus interaction
A system for implementing wireless control between apparatuses. In at least one scenario, an apparatus may, after an event (e.g., receiving wireless communication), create a wireless message based on the event, and may then send the wireless message to a peripheral apparatus. The peripheral apparatus may utilize some or all of the message data to formulate and display a user interface. Inputs (e.g., soft-coded or hardware based buttons) in the peripheral device may be actuated in accordance with the user interface, which may result in a response message being sent to the apparatus. The response message may, in turn, trigger functionality in the apparatus. |
| US07996570B1 |
Usage of keyboard driver in extensible firmware interface for adding new hot keys at firmware level
A hot key register request is created in an extensible firmware interface application, the hot key register request has a key number and a pointer to a hot key function for the new hot key. The hot key register request is sent to a keyboard driver in the extensible firmware interface. A hot key table is created in working storage from the hot key table in the keyboard driver, and a hot key entry is inserted into the hot key table in working storage. The entry includes the key number and pointer from the hot key register request to add the new hot key as a registered hot key. A success message is sent from the keyboard driver to the extensible firmware interface application. The success message indicates the new hot key has been registered. |
| US07996565B2 |
Method and system for controlling and auditing content/service systems
An improved interactive network system is provided that allows the Network Operator to control the transfer of information to and from the network end users, the system preferably using triggers or markers embedded within the programming broadcast to users via the network. As a consequence of this system, the Network Operator is able to efficiently garner revenues from third parties transacting business over the network and to control the look and feel of programming offered to network users. Additionally the system can be used as a means of limiting network access, filtering programming, providing on-screen graphics or audible signals for particular programming types or providers, bookmarking programming, profiling network users, targeting advertising, and simplifying network transactions. |
| US07996563B2 |
Method for designating internet protocol addresses
A system and method for selecting one or more real IP6 addresses from a pool of real IP6 addresses in a system. Each of the real IP6 addresses is associated with a physical interface or a virtual physical interface. A human or an application program provides into the system a symbolic IP6 address specifying a physical interface name for the one or more real IP6 address. The system stores the symbolic IP6 address in a configuration file and then passes the symbolic IP6 address to a socket API function. The socket API function checks validity of the symbolic IP6 address. If valid, an operating system function reads a control block or data file for the named physical interface. The control block or data file contains a list of one or more real IP6 addresses for the named physical interface. These real IP6 address(es) are returned to the human or application program. |
| US07996561B2 |
ZigBee network device for separately determining network parameter and assigning addresses, and address assignment method thereof
A ZigBee network device assigns addresses to its child devices. The ZigBee network device includes a communication section that connects the ZigBee network device to other devices and which communicates with the other devices; a parameter determination section that determines at least one network parameter; a calculation section that calculates addresses for child devices of the ZigBee network device based on a determined network parameter, where each of the child devices is connected to the ZigBee network device via the communication section; and a controller that assigns addresses to the child devices of the ZigBee network device. At least one determined network parameter is at least one of Cm, which indicates a maximum number of the child devices of the ZigBee network device, and Rm, which indicates a maximum number of the child devices of the ZigBee network device which have routing capabilities. |
| US07996560B2 |
Managing virtual ports in an information processing system
A method is provided with which a name of a virtual port is not changed when virtualized storage is moved among switches. Information about a creator and a borrower of name information is added to a table including name information and address information of a virtual port of a name server managing the name information and the address information. The name information is provided to plural switches and managed. In addition, name information, which can be used commonly among name servers managing the name information and the address information is pooled in advance, and the name information of the virtual port is borrowed from there. |
| US07996556B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating a network topology representation based on inspection of application messages at a network device
A method is disclosed for generating a network topology representation based on inspection of application messages at a network device. According to one aspect, a network device receives a request packet, routes the packet to the destination, and extracts and stores correlation information from a copy of the request packet. When the network device receives a response packet, it examines the contents of a copy of the response packet using context-based correlation rules and matches the response packet with the appropriate stored request packet correlation information. It analyzes recorded correlation information to determine application-to-application mapping and calculate application response times. Another embodiment inserts custom headers that contain information used to match a response packet with a request packet into request packets. |
| US07996552B2 |
Software downloading using a television broadcast channel
A software distribution architecture having a television broadcast system as its infrastructure. Software from a software repository (1600) is mixed into a television broadcast system and transmitted into one or more selected channels at prescribed dates and times. An at-home subscriber, capable of receiving with a receiver (1608) the one or more select channels, switches to the one or more channels carrying the software distribution with a channel selector (1611). The subscriber, having programmed a controller (1616) with a programmer (1620) for the date, time, software ID, and channel of the software broadcast, then downloads the software package to a storage device (1622) for ultimate transfer to a PC (1624). A validation and accounting system (1628) then records the software download transaction and transmits this information over a PSTN (1632) to a provider accounting system (1630) such that the subscriber is billed for the software package which was downloaded. |
| US07996543B2 |
Client-to-client direct RTP exchange in a managed client-server network
A method for establishing a data packet exchange communication session that allows the exchange of data packets between an originating client and a destination client in a data network having a client-server arrangement is provided. An originating client transmits communications session request data message to a communications management server via a first temporary signaling communications path. The communications session request data message contains at least a unique network address of a destination client. The communications management server, upon determining that said originating client is residing behind a first network firewall, determining whether said first network firewall will allow exchange of data packets between said originating client and any other client not residing behind said first network firewall. If it is determined that the first network firewall will allow exchange of data packets between said originating client and any other client not residing behind the first network firewall, the communications management server retrieves relationship information between said unique network address of said originating client and said unique network address of a first network firewall port and a first network firewall port identity, and establishes a data packet exchange communications session with said communications management server through said first network firewall. Otherwise, said communications management server, upon receiving a media packet communications session request data message from said originating client via said first temporary signaling communications path establishes a media packet exchange session with said originating client via said first network firewall. |
| US07996542B2 |
Systems and media for sharing session data on a network
Systems and media for sharing session data on a network are disclosed. More particularly, hardware and/or software for sharing user session data between different servers on a network are disclosed. Embodiments include a data processing system for sharing session data on a network, where the network includes an application server and an enterprise server, each providing at least part of an application to a user on the network. In some embodiments, the application server includes a session transport component for recording changes to user session data with the application server and the enterprise server includes a session transport component for requesting updated user session data from the application server. In further embodiments, the enterprise server may establish a user session based on the updated user session data received from the application server. |
| US07996538B2 |
Information processing apparatus and content information processing method for transmitting content and event information to a client
The present invention provides an apparatus and method capable of efficiently sending an event corresponding to content to be transmitted from a server to each client. A content providing server assigns a session ID to each client on condition that the server receives an event notification request, which specifies an event URL, from the client and then manages an event notification process on the basis of the event URL and the session ID. When respectively transmitting pieces of content to a plurality of clients, the server determines event information to be transmitted on the basis of each event URL regarding the corresponding piece of content and controls event notification timing for each client on the basis of the corresponding session ID. According to the present configuration, the load of managing data in the event notification process on the server can be reduced and a correct event synchronized with transmission content can be sent to each client. |
| US07996537B2 |
Method and arrangement for preventing illegitimate use of IP addresses
Illegitimate use of IP addresses is counteracted. A network (1) includes a switch (5) with ports (P1,P2,P3) to subscribers (6,6A) and a port (PN) to a core network (2) with DHCP servers (4, 4a,4b). The switch includes a database (MAC1, MAC2), port numbers (P1, P2)) and VLAN identities (VLAN1, VLAN2) for the subscribers (6, 6A) and the filter has a list over trusted DHCP servers. Initially onlY DHCP messages from the subscribers are allowed. When the subscriber (6) requests (M1, M3) for an IP address it is checked that it is a DHCP message with valid subscriber values (MAC1, P1, VLAN1). A respond (M2, M4) with an allocated IP address (IP1) and lease time interval (T1) is checked to come from a trusted DHCP server. If so, a list in the filter (9) with correct information is dynamically generated (MAC1, P1, VLAN1, IP1, T1). A message (M5) from the subscriber (6) with false IP address is discarded by the filter. Attempts by the subscriber to use false IP address are counted and a warning signal is generated. |
| US07996536B2 |
Systems and methods for providing resource allocation in a networked environment
Methods and systems for allocating resources, such as computer controlled resources, in a networked system are described. In an example embodiment, a plurality of requests to select one or more resources are received from distributed computer systems over a network at a receiving computer system. The receiving computer system allocates resource selection time windows to at least a portion of the requests based on one or more allocation criteria, and transmits information regarding the allocated resource selection time windows to corresponding requesting computer systems. A load balancer balances request loads among a plurality of servers. A web proxy processor is configured to selectively block or route an inbound user browser request. A cache cluster system is configured to cache data and states for access by other system components, |
| US07996534B2 |
File distribution in wireless networks
File distribution in wireless mesh networks of devices interconnected in the wireless communications network including a gateway device and a remote device. The gateway device may include gateway storage unit with enumerated storage blocks, together forming the file, a transmitter transmitting the enumerated storage blocks from the storage unit. The remote device may include a storage unit with allocated storage block divided into enumerated storage blocks, a first bitmap mapped to the enumerated storage blocks, a receiver receiving an enumerated block and a processing unit for correlating the received enumerated block to a correlated enumerated storage block and correlating an enumerated storage block with a correlated stored bit in the first bitmap, setting the correlated stored bit in the first bitmap, storing the received enumerated block, building a list of missing blocks, and adding to a missing blocks list, and a transmitter transmitting the missing blocks list. |
| US07996533B2 |
HTML delivery from edge-of-network servers in a content delivery network (CDN)
A content delivery network is enhanced to provide for delivery of cacheable markup language content files such as HTML. To support HTML delivery, the content provider provides the CDNSP with an association of the content provider's domain name (e.g., www.customer.com) to an origin server domain name (e.g., html.customer.com) at which one or more default HTML files are published and hosted. The CDNSP provides its customer with a CDNSP-specific domain name. The content provider, or an entity on its behalf, then implements DNS entry aliasing (e.g., a CNAME of the host to the CDNSP-specific domain) so that domain name requests for the host cue the CDN DNS request routing mechanism. This mechanism then identifies a best content server to respond to a request directed to the customer's domain. The CDN content server returns a default HTML file if such file is cached; otherwise, the CDN content server directs a request for the file to the origin server to retrieve the file, after which the file is cached on the CDN content server for subsequent use in servicing other requests. The content provider is also provided with log files of CDNSP-delivered HTML. |
| US07996530B1 |
Method and apparatus for enabling authentication of on-line communications
Method and apparatus for enabling authentication of on-line communications. In some embodiments, a message code is embedded in an e-mail, where the message code can be used by the recipient to verify the authenticity of the e-mail or of a Web site. In some embodiments, this code can be created for a particular e-mail message; in other embodiments, the code is created as a watermark for use by a customer or other a specific user or recipient. The message code is associated with both the e-mail message and the recipient. In the case of a message-specific code, a recipient can verify the e-mail message by inputting the code via a Web server to be looked up in the database. Provision is also made for including steganographic information in graphical or other codes as further authentication when accessing a Web site. |
| US07996529B2 |
System for autonomic monitoring for web high availability
A system for maintaining a high availability data transmission and processing environment. The system includes a network of clusters and a control server. Each cluster of the network includes at least two identical servers. Each cluster of the network is directly connected to at least one other cluster of the network. Each pair of clusters directly connected to each other is characterized by each server in a first cluster of the pair of clusters being directly connected to at least one server in a second cluster of the pair of clusters via a communication link. The control server is configured to monitor an operational status of the communication link (i.e., the communication link is operational or non-operational). The control server is directly linked to at least one server in each cluster via a communication channel between the control server and the at least one server. |
| US07996528B2 |
Network management system having agent controlled transmission of state variation notifying command based on manager load information
A manager controlling an agent via a network using SNMP, the manager including a load information generating unit generating manager load information indicating a load status of the manager based on a CPU usage rate indicative of a CPU load status of the manager, a receiving state of a state variation notifying command indicative of the number of receiving state variation notifying commands, transmitted by the agent to notify of a state variation inside a device of the agent, and a load event occurring time indicating a time period before a periodic process is periodically carried out by the manager; and a control command generating unit generating a command to be sent to the agent, whereby the command generating unit generates the control command, to which the manager load information is added, and the agent controls transmission of the state variation notifying command based on the manager load information. |
| US07996522B2 |
Persistent scheduling techniques
Techniques for persistent scheduling are provided. A principal registers a schedule with a network-based scheduling service. The scheduling service determines when a trigger is to be sent to a client associated with the principal for purposes of having that client process a particular action. The trigger is sent when the client is detected as being online; and when the client is offline, the trigger is sent as soon as the client comes online. Furthermore, once a trigger is successfully sent, a current date and time that the trigger was sent is maintained with the schedule for the client. |
| US07996520B2 |
Behavioral classification of communication sessions using active session initiation
A method includes measuring behavioral characteristics of a plurality of communication sessions in a communication network. A subset of the sessions is identified using the behavioral characteristics, such that the sessions in the subset are suspected of using a target communication protocol. A candidate session is selected from the subset. A trial communication session is initiated with a node of the communication network, which participates in the candidate session, using the target communication protocol. Responsively to receiving a positive response from the node to initiation of the trial communication session, it is determined that one or more further sessions in the plurality are using the target communication protocol. The one or more further sessions are controlled responsively to a predetermined control criterion that is applicable to the target communication protocol. |
| US07996519B1 |
Detecting content and user response to content
A position of a cursor on a display is tracked. It is detected that the cursor is in an area of the display that includes a component of a webpage. It is determined whether the component matches a designated type of component, and details of the component are stored in response to determining that the component matches a designated type of component. A user input that selects the component is detected, and details of the component are accessed in response to detecting the user input. The details of the component are sent to a collection server. |
| US07996518B2 |
Detecting machine utilization activity
Detecting machine utilization activity may be provided. Client machine activity within a computer network may be monitored to determine if the client machine is available for use, or if the computer is already engaged in one or more activities. During a predetermined receive period, machine activity information for a given client machine. The machine activity information for the client machine is compared to previously stored machine activity information to determine if an activity state for the client machine has changed. If the activity state of the client machine has changed, the activity state for the machine is updated. Machine activity information for all computers in the computer network may be used to track and optimize resources with the computer network. |
| US07996516B2 |
Systems and methods for automatic configuration of devices within a network utilizing inherited configuration data
Systems and methods for configuration of devices within a network utilizing inherited configuration data are disclosed. Configuration data stored at a junction box in electronic communication with a first device is accessed. The configuration data includes a default zone of interest assignment for a first device. The zone of interest comprises a portion of a network. Devices within the zone of interest are identified. It is determined whether the first device is compatible with any of the identified devices. The first device is configured, in an automated manner, to interact with a set of compatible devices within the zone of interest. |
| US07996515B2 |
Network transaction discovery
Disclosed herein is a computer implemented technique for discovering the information technology resources that are involved in a particular networked business transaction. The system comprises three basic components. A robotic transaction playback client records the various steps in a particular transaction and can repetitively execute these steps to analyze the results. A network record collector observes the traffic throughout the network in response to the repeated instances of the transaction executed by the robotic transaction playback client. A backend processor analyzes the observations of network traffic to determine which ones are possibly tied to the transaction, and from this information determine which network components are part of the transaction being analyzed. Event timing information from a plurality of executions of a particular transaction are used to determine resource usage and paths. |
| US07996510B2 |
Virtual clustering for scalable network control and management
In some embodiments, the invention involves a system and method relating to a framework to build a new class of network control (policy) and (state) management services. The framework may be used to build a number of self-management services to support decentralized (mesh) networks. In at least one embodiment, the present invention is intended to hybridize centralized and decentralized network models to generate a more stable and robust network environment using clustering. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US07996509B2 |
Zoning of devices in a storage area network
Mechanisms for performing zoning of devices, such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, for example, in a storage area network (SAN) in which all host systems of the SAN are automatically mapped to all of the storage systems are provided. Mechanisms for automatically mapping backend storage enclosures to appropriate storage system controllers on the SAN are provided. The zoning is automatically performed based on whether ports/phys are coupled to host systems, storage systems, and whether there are storage system controllers associated with the storage systems. Based on the automatic zoning, mapping of the storage devices of the storage systems to the host systems may be automatically performed via zone permission tables. By automating the zoning, users that do not necessarily have a detailed knowledge of the storage device communication protocol or SANs may configure the SAN even if it utilizes a complex and large architecture. |
| US07996507B2 |
Intelligent system control agent for managing jobs on a network by managing a plurality of queues on a client
Disclosed is a robust intelligent system control agent configured to receive user job requests, submit the user job requests to selected qualified clients for servicing, and monitor the progress of the requests. The system is also configured with the capability of relocating a system control agent from one location within a network to another location within the network and for relocating a job request from one client to another. This ability to relocate agents and jobs provides robustness and reliability to the system, allowing the agent to move to a different machine when, for example, its current host system requires maintenance or other downtime. In order to facilitate the relocation of a job request, the state of the request is temporarily stored by the agent or by other means while the job request is relocated to another client. |
| US07996502B2 |
Gracefully changing a node in a distributed computing network
In one embodiment, a method includes determining to change a number of objects controlled by a particular node in a network. Each object is a resource provided by the network and has a unique object position in a coordinate space of N dimensions. Each node has a unique node position in the coordinate space of N dimensions. Each node controls operation of objects in a control set of zero or more objects which are closest to the node using an agreed definition of scalar distance between two positions. A different N+1 dimension from the N dimensions is added. The N+1 dimension has a zero value for the plurality of objects. A particular value is determined for the N+1 dimension for the particular node such that a change in a number of objects in a particular control set of the particular node is not greater than a threshold change. |
| US07996501B2 |
System and method for updating devices that execute an operating system or application program directly from nonvolatile storage
A system and method updates a device by storing into nondisk nonvolatile storage such as flash memory, the files used to update the device, using data structures that are swapped, a portion at a time, into available RAM of the device. |
| US07996499B2 |
Intelligent processing of web service requests for backward compatibility
A Web service request is received that is constructed according to a first Web service technology and that targets an activation file constructed according to the first Web service technology. When the Web service request is received, it is modified to target an activation file constructed according to a second Web service technology. Binding properties associated with the Web service request and binding properties supported by a targeted Web service may also be identified. Binding properties for use in forwarding the Web service request to the Web service are then selected based upon the binding properties associated with the Web service request and the binding properties supported by the Web service. The Web service request is then forwarded to the Web service using a binding having the selected binding properties. |
| US07996498B2 |
Method and apparatus for operating a host computer in a network environment
The present invention provides a method and an apparatus that utilize a portable apparatus to operate a host computer in a network environment. The portable apparatus including an operating system and a list of software applications are installed in a removable data storage medium. The basic input/output system (BIOS) of the host computer will directly or indirectly identify the portable apparatus as its boot drive. The host computer immersed in a network environment will further load the operating system in the portable apparatus into its random access semiconductor memory (RAM). In one embodiment of the invention, a hardware profile which contains host and peripheral device-related information is either stored or operatively accessible by the host computer. The operating system is capable of incorporating information from the hardware profile during an OS-loading procedure. |
| US07996495B2 |
Adaptive selection of image streaming mode
A Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) transmits medical image information from a server to a viewing workstation. The mode of transmission that the system uses depends on a performance metric of the network. If the network is fast and stable, the entire DICOM image file is transmitted. If the network is not fast and stable, one of several other modes is used to transmit the image information. |
| US07996491B2 |
Personal criteria verification using fractional information
A method for verifying the identity of users connected to a computer network comprises providing fractional information queries to users, wherein responses to these individual queries are not sufficient to identify the user. This method further comprises receiving responses to these fractional information queries and comparing these responses to data available from within a computer network. A set of potential matches to the user is generated according to these responses and is used in determining whether the set of potential matches is sufficient to identify the user. |
| US07996487B2 |
Managing searches on mobile devices
This disclosure pertains to solutions, including without limitation, systems, methods, and software programs, that provide the ability to quickly and efficiently search mobile devices for relevant information. An exemplary search server has the ability to communicate (either directly and/or via a host PC) with one or more mobile devices to transmit a search request. The mobile devices, in turn, have a search facility that is configured to perform a search of the contents of the device and return a set of results to the search server. These results then may be presented to a user, who can select one or more of the results. The selected search result(s) then may be downloaded from the device and presented to the user. |
| US07996486B2 |
Digital rights management
A digital rights management (DRM) “bureau” server can be used in many different ways. In one example, a system distributes the storage of rights and/or the rights management decision making process between a DRM client and a DRM server, in order to overcome the shortcomings inherent in exclusively client-side or exclusively server-side DRM systems. In another example, a system manages rights to content on behalf of plural publishers. |
| US07996485B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing pool starvation in a shared memory switch
A switch includes a reserved pool of buffers in a shared memory. The reserved pool of buffers is reserved for exclusive use by an egress port. The switch includes pool select logic which selects a free buffer from the reserved pool for storing data received from an ingress port to be forwarded to the egress port. The shared memory also includes a shared pool of buffers. The shared pool of buffers is shared by a plurality of egress ports. The pool select logic selects a free buffer in the shared pool upon detecting no free buffer in the reserved pool. The shared memory may also include a multicast pool of buffers. The multicast pool of buffers is shared by a plurality of egress ports. The pool select logic selects a free buffer in the multicast pool upon detecting an IP Multicast data packet received from an ingress port. |
| US07996484B2 |
Non-disruptive, reliable live migration of virtual machines with network data reception directly into virtual machines' memory
Techniques are disclosed for the non-disruptive and reliable live migration of a virtual machine (VM) from a source host to a target host, where network data is placed directly into the VM's memory. When a live migration begins, a network interface card (NIC) of the source stops placing newly received packets into the VM's memory. A virtual server driver (VSP) on the source stores the packets being processed and forces a return of the memory where the packets are stored to the NIC. When the VM has been migrated to the target, and the source VSP has transferred the stored packets to the target host, the VM resumes processing the packets, and when the VM sends messages to the target NIC that the memory associated with a processed packet is free, a VSP on the target intercepts that message, blocking the target NIC from receiving it. |
| US07996483B2 |
Adaptive caching in broadcast networks
Adaptive caching techniques are described. In an implementation, a head end defines a plurality of cache periods having associated criteria. Request data for content is obtained and utilized to associate the content with the defined cache periods based on a comparison of the request data with the associated criteria. Then, the content is cached at the head end for the associated cache period. |
| US07996480B2 |
Low power email functionality for an electronic device
Low power email capabilities are provided for an electronic device, such as a hand-held portable computer having capability to operate an application during a low power mode. During the low power mode, portions of hardware, software, services, and/or other components of the portable computer that are not necessary for email-related operations, such as polling a server for new email, are suspended or otherwise deactivated. At least a portion of a new email is stored in a memory of a low power display module (LPDM) of the portable computer. The LPDM is provided with its own low-power processing unit, user interface, and other components to allow access to and manipulation of the stored email while other components of the portable computer remain deactivated. |
| US07996476B2 |
Do not disturb filter for electronic messages
Data is received defining a time period during which a notification of receipt should not be provided when an electronic message is received. Data may also be received defining certain types of messages for which notification of receipt should be provided during the time period. During the duration of the time period, no notification of receipt is provided for received electronic messages that are not within one of the specified types. After the time period has elapsed, notification of receipt is provided for electronic messages received during the time period and for which no notification of receipt was previously provided. Electronic messages may be sent during the time period and electronic messages received prior to the time period may be displayed for reading during the time period. |
| US07996475B2 |
Facilitating transmission of email by checking email parameters with a database of well behaved senders
Facilitating email transmission by extracting email parameters, requesting data in the form of a dns query, and receiving a sender reputation as an IP address. Querying a database by sending a plurality of arguments concatenated to a dns request and receiving an IP address in reply. Operating a remote database as a dns server, receiving queries as domains and transmitting replies in the format of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. Filtering email by querying a database with email parameters comprising an IP address and a domain of an email sender which may be extracted from an email header in the HELO, EHLO, MAIL FROM, or RETURN PATH. The smtp session is continued, modified or interrupted according to the result of the query submitted to a database operating as a dns server. |
| US07996474B2 |
Placing email substrings in a new chronological order
A method and system for placing, displaying and printing email strings in different chronological orders. |
| US07996473B2 |
Profile-based conversion and delivery of electronic messages
A method, system and computer usable medium are disclosed for delivering an electronic message. A first computer is used to receive voice data from a user and to generate a message data file therefrom. A test is then conducted to determine whether a predetermined second computer is operably coupled to the communication network. If the result of the test indicates that the second computer is not coupled to the communication network, the message data file is forwarded to a predetermined storage location in an electronic messaging system. The message data file is subsequently retrieved from the predetermined storage location by the predetermined second computer and processed to comprise text data or voice mail data prior to forwarding to the predetermined storage location in the electronic messaging system. |
| US07996472B2 |
Systems and methods for remote access to a display-based bulletin board in a shared user environment
An electronic bulletin board for use in a shared always-on environment wherein a user may manipulate messages from a remote location. The electronic bulletin board may be implemented via database and programming logic on an application server accessible from any network node, including wireless devices. The always-on environment may be set up on a computer or broadband internet appliance or other communications device. Remote users may perform operations such as updating an existing message, posting a new message, download messages, and the like. The bulletin board also supports shared messages designed for special purposes, for example, an electronic grocery list that is accessible from remote locations. |
| US07996471B2 |
Electronic message distribution system
A method and system for distributing electronic messages, such as e-mails, using a subject-category-identifier are disclosed. A server receives electronic messages having an subject-category-identifier. The server includes logic for reading the subject-category-identifier and logic for sorting the electronic messages into a category based at least upon the subject-category-identifier. The server determines whether the electronic message is a valid electronic message for distribution; and responsive to determining that the electronic message is valid, the server distributes the electronic message according to the subject-category-identifier. |
| US07996470B2 |
Processing rules for digital messages
Systems and methods for handling email messages are described. Some embodiments are directed to determining whether an email message meets a predefined condition, and executing an action in an instant messaging (IM) system in response to determining that the email message meets the predefined condition. Other embodiments are directed to providing a programming interface, and storing inputs provided by a user at the programming interface. For those embodiments, the programming interface is adapted to receive user input in the form of a markup language. The inputs include a condition and an action. Yet other embodiments are directed to determining whether a digital message meets a predefined condition, and executing a filtering algorithm on the digital message in response to determining that the digital message does not meet the predefined condition. The digital message may be, for example, an email message or an IM message. |
| US07996469B1 |
Method and system for sharing files over networks
A collaborative communication system is disclosed. The collaborative communication system allows registered user to share a file with online or offline users by sending the file to a store remotely located with respect to a client machine being used by a sender. Each of the registered users is assigned an identifier that is not in form of the traditional email address. A designated recipient receives a notification of the availability of the file when the recipient logs into the system, where the delivery of the notification is based on the identifier of the recipient. The designated recipient may access the file whenever it is deemed convenient. |
| US07996463B2 |
Handling an audio conference related to a text-based message
A client for a text-based messaging application for a dual-mode mobile communication device may initiate an audio conference based on a text-based message. Contents of fields of the text-based message may be extracted and utilized to construct an audio conference request message that is subsequently transmitted to an audio conference gateway. Where the text-based messaging application is an instant messaging (IM) client application, it may be configured to recognize a voice connection as being related to an ongoing Data Mode IM conversation. As a consequence of the recognition, the IM client application may maintain the user interface for facilitating participation in the Voice Mode IM conversation. Updates related to the status of the Voice Mode IM conversation may be received at the dual-mode mobile communication device over the voice connection and reflected in changes to the user interface. |
| US07996462B2 |
Collaborative agent for a work environment
A system and method for connecting information resources in a collaborative work environment. A system includes at least one information source providing collaboration data, and a repository framework including at least one source for storing the collaboration data. A collaborative bot service is connected with the repository framework, and includes one or more bots, or autonomous programs, configured to traverse the source via the repository framework, extract a topic from a portion of the collaboration data, and create a link between the portion of the collaboration data and an information resource related to the collaboration data based on the topic. |
| US07996460B1 |
Processing selected browser requests
Processing a browser request that specifies a destination network resource generally includes intercepting a browser request that specifies a selected destination network resource and redirecting the browser request to a network server that differs from the destination resource specified by the browser request. Processing a browser request also may include intercepting a browser request received from a client computer at a proxy server when the browser request specifies a selected destination network resource and performing instructions associated with and in addition to instructions performed to download the selected destination network resource. |
| US07996456B2 |
Document distribution recommender system and method
A document management system monitors proposed recipients for documents and provides recommendations on alterations to the distribution set, such as by adding or removing recipients. |
| US07996454B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing complex calculations in a multiprocessor array
A method and apparatus for performing complex mathematical calculations. The apparatus includes a multicore processor 10 where the cores 15 are connected 20 into a net with the processors on the periphery 15a primarily dedicated to input/output functions and distribution of tasks to the central processors 15b-h of the net. The central processors 15b-h perform calculations substantially simultaneously, far exceeding the speed of conventional processors. The method 100, which may be implemented by an instruction set to the processor nodes, informs the processor nodes how to divide the work and conduct the calculations. The method includes steps dividing the data into subsets 110 directing the subsets to predetermined nodes 115, performing the calculations 120 and outputting the results 125. |
| US07996452B1 |
Pulse domain hadamard gates
A hadamard gate includes two strongly cross-coupled limit cycle oscillators. Each limit cycle oscillator includes an amplifier, a summing node, an integrator, a hysteresis quantizer, a self-feedback 1-bit DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) and a cross-feedback 1 bit DAC. Each oscillator output drives its own self-feedback DAC and the cross-feedback DAC of the other oscillator. |
| US07996451B2 |
System, method, and multi-level object data structure thereof for browsing multimedia data
System, method, and multi-level object data structure thereof for browsing a multi-media data, the method for browsing a multimedia data using a multilevel object data structure including the steps of (1) receiving multimedia information and multiple supplementary information on each object in the multimedia information on the same time, (2) separating the multimedia information and the multiple supplementary information, (3) displaying the multimedia information, and (4) browsing/searching supplementary information related to a particular object from the multiple supplementary information, and displaying the supplementary information when a user requests for browsing/searching the supplementary information related to the particular object. |
| US07996450B1 |
Network-based file access system
A network-based file access system obtains an identifier for a resource stored on a remote storage system to an application. The application can use the identifier to pull the contents of a file associated with the identifier or to push contents of a file to a folder associated with the identifier. |
| US07996449B2 |
Storage medium storing audio-visual data including metadata, reproducing apparatus, and method of searching for audio-visual data using the metadata
A reproducing apparatus for reproducing audio-visual data stored in a storage medium includes a storage unit which stores metadata used to search for desired audio-visual data in the audio-visual data stored in the storage medium, and a search unit which searches for the desired audio-visual data using the metadata stored in the storage unit, wherein the metadata includes a volume identifier indicating a volume comprised of a plurality of discs used to create a disc library stored in the storage unit. The metadata may further include disc information and title information common to the discs, and the search unit may create the disc library using the disc information, the title information, and the volume information, and search for the desired audio-visual data using the created disc library. |
| US07996448B2 |
Recording medium, and method and apparatus for reproducing data from the recording medium
A method and apparatus for reproducing data from a recording medium are disclosed. The method and apparatus calls for downloading data associated with data read from the recording medium. The downloaded data is stored in a local storage using an organization ID directory. The downloaded data from the local storage and the data from the recording medium are ultimately bound together to form a virtual package. |
| US07996444B2 |
Creation of pre-filters for more efficient X-path processing
A system and method is provided for XML query processing includes an execution compiler for transforming an XML query into an executable XML query plan. A query rewrite processor performs query transformation on the XML query, the query transformations including transforming an XPath within said XML Query into a pre-filter. The XML query is then transformed into a transformed XML query which includes the pre-filter. |
| US07996441B2 |
Enterprise proposal management system
A system and method for managing an enterprise is provided. The system and method may be based on a layered architecture including a data center that may store all documents and data abstractions for an enterprise. One or more services may interact with an enterprise resource planning system and/or a customer relationship manager to facilitate interaction with the documents and data abstractions. A client access point of the system may include a graphical user interface that includes one or more enterprise management functions for managing the enterprise documents and/or data abstractions. The enterprise management functions may include a user proposal manager, an enterprise proposal manager, a proposal library, a content health manager, an archive library, a bid center, a contracts manager, a resume manager, a debriefing center and/or a projects manager. The enterprise management functions man re-engineer business processes and enable users to manage all aspects of an enterprise using a single unified interface. |
| US07996433B2 |
NUMA system resource descriptors including performance characteristics
A method and article for efficiently accessing resources in a multiprocessor computer system. Multiple resources are grouped into nodes and system resource descriptors are maintained as data structures. The method incorporates traversing one or more of the data structure to efficiently allocate resources within a grouping of nodes. Each node in the system is assigned a node identifying number. This number identifies a node location within a multiprocessor and is used to determine latency between nodes. Accordingly, storing the system architecture information in a data structure format provides for an efficient method of accessing system resources and determining latency for specific processes and access patterns. |
| US07996432B2 |
Systems, methods and computer program products for the creation of annotations for media content to enable the selective management and playback of media content
The exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a method for generating an annotation for media content, that includes retrieving a media content subset from a media content source, saving the received media content subset at a computing system, and generating an annotation for association with the media content subset using the computing system. The method further includes associating the annotation with media content to facilitate the visualization and navigation of the media content and adding the annotation to at least one annotation repository designed for efficient retrieval of annotation elements. |
| US07996428B2 |
Text-based searches of numeric data
The present invention can allow a user to locate items in a database based on numeric characteristics of the items using words to describe those characteristics. In one embodiment, the invention includes selecting a numeric attribute of an item in a database of items some of which have values for the selected attribute, linking the numeric attribute to a descriptive word, linking the numeric attribute to a function, executing the function on values of the numeric attributes, and assigning a descriptive word to an item based on the results of the function. |
| US07996424B2 |
Methods and systems for multi-pattern searching
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for optimizing and reducing the memory requirements of state machine algorithms in pattern matching applications. Memory requirements of an Aho-Corasick algorithm are reduced in an intrusion detection system by representing the state table as three separate data structures. Memory requirements of an Aho-Corasick algorithm are also reduced by applying a banded-row sparse matrix technique to the state transition table of the state table. The pattern matching performance of the intrusion detection system is improved by performing a case insensitive search, where the characters of the test sequence are converted to uppercase as the characters are read. Testing reveals that state transition tables with sixteen bit elements outperform state transition tables with thirty-two bit elements and do not reduce the functionality of intrusion detection system using the Aho-Corasick algorithm. |
| US07996423B2 |
Method for web-based exploration of network infrastructure
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a method of data drilling is presented. A network database is deployed in a network, such as the Internet, for broad-based user access. Network information is stored in the network database and is organized in layers. A graphical user interface with data objects is presented to an end user. Selecting a data object generates a query performed by a server. Each query produces more details on an initially selected data object. |
| US07996422B2 |
System and method for adaptive media playback based on destination
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for adaptive media playback based on destination. The method for adaptive media playback comprises determining one or more destinations, collecting media content that is relevant to or describes the one or more destinations, assembling the media content into a program, and outputting the program. In various embodiments, media content may be advertising, consumer-generated, based on real-time events, based on a schedule, or assembled to fit within an estimated available time. Media content may be assembled using an adaptation engine that selects a plurality of media segments that fit in the estimated available time, orders the plurality of media segments, alters at least one of the plurality of media segments to fit the estimated available time, if necessary, and creates a playlist of selected media content containing the plurality of media segments. |
| US07996421B2 |
Method, computer program product, and system for coordinating access to locally and remotely exported file systems
Application access to locally and remotely exported file systems is coordinated to allow caching data for exported file systems accessed by remote clients. In response to a request or file system access, it is determined whether the request relates to a locally exported file system or a remotely exported file system. If the request relates to a locally exported file system, a local access routine is invoked to obtain access permissions to the locally exported file system. If the request relates to remotely exported file system, a remote access routine is invoked to communicate with a local access routine in a file server responsible for coordinating access to the remotely exported file system to obtain access permissions to the remotely exported file system. |
| US07996417B2 |
Dynamic language translation of web site content
A method, system and computer program product for providing translated web content is disclosed. The method includes receiving a request from a user on a web site, the web site having a first web content in a first language, wherein the request calls for a second web content in a second language. The method further includes dividing the first web content into a plurality of translatable components and generating a unique identifier for each translatable component. The method further includes identifying a plurality of translated components of the second web content using the unique identifier of each of the plurality of translatable components of the first web content and putting the plurality of translated components of the second web content to preserve a format that corresponds to the first web content. The method further includes providing the second web content in response to the request that was received. |
| US07996413B2 |
Data modernization system for legacy software
A database modernization system and method is disclosed. One example embodiment comprises a method for receiving a record stored as a source physical data model, parsing the source physical data model into a source logical data model, wherein the source logical data model includes semantic information from the record, transforming the source logical data model to a destination logical data model independent of a source or a destination record physical implementation, wherein the destination logical data model includes at least a portion of the semantic information from the record, and storing the destination logical data model in a destination physical data model. In this manner, a destination physical data model may be stored in a relational database management system on a per record basis. |
| US07996410B2 |
Word pluralization handling in query for web search
Techniques for determining when and how to transform words in a query to its plural or non-plural form in order to provide the most relevant search results while minimizing computational overhead are provided. A dictionary is generated based upon the words used in a specified number of previous most frequent search queries and comprises lists of transformations from plural to singular and singular to plural. Unnecessary transformations are removed from the dictionary based upon language modeling. The word to transform is determined by finding the last non-stop re-writable word of the query. The context of the transformed word is confirmed in the search documents and a version of the query is executed using both the original form of the word and the transformation of the word. |
| US07996408B2 |
Determination of index block size and data block size in data sets
A plurality of data sets is maintained, wherein each data set comprises an index block and a plurality of data blocks. An index block size is determined for redefining the plurality of data sets, based on an amount of space left unused in index blocks of the plurality of data sets, wherein for determining the index block size greater weight is provided to those index blocks with lesser unused space in comparison to those index blocks with greater unused space. A data block size is determined based on whether the plurality of data blocks is used more frequently for direct processing or used more frequently for sequential processing. |
| US07996402B1 |
Systems and methods for using anchor text as parallel corpora for cross-language information retrieval
A system performs cross-language query translations. The system receives a search query that includes terms in a first language and determines possible translations of the terms of the search query into a second language. The system also locates documents for use as parallel corpora to aid in the translation by: (1) locating documents in the first language that contain references that match the terms of the search query and identify documents in the second language; (2) locating documents in the first language that contain references that match the terms of the query and refer to other documents in the first language and identify documents in the second language that contain references to the other documents; or (3) locating documents in the first language that match the terms of the query and identify documents in the second language that contain references to the documents in the first language. The system may use the second language documents as parallel corpora to disambiguate among the possible translations of the terms of the search query and identify one of the possible translations as a likely translation of the search query into the second language. |
| US07996395B2 |
Adding dominant media elements to search results
A method and system for determining dominance of the media elements of display pages is provided. The dominance system provides a scoring mechanism for scoring the dominance of media elements of display pages based on features of each media element of the display page. To generate the scores for the media elements of the display page, the dominance system first identifies the media elements and then identifies the features of the media elements. The dominance system then scores the identified media elements using the provided scoring mechanism and the identified features. |
| US07996392B2 |
Changing ranking algorithms based on customer settings
Search term ranking algorithms can be generated and updated based on customer settings, such as where a ranking algorithm is modeled as a combination function of different ranking factors. An end user of a search system provides personalized preferences for weighted attributes, generally or for a single instance of the query. The user also can indicate the relative importance of one or more ranking factors by specifying different weights to the factors. Ranking factors can specify document attributes, such as document title, document body, document page rank, etc. Based on the attribute weights and the received user query, a ranking algorithm function will produce the relevant value for each document corresponding to the user preferences and personalization configurations. |
| US07996388B2 |
Adding new continuous queries to a data stream management system operating on existing queries
A new continuous query to a data stream management system (DSMS) may use a stream or a relation which may or may not be used by continuous queries previously registered in the DSMS. The DSMS is programmed to modify an execution plan to accommodate execution of the new query while continuing to execute the previously registered continuous queries. The modified execution plan may include new operators and/or share existing operators. The DSMS is programmed to cause operators which output a relation to propagate a current state of the relation to each newly-coupled operator that uses the relation. The current state is propagated only to operators that have been newly coupled and have thus not yet received any state information previously. After propagation of current state to newly-coupled operators, results of processing any new data for the relation are supplied to all operators coupled thereto, including newly-coupled operators and existing operators. |
| US07996385B2 |
Method and apparatus to define the scope of a search for information from a tabular data source
A method and apparatus for defining the scope of a search is described. In one embodiment, user input is received, and the scope is defined, based on the user input, for a search of free-form text for information from any random rows within a tabular structure of source data. In one embodiment, the search is intended for finding, in the free-form text, a sub-set of data fragments that matches information from any single row within the tabular structure of the source data. |
| US07996383B2 |
Systems and methods for a search engine having runtime components
Embodiments of the invention form an information set from the current set of index information available by the operations of the pre-search and runtime Search components of the search engine. A search request that contains search terms and/or other search criteria (e.g. date or file type) is entered by a user through an input interface. The search terms and the information set are worked through the search engine modules to provide the actual results sought by the user. These results are provided to the user via an output interface. Embodiments of a search engine involve runtime aspects that remove duplicate documents from the index, provide topical searching, and provide caching for the search engine. |
| US07996382B2 |
Performance management system and method
A performance management system is disclosed. The performance manage system includes a host system in communication with a client system. The host system includes a database server and an application server. The database server is configured to receive workplace performance information from one or more sources. The application server is configured to receive a query from the client system to provide workplace performance information, transmit a request to the database server to provide workplace performance information, receive workplace performance information transmitted from the database server, generate an HTML document that includes workplace performance information, and transmit the HTML document to the client system. |
| US07996381B2 |
System and method for automated benchmarking for the recognition of best medical practices and products and for establishing standards for medical procedures
A system for collecting, managing and disseminating information relating to medical procedures includes a central computer and a plurality of medical devices each in communication with an injector, a scanner, a hospital system and/or at least one other device. Each medical device receives (I) before a procedure is performed, patient identification information from a user interface, the scanner and/or the hospital system and (II) during and/or after the procedure, injection information from the injector and imaging study information from the scanner. Each medical device has an associated database for storing as a record therein the patient identification information, the injection information and the imaging study information for each procedure performed on each patient. The central computer remotely links to each medical device for accessing, collecting and storing in a related database the records transmitted therefrom and for analyzing the records and creating therefrom at least one related entry based thereon. |
| US07996380B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing metadata
A method and apparatus for processing metadata search with plug-in applications is disclosed. In one embodiment, in response to a search request for metadata stored in a metadata store, a plug-in associated with the metadata store is invoked to perform the request search within the metadata store. In addition, according to another embodiment, a search result of the metadata search may be filtered based on user privileges of a client initiating the search request, and some or all of the metadata from the search result may be returned to the client dependent upon the user privileges of the client. Other methods and apparatuses are also described. |
| US07996379B1 |
Document ranking using word relationships
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for scoring documents. A plurality of documents with an initial ordering is received. Local term relationships between terms in the plurality of documents are identified, each local term relationship being a relationship between a pair of terms in a respective document. Relationships among the documents in the plurality of documents are determined based on the local term relationships and on the initial order of the documents. A respective score is determined for each document in the plurality of documents based on the document relationships. |
| US07996378B2 |
System and method for graphically distinguishing levels of a multidimensional database
In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for graphically distinguishing levels from a multidimensional database. Levels from a multidimensional database are distinguished, such as by associating two or more of database's levels with a plurality of different visual indicators. |
| US07996376B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing session data across multiple applications
An approach is provided for managing session information across application boundaries. Session information is obtained of a first application. The session information is stored. The session information is provided to a second application, wherein the session information is particular to a user session and includes data to be persisted across boundaries of the first application and the second application. |
| US07996375B2 |
Result-based triggering for presentation of online content
A computer-implemented method for delivering content is provided, including specifying a rule having a trigger and defining a content presentation action, and receiving a search query from a user. The method further includes generating a result set in response to the search query, identifying at least one characteristic of the result set, and comparing the at least one characteristic to the trigger. If the at least one characteristic satisfies the trigger, the content is presented as specified by the content presentation action that is defined by the rule. Other embodiments are also described. |
| US07996368B1 |
Attribute-based indexers for device object lists
A device list is created including one or more device objects, wherein each device object represents a physical device coupled to a computer system, wherein each device object includes one or more device attributes of the physical device. The device list is indexed into using a device attribute. |
| US07996364B2 |
Information processing apparatus and control method thereof, and document verification apparatus and control method thereof
In order to provide a technique that allows to efficiently check validation of a structured document using single schema data corresponding to structured documents of different versions, a document verification apparatus, which includes a storage unit that stores single schema data corresponding to structured documents of different versions, and checks validation of structured document data using the single schema data, includes an input unit which inputs structured document data, a version determination unit which determines a version of the input structured document data, and a generation unit which reads out the single schema data from the storage unit, and generates a DOM tree of a schema corresponding to the determined version, and a verification unit which executes validation checking of the structured document based on the generated DOM tree. |
| US07996363B2 |
Real-time apply mechanism in standby database environments
A method and apparatus for applying changes to a standby database in real-time. According to one aspect, a change is applied to data contained in a standby database. The standby database functions as a replica of a primary database. The primary database has a current online redo log file to which a particular redo block was written. According to one aspect, prior to the archiving of the current online redo log file, the particular redo block is received at a process associated with the standby database. A change indicated by the particular redo block is applied to the data contained in the standby database. |
| US07996362B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing system, and control method therefor
This invention uses a storage device more effectively than ever before to store image data in a predetermined storage device for future security chasing. A determination unit (203) determines whether related image data which can be considered substantially identical to image data acquired by an acquisition unit (210) is stored in a predetermined storage device (202) for future chasing. If related image data is stored, link information to the related image data is written instead of writing the acquired image data to the storage device (202). On the other hand, no related image data is stored, the acquired image data is written to the storage device (202). |
| US07996360B2 |
Coordinating updates to replicated data
Techniques for coordinating updates to replicated data are disclosed. For example, in a system comprised of a plurality of nodes, a method for maintaining consistent copies of data across the nodes comprises the following steps. A copy of an object o1 is maintained by a plurality of nodes. In response to a request r1 to update a copy of object o1, a message is sent to at least some of the plurality of nodes instructing a node receiving the message to invalidate its copy of object o1. In response to a node n1 receiving an invalidation message arising from r1 wherein n1 is processing another request r2 to update object o1, requests r1 and r2 are coordinated to prevent the requests from causing conflicting updates or invalidations. |
| US07996359B2 |
Managing multi-node multi-version systems
A method, system, and computer usable program product for managing multi-node multi-version systems are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A process associates a version identifier with a first version of data available at a first node in the multi-node multi-version system. The version identifier corresponds to the first version of the data. The data includes an update. The process sends the data and the associated version identifier to a second node without learning a second version of data available at the second node. In one embodiment, the first version of data may be a subset of the second version of data. In another embodiment the second version of data may be a subset of the first version of data. The process repeats the sending for each update at the first node. |
| US07996357B2 |
Enabling synchronization with a difference unaware data source
A system and a method are disclosed for updating a master data list with data from a difference unaware information repository and a difference aware information repository. A master synchronization engine synchronizes to the difference unaware information repository and the difference aware information repository via connectors coupled to each information repository. The difference unaware information repository simply exports all the data stored within the repository to its respective connector. The connecter determines the changes made to the data since the last synchronization and the changes are forwarded to the master synchronization engine. The difference aware information repository is capable of determining the changes made to the stored data since the last synchronization and simply forwards the changes to its connector. Each connector forwards the changes to the data in their respective information repositories to a database which updates the master data list. |
| US07996356B2 |
Text searching and categorization tools
A disclosed process accesses text data that is to be mined. The text data includes text snippets. Rules are encoded in a rule base. A search request is submitted to a search request handler. A search request handler applies the rules from the rule base to the text and associates different labels to respective text snippets in the text data in accordance with the rule base. |
| US07996355B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for identifying time-based information with historical events
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for identifying time-based information. A detection module detects time-based information. A selection module monitors events in an information stream. The information stream is of interest to a target user. In addition, the information stream is not related by content to the time-based information. The selection module further selects a first event with temporal relation to the time-based information. An association module associates the first event and the time-based information. |
| US07996354B2 |
Device, method and computer program product for evaluating a behavior of an entity
A method for evaluating a behavior of an entity, the method includes: converting a state machine representation of a behavior of an entity to a complex event processing (CEP) representation of the behavior of the entity; wherein the converting comprises defining a transition between multiple states of the state machine representation as a situation; and evaluating the behavior of the entity in response to the CEP representation. |
| US07996351B1 |
Automated estimation of a country where a client computer is configured to operate
A method for automatically estimating a country where a client computer is configured to operate. The method gathers information of the client computer (e.g., GMT offset, time zone name, daylight savings status, desktop language, etc.) and estimates a country where the client computer is configured to operate using the gathered information and country estimation programming. The method may send information regarding the identity of the estimated country to a server and then receive information from the server based on the estimated country. In other embodiments, the gathered information is sent to the server and the server estimates the country where the client computer is configured to operate. In some embodiments, the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine implemented by rule programming. In some embodiments, the rule engine comprises a recursive rule program. |
| US07996348B2 |
100GBPS security and search architecture using programmable intelligent search memory (PRISM) that comprises one or more bit interval counters
Memory architecture provides capabilities for high performance content search. The architecture creates an innovative memory that can be programmed with content search rules which are used by the memory to evaluate presented content for matching with the programmed rules. When the content being searched matches any of the rules programmed in the Programmable Intelligent Search Memory (PRISM) action(s) associated with the matched rule(s) are taken. Content search rules comprise of regular expressions which are converted to finite state automata (FSA) and then programmed in PRISM for evaluating content with the search rules. PRISM architecture comprises of a plurality of programmable PRISM Memory clusters (PMC) which comprise of a plurality of programmable PRISM Search Engines (PSE). Groups of PMCs can be programmed with the same rules and used in parallel to apply these rules to multiple data streams simultaneously to achieve increased performance. PMC groups provide 10 Gbps performance with 10 PMC groups enabling 100 Gbps content search and security performance. |
| US07996347B2 |
Adaptive information technology solution design and deployment
A set of information technology solution alternatives is generated for an enterprise organization. The information technology solution alternatives are evaluated within an automated architectural framework based upon one or more information technology evaluation metrics. An automated incremental solution deployment strategy is created based upon the evaluated plurality of information technology solution alternatives. An information technology solution is selected from the set of information technology solution alternatives for deployment based upon the automated incremental solution deployment strategy. |
| US07996345B2 |
Generating attribute models for use in adaptive navigation systems
Adaptive navigation techniques are disclosed that allow navigation systems to learn from a user's personal driving history. As a user drives, models are developed and maintained to learn or otherwise capture the driver's personal driving habits and preferences. Example models include road speed, hazard, favored route, and disfavored route models. Other attributes can be used as well, whether based on the user's personal driving data or driving data aggregated from a number of users. The models can be learned under explicit conditions (e.g., time of day/week, driver ID) and/or under implicit conditions (e.g., weather, drivers urgency, as inferred from sensor data). Thus, models for a plurality of attributes can be learned, as well as one or more models for each attribute under a plurality of conditions. Attributes can be weighted according to user preference. The attribute weights and/or models can be used in selecting a best route for user. |
| US07996344B1 |
Multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based engineering design optimization
Systems and methods of obtaining a set of better converged and diversified Pareto optimal solutions in an engineering design optimization of a product (e.g., automobile, cellular phone, etc.) are disclosed. According to one aspect, a plurality of MOEA based engineering optimizations of a product is conducted independently. Each of the independently conducted optimizations differs from others with parameters such as initial generation and/or evolutionary algorithm. For example, populations (design alternatives) of initial generation can be created randomly from different seed of a random or pseudo-random number generator. In another, each optimization employs a particular revolutionary algorithm including, but not limited to, Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA), etc. Furthermore, each independently conducted optimization's Pareto optimal solutions are combined to create a set of better converged and diversified solutions. Combinations can be performed at one or more predefined checkpoints during evolution process of the optimization. |
| US07996341B1 |
Methods and systems for searching for color themes, suggesting color theme tags, and estimating tag descriptiveness
Embodiments of the present disclosure assess how well a tag describes a color theme by estimating a descriptiveness value for the tag for the color theme. Some embodiments determine descriptiveness values for a tag based on weighted color attributes determined from the tag's existing use in a color theme collection. Descriptiveness values are used generally in color theme searching and to suggest tags for a color theme, among other things. |
| US07996339B2 |
Method and system for generating object classification models
A method for generating object classification models is disclosed. Initially, a set of training data is fed into a training algorithm to generate a first object classification model. A set of field data is then applied to the first object classification model to produce a set of field object classifications. The number of data in the set of field data is significantly less than the number of data in the set of training data. Finally, the set of field object classifications and the set of field data are fed into the training algorithm to generate a second object classification model. The second object classification model can be utilized for predicting object classifications. |
| US07996335B2 |
Information processing device, contents distribution server, license server, and method and computer program
Usage rights information indicating a license which is usage rights corresponding to contents is stored in a license storage device, and at the time of using the contents, the rights information is output from the license storage device to a contents using device and further transmitted to a contents distribution server, and legitimacy verification of the rights information is executed at the contents distribution server, such that contents corresponding to the rights information are transmitted to the contents using device. Thus, a device and method is realized whereby distribution of contents over a network and use thereof is enabled without detracting from safety and user convenience. |
| US07996330B2 |
Automated system for generating proposed markdown strategy and tracking results of proposed markdown
The present invention discloses a method, program product and system for controlling pricing of a product or service using a markdown profile. The method includes: selecting a markdown profile to be used for the product or service, selecting a retail price for the product or service, acquiring updated sales data regarding the product or service, determining a markdown to be applied to the price from the markdown profile using updated sales data, and reconciling a markdown budget with the determined markdown to be applied to said price to determine whether the markdown will be applied. The method can further include the step of adjusting a retail price of the product or service by the markdown. |
| US07996328B1 |
Electronic shipping notifications
A broker facilitates customer purchases from merchants. Shippers ship shipments containing the purchases from merchants to the customers. A shipper identifies a shipment using a shipment identifier. The broker uses the shipment identifier to obtain the status information for the shipment from the shipper. The broker analyzes the status information in combination with other information to calculate an estimate of the time that the shipment will arrive at the customer's address. The broker sends an electronic message, such as an email or text message, to the customer prior to the estimated shipment arrival time to inform the customer of the impending arrival. The customer can thus arrange for someone to be at the shipping address to receive the shipment at the estimated arrival time. |
| US07996325B2 |
Microbilling using a trust management system
The present invention provides a microbilling system that integrates with existing billing systems and existing devices. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the devices store digital certificates with short-lived expiration dates and specifying transaction limits, preferably using a trust management system. A provisioning agent periodically (e.g., once a day) issues the certificates over a secure channel to the devices. When conducting a purchase transaction, the devices exchange certificates via a communication channel (that need not be secure) and the purchasing device issues a digitally signed electronic check which is periodically deposited over an advantageously secure channel with a clearing service. The present invention enables microbilling transactions by embedding liability in the certificates. |
| US07996324B2 |
Systems and methods for managing multiple accounts on a RF transaction device using secondary identification indicia
Systems and methods are configured to manage data sets associated with a transaction device. For example, a method is provided for facilitating the management of distinct data sets on a transaction device that are provided by distinct data set owners, wherein the distinct data sets may include differing formats. The method includes the steps of: adding, by a read/write, a first data set to the financial transaction device, wherein the first data set is owned by a first owner; adding, by the read/write device, a second data set to the financial transaction device, wherein the second data set is owned by a second owner; and storing the first data set and the second data set on the financial transaction device in accordance with an owner defined format. The first and second data sets are associated with first and second owners, respectively, and are configured to be stored independent of each other The transaction device user may be permitted to select at least one of the multiple data sets for transaction completion using a secondary identifier indicia. Where the user selects multiple accounts for transaction completion, the user may be permitted to allocate portions of a transaction to the selected transaction accounts. The transaction request may be processed in accordance with the user's allocations. |
| US07996320B2 |
System and method for securing data through a PDA portal
Consumers may utilize computing devices to assist in the purchase and/or loyalty process, and in particular, the consumer may utilize a PDA to facilitate the purchase and/or loyalty process. During the purchase and/or loyalty process, the consumer may need to insure that any content downloaded or used in association with the PDA is secure in how it is collected, assembled, and delivered to the PDA device. This system and method secures the data from its source to when it is actually viewed or used by the authorized user. The PDA may have direct access to an Internet web site portal that offers secure personal content from a content provider, such as, for example, an on-line banking or financial institution. Using the web site portal, the content provider may offer personal or confidential data, such as financial information, to PDA users in a secure (e.g., encrypted) environment. The exemplary system and method may establish a PDA portal link to the web site for collecting specified information for a user and transmitting the information to the remote device. To receive the information, the PDA contacts the portal and establishes a connection, authenticates itself to the network and allows the user to complete secured transactions or transmissions over the network. |
| US07996318B2 |
Multi-function electronic transaction card
The present invention provides for a multi-function electronic transaction card or MET card, which comprises a base card and at least two conventional magnetic stripes. As such, they can be used in either proprietary or syndicated applications employing credit, debit, cash, and borrowing, as well as, information storage, single and co-branding programs, award points, loyalty programs, affinity programs, personal identification, licenses, and electronic keys. MET cards can also be used to reduce soliciting, issuing, delivering, confirmation, monitoring, and billing costs. The incidence of criminal theft and unauthorized use is also significantly decreased as is the overall quantity of environmental waste generated. Where required, MET cards may also utilize one or more electronic chips and/or radio frequency identification tags in order to further enhance functionality. As a result, MET cards offer a level of performance and versatility that is reliable, innovative, and highly marketable. |
| US07996309B2 |
Method and system for cash remittances using a two country banking structure
A bank customer of a first bank in a first country has a bank account. The bank provides a banking service whereby customer is able to send cash to a recipient in a second country via a commingled bank account belonging to a second bank. The cash is provided to the recipient in the currency of the second country by a third party payment agent. To effect a transfer, the bank customer in the first country instructs the first bank to debit his or her account and send cash to a designated recipient. In response, the first bank debits the customer's account, sends first payment instructions to the second bank, and transfers funds to a commingled account at the second bank. Funds from this commingled account are used to pay for the cash provided to the recipient. The banking service may be provided free of charge to a banking customer of the first bank. |
| US07996301B2 |
Out of band credit control
Systems and method for mediating risks associated with orders in an electronic trading system are provided. A front end component includes a plurality of trading engines that receive orders from traders. A back-end component includes a match system. The system includes a credit control module, which may be located at the back-end (e.g., clearinghouse), front end, a combination thereof, or other location that communicates with the plurality of trading engines. The credit control may monitor aggregate risk parameters for the trading engines and requests credits from trading engines. |
| US07996299B2 |
Trade services management system
A system (and corresponding methodology) that supports trade services back office processing to enhance efficiency and productivity is provided. The system employs a unique consolidated screen layout that significantly improves the productivity of the users. Essentially, the system and page layout is composed of the following components: Queue Well, Activity Center, Message Center, Viewing Center and Action Tab. These components facilitate organization of panels that creates an intuitive user interface experience. The system employs a navigational hierarchy of Queue Well to Activity Center and then to the Message and Viewing Centers as appropriate. |
| US07996298B1 |
Reverse auction system, method and computer program product
A reverse auction system, method and computer program product are provided. A tender is received from a buyer over a network. Such tender includes information relating to a desired good or service. A plurality of suppliers is identified based on the information, and the tender is anonymously forwarded to the identified suppliers over the network. In use, a plurality of bids is received in response to the tender from a plurality of the suppliers over the network, and such bids are consolidated. Further, the consolidated bids are forwarded to the buyer over the network. |
| US07996297B2 |
System and method for providing access to and managing account activity for an online account
A method of providing an account is provided. The method includes receiving identification information associated with a user during a communication session and communicating a request for credit information, the request including at least a portion of the identification information. The requested credit information is received and an account is approved and opened based at least on the received credit information. During the communication session, a request made using the opened account to place a first order to trade a first product is received. A risk value for the first order is determined. One or more current balances for the account are also determined. The method further includes determining whether to approve the first order based at least on the risk value determined for the first order and one or more of the current balances for the account, and if the first order is approved, placing the first order. |
| US07996295B1 |
Data structure for use in an automated order entry system
Data structures for transferring catalog and system order information between a manufacturer and a customer are shown. The data structures are configured to allow custom systems to be automatically ordered. These data structures advantageously allow a manufacturer and customer to electronically order systems, and specifically, non-commodity systems, quickly and easily. |
| US07996291B2 |
Method and system for an annuity with periodic interest rate adjustments
A data processing method administers an annuity product for an annuitant. The annuity product has a guaranteed minimum interest rate. Administration is such that the annuity product provides periodic interest rate adjustments. The adjustments are a function of changes in the prevailing market interest rates, based on reliable economic metrics such as the Consumer Price Index and short and long term Treasury rates. |
| US07996290B2 |
Financial transaction modeling system
Systems and methods are provided to model financial transactions. According to some embodiments, simple events, branch events, composite events, and/or contingent events associated with a financial transaction are defined. The events may then be used to automatically manage the transaction during the transaction's lifecycle. In one embodiment, at least one simple event associated with an asset transfer is defined, including a transfer amount and a transfer date. At least one branch event associated with a set of simple events is also defined, including a branch date and a branch selector. In addition, at least one composite event associated with a plurality of the simple events or branch events is defined. The transaction may then be automatically managed during the transaction's lifecycle based at least in part on the simple events, the branch events, and the composite events. |
| US07996286B2 |
Methods, systems, and products for tracking surgical items
Methods, systems, and products track equipment used during surgical procedures. An allowable zone associated with a surgical procedure is identified. The allowable zone determines where surgical items may be used during the surgical procedure. A location of a surgical item is determined. When the location is outside the allowable zone, an alarm is triggered to indicate the surgical item is moving outside the allowable zone towards an area in which the surgical item may not be used. |
| US07996275B2 |
Method for selecting a merchant for a trial mode of a service
Disclosure includes selecting a merchant from a plurality of merchants, enabling a trial mode for the merchant, during the trial mode, receiving an indication of a first order for the merchant, forwarding the indication of the first order to the merchant, allocating a first payment for the first order to the merchant, requesting an acceptance of a membership status from the merchant, and receiving an indication of the payment for the first order. |
| US07996274B2 |
Request type grid computing
Methods, articles of manufacture, and systems for providing access to a grid computing environment. In one environment, requests include resource specific criteria used to identify a particular grid resource to perform the request. In another embodiment, a request includes a queue criterion used to identify one of a plurality of queues on which the request is placed. |
| US07996272B2 |
Method and system for ordering stent grafts
A system for designing and ordering a stent graft is described. The system includes a user interface for designing and ordering the stent graft, and a centralised data processor remote from and in communication with the user interface for processing and storing entered information. The user interface further includes a selection portion for selecting a stent graft design and a design portion for entering a plurality of design parameters related to the stent graft design. A verification portion is also provided to verify details of a completed stent graft design with an ordering portion to order the completed stent graft design. In one embodiment the verification portion includes the capability to display a 3-dimensional view of the completed stent graft design. |
| US07996268B2 |
Apparatus and method for an electronic telephone wallet
An apparatus and method for providing an electronic wallet device, including a memory device for storing payment identifier information associated with an account holder, a processing device for processing a payment command, wherein the processing device retrieves the payment identifier information from the memory device, and a transmitter for transmitting the payment identifier information to a merchant computer, wherein the merchant computer is associated with a merchant, and further wherein the payment identifier information is utilized in a transaction with the merchant. |
| US07996266B2 |
Method for presenting visual assets for sale, using search engines
The present invention relates to a method for causing purchasable visual assets that can otherwise be accessed only by the visual assets provider' proprietary search engine, to appear within the result lists of public search engines, comprising: providing for each of said purchasable visual assets web page which includes at least the following: (a)—a representation image of said purchasable asset; (b) textual description best describing the content of said purchasable visual asset; (c) indication within said page or representation image for indicating that the asset is purchasable; and (d) a link to said stock library where the purchasable visual asset is sold. |
| US07996261B1 |
Systems and methods for increasing participation of liquidity providers on crossing system
In one aspect, the invention comprises a system for enabling a crossing system operator to calculate a rebate payment to a second participant for executing the block order of a first participant based on at least one of: (a) a difference between a benchmark price and an execution price of the block order; (b) total volume of block execution; and (c) an amount that decays exponentially with the time between the first participant's order and the order's execution by a liquidity provider. |
| US07996260B1 |
Promotional carrier for promoting pharmaceutical prescription products
A prescription pharmaceutical promotional carrier is provided that is effective to promote a series of prescription drugs. The carrier includes first and second portions with the second portion being referred to as a payment vehicle and the first portion being utilized to identify the series of prescription drugs being promoted. In use, a preferred embodiment provides a series of stickers secured to the first portion of the carrier. Each sticker identifies or represents a prescription pharmaceutical product. A doctor may possess one or more of the carriers and may prescribe a prescription drug being promoted by the carrier. If so, the doctor can transfer a sticker identifying the prescription drug to the payment vehicle and separate the payment vehicle from the carrier. The separated payment vehicle is then given to the patient along with a prescription for the identified prescription drug and the patient presents the payment vehicle to a pharmacy where at least a portion of the costs of the prescription drug is paid by a party that sponsored the carrier. |
| US07996256B1 |
Predicting shopper traffic at a retail store
Mathematical models for predicting shopper traffic at a shopper region useful for developing inter alia a metric for measuring impressions to in-store advertising. |
| US07996255B1 |
System and method for providing sales leads based on-demand software trial usage
Business management methods for on-demand trial based marketing and sales are introduced. Using on-demand trial technology, usage metrics can be automatically generated by tracking the usage of specific products and corresponding duration. Usage metrics and other data are automatically processed to qualify and channel leads to pertinent categories in sales and marketing. The present invention facilitates a more directed effort to investigate leads and makes the information of customers available for follow-up that has higher prospective sales potential. The present invention may also be used to dispatch pre-release reports automatically to a vendor. |
| US07996254B2 |
Methods and systems for forecasting product demand during promotional events using a causal methodology
An improved method for forecasting and modeling product demand for a product during promotional periods. The forecasting methodology employs a multivariable regression model to model the causal relationship between product demand and the attributes of past promotional activities. The model is utilized to calculate the promotional uplift from the coefficients of the regression equation. The methodology utilizes a mathematical formulation that transforms regression coefficients, a combination of additive and multiplicative coefficients, into a single promotional uplift coefficient that can be used directly in promotional demand forecasting calculations. |
| US07996253B2 |
Adaptive marketing using insight driven customer interaction
A system and method for adaptive marketing using insight driven customer interaction. The invention uses a closed-loop process for developing insight that may be used to refine further customer interactions. Results of a first customer interaction such as a marketing campaign are stored in a database. The results may be used to retrain predictive models and gain new insights regarding how customers are responding to marketing campaigns. The insights may be used to refine the offers delivered to customers or to extend additional offers in an effort to increase the likelihood that customers will redeem the offers. After each marketing campaign, the results are stored in the database. New and/or modified offers are created based on insights provided by the results of past campaigns. This process may be repeated such that subsequent campaigns are based on insights generated by the predictive models. The insight enables businesses to better target customers with better offers. These offers can be delivered through ensuing marketing campaigns or, through any form of interaction that the business has with the targeted customers. |
| US07996250B2 |
Workflow control using an aggregate utility function
Provided are, inter alia, systems, methods and techniques for controlling workflow by identifying an individual job that is part of an overall deliverables package that covers multiple jobs. An aggregate utility function is obtained, specifying utility based on an aggregate metric across the overall deliverables package, and a current operating point is determined on the aggregate utility function. An effective utility is calculated for the individual job based on the aggregate utility function and the current operating point, and the execution of work is controlled based on the effective utility for the individual job. |
| US07996249B2 |
Method for benchmarking of information technology spending
Information technology (IT) spending by a subject entity is assessed against an industry-wide optimal value of an IT benchmark and a result of that assessment displayed. Importantly, the IT benchmark developed by the present inventor accounts for the subject entity's IT spending as a percentage of the entity's revenue and the entity's IT spending as a percentage of the entity's operating expenses. For the industry as a whole, the optimal value of the IT benchmark is determined on the basis of profitability measures for individual companies within the industry. This process may be performed as part of a larger analysis concerning the subject entity's operations to provide an overall assessment of the entity's financial performance, health, etc. |
| US07996247B1 |
Insurance premium gap analysis
A method and apparatus for determining the amount of premium, policies, or quotations needed to improve market share in various geographic locations based on user selected criteria. The method comprises calculating a total estimated expenditure on insurance by zip code, an estimated market share for an insurance provider by zip code, a year-to-date sale-to-quote ratio by zip code, and finally the amount of premiums, policies, or quotations needed to achieve a market share in a zip code. The method and apparatus will also display or output demographic data, market data, insurance provider information, and calculated amounts of premiums, policies, or quotations needed to achieve a market share in a given zip code. |
| US07996245B2 |
Patient-centric healthcare information maintenance
A system for facilitating patient centric healthcare information maintenance. For example, a health management software system may be operated to receive, organize, and use patient medical information. The health management software may comprise a database for storing, retrieving, organizing, displaying, and, generally, for managing a patient's health. In one exemplary embodiment, the health management software system is used in conjunction with a healthcare maintenance device, such as a blood glucose monitoring system. The blood glucose monitoring system may contain several database objects in the form of data records. Typically in a portable blood glucose monitor, each data record contains a time and a concentration data element, or a time-amount point. Similarly, an insulin pump, which is another exemplary embodiment of a healthcare maintenance device, may maintain data records with time and dosage information, or a time-dosage point. |
| US07996243B1 |
Method and system for calculating an alignment date for prescriptions
A system and method facilitate alignment of refill dates associated with a plurality of prescriptions, such that each of the plurality of prescriptions requires a refill on the same date, thus limiting the number of occasions on which a customer must visit the pharmacy to retrieve refills of the aligned prescriptions, and increasing the likelihood that the customer will comply with the prescribed medication regimen. The system and method facilitate the alignment of the refill dates while complying with one or more rules governing the adjudication of the prescriptions. |
| US07996241B2 |
Process, knowledge, and intelligence management through integrated medical management system for better health outcomes, utilization cost reduction and provider reward programs
Disclosed herein is a computer implemented method and system for rewarding health care providers using an integrated medical management system. A web application analyzes performance of the health care providers. The web application acquires information from integrated medical management system. The acquired information includes information of health care quality improvement analysis, disease and case based management, utilization analytics, physician profiling, authorizations management, lab and imaging information, and health risk assessment information. The web application determines performance indices for the health care providers based on the acquired information. The performance indices include a quality index, an economic index, and a relative value unit index of the health care providers. The web application analyzes the performance of the health care providers based on the performance indices. The analysis includes identifying health care providers eligible for a reward. The health care providers are then rewarded based on the analyzed performance. |
| US07996239B1 |
System and method for generating a display to graphically indicate state for a series of events
Various embodiments of a system and method for generating a display configured to graphically indicate a state of a series of events are described. The system and method may include a display generator configured to generate display data that defines a display configured to indicate the state of a series of events. The display generator may create display data that defines a display configured to graphically indicate such events in a chronological manner such that the user may easily view the current state of the particular process. The display data may define a display that graphically indicates multiple events from multiple entities, such as events associated with a same episode. The displays defined by the display data may include one or more visual elements that graphically indicate an event that includes the transfer of an asset between a source entity and a destination entity. |
| US07996238B2 |
Power transmitting device, power receiving device, authentication/billing proxy device, electrical charging system, power transmitting method, power receiving method and electrical charging method
An electrical charging system and method is disclosed. A power transmitting device is configured to charge a power source of a portable electronic device in non-contact processing including a predetermined power providing policy including at least one of a fee setting, a billing system setting, an electrical charging system setting, a charging determination setting, and a security setting. The power transmitting device is configured to charge the power source in a non-contact processing operation of at least one of an admission operation and a payment operation with the portable electronic device and processing including at least one of the predetermined power providing policy and a predetermined power receiving policy of the portable electronic device. The admission operation is an operation other than an authorization for the power transmitting device to charge the power source. An authentication/billing proxy device executes billing according to an amount of charging the chargeable power source. |
| US07996237B2 |
Providing collaboration services to business applications to correlate user collaboration with the business application
An aspect of the present invention provides collaboration services to business applications and such a service is provided by a mediator and a collaboration application. The collaboration service offers a user of the business application the ability to collaborate with other users of the business application or one or more responders such that any collaboration that occurs between the user and the responder is correlated to the business application and to the corresponding actions performed by the user with respect to the business application, thus maintaining the context of the collaboration. Another aspect of the present invention provides a collaboration service wherein the user of the business application is provided with at least part of a history of collaboration that occurred between the user and one or more responders. |
| US07996234B2 |
Method and apparatus for adaptive variable bit rate audio encoding
A method and apparatus for producing a variable bit rate audio signal is disclosed. An audio signal is encoded into a plurality of encoded audio signals at different bit rates. A variable bit rate audio signal is produced by selecting between the plurality of encoded audio frames of different bit rates in accordance with a selection criterion. |
| US07996230B2 |
Selective security masking within recorded speech
A marker is derived from an interaction between a person and an agent of a business and the agent's user interface. A part of a speech signal that corresponds to a portion of the person's special information is located with the marker. The speech signal results from the interaction between the person and the agent. The part of the speech signal that corresponds to the portion of the person's special information is rendered unintelligible. |
| US07996228B2 |
Voice initiated network operations
Embodiments of voice initiated network operations are presented herein. Voice initiation of operations is described which may be utilized to assist a user in performing operations, such as when other input mechanisms are undesirable, inconvenient, or impossible. A user provides speech to a client device. The speech is converted to text. The text is used to perform operations and obtain results. |
| US07996226B2 |
System and method of developing a TTS voice
Disclosed herein are various aspects of a toolkit used for generating a TTS voice for use in a spoken dialog system. The embodiments in each case may be in the form of the system, a computer-readable medium or a method for generating the TTS voice. An embodiment of the invention relates to a method of tracking progress in developing a text-to-speech (TTS) voice. The method comprises insuring that a corpus of recorded speech contains reading errors and matches an associated written text, creating a tuple for each utterance in the corpus and tracking progress for each utterance utilizing the tuple. Various parameters may be tracked using the tuple but the tuple provides a means for enabling multiple workers to efficiently process a database of utterance in preparation of a TTS voice. |
| US07996225B2 |
Utilizing speech grammar rules written in a markup language
The present invention provides a method and apparatus that utilize a context-free grammar written in a markup language format. The markup language format provides a hierarchical format in which grammar structures are delimited within and defined by a set of tags. The markup language format also provides grammar switch tags that indicate a transitions from the context-free grammar to a dictation grammar or a text buffer grammar. In addition, the markup language format provides for the designation of code to be executed when particular grammar structures are recognized from a speech signal. |
| US07996224B2 |
System and method of using meta-data in speech processing
Systems and methods relate to generating a language model for use in, for example, a spoken dialog system or some other application. The method comprises building a class-based language model, generating at least one sequence network and replacing class labels in the class-based language model with the at least one sequence network. In this manner, placeholders or tokens associated with classes can be inserted into the models at training time and word/phone networks can be built based on meta-data information at test time. Finally, the placeholder token can be replaced with the word/phone networks at run time to improve recognition of difficult words such as proper names. |
| US07996223B2 |
System and method for post processing speech recognition output
A system and method may be disclosed for facilitating the conversion of dictation into usable and formatted documents by providing a method of post processing speech recognition output. In particular, the post processing system may be configured to implement rewrite rules and process raw speech recognition output or other raw data according to those rewrite rules. The application of the rewrite rules may format and/or normalize the raw speech recognition output into formatted or finalized documents and reports. The system may thereby reduce or eliminate the need for post processing by transcriptionists or dictation authors. |
| US07996218B2 |
User adaptive speech recognition method and apparatus
A user adaptive speech recognition method and apparatus is disclosed that controls user confirmation of a recognition candidate using a new threshold value adapted to a user. The user adaptive speech recognition method includes calculating a confidence score of a recognition candidate according to the result of speech recognition, setting a new threshold value adapted to the user based on a result of user confirmation of the recognition candidate and the confidence score of the recognition candidate, and outputting a corresponding recognition candidate as a result of the speech recognition if the calculated confidence score is higher than the new threshold value. Thus, the need for user confirmation of the result of speech recognition is reduced and the probability of speech recognition success is increased. |
| US07996217B2 |
Method for adaptive codebook pitch-lag computation in audio transcoders
An apparatus for processing adaptive codebook pitch lag from one CELP based standard to another CELP based standard. The apparatus has various modules that perform at least the functionality described herein. The apparatus includes a time-base subframe checker inspection module, which is adapted to associate one or more incoming subframes with an outgoing subframes of a destination codec. The apparatus also has a decision module coupled to the time-base subframe inspection module. The decision module is adapted to determine a desired pitch lag parameter from a plurality of pitch lag parameters among respective two or more incoming subframes. The apparatus has a pitch lag selection module coupled to the decision module. The pitch lag selection module is adapted to select the desired pitch lag parameter. |
| US07996215B1 |
Method and apparatus for voice activity detection, and encoder
A method and an apparatus for Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and an encoder are provided. The method for VAD includes: acquiring a fluctuant feature value of a background noise when an input signal is the background noise, in which the fluctuant feature value is used to represent fluctuation of the background noise; performing adaptive adjustment on a VAD decision criterion related parameter according to the fluctuant feature value; and performing VAD decision on the input signal by using the decision criterion related parameter on which the adaptive adjustment is performed. The method, the apparatus, and the encoder can be adaptive to fluctuation of the background noise to perform VAD decision, so as to enhance the VAD decision performance, save limited channel bandwidth resources, and use the channel bandwidth efficiently. |
| US07996214B2 |
System and method of exploiting prosodic features for dialog act tagging in a discriminative modeling framework
Disclosed are a system and method for exploiting information in an utterance for dialog act tagging. An exemplary method includes receiving a user utterance, computing at periodic intervals at least one parameter in the user utterance, quantizing the at least one parameter at each periodic interval, approximating conditional probabilities using an n-gram over a sliding window over the periodic intervals and tagging the utterance as a dialog act based on the approximated conditional probabilities. |
| US07996213B2 |
Method and apparatus for estimating degree of similarity between voices
A similarity degree estimation method is performed by two processes. In a first process, an inter-band correlation matrix is created from spectral data of an input voice such that the spectral data are divided into a plurality of discrete bands which are separated from each other with spaces therebetween along a frequency axis, a plurality of envelope components of the spectral data are obtained from the plurality of the discrete bands, and elements of the inter-band correlation matrix are correlation values between the respective envelope components of the input voice. In a second process, a degree of similarity is calculated between a pair of input voices to be compared with each other by using respective inter-band correlation matrices obtained for the pair of the input voices through the inter-band correlation matrix creation process. |
| US07996201B2 |
Network security modeling system and method
A network security modeling system which simulates a network and analyzes security vulnerabilities of the network. The system includes a simulator which includes a network vulnerabilities database and a network configuration module having network configuration data. The simulator determines vulnerabilities of the simulated network based on the network configuration data and the vulnerabilities database. |
| US07996198B2 |
Modeling clastic reservoirs
Methods, computer programs, and information handling systems for modeling one or more reservoirs are disclosed. The method uses one or more well logs, each for a well at a location and each including one or more Relative amount of Small Size Range of the Size Spectrum of Clastic Particles (RSSRSS) values versus depth. The method includes for one or more well logs: identifying one or more facies units based on RSSRSS values, determining a thickness of one or more facies units. The method includes determining a facies type of one or more facies units, categorizing one or more facies units, and connecting one or more facies units to create a reservoir model. |
| US07996191B2 |
Property development utilizing structure depicted in a motion picture or television show
A method of design for creating a habitable structure containing architectural elements that collectively cause the habitable structure to resemble a fanciful structure portrayed in a motion picture or television show. The fantasy of the motion picture or television show is made more real by determining the dimensions of the architectural elements of a movie studio backlot facade and an interior stage set that were used during the filming of the motion picture or television show. Mismatches between architectural elements are resolved by establishing priorities to select between the conflicting architectural elements, or by using an architectural facade to incorporate both of the conflicting elements. |
| US07996184B2 |
Network analyzer, network analyzing method, program, and recording medium
Errors of a measuring system are corrected by acquiring the phases of transmission tracking errors. A network analyzer includes a measuring system error factor recording unit which records measuring system error factors generated independently of frequency conversion carried out by a DUT, and an error factor acquiring unit which measures first coefficients and second coefficients of a correction mixer where a signal output from a terminal is a sum of a product of a signal input to the terminal and the first coefficient, and a product of a signal input to the other terminal and the second coefficient, and the ratio of magnitudes of the second coefficients is constant, and acquires the transmission tracking errors caused by the frequency conversion based on the measuring system error factors recorded in the measuring system error factor recording unit, the first coefficients, and the second coefficients. |
| US07996183B2 |
Performance monitoring apparatus and system for fluid machinery
A performance monitoring apparatus for a fluid machinery which includes a predicted performance curve calculator for obtaining a curve representing the relationship between a pressure coefficient and a flow coefficient by non-dimensional characteristics per a plural fluid control quantities from a compression ratio or a pressure difference and an inlet flow rate of the fluid machinery, and a performance monitoring calculator for obtaining an actual performance head from fluid control quantities, a suction pressure, a discharge pressure, a suction temperature, a compression coefficient, a gas average molecular weight, and a specific heat ratio at the time of the operating fluid machinery, and obtaining a predicted performance head from a predicted performance curve, fluid control quantities, and an inlet flow rate; and calculating a performance degradation from the ratio of the predicted performance head to the actual performance head. |
| US07996182B2 |
Water heater monitor/diagnostic display apparatus
A water heater is provided with monitor/diagnostic display apparatus that selectively provides a user with visual or other type of indicia of the overall efficiency of the water heater. The apparatus includes a monitoring unit that may be mounted on the water heater, and a display unit that may be mounted either on the water heater or remotely therefrom. |
| US07996179B2 |
Method of measuring pose of mobile robot and method and apparatus for measuring position of mobile robot using the same
A method of measuring pose of mobile robot, and method and apparatus for measuring for measuring position of mobile robot using the same are provided. The apparatus for measuring the pose of a mobile robot includes an accelerometer measuring acceleration of the mobile robot in a forward direction, a uniform-motion-determining unit determining whether the mobile robot belongs to a uniform motion section, an acceleration section, or a deceleration section, and a pose-calculating unit calculating a pitch and a roll of the mobile robot in the uniform motion section, using the relationship between the measured acceleration in the forward direction and the acceleration due to gravity. |
| US07996174B2 |
Disk drive testing
A disk drive testing system includes at least one robotic arm defining a first axis substantially normal to a floor surface. The robotic arm is operable to rotate through a predetermined arc about and extend radially from the first axis. Multiple racks are arranged around the robotic arm for servicing by the robotic arm. Each rack houses multiple test slots that are each configured to receive a disk drive transporter configured to carry a disk drive for testing. |
| US07996171B2 |
Intelligent electronic device with broad-range high accuracy
A method and apparatus provides high-accuracy measurements of an electrical parameter across a broad range of parameter input values. In one embodiment, an intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., a digital electrical power and energy meter, with a plurality of independently-adjustable gain factors measures a parameter, and calculates and stores calibration factors associated with known values of the measured parameter. The IED or meter applies the stored calibration factors when measuring unknown values of the measured parameter, to improve the accuracy of the measurement. |
| US07996170B2 |
System and method for sorting data
A method and apparatus that enables a user to sort data from one or more sample lots, which may be obtained via a network, such as the Internet, into a composite parameter structure. The composite parameter structure is a function of one or more parameters corresponding to one or more characteristics associated with one or more sample lots. The composite parameter structure representation may be printed, stored, or transmitted to another location. A server device that is coupled and working in conjunction with a client device may implement the present invention. |
| US07996169B2 |
Method and apparatus for compensating S-parameters of passive circuits
The invention related to a method and circuit that is used to compensate for S-parameters of a passive circuit which do not satisfy passivity. The method includes the following steps: (1) getting S-parameters which do not satisfy passivity, these S-parameters being composed of an S-parameter matrix S; (2) computing matrix [S×S′], wherein matrix S′ is a complex conjugate transposed matrix of the S-parameter matrix S; (3) computing the eigenvalues of the matrix [S×S′], and choosing an eigenvalue Ψ whose real part real(Ψ) is the biggest; (4) computing a compensating value ξ, the compensating value ξ being equal to real(Ψ)1/2×(1+ε), wherein the ε is a very small positive number; and (5) dividing each of the S-parameters by the compensating value ξ to get the compensated S-parameters. |
| US07996165B2 |
Portable heavy load battery testing system and method
A portable measurement device and method for measuring a parameter value of a battery. The measurement device connects a large resistive load to a battery being tested. The load is connected to the battery through a first set of kelvin connected clamps and a switch. A microprocessor measures open and closed circuit voltages via a second set of kelvin connected jaws. The microprocessor determines voltage drop curve data based on the measure open and closed circuit voltages. The microprocessor compares the voltage drop curve data to voltage drop profile data for a particular parameter to determine the parameter value for the battery. |
| US07996164B2 |
Managing energy usage by devices associated with a virtual universe resource conservation region
A virtual universe can include regions that conserve natural resource usage. A virtual universe natural resource conservation system can determine a measure of comprehensive energy usage of a plurality of devices associated with a controlled energy use region in a virtual universe. The system can determine that the measure of comprehensive energy usage approaches a usage threshold for the controlled energy use region. The system can also impose one or more conservation limitations on at least one of the plurality of devices to maintain the comprehensive energy usage within the usage threshold. |
| US07996160B2 |
Meter electronics and methods for determining void fraction of gas
Meter electronics (20) for determining a void fraction of gas in a flow material flowing through a flow meter (5) is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The meter electronics (20) includes an interface (201) for receiving a frequency response of the flow material and a processing system (203) in communication with the interface (201). The processing system (203) is configured to receive the frequency response from the interface (201), break out the frequency response into at least a gas frequency component and a fluid frequency component, and determine the void fraction of gas from the frequency response and one or more of the gas frequency component and the fluid frequency component. |
| US07996144B2 |
Method for determining the composition of a fuel blend
The invention relates to a method for the open-loop control of an internal combustion engine, which is operated with a fuel blend of an initial and at least one second fuel, the internal combustion engine having a fuel metering system, a tank fill-level gauge for determining the tank content and a change in the tank content, a sensor for the detection of the cylinder charge for determining an air mass supplied to the internal combustion engine and at least one exhaust gas probe for determining and controlling the oxygen content in the exhaust gas in a closed-loop. According to the invention, two methods, which are independent from each other, are used for determining the composition of the fuel blend. |
| US07996142B2 |
System for closed-loop control of combustion in engines
A combustion control system includes a magnetic torque sensor disposed between an engine and a load. The magnetic torque sensor is configured to directly measure engine torque and output a torque signal indicative of the engine torque. A control unit is communicatively coupled to the magnetic torque sensor. The control unit is configured to receive the torque signal and determine one or more combustion parameters based on the torque signal. The control unit is also configured to control one or more manipulating parameters of the engine based on the one or more combustion parameters so as to control combustion in the engine. |
| US07996139B2 |
Motor vehicle and control method of motor vehicle
During a starting operation or a low-speed drive of a vehicle on a slope, the drive control of the invention sets a gradient-corresponding rotation speed Nθ as a rotation speed of an engine to output a required driving force against a longitudinal vehicle gradient θfr (step S110), and sequentially sets a low-μ-road correction rotation speed Nlow upon identification of a low-μ-road drive condition, a vehicle speed difference-compensating rotation speed Nv based on a vehicle speed V, and a brake-based correction rotation speed Nb based on a brake pressure Pb (steps S120 through S250). The drive control sets a target engine rotation speed Ne* based on these settings (step S260) and subsequently sets a target throttle opening THtag (step S270). The operation of the engine is controlled with the greater between the target throttle opening THtag and a required throttle opening THreq corresponding to an accelerator opening Acc (step S290). This arrangement effectively prevents an unexpected slide-down of the vehicle along the slope. |
| US07996138B2 |
Control unit for operating a vehicle drive
In a control unit for operating a vehicle drive, and to a method for operating the control unit. An upper bound is imposed on the final desired torque output by the control unit with a limiting torque dependent on the measured/manipulated variables of the accelerator pedal value sensor, when the detected vehicle speed lies below a starting limiting speed. |
| US07996132B2 |
Fast sensing system and method for soil- and curb-tripped vehicle rollovers
A method and a system of controlling a restraint device in a vehicle during a crash. The method includes sensing a lateral acceleration without using other vehicle dynamic information. The method also includes integrating the sensed lateral acceleration to determine a change in (or delta of) lateral velocity, low-pass filtering the sensed lateral acceleration, and extrapolating the delta lateral velocity and the filtered acceleration to estimate a vehicle lateral velocity. The method also includes sensing a vertical acceleration, integrating the sensed vertical acceleration, combining the integrated vertical acceleration and the predicted vehicle lateral velocity to give an indication of how severely the vehicle laterally hits an obstacle, and generating a deployment signal to activate the restraint device. |
| US07996129B2 |
Vehicular behavior controller
A vehicular behavior controller is disclosed. The controller comprises a turning force application mechanism and a stabilization controller. The turning force application mechanism applies a turning force to a vehicle. The stabilization controller is operable to regulate the turning force application mechanism in such a manner that a turning characteristic and a straight travel property of the vehicle are stabilized while in an unstable velocity area when the velocity of the vehicle exceeds a stable limit velocity. |
| US07996120B2 |
Method and device for flying an aircraft according to at least one flying line
The device for flying an aircraft includes a first unit for determining a control value corresponding to an instruction value representing the actuation of a control member by a pilot, a second unit for determining an effective control value corresponding to the instruction value which is actually applied to the aircraft, a third unit for automatically controlling the aircraft, a fourth unit for computing an auxiliary control value, which is closer to the effective controlled value, and a fifth unit for monitoring the control value and for detecting a pilot induced oscillation, where the automatic control is carried out with the aid of the controlled effective value and the auxiliary control value in the case of the detection of the pilot induced oscillation. |
| US07996119B2 |
Method for determining the position of a spacecraft with the aid of a direction vector and an overall spin measurement
In a system for determining the position of a spacecraft based on vector determinations, a direction vector is measured in a body-fixed coordinate system; a reference direction vector is determined within a reference coordinate system based on the path position of the spacecraft and an orbit model; the overall spin vector of the spacecraft is determined within the body-fixed coordinate system; and a reference overall spin vector of the spacecraft is determined within a reference coordinate system by time propagation of known initial values of the overall spin of the spacecraft or by time tracking of a reference model. The position of the spacecraft is determined based on the four vectors. |
| US07996116B2 |
Method of determining voltage stability margin for load shedding within an electrical power system
A method of monitoring voltage stability within an electrical power system comprises the steps of establishing a dynamic power system stability margin based on an operating characteristic of the power system; indicating that the power system has become unstable when the dynamic power system stability margin falls below a predetermined value; and initiating dynamic load shedding and/or restoration depending on stability margin. |
| US07996114B2 |
Workpiece picking device and method
A workpiece picking device and method for reducing the cycle time of a picking operation of workpieces, by omitting or reducing the movement of a robot manipulator when an image of the workpieces is captured. An image processor of the picking device includes a camera controlling part for reading image data from a camera, a memory for storing the image data, a workpiece detecting part for extracting one or more images from the memory and detecting one or more workpieces in the image, and a workpiece selecting part for selecting a workpiece to be picked among the workpieces detected by the workpiece detecting part. The image processor further includes a stacked condition judging part for determining whether the condition of the stacked workpieces in a container is changed. |
| US07996113B2 |
Methods of integrating real and virtual world using virtual sensor/actuator
An integrated real and virtual manufacturing automation system that employs a programmable logic controller that controls part flow between a real machine in the real world part of the system and a virtual machine in the virtual world part of the system using virtually coupled sensors and actuators. A real world sensor senses the position of the real world machine and a real world actuator actuates the real world machine. Likewise, a virtual world sensor senses the position of the virtual world machine and a virtual world actuator actuates the virtual world machine. An interface device transfers signals between the virtual world part of the system and the real world part of the system, and an input/output device processes signals sent to the programmable logic controller and signals sent from the programmable logic controller. |
| US07996111B2 |
Robotic device
A robotic device in accordance with a plurality of embodiments is provided. The robotic device generally includes a plurality of groups of sensing devices for sensing environmental events; a plurality of controllers for recognizing the environmental events and generating corresponding commands; a plurality of driving devices for driving the robotic device to respond to the environmental events under control of the commands; at least one communication line for communication between the controllers; at least one power line for transmitting power to the sensing devices, the controllers and the driving devices; a plurality of ground lines; a plurality of branches extending out from the communication line, the power line and the ground lines; and a plurality of connectors for connecting the controllers to the branches. |
| US07996099B2 |
Method and system for fabricating a dental coping, and a coping fabricated thereby
A wax model of a required coping is produced using CNC machining techniques based on a virtual model of the coping created from digital data obtained from the intraoral cavity. The dental coping is then fabricated from the wax model. |
| US07996098B2 |
Reactive replenishable device management
Reactive replenishable device management comprises receiving device measurement data from at least one device, updating one or more device usage profiles associated with the at least one device, and if an analysis of the one or more device usage profiles indicates usage of the at least one device is sub-optimal, performing one or more of: controlling at least one of an attribute or an operation of the at least one device, issuing one or more device management recommendations to a user of the at least one device, and issuing one or more user alerts to the user. The at least one device comprises at least one of one or more replenishable devices, one or more replenishers associated with the one or more replenishable devices, and one or more other devices associated with the one or more replenishable devices. |
| US07996097B2 |
Methods and apparatus for position estimation using reflected light sources
The invention is generally related to the estimation of position and orientation of an object with respect to a local or a global coordinate system using reflected light sources. A typical application of the method and apparatus includes estimation and tracking of the position of a mobile autonomous robot. Other applications include estimation and tracking of an object for position-aware, ubiquitous devices. Additional applications include tracking of the positions of people or pets in an indoor environment. The methods and apparatus comprise one or more optical emitters, one or more optical sensors, signal processing circuitry, and signal processing methods to determine the position and orientation of at least one of the optical sensors based at least in part on the detection of the signal of one or more emitted light sources reflected from a surface. |
| US07996093B2 |
Automatic controller relationship resolution
In an industrial control system, a relatively large number of bindings can permeate between different controllers. As a modification is made in a primary binding, supplemental bindings can be impacted and can become erroneous. The supplemental bindings can be automatically resolved such that they are no longer erroneous. Resolution can take place through access of a distributed directory that holds information related to the different controllers. To lower a likelihood of control system error or failure, the primary binding and supplemental binding can be placed online in synchronization. |
| US07996092B2 |
Devices, systems, and methods employing a molded nerve cuff electrode
Devices, systems, and methods for recording, and/or stimulation, and/or blocking of a nerve make use of a molded nerve cuff electrode. One or more electrodes are positioned in one or more frames within a casing. The exterior surface of the casing is wrapped in an insulating material, and the wrapped casing is positioned within a cover tube. One or more additional electrodes may be positioned anywhere outside of the casing. An applicator tool having a body to hold the molded nerve cuff in an expanded configuration is used to implant the cuff about a nerve. |
| US07996086B2 |
Apparatus and method for pacing mode switching during atrial tachyarrhythmias
A method for operating a cardiac pacemaker in which the mode of operation of the pacemaker is altered in response to detecting an episode of atrial tachycardia. In accordance with the invention, the pacemaker's pacing mode is altered in a manner that attempts to maintain hemodynamic stability during the atrial tachycardia. Such a mode switch is particularly applicable to pacemaker patients suffering from some degree of congestive heart failure. |
| US07996083B2 |
Far-field sensing channel for implantable cardiac device
An implantable pacemaker is provided with a far-field sensing channel which requires a reduced refractory period during the time when pacing pulses are delivered as compared with sensing channels using intra-cardiac electrodes. The far-field sensing channel may use the conductive housing of the implantable device or can and an indifferent electrode mounted on the device header as the electrodes for its differential inputs. Such a far-field sensing channel is able to sense activity occurring in either the atria or the ventricles for the purposes of arrhythmia detection and/or capture verification. |
| US07996076B2 |
Automated polysomnographic assessment for rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder
Methods and systems for diagnosing or assessing rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Muscle tone or activity variance during rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep intervals of a polysomnogram are compared. A threshold based on the NREM data is used to identify a subject-specific threshold for abnormality in the REM variance. A metric that includes the percentage of REM variance exceeding the threshold relates to RBD. |
| US07996073B2 |
System and method for interpreting electrocardiograms
A system and method for interpreting electrocardiogram data. A system is provided that clusters raw electrocardiogram (EKG) data into clusters of EKG data; generates a predictive model for each cluster of EKG data; compares inputted patient EKG data with the clusters of EKG data to identify a matching cluster of EKG data; applies the predictive model associated with the matching cluster of EKG data to the inputted patient EKG data; and outputs diagnostic data. |
| US07996068B2 |
Surgical method and apparatus for identification of fluorescence
Devices and methods for use in detecting an optical signal, such as from a fluorescent agent, and converting it to a visible signal are provided. Aspects of the devices include a first light source that emits light onto a region of interest such as a body tissue, body fluid, or agent such as a fluorescent agent introduced into the body; a detector for detecting light emitted or reflected from the region of interest; and a visible light source that emits visible light onto the region of interest, where the color or intensity of the visible light is selected based on the amount of light at one or more wavelengths detected by the detector. Devices and methods of the invention find use in a variety of applications, such as in applications in which it is desired to identify an anatomical structure during surgery, without the need to eliminate ambient light. |
| US07996065B2 |
Biopsy site marker deployment device
A biopsy marker deployment device adapted to selectively deposit a marker in a target location, such as a biopsy site. In one embodiment, the device includes a deployment assembly comprising a cannula adapted to house at least one marker, an outlet aperture defined by a portion of the cannula, and an actuatable pushrod slidably disposed and movable within the cannula. The deployment assembly further comprises a selectively opening outlet door movable between an open position and a closed position. The outlet door is biased in the closed position and at least partially obstructs the aperture in the closed position to prevent a marker from reentering the cannula upon deployment. |
| US07996063B2 |
Method and apparatus for medical intervention procedure planning and location and navigation of an intervention tool
A system and method for a medical intervention procedure within a cardiac chamber having an imaging system to obtain image data of the cardiac chamber and to create a 3D model from that image data, an interventional system to register the 3D model with a real-time image of the cardiac chamber and to display the 3D model, and an interventional tool positioned in the cardiac chamber to be displayed upon the interventional system and to be navigated in real-time over the registered 3D model. Preferably, the method and system also includes a storage medium to store the 3D model and wherein the interventional system receives the stored 3D model to register with the real-time image of the cardiac chamber. |
| US07996056B2 |
Method and apparatus for acquiring physiological data
A method and apparatus for the collection of physiological data from a patient is disclosed herein. An electrode assembly comprises an external label identifying an anatomical location and an electrode identifying circuitry that produces a signal indicative of the anatomical location to which the electrode assembly is to be attached. The electrode assembly transmits both the collected physiological signal and the identification signal to a data monitor for collection and processing physiological data. |
| US07996051B2 |
Wireless communications device with hinge
A wireless communications device, such as a cellular telephone, includes first and second bodies having respective perimeters. A display is associated with one of the bodies and user input is associated with the other. A hinge mechanism moveably couples the bodies together so that the second body may pivot between a closed state and an open state. The second body, while in the open state, is slidable from a first open position to a second open position along the perimeter of the first body. The first and second bodies may have respective major axes, and the major axes may be substantially parallel when the second body is in the first open position. The major axes may advantageously also be substantially parallel when the second body is in the second open position. The bodies may include respective peripheral slots along which the hinge mechanism moves. |
| US07996050B2 |
Input device for an electronic device and electronic device having the same
An input device for an electronic device is provided that includes a base, a frame pivotally connected to the base, a roller member rotatably supported by the frame, and at least one button pivotally connected at a side of the base. An electronic device is also provided that includes a first body, a second body pivotally attached to the first body, and an input device located in the first body. |
| US07996049B2 |
Remote unit for providing spatial processing
Methods and apparatus implementing spatial processing in a remote unit. In general, in one aspect, a remote unit in accordance with the invention includes a spatial processing unit to process signals received by a plurality of antennas. |
| US07996048B1 |
Enhanced call reception and privacy
An audio interface adapted to reduce a subscriber voice may receive a subscriber voice and a background noise. The subscriber voice may then be compared to the to the background noise. If the received subscriber voice is louder than the received background noise, the audio interface may output a message to the cellular telephone subscriber indicating the subscriber may reduce his speaking volume. Additionally, an audio interface may process a voice waveform that corresponds to the subscriber voice and a background waveform that corresponds to the background noise to generate a substantially opposite voice waveform and a substantially opposite background waveform respectively. The substantially opposite voice waveform and background waveform may be substantially out of phase from the voice waveform and background waveform respectively and output via one or more output ports of the audio interface. |
| US07996047B2 |
Advisory alert of low signal strength for cell phone user
The invention provides an advisory alert indicating conditions are such that an ongoing telephone call involving a cellular telephone may be dropped due to insufficient signal strength. A decrease in signal strength over time that exceeds a specified percentage decrease provides the primary basis for triggering the advisory alert. This advisory alert warns one or more participants of the call of the possibility of the call ending due to low signal strength. The advisory alert provides for conclusion of the call before the call is lost, and/or lowers the frustration level associated with a call lost for an unknown reason. In operation, signal strength is assessed during a series of time intervals. Signal strength of consecutive time intervals is compared. If the percentage drop in signal strength exceeds a specified percentage, an advisory alert is effectuated. The criteria that trigger an advisory alert may be non-programmable, or is modifiable in programmable embodiments. |
| US07996034B1 |
Cellular telephone handset with increased reception sensitivity and reduced transmit power levels
A cellular telephone handset utilizes an electrically-steered directional antenna to increase the received signal strength when the handset is in a poor signal environment. As a result, the handset reduces the need for an end user to tilt and twirl their head to try and find the direction of the strongest signal strength. |
| US07996023B2 |
System and method for providing mobile device services using SMS communications
An enhanced services platform has an interface for receiving a communication from a user requesting a desired data. An automated response module parses the communication and retrieves the desired data. The enhanced services platform arranges the desired data into a response message that is sent to the user, where the response message includes an embedded code corresponding to a link allowing the user to re-contact the enhanced services platform. An operator assistance module receives communications from the user initiated via the link to provide further assistance regarding the user's request. |
| US07996021B2 |
Location determination in a wireless communication network
A wireless network permits wireless devices to determine their own location and receive location-based services. The network includes a communication server coupled to a plurality of access points and at least one mobile wireless device that wirelessly communicates through the access points. Each wireless device includes a location table through which the wireless device can determine its physical location. The location table includes the physical location of the various access points indexed by their network addresses. When the wireless device communicates with an access point, the access point provides the wireless device its address. The wireless device uses the address of the access point as an index into the location table to determine its own location based on the location of the access point. Once the wireless device has determined its own physical location, it requests location-based services from or through the communication server. |
| US07996018B1 |
Location specific in-vehicle frequency tuning data
An in-vehicle system comprises a location unit, a frequency selection unit, and a receiving unit. Frequency tuning data is loaded into the selection unit. The frequency tuning data includes a radio signal reception area for each unique frequency in the tuning data. The location unit determines the system location and passes the location information to the frequency selection unit. The selection unit selects tuning data for a particular frequency having a signal reception area that encompasses the present vehicle location, and passes the selected data to the receiving unit. The receiving unit uses the selected tuning data to tune the radio signal. |
| US07996016B2 |
Location system
A location system comprises a communication terminal for transmitting a location request specifying a target mobile terminal and a type of location information, and a location network. In response to the location request, the location network produces current location information of the target mobile terminal if the type of location information of the received request specifies current location information and transmits the current location information to the communication terminal and stores the last known location information in a memory as last known location information of the target mobile terminal. If the type of location information specifies last known location information, stored last known location information of the target mobile terminal is copied from the memory and transmitted to the communication terminal if the location request is verified by a privacy check and if the stored information is reusable. |
| US07996014B2 |
Communication device and scheduling method
A communication device which can reduce amount of control information, limit interference with other traffics, and prevent an increase in current consumption. In this device, a separation unit (105) separates radio resource allocation information, specific section information and transmission parameter information from a received signal. A specific section information control unit (106) selects a sub-carrier designated by the specific section information to allocate data to be transmitted to the own unit. A channel quality measuring unit (107) uses a pilot signal to measure the channel quality of the selected sub-carrier. A channel quality information creating unit (108) creates channel quality information indicating the measurement results input from the channel quality measuring unit (107). A multiplexing unit (109) multiplexes the transmission signal with the channel quality information. |
| US07996012B2 |
Method and apparatus for optimising the sending of tones/announcements during tandem-free operation (TFO)
A method and telecommunications node for implementing Tandem-Free Operation (TFO) between a pair of TFO partners in a telecommunications network. At call setup, a TFO negotiation is performed between the partners. Thereafter, if TFO is interrupted in at least one direction, state information and synchronization of the sending and/or receiving partner is maintained in the interrupted direction. An interruption may occur, for example, if a tone or announcement is to be sent. At the end of the interruption, sending and receiving of TFO frames is resumed with the same phase that was present before the interruption. |
| US07996011B2 |
Communication control apparatus, communication control method, mobile communication terminal, and data reception method
Data is transmitted through a plurality of types of communication networks to a mobile communication terminal while a handover of the mobile communication terminal is handled. A communication control apparatus 10 is adapted to control data communication to a cell phone 50 connectable to a plurality of types of communication networks, and is composed of a detecting unit 12 for detecting a connection status of the cell phone 50 in each mobile communication network; an assigning unit 13 for assigning data addressed to the cell phone 50, to each mobile communication network to which the cell phone 50 is connected, based on a volume of the data addressed to the cell phone 50 and the detected connection status; a transmitting unit 15 for transmitting the data assigned to each mobile communication network, to the each mobile communication network; and a handover processing unit 14 for performing a handover process in the plurality of types of mobile communication networks, based on the detected connection status. |
| US07996010B2 |
Apparatus and method for querying for RAT handover system information in mobile telecommunications systems
A mobile telecommunications system comprises a network of a plurality of cells and at least one user equipment device operable to communicate in the system and to operate in a first RAT and a second RAT. The method comprises, in the user equipment device, determining whether the validity of data stored on the user equipment device will expire within an expiry period, the stored data being for use in handover of operation of the user equipment device from the first RAT to the second RAT. |
| US07996008B2 |
Mobile communication terminal and radio communication system
A mobile communications terminal divides a plurality of multipath signals associated with radio signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations using an S-CCPCH into groups by base station, i.e., by transmit source, maximum-ratio-combines a plurality of multipath signals associated with each same base station which is a transmit source into a composite signal, decodes the composite signal, and selects a composite signal having a good decoded result from among decoded composite signals. |
| US07996007B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a call from a 2G network to a dual mode 2G/session initiation protocol (SIP) device
Methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a call from a 2G network to a dual mode 2G/session initiation protocol (SIP) device are disclosed. According to one method, a 2G mobility location information query message requesting mobility location information for delivering a call to a dual mode 2G/SIP device roaming in a SIP-based network is received at a communications signal message routing node, wherein the mobility information query message includes a destination subscriber identifier associated with the dual mode 2G/SIP device. SIP mobility location information is determined based on the destination subscriber identifier and the SIP mobility location information is provided to the query originator. |
| US07996000B1 |
Managing page sizes for a mobile device using estimation of content customizer techniques
A network device, system, and method are directed towards enabling a determination for page size tailoring of content based, in part, on estimating of effects of processes applicable to preparing the content for use on a specified mobile device. Before performing the processes on the content, an estimation of the effects of the configuring processes may be determined. If the estimated content size is determined to be too large for the specified mobile device's memory footprint, page tailoring techniques may be applied to the content. Such page tailoring techniques may include stretching the content across a plurality of files, discarding a portion of the content, reducing portions of the content, or the like. Various processes may then be applied to the content to configure it for use on the specified mobile device. |
| US07995998B2 |
Wireless device with integrated emergency alert notification
A telecommunications device for use by a telecommunications user is disclosed. The telecommunications device includes a housing having located therein a wireless telephone for receiving an incoming call and a receiver unit for receiving an emergency alert broadcast. The wireless telephone includes a first receiver and a processor in communication therewith, and the receiver unit includes a second receiver in communication with the processor of the wireless telephone. |
| US07995994B2 |
Method and apparatus for preventing theft of service in a communication system
A method of preventing theft of service in a communication system that includes a first wireless communication system and a second wireless communication system that includes a Femtocell access point (FAP) and a network controller that can communicatively couple the FAP to the first wireless communication system. The method creates an authorized session that includes a session identify for a first user equipment (UE). The UE is recognized by the first communication as an authorized UE to use the FAP. The method rejects a request by the FAP to register a second UE when the identity of the second UE does not match any identity in the set of first UE identities. The rejected request includes the session identity of the authorized session and the identity of the second UE. The second UE is not recognized by the first communication system as an authorized UE to use the FAP. |
| US07995992B2 |
Community networking using networked audio devices
A computing system for gathering media status information and other information about contacts in a user's contact list includes a server, a user device, and one or more contacts (or contact devices). The user device communicates with the server and requests media status information regarding the contacts. Media status information may include information about the media content currently (or most recently) accessed by the contacts. The server receives the request from the user device, collects the information and sends it to the user device. The server may else send connection information to the user device. The user device receives the information and displays it to the user. The user device may include a message service such that messages can be sent to and received from the contacts. Also, the user may request particular media content accessed by the contacts. |
| US07995990B1 |
System and method for consolidating accounting data for a communication session
A method for receiving accounting data from one or more lower layer elements, consolidating the accounting data received, and sending the consolidated accounting data to an accounting receiving function, such that accounting receiving function can be a charging data function and/or a charging gateway function. The accounting receiving function is shielded by mobility events associated with the accounting data. The accounting receiving function is also shielded by the details of different access network accounting formats. |
| US07995988B2 |
System and method for identifying the position of mobile terminals
The present invention relates to a system 10 and corresponding method for locating mobile terminals 12 following a location request whereto is associated information whose content depends on the position and characteristics of the mobile terminal 12 to be located. The system 10 comprises a cellular phone location centre (MLC centre) 15 able to locate the mobile terminals 12, in selective fashion, as the type and reliability of the received information vary. The system 10 and corresponding method allow, by means of the MLC centre 15, to select, among a plurality of location engines, a determined engine suited to manage the received information and selectively to identify both the position of the mobile terminal 12 and accuracy indicators relating to the type of locating operation performed. |
| US07995984B2 |
Semiconductor device
The present invention aims to reduce an exclusively-possessed area of each of bonding wires mounted over a wiring board, for coupling a power amplifying unit of a semiconductor chip and an antenna switch of a second semiconductor chip in a semiconductor device that configures an RF module. In the RF module, the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip are mounted side by side in a central area of the wiring board. The first semiconductor chip is formed with amplifier circuits and a control circuit and comprises a silicon substrate or a compound semiconductor substrate. On the other hand, the second semiconductor chip is formed with an antenna switch and comprises the silicon substrate or compound semiconductor substrate. Pads of the first semiconductor chip and pads of the second semiconductor chip are respectively electrically coupled to one another. This coupling is carried out by the bonding wires formed in the surface of the wiring board and the bonding wires formed inside the wiring board. |
| US07995982B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit
The present invention aims to efficiently calibrate the characteristics of a pair of reception or transmission low-pass filters by a receiving or transmitting circuit. A semiconductor integrated circuit includes an RF receiver that processes an RF reception signal, an RF transmitter that generates an RF transmission signal and a frequency synthesizer. A reception low-pass filter of the RF receiver suppresses undesired components contained in I and Q baseband reception signals. A transmission low-pass filter of the RF transmitter suppresses noise due to D/A conversion, which is contained in I and Q transmission analog baseband signals. A calibration test signal is supplied to the inputs of the pair of reception or transmission low-pass filters. A difference in phase between the pair of filters is detected by a phase detection unit. A calibration controller calibrates a relative mismatch between the cut-off frequencies of the pair of filters. |
| US07995978B2 |
Controlling operation of a memory device
A method provides controlling operation of a memory device. The method includes receiving activity information relating to at least one electromagnetic field external to the memory device. The method further includes controlling storing data to and reading from the memory device based on the activity information. A memory device and a communication device are configured to execute the method. |
| US07995977B2 |
High frequency power detector circuit and radio communication device
First and second envelope detector circuits have, respectively, a resistance row, a capacitative element connected to the resistance row in parallel and a transistor connected between a connection point between the resistance row and the capacitative element and a predetermined voltage node. An output of a level shifter is supplied to a gate or a base of the transistor of the first envelope detector circuit. A predetermined voltage is supplied to a gate or a base of the transistor of the second envelope detector circuit. A detector detects an intermediate terminal voltage of the resistance row of the first envelope detector circuit with reference to a total voltage or an intermediate terminal voltage of the resistance row of the second envelope detector circuit. |
| US07995974B2 |
Method and apparatus for revoking a talk burst
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a method for revoking a talk burst, which includes: entering a pending release state by a talk burst after a client having the talk burst releases the talk burst initiatively; monitoring a duration of the talk burst in the pending release state; and revoking the talk burst when the duration of the talk burst in the pending release state exceeds a preset duration. An embodiment also discloses an apparatus for revoking a talk burst. By applying certain embodiments of the present invention, after a client initiatively releases a talk burst so that the talk burst enters a pending release state, the talk burst can be revoked in time and the waiting time of the client is saved. |
| US07995972B2 |
Electronic component for communication device and semiconductor device for switching transmission and reception
There are provided a transmission/reception switching circuit which is small in insertion loss and harmonic distortion and allows an increase in the output power of a power amplifier and an electronic component for communication on which the transmission/reception switching circuit is mounted. As an element composing a transmission/reception switching circuit in a wireless communication system, series-connected FETs or a multi-gate FET are used in place of a diode. Gate resistors connected between the individual gate terminals and a control terminal are designed to have resistance values which become progressively smaller from the gate to which a highest voltage is applied toward the gate to which a lowest voltage is applied. |
| US07995971B2 |
Method and system for clocking FM transmit FM receive, and near field communication functions using DDFS
Methods and systems for clocking FM transmit, FM receive and near field communication functions using DDFS are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include generating a Bluetooth signal that may comprise, for example, I and Q components, or Bluetooth local oscillator (LO) signals, for use in Bluetooth communication. One of the two Bluetooth LO signals may then be used by a DDFS to generate I and Q LO signals for FM reception and/or transmission. One of the I and Q LO signals for FM communication may be used by another DDFS to generate at least one LO signal for near field communication (NFC) transmission and/or reception. While the Bluetooth LO signal may vary in frequency as Bluetooth frequency hopping occurs, the FM LO signals may remain constant for a specific channel frequency. Similarly, while the FM LO signals may be changed to tune to different FM channels, the NFC LO signals may remain at a constant frequency. |
| US07995966B2 |
Communication semiconductor chip, calibration method, and program
A communication semiconductor chip performs wireless communication with another communication semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip includes a communication module and a control unit. The communication module performs the wireless communication with another communication semiconductor chip and has a receiving circuit for receiving data. The control unit supplies a reference voltage to the receiving circuit and performs a calibration operation on the reference voltage. |
| US07995963B2 |
Method and system for tariff, load and meter data management with radio ripple control
The invention relates to a method for the management of a plurality of decentralized customer terminals by means of a bidirectional communications connection between a central unit and customer connection units associated with the customer terminals, wherein the central unit transmits at least one synchronous radio control program to a plurality of customer connection units by means of at least one longwave transmitter via a central radio ripple control channel, wherein each customer connection unit triggers a predefined process at least one associated customer terminal in dependence on the received radio control telegram, and wherein each customer connection unit transmits at least one data telegram which includes information related to the associated customer terminal to the central unit via a decentralized return channel which is separate from the radio ripple control channel; wherein the transmission of the data telegram to the control unit takes place based on time, based on an event and/or in dependence on a previously received radio control telegram. The invention furthermore relates to a management system for a plurality of customer terminals which is operable in accordance with the method in accordance with the invention. |
| US07995958B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit fixing a toner image onto a sheet. The fixing unit includes a heating member having a sheet conveyed region that is set in accordance with the size of the sheet. The fixing unit further includes a coil generating magnetic field, a fixed core forming a magnetic path, movable cores forming a magnetic path together with the fixed core and arranged along the sheet conveyed region, a shielding member arranged on at least one movable core and shielding magnetism, and a magnetism adjustment unit rotating at least one movable core to switch the position of the shielding member between a shielding position where the shielding member is positioned inside the sheet conveyed region to shield the magnetism and a retracted position where the shielding member is positioned outside the sheet conveyed region to permit pass of the magnetism. |
| US07995957B2 |
Image forming apparatus and fuser apparatus
According to an embodiment of the invention, a heat uniforming member, which has an outer diameter smaller than an inner diameter of a hollow member and in which thermal deformation generated by thermal expansion remains, is set in the inside of the hollow member having a center axis, support members are set to both ends of the hollow member to enable supporting of ends of the heat uniforming member, and an endless body having a uniform thermal distribution is formed by heating the hollow member, the heat uniforming member and the support member at a specified temperature for a specific time and causing the heat uniforming member to adhere closely to an inner wall of the hollow member. |
| US07995953B2 |
High speed electrographic printing
A high speed electrostatic printing machine has a toner supply of a high viscosity highly concentrated liquid toner to a pick-up roller and then a metering roller. A doctor blade bears against the metering roller which bears against a development member with an interference fit. An image forming stage comprising an image carrying member having a surface adapted to retain an electrostatic latent image thereon with the development member engaging against the image carrying member with an interference fit to give a selected contact time therebetween. Then there is a development stage and a transfer stage. A carrier liquid displacement device acts upon the thin layer of toner on the development member to push toner particles in the thin layer towards the surface of the roller and to leave a carrier liquid rich layer on the outside of the thin toner layer. |
| US07995952B2 |
High performance materials and processes for manufacture of nanostructures for use in electron emitter ion and direct charging devices
In accordance with the invention, there are electron emitters, charging devices, and methods of forming them. An electron emitter array can include a plurality of nanostructures, each of the plurality of nanostructures can include a first end and a second end, wherein the first end can be connected to a first electrode and the second end can be positioned to emit electrons, and wherein each of the plurality of nanostructures can be formed of one or more of oxidation resistant metals, doped metals, metal alloys, metal oxides, doped metal oxides, and ceramics. The electron emitter array can also include a second electrode in close proximity to the first electrode, wherein one or more of the plurality of nanostructures can emit electrons in a gas upon application of an electric field between the first electrode and the second electrode. |
| US07995951B2 |
Image forming apparatus and drive-switching method
The image forming apparatus is provided with: plural rotating members that are arranged rotatably; plural rotation side coupling members that are provided corresponding to the respective rotating members and transmit drive force to the respective rotating members; plural drive side coupling members that are connected to the respective rotation side coupling members and rotate and drive the respective rotating members via the rotation side coupling members; and an interconnecting unit that connects a predetermined number of the drive side coupling members among the plural drive side coupling members to the corresponding rotation side coupling members. |
| US07995948B2 |
Image forming device having side cover with inclined surface
An image forming device includes a device body, a side cover fixed to the device body to cover a side face of the device body, a top cover attached swingably to the device body to cover an upper face of the device body, the top cover and the side cover defining a mating portion as a boundary region therebetween, a plane portion formed in a first one of the top cover and the side cover, and an inclined portion formed at a side of the first one in the mating portion, the inclined portion including an inclined surface configured to be inclined with respect to the plane portion, the inclined surface extending toward a back surface side of a second one of the top cover and the side cover. |
| US07995945B2 |
Image forming apparatus which displays a setting screen
There is displayed, in a display section, a photocopy processing setting screen having a setting information display area to display information indicating various setting particulars of photocopy processing, a button display area to display various icons indicating the setting particulars of the photocopy processing, and a graphic to associate each setting particular displayed in the setting information display area with each icon to set the setting particular displayed in the setting information display area among the icons displayed in the button display area. |
| US07995943B2 |
Electrophotographic image forming apparatus for use with powder developer material
An image forming apparatus has a pair of spacedly opposed first and second bearing members, in which a powder developer material is moved from the first bearing member to the second bearing member. The apparatus also has an electric field generator. The generator forms an electric field between the first and second bearing members and outputs a first voltage and a second voltage alternately. The first voltage generates, between the first and second bearing members, a first electric field electrically forcing the developer material from the first bearing member toward the second bearing member. The second voltage generates between the first and second bearing members a second electric field electrically forcing the developer material from the second bearing member toward the first bearing member. Durations of the first and second voltages are determined so that the developer material forced out of the first bearing member due to the first electric field is forced back from the second bearing member toward the first bearing member due to the second electric field to impinge the developer material retained on the first bearing member and thereby flick the developer material on the first bearing member away therefrom and the flicked developer material is then forced from the first bearing member toward the second bearing member by the subsequent first electric field. |
| US07995941B2 |
Image forming apparatus performing a correcting operation in accordance with an operation state of an image forming section
A full-color image forming apparatus for forming a toner image for each color on each image carrier, and for transferring the toner image onto a sheet, including: an image forming section for forming a correcting toner image for each color on a portion of an image carrier, wherein the portion corresponds to an interval between the successive sheets; and a control section for conducting a correcting operation of the toner image for each color, based on the correcting toner image which is formed by the image forming section, wherein, when the image forming section is possible to conduct an operation, if the image forming section is controlled to interrupt the correcting operation to use the correcting toner image yet to be formed, the control section controls the image forming section to form the residual correcting toner image, before the control section controls the image forming section to stop the operation. |
| US07995938B2 |
Toner agitating stepping motor control unit, image forming apparatus and stepping motor control method
A control unit is provided with an excitation current output section for outputting an excitation current to a stepping motor, a first level judging section for judging a drive stop time level indicating the duration of a time during which the stepping motor is not driven, a storage storing a plurality of starting torque values required to start driving the stepping motor and a plurality of drive stop time levels while relating them to each other, and a controller for obtaining the starting torque value corresponding to the drive stop time level judged by the first level judging section by referring to the storage, calculating an excitation current value which gives the obtained starting torque value and outputting an excitation current having the calculated excitation current value. |
| US07995934B2 |
Developing device, image forming apparatus, and process unit
An information attaching unit attaches either one of carrier density information of initial developer and loose apparent density information of toner in the initial developer to a housing of a developing device. A density-information storage unit stores therein either one of the carrier density information and the loose apparent density information as electronic data. At least one of the information attaching unit and the density-information storage unit is provided before shipment of the developing device. |
| US07995933B2 |
Process cartridge for use in image forming apparatus and image forming apparatus
In an image forming apparatus employing a process cartridge for image forming apparatus which is equipped with a chip including a rewritable non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory at least includes a read-only region and an arbitrarily rewritable region, a control program for writing data to the read-only region is installed in the arbitrarily rewritable region, and the use of the control program is limited after the completion of the writing of data to the read-only region. |
| US07995932B2 |
Printing apparatus, printing method, and storage medium therefor, for executing a plurality of trial printings
A printing apparatus, printing method and storage medium therefor for executing a plurality of trial printings. The apparatus includes a printing unit, a setting unit to set a printing condition, an inputting unit to input image data, first and second controlling units, and first and second accepting units. The first controlling unit controls the printing unit to execute first trial printing according to the inputted image data and the set printing condition. The first accepting unit accepts a changing instruction for changing the printing condition. The second accepting unit accepts an execution instruction for executing a second trial printing, and the second controlling unit controls the printing unit to execute the second trial printing according to the inputted image data and the changed printing condition. In a case where the first accepting unit does not accept the changing instruction, the second accepting unit cannot accept the executing instruction. |
| US07995931B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum having a high-lubricity state layer. In an initial rotation operation performed after mounting a process cartridge, in a main assembly of the image forming apparatus, a process cartridge in which lubricating particles are not applied in a contact area between a fresh cleaning blade and the photosensitive drum, toner is supplied only by application of a developing bias after the photosensitive drum and a developing sleeve are driven to supply and stagnate the toner in the contact area between the cleaning blade and the photosensitive drum. |
| US07995920B2 |
Optical network terminal power failure management
Optical network terminal (ONT) power failure management. A system for permitting a customer of a telecommunication company, for whom fiber to the premises (FTTP) has been installed, to control operating features associated with operation of a battery backup unit (BBU) which is used, during power failure, for powering the ONT associated with the FTTP installation and the customer's telephone(s). The controlling of these features includes utilization of signal-controlled switches, which are manually over-rideable by the customer, thereby providing the desired operating feature control. |
| US07995914B2 |
Method and system for providing fault recovery using composite transport groups
An approach is provided for performing fault recovery using composite transport groups (CTGs). A first logical channel is established within a composite transport group, wherein the first logical channel is established over a first link associated with a first service provider to a customer premise equipment (CPE) node configured to transport packets. A second logical channel is established within the composite transport group, wherein the second logical channel is established over a second link associated with a second service provider to an optical node. Packets are received over the first logical channel. Packets are received over the second logical channel if the first logical channel experiences a fault condition, wherein switching to the second logical channel is transparent to the CPE node. |
| US07995913B2 |
Electronic camera
An electronic camera and method include an imaging device, a luminance detection device, a selection device, a first control circuit, a second control circuit and a third control circuit. The first control circuit re-executes an exposure calculation by adjusting the exposure sensitivity if a first control exposure determined in the first mode does not achieve the optimal exposure. The second control circuit automatically sets the exposure sensitivity at the imaging device in correspondence to a subject luminance detected by the luminance detection device. The third control circuit disallows the second control circuit from operating and allows the first control circuit to operate when the first mode is selected, and that disallows the first control circuit from operating and allows the second control circuit to operate when the second mode is selected. |
| US07995910B2 |
Imaging device and focal point detector
A focal point detector includes: a condenser lens for transmitting a light image from an optical system; and a distance measurement sensor group for receiving a luminous flux which has passed through the condenser lens. The sensor group includes a first distance measurement sensor pair for receiving divided beams of the luminous flux for a first focus detection region which is located off the center of a shooting region. The first distance measurement sensor pair includes first and second distance measurement sensors. The first focus detection region extends in a first direction in the shooting region from a position where the first focus detection region is spaced from the center in the first direction and also in a second direction. The first and second distance measurement sensors are spaced from each other and arranged at different angles in the direction associated with the first direction on the sensor arrangement surface. |
| US07995908B2 |
Image stabilizing camera system
An exemplary image stabilizing camera system includes a fixed body having a first receiving cavity therein, a movable unit received in the first receiving cavity, a pivot member located between the fixed body and the movable unit, a motion sensor, and a driving module. The pivot member is engagingly received in and between the fixed body and the movable unit. The motion sensor is disposed on the fixed body and configured for detecting a movement of the image stabilizing camera system. The driving module is configured for driving the movable unit to rotate around the pivot member to compensate a movement of the image stabilizing camera system based on the motion detection result of the motion sensor. |
| US07995907B2 |
Camera
A camera having a shutter button, a photo sensor array, an anti-shake module controlled by an anti-shake enable signal, and a mechanical shutter. By pressing the shutter button, a first operation and a second operation are provided to trigger an auto-focus enable signal and an image exposure control signal, respectively. The anti-shake enable signal is enabled when the auto-focus enable signal has been triggered and the image exposure control signal is disabled or has just been triggered. The photo sensor array performs image exposure according to the image exposure control signal. The mechanical shutter is disabled and closed after the image exposure control signal is triggered for exposure period. |
| US07995905B2 |
Flash steam generator
The invention relates to a method and system for producing steam in a heating unit, and a method of designing a heating unit for producing steam. The method relates to receiving a liquid including impurities at a predetermine flow rate within an entry port of a monotube in the heating unit, where the monotube has a lumen of a predetermined size. The received liquid is converted into a two phase flow including turbulent and laminar flow. At least the turbulent flow is passed through the lumen at a velocity sufficient to carry the impurities through an exit port of the monotube and produce steam. The velocity of the turbulent is responsive to at least the predetermined flow rate and predetermined size of the lumen. |
| US07995903B2 |
Data recording and reproducing apparatus and data recording and reproducing method
A recording and reproducing module records a signal (broadcast program) based on a first compression method to a recording medium, and during a period of time during which recording is not performed, reproduces the signal based on the first compression method, which has been recorded to the recording medium. Then, a transcoding module transcodes the signal based on the first compression method to a signal based on a second compression method. The signal based on the second compression method, whose transcoding has been completed, is recorded to the recording medium; and the signal based on the first compression method is erased from the recording medium. The controller refers to recording history information and sets a schedule including a target broadcast program to be transcoded and a time zone in which the target broadcast program is transcoded. |
| US07995901B2 |
Facilitating video clip identification from a video sequence
A system and method for facilitating video clip identification from a video sequence is provided. According to various embodiments of the present invention, a video sequence is received including a plurality of image frames. Thereafter, a first collection of image frames in the video sequence is identified, the first collection having image frames having a characteristic with a predetermined relationship with respect to the collection threshold. A first preferred image frame in the first collection of image frames is identified having a preferred image quality. Thereafter, the first preferred image frame is assigned as a beginning or an end of a video clip in the video sequence. |
| US07995899B2 |
Apparatus, method and database for control of audio/video equipment
Control of audio/video equipment is provided by an apparatus constructed like a computer, with audio and video subsystems. The audio subsystem includes a programmable analog mixer and several analog and digital multiplexers to route and mix multiple inputs to multiple outputs. Databases are stored in computer mass storage to record preferences for playback of digital versatile discs, compact discs and audio files stored in the mass storage device, such as MP3 files. The playback preferences may include video output format, language, surround sound mode, etc. for DVDs and surround sound effects for CDs and audio files. |
| US07995898B2 |
Audio relay apparatus and audio relay method
An audio relay apparatus and an audio relay method can relay audio data without being restricted by the reception capacity for receiving audio signals of a downstream audio output apparatus. An AV amp according to the present invention converts the format of the DVD audio data it receives from a DVD player, which is an upstream audio output apparatus, so as to make it match the audio reception capacity of a TV, which is a downstream audio output apparatus and transmits the obtained transformed audio data to the TV. Thus, it can transmit audio signals from the DVD player to the TV regardless of the audio reception capacity of the TV. |
| US07995882B2 |
Lighting device comprising a plurality of semiconductor light sources
A lighting device is disclosed comprising a plurality of semiconductor light sources disposed on a carrier, wherein the light from the light sources is coupled into assigned lightguides at a set angle to the surface normals of the carrier and the lightguides are provided with reflecting and light exit faces such that the envelope of the light outcoupling faces forms a curved surface segment. |
| US07995881B2 |
Opto-electric hybrid module and manufacturing method thereof
An opto-electric hybrid module capable of reducing the propagation loss of light beams, and a manufacturing method thereof. An opto-electric hybrid module in which a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element are mounted on the front surface side of an electric circuit board E, and an optical waveguide W1 is bonded to the back surface side thereof. The optical waveguide W1 includes a core having opposite end portions formed as light reflection portions. Portions of the core near the opposite end portions are formed as extensions extending from the light reflection portions toward the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element. The extensions and are positioned in through holes for light propagation formed in the electric circuit board E, and have distal end surfaces and in face-to-face relationship with a light-emitting portion of the light-emitting element and a light-receiving portion of the light-receiving element, respectively. |
| US07995877B1 |
Optical NAND gate
An optical NAND gate is formed from two pair of optical waveguide devices on a substrate, with each pair of the optical waveguide devices consisting of an electroabsorption modulator and a photodetector. One pair of the optical waveguide devices is electrically connected in parallel to operate as an optical AND gate; and the other pair of the optical waveguide devices is connected in series to operate as an optical NOT gate (i.e. an optical inverter). The optical NAND gate utilizes two digital optical inputs and a continuous light input to provide a NAND function output. The optical NAND gate can be formed from III-V compound semiconductor layers which are epitaxially deposited on a III-V compound semiconductor substrate, and operates at a wavelength in the range of 0.8-2.0 μm. |
| US07995874B2 |
Optical fiber distribution type sensor and optical fiber distribution type detecting method
The present invention relates to an optical fiber distribution type detecting method and the like equipped with a structure for enabling efficient measurement of a temperature distribution or strain distribution. This method regulates a modulation frequency and modulation index for probe light and pumping light opposingly incident on an object from a light source and a phase difference between the probe light and pumping light, thereby successively setting the length and location of search domains in a region to be measured. In particular, a detection process is executed while resetting the search domain length shorter at a predetermined interval of time or when an abnormality is detected. Thus partly changing the distance resolution for a specific region in the course of the detection process enables efficient measurement operations in a short time. |
| US07995872B2 |
Optical modulator component and optical modulator
An optical modulator component 2 has a substrate 4 for modulation made of an electro-optical material and having a joining face 4b; an optical waveguide 6 provided in or on the substrate 4 and having at least one pair of branched portions 6c; and a radio-frequency interaction portion 11 applying a voltage on the respective branched portions 6c to modulate light propagating through the branched portions. The optical waveguide 6 has end faces 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D present on the joining face 4b of the substrate 4 for modulation. |
| US07995870B2 |
Information parts extraction for retrieving image sequence data
A method of extracting information parts, and a recorded medium recording the method, for retrieving image sequence data are disclosed. According to an embodiment of the present invention, image frames included in an image sequence are converted to frames, in a quantity of n, including only the object that is separated from a background, and the corresponding shape descriptors, in a quantity of n, are extracted. The shape descriptors, in a quantity of n, are aligned according to a temporal order, to generate a shape sequence, which is frequency-converted along the time axis to obtain conversion coefficients having frequency information. Using coefficients in a low frequency area among the obtained conversion coefficients, a shape sequence descriptor is extracted. With this invention, video data expressing the motion of an object can be captured as an image sequence, and the similarity between video data can be distinguished by extracting information parts from each image sequence. |
| US07995868B2 |
Image processing method and image processing device
The present invention relates to an interpolation method and a filtering method which utilize a correlation between pixel signals, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a sharp and high-quality image even if an error occurs in correlation degree judgment. To accomplish the above-mentioned object, an imaging device 10 is of a single-chip type, and includes a RGB Bayer pattern color filter 11, and an image is processed in a manner to be described below. Pixel signals outputted from the imaging device 10 are inputted through a signal processing part 20 to an image processing part 30. A correlation judgment part 31 judges a correlation between the pixel signals, and an interpolation processing part 32 performs a pixel interpolation process based on a correlation result. Thus, each pixel signal becomes a perfect signal having all R, G and B color components. Filter factors for a filter 34 are determined based on the correlation result, and a filtering process is performed on the pixel signals subjected to the pixel interpolation. The filter factors are determined so as to assist the pixel interpolation process best. |
| US07995867B2 |
Image processor and method of image rotation
A method of rotating a digital image includes performing a first pass to process a selected image tile of a source image. The first pass includes copying a set of pixels of the selected image tile from a first memory to a processor memory, where the set of pixels comprises a portion of the selected image tile. The first pass further includes grouping the set of pixels into blocks of pixels and writing each of the blocks of pixels to a memory location. The method further includes repeating the first pass until each of the pixels of the selected image tile is processed, performing a second pass to process the blocks of pixels, and repeating the second pass until each of the blocks of pixels is processed. The second pass includes copying blocks of pixels, regrouping the blocks of pixels, and writing the regrouped pixels to a destination image location. |
| US07995865B2 |
Apparatus and method for laying out images and program therefor
Images can be laid out easily without a template. Reference areas are set in a background area, and the images are laid out by being inscribed therein. In the case where the image laid out in one of the reference areas has high priority, a similar area is generated from the reference areas, and the image is enlarged to be inscribed in the similar area. |
| US07995857B2 |
Method and apparatus utilizing step-wise gain control for image processing
An apparatus for image processing includes: an edge detection module, for performing an image edge detection for each pixel in an original image data and generating at least one edge detection result for a target pixel in the original image data; a step-wise gain controlling module, coupled to the edge detection module, for determining at least one gain coefficient of the target pixel according to the edge detection result; and a calculation module, coupled to the step-wise gain controlling module, for adjusting an original gray value of the target pixel to generate an output gray value of the target pixel according to the gain coefficient. |
| US07995856B2 |
Dynamic range compensation-dependent noise reduction
Methods and corresponding apparatus are presented that perform dynamic range compensation (DRC) and noise reduction (NR) together, adjusting the noise reduction parameters in response to the dynamic range compensation decisions. By such a modification of image noise reduction parameters based on the dynamic range compensation gain or, more generally, other such factors, these techniques make it possible to perform DRC on noisy images, achieving an image with low and uniform noise levels. |
| US07995849B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving video quality of low bit-rate video
Embodiments describe a method, apparatus and system for processing images using block based compression. In one embodiment, a method comprises determining whether two blocks are neighboring blocks, determining whether the two neighboring blocks are both subdivided, if the two blocks are neighboring blocks; performing deblocking filtering on one or more edge pixels of the two neighboring blocks, if it is determined that both of the two neighboring blocks are not subdivided. |
| US07995840B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program for attaining image processing
The image processing procedure of the invention receives mosaic image data and calculates a vertical-direction color difference component with regard to each of pixel columns in the mosaic image data in a vertical direction and a horizontal-direction color difference component with regard to each of pixel rows in the mosaic image data in a horizontal direction. The mosaic image data is expressed by a combination of pixel columns with alternate arrangement of pixels of a G component and pixels of an R component in the vertical direction, pixel columns with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of a B component in the vertical direction, pixel rows with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of the R component in the horizontal direction, and pixel rows with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of the B component in the horizontal direction. The image processing procedure subsequently selects pixels of the R component and pixels of the B component from the mosaic image data, and compares a variation of the vertical-direction color difference component with a variation of the horizontal-direction color difference component with regard to each of at least the selected pixels to detect edge orientations of the at least selected pixels. The image processing procedure refers to the detected edge orientations, and interpolates a missing color component in each pixel of the mosaic image data with the settings of one color component in each pixel in the mosaic image data. |
| US07995839B2 |
Image processing device and method with distance calculating on color space
The image processing device according to an aspect of the invention comprises an image input device for inputting image data representing a color image, a distance calculation device for calculating a distance on a color space between a noticed pixel of the inputted color image and each of peripheral pixels including the noticed pixel, a factor calculation device for calculating a weighting factor for each peripheral pixel in accordance with the calculated distance, and a weighted average processing device for calculating image data of the noticed pixel by obtaining a weighted average of image data of the peripheral pixels using the weighting factor calculated for each peripheral pixel. |
| US07995838B2 |
Color chart processing apparatus, color chart processing method, and color chart processing program
A mixing ratio database stores information regarding a mixing ratio of plural materials for producing a color corresponding different color chart IDs. A plurality of pieces of color chart spectral information under determination illumination light are calculated using a plurality of pieces of spectral information of spectral reflection factors contained in a color chart and spectral information of the determination illumination light which is information of illumination light used for color chart determination. One of the calculated plural pieces of color chart spectral information which most closely matches spectral information of a subject is determined. A color chart ID which identifies the determined piece of color chart spectral information is output, and information of a mixing amount of each of the plurality of materials for the output color chart ID is also output based on the information stored in the mixing ratio database. |
| US07995837B2 |
System and method for generating a terrain model for autonomous navigation in vegetation
The disclosed terrain model is a generative, probabilistic approach to modeling terrain that exploits the 3D spatial structure inherent in outdoor domains and an array of noisy but abundant sensor data to simultaneously estimate ground height, vegetation height and classify obstacles and other areas of interest, even in dense non-penetrable vegetation. Joint inference of ground height, class height and class identity over the whole model results in more accurate estimation of each quantity. Vertical spatial constraints are imposed on voxels within a column via a hidden semi-Markov model. Horizontal spatial constraints are enforced on neighboring columns of voxels via two interacting Markov random fields and a latent variable. Because of the rules governing abstracts, this abstract should not be used to construe the claims. |
| US07995835B1 |
Method and apparatus for altering two-dimensional images using three-dimensional information
The method and apparatus for enhancing digital image data is to be know as DarbeeVision™, or DVn™ for short, and includes a method and an apparatus for enhancing images by embedding three-dimensional information into them. It works for movies, TV, videogames, print—in fact, for any image—whether from natural sources or generated by a computer. By combining the information contained in two source images, one for each eye, the DarbeeVision algorithm adds significant additional information content to any ordinary two-dimensional image. As a result DarbeeVision strikingly enhances images visually, imparting a strong sense of depth that is particularly pronounced when viewing moving images. The DarbeeVision method for enhancing images and the apparatus for implementing the method can be used during image recording and as a post-production procedure. |
| US07995834B1 |
Multiple laser scanner
A method and system to capture geometry of a three dimensional target while disambiguating multiple projected target elements. The system projects at least three light pattern elements toward a target at a diverse spacing relative to each other. The system captures at least one image of the target while illuminated by at least one of the pattern elements. The pattern elements are moved relative to the target. The system disambiguates one pattern element from any other contained within an image of the target, at least in part based on the diverse spacing. The system measures triangulation locations of points on a three-dimensional surface of the target. |
| US07995832B2 |
Photomask inspection and verification by lithography image reconstruction using imaging pupil filters
A method and tool for generating reconstructed images that model the high NA effects of a lithography tool used to image patterns produced by a mask. Comparison of the reconstructed images with reference images characterize the mask. The method involves providing a mask reticle for inspection. Generating matrix values associated with a high NA corrective filter matrix that characterizes a high NA lithography system used to print from the mask. Illuminating the mask to produce a patterned illumination beam that is filtered with filters associated with the high NA corrective filter matrix elements to obtain a plurality of filtered beams that include raw image data that is processed to obtain a reconstructed image that is further processed and compared with reference images to obtain mask characterization information. |
| US07995830B2 |
Method and apparatus for automating an inspection process with training
A process for using a hand-held infrared inspection system incorporating on-board training, on-board validation, on-board operator certification, on-board reporting information, or on-board survey instructions. Improved methods for automating area surveys are provided through exception-driven surveillance practices. Imbedded information enables less experienced operators to use more sophisticated devices more effectively. Validation or certification assures operator knowledge or ability. Multilevel classification of anomalies aids in automated analysis and report generation. |
| US07995828B2 |
Speckle reporting in digital radiographic imaging
A method for reporting image quality obtains a digital radiological image and processes the image to detect at least one speckle. Noise signal magnitude in the digital radiological image is estimated. At least one speckle is identified according to its signal magnitude relative to the noise signal estimate. The at least one speckle detected in the image is reported. |
| US07995826B2 |
Device, method and computer program product for generation of an exposure plan
In a device, method and computer program product for generation of an exposure plan for irradiating a patient, at least one reference data set independent of the patient is provided, from which an attenuation of high-energy radiation upon passage through a reference body can be determined. A patient magnetic resonance image of the patient is adapted using the reference data set and an exposure plan is generated based on the patient magnetic resonance image and the patient-specific attenuation of high-energy radiation upon passage through the patient. The patient-specific attenuation of high-energy radiation upon passage through the patient is determined using the adaptation of the patient magnetic resonance image with the reference data set. |
| US07995821B2 |
Image processing system and image processing method
In a system where an image processing device applies image processing to medical images obtained from an image storage device, the load of communication and image processing are reduced, thereby improving the processing efficiency of the entire system. A controlling unit determines whether it is possible to determine a image processing result for a cross-sectional image taken at a point along a composition axis in an original image based on a image processing result of cross-sectional images sent so far from the image storage device. If it is impossible to determine the result, the next cross-sectional image to be processed is determined, and the cross-sectional image is sent from the image storage device to the image processing device. If it is possible to determine the result, the result of the image processing is determined without sending a new cross-sectional image from the image storage device to the image processing device. |
| US07995815B2 |
Radiology case distribution and sorting systems and methods
The invention provides a system and method for processing an image including means for receiving image information, means for queuing the image information, and means for receiving profile information for a plurality of image analysts. The system can further include means for selecting an image analyst from the plurality of image analysts by comparing the image information from the profile information. The invention also provides a machine readable program including a first input routine for receiving image information, a second input routine for receiving profile information for a plurality of image analysts, and a first run routine for queuing the image information. The machine readable program can also include a second run routine for selecting an image analyst from the plurality of image analysts by comparing the image information to the profile information. |
| US07995814B2 |
Dynamic motion contrast and transverse flow estimation using optical coherence tomography
The methods described herein are methods to ascertain motion contrast within optical coherence tomography data based upon phase variance. The phase variance contrast observes the nanometer scale motion of scatterers associated with Brownian motion and other non-flow motion. The inventive method of calculating motion contrast from the phase variance can differentiate regions of different mobility based on the motion contrast differences, and can use the phase information to characterize mobility properties of the scatterers. In flow regions, the inventive method for acquiring and analyzing motion contrast can identify the regions as well as characterize the motion. Furthermore, the inventive method can determine quantitative flow estimation, the index of refraction variations, and absorption variations within flow regions. |
| US07995802B2 |
Apparatus and methods for verifying identity using biometric information collected during a pre-enrollment phase
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for verifying identity using a plurality of biometric samples collected during a pre-enrollment phase, where the plurality of biometric samples concern one or more biometric measures. In one embodiment, the biometric measure comprises an individual's signature, samples of which are collected over a period of time prior to an enrollment procedure. Collecting signatures over a period of time prior to an enrollment procedure allows a more robust signature model to be developed since the signature model will reflect natural, statistically significant, variations that occur over time. During an enrollment procedure, the user then attests to the validity of the signatures collected during the pre-enrollment phase. Valid signatures are used to construct a signature model that will be used to authenticate signatures provided during later transactions. Apparatus and methods of the invention additionally encompass collecting biometric samples of other biometric measures such as, for example, facial appearance, during a pre-enrollment phase. |
| US07995801B2 |
Mobile positioning system
There is provided a mobile positioning apparatus for performing map matching based on a pixel image. The mobile positioning apparatus comprises a position storage indicating a current position of a mobile body and likelihood information thereof as a nonparametric distribution; a movement vector estimation device which outputs a movement vector indicating a moving distance and a moving direction of the mobile body at a discrete time T and likelihood information thereof; an image database which holds a peripheral map of a range of movement of the mobile body as an image group of a resolution according to a moving resolution of the mobile body; and a pixel crossing determination device which performs map matching using the position information group and a the movement vector based on the peripheral map. |
| US07995798B2 |
Device, system and method for estimating the size of an object in a body lumen
A device and method for capturing in-vivo images allows for size or distance estimations for objects within the images. According to one embodiment of the present invention there may be provided, in an in-vivo device, at least an imager, an illumination source to provide illumination for the imager, an irradiation source to emit for example a light beam or a laser beam in a body lumen and a processor to calculate, based on image illumination parameter values, an estimate of the size of objects in a body lumen. |
| US07995795B2 |
Method and apparatus for selective disqualification of digital images
An unsatisfactory scene is disqualified as an image acquisition control for a camera. An image is acquired. One or more eye regions are determined. The eye regions are analyzed to determine whether they are blinking, and if so, then the scene is disqualified as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the eye is completing the blinking. |
| US07995793B2 |
Occlusion detector for and method of detecting occlusion areas
An occlusion detector (200, 201, 203, 205, 207) for detecting occlusion areas (108, 110) in an image (100) comprises a motion vector selector (202) for selecting at least two motion vectors (118, 120) from a set of motion vectors. It further comprises a pixel value comparator (206) for calculating a first and a second pixel value difference between a particular value of a particular pixel (112) of the image (100) and a second value of a second pixel (116) and a third value of a third pixel (114), both of a further image (102). The occlusion detector (200, 201, 203, 205, 207) further comprises a decision unit (204) for deciding whether the particular pixel (112) belongs to one of the occlusion areas (108, 110) by checking whether the first and second pixel value differences are larger than a first predetermined threshold and a second predetermined threshold, respectively. |
| US07995791B2 |
ATM security system
A security system useful for monitoring an automated teller machine (ATM) includes a camera that provides images of at least selected portions of the ATM. A controller automatically determines whether a difference between a reference image of the ATM and a subsequently acquired image from the camera indicates an alteration to the ATM. One example provides the ability to detect whether a skimming reader has been placed adjacent a card receiving slot. A disclosed example includes acquiring a plurality of reference images corresponding to different lighting conditions and using an appropriate one of the reference images based upon a lighting condition or time of day associated with a subsequently acquired image. |
| US07995790B2 |
Digital watermark detection using predetermined color projections
The present invention relates to digital watermarking. In one implementation, a system is provided to read a digital watermark from digital imagery which includes data representing a number of pixels. Each pixel of the number of pixels is defined by a set of values representing color components of the particular pixel. The digital watermark is embedded in the digital imagery through modifications to at least some data representing the digital imagery. The system includes a filter to calculate values of pixels along a preferred projection axis, the preferred projection axis corresponds to a direction of embedding determined based on color characteristics of at least some pixels associated with the digital imagery; and a digital watermark reader which operates on values calculated by the filter. Other implementations are provided as well. |
| US07995789B2 |
Electroacoustic transducer with resistance to shock-waves
A transducer comprising a pair of spaced magnets at least partially forming a tunnel having a central axis. A coil having a first and a second side wall and an upper and a lower wall at least partially forms the tunnel. A reed having a central portion extends through the tunnel. The reed has a stationary end, a deflection end, and a tip portion which lies at least partially between the magnets, wherein the reed is mounted for deflection towards or away from the respective magnets. |
| US07995786B2 |
Auxiliary fastening device for assisting transducer being fastened and isolating vibration induced during operation of transducer
The invention provides an auxiliary fastening device for assisting in fastening a transducer such as a speaker on a base structure. Moreover, the auxiliary fastening device according to the invention is capable of isolating the vibration induced from the transducer to the base structure during operation. |
| US07995783B2 |
Personal speakers with connection source and target
To assist headphones and headphone cords from becoming tangled, a connection source is made part of a first speaker enclosure and a connection target is made part of a second speaker enclosure. |
| US07995781B2 |
Method for operating a hearing device as well as a hearing device
In order to switch between different hearing programs to adjust to a momentary acoustic scene, a method for adjusting a hearing device, in which one of several possible hearing programs can be selected in order to adjust to a momentary acoustic scene, the method comprising the steps of detecting a desired hearing program change, changing parameters (b1, . . . , bm) of a transfer function provided between a microphone (M1) and a receiver of the hearing device in order to adapt it to the detected hearing program change, adjusting the parameters (b1, . . . , bm) to be changed from a momentary value to a desired value in such a manner that a smooth transition is perceived by the hearing device user while changing from a momentary hearing program to the desired hearing program, whereas each of the smooth transition is individually adjustable. |
| US07995776B2 |
Timepiece with sound generator
A timepiece includes a casing having a casing interior having a viewer's side provided with a viewing opening, a base side provided with a sound aperture, and an annular surface surrounding the sound aperture. A membrane extending over the sound aperture closes the base side of the casing interior, the membrane having a circumferential region in sealed connection with the annular surface. A tensioning device maintains the membrane at a desired tension in the radial direction. A vibration generator arranged in the casing interior produces a sound whose frequency can be adjusted by adjusting the tension of the membrane. |
| US07995775B2 |
Automatic volume control for audio signals
A technique is provided for automatically adjusting the volume, or magnitude, of an audio signal. The technique includes calculating an average power associated with a segment of an input audio signal, determining whether the average power is greater than an estimated signal level associated with one or more previously-processed segments of the input audio signal and, depending on the determination, either calculating an updated estimated signal level by subtracting from the average power an attenuated difference between the estimated signal level and the average power or setting the updated estimated signal level to the average power. A gain to be applied to the segment of the input audio signal is then determined based on the updated estimated signal level and a target signal level for an output audio signal. |
| US07995774B2 |
Sound field control apparatus and sound field control method
In a sound field control apparatus including multiple speakers, multiple microphones gathering sound radiated from the multiple speakers, a mode decomposition filter that performs mode decomposition on a sound pressure distribution, and a control filter that controls the input signals to be input to the multiple speakers such that the mode amplitudes of the modes decomposed by the mode decomposition filter can have a predetermined value, a sound pressure distribution in the acoustic space is measured, and the sound pressure distribution in the acoustic space is expressed by using a sinusoidal function and cosine function of a space frequency of the mode to be controlled in amplitude. The mode space frequency is corrected such that the expressed sound pressure distribution can be equal to the measured sound pressure distribution, and the filter coefficient for the mode decomposition filter is determined based on the mode space frequency obtained by the correction (corrected mode space frequency). |
| US07995773B2 |
Methods for processing audio input received at an input device
A method for processing an audio signal received through a microphone array coupled to an interfacing device is provided. The method is processing at least in part by a computing device that communicates with the interfacing device. The method includes receiving a signal at the microphone array and applying adaptive beam-forming to the signal to yield an enhanced source component of the signal. Also, an inverse beam-forming is applied to the signal to yield an enhanced noise component of the signal. The method combines the enhanced source component and the enhanced noise component to produce a noise reduced signal, where the noise reduced signal is a target voice signal. Then, monitoring an acoustic set-up associated with the audio signal as a background process using the adaptive beam-forming inverse beam-forming to track the target signal component, and periodically setting a calibration of the monitored acoustic set-up. The calibration implements blind source separation that uses second order statistics to separate the enhanced source component from the enhanced noise component, and the calibration remains fixed between the periodic setting. By executing this method, the target signal is able to freely move around relative to the microphone array of the interface device. |
| US07995769B2 |
Sound control apparatus of image forming apparatus
A sound control apparatus of image forming apparatus includes a sound-transmitting channel in which the sound in the image forming apparatus can be transmitted to the outside of the image forming apparatus, a sound-collecting portion which is provided at the sound-transmitting channel and collects sounds, and a speaker which is provided at the outside of the apparatus to the sound-collecting portion in the sound-transmitting channel and outputs sounds corresponding to the sounds collected by the sound-collecting portion, where a channel length between the sound-collecting portion and the speaker in the sound-transmitting channel is longer than a linear distance between the sound-collecting portion and the speaker. |
| US07995768B2 |
Sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system which enables handsfree and high-quality sound reinforcement without requiring a person who is speaking to move to a microphone or move a microphone. At least one microphone and a plurality of speakers are arranged in a room. A speaker output adjusting section outputs sound picked up by the microphone to the plurality of speakers at predetermined levels. |
| US07995767B2 |
Sound signal processing method and apparatus
A sound signal processing method includes calculating a difference between every few ones of input multiple channel sound signals to obtain a plurality of characteristic quantities each indicating the difference, selecting a weighting factor from a weighting factor dictionary containing a plurality of weighting factors of a plurality of channels corresponding to the characteristic quantities, weighting the sound signals by using the selected weighting factor, and adding the weighted input sound signals to generate an output sound signal. |