| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08037794B2 |
Cutting machine to cut rolls or logs of web material and relative method
The cutting machine includes pairs of coaxial blades to simultaneously cut two rolls for each cutting cycle. |
| US08037793B2 |
Stripper plate mounting apparatus
A stripper plate mounting apparatus is for mounting a stripper plate (21) in a detachable and replaceable manner on a front end portion of a punch guide (5) into which a punch (17) is fitted movably upward and downward. The apparatus includes: an adaptor (35), for holding the stripper plate (21), detachably provided in a front end portion of the punch guide (5); and lock mechanisms (43), capable of fixing the adaptor (35) to the punch guide (5), provided in multiple locations on the outer periphery of the front end portion thereof. The lock mechanisms (43) each include: a lock piece (53) which is always biased outward in a radial direction by biasing means, and which is engageable with, and detachable from, the lock part (41); and a lock-holding piece (63) for locking and holding the lock piece (53) to an inward position when the lock piece (53) is pressed and moved inward in the radial direction. |
| US08037790B2 |
Indicator for torque limiting tool
A torque wrench is provided that includes a handle in which is disposed a torque limiting mechanism and a torque indicator engaged with the torque limiting mechanism. The torque limiting mechanism functions to limit the maximum torque that can be transmitted by an individual through the tool, while the indicator provides a visible indication to the individual when a specified amount of torque is being provided through the tool that is less than the amount which causes the torque limiting mechanism to operate. |
| US08037789B2 |
Wall anchor installation device
A drywall anchor installation device comprising, inter alia, a main driver member configured to engage a Philips head screw top, a plunger member configured to engage a Philips head screw top, and a plunger member guiding mechanism including a compression spring and a guide pin. In operation, the main driver member engages a drywall anchor at the Philips head indentation and the plunger member extends inside the axial bore of the anchor until contacting the interior surface of the axial bore or the closed end of the anchor. Once contact is made with the closed end of the anchor, the compression spring of the plunger guiding mechanism is engaged, stabilizing the anchor as the anchor is driven into the wall. Once the anchor is driven into the wall, the plunger member is used to drive the anchor screw without having to adjust the driving device. |
| US08037786B2 |
Hydraulic circuit device
A hydraulic circuit device for activating the at least one clamping die (14) of a power tong (1), the power tong (1) including two housing halves (2), pivotable relative to each other, the housing halves (2) being arranged to be pivoted between a closed, active position and an open, inactive position, and a radially divided drive ring (6, 8) which is provided with the at least one hydraulically activated clamping die (14) directed towards the centre axis (10) of the power tong (1), being placed in the housing halves (2), the drive ring (6, 8) being supported and connected to at least one driving motor (12) for the rotation of the drive ring (6, 8) about the centre axis (10), and a hydraulic pump cylinder (16) being articulatedly connected between the first drive ring part (6) of the drive ring (6, 8) and the second drive ring part (8) of the drive ring (6, 8) and arranged to rotate together with the drive ring (6, 8) about the centre axis (10). |
| US08037784B2 |
Drive train comprising an auxiliary engine which is connected to a countershaft of the transmission
A drive train for a motor vehicle including a main engine, an auxiliary engine, and a parallel shaft transmission. The transmission includes: at least one input shaft connected to the main engine by a clutch device, at least one output shaft including a drive pinion that engages with a differential ring gear, a countershaft that is not coaxial with the input and output shafts, and a plurality of synchronizers configured to connect the input shaft to the output shaft selectively in rotation. The countershaft is fitted with a drive wheel connected to the auxiliary engine and that is permanently rotatably linked to the input shaft. |
| US08037783B2 |
Device for a clamping bolt
A device for a clamping bolt comprising a shaft for interconnection of a first body and a second body, wherein the first body is provided with a first bore and the second body is provided with a second bore, the clamping bolt extending within the bores, and wherein the clamping bolt is provided with an internally conical first clamping sleeve which is located, at least partially, within the first bore, and wherein the first clamping sleeve, by moving it in the longitudinal direction of the shaft, is structured so as to be able to be clamped against the first body, and wherein the clamping bolt is provided with an internally conical second clamping sleeve which is located, at least partially, within the second bore, and which is structured so as to be able to be clamped against the second body by moving it in the longitudinal direction of the shaft, the first clamping sleeve encircling the second clamping sleeve. |
| US08037782B2 |
Steering column assembly
The steering column assembly includes: an upper clamp 7; a distance bracket 8 fixed to an outer tube 4; a clamp bolt 9 including a shank 9b inserted in tilt long holes formed in the upper clamp 7 and telescopic long holes formed in the distance bracket 8; an operation lever 10 configured to rotate integrally with the bolt 9; a cam body 11 configured of an eccentric cam 41 and a ring 42, the eccentric cam 41 being provided on the shank 9b, the radial dimension of the eccentric cam 41 gradually changing in its circumferential direction, and the ring 42 rotatably fitted on the outer periphery of the eccentric cam 41. The cam body 11 rotates and is pressed against an inner tube 5 to lock the inner tube 5 to an outer tube 4. |
| US08037779B2 |
Speed change control device of vehicular transmission
A speed change control device for a transmission of an internal combustion engine includes a driving means having an electric motor for rotatably driving a shift drum. The electric motor has a rotation axis orthogonal to an axis of a shift drum. A barrel cam having a cam groove rotates about an axis parallel to that of the electric motor. A transmission rotation member is interlocked and is coupled to the shift drum so as to be rotatable about the axis orthogonal to the rotation axis of the barrel cam. The transmission rotation member is provided with a plurality of engagement pins that selectively engages the cam groove. The resulting configuration allows the electric motor to be disposed inwardly with respect to an outermost side of the body of the internal combustion engine in the direction of the axis of a shift drum and improves the shift accuracy. |
| US08037771B2 |
Electronic pressure-sensing device
An electronic pressure-sensing device 100 comprising a transistor 105 located on a substrate 110. The device also comprises a linker arm 115 that has a tip 120 which is configured to touch a contact region 125 of the substrate that is near the transistor. The device also comprises a pressure converter 130 that is mechanically coupled to the linker arm. The pressure converter is configured to cause, in response to a pressure change, the tip to impart a force capable of changing an electrical conductivity of the transistor. |
| US08037770B2 |
Pressure-sensor apparatus
A pressure-sensing module includes a housing having a process-fluid port configured to be coupled to a process-fluid-flow circuit. The housing defines a first chamber into which the process fluid can flow through the process-fluid port. An isolator assembly is disposed within the housing and includes a fill port. The isolator assembly is configured to define a second chamber into which pressure-coupling fluid may be injected through the fill port. An electronic circuit is disposed within the second chamber and is configured to be pressure coupled by the coupling fluid and isolator assembly to the flow circuit. A plug having first and second ends occupies the fill port thereby sealing the second chamber. The first end is exposed to the process fluid in the first chamber, and the second end is exposed to the coupling fluid in the second chamber. |
| US08037768B2 |
Vibrometer mounting mechanism
Adjustment of the distance between the tip of a pickup section and the outer surface of a shaft of a rotor can be carried out easily and with high precision. In a vibrometer mounting mechanism securing a measuring section of a vibrometer for measuring vibration of a shaft of a rotary machine to a casing of the rotary machine, the vibrometer mounting mechanism includes a case secured to the casing with fixing means; an inner cylinder that accommodate the measuring section at one end, that is disposed in the inside of the case, and that slides relative to the case; and an adjustment bolt disposed at one end of the case and capable of moving forward and backward with respect to the case and the inner cylinder, wherein the inner cylinder is made to move in a direction away from the shaft by the adjustment bolt being inserted into the case and the inner cylinder, and wherein the inner cylinder is made to move in a direction toward the shaft by the adjustment bolt being retracted from the case and the inner cylinder. |
| US08037767B2 |
Transmit apodization using a sinc function in an ultrasound system
The present invention relates to transmit apodization using a sinc function in an ultrasound system. The ultrasound system includes: a transmission unit operable to generate transmit pulse signals with transmit apodization applied by using a sinc function; a probe operable to generate ultrasound signals based on the transmit pulse signals to thereby form a transmit beam and transmit the transmit beam along a predetermined scan line among a plurality of scan lines in a target object, the probe being further operable to receive ultrasound echoes reflected from the target object; and a reception unit operable to form receive signals corresponding to a plurality of scan lines based on the ultrasound echoes. |
| US08037761B2 |
Quantitative evaluation device and method of atomic vacancy existing in silicon wafer
There is provided a quantitative evaluation device or the like of atomic vacancy existing in a silicon wafer in which the atomic vacancy concentration in the silicon wafer can be quantitatively evaluated by forming a rationalized thin-film transducer on a surface of a silicon sample without conducting an acceleration treatment for enhancing the concentration. This is characterized by comprising a magnetic force generating means 2 for applying an external magnetic field to a silicon sample 5 cut out from a given site of a silicon wafer, a temperature controlling means 3 capable of cooling the silicon sample 5 to a temperature region of not higher than 50 K, a ultrasonic oscillating-detecting means 4 for oscillating ultrasonic pulse to the surface of the silicon sample 5 and propagating the oscillated ultrasonic pulse into the silicon sample 5 and detecting a change of sound velocity in the propagated ultrasonic pulse, wherein a thin-film transducer 8 having properties capable of following to an expansion of the silicon sample 5 at the above temperature region and substantially aligning C-axis in a given direction is directly formed on the surface of the silicon sample 5. |
| US08037756B2 |
Microelectromechanical gyroscope with open loop reading device and control method
A microelectromechanical gyroscope that includes a first mass oscillatable according to a first axis; an inertial sensor, including a second mass, drawn along by the first mass and constrained so as to oscillate according to a second axis, in response to a rotation of the gyroscope; a driving device coupled to the first mass so as to form a feedback control loop and configured to maintain the first mass in oscillation at a resonance frequency; and an open-loop reading device coupled to the inertial sensor for detecting displacements of the second mass according to the second axis. The driving device includes a read signal generator for supplying to the inertial sensor at least one read signal having the form of a square-wave signal of amplitude that sinusoidally varies with the resonance frequency. |
| US08037754B2 |
Integrated inertial measurement system and methods of constructing the same
An inertial measurement system having a triangular cupola shaped base structure with three mutually orthogonal sides and a bottom surface surrounding a hollow core. The bottom surface includes an aperture providing access to the hollow core. An inertial module is mounted on each of the sides and includes a gyroscopic rotational rate sensor and a linear accelerometer connected to a circuit board. The inertial measurement system also includes a motherboard and a plurality of metallization elements. The metallization elements extend from the bottom surface to the sides of the base structure and conductively connect the inertial module to the motherboard. The inertial measurement system may also include a non-conductive adhesive underfill positioned between the inertial module and the base structure. |
| US08037753B2 |
System for manufacturing a modularly structured apparatus for determining filling level
A system for providing different versions of a modularly structured apparatus for determining a physical process quantity, wherein at least two devices to be generated from the system are based on different measuring principles, including a number sensor units (41-48), each sensor unit being designed for detecting a determined physical measuring quantity and for converting said measuring quantity into an electrical measuring signal, wherein at least two of the sensor units are distinguished from each other by their underlying measuring principles; at least one evaluation unit (10), adapted to connect to the sensor units, for evaluating and generating a process quantity signal representing the physical process quantity from the measuring signal of a sensor unit; at least one output unit (13) for outputting the process quantity signal; at least one voltage supply unit (16); and at least one housing unit (22-24) configured to accommodate at least the evaluation unit. |
| US08037743B2 |
Chassis dynamometer
A chassis dynamometer for a vehicle has a motor having a rotor, rollers configured to be operably connected to wheels of the vehicle, a flange portion extending inward in a radial direction from each of the rollers, and a rotor bracket for supporting the rotor of the motor. The flange portion and the rotor bracket are connected via a torque meter capable of measuring at least an outer peripheral tangential force of the roller. |
| US08037742B2 |
Systems and methods for engine fuel control
An engine system includes a status determination module and an open-loop fuel control module. The status determination module determines whether a first ignition fuse is in a failure state. The open-loop fuel control module disables a first plurality of fuel injectors and actuates a second plurality of fuel injectors based on a first air/fuel (A/F) ratio when the first ignition fuse is in the failure state, wherein the first ignition fuse and the first plurality of fuel injectors correspond to a first cylinder bank, and wherein a second ignition fuse and the second plurality of fuel injectors correspond to a second cylinder bank. |
| US08037740B2 |
Conductive material concentration measuring device and magnetic material concentration measuring device
A detection unit 4 with detection means 3 and fluid inflow/outflow guide means 2 is connected to a passage 1 for fluid with conductive material or to a pool section 5 for pooling of the fluid. The detection unit 4 guides inflow and outflow of the fluid through the fluid inflow/outflow guide means 2 and detects a concentration of conductive material through the detection means 4. A concentration of conductive material in the fluid is continuously measured with high accuracy. |
| US08037738B2 |
Particulate matter sensor
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate methods and devices for measuring flow rate of particulate matter within an exhaust gas stream. In one particular exemplary embodiment, a sensor for detecting and monitoring particulate matter within an exhaust flow path of an engine is provided. The sensor includes a housing having an attachment for mounting the sensor. The sensor also includes a sensing rod supported by an insulating base. The sensing rod is attached to the housing and includes a probe adapted to be placed within the exhaust flow path. The probe includes a section having an increased surface area per unit length as compared to at least one other section of the probe. The sensing rod is configured to detect particulate matter flowing through the exhaust component and generates a signal based thereupon. The sensor further includes an electrical connector in communication with the sensing rod. The electrical connector is configured to transmit the signal generated by the sensing rod to a controller. |
| US08037736B2 |
Non-linearity determination of positioning scanner of measurement tool
Determination of non-linearity of a positioning scanner of a measurement tool is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method may include providing a probe of a measurement tool coupled to a positioning scanner; scanning a surface of a first sample with the surface at a first angle relative to the probe to attain a first profile; scanning the surface of the first sample with the surface at a second angle relative to the probe that is different than the first angle to attain a second profile; repeating the scannings to attain a plurality of first profiles and a plurality of second profiles; and determining a non-linearity of the positioning scanner using the different scanning angles to cancel out measurements corresponding to imperfections due to the surface of the sample. The non-linearity may be used to calibrate the positioning scanner. |
| US08037733B2 |
Methods and apparatus for manufacturing an intravascular stent
The invention relates to methods and apparatus for manufacturing intravascular stents wherein the intravascular stent has its inner surface treated to promote the migration of endothelial cells onto the inner surface of the intravascular stent. In particular, the inner surface of the intravascular stent has at least one groove formed therein. |
| US08037729B2 |
Finishing monoblock for a billet lamination plant for producing high-quality wire rods
A finishing monoblock for a billet lamination plant of the type comprises a plurality of lamination cages (G1Gn) arranged in sequence suitable for forming a lamination line and actuated by a pair of mechanical transmissions (22, 22′) actuated through at least one command reducer (23) for the lamination of the billet. According to the invention, said monoblock comprises at least one first module (M1) and a second module (M2′, M2″), of which at least one is disengageable from the lamination line through a pair of detachable joints (40). |
| US08037727B2 |
Non-planar sputter targets having crystallographic orientations promoting uniform deposition
A non-planar sputter target having differing crystallographic orientations in portions of the sputter target surface that promote more desirable deposition and density patterns of material sputtered from the target surface onto a substrate. A closed dome end of the sputter target is comprised of a first crystallographic orientation and sidewalls of the sputter target are comprised of a crystallographic orientation different from that of the dome. The sputter target is formed, preferably by hydroforming or other metal working techniques, in the absence of annealing. The hydroforming manipulations result in the different crystallographic orientations while minimizing, or ideally omitting, the application of heat. Quick and cost effective non-planar sputter targets that are easily repeatably producable are achievable as a result. |
| US08037726B2 |
Method for bending tubular articles with a relative ratio of the bending radius and the outer diameter of the finished pipe which is less than 3
Method for bending tubular articles with a relative ratio of the bending radius (R) and the outer diameter (D) of the finished pipe which is less than 3, comprising the following steps: forging an article made of material with a predefined composition depending on the final use and with a predefined length (L) in the longitudinal direction and an outer diameter (D); providing a die having an asymmetrical bottom die half with seat for the pipe; and a top die half with punch asymmetrically arranged in the longitudinal direction (X-X) with respect to the vertical center axis of the die; heating the article in an oven to the required temperature for forging depending on the specific composition of the material; positioning the article inside the bottom die half in the longitudinal direction; closing of the two die halves so as to start bending of the article; opening the die; and extracting the bent article. |
| US08037725B2 |
Door lock indicator
A door lock indicator device is disclosed. The door lock indicator device can include a rotatable portion, a lock status display, and a switch (e.g., a button). The rotatable portion can define an opening shaped to receive a key blade. The door lock indicator device can be installed on a face of a door lock with the opening aligned with a keyhole of the door lock. Rotating a key blade within a keyway of the door lock can cause the rotatable portion to rotate with the door lock's cylinder. The lock status display can include a first indicator light and a second indicator light. Activating the switch can cause the lock status display to indicate a direction of a most recent rotation of the rotatable portion and/or a locked or unlocked status of the associated door lock. |
| US08037724B2 |
Combination lock
A combination lock comprises a bolt which is withdrawn by depressing a bolt pin which is shielded by rotating discs having a movable disc pin within them. A selector pin attached to a dial is provided for engaging in selector holes in the discs and aligning the disc pins with one another and with the bolt pin, with provision for pushing inwardly the disc pin on the outer disc and urging the other disc pins aligned therewith towards the bolt pin such that it is depressed and/or withdrawn. The discs have a weight attached at their circumference such that, during code setting, changing the position of the weight changes the relative angular position of the disc pin. When pressure is released from the mechanism, springs return the selector pin and the disc pins to their original positions and the weights on the discs fall, thereby rotating the discs and automatically scrambling the code. |
| US08037721B2 |
Foreign materials filtering apparatus and washing machine having the same
In a foreign materials filtering apparatus and a washing machine having the same, a filter unit is not exposed to inside of a washing tub thus not to directly come in contact with laundry, thereby preventing the filter unit and laundry from being damaged and enhancing the entire appearance. Also, the foreign materials filtering apparatus is modularized to facilitate a detachable mounting, thereby enhancing the user's convenience. Additionally, the amount of washing water passing through the foreign materials filtering apparatus is increased by controlling a flowing direction of washing water. Furthermore, foreign materials of washing water are prevented from being introduced into a gap between a washing water circulating duct and a filter unit, thereby enhancing a washing effect. |
| US08037718B2 |
Method for manufacturing optical fiber preform
Method for manufacturing an optical fiber perform, which forms a glass fine particle deposition portion composed of glass fine particles on a glass rod, and suspends the glass fine particle deposition vertically into a heating furnace to heat, and transparentize, the glass fine particle deposition. The method comprises the following steps: forming a hazy portion before heating, by causing a surface portion of the glass rod to sublime and adhere to at least a portion of a region closer to one end of the glass rod than a region of the glass rod where the deposition portion is formed; forming the deposition portion by depositing the glass fine particles on the glass rod; and transparentizing the deposition portion by heating the glass fine particle deposition in a state where the proximal end of the glass rod where the hazy portion is formed is suspended vertically into the heating furnace. |
| US08037713B2 |
Centrifugal compressor assembly and method
A centrifugal compressor assembly for compressing refrigerant in a 250-ton capacity or larger chiller system comprising a motor, preferably a compact, high energy density motor or permanent magnet motor, for driving a shaft at a range of sustained operating speeds under the control of a variable speed drive. Another embodiment of the centrifugal compressor assembly comprises a mixed flow impeller and a vaneless diffuser sized such that a final stage compressor operates with an optimal specific speed range for targeted combinations of head and capacity, while a non-final stage compressor operates above the optimum specific speed of the final stage compressor. Another embodiment of the centrifugal compressor assembly comprises an integrated inlet flow conditioning assembly comprising a flow conditioning nose, a plurality of inlet guide vanes and a flow conditioning body that positions inlet guide vanes to condition flow of refrigerant into an impeller to achieve a target approximately constant angle swirl distribution with minimal guide vane turning. |
| US08037709B2 |
Heat pump with pressure reducer
A heat pump HVAC system with an integrated pressure reducer which reduces the head pressure of the system when operating in the cooling mode and thus reduces compressor workload. The heat pump HVAC system includes a compressor for compressing a refrigerant, an exterior coil positioned outside of a building, an interior coil positioned within the building, and a reversing valve for changing the flow direction of refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit. A heat exchanger is provided between the outlet of the exterior coil and the thermal expansion valve. The heat exchanger cools the refrigerant flowing between the outlet of the exterior coil and thermal expansion valve using refrigerant exiting the interior coil. |
| US08037708B2 |
Refrigerator and method of manufacturing the same
A refrigerator and a method for manufacturing the same. The refrigerator includes a main body which has a specified space and a open front surface, and a plate having a specified thickness, in which the plate is inserted into the main body through one side of the open front surface of the main body to sectionalize the space provided in the main body. |
| US08037706B2 |
Refrigeration device with a modular configuration for the control system and evaporator
A refrigeration device, in particular a no-frost device, refrigerator and/or freezer, comprising a thermally insulating housing containing at least one product storage compartment that can be supplied with cold air by a fan and an evaporator chamber that holds an evaporator. According to the invention, the evaporator chamber is thermally separated from the storage compartment by a partition. The device also comprises an electronic control system for controlling the refrigeration device and at least one light source for illuminating the storage compartment. The evaporator, the partition and the electronic control system and/or the evaporator, the partition and the light source are provided in the form of modules. The refrigeration device is characterized in that it is particularly reliable, works efficiently, can be cost-effectively produced and is easy to service. |
| US08037705B2 |
Termination for a superconductive cable
A termination for a superconductive cable (1) is provided, consisting of a pressure-tight metal inner container (2) in which there is a liquid refrigerant and into which the cable protrudes, and a metal outer container (3) which is separated from the inner container by an intermediate space (4) in which vacuum insulation is applied. A first rupture diaphragm (6) is applied in the wall of the inner container (2) and a second rupture diaphragm (7) is applied in the wall of the outer container (3) level with the first rupture diaphragm (6). An evacuated relief space (8), which contains superinsulation and is sealed from the intermediate space (4) with the vacuum insulation by a pressure-tight wall (9), is provided between the two rupture diaphragms (6, 7). |
| US08037702B2 |
Multistage compressor
To provide a multistage compressor including an injection circuit, which can continue high-efficiency and high-capacity operations even if the injection circuit is turned on/off in accordance with operating conditions. A multistage compressor includes a high stage side compressing mechanism suctioning the intermediate pressure refrigerant gas compressed with a low stage side compressing mechanism to perform two-stage compression, and an injection circuit for injecting an intermediate pressure refrigerant into the intermediate pressure refrigerant gas suctioned to the high stage side compressing mechanism, the high stage side compressing mechanism including a capacity control mechanism for bypassing a refrigerant gas that is being compressed to a suction side, the injection circuit including an on/off mechanism for performing on/off control of refrigerant injection, and the capacity control mechanism and the on/off mechanism being operated in conjunction with each other. |
| US08037692B2 |
Thermal generator having a magneto-caloric material
The present invention proposes a thermal generator which is non-polluting, has very good energy efficiency, is of simple and economical design and uses little energy, at the same time as being capable of further development, flexible and modular. In this thermal generator (1), the thermal elements (3) composed of magneto-calorific material each comprises two separate collector circuits (31 and 32), a “hot” collector circuit connected to a hot heat transfer fluid circuit (51) and a “cold” collector circuit (32) linked to a cold heat transfer fluid circuit (52). The heat transfer fluid is made to move alternately in one or the other of the collector circuits (31 and 32) depending on whether or not the thermal elements (3) are subjected to the magnetic field generated by the magnets (40) moving in rotation around a central axis (B) with respect to the thermal elements (3). The heat transfer fluid circuits (51 and 52) are partly incorporated in a plate (2) carrying the said thermal elements (3) and connected to external circuits which have heat exchangers (55 and 56) using the calories and frigories generated by those thermal elements (3). |
| US08037691B2 |
Deflector for a combustion chamber endwall, combustion chamber equipped therewith and turbine engine comprising them
A deflector takes the form of a plate provided with a hole. The plate is a portion of a conical surface of revolution about a cone axis with a concave face and a convex face. The plate includes a contour with four sides. Two of these the sides are concentric circular arcs centered on the cone axis. The other two sides are segments of generatrices of the cone which connect the first sides. The invention is applicable to a deflector of a chamber endwall of a combustion chamber of a turbine engine. |
| US08037690B2 |
Fuel manifold for gas turbine engine
A fuel manifold for a gas turbine engine comprises manifold adaptors each supporting a nozzle for outputting fuel from a fuel supply. The manifold adaptors have a primary conduit and a secondary conduit extending between connection ends of the manifold adaptor. The primary conduit and the secondary conduit are in fluid communication with the nozzle to supply fuel thereto. Transfer units are between adjacent manifold adaptors, and each comprises a primary transfer tube matingly connected at opposite ends to the primary conduits of the adjacent manifold adaptors for fuel circulation between the primary conduits. A secondary transfer tube in each transfer unit is matingly connected at opposite ends to the secondary conduits of the adjacent manifold adaptors for fuel circulation between the secondary conduits. A drain sleeve in each transfer unit is connected at opposite ends to the adjacent manifold adaptors. |
| US08037687B2 |
Bypass turbomachine with reduction of jet noise
In a bypass turbomachine, at least one air takeoff orifice is provided in the primary channel, said orifice leading to an air takeoff pipe housed inside an air inlet sleeve of the nacelle. The air takeoff pipe opens out in the vicinity of the pylon into two air diffusion pipes each secured to a respective maintenance cover, each air diffusion pipe opening out into an air injection pipe secured to a thrust reverser cover and itself opening out to the outside of the nacelle via the trailing edge thereof, each air injection pipe being suitable for uncoupling from the corresponding air diffusion pipe when the corresponding thrust reverser cover slides downstream. |
| US08037677B2 |
Compressed air energy storage system utilizing two-phase flow to facilitate heat exchange
A compressed-air energy storage system according to embodiments of the present invention comprises a reversible mechanism to compress and expand air, one or more compressed air storage tanks, a control system, one or more heat exchangers, and, in certain embodiments of the invention, a motor-generator. The reversible air compressor-expander uses mechanical power to compress air (when it is acting as a compressor) and converts the energy stored in compressed air to mechanical power (when it is acting as an expander). In certain embodiments, the compressor-expander comprises one or more stages, each stage consisting of pressure vessel (the “pressure cell”) partially filled with water or other liquid. In some embodiments, the pressure vessel communicates with one or more cylinder devices to exchange air and liquid with the cylinder chamber(s) thereof. Suitable valving allows air to enter and leave the pressure cell and cylinder device, if present, under electronic control. |
| US08037672B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting a non-operational status of a catalyst in an engine exhaust conduit
A quantity of unburned fuel is provided through a combustion chamber of an engine and an exhaust conduit to a catalytic converter. The catalyst in the converter is determined to be non-operational if a post-catalyst temperature sensor does not indicate a sufficient temperature increase between readings before and after provision of the unburned fuel to the combustion chamber. The unburned fuel may be provided by withholding spark ignition to create a misfire in the combustion chamber or, particularly in a direct injection engine, by injecting the fuel during the exhaust stroke. |
| US08037671B2 |
Method and device for the calibration of an exhaust gas probe, and method and device for the operation of an internal combustion engine
A plateau phase of a test signal of an exhaust gas probe located in a catalytic converter is detected following a jump from a preset rich air/fuel ratio in a combustion chamber of one cylinder to a preset lean air/fuel ratio, the plateau phase being obtained following the jump, and the duration is determined as a storage period. A plateau phase of the test signal, which is obtained following a jump from a preset lean air/fuel ratio to a preset rich air/fuel ratio, is detected following the jump, and the duration of the plateau phase is determined as an evacuation period. An allocation rule for assigning the test signal to a detected air/fuel ratio is adjusted according to the storage period and the evacuation period. To calibrate the exhaust gas probe, the allocation rule is adapted according to a plateau value of the test signal during the plateau phase. |
| US08037664B2 |
Wrapping method and unit for folding a sheet of wrapping material about a group of cigarettes
A wrapping method and unit for producing a package containing a group of cigarettes and having a cigarette extraction opening; a sheet of wrapping material, complete with the cigarette extraction opening, is fed into a pocket of a wrapping wheel so that the sheet of wrapping material folds into a U inside the pocket; then the group of cigarettes is fed into the pocket containing the U-folded sheet of wrapping material. |
| US08037661B2 |
Shuttle change system and method for wrapping apparatus
A shuttle change system for use in a wrapping apparatus for wrapping an associated item is disclosed. The wrapping apparatus includes a shuttle that moves along the inner periphery of a track dispensing a wrapping material. The shuttle change system includes a carrier and a pair of track sections mounted to the carrier. The track sections are spaced from one another and parallel to one another, each adapted to support a shuttle. The carrier is moveable vertically, longitudinally and laterally to align either of the pair of tracks with the cantilevered base portion of the track. One of the tracks is adapted to receive a shuttle to be replaced and the other of the tracks is adapted to store a replacement shuttle for movement onto the track. The carrier is movable away from the track to permit the openable track portion to open and close without interference. |
| US08037660B2 |
Method for securing a load to a pallet with a roped film web
An apparatus and method for wrapping a palletized load are provided. The apparatus preferably includes a film dispenser for dispensing a film web, at least one drive down roller configured to engage the width of the film web, and at least one roping mechanism. The at least one roping mechanism may be a cable rolling element configured to roll a portion of the film web into a rolled cable of film. The apparatus may also include an assembly for providing relative rotation between the load and the dispenser to wrap a roped portion of the film web around a base of the load/top portion of a pallet supporting the load. |
| US08037652B2 |
Insulated concrete form
There is described an apparatus for a concrete form for an insulated wall. The apparatus comprises first and second wall panels arranged in opposed spaced apart parallel relationship, each panel having an inner surface, an outer surface, an upper edge surface, a lower edge surface and end surfaces. A plurality of retainers are secured within each of said first and second panels at spaced apart intervals, each retainer including a connecting portion extending outwardly from the inner surface of each panel, and an anchoring portion. The anchoring portion includes a framework disposed within the panels, an upper connector extending upwardly from each panel's upper edge surface and a lower connector extending downwardly from each panel's lower edge surface. The upper and lower connectors are adapted to respectively engage the upper and lower connectors of the next vertically adjacent panel to securely attach the panels together. A plurality of cross webs extends between the first and second panels to tie them together, the cross webs being adapted for respective connection to the connecting portions of opposed retainers in the first and second panels. |
| US08037649B2 |
Portable steps
A step assembly that is specifically adapted to assist pets in reaching and/or descending from elevated surfaces is provided. The step assembly has two sidewalls having a plurality of openings in which pegs formed on the sides of individual treads and risers are engaged. The pegs are removably insertable into the openings and include protrusions which create an interference fit upon insertion. Because the treads, risers and side walls are joined by interlocking pegs and openings, the step assembly can be flat packed for shipping, and is easily assembled and disassembled for transportation and/or cleaning. |
| US08037647B2 |
Perforated plate seismic damper
The present invention relates to apparatus and systems for absorbing seismic energy to prevent non-linear displacement in a structure. A seismic damper according to embodiments of the present invention includes a flat plate which can be perforated to include a plurality of apertures and/or cut-outs. A central aperture is formed in the flat plate and one or more cut-outs are formed along outer edges of the flat plate. The area of the flat plate between the aperture and the cut-outs forms one or more nodes on which stresses from seismic activity are focused, and which can deform to absorb energy, thereby reducing or preventing non-linear displacement of a brace system to which the seismic damper is attached. The nodes are located at the intersection between one or more tabs, the tabs being arranged to be connected to braces within the brace system. |
| US08037646B2 |
Method for erecting a tower
An annular preform is constructed of predeterminable width and height and filled with a predeterminable quantity of a fluid grouting material. After setting of the grouting material and removal of the formwork a ring is placed on the surface of the set grouting material and a lower pylon segment is placed on the ring and connected thereto. |
| US08037644B2 |
Fire-code-compatible, collapsible partitions to prevent unwanted airflow between computer-room cold aisles and hot aisles
An arrangement for the cooling of computer data centers. More particularly, the arrangement eliminates the problems present in the uneven or inadequate cooling of computer racks due to unwanted airflows, which are encountered between so-called hot aisles and cold aisles present in a computer data center. Specifically, this problem is solved through the provision of partitions which, under normal circumstances, prevent the unwanted airflows by standing in a vertical orientation, yet which, in the event of a fire, collapse from the vertical orientation to a horizontal orientation, thereby avoiding interference with water sprays from sprinkler heads, and thus complying with fire codes and ordinances. Moreover, also employed is a method of preventing the unwanted air flows by utilization of the novel arrangement comprising the fire-code-compatible, collapsible partitions. |
| US08037642B2 |
Panel assembly including slat wall segment
A multi-configurable furniture assembly including height adjustable legs, a height adjustable pedestal support structure, a variable height foot support for cabinets and shelves and a panel wall assembly where each of the separate assemblies have finished and high quality appearances after a configuration is constructed. |
| US08037641B2 |
Gutter guard
A gutter guard for preventing the entrance of debris into the trough of a gutter includes an outwardly convex portion extending lengthwise over the trough of the gutter. A plurality of hoods extend upwardly from the outwardly convex portion and over lie a first set of apertures. The upwardly extending hoods direct water flowing over the convex portion through the first set of apertures. A second set of apertures outwardly from the first set of apertures has downwardly extending hoods underlying, such downwardly extending hoods deflecting water on the inner surface of the outwardly convex portion. |
| US08037640B2 |
Window surround module
A window surround module (10) for installation to the perimeter of a window opening (120, 248) in a motor vehicle door panel (118, 244) comprises individual window surround components that are fabricated into a unitary structure. The individual components include two or more of a header molding (16, 130), a bell molding (18, 132), a mirror base (12, 28, 140), a B-pillar trim piece (14, 134), a glass run channel (150, 260), a wire harness (264), a wire harness support (262), seals (24, 200, 202, 2004), a mirror (30, 114), and a window (122, 246). At least some of the components are molded together to form a unit to which other components are mounted. |
| US08037636B2 |
Bottom snagging sinker
A bottom snagging sinker kit includes a retaining ring, a series of anchor wires and a nose. Rather than manufacture a wide range of specially designed sinkers having weights of different size, a bottom snagging sinker is assembled from the kit by using a standard sinker weight of the type having a passage therethrough. A fisherman or other person may assemble the sinker by connecting the retaining ring to the sinker weight with a connector, such as a cotter pin. The anchor wires are assembled to the nose or between the nose and the retaining ring. The nose is then attached to the retaining ring. When the sinker is cast into water, the sinker descends to the bottom where the anchor wires are aimed generally at the fisherman to minimize movement of the sinker. When the fisherman pulls on the fishing line, the anchor wires deflect to a position allowing easy retrieval of the sinker. |
| US08037634B2 |
Gun sight featuring point-to-point alignment
A gun sight system featuring point-to-point visual alignment is provided. A front sight coupled to a forward end of a gun includes a top sighting point and optionally lateral sighting points. A rear sight coupled to a rearward end of the gun includes a pair of spaced apart rear lateral sighting points each visually alignable with and visually touching one of the front lateral sighting points or the top sighting point for visually touching the top sighting point with a target while simultaneously visually aligning at least one of the rear lateral sighting points with a point on the front sight. |
| US08037633B1 |
Handguard system for firearms
A handguard used on a firearm with a barrel nut having tines spaced about the outer periphery. The handguard includes a tubular body in which the inner surface adjacent the proximal end has a diameter larger than an outer diameter of the barrel nut and smaller than a diameter defined by the outer tips of the tines. Grooves are defined in the inner surface and extend longitudinally from the proximal end toward the distal end. The grooves are spaced apart around the periphery so as to correspond with the tines on the barrel nut. The body further has a circumferentially extending channel in the inner surface, spaced from the proximal end so as to receive the tines therein with the barrel nut in the tightened position to allow limited rotation of the body around the barrel relative to the barrel nut until the tines are aligned behind lands between the grooves. |
| US08037630B2 |
Bracket for hanging banner on vertical pole
An apparatus, method, and system for holding a device along the side of a relatively tall pole. The apparatus includes, in one aspect, a hanger bracket adapted to removably mount to the pole. A frame to which the device can be mounted is attached to the hanger bracket. In one embodiment, the frame has first and second cross-arms and an elongated member spacing the cross-arms from each other. In another aspect, a second hanger bracket can be used to further connect the frame to a pole. A locking device can be used to lock at least one of the hanging brackets to the pole. In a further aspect of the invention, the device is a banner or sheet-like device. In another aspect of the invention, the bracket and/or banner is in combination with the pole and/or device. |
| US08037627B2 |
Iron
An iron comprising a water tank, a blast unit, a steam generating unit and a steam spraying unit. The blast unit has a first inlet and a first outlet, the first inlet is connected to the inlet-pipe of the inlet of the water tank, wherein the blast unit generates steam rapidly in a limited space. The steam generating unit has a second inlet and a second outlet, the second inlet being connected to the inlet-pipe of the inlet of the water tank, wherein the steam generating unit heats the water to generate steam. The steam spraying unit connects the first and second outlet, has plural steam apertures, and sprays steam. Because a blast unit is arranged for the rapid steam generation in a limited space, the iron of the present invention obviates the disadvantages in the existing irons and improves steam blast strength, intensity at a low cost. |
| US08037622B2 |
Cushion improved structure of shoe ventilating insole
A cushion improved structure of shoe ventilating insole comprises a top insole having air inlet and outlet ports, a bottom insole and a middle smaller area foam pad, wherein said top insole adhered with a cloth or leather and made of plastic material is integrally formed with a raised face on top of the heel area at the top surface thereof, and a plurality of air inlet ports are made at lower peripheral edge of said raised face, further, several grooves in any arbitrary shapes having a plurality of air outlet ports at the inside bottoms thereof is integrally made on the front sole area, and a larger density foam pad is distributingly punched with several small holes while unpressed arch area of foot is densely punched with several big holes, whereby the enhanced smooth air flow and best air change effect due to increased air volume are obtained. |
| US08037621B2 |
Article of footwear including a woven strap system
An article of footwear including a woven strap system is disclosed. The woven strap system preferably wraps along the entirety of the outsole, including a bottom side and an outer periphery. The article of footwear also includes a midsole that rests inside the woven strap system, just above the outsole. |
| US08037620B2 |
Pulse combustion dryer apparatus and methods
The present inventions relate to pulse combustion dryer apparatus and associated methods. The pulse combustion dryer apparatus may include a combustor that defines a combustion chamber that is in fluid communication with a tailpipe passage defined by a tailpipe. An air inlet communicates air into the combustion chamber through an air inlet passage. A fluid diode disposed within the air inlet passage allows airflow into the combustion chamber through the air inlet passage, and may generally prevent backflow of heated combustion products from the combustion chamber through the air inlet passage. |
| US08037619B2 |
Air intake structure for hand dryers of high airflow pressure
An air intake structure is located on an airflow guiding casing of a hand dryer communicating with gaps formed between motor blades in the airflow guiding casing. It includes a flow directing frame located on the airflow guiding casing, an axle located in the center of the flow directing frame and a plurality of flow directing blades located between the flow directing frame and the axle. |
| US08037616B2 |
Multiple display electronic caliper
In addition to other aspects disclosed, a caliper is configured to measure at least one physical dimension. The caliper has a display configured to present a first representation and a second representation of a measurement provided by the caliper. The format of the first representation is different from the format of the second representation, and the first representation is approximately simultaneously displayed with the second representation. |
| US08037611B2 |
Rotary knife with blade bushing
A powered rotary knife includes a handle, a blade housing, an annular blade, and a blade bushing for rotatably mounting the blade within the housing. The blade housing includes an inner groove that is operable to receive the blade bushing therein. The blade housing and blade bushing are split in order to expand and receive the blade. The blade includes an outer groove that is also operable to receive the blade bushing. Thus, the blade bushing is spaced between the blade housing and blade and rotatably secures the blade within the blade housing. |
| US08037608B2 |
Razor with clamp force housing for battery
Razor handles are provided, for razors having a battery-powered functionality. The razor handles include a housing constructed to hold a battery, and, within the housing, a carrier including a pair of battery clamp fingers configured to exert a clamping force against the battery when the battery is in place in the housing. |
| US08037607B2 |
Process for producing conductive rubber roller, and roller for electrophotographic apparatus
A process for producing a conductive rubber roller having a conductive core material and a rubber layer provided thereon. The rubber layer contains at least acrylonitrile rubber, epichlorohydrin rubber and a blowing agent, and has a gas generation rate of from 2 ml/g·min to 4 ml/g·min at 170° C. to 230° C. The process has a vulcanizing and foaming step of vulcanizing and foaming the rubber layer by using a microwave vulcanizing furnace which provides hot air and irradiation with microwaves. A temperature of a heating atmosphere in the microwave vulcanizing furnace in the vulcanizing and foaming step is so controlled that a ratio of initial vulcanizing time T10 to initial foaming time Tp10, T10/Tp10, of the rubber layer is from 1 or more to less than 3 and the T10 is within 90 seconds. |
| US08037605B2 |
Piezoelectric inkjet printhead and method of manufacturing the same
Provided are a piezoelectric inkjet printhead and a method of manufacturing the same. The piezoelectric inkjet printhead includes first and second single-crystalline silicon substrates. An ink flow path is disposed in a first surface of the first substrate. The ink flow path includes an ink introduction port, a manifold for supplying ink, a plurality of pressure chambers filled with ink to be ejected, a plurality of restrictors for connecting the manifold with the plurality of pressure chambers, respectively, and a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink. The second substrate is bonded to the first substrate to thereby complete the ink flow path. A plurality of piezoelectric actuators are disposed on a second surface of the first substrate to correspond to each of the pressure chambers and provide drivability required for ejecting ink to the respective pressure chambers. In this construction, aligning the first and second substrates is unnecessary, so that the manufacturing process can be simplified, the manufacturing cost can be reduced, and ink ejecting performance can be improved. |
| US08037603B2 |
Ink jet head and producing method therefor
An ink jet head producing method includes forming a first flow path forming member in a portion constituting a flow path side wall, which constitutes at least a partitioning portion between flow paths on a substrate; forming a pattern as a mold for the flow path, the pattern being formed over the substrate and a portion of the first flow path forming member; forming a second flow path forming member on the first flow path forming member and the pattern, the second flow path forming member being formed of a material corresponding to the first flow path forming member; forming the discharge port in the second flow path forming member; and forming the flow path by removing the pattern. |
| US08037602B2 |
Methods of making energy efficient cookware
Techniques for designing and creating energy efficient cookware are provided. In accordance with the techniques cookware can include a cookware base having a cooking surface and heating surface. The heating surface can have a pattern of fins forming heat exchange channels. The fins can effectively increase surface area and the channels can guide thermal energy to the perimeter of the cookware base while the fins absorb the thermal energy. The channel fins can improve energy transfer while providing even distribution throughout the cooking surface. The use of fins can also improve the mechanical strength to the cookware. Methods of making the energy efficient cookware are provided. A piece of cookware with a thick base can be provided by casting and by bonding a metal plate to the cookware body. Within the base, heat exchange channels are created by manufacturing processes such as casting or cutting to improve heat transfer. |
| US08037599B2 |
Method for removing a cable core from a cable sheath
The invention relates to a method for removing a cable core from a cable sheath, which cable core comprises an envelope (8), wherein, at an end of the cable (1), a flowable medium (22) is introduced under pressure into the cable tube (9) so as to reduce friction, and a tensile force (F) is exerted on the cable core at an end (5) of the cable (1). To provide a method by which existing cables can be freed from their core in as quick and inexpensive a manner as possible, it is provided for the flowable medium to be introduced precisely targeted into the annular space between the inner side of the cable sheath and the envelope (8) of the cable core. |
| US08037598B2 |
Method of repetitively accomplishing mechanical action of a tool member
A method of repetitively accomplishing mechanical action of a tool member by drivingly engaging the tool member with one end of a compression spring, manually applying incrementally increasing force to the other end of the compression spring until the mechanical action of the tool member is completed, and utilizing an electronic measurement of the force level within the compression spring for repetitively reproducing the mechanical action. |
| US08037596B2 |
Method for manufacturing a wiring board
A wiring board includes: an uppermost wiring layer formed on a prescribed number of underlying wiring layers, a portion of the uppermost wiring layer being exposed and used as a pad for connection with a component to be mounted; and an insulation resin layer covering the uppermost wiring layer, wherein the thickness of the portion of the uppermost wiring layer is larger than that of other portions thereof. |
| US08037595B2 |
Hairpin expander machine for manufacturing tube and fin heat exchangers with reduced tube diameter
An improved hairpin expander machine equipped with a closed-loop-controlled hydraulically positioned bolster plate and a heat exchanger-holding fixture characterized by a full-length, continuous front plate, back plate, and side rails. The hairpin expander includes a novel heat exchanger bottom end plate clamping mechanism as part of the fixture. These features enable the hairpin expander to provide larger expansion ratios and exert greater forces with tighter control, which is required for producing heat exchangers with reduced diameter hairpin tubes according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. |
| US08037586B2 |
Method for fabricating blind via structure of substrate
A method for fabricating a blind via structure of a substrate is provided. First, a substrate is provided, which includes a conductive layer, a metal layer, and a dielectric layer disposed between the conductive layer and the metal layer. Next, a cover layer is formed on the conductive layer. Finally, the substrate formed with the cover layer is irradiated by a laser beam to form at least one blind via structure extending from the cover layer to the metal layer. The blind via structure includes a first opening, a second opening, and a third opening linking to one another. The first opening passes through the cover layer. The second opening passes through the conductive layer. The third opening passes through the dielectric layer. For example, a size of the first opening is greater than a size of the second opening and a size of the third opening. |
| US08037585B2 |
Pulling-off device
A device for dismounting the neck bush (4), the bearing bush (5), and the chock (6) from the conically constructed region of the roll neck (2) of a roll (1), where a pressure shoulder ring (8), which is supported on the end face of the neck bush (4), is installed on a roll neck shoulder (3) of the roll (1), is to be improved in such a way that it can be built very short and that it can carry out the dismounting movement with very small pressures of a pressure medium. To this end, it is proposed that a gap (11) be provided between the pressure shoulder ring (8) and the end face (7) of the roll neck (2), that the pressure shoulder ring (8) be coupled with the neck bush (4), and that at least one pressure medium for removing the neck bush (4) and the chock (6) be provided in the gap (11). |
| US08037579B2 |
Cable tie sleeve
A sleeve adapted to be placed over a cable tie, in which the cable tie has an elongated flexible strap, a locking head coupled to the strap, and structure carried by the strap that is adapted to be engaged with the head to lock the strap and head together. The sleeve has an elongated body that defines an open-ended longitudinal cavity that is sized and shaped to accept the strap, so that the sleeve can be removably engaged along the length of the strap, and a pair of spaced protrusions extending from the body so as to define a receiving recess located between the protrusions and the sleeve body. |
| US08037577B2 |
Tool handle
A handle for hand tools, the handle comprises a grip member including a first end having a first receiving section and a second end, with the first receiving section opened to the distal of the first end; a storage unit including a storage member slideably received in the first end of the grip member and a shifted member pivotally connected to the storage member and fitted on an opening of the first receiving section so that the shifted member is adapted to be gripped to draw the storage unit out from the grip member; wherein when the shifted member in an original position, it hooks both of the first end of the grip member and the storage member as to prevent the storage unit detaching from the grip member; and a shank member tightly coupled to the second end of the grip member. |
| US08037574B2 |
Furniture-glide assembly
A glide assembly is adapted to be mounted about an existing foot attached to the free end of a leg of a piece of furniture that is adapted to be supported upon a surface. The glide assembly includes a body defining an exterior surface and a bore extending partially through the body to define a hollow interior, an interior surface, a top, open end of the body, and a bottom, closed end of the body disposed opposite the open end. An insert assembly is mountable about the foot and adapted to be received through the open end and fixedly secured within the hollow interior of the body so as to mount the body about the foot. A cap is designed to be replaceably attached to the closed end of the body and adapted to engage the surface upon which the leg is supported. |
| US08037568B2 |
Windshield wiper assembly
A windshield wiper assembly is provided that includes a pair of leaf spring elements supported generally parallel to each other with a space therebetween, each leaf spring element having a locating hole at an intermediate portion thereof, a flexible blade supported within the space between the leaf spring elements, and a bracket fixed to the intermediate portion of the pair of leaf spring elements and supporting said pair of leaf spring elements to provide the space therebetween. The bracket includes a pair of pressure distribution tabs, each pressure distribution tab extending from opposite sides of the bracket, and each pressure distribution tab being received in a corresponding one of the locating holes of the pair of leaf spring elements to locate the bracket at the intermediate portion of the pair of leaf spring elements. |
| US08037567B1 |
Hydro turbo clean power washer
A rotary elliptically shaped head, free spinning, designed to be attached to a pressurized hose, fluid driven. When activated, the fluid is directed thru the head, striking internal longitudinal fins the cause the had to spin longitudinally, at high speed. The fluid is released thru holes in the head, which by the same centrifugal force driving the head along rows of bristles. When applied to a desire surface the head will scrub and clean the surface. |
| US08037560B2 |
Portable, inflatable cushion
Presented herein is a portable cushion that is divided into multiple inner cells, said structure comprising a base layer, at least two columns of at least two inflatable cells each disposed on said base layer, a lightweight, portable air pressure generator for supplying air to the cushion, and a hose to connect said cushion to said air pressure generator, wherein the inflating sequence of the cushion enables one layer of cells to fully inflate before the subsequent layer of cells is able to inflate. |
| US08037558B1 |
Wash basin drain structure
A wash basin drain structure includes a tightening assembly, a control rod assembly, a drain pipe, and a plug. A threaded top ring of the fastening assembly relative to a threaded annular seat is screwed reversely to push an anti-leakage washer of the drain pipe upward, so that the threaded top ring and a washer are against the bottom of the wash basin and resilient portions of the resilient ring engages with a non-slip portion of the drain pipe. When a threaded fixing member in a threaded hole of a fixing seat of the control rod assembly is screwed inward, the end of the threaded fixing member will hold against the body of the drain pipe and pull an inner pipe portion of the fixing seat to seal and engage with an insertion hole of the drain pipe. A magnetic end head of a link rod of the control rod assembly is attracted to connect with a magnetic portion of a plug body of the plug to act as a lever. The present invention can be assembled with ease. |
| US08037555B2 |
Bathtub cushion with elastomeric gel and method of using same
A bathtub cushion has a mat sized and shaped to fit on a bottom of a bathtub. A cushion is coupled to and constrained by the mat. The cushion further comprises a plurality of separate and distinct cushions. The mat circumscribes the plurality of separate and distinct cushions. At least one attachment device is coupled to the mat to retain the mat on the bottom of the bathtub. The mat and the cushion include at least one aperture extending therethrough. |
| US08037554B2 |
Apparatus for flush toilet
A toilet flush regulator mechanism driving the discharge of water from the flush tank together with the change of geometrical positioning of the curve that forms the toilet siphon; the driving is performed through a system of stems and plates connected among each other by rods, springs and pins joined to the toilet's movable siphon which goal is saving and rationalize the waste of water during the flush. The system works by acting on a driving lever (3) which simultaneously opens the flush storage tank to empty it and moves the curve (10), acting as siphon, to evacuate the toilet bowl into the building's sewer inlet (12) line. While emptying the flush tank the stem with float (1) frees the movement of the other parts joined to it closing the flush tank so it can be filled again, bringing all the mechanism's parts and the curve (10) to the resting initial position. |
| US08037552B2 |
Flush toilet
A flush toilet is provided having a bowl portion with a bowl-shaped waste-receiving surface and a rim portion the inside wall surface on the top edge of which protrudes inward. A trap pipe is connected to the bottom portion of the bowl portion. A first shelf portion is formed to follow the rim and a second shelf portion is formed on the waste receiving surface below the first shelf portion projecting above the initial accumulated water level. An orifice for issuing water into the first shelf portion and forming a swirl flow in the waste receiving surface is provided along with a second orifice for issuing water into the second shelf portion for forming a flow to swirl water within the bowl portion is further provided with first and second flow paths for respectively supplying water to the first and second orifices. |
| US08037551B2 |
Programmable automatic flushometer
Methods for communicating with an automatic flush valve device. The automatic flush device having a variety of operational modes which can be selected from to control the operation of the device. The communication from the automatic flush device providing a user with information regarding the status of the flush valve device. |
| US08037550B2 |
Stretchable chemical protective material
A stretchable chemical protective material is described comprising a selectively permeable chemical protective film and an elastic textile. Further described are methods for making a stretchable chemical protective material and methods of using the same. Materials made from these methods may have improved flex durability. Garments made from these materials may have improved heat loss. |
| US08037544B2 |
Self-securing garment
The application is directed to self-securing garments designed to be donned quickly and safely secured to the body in a matter of seconds. Described are garments having an opening in the back terminating at two opposite edges. Attached to the outside of the garment is at least one flexible elongated band at least partially comprised of a shape-memory material. The ends of the band are formed into dual, oppositely wound coils. To use, the wearer puts on the garment as usual and, grasping a flexible coil in each hand, pulls them so that they unwind and elongate while simultaneously wrapping them around the sides of the body. Upon release, the shape-memory material causes the coil to contract, thus embracing the body and holding the garment between the body and the uncoiled band. The garment can have one or more coiled bands, such as at the waist, chest, or neck, to secure the garment closely to the body quickly and without assistance. |
| US08042193B1 |
Systems and methods for controlling data access by use of a universal anonymous identifier
A universal anonymous data collection and exchange service is provided where individuals and entities initially register with the service utilizing “legally authentic” identity documentation to obtain a “universal ID” (UXID). The UXID consists of a sting of alphanumeric digits selected from a hash function that is performed on a string of personally identifying information. Once registered, the individual and entity UXIDs are used as a means by the service to engage in a pre-defined confidential data collection and exchange protocol between participating, registered UXID holders. The service is designed for use across many applications, individuals and entities, and may support one-time or recurring collection of data. |
| US08042191B2 |
Image capture apparatus
An image capture apparatus captures an image, and performs an authentication process with an external device. The image capture apparatus encrypts a captured image to generate an encrypted image if the authentication unit succeeds in performing the authentication process, and stores the encrypted image in a recording medium. The image capture apparatus displays whether the authentication unit succeeded in performing the authentication process, and whether the external device includes key information used in encrypting the captured image. |
| US08042189B2 |
System and method to force a mobile device into a secure state
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for implementation on a mobile device to force the mobile device into a secure state upon detection or determination of a triggering event. Once it is determined that a triggering event has occurred, each application operating on the mobile device is caused to immediately unreference sensitive objects and a secure garbage collection operation is performed upon the unreferenced sensitive objects to render data associated therewith unreadable. The mobile device is then caused to enter a secure state, in which the mobile device cannot be accessed without authorization. A microprocessor within the mobile device is configured to determine the existence of the triggering event according to a configuration data structure and to perform the secure garbage collection. |
| US08042186B1 |
System and method for detection of complex malware
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for detection of malware with complex infection patterns. The system provides enhanced protection against malware by identifying potentially harmful software objects, monitoring execution of various processes and threads of potentially harmful objects, compiling contexts of events of execution of the monitored processes and threads, and merging contexts of related processes and threads. Based on the analysis of the individual and merged object contexts using malware behavior rules, the system allows detection of malicious objects that have simple and complex behavior patterns. |
| US08042177B2 |
Method and system for requiring authorization for a job prior to processing
A method, computer readable medium, and for requiring external authorization for a job prior to processing includes determining for a job if external authorization for at least one is item is approved and processing the job if the determining if external authorization is approved determines that the external authorization for the at least one item is approved. |
| US08042172B1 |
Remote access architecture enabling a client to perform an operation
Enabling a client computer to perform an operation is disclosed. Login information is received from a client computer. The login information is confirmed by querying a trusted agent on the client computer. |
| US08042171B1 |
Providing continuing service for a third-party network site during adverse network conditions
A method for providing protective assistance to a network site is presented. As implemented by a network protection service communicatively coupled to the network site via a network, the method comprises monitoring for a condition to provide protective assistance to the network site. Upon detecting that condition, the method includes causing network traffic directed to the network site be rerouted to the network protection service. Further still, determination is made as to whether a request in the rerouted network traffic corresponds to a request for information cached in a data store and, if so, responding with the cached information from the data store. Yet further, a portion of the rerouted network traffic is forwarded to the network site, the forwarded rerouted network traffic not including the request for cached information found in the data store. |
| US08042168B2 |
Computer maintenance method and system
Provided is a method of remotely maintaining a computer system connected to a first private network of a first organization from a maintenance computer connected to a second private network of a second organization. The first and second private networks are connected to a public network and protected from the public network by respective first and second external firewalls. The first private network is separated from the computer system using a separation firewall configured to block network traffic that initiates at the computer system and is directed to the first private network. An isolation pipe is established that extends from the separation firewall over the first private network to the first external firewall, using virtual-private-network technology. A request to log into the computer system is transmitted from the maintenance computer through the isolation pipe to the computer system. |
| US08042163B1 |
Secure storage access using third party capability tokens
A method for revocable token identifiers may be employed in a shared storage environment. An access server may generate access tokens and include revocable token identifiers previously obtained from storage devices. When clients present access tokens to storage devices during storage requests, storage devices may check the validity of access tokens by verifying that the revocable token identifiers were previously issued to the access server. An access server may request that the storage device revoke revocable token identifiers. Storage devices may deny any future storage requests including revoked token identifiers. Additionally, an access token may include instructions specifying operations for a storage device to perform in conjunction with a storage request. A trusted server may issue grantor tokens granting permissions for access servers to use when issuing access tokens. An access server may then include such a grantor token in access tokens that it generates and issues to clients. |
| US08042157B2 |
System for restricting data access
A filter is arranged to selectively block or allow a data access command from an initiator according to whether the initiator is secure or insecure and whether a data source or destination being accessed is privileged or unprivileged. The data access command contains an identification of the initiator from which the data access command originated and an identification of the data source or destination being accessed. The security filter compares the initiator identification and data source or destination identification contained within the data access command with a list of those initiators defined as secure and a list of those data sources or destinations which are defined as unprivileged. The filter then blocks or allows the data access command signal according to a set of rules. |
| US08042152B2 |
Home network system
A home network system including a server apparatus and an apparatus, which are capable of communicating therebetween, each of which has an authentication ID control unit equipped with an authentication ID storage unit for storing an authentication ID given from an authentication ID giving unit. Connection between the server apparatus and the client apparatus is established by the authentication ID control unit when the given authentication IDs match with each other, wherein the authentication ID giving unit includes a remote control unit capable of communicating with the server apparatus and the client apparatus by using an infrared ray and gives an identical authentication ID to the server apparatus or the client apparatus on the basis of a predetermined input operation. |
| US08042149B2 |
Systems and methods for message threat management
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for detecting unsolicited and threatening communications and communicating threat information related thereto. Threat information is received from one or more sources; such sources can include external security databases and threat information data from one or more application and/or network layer security systems. The received threat information is reduced into a canonical form. Features are extracted from the reduced threat information; these features in conjunction with configuration data such as goals are used to produce rules. In some embodiments, these rules are tested against one or more sets of test data and compared against the same or different goals; if one or more tests fail, the rules are refined until the tests succeed within an acceptable margin of error. The rules are then propagated to one or more application layer security systems. |
| US08042137B2 |
Continuous selection graphs
A continuous selection graph can be displayed as a graphical user interface, where the continuous selection graph includes a similarity continuum to indicate media content that is progressively similar, and includes an axis of identifying criteria for the media content. The axis of identifying criteria for the media content associates the media content along the similarity continuum, where the axis of identifying criteria is displayed perpendicular to the similarity continuum. |
| US08042132B2 |
System and method for construction, delivery and display of iTV content
iTV content is created and deployed using a server component adapted to allow content developers to create applications according to an authoring specification that describes a framework for same; a transport component configured to optimize and deliver the applications to one or more clients; and a client component adapted to render the applications through a television so as to permit user interaction therewith. The authoring specification provides for the presentation of content through one or more templates defined therein, allowing application definition and behavior to remain common across multiple client device types, middleware platforms, and/or iTV operating environments. The framework for applications accommodates advertising, promotions, content placement packages and/or programming campaign definitions, so as to permit a selection of a specific advertisement, promotion or content at a time of preparation of the iTV content by the server, and/or a time of execution of the applications by the client. |
| US08042131B2 |
Scheduling and presenting IPG ads in conjunction with programming ads in a television environment of application
A method and system whereby conventional television advertisements (i.e., those delivered to viewers while they watch television programming) can be delivered in conjunction with and correlated with advertisements that are presented to viewers in the Interactive Program Guide (IPG). Moreover, the invention described herein provides for delivering highly targeted ads to viewers in both conventional programming avails and in the IPG, and for linking the targeted ads in these two media to provide for enhanced and highly effective advertising campaigns. |
| US08042124B2 |
Optical disk drive
An optical disk drive includes a body, a tray, a first fastening structure, and a second fastening structure. The body has an opening. The tray is coupled to the body and movable at the opening. The first fastening structure is disposed at the body, and the second fastening structure is disposed at the tray. When the tray is situated in the body, the first fastening structure and second fastening structure are correspondingly fastened to each other to restrict the displacement of the tray along the vertical direction in the body. |
| US08042121B2 |
Methods and systems for burning compact discs
Various methods and systems provide a media player application that is integrated with CD burning functionality. In some embodiments, the CD burning functionality is accessed via a collection of application program interfaces (APIs) that are called by the media player application. The media player application and APIs can be incorporated within an operating system. Because of the integration between the media player application and the CD burning functionality, the user can be provided with a great deal of feedback during the CD burning process. In one embodiment, a user interface (UI) provides a single pane through which a user can access the media player application and its CD burning functionality. Feedback can be provided to the user via the single pane UI. |
| US08042117B2 |
Operating system switching control device and computer system
In a computer system according to the present invention, a switch-source OS controller unit includes: a OS switch request receiver unit configured to receive an OS switch request for requesting that the switch-destination OS in a suspend status becomes the OS in the active status; a switch event notifying unit configured to notify event information to the switch-destination OS or an application on the switch-destination OS, the event information being included in the received OS switch request, and requesting the switch-destination OS or the application on the switch-destination OS to perform a process; and a switch controller unit configured to call the OS switching function, by using the event information as an argument, so that the switch-destination OS becomes the OS in the active status. |
| US08042112B1 |
Scheduler for search engine crawler
A search engine crawler includes a distributed set of schedulers that are associated with one or more segments of document identifiers (e.g., URLs) corresponding to documents on a network (e.g., WWW). Each scheduler handles the scheduling of document identifiers (for crawling) for a subset of the known document identifiers. Using a starting set of document identifiers, such as the document identifiers crawled (or scheduled for crawling) during the most recent completed crawl, the scheduler removes from the starting set those document identifiers that have been unreachable in each of the last X crawls. Other filtering mechanisms may also be used to filter out some of the document identifiers in the starting set. The resulting list of document identifiers is written to a scheduled output file for use in a next crawl cycle. |
| US08042110B1 |
Dynamic grouping of application components
Application boundary decomposition and dynamic grouping of application components may provide a user with a task-oriented, user-configurable, dynamic user interface. An operating system may include various individual application components and a user may be able to organize the application components to create custom task groupings for performing specific tasks. The components of a single task grouping may be displayed within a single task frame or border. Alternatively, the components may be displayed upon on the user's desktop without such a border along with other desktop icons. Application components may be dynamically rearranged, either by the user or automatically in response to user context changes or according to a priority relationship among the application components. Additionally, multiple application components may access a single shared copy of data and task groupings may be shared among different users using different computer systems. |
| US08042108B2 |
Virtual machine migration between servers
A virtual machine is migrated between two servers. A method, at the first server, dismounts a volume on which all the files relating to the virtual machine are stored, and which was previously mounted at the first server. The method, at the second server, mounts the volume on which all the files relating to the virtual machine are stored, so that the second server can host the virtual machine. In this way, the virtual machine can be migrated without having to copy all the files from the first server to the second server. The files relating to the virtual machine are stored on a storage-area network (SAN). |
| US08042107B2 |
System and method for expediting and automating mainframe computer setup
The present invention preferably automates mainframe computer operating system upgrades by automatically installing a base operating system on the mainframe system, performing information-gathering of an existing mainframe computer system, using the information to recreate the environment settings of the existing system, and providing a series of directives typically required of a skilled mainframe computer systems programmer for an IPL. By preparing a mainframe computer system to automatically perform an IPL, and, thereafter, automating a series of configuration process to install optional products, the present invention decreases the amount of time and operator skill-level requirements for prior art mainframe computer operating system upgrades. |
| US08042105B1 |
Multiple configurable customization layer system, method and computer program product
A system, method and computer program product are provided for customizing a core program. In use, a core program is provided. In addition, a plurality of configurable customization layers are provided, each for customizing at least one aspect of the core program or one of the configurable customization layers. |
| US08042102B2 |
Method and system for autonomic monitoring of semaphore operations in an application
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product in a data processing system are presented for using hardware assistance for gathering performance information that significantly reduces the overhead in gathering such information. Performance indicators are associated with instructions or memory locations, and processing of the performance indicators enables counting of events associated with execution of those instructions or events associated with accesses to those memory locations. The performance information that has been dynamically gathered from the assisting hardware is available to the software application during runtime in order to autonomically affect the behavior of the software application, particularly to enhance its performance. For example, the counted events may be used to autonomically collecting statistical information about the ability of a software application to successfully acquire a semaphore. |
| US08042099B2 |
Facilitating availability of object data types at runtime
A method and apparatus for facilitating availability of object data types at runtime are described. In one embodiment, the method may include parsing debug information generated by a compiler for a software program, identifying in the debug information desired data types and objects associated with the desired data types, and creating for each desired data type an object list including references to associated objects. The method may further include adding resulting object lists to a set of object files generated by the compiler for the software program. The set of object files with the added object lists may then be used by a linker when creating an executable file for the software program. |
| US08042095B2 |
Application development environment with features for increasing the ease and efficiency of viewing function help text
One embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for increasing a user's ease and efficiency of viewing help text related to a function or method call. An application development environment (ADE) may display a prototype tip for a function in a source code window when the user is currently creating or editing a function call to that function. The prototype tip may include a button or other GUI element which the user may click or operate to cause help text for the function and/or help text for one or more parameters of the function to be displayed. The help text that is displayed in response to the user's request may appear in or appear overlayed on the source code window. The help text may be displayed in a convenient location near the current function call. |
| US08042092B2 |
Method for generating an executable workflow code from an unstructured cyclic process model
A method for generating an executable workflow code from an unstructured cyclic process model. The method comprises the following steps. First a continuation equation system is generated from the unstructured cyclic process model. Then, the executable workflow code is generated from the continuation equation system, wherein therefore, the continuation equation system is solved by means of transformation rules. |
| US08042090B2 |
Integrated configuration of cross organizational business processes
Embodiments of configuring elements of a first enterprise system (ES) and a second ES in mechanisms are described generally herein. For example, in an enterprise system (ES) module for a first ES may include a plurality of configurable elements and a configuration module. The configuration of a first configurable element of the plurality of configurable elements may affect the configuration of a second configurable element of a second ES. The configuration module may configure the a portion of the plurality of the configurable elements of the first ES based on a configuration of the first configurable element. The configuration module may further and generate a configuration element information (CEI) message for the second ES that includes an indication of the configuration of the first configurable element. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US08042084B1 |
Generating factorization permutations of natural numbers and performing circuit design exploration
A method of determining a factorization permutation for a natural number can include storing a canonical prime factor vector within memory of a system and storing a first basis vector within the memory. The method can include deriving a first count sequence, including a plurality of counts, from the first basis vector, wherein each count of the first count sequence is a child of the first basis vector. For each count of the first count sequence, a second basis vector can be output that is a child of the count, wherein each count of the first count sequence and child second basis vector specifies a factorization permutation of the natural number. |
| US08042079B1 |
Synchronization for a modeling system
Design synchronization for a High-Level Modeling System (“HLMS”) of an integrated circuit device (“IC”) is described. In a method for generating a netlist, a description of a first circuit block of a user design is input to a programmed computer system programmed with a computer-aided modeling system. The description includes output port information of the first circuit block and synchronization signal information. The computer-aided modeling system selects a circuit core for the first circuit block responsive to output port information and the synchronization signal information, the circuit core including port metadata. The computer-aided modeling system selects at least one macro responsive to the port metadata for generation of the netlist. The macro is for rate synchronized coupling of the first circuit block to a second circuit block of the user design. The computer-aided modeling system outputs the netlist including the macro. |
| US08042074B2 |
Circuit design device, circuit design program, and circuit design method
A circuit design device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a processor performing operations of: extracting flip-flops each receiving a first clock and a control signal, from flip-flops represented in a first hardware description representing a circuit; generating a second hardware description by replacing the first clock received by each of the extracted flip-flops with a second clock; and generating a third hardware description by inserting, into the second hardware description, data of a control circuit to stop supply of the second clock based on the first clock and the control signal. |
| US08042072B2 |
Power mesh for multiple frequency operation of semiconductor products
The design of integrated circuits, i.e., semiconductor products, is made easier with a semiconductor platform having versatile power mesh that is capable of supporting simultaneous operations having different frequencies on the semiconductor product; e.g., higher frequency operations may be embedded as diffused blocks within the lower layers or may be programmed from a configurable transistor fabric above the diffused layers. Preferably the power mesh is located above the layers having the operations requiring the different frequencies, and may be fixed in an application set given to a chip designer or may be configurable by the designer her/himself. For example, to support high speed communications adjacent an embedded high speed data transceiver, the transistor fabric may be programmed as a data link layer having higher performance requirements than the rest of the integrated circuit. The data link layer may be connected to one of the localized grids of the versatile power mesh which may have an increased density and/or wider strap width of a power/ground grid. Additional decoupling capacitance can be embedded in the lower layers of the semiconductor product and/or can be programmed from the configurable transistors fabric. |
| US08042069B2 |
Method for selectively amending layout patterns
A method to selectively amend a layout pattern is disclosed. First, a layout pattern including at least a first group and a second group is provided, wherein each one of the first group and the second group respectively includes multiple members. Second, a simulation procedure and an amendment procedure are respectively performed on all the members of the first group and the second group to obtain an amended first group and an amended second group. Then, the amended first group and the amended second group are verified as being on target or not. Afterwards, the layout pattern including the on target amended first group and the on target amended second group is output. |
| US08042067B2 |
Pattern forming method and system, and method of manufacturing a semiconductor device
A pattern forming method of forming a desired pattern on a semiconductor substrate is disclosed, which comprises extracting a first pattern of a layer, extracting a second pattern of one or more layers overlapped with the layer, the second pattern being arranged close to or overlapped with the first pattern, calculating a distance between the first and second patterns on a semiconductor substrate in consideration of a predetermined process variation, determining whether or not the distance between the first and second patterns satisfy an allowable margin given for the distance between the first and second patterns, and correcting, if the distance does not satisfy the allowable margin, at least one of the first and second patterns to satisfy the allowable margin. |
| US08042065B2 |
Smart copy/paste of graphical nodes
When using graphical diagrams, cutting and pasting operations may take advantage of predefined relationships to intelligently insert and remove items from the diagram. A text data model may be interpreted sequentially or hierarchically to construct various diagrams. Pasting operations will bring new data into the diagram and data model while conforming the new data to the diagram definition. Cutting operations may cause the data model and diagram to be healed to conform to the diagram definition. |
| US08042064B2 |
System and method for delivering virtual tour content using the hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP)
A system and method for delivering Virtual Reality (VR) tour content and spatial navigation comprising the hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) through a dynamic web-based relational database that stores, manipulates, co-ordinates and classifies complex digital data sets over a common gateway interface for on request interactive exchange and search engine retrieval of hotspots. The dynamic online-based software generates and organizes dynamic VR tours through a secure intuitive back-end system allowing the administrator/licensee to maintain technical, quality and security control ensuring secure access for development, modification, management, and distribution of each VR tour. Each VR tour encompasses the interactive exchange of hotspots allowing visitors to interact with still or panoramic pictures and videos which are linked to graphical site information (e.g. maps), URL web-links, text, hyperlinked banners, PDF documents, audio files and direct email-links which can automatically be modularized for off-line operation on mobile devices such as laptops, PDA's and CD's. |
| US08042062B2 |
Computer system with enhanced user interface for images
A computer system and method are presented that enhance a user experience when viewing images displayed on the computer. The system includes a user interface for the computer that displays a number of thumbnail images that are small representations of image files existing on the computer. The thumbnail images are arranged in alignment with one another, such as at the bottom of a viewing window. An enlarged preview image is positioned adjacent the thumbnail images. The enlarged preview image corresponds to a selected thumbnail image and is a larger representation of an image file corresponding with the selected thumbnail image. A control is displayed in the window that enables the user to iterate through the thumbnail images in at least one direction. As the user iterates through the thumbnail images, the enlarged preview image changes correspondingly. |
| US08042059B2 |
System for providing multiple window environments in a mobile computing system and method thereof
Disclosed is a system for providing multiple window environments in a mobile computing system and a method thereof, which enables a user to conveniently and selectively use a window system suitable for the use environment. A plurality of sub-window systems having different user interfaces and application programs are installed in separate user partitions provided in a non-volatile memory. If a predetermined event occurs, a currently executing sub-window system, from among the plurality of sub-window systems, is terminated, and a user partition corresponding to the terminated sub-window system is dismounted. Then, a user partition from among the separate user partitions, designated corresponding to the predetermined event is mounted so that the sub-window system of the mounted user partition is executed. |
| US08042058B2 |
Portable device having rotatable input buttons and method of operating the same
A portable device having rotatable input buttons and a method of operating the portable device are provided. The portable device includes a button rotation detecting unit, a User Interface (UI) generating unit and a mode setting unit. The button rotation detecting unit detects the rotation of the input buttons. The UI generating unit generates desired objects. The mode setting unit changes a current mode of the portable device to a mode of operating on the objects corresponding to the positions of the rotated input buttons when the rotation of the input buttons is detected. |
| US08042054B2 |
System for managing media content
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a device having a controller to create metadata corresponding to an identity of an entity, incorporate in a media file the metadata that identifies the entity with metadata that describes media content in the media file, and present a graphical user interface depicting a media file directory structure generated according to the metadata that identifies the entity and the metadata that describes media content in the media file. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US08042051B2 |
Apparatus for navigation and interaction in a virtual meeting place
An apparatus for providing for virtual communication and collaboration comprises a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) application executing within a distributed data processing system, and a navigation module implemented within the CVE application. The CVE application provides a virtual world represented as a grid of an interconnected set of locations each divided into a set of zones and each having an assigned context through a user interface provided to a plurality of users through one or more client systems. The CVE provides each user with a respective avatar representation for navigating and interacting within the locations of the virtual world. The navigation module provides a user interface element and automatically directs the avatar representation to traverse the set of zones the set of locations of the virtual world in a particular order of locations and at a particular. |
| US08042050B2 |
Method and apparatus for interactive broadcasting
A method of creating an interactive broadcast, comprising allowing a plurality of participants to vote on an aspect of a scenario in a virtual space, the broadcast being a computer-generated animated scenario comprising graphics and audio, the participants voting by means of user interface devices which are linked over a communications network to a server, the server being operative to process the received votes and determine how the broadcast should be collectively influenced in view of the votes received, and then generate the broadcast. |
| US08042046B2 |
Master multimedia software controls
A software control mechanism is disclosed for use with a plurality of media applications. The software control mechanism comprises a media control panel structured for use with a plurality of media applications. The media control panel is independent of each media application. Each media application is displayed within a computer screen. The software control mechanism is structured to control a function of a presently interfaced media application on the display screen. Further, as the presently interfaced media application changes on the display screen, the media control panel for that media application is displayed along a same boundary of the computer screen. |
| US08042044B2 |
User interface with displaced representation of touch area
The invention relates to a data processing system comprising a display screen (102), a graphical user interface for displaying objects on the display screen, and detection means (102) for detecting a touch position of a pointing object (103) on the display screen. The detection means (102) is capable of measuring a distance between the pointing object and the display screen. A property of the displayed objects is dependent on the measured distance between the pointing object and the display screen. |
| US08042042B2 |
Touch screen-based document editing device and method
A touch screen-based document editing device and method, the device includes an editing symbol storage for storing editing symbols used for editing a document; a display for presenting the document, the display being implemented as a touch screen; a user interface for allowing a user to input an editing request for editing the document presented on the display; a video processor for managing presentation information of the document, displaying the document in an editing mode screen in response to the editing request, and presenting the editing symbol on the document; a video analyzer for receiving the presentation information from the video processor, and extracting the editing symbols and positions of the editing symbols in the document; an editing symbol recognizer for retrieving the editing symbols from the editing symbol storage; and a document editor for executing an editing command on the basis of the editing symbols. |
| US08042039B2 |
Populating a dynamic page template with digital content objects according to constraints specified in the dynamic page template
A dynamic page template is populated with one or more digital content objects, comprising. For each digital content object, a locus is determined in relation to the dynamic page template. The locus specifies locations on the dynamic page template at which the digital content object can be placed. The digital content object is then placed on the dynamic page template at one of the locations specified by the locus. The digital content objects placed on the dynamic page template are algorithmically manipulated one or more times to change sizes and/or locations of one or more of the digital content objects. The dynamic page template is then output. |
| US08042038B1 |
Inhibiting space compression or expansion in automated paragraph layouts
Programs, methods and apparatus for optimization of paragraph layouts, especially automated justified paragraph layouts. In one embodiment, the aggregate space expansion or compression necessary to achieve a particular length for a text line is first determined. In one embodiment, the length is the length of a fully justified line. Then a justification penalty is assessed to the line, the justification penalty being a function of at least a space expansion or compression and the number of inter-word spaces in the text line. Accordingly, the invention can be employed advantageously to inhibit visually unpleasant degrees of space compression or space expansion in fully justified paragraph layouts. |
| US08042036B1 |
Generation of a URL containing a beginning and an ending point of a selected mark-up language document portion
A method for generating a link is provided. In this method, a selection of a portion associated with a resource is provided. The portion is identified by a portion identifier. Additionally provided is a link to the resource on a computer network. To generate the link, the portion identifier is embedded into the link. |
| US08042032B2 |
Four-stage pipeline based VDSL2 Viterbi decoder
A novel method to divide the whole decoding process of the Viterbi decoder into four pipeline stages and the Viterbi decoder therefore. With an appropriate choice on the system clock, the invention trade-off the decoding speed with the hardware cost so that the designed Viterbi decoder is able to satisfy the decoding speed requirement for the highest speed profile in VDSL2 systems, 30 MHz profile. At the same time, with four-stage pipeline to just enough to meet the speed requirement, the hardware cost for the new designed Viterbi decoder is reduced compared with single-staged decoding. |
| US08042031B2 |
Maximum likelihood detection method and system
A maximum likelihood detection (MLD) method is disclosed. Received data is processed to obtain preliminary parameters. An initial radius r is determined. r2 is multiplied by a corresponding scaling factor according to a partial Euclidean distance (PED) constraint function to determine the upper limit values of PED for each layer. It is examined whether a sub-lattice exceeds a search scope according to the upper limit values of PED for each layer to search a better solution by utilizing the preliminary parameters. |
| US08042028B2 |
HS-PDSCH decoder and mobile radio-signal communication device including the same
The second rate de-matching unit carries out a second rate de-matching step in parallel to each of two data defining the received data Rx for removing bits having been repeated in a second rate matching step having been carried out in a base station, or de-removing bits having been punctured in the second rate matching step having been carried out in a base station. The adders carry out a combining step in parallel in which data stored in the IR buffer is added to associated data among the two data. The first rate de-matching/turbo-decoding unit carries out a first rate de-matching step in which bits having been punctured in a first rate matching step having been carried out in a base station are repeated to data having been output from the input buffers, and simultaneously, repeatedly carries out a turbo-decoding step to the data. |
| US08042025B2 |
Determining a message residue
In one aspect, circuitry to determine a modular remainder with respect to a polynomial of a message comprised of a series of segment. In another aspect, circuitry to access at least a portion of a first number having a first endian format, determine a second number based on a bit reflection and shift of a third number having an endian format opposite to that of the first endian format, and perform a polynomial multiplication of the first number and the at least a portion of the first number. |
| US08042023B2 |
Memory system with cyclic redundancy check
A memory system, with a memory controller and a memory module, is configured to transfer error securing data and address signals within signal frames between the memory controller and the memory module. The memory system includes: an address register configured to pre-store an address signal associated with at least one block of data signals to be transferred, and at least one cyclic redundancy checksum calculator included in one of the memory controller and the memory module, the calculators being configured to calculate a cyclic redundancy checksum for the at least one data signal block, wherein the pre-stored address signal is used as an initial value for the calculation of the cyclic redundancy checksum and the at least one block of data and address signals are transferred together with the calculated cyclic redundancy checksum. |
| US08042015B2 |
High-speed semiconductor memory test device
A semiconductor test device includes; a tester providing a first clock signal, first test data, a control signal and a first clock signal, a reference clock generating unit generating a reference clock signal, a clock converting unit receiving the reference clock signal and converting the frequency of the reference clock signal to a second clock signal in response to the control signal, and a test data converting unit receiving the first test data, converting the first test data to second test data synchronously with the second clock signal and providing the second test data to a semiconductor memory device under test. |
| US08042013B2 |
Semiconductor device and verify method for semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a memory module provided with a plurality of memory cells, a verify determination unit that performs quality determination of read data that have been read from the memory cells on the basis of the read data and an expected value prepared in advance, and a power source monitoring circuit that detects fluctuations equal to or greater than a predetermined variation rate in a power source voltage supplied to the memory module and outputs a power source abnormality detection signal. Furthermore, the verify determination unit invalidates a result of the quality determination when the power source abnormality detection signal indicates an abnormal state of the power source voltage. |
| US08042008B2 |
Information processing device, transfer circuit and error controlling method for information processing device
An information processing device includes SBs; an XBB for executing data transfer between the SBs; and an SCF for managing and controlling the SBs and the XBB. The SB includes a transmitting/receiving unit for transmitting a notification packet indicating occurrence of an error via the XBB when detecting the occurrence of the error. The SCF includes an executing unit for executing a configuration change process corresponding to an instruction when detecting the instruction related to the SB, a suspending unit for suspending acceptance of an error report from the SB in which the error occurs during execution of the configuration change process and an XBB controller for controlling the XBB to destroy the notification packet received from the SB of which configuration change process is being executed and controlling the XBB to inhibit transfer of the notification packet to the SB of which configuration change process is being executed. |
| US08042007B1 |
Trace module for integrated circuit devices
A method of capturing trace data can include storing trace data from a circuit as entries within memory slots of a trace buffer. Responsive to detecting a first trigger event, a trigger bit and a time marker bit within a first trigger event entry are set, wherein the trigger bit and the time marker bit are correlated with the first trigger event. A capture region within the trace buffer having a defined range can be determined. A first time marker correlated with the time marker bit of the first trigger event entry can be stored. Content of the capture region from the trace buffer correlated time markers can be output. |
| US08042001B2 |
Protecting code from breakpoints
A computer system and storage medium that, in an embodiment, prohibit breakpoints from being set within a protected range. In an embodiment, a protected range may be an atomic operation synchronization code range, either based on instructions generated by a compiler or based on source statements that are compiler directives. When a command, such as an add breakpoint command is received, the address of the breakpoint is compared to the protected range, and if the address is within the protected range, the breakpoint is not set. In another embodiment, if the address is within the protected range, the breakpoint is set before the start or after the end of the protected range. In this way, the problems of endless loops may be obviated. |
| US08041998B2 |
Data processor decoding trace-worthy event collision matrix from pipelined processor
A method and/or a system of a processor-agnostic encoded debug architecture in a pipelined environment is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a processor includes processing an event specified by a data processing system coupled to the processor to determine a boundary of the event, generating a matrix having combinations of the event and other events occurring simultaneously in the processor, capturing an output data of observed ones of the event and other events, and applying the matrix to generate an encoded debug data of the output data. The method may also include determining which of the combinations are valid based on an architecture of the processor. The event may be a trace-worthy event whose output value cannot be reliably predicted in an executable file in the data processing system and/or a sync event that is specified by a user of the data processing system. |
| US08041994B2 |
Asynchronous checkpointing with audits in high availability networks
Example embodiments are directed to methods of ensuring high availability of a network using asynchronous checkpointing of application state data related to an object. Example embodiments include a method of asynchronous checkpointing application state data related to at least one object, including receiving application events and processing the application events to obtain new application state data. The method further includes modifying at least a portion of previously stored application state data and asynchronously and independently checkpointing the modified application state data based on whether the modified application state data has reached a stable state. Example embodiments also include a method of ensuring consistent application state data across a network. This method may include having at least two CAPs independently and asynchronously storing application state data related to at least one object at two different network nodes and automatically auditing the stored application state data to ensure data consistency. |
| US08041983B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving data transfer
A method for optimizing signal operating parameters for a signal sent over a data transmission channel through a programmable logic device (PLD) is provided. A transmit test pattern is generated and is associated with a set of signal operating parameters for the transmission and receiving of the test pattern over a data transmission channel. The data transmission channel loops from a transmit port to a receive port of the PLD. A determination of whether the received test pattern matches the transmit test pattern is performed. The match results and the set of signal operating parameters are recorded. At least one of the signal operating parameters of the set of signal operating parameters is modified through a processor of the PLD. Another transmit pattern is transmitted and received according to the modified set of signal operating parameters and the results are recorded. Methods for optimizing data transfer into a PLD and corresponding apparatuses are included. |
| US08041980B2 |
Time certifying server, reference time distributing server, time certifying method, reference time distributing method, time certifying program, and communication protocol program
A time certifying server has a clock unit that outputs time information. Units of time equal to or larger than a predetermined unit are acquired from the time information. Units of time from the time information smaller than the predetermined unit are corrected using an acquired correction time and without correcting the acquired units of time equal to or larger than the predetermined unit. A reference time is received from a reference time distributing server that distributes reference time. A verification process is then executed to verify that the clock unit operates at a precision falling within a predetermined range by confirming that, in the time of the units equal to or larger than the predetermined unit, the acquired time and the received reference time coincide with each other. A certification target information that serves as time certification target is received from a client terminal. Time certification information of the received certification target information is generated after verification of the operational precision of the clock unit using the corrected units of time. The generated time certification information is transmitted to the client terminal. |
| US08041976B2 |
Power management for clusters of computers
Power management for clusters of computers, a cluster including a configuration of computers operating in a power management domain, one or more of the computers of the cluster having a power requirement that differs from power requirements of other computers in the cluster, data processing operations on the cluster effecting a processing load on the computers in the cluster, including selecting, from a plurality of configurations of computers capable of supporting a plurality of processing loads at a plurality of power levels, a configuration of computers capable of supporting the processing load at a lowest power level, the lowest power level defined by comparison among configurations capable of supporting the processing load; and reconfiguring the cluster according to the selected configuration. |
| US08041975B2 |
Programmable I/O cell capable of holding its state in power-down mode
The present invention comprises a microcontroller unit including a processor for generating a power down signal. Control logic generates a hold signal responsive to the power down signal. A voltage regulator provides a regulated voltage responsive to an input voltage and powers down responsive to the power down signal. At least one digital device powered by the regulated voltage enters a powered down mode responsive to the voltage regulator entering the powered down state. The at least one digital device provides at least one digital output signal that is provided to an input/output cell. The input/output cell also is connected to receive a hold signal. The input/output cell maintains a last state of the digital output signal responsive to the hold signal when the at least one digital device enters the powered down state. |
| US08041972B2 |
Apparatus and method for setting wakeup times in a communication device based on estimated lock on time of frequency synthesizer
Apparatus and methods for setting wakeup times in a communication device are disclosed where setting the wakeup times includes estimating the lock on time of a frequency synthesizer in order to minimize the wakeup time and extend sleep times for maximal energy savings. A disclosed apparatus includes an estimator to receive a current lock on time of a frequency synthesizer, which is the time taken by the frequency synthesizer to lock on to particular frequency after a wakeup signal has been issued to turn on the synthesizer after a sleep period. The estimator calculates a latest estimated lock on time based at least on the current lock on time of the frequency synthesizer and determines an enable signal timing information based on the estimated lock on time. The apparatus also includes a timer configured to receive the enable signal timing information and issue at least one enable signal to turn on other circuitry in the transceiver after the synthesizer lock on period based thereon. Corresponding methods are also disclosed. |
| US08041971B2 |
Equipment controller, image forming apparatus, and method for controlling equipment
An equipment controller is disclosed that includes a CPU instructed to switch to a low power mode when being in a non-execution state. The equipment controller determines whether there is any execution task when the state of equipment switches to an energy-saving mode in which consumption power is reduced, and sets the interrupt cycle of a system timer of a real time OS that generates an interrupt for causing the CPU to awaken to be long if there is no execution task so that the CPU is caused to switch to the low power mode. |
| US08041969B2 |
Reducing power consumption while performing collective operations on a plurality of compute nodes
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for reducing power consumption while performing collective operations on a plurality of compute nodes that include: receiving, by each compute node, instructions to perform a type of collective operation; selecting, by each compute node from a plurality of collective operations for the collective operation type, a particular collective operation in dependence upon power consumption characteristics for each of the plurality of collective operations; and executing, by each compute node, the selected collective operation. |
| US08041962B2 |
Information processing device, method of controlling the device, computer readable medium, and security system
An information processing device includes a power control section and a function-suppressing section. The power control section switches between a predetermined mode and a low-power mode on the basis of a pre-specified setting condition relating to power consumption of the information processing device. The low-power mode is lower in electricity consumption quantities than the predetermined mode. When switching from the low-power mode to the predetermined mode in a period of operation of an external security apparatus, the function-suppressing section suppresses a part of functions of the device in the predetermined mode. |
| US08041959B2 |
Computer system, storage system and management computer for backing up and restore encryption key for storage system incorporating therein a stored data encryption function
To protect data from corruption due to restoration of an encryption key to a wrong storage system, there is provided a computer system including a first storage system and a second storage system, wherein: the first storage system, upon receiving a request to write first data to a first area in the first storage system, encrypts the first data by using a first key and writes the first data in the first area, and, upon receiving a request to write second data to a third area, encrypts the second data by using a second key and transmits a request to write the encrypted second data in a second area in the second storage system; and the computer system holds the first key, an identifier of the first storage system associated with the first key, the second key, and an identifier of the second storage system associated with the second key. |
| US08041954B2 |
Method and system for providing a secure login solution using one-time passwords
A method and system for a secure login solution for users logging into computers and systems that require authentication is provided incorporating one-time passwords. The method and system allows a user to establish a login key combination in relation to a login key structure. The login key combination is in association with an identification means, such as a username/ID, and allows the user to generate a one-time passcode in response to a random login key. The method and system is directed at situations where the user desires to log into a system from a computer or other electronic device that may not be secure, including for example from computers or devices other than the user's own and/or by using a communications connection that may not be secure, such as a wireless network connection. The method and system is simple and easy to implement and does not require the use of physical devices. |
| US08041950B2 |
Random signal generator
A random signal generator uses a folded MOS transistor, whose drain-source current includes a random component, as an electronic noise source. The random signal generator generates a random binary signal from the random component. The invention may be applied, in particular, to smart cards. |
| US08041949B2 |
Information processing scheme for realizing contents transfer and copyright protection
An information processing system in which information transfers between communication devices through a network is limited within a prescribed range by registering unique information obtainable within the prescribed range into each device and permitting information transfer between devices which share common unique information, where the unique information is formed by a pair of public and secret unique information, a bridge device is controlled such that, upon receiving a proxy check request from a reception device, whether a transmission device is another bridge device or not is judged when the public unique information registered by the reception device is registered in the bridge device and one public unique information registered in the bridge device is registered by the transmission device. Then, the secret unique information registered by the reception device is transmitted to the transmission device when the transmission device is not another bridge device. |
| US08041946B2 |
Data transfer between networks operating at different security levels
A secure network server wherein both the forwarding process and the receiving process are created upon connection initialization, and the receiving process is held off from communicating with the source host until the forwarding process has created a connection with the destination host. This solves the problem of message loss when the destination host is unreachable. |
| US08041945B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing an authentication after cipher operation in a network processor
A method and apparatus is described for processing of network data packets by a network processor having cipher processing cores and authentication processing cores which operate on data within the network data packets, in order to provide a one-pass ciphering and authentication processing of the network data packets. |
| US08041937B2 |
Multiple guest O.S. boot for server component setup
A hypervisor boots all guest operating systems needed to setup/update server components as detected by an update utility. The update utility, after detecting server components, is booted into each guest O.S. so that the components are updated in parallel without having to sequentially boot the utility into a guest O.S., update its component, then shut down and re-boot into another guest O.S. |
| US08041934B2 |
Transmission distinguishing apparatus, systems, and methods
Apparatus and systems, as well as methods and articles, may operate to distinguish between sources of signals transmitted with a pilot carrier based upon a variance in a peak-to-peak amplitude of a sum of a received pilot carrier and a delayed received pilot carrier. |
| US08041932B2 |
Method and apparatus for assigning devices to a partition
Devices in a processing system may be managed by performing a first scan of a bus of the processing system from a first partition. In one embodiment, the first scan may discover location information for devices on the bus. A communications hub of the processing system may be programmed to hide at least one of the devices on the bus. After the communications hub is so programmed, the first partition may scan the bus again. A second partition of the processing system may receive location information for one or more of the devices detected in the first scan but not detected in the second scan. In one embodiment, the second partition may boot, and then the communications hub may again be programmed to hide at least one of the devices on the bus. An operating system may then boot on the first partition. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08041927B2 |
Processor apparatus and method of processing multiple data by single instructions
A processor (and method) of processing multiple data by a single instruction includes first and second register sets each of which includes a plurality of registers, and an arithmetic unit to rearrange data being registered in the first and second register sets according to a relative size of an absolute value of the data between the first and second register sets so that the relative size is defined before executing an instruction considering the relative size. |
| US08041922B2 |
Enhanced dynamic address translation with load real address function
What is provided is a load real address function defined for a machine architecture of a computer system. In one embodiment, a machine instruction containing an opcode is obtained indicating that a load real address is to be performed. The instruction further identifies a first general register. Based on the contents of the machine instruction, a virtual address to be translated is obtained. Dynamic address translation is performed on the virtual address to obtain a segment-frame absolute address of a large block of data in memory. If an extended DAT facility and a format control field in the segment table entry are enabled, the address of the block of data is saved in the first general register. A page index portion and a byte index portion of the virtual address may also be saved in the first general register. |
| US08041919B2 |
Storing data blocks to maximize the amount of storage space used in a storage device
A method of storing data blocks onto sectors of a storage device comprises determining a specific number n of blocks, where n is greater than 1, storing n blocks consecutively onto consecutive sectors, such that each block begins directly after the previous block ends, repositioning the storing at the beginning of the next sector, and storing a further n blocks consecutively onto consecutive sectors, such that each block begins directly after the previous block ends. |
| US08041915B1 |
Faster memory access in non-unified memory access systems
A generic NUMA-compliant memory selection technique is provided to enable a device capable of accessing memory anywhere in a system to select a near (potentially the nearest) memory for use with the device. For example, an AGP controller can access system memory anywhere within a multiprocessing node system, but will operate more efficiently, and interfere less with other data transactions, if it locates the closest memory, determines the memory addresses corresponding to the closest memory, and locks (or otherwise allocates) memory addresses for AGP functionality within the range of determined addresses in the near memory. |
| US08041913B2 |
Data protection method
A data protection method for an electronic device having a storage medium is provided, wherein the storage medium includes a plurality of partitions and a partition table. In the data protection method, a partition entry point and a partition data corresponding to the specific partition are captured and sent to an external storage device when the electronic device enters a shutdown process. Then, the partition entry point is deleted from the partition table and the partition data is removed from the storage medium. When the electronic device is turned on, a user has to provide the corresponding external storage device to restore the partition entry point and the partition data back to the storage medium. Thereby, personal data stored in the storage medium is protected and accordingly data security is ensured. |
| US08041909B2 |
Disk array system and method for migrating from one storage system to another
The present invention provides a storage system for migrating a storage apparatus. The storage system comprises the steps of: defining a logical volume on a storage apparatus to be migrated coupled to a first controller as a local volume coupled to a second controller; setting to receive an access targeted to the logical volume through an input/output port of the storage apparatus to be migrated, as the local volume coupled to the second controller; blocking the input/output port of the storage apparatus to be migrated; connecting the other input/output port of the storage apparatus to the second control apparatus. |
| US08041905B2 |
Systems and methods for allocating control of storage media in a network environment
A method for dynamically allocating control of a storage device, the method comprising receiving an access request from a first computer requesting access to a storage device; directing, based upon the access request, a first storage controller computer to assume an inactive state with respect to control of the storage device; and directing, based upon the access request, a second storage controller computer to assume an active state with respect to control of the storage device. |
| US08041904B2 |
Non-volatile memory cache performance improvement
In order to provide a more efficient persistent storage device, one or more long-term storage media are included along with a non-volatile memory. In one embodiment, one portion of the non-volatile memory is used as a write buffer and a read cache for writes and reads to the long-term storage media. Interfaces are provided for controlling the use of the non-volatile memory as a write buffer and a read cache. Additionally, a portion of the non-volatile memory is used to provide a direct mapping for specified sectors of the long-term storage media. Descriptive data regarding the persistent storage device is stored in another portion of the non-volatile memory. |
| US08041903B2 |
Processor and method for controlling memory
A processor and a memory controlling method. The processor enables a Scratch-Pad Memory (SPM) to prepare data that a processor core intends to process, using a data management unit including a data cache, thereby increasing a data processing rate. |
| US08041897B2 |
Cache management within a data processing apparatus
A data processing apparatus, and method of managing at least one cache within such an apparatus, are provided. The data processing apparatus has at least one processing unit for executing a sequence of instructions, with each such processing unit having a cache associated therewith, each cache having a plurality of cache lines for storing data values for access by the associated processing unit when executing the sequence of instructions. Identification logic is provided which, for each cache, monitors data traffic within the data processing apparatus and based thereon generates a preferred for eviction identification identifying one or more of the data values as preferred for eviction. Cache maintenance logic is then arranged, for each cache, to implement a cache maintenance operation during which selection of one or more data values for eviction from that cache is performed having regard to any preferred for eviction identification generated by the identification logic for data values stored in that cache. It has been found that such an approach provides a very flexible technique for seeking to improve cache storage utilisation. |
| US08041892B2 |
System and method to protect data stored in a storage system
In an example of an embodiment of the invention, a system for recording data generated by a client server and transmitted to a storage system is provided. The system comprises a storage system and a processor located remotely from the storage system and linked to the storage system via a network. The processor determines that a selected data processing operation is to be performed with respect to data stored in the storage system, and determines that a record of at least some of the data stored in the storage system is required prior to performing the selected data processing operation. The processor also generates a command comprising a request to generate a record of the at least some of the stored data, and transmits the command to the storage system to generate the record, via the network in accordance with Internet Protocol (IP). Examples of other systems and methods are also disclosed. |
| US08041890B2 |
Method for accessing target disk, system for expanding disk capacity and disk array
The present invention discloses a method for accessing a target disk and a system for expanding disk capacity. A processing unit of a master disk array sends a command or data to a PCIe switching unit of the master disk array upon receipt of the command or data; the PCIe of the master disk array sends the received command or data to a control unit in a corresponding disk array according to an address of a target disk indicated in the command or data; the control unit in the corresponding disk array sends the received command or data to the target disk that is directly connected to the control unit. The present invention also discloses a master disk array and a slave disk array. |
| US08041884B2 |
Controller for non-volatile memories and methods of operating the memory controller
A non-volatile memory system (3) is proposed consisting of a first non-volatile flash memory (5) having a plurality of blocks, each block having a plurality of pages, each block being erasable and each page being programmable, and a second non-volatile random access memory (23) having a plurality of randomly accessible bytes. The second non-volatile memory (23) stores data for mapping logical blocks to physical blocks and status information of logical blocks. Each logical block has an associated physical page pointer stored in the second non-volatile memory (23) that identifies the next free physical page of the mapped physical block to be written. The page pointer is incremented after every page write to the physical block, allowing all physical pages to be fully utilized for page writes. Furthermore, a method of writing and reading data is disclosed whereby the most recently written physical page associated with a logical address is identifiable by the memory system without programming flags into superseded pages, or recording time stamp values in any physical page or block of the first non-volatile memory (5). Furthermore, a method is provided for a logical block to be mapped to two physical blocks instead of one to provide additional space for page writes, resulting in reduction in page copy operations, thereby increasing the performance of the system. |
| US08041883B2 |
Restoring storage devices based on flash memories and related circuit, system, and method
A solution for restoring operation of a storage device based on a flash memory is proposed. The storage device emulates a logical memory space (including a plurality of logical blocks each one having a plurality of logical sectors), which is mapped on a physical memory space of the flash memory (including a plurality of physical blocks each one having a plurality of physical sectors for storing different versions of the logical sectors). A corresponding method starts by detecting a plurality of conflicting physical blocks for a corrupted logical block (resulting from a breakdown of the storage device). The method continues by determining a plurality of validity indexes (indicative of the number of last versions of the logical sectors of the corrupted logical block that are stored in the conflicting physical blocks). One ore more of the conflicting physical blocks are selected according to the validity indexes. The selected conflicting physical blocks are then associated with the corrupted logical block. At the end, each one of the non-selected conflicting physical blocks is discarded. |
| US08041881B2 |
Memory device with emulated characteristics
A memory subsystem is provided including an interface circuit adapted for communication with a system and a majority of address or control signals of a first number of memory circuits. The interface circuit includes emulation logic for emulating at least one memory circuit of a second number. |
| US08041880B2 |
Flash memory, memory control circuit, microcomputer and memory control method
A flash memory includes a data area in which first and second k-bit data (k is a natural number) are stored; and an additional data area in which a first additional m-bit data (m is a natural number) and a second additional m-bit data used to respectively identify the first and second data are stored. The first additional data and the second additional data have different values. |
| US08041878B2 |
Flash file system
The flash file system includes a flash memory and a subsystem interfacing between the flash memory and a host system. The subsystem includes a hierarchical structure of a host system interface, cache memory system, flash translation layer unit and a flash memory interface. The host system interface interfaces with the host system. The cache memory system has a storage capacity of a predetermined number of data units and stores data for transfer to and from the host system via the host system interface. The flash translation layer unit maps a logical address received from the host system via the host system interface and the cache memory into a physical address of the flash memory. The flash memory interface interfaces with the flash memory to transfer data to the flash memory from the cache memory system based on the physical address received from the flash translation layer unit and to transfer data from the flash memory to the cache memory system based on the physical address received from the flash translation layer unit. |
| US08041877B2 |
Distributed computing utilizing virtual memory having a shared paging space
A method for distributed computing utilizing virtual memory is disclosed. The method can include identifying a first node to process an application, identifying paging space accessible to the first node, identifying a second node to share paged data with the first node, and transacting the paged data between the first node and the identified paging space. Thus, application processing results from the first node can be stored in paging space and a second node can retrieve the first result from the paging space such that the paging space can be shared between nodes. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08041875B1 |
Resource virtualization switch
Methods and apparatus are provided for virtualizing resources including peripheral components and peripheral interfaces. Peripheral component such as hardware accelerators and peripheral interfaces such as port adapters are offloaded from individual servers onto a resource virtualization switch. Multiple servers are connected to the resource virtualization switch over an I/O bus fabric such as PCI Express or PCI-AS. The resource virtualization switch allows efficient access, sharing, management, and allocation of resources. |
| US08041870B1 |
Method and apparatus for dynamically granting access of a shared resource among a plurality of requestors
An arbiter in a communication system including a plurality of request shapers in communication with a plurality of requestors. Each request shaper is configured to receive a request for access to a resource of the communication system, initially assign a priority level to the request upon receipt of the request, increase an age of the request, after increasing the age of the request, compare the age of the request to a delta period value associated with the respective requestor, and repeatedly increase the priority level of the request based on the comparison. Each of the plurality of requestors has a corresponding delta period value that is different from that of other ones of the plurality of requestors. An arbiter core is configured to grant one of the plurality of requestors access to the resource based on the priority level of each request and the age of each request. |
| US08041867B2 |
Method and apparatus for enhancing data rate of advanced micro-controller bus architecture
A method for enhancing data rate of an advanced micro-controller bus architecture (AMBA) having an AHB system and an APB system includes simultaneously receiving control signals outputted from a plurality of master devices of the AHB system, and controlling a plurality of peripheral slave devices of the APB system according to the control signals outputted from the plurality of master devices. |
| US08041865B2 |
Bus termination system and method
A memory system includes a number of integrated circuit chips coupled to a bus. Each of the integrated circuit chips has an input/output node coupled to the bus, the input/output node having a programmable on-die termination resistor. The input/output node of one of the integrated circuit chips is accessed via the bus. The programmable on-die termination resistor of each of the integrated circuit chips is independently set to a termination resistance. The termination resistance is determined by a transaction type and which of the plurality memory devices is being accessed, which information can be transmitted over a separate transmission control bus. |
| US08041860B2 |
Method for producing a mapping tool, a PC game having the mapping tool and operation method therefore
A method for producing a mapping tool, a PC game having the mapping tool and operation method therefore is disclosed. The mapping tool is created by means of linking a remote motion signal generated from a remote device which is operated by user with a keyboard signal from the inside of the conventional keyboard mapping table. User may operate the PC game through the mapping tool. The present invention employs the said mapping tool to replace the conventional keyboard motion mapping table, thereby achieving the objectives of providing natural ergonomic and consistently using the existing PC game having the keyboard motion mapping table. |
| US08041854B2 |
Steering data units to a consumer
A computer system may comprise a second device operating as a producer that may steer data units to a first device operating as a consumer. A processing core of the first device may wake-up the second device after generating a first data unit. The second device may generate steering values after retrieving a first data unit directly from the cache of the first device. The second device may populate a flow table with a plurality of entries using the steering values. The second device may receive a packet over a network and store the packet directly into the cache of the first device using a first steering value. The second device may direct an interrupt signal to the processing core of the first device using a second steering value. |
| US08041845B2 |
Method for detecting digital video interface off-line mode and associated receiver
A TMDS receiver includes a plurality of data channels, a clock channel, and an off-line mode detector. Each data channel receives a video signal and the clock channel receives a clock signal. Each data channel comprises a channel decoder for decoding the signals received by the corresponding receiving channel. The off-line mode detector detects an off-line mode detector, and then turns on a plurality of first data channels for a first predetermined period to determine an operation mode of video signal transmitted on said first data channels if the activity of the clock signal is valid. The off-line mode detector also activates a plurality of second data channels among the plurality of data channels according to the operation mode if the operation mode is determined as valid. |
| US08041844B2 |
Autodetection of a PCI express device operating at a wireless RF mitigation frequency
A computer system that detects for a PCI Express compliant endpoint device is described. Specifically, the computer system clocks transmit and receive circuits at a first frequency and initiates a training sequence. If the endpoint device successfully trains at the first frequency, the endpoint device is PCI Express compliant. Otherwise, the computer system initiates another training sequence at a second frequency. |
| US08041842B2 |
Printing device and logic packet processing method
Disclosed herein is a printing device connected to a client, the printing device including: a reception unit which receives plural types of logic packets from the client; a hardware packet processing unit which processes the logic packets by hardware; a software packet processing unit which includes a microprocessor and processes the logic packets by software; and a sorting unit which sorts the plural types of logic packets into a logic packet to be processed by the hardware packet processing unit and a logic packet to be processed by the software packet processing unit, wherein the sorting unit sorts a reply requiring logic packet including contents replying to the client as the logic packet to be processed by the hardware packet processing unit when sorting the plural types of logic packets. |
| US08041840B2 |
Industrial control system with autonomous web server
An autonomous Web server may be connected to an industrial control system to provide direct access to input and output points through connections between the Web server and the input and output points. Coordination with the programmable logic controller is implemented through a set of lock flags which prevent conflicts either between multiple Web connections or between Web connections and the control produced by the programmable logic controller. |
| US08041836B1 |
Automatic COBOL working storage to open/OLTP view conversion
A system and method which automatically converts COBOL data definitions into view files which allows a user from an Internet terminal to access an On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) enterprise server. This conversion permits the Internet user to perform COBOL transactions using the enterprise legacy system. |
| US08041832B2 |
Network data distribution system and method
Embodiments of a system and method for distributing network data to multiple nodes in a data communications network is described. Two data communication channels are provided for each node in the network. While one of the communication channels carries routing and flow control protocol messages, as well as data, in both directions between network nodes, the other communication channel is configured to transmit data traffic—and only data traffic—in a single direction from the network data server toward all of the other nodes in the network. By using 100% of the available bandwidth for data traffic only, the speed at which data may be distributed throughout the network is maximized and the performance degradation caused by the congestion, collisions or packet loss that typically occurs in two-way data communication channels is avoided. |
| US08041829B2 |
System and method for remote data acquisition and distribution
Methods and systems for remote data collection and distribution include components and operations for receiving, at a server, data transmitted by a first client device via a communication network. The method may also include selecting, by one or more client devices associated with the communication network, a second device to receive the data. The method may further include establishing a connection between the server and the selected second device via the communication network. The method may also include automatically transmitting the received data to the second device using the connection via the communication network. The method may further include causing, by the one or more client devices, the second device to execute a predefined operation. |
| US08041826B2 |
Ajax proxy indirection for external domain requests
An Ajax proxy indirection technique enables a local, front-end proxy server to handle Ajax requests from an Ajax client that must be serviced by an external Ajax server in an external domain, instead of a local Ajax back-end server exposing itself to the external domain. The front-end proxy server accepts the Ajax client's request and forwards it to the local Ajax back-end server. The proxy server asks the local AJAX server for the credentials to be used in the “external” AJAX request. The local Ajax back-end server then responds to the proxy server with meta-data for the external domain request that the proxy will make to the external domain. The proxy server uses the credentials of the “external” AJAX request to make the external request to the external Ajax server in the external domain. The proxy server performs any authentication and necessary domain mapping with the external Ajax server before sending a response from the external Ajax server back to the client. |
| US08041824B1 |
System, device, method and software for providing a visitor access to a public network
A system, device, method and software for providing a visitor access to a public network are disclosed. In one form, a virtual visitor enabled local area network includes a visitor access point operable to provide a visitor access to a public network while connected to a local area network (LAN). The visitor access point is operable to protect the LAN using a virtual visitor network established between the visitor access point and a virtual visitor network gateway. |
| US08041823B2 |
Optimization of media flows in a telecommunications system
Disclosed are techniques for optimization of media flows within a provider network. The provider network comprises a plurality of sites, each site having one or more media servers capable of supporting a media session with a user endpoint device. The provider network further includes a media server director (MSD) that receives registration information identifying one or more user endpoint devices that have registered with a particular site. Using this registration information, as well as predetermined preference policies, the MSD prepares a preference order for the media servers of the provider network for user endpoint devices associated with the site. When an application server signals an intent to establish a media session with a user endpoint device of the site, the MSD selects a media server based on the preference order and provides an indicator of the selected media server. The application server can then contact the selected media server identified by the indicator to establish and support a media session with the user endpoint device. |
| US08041821B2 |
Connection pool management
The present invention is a method, system and apparatus for highly efficient connection pool management. In a preferred aspect of the invention, a highly efficient connection pool management system can include a connection pool configured to store one or more idle connections. The system further can include a connection manager programmed for coupling to the connection pool. The connection manager further can be programmed to validate individual ones of the idle connections by issuing a non-blocking input/output (I/O) operation to each of the individual ones of the idle connections. |
| US08041820B2 |
Dial-up access manager
A network access management tool includes a dialer that connects users to a network, such as the Internet. An integrated phonebook automatically looks-up optimal phone number(s) to dial. The network access management tool may additionally help the user to automate virtual private network (VPN) connections, may include automated software update capabilities, and may take into account corporate policy information when making network connectivity decisions. |
| US08041816B2 |
TCP/IP-based communication system and associated methodology providing an enhanced transport layer protocol
A more secure TCP/IP protocol stack is provided having an enhanced transport layer. Encryption and decryption logic is arranged on the transmission side and on the reception side for processing a payload of a transport layer protocol, such as TCP or UDP. By employing this enhanced transport layer, a cryptograph process communication can be realized by dissolving various kinds of restrictions which a conventional IPsec or SSL possesses without affecting upper layer processing, and, at the same time, maintaining compatibility with the IP layer. |
| US08041815B2 |
Systems and methods for managing network connectivity for mobile users
Systems and methods are described for managing network connectivity for mobile users, particularly when a mobile user roams between two networks or between two subnets of a network. An announcer signal is broadcast by a host organization. The announcer signal includes a network identifier, an authorizer address and a verifier address. A mobile client monitors for the announcer signal and, when detected, provides an option to connect to the network via the authorizer. Once authorization is obtained, the mobile client communicates with the network through the verifier. The verifier received tagged data packets from a mobile client and only accepts the data packets if a valid tag (created with an authorization key) is included therewith. Multiple verifiers may be used to provide load balancing and fault tolerance (in the event a verifier fails). If a mobile client disconnects from a network and later reconnects, the mobile client does not have to be re-authorized if the mobile client still has a valid authorization key. |
| US08041810B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing a network
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller to monitor first and second access devices of a communications network for an alarm where the first and second access devices are connected to each other by a fiber optic cable and where the first and second access devices are capable of transmitting media content to a communications device of a user, identify hierarchical cable relationships associated with the fiber optic cable, monitor network elements of the communications network that are associated with the hierarchical cable relationships for other alarms, and determine a fiber cut of the fiber optic cable based at least in part on the alarm of the monitored first and second access devices and the other alarms of the monitored network elements. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US08041809B2 |
Method and system for providing on-demand content delivery for an origin server
An infrastructure “insurance” mechanism enables a Web site to fail over to a content delivery network (CDN) upon a given occurrence at the site. Upon such occurrence, at least some portion of the site's content is served preferentially from the CDN so that end users that desire the content can still get it, even if the content is not then available from the origin site. In operation, content requests are serviced from the site in the usual manner, e.g., by resolving DNS queries to the site's IP address, until detection of the given occurrence. Thereafter, DNS queries are managed by a CDN dynamic DNS-based request routing mechanism so that such queries are resolved to optimal CDN edge servers. After the event that caused the occurrence has passed, control of the site's DNS may be returned from the CDN back to the origin server's DNS mechanism. |
| US08041808B1 |
Managing the performance of an electronic device
A performance management system and method for generating a plurality of forecasts for one or more electronic devices is presented. The forecasts are generated from stored performance data and analyzed to determine which devices are likely to experience performance degradation within a predetermined period of time. A single forecast is extracted for further analysis such that computer modeling may be performed upon the performance data to enable the user to predict when device performance will begin to degrade. In one embodiment, graphical displays are created for those devices forecasted to perform at an undesirable level such that suspect devices may be subjected to further analysis. |
| US08041796B2 |
Process duration control
A computer system incorporates means, and corresponding methods, for controlling access and usage of one or more processors in the computer system. The means may include hardware and software features. The means may operate according to specified steps according to a specific algorithm. In an embodiment, the system may include a discovery executable that discovers a target process for duration management. The system may further include a duration monitor that determines a percent completion of a target process. The percent completion information may be provided to a process duration controller that uses process information and the percent completion information to calculate a run-time metric. The run-time metric may then be provided to a process resource manager that controls resources consumed by the target process. |
| US08041793B2 |
Boot image discovery and delivery system
A boot image discovery and delivery system includes one or more subsystems to provide a host device, provide an image discovery client on the host device, transfer control of a start-up initialization to the image discovery client, receive authentication credentials from a centralized database, provide a first boot image to the host device for a first set of credentials and provide a second boot image to the host device for a second set of credentials. |
| US08041789B1 |
System using management server for migration of profiles for device bays in between enclosures
A system comprises a first enclosure comprising a plurality of device bays and a first enclosure virtual connect device that is configured to virtualize one or more of the device bays in the first enclosure. The system also comprises a second enclosure comprising a plurality of device bays and a management server communicatively coupled to the first enclosure virtual connect device. At least one bay in the first enclosure has a device included therein. That device uses an associated profile that defines, at least in part, how that device is virtualized. The management server is configured to migrate the profile for use by a device in a bay of the second enclosure. |
| US08041785B2 |
Programmatically choosing a router configuration provider
Described is a technology by which network server software has an interface into which a plurality of software router providers, that have methods to configure routers, may be plugged in. The network server software communicates with each provider to determine each of the provider's capabilities with respect to configuring a connected network router. A router provider is chosen based on that provider's capabilities in order to configure the router. In one example implementation, a router configuration component of the network software passes an IP address of the router to each provider and receives a score in return that indicates that provider's capabilities with respect to configuring the connected router. The provider with the best score is chosen for use in configuring the router. The score is built from weighted values, with more weight given to the capabilities deemed more valuable to users who need to configure routers. |
| US08041784B1 |
Redundant hybrid P2P content sharing
A redundant hybrid peer-to-peer content sharing system is provided. In general, the system includes a proxy hosted by a central server and, for each user, a primary user device hosting a primary sharing engine and one or more secondary user devices hosting secondary sharing engines. The user's shared images are hosted by the primary user device, and, based on the capabilities of the secondary user devices, versions of the shared images are copied to the secondary devices. When a guest at a guest node desires to view a shared image, a request for the shared image is provided to the proxy. Generally, if the primary user device is online, the proxy forwards the request to the primary device. If the primary user device is offline, the proxy identifies one of the secondary user devices capable of serving the request and forwards the request to the identified secondary user device. |
| US08041775B2 |
Providing relevant non-requested content to a mobile device
A system and method are directed towards providing non-requested content to a mobile terminal based on characteristics of, and tracked usage of the mobile terminal to request content through an online portal service, which provides access to content in multiple subject areas. A mobile user profile is created from the characteristics and patterns of the tracked usage. The tracked usage information includes the time, location, frequency at which the content was requested. Based on the mobile user profile information, content related to previously requested content is provided to the mobile terminal upon a trigger that is related to the requested content. The trigger event may include the mobile terminal returning to a location from which certain content was previously requested. The non-requested content may further be based on a related general user profile that indicates usage of an alternate electronic device to access content through the portal. |
| US08041772B2 |
Autonomic sensor network ecosystem
The present invention provides a method, system and program product for deploying and allocating resources, and addressing threats in an autonomic sensor network ecosystem. Specifically, under the present invention, the autonomic sensor network ecosystem includes a set (e.g., one or more) of sensor networks each having a set of sensor peers and at least one super peer; a set of micro grid gateways; and a set of enterprise gateways. Each micro grid gateway is typically adapted to receive requests from a sensor network, an enterprise gateway, and/or another micro grid gateway. Moreover, each micro grid gateway includes a request broker for receiving the requests; a request queue manager for queuing the requests; a scheduler for scheduling the requests; and a resource manager for monitoring the set of sensor networks. |
| US08041769B2 |
Generating phish messages
Various embodiments of the invention provide solutions (including inter alia, systems, methods and software) for dealing with online fraud. In particular, various embodiments of the invention provide ways to incite unsolicited email messages (such as spam messages, phish messages, etc.). In accordance with some embodiments, a bait email address may be planted in a particular location on the Internet. In particular embodiments, the location of the planted email address may be tracked in order to determine which locations are relatively more likely to generate unsolicited email messages. In other embodiments, domains likely to host the bait email addresses receiving unsolicited messages may be obtained. In some cases, unsolicited messages may be analyzed and/or otherwise processed to determine whether the messages are possibly associated with a fraudulent activity. Such analysis may lead to the investigation of one or more web sites and/or to the initiation of a response against a fraudulent activity. |
| US08041766B2 |
Associating presence information with a digital image
Presence information for an object in a digital image is determined. An identifier associated with at least one object depicted in the image is allowed to be stored as image metadata. The identifier is sufficient to determine presence information from at least one of a presence application and a presence roster list. Presence information for the at least one object is determined based on the identifier from the at least one of a presence application and a presence roster list. An action related to the object is performed using the determined presence information. |
| US08041760B2 |
Service oriented architecture for a loading function in a data integration platform
A loading function of an extract-transform-load data integration process is deployed as a service in a services oriented architecture by providing a module, the module being a data loading module for loading data into a target database that is associated with a data integration platform; by providing a registry of services; and by providing an interface for the data loading module; and identifying the data loading module in the registry; wherein the data loading module can be accessed as a service in a services oriented architecture. |
| US08041759B1 |
Specialized processing block for programmable logic device
A specialized processing block for a programmable logic device incorporates a fundamental processing unit that performs a sum of two multiplications, adding the partial products of both multiplications without computing the individual multiplications. Such fundamental processing units consume less area than conventional separate multipliers and adders. The specialized processing block further has input and output stages, as well as a loopback function, to allow the block to be configured for various digital signal processing operations, including finite impulse response (FIR) filters and infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. By using the programmable connections, and in some cases the programmable resources of the programmable logic device, and by running portions of the specialized processing block at higher clock speeds than the remainder of the programmable logic device, more complex FIR and IIR filters can be implemented. |
| US08041755B2 |
Fast static rotator/shifter with non two's complemented decode and fast mask generation
In one embodiment, a rotator, a mask generator, and circuitry configured to mask the rotated operand output by the rotator with the output mask generated by the mask generator perform a shift operation. The rotator is configured to rotate the input operand by the shift count. The mask generator is configured to generate an output mask by decoding a most significant bit (MSB) field of the shift count to generate a first mask, decoding a least significant bit (LSB) field of the shift count to generate a second mask, logically ANDing the bits of the second mask with the corresponding bit of the first mask and logically ORing the result with an adjacent bit of the first mask that is selected responsive to the shift direction. |
| US08041751B2 |
Systems and methods for decoding payer identification in health care data records
Processing arrangements and methods are provided for the automated decoding or translation of information in healthcare data records, which are coded in a non-standardized or varying formats. A data record which contains information, a portion which is recognized and another portion of which is new, is decoded or translated using a statistical mapping rule. The mapping rule assigns a most likely translation value to the information based on the recognized portion of the information. The statistical mapping rules are established by analysis of a set of previously decoded data records. |
| US08041748B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing a web cache system
A method and apparatus for managing a web cache system includes storage spaces allocated to web cache devices for storing cached information. Upon failure of a web cache device, the storage space allocated to that device is reallocated to a different operational device, so that the cached information in that reallocated storage space may be used. |
| US08041746B2 |
Mapping schemas using a naming rule
Among other disclosed subject matter, a computer-implemented method for creating a mapping includes obtaining a definition relating to a first schema, the definition comprising a first plurality of nodes to be mapped to a second schema comprising a second plurality of nodes. The method includes receiving at least one context value for the received definition, the context value being associated with at least one context category defined for the second schema. The method includes generating names corresponding to each of the nodes in the first plurality, the generated names being consistent with a naming rule for the second schema. The method includes mapping each of the nodes in the first plurality to a respective one of the nodes in the second plurality, wherein the context value and at least one of the generated names are taken into account in the mapping. |
| US08041741B1 |
Searching content using a dimensional database
A software facility for selecting documents is disclosed. The facility maintains a dimensional model of a group of documents. The dimensional model reflects values for a number of differentiated attributes for each of the documents of the group. The facility receives a query specifying values for one or more of these attributes. In response to receiving the query, the facility uses the dimensional model to generate a list of documents in the group having the attribute values specified by the query. |
| US08041740B1 |
Database system, method, and computer program product for recording entity state and type information for use during subsequent processing of data
A database system, method, and computer program product are provided for recording entity state and type information for use during subsequent processing of data. In use, data is received from an entity. Further, type information associated with the entity is recorded, and state information associated with the entity is recorded. In addition, the type information and the state information are capable of being used to process the data while tracing on any parallel processing node. Furthermore, the tracing may include any intermediate state or final state associated with the entity or any state associated with a context. |
| US08041739B2 |
Automated system and method for patent drafting and technology assessment
A system and method for patent application drafting, issued patent assessment and technology assessment includes a computer having input devices for at least one user to enter information relating to components of an invention in a hierarchical and relational categorization using software that automatically generates a relational, diagrammatic representation of the patent or technology being assessed that is output in a format that is viewable and modifiable by the user(s). The user(s) may enter additional, more detailed information that provides a basis for textual representation of the patent or technology that is being drafted or assessed; this additional information is associated with and/or connected to the diagrammatic representation, e.g., via an automatic link or a hyperlink, that permits the user(s) to switch between views of the diagram and the text-based detailed description of components of the patent. |
| US08041734B2 |
System and method for storing and retrieving non-text-based information
A method for non-text-based identification of a selected item of stored music. The first broad portion of the method focuses on building a music identification database. That process requires capturing a tag of the selected musical item, and processing the tag to develop reference key to the same. Then the tag is stored, together with the reference key and an association to the stored music. The database is built by collecting a multiplicity of tags. The second broad portion of the method is retrieving a desired item of stored music from the database. That process calls for capturing a query tag from a user, and processing the query tag to develop a query key to the same. The query tag is compared to reference keys stored in the database to identify the desired item of stored music. |
| US08041733B2 |
System for automatically categorizing queries
A system and method is provided for recognizing a pattern in queries and using the recognized pattern to categorize queries under existing query categories. An entity text that represents a real-world object is detected in a query. The entity text is categorized into an entity category. The query is then rewritten as an annotated query by replacing the entity text with a placeholder for any entity matching the entity category. The annotated query is compared to other queries that are associated with query categories to find a query category that is frequently associated with the annotated query. The query category frequently associated with the annotated query is used to generate a rule. The rule indicates that any query matching the annotated query is likely to fit into the query category. The rule can be used to assign categories to queries or correct incorrectly categorized queries. |
| US08041725B2 |
Eliminating duplicate and invalid calendar items from end user calendars using a unique entry identifier (UEID)
Providing a unique entry identifier, which is an identifier specific to a calendar entry. The calendar entry can be an entry associated with a set of different electronic calendars, each associated with a specific user. Data for each user specific calendar can be stored in a structured data store. A set of records for each user specific calendar can be maintained and utilized independent of other sets of records associated with other ones of the users. The unique entry identifier can be an identifier unique for the calendar entry within the associated set of records, and wherein the same unique entry identifier is utilized for the calendar entry within each of the different sets of records as a unique identifier for the calendar entry. For example, when calendar updates are conveyed via email among a set of users, shared meetings can always be associated with a unique entry identifier used by all calendaring systems. |
| US08041717B2 |
Mobile advertisement syndication
Improved mobile advertisement syndication capabilities are disclosed for mobile communications facilities, such as cell phones. These and other capabilities are employed to improve delivery of mobile advertisements and their syndication, such as associating advertising content with websites, to appropriate or desirable mobile communication facilities. |
| US08041707B2 |
Database management system and method capable of dynamically generating new tasks that can be processed in parallel
A database management system has a query interface for receiving a query and a query executor for executing the received query. The query executor dynamically generates a task, and executes a plurality of tasks in parallel. In execution of each task, each time data is required to be read from a database, the query executor generates a task for acquiring the data, and in execution of the generated task, issues a data read request for reading the data from the database, to thereby shorten a time taken to execute each task. |
| US08041702B2 |
Ontology-based network search engine
A method and apparatus for searching for a documents residing on a network comprises receiving a search request from a user. The search request comprises one or more search terms of an ontology. The ontology includes a plurality of terms. One or more of the plurality of terms includes a plurality of sub-category terms. One or more documents residing on the network is identified based on the one or more search terms and an ontology index. The ontology index comprises a plurality of relationships between the plurality of terms and sub-category terms of the ontology and a plurality of documents residing on the network. One or more search results that describe the one or more documents is presented to the user. The one or more documents contain the one or more search terms, or one of the plurality of sub-category terms of the one or more search terms. |
| US08041699B2 |
Process of dynamic taxonomy for browsing and retrieving information in large heterogeneous data bases
A process is disclosed for retrieving information in large heterogeneous data bases, wherein information retrieval through visual querying/browsing is supported by dynamic taxonomies; the process providing the steps of: initially showing (F1) a complete taxonomy for the retrieval; refining (F2) the retrieval through a selection of subsets of interest, where the refining is performed by selecting concepts in the taxonomy and combining them through boolean operations; showing (F3) a reduced taxonomy for the selected set; and further refining (F4) the retrieval through an iterative execution of the refining and showing steps. |
| US08041698B2 |
Method, system and program for archiving files
Provided are a method, system, and program for archiving files. A hierarchical file system having directories is provided. An archival retention policy is associated with at least one of the directories in the hierarchical file system, wherein the retention policy applies to files included in the associated directory, and wherein the retention policy specifies a retention time indicating a time period during which a file is subject to the retention policy. |
| US08041697B2 |
Semi-automatic example-based induction of semantic translation rules to support natural language search
Technologies are described herein for generating a semantic translation rule to support natural language search. In one method, a first expression and a second expression are received. A first representation is generated based on the first expression, and a second representation is generated based on the second expression. Aligned pairs of a first term in the first representation and a second term in the second representation are determined. For each aligned pair, the first term and the second term are replaced with a variable associated with the aligned pair. Word facts that occur in both the first representation and the second representation are removed from the first representation and the second representation. The remaining word facts in the first representation are replaced with a broader representation of the word facts. The translation rule including the first representation, an operator, and the second semantic representation is generated. |
| US08041694B1 |
Similarity-based searching
Pairs of similar vectors in a set of vectors are identified. A comparison vector x is identified, and a set of candidate vectors corresponding to the vector x is identified. For each candidate vector y in the set, a similarity estimate between the comparison vector x and the candidate vector y is determined; if the similarity estimate meets a similarity threshold, a similarity score of the comparison vector x and the candidate vector y is determined; and if the similarity score meets the similarity threshold, the pair of vectors (x, y) is included in a list of similar pairs of vectors. |
| US08041685B2 |
Method of changing system configuration in shared-nothing database management system
A shared-nothing database management system employs a method of adding and removing a database server without significantly affecting the processing performance for accessing a table from a user or an application. A scheduler module creates a schedule which separately handles the addition of a CPU resource and the addition of a storage I/O resource, and a server is added in accordance with the created schedule. A common disk is used to remove a disk at an arbitrary timing. Further, a data region is previously subdivided on the common disk to eliminate a movement of data associated with the addition of a server. |
| US08041677B2 |
Method and system for data backup
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to Web-Services-based data backup and data-archiving applications that provide remote data backup and data archiving to private individuals, small businesses, and other organizations that need reliable, secure, geographically remote, and cost-effective data backup, data archiving, and backed-up and archived-data retrieval. In one embodiment of the present invention, a private or small-business client contracts with a service provider for data-backup and data-archiving services. The service provider, in turn, contracts with a remote data-storage facility to provide secure, reliable data backup and data archiving to the personal or small-business client. A client-side application is downloaded to the client computer and configured to allow the client to store locally encrypted data at the remote, data-storage facilities. Neither the service provider nor the data-storage facility can decrypt or otherwise access the information stored by the client. |
| US08041673B2 |
Hierarchical systems and methods for performing data storage operations
The invention is a hierarchical backup system. The interconnected network computing devices are put into groups of backup cells. A backup cell has a manager software agent responsible maintaining and initiating a backup regime for the network computing devices in the backup cell. The backups are directed to backup devices within the backup cell. Several backup cells can be defined. A manager software agent for a particular cell may be placed into contact with the manager software agent of another cell, by which information about the cells may be passed back and forth. Additionally, one of the software agents may be given administrative control over another software agent with which it is in communication. |
| US08041672B2 |
Management device and computer system
A management device connected to a file server providing a computer with file data stored in a storage subsystem, and collects information about access to the file data. In the management device, a log of access to the file data stored in the storage subsystem is collected as access data, and the access data for the same file data is grouped. With such a configuration, a large amount of information about access to the file data can be easily used, and the amount of information can be compressed. |
| US08041666B2 |
Method and apparatus for generation of a sequence of elements
A method and apparatus for automatically generating a target sequence of a plurality of elements selected in accordance with a plurality of user-defined constraints such as a play list of songs. The apparatus comprises a user interface (102) for inputting a plurality of user-defined constraints, a storage device (106) for storing a plurality of elements or music files; and a processor (104) for automatically generating the target sequence or play list by an iterative process in which a solution sequence is found at each iteration to best fit the user-defined constraints. A small, random or biased change is made to the sequence found and if this improves the solution, the new solution is used for the next iteration. The biased change is used to help predict a better result for user-defined constraints which are, ordinarily, difficult to satisfy. |
| US08041665B2 |
Compact decision diagrams
In one embodiment, a method includes determining an initial projected size of a BDD representing data for storage. The projected size corresponds to an initial projected number of decision nodes composing the BDD. The method includes determining an initial node structure for the decision nodes of the BDD according to the initial projected size of the BDD. The initial node structure includes for each decision node a variable identifier (ID), a 1-edge pointer, and a 0-edge pointer each represented by a minimum number of bits accommodating the initial projected number of decision nodes composing the BDD. |
| US08041664B1 |
Supervisory control by non-humans
Execution of functions by a non-human being is achieved by providing the non-human being with an I/O interface for receiving information, and permitting the non-human being to execute functions consistent with the abilities of the non-human being. An input/output interface is used to provide the non-human being with sensory information and to accept control information from the non-human being. An input/output processing system converts signals communicated through the input/output interface. An operation control interface is used for controlling the functions executed by the non-human being. |
| US08041663B2 |
Method for predicting problematic configurations and recommending safe configurations
A system and method for method for assessing configurations includes steps or acts of: receiving configuration data related to configuration items and problem data related to problem tickets; classifying the configuration data into configuration classes; computing a class probability of the configuration classes; associating each configuration class with the problem tickets related to said configuration class; computing a ticket probability distribution of the problem tickets based on number of incidents; evaluating problem ticket characteristics per configuration class to determine a coefficient of trouble value for each configuration class; ranking the configuration classes according to their coefficient of trouble; wherein a highest ranking has the least coefficient of trouble; determining potentially optimal configurations based on the rankings; and providing to a user migration paths corresponding to the potentially optimal configurations. |
| US08041662B2 |
Domain name geometrical classification using character-based n-grams
Character-based n-grams are derived from a domain name in order to classify such domain name in pre-established categories. Domain name character-based n-grams are mapped to vector points in a multidimensional space, where the number of dimensions is the number of different n-grams that can exist for an n-character combination. The relationship between the domain name vector point and the vector points of the various other domain names is used to classify the domain name vector point. The classification system can use statistical methods using relative frequencies of character-based n-grams in various classifications as indicators. A dictionary set of character-based n-grams can be derived from one or more domain names and associated with probability indicating the likelihood that the character-based n-gram is found in a domain name of a given classification. Such probability can be an estimator of a classification of a new domain name having such character-based n-gram. |
| US08041659B2 |
Systems and methods for motion recognition using multiple sensing streams
Techniques for motion recognition using multiple data streams are disclosed. Multiple data streams from inertia sensors as well as non-inertial sensors are received to derive a motion recognition signal from motion recognizers. These motion recognizers are originally constructed from a training set of motion signals and may be updated with received multiple sensing signals. In one aspect, multiple data streams are converted to device-independent motion signals that are applied with the motion recognizers to provide a generalized motion recognition capability. |
| US08041654B2 |
System for hybridized efficient genetic algorithms to solve bi-objective optimization problems with application to network computing
A system and methods are presented for the generation of hybridized efficient genetic algorithms (EGAS) applied to bi-objective optimization problems. Applications are made to engineering systems involving collective behaviors, including network computing, robotics and evolvable hardware. |
| US08041648B2 |
Retail location services
Methods of preparing retail establishments are disclosed. An area for a retail location may be chosen and an individual may be selected to manage the retail location. The selection of the area may include an evaluation of geographical factors. From the area, a retail location may be selected based on an aggregate score of a set of characteristics of the retail location. The individual may remotely select the layout and furnishing of the retail location and may remotely monitor the progress of the preparation of the retail location. In an embodiment, the individual may be prepared to manage the retail location at a centralized location that is distinct from the area where the retail location is located. |
| US08041646B2 |
Method and system for real time online debit transactions
An online payment method is disclosed which permits users to make realtime debit card payments over the Internet. The payor and payee pre-register with the system by sending their PAN, encrypted PIN and encryption key to the system database using a debit card reader, and then enter user names and secret IDs to be associated with the PAN and PIN numbers. When an online transaction is made the payor enters its user name and ID which is sent to the system along with the transaction amount and the payee user name. The system sends out a standard POS transaction using the stored PAN, encrypted PIN and encryption key. If approved it sends out a credit POS transaction to the payee in the same way. |
| US08041640B2 |
Method and system for account verification
A system and method for verifying the existence of a deposit account, such as a checking account, are provided. The system and method may also be used to determine whether the deposit account is configured to receive automatic transactions for withdrawal. For example, a lender may extend an offer of credit to a borrower where payments of principal and interest are to be made by automatic withdrawals. Prior to transferring the principal, the lender verifies the existence and configuration of the borrower's deposit account by charging a fee to establish the line of credit and retrieving the fee by automatic withdrawal. Once the transaction clears and the lender receives the fee, the lender is assured that the account does exist and is configured to receive automatic transactions. Two exemplary methods of retrieving the fee are electronic funds transfer and remote creation of a paper negotiable instrument. |
| US08041639B2 |
Systems and methods to facilitate online transactions
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate online transactions via mobile communications. In one aspect, a system includes a data storage facility to store an account and a phone number associated with the account and an interchange coupled with the data storage facility. The interchange includes a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of different controllers of mobile communications. The converters are configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats; and the converters are configured to communicate with the common format processor in a common format to facilitate deposit transactions and payment transactions. |
| US08041626B2 |
Systems and methods for providing a trading interface
Systems and methods for configurable trading interfaces that allow a trader to quickly and easily submit trading commands to a trading system are provided. Using these systems and methods, a trader can using various trading interfaces to initiate trading commands, configure various display features and default command settings, and control a level of command entry verification that is provided to protect against inadvertent entry of incorrect trading commands. |
| US08041625B2 |
Method and system for calculating an intraday indicative value of leveraged bullish and bearish exchange traded funds
A computer implemented method, system, and software for calculating and using an intraday indicative value of a leveraged Bullish or Bearish exchange traded fund (“ETF”) for arbitrage purposes, includes calculating an intraday current value of all the equity securities in the ETF (applicable only to Bullish ETFs), calculating mark to market gains or losses of at least one derivative product, and retrieving an accumulated loss or gain of the at least one derivative product and other cash equivalent amounts. The intraday indicative value of the ETF is determined by combining the calculated intraday current value of all the equity securities (applicable only to Bullish ETFs), the accumulated loss or gain, the mark to market gains of the at least one derivative product and other cash equivalent amounts. The determined intraday value of the ETF is used, by a party, for arbitrage purposes. |
| US08041623B1 |
Method and interface for historical display of market information
Trading software may receive information from an exchange. The trading software may track historical bid and ask information for a tradeable object. The trading software may display historical market depth information for the tradeable object on a trading screen. |
| US08041620B2 |
Transaction velocity counting for fraud detection
Methods and systems for detecting fraud based on velocity counts are disclosed. |
| US08041619B1 |
Hybrid model for new account acquisition
A hybrid model for new account acquisition is disclosed. A software tool can be provided to implement a statistical model that produces a hybrid score and corresponding decile segregation. The statistical model is a hybrid of a net conversion rate (NCR) model and an approval model, and may thus be referred to herein as a hybrid model. In example embodiments, a set of hybrid scores is calculated for each of a plurality of values of alpha to produce a decile level lift table for each set of hybrid scores. Potential values for alpha tend to lower the hybrid scores for declined prospects. The decile level lift tables can be used to facilitate selection of a value for alpha to optimize a performance metric associated with the new account acquisition. In some embodiments, a cost-benefit curve can be created from the lift tables. |
| US08041608B2 |
Systems and methods for offering wireless financial accounts
Systems and methods consistent with the invention may offer a new financial account having a balance transfer sub-account for implementation onto a customer's wireless purchasing device. The purchasing device may have a wireless transmitter that may communicate account information stored on the purchasing device to a service terminal. Based on the account information received by the service terminal, the system may obtain the terms of the customer's current account associated with the purchasing device. The system may then determine the terms of the new account for offering to the customer. If the customer accepts the offered account, the terminal may then wirelessly reprogram the purchasing device with the information of the new account and transfer the balance of the customer's original account to the balance transfer sub-account of the new account. |
| US08041607B1 |
Supplemental product system and method
Method, system and computer code for generating and displaying an image of a custom product to a customer who is in the process of ordering a different product. The image is generated automatically without a customer request and incorporates information earlier provided by the customer. When possible, the custom product is presented with design features that are similar to the design features of the different product being ordered. Edit capability is provided to allow the user to make changes to the custom product, if desired. |
| US08041605B1 |
Advance order system
A system includes a master device and a slave device. The slave device is configured to provide a customer waiting to be seated at a restaurant with menu information for the restaurant, receive at least one of a drink order or a food order from the customer while the customer is waiting to be seated at the restaurant, and transmit the at least one of a drink order or a food order. The master device is configured to receive the at least one of a drink order or a food order from the slave device, and cause the at least one of a drink order or a food order to be forwarded to a kitchen of the restaurant based on at least one of a position of the customer on a waiting list or an estimated amount of time until the customer will be seated. |
| US08041596B2 |
Methods for estimating search engine market share for websites
Several methods for estimating search engine market share for individual and groups of websites are described. Keywords, search domains, seed websites, seed keywords and other starting points are used to estimate relative market share for websites identified in search results at one or more search engines. |
| US08041592B2 |
Collection and analysis of multiple data sources
Communication data for an organization, such as call, email, and instant messaging activity data from different data sources is collected and analyzed together using a correlation and behavior analysis tool. A set of communication activity records and/or specific contact data information may be provided by the organization's data sources or by an external law enforcement entity. The organization data may be analyzed according to rules and policies of data analysis and correlation using the multiple data sources to identify and report related communication activity or contact data to the internal personnel or external law enforcement for continued investigation in tracking fraud rings and other illegal activities. |
| US08041590B2 |
In-store media rating system and method
In-store media rating systems and methods are provided. A disclosed method includes receiving data from a plurality of individual stores, each having an individual store floor plan including shopper accessible areas and shopper non-accessible areas, and providing a standard floor plan including a plurality of predefined sectors. The method further includes standardizing each respective individual store floor plan to produce a corresponding standardized individual store floor plan based on the standard floor plan, wherein relative location and shopper accessible area of each of the sectors in the each standardized individual store floor plan correspond to the location and shopper accessible area of a corresponding predefined sector of the standard floor plan. The method further includes producing an output including the standardized individual store floor plan. |
| US08041588B2 |
Business process diagram visualization using heat maps
System and method for displaying information regarding a business process. A diagram of the business process may be displayed on a display. The diagram may include a plurality of icons connected by lines, where each of the icons represents a respective step in the business process and the lines indicate flow paths between the steps. Historical data regarding the business process may be received. The historical data may be analyzed to determine information regarding steps and/or flow paths in the business process. Graphical indications associated with one or more icons and/or lines in the diagram may be displayed. The graphical indications may visually indicate characteristics of corresponding steps and/or flow paths in the business process. For example, the graphical indications may indicate lengths of time, costs, or other characteristics associated with various ones of the steps. The graphical indications may indicate path traversals of ones of the flow paths. |
| US08041585B1 |
Computerized medical modeling of group disability insurance using medical claims data
The development and use of a model to estimate disability insurance exposure for a group of individuals to be underwritten for a coverage period is disclosed. The development of the model includes the use of medical claim data having a plurality of medical claims made by a first model population having at least a respective plurality of first model population members and a disability insurance claim data having a plurality of disability insurance claims made by a second model population having at least a respective plurality of second model population members, which optionally may partially or wholly overlap with the first model population. A clinical medical condition classification system assigns corresponding medical condition causes to the disability insurance claims and the medical claims based on medical condition information.Development then categorizes the disability insurance claims and medical claims classified by medical condition, where each morbidity category comprises one or more medical conditions, to form a plurality of morbidity categories of disability insurance claims. Then, the proportions of the two types of claims are calculated for each morbidity category. Then, for each of the morbidity categories, a probability of having a disability claim during the coverage period is calculated using at least one conditional probability, the conditional probability being based on at least the proportion of disability insurance claims and the proportion of medical claims for each of the morbidity categories. From that, for each of the morbidity categories, an estimated the disability claim duration or cost is calculated. |
| US08041581B2 |
System and method for collecting, processing, and storing discrete data records based upon a single data input
According to the present invention, there is provided a system and method for the collection, capture, processing, storage, and tracking of data for both electronic clinical trial and electronic source health records for purposes, based upon a single data collection instance. Upon the collection of data at a clinical trial site, the data are transmitted to a central server where it is captured as an electronic source document(s) in human readable format. The system then transmits the captured electronic source document to a trusted third-party's electronic document repository. Then, the system uses the same captured data to populate the clinical trial's electronic data capture database. The system incorporates security and encryption features to ensure that privacy information requirements are not violated. In the preferred embodiment, the electronic data capture provider for a clinical trial has no control over the server of the trusted third-party vendor, complying with regulatory requirements. Additionally, the collected data can be pushed into a clinical site's electronic health record system or any equivalent system which houses electronic data. Throughout the operation of the system, an audit trail is maintained which records information relating to all data recording, modifying, and accessing events. |
| US08041576B2 |
Information processing apparatus and information processing method
An information processing apparatus performs a process in accordance with a command. The information processing apparatus includes a first selection unit configured to refer to a storage unit that stores a plurality of recognition commands for inputting the command by speech, recognize input speech and select a command based on the recognized input speech, and a second selection unit configured to sequentially select a plurality of commands that correspond to a plurality of recognition commands stored in the storage unit. The information processing apparatus further includes a process determination unit configured to select either the first selection unit or the second selection unit based on an operation performed on a predetermined operation unit, and an execution unit configured to execute a command which is selected by one of the selection units that is selected by the process determination unit. |
| US08041573B2 |
Integrating a voice browser into a Web 2.0 environment
The present invention discloses a system and method for integrating a voice browser into a Web 2.0 environment. For example, a system is disclosed which includes at least a Web 2.0 server, a voice browser, and a server-side speech processing system. The Web 2.0 server can serve Web 2.0 content comprising at least one speech-enabled application. The served Web 2.0 content can include voice markup. The voice browser can render the Web 2.0 content received from the Web 2.0 server which includes rendering the voice markup. The server-side speech processing system can handle speech processing operations for the speech-enabled application. Communications with the server-side speech processing system occur via a set of RESTful commands, such as an HTTP GET command, an HTTP POST command, an HTTP PUT command, and an HTTP DELETE command. |
| US08041569B2 |
Speech synthesis method and apparatus using pre-recorded speech and rule-based synthesized speech
A language processing unit identifies a word by performing language analysis on a text supplied from a text holding unit. A synthesis selection unit selects speech synthesis processing performed by a rule-based synthesis unit or speech synthesis processing performed by a pre-recorded-speech-based synthesis unit for a word of interest extracted from the language analysis result. The selected rule-based synthesis unit or pre-recorded-speech-based synthesis unit executes speech synthesis processing for the word of interest. |
| US08041567B2 |
Method of speaker adaptation for a hidden markov model based voice recognition system
Commercially available voice recognition systems are generally speaker-dependent, with the voice recognition system first being trained to the voice of the speaker before it can be used. A disadvantage with this method is that modified reference data has to be buffered and permanently saved in several steps when the speaker adaptation algorithm is executed, and thus requires a lot of memory space. This primarily negatively affects applications on devices with restricted processor power and limited memory space, such as mobile radio terminals for example. A method of speaker adaptation for a Hidden Markov Model based voice recognition system may address these issues. In the method, the memory space requirement and thus also the processor power required can be considerably reduced. This is achieved by using modified reference data in a speaker adaptation algorithm to adapt a new speaker to a reference speaker. The modified reference data is processed in compressed form. |
| US08041566B2 |
Topic specific models for text formatting and speech recognition
The present invention relates to a method, a computer system and a computer program product for speech recognition and/or text formatting by making use of topic specific statistical models. A text document which may be obtained from a first speech recognition pass is subject to segmentation and to an assignment of topic specific models for each obtained section. Each model of the set of models provides statistic information about language model probabilities, about text processing or formatting rules, as e.g. the interpretation of commands for punctuation, formatting, text highlighting or of ambiguous text portions requiring specific formatting, as well as a specific vocabulary being characteristic for each section of the recognized text. Furthermore, other properties of a speech recognition and/or formatting system (such as e.g. settings for the speaking rate) may be encoded in the statistical models. The models themselves are generated on the basis of annotated training data and/or by manual coding. Based on the assignment of models to sections of text an improved speech recognition and/or text formatting procedure is performed. |
| US08041563B2 |
Apparatus for coding a wideband audio signal and a method for coding a wideband audio signal
Activity is determined for each frequency band in a frame, and when it is determined that an activity-OFF state has not continued for a predetermined number of times for preceding frames, normal coding processing is performed for the frequency band. When it is determined that the activity-OFF state has continued for the predetermined number of times or more, DTX coding is performed for the frequency band. After this processing has been performed for all of the bands of one frame, a total power of the one entire frame and the power of the band or bands to which the DTX coding is applied are calculated. Subsequently, a new target bit value is calculated based on a ratio of the total power of the one entire frame and the power of the band or bands to which the DTX coding is applied. |
| US08041562B2 |
Constrained and controlled decoding after packet loss
A technique is described herein for reducing audible artifacts in an audio output signal generated by decoding a received frame in a series of frames representing an encoded audio signal in a predictive coding system. In accordance with the technique, it is determined if the received frame is one of a predefined number of received frames that follow a lost frame in the series of the frames. Responsive to determining that the received frame is one of the predefined number of received frames, at least one parameter or signal associated with the decoding of the received frame is altered from a state associated with normal decoding. The received frame is then decoded in accordance with the at least one parameter or signal to generate a decoded audio signal. The audio output signal is then generated based on the decoded audio signal. |
| US08041561B2 |
Multi-channel codebook dependent compensation
Methods and apparatus, in the context of speech recognition, for compensating in the cepstral domain for the effect of an interfering signal by using a reference signal. |
| US08041553B1 |
Generic software simulation interface for integrated circuits
A computer-based system for testing a circuit design for implementation within an integrated circuit device can include a design application (205) providing simulation instructions for testing a circuit design and a simulation driver (225) receiving the simulation instructions and translating the simulation instructions into control protocol instructions specifying operations of an integrated circuit control protocol. The system can include a simulation environment (240). The simulation environment can include a communication module (245) communicating with the simulation driver, a simulation cable driver (250) receiving the control protocol instructions from the simulation driver via the communication module, and a control module (255). The simulation cable driver further can translate the control protocol instructions into signaling information corresponding to the integrated circuit control protocol. The control module can include a plurality of ports receiving the signaling information and outputting the signaling information to a device under test within the simulation environment. |
| US08041552B2 |
Behavioral modeling of high speed differential signals based on physical characteristics
A method of modeling the output drivers in an integrated circuit, for example a serializer/deserializer circuit, is provided. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, at least one parameter of the circuit is physically measured and a behavioral model utilizing that parameter is constructed. The behavioral model can then be utilized to predict the behavior of the integrated circuit output drivers. |
| US08041550B1 |
Two-way rigid body coupling in shallow water simulations
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for computing two-way rigid body coupling in a two-dimensional height field simulation, such as a shallow water simulation. Coupling from a rigid body to a fluid is computed using fluid displacement of the body in each grid cell. The body is projected onto a simulation plane to determine which grid cells are covered by the body. Fluid displacement from the body is computed for each grid cell based on displacement within a corresponding vertical column of fluid. Fluid displacement is distributed to neighboring grid cells prior to a height field computation. Coupling from the fluid to the rigid body is computed by integrating forces imparted on the body by the fluid at each grid cell. The integrated forces are used to compute a new position for the body in a subsequent simulation time step. |
| US08041549B2 |
Analyzation apparatus and control method thereof
An analyzation apparatus which performs an analysis simulation in accordance with analysis condition data. An analysis condition modeling unit generates an analysis condition model data by assigning an analysis condition to each region of a three-dimensional model represented with analysis object model data of the analysis simulation based on analysis condition data set for the analysis simulation. A rendering unit renders the three-dimensional model represented with the analysis condition model data and displays the three-dimensional model on a display device. |
| US08041547B2 |
Computer-aided method for a cost-optimized calculation of aerodynamic forces on an aircraft
A computer-aided method suitable for assisting in the design of an aircraft by providing the values of dimensional variables, dependant of a predefined set of parameters, for the complete aircraft or an aircraft component, comprising the following steps: a) Defining a parametric space grid; b) Obtaining a suitable Reduced Order Model (ROM) model, particularly a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) model, for calculating said variables for whatever point over the parametric space through an iterative process. Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to calculate said variables for an appropriately selected set of points over the parametric space, which are used to approximate, via ROM and ad hoc interpolation, the variables in any other point over the parametric space. The method minimizes the required number of CFD calculations (to minimize the computational cost, which dramatically depends on this number) for a given level of error. |
| US08041545B2 |
Gradient based methods for multi-objective optimization
Concurrent Gradients Analysis (CGA), and two multi-objective optimization methods based on CGA are provided: Concurrent Gradients Method (CGM), and Pareto Navigator Method (PNM). Dimensionally Independent Response Surface Method (DIRSM) for improving computational efficiency of optimization algorithms is also disclosed. CGM and PNM are based on CGA's ability to analyze gradients and determine the Area of Simultaneous Criteria Improvement (ASCI). CGM starts from a given initial point, and approaches the Pareto frontier sequentially stepping into the ASCI area until a Pareto optimal point is obtained. PNM starts from a Pareto-optimal point, and steps along the Pareto surface in the direction that allows improving a subset of objective functions with higher priority. DIRSM creates local approximations based on automatically recognizing the most significant design variables. DIRSM works for optimization tasks with virtually any (small or large) number of design variables, and requires just 2-3 model evaluations per Pareto optimal point for the CGM and PNM algorithms. |
| US08041544B2 |
Support device, method, and storage medium used to design a part in string or belt form
A design support device used to design a part in string or belt form, including: a part editing unit configured to edit a part by changing a position of a pass point through which the part passes; and a section comparison unit configured to compare a section having a plurality of consecutive pass points before the edition by the part editing unit with the sections after the edition by the part editing unit, and extracting the section in which relative positions or relative passing directions are different between two pass points in the sections. |
| US08041542B2 |
Method and apparatus for equipment health monitoring
The present invention provides for monitoring the health of a system. In one embodiment, a method includes storing benchmark data in a memory, storing a second plurality of system data indicative of system conditions during system operations, determining from the second plurality of system data that the system was operating at a steady state capacity level during at least one sample window of the system operations, associating the steady state capacity level of the at least one sample window with the benchmark data, retrieving first health data for parameters associated with a first health condition from the first plurality of system data, retrieving second health data for parameters associated with the first health condition from the second plurality of system data that were obtained during the at least one sample window, comparing the health data and determining if the second health data is indicative of a health condition. |
| US08041538B2 |
Estimating of the amplitude of a noisy binary signal
A method and a device for estimating a first value of a signal formed of a series of values corresponding either to the first value or to a second value equal to the opposite of the first value, where the signal can take values other than the first and second values due to noise. |
| US08041536B2 |
Inclination calculation apparatus and inclination calculation program, and game apparatus and game program
An inclination calculation apparatus calculates an inclination of an input device operable in terms of a posture thereof. The input device includes an acceleration sensor and an imaging element. In one non-limiting example implementation, the inclination calculation apparatus computes first inclination information representing an inclination of the input device based upon a coordinate position of an imaging target in an acquired image obtained by the imaging element and an estimated coordinate position of a second imaging target not acquired by the imaging element. The inclination calculation apparatus also computes second inclination information representing an inclination of the input device solely from an acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor. The inclination calculation apparatus then calculates an inclination of the input device using the first inclination information and the second inclination information. |
| US08041530B2 |
Method to efficiently synchronize multiple measurements across multiple sensor inputs
A system for synchronizing multiple measurements across multiple sensors is provided. The system implements an algorithm in combination with highly flexible hardware architecture that generally comprises of multiple sensor inputs correspondingly from multiple sensors, and multiple analog signal conditioning circuits, and an array of switches situated between the sensor inputs and the analog signal conditioning circuits that enable the multiple sensor inputs to be routed to any one of the analog signal conditioning circuits or to any combination of analog signal conditioning circuits simultaneously. The algorithm looks at all configured measurements for all configured sensors to determine which measurements should be performed in parallel. Any measurements that are in common among enabled sensors are performed simultaneously while other measurements consume analog signal conditioning paths as they are available. |
| US08041528B2 |
Arrangement for calibrating a vector network analyzer
An arrangement for calibrating a vector network analyzer (VNA) is substantially secure against operating errors and offers cost-effective calibration by connecting calibration components. Each calibration component includes a transponder and a non-volatile memory which contains, as non-changeable data, at least the type of the component and an individual identification number and, as changeable data, at least the number of calibration processes performed with this calibration component. The VNA includes a wireless interface for reading at least the non-changeable data of a respective calibration component and for incrementing the stored number of the calibration processes performed with this calibration component. |
| US08041523B2 |
Battery charge/discharge current detection apparatus
The battery charge/discharge current detection apparatus has a power supply circuit powered by a battery mounted on a vehicle and configured to detect a charge/discharge current of the battery by use of a current detecting resistor connected between a negative terminal of the battery and a ground. The battery charge/discharge current detection apparatus includes a first function of detecting a voltage across the voltage detecting resistor, a second function of detecting a charge/discharge current of the battery on the basis of the voltage detected by the first function, a third function of detecting presence of an abnormality of the current detecting resistor, and a fourth function of informing an abnormality detected by the third function to the outside. The battery-side negative terminal of the power supply circuit is connected to the negative terminal of the battery. |
| US08041521B2 |
Estimating power consumption of computing components configured in a computing system
Methods, apparatus, and products as disclosed for estimating power consumption of computing components configured in a computing system that include: selecting, by a power estimation module, a plurality of calibration datasets from a calibration dataset repository, each calibration dataset specifying calibration power consumption by one or more computing components in the computing system for a calibration workload at a plurality of calibration operating points; measuring, by the power estimation module, a current power consumption by one or more measured computing components in the computing system for a current workload at a current operating point; determining, by the power estimation module, an estimated power consumption for the measured computing components at a proposed operating point in dependence upon the selected calibration datasets and the current power consumption for the current workload at the current operating point; and administering the computing system in dependence upon the estimated power consumption. |
| US08041520B2 |
Method to detect mechanical faults and dynamic instability in rotor systems of helicopters, tilt rotor aircraft, and whirl towers
A method of processing revolution to revolution blade track height and timing data so that mechanical and dynamic stability, maladjustments, and defects are discovered in a rotor with a plurality of blades on a vertical lift aircraft. Tracking devices collect blade track height and timing data. That data are processed into track and lead-lag data sets. Data set values are sorted maximum to minimum, or in reverse order, to remove the chaotic character of the collected data, thereby adding coherence and linearity to it. Defects and maladjustments are found by analyzing processed aircraft flight condition data combined in various ways. Only ground and hover flight condition analysis is required. Data collection and analysis is very rapid and the analysis output is presented graphically. The analyzed data are available moments after collection. Significant operational, safety, and cost saving are achieved. |
| US08041519B2 |
Method to produce an optical module for analog data transmission
A method to produce an optical module, in particular, a module to transmit an analog data to enhance a yield thereof is disclosed. The method comprises (a) taking an I-L characteristic and its slope efficiency, (b) taking a gradient of a linear approximation between the slope efficiency and a current applied to an LD, and (c) taking an optimum current for the CSO characteristic as varying the current. Steps (a) to (c) give a correlation between the gradient of the linear approximation and the optimum current and are performed in advance to the practical production. |
| US08041516B2 |
Identifying and generating olfactory cohorts based on olfactory sensor input
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for generating olfactory cohorts. Olfactory data is received from a set of chemical sensors. The olfactory data describes a set of olfactory patterns for an air sample. The olfactory data is processed to identify attributes of particles in the air sample and generate digital olfactory data. The digital olfactory data comprises metadata describing the attributes of the particles in the air sample to form digital olfactory data. A set of olfactory cohorts is generated using the attributes in the digital olfactory data. |
| US08041515B2 |
Use of impedance-based cytological profiling to classify cellular response profiles upon exposure to biologically active agents
The present invention provides methods of multi-dimensional profiling of biologically active agents and determining their effects on biological systems. The methods of the present invention include real-time impedance monitoring of cellular responses to biologically active agents and categorization of cellular kinetic profiles into mechanism specific cellular response profile groups. The grouping of similar cellular response profiles allows the correlation between agent and mechanism, thus allowing for the identification of potential therapeutic applications of agents or further study of cellular responses or mechanisms. |
| US08041514B2 |
Method for judging feature of malignant tumor
A method for judging feature of malignant tumor is described. The method comprises obtaining step, first comparing step, second comparing step and judging step. The obtaining step comprises obtaining a first parameter based on activity and expression level of a first cyclin dependent kinase (first CDK) contained in a tumor cell of the malignant tumor, a second parameter based on activity and expression level of a second cyclin dependent kinase (second CDK) contained in the tumor cell, a third parameter based on the first parameter and the second parameter, and a fourth parameter based on expression level of a cyclin contained in the tumor cell. The first comparing step comprises comparing a first threshold value with the third parameter. The second comparing comprises comparing a second threshold value with the fourth parameter. The judging step comprises judging the feature of the malignant tumor based on the comparison results of the first comparing step and the second comparing step. |
| US08041500B2 |
Reformate control via accelerometer
Engine surge includes oscillations in engine torque resulting in bucking or jerking motion of a vehicle that may degrade driver experience. The present application relates to increasing reformate entering an example engine cylinder in response to engine surge. |
| US08041499B2 |
Method and apparatus for combustion chamber pressure estimation
In order to compensate for pressure drop across a fuel injector, pressure in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine into which fuel is injected is estimated based on manifold pressure at a timing for intake valve closure and volumes of the combustion chamber at a timing for intake valve closure and at least one other timing. |
| US08041498B2 |
Lean nitrogen oxide emission control system and method
A control system comprising an NH3 storage level determination module that determines an NH3 storage level in an exhaust system, and a fuel control module that controls an air-to-fuel (A/F) ratio in an engine based on the NH3 storage level. A method comprising determining an NH3 storage level in an exhaust system, and controlling an A/F ratio in an engine based on the NH3 storage level. |
| US08041495B2 |
Optimal engine operating power management strategy for a hybrid electric vehicle powertrain
A method is disclosed for managing power in a hybrid electric vehicle powertrain having multiple components, including at least two of a group comprising an engine, a motor, a generator and a high voltage battery. Power losses in the individual components are computed. An engine operating speed and torque for a given vehicle speed and total power command is determined so that total power losses for powertrain components are minimized. |
| US08041494B2 |
Dangerous drive predicting apparatus
A dangerous drive predicting apparatus is provided which is capable of rapidly recognizing a future situation of the own vehicle by other vehicles. The dangerous drive predicting apparatus is equipped with: drive information detecting section 110 for detecting drive information containing at least one of a drive action and vehicle information; traffic environment detecting section 120 for detecting a traffic environment around a first vehicle; driving characteristic producing/storing section 130 for producing and storing a driving characteristic every traffic environment based upon the drive information and the traffic environment; and a driving characteristic transmitting section for transmitting the driving characteristic to a second vehicle. |
| US08041492B2 |
Engine load management for power machines
Controlling a drive system for a power machine having an engine is discussed. The method includes receiving a control signal and calculating a base output value based on the control signal. The base output value is compensated for a load applied to the engine. A signal indicative of the compensated output value is provided to a drive component. |
| US08041490B2 |
System and method for aircraft braking system usage monitoring
The system and method for monitoring wear of one or more aircraft parts, such as an aircraft brake, an aircraft tire, a standby system, and landing gear. One or more sensors are provided for sensing a parameter of usage, and an estimate of usage of the part can be determined based upon the signal indicating the sensed value of the parameter of usage of the aircraft part. A plurality of sensors can be provided for sensing usage of a plurality of parts of the aircraft, and the estimate of usage of the part can be stored for access of the estimate by ground personnel. As applied to monitoring wear of an aircraft brake, a linear brake wear indicator attached to the brake moves a discrete distance when the brake is actuated, and a linear position encoder measures the distance traveled by the linear brake wear indicator as an indication of brake usage. A wheel speed monitor may also be provided for measuring the aircraft wheel speed, for distinguishing between static brake applications and moving brake applications, based upon the wheel speed signal. |
| US08041485B2 |
System and method for operating a machine
A machine is provided. The machine includes a body, an engine, a transmission, a seat assembly, an electronic control module, a first transmission controller, and a second transmission controller. The engine is mounted within the body and powers the machine. The transmission is coupled to the engine. The seat assembly is rotatably mounted to the body and moveable between a first position and a second position. The electronic control module is in electrical communication with the engine and the seat assembly. The first transmission controller is in electrical communication with the electronic control module and operable to control the transmission with a first transmission command. The second transmission controller is in electrical communication with the electronic control module and operable to control the transmission a second transmission command when the seat assembly is in the first position and the first transmission command is neutral. |
| US08041482B2 |
Seat sensor system
A seat sensor system including at least one seat sensor associated to a seat for sensing a status related to a seat occupancy and for generating an output signal indicative of the status and a control unit for communicating with the seat sensor. At least one transmitter for transmitting a data signal indicative of the output signal is associated with the seat and coupled to the seat sensor; and at least one receiver is coupled to the control unit for wirelessly receiving the data signal from the transmitter. |
| US08041478B2 |
Securing and diagnosing the vehicle speed input and direction for torque control systems
A vehicle speed module includes a speed arbitration module that receives at least two of a wheel speed, a transmission output speed (TOS), and an electric motor speed (EMS), and that determines a vehicle speed based on a comparison of the at least two of the wheel speed, the TOS, and the EMS. A speed diagnostic module selectively diagnoses a fault in one of a wheel speed sensor, a TOS sensor, and an EMS sensor based on the comparison. |
| US08041463B2 |
Modular droplet actuator drive
A droplet actuator drive including a detection apparatus for sensing a property of a droplet on a droplet actuator; circuitry for controlling the detection apparatus electronically coupled to the detection apparatus; a droplet actuator cartridge connector arranged so that when a droplet actuator cartridge electronically is coupled thereto: the droplet actuator cartridge is aligned with the detection apparatus; and the detection apparatus can sense the property of the droplet on a droplet actuator; circuitry for controlling a droplet actuator coupled to the droplet actuator connector; and the droplet actuator circuitry may be coupled to a processor. |
| US08041461B2 |
System and method for controlling hydronic systems having multiple sources and multiple loads
A system and method are provided to control hydronic systems having a plurality of sources, including at least one of an on-demand source, a semi-on-demand source, and an intermittent source that are fluidly or thermally coupled to a plurality of load zones. The hydronic system device obtains performance measurements for system components to provide system metrics, including failure diagnostics, energy capture, and usage optimization. The hydronic system device may also calculate British Thermal Units produced and used by the plurality of sources and loads to calculate incentives, including renewable energy credits. |
| US08041460B2 |
User interface for adjusting parameters for climate control systems in motor vehicles
A user interface for adjusting a plurality of parameters of a climate control system of a motor vehicle is disclosed. The user interface includes an input element having a system of coordinates having multiple dimensions, wherein each of the dimensions of the system of coordinates is associated with at least one of the parameters of the climate control system; and a program means to perform at least one of an absolute evaluation of the parameters and an incremental evaluation of changes to the parameters between an adjusted point range and an original point range of the parameters, and transmit a data representing the evaluation to at least one of a control device and a regulation device of the climate control system in order to adjust a value of the parameters. |
| US08041459B2 |
Methods relating to microsurgical robot system
A method of operating a surgical system. The method includes obtaining a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in which magnetic resonance (MR) visible targets are located; registering a robotic arm to the MRI scan using a digitizing tool, the robotic arm including: multiple joints and multiple degrees of freedom; an MR-compatible structural material; multiple MR-compatible joint motors; multiple MR-compatible joint encoders; and an end effector holding an MR-compatible surgical tool having a tool tip; and displaying a location of the tool tip relative to an image from the MRI scan. |
| US08041457B2 |
Robot, control method therefor and control program therefor
A robot configured to check whether an object is properly grasped by a hand determines whether the position and posture of a handle (object), determined based on an image obtained by a camera (external information), and the position and posture of the handle in the case where the handle is assumed to be properly grasped, determined from the posture of a robot based on an output or the like of a rotary encoder (internal information), agree with each other. In response to the determination of whether the external information and the internal information agree with each other, it is determined whether the handle is properly grasped based on a force detected by a six-axis force sensor provided on each hand. |
| US08041456B1 |
Self-balancing robot including an ultracapacitor power source
A power system is provided for robotic systems such as dynamically balancing robots, including inverted pendulum robots, robots that balance on two legs, and dynamically balancing robotic personal vehicles. Under normal operation, the power system provides operating power from a power source such as an internal battery system or an external AC power supply. The power system includes an energy storage device, such as an ultracapacitor assembly, that can provide emergency power sufficient to power components of the robotic system to a stable shutdown configuration in the event of a deleterious power event. |
| US08041451B2 |
Method for bin-based control
A method for providing bin-based control when manufacturing integrated circuit devices is disclosed. The method comprises performing a plurality of processes on a plurality of wafer lots; determining a required bin quantity, an actual bin quantity, and a projected bin quantity; comparing the determined required bin quantity with the determined actual bin quantity and determined projected bin quantity; and modifying at least one of the plurality of processes on the plurality of wafer lots if the determined actual bin quantity and determined projected bin quantity fail to satisfy the determined required bin quantity. |
| US08041450B2 |
Position sensor system for substrate transfer robot
A substrate processing apparatus comprises a substrate handling chamber, a pair of position sensors, and a substrate transfer robot. Each of the sensors comprises an emitter configured to emit a beam of light, and a receiver configured to receive the light beam. The substrate transfer robot comprises an end effector and a robot actuator. The end effector is configured to hold a substrate such that the substrate has a same expected position with respect to the end effector every time the substrate is held. The robot actuator is configured to move the end effector within the handling chamber to transfer substrates among a plurality of substrate stations. An edge of a substrate held in the expected position by the end effector can partially block a light beam of one of the position sensors, while another end of the end effector partially blocks a light beam of the other position sensor. |
| US08041448B2 |
Mouse-based hand wheel control for a machine tool
A machine tool is controlled using a pointing device coupled to two rotatable hand wheels. The pointing device tracks movement of the two hand wheels and communicates the movement to a control system which controls a moveable element. |
| US08041447B2 |
Numerical controller having workpiece setting error compensation means
A numerical controller controlling a 5-axis machine tool compensates setting error that arises when a workpiece is set on the table. Error in the three linear axes and the two rotation axes are compensated using preset error amounts to keep the calculated tool position and tool direction in a command coordinate system. If a trigonometric function used for error compensation has a plurality of solution sets, the solution set closest to the tool direction in the command coordinate system is selected from the plurality of solution sets and used as the positions of the two rotation axes compensated in the above error compensation. |
| US08041446B2 |
Post-process sizing control device for grinding machine
A post-process sizing control device is provided with origin compensation means for controlling a size measuring device to measure an actual size of a workpiece portion and for compensating the origin of a wheel head by a position compensation amount which corresponds to a difference between the actual size and a theoretical size derived from calculation and size measuring interval setting means for setting the number of workpieces which should be ground during the next size measuring interval which begins after the preceding origin compensation operation and ends with the next origin compensation operation. The size measuring interval setting means sets the number of workpieces which should be ground during the next size measuring interval, based on an average position compensation amount derived by dividing a position compensation amount for the last workpiece ground during the present size measuring interval by the number of workpieces ground during the present size measuring interval. |
| US08041445B2 |
Transformation method of G-code into step-Nc part program
A method of transforming a G-code type part program into a STEP-NC language type part program is provided and more particularly, a method is provided for enabling a G-code type part program mainly used in the field to be easily applied to a STEP-NC controller without a troublesome correction. A STEP-NC language type part program is automatically created, which is composed of machining operation information, manufacturing feature information, machining strategy information and the like, through a process of analyzing G-codes from the G-code type part program and tool information. A method of transforming a G-code into a STEP-NC part program includes receiving a G-code part program, tools and a numerical controller; creating G-code block information, and partitioning the entire part program on a workingstep basis. The method further includes creating machining strategy information and creating the STEP-NC part program by arranging the machining workingsteps. |
| US08041440B2 |
Method and system for providing a selection of golden tools for better defect density and product yield
Aspects of the present disclosure provide a method and a system for providing a selection of golden tools for better defect density and product yield. A golden tool selection and dispatching system is provided to integrate different components for robust golden tool selection and dispatching. The golden tool selection system selects a set of golden tools based on performance of a set of manufacturing tools and provides a fully automated operational environment to produce a product using the set of golden tools. |
| US08041438B2 |
Data-driven media management within an electronic device
A method and apparatus for intelligently routing and managing audio signals within an electronic device is disclosed. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed. |
| US08041437B2 |
System and method for virtual control of laboratory equipment
A system for virtual control of electronic laboratory equipment includes a local computer system. One or more items of electronic laboratory equipment are connected to the local computer system. Each item of electronic laboratory equipment has a physical control panel including one or more displays or controls. A virtual control panel generation unit generates a virtual control panel accessible from a remote computer system. The virtual control panel is substantially similar to the physical control panel in appearance. A command interpretation unit monitors interaction between the remote user and the virtual control panel and generates electronic laboratory equipment commands for exploiting the functionality of the electronic laboratory equipment. |
| US08041436B2 |
Scaling and parameterizing a controller
Controller scaling and parameterization are described. Techniques that can be improved by employing the scaling and parameterization include, but are not limited to, controller design, tuning and optimization. The scaling and parameterization methods described here apply to transfer function based controllers, including PID controllers. The parameterization methods also applies to state feedback and state observer based controllers, as well as linear active disturbance rejection controllers. |
| US08041430B2 |
TENS application devices
A TENS currents application device has a composite laminated construction consisting of an electrical current conductive layer made of a carbon material sandwiched between a flexible outer layer and a body contact layer. The outer layer may be made of plastic or metal and has a plurality of magnet elements imbedded therein. A heating means may be additionally provided in the device. The device may be in the form of a disc or round ball which can be held in the palm of a patient or in the form of a sole insert which can be placed in the sole of a foot ware. Protruding points are additionally formed on the outer surface of the round ball and on the outer surface of the sole insert. A vibrating device is located in the handheld device for providing additional massaging function to enhance the TENS treatment. |
| US08041429B2 |
System and method for controlling hypothalamic function via vestibular stimulation
A system and method for regulating one or more physiological functions controlled by a hypothalamus of an individual. In one embodiment, a stimulation is applied to at least a portion of a vestibular system of the individual, a subjective input is received from the individual based upon the individual's perceived response of the hypothalamus in regulating the one or more physiological functions, and the stimulation is adjusted based on the received subjective input. |
| US08041425B2 |
Atrial tachyarrhythmia detection using selected atrial intervals
Methods and systems are directed to detecting atrial tachyarrhythmia. A plurality of A-A intervals is detected. The detected A-A intervals are selected and used to detect atrial tachyarrhythmia. Selecting A-A intervals may be based on determining that A-A intervals are qualified. Qualified A-A intervals may be determined if a duration of the particular A-A interval falls outside a predetermined duration range, for example. Qualified A-A intervals may also be determined based on events occurring between consecutively sensed atrial events of the particular A-A interval, and whether the duration of the particular A-A interval falls within the predetermined duration range, for example. |
| US08041424B2 |
Cardiac resynchronization therapy for patients with right bundle branch block
An implantable medical device and associated method deliver cardiac resynchronization therapy in a patient having right bundle branch block by measuring an interval between a right atrial depolarization and a first heart sound and selecting a right atrial-ventricular (AV) pacing interval in response to the measured interval. Pacing pulses are delivered to the right ventricle of a patient's heart at the selected right AV pacing interval to synchronize the right ventricle with an intrinsic left ventricle depolarization. |
| US08041421B2 |
Transdermal delivery system for polynucleotides
A system for intradermal or transdermal delivery of oligonucleotides or polynucleotides and methods of use thereof employ an apparatus that generates micro-channels in the skin of a subject in conjunction with a pharmaceutical composition comprising an oligonucleotide or polynucleotide, wherein the oligonucleotide or polynucleotide can be delivered into the organism through the micro-channels. The system and methods achieve expression of target proteins encoded by the polynucleotides, and hence are useful in immunization and gene therapy. |
| US08041416B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining susceptibility for arrhythmias using wedensky modulated electrocardiography and alternans analysis
A method of assessing a patient's susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmia obtaining data by applying electrodes to detect electrocardiographic signal. A plurality of synchronized subthreshold electrical stimuli are delivered into the patient's body to present stimulated cardiac cycles to the electrodes and unstimulated reference cardiac cycles to the electrodes the signals are analyzed by creating a matrix of vectorized time-phase data representing a plurality cardiac cycles contained in the electrocardiographic signals that are recorded the method includes processing the matrix to generate spectral analytic representation of the matrix, analyzing at least the spectral analytic representation to determine at least one alternans index for the patient; and displaying the at least one alternans index as an indicator of the patient's susceptibility to arrhythmia. |
| US08041409B2 |
Method and apparatus for multi-modal imaging
A method and apparatus for imaging a subject animal. The method comprises the steps of treating the animal with an x-ray contrast agent and an imaging agent; supporting the animal in an immobilized state on a support member; acquiring an x-ray anatomical image of the animal; acquiring an optical, dark-field image of the animal; and registering the x-ray anatomical image and the optical image, whereby features of the optical image can be observed in relation to features of the anatomical image. |
| US08041407B2 |
Sliding mechanism, electronic apparatus and portable device
A sliding mechanism used for an apparatus such as a portable device suppresses shaking between housing units in an opened state, closed state or on the way to opening/closing. A slide module is provided for opposed surfaces against a first housing unit (upper housing unit) and second housing unit (lower housing unit) to be slid. The slide module slidably supports the first and second housing units. Since the slide module has a slider and a fixing part that slidably supports the slider, it is structured that in case the first and second housing units are in an opened state, the slider is not exposed through the first and second housing units. Structure is included that compared with the first and second housing units in a closed state, in case in the opened state, a guide of the slider for the fixing part of the slide module is made wider. |
| US08041402B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing ring tones in a mobile device
An improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for a mobile device for managing ring tones. A radio frequency transmission is detected from another mobile device. In response to detecting the radio frequency transmission from the other mobile device, a ring tone used by the other mobile device is identified to form an identified ring tone. The current ring tone is selectively changed for the mobile device to an alternate ring tone, depending on the identified ring tone. |
| US08041396B2 |
Method and system for emergency dialing of a wireless communication device
A wireless communication device may have several contact buttons, including, for example, a Mom button, a Dad button and a Home button. The device may also have a Send button and an End button. A child may press one of the contact buttons, then dial Send, and a call will be placed to the specifically denoted contact. Accordingly, a child may easily and efficiently use the present invention to quickly wirelessly communicate with another person, without the confusion of extraneous buttons. The wireless communication device also includes a system and method for emergency dialing. Emergency dialing is effected by pressing an emergency call button and the Send button. In this manner, accidental dialing of an emergency number is avoided. The wireless device can be remotely programmed such that a parent or other person may remotely program the numbers called when the contact buttons are pressed. Accordingly, if a parent or other person plan to change locations, the device may be remotely reprogrammed with a different contact number for that parent. The wireless communication device may be reprogrammed via a telephone call from a remote location or from a computer via the Internet. |
| US08041391B2 |
Mobile communication terminal and terminal control method
An object of the present invention is to surely and readily prevent unauthorized use of a noncontact IC function incorporated in a mobile communication terminal, even in a state in which no signal can be sent through mobile communication to the mobile communication terminal. A mobile communication terminal 10 has a noncontact IC module 12 incorporating an IC chip 11; a slot 13 in which a UIM 20 is to be loaded, the UIM 20 storing connection information to be used for connection between the host terminal 10 and a mobile communication network; a memory unit 15 for storing information to identify UIM 20; an acquiring unit 16 for acquiring information to identify UIM 20 loaded in the slot 13; a comparing unit 17 for making a comparison between the information to identify the UIM 20, stored in the memory unit 15, and the information to identify the UIM 20, acquired by the acquiring unit 16; and a control unit 18 for controlling access to the IC chip 11, based on a result of the comparison by the comparing unit 17. |
| US08041382B2 |
Cellular phone
A cellular phone communicates data with an information provision apparatus connected via a packet network. A control unit obtains an information management apparatus identifier for identifying an information management apparatus within the packet network which is an intermediation at the time of the data communication carried out with the information provision apparatus further connected via an external network among the information provision apparatuses, determines whether the identifier added to the data at the time of the data communication is coincident with the information management apparatus identifier, and calculates a data amount at the time of the data communication carried out with the information provision apparatus connected via the external network. A storage unit stores the calculated data amount. |
| US08041378B2 |
System and method for providing channel configurations in a communications environment
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes monitoring a plurality of channels provisioned for an endpoint. The method also includes reacting to an alert message by adjusting one of the channels for the endpoint. The adjustment is a selected one of increasing a volume associated with the channel receiving the alert message, or changing a spatial direction from which the alert message and an associated media stream are conveyed to the endpoint. In other embodiments, the adjustment provisions the alert message from a left ear to a right ear of an end user of the endpoint. In still other embodiments, the adjustment includes determining which is a primary channel of the channels and provisioning the alert message to the primary channel of the endpoint. The media stream associated with the alert message is also moved to a same spatial direction along with the alert message. |
| US08041373B2 |
Automatic spread of applications
The present invention relates to a method in a first communications device for sharing an application with a second communication device. The method comprises the steps of: Sending a first short message service (SMS) to the second device. The first SMS comprises a link to a place from where the application can be downloaded into the second device. The first SMS comprises an identity for the second device to use for initiating an IP connection between the first device and the second device and the second device. The method comprises the further step of being connected by the second device for setting up an IP connection between the first device and the second device. The method comprises the further step of communicating with the second device in an IP connection sharing the application. |
| US08041371B1 |
Communication device
The communication device which includes a voice communicating means, an automobile controlling means, a caller ID means, a call blocking means, an auto time adjusting means, a calculating means, a word processing means, a startup software means, a stereo audio data output means, a digital camera means, a multiple language displaying means, a caller's information displaying means, a communication device remote controlling means, a shortcut icon displaying means, a voice recognition means, and a voice tag means. |
| US08041370B2 |
Method and apparatus for locating position of a mobile device in an assisted satellite positioning system
Method and apparatus for locating position of a mobile device in an assisted satellite positioning system is described. In one example, satellite measurement data is obtained from a plurality of satellites at a mobile device. Position of the mobile device is computed using the satellite measurement data. The position is sent to a cellular device via a wireless ad hoc network. In one example, the wireless ad hoc network comprises a BLUETOOTH communication link. In one example, the mobile device is configured to receive assistance data from a position server through the wireless ad hoc network. For example, the mobile device may comprise a housing configured to plug into a cigarette lighter connector of an automobile and the cellular device may comprise a cellular telephone without location-determination capabilities (i.e., the cellular telephone does not include an integrated GPS receiver). |
| US08041368B2 |
Mobile communications terminal, service area calculation apparatus and method of calculating service area
A mobile communications terminal includes positional information generator configured to generate positional information indicating a current position of the terminal, receiver which receives identification information sent from the base station of the second mobile communication network, notification information generator configured to generate notification information including the identification information and the positional information generated at the time of receiving the identification information, and transmitter which transmits the notification information to the service area calculation apparatus via the first mobile communication network to derive the information concerning the service area. |
| US08041364B2 |
Systems and methods for transmitting control information via a control signaling channel
A method for transmitting control information may include providing formatting rules that define a format for transmission of the control information to a base station via a control signaling channel. The control information may include a channel quality indicator (CQI), an acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK), a pre-coding matrix indicator (PMI), and rank information. The method may also include providing combination rules as part of the formatting rules. The combination rules may define how the CQI, the ACK/NACK, the PMI, and the rank information are combined for transmission on the control signaling channel. The method may also include transmitting the control information to the base station via the control signaling channel in accordance with the defined formatting rules. |
| US08041363B2 |
Spectrum-adaptive networking
The present invention increases the available spectrum in a wireless network by sharing existing allocated (and in-use) portions of the RF spectrum in a manner that will minimize the probability of interfering with existing legacy users. The invention provides interference temperature-adaptive waveforms, and a variety of physical and media access control protocols for generating waveforms based on measurement and characterization of the local spectrum. The invention measures the local spectrum at a receiving node, generates an optimal waveform profile specifying transmission parameters that will water-fill unused spectrum up to an interference limit without causing harmful interference to primary and legacy transmitters using the same frequency bands, and enables simultaneous transmit and receive modes at a multiplicity of transceivers in a wireless network. The invention also provides closed loop feedback control between nodes, co-site interference management, intersymbol interference mitigation, wide sense stationary baseband signaling and modulation, and power limited signaling for avoiding detection and interception. |
| US08041361B2 |
Method and device of network resource release processing
A method of network resource release processing is provided, which includes the following steps. After user equipment (UE) using idle mode signaling reduction (ISR) mechanism registers to two 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) communication networks, when the UE changes from the 3GPP network to a non-3GPP communication network, a serving gateway (serving GW) receives a message sent from a peer endpoint network element (NE), and deletes network resources established by the two 3GPP communication networks for the UE according to the message. A mobility management NE and a serving GW are also provided. Through the method and device of network resource release processing, the resources are released when the UE using the ISR mechanism changes from the 3GPP network to the non-3GPP communication network. |
| US08041358B2 |
Base station apparatus and cell switching determination method
The base station apparatus includes a calculating unit configured to calculate a total communication throughput value for every cell by totalizing communication throughput in the selected cell of each mobile terminal on a cell-basis, a receiving unit configured to receive reception quality information of the selected cell and the reception quality information of another movement destination cell in the plurality of cells, a judging unit configured to judge whether or not the mobile terminal is in a cell switching zone by obtaining a difference between the reception quality information of the selected cell and of the movement destination cell, and a determining unit configured to determine, if the mobile terminal is judged to be in the cell switching zone, the cell switching to the movement destination cell as a newly selected cell by comparing the total communication throughput value of the selected cell with that of the movement destination cell. |
| US08041355B2 |
Method, terminal, and system for cell reselection
A method, terminal, and system for cell reselection are disclosed. The method includes: a terminal obtains a dedicated priority list from a first system; and performs cell reselection according to the dedicated priority list when the terminal camps on a cell of a second system. The corresponding terminal and system are also provided in other embodiments of the invention. According to an embodiment of the invention, the terminal performs cell reselection by using the dedicated priority list obtained from the first system so as to free the second system from establishing the dedicated priority list. Problems in the prior arts that establishment of the dedicated priority list causes too much increased signaling and too high costs for network upgrade are solved. |
| US08041350B2 |
Wireless communication system, method of management, control and maintenance, and apparatus for the same
It administers a plurality of wireless base stations grouped into a plurality of groups, and performs the processing about the management, control and maintenance of the wireless base stations selectively for each of the groups. This enables the efficient management, control and maintenance processing of the wireless base stations. |
| US08041348B1 |
Communication device
The communication device which implements a voice communicating function, an attached file emailing function, a geographic location function, a dictionary function, a schedule notifying function, a multiple type TV program function, a multiple TV screen displaying function, a touch panel function, and a communication device finding function. |
| US08041346B2 |
Method and system for establishing a service relationship between a mobile communication device and a mobile data server for connecting to a wireless network
A method and system for establishing a service relationship between a mobile communication device and a mobile data server for connecting to a wireless network are provided. A scripting-language capable device controller is used to interface communications between a scripting engine of an Internet browser and the mobile communication device in accordance with a communications protocol connecting them. Using the communications interface provided by the scripting-language capable device controller, a web page displayed in the Internet browser provides a user interface which receives requests to establish service relationships, obtains service data required for the service relationships from the mobile data server in accordance with device identifier and device capability data of the mobile communication device, and stores the service data on the mobile communication device. |
| US08041339B2 |
Method for secure authentication of mobile devices
A method for authenticating a mobile device is provided. The method includes receiving a communication request from the mobile device. The mobile device is operable to exchange data over a primary channel. Authentication data is received from the mobile device over a second channel. The secondary channel is a short-range channel operable for exchanging data when the mobile device is within physical proximity. The authentication data is processed to determine whether the mobile device is a trusted device. |
| US08041338B2 |
Mobile wallet and digital payment
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates securing a wireless digital transaction. A terminal component can receive a portion of data related to a payment for at least one of a good or a service. A mobile device can include at least one mobile payment card (m-card), wherein the m-card is created by establishing a link to an account associated with a form of currency. The mobile device can employ public-key cryptography (PKC) to securely and wirelessly transmit a payment to the terminal component utilizing the m-card and linked account. |
| US08041336B2 |
Methods and apparatus for accurately determining signal time of arrival
A technique for determining the time of arrival of a signal involves correlating a received signal with a correlation function to produce a stream of correlation samples including a peak sample, pre-peak samples, and post-peak samples. A curve matching table includes sets of values, where each set of values represents discrete points of a correlation function having a peak at a respective different time shift relative to the timing of the peak sample. The sets of values include first sets of values that are matched with a first set of samples having no post-peak samples from the correlation samples, and second sets of values that are matched with a second set of samples having at least one post-peak sample. The time of arrival of the signal is determined from the timing of the peak of the correlation function represented by the set of values that produces the best match. |
| US08041330B1 |
Wireless device capable of producing an emergency beacon
A wireless device capable of producing an emergency beacon signal is disclosed. The wireless device has a radio portion and may include a beacon transmitter and a controller in signal communication with the radio portion and beacon transmitter. The controller is capable of instructing the beacon transmitter to transmit a beacon location signal in response to the radio portion receiving a beacon activation signal. The wireless device may further include a satellite position system (“SPS”) receiver in signal communication with the controller. |
| US08041329B2 |
Method and apparatus for maintaining network performance in a communication system
A method and apparatus is disclosed for method and apparatus for maintaining network performance in a communication system. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a network management server (NMS) that manages operations of a communication system including an access office (AO) coupled to a plurality of base terminals (BTs) by way of a corresponding plurality of network elements. The NMS can have a network configuration element that identifies for each of the plurality of BTs a plurality of resultant communication paths to the AO according to a plurality of differential delays calculated from alternative communication paths connecting combinations of the BTs to the AO for each of a plurality of change scenarios affecting the plurality of network elements, wherein the network configuration element arranges portions of the plurality of BTs into a corresponding plurality of groups, and selects for each BT in a select one of the plurality of groups its corresponding plurality of resultant communication paths to the AO according to differential delays calculated for alternative communication paths associated with combinations of BTs in the selected group and the plurality of change scenarios affecting the selected group. Additional embodiments are disclosed. |
| US08041323B2 |
Portable electronic unit
A portable electronic unit has a transmission-side section that transmits a signal and a receiving-side section that receives a signal from the transmission-side section. The receiving-side section includes a gain control amplification device that amplifies and outputs a signal from the transmission-side section. The gain control amplification device has a first amplification circuit that amplifies and outputs a signal from the transmission-side section, a detection circuit that detects and outputs a signal from the first amplification circuit, a gain control amplification circuit that amplifies and outputs a signal from the detection circuit, and a gain control circuit that controls a gain in the gain control amplification circuit in response to a level of a signal from the detection circuit. |
| US08041320B2 |
Receiver for multiple signal spectra
A radio receiver for receiving first signals of a first frequency spectrum having principal energy in a first frequency band and second signals of a second frequency spectrum having principal energy in second and third frequency bands, located on either side of the first frequency band, includes (i) an input for receiving an incoming signal; (ii) frequency shifting means for frequency shifting the incoming signal to form an intermediate frequency signal; and (iii) a filter for filtering the intermediate frequency signal. The filter has a frequency response that has a first passband and a second passband separated by a central stopband. A control unit for controlling the frequency shifting means has first and second modes for reception of the first and second signals. In the first mode, the control unit controls the frequency shifting means so as to frequency shift the incoming signal so that (a) the first frequency band of the incoming signal is shifted onto one of the first and second passbands and (b) one of the second and third frequency bands of the incoming signal is shifted onto the central stopband. In the second mode, the control unit controls the frequency shifting means so as to frequency shift the incoming signal so that (a) the second and third frequency bands of the incoming signal are shifted onto, respectively, the first and second passbands and (b) the first frequency band of the incoming signal is shifted onto the central stopband. |
| US08041315B2 |
Method and a device for adjusting power amplifier properties
A method and a device for tuning power amplifier (PA, 203) properties such as back-off. A peak-to-average value (PAR) of the amplifier input signal is first obtained by control means (206) and then used for adjusting the power amplifier (203) with tuning means (204, 208, 210) functionally connected to the amplifier (203). The suggested solution is advantageously exploited in a wireless communications device like a mobile terminal to optimize the performance thereof by, for example, reducing the power dissipation in the transmitter. |
| US08041311B2 |
Radio communication control apparatus and radio communication control method
To provide a radio communication control apparatus and a radio communication control method capable of controlling simultaneous transmission and reception so as not to degrade system throughput.A simultaneous transmission and reception controller 106 determines whether the simultaneous transmission and reception using the same frequency are possible, based on radio spectrum environment information of an opposite party of communication and radio spectrum environment information of a self-apparatus. When the simultaneous transmission and reception using the same frequency are determined to be possible, a control signal transmission section 109 transmits instruction information, indicating that the simultaneous transmission and reception are possible, and a transmission parameter thereof, to the above communication terminal. After the transmission parameter is set, a communication section 111 executes simultaneous transmission and reception with the above communication terminal using the same frequency, when the simultaneous transmission and reception using the same frequency are determined to be possible. |
| US08041310B2 |
Apparatus and methods for frequency control in a multi-output frequency synthesizer
Methods and circuits for synthesizing two or more signals phase-locked to a common reference frequency signal are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method comprises generating first and second output signals phase-locked to a reference clock signal, using first and second phase-locked loop circuits. In response to a detected frequency error in the first output signal, the first output signal is corrected by adjusting a frequency-division ratio in the first phase-locked loop circuit. The second output signal is corrected, separately from the correction to the first output signal, by adjusting a frequency-division ratio in the second phase-locked loop circuit, using an adjustment parameter calculated from the detected frequency error. In another exemplary method, first and second output signals are generated as described above, using first and second phase-locked loop circuits. The first output signal is corrected by adjusting a frequency-division ratio in the first phase-locked loop circuit and generating a control signal to adjust the frequency of the reference clock signal, in response to detected frequency error in the first output signal. Because the second output signal is derived from the common reference clock signal, adjustments to the reference clock frequency will also adjust the frequency of the second output signal. Additional adjustments to the second output signal may be applied in some embodiments by adjusting a frequency-division ratio in the second phase-locked loop circuits. Circuits for implementing the described methods are also disclosed. |
| US08041309B2 |
Semiconductor device
In a multi-core semiconductor device, a data bus between CPUs or the like consumes a larger amount of power. By provision of a plurality of CPUs which transmit data by a backscattering method of a wireless signal, a router circuit which mediates data transmission and reception between the CPUs or the like, and a thread control circuit which has a thread scheduling function, a semiconductor device which consumes less power and has high arithmetic performance can be provided at low cost. |
| US08041302B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining the transmission data rate in a multi-user communication system
A method and apparatus are described for controlling the data rates for communications to and from a base station and a plurality of remote users. The usage of the communications resource whether the forward link resource (from base station to remote users) or reverse link resource (from remote users to base station) is measured. The measured usage value is compared against at least one predetermined threshold value and the data rates of communications or a subset of communications on said communications resource is modified in accordance with said comparisons. |
| US08041301B2 |
Distributed reservation protocol for enabling multi-band transmission in next generation ultra wide band technology
An ultra wide band wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) communication includes a transmitter configured to transmit a first indicator of a multi-radio band transmission, and a receiver configured to receive a second indicator of a multi-radio band transmission. |
| US08041300B2 |
Adapter
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide compatibility among incompatible accessories and portable media players. One example provides an adapter having a connector receptacle to mate with an accessory's connector insert and a connector insert to mate with a portable media player's connector receptacle. Another example provides an adapter having a direct connection between pins on the connector insert and pins on the connector receptacle that are used for compatible signals. Another example provides an adapter including a DC-to-DC converter that receives a first power supply from an accessory and provides a second power supply to a portable media player. Another translates signals using different signaling technologies. Authentication and identification circuitry may also be included. Other examples may employ wireless technologies instead of either or both the connector insert and connector receptacle. |
| US08041298B2 |
Hiding a device
The object of the invention is a method where a first communications device (10) and a second communications device (20), previously unknown to each other, communicate with each other wirelessly using short-range RF technology, said second communications device being at a certain moment of time in a first mode where the address of said second communications device is determinable by means of an inquiry wirelessly sent to it. In the method, the first communications device (10) sends (31) a first message in order to determine the address of said second communications device, said second communications device (20) receives (32) the first message, and said second communications device (20) generates and sends (33) to the first communications device a second message in response to the first message, the second message containing the address of said second communications device. In the method, a connection establishment process (35-38) is executed to establish a connection between the first communications device and said second communications device. During the connection establishment process, or in response to successful completion of the connection establishment process, at least one of said first and second communications devices (10, 20) switches (40) from said first mode into a second mode, in which second mode, the communications device that has switched into said second mode does not respond to messages arriving at it which have been sent to discover the address of the communications device that has switched into said second mode. |
| US08041297B2 |
Method for supporting peer-to-peer communication in a wireless communication system
A method for supporting a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) communication in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes identifying whether a Mobile Station (MS) is in a wireless communication active state, a P2P active state, or a P2P previous active state, and transiting to the P2P active state if a P2P connection request occurs in the P2P previous active state and transiting to the P2P previous active state if a P2P communication termination occurs in the P2P active state. |
| US08041295B2 |
Mobile communication device
A mobile communication device capable of reducing a size of a proximity noncontact communication antenna and improving a proximity noncontact communication distance is provided. In a mobile communication device having both functions of a card function and a reader/writer function as a proximity noncontact communication and equipped with at least two proximity noncontact communication antennas or more for respective functions, a switching controlling portion 4 and a proximity noncontact communication controlling portion 5 for switching tuning circuits 3A, 3B of antennas 2A, 2B based on external equipments (an external proximity noncontact communication reader/writer and an external proximity noncontact communication card) that perform the proximity noncontact communication are provided. |
| US08041294B2 |
Adaptive radio transceiver
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention described and shown in the specification and drawings is a transceiver with a receiver, a transmitter, a local oscillator (LO) generator, a controller, and a self-testing unit. All of these components can be packaged for integration into a single IC including components such as filters and inductors. The controller for adaptive programming and calibration of the receiver, transmitter and LO generator. The self-testing unit generates is used to determine the gain, frequency characteristics, selectivity, noise floor, and distortion behavior of the receiver, transmitter and LO generator. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or the meaning of the claims. |
| US08041293B2 |
Responding to recipient rated wirelessly broadcast electronic works
A method, system, and program for responding to recipient ratings of wirelessly broadcast electronic works are provided. A secondary player receives a wireless broadcast of an electronic work from a primary player. Next, responsive to a playback of the electronic work from the secondary player, the secondary player requires a recipient of the electronic work to rate the electronic work. Then, responsive to the recipient rating the electronic work or an automatic rating selection made based on the recipient's preferences, the options available to the recipient may be dynamically adjusted. First, responsive to the recipient rating the electronic work with a favorable rating, the secondary player triggers a purchase offer for the electronic work when the secondary player is connected to a network providing access to a purchase server. Second, responsive to the recipient rating the electronic work, the secondary player transfers the rating to the primary player, such that the primary player is enabled to dynamically adjust a next electronic work selection for broadcast based on the rating for the previously broadcast electronic work. |
| US08041292B2 |
Network radio receiver
An apparatus includes a network receiver for receiving an over-the-air in-band on-channel broadcast signal and extracting broadcast content from the broadcast signal, and an output for delivering the content by way of a first receiver output signal to a plurality of network player devices. A method performed by the apparatus is also included. |
| US08041291B2 |
Delivering content to mobile electronic communications devices
Methods, apparatuses, and machine readable media relating to content delivery are described herein. A method, according to one embodiment described herein, includes delivering content to a mobile electronic communications device, such as a cell phone, wherein the content is delivered as a predetermined group of images. A server may store various groups of images of wallpapers for a cell phone, and a cell phone user may download a specific group of wallpapers or background images for the cell phone. Apparatuses, media and other methods are also described. |
| US08041290B2 |
Tracking locally broadcast electronic works
A method, system, and program for tracking locally broadcast electronic works are provided. According to one aspect of the invention, a sending player locally broadcasts an electronic work. In particular, the local broadcast may be a wireless broadcast creating an ad-hoc radio system. At least one recipient player receives the localized broadcast of the electronic work and accepts a distribution cookie for tracking distribution of the electronic work. The at least one recipient player updates the distribution cookie with tracking information about the broadcast of the electronic work, including ratings by users at the second player and purchase of the broadcast electronic work. Each of the at least one recipient players may in turn become a sending player that broadcasts the electronic work to other recipient players and requires the other recipient players to accept a copy of the distribution cookie updated by the second player. Then, responsive to detecting a network connection to a statistics server, the at least one recipient player provides the distribution cookie to the statistics server, such that localized broadcast distribution of the electronic work is tracked. |
| US08041281B2 |
Cleaning device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge
A cleaning device removes residual toner particles from a cleaning target, such as a photoconductor, which has a moving surface. The cleaning device includes a cleaning brush, a power circuit, and a cleaning member. The cleaning brush includes a brush rotation shaft, and the power circuit applies a first voltage of a first polarity to the brush rotation shaft. The cleaning member applies a second voltage of the first polarity to the cleaning brush. If the first polarity is negative, the cleaning member electrostatically removes toner particles having a positive polarity from the cleaning target. Then, the cleaning brush is triboelectrically charged to a second polarity, which is opposite to the first polarity, by contacting the cleaning target. Accordingly, the cleaning brush also removes residual toner particles having a negative polarity. Thus, the cleaning device removes both positively and negatively charged toner particles to clean the cleaning target. |
| US08041279B2 |
ISO-thermalizing graphite printer structure and method for using same
An iso-thermalizing printer structure can be used to provide temperature uniformity across a width of a printer fuser roll or fuser belt. Various embodiments are contemplated, including a solid natural graphite shaft, a solid natural graphite core having a sleeve of metal such as aluminum, and other flexible and rigid structures which can comprise natural or synthetic graphite. |
| US08041274B2 |
Image forming system
An image forming system, according to the present invention can include a forming device for forming an image based on printing data, an obtaining device for obtaining an image-formable range specific to the forming device, a determination circuit for determinating if the image based on printing data fits within the image-formable range, and an adjusting circuit for adjusting at least one of a position and a size of the image in accordance with the image-formable range, when the determination circuit determines that the image does not fit within the image-formable range. |
| US08041273B2 |
Photosensitive drum unit and image forming apparatus capable of suppressing registration error
A photosensitive drum unit includes a frame and a plurality of photosensitive drums. The plurality of photosensitive drums is supported by the frame and has a shape identical with one another. Each of the plurality of photosensitive drums is rotatable about a rotational axis. The plurality of photosensitive drums is arranged such that a distance between rotational axes of adjacent photosensitive drums is a constant distance P. Each of the plurality of photosensitive drums has a circumferential reference position that is common to all of the plurality of photosensitive drums. Each of the plurality of photosensitive drums has a plurality of marks at circumferential positions that are defined relative to the circumferential reference position. Adjacent two positions of the circumferential positions are spaced by a central angle of {(S−P)/S}×360° where S is a circumferential length of each of the plurality of photosensitive drums. |
| US08041271B2 |
Laser toner cartridge toner scatter prevention system and process
Systems and methods for preventing and/or inhibiting toner scatter inside of laser printer toner cartridges including a shield that is adjacent to the toner regulating member, extends over and adjacent the developing roller, includes triboelectric material of a polarity corresponding to the polarity of the laser printer cartridge during operation and that functions as a physical barrier and as an electrical barrier to direct toner particles that scatter away from the developer roller back toward the developer roller. |
| US08041268B2 |
Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus
A developing device comprises a latent image carrier that carries a latent image, a toner carrier opposing the latent image carrier while carrying toner to develop the latent image, and plural electrodes arranged in a prescribed direction insulated from each other on the surface of the toner carrier to create an electric field therebetween. An alternating voltage supplying device is provided to supply n number of phases (n ≧2) of an alternating voltage to the plural electrodes, respectively. The alternating voltage changes the electric field to cause the toner to hop and form toner cloud on the surface of the toner carrier. The toner hopping is halted at a prescribed time period during the toner cloud formation. |
| US08041265B2 |
Image forming unit with movable member and image forming apparatus
An image forming unit includes an image forming unit main body; and a developer storage unit detachably attached to the image forming unit main body. The image forming unit main body includes a developer retaining space for retaining developer and a supply opening for supplying developer to the developer retaining space. The developer storage unit includes a discharge opening for discharging developer to the developer retaining space. The image forming unit main body further includes a movable member moving relative to the discharge opening and the supply opening. |
| US08041264B2 |
Multiple-channeled layer printing by electrography
Electrographic printing of one or more multi-channeled layers having a particular pattern by electrographic techniques. Such electrographic printing includes the steps of forming a desired print image, electrographically, on a receiver member utilizing predetermined sized marking particles; and, where desired, forming one or more final multi-channeled layers utilizing marking particles of a predetermined size or size distribution. |
| US08041263B2 |
Charging device
A charging device includes: a to-be-charged member; a charging member that charges the to-be-charged member and is opposed to the to-be-charged member; a cover member that surrounds the charging member disposed inside of the cover member but has an opening at a site opposed to the to-be-charged member; a grid electrode that is disposed on the opening side of the cover member with respect to the charging member, the grid electrode being provided between the cover member and the to-be-charged member; and a protective member that is provided along a longitudinal direction of the grid electrode, the protective member protecting an end part of the grid electrode and having at least one opening that is provided between the to-be-charged member and an end part of the cover member on the to-be-charged member side. |
| US08041262B2 |
Drive system with multiple motor-and-gear-train configurations for jitter and noise reduction and color developer preservation
A color electrophotographic printing machine has a drive system which includes a first, second and third motor-and-gear-train configurations mounted on a frame and coupled to first, second and third combinations of multiple color developer drive assemblies, multiple color photoconductive drum drive assemblies, a black developer drive assembly and a black photoconductive drum drive assembly. The first and second configurations are operable at first and second motor gear mesh frequencies and the third configuration is operable at a motor gear mesh frequency that can be substantially the same as one of the first and second motor gear mesh frequencies. The first combination includes yellow, cyan and magenta color developer drive assemblies, the second includes yellow and cyan color photoconductive drum drive assemblies, and the third includes a magenta color photoconductive drum drive assembly with the black developer drive assemblies and black photoconductive drum drive assemblies. |
| US08041259B2 |
Conductive member, process cartridge including same, and image forming apparatus including the process cartridge
A conductive member includes a conductive supporting member provided facing an image bearing member and including a continuous or discontinuous fixing groove provided in the vicinity of each of both ends of the conductive supporting member in a peripheral direction thereof, an electrical resistance adjusting layer formed on the conductive supporting member and including a step portion which includes at least one step disposed in the vicinity of each of the both ends of the electrical resistance adjusting member, and gap retainers each provided to the step portion and including a cylinder portion which contacts at least one surface of the step portion, and an end plate so that a predetermined gap is formed between the image bearing member and the electrical resistance adjusting layer. The end plate contacts at least one surface of the step portion and fits into the fixing groove. |
| US08041257B2 |
Tandem photosensitive-member unit having grip part
An image-forming device includes a main body and a tandem photosensitive-member unit. The tandem photosensitive-member unit includes a unit frame, a plurality of photosensitive members, a front-side grip part, and a rear-side grip. The unit frame is configured to be slidably installed to and removed from the main body in a predetermined direction. The unit frame has a leading side and a trailing side with respect to the predetermined direction. The plurality of photosensitive members is provided corresponding to a plurality of colors and is supported by the unit frame. The front-side grip part is provided at the leading side of the unit frame. The rear-side grip part is provided at the trailing side of the unit frame. |
| US08041255B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a main body casing, a device that is positioned within a main body casing and having a function, a displacement member positioned in a main body casing and capable of displacement between an initial position and a stop position which causes the device to perform an action, a string-like connection that is connected between the displacement member and a cover member and that displaces the displacement member from the initial position to the stop position in synchronization with the opening operation of the cover member. The string-like connection, and the displacement member in the stop position, constitute an opening restricting device capable of restricting the opening angle of a cover member to a prescribed angle. |
| US08041254B2 |
Image forming apparatus medium guide configuration and method
An image forming apparatus may include a sheet conveyance path having a generally U-shaped portion. The U-shaped portion may be formed by inner and outer guides, and the guides may be arranged such that they may be sequentially removed from the apparatus in a common direction, and through a common opening in the apparatus. For example, to remove a fixing portion from within the apparatus, the outer guide may first be removed, followed by the removal of the inner guide, and then followed by the removal of the fixing portion. The guides may overlap one another when viewed from the common direction. |
| US08041253B2 |
Systems and methods to control access to an interior of an image forming device
The present application is directed to systems and methods to control access to an interior of an image forming device. The image forming device may include a body with a door that is movable between open and closed positions. In the open position, access is gained to an interior of the body. A controller controls a latch through a motor arrangement to lock and unlock the door. A user interface may be positioned on an exterior of the body to allow a user to enter commands to lock and unlock the door. Additional elements may also be included within the interior of the image forming device and operated with the motor arrangement. |
| US08041241B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming method which controls the exposing of an image carrier to change the exposure time period in the main scanning direction
In a disclosed image forming apparatus, a developing bias applied to a developer carrier or exposure energy with which an image carrier is exposed is adjusted such that an isolated one-dot image on the image carrier has a predetermined image density. When the image carrier is exposed to form dot images continuously arranged in a main scanning direction, the exposure time period for each dot image is shorter than that when the image carrier is exposed to form the isolated one-dot image. |
| US08041237B2 |
Fixing apparatus with pressure state detection and control
In one embodiment, a fixing apparatus is configured of a pressing portion for causing the pressure roller to enter a pressure applied state by applying bias, a switching portion for causing the pressing portion in the pressure applied state to enter a pressure released state by causing a cam to rotate forward, a pressure state detection portion for detecting the pressure released state, and a control portion for, when shifting from the pressure applied state to the pressure released state, turning forward the cam of the switching portion in the pressure applied state and stopping the cam after the pressure state detection portion detects the pressure released state. If the cam is turned forward with respect to the switching portion for a certain time period, but the pressure state detection portion does not detect the pressure released state, the control portion performs forward rotational direction retry control. |
| US08041236B2 |
Fixing unit controlling apparatus and image forming apparatus including the same
A fixing unit controlling apparatus that includes a switching unit of a power supplier to supply power to a fixing unit according to a power supply controlling signal to control a temperature of the fixing unit, and a switching unit of a power shutter to shut off power supplied to the fixing unit when the fixing unit controlling apparatus operates abnormally, wherein the switching units of the power supplier and the power shutter are both connected to a snubber circuit of the power shutter. |
| US08041235B2 |
Image forming apparatus, adjusting method thereof and replacement component thereof
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus in which a replacement component is set including the replacement component in which a storage medium storing adjustment necessity information indicating whether an adjustment procedure is needed or not after the replacement component is replaced and adjustment item information indicating an adjustment item is attached, an information reading unit to read the adjustment necessity information and the adjustment item information from the storage medium when the replacement component is set and a control unit to execute the adjustment procedure based on the adjustment necessity information and the adjustment item information read by the information reading unit when a power is turned on after the replacement component is replaced. |
| US08041232B2 |
Optical transmitter and control method thereof
An optical transmitter which modulates the phases and intensities of double pulses and then transmits them, includes a branching section which branches each of the input double pulses to first and second paths, a first optical modulator placed in the first path, second and third optical modulators placed in series in the second path, and a combining section which combines the double pulses having traveled through the first path with the double pulses having traveled through the second path to output double pulses. A control section controls such that each of the first and second optical modulators performs any one of relative intensity modulation and relative phase modulation on the double pulses passing through, and the third optical modulator performs relative phase modulation on the double pulses passing through. |
| US08041230B2 |
System and method for optoelectrical communication
A method for upgrading an optoelectrical system includes securing a transmitter to a line card, wherein the line card comprises an optoelectrical connector. It also includes coupling the transmitter to the connector, wherein the connector comprises an embedded fiber configured to be coupled to the transmitter. In addition, the method includes inserting a pluggable form factor module comprising a receiver, an input port, and an output port into a cage secured to the line card. Further, the method includes coupling the pluggable form factor module to the connector such that an optical signal transmitted by the transmitter propagates in an optical line of sight between the embedded fiber of the connector and the output port. The connector comprises electrical contacts that are configured to be coupled to the module such that the receiver can convert optical signals received at the input port into electrical signals and transmit the electrical signals to the line card via the connector. |
| US08041228B2 |
Fiber optical transmission system, transmitter and receiver for DQPSK modulated signals and method for stabilizing the same
A transmitter (3) for generating a DQPSK-modulated optical signal, including: a splitter (7) for dividing an optical carrier signal into a first and second branch (8a, 8b), a first and second Mach-Zehnder interferometer (9, 10) in the first and second branch (8a, 8b), respectively, a phase shifter (11) in one of the branches (8b) generating a nominal phase shift of .pi./2, and a combiner (7′) for combining the optical output signals of the two branches (8a, 8b). The transmitter (3) has a feedback circuit (12) generating at least a first and second bias signal (15.1 to 15.3) for adjusting a bias of at least the first and second Mach-Zehnder interferometers (9, 10), the feedback circuit (12) includes a detector for generating at least a first and second feedback signal from a sample signal extracted from the optical signal after the combiner (7′), and for each bias signal: a local oscillator generating an auxiliary signal modulating the bias signal (15.1 to 15.3) at a pre-defined frequency (f1, f2, f3), a lock-in detector determining a phase difference between the feedback signal and the auxiliary signal, and a bias circuit for generating the bias signal (15.1 to 15.3) from an output signal of the lock-in detector, wherein the pre-defined frequencies of the auxiliary signals (f1, f2, f3) are different from one another (f1.noteq.f2.noteq.f3) and preferably no integer multiples of each other. |
| US08041225B2 |
Contactless infrared data transmission for wind turbines
An apparatus for enabling transmission of signals and data via means of infrared (IR) light for a wind turbine includes a plurality of IR data communication elements configured to provide unidirectional and bidirectional IR data exchange between non-rotating portions of the wind turbine and the rotatable wind turbine hub. |
| US08041222B2 |
Radio over fiber link apparatus of time division duplex scheme
A radio over fiber link apparatus for transmitting/receiving radio frequency up/downlink signals in a TDD mobile communication system. The radio over fiber link apparatus includes a center site for receiving radio frequency signals from an access point of the mobile communication system. The center site has a first electro-optic converter for converting the radio frequency signals into optical signals, bias control of the first electro-optic converter being performed based on the switching of TDD signals; and a remote for transmitting the radio frequency signals to a mobile communication terminal through an antenna. The remote site has a first photoelectric converter for converting the optical signals transmitted through an optical fiber from the center site into radio frequency signals. |
| US08041218B2 |
Setting up a circuit in a network
In particular embodiments, setting up a circuit in a network includes establishing by control plane logic that planning pre-conditions for planning a circuit have been satisfied, and initiating the planning of the circuit. The control plane logic establishes that reservation pre-conditions for reservation of a resources for the circuit have been satisfied and initiates the reservation of the resources for the circuit. The control plane logic establishes that activation pre-conditions for activation of the circuit have been satisfied and initiates the activation of the circuit. |
| US08041215B2 |
ONT discovery in a DWDM hybrid PON LT configuration
A method, a computer readable medium, and a system for discovering an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) in a Dense Wave Division Multiplex (DWDM) hybrid Passive Optical Network (PON) Line Terminal (LT), comprises implementing, by an Optical Line Termination (OLT), a ranging procedure on at least one downstream link, wherein the OLT is communicably coupled to the ONT, discovering at least one new ONT, by the OLT, on the at least one downstream link based on the ranging procedure, discovering an unranged ONT, by the OLT, during the ranging procedure, and determining, by the OLT, that the unranged ONT resides on the at least one downstream link. |
| US08041209B2 |
Door mirror
A door mirror which includes a camera for checking the side of a vehicle which is in a blind spot of a driver, has a door mirror body having a through hole formed for lens side part of the camera to be inserted therein, and a camera cover having an opening part for exposing the lens part formed, and the camera cover has the first abutting surface which abuts on the outer surface of the door mirror body with elasticity. |
| US08041206B2 |
Imaging apparatus and method for controlling flash emission
An imaging apparatus includes: flash driving means for driving a flash during a set preliminary emission period and a set main emission period; and an image sensor constituted by a plurality of photoelectric converting elements which are arranged in a matrix and capable of being accessed randomly. The charge accumulation initiation timing and the charge accumulation cessation timing of the photoelectric converting elements are controlled line by line or pixel by pixel. The imaging apparatus forms images employing pixel signals output from the photoelectric converting elements, and extracts pixel signals output from photoelectric converting elements in which charge accumulation is initiated prior to the preliminary emission period and ceased after the preliminary emission period. An emission amount to be employed during the main emission period is determined by executing predetermined calculations based on the extracted pixel signals. Main emission of flash is performed with the determined emission amount. |
| US08041205B2 |
Electronic camera
An electronic camera includes an imaging device. The imaging device includes an imaging surface capturing an object scene through a focus lens, and produces an object scene image in a designated cycle. When a shutter button is half-depressed, an adjuster adjusts a position of the focus lens based on the object scene image produced by the imaging device. Also, a determiner determines whether or not both an illuminance and a contrast of the object scene captured by the imaging surface fall below a reference in association with a position adjusting process of the focus lens, and a controller sets a length of the designated cycle when a determination result is affirmative to be longer than that of the designated cycle when the determination result is negative. |
| US08041203B2 |
Camera, camera controlling method, and recording medium storing camera controlling program
A camera includes a mode setting unit which sets an operation mode of the camera to a normal mode or an illumination apparatus control mode. A display unit selectively displays an image and information. A setting unit sets and changes operating conditions of an illumination apparatus. A communication unit instructs the operating conditions to the illumination apparatus. A control unit controls the mode setting unit to set the operation mode to the illumination apparatus control mode, and changes a display form of the display unit, when predetermined conditions are satisfied. The predetermined conditions include any one of the followings (1) the communication unit is attached to the camera, (2) the communication unit set to an illumination apparatus control mode is attached to the camera, and (3) the communication unit which is incorporated in the camera is set to an illumination apparatus control mode. |
| US08041198B2 |
Heat treatment apparatus and method for heating substrate by photo-irradiation
In photo-irradiation heating with a total photo-irradiation time of one second or less, after initial photo-irradiation of a semiconductor wafer is performed while increasing an emission output to a target value, succeeding photo-irradiation of the semiconductor wafer is performed while maintaining the emission output within a range of plus or minus 20% from the target value. The photo-irradiation time for the initial photo-irradiation ranges from 0.1 to 10 milliseconds, and the photo-irradiation time for the succeeding photo-irradiation ranges from 5 milliseconds to less than one second. This allows the temperature of the semiconductor wafer even at a somewhat greater depth below the surface to be raised to some extent while allowing the surface temperature to be maintained at a generally constant processing temperature, thus achieving both the activation of implanted ions and the repair of introduced defects without any thermal damage to the semiconductor wafer. |
| US08041194B2 |
Decode control apparatus, decode control method, computer program, and recording medium
A decode control apparatus for decoding encoded data and generating reverse playback image data is provided. The apparatus includes a unit for controlling the reading of the encoded data at a specified playback speed and a unit for generating, from the encoded data read under the control of the read control unit, a plurality of shortened encoded data groups. The apparatus also includes a unit for distributing the plurality of shortened encoded data groups among a plurality of decoders and a unit for generating the reverse playback image data responsive to the specified playback speed, based on decoding the plurality of shortened encoded data groups by the plurality of decoders. |
| US08041192B2 |
Image receiving apparatus for transmitting data to and receiving data from removable PVR device and data transmission and reception method thereof
An image receiving apparatus for transmitting data to and receiving data from a removable PVR device, and a data transmission and reception method thereof are disclosed. The image receiving apparatus includes an interface which transmits AV data and data corresponding to user commands to an external recording device, and a controller which inserts the data corresponding to the user commands into a stream containing the AV data and transmits the stream to the external recording device through the interface. Therefore, the general-purpose communication lines and data lines may be simplified so that the AV data can be easily stored and reproduced in a removable (hard disk drive) HDD. |
| US08041191B2 |
Image playback apparatus and playback method
When the recording format of an image recorded on a magnetic tape (709) is changed, a playback time period of an image signal by a REC review function is extended. Even when the recording format is changed during playback of an image signal by the REC review function, an image (409) recorded in the recording format after change can be displayed after a blue-backed screen (408) is displayed. Therefore, the user can determine whether the blue-backed screen (408) is displayed due to switching of the system or due to an unrecorded part of an image signal. Hence, the user can be prevented from overwriting a new image signal on the recorded region of an image signal by mistake. |
| US08041190B2 |
System and method for the creation, synchronization and delivery of alternate content
According to one embodiment, A nonlinear editing system comprises a video encoder, an audio compressor and an engine unit. The engine unit is adapted to synchronize the video with the first alternate video and to synchronize the audio with the first alternate audio so that, where the scene of the program includes objectionable content, either (i) the video is substituted with the first alternate video, (ii) the audio is substituted with the first alternate audio, or (iii) both the video and the audio are substituted with the first alternate video and the first alternate audio. |
| US08041187B2 |
Information processing method, apparatus, program recording and medium specifying particular picture characteristics
An information processing apparatus includes a generating unit for generating a ClipMark formed by a mark specifying a characteristic picture extracted from an input AV stream for providing management information for supervising the AV stream and for generating a PlayListMark. The PlayListMark is formed by marks pointing to a picture optionally specified by a user, from a reproduction domain corresponding to the PlayList defining the combination of preset domains in the AV stream. The information processing apparatus further includes a recording unit for recording the ClipMark and PlayListMark as respective independent tables on a recording medium. |
| US08041186B1 |
Propagating metadata associated with digital video
Some embodiments provide a method for processing metadata associated with digital video in a multi-state video computer readable medium. The method specifies a set of rules for propagating the metadata between different states in the video computer readable medium. It then propagates the metadata between the states based on the specified set of rules. |
| US08041184B2 |
Transport stream processing device, and associated methodology of generating and aligning source data packets in a physical data structure
A transport stream recording device, method thereof, transport stream reproduction device, method thereof, and recording medium for efficiently recording and reproducing transport streams. A source packet having a four byte TP_extra_Header attached to a 188 byte transport packet is generated, 32 source packets of 192 bytes each are collected, and aligned units generated equivalent to a three sector portion of data (6144 bytes) are recorded or reproduced on the recording medium. |
| US08041182B2 |
Communication device and control method
A communication apparatus comprising a digital interface and a detecting unit configured to detect a change in format of video data transmitted from the digital interface, wherein the communication apparatus is adapted to control the digital interface to set the digital interface in a disabled state in case of detecting by the detecting unit that the format of video data is changed. |
| US08041179B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for reproducing and recording still picture and audio data and recording medium having data structure for managing reproduction of still picture and audio data
In the method of reproducing still picture data and audio data from a recording medium, the still picture data and the audio data reproduced from the recording medium are decoded based on respective, independent system times (STCs). |
| US08041177B2 |
Fiber optic dust cap and dust plug with high power protection
A dust cap and a dust plug for installation with optical fiber connectors and optical fiber adapters respectively. The dust cap and the dust plug have features that protect an optical interface on the optical fiber connector and the optical fiber adapter from contamination. At least an exterior portion of the dust cap and the dust plug illuminate when installed on the optical fiber connector and the optical fiber adapter terminating an optical fiber transmitting visible light. The dust cap and the dust plug have features that reduce the intensity of a high power optical signal emitted from the optical fiber terminated by the optical fiber connector and optical fiber adapter. A first embodiment diffracts the optical signal, thereby reducing its intensity. A second embodiment disburses the optical signal, thereby reducing its intensity. A third embodiment absorbs high power frequencies of the optical signal and transmits certain visible frequencies. The dust cap and the dust plug function as a safe, visual fiber optic circuit continuity detector. |
| US08041173B2 |
Multi-core optical fiber having alignment markers
A multi-core optical fiber includes: a plurality of core portions; and a cladding portion positioned around the plurality of core portions and including a marker for identifying a position of a specific one of the plurality of core portions. |
| US08041172B2 |
Transmission optical fiber having large effective area
The present invention relates to a transmission optical fiber. The optical fiber includes, from its center to its periphery a central core, an intermediate cladding, and a depressed cladding. The optical fiber has an effective area (Seff) of at least about 120 μm2 at a wavelength of 1550 nm and an effective cutoff wavelength (λCeff) of less than 1600 nm. The optical fiber has an effective area of more than 120 μm2 with a cutoff wavelength limited to less than about 1600 nm without degradation of other optical parameters (e.g., attenuation losses and dispersion). |
| US08041168B2 |
Reduced-diameter ribbon cables with high-performance optical fiber
Disclosed is an improved optical fiber that employs a novel coating system. When combined with a bend-insensitive glass fiber, the novel coating system according to the present invention yields an optical fiber having exceptionally low losses. The coating system features (i) a softer primary coating with excellent low-temperature characteristics to protect against microbending in any environment and in the toughest physical situations and, optionally, (ii) a colored secondary coating possessing enhanced color strength and vividness. The secondary coating provides improved ribbon characteristics for structures that are robust, yet easily entered (i.e., separated and stripped). The optional dual coating is specifically balanced for superior heat stripping in fiber ribbons, with virtually no residue left behind on the glass. This facilitates fast splicing and terminations. The improved coating system provides optical fibers that offer significant advantages for deployment in most, if not all, fiber-to-the-premises (FTTx) systems. |
| US08041165B2 |
System, method and apparatus for power transmission cable with optical fiber for downhole tool in subterranean applications
A system, method and apparatus for incorporating a fiber optic cable into a power cable for an electrical submersible pump is disclosed. The fiber optic components are protected from damage during handling of the cable with pump cable components, such as lead sheaths and jacketing materials. The optical fibers are protected from damage due to corrosive oil well chemicals and gasses, as well as protected from decompression damage. |
| US08041164B2 |
Transition device for optical waveguides
A transition part (1) between two optical waveguides (2,3) with different index contrast is characterised in that the transition part (1) includes a non-adiabatically up-tapered longitudinal section (8), and in that the transition (7) between the two waveguides (2,3) is arranged after the up-tapered longitudinal section (8) as seen along the main direction (L) of propagation of the light. A method of manufacturing the transition part is also described. |
| US08041163B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting multiple optical wavelengths
Optical gratings that perform a number of functions at various wavelengths are formed by various methods that preserve spectral information within a wavelength band, the functions including: coupling radiation from one waveguide to another, controllable gratings that operate on different wavelengths in response to external control signals. |
| US08041159B2 |
Optical/electrical hybrid substrate and method of manufacturing the same
An optical/electrical hybrid substrate is provided. The optical/electrical substrate includes: a wiring substrate; an optical waveguide disposed on the wiring substrate and configured to transmit an optical signal; a mirror support bonded onto the wiring substrate with an adhesive and being made of glass or silicon; and a mirror which reflects the optical signal and which is formed on an inclined surface of the mirror support. |
| US08041156B2 |
Single-frame and multi-frame image data conversion system and method
A system and method for converting between a plurality of single-frame image data objects and a multi-frame image data object. Meta-data attributes common to each single-frame image data object from a source are considered to be shared meta-data attributes and associated with a multi-frame image data object. Perframe meta-data attributes and pixel data are not shared and are individually stored within the multi-frame image data object. In reverse, the number of perframe meta-data attributes within a multi-frame image data object from a source are examined and the corresponding number of single-frame image data objects are created. The shared meta-data attributes are copied into each single-frame image data object along with associated perframe meta-data attributes and pixel data. This conversion process can be applied as images are transmitted to the image manager/archive from the modality, as studies are retrieved from the image manager/archive, and as studies are requested. |
| US08041155B2 |
Image display apparatus and computer program product
A comprehensive degree of relevance of other moving picture contents with respect to a moving-picture content to be processed is calculated by using any one of or all of content information, frame information, and image characteristics, to display a virtual space in which a visualized content corresponding to a moving picture content to be displayed, which is selected based on the degree of relevance, is located at a position away from a layout position of the visualized content corresponding to the moving picture content to be processed, according to the degree of relevance. |
| US08041152B2 |
Image resolution increasing method and apparatus
An image resolution increasing method include setting a first block which is included in a low resolution image and is located at a first position, and a second block which is included in a high resolution image and is located at a second position, and setting, as an increasing resolution block of the first block, a third block expressed by a second vector obtained by projecting a first vector representing the second block to a linear manifold as a set of vectors that indicate fourth blocks of the second block size, the fourth blocks becoming the first block due to reduced resolution, in a Euclidean space having, as the number of dimensions, a product of the number of pixels arranged vertically in the second block size and the number of pixels arranged horizontally in the second block size. |
| US08041151B2 |
Fast method of super-resolution processing
The present invention provides a fast method of super-resolution processing which realizes speedup of the high-speed super-resolution processing by speeding up the calculations of an evaluation function and the differential of the evaluation function with respect to a high-resolution image in a reconstruction-based super-resolution processing.A fast method of super-resolution processing for speeding up a super-resolution processing that estimates a high-resolution image from multiple low-resolution images with displacements, the method characterized in that an evaluation function and a differential of the evaluation function with respect to the high-resolution image are calculated by a combination of basic image operations. |
| US08041146B2 |
Deconvolution for the reduction of blurring induced by internal reflections
A system and method of image processing employ mathematical deconvolution to estimate the magnitude and location of a target object within an image. Both the nature of internal reflections and the convolution process by which each internal reflection contributes to blurring of the acquired image data may be measured and modeled. In accordance with mathematical deconvolution techniques, the combined effects of these internal reflections may be reduced to the extend that respective contributions of the target object and each individual reflection may be distinguished and quantified. |
| US08041145B2 |
Distortion compensated imaging
Certain aspects can relate to responsive to the at least some input compensating information, imaging the at least the portion of the individual in a manner to limit at least some distorting effects of the at least the portion of the at least one distorting feature associated with the at least the portion of the individual at least partially by modifying a non-optical electromagnetic output from an imaging modality as applied to the at least the portion of the at least one distorting feature associated with the at least the portion of the individual. Certain aspects can relate to creating at least one conformal absence of a non-optical electromagnetic output to limit distortion to an imaging of an at least a portion of an individual resulting at least partially from at least one distorting feature associated with the at least the portion of the individual. |
| US08041141B2 |
Method and software for shape representation with curve skeletons
Embodiments of the invention utilize a variational framework for computing curve skeletons (CS) of objects whose cross section is not necessary tubular. Embodiments utilize an energy function, which is proportional to some medialness function, such that the minimum cost path between any two medial voxels in the shape is a curve skeleton. Different medialness functions include the Euclidean distance field and a modified version of the magnitude of the gradient vector flow (GVF), which results in two different energy functions. The first energy function controls the identification of the topological nodes of the shape from which curve skeletons start, while the second one controls the extraction of the curve skeletons. Preferred embodiments are completely automated since all parameters are analytically estimated. Embodiments are highly less sensitive to boundary noise, are able to extract the entire curve skeletons, as well as only part of it given the starting and the end voxels, and do not require voxels to be isotropic. In addition, computed curve skeletons are highly centered and form a connected graph. Preferred embodiments have been validated the framework both quantitatively and qualitatively against several 3D shapes of different complexity. |
| US08041139B2 |
Method and apparatus for calculating the background color of an image
A method, device and computer readable storage media for enhancing an image for optical character recognition by detecting the edges of the image to create an edge detected image, binarizing the edge detected image to create a binary edge image for processing, dilating the binary edge image to create a dilated binary edge image, taking the XOR difference between the binary edge image and the dilated binary edge image to obtain a text boundary, superimposing the text boundary on the image and determining the pixels of the image that are covered by the text boundary, calculating the average grayscale value of the pixels of the image that are covered by the text boundary, and setting background pixels of the image to the calculated average grayscale value of the pixels of the image that are covered by the text boundary. The method optionally includes the steps of performing edge filling and hole filling on the binary edge image to create an updated binary edge image and filling holes in the dilated binary edge image to create an updated dilated binary edge image, whereby the XOR difference is taken between the updated binary edge image and the updated dilated binary edge image. The image may be binarized for optimal results after the background images have been set to the calculated average grayscale value of the pixels that are covered by the text boundary. |
| US08041133B2 |
Method and system for progressive image transmission
A method and system for transmitting an image progressively is provided. The transmission system identifies a first region and a second region of the image. The transmission system also identifies a first resolution and a second resolution. The transmission system then transmits the image by transmitting, in the following order, the first region in the first resolution, the second region in the first resolution, the first region in the second resolution, and the second region in the second resolution. The transmission system may identify the regions based on the likelihood of being the focus of user attention. |
| US08041129B2 |
Image data set compression based on viewing parameters for storing medical image data from multidimensional data sets, related systems, methods and computer products
Methods for electronically compressing data from a multidimensional medical data set for long-term storage includes: (a) generating a first medical image from a patient multi-dimensional medical image data set in a short-term storage format; and (b) compressing the patient medical image data set into a long-term storage format using at least one viewing parameter. |
| US08041116B2 |
Identifying stale background pixels in a video analysis system
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a module for identifying a background of a scene depicted in an acquired stream of video frames that may be used by a video-analysis system. For each pixel or block of pixels in an acquired video frame a comparison measure is determined. The comparison measure depends on difference of color values exhibited in the acquired video frame and in a background image respectively by the pixel or block of pixels and a corresponding pixel and block of pixels in the background image. To determine the comparison measure, the resulting difference is considered in relation to a range of possible color values. If the comparison measure is above a dynamically adjusted threshold, the pixel or the block of pixels is classified as a part of the background of the scene. |
| US08041113B2 |
Image processing device, image processing method, and computer program product
A first area extracting unit extracts a first document area from document image data by dividing the document image data in units of a document area. A language determining unit determines a type of a language used in the document image data. A second area extracting unit extracts a second document area by dividing or combining the first document area based on a rule corresponding to the type of the language determined by the language determining unit. |
| US08041102B2 |
Tablet storage and take-out apparatus
A tablet storing/retrieving device which stores a plurality of kinds of medicines, and delivers as many tablets of such descriptions as designated by prescription data into a vial (3) and retrieves it. An imaging device (400) is provided for photographing the interior of the vial before a cap is applied to the vial (3) after tablets are dispensed into the vial (3). Accordingly, a quick and easy auditing process is possible without removing the cap of a retrieved vial. |
| US08041099B2 |
Check verification system
A check verification system for verifying checks presented to a vendor at a vendor location, the vendor location being remotely located from a bank issuing the checks, the check verification system comprising: an input device located at the vendor location, the input device having means for collecting check information including an amount of the check and an account number; and means for communicating with the bank to verify that the account number corresponds to an account of a plurality of legitimate accounts with the bank and provide a hold upon funds in the account in the amount of the check if the account number corresponds to one of the legitimate accounts with the bank and if sufficient funds exist in the legitimate account to hold. |
| US08041097B2 |
Confocal microscope
To provide a confocal microscope for obtaining an extended image by easily determining the capturing range of an observation image without being aware of the shape of a sample to be observed, the confocal microscope comprises confocal image generating unit for generating a confocal image, first counting unit for counting a first number of pixels having a predetermined brightness level or lower among the brightness levels of the pixels of the confocal image, second counting unit for counting a second number of pixels obtained by extracting only a pixel that matches a predetermined condition for the confocal image, and boundary determining unit for detecting a boundary by determining whether or not the observation surface is within the image capturing range based on the first and the second numbers of pixels. |
| US08041095B2 |
Method and apparatus for pretreatment planning of endovascular coil placement
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for pretreatment planning endovascular coil placement, comprising steps of: a) analyzing three-dimensional data enabling visualization of a volume of interest containing at least a part of a blood vessel with an aneurysm; b) determining the centerline of the vessel; c) determining the aneurysm diameter; d) determining the aneurysm dome height; e) creating a three-dimensional surface model of the aneurysm in the vessel, using the results from the previous steps; f) estimating the volume expansion of one or more coils with the aid of said surface model; and g) visual simulating at least one according to the estimated virtual coil being to place inside the aneurysm. |
| US08041094B2 |
Method for the three-dimensional viewing of tomosynthesis images in mammography
In a method for the 3D viewing of tomosynthesis images in mammography, an algorithm is proposed for the viewing of radiology signs in series of 3D data. When the digital volume is being viewed by a practitioner, the disclosed algorithm is used to provide a dynamic indication of the position of the radiology signs on the 3D image by means of markers. The use of dynamic viewing draws the practitioner's attention to the zones of clinical interest. The disclosed algorithm thus highlights all the radiology signs in the 3D image of the breast. |
| US08041093B2 |
System and method for definition of DICOM header values
Certain embodiments of the present invention provide an improved system and method for image file header configuration. Certain embodiments of the method include retrieving one or more criterion for configuration of an image orientation parameter, configuring the image orientation parameter based on the one or more criterion, obtaining image data, and storing the image data in an image file. The image file has a header portion including the image orientation parameter. In an embodiment, the image orientation parameter may be modified from a default configuration. The one or more criterion may include user preference, modality restriction, system preference, and/or rule, for example. The method may further include saving the image file with the configured image orientation parameter. Additionally, the method may include displaying an image according to the configured image orientation parameter. The image may be automatically oriented for display based on the configured image orientation parameter. |
| US08041091B2 |
Methods and systems for detection of retinal changes
An image analysis system allows users to import digital color fundus images over time, and group such images for processing so as to generate analyses. Analyses are information modules based on a selected group of images and, optionally, related information. An analysis tool allows users to view and manipulate the analyses via a graphical user interface for aid in identifying and classifying microaneurysms and other symptoms related to retinopathy and, more generally, to allow for the detection of retinal changes over time. |
| US08041090B2 |
Method of, and apparatus and computer software for, performing image processing
A computer-implemented method of performing image processing for images of biological objects includes: storing definitions of a plurality of descriptors; receiving image data relating to an image of a reference population of biological objects; receiving image data relating to an image of a target population of biological objects; processing the reference population image data to obtain a reference set of measurements, containing data for each of the descriptors; processing the target population image data to obtain a target set of measurements, containing data for each of the descriptors; and selecting a combination of the descriptors on the basis of comparing the reference set with the target set to define a preferred combination of the descriptors for use in identifying characteristics of a further population of biological objects which are similar to those of the target population. |
| US08041089B2 |
Method and device for registering an anatomical structure using markers
A method for registering an anatomical structure using at least one marker attached to the structure includes: obtaining a three-dimensional model of the structure via an imaging method; obtaining at least two two-dimensional recordings of the structure from different angles; and ascertaining a spatial position and location of the three-dimensional model or a position and location of the three-dimensional model in a patient coordinate system based on a matching method that uses the position of the at least one marker in the at least two two-dimensional mappings such that the three-dimensional model of the structure matches the structure. |
| US08041084B2 |
System and method for collecting DNA and fingerprints
A system and method is provided that simultaneously or consecutively collects DNA samples and ridge and valley signatures from the same subject during the same collection window that adds value to forensic data collection processes. The collection of the DNA samples and ridge and valley signatures occur during the same collection window to assured the DNA sample and ridge and valley signatures identify the same individual. |
| US08041078B2 |
Information processing system, information processing apparatus and information processing method, program, and recording medium
An information processing system, apparatus and method is disclosed wherein an image of a predetermined region and an image of moving bodies in the region can be picked up and any of images obtained by such image pickup which is desired by a user can be reproduced readily. Sensor images of the predetermined region are stored, and an image of the moving bodies in the region is picked up separately and stored together with reproduction information relating to reproduction of the sensor image from which the moving bodies are detected. When an instruction to reproduce the sensor image is issued, the reproduction information corresponding to the moving body is read out, and the sensor image is reproduced based on the read out reproduction information. The invention can be applied, for example, to a monitoring system. |
| US08041068B2 |
Loudspeaker
Loudspeaker has frame, magnetic circuit, voice coil, diaphragm, first combination and second combination. First combination and second combination are both provided closer to magnetic circuit than diaphragm, the inner rims of which are connected to voice coil while the outer rims are to frame. First combination has first damper and first edge wherein first edge has first edge protrusion protruding in a direction toward diaphragm. Second combination has second damper and second edge wherein second edge has second edge protrusion protruding in an opposite direction to the protruding direction of first edge protrusion This structure obtains loudspeaker that distortion is suppressed and weight reduction is easy for an excursion part thus improved in driving efficiency. |
| US08041060B2 |
Surround-sound system
There is provided a surround-sound system in which the output direction of a sound beam of each channel in a speaker array can be optimized without requiring a user to make any troublesome operation. A parameter setting control portion 6 controls to output sound beams from a speaker array 1 and rotate the output directions of these sound beams. In addition, based on change of sound pressure sensed by a microphone 7 when the output directions of the sound beams are rotated, the parameter setting control portion 6 determines the output directions of sound beams of at least a part of a plurality of channels in the speaker array 1. The parameter setting control portion 6 determines the output directions of sound beams of the other channels based on the output directions of the channels determined based on the change of sound pressure. |
| US08041059B2 |
Electrostatic transducer, ultrasonic speaker, driving circuit of capacitive load, method of setting circuit constant, display device, and directional sound system
An electrostatic transducer includes: a class-D power amplifier that amplifies an input signal; and a low pass filter that has a plurality of pairs of inductors and capacitors, is connected to an output side of the class-D power amplifier, and serves to eliminate switching carrier components included in an output of the class-D power amplifier. An electrostatic load capacitor of the electrostatic transducer serving as a driving load is disposed at a capacitor, which is closest to the output side of the class-D power amplifier, of circuit elements forming the low pass filter, an electrostatic coupling capacitor and an output transformer are interposed between the electrostatic load capacitor of the electrostatic transducer and an inductor closest to the output side of the class-D power amplifier of the low pass filter, and a damping resistor is connected in series to a primary coil of the output transformer. |
| US08041054B2 |
Systems and methods for selectively switching between multiple microphones
Methods and systems for selectively switching between microphones in a plurality of microphones are disclosed, including providing a first state that corresponds to one or more microphones selected from the plurality of microphones. A subset of microphones may be selected from the plurality of microphones in response to determining an average power of an input signal for each of the plurality of microphones. A second state may be identified that includes at least one of the subset of microphones in response to evaluating the average powers of the input signals for the subset of microphones against a predetermined condition. A transition from the first state to the second state may be delayed in response to determining a transition delay time corresponding to the first state. |
| US08041053B2 |
Vehicular sound effect generating apparatus
A vehicular sound effect generating apparatus has a controller for determining whether a transmission on a vehicle is a manual transmission or an automatic transmission based on whether a clutch signal is generated or not, and automatically changing weighting gain characteristics as acoustic correcting characteristics stored in a sound pressure adjuster depending on the determined transmission. The vehicular sound effect generating apparatus generates a sound effect in a vehicle cabin depending on the manual transmission or the automatic transmission. |
| US08041052B2 |
Circuit for priority selection of audio signals
An audio selection circuit. The audio selection circuit includes a control/switch circuit having a first input, a second input, and a first output, and a signal detector module configured to detect an audio signal on the second input. If the signal detector detects presence of the audio signal on the second input, the signal detector is configured to transmit a control signal to the control/switch circuit, and the control/switch circuit is configured in response to the control signal to disconnect the first input from the first output and to connect the second input to the first output. Otherwise, the control/switch circuit is configured to connect the first input to the first output and to disconnect the second input from the first output. |
| US08041050B2 |
Audio data reproduction system, audio data reproduction method, and electronic device used in the system
When a PC (a transmission device) transmits an externally taken-in audio file to an electronic dictionary (a receiving device), the PC encodes the audio file and stores the compressed audio file into its own memory temporarily. On the basis of the file management data created by a file management system when the compressed audio file was stored in the memory, the PC generates a file list for the audio files to be transferred. The file list is encrypted using an encryption key. Then, the encryption key, encrypted file list, and compressed audio file are transmitted to the electronic dictionary. The electronic dictionary stores the encrypted file list and compressed audio file into an SD card and decrypts the encrypted file list using the encryption key. When the decrypted file list corresponds to the compressed audio file, the process of expanding the compressed audio file into an audio file is permitted. |
| US08041039B2 |
Secret communications system and channel control method
A secret communications system realizes point-to-multipoint or multipoint-to-multipoint connections of both quantum channels and classical channels. Multiple remote nodes are individually connected to a center node through optical fiber, and random-number strings K1 to KN are individually generated and shared between the respective remote nodes and the center node. Encrypted communication is performed between each remote node and the center node by using the corresponding one of the shared random-number strings K1 to KN as a cryptographic key. The center node is provided with a switch section for quantum channels and a switch section for classical channels. Switching control on each of these switch sections is performed independently of the other by a controller. |
| US08041038B2 |
System and method for decompressing and making publically available received media content
An apparatus for compressing media content is disclosed. The apparatus divides the media content into at least three predetermined portions, compresses each of the at least three portions using one of at least three different compression algorithms and makes the at least three compressed predetermined portions publicly available. Making the portions publicly available includes, for example, transmitting the portions over a computer network such as the Internet. |
| US08041037B2 |
Cryptographic system and methods using a one way multidimensional function
A cryptographic method and systems using a keyed one-way function. A sending device uses the keyed one-way function to authenticate one or more receiving devices prerequisite to communication. A multidimensional hypercube is generated, from which is formed a multidimensional vector by randomly selecting one corner of the multidimensional hypercube. The keyed one-way function is computed using the multidimensional vector. |
| US08041034B2 |
Multi-streaming apparatus and multi-streaming method using temporary storage medium
Disclosed are a method of multi-streaming encrypted contents stored in a storage medium to a second player during streaming the contents to a first player, and an apparatus using the same. The method includes: temporarily storing the encrypted contents streaming to the first player in a temporary storage medium; and streaming the stored contents to the second player in response to a multi-streaming command input by a user to the second player, wherein key generation information required to decrypt the encrypted contents is not stored in the temporary storage medium. It is possible to provide a multi-streaming with a copy protection through temporary storage, and also to reduce noise caused by rotation of the disc in the streaming apparatus. |
| US08041030B2 |
Techniques for evaluating live payment terminals in a payment system
Live payment terminals employing payment system public keys are evaluated. Dedicated test payment cards are internally issued by an operator of the payment system. Presentation of at least one of the cards to at least one of the terminals is facilitated. Testing the at least one of the terminals for proper management of the payment system public keys is facilitated. The testing can be in a test transaction conducted when the at least one of the cards is presented to the at least one of the terminals. The steps of facilitating presentation and facilitating testing can be conducted substantially without auditing. |
| US08041025B2 |
Systems and arrangements for controlling modes of audio devices based on user selectable parameters
Methods and arrangements for controlling modes of audio devices according to user selectable features are disclosed. The system can receive a user selection for an alternate mode for audio device. A monitor can monitor audio levels in a physical area and the system can automatically switch an audio device from a current mode to the alternate mode when the monitored audio level exceeds a predetermined threshold. The alternate mode can provide a higher audio level or volume than the current mode. The alternate mode can also be a closed caption mode, a record mode, and a transcript mode to name a few. Thus, when the ambient sound level reaches a predetermined level many audio devices can change modes based on user configured instructions. |
| US08041018B2 |
System and method for establishing a conference in two or more different languages
System and method for conferencing communication devices associated with participants conversant in different languages has a system for connecting communication devices with one or more other communication devices where each communication device is associated with one of a plurality of different languages, and one of the different languages is designated as the main language. The system in response to receiving a request for a conference call, connects two or more of the communication devices in a conference call when two or more of said communication devices are associated with the main language, connects each of the communication devices associated with a different language than the main language with the communication device of an interpreter selected for interpreting between the different language and the main language, and then connects the communication device of the interpreter for each of the different languages than the main language to the conference call. |
| US08041016B2 |
Method and device for access communication/control
A method and a device for communication/control of access, the term access including access to services and or goods. According to the invention should a person wishing to use the method for obtaining access establish contact via telephone with machine or called person (B-replier); as a following step should said person, verbally or by signalling via existing keypad, request access; and as a subsequently following step evaluates contacted machine/person (B-replier) whether or not the request for access should be accepted; and as a final step, on accepted received information from the calling person, initiates called machine or person (B-replier) performance of relevant action by signalling to the required unit. When the B-replier is a person within a building, the final step is performed by a call from the B-replier to a telephone network connected device, which checks the authority of the call by means of the callers number ID against a preprogrammed list of accepted telephone numbers, and on acceptance, the B-replier can further input a code sequence by means of the keypad, which is checked by the called unit, which performs a for the specific sequence related action. According to one embodiment, the user's own mobile telephone is used for the final step, placed connected to the B-replier in a “cradle” facilitating two-way data communication between the acting unit and the B-replier. |
| US08041015B2 |
Presence based DTMF signaling enablement of voice communication controller and method
A voice communication controller (e.g., private branch exchange (PBX)) is described herein which can automatically enable an outbound dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) feature for one of it's extensions that is attached to a phone which belongs to a user while that user is or is likely to be participating in a session with an external DTMF communication system (e.g., a conference/collaboration bridge, an interactive voice response (IVR) system, or a voice mail system). This is desirable because if the user presses button(s) on their phone then the voice communication controller which has enabled the outbound DTMF feature will not attempt to process the corresponding DTMF digit(s) but instead will automatically transfer the corresponding DTMF signal(s) to the external DTMF communication system. |
| US08041014B1 |
Automated call handling based on caller ID
A system and method for selectively answering incoming telephone calls based on a caller ID is disclosed. Selected calls may be handled with a number of call handling functions including an auto-answer function, a custom message function, and a custom call forwarding. |
| US08041013B2 |
Transferring multiple dialogs of a call
Communicating a call having a number of dialogs includes initiating a call between a first endpoint and a second endpoint. A first connection for a primary dialog of the call is established according to a feature. The first endpoint determines that the primary dialog has reached a predetermined state, and determines whether the second endpoint is operable to accept the second connection for the secondary dialog. The second connection for the secondary dialog is established if the second endpoint is operable to accept the second connection. |
| US08041008B2 |
Diagnostic delivery service
Systems, methods, and other modalities are described for (a) obtaining an indication relating to an emission module (which may be dangerous, e.g.) or its user (who may be untrained, e.g.) and for (b) configuring the module or causing an irradiation (for imaging, e.g.) in response to the indication. |
| US08041005B2 |
X-ray fluorescence visualizer, imager, or information provider
One aspect relates to inducing at least one induced X-ray fluorescing photon within an at least some matter of an at least a portion of an at least one individual responsive to a substantial single input energy event based at least partially on an at least some input energy being applied to the at least some matter of the at least the portion of the at least one individual; and detecting the at least one induced X-ray fluorescing photon; and X-ray fluorescence visualizing, imaging, or information providing within the at least some matter of the at least the portion of the at least one individual responsive to the detecting the at least one induced X-ray fluorescing photon. |
| US08041000B2 |
Shift register
A shift register which is capable of simultaneously driving gate lines is disclosed. The shift register includes a plurality of stages for simultaneously supplying all-drive signals to gate lines for an all-drive period and sequentially supplying scan pulses to the gate lines for a scan period. |
| US08040995B2 |
Jitter detection circuit and jitter detection method
A jitter detection circuit includes an oscillation circuit, a measurement period setting circuit for outputting a measurement period signal based on a measurement period specifying signal, the measurement period setting circuit receiving the output clock from a PLL circuit, a counter for counting the number of clock cycles output from the oscillation circuit over the period during which the measurement period signal is being output, a reference count value determining circuit for setting a reference count value for the number of clock cycles output from the oscillation circuit over the period during which the measurement period signal is being output, and an error detection circuit for detecting the jitter error of the PLL circuit based on the maximum count value and minimum count value counted by the counter, and the reference count value. |
| US08040994B1 |
Phase coefficient generation for PLL
A method and apparatus is provided for synchronizing a clock signal by generating time varying PLL phase coefficients which approximate optimal PLL phase coefficients. An acquisition mode phase coefficient is determined by adding an error signal (A) to the sample counter (k) and finding the reciprocal of the result (1/(A+k)). The reciprocal can be calculated in hardware or determined by using a lookup table. A tracking mode phase coefficient is determined based on the error signal for use in the PLL during a track a tracking period. The tracking period begins when the tracking mode coefficient is greater than the acquisition mode coefficient. |
| US08040993B2 |
Signal processing method in MIMO system and apparatus thereof
Disclosed is a signal processing method and apparatus in MIMO system. In a mobile communication system having a plurality of transmitting antennas, the present invention includes the steps of receiving a feedback signal including status information of at least one channel, segmenting one of the first data blocks to segment into at least one or more of the second data blocks, attaching a CRC to each of the at least one or more of the second data blocks, allocating the at least one or more second data blocks to a plurality of the transmitting antennas, respectively, and transmitting the at least one or more of the second data blocks. In a mobile communication system having a plurality of receiving antennas, the present invention includes the steps of receiving at least one data block including a CRC or dummy bits, acquiring channel status information using the CRC or dummy bits, and transmitting the channel status information. |
| US08040988B2 |
Transceiver with selectable data rate
An integrated circuit device having a selectable data rate clock data recovery (CDR) circuit and a selectable data rate transmit circuit. The CDR circuit includes a receive circuit to capture a plurality of samples of an input signal during a cycle of a first clock signal. A select circuit is coupled to the receive circuit to select, according to a receive data rate select signal, one of the plurality of samples to be a first selected sample of the input signal and another of the plurality of samples to be a second selected sample of the input signal. A phase control circuit is coupled to receive the first and second selected samples of the input signal and includes circuitry to compare the selected samples to determine whether the first clock signal leads or lags a transition of the input signal. The transmit circuit includes a serializing circuit to receive a parallel set of bits and to output the set of bits in sequence to an output driver in response to a first clock signal. A select circuit selects, according to a transmit data rate select signal, data bits within an outbound data value to form the parallel set of bits received within the serializing circuit. Bits within the outbound data value are selected to achieve a first data rate when the transmit data rate select signal is in a first state, and to achieve a second data rate when the transmit data rate select signal is in a second state. |
| US08040986B2 |
Frequency-domain subchannel transmit antenna selection and power pouring for multi-antenna transmission
A system comprises a wireless device that communicates across a spectrum having a plurality of sub-channels. The wireless device comprises a plurality of antennas through which the wireless device communicates with another wireless device, wherein each antenna communicates with the other wireless device via an associated communication pathway. The wireless device further comprises sub-channel power analysis logic coupled to the antennas and adapted to determine which communication pathway has the highest communication quality on a sub-channel by sub-channel basis. The wireless device still further comprises diversity selection logic coupled to the sub-channel power analysis logic and adapted to determine a weighting vector for an associated antenna based on the communication quality, wherein the weighting vector specifies a relative transmission power for each sub-channel for the associated antenna. |
| US08040985B2 |
Decoding of forward error correction codes in the presence of phase noise
A communication receiver includes a front end, which is arranged to receive a Radio Frequency (RF) signal, which includes modulated symbols carrying data that have been encoded by a block Forward Error Correction (FEC) code. The front end converts the RF signal to a sequence of soft received symbols, wherein the soft received symbols are subject to distortion by at least first and second noise components having respective at least first and second statistical distributions. A metric calculation unit is arranged to process the soft received symbols so as to extract parameters indicative of the at least first and second statistical distributions, and to compute FEC metrics based on the extracted parameters. A FEC decoder is arranged to accept the FEC metrics as input, and to process the metrics in an iterative FEC decoding process so as to decode the FEC code and reconstruct the data. |
| US08040983B2 |
Device, system and method of mitigating interference in a wireless network
System and method of locating an interferer and mitigating its effect for stations of a wireless local area network. Embodiments provide a protocol and mechanism to evaluate the interferer location relative to a wireless link and to take accurate actions to mitigate the interference effect for specific cases. A method includes classifying a location of an interferer relative to a wireless communication device based on a comparison with a clear-channel threshold and a noise-tolerability threshold of the device, categorizing a location of the interferer relative to a wireless link based on a combination of the interference categories for the transmitting and the receiving devices, and mitigating interference in the wireless network according to the categorization. For example, in some cases, mitigating includes adapting a noise-tolerability threshold of the transmitting device to allow transmission. |
| US08040981B2 |
Symbol detection in a MIMO communication system
Circuits are provided for detecting symbols transmitted from multiple transmitting antennas to multiple receiving antennas. A circuit includes distance blocks, selectors, and an identifier block. Each distance-block includes at least one sub-block, and each sub-block inputs a candidate for a corresponding transmitting antenna. The sub-block determines partial distances for pairings of the candidate and each symbol in a constellation from a partial distance of the candidate and signals received at the receiving antennas. At least one selector assigns each pairing for each candidate for a corresponding transmitting antenna to a bin having a range that includes the partial distance of the pairing. The selector selects candidates for a successive transmitting antenna from the bins having the smaller ranges. The identifier block selects a final candidate that is one of the pairings for a last transmitting antenna having a smaller partial distance. |
| US08040979B2 |
Generating a phase value for a complex signal
A method of generating a phase value representative of a phase of a complex signal that includes an in-phase component and a quadrature-phase component includes determining a first sign for a first value and a second sign for a second value based on a quadrant occupied by the complex signal. The in-phase component is multiplied by the first value with the first sign, thereby generating a first multiplication result. The quadrature-phase component is multiplied by the second value with the second sign, thereby generating a second multiplication result. The first multiplication result, the second multiplication result, and a bias value are added, thereby generating the phase value for the complex signal. |
| US08040977B2 |
Reception synchronization control device, reception synchronization control method, and program therefor
This invention provides a reception synchronization control device that controls reception synchronization of demodulated signals to be established, the demodulated signals being obtained by demodulating a phase modulated signal transmitted by a phase modulation, wherein the reception synchronization control device includes a signal level detector that detects signal levels of sampled demodulated signals extracted by sampling analog demodulated signals; a constellation position specifier that specifies constellation positions of plural kinds of data contained in the sampled demodulated signals displayed on a polar coordinates display based on the detected signal levels; and a phase angle difference calculation processor that calculates a difference between a phase angle calculated based on the specified constellation positions and a reference phase angle, thereby controlling the phase angle so that the difference is within a predetermined range. Further, the invention discloses a reception synchronization control method, to control reception synchronization of demodulated signals to be established, using the above reception synchronization control device, etc. |
| US08040975B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting signals with multiple antennas
An apparatus for transmitting signals with multiple antennas is disclosed. The multiple antenna transmission apparatus performs space-time encoding or space-frequency encoding, and cyclically delays the encoded symbol with a plurality of delay-values to generate a plurality of delayed symbols. The multiple antenna transmission apparatus transmits the plurality of delayed symbols to the channel through a plurality of antennas. By changing the number of space areas for encoding and the number of delay-values for delaying, the number of antennas for the multiple antenna transmission apparatus is easily expanded. |
| US08040972B2 |
Wireless communication apparatus and method, and signal attenuation prediction apparatus and method
A wireless communication apparatus that transmits a transmission signal and receives a reception signal via a wireless transmission channel, the wireless communication apparatus including circuitry for determining an expected signal attenuation along the wireless transmission channel, stored information providing correlation between a transmission level of the transmission signal into a first power consumption parameter for each possible modulation method, stored information providing correlation between an expected signal strength for a received signal into a second power consumption parameter for each possible modulation method, and a means for determining the modulation method and the level of the transmission signal that minimizes power consumption. |
| US08040971B2 |
High performance mixed signal circuit
The present invention is related to a digital circuit for use in a mixed-signal circuit. The digital circuit comprises: a first circuit for direct digital synthesis comprising a first phase generator (PG1) arranged for being fed with a phase generator input signal, a first phase-to-amplitude converter (PAC1) arranged for being fed with a phase from the first phase generator and for generating a first carrier wave output, and first signal combining means (R1) for combining the first carrier wave output with a first input signal, a noise generator (NG) arranged for generating a pseudo-random noise signal, combining means (S) for combining the pseudo-random noise signal and the phase generator input signal such that the phase generator input signal to the first phase generator (PG1) is randomised, a second circuit for direct digital synthesis comprising a second phase generator (PG2) arranged for being fed with the pseudo-random noise signal, a second phase-to-amplitude converter (PAC2) arranged for being fed with a phase from the second phase generator and for generating a second carrier wave output, and second signal combining means (R2) for combining the second carrier wave output with a second input signal, whereby the second carrier wave output combined with the second input signal is comprised in the first input signal. |
| US08040968B2 |
High rate, high diversity transmission on multiple transmit antennas
High data rate, high diversity transmission is provided in a dual transmit antenna system over multiple sample times through the use of coding. |
| US08040965B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing data for transmission in a multi-channel communication system using selective channel inversion
Techniques to process data for transmission over a set of transmission channels selected from among all available transmission channels. In an aspect, the data processing includes coding data based on a common coding and modulation scheme to provide modulation symbols and pre-weighting the modulation symbols for each selected channel based on the channel's characteristics. The pre-weighting may be achieved by “inverting” the selected channels so that the received SNRs are approximately similar for all selected channels. With selective channel inversion, only channels having SNRs at or above a particular threshold are selected, “bad” channels are not used, and the total available transmit power is distributed across only “good” channels. Improved performance is achieved due to the combined benefits of using only the NS best channels and matching the received SNR of each selected channel to the SNR required by the selected coding and modulation scheme. |
| US08040964B2 |
Apparatus for receiving T-DMB signal and method of operating the same
There is provided an apparatus for receiving a T-DMB signal. The apparatus for receiving a T-DMB signal comprises an input buffer receiving and buffering a T-DMB signal comprising a null symbol and a phase reference symbol (PRS); an initial synchronizing unit estimating and compensating for time and frequency offsets of the T-DMB signal using the null symbol and the PRS; a frame tracking unit performing estimation of the time offset and measurement of a strength of an output signal from the input buffer; an OFDM signal demodulating unit performing I/Q demodulation, frequency compensation, OFDM demodulation and de-interleaving with respect to an output signal of the frame tracking unit; a channel decoding unit performing channel decoding with respect to an output signal of the OFDM signal demodulating unit and checking quality of the channel-decoded signal; and a controller controlling operations of the initial synchronizing unit, the OFDM signal demodulating unit and the channel decoding unit 308 based on the strength of the signal measured by the frame tracking unit and the quality of the signal checked by the channel decoding unit. Accordingly, unnecessary calculating processes arc reduced by measuring the strength and quality of an input signal, thereby maximizing power efficiency of the apparatus. |
| US08040962B2 |
Channel response calculation in an OFDM receiver
An efficient algorithm is described for use with OFDM receivers that characterizes the impulse response of a communication channel using frequency domain techniques that reduce computational and memory requirements, relative to time-domain cross-correlation methods, without sacrificing algorithm performance. An FFT engine is used to transform a time domain input sequence, the transformed sequence is multiplied by the conjugate of the expected sequence, the product of several sequences is averaged, then the FFT engine transforms the average back to a time domain sequence, the magnitude of which is the impulse response of the channel. |
| US08040959B2 |
Dynamic resource allocation to improve MIMO detection performance
A method and apparatus for detecting symbols in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (“MIMO-OFDM”) system. A MIMO-OFDM receiver includes a first detector that estimates a symbol of a first MIMO-OFDM sub-carrier and a second detector that estimates a symbol of a second MIMO-OFDM sub-carrier. The second detector differs in complexity from the first detector. A detector control block is coupled to the detectors. The detector control block assigns the first detector to process the first MIMO-OFDM sub-carrier and assigns the second detector to process the second MIMO-OFDM sub-carrier. The detector control block computes a list metric for a sub-carrier. Based on the list metric the detector control block assigns a candidate symbol list length to the detector processing the sub-carrier. Alternately, the detector control block assigns one of a variety of detector types to a sub-carrier based on the sub-carrier list metric. |
| US08040953B2 |
Reliability metric generation for trellis-based detection and/or decoding
The disclosed technology provides systems and methods for identifying potential error locations, patterns, and likelihood metrics in connection with trellis-based detection/decoding. In one aspect of the invention, the disclosed technology computes soft reliability information for each detected/decoded bit or codeword syndrome value. |
| US08040952B2 |
Scalable multi-view image encoding and decoding apparatuses and methods
Scalable multi-view image encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses are provided. The scalable multi-view image encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses filter multi-view images input from a plurality of cameras in spatial-axis and in temporal-axis directions using motion compensated temporal filtering (MCTF) or hierarchical B-pictures and scalably code the filtered multi-view. |
| US08040950B2 |
Method and apparatus for effectively compressing motion vectors in multi-layer structure
A method and an apparatus for elevating compression efficiency of a motion vector by effectively predicting a motion vector of an enhanced layer by means of a motion vector of a base layer in a video coding method employing a multi-layer structure are disclosed. A motion vector compression apparatus includes: a down-sampling module for down-sampling an original frame to have a size of a frame in each layer; a motion vector search module for obtaining a motion vector in which an error or a cost function is minimized with respect to the down-sampled frame; a reference vector generation module for generating a reference motion vector in a predetermined enhanced layer by means of a block of a lower layer corresponding to a predetermined block in the predetermined enhanced layer, and motion vectors in blocks around the block; and a motion difference module for calculating a difference between the obtained motion vector and the reference motion vector. |
| US08040948B2 |
Method and system for coding moving image signals, corresponding computer program product
A moving-image signal, such as typically a luminance signal organized in blocks of pixels is coded via a technique that envisages the steps of: comparing a block to be coded with a plurality of candidate prediction blocks; determining, for each candidate prediction block, a respective value of an index representing the difference between the block to be coded and each candidate prediction block; and choosing between the candidate prediction blocks, as a function of the respective value of the aforesaid index, a prediction block to be used for coding of the block to be coded. The signal is sampled pixel by pixel on the block to be coded and on the plurality of candidate prediction blocks, thus generating respective surfaces representing the pattern of the signal in the block to be coded and in the candidate prediction blocks. Chosen as an index is an index of the parallelism between the aforesaid respective surfaces. |
| US08040945B1 |
System and method for encoding a single video stream at a plurality of encoding rates
A method for encoding a plurality of video frames of a single data stream at a plurality of encoding rates is provided. The method includes accessing a first video frame associated with the single data stream and encoding the first video frame at a first encoding rate. The method further includes accessing a second video frame associated with the single data stream and encoding the second video frame at a second encoding rate. |
| US08040936B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving high speed data using code division multiple access channels
The present invention describes a spread spectrum communication system wherein the frequency of carriers and the code channels of the carriers or both for transmission to a given remote station user vary in time. This provides for a direct sequence spectrum communications system which changes frequency or code channel according to a predetermined pattern. The code channels and frequencies can be determined in accordance with a deterministic function or based upon a subset of the data to be transmitted. A receiver structure is also described for receiving the same. |
| US08040935B2 |
Methods and apparatus for spread spectrum modulation and demodulation
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for spread spectrum modulation and demodulation using a special spread spectrum sequence, characterized in that Golay complementary codes are modulated onto orthogonal channels such that a corresponding complex complementary code is obtained. The signal spread by such complex complementary code has a low peak-to-average power ratio, a sound self-correlation property and cross-correlation property, which can well solve the problem of multi-access interference such that the communication performance of the entire system is improved. |
| US08040933B2 |
Diffraction grating device, laser diode, and wavelength tunable filter
A diffraction grating device includes a substrate with a primary surface having a plurality of grating areas that are periodically arranged with a constant period in a predetermined axis direction, the grating area including a first area and a second area, a diffraction grating structure providing a chirped grating whose pitch monotonically changes along the predetermined axis direction, a core layer that is optically coupled with the diffraction grating structure with a coupling coefficient, a plurality of grating portions including the diffraction grating structure and the core layer, the grating portion including a first portion and second portion that are arranged on the first area and the second area, respectively, of the primary surface and a perturbing layer disposed at the first portion or the second portion. The perturbing layer changes the coupling coefficient between the diffraction grating structure and core layer. A periodical change in the coupling coefficient is formed along the core layer, and this change in the coupling coefficient affects the light propagating through the core layer in the direction of the predetermined axis. |
| US08040929B2 |
Optical parametric amplification, optical parametric generation, and optical pumping in optical fibers systems
Embodiments described herein include a system for producing ultrashort tunable pulses based on ultra broadband OPA or OPG in nonlinear materials. The system parameters such as the nonlinear material, pump wavelengths, quasi-phase matching periods, and temperatures can be selected to utilize the intrinsic dispersion relations for such material to produce bandwidth limited or nearly bandwidth limited pulse compression. Compact high average power sources of short optical pulses tunable in the wavelength range of 1800-2100 nm and after frequency doubling in the wavelength range of 900-1050 nm can be used as a pump for the ultra broadband OPA or OPG. In certain embodiments, these short pump pulses are obtained from an Er fiber oscillator at about 1550 nm, amplified in Er fiber, Raman-shifted to 1800-2100 nm, stretched in a fiber stretcher, and amplified in Tm-doped fiber. To produce short pulses in the 900-1050 nm wavelength range, the pulses are frequency-doubled with a chirped frequency doubler for nearly bandwidth-limited output. |
| US08040928B2 |
Semiconductor laser, method for generating laser beam and method for reducing a spectral line-width of laser beam
A semiconductor laser is provided capable of generating very narrow laser beams and having stable characteristics, a method for generating the laser beams and a method for reducing a spectral line-width of the laser beams. The semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor active layer, a photonic crystal optical waveguide forming a periodic structure of two-dimensional refractive index within a plane perpendicular to a semiconductor laminate direction directly or indirectly connected to the semiconductor active layer; and an optical cavity that contains the semiconductor active layer and the photonic crystal optical waveguide and oscillates light that is generated from the semiconductor active layer and is guided through the photonic crystal optical waveguide as laser. |
| US08040924B2 |
Method of processing traffic information and digital broadcast system
A digital broadcast transmitting/receiving system and a method for processing data are disclosed. The method for processing data may enhance the receiving performance of the receiving system by performing additional coding and multiplexing processes on the traffic information data and transmitting the processed data. Thus, robustness is provided to the traffic information data, thereby enabling the data to respond strongly against the channel environment which is always under constant and vast change. |
| US08040921B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling the transfer of private information in a communication system
Methods and systems for selectively transferring confidential or private information to a user of a communication device are disclosed. In an exemplary method, a trigger event is detected at a first communication device, resulting in the retrieval of a data object for transmission to a second communication device. If the data object includes private or confidential information, consent of a user of the first communication device is required before the data object may be sent to the second communication device. In some embodiments, consent is obtained by explicitly requesting consent from a user. In others, consent may be deemed under pre-determined circumstances. |
| US08040919B2 |
Transmission method
A transmission method in which a first signal frame, carrying a payload in a first part of the signal frame and second information in a second part of the signal frame, is transmitted intact between a signal source and a signal destination by copying the second information into the first part of at least one additional signal frame, transmitting both frames between the signal source and the signal destination and, at the destination, reconstructing the first signal frame by retrieving its original second information from the first part or parts of the additional signal frame or frames and placing the retrieved second information in the second part of the first signal frame. A typical application of the transmission method lies in its use in an SDH transmission system. |
| US08040918B2 |
Dynamic bandwidth allocation in a passive optical access network
A method of allocating upstream bandwidth in a passive optical access network includes associating a first timer to a first upstream traffic flow and associating a second timer to a second upstream traffic flow. During a given frame period, if the first timer is at its expiration value and the second timer is not at its expiration value, then a first portion of the upstream bandwidth is allocated to the first upstream traffic flow. If a second portion of the upstream bandwidth is left, at least part of that second portion is allocated to the second upstream traffic flow before the second timer expires. If the first and second timers have not expired, then at least part of the upstream bandwidth is allocated to at least one of the first and second upstream traffic flows. |
| US08040915B2 |
System, method, and computer program product for facilitating communication between devices implementing proprietary features in a DOCSIS-compliant broadband communication system
A system, method and computer program product that facilitates communication between devices that implement at least one proprietary feature in a DOCSIS-compliant broadband communication system. A logical channel is established for communication between a first device, such as a cable modem termination system (CMTS), that implements at least one proprietary feature, and other devices that also implement the at least one proprietary feature. Registration information is then received from a second device, such as a cable modem, wherein the registration information indicates that the second device also implements the at least one proprietary feature. In response to receiving the registration information, the second device is assigned to the logical channel. |
| US08040913B2 |
Method for signaling back-off information in random access
A method for performing random access in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes transmitting a preamble for random access in uplink, receiving a random access response message including back-off information as a response to the preamble, and performing back-off using the back-off information when the random access has failed. |
| US08040912B2 |
Multicarrier communication system, multicarrier communication apparatus and CQI reporting method
Provided is a multicarrier communication apparatus by which information quantity of CQI reporting can be reduced. In the apparatus, each CQI is recorded in a CQI table section (122) by being classified into a plurality of CQI groups by following a certain rule. A CQI selecting section (123) estimates fluctuation range and variance of reception qualities of the entire resource block to be reported, based on an SINR value outputted from a quality level calculating section (121). Then, based on the estimated values, the CQI selecting section selects a suitable CQI group in a first step, selects a suitable CQI value from among the CQIs included in the selected CQI group in a second step, and outputs the ID of the selected CQI group and the selected CQI value to a CQI generating section (124) . Based on such information, the CQI generating section (124) generates a CQI frame to be transmitted to a base station. |
| US08040905B2 |
Method and system for establishing emergency call
A method for establishing an emergency call includes: if an emergency call request message sent by a User Equipment (UE) contains an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem Public User Identity (IMPU) in a TEL URI format, a Proxy-Call Session Control Function entity (P-CSCF) generates an IMPU in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) URI format according to the IMPU in the TEL URI format, sends both IMPUs to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), and receives an emergency callback initiated by the PSAP. The PSAP initiates the emergency callback according to one of the two IMPUs. A system for establishing an emergency call includes a UE, a P-CSCF and a PSAP. The PSAP can always acquire the IMPU in the TEL URI format and the IMPU in the SIP URI format of the UE, and initiate an emergency callback to the UE according to the IMPU in the SIP URI format. |
| US08040891B2 |
System and method of detecting lost packets
In a particular embodiment, a method includes receiving a first request to retransmit a first packet. The method also includes selectively retransmitting the first packet based on a first list that identifies packets to retransmit and based on a second list that identifies packets that have been retransmitted. |
| US08040886B2 |
Programmable packet classification system using an array of uniform content-addressable memories
A versatile and efficient technique for classifying packets in an intermediate node. According to the technique, criteria and rules associated with the packet are applied to one or more classification stages containing content-addressable memories (CAMs). Each stage examines specific criteria associated with the packet, e.g., a packet field, and generates a rule and additional criteria. The additional rule and criteria are provided to the next classification stage. This process continues until a final rule is provided to a final classification stage. At the final classification stage, the final rule is used to generate an identifier, e.g., queue identifier (ID), associated with the classified packet. |
| US08040882B2 |
Efficient key sequencer
A method includes for determining a plurality of fields of a packet associated with a routing of the packet, wherein each field of the plurality of fields includes one or more bits. Arranging the bits of the plurality of fields into a plurality of ordered partitions of a search sequence, the search sequence being associated with a plurality of searches, wherein the searches are based on the bits included in one or more of the ordered partitions. Providing, to a routing table including routing information associated with the routing of the packet, one or more of the ordered partitions of the search sequence, wherein the routing table is structured based on the search sequence. Receiving, based on the plurality of searches, the routing information associated with the routing of the packet from the routing table. Routing the packet based on the routing information. |
| US08040876B2 |
Intelligent network and method for providing voice telephony over ATM and alias addressing
A method may include receiving, at a network device, from a calling party location, an input setup message that includes a called party phone number value; determining whether the input setup message includes a voice telephony over asynchronous transfer mode (VToA) designator; generating an output setup message including an alias address associated with a network gateway that is in communication with a public switched telephone network (PSTN) switch through a plurality of trunk lines when it is determined that the input setup message includes a VToA designator, where the alias address is based on the called party phone number value and indicates a desired trunk line of the plurality of trunk lines; and transmitting the output setup message, the output setup message causing the selection of the desired trunk line of the plurality of trunk lines in order to establish communication between the calling party location and the PSTN switch. |
| US08040873B2 |
Distributed integration of legacy PBX system with SIP networks
A telephony communications network supporting translation of private signaling codes for transmission over a private and/or IP network. A digital telephone emits a private signaling code for accessing a particular PBX function. An adapter coupled to the digital telephone translates the private signaling code into a SIP invite, request, response, information, notification message, and/or instant message if the private signaling code is destined for the IP network. If the private signaling code is not destined for the IP network, the private signaling code is not translated and is transmitted over the private network. If the private signaling code is destined for the IP network, the private signaling code is translated into a SIP message and transmitted over the IP network to a SIP user agent. A PBX is also coupled to the adapter that receives the private signaling codes. The codes are transmitted to the PBX for rendering a function for the digital telephone. A SIP telephone aware of the private signaling codes may also access PBX functions by translating private signaling codes into/from SIP messages. |
| US08040869B2 |
Method and apparatus for automatic discovery of logical links between network devices
The present invention comprises a method and apparatus for automatic discovery of logical links between network devices. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises part of a network management system (“NM”) that manages a discrete set of network devices. The NM sends SNMP queries to individual network devices managed by the NM to obtain interface configuration data for each of the network interfaces of the device. The information requested includes destination information (“next hop” or “neighbor” IP address) for data packets sent from the interface. The NM checks to see whether a logical link corresponding to the received configuration information already exists in a logical link database maintained by the NM. If such a link exists the NM checks to see if the existing information for the link is valid. If the existing link data is valid, no change is made. If the existing information is not valid, or if no corresponding link is found in the link database, the NM creates a new link corresponding to the new configuration information. In one or more embodiments, the NM displays a graphical view of the discovered IP links on a graphical network map. |
| US08040864B2 |
Map indicating quality of service for delivery of video data to wireless device
Providing Quality of Service (QoS) information regarding video content delivery to a requesting wireless device. QoS/position information is first collected by, for each wireless device of a plurality of serviced wireless devices operating within a service area, receiving position information regarding a wireless device during delivery of video content and determining QoS provided during delivery of the video content, the QoS provided during delivery of the video content delivery varying over time and respective to the position information. The collected QoS/position information is then consolidated and a QoS map for the service area is produced based upon the consolidated collected QoS/position information. Finally, the QoS map for the service area is downloaded to the requesting wireless device. The QoS map may be tailored for the requesting wireless device based upon a current position/mobility of the requesting wireless device. |
| US08040861B2 |
Method and system for hierarchical processing of protocol information in a wireless LAN
In a wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system, a hierarchical architecture is provided which employs a protocol which divides protocol processing functions between a plurality of substantially identical access elements in which reside time-critical protocol functions, such as acknowledgment and retransmission of packets, and a centralized control element which provides control and management functions related to dynamic configuration of wireless networks, such as processing of network management messages (e.g., authentication and association), load control, channel control, and handoff, processing of physical layer information, and processing of channel characteristics, propagation, interference or noise, for the plurality of access elements on the WLAN without loss of information about the wireless characteristics of the access elements. This hierarchical protocol processing architecture allows the data flow to be centralized for better performance and provides useful access to all the protocol information from the WLAN. |