| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08220063B2 |
Biometric authentication for remote initiation of actions and services
In one aspect, the invention relates to generating a trusted communication channel with a client. An agent module is provided at the client along with a task set including one or more tasks. One or more client components needed to complete each of the tasks of the task set is determined, and it is further determined whether each of the needed client components is trustworthy. An equivalent component for components determined to be untrustworthy may be provided. |
| US08220062B1 |
Double sand-boxing for flash library
A Flash advertisement is provided, and access to sensitive data associated with the Flash advertisement is restricted. First library code is stored at a first security domain, the first library code to control playback of the Flash advertisement; and second library code is stored at a second security domain, the second library code to access the sensitive data. An application at a third security domain is permitted to access the first library code, and only code residing at the first security domain is permitted to access the second library code. |
| US08220060B1 |
Method and system for maintaining the security of design information
Approaches for protecting design information are disclosed. In one approach, a request for an IP core from an integrated circuit device is received, and the request includes identification information. An identifier range is determined from the identification information. The identifier range includes a plurality of unique device identifiers identifying a plurality of integrated circuit devices that are allowed to receive the IP core. The identifier range is downloaded to the integrated circuit device, which evaluates whether or not a unique device identifier that is stored on the integrated circuit device is within the downloaded identifier range. The IP core is programmed into the integrated circuit in response to the unique device identifier that is stored on the integrated circuit device being within the downloaded identifier range. |
| US08220058B2 |
Rendering and encryption engine for application program obfuscation
Obfuscation of an application program comprises receiving an obfuscated key decryption program comprising an instruction stream configured to perform a decryption algorithm for a first cryptographic key. The obfuscated key decryption program also has an encrypted second cryptographic key scrambled in its instruction stream. The second cryptographic key is encrypted with the first cryptographic key. The obfuscated key decryption program is executed to decrypt the second cryptographic key. The second cryptographic key is used for decrypting digital content. |
| US08220057B2 |
Method for the automatic control of fraud in an electronic transaction system
A method of automatically controlling fraud in an electronic transaction system. When a user initiates a session in the electronic transaction system, an element is generated and stored in a database in association with information identifying the user. Each time during the session the user commands the execution of an operation, an equation is determined that is satisfied by the element stored in the database. When a sufficient given number of operations has been effected, the system of equations consisting of the equations determined as above is solved to deduce the element. By consulting the database, the corresponding information identifying the user is deduced from the element obtained in this way. |
| US08220055B1 |
Behavior blocking utilizing positive behavior system and method
A method includes decreasing a suspicion of a negative action by an application if the application has previously performed a positive action. The positive action is an action that is never or rarely taken by malicious code. In one example, the positive action is use of a user interface element by the application to have a user interaction with a user of the computer system. By taking into consideration the positive action by the application, the occurrence of false positives is minimized. |
| US08220052B2 |
Application based intrusion detection
A method of detecting an intrusion into a computer. At least one communication to an application program is selectively evaluated by the application program accessing an intrusion detection service to evaluate the communication. |
| US08220049B2 |
Hardware-based detection and containment of an infected host computing device
Methods and apparatuses enable a traffic analyzer to monitor an internal connection of a computing system for one or more traffic patterns. The traffic analyzer compares traffic on the internal connection to an expected traffic pattern, and performs a policy based action based on the result of comparing the traffic pattern to the expected pattern. The traffic analyzer can exist in a stack of a VMM or a monitoring VM or be implemented in a management engine of the computing system. In one embodiment, the computing system includes traffic analyzer components in both a VMM or monitoring VM and a management engine. |
| US08220048B2 |
Network intrusion detector with combined protocol analyses, normalization and matching
A network intrusion detection system combines the normally sequential steps of protocol analysis, normalization, and signature matching through the use of a regular expression to speed the monitoring of network data. The regular expression also allows the creation of a superset matcher, permitting multiple stages of matching of increased accuracy to produce additional throughput gains. |
| US08220047B1 |
Anti-phishing system and method
An anti-phishing system and method includes monitoring a user input data stream input to a computing device, identifying, in the user input data stream, one or more characters corresponding to a trigger event related to private information of a user, and taking an action to protect the private information based on identifying the one or more characters corresponding to the trigger event. |
| US08220042B2 |
Creating secure interactive connections with remote resources
Implementations of the present invention efficiently establish secure connections between a client and server, at least in part by authenticating the client and server early on in the connection setup phases. A client initiating a connection with a server identifies the secure communication protocols enabled at the client, and identifies these protocols in a connection request it sends to the server. The server processes the message and responds with a communication protocol it deems appropriate for the connection. The client and server then exchange appropriate authentication information, and then establish a connection session that implements the chosen communication protocol, and encrypts messages using the negotiated communication protocol. Additional implementations relate to reestablishing dropped connections behind virtual Internet Protocol addresses, without necessarily having to recommit much connection resource overhead. |
| US08220040B2 |
Verifying that group membership requirements are met by users
In an embodiment, a verifier receives requirements for membership in a group from a service and receives proof of attributes from users. The verifier verifies whether the proof of attributes meets the membership requirements and sends acceptance or rejection to the service. If the proof meets the requirements, the service allows the users to become members of the group and allows the members to transfer data to and from other members. If the proof does not meet the requirements, the service prevents the users from becoming members. In this way, the service and group members know that other group members satisfy the group membership requirements without needing to know the identity of the group members or other information unrelated to the group membership requirements. |
| US08220039B2 |
Mass storage device with automated credentials loading
A portable mass storage device for use in two factor authentication systems and methods. A secure portable mass storage device protects content from being freely copied with security mechanisms and firmware. The security functionality also protects confidential user credentials and passwords, as well as algorithms and seeds needed for two factor authentication or asymmetric authentication methods. A client application residing in the mass storage device acts as both a password manager and an authentication manager that seamlessly performs the authentication procedures in the background while signing a user into various institutions of his choosing. A very high level of security is integrated into a mass storage device the user has for purposes other than two factor authentication, and the convenience of highly secure password management also comes in a convenient pocket sized package easy for the user to transport. This facilitates the acceptance of two factor authentication, and increases security for a wide variety of online transactions. |
| US08220038B1 |
Method for securely routing communications
A method and program product for securely routing communicating data between sources and destinations having various data protocols. Data protocols are converted to internet protocol, if not already in internet protocol, for routing. Cryptographic keys of the source, the message, and the destination are verified. If a source and a destination share the same control system, the communication need not, but may, be encrypted for routing; otherwise, the communication is encrypted for routing on the local area network and then decrypted before transmission to the destination. Some communications require further security processing, such as in a HAIPE for certain SATCOM communications. Also, a method and a program product to initialize the secure routing system by loading cryptographic keys, configuring components of the routing system, and loading preprogrammed communication parameters. The programming dynamically responds and changes routing of a communication depending on what communication parameters change. |
| US08220036B2 |
Establishing a secure channel with a human user
A method of establishing a secure channel between a human user and a computer application is described. A secret unique identifier (“PIN”) is shared between a user and an application. When the user makes a request that involves utilizing the PIN for authentication purposes, the application renders a randomly selected identifier. The randomly selected identifier is in a format that is recognizable to a human but is not readily recognizable by an automated agent. The randomly selected identifier is then presented to the human user. The user identifies the relationship between the randomly selected identifier and the PIN. If the user's input reflects the fact that the user knows the PIN, then the user is authenticated. |
| US08220028B2 |
Content transmission apparatus, content reception apparatus, and content transmission/reception system
Disclosed herein is a content transmission apparatus connected to a content reception apparatus at a remote place via a network, the content transmission apparatus including: a broadcast signal reception section configured to receive a broadcast content on one or more channels; a recording/reproducing section configured to compress and record data of at least 24 hours of broadcast content on each channel, and reproduce the recorded compressed data; a communication section configured to transmit the compressed data to the content reception apparatus via the network; and a delay control section configured to control the recording/reproducing section to control a delay time between a broadcasting time of the content and a time at which the compressed data is transmitted. The delay time is set in accordance with time difference information indicating a time difference between places where the content transmission apparatus and the content reception apparatus are placed. |
| US08220026B2 |
Digital broadcasting system and data processing method
A digital broadcasting system and method of processing data therein are disclosed. A receiving system of the digital broadcasting system includes a baseband processor unit receiving a broadcast signal including mobile service data and main service data, the mobile service data configuring an RS frame, the RS frame including the mobile service data and at least one signaling information data describing rating information of the mobile service data, a management processor unit obtaining the rating information of the mobile service data by parsing the signaling information data from the RS frame, the management processor unit determining a presence or non-presence of a viewing restriction by comparing the obtained rating information of the mobile service data to viewing restriction rating information set by a user, and a presentation processor unit blocking the mobile service data if the viewing restriction of the mobile service data is determined. |
| US08220023B2 |
Method for content presentation
A method and system is presented for personalizing an electronic program guide that enables a viewer easily and quickly to access to the subset of information that is personally most relevant. |
| US08220021B1 |
Television viewer interface system
A television viewer interface system provides a viewer interface that allows the viewer to access different functions of a system. A highlight bar is responsive to the user's commands and is used to indicate the current menu item that can be selected by the user. Information is presented in a successive disclosure format where the user navigates through menus by moving the highlight bar to the right to obtain more information or to the left to see less information and return to the previous location. The background colors of each set of menus remains consistent throughout the user's experience such that the user intuitively knows what menu area he is in through the color cues. The invention provides indicators that tell the user that more information is available in a particular direction for a menu item. |
| US08220019B2 |
Remote advertising system
A remote advertising system and method are provided. The advertising media (such as video, pictures, audio and text) may be stored on computer servers. The advertising media is downloaded to one or more kiosks at scheduled intervals and displayed on a rotating schedule. Users may interact with the advertisement to request additional information relating to the advertisement to be displayed, purchase the advertised products and services, or print out tickets, coupons or the like for related or unrelated products and services. |
| US08220016B2 |
Method for protection of data reproduction according to both medium protection data and apparatus protection data
In a reproduction apparatus, for reproducing an original signal conveyed as main data by a data medium such as a recording disk or broadcasting system, with medium protection data which are specific to the data medium being conveyed together with the main data, the apparatus includes a section for generating apparatus protection data which are specific to the reproduction apparatus, a section for combining the apparatus protection data with the medium protection data to define a protection level, and a section for applying the protection level to restrict reproduction of the original signal, with stepwise variations in restriction occurring in accordance with changes in protection level. The medium protection data may include information for specifying restricted reproduction of portions of the original signal, such as by producing degraded resolution within specified regions of specified frames of a video signal. |
| US08220013B2 |
Recording medium drive apparatus and electronic apparatus
Disclosed is a recording medium drive apparatus configured to drive a recording medium, including a case, a drive source used for loading/ejecting the recording medium into/from the case, a motor unit configured to hold the recording medium and rotate the recording medium held, a pickup unit configured to record a signal on the recording medium rotated by the motor unit or reproduce the recorded signal, a first slider driven by the drive source to slide a first distance in a first direction, a second slider that is cam-engaged with the pickup unit and slides in a second direction to move the pickup unit upward and downward, a moving member that is releasably engaged with the first slider, engaged with the pickup unit, and cam-engaged with the motor unit, and moves the motor unit upward and downward, and a link mechanism configured to link the first slider and the second slider. |
| US08220012B2 |
Holding member, driving apparatus, pickup apparatus, and disc apparatus
A holding member provided with a coil comprising a proximity facilitating portion capable of bringing the coil closer to a magnetic member facing the coil. |
| US08220008B2 |
Disk apparatus with resilient member on cam mechanism connecting a main slider to a sub-slider
A slot-in type disk apparatus configured to prevent fine traverse base vibration at disk playback. A base body and a lid constitute a chassis outer sheath having a front surface formed with a disk insertion slot. The base body has a traverse base with a spindle motor, a pickup and a driving unit moving the pickup. A cam displaces the traverse base between the base body and the lid. The cam is provided on each of a main slider and a sub-slider. The main slider and the sub-slider are located sideways of the spindle motor and are connected to each other through a cam lever which is moved by the main slider, and the traverse base is displaced by moving the sub-slider. The cam lever has a resilient member which abuts against the traverse base at the time of playback of a disk. |
| US08220005B2 |
Apparatus, system, and computer program product for processing information
An image processing apparatus includes an input unit that inputs a command, a wireless interface unit that wirelessly exchanges data with an image forming apparatus in a direct manner, a transmission/reception control unit that controls an operation of the wireless interface unit, and a program processing unit that performs an installation process of a program. The transmission/reception control unit causes the wireless interface unit to receive a driver module from the image forming apparatus. The program processing unit performs an installation process of the driver module received by the wireless interface unit. |
| US08220004B2 |
Method, apparatus and computer program product for sharing resources via an interprocess communication
An apparatus for sharing resources between interconnected processes via an interprocess communication may include a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to at least perform operations including receiving a request from at least one first process that controls one or more resources. The request may include data requesting assignment of one or more rights to share at least one of the resources with at least a second process. The instructions may further cause the apparatus to assign the rights to share the resource with the second process and remove the rights to share the resource from the second process upon receipt of a first message. Corresponding computer program products and methods are also provided. |
| US08220003B2 |
System and method for programming point of sale devices
A system for programming point of sale devices is provided. The system includes a terminal programming system that can program point of sale devices provided by different manufacturers and having different proprietary operating systems. A communications interface is connected to the terminal programming system that receives update requests from the plurality of point of sale devices, such as when the point of sale devices call in to the system or when the point of sale devices respond to a poll. |
| US08220000B2 |
System and method for executing files stored in logical units based on priority and input/output load of the logical units
A storage system including a plurality of logical units; file management application software for performing file management on a per-file basis for a plurality of files stored in the respective logical units; a load monitoring module for monitoring a load in a resource of the storage system; and a file management control module for controlling the file management application software based on the load monitored by the load monitoring module. |
| US08219999B2 |
System and method for determining a number of threads to maximize utilization of a system
A system and associated method for determining a number of threads to maximize system utilization. The method begins with determining a first value which corresponds to the current system utilization. Next the method determines a second value which corresponds the current number of threads in the system. Next the method determines a third value which corresponds to the number of processor cores in the system. Next the method receives a fourth value from an end user which corresponds to the optimal system utilization the end user wishes to achieve. Next the method determines a fifth value which corresponds to the number of threads necessary to achieve the optimal system utilization value received from the end user. Finally, the method sends the fifth value to all running applications. |
| US08219996B1 |
Computer processor with fairness monitor
A computer processor includes a fairness monitor for monitoring allocations of a processor resource to requestors. If unfairness is determined, a resource allocator is biased to offset said unfairness. |
| US08219995B2 |
Capturing hardware statistics for partitions to enable dispatching and scheduling efficiency
A method, system and computer program product enables the granular collection and utilization of hardware statistical samples for the efficient scheduling and allocation of data processing resources. In particular, a Partition Statistics Capture and Analysis (PSCA) utility utilizes special purpose registers to collect statistical samples, such as: (1) instructions completed; (2) Level2 (L2) cache misses; (3) cycles per instruction (CPI); and/or (4) other statistics selected based on the programming of the PSCA utility. Further, these statistical samples are utilized for the several purposes, including: (1) determining how long (time) the footprint of a partition takes to become established during the “cold start” period, i.e., during system instantiation; (2) detecting movement of the CPI curve in order to determine the (shifted) location of the onset of steady state (i.e., the knee) on the CPI curve; and (3) utilizing the statistical samples to guide dispatch decisions and make tuning recommendations. |
| US08219992B2 |
Data processing system having a plurality of processors and operating systems
Management programs for concealing differences in hardware configuration and OS are operated and stayed resident every OS. A database manipulated by the management programs is prepared. The database defines correspondences between tasks for hardware control and software processing, which are processed under the control of the OSs and their attached OSs, over the OSs. When the corresponding management program detects a startup request of a task, the management program extracts an entry corresponding to the task from the database. If an attached OS owned by the extracted entry is its own OS, then the task is processed under the control of the corresponding OS. If the attached OS owned by the extracted entry is other OS, then the startup request is passed to a processor of the other OS, where the task is processed. |
| US08219990B2 |
Techniques for managing virtual machine (VM) states
Techniques for managing virtual machine (VM) states are provided. Applications executing within a processing context of a VM communicate outside that processing context with a hypervisor or VM Monitor (VMM) to have the hypervisor perform host operations for the VM. |
| US08219988B2 |
Partition adjunct for data processing system
A partition adjunct is provided for a logical partition running above a hypervisor of a data processing system. The partition adjunct, which is a separate dispatchable partition from an instantiating logical partition, provides one or more services to the logical partition. A service request received from the logical partition is processed by the partition adjunct utilizing virtual address space donated to the partition adjunct from the logical partition. The partition adjunct and the logical partition share a common virtual address to real address page table, and context switching the current state machine from the logical partition to the partition adjunct occurs without invalidating or modifying state data of selected memory management and address translation hardware of the data processing system. In a hardware multithreaded system, the partition adjunct is dispatched on a single thread, while another thread continues to run in the logical partition initiating the service request. |
| US08219985B2 |
Method and system for version independent software release management
A system for assembling an update for a software release is described, comprising a processor and memory configured to define classes of software components, each class having a plurality of instances, each instance having a unique identifier (UID) and representing a software component having a plurality of versions; for each version of the software component, assign time stamps and indicator identifying release status of the version; introduce a flexible coupling between versions of software components and instances of classes using a pointer between a version of the software component and a UID associated with the version; select versions of software components from which pointers originate; for each instance of the class, to which the pointer points, select one version of the software component based on the assigned indicator; and assemble the selected versions of software components into the update of the software release. A corresponding method is also provided. |
| US08219984B2 |
Firmware update network and process employing preprocessing techniques
A network for updating firmware, drivers, or application software facilitates the access to generated update packages by electronic devices and the update of firmware, drivers, content or application software in a fault tolerant mode. A “Bubbles” technique is employed to generate efficient and compact update packages. A “Bubbles” information is generated employing the “Bubbles” technique that is subsequently sent to the electronic devices as part of an update package. The “Bubbles” information and other related information is used in preprocessing activities and in other update related activities. For example, they are used to prepare the electronic device for an update to a different version of its firmware, software and/or content. |
| US08219983B1 |
Systems and methods for providing guidance on the potential impact of application and operating-system changes on a computing system
A computer-implemented method for determining the impact of a software change on the health of a computing system or an application installed on the computing system may comprise identifying the software change, performing a first health evaluation, allowing the software change to occur, performing a second health evaluation, and then determining the impact of the new application by comparing the results of the second health evaluation with the results of the first health evaluation. Exemplary methods for providing guidance on the potential impact of a software change and for determining the health impact of a software change based on information obtained from a plurality of computing systems are also disclosed. Corresponding systems and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US08219981B2 |
Processor dedicated code handling in a multi-processor environment
Code handling, such as interpreting language instructions or performing “just-in-time” compilation, is performed using a heterogeneous processing environment that shares a common memory. In a heterogeneous processing environment that includes a plurality of processors, one of the processors is programmed to perform a dedicated code-handling task, such as perform just-in-time compilation or interpretation of interpreted language instructions, such as Java. The other processors request code handling processing that is performed by the dedicated processor. Speed is achieved using a shared memory map so that the dedicated processor can quickly retrieve data provided by one of the other processors. |
| US08219978B2 |
Information processing device
Methods and apparatus include: providing a computer having a program execution module for carrying out a process according to a program; providing an execution control module, connected to the program execution module; carrying out mutual authentication, within the execution control module, with respect to the program execution module; carrying out a process for authentication relative to an object program for execution by the program execution module; and preventing the program execution module from executing the object program until the object program is successfully authenticated. |
| US08219972B1 |
Platform for processing semi-structured self-describing data with aggregating clauses
An Extensible Markup Language (XML) Application Server for storing, processing, communicating, and displaying dynamic semi-structured information. It comprises a declarative specification language, a transactional indexed XML data store, and an XML application server engine. An integrated architecture (a) provides for optimization, indexing, and backtracking search in a business logic layer, (b) provides for general-purpose programming idioms including recursive function definitions, iteration, and dynamic dispatch in data layer queries and updates, and (c) eliminates processing overhead and maintenance issues caused by transforming between relational, object-oriented, and semi-structured data paradigms. |
| US08219970B2 |
XML push and remote execution of a wireless applications
A method is provided for facilitating generation of a server-side application capable of calling a function of a wireless application on a mobile device. A structured data file defining the wireless application is retrieved. The structured data file is parsed for identifying exposed functions. Code stubs are generated for each of the exposed functions. The code stubs are configured to be included as part of the server-side application and to define a message to be transmitted to the wireless application upon execution of the code stub. |
| US08219966B2 |
Method and system for integrating an application floorplan and an external service
In one embodiment, data in an application floorplan is exposed in a controlled way for integrating new external services to the application floorplan. Service definitions of the external service for integration with the application floorplan is generated. Further, a semantic type data of a global data type used in the application floorplan is generated. Upon generating the semantic type data, a semantic type mapping of an instance of the semantic type data is generated. Furthermore a map between a service parameter of the external service and the semantic type mapping is presented. Thereby, the application floorplan and the external service are integrated by executing the external service in the application floorplan using the generated map. |
| US08219965B2 |
Layout design method of semiconductor integrated circuit including regenerating a cell layout to set first and second distances and generating library data
A layout design method of a semiconductor integrated circuit includes providing a cell layout including a cell that includes a gate or a plurality of gates extending in a first direction, a plurality of diffusion layers, a first boundary of the cell in parallel with the gate or the plurality of gates, a second boundary of the cell being in an opposite side of the first boundary of the cell, a first distance, a second distance, a third distance, and a fourth distance, regenerating the cell layout to set the first distance and the second distance to a first value, or to set the third distance and the fourth distance to a second value, and generating a library data of the cell for a placement and routing tool, based on the cell layout. |
| US08219964B2 |
Method for creating electrically testable patterns
The present invention provides a method and computer program product for designing an electrically testable pattern that is based on patterns derived from the desired chip layout to be printed. Such electrical test patterns are based on the features within a region of influence around critical sites. The critical sites may be identified, for example, by processing the chip layout through an OPC verification tool that flags potential failure sites. The electrical test pattern is formed from features within an region of influence (ROI) around the critical site, and also include electrical feed lines at terminal ends of one or more features having an electrical characteristic that is sensitive to changes in the printed environment of the critical site. The feed lines may be locate on the same or a different layer than the critical site, depending on the chip design. The electrical pattern is further defined by retaining features within a second trim region such that the printed features within the ROI are not substantially modified by the absence of features outside the second trim region. |
| US08219963B2 |
Method and apparatus for analyzing and designing semiconductor device using calculated surface potential
In a support apparatus for analysis and design of a semiconductor device, a function indicating an impurity concentration distribution in a channel region of a first transistor in a depth direction is set. A structure data indicating a structure of a transistor device and a measurement value of each of electric characteristics of the transistor are related. A Poisson's equation, which is express by using the function, is solved by using a depletion layer width as a variable to calculate a surface potential, and a first calculation value of the electric characteristic of the first transistor is calculated by using the surface potential. A determining section determines the function to indicate the impurity concentration distribution of a first transistor when a measurement value corresponding to a first structure data which indicates a structure of the first transistor, and the first calculation value are substantially coincident with each other. |
| US08219960B1 |
Methods of implementing relocatable circuits in a programmable integrated circuit device
A method for configuring programmable logic in an IC to implement instances of a relocatable circuit includes, for each instance, assigning a respective portion of an address space of a processor to the instance, configuring a respective interface circuit for translating the transactions accessing the respective portion of the address space into a fixed address space of the relocatable circuit, and selecting a respective region within an array of programmable logic and interconnect resources of the IC. The processor accesses the address space with read and write transactions issued on an interface bus. The relocatable circuit is independent of the address space assigned to the instances. Each region is configurable to implement an instance. The programmable logic and interconnect resources are configured to implement the instances and to couple each instance to the interface bus of the processor via the respective interface circuit, using a single copy of configuration data for the relocatable circuit. |
| US08219954B2 |
Printed circuit board analyzing system, printed circuit board designing assisting system, their methods, and program
A printed circuit board analyzing system for analyzing the whole circuit of a multilayer printed circuit board to perform circuit analysis of noise propagation in the printed circuit board having structure in which the shapes of stacked conductor planes are different or planes are provided side by side in the same layer by quickly providing an adjacent interference part equivalent circuit model representing noise interference parts causing interference between adjacent opposed planes and by coupling the plane pairs to the adjacent interference part equivalent circuit. |
| US08219949B2 |
Nonsequential hardware design synthesis verification
Methods and apparatuses for verifying a concurrent logical design and a corresponding non-sequential algorithmic description are provided. In some implementations, verification of a non-sequential algorithmic description for a device design is facilitated by monitoring a simulation of the non-sequential algorithmic description and synchronizing the timing of selected events with timing from an already completed simulation of a corresponding logical design. With various implementations, the hierarchical blocks in the logical design are monitored during the prior simulation to record selected event information. Subsequently, the recorded event information may be used to synchronize the simulation of the non-sequential algorithmic description. |
| US08219948B2 |
Layout verification device, layout verification program, and layout verification method of layout pattern of semiconductor device
A layout verification device according to the present invention includes a layout verification unit that outputs a first error graphic corresponding to an area where there is an inconsistency with a design rule in a first layout pattern, and includes a target error graphic setting unit that sets a processing target area including the first error graphic, an error graphic search unit that searches a second error graphic included in a processing target area of a second layout pattern where verification by the layout verification unit has already been performed, and an error graphic equivalence judgment unit that judges that the first error graphic and the second error graphic are non-equivalent when a second target vertex coordinate of the second error graphic does not match any one of a plurality of peripheral vertex coordinates set in grid intersections adjacent to the first target vertex coordinate of the first error graphic. |
| US08219947B2 |
Method and apparatus for merging EDA coverage logs of coverage data
An electronic design automation technology merges coverage logs. The coverage logs are generated by verification of a hardware description language circuit design. The coverage logs are merged as the coverage logs are generated, without waiting for all pending coverage logs. Another electronic design automation technology also merges coverage logs. The merged coverage logs include a first coverage log of a first simulation of a hardware description language circuit design and a second coverage log of a second simulation of the hardware description language circuit design. The first simulation is based on a first hardware verification language coverage model of the hardware description language circuit design. The second simulation is based on a second hardware verification language coverage model of the hardware description language circuit design. The second hardware verification language coverage model is newer and different than the first hardware verification language coverage model. |
| US08219946B1 |
Method for clock gating circuits
In one embodiment, a method is provided for generating clock gating circuitry for a circuit design model. A Boolean expression of path sensitization is determined for each gate element in the netlist of a circuit design. For each gate element, a conjunction of the Boolean expression of the path sensitization and a Boolean expression of a disjunction of the observability conditions of one or more subsequent gates is determined to produce an intermediate Boolean expression. Intermediate Boolean expressions are backward retimed to produce the respective Boolean expression of the observability conditions of the each gate element. Clock gating circuits that implement the respective Boolean expression of the observability conditions of one or more of the plurality of interconnected gate elements are generated and incorporated into the circuit design model. |
| US08219940B2 |
Method and apparatus for removing dummy features from a data structure
A method and apparatus to reduce occurrences of electrically non-functional elements, known as dummy features, from a source data structure is described. The source data structure may be image data, a vector based data structure or some other data format. Dummy features in the source data structure are detected and then deleted. Dummy features may be detected by selecting a representative dummy feature, using it as a reference pattern or polygon and comparing it to features in the source data structure. The step of comparing the selected reference to the comprises selecting a cut-off correlation threshold value, and computing the correlation coefficients between the reference and the feature. Features are selectively removed based on a comparison between their correlation coefficients and the selected cut-off correlation threshold value. This threshold value may require updating to remove all dummy features in the source data structure. When different shaped dummy features in the same data structure are encountered, a further reference feature may be selected and the process repeated. |
| US08219927B2 |
Revealing of truncated content on scrollable grid
Various embodiments related to the revealing of truncated content on a scrollable grid are disclosed. One disclosed embodiment provides a computing device comprising a display, a processor, and memory comprising instructions executable by the processor to display a cell of a grid of content at a first, smaller size and display in the cell a content item that is truncated based upon the first, smaller size of the cell. The computing device is further configured to receive a request to scroll the grid, and scroll the grid on the display device. During scrolling, the size of the cell is increased to a second, larger size, and a revealing of a truncated portion of the content item is animated. |
| US08219924B2 |
Color and symbol coded visual cues for relating screen items to each other
Described is a method for visually delineating a relationship between diverse, but related graphical objects in a graphical user interface. An icon that has specified color scheme is associated with the diverse, but related but graphical objects. When one of the related graphical objects is displayed, the icon is displayed within the displayed graphical object. The persistence of the icon with the specified color scheme in the displayed graphical objects allows them to be recognized as related. |
| US08219922B2 |
Dynamic point and extend user interface
A computer-implemented method of extending a user interface of an executing application can include placing the user interface in a configure mode that allows functionality of the user interface to be extended and visually distinguishing an element of the user interface that is extendable. Responsive to a user input requesting extension of the functionality of the element, an editing window can be displayed within the user interface. The method can include receiving, within the editing window, computer-usable program code specifying extended functionality for the element and storing the computer-usable program code as part of an extension to the element. The extension can be bound to an extension point exposed for the element of the user interface. |
| US08219921B2 |
Providing an ad-hoc 3D GUI within a virtual world to a non-virtual world application
A method for receiving input from a user of a virtual world, the method including: interacting with an object displayed in the virtual world; displaying another object in the virtual world in response to the interacting, the another object adapted to interact with the user; displaying at least one of a user specific label and a service specific label in place of a generic label associated with the another object; selecting the another object; and receiving the generic label and the at least one of the user specific label and the service specific label as the input in response to the selecting. |
| US08219919B2 |
Method for automating construction of the flow of data driven applications in an entity model
An associated between a data type and a user interface (UI) element such as a Page and/or Panel, and a data type allows dynamic determination of application flow including menu and menu items. This may allow a dynamic determination of all target UI elements to which an end user may navigate from a source UI element, that are capable of displaying the same record of information represented in the source UI element or a related record of information. |
| US08219917B2 |
Bubbling up task severity indicators within a hierarchical tree control
A computer automated method for bubbling-up condition severity indicators in a hierarchical tree control can include identifying a node in the hierarchical tree control that has been obscured in a collapsed branch of the hierarchical tree control, bubbling-up a status for the identified node to a visible parent node, rendering a status icon for the status adjacent to the visible parent node, and, responsive to an expansion of the collapsed branch rendering the identified node visible, relocating the status icon adjacent to the identified node. Optionally, a depth can be determined for the identified node, a visual characteristic for the status icon can be selected based upon the depth, and the status icon can be rendered using the selected visual characteristic. |
| US08219914B2 |
Systems and methods for generating personalized dynamic presentations from non-personalized presentation structures and contents
Computer system comprising master storage containing master presentation data having a master nodal structure and master contents associated with content structure nodes, structure editor capable of copying master nodal structure into a personalized data structure in a dedicated read/write storage and of selectively changing the copied master nodal structure into a personalized nodal structure in response to user inputs, personalized nodal structure comprising all or part of the nodes of the master nodal structure, contents editor capable of copying a master content into personalized data structure in dedicated read/write storage and of selectively changing the copied master content into a personalized content in response to user inputs, dynamic presentation generator for generating a personalized presentation by accessing personalized data structure, determining which content nodes in structure belong to personalized presentation, for such content nodes selectively accessing master contents or personalized content if the latter is present in personalized data structure. |
| US08219911B2 |
System and method for displaying contextual advertisements with media
Systems and methods have been developed for displaying contextually relevant advertisements to users as media objects are being rendered. One or more data sources with contextual information for different portions of each media object are maintained. From this contextual information, keywords may be generated and used to locate contextually-related advertisements. The advertisements are selected based on contextual information about the media object in order to match or otherwise be contextually relevant with the media content being rendered. As the subject matter of the media object changes during rendering, different advertisements related to the new context are provided that replace the prior advertisement. The advertisements are displayed in an area that could be used for other purposes when the rendering device is not rendering media objects. |
| US08219909B2 |
Human-machine interface with integrated position sensors and passive haptic feedback devices
A system and method for determining the input force supplied to a user interface by a user is provided. A passive feedback mechanism is coupled to the user interface, and a change in position of the passive feedback mechanism is sensed. The input force supplied by the user to the user interface is then calculated from the sensed change in position. |
| US08219908B2 |
Digital ink database searching using handwriting feature synthesis
A system and method for ink database searching using handwriting feature synthesis is disclosed which allows a digital ink database to be searched using a text-based query. Using a writer-specific handwriting model derived from a handwriting recognition system or suitable training procedure, a text query is converted into feature vectors that are similar to the feature vectors that would have been extracted had the author of the digital ink database written the text query by hand. The feature vectors are then used to search the database. |
| US08219907B2 |
Resource authoring with re-usability score and suggested re-usable data
A localization development system includes a platform that receives information to be localized to a target market that is distinct from a source market for which the information was originally authored. The platform calculates a recycle rate for the received information. The recycle rate is indicative of a portion of the information that has already been localized to the target market before the information to be localized was received from an authoring component. |
| US08219905B2 |
Automatically detecting keyboard layout in order to improve the quality of spelling suggestions
A method, system and computer program product for keyboard layout detection resulting in improving the quality of the spelling suggestions, and in another aspect, recognizing a keyboard mapping mismatch between a computer and a given remote user based on a defined finite dictionary. There is no extra Application Programming Interfaces (API) required to pass information between the text editor and a spellchecking engine in order to perform keyboard layout detection. |
| US08219903B2 |
Display information verification program, method and apparatus
A display information verification method, when display data of financial data is generated from the financial data and scripts for the financial data, includes: searching the scripts for an arithmetic instruction to process a numeric value in the financial data or a conversion instruction to convert a character string included in the financial data; and judging whether or not the arithmetic instruction or the conversion instruction detected in the searching is an instruction considered to manipulate the financial data. Thus, it is possible to detect the instruction considered to manipulate data from the scripts, and to avoid display including the manipulation of the data. In addition, for example, by using information of the instruction, which is stored inside in advance and is allowed to be used, it is possible to detect only the arithmetic instruction or the conversion instruction, which is not allowed to be used. |
| US08219900B2 |
Programmatically hiding and displaying Wiki page layout sections
Configuring a page to conditionally show specific page components is provided. In response to receiving a request to show a current page from a client browser, page components are identified that may be shown from a set of page components. In response to receiving a request to show a current page from a client browser, a layout page associated with the current page is determined. The current page is combined with the identified page components of the layout page to form a combined page. The combined page is sent to the client browser. |
| US08219899B2 |
Verbal description method and system
A verbal description method and system. A computing system broadcasts first audio data and video data associated with the first audio data. The computing system determines that the video data comprises a graphic without a description in the first audio data. The computing system receives audible description data associated with the graphic. The computing system generates second audio data comprising the first audio data and the audible description data. The computing system synchronizes portions of the second audio data with associated portions of the video data. The computing system generates synchronized audio/video data comprising the portions of said second audio data aligned with the associated portions of said video data. The computing system broadcasts the synchronized audio/video data. |
| US08219892B2 |
Systems and methods for enhanced media defect detection
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for detecting storage medium defects. As one example, a media defect detection system is disclosed that includes a data detector circuit that applies a detection algorithm to the data input and provides a hard output and a soft output. A first circuit combines a first derivative of the hard output with a derivative of the data input to yield a first combined signal. A second circuit combines a second derivative of the hard output with a derivative of the first combined signal to yield a second combined signal. A third circuit combines a derivative of the soft output with the second combined signal and a threshold value to yield a defect signal. |
| US08219883B2 |
Data accessing method, controller and storage system using the same
Data accessing method for a flash memory, and a controller and a storage system using the same are provided. The data accessing method includes reading data from a physical address of a flash memory according to a physical address to be read corresponding to a logical address to be read in a read command, and determining whether or not the read physical address is the physical address to be read. The data accessing method also includes transmitting the data only if the read physical address is the physical address to be read. Accordingly, it is possible to ensure the transmitted data is data to be accessed by the read command. |
| US08219879B2 |
Method for arranging memories of low-complexity LDPC decoder and low-complexity LDPC decoder using the same
A method for arranging memories of a low-complexity low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoder and a low-complexity LDPC decoder using the same method are provided. The main idea of the method for arranging memories of a low-complexity LDPC decoder is to merge at least one or two small-capacity memory blocks into one memory group, so that the memory area can be reduced and the power consumption in reading or writing data is lowered. Besides, as the merged memory group shares the same address line in reading or writing data, at least one delay unit is used to adjust the reading or writing order and thereby ensure data validity. A low-complexity LDPC decoder using the disclosed method can meet the demands of high processing rate and low power consumption. |
| US08219878B1 |
Post-processing decoder of LDPC codes for improved error floors
Systems and methods are provided for decoding received codewords using an LDPC code. An LDPC post-processor is disclosed for performing post-processing when standard LDPC decoding fails due to a trapping set. The LDPC post-processor may direct the LDPC decoder to decode the received codeword again, but may change some of the inputs to the LDPC decoder so that the LDPC decoder does not fail in the same way. In one embodiment, the LDPC post-processor may modify the symbol positions in the received codeword that correspond to a particular unsatisfied check. In another embodiment, the LDPC post-processor may modify the messages in the decoder's iterative message algorithm that correspond to the symbol positions. |
| US08219868B1 |
Quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) encoder
Systems and methods are provided for a quasi-cyclic low-density parity check (QC-LDPC) encoders that have reduced memory requirements. In some embodiments, the LDPC encoder may store a quasi-cyclic parity seed matrix instead of a full code generator matrix. The LDPC encoder may receive a plurality of user symbols and compute a parity seed vector based at least in part on the received user symbols. The LDPC encoder may then use the quasi-cyclic parity seed matrix and the parity seed vector to generate a plurality of parity symbols for the user symbols. In some embodiments, the LDPC encoder may generate a full code generator matrix from a quasi-cyclic parity seed matrix instead of storing the full code generator matrix. |
| US08219863B2 |
TAP state count specifying advanced mode command and command data
A method comprises performing at least one zero-bit scan across an interface link. The at least one zero-bit scan defines a command window. The method further comprises an interface adapter counting a number of inert scans in the command window, and the number of inert scans defines a particular command or data. An inert scan results in no data being moved into or out of the interface adapter. |
| US08219861B2 |
Semiconductor storage device
As a semiconductor storage device that can efficiently perform a refresh operation, provided is a semiconductor storage device comprising a non-volatile semiconductor memory storing data in blocks, the block being a unit of data erasing, and a controlling unit monitoring an error count of data stored in a monitored block selected from the blocks and refreshing data in the monitored block in which the error count is equal to or larger than a threshold value. |
| US08219860B2 |
Microprocessor system for controlling at least partly safety-critical processes
The invention relates to a microprocessor system (60) for controlling and/or regulating at least partly security-critical processes, which system comprises two central processing units (1, 2) integrated into a chip housing, a first and a second bus system, at least one complete memory (7) on the first bus system, and check data in one or more check data memories, said data being related to data of the memory in the first bus system. The check data memory is smaller than the complete memory. The bus systems comprise comparative and/or driver components which facilitate data exchange and/or comparison of data between the two bus systems. The one or more check data memories are arranged on the first bus system. On the second bus system, neither a check data memory nor a memory safeguarding data of the memory on the first bus is used. The invention also relates to the use of the inventive microprocessor system in automotive control devices. |
| US08219852B2 |
Java virtual machine having integrated transaction management system
A computing system is configured to deploy a JAVA application for execution in a distributed manner. The computing system includes a plurality of computing nodes including a domain manager node, the plurality of computing nodes forming a computing domain configured as an administrative grouping of the nodes administered by the domain manager node. The domain manager node is configured to provide, to each of the computing nodes, a main portion of the JAVA application. The main portion defines, for each computing node, a portion of the behavior of the JAVA application to be accomplished by that computing node. Furthermore, each computing node is configured to receive at least one class file having classes appropriate for the portion of the behavior of the JAVA application defined, by the main portion, to be accomplished by that computing node. |
| US08219851B2 |
System RAS protection for UMA style memory
In some embodiments, the invention involves a system and method relating to system recovery in a fault resilient manner by isolating errors associated with the management engine (ME) UMA memory. BIOS logs errors occurring on memory within the system. The ME UMA is invisible to the host OS, so the OS will not be notified about the errors occurring in the ME UMA range. When an error threshold has been reached for a memory unit in which ME UMA resides, ME UMA data is migrated to a previously reserved backup region of memory and the ME is notified of the new ME UMA location. The faulty memory is flagged for replacement at a next maintenance cycle. Embodiments may be applied to workstations that utilize ECC memory protection which utilize AMT (Active Management Technology) and ME UMA. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08219847B2 |
Arithmetic unit and arithmetic processing method for operating with higher and lower clock frequencies
There is a need for providing a battery-less integrated circuit (IC) card capable of operating in accordance with a contact usage or a non-contact usage, preventing coprocessor throughput from degrading despite a decreased clock frequency for reduced power consumption under non-contact usage, and ensuring high-speed processing under non-contact usage. A dual interface card is a battery-less IC card capable of operating in accordance with a contact usage or a non-contact usage. The dual interface card operates at a high clock under contact usage and at a low clock under non-contact usage. A targeted operation comprises a plurality of different basic operations. The dual interface card comprises a basic arithmetic circuit group. Under the contact usage, the basic arithmetic circuit group performs one basic operation of the targeted operation at one cycle. Under the non-contact usage, the basic arithmetic circuit group sequentially performs at least two basic operations of the targeted operation at one cycle. |
| US08219846B2 |
Circuit for and method of receiving video data
A circuit of an integrated circuit for receiving video data having a plurality of data streams of pixel data and a pixel clock is disclosed. The circuit comprises a plurality of data recovery circuits, each data recovery circuit coupled to receive a corresponding data stream of the plurality of data streams and having a phase shifter generating a clock signal used to receive the data stream; and a channel deskew circuit coupled to receive the output of each data recovery circuit and the pixel clock. A method of receiving video data is also disclosed. |
| US08219844B1 |
Methods and systems for emulating a synchronous clear port
A synchronous clear emulation circuit is provided. The synchronous clear emulation circuit includes a register having an asynchronous clear port. Moreover, the synchronous clear emulation circuit is configured to emulate a synchronous clear port by using the asynchronous clear port. The synchronous clear port is emulated by outputting a data output signal that is synchronous with the clock signal and the data output signal is based on an asynchronous clear signal received at the asynchronous clear port. The asynchronous clear port performs a function of the asynchronous clear port without the synchronous clear port implemented within the register. |
| US08219839B2 |
Power distribution system and method thereof in which redundant power is collected only when power pool is below or equal to pool threshold
A power distribution system is adapted to a management module connected to a plurality of servers, each of which is varied in power consumption in response to a power mode and performance thereof, via a power allocation request line and a power allocation response line. The management module records the upper-limit power setting, the power allocations, and the power pool with regard to the servers. The server records the power mode, the power allocation, the upper mode request threshold, and the redundant power which is calculated based on the difference between the power allocation and the actual power consumption. The management module recovers the redundant power from the server so as to update the power pool. Upon receiving a power allocation request, the management module distributes at least a part of the power pool to the server, thus allowing the server to shift the power mode to the upper mode. |
| US08219837B2 |
Electronic device and power saving method using predetermined command to designate portion of device in power saving mode
In an electronic device with a serial ATA interface, upon detection of the issue or reception of a preset command, a confirmation device, such as a CPU, confirms the completion of execution of the command. Upon confirming the completion of execution of the command, a controller, which may also be the CPU, controls shifting of the serial ATA interface to a power saving mode. |
| US08219834B2 |
Predictive power gating with optional guard mechanism
A mechanism is provided for predictively power gating a set of units within the data processing system. A second-level power gating controller monitors a set of events for each unit in a set of units within the data processing system. The second-level power gating controller identifies idle sequences of a predetermined set of cycles within the events from each unit where the unit is idle. The second-level power gating controller determines preceding sequences of a predetermined length that precede the idle sequences. The second-level power gating controller determines an accuracy of the preceding sequences. Responsive to the accuracy being above a threshold, the second-level power gating controller sends a permit command to a first-level power gating mechanism associated with the unit to permit power gating of the unit. |
| US08219832B2 |
Methods and systems for managing a voltage regulator
A method for increasing efficiency of a voltage regulator in an information handling system (IHS) is provided. The method may include enabling one or more operating phases associated with the voltage regulator and initializing a switch configuration having at least one high-side switch and at least one low-side switch. In addition, the may method include initializing a dead-time value, sensing a load current, and adjusting the number of operating phases, the switch configuration, or the dead-time value in response to the load current. |
| US08219827B2 |
Secure boot with optional components
A method manages optional trusted components that are active within a device, such that the device itself controls the availability of trusted components. The device includes: a storing unit storing a plurality of pieces of software and a plurality of certificates; a receiving unit receiving the certificates; and a selecting unit selecting one of the certificates. The device further includes an executing unit verifying an enabled one of the plurality of pieces of software using the selected and updated one of the certificates. |
| US08219824B2 |
Storage apparatus, memory card accessing apparatus and method of reading/writing the same
A storage apparatus having a non-volatile memory and a controller is provided, wherein the non-volatile memory includes a root directory area and a data area, and a password file is stored in the root directory area. The controller identifies a user by using a password in the password file, and the user can access the data area through an encryption/decryption unit of the controller only if the user passes the identification. By using the secured storage apparatus, the risk of the password and encrypted data being cracked is reduced. Accordingly, the protection over the data stored in the storage apparatus is enhanced. |
| US08219823B2 |
System for and method of managing access to a system using combinations of user information
The present invention is directed to systems for and methods of controlling access to computer systems. A method in accordance with the present invention comprises performing a test that includes comparing input responses to randomly selected questions with corresponding pre-determined responses to the questions and granting access to the system in the event the test is passed. A first condition of passing the test is that each input response matches a corresponding pre-determined response. Once passing the test, the user is granted permissions to access data based on his position. For example, a corporate director generally has greater permissions than an engineer. Preferably, the user's permissions determine an encryption key and a decryption key that the user is able to use to access protected data. |
| US08219818B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information recording medium, information processing method, and information processing program
An information processing apparatus includes: a reproducing unit that reads, from a disc, a content and a content code file storing a content code that includes at least any one of a program or conversion data applied to a content reproducing process, to execute the content reproducing process; and a signature verification unit that verifies a digital signature set for the content code file. The signature verification unit verifies the signature using different pieces of set signature target data between a signature verification process executed in reproducing the content recorded in a ROM disc and a signature verification process executed in reproducing the content recorded in a non-ROM disc other than the ROM disc. The reproducing unit, when signature verification is successfully executed by the signature verification unit, applies the content code stored in the content code file, for which signature verification is successful, to reproduce the content. |
| US08219817B2 |
System and method for authentication of transformed documents
A document verification system and method verifies that a content of two documents match based on comparison of an authentication signature generated from each of the documents. The documents may be electronic text documents and may be transformed representations of each other through imaging, printing or image processing. Authentication signatures can be encrypted to enhance security and identify document sources. An authentication signature can be generated for an entirety or portions of the document. Multiple authentication signatures may be generated for each document for selected document regions. The authentication signature can be stored electronically or in hard copy and can be machine-readable to be automatically interpreted by a machine. |
| US08219813B2 |
System and method for protecting a peripheral device against hot plug attacks
A method is provided for preventing a peripheral device such as an ATA disc drive, which is restricted to use with a designated host, being hot-plugged to another system after the drive is unlocked. Thus, violation of privacy of data (eg. music/video) stored on the drive through a hot-plug attack may be avoided. This is accomplished by maintaining time synchronization between the drive and its designated host so that both devices obtain the same seed from time information to generate a validation number at any time that a read/write command is issued from the host. |
| US08219812B2 |
Methods and a device for associating a first device with a second device
A method and device for device association. A user enters login and password on a first device that searches for reachable devices. The first device asks the reachable devices if they know the login, preferably by sending a salted hash of the login. The devices that know the login respond positively and the first device lists the responding devices. The first device then successively performs Secure Remote Authentication (SRP) with each device on the list until an authentication succeeds or there are no further devices on the list. The SRP authentication makes sure that the first device knows the login and that the other device knows a password verifier without transmitting any knowledge that allows recuperation of this info by an eavesdropper. The authenticated devices then establish a secure channel over which a community secret key is transferred, and the first device also calculates and stores the password verifier. |
| US08219810B2 |
Method and system for facilitating throttling of interpolation-based authentication
One embodiment provides a system that facilitates throttling of interpolation-based authentication at a client. During operation, the system receives data points encrypted with a public key associated with a throttle server. The system then applies offsets to the data points, wherein a respective offset for a data point is associated with a user input. The system blinds the offset data points, and sends to the throttle server the blinded offset data points, thereby allowing the throttle server to perform an interpolation on the blinded offset data points and maintain a count of interpolation attempts from the client. Subsequently, the system receives from the throttle server an evaluation point based at least on the interpolation. In response, the system unblinds the evaluation point, and uses the unblinded evaluation point as a secret for a subsequent authentication process. |
| US08219804B2 |
Approach for managing device usage data
Techniques are provided for securely managing, using smart cards, the usage of a peripheral device. In one embodiment, both the peripheral device and the smart card have digital certificates and a means for authenticating each other. Each device requires authentication of the other device before access to the device's resources is granted. In one embodiment of the invention, the smart card executes a local Java application for managing usage data. The application provides quota and prior usage data to the peripheral device, and updates on the smart card usage data provided by the peripheral device. The usage data on the smart card is used to limit, audit, or track access to resources and operations on the peripheral device. In another embodiment, the authentication and usage management functions of the smart card is implemented on a remote server. |
| US08219799B1 |
Secure communication system
A secure communication system that includes a communication processor, an internet protocol converter that converts data to and from its original protocol to internet protocol, an encryptor/decryptor to provide additional security for communications that are routed through the secure communication system, and a cryptography module and other logic that identifies the security classification of data and verifies the cryptographic keys of the source, in the communication, and of the destination. An additional security processor may be provided as required by secure communication standards. The secure communication system may also include an a internet router that routes the data through the secure communication system. The communication processor provides real-time control and can change a source or destination, an encryption key, a security level, the protocol of a communication in response to sensor data received from a communicating entity or from command signals from a connected or remote control system. |
| US08219785B1 |
Adapter allowing unaligned access to memory
Methods and apparatus are provided for allowing a master component such as a processor on a programmable chip to access memory using unaligned addresses. An adapter connected to a master component determines if a master component memory access request is aligned. If the access request is aligned, the request is forwarded to memory and a response is provided to the master component. If the access request is unaligned, the adapter sends multiple access requests to memory and processes the responses in order to provide a correct response to the master component. |
| US08219783B2 |
SIMD type microprocessor having processing elements that have plural determining units
An SIMD type microprocessor is disclosed. The SIMD type microprocessor includes plural PEs (processor elements) each of which provides an ALU (arithmetic and logic unit) for lower-order bits, an ALU for upper-order bits, a control circuit for lower-order bits, a control circuit for upper-order bits, a range determining circuit for lower-order bits, and a range determining circuit for upper-order bits. The SIMD type microprocessor further includes a global processor, a range designation bus for lower-order bits which connects the global processor to the range determining circuit for lower-order bits, and a range designation bus for upper-order bits which connects the global processor to the range determining circuit for upper-order bits. The global processor instructs the range determining circuits to designate corresponding ranges to be operated on by the corresponding ALUs via the corresponding range designation buses so that the ALU for lower-order bits and the ALU for upper-order bits can be operated separately. |
| US08219782B2 |
Address generation
Address generation by an integrated circuit is described. An aspect relates generally to an address generator which has first and second processing units. The second processing unit is coupled to receive a stage output from the first processing unit and configured to provide an address output. The stage output is in a first range, and the address output is in a second range. The first range is from −K to −1 for K a block size, and the second range is from 0 to K−1. |
| US08219777B2 |
Virtual storage systems, virtual storage methods and methods of over committing a virtual raid storage system
Virtual storage systems, virtual storage methods and methods of over committing a virtual RAID storage system are described. According to one aspect, a virtual storage system includes a virtual storage space, a physical storage space, a mapping system configured to associate a plurality of addresses of the virtual storage space with respective addresses of the physical storage space and a controller configured to automatically remove a portion of the mapping system according to a prioritization protocol which specifies removal of portions of the mapping system according to an order. |
| US08219776B2 |
Logical-to-physical address translation for solid state disks
Described embodiments provide logical-to-physical address translation for data stored on a storage device having sectors organized into blocks and superblocks. A flash translation layer maps a physical address in the storage device to a logical sector address. The logical sector address corresponds to mapping data that includes i) a page index, ii) a block index, and iii) a superblock number. The mapping data is stored in at least one summary page corresponding to the superblock containing the physical address. A block index and a page index of a next empty page in the superblock are stored in a page global directory corresponding to the superblock. A block index and a page index of the at least one summary page and the at least one active block table for each superblock are stored in at least one active block table of the storage device. |
| US08219771B2 |
Portable device for storing private information such as medical, financial or emergency information
A portable housing capable of being carried by a certain person includes a circuit. The circuit includes a memory for storing private data concerning that certain person, a circuit operable to effectuate storage of the private data in the memory in a secure manner, and a processing unit operable to control access to the memory for purposes of reading private data concerning the certain person from the memory and storing private data concerning the certain person to the memory. The conditions under which access to the memory for read and write operations with respect to the private data is permitted are governed by parameters that are specified by the certain person to whom the stored private data concerns. A biometric sensor may also be included to capture identification information useful in implementing the operations for controlling access to the memory. |
| US08219770B2 |
Storage system and data management method
A storage system including: a virtualization apparatus having a control unit, said control unit setting an actual volume for storing data sent from a host apparatus, formed in a storage area provided by a physical disk; and a virtual volume paired with the actual volume, for storing replicated data for the data; and an external storage apparatus having a logical volume that functions as an actual storage area for the virtual volume; and a tape associated with the logical volume, for storing the replicated data; wherein the external storage apparatus has a copy unit for copying the replicated data stored in the logical volume to the tape. |
| US08219762B1 |
Computer system and method for leasing memory location to allow predictable access to memory location
A synchronization technique for shared-memory multiprocessor systems involves acquiring exclusive ownership of a requested memory location for a predetermined, limited duration of time. If an “owning” process is unpredictably delayed, the ownership of the requested memory location expires after the predetermined duration of time, thereby making the memory location accessible to other processes and requiring the previous “owning” process to retry its operations on the memory location. If the “owning” process completes its operations on the memory location during the predetermination duration of time, the ownership of the memory location by the “owning” process is terminated and the memory location becomes accessible to other processes. |
| US08219754B2 |
Context instruction cache architecture for a digital signal processor
Improved thrashing aware and self configuring cache architectures that reduce cache thrashing without increasing cache size or degrading cache hit access time, for a DSP. In one example embodiment, this is accomplished by selectively caching only the instructions having a higher probability of recurrence to considerably reduce cache thrashing. |
| US08219753B2 |
Resource management cache to manage renditions
A resource management cache of a computing device receives a request for an item. The item may include any type of content, such as an image or a video. A rendition for the item is determined. The item may be stored in a plurality of renditions for retrieval. The resource management cache can send one or more requests to one or more sources for the rendition. The sources may include remote sources and also a local source. If a source responds with an indication the rendition is available, the rendition is sent to and received at the computing device. If no sources respond with an indication the rendition is available, the resource management cache may send a message asking if a source can generate the rendition from another rendition of the item. The rendition may be generated and it is sent to and received at the resource management cache. |
| US08219752B1 |
System for caching data
A system for caching data in a distributed data processing system allows for the caching of user-modifiable data (as well as other types of data) across one or multiple entities in a manner that prevents stale data from being improperly used. |
| US08219751B2 |
Methods for optimizing performance of transient data calculations
A redundant array of independent disk (RAID) stack loads a parity block of RAID data from a main memory into a first register of a processing device and loading the parity block into a cache memory of the processing device. The RAID stack loads a first data block of the RAID data from the main memory into a second register of the processing device without loading the first data block into the cache memory of the processing device. The processing device performs a first parity calculation based on the parity block of the first register and the first data block of the second register. |
| US08219750B2 |
Method and system for execution of applications in conjunction with distributed RAID
Systems and methods are disclosed which allow various applications which may utilize a distributed RAID system (or other types of applications) to be executed on the same set of computing devices which implement that distributed RAID system. More particularly, in certain embodiments a virtualization layer may be executed on a data bank. A set of desired application programs may be executed using this virtualization layer, where the context for each instance of the applications executing on the virtualization layer may be stored in a volume kept utilizing the distributed RAID system. |
| US08219747B2 |
Storage system and communications method
In a storage system including a host computer, and a disk control device connected to the host computer for communications therewith, and performs control over a disk device that stores therein data requested for writing from the host computer, for data transmission from a host interface section or a disk interface section to a memory section, when the data asked by a transmission source for storage is stored in a transmission destination, the transmission destination is put in a first mode for communications of forwarding a response back to the transmission source. With such a configuration, favorably provided is the storage system that offers a guarantee of reliability with the improved processing capabilities thereof. |
| US08219746B2 |
Memory package utilizing at least two types of memories
A memory system and methods for memory manage are presented. The memory system includes a volatile memory electrically connected to a high-density memory; a memory controller that expects data to be written or read to or from the memory system at a bandwidth and a latency associated with the volatile memory; a directory within the volatile memory that associates a volatile memory address with data stored in the high-density memory; and redundant storage in the high-density memory that stores a copy of the association between the volatile memory address and the data stored in the high-density memory. The methods for memory management allow writing to and reading from the memory system using a first memory read/write interface (e.g. DRAM interface, etc.), though data is stored in a device of a different memory type (e.g. FLASH, etc.). |
| US08219745B2 |
Memory controller to utilize DRAM write buffers
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program are provided to account for data stored in Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) write buffers. There is difficulty in tracking the data stored in DRAM write buffers. To alleviate the difficulty, a cache line list is employed. The cache line list is maintained in a memory controller, which is updated with data movement. This list allows for ease of maintenance of data without loss of consistency. |
| US08219742B2 |
Memory controller, flash memory system with memory controller, and method of controlling flash memory
The memory controller comprises a data holding unit which is composed of plural unit areas each for holding data corresponding to one logical page among logical pages each composed of plural logical sectors each assigned a logical address provided from a host system. The memory controller writes data held in a unit area which holds large amounts of write data, to the flash memories, in preference to data held in a unit area which holds small amounts of write data. |
| US08219741B2 |
Hardware and operating system support for persistent memory on a memory bus
Implementations of a file system that is supported by a non-volatile memory that is directly connected to a memory bus, and placed side by side with a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), are described. |
| US08219739B2 |
Read-only optimized flash file system architecture
A method and apparatus is described herein for providing an optimized file system architecture. A file system is demarcated by configuration headers at the top and bottom of a volume. File headers are stored in the volume for each file, and the file headers included references to a table sector or sectors associated with the file. The table sector(s) are to store entries associated with sectors storing the file. Each entry, which corresponds to a sector of the sectors storing the file, is to store a reference to the corresponding sector and compression information associated with the sector. Based on the compression information, files may be compressed at a sector granularity and decompressed before providing the data in response to read requests. |
| US08219738B2 |
Direct interconnection between processor and memory component
Conventional processor and memory configurations place holes into silicon or use expensive multi-layer-laminates/substrates to connect the processor with memory. Using a direct contact between the memory and processor allows for signaling between the two units. By judicious arrangement of the contact areas as well as employing other structures such as carriers and redistributors, adequate power and ground supply can be maintained for the processor. Therefore, there is little-to-no damage done to the silicon and expensive multi-layer-laminates/substrates can be avoided. Furthermore, there can be faster processing speeds since the memory and processor are close together. |
| US08219734B2 |
Electronic apparatus and data corruption prevention method
An electronic apparatus includes a main body and a panel unit removable from the main body. The electronic apparatus also includes an attachment unit in the panel unit that indirectly attaches a removable memory device to the main body through the panel unit. The main body includes a control unit that logically disconnects a data line logically connecting the removable memory device to the main body through the attachment unit, upon an operation before a power line electrically connecting the removable memory device to the main body through the attachment unit is physically disconnected. |
| US08219733B2 |
Electronic device with card interface
When initializing a device, an operation mode of the device is acquired and stored by a predetermined procedure using a predetermined pin. In response to a command, the device executes a signal assignment on a plurality of data pins peculiar to an operation mode indicated by the received command, thereby switching a data transfer width, and allowing the device to operate in the operation mode designated by the received command. |
| US08219732B2 |
Method for managing state in a wireless network
A method for managing states by a Media Access Control (MAC) layer in a wireless network is disclosed. The method includes determining next occurable physical interrupts for each of the states; configuring a link of the states according to the determination result; transitioning to a state to be linked next if a physical interrupt occurs in each state; and transitioning to an initial state if an timer interrupt occurs in each state. The MAC layer transitions to the initial state if a physical interrupt occurs in a last state among the linked states. The physical interrupt occurs in association with a physical event, and the timer interrupt occurs in association with a timer event. |
| US08219728B2 |
Arrangement of components
An arrangement for transferring message based communications between separate disjunctive components. The arrangement includes at least two components. At least a first component is arranged to provide services to at least one second component and/or to an operator of the loosely coupled system. At least one message bus is arranged to perform real-time transfers of communications from/to the at least one first component to/from the at least one second component. The at least one message bus is connected to or integrated in an internal communication backbone arranged with a communication member for establishing outgoing communication links. A predetermined message based interface is arranged relative to each of the components and the at least one message bus such that all communications between the at least one first component and the at least one second component are defined in the same single standardized message language. A method for providing components in the arrangement and a platform including the arrangement. |
| US08219718B2 |
Electronic apparatus, information output method and program
An electronic apparatus (10) has a plurality of functions. A key code recognizing unit (13) recognizes an input of a key code for requesting setting of a parameter about a setting particular related to each function. A storage unit (17) stores handling information (172) for handling setting restriction, for each setting particular whose parameter is restricted from being set in relation to other setting particulars. When the key code recognizing unit (13) recognizes an input of a key code for requesting setting of a parameter, a guidance process unit (15) determines whether setting of the parameter is restricted or not. If setting of the parameter is restricted, the guidance process unit (15) reads out handling information (172) for handling the setting restriction from the storage unit (17) and outputs it to a window control unit (14). The window control unit (14) displays the handling information (172) on a display unit (16). |
| US08219715B2 |
Multi-pathing with SCSI I/O referrals
The present invention is a method for providing multi-pathing via Small Computer System Interface Input/Output (SCSI I/O) referral between an initiator and a storage cluster which are communicatively coupled via a network, the storage cluster including at least a first target device and a second target device. The method includes receiving an input/output (I/O) at the first target device from the initiator via the network. The I/O includes a data request. The method further includes transmitting a SCSI I/O referral list to the initiator when data included in the data request is not stored on the first target device, but is stored on the second target device. The referral list includes first and second port identifiers for identifying first and second ports of the second target device respectively. The first and second ports of the target device are identified as access ports for accessing the data requested in the data request. |
| US08219712B2 |
Dynamic resource allocation
A network interface device for providing an interface between a network and a data processing device, the network interface device having: a plurality of resources of different types for supporting the interface, and a bus interface for interfacing with the data processing device by means of a bus over which data can be sent by addressing to a address on the bus, the network interface device being arranged so that each resource may be addressed by a respective address on the bus. |
| US08219711B2 |
Dynamic variable rate media delivery system
A method and apparatus for dynamically transcoding and delivering variable bit rate media files delivers media files to client systems. The media server dynamically transcodes a content file to a bit rate requested by a client using an original content file or other transcoded content files. The media server can dynamically select a segment of a content file to transcode. The file format required by the client is determined and the transcoded segment is formatted to the file format. The formatted segment is delivered to the client. |
| US08219707B2 |
Storage network structure based on the Peterson graph and data read-write method thereof
A storage network structure comprises a primary distributed storage network (a cluster distributed storage network or a DHT (Distributed Hash Table)-based peer-to-peer storage network) and a Peterson graph-based storage network. The storage network structure provides different reliability classes for applications and combines the advantages of a peer-to-peer based distributed network storage with Peterson graph-based network storage, solve the problem of a large quantity of data migrating by utilizing the better media data migrating non-movable property from the Peterson graph-based network storage, and screen the single failure of the cluster storage structure and avoid performance degradation of peer-to-peer wide area storage by combining with the availability and robustness of Distributed Hash Table. |
| US08219706B2 |
Interdomain network aware peer-to-peer protocol
A method includes receiving network distance information, receiving a request from a client for an identity of a peer providing content, and identifying a first peer and a second peer providing the content. The network distance information includes a compilation of network distance information provided by a plurality of service providers. The method further includes determining that a network distance between the first peer and the client is less than a network distance between the second peer and the client based on the network distance information, and providing the identity of the first peer to the client. |
| US08219705B2 |
Silent acknowledgement of routing in a mesh network
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for sending a single cast frame from a first node to a second node in a mesh network; sending the single cast frame from the second node to a third node in a mesh network; using the first node to detect the single cast frame sent from the second node to the third node; and interpreting this detection within the first node as an acknowledgement of success in sending the single cast frame from the first node to the second node. An additional method described herein may send a second single cast from the second node to a third node in a mesh network, interpret detection of the second single class frame within the first node as an acknowledgement of success in sending the first single cast frame from the first node to the second node. |
| US08219702B2 |
Video delivery apparatus and method
A video delivery apparatus for delivering a video stream with a property according to a request from a client. The video delivery apparatus includes reception means for receiving a delivery request from one client, first estimation means for estimating a current processing load by calculating a sum total of the processing loads for other clients connected to deliver a video stream upon reception of the delivery request from the one client, second estimation means for estimating a processing load upon delivering the video stream to the one client according to the delivery request, and delivery control means for performing the delivery control of the video stream on the basis of at least one of the current processing load estimated by the first estimation means and the processing load upon delivering the video stream to the one client according to the delivery request, which is estimated by the second estimation means. |
| US08219700B2 |
System and methods of streaming media files from a dispersed peer network to maintain quality of service
A multi-source peer content distribution system transfers content files from multiple, distributed peer computers to any requesting computer. The content distribution network coordinates file transfers through a mediation system including a content catalog and a host broker system. The content catalog contains an identification of each content file, the segmented subunits of each file, and the peer caches to which the subunits have been distributed. The host broker system receives content file requests issued over a network from requesting computers. In response, manifest files identifying the request corresponding content subunits and distributed cache locations are returned. The requesting computers can then retrieve and assemble the corresponding content subunits from the peer computers to obtain the requested content file. |
| US08219697B2 |
Diameter protocol and SH interface support for SIP server architecture
A SIP server can be distributed over a cluster network and handle the processing of various SIP communications. A Diameter protocol web application can be deployed on the engine tier of the SIP server for enabling communication between the SIP server and an HSS. A profile service API can be provided that allows applications running on the SIP server to access user profile data stored on the HSS. The applications can also be allowed to subscribe to notifications about changes to the user profile data on the HSS. An Sh interface provider can be deployed on the SIP server for generating and responding to Diameter command codes. SIP servlets can access the user profile data in the form of an XML document. |
| US08219696B2 |
Method, system and computer program product for providing Ethernet VLAN capacity requirement estimation
A method, system, and computer program product for providing VLAN capacity requirement estimation is provided. The method includes receiving at a computing system a VLAN configuration file that specifies VLAN access ports, VLAN switches and VLAN trunks in a VLAN. A target access port identifier is received at the computing system from a requestor. A target trunk and target switch corresponding to the target access port are determined at the computing system. A bandwidth contribution of the target access port to the VLAN is calculated at the computing system. The calculating is based on a least contribution algorithm that reflects an impact of provisioning the target access port with respect to trunk capacity, and is responsive to the target bandwidth requirement, the target class of service and placement of the target port in the VLAN. The bandwidth contribution is then transmitted to the requestor. |
| US08219691B1 |
Methods and apparatus for remotely waking up a computer system on a computer network
In a method for waking up a computer, a data unit is received at a first port of a network switching device via a first network link. The first port of the network switching device is coupled to the first network link. The network switching device is used to determine whether the data unit includes data indicative of a wake-up event for the computer, and to change a state of a second network link to wake up the computer if the data unit includes data indicative of the wake-up event for the computer. The second network link is coupled to a second port of the network switching device. |
| US08219689B2 |
System and method for expert service providers to provide one on one chat advice services through unique empowered independent agents to consumers
The present invention provides techniques for managing, supporting and empowering Independent Agents to offer a method for enabling expert Service Providers to deliver, and charge for, advice to consumers, by connecting two parties in real time in an online chat. The present invention also provides the method and techniques for expert Service Providers, in turn, to provide their service through a multiplicity of Independent Agent channels without the potential for communication device conflict; thereby ensuring successful connections for consumers. |
| US08219686B2 |
Method and computer program product utilizing multiple UDP data packets to transfer a quantity of data otherwise in excess of a single UDP packet
A method and computer program product provide the capability to use UDP to send messages that include more data than can be handled by a single UDP packet. A method for performing data transfer implemented in a computer system comprises transmitting a request for data, receiving a response to the request for data comprising a portion of the requested data and an indication that additional data is available, and transmitting a request for additional data. |
| US08219685B2 |
Thin client apparatus, a control method thereof, and a program storage medium for a thin client system for intergrating input information items and transmitting the intergrated information to a server
A client apparatus which transmits a service request to a server apparatus via a network and comprises an input event detector configured to detect input events, an information generator configured to generate an item of information integrating items of information of the input events detected by the input event detector, and a transmission unit configured to transmit the item of information to the server apparatus. |
| US08219681B1 |
System and method for managing provisioning of storage resources in a network with virtualization of resources in such a network
This invention is a system and method for managing provisioning of resources for one or more data storage networks using a new architecture. |
| US08219680B1 |
System using a lockbox device for releasing information from an information embargo setting
Information is electronically transmitted from an information embargo setting. The latency and/or lag in releasing information from the information embargo setting is reduced to facilitate dissemination of the embargoed information faster than other entities. The entity controlling the release of information in the information embargo setting may include one or more of a governmental agency (e.g., associated with the United States government, associated with the Canadian government, associated with the European Union and/or one or more states included therein, and/or other agencies associated with other governments), and/or other entities. |
| US08219679B2 |
Detection and control of peer-to-peer communication
A method and apparatus are provided for detecting peer-to-peer communication on a data communication network, between an internal client machine within an internal address space and an external client machine. The method includes routing all messages addressed to internal client machines to an analysis device. The analysis device identifies messages pertaining to peer-to-peer communication and identifies the internal client machine to which the messages of a specified nature were addressed. The analysis device terminates the connection with the external client machine if the establishing of the peer-to-peer communication is in violation of a pre-determined internal network rule. |
| US08219674B2 |
Cross system monitoring and reconciliation cockpit
The disclosed are a method and a system that may automatically monitoring message traffic between computer applications and using the monitoring data to reconcile databases associated with data related to the messages. The system may include a server, a cockpit monitoring module, a database, and a client terminal. The server may host a plurality of computer applications. The plurality of computer applications may operate on data records containing data. The data in the data records may be operated on by more than one of the plurality of computer applications. The computer applications may generate messages that may be related to the operations performed on the data in the data records. The messages may include information related to data records operated on by the plurality of computer applications. For example, the messages may contain information about the operations, the data, or other information related to the data and the application. |
| US08219673B2 |
Analysis apparatus, analysis method and recording medium for recording analysis program
An analysis apparatus includes a history analysis part analyzing the trend based on the access log and deriving the latent trait to an access destination, a principal components analysis part analyzing principal components of the frequency distribution of the access, a classification part classifying the correlation of the principal components into plural classes, an event recording part recording the events to induce to the access destination, a first generating part generating a latent trait principal component table; a second generating part generating a class construction ratio table stored the class as the result of classification, a third generating part generating an event classification table stored the class and the contents of the event, and an analysis result recording part recording the latent trait principal component table, the class construction ratio table and the event classification table, as an event feature model of the effect on the execution of the event. |
| US08219672B2 |
Method and apparatus for distributed backup of computer data
A data server computer ring including first and second data server computers, and any number of further data server computers. The data server computer “ring” can include any configuration in which the data server computers are connected together by communications links. The first and second data server computers are programmed by a computer program so that when one of the first and second data server computers is not operating, so that it is a non operating data server computer, the other of the first and second data server computers takes over one or more functions normally performed by the non operating data server computer. |
| US08219671B2 |
Testing applications within a grid environment using ghost agents
A testing method including the step of identifying multiple hosts located within multiple grids of a grid environment, wherein each host is a software object. A ghost agent can be associated with each identified host. Actions of the host can be replicated within each ghost agent. Data relating to the replicated actions can be recorded. Test input can be generated from the recorded data. Tests can be conducted within the grid environment using the test input. |
| US08219670B2 |
System and method for adaptive context aware interaction of user with entity of interest
A multifunctional interaction system which is capable of spatio-temporal context localization of users and of communication of audio/video streams to an entity of interest defined by the user, includes a communication domain supporting a predefined localization service, a server associated with the communication domain, client devices, and a dynamically changing context database which is customized in accord with the dynamics of interaction sessions of client devices with the server. The client communicates with the system to either request services therefrom or to send a message to the entity of interest. The system is provided with a panic alert mechanism which, upon actuation, transmits an audio/video data stream along with the client location tag, time stamp, and client ID, to a police precinct for prompt action. |
| US08219667B2 |
Automated identification of computing system resources based on computing resource DNA
Computing resource DNA associated with a computing resource of a computing system can be received. The computing resource DNA can include one or more computing resource DNA elements representing identifying characteristics of the computing resource. A set of one or more potential matches for the received computing resource DNA can be ascertained from a set of reference data. When one or more potential matches exist, a confidence factor can be calculated for each potential match. The set of potential matches can then be refined. An optimum match for the computing resource DNA can be determined from the set of refined potential matches. The computing resource DNA can then be identified as a representation of the computing resource associated with the optimum match. |
| US08219666B2 |
Generating an update status alert in a device
A method for generating an update status alert at a receiving device, the receiving device operating in a network of participating devices, each participating device broadcasting status information about a monitored entity associated with a respective participating device, the method comprising the steps of: receiving broadcast status information from each of the participating devices; aggregating the received status information to derive a consensus of the status information received from each of the participating devices; comparing the derived consensus with the status of the monitored entity of the receiving device; detecting a difference between the derived consensus and the status of the monitored entity; and in dependence of a difference being determined, generating an update status alert at the receiving device. |
| US08219664B2 |
Defining nodes in device management system
The invention relates to a method for defining the nodes of a management structure used in device management in a device management system. In the arrangement, case sensitivity information is associated with at least one node to define whether to distinguish between upper-case and lower-case letters. At least one node is defined according to the case sensitivity information. |
| US08219660B2 |
Simultaneous connectivity and management across multiple building automation system networks
A building automation system (BAS) network manager supporting a plurality of device protocols coupled to at least one communication network, and a plurality of logical connections to individual BAS networks to multiple end devices of a BAS. The BAS network manager can communicate with each of the end devices regardless of the protocol or protocol version of the BAS network by implementing a protocol stack above the link layer for each protocol or protocol version, providing an integrated multi-BAS network interface, and maintaining a device identifier for each BAS network the network manager is coupled to in the protocol stack. |
| US08219655B2 |
Method of associating multiple modalities and a multimodal system
The multimodal managing system invention comprises: a modality linking data generating unit that generates association data in order to associate a first modality and a second modality of the plurality of modalities; an association correspondence unit that sends content that includes association data, wherein association data is combined with the content to be sent to the first modality, to the first modality; a session information storage unit that stores the correspondence among the connection information of each modality, the link information about the links between the modalities, and the association data generated by the modality linking data generating unit as a session information table; and a modality associating unit that receives link request data sent from the second modality using the association data included in the content that includes association data, and executes a matching process that compares the link request data with the association data stored in the session information storage unit. |
| US08219654B2 |
Highly available central controller to store and enforce valid state transitions of distributed components
A highly available central controller to store and enforce valid state transitions of distributed components is provided for centrally controlling access to a service. Central control is provided by a database with an API according to a set of stored procedures, which provides a virtual view to requesters that seek to read or manipulate service entities. |
| US08219647B2 |
Content delivery network cache grouping
One or more content delivery networks (CDNs) that deliver content objects for others is disclosed. Content is propagated to edge servers through hosting and/or caching. End user computers are directed to an edge server for delivery of a requested content object by a universal resource indicator (URI). When a particular edge server does not have a copy of the content object from the URI, information is passed along a hierarchy (to a parent server, grandparent server, and, eventually, an origin server) until the content object is found. The origin server may be hosted in the CDN or at a content provider across the Internet. Once the content object is located in the hierarchical chain, the content object is passed back down the chain to the edge server for delivery. Optionally, the various servers in the chain may cache or host the content object as it is relayed. |
| US08219644B2 |
Requesting a service or transmitting content as a domain name system resolver
Requesting a service such as querying a database or communicating content by sending a plurality of arguments concatenated to a dns request and receiving a reply in the form of text or an IPv4 or an IPv6 address. |
| US08219640B2 |
Content request optimization
Content item requests are identified in a web page source document. For each request, it is determined if a content item request has been generated, and if a content item request has not been generated, a content item request for all requests in the web page source document is generated. |
| US08219637B2 |
Storage management for renderfarm
Systems and methods for storing assets in storage systems external to asset management systems while still allowing the asset management systems to track the stored assets are disclosed. One method begins by first receiving an asset to be stored in an asset management system. Next, a first location on a storage managed by the asset management system is determined. A second location on a storage system external to the asset management system is then determined. The external storage system has been configured to store the asset. The asset is then stored at the second location. A logical link is then determined to the second location. Finally, the logical link is stored at the first location. The disclosed systems and methods allow for an administrator to separate the storage methods used by asset management systems from the asset tracking and logging capabilities of asset management systems. |
| US08219628B2 |
Method to change instant messaging status based on text entered during conversation
An embodiment of the invention provides a method for communication within a system, wherein an instant messaging conversation is initiated between a first user and a second user. An indicator and a text entry are received from the first user during the instant messaging conversation. The status of the first user is changed, including automatically setting the text entry as the status of the first user, and automatically including the name of the second user in the status of the first user if preferences of the first user indicate that the name of the second user is to be included in the status of the first user. Further, the text entry is automatically sent to the second user if the preferences of the first user indicate that a text entry following the indicator is to be automatically sent to the second user. |
| US08219627B2 |
System for policing junk e-mail messages
A system for policing an unsolicited e-mail communication. The system has a plurality of clients, each coupled together using a wide area network of computers, such as the Internet or an interne. Each of the clients is adapted to send an indication of an unsolicited e-mail message through an e-mail device for a display. The system also has a policing server coupled to each of the plurality of clients through the wide area network of computers. The policing server is adapted to receive the indication from at least one of the clients. The e-mail device comprises a SPAM icon on the display. The SPAM icon is adapted to send the indication from the client to the policing server. |
| US08219625B2 |
Linkage support apparatus and method thereof
A linkage support system links related messages among a plurality of messages sent and received among a plurality of communication terminals. The linkage support system includes an information acquisition unit that acquires message types of the plurality of messages, character strings included in the plurality of messages, and amount of data flow when the character strings are transferred. An unnecessary character strings exclusion unit that excludes character strings that are not required as keywords for linkage processing, based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit, and a processing order determination unit determines order for using a plurality of character strings from which unnecessary character strings are excluded by the unnecessary character strings exclusion unit. |
| US08219620B2 |
Unwanted e-mail filtering system including voting feedback
A filter mechanism for unwanted e-mail messages uses a downloadable central source (1, 2) of filter rule data. User reports of received unwanted e-mail messages are relayed back to the central source of the filter data and used to automatically update that filter data. An algorithmic approach to identifying characteristics of unwanted e-mail messages may be applied based upon the preponderance of predetermined words within an e-mail message or characteristics of the addressee list. If an e-mail message is identified as suspect, but not definitely unwanted, then it may be encapsulated within a HTML document and sent to its addressee together with buttons (28) allowing the recipient to provide feedback in the form of votes as to whether or not that email message is unwanted. This recipient feedback may be used to establish a new local rule. |
| US08219619B2 |
Data management server, data management system, data management method, and program
There is provided a data management server that is connectable to a plurality of content servers that store content data and metadata that includes content data attribute information and to a client device that acquires the content data based on the metadata. The data management server includes a data collection portion, a data processing portion, and a transmission portion. The data collection portion collects the metadata from each of the plurality of the content servers. The data processing portion hierarchically structures the metadata that the data collection portion collected, based on the attribute information that is included in the metadata. The transmission portion, in response to a request from the client device, transmits to the client device the metadata that was hierarchically structured by the data processing portion. |
| US08219605B2 |
Decimal floating-pointing quantum exception detection
A system and method for detecting decimal floating point data processing exceptions. A processor accepts at least one decimal floating point operand and performs a decimal floating point operation on the at least one decimal floating point operand to produce a decimal floating point result. A determination is made as to whether the decimal floating point result fails to maintain a preferred quantum. The preferred quantum indicates a value represented by a least significant digit of a significand of the decimal floating point result. An output is provided, in response to the determining that the decimal floating point result fails to maintain the preferred quantum, indicating an occurrence of a quantum exception. A maskable exception can be generated that is immediately trapped or later detected to control conditional processing. |
| US08219602B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating random data
An apparatus for generating random data includes a raw random sequence source adapted to generate a raw random sequence and a digital post processor adapted to process the raw random sequence to generate the random data, wherein the digital post-processor includes a synchronous finite state machine having at least one input adapted to repeatedly receive a current value of the raw random sequence and at least one output to provide a current output value depending on previous values of the raw random sequence. |
| US08219600B2 |
Generating and applying analytic measurements
The disclosed invention provides methods of generating and applying analytic measurements of real phenomena. The analytic measurements are generated by computerized reiterated multivariate analyses of vectors of matrices. The vectors are generated by computerized reiterated varying power transformations of distances or proximities between measurements of distinct real phenomena. The analytic measurements resulting from the computerized reiterated power transformations and the multivariate analyses are applied to real phenomena. |
| US08219594B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method and storage medium that stores program thereof
The present invention improves processing speed of search processing of objects. To achieve this, in an image processing apparatus capable of extracting an object contained in input data, and of storing data about the object in a storage device, there are provided a detecting section for detecting a relationship of one or more objects; a section for generating object related information for relating the one or more objects which have a relationship and are detected by the detecting section; a selecting section for selecting a single search type from a plurality of search types; a searching section for searching for the object data stored in the storage device and the object related information in accordance with the search type selected by the selecting section; and a display section for displaying the one or more objects searched in accordance with the object relating information searched by the searching section. |
| US08219585B2 |
Database data dictionary
Systems and methods are provided for manipulating data sets. In accordance with one implementation, a computerized system is provided for storing, managing, indexing, interrelating, and/or retrieving data sets in a manner independent of the data model. The system includes an element module configured to store and uniquely identify elements and an element relation module configured to store relationships between the elements in the element module. The computerized system may also comprise a class module configured to store attributes of elements in a class and a type definition module configured to define the class and the attributes related to the class. The computerized system may further comprise a state machine module, the state machine module including a state machine transition module and a status module. |
| US08219579B2 |
Expansion of search queries using information categorization
A computerized system and method of constructing and expanding search queries for conducting searches through information sources. The system enables retrieving a category options tree, allowing a user to define a category route by selecting a category-node, which defines a search-category. The system may further enable retrieving a query scenario tree, having a hierarchal structure comprising query nodes, where the retrieved query scenario tree is associated with an initial input query, inputted by a user. Each query node defines a query route enabling to construct the content and structure of an expanded search query. The system enables selecting a query node of the retrieved query scenario tree, according to an online decision making process, which analyses the search-category in relation to available query routes in to allow selecting a query node from the retrieved scenario tree that is most compatible with the search-category. |
| US08219578B2 |
High precision internet local search
High-precision local search is performed on the Internet. A map image-rendering software provider embeds spatial keys into maps, which are then provided to producers of Internet content such as map providers. For example, a homeowner may post a message on a web bulletin board advertising his house for sale, and including a map showing the location of the house. When a search engine's web crawler encounters a page having a spatial key embedded in an image, the spatial key is indexed with the other content on the page. Because the spatial key identifies a small geographic area, indexing the content with the spatial key allows search queries to be limited by area and still provide useful results. Thus, a user of a search engine searching for “house for sale” in a specific area will be directed to web pages that meet the geographic and content search terms. |
| US08219576B2 |
Storing lossy hashes of file names and parent handles rather than full names using a compact table for network-attached-storage (NAS)
Multiple Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances are pooled together by a virtual NAS translator, forming one common name space visible to clients. Clients send messages to the virtual NAS translator with a file name and a virtual handle of the parent directory that are concatenated to a full file-path name and compressed by a cryptographic hash function to generate a hashed-name key. The hashed-name key is matched to a storage key in a table. The full file-path name is not stored, reducing the table size. A unique entry number is returned to the client as the virtual file handle that is also stored in another table with one or more native file handles, allowing virtual handles to be translated to native handles that the NAS appliance servers use to retrieve files. File movement among NAS servers alters native file handles but not virtual handles, hiding NAS details from clients. |
| US08219575B2 |
Method and system for specifying, preparing and using parameterized database queries
A representative parameterized query in a second database query language is generated from a parameterized query in first database query language. By randomly generating a query in the first database query language, translating this query into the second database query language, and then identifying locations of relevant parameters in the translated query, parameter placeholders can then be substituted at the identified locations to provide a parameterized query in the second database query language. A representative parameterized query in the second database query language can be selected by randomly generating multiple parameterized queries and applying statistical methods including Monte Carlo methods. |
| US08219572B2 |
System and method for searching enterprise application data
A search modeling tool is provided that can communicate with multiple enterprise applications to create object definitions describing searchable data stored in each application. The object definitions may be used to extract searchable data from the applications, thus allowing for manipulation of the data in formats usable for text searching, user presentation, and other applications. The search modeler may interface with each application using common protocols, allowing for generalization of object definitions and subsequent crawling across a variety of enterprise applications. |
| US08219567B2 |
Mobile friendly internet searches
Mobile friendly internet searches are enabled by determining if individual internet sites are mobile friendly. In a described implementation, a mobile-friendliness indication is determined for an internet site. The determined mobile-friendliness indication is stored in association with the internet site in an index that may be used for internet searching. In another described implementation, a data structure comprises an internet index with multiple internet site entries having one or more associated mobile-friendliness indications. The mobile-friendliness indications may be general affirmative indications of mobile friendliness or specific indications of mobile-friendliness that identify a specific user agent type. In yet another described implementation, a search request having search terms is received, and a search is performed based thereon to produce a search results set. If the search requestor is a mobile device, the search results are ordered responsive to mobile-friendliness indications associated with the internet sites of the search results set. |
| US08219562B1 |
Efficient storage and retrieval for large number of data objects
A data object management scheme for storing a large plurality of small data objects (e.g., image files) in small number of large object stack file for storage in secondary storage (e.g., hard disks). By storing many individual data objects in a single object stack file, the number of files stored in the secondary storage is reduced by several orders of magnitude, from the billions or millions to the hundreds or so. Index data for each object stack file is generated and stored in primary storage to allow efficient and prompt access to the data objects. Requests to store or retrieve the data objects are made using HTTP messages including file identifiers that identify the files storing the data objects and keys identifying the data objects. A file server stores or retrieves the data object from secondary storage of a file server without converting the requests to NSF or POSIX commands. |
| US08219560B2 |
Assessing relevant categories and measures for use in data analyses
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive a relevancy parameter. The relevancy parameter is searched in a category ensemble including a set of categories, where the category ensemble overlies a dataset. A first order of the set of categories is created based on the relevancy of the relevancy parameter to each category in the set of categories, where the relevancy is a degree of match to the relevancy parameter. A second order of the set of categories is created based on the merit of each category to partition the dataset. The first order and the second order are combined into a final order, which is returned. A measure in the category ensemble is searched based on the relevancy parameter. The measure is returned as a selected measure, where the selected measure is a codomain of a visualization depicting a portion of the dataset. |
| US08219556B2 |
Metadata collecting device, method and computer readable medium
A device of the invention includes a search inputting unit inputting a search object service and a search condition of content; a first search processing unit, when an accumulation method corresponding to an inputted search object service is a preliminary accumulation method, searching the metadata coincident with an inputted search condition in a first metadata storage; a second search processing unit, in case that the accumulation method corresponding to the inputted search object service is a search-based accumulation method, when the inputted search condition is registered in a second metadata storage in association with the inputted search object service, obtaining corresponding metadata from the second metadata storage, whereas when not registered, obtain and accumulate the metadata coincident with the inputted search condition in the second metadata storage in association with the inputted search condition; and a search-result displaying unit displaying the metadata acquired. |
| US08219554B2 |
Generating receptivity scores for cohorts
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for generating receptivity cohorts. A receptivity cohort is identified. The receptivity cohort includes a set of members and conduct attributes for the set of members. Each conduct attribute in the set of conduct attributes describes at least one of a facial expression, vocalization, body language, and social interactions of a member in the set of members. Each conduct attribute is an indicator of receptiveness to a proposed future change in a set of circumstances associated with the set of members. Events metadata is received. The events metadata describes the set of circumstances associated with the set of members. The set of conduct attributes and the events metadata is analyzed to generate a receptivity score for the receptivity cohort. The receptivity score indicates a level of receptiveness of the set of members to the proposed future change in the set of circumstances. The set of members of the receptivity cohort are identified as receptive to the proposed future change based on the result of a comparison of the receptivity score to a threshold score. |
| US08219552B2 |
Information theory based result merging for searching hierarchical entities across heterogeneous data sources
A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for merging search results. In one embodiment, the method comprises identifying a query, splitting the query into sub-queries, and calculating information content for each of the sub-queries. This method also comprises executing each of the sub-queries to obtain a plurality of search results, and combining the search results based on the information content calculated for the sub-queries. In an embodiment, the execution of each of the sub-queries includes identifying a multitude of search results for at least one of the sub-queries; and the combining includes grouping said multitude of search results into a plurality of clusters, and computing a relevance score for each of said clusters. In the embodiment the combining further includes merging the clusters based on the relevance scores computed for the clusters as well as the information content calculated for the sub-queries. |
| US08219546B2 |
Multi-core scheduling for parallel queries
An operator manager may be configured to determine a number of available cores and to assign the cores among a plurality of operators of a query, the operators including a running set of operators through which a plurality of query paths exist. The operator manager may include a status monitor configured to determine the number of available cores and to determine the running set of operators, a critical path selector configured to determine a critical path of the query from among the query paths and the running set of operators, and a workload manager configured to assign a first core of the available cores to a running operator of the running set and of the critical path, and to thereafter receive a new critical path from the critical path selector and to assign a second core of the available cores to the running operator of the new critical path. |
| US08219543B2 |
Electronic documentation
An embodiment of a method includes receiving a selection of an original content item, deriving a supplemental content item from the original content item, designating a unique identifier to the supplemental content item, and inserting a reference including the unique identifier into the primary document. A system includes a candidate content item repository having one or more content items that can be included in a structured electronic document, a copy module configured to derive a base supplemental content item from a selected one of the candidate content items and further configured to designate a unique identifier for the base supplemental content item, and a document editor configured to receive the unique identifier and insert the unique identifier into a reference to the base supplemental content in the primary document. A computer-readable medium has instructions to cause a computer to carry out a structured document generation process. |
| US08219541B2 |
System and method for automatically detecting, reporting, and tracking conflicts in a change management system
A system and method for automatically detecting, reporting, and tracking conflicts in a change management system is provided. In particular, the system and method described herein may be used to identify potential conflicts associated with resources and schedules involved in a proposed change to an information technology infrastructure. A conflict analysis engine may analyze a change order that includes planned changes to an information technology infrastructure to identify potential conflicts associated with the change order that includes the planned changes to the information technology infrastructure. The potential conflicts may then be added to a conflicts list for the change order and a workflow may be created to manage resolving the potential conflicts. Thus, in response to resolving the potential conflicts, the planned changes may be deployed within the information technology infrastructure. |
| US08219539B2 |
Search queries with shifting intent
Techniques and systems are disclosed for returning temporally-aware results from an Internet-based search query. To determine if a query is temporally-based one or more query features are collected and input into a trained classifier, yielding a temporal classification for the query. Further, if a query is classified as temporal, the query results are shifted by determining an alternate set of results for the query, and returning one or more alternate results to one or more users. Based on user interactions with the one or more alternate results, the classifier can be updated, for example, by changing the query to a non-temporal query if the user interactions identify it as such. |
| US08219535B1 |
Retail deployment model
A method of determining and optimizing the location of a new insurance agency is disclosed to increase market penetration of underrepresented markets. The method comprises the use of a scoring algorithm to rank various geographic regions or related zip codes. The scoring algorithm may be implemented by a location modeling system based on variables selected by a user. In addition, the various ranked geographic regions or related zip codes may be analyzed for proximity to natural or man made perils. |
| US08219525B2 |
Copying and updating files
Copied and source files are tracked so that authors of these documents can selectively update these files. Stale copied files can be eliminated. A control is provided to mediate copying of files among servers that have differing security policies. Metadata of a file being copied is downloaded from a server to the control and the control uploads the metadata of the file to one or more servers. A relationship between copied files and source files are memorialized whether or not copied files reside in different namespaces from the namespace of the source files. |
| US08219523B2 |
Data quality enrichment integration and evaluation system
Data quality enrichment integration and evaluation system that enables the import of data into a database and the turnkey integration with data enrichment entities. The data imported into the database may be validated using validation rules. Data with particular data quality problems may be sent to a particular bucket for to avoid processing or to obtain processing by a particular data quality enrichment entity. A bucket of data may be sent to be enriched by one or more data enrichment entities. The enrichment results may be compared between entities to enable the selection of a data enrichment entity. The enrichment results may also be drilled down into to provide geographic and other plots that show the quality of original data and quality of data enrichment provided by each data enrichment entity. Evaluation of the enrichment results side by side allows for the selection of a data enrichment entity. |
| US08219519B2 |
Text extraction for determining emerging issues in vehicle warranty reporting
A method is provided for detecting trends in service repairs for vehicles. Service repair verbatims are accessed from a warranty database that includes information relating to an identified concern with the vehicle. A thesaurus of service repair related terms is provided. The service repair related terms are each associated with at least one of a component category, a concern category, a cause category, and a correction of repair category. Key terms are identified in each service repair verbatim that have an association with the service repair related terms in the thesaurus. The key terms are extracted from each of the service repair verbatims. A user selectively generates a report based on a key term in the component category and at least one other key term from at least one other category. The report identifies an aggregate number of service repair verbatims associated with the key terms selected by the user. |
| US08219512B2 |
Higher order logic applied to expert systems for alarm analysis, filtering, correlation and root causes which converts a specification proof into a program language
The present invention is directed to a system and method for applying second- and higher-order logic to analysis of event descriptive information, such as alarms, error messages, and fault signals. |
| US08219510B2 |
Method for determining distributions of unobserved classes of a classifier
A distribution of an unobserved class for a classifier with no known training data is learned by first determining, for each known class, known distribution using known training data. Sufficient statistics of the distribution of the unobserved class are determined from the known distributions and the training data associated with each known class. If the known training data and the known distributions are bounded, then update parameters of the distribution of the unobserved class from the sufficient statistics, else update the parameters from sufficient statistics and a priori probability distributions that specify the distributions of the parameters. |
| US08219507B2 |
Hierarchical temporal memory system with enhanced inference capability
A node, a computer program storage medium, and a method for a hierarchical temporal memory (HTM) network where at least one of its nodes generates a top-down message and sends the top-down message to one or more children nodes in the HTM network. The first top-down message represents information about the state of a node and functions as feedback information from a current node to its child node. The node may also maintain history of the input patterns or co-occurrences so that temporal relationships between input patterns or co-occurrences may be taken into account in an inference stage. By providing the top-town message and maintaining history of previous input patterns, the HTM network may, among others, (i) perform more accurate inference based on temporal history, (ii) make predictions, (iii) discriminate between spatial co-occurrences with different temporal histories, (iv) detect “surprising” temporal patterns, (v) generate examples from a category, and (vi) fill in missing or occluded data. |
| US08219501B2 |
Method and apparatus for arranging face-to-face meetings
Individuals, couples, and families subscribe to a community for facilitating the arrangement of their outings and social meetings. Subscribers fill in wish-lists to specify their level of interest in specific attractions, in getting together with specific other subscribers, and in arranging their specific schedules for outings. An encounter generator processes the subscriber wish-lists to identify matches of subscribers who are interested in the same attraction, who favor each other's company, and who are free at the same time. The system notifies the matched subscribers, optionally offering ticketing and/or reservation assistance. Partial matches are optionally referred to the respective subscribers for negotiating the unmatched schedule or attraction. The system is adaptable to serve singles who wish to identify and get to know a prospective mate through mutual visits to attractions, as well as individuals, couples, and families who want to go out with their existing friends or make new friends. |
| US08219499B2 |
Community hub review
The business review application provides a customer with a bank-hosted business review platform that provides an advertising and feedback service for the bank's business customers and provides a rating, review, feedback, and recommendation service for the bank's individual and business customers. Thus, the bank's customers can rate and review the bank's business customers. The bank uses its authentication systems used by its customers to access online banking services to authenticate the identity of the customer creating a business review in the business review platform. In some embodiments, the business review application only permits its customers to make one review of a business within a certain period of time or one review after a transaction with that business shows up in the customer's transaction information maintained by the bank. In this way, the bank can host a review platform that is much more accurate and trust-worthy than traditional business review platforms. |
| US08219498B2 |
Forming dynamic real-time activity groups
Techniques for forming a real-time activity group are provided. The techniques include creating a set of one or more users, annotating each user in the set with one or more corresponding real-time attributes, and using the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users, wherein the one or more connections are based on an activity request. |
| US08219497B2 |
System and method for anonymously servicing lottery players
A system and method for servicing at least one lottery player while protecting an identity of the at least one lottery player. The system includes a server platform of a third party organization that facilitates the method. The method includes receiving a client request at the server platform via a communications network. The method further includes the third party organization obtaining at least one lottery ticket in response to the client request, and securely holding the at least one lottery ticket for the at least one lottery player specified in the client request. The method also includes the third party organization determining a status of the at least one lottery ticket via the server platform and the communications network. The method further includes the third party organization transforming the at least one lottery ticket into a monetary amount if a status of the at least one lottery ticket is or changes to a winning status. The method also includes the third party organization securely transferring at least a first portion of the monetary amount to at least one account or trust. |
| US08219492B2 |
System and method for internet marketing by endorsements
A method of facilitating the endorsement of products through Internet advertisements accepts a bid for an endorsement, enables communication, associated with the bid, between an advertiser and a potential endorser, and serves an endorsement associated with the bid. In one implementation, the endorsement is displayed together with a symbol verifying the endorser. |
| US08219491B2 |
Systems and methods for providing ACH transaction notification and facilitating ACH transaction disputes
A system and method for identifying incoming ACH transactions involving subscriber accounts at a financial institution, comparing the ACH transaction details with preset notification criteria, suspending any ACH transaction that satisfy the preset criteria so that the transaction does not post to the account, notifying the subscriber of the incoming ACH transaction, providing the subscriber with the option to either authorize or dispute the ACH transaction, and facilitating the dispute process according to applicable banking rules by requesting further information from the subscriber and forwarding the dispute information to the ACH operator. |
| US08219489B2 |
Transaction processing using a global unique identifier
A Globally Unique IDentifier (GUID) is used to match an authorization request with an authorization response for a transaction between a merchant and a consumer upon an account within a payment processing system where the payment amount is unknown until after the merchant receives the authorization response that includes the GUID. After receiving the authorization response and when the payment amount is known, the merchant forms a transmission that has information for delivery to an issuer of the account. This information is sufficient for the issuer to forward the payment amount from the account to pay the merchant for the transaction. While including the GUID and the payment amount, the information does not include an identifier of the account. |
| US08219488B2 |
Secure payment system
The present invention relates to the field of e-commerce and in particular to making purchases on-line using payment card, for example debit, charge or credit cards. The concept of the present invention adopts an alternative approach to security methods presently employed to protect cardholders. The concept obviates the need for a cardholder to transmit Card Numbers along with other purchasing details at the time of purchase and couples this with the use of a password feature. This renders the transaction akin to a Bank Cash withdrawal that Bank/card Schemes are totally happy with from a security point of view but are reluctant to allow e-commerce and/or any others access to their “network” to ensure Security. |
| US08219484B2 |
Methods and systems for facilitating bids on products and services
Methods and systems for bidding on items include a predetermined price or range associated with an item, the price not disclosed to bidders. Successful bids conform to a predetermined success rule(s) determined independently of the amounts of other bids. Successful bids can be immediately communicated to the successful bidders. Price adjustments, typically discounts, can be determined and communicated prior to fulfillment. |
| US08219480B2 |
Systems and methods for protecting against erroneous price entries in the electronic trading of financial and other instruments
The invention relates to systems and methods that provide a user interface for use with an electronic trading system. The interface notifies the user that the price at which he or she may have attempted to trade has changed and presents the user with the opportunity to submit, modify or cancel the trade command. The user may configure the trading system to enable such a notification based on the time span for the price change, the number of increments of the price change, a combination thereof or any other appropriate consideration for protecting against the occurrence of erroneous price entries. Subsequent trade commands, such as those entered by third parties, may be used to validate prices and execute trades at these prices. |
| US08219478B2 |
System and method using asset sale and loan for risk transference
Disclosed herein is a system and method for eliminating or transferring the non-economic risk of financial securities. The system and method serves to avoid non-economic losses in the first instance, and to counter the adverse capital impact of prior non-economic gap losses by providing capital relief consistent with a determined protected amount. A client makes a non-recourse loan to a provider. In return, the provider agrees to purchase a fixed income security (FIS) Portfolio from the client for an purchase price greater than the amount of the loan. If the aggregate principal payments (APP) of the FIS Portfolio exceed the purchase price, the parties engage in profit sharing of the APP over the purchase price. If the final market value of the FIS Portfolio is below the purchase price and above the loan amount, the losses are absorbed by the provider. In a broader implementation of the program, the client makes a revolving term loan to the provider, which over time the provider uses to acquire assets from the client to be used as collateral for the loan. |
| US08219477B2 |
Systems and methods for multi-objective portfolio analysis using pareto sorting evolutionary algorithms
The systems and methods of the invention are directed to portfolio optimization and related techniques. For example, the invention provides a method for multi-objective portfolio optimization for use in investment decisions based on competing objectives and a plurality of constraints constituting a portfolio problem, the method comprising: generating an initial population of solutions of portfolio allocations; committing the initial population of solutions to an initial population archive; performing a multi-objective process, based on the initial population archive and on multiple competing objectives, to generate an efficient frontier, the multi-objective process including a evolutionary algorithm process, the evolutionary algorithm process utilizing a dominance filter, the efficient frontier being used in investment decisioning. |
| US08219476B1 |
Object oriented financial analysis tool
A financial analysis program includes an object oriented architecture having a number of abstract classes associated with performing financial calculations. The abstract classes include an instruments class that defines a number of financial instruments in a hierarchical manner. The abstract classes also include a models class that defines a number of objects or functions used to perform financial calculations. The program also includes an interface to allow a user to pass instrument parameters to the objects or functions and execute the object or function using the instrument parameters. |
| US08219472B2 |
Valuation of derivative products
Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for determining the value of a derivative product over nonconsecutive periods. The derivative product may be an interest rate swap product, which, when exchanged traded, normally is valued on a mark-to-market basis over consecutive periods. The product may be valued using swap value factors and settlement values according to the methodology disclosed herein. |
| US08219470B1 |
Paycheck verification system and method
Embodiments described herein allow a worker to use tools similar to that of an employer or payroll provider to determine, after having been paid, if the number of hours compensated for, is correct. At a first stage, a time sheet is provided for a worker in a specific industry to input a work history for the pay period. In a second stage, data from an actual pay stub is received from the worker, including hours paid and associated codes. Codes of the work hours and/or provided on the pay stub may be reconciled or used as needed, and a comparison is made to determine if the hours of the pay stub are accurate. If not, than a tool is provided to the user to petition the employer for correction. |
| US08219464B2 |
System and method for sales generation in conjunction with a vehicle data system
Embodiments of sales generation, including sales generation employing reverse lead generation using vehicle data systems and methods, are presented herein. In particular, in certain embodiments a user may utilize the vehicle data system to obtain pricing data corresponding to a desired vehicle configuration. When the user is presented with the pricing data associated with the specified vehicle configuration the user may additionally be presented with an upfront price offered by a dealer, where by providing their personal information the user may obtain the name of the dealer offering the upfront price and may additionally be offered the opportunity to purchase the desired, or similar, vehicle at the upfront price. |
| US08219462B1 |
Window petal valance and method for creation of customized embodiments thereof
A system and method for designing a plurality of customized embodiments of petal window valances utilizing an on-line design interface. The system includes an on-line design server that is connected to at least one client computer via a network. The on-line design server provides the customer with a process to enable the creation of a customized petal window valance that is derived from the inputs of the customer as the customer utilizes the process. During particular steps of the design process, the on-line design server provides choices for the customer wherein the customer must select at least on of the provided choices. The on-line design server includes a plurality of databases of design elements contain therein and are provided to the customer different design elements that can be selected to create the customized embodiment. The on-line design server provides a graphical representation of the designed petal valance and allows the customer to virtually construct a customized embodiment of a petal window valance. The on-line design server further facilitates the ordering of the elements so as to be shipped to the customer for final assembly or as an assembled unit. |
| US08219460B1 |
Method and computer medium for facilitating a buyer-initiated feature within a business transaction
A system and method for conducting electronic business between buyers and sellers is provided. The system and method disclose a means for at least one buyer to request and receive online bids from one or more sellers of a particular product according to a price curve or price schedule. A price schedule or curve for a product defining a product's unit price as a function of the volume of product ordered. Upon receipt of a plurality of bids from sellers, a buyer can then select a seller-supplier based at least in part on the price schedule. |
| US08219454B2 |
Personalized virtual goods holiday or event calendar
A printed calendar, method and system for preparing the printed calendar, and system for redeeming virtual goods are provided herein. The printed calendar includes at least one form sheet having printed thereon one or more occurrences of time. The one or more occurrences of time being coupled with at least one viewing panel capable of hiding and revealing an image. The printed calendar further includes at least one back sheet having printed thereon at least one graphical representation associated with the one or more occurrences of time. The at least one graphical representation being aligned with the form sheet, such that, the graphical representation is visible through the at least one viewing panel coupled to the one or more occurrences of time. The at least one graphical representation representing a virtual good accessible to the selected recipient at one of the one or more occurrences of time. |
| US08219452B2 |
Systems and methods for a centralized gift registry with upload and merge of a retailer-specific registry
Systems and methods for that allow for the creation and management of a centralized gift registry are described. A retailer-specific registry is imported into the centralized gift registry. A gift list is created and displayed. Gift givers may select a gift from the gift list of the centralized gift registry. In one embodiment, when a purchase of a gift occurs, the gift list is updated. Updates to gifts are sent between the centralized gift registry and the retailer-specific registries, such that the gifts common to these registries are synchronized. This synchronization may involve the use of APIs at the centralized gift registry or the retailer-specific registries. The centralized gift registry system automatically searches for all retailer-specific registries pertaining to the gift registrant. The centralized gift registry system may request a retailer's system for information on gift items of a respective retailer-specific registry. |
| US08219438B1 |
Method and system for measuring shopper response to products based on behavior and facial expression
The present invention is a method and system for measuring human response to retail elements, based on the shopper's facial expressions and behaviors. From a facial image sequence, the facial geometry—facial pose and facial feature positions—is estimated to facilitate the recognition of facial expressions, gaze, and demographic categories. The recognized facial expression is translated into an affective state of the shopper and the gaze is translated into the target and the level of interest of the shopper. The body image sequence is processed to identify the shopper's interaction with a given retail element—such as a product, a brand, or a category. The dynamic changes of the affective state and the interest toward the retail element measured from facial image sequence is analyzed in the context of the recognized shopper's interaction with the retail element and the demographic categories, to estimate both the shopper's changes in attitude toward the retail element and the end response—such as a purchase decision or a product rating. |
| US08219436B2 |
Online installation scheduling system and method for cable services
A system and method for creating, scheduling, and managing time slots for installation appointments. Embodiments of the present invention permit a trading partner to offer a customer the ability to schedule installation of cable services on-line. A cable operator maintains an inventory of time slots. One or more time slots from the time slot inventory are offered to a customer based on ordering information received from the customer. A customer selects a time slot from the one or more offered time slots. A cable operator then assigns an installation appointment to the customer within the time slot selected by the customer. A cable operator may also determine the status of the inventory of time slots (e.g., time slots allocated, time slots consumed, and time slots available) for a system, a location, or a trading partner. |
| US08219430B1 |
Resource management system
A resource management system includes a work plan builder module configured to build work plans for workers. The work plan builder module is configured to allow each worker to specify, for each of a plurality of different time periods, one of a plurality of different activities that the worker plans to perform during that time period. The work plans built by the work plan builder module are stored in a computer-accessible memory. |
| US08219429B2 |
Organization health analysis using real-time communications monitoring
The present invention provides a communication monitoring and analysis method and system. More specifically, the present invention provides a method for determining the health and overall satisfaction of employees in an organization. The determination may be made by monitoring communications generated by employees for their tone and other parameters related to their satisfaction with various decisions made within the organization. |
| US08219425B2 |
Collateral damage coverage for insurers and third parties
A method for marketing, underwriting, and adjusting damages that are associated with insured loss events but that are not covered by traditional insurance policies. This method permits the marketing of loss expense coverage, underwriting, and claim adjustment processes of insurance to be performed by reference to the loss payments that are made by a specified reinsurance policy. By referencing reinsurance loss payments, which both a buyer and a seller understand, this method provides an easy way to communicate and transact something that is otherwise difficult or impossible to define or measure. |
| US08219424B2 |
Determining amounts for claims settlement using likelihood values
Methods and systems are provided for determining and displaying amounts for use in settling insurance claims are disclosed. Closed claims that match an open claim are identified based on one or more characteristics of the open claim. A likelihood value associated with at least one of the matching closed claims is determined. An amount for use by an adjuster in settling the open claim is determined based on the likelihood value for at least one of the matching claims. A most likely amount and most likely range associated with the open claim may be determined based on the likelihood values. |
| US08219422B2 |
Tricare payment process
An apparatus, a system, and a method are provided to pay a dispensing fee to a pharmacy and configured to replenish a pharmacy's inventory with prescription drugs by a wholesaler at no cost. Rather than being replenished for any prescription drug dispensed to a patient, a pharmacy would be paid a dispensing fee. To compensate for the wholesaler for replenishing the pharmacy at no cost, the wholesaler would receive an administrative fee. Furthermore, order rights are maintained for each participating pharmacy and wholesaler and monitor and record the transfer of order rights from a pharmacy to a wholesaler and the execute or the use by the wholesaler of the order rights. The order rights may include, in the alternative, a right assigned to the pharmacy to replenish the prescription drug dispensed or a different prescription drug for credit. |
| US08219417B2 |
Front end
Systems and methods are provided including a system for managing patient data. The system includes a computing system including a processing unit and a storage. The processing unit executes one or more programs for managing patient data. Managing patient data includes enrolling patients in a centralized care network including presenting each patient with an electronic enrollment interface, assigning each patient a patient identifier, and receiving an electronic consent to collect data. Managing patient data further includes providing patient data to the centralized care network including patient data relating to disease progression, clinical trials and treatments rendered. |
| US08219410B2 |
Method of permitting group access to electronically stored images and transaction card used in the method
A method of storing and viewing a collection of digital images includes the steps of: providing a plurality of users with a unique user ID associated with a URL identifying a network photoservice provider; providing each one of the plurality of users with a separate password to the unique user ID; at least one of the plurality of users transferring a set of digital images to the unique user ID employing their separate passwords; and viewing the images located at the unique user ID using the separate password. |
| US08219409B2 |
Audio wave field encoding
An encoder/decoder for multi-channel audio data, and in particular for audio reproduction through wave field synthesis. The encoder comprises a two-dimensional filter-bank to the multi-channel signal, in which the channel index is treated as an independent variable as well as time, and and the resulting spectral coefficient are quantized according to a two-dimensional psychoacoustic model, including masking effect in the spatial frequency as well as in the temporal frequency. The coded spectral data are organized in a bitstream together with side information containing scale factors and Huffman codebook identifiers. |
| US08219407B1 |
Method for processing the output of a speech recognizer
A system and method for processing speech input comprising a speech recognizer and a logical command processor which facilitates additional processing of speech input beyond the speech recognizer level. A speech recognizer receives input from a user, and when a command is identified in the speech input, if the command meets conditions that require additional processing, a representation of the speech input s stored for subsequent processing. A logical command processor performs additional processing of command input by analyzing the command and its elements, determining which elements are required for successful processing the command and which elements are present and lacking. The user is prompted to supply missing information, and subsequent user input is added to the command structure until the command input is aborted or the command structure reaches sufficient completeness to enable execution of the command. Thereby, speech input of complex commands in natural language in a system running a plurality of applications and processes is made possible. |
| US08219406B2 |
Speech-centric multimodal user interface design in mobile technology
A multi-modal human computer interface (HCI) receives a plurality of available information inputs concurrently, or serially, and employs a subset of the inputs to determine or infer user intent with respect to a communication or information goal. Received inputs are respectively parsed, and the parsed inputs are analyzed and optionally synthesized with respect to one or more of each other. In the event sufficient information is not available to determine user intent or goal, feedback can be provided to the user in order to facilitate clarifying, confirming, or augmenting the information inputs. |
| US08219405B1 |
Automated third party verification system
Methods and computer readable medium for providing third party verification data files to entities authorized to access the data files using a third party verification system. In an exemplary embodiment, the method includes obtaining a data file identifier and retrieving a data file of the data files corresponding to the data file identifier. The data file may be stored in a verification system and contain a digitally stored voice recording of at least one response by an individual to at least one question. From there, the retrieved data file may be transmitted to the authorized entity. |
| US08219404B2 |
Method and apparatus for recognizing a speaker in lawful interception systems
A method and apparatus for identifying a speaker within a captured audio signal from a collection of known speakers. The method and apparatus receive or generate voice representations for each known speakers and tag the representations according to meta data related to the known speaker or to the voice. The representations are grouped into one or more groups according to the indices. When a voice to be recognized is introduced, characteristics are determined according to which the groups are prioritized, so that the representations participating only in part of the groups are matched against the voice to be identified, thus reducing identification time and improving the statistical significance. |
| US08219403B2 |
Device and method for the creation of a voice browser functionality
In the case of an incoming call, at least attempting to select and allocate one of a plurality of different types of hardware platforms to the incoming call based on initial signaling information and load criteria and performing the allocation if the allocation can be provided. If such an allocation cannot be provided, at least attempting to provide the allocation based on other signaling information following the initial signaling information. If such an allocation cannot be provided based on the other signaling information, then a relevant voice page is requested from a storage device and a pre-analysis is performed, during which the requests included therein are determined and the browser function is at least attempted to be allocated based on the determination, and if still no allocation can be achieved, then a universally usable browser functionality is allocated. |
| US08219402B2 |
Asynchronous receipt of information from a user
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for asynchronous receipt of information from a user. Embodiments include receiving in a library management system a media file containing a speech response recorded on a hand held device in response to the playing of a media file containing one or more audio prompts for information; converting the speech response stored in the media file to text; and storing the text in association with an identification of the user. |
| US08219397B2 |
Data processing system for autonomously building speech identification and tagging data
A method, system, and computer program product for autonomously transcribing and building tagging data of a conversation. A corpus processing agent monitors a conversation and utilizes a speech recognition agent to identify the spoken languages, speakers, and emotional patterns of speakers of the conversation. While monitoring the conversation, the corpus processing agent determines emotional patterns by monitoring voice modulation of the speakers and evaluating the context of the conversation. When the conversation is complete, the corpus processing agent determines synonyms and paraphrases of spoken words and phrases of the conversation taking into consideration any localized dialect of the speakers. Additionally, metadata of the conversation is created and stored in a link database, for comparison with other processed conversations. A corpus, a transcription of the conversation containing metadata links, is then created. The corpus processing agent also determines the frequency of spoken keywords and phrases and compiles a popularity index. |
| US08219396B2 |
Apparatus and method for evaluating performance of speech recognition
An apparatus for evaluating the performance of speech recognition includes a speech database for storing N-number of test speech signals for evaluation. A speech recognizer is located in an actual environment and executes the speech recognition of the test speech signals reproduced using a loud speaker from the speech database in the actual environment to produce speech recognition results. A performance evaluation module evaluates the performance of the speech recognition by comparing correct recognition results answers with the speech recognition results. |
| US08219395B2 |
Frame compensation method and system
A frame compensation method is provided. The method includes: obtaining a length of a lost frame and a length of a correct frame; determining that the length of the correct frame is integral power of 2 times of the length of the lost frame, and then obtaining a data sequence with the same length as the length of the lost frame according to the correct frame; and compensating the lost frame according to the data sequence to obtain a compensated data frame. A frame compensation system is also provided. Lost frames in various formats are compensated according to correct frames in various formats, so that the limitation of the related art that a lost frame in a single format can be merely compensated according to a correct frame in a single format is eliminated, and the effect of the compensated data frames is better than that of filling comfort noises. |
| US08219392B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus for detection of tonal components employing a coding operation with monotone function
Systems, methods, and apparatus for the detection of signals having spectral peaks with narrow bandwidth are described herein. The range of described configurations includes implementations that perform such detection using parameters of a linear prediction coding (LPC) analysis scheme. |
| US08219391B2 |
Speech analyzing system with speech codebook
Presented herein are systems and methods for processing sound signals for use with electronic speech systems. Sound signals are temporally parsed into frames, and the speech system includes a speech codebook having entries corresponding to frame sequences. The system identifies speech sounds in an audio signal using the speech codebook. |
| US08219389B2 |
System for improving speech intelligibility through high frequency compression
A speech enhancement system that improves the intelligibility and the perceived quality of processed speech includes a frequency transformer and a spectral compressor. The frequency transformer converts speech signals from the time domain to the frequency domain. The spectral compressor compresses a pre-selected portion of the high frequency band and maps the compressed high frequency band to a lower band limited frequency range. |
| US08219386B2 |
Arabic poetry meter identification system and method
The Arabic poetry meter identification system and method produces coded Al-Khalyli transcriptions of Arabic poetry. The meters (Wazn, Awzan being forms of the Arabic poems units Bayt, Abyate) are identified. A spoken or written poem is accepted as input. A coded transcription of the poetry pattern forms is produced from input processing. The system identifies and distinguishes between proper spoken poetic meter and improper poetic meter. Error in the poem meters (Bahr, Buhur) and the ending rhyme pattern, “Qafiya” are detected and verified. The system accepts user selection of a desired poem meter and then interactively aids the user in the composition of poetry in the selected meter, suggesting alternative words and word groups that follow the desired poem pattern and dactyl components. The system can be in a stand-alone device or integrated with other computing devices. |
| US08219383B2 |
Method and system for automated supervised data analysis
The invention relates to a method for automatically analyzing data and constructing data classification models based on the data. In an embodiment of the method, the method includes selecting a best combination of methods from a plurality of classification, predictor selection, and data preparatory methods; and determining a best model that corresponds to one or more best parameters of the classification, predictor selection, and data preparatory methods for the data to be analyzed. The method also includes estimating the performance of the best model using new data that was not used in selecting the best combination of methods or in determining the best model; and returning a small set of predictors sufficient for the classification task. |
| US08219382B2 |
Domain-adaptive portable machine translation device for translating closed captions using dynamic translation resources and method thereof
A domain-adapted portable machine translation device for closed captions using dynamic translation resources and a method thereof are provided. The device and method improve translation performance with respect to various specialized domains by automatically recognizing style and domain of a caption sentence, dynamically constructing specialized translation module and knowledge, and performing automatic translation with optimal translation resources suitable for a corresponding sentence.Not only does the domain-adapted portable machine translation device for closed captions exhibit improved translation performance for sentences in various domains, but it can also be freely linked with various media devices through input/output terminals. |
| US08219380B1 |
Methods and systems utilizing behavioral data models with derived properties
Embodiments include computer systems, methods, and program code for developing and utilizing behavioral data models. A model can comprise a property and a behavior of the modeled component, with the property defining a data element of the modeled component and the behavior comprising a programmatic expression defining an operation to be performed when the model is consumed. The programmatic expression can comprise as a function to be evaluated to determine a derived property from an input parameter. The model may comprise data representing a constraint to be met by data of an instance of the derived property. The code of a functional component generated based on the behavior can be configured to evaluate data stored in the data structure corresponding to the derived property against the constraint and store data representing whether the constraint is satisfied. |
| US08219379B2 |
System, method and computer program product for testing software
Software is tested for execution on data processing apparatus with plural processors that share access to a memory. The memory has a memory ordering type specifying an ordering freedom which allows memory access requests to be processed out of order from an original program order. A simulator for each processor executes a sequence of instructions in program order. An access buffer associated with one of the processor simulators receives and stores access requests issued by that simulator when executing access instructions within the sequences. A controller selects and applies an eviction policy to determine an order in which access requests are output from the access buffer to the memory so that the ordering freedom is exercised in a manner compliant with the memory ordering type but to a degree exceeding that expected within the data processing apparatus. |
| US08219375B2 |
Plated film thickness calculating method and plated film thickness calculating device
A computer readable recording medium stores therein a plated film thickness calculating program for a semiconductor integrated circuit producing process in which a plating treatment, a polishing treatment and an over-polishing treatment are performed. The plated film thickness calculating program performing a process includes simulating the plating treatment of plating the surface of the substrate for a given thickness of the conductor; calculating a thickness of the conductor to be removed by the polishing treatment until at least a part of the plateaus appears; calculating a maximum thickness of the conductor to be remained on any part of the plateaus after performing the polishing treatment; and repeating the simulating, the thickness calculation and the maximum thickness calculation by changing the given thickness until a minimum of the given thickness is determined in which the maximum thickness of the remaining conductor becomes less than a predetermined level. |
| US08219373B2 |
System and method for graphically creating models for simulating systems of reacting species
A system and method for generating a model for simulating systems of reacting species comprising receiving a plurality of reaction formulas, determining a reaction rate expression for each of the received reaction formulas, and generating a model for simulating systems of reacting species using the received reaction formulas and the determined reaction rate expressions. The invention further relates to pruning the reaction list to deactivate one or more reactions in the reaction list based on one or more criteria, such as threshold criteria. A graphical user interface may also be used in connection with the present invention in various ways. An output based on the generated model may be displayed, wherein the output displays the composition and temperature dependence of the system of reacting species. Material and energy balances may also be generated for the reacting species as input to a solver of partial differential equations. |
| US08219372B1 |
Computer-readable medium, method and computing device for N-body computations using parallel computation systems
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for efficiently performing N-body computations using parallel computation systems. The technique involves a first processing step whereby a force matrix is partitioned into tiles, which are assigned to a one or more thread groups for processing. An off-diagonal tile may be aligned to include no diagonal cells, while an on-diagonal tile includes diagonal cells. One approach for computing either type of tile involves assigning each row from a tile to a thread within a thread group. Each thread operates on an offset pattern to avoid access conflicts to a shared memory. A net force for each atom within an N-body system is then computed by efficiently adding constituent forces stored within the force matrix using reduction operations on the force matrix. |
| US08219371B1 |
Computing inter-atom forces between atoms in a protein
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for efficiently performing N-body computations using parallel computation systems. The technique involves a first processing step whereby a force matrix is partitioned into tiles, which are assigned to a one or more thread groups for processing. An off-diagonal tile may be aligned to include no diagonal cells, while an on-diagonal tile includes diagonal cells. One approach for computing either type of tile involves assigning each row from a tile to a thread within a thread group. Each thread operates on an offset pattern to avoid access conflicts to a shared memory. A net force for each atom within an N-body system is then computed by efficiently adding constituent forces stored within the force matrix using reduction operations on the force matrix. |
| US08219366B2 |
Determination of elbow values for PCR for parabolic shaped curves
Systems and methods for processing PCR curves, and for identifying the presence of a parabolic-shaped PCR curve. Use of a piecewise linear approximation of a PCR curve enables a more realistic elbow value to be determined in the case of parabolic shaped PCR curves. |
| US08219365B2 |
Method of designing a motor vehicle
A method of designing a motor vehicle is disclosed. The method includes simulating a collision of a motor vehicle using a computer model that corresponds to the motor vehicle. Collision data is collected from the simulation and used to determine calibration information for an air bag system. |
| US08219364B2 |
Method to improve unfolding in Petri nets
Petri net models, of systems, communication protocols, and software programs, which include place objects, transition objects, arcs, and initial markings, may be used for testing and verification. To reduce computations, a new unfolding process is performed on the net models. Two or more candidate buffer place interfaces are selected from the input net model. The input net is subdivided with a preliminary cut to form two subnets, wherein the preliminary cut passes through suitable candidate buffer place interfaces, objects of each of the subnets other than the suitable candidate buffer place interfaces are reachable from at least one initial marking, and the subnets do not include a mix of initial and non-initial marking places. Each of the two subnets are unfolded and then joined to form an unfolded net that is behaviorally equivalent to original input net model. The unfolded net is then stored in a storage unit. |
| US08219363B2 |
Jet noise modeling method, jet noise analyzing method, and aircraft designing method
A jet noise source modeling method of creating a jet noise source model, includes: setting a plurality of point sound sources by quantizing a strength distribution of a jet noise source determined through an analysis of a jet stream and determining respective sound source strengths of respective point sound sources; and determining respective phases of the respective point sound sources based on a known noise level of a far free sound field related with the jet stream. An aircraft having an airframe capable of insulating the interior thereof from noises is designed on the basis of the results of the analysis. |
| US08219361B2 |
Vibration analysis
The present invention relates to vibration analysis and in particular, but not limited to, the derivation of multiple types of vibration signals from one vibration signal for vibration analysis. In the preferred method of the invention the vibrations of an object are measured using at least one vibration sensor, wherein the vibration sensor converts vibrations into an electrical vibration signal. The electrical vibration signal is digitized based on a first frequency, wherein the first frequency is selected from a plurality of possible frequency values. A first type of vibration signal is derived from the digitized vibration signal. A second type of vibration signal is then derived from the digitized vibration signal based on a second frequency. The second frequency is rationally determined from, and lower than, the value selected for the first frequency. The invention also provides apparatus for deriving multiple types of vibration signals from one measured vibration signal for vibration analysis. |
| US08219359B2 |
Performance evaluating apparatus
A performance evaluating apparatus includes a selector, a first performance value calculator, and a second performance value calculator. The first performance value calculator calculates a first performance value based on first partial process execution time tcpu in which a first processor performs a first partial process and a second partial process execution time tdisk in which a second processor performs a second partial process. The second performance value calculator calculates a second performance value based on the first partial process execution time and the predetermined upper limit executable time ratio α1. The selector selects either the first performance value or the second performance value as the performance value based on the upper limit executable time ratio, the first partial process execution time, and the second partial process execution time. |
| US08219358B2 |
Platform matching systems and methods
Pursuant to some embodiments, a platform matching system, method, apparatus and means are provided which include identifying at least a first benchmark test procedure to evaluate at least a first and a second target platform for use with an application, the at least first benchmark test procedure including at least a first unit test; receiving test result data from tests performed on the at least first and second target platform using the at least first benchmark test procedure; and performing a matching analysis to determine which of the at least first and second target platform is a best fit for the application. |
| US08219357B2 |
Dynamic display systems and methods thereof
A method and system for displaying asset health information includes determining a status of at least one asset in a monitored system based on operational information obtained about the at least one asset. The obtained operational information about the at least one asset is compared against other operational information obtained about the monitored system. A review of the determined status of the at least one asset is conducted based on the comparison. At least one of textual information and numeric information is displayed based on the conducted review of the determined status of the at least one asset. Additionally, at least one of three or more indicator lights is displayed based on the conducted review of the determined status of the at least one asset. |
| US08219351B2 |
Methods and systems to align wafer signatures
One embodiment relates to a computer method for aligning wafers processed in a semiconductor fabrication facility. In the method, a first arrangement of dies having a common functionality level is identified on a first wafer. A first alignment signature is assigned to the first wafer based on the first arrangement. A second arrangement of dies having the common functionality level is identified on a second wafer. A second alignment signature is assigned to the second wafer based on the second arrangement. The first alignment signature is compared to the second alignment signature, and the first and second wafers are selectively aligned based on a result of the comparison. Other systems and methods are also disclosed. |
| US08219348B2 |
Method for calibrating and/or correcting a display device having a needle, the needle being able to move in rotation about an axis of rotation
The present invention relates to a method for calibrating and/or correcting a display device having a needle, the needle being able to move in rotation about an axis of rotation and the needle being driven by means of a stepping motor, the calibration method including several measurements of differences between a value displayed and a value to be displayed, and a computation of a correction value as a function of the differences. |
| US08219345B2 |
Methods of calibrating a clock using multiple clock periods with a single counter and related devices and methods
A method of calibrating a first clock signal using a second clock signal and a plurality of calibration periods may include generating incremented counter values at a counter responsive to edges of the second clock signal. For at least two of the plurality of calibration periods, an initial incremented counter value from the counter may be stored in memory at an initial edge of the first clock signal for the respective calibration period, a final incremented counter value may be stored in memory at a final edge of the clock signal for the respective calibration period, and the at least two of the plurality of calibration periods may be overlapping with different initial and final edges of the first clock signal. For each of the plurality of calibration periods, a number of edges of the second clock signal occurring during the respective calibration period may be determined using the initial and final incremented counter values stored in memory. A relationship between the first and second clock signals may be determined using a sum of a number of edges of the second clock signal occurring during each of the plurality of calibration periods and using a sum of a number of first clock signal cycles occurring during each of the plurality of calibration periods. |
| US08219343B2 |
Method and apparatus for calibrating a delay chain
Apparatus and methods are provided for calibration within a delay chain. In various embodiments, such apparatus and techniques can be used to address delay mismatch, but are not limited to such applications. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed. |
| US08219342B2 |
Variation tolerant network on chip (NoC) with self-calibrating links
A self correcting device includes a first flip-flop to receive data and coupled to a clock input; one or more delayed flip-flops used to detect delay variations; a multiplexer coupled to the output of the first flip-flop and the delayed flip-flops, a metastability detector and error check controller to control the multiplexer to select one flip-flop output; and an adaptive voltage swing link coupled to the multiplexer output to generate a voltage swing on the link based on a selected clock skew. |
| US08219339B2 |
Method and apparatus for a real time signal integrity oscilloscope
A system, method, and apparatus for obtaining a record of logic level transitions within a signal, and for accurately determining a voltage-time pair exhibited by the signal. To achieve these ends, a front-end device may be mated to a real-time sampling system, such as an oscilloscope. The front-end device effectively permits the oscilloscope to observe signals exhibiting greater data rates than otherwise possible without the front-end device. |
| US08219338B2 |
Testing method for bus parameters
A testing system for bus parameters includes a wave displaying unit and a control module connected to the wave displaying unit. The control module includes a decode unit, a testing unit connected to the decode unit, and an output unit connected to the testing unit. The decode unit is connected to the wave displaying unit. The wave displaying unit is configured for receiving an electronic signal from a bus to be tested. The decode unit is configured for decoding the electronic signal to determine if the electronic signal is valid. The testing unit tests parameters of the bus. The output unit displays testing results for the parameters. |
| US08219337B2 |
Arrangement for determining the operational parameters of a high-frequency power amplifier
In order to determine the operational parameters of a high-frequency power amplifier (1) (for example, complex forward and return voltage or power, complex load impedance, reflection or voltage standing wave ratio) on the connecting line (3) between the output of the high-frequency power amplifier (1) and a complex load, in particular, an antenna (4), an analog measured voltage Uu proportional to the complex voltage {right arrow over (U)} on the connecting line and an analog measured voltage Ui proportional to the complex current {right arrow over (I)} on the line (3) is determined by a Buschbeck coupling device. These measured voltages are digitized, and the required operational parameters can then be calculated in a computing unit (7) from these digital values. |
| US08219336B2 |
Arrangement for determining the operational parameters of a high-frequency power amplifier
In order to determine various operational parameters of a power amplifier (for example, a complex load impedance or a complex forward and return power or a reflection factor or a voltage standing wave ratio) on a connecting line between an output of the power amplifier and a complex load, complex analog forward and return voltages on the connecting line are determined by an analog coupling device. These analog voltages are digitized and converted down into a baseband by one or more digital down-converters. From these digital values corresponding in absolute value and phase to the complex forward and return voltages and present in the baseband, desired operational parameters may then be calculated by a computer. |
| US08219331B2 |
Electronic device and method for evaluating a variable capacitance
An apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a digital signal generator, an analog filter, an amplitude modulator, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The digital signal generator has a demodulator and provides a digital excitation signal. The analog filter is coupled to the digital signal generator. The amplitude modulator has a variable capacitor and is coupled to the analog filter. The amplitude modulator also generates an amplitude modulated signal with an amplitude that is a function of the capacitance of the variable capacitor. The ADC is coupled to the amplitude modulator and the demodulator, and the digital signal generator and the demodulator operate synchronously. |
| US08219330B2 |
Gas appliance judgment apparatus and method
A gas appliance judgment apparatus and method by which a type of gas appliance in use and the existence of a gas leak can be identified. In operation, noise is removed from measured instantaneous flow volume, whereupon the “length”, “initial flow volume” and “sequence of transited regions” of the variable portion of the flow volume and the “length”, “average value” and “gradient” of the flat portion of the flow volume are extracted. A rule having characteristics data which matches the characteristics of the variable portion and the flat portion of the flow volume is then searched, and points are added respectively for the type of gas appliance and for the existence of a gas leak. When the added points are not less than a previously established threshold value, then the type of gas appliance in use is determined, and appliance type information is output as a judgment result. |
| US08219328B2 |
System and method for automating scientific and engineering experimentation for deriving surrogate response data
The present invention provides a system and method for automatically deriving unique surrogate response data from experiment results in which inherent data loss occurs in a sufficient number of the samples to disallow quantitative effects estimation at the experimenter's desired level of confidence for statistical significance. In part, the unique surrogate response data sets of the present invention have one or more of four primary characteristics including: each is numerically analyzable; each may be readily or directly obtained when inherent data loss occurs; each provides a response value for an experiment trial; and each provides information on the effect of a change made to the process or system that would have been obtainable if the experiment samples had had no inherent data loss. |
| US08219325B2 |
Method for determining the ratio of two distinct peptides or polynucleic acids
The invention relates to a method for determining the ratio of two distinct target-peptides or polynucleic acids comprising: a) obtaining a sample containing said two distinct target-peptides or polynucleic acids, b) providing a precursor-peptide or precursor-polynucleic acid, comprising the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids in a known ratio, wherein the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids are connected by a cleavage site, c) cleaving the precursor-peptide or precursor-polynucleic acid at the cleavage site to obtain a standard with the known ratio of the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids, d) detecting a signal of each distinct target-peptide or -polynucleic acid of the standard in an analyzer, comparing the signals with the known ratio and determining a correction factor, e) detecting the signal of each distinct target-peptide or -polynucleic acid of the sample in the analyzer and f) determining the ratio of the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids by means of the correction factor or by double ratio calculation (calculation of the ratio of two intensity ratios—namely of the peptide and isoform-peptide with their corresponding labelled standards) to eliminate the compound-specific correction factors. |
| US08219324B2 |
Real-time PCR elbow calling by equation-less algorithm
Systems and methods for determining a transition value in a sigmoid or growth curve, such as the end of the baseline region or the elbow value or Ct value of a PCR amplification curve. Numerical determinations of the second derivatives and curvature values of a PCR data set are made. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) function with parameters determined using a Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), or other, regression process is used to find an approximation to the second derivative values and to the curvature values, where the maximum values of the numerically determined second derivative values and/or curvature values are used as initial conditions for parameters of the GMM function. The determined parameters provide fractional Ct values. The Ct value(s) are then returned and may be displayed or otherwise used for further processing. |
| US08219318B2 |
Information mapping approaches
Methods, systems and applications for updating, enhancing, organizing, and utilizing geographic maps, for locating points of interest and places of businesses, or POI's. Embodiments provide a method for collecting geo-coordinate data on POIs by eliciting participation of the business owners or designated employees to identify the specific locations of POI's on a map; a map program which synchronizes to a centralized database where POI and other more frequently changing and time-dependent map information is downloaded to individual users; a map program, where in addition to the standard contact information, “qualitative” information and website links are included in an POI information box to aid in pre-qualifying a POI before selection and in booking a reservation; a method for locating markers on an Internet-based search engine map; and an improved contact management system that allows locations of contacts to be viewed on a map while minimizing address geocoding. |
| US08219317B2 |
Route navigation via a proximity point
A system and method is provided that uses one or more points, e.g., “smart via” input points, e.g., a center of a city such as a large city, to determine one or more points, e.g., smart via output points. A smart via output point determined from a smart via input point can be used, together with origination and destination points, to identify an optimal navigational route between the origination and destination points. A navigational route generated using the smart via output point, an origination point and a destination point travels in proximity to the smart via input point. |
| US08219314B2 |
Method for transmitting location information on a digital map, apparatus for implementing the method and traffic information provision/reception system
Location information transmission apparatus for exchanging information about the on-road location on a digital map, characterized in that apparatus at an information provider comprises a location information converter for converting transmit on-road location information to road shape data including the on-road location consisting of a string of coordinates representing the road shape of a road section having a length that depends on the situation and relative data indicating the on-road location in the road section, and that apparatus at a party receiving the on-road location information comprises a shape matching section for performing shape matching by using the road shape data, identifying the road section on a digital map and identifying the on-road location in the road section by using the relative data. This makes it possible to correctly exchange information about the location on a digital map without defining node numbers or link numbers on a road network. |
| US08219312B2 |
Determining speed parameters in a geographic area
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for assigning parameters to a geographic area, wherein the parameters may be used to associate a speed limit with the geographic area. For example, in one embodiment, a geofenced area that (a) corresponds to a geographic area and (b) comprises one or more street segments is identified. Additionally, speed data associated with one of more of the street segments is received. After receiving the speed data, a speed limit is (a) determined for one or more of the street segments and (b) associated with the geofenced area. |
| US08219308B2 |
Monowheel type vehicle
An engine-propelled monowheel vehicle comprises two wheels, close together, that circumscribe the remainder of the vehicle. When the vehicle is moving forward, the closely spaced wheels act as a single wheel, and the vehicle turns by leaning the wheels. A single propulsion system provides a drive torque that is shared by the two wheels. A separate steering torque, provided by a steering motor, is added to one wheel while being subtracted from the other wheel, enabling the wheels to rotate in opposite directions for turning the vehicle at zero forward velocity. The vehicle employs attitude sensors, for sensing roll, pitch, and yaw, and an automatic balancing system. A flywheel in the vehicle spins at a high rate around a spin axis, wherein the spin axis is rotatable with respect to the vehicle's frame. The axis angle and flywheel spin speed are continually adjustable to generate torques for automatic balancing. |
| US08219307B2 |
Aircraft navigation aid device
An aircraft navigation aid device includes at least one flight management system, an airport navigation aid unit which is incorporated in this flight management system, and a common interface unit. |
| US08219302B2 |
Fuel injection controller for internal combustion engine
When a specified learning executing condition is established, a command furl injection quantity ratio (CFIQ-ratio) between two fuel injectors is compulsorily changed and a fuel injection quantity error of each fuel injector is learned respectively based on the CFIQ-ratio and an air-fuel-ratio feedback correction value. Based on the learning value of fuel injection quantity error, a fuel injection period of each fuel injector is respectively corrected, whereby each fuel injection quantity error of two fuel injectors is respectively corrected with respect to each cylinder. Thereby, a ratio of fuel injection quantity between two fuel injectors is accurately controlled. |
| US08219300B2 |
Engine control system and method for controlling engine air flow during deceleration fuel cut
An engine control system and method for controlling engine air flow during a deceleration fuel cut includes an internal combustion engine, an anti-lock braking system (ABS), and an electronic control unit (ECU) that controls the engine. The ECU establishes a desired air flow rate for the internal combustion engine, which is taken from an ABS failed condition look-up table when determined that the ABS has failed while the engine is in a deceleration fuel cut mode, and otherwise is taken from a normal condition look-up table. |
| US08219294B2 |
Method for actuating a clutch of a drivetrain
A method for actuating a clutch (6) of a drivetrain of a motor vehicle such that, when the motor vehicle is rolling downhill with the accelerator pedal not being actuated and when the motor vehicle is coasting on level ground with the accelerator pedal not being actuated, a clutch position of the clutch (6) is determined as a function of a rotational speed difference between an input speed of a transmission (2) of the drivetrain and an idling speed of a power engine (1) of the drivetrain. The method includes the steps of determining the clutch position from the rotational speed difference between the transmission input speed and the power engine idling speed and correcting the clutch position using at least one parameter that depends on acceleration of the motor vehicle. |
| US08219292B2 |
Method for blocking inadmissible gear shifts in a transmission and shift assembly for a transmission
A method is proposed for blocking inadmissible gearshift processes in a transmission with a plurality of shifting devices which, to carry out a shift process, are moved by actuating devices when a shift command is sent by a control unit (TCU) to the relevant actuating device. The actuating devices are connected for data exchange with one another and with the control unit (TCU) in such manner that the actuating device of the shifting device to be shifted is activated provided that clearance has been given by at least one other actuating device. In addition a shifting system is proposed for a transmission with a control unit and a plurality of actuating devices for the actuation of shifting devices, such that the actuating devices are associated with at least one shaft (A, B) and such that the actuating devices are connected for data exchange with one another and with the control unit (TCU) in such manner that the actuating device of the shifting device to be shifted can be activated provided that clearance has been given by at least one other actuating device. |
| US08219289B2 |
Vehicle control apparatus, vehicle control method, computer program for implementing same method, and data storage medium storing same computer program
A vehicle control apparatus for a vehicle that includes a brake mechanism that produces braking force through the actuation of a first actuator and a shift mechanism that changes the shift position of a transmission through the actuation of a second actuator. The vehicle control apparatus includes: a controller that controls the electric power supplied to the first actuator and that controls the electric power supplied to the second actuator; a first electric power supply unit that supplies electric power to the controller; a second electric power supply unit that supplies electric power to the first actuator; and a third electric power supply unit that supplies electric power to the second actuator. An actuator control unit in the controller controls the electric power supplied to the second actuator from the second electric power supply unit or from the third electric power supply unit when the second actuator is not able to operate using the electric power supplied from the first electric power supply unit. |
| US08219283B2 |
Active steering nibble control algorithm for electric steering systems
A system and method for actively cancelling steering nibble and/or brake judder in an electric power steering system using a controller and an electric motor by converting a selected wheel speed to a frequency, selecting a nibble order, determine nibble enable frequencies for cancellation, selecting a damping factor based on changes in vehicle velocity, calculating filter coefficients based on the selected damping factor, the selected nibble order and the wheel frequency, applying a gain scheduler to a steering column torque signal for the nibble enable frequencies, applying a tuned resonator filter to an output of the gain scheduler and using the filter coefficients to produce a nibble signal, calculating an active nibble cancelling torque signal from the nibble signal and applying the active nibble cancelling torque signal to the electric motor to cancel steering wheel nibble vibration. |
| US08219279B2 |
Method for on-board data backup for configurable programmable parameters
A method provides for transferring back-up data between on-board electronic modules of a vehicle. The presence of default parameters is sensed at a first electronic module during a running of the vehicle engine for an engine cycle. The current engine cycle accumulation register data is stored for the engine cycle in the first electronic module. A parameter and accumulation register data recovery routine is run wherein parameters and accumulation register data for the first electronic module are recovered from memory in the second electronic module on the vehicle and restored in the memory of the first electronic module. The information is transferred using SAE J1939 protocol. The first electronic module can be an engine control unit and the second electronic module can be a body controller. During a parameter and data back-up routine periodically run, the first electronic module stores current parameters and accumulation register data into memory of the second electronic module that will serve as back-up parameter and accumulation register data storage in the event the first module loses such parameters and accumulation register data. |
| US08219276B2 |
Method and device for aiding the maintenance of a system
The invention relates to a method for aiding the maintenance of a system, the system comprising a set of networked elements, the system being accompanied by indications defining subsets of networked elements Ei, each subset of networked elements Ei being associated with a probability of failure Pi, the including the steps of calculating a first value Ti for each subset of networked elements Ei, the first value Ti including an estimation of the maintenance time related to the repair of the subset of networked elements Ei, calculating a second value Fi for each subset of networked elements Ei, the second value Fi including a representation of a compromise between the estimation of the maintenance time Ti related to the repair of the subset of networked elements Ei and the probability of failure Pi of the subsets of networked elements Ei, and sorting the designated sets of items of equipment Ei in order of decreasing second value Fi. |
| US08219275B2 |
Fault diagnosis
Status of an entity having a plurality of components is determined from a listing of enhanced diagnostic expressions. For each combination of diagnostic expressions, a current joint diagnostic expression is generated representing a conjunction of first and second diagnostic expressions from respective first and second received listings. This expression is compared with each diagnostic expression in a generated listing of enhanced diagnostic expressions, and is discarded if: there exists a previous expression in the listing that implies the previous expression or there exists either a first or second diagnostic expression in the respective first or second listing that has not yet been included in a joint diagnostic expression and the current joint diagnostic expression implies either the first or second diagnostic expression. Any other joint diagnostic expressions are stored in the listing of enhanced diagnostic expressions. A status report is generated based on the listing of enhanced diagnostic expressions. |
| US08219274B2 |
3-dimensional perception system and method for mobile platform
In one embodiment, an autonomously navigated mobile platform includes a support frame, a projector supported by the frame, a sensor supported by the frame, a memory including a plurality of program instructions stored therein for generating an encoded signal using a phase shifting algorithm, emitting the encoded signal with the projector, detecting the emitted signal with the sensor after the emitted signal is reflected by a detected body, associating the detected signal with the emitted signal, identifying an x-axis dimension, a y-axis dimension, and a z-axis dimension of the detected body, and one or more of a range and a bearing to the detected body, based upon the associated signal, identifying a present location of the mobile platform, navigating the mobile platform based upon the identified location, and a processor operably connected to the memory, to the sensor, and to the projector for executing the program instructions. |
| US08219272B2 |
Method for monitoring multi-motor drive
A method for controlling a vehicle drive unit, which comprises at least two individual drives, at least one of which is able to provide a negative torque. A vehicle control unit is provided, within which a continuous torque comparison is performed within a monitoring level. A permissible torque is ascertained therein. Using a torque range checker it is established whether ascertained setpoint torques lie within torque ranges of the at least two individual drives. |
| US08219266B2 |
Method and device for reducing on an aircraft lateral effects of a turbulence
Disclosed is a method and device for attenuating lateral effects on an aircraft due to turbulence encountered by the aircraft during flight. The lateral effects are attenuated by applying a roll control order to control a first controllable movable member that acts on aircraft roll and minimizes aircraft roll-wise disturbances due to wind, and a yaw control order that controls a second controllable movable member to act on aircraft yaw. The roll and yaw control orders are calculated based on a sideslip value of the aircraft, while the yaw control order is calculated as a function of the roll control order to compensate for aircraft lateral effects due to turbulence, as well as lateral effects due to application of the roll control order to the first movable member. |
| US08219262B2 |
Motor vehicle equipped with a pneumatic level control system
Disclosed is a pneumatic level control system equalizer of a motor vehicle equipped with a battery and a generator supplying the battery, as well as a compressor driven by an electric motor and associated with the level control system equalizer, the electric motor of the compressor being only supplied with electric current by the vehicle battery and/or generator in certain conditions. The power requirements of the level control system equalizer can be pre-evaluated for a change of level and/or a filling of the pressure tank to be performed. |
| US08219260B2 |
Temperature control apparatus, processing apparatus, and temperature control method
A temperature control apparatus includes a resistance heater whose a resistance value changes depending on a temperature of the resistance heater; a signal generator to output a control signal having two voltage levels including a first-voltage and a second-voltage; a switching section to flow a first current through the resistance heater when the voltage level of the control signal is the first-voltage, and to flow a second current having a current value smaller than that of the first current through the resistance heater when the voltage level of the control signal is the second-voltage; and a voltage measuring instrument to measure a voltage value across the resistance heater at the time when the second current flows through the resistance heater. The signal generator controls the temperature of the resistance heater based on the voltage value measured by the voltage measuring instrument. |
| US08219257B2 |
Power control protocol for a hydrokinetic device including an array thereof
A method is disclosed for controlling a hydrokinetic device that includes an energy transducer. The method comprises setting a target condition for the hydrokinetic device, monitoring an actual condition of the hydrokinetic device, comparing the target condition to the actual condition to determine an error signal, and invoking a power control protocol with depth change protocol based on the error signal to maintain the hydrokinetic device at the target condition. |
| US08219256B2 |
Bang-bang controller and control method for variable speed wind turbines during abnormal frequency conditions
A wind farm (10) may include a plurality of variable speed wind turbines (12, 14, 16). A centralized controller (50) may be configured to selectively adjust a respective electrical output power from each of the wind turbines at least during an underfrequency condition. The controller may include a monitor (52) configured to monitor a grid frequency value relative to at least a first threshold value. A deviation of the grid frequency value beyond the first threshold value is indicative of the underfrequency condition. The controller further includes a control unit (54) configured to effect a step response to the electrical output power of the wind turbine in a direction selected to counteract the underfrequency condition. |
| US08219255B2 |
Method and system for controlling an electrical installation
A method and a system for controlling an electrical installation uses a graphics-based control system, e.g. a SCADA system and a geo-referenced information system, such as a geographic information system. The system is capable of displaying at least one component of the electrical installation and a piece of geo-referenced information that is linked to the component of the electrical installation. In the GIS, selectable context menus can be displayed in relation to specific geographic reference points, in particular in relation to the location coordinates of the components of the electrical installation, the menus being selected by a user. The context menus determine control commands for the SCADA system, the commands are transmitted directly to the SCADA system after a relevance check and are executed. A user can thus use the GIS system as a type of entry mask for the specification of control commands in the SCADA system. |
| US08219250B2 |
Systems and methods to control energy consumption efficiency
A controller is configured to exchange information with a building automation system and includes various executable programs for determining a real time operating efficiency, simulating a predicted or theoretical operating efficiency, comparing the same, and then adjusting one or more operating parameters on equipment utilized by a building's HVAC system. The controller operates to adjust an operating efficiency of the HVAC system. An adjustment module utilized by the controller may modify the HVAC equipment parameters based on the likelihood that various HVAC equipment operates in parallel and on-line near its natural operating curve. In addition, the adjustment module may include a self-learning aspect that permits the controller to more efficiently make similar, future adjustments as needed. |
| US08219248B2 |
Control device and control method for cooling fan
A hybrid ECU executes a program including the steps of: setting a fan driving level F for a cooling fan, as based on a high voltage battery's temperature TB, SOC and input and output currents, and a vehicular cabin's internal temperature and background noise; detecting from a signal transmitted from a voltage sensor the voltage of an auxiliary battery serving as a power supply for the cooling fan; and setting a duty command value for the cooling fan from fan driving level F and the auxiliary battery's voltage so that the duty command value is smaller as a voltage of the auxiliary battery is higher. |
| US08219244B2 |
Surrogate-based control system
A system for surrogate control of a space that incurs an ineffective sensor connection with its controller for running environmental conditioning equipment to maintain the space at one or more certain environmental parameters such as temperature. A selection of a surrogate space from which the surrogate control is obtained, may be made by correlation of data over time and specifications of other spaces in a building complex. The surrogate control may be from the controller of the space selected for control of the space having the ineffective sensor connection. The surrogate space may be a construct of one or more spaces. It may be based on a virtual space that combines behaviors of other spaces for a good match. Diagnostics may be effected from information about spaces in the system. |
| US08219243B2 |
Automated store arrangement and method for storing and dispensing medicaments
An automated store arrangement for storing and dispensing medicaments with at least one operating device for storing and retrieving medicament containers, a dispensing device, and a control device. The containers may respectively accommodate a multiplicity of medicament portions and have an integrated discharge device. The dispensing device has at least one container receptacle, to which the operating device can respectively feed a container and from which the operating device can pick up the container, a release device, which can activate the discharge device of the container, and a packing device, which can accommodate a number of emerging medicament portions and pack them into the medicament. The control device is coupled to the operating device and to the release device and the packaging device and controls them in such a way that medicament portions of at least one predetermined kind are packed in a respectively predetermined number and sequence. |
| US08219242B2 |
Automated material handling system and method
An automated material handling system for combining over-head conveyer with a material control system is disclosed. First and second virtual stocker codes are respectively assigned to first and second virtual stocker of an over-head conveyer (OHC) using a material control system. A front opening unified pod (FOUP) is moved to and loaded in the first virtual stocker using a transport system controller. The FOUP is loaded in a track of the OHC and assigned a virtual vehicle code. The FOUP is moved, along the track, to the second virtual stocker and loaded in the second virtual stocker, while the virtual vehicle code is being removed, and is removed therefrom using the transport system controller. |
| US08219237B2 |
Method and sewing machine to form sewing patterns with adjustable stitch width
A method and a sewing machine are provided to form sewing patterns allowing the stitching width to be changed during sewing for a flexible adjustment of parameters of the sewing pattern. In particular the stitch length a can be changed without changing the exterior design of the sewing pattern. |
| US08219236B2 |
Method for creating a cutting plan for a strip-like material
A method for creating a cutting plan for a strip-like material for maximizing a quality yield of the process is invented. In the method a cutting plan for a strip-like material is made based on end-product data, and the strip-like material is driven at a production speed in a manufacturing machine or in a finishing machine, and strip length data is recorded. A chart of the strip-like material characteristics is generated and stored in a memory. The recorded strip length data and the chart of the strip-like material characteristics is calibrated with calibration data in a winding process, and during a set change in the winding process the cutting plan for the strip-like material is optimized for maximizing a quality yield of the process based on the end-product data and the calibrated chart of the strip-like material characteristics, and a revised cutting plan is created from the optimization result. |
| US08219235B2 |
Method for storing rolls of material
Rolls of prepared, and of unprepared materials, for use in a web-processing machine, are stored in a warehouse. Information that is used to anticipate consumption data for an impending production period, or anticipated consumption data, is supplied to a material flow system that includes implemented logic. A warehousing strategy is defined in a sub-process which uses the anticipated consumption data and a current inventory. |
| US08219233B2 |
Substrate treatment apparatus
The invention controls a carrier moving and mounting device such that at normal time, the device moves and mounts carriers in sequence to a delivery mounting units according to a carry-in order, and when a priority carrier is carried into the carry-in mounting unit and if all of the delivery mounting units are occupied by the carriers, the device moves and mounts one of the carriers on the retreat mounting unit, and mounts the priority carrier on the delivery mounting unit which has become vacant by the movement; and controls a delivery device such that at normal time, the delivery device carries the substrates out of the carriers according to the carry-in order of the carriers mounted on the delivery mounting units, and when the priority carrier is mounted, the delivery device carries out the substrates in the priority carrier before the substrates in the other carriers. |
| US08219232B2 |
Assembly system assembling a plurality of kinds of automotive parts
An objective of the present invention is to provide an assembly system capable of reducing the equipment space while various kinds of automotive parts are assembled on one production line. The assembly system assembles plural kinds of automotive parts consisting of a main body and a part to be installed to the main body. This assembly system comprises an operator area at which an operator is assigned, a plurality of travel carts on which a main body of each of automotive parts is placed, traveling along the operator area, a part pallet on which a part to be installed to each of the automotive parts is placed, a belt conveyer conveying this part pallet along the operator area, and a control device controlling thereof. The control device drives the travel carts and the belt conveyer so as to convey the travel carts and the part pallet synchronously. |
| US08219231B2 |
Quality control system, quality control apparatus, quality control method and computer readable medium
A quality control method includes: extracting, from a time series distribution of troubles that have occurred in electronic equipments, a first characteristics of states of occurrence of the troubles; specifying one or more parts included in the electronic equipments, the parts being involved with the troubles; extracting, from another time series distribution of a rate of use corresponding to each of suppliers which supply the specified parts, a second characteristics of the parts; and specifying one or more of the suppliers supplying the parts correlated to the troubles based on a correlation between the extracted first characteristics and the extracted second characteristics. |
| US08219228B2 |
Parametric configurator for product design: system and method
The present invention is a system and method for parametric configuration of a complex product. The system includes a parametric configurator, a parametric configuration language, and a parametric data management system. The parametric configuration language facilitates the solution of a design using constraints on geometric, physical, technological, operational, or business parameters. The parametric configurator includes a hierarchical solver that partitions a design into a plurality of subdesigns; provides the choice to collectively or independently optimize sets of subdesigns; and rolls back the solution process to an earlier subdesign when a given subdesign is determined to not be viable. The parametric data management system accesses data on a tangible digital medium, the data including constraints, product models, and product model instances. The method transforms the physical and geometrical constraints into a concrete product design. The completed design can be used to generate a parts and features list from a manufacturer, to generate a quote, or to assemble, manufacture, or fabricate the product. |
| US08219226B2 |
Systems and methods for overriding hardwired responses in an HDA codec
Systems and methods for overriding hardwired responses of a codec to High Definition Audio (HDA) verbs that are received from an HDA controller. In one embodiment, an HDA codec is configured to store one or more overriding responses, each of which is associated with a corresponding HDA verb. When an HDA verb is received by the codec, the codec determines whether the verb is associated with one of the overriding responses. If the verb is associated with one of the overriding responses, the overriding response is returned to the HDA controller. If the first HDA verb is not associated with one of the stored overriding responses, provide a hardwired response associated with the first HDA verb to the HDA bus. Overriding responses can be returned for unsupported verbs only, or for any verbs that prompt responses. |
| US08219223B1 |
Editing audio assets
Systems, methods, and computer program products for editing digital audio data are provided. In some implementations a method is provided. The method includes receiving digital audio data incorporated in a plurality of audio tracks and receiving a selection of one or more audio tracks of the plurality of audio tracks for editing, the selected audio tracks being fewer than all of the plurality of audio tracks. The method also includes receiving an input specifying an audio effect to apply to the selected audio tracks and applying an inverse of the audio effect to one or more non-selected audio tracks in response to the input. |
| US08219222B2 |
Expert system for pump therapy
An apparatus comprising a controller. The controller includes an input/output (I/O) module and a rule module. The I/O module is configured to present a question for a patient when communicatively coupled to a user interface and receive patient information in response to the question via the user interface. The rule module is configured to apply a rule to the patient information and generate a suggested insulin pump setting from application of the rule. Other devices, systems, and methods are disclosed. |
| US08219218B2 |
Plant controlling system and plant controlling method
A plant controlling system includes: a velocity-type PID controlling unit to receive a control deviation between a process value and control set value, and calculate and output a manipulated variable deviation for operation targets; a switching unit to switch and then output the manipulated variable deviation from the velocity-type PID controlling unit to the operation targets; manual operating units, having an integration function, that are associated with the operation targets and output either one of the manipulated variable calculated by the integration of the manipulated variable deviation output from the switching unit and a manipulated variable based on a manually set value to the respective associated operation targets based on a control mode of the operation targets; and a switch controlling unit configured to control operation of the switching unit based on the control mode of the operation targets and the manipulated variables output to the operation targets. |
| US08219217B2 |
Variable transmission window constructions
An electrical control system is disclosed for controlling a plurality of variable transmittance windows. The electrical control system of the present invention comprises a master control circuit for supplying control signals representing transmittance levels for the variable transmission windows, and a plurality of window control circuits coupled to each of the master control circuits. Because the window control circuits can sense abnormal load conditions in the variable transmission windows, the system further includes an interface to a security system to inform of a potential intrusion. Each window control circuit controls the transmittance of at least one of the variable transmission windows in response to control signals received from the master control circuit. |
| US08219214B1 |
Supervisory control and data acquisition protocol converter
A supervisory control and data acquisition protocol converter having encoded meter register input ports which are able to interrogate, read, and retain data stored in viscous fluid or gas meter registers which communicate with the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) protocols and convert that data upon request to an industrial monitoring and control system protocol such as MODBUS®, DF1, EtherNet/IP™, or ADAM 4000. The present art further provides serial RS-232C and RS-485, and Ethernet ports whereby said data may be transmitted and/or the apparatus may be setup according to user defined specifications. The present art apparatus also provides industrial standard pulse (0-5 volts) and current (4-20 milliamps) inputs. The present art further provides a user configurable display which may display any or only a portion of the aforesaid data along with other user desired data. The apparatus further serves a web page over the Ethernet port with the aforesaid data populating a table. |
| US08219212B2 |
Distal portions for medical electrical leads
A medical electrical lead includes a canted lead body distal portion extending from an approximately straight lead body proximal portion; the canted distal portion includes an approximately straight segment and a hump-like segment extending from a first end, in proximity to the approximately straight segment, to a second end. The lead further includes a first electrode coupled to the approximately straight segment of the distal portion and a second electrode coupled to the distal portion in proximity to a second end of the hump-like segment. |
| US08219208B2 |
Frequency selective passive component networks for active implantable medical devices utilizing an energy dissipating surface
Decoupling circuits are provided which transfer energy induced from an MRI pulsed RF field to the housing for an active implantable medical device (AIMD) which serves as an energy dissipating surface. This is accomplished through broadband filtering or by resonant filtering. In a passive component network for an AIMD, a frequency selective energy diversion circuit is provided for diverting high-frequency energy away from an AIMD lead to the AIMD housing for dissipation of said high-frequency energy. |
| US08219204B2 |
Telemetry antenna for an implantable medical device
A telemetry antenna for an implantable medical device includes one or more segments having a non-linear configuration. In some embodiments, the non-linear configuration provides an antenna having a greater antenna length than the linear lengthwise dimension of the antenna structure. In some embodiments, the non-linear configuration includes a plurality of trapezoidal unit structures. |
| US08219199B2 |
System and method for protecting implanted medical devices from interfering radiated fields
An implantable medical device (IMD) can include an implantable pulse generator (IPG), such as a cardiac pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). At least one lead is coupled to the IMD at a proximal end to the anatomic tissue of a patient at a distal end. According to various embodiments, a one-quarter wavelength open circuit terminated transmission line forms a stub filter to attenuate an interfering signal, such as those created by an MRI scanner during an MRI procedure. By cancelling the interfering signal, both the IMD and patient are protected from any adverse effects caused by the interfering signal. |
| US08219197B2 |
Apparatus and method for testing and adjusting a bipolar stimulation configuration
A system and method for measuring the capture threshold of a bipolar lead in order to determine an appropriate value for the stimulus pulse energy to be used with the lead by a cardiac rhythm management device. An appropriate bipolar stimulating configuration can also be determined. The method is particularly useful in testing bipolar leads used to excite the left ventricle such as when delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy. |
| US08219193B2 |
Active implantable medical device for cardiac resynchronization with automatic optimization of atrioventricular and interventricular delays
An active implantable medical device for cardiac resynchronization with automatic optimization of atrioventricular and interventricular delays is disclosed. The device collects an endocardial acceleration signal EA and calculates the atrioventricular delay AVD and the interventricular delay VVD. The device isolate in the EA signal a component EA4 corresponding to the fourth EA peak and measure a temporal parameter related to a time interval between the detection of an atrial event (P/A) and the occurrence of the EA4 component. The device isolates an EA1 component corresponding to the first EA peak and measures a non-temporal parameter (APEA1) related to the peak amplitude or a signal energy of the EA1 component. The optimal AVD (AVDO) is determined by the temporal parameter related to the EA4 component, and is calculated for a plurality of different values of VVD to obtain a plurality of pairs of optimal values {AVDO, VVD}. The device selects one of these pairs of values based on the non-temporal parameter related to the EA1 component. |
| US08219186B2 |
Non-invasive system and method for scanning the heart
A non-invasive system and method of diagnosing and predicting cardiac disease in a patient's heart is disclosed that comprises a microprocessor which contains a signal processor and a pattern recognition processor; detect the electrophysiological signals of the heart whereby the signals are processed to create a pattern that represents the patient's heart. The pattern may be further processed by repeatedly comparing it to patterns stored within the pattern recognition processor whereby certain coronary diseases such as myocardial ischemia in the patient's heart may be diagnosed. During each heartbeat, at least a million different electrical signals are collected and the results of test are displayed on a screen. The results may include the diagnosis, computer generated image of the patient's heart identifying areas of any cardiac disease that has been detected and/or a two dimensional non-linear waveform representing the electrophysiological signals of the patient's heart. In a further embodiment, the system will also generate ECG waveforms. |
| US08219184B2 |
Apparatus for measuring, recording and transmitting electrocardiogram measurements
Embodiments of the present invention include a monitoring device and method for measuring, recording and transmitting a pre-determined set of electrocardiogram measurements. The device provides for an unassisted six or twelve channel measurements of heart and vascular functions using a visual graphical output. Results of the measurements are charted and can be reviewed and analyzed by an authorized health care provider. |
| US08219182B2 |
Cavity-filling biopsy site markers
An ultrasound-detectable biopsy marker mass has a detectable in-vivo lifetime during which the marker mass remains readily detectable by ultrasound imaging. The ultrasound-detectable biopsy marker mass is formed of particles of a bio-resorbable material having bubble cavities and having a particle size between about 200 microns and about 500 microns. |
| US08219181B2 |
Medical imaging system and method containing ultrasound docking port
An ultrasound medical imaging system and non-ultrasound medical imaging system are combined and communicate via a suitable docking port, which is supported by the non-ultrasound medical imaging system and configured to receive the ultrasound medical imaging system. The systems can communicate directly, indirectly, and/or wirelessly. Each can also be configured for cross-imaging in the other modality, displaying medical imagery from the other modality on respective and/or combined displays, and/or control by a user interface of the other and/or a common user interface. Registry between patient imagery is possible, and improved workflow is provided. |
| US08219180B2 |
System and method employing fiber optic shape tracking
The present invention provides systems, devices, and methods employing fiber optic shape and position tracking. The systems, devices, and methods permit measurement of and continuous tracking of the shape and position of objects whose shape dynamically changes with time. Applications include tracking and monitoring of endoscopes for diagnostic and surgical procedures. |
| US08219178B2 |
Method and system for performing invasive medical procedures using a surgical robot
A method and system for performing invasive procedures includes a surgical robot which is controlled by a guidance system that uses time of flight calculations from RF transmitters embedded in the robot, surgical instrument, and patient anatomy. Sensors around the room detect RF transmissions emitted by the RF transmitters and drive the robot according to a preprogrammed trajectory entered into the guidance system. |
| US08219174B2 |
Method of calibrating an analyte-measurement device, and associated methods, devices and systems
The invention relates to a method for calibrating an analyte-measurement device that is used to evaluate a concentration of analyte in bodily fluid at or from a measurement site in a body. The method involves measuring a concentration, or calibration concentration, of an analyte in blood from an “off-finger” calibration site, and calibrating the analyte-measurement device based on that calibration concentration. The invention also relates to a device, system, or kit for measuring a concentration of an analyte in a body, which employs a calibration device for adjusting analyte concentration measured in bodily fluid based on an analyte concentration measured in blood from an “off-finger” calibration site. |
| US08219172B2 |
System and method for creating a stable optical interface
A system and a method for creating a stable and reproducible interface of an optical sensor system for measuring blood glucose levels in biological tissue include a dual wedge prism sensor attached to a disposable optic that comprises a focusing lens and an optical window. The disposable optic adheres to the skin to allow a patient to take multiple readings or scans at the same location. The disposable optic includes a Petzval surface placed flush against the skin to maintain the focal point of the optical beam on the surface of the skin. Additionally, the integrity of the sensor signal is maximized by varying the rotation rates of the dual wedge prisms over time in relation to the depth scan rate of the sensor. Optimally, a medium may be injected between the disposable and the skin to match the respective refractive indices and optimize the signal collection of the sensor. |
| US08219171B2 |
Delivery device for implantable monitor
A system, device, and method for placing a capsule for sensing one or more parameters of a patient by anchoring the capsule to a tissue at a specific site and releasing the capsule from the device, using a single actuator operated during a single motion. As an example, a delivery device may anchor the capsule to the tissue site and release the capsule from the delivery device during a single motion of the actuator. This allows a user to place the capsule by interacting with only a single actuator through one type of motion, thus making delivery of the capsule more reliable and user-friendly. |
| US08219167B2 |
Protective envelope and related portable electronic device combination
An exemplary protective envelope for a portable electronic device includes a hollow main body and a cleaning roller arranged in the hollow main body. The hollow main body defines therein an opening for insertion of the portable electronic device therethrough. The cleaning roller is rotatably fixed in the hollow main body. |
| US08219163B2 |
Slide mechanism for slide-type portable electronic device
A slide mechanism comprises a main plate forming two guiding groove portions, and a slide plate forming two guiding flanges engaging with the guiding groove portions respectively. The slide mechanism includes a plurality of rollers received in the guiding groove portions to guide the guiding flanges to slide relative to the guiding groove portions. The invention also discloses a portable electronic device applying the slide mechanism. |
| US08219162B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device, comprising: a main body, a back cover, and a button; wherein, the main body comprises a bottom portion and a side wall extending therefrom, a first through hole is defined on the bottom portion, and a second through hole is defined in the side wall; the button comprises a base and a sliding body connected to the base which is caused to generate an elastic deformation under external force, the base is secured to the bottom portion of the main body, and the sliding portion is received in and exposed from the second through hole; the back cover includes an inner surface and a hook protruding from the inner surface, a hook portion is formed on an end of the hook away from the back cover; when the back cover is connected to the main body, the hook is passed through the first through hole, the hook portion is engaged to the base of the button; when the sliding body is pushed, it causes the base to generate the elastic deformation to make the base disengage the hook. |
| US08219160B2 |
Portable electronic device
A portable electronic device including a first body having a first pair of opposing sides, a second body having a second pair of opposing sides, the second pair of opposing sides being in slidable engagement with the first pair of opposing sides to move the first body from a first position to a second position, and a magnetic unit located adjacent at least one side of the pair of opposing sides of the first body and at least one side of the pair of opposing sides of the second body. Further, the magnetic unit is configured to generate a magnetic force to bias the first body toward one of the first position and the second position. |
| US08219152B2 |
Mobile terminal and control method thereof
A mobile terminal is presented. The mobile terminal includes a display module comprising a front surface and a rear surface, a display controller for displaying an object associated with a first menu on at least one of the front surface or rear surface, a user input unit configured to receive a touch input via the front and rear surface of the display module for selecting one of the displayed objects, and a controller configured to execute an operation associated with the selected object according to which of the front and rear surface is touched. |
| US08219151B2 |
Portable terminal and driving method of the same
A portable terminal is provided that includes a vibration generator for vibrating the portable terminal, a receiving device for receiving input from a user and determining a coordinate value on a display screen based on the received input, and a controller for determining a vibration pattern corresponding to information on a display screen based on the determined coordinate value. |
| US08219149B2 |
Mobile communication terminal
A mobile communication apparatus capable of presenting themes, a telecommunication system comprising a such apparatus, and a corresponding method are disclosed. The apparatus comprises a processor arranged to generate an audio signal in response to a set theme. The audio signal comprises a speech signal, wherein speech of the speech signal have voice characteristics which depend on the theme. Alternatively, processor is arranged to set a theme in response to contact information stored in a contact information database of the appatatus and associated with actions performed by the apparatus. |
| US08219148B2 |
Method for activating the subscription of an UICC device
The invention provides a method for activating the subscription of an UICC, said UICC comprising an activation application, said method comprising the step of activating the subscription of the holder of the UICC by sending a message to an activation server, said message being sent by the activation application to the activation server by using an IP based communication. |
| US08219147B2 |
Mobile terminal and method of indentifying SIM card thereof
A method of indentifying SIM card of a mobile terminal supports at least two SIM cards and comprises a power supply module and a power management module, wherein the power management module has different preset reference voltages and supplies power to the SIM cards respectively according to a comparison result of the reference voltages and operating voltages of the SIM cards. Via the preset reference voltages to the power management module, when the SIM card is inserted into the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal control the power supply module to supply power to the SIM cards, and the power management module determines whether the reference voltage matches the operating voltage of the SIM card, according to the comparison of the reference voltage and the operating voltage of the SIM card, so as to determine whether the SIM card can be indentified. |
| US08219146B2 |
Audio-only user interface mobile phone pairing
Address book content information and an input command set are synchronized by an audio-only user interface mobile phone with a mobile device pairing server, such that the address book content information and the input command set of the audio-only user interface mobile phone are synchronized with a display-based mobile phone and the audio-only user interface mobile phone is synchronized with the display-based mobile phone via a shared unified single telephone number. The synchronized address book content information and the synchronized input command set are stored. Audio voice input information is detected. A command associated with the stored input command set is identified within the detected audio voice input information, and the identified command is processed. Audio output is generated confirming that processing associated with the identified command is in process. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract. |
| US08219145B2 |
Universal radio card for wireless devices
A multi-band wireless system includes a wireless device and a detachable radio card. The wireless device includes an application processor, an electric interface, and an antenna. The detachable radio card can be mounted onto the electric interface. The detachable radio card includes a base band processor, a radio-frequency transceiver, a multi-band power amplifier module, and a radio controller. |
| US08219144B2 |
Disabling of mobile phone camera operation by video-restricted location device
An apparatus in one example has: a predetermined location having at least a wireless communication device, the wireless communication device having a predetermined coverage area; a mobile terminal that communicates with the wireless communication device when the mobile terminal is within the predetermined coverage area; the mobile terminal having a camera and a functionality that selectively disables and enables the camera; and the wireless communication device having a functionality that causes the mobile terminal to disable the camera when the mobile terminal is within the predetermined coverage area, and wherein the mobile terminal effects an enabling of the camera when the mobile terminal leaves the predetermined coverage area. |
| US08219143B2 |
Mobile radio device
A portable wireless device includes a first communication unit having a loop antenna that communicates with external devices using a first usable frequency band, and an RFID chip that performs predetermined processing with respect to information communicated by the loop antenna. A second communication unit includes a main antenna that communicates by a second usable frequency band that is higher than the first usable frequency band, and a communication processing unit that performs predetermined processing with respect to information communicated by the main antenna. A reactance component of the loop antenna is adjusted such that a high-order secondary resonance point of the first usable frequency band does not overlap the second usable frequency band. |
| US08219141B2 |
System with shared power amplifier for mobile communication terminal with mobile RFID function
Provided is a power amplifier sharing system for a mobile communication system having a mobile Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) function, particularly, a power amplifier sharing system that can reduce the power consumption and the size of a circuit in a mobile communication terminal having a mobile RFID function. The system includes a mobile communication transceiver for transmitting/receiving a mobile communication signal; a mobile RFID transceiver for transmitting/receiving a mobile RFID signal; a power amplifier for amplifying a signal; a switch for connecting the mobile communication transceiver and the mobile RFID transceiver to the power amplifier; and a transceiver controller for controlling the switch and the power amplifier. |
| US08219139B2 |
Radio base station accommodating method and network device
A radio base station accommodating method according to the present invention includes step A of causing a network device 100 to judge a type of a radio base station 200, 201 upon receipt of a connection request from the radio base station 200, 201, step B of causing the network device 100 to generate an operation parameter to be set in the radio base station 200, 201 by using a method which is different depending on each type of the radio base station 200, 201 and to notify the radio base station 200, 201 of the operation parameter, and step C of causing the radio base station to start operation by using the operation parameter thus notified. |
| US08219133B2 |
Implicit group formation around feed content for mobile devices
A unique system and method that facilitates group-based mobile communication around external feed content is provided. The system and method involve adding external feed content to content generated within a group. Both types of content can be viewed on the mobile devices of the group. Updates to the feed content can be obtained and communicated to the group. When multiple feeds are subscribed to by a group, one or more group members can display such feed content in a selective manner. For example, splinter groups can be formed off of the original group for members who wish to receive a subset of feeds (feed content) to assist them in focusing on a topic of interest. Group members can also employ display filters to restrict feed content displayed on their mobile devices. Users can also search for available feeds and form new groups around such content or join an existing group. |
| US08219129B2 |
Dynamic real-time tiered client access
Wireless client devices within a wireless network exchange data with other wireless devices during particular time slots determined by the network. More particularly, the system generates and wirelessly broadcasts synchronization information to the client devices, where the synchronization information contains individual masks to be applied to bit fields of individual client devices, where said time slots are determined in accordance with the masked bit fields. In such a manner, client devices can be coordinated to communicate with the system in a dynamic real-time tiered manner. |
| US08219122B2 |
Apparatus, and associated method, for paging an access terminal in a radio communication system
An apparatus, and an associated methodology for a communication system in which an access terminal is paged by a page sent on a paging channel. Hashes are generated by a hash generator at an access network to identify where in the paging message that page indications are to be positioned. And, hashes are generated at the access terminal to identify where in a received page that page indications are located. |
| US08219120B2 |
Information management method and system
An information management method and an information management system are provided. The method mainly includes the following steps. A first message is sent to a foreign agent (FA) of a mobile station (MS) after a paging controller (PC) is redirected. The first message includes information of a new PC after redirection. The FA stores the information of the new PC and sends a response message to the first message to the PC. The following technical effects are achieved by the present invention through the above technical solutions. An anchor PC before redirection or a new anchor PC after redirection reports an ID of the new anchor PC to the FA, so the FA gets to know an address of the new anchor PC when paging and thus implements the paging process successfully. |
| US08219117B2 |
Method of paging a mobile terminal
In a wireless network which comprises a first plurality of base stations and a second plurality of access network gateways, there is provided a method for tracking and/or paging a mobile terminal, wherein the method comprises the steps of: providing a mobile terminal located within the wireless network, and wherein the mobile terminal is in an active mode; selecting a first access network gateway out of the second plurality of access network gateways to be an anchor gateway for location and/or paging control for the mobile terminal; and upon receiving at the first access network gateway a request for a location update of the mobile terminal which has meanwhile entered an idle mode, selecting a base station for communicating with the mobile terminal from among the first plurality of base stations, and providing the selected base station with information required for verifying the identity of the mobile terminal and/or for retaining the security integrity of the selected base station while carrying out location update of the mobile terminal. Preferably, the paging Controller ID (or its location) is used for the update of the traffic anchored GW, and can then be used for allocating the paging controller by the traffic anchored GW during the paging procedure. |
| US08219116B1 |
Wireless base station location estimation
A wireless base station allows a mobile device to communicate with a wireless network. An estimate of the location of the wireless base station may allow a location based service to determine the location of a mobile device. In an embodiment, location may be estimated using a collection of data samples obtained from a mobile device. These data samples may contain carrier related timing information, for example GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) timing information and received signal strength indication (RSSI). Data from the GSM timing information and RSSI may be analyzed to estimate a distance of a mobile device from a wireless base station. In another embodiment, a centroid of the data samples is computed. The centroid may then be used to estimate the direction of a cell phone tower relative to the centroid. In this way, using an estimate of distance and direction, location of wireless base station may be estimated. |
| US08219115B1 |
Location based reminders
A computer-implemented user alert method includes identifying a task for a user, associating a location with the task, monitoring a location of a mobile device associated with the user, and notifying the user about the task when the mobile device comes within a defined proximity of the associated location. |
| US08219110B1 |
Providing information to a mobile device based on an event at a geographical location
A system, method, and computer readable medium for providing information to a mobile device based on an event comprising detecting an occurrence of the event, determining if the event is a specific event and if the event occurred at or near a geographical location and sending an alert of the event to at least one mobile device if the event is the specific event, if the event occurs at or near the geographical location, and if the at least one mobile device is located at or near the geographical location. |
| US08219109B2 |
Multiprotocol interference avoidance in monoprotocol radio communications system
In one example, a method and system for selecting a channel for use with a mobile communication device is described. A first wireless communications protocol network parameter associated with a first wireless communications protocol is monitored. A second wireless communications protocol operating channel is selected utilizing the monitored parameter data associated with the first wireless communications network. |
| US08219106B2 |
Reverse link load control
A reverse link load control strategy utilizes a total call load metric in place of a reverse signal strength indicator metric for managing reverse link resources. In a disclosed example, a load control module (40) measures the reverse signal strength indicator (62) and measures an active cell load (64) using known techniques. A relationship between the reverse signal strength indicator, the active cell load, an other cell load component and a jammer component provides the ability to determine the other cell load component and the jammer component. Once the other cell load component has been determined, a total call load based upon the active cell load component and the other cell load component provides a useful metric for allocating reverse link resources between existing users and for determining whether to allow a new user, for example. |
| US08219105B2 |
Radio resource allocation to reduce uplink interference
A network node (28) of a radio access network (20) comprises a scheduler (40) configured to provide an allocation of an uplink resource to an indoor wireless terminal (30) in communication over an air interface with the radio access network. The allocation of the network node is made in coordinated manner with resource allocation of another network node whereby any interference by reason of allocation of same uplink resource must be with another indoor wireless terminal served by the another network node. Preferably the another network node is a network node which serves a neighboring or adjacent cell. |
| US08219095B2 |
Base station for a cellular communication system and a method of operation therefor
A base station (101) for a cellular communication system comprises a transceiver (301) which receives measurement reports from a plurality of user equipments (107) served by the base station (101). The measurement reports comprise receive signal quality indications (such as receive signal levels for pilot signals) for neighbor cells (A-F) of the base station (101). An overlap processor (301) determines a cell overlap indication for each of a set of neighbor cells in response to the receive signal quality indications and a handover control processor (305) performs handover control in response to the cell overlap indications. The invention may allow improved handover performance and may increase the likelihood that the target handover cell can continue to support the user equipment (101) following handover. Particularly advantageous performance can be achieved when used for congestion relief of cells. |
| US08219091B2 |
Wireless communication method and system for conveying media independent handover capability information
A method and system for conveying media independent handover (MIH) capability information are disclosed. A wireless communication system includes a plurality of wireless networks deployed under different wireless communication protocols. A multi-mode wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may perform a handover from one wireless network to another for continuous reception of services. The wireless network sends a message to the WTRU which indicates whether the wireless network supports MIH services and a supported MIH mode. The WTRU receives the message and makes a handover decision based on the message. |
| US08219090B2 |
System and method for selection of a cellular network
A system and method in a wireless communication device for receiving a System Identification Number (SID) from multiple wireless carriers operating within communication range of the wireless communication device, determining a signal quality level associated with each of the wireless carriers, determining a preference level for each of the wireless carriers based on a Preferred Roaming List (PRL), and selecting one of the wireless carriers based on the signal quality level of each wireless carrier and based further on the preference level for each wireless carrier. |
| US08219083B2 |
Service roaming system and method
The present invention relates to service roaming. A service roaming system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first service operator providing a service, a first service reproduction apparatus running the service and transmitting roaming information input from a user to the first service operator, a second service operator providing the service through roaming on the basis of the roaming information, and a second service reproduction apparatus running the service to be provided through roaming. |
| US08219078B2 |
Method and apparatus for multi-user multi-input multi-output transmission
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and systems of transmitting data signals from at least one transmitting terminal with a spatial diversity capability to at least two receiving user terminals, each provided with spatial diversity receiving device. The methods and systems are useful, for example, in communication between terminals, e.g., wireless communication. In certain embodiments, transmission can be between a base station and two or more user terminals, wherein the base station and user terminals are each equipped with more than one antenna. |
| US08219075B2 |
Method for testing performance of a mobile telecommunications network
A method for testing performance of a mobile telecommunications system includes the steps of using a link probe for coupling a signaling analyzer to a mobile telecommunications link between a wireless network controller and a wireless transmission/reception station, collecting signaling information with the signaling analyzer for the predetermined telecommunications activities coupled through the mobile telecommunications link, and analyzing collected signaling information from the step of collecting to determine performance values for the mobile telecommunications link. |
| US08219072B2 |
System and method for enhanced UAProfile management
Given the growing number of Wireless Devices, and the increasingly varied characteristics (including for example screen size, color depth support, audio and video support, etc.) that Wireless Device vendors or manufacturers provide within their Wireless Devices, an infrastructure that various entities (such as for example Content Providers, Service Providers, etc.) may use to quickly retrieve a quality-controlled User Agent Profile based just on a Wireless Device's Telephone Number. The infrastructure may optionally leverage the capabilities of a centrally-located Messaging Inter-Carrier Vendor. |
| US08219071B2 |
Portable terminal, information recommendation method and program
An information acquisition section acquires application halfway information, user preference, updated date and time, real-timeness, usage frequency, usage history, radio wave state, remaining battery level, billing information or other information. A controller calculates recommendation values indicating recommended degrees to recommend the use to a user for each of a plurality of applications and for each of the contents of each of the applications, using the information that the information acquisition section acquired. Then, for example, when a specific button is pressed, the controller gives priorities to the plurality of applications and contents based on the recommendation values, causing the applications and contents to be displayed on a display of a display section 15 in the order of priority. Thus, of the various applications and contents, it makes it possible to select one that is more matched to the user preference and suitable for the terminal usage pattern. |
| US08219058B2 |
Radio receiver
A radio receiver adapted to alternatively receive data over a communication channel in a first mode and a second mode. The second mode facilitates reception of data at higher data rates than the first mode. The radio receiver comprises a signal-processing unit and a control unit. The signal processing unit is adapted to determine a quality condition of the communication channel. The control unit is adapted to determine, based on the quality condition, whether the communication channel facilitates operation in the second mode and assess at least one configuration condition, one of the at least one configuration condition being that the communication channel is determined to facilitate operation in the second mode. The control unit is further adapted to configure the radio receiver to operate in the second mode when all of at least one configuration condition are fulfilled or to operate in the first mode otherwise. A method for controlling the radio receiver is also disclosed. |
| US08219054B2 |
Oscillating circuit and radio communication apparatus
According to an aspect of the invention, an oscillating circuit includes: a first MOS transistor having a first drain terminal and a first source terminal; a load element connected to the first drain terminal; and an oscillator connected to the first source terminal and outputs a fundamental signal and a harmonic signal, wherein the harmonic signal is amplified so that the amplified harmonic signal is output from the first drain terminal. |
| US08219052B2 |
Information providing system
An information providing system is provided. An in-vehicle apparatus is provided in a vehicle. The in-vehicle apparatus receives a broadcasting. An information providing apparatus transmits area information related to a broadcast channel that is receivable in a traveling area of the vehicle to the in-vehicle apparatus. A storage unit stores the area information for each traveling area. A receiving unit receives probe information including a predetermined reference position or a position of the vehicle from the in-vehicle apparatus. A deciding unit decides a reference area set including a plurality of traveling areas which are within a predetermined distance from the reference position included in the received probe information for each vehicle. An accumulating unit accumulates the received probe information. A determining unit determines a traveling record of the vehicle in each traveling area on the basis of the accumulated probe information. An update unit updates the reference area set on the basis of the traveling record. A transmitting unit transmits the area information corresponding to the reference area set before the update to the in-vehicle apparatus corresponding to the reference area set when the update unit has not yet performed the update, and transmits the area information corresponding to the reference area set after the update to the in-vehicle apparatus corresponding to the reference area set when the update unit has performed the update. |
| US08219051B2 |
Front-end receiver circuit with multiple paths which are simultaneously active and receiver system using the same
A front end receiver is disclosed. The front end receiver comprises a plurality of transmissive signal paths originating from one signal input, a plurality of switching mechanisms; and at least one path of the plurality of transmissive signal paths including a first amplifier coupled to a first input port of each of the plurality of switching mechanisms. The front end receiver also comprises at least another path of the plurality of transmissive signal paths including a second amplifier coupled to a second input port of each of the plurality of switching mechanisms. The receiving subsystem coupled to the output port of each switching mechanism. Each of the receiving subsystems controls a switching mechanism to select the path that is optimal for radio reception depending on the strength of signal being received. |
| US08219050B1 |
Radio transmission apparatus and radio transmission method
A radio transmission apparatus according to the present invention detects an output current of a power supply section that varies in response to a variation of the output impedance of an amplification section, and corrects a distortion of the input/output characteristic of the amplification section by using an LUT corresponding to the detected output current. In addition, a threshold used for switching an LUT is caused to be different depending on a switching direction between LUTs, thereby suppressing frequent occurrence of switching of the LUT. |
| US08219046B2 |
Method and system for obtaining maximum gain of a passive upconversion mixer utilized in a transmitter
A RF transmitter is operable to transmit a signal at a frequency specified by the Bluetooth protocol. A passive upconversion mixer, which comprises a pair of MOSFET switches, is utilized inside the RF transmitter. The passive upconversion mixer is operable to receive analog local oscillator (LO) signals to be utilized for controlling operation of each of the pair of MOSFET switches to transmit signals with maximum gain. A MOS threshold voltage VTH and a DC component of a received baseband signal, VBB—DC, are determined for each of the pair of MOSFET switches. The determined VTH and the determined VBB—DC of the received baseband signal are combined such as VTH+VBB—DC and compared with a DC component of the received LO signals, VLO—DC. The VLO—DC is set equal to VTH+VBB—DC, accordingly, to provide maximum gain from the passive upconversion mixer for signal transmission. |
| US08219042B2 |
Wireless communication system, base station device, mobile station device, and macrodiversity selection method
A wireless communication system, a base station device, a mobile station device, and a macrodiversity selection method of the invention, in a base station device including a macrodiversity function among a plurality of sectors, select a macrodiversity method for the mobile station device from a plurality of macrodiversity methods, in accordance with a predetermined determination reference based on reception conditions of the mobile station device. |
| US08219039B2 |
Radio communication device and radio communication method
A radio communication device according to the present invention adaptively controls directivity of a transmission radio signal by using a plurality of element antennas on the basis of a received radio signal received from a communication target counterpart radio communication device. The radio communication device includes a transmission controller configured to process the transmission radio signal according to a first control method for adaptively controlling the directivity, a propagation path state detector configured to detect fluctuation state of a propagation path to a counterpart radio communication device, and a judgment unit configured to judge whether or not to change the directivity on the basis of the fluctuation state of the propagation path. If it is judged that the directivity is to be changed, the transmission controller switches to a second control method that is different from the first control method, and processes the transmission radio signal according to the second control method. |
| US08219036B2 |
Dynamic channel quality measurement procedure implemented in a wireless digital communication system to prioritize the forwarding of downlink data
A wireless digital communication system includes a base station in communication with a plurality of user equipment mobile terminals (UEs). The system prioritizes the forwarding of blocks of downlink data to designated ones of the UEs. The system employs adaptive modulation and coding (AM&C) to achieve improved radio resource utilization and provides optimum data rates for user services. Blocks of downlink (DL) data are received by the base station which requests downlink (DL) channel quality measurements only from those mobile terminals (UEs) with pending downlink transmissions. The UEs respond to the request by measuring and reporting DL channel quality to the base station, which then allocates resources such that the UEs will make best use of radio resources. The base station notifies the UEs of the physical channel allocation indicating the modulation/coding rate and allocated slots followed by transmission of blocks of downlink data which are transmitted to the UEs. |
| US08219032B2 |
Method and system for compensating for estimated distortion in a transmitter by utilizing a digital predistortion scheme with a quadrature feedback mixer configuration
Aspects of a method and system for compensating for estimated distortion in a transmitter by utilizing a digital predistortion scheme with a quadrature feedback mixer configuration are presented. Aspects of the system may include an RF transmitter that enables generation of an RF output signal in response to one or more generated input signals. One or more feedback signals may be generated by performing frequency downconversion on the RF output signal within a corresponding one or more feedback mixer circuits. The generated one or more feedback signals may be inserted at a corresponding one or more insertion points in an RF receiver. Each insertion point may be between a receiver mixer circuit and corresponding circuits that generate a baseband signal based on the corresponding one of the feedback signals. |
| US08219029B2 |
Wireless communication device, program, method, and system for communicating operation instruction information
A wireless communication device includes: a generation portion that generates management information for forming a wireless network with wireless communication devices in the vicinity, and operation instruction information that instructs operation of at least one of the wireless communication devices in the vicinity; and a communication portion that periodically transmits, to the wireless communication devices in the vicinity, management information to which the operation instruction information has been added. |
| US08219027B2 |
Proximity based smart collaboration
A first device detects one or more devices within communication proximity of the first device, determines one or more actions to perform when said one or more devices are within communication proximity, learns behavior of the first device when said one or more devices are detected to be within communication proximity of the first device and performs said one or more actions. |
| US08219026B2 |
Dynamically varying link super vision timeout in Bluetooth and similarly enabled devices to detect link loss
The present example provides for modification of the link supervision timer allows for an enhanced user experience with wireless devices, by allowing loss of the wireless link to be handled more effectively. The link supervision timer may be changed without modifying the device profile being used. The change in the timer may be based upon the profile of the communications that is occurring, and upon the current state of the communications. |
| US08219025B2 |
Stand alone sensor apparatus for continuous web machines
A stand alone sensor apparatus includes a moveable chassis and, mounted to the chassis, a wireless power receiver, a sensor, and a wireless transceiver. The wireless power receiver receives power wirelessly, converts the wireless power to electrical power, and provides the electrical power to the sensor and the wireless transceiver. The sensor measures a characteristic of a continuous web material. The wireless transceiver is coupled to the sensor and wirelessly sends a signal that is based upon the measured characteristic. An air source and/or a temperature control device may be mounted to the moveable chassis and receive electrical power from the wireless power receiver. |
| US08219020B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus having a sheet support is described. Using one or more configurations, the number of parts for the sheet support may be reduced. |
| US08219018B2 |
Image generating program, storage medium, image processing method, and image processing device
An image generating program, a storage medium, an image processing method, and an image processing device are provided capable of carrying out very detailed image control while preventing wastage of resources.This is configured such that a area of a movement path present in a viewing frustum is calculated, then a determination is made based on the area as to whether or not moving objects are to be generated, and when it is determined that moving objects are to be generated, information of the moving objects to be generated is stored in storage means such that positions of moving objects present in the viewing frustum are renewed based on the information of the plurality of moving objects stored in the storage means and images of the plurality of moving objects are generated. |
| US08219013B2 |
Fuser member having composite outer layer
Exemplary embodiments provide composite materials used for fixing members that can include silsesquioxane-based particles and/or carbon nanotubes dispersed in a polymer matrix. |
| US08219009B2 |
Developer station and method for an electrographic printer with magnetically enabled developer removal
A developer station for an electrographic printer is provided that reduces developer agitation. The developer station includes a sump of magnetic developer, and a magnetic brush roller mounted above said sump and having a rotatable magnetic core surrounded by a substantially cylindrical toning shell rotatably mounted with respect to the core. The toning shell defines a nip at its closest point to the photoconductor element. A toning shell and magnetic core radius along with the eccentric offset of the toning shell from the rotating magnetic core are used in combination with the magnetic properties of the rotating magnetic core to determine the radius of the toning shell and magnetic core to improve the skiving and removal of developer from the toning shell after the developer has passed through the nip with the photoconductor element. |
| US08219006B2 |
Image forming unit and image forming apparatus having the same
An image forming unit includes an image supporting member; a developer supporting member for attaching developer to a static latent image formed on the image supporting member to form a developer image; and a protective sheet disposed between the image supporting member and the developer supporting member when the image forming unit is stored. The protective sheet has a surface resistivity between 1.0×108Ω/□ and 8.0×1012Ω/□ when a voltage between 10 V and 250 V is applied thereto. |
| US08219004B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus including: a first and a second photoconductor groups constituted of one or more photoconductors respectively; a first and a second drive control sections for controlling the drive of the first and the second photoconductor groups respectively to rotate the photoconductors thereof, wherein the rotational phases of the first photoconductor group and the second photoconductor group are adjusted to be matched therebetween; and the first and the second drive control sections control so that predetermined profile of a target speed is applied to the first and second photoconductor groups wherein, in the target-speed profile, the first photoconductor group starts rotating after a elapse of a predetermined startup delay time from the second photoconductor group starts rotating, and both groups end at a same final speed predetermined for full-color image formation, wherein the startup delay time is predetermined based on measurements of times needed for each of the first and the second photoconductor groups to reach a predetermined speed from starting the rotation with the target-speed profile being applied thereto. |
| US08219002B2 |
Controlling sheet synchronization in a digital printing system
A calibration procedure for the synchronization of photoreceptor belt seams of tandem marking devices at system cycle-up. The procedure allows for images projected upon equivalent image panels relative to the belt seams of the tandem engines to be printed on the same sheet. The successive image panels on each belt are of relatively equal distance from the respective belt seams. Thus there is less frequency of the need to skip pitches in the printing operation to avoid either imaging on a belt seam or having the sheet arrive outside the input timing window for second engine sheet registration. |
| US08218996B2 |
Image forming apparatus with improved ventilation
An image forming apparatus including a fixing unit; a discharge unit; a stacking unit; an inversion guide; a cooling fan; an opening; a duct; and a second duct, wherein the discharge unit is provided on a downstream side of the side end of the fixing unit in a paper discharge direction, and an air flow direction from the duct toward the second duct is substantially matched with a direction in which hot air above the fixing unit is taken in by the cooling fan. |
| US08218992B2 |
Method and apparatus to control cooling fan to cool fusing unit of image forming apparatus
To control a cooling fan to cool a fusing unit of an image forming apparatus, it is determined whether the fusing unit is turned on or off. If the fusing unit is determined to be turned on or off, it is determined whether a condition to turn the cooling fan on or off is satisfied. If the cooling fan on/off condition is satisfied, the cooling fan is turned on or off. Thus, the driving of the cooling fan is minimized when the driving of the cooling fan is unnecessary so that the cooling fan is driven at a high efficiency. |
| US08218989B2 |
Image forming apparatus that transfers toner image carried by image carrier onto sheet, density control method therefor, and storage medium
An image forming apparatus capable of identifying the amount of reflected light from any portion of an image carrier in a short time. A sensor detects reflected light from an intermediate transfer belt. A CPU performs pattern matching between the amount of reflected light from the belt corresponding to one rotation thereof and the amount of reflected light from a specific portion of the belt to thereby identify a first circumferential location of the specific portion and a second circumferential location of a toner patch formed on the belt. The CPU calculates toner patch density based on the amount of reflected light from the toner patch and the amount of reflected light from the belt in the second circumferential location. The density of a toner image to be formed on the belt is controlled according to the calculated toner patch density. |
| US08218985B2 |
Image printing method with reduced banding
Cross-track banding artifacts and wear in an electrophotographic (EP) print engine are reduced. A development member and a supply member are disposed so that charge is transferred between them in a charge-transfer region. The members are retained in a first position with respect to each other for a first dwell time, and neither member is rotated during the first dwell time, so that charge is transferred between members in the charge-transfer region. One of the members is rotated so that at least one point on one of the members is moved out of the charge-transfer region. The members are retained in a second position with respect to each other for a second dwell time that is greater than the time for one revolution of the development member, wherein neither member is rotated during the second dwell time. |
| US08218980B2 |
Image forming device
An image forming device includes a main body, a replaceable unit, a determination unit, a first memory, a second memory, a temporary memory, a first control unit, and a second control unit. The determination unit determines whether the replaceable unit is a genuine product or a non-genuine product with respect to the main body. The first memory is configured to store a physical value increasing with a use of the main body mounted with the genuine product. The second memory is configured to store the physical value increasing with the use of the main body mounted with the non-genuine product. The temporary memory is configured to temporarily store the physical value increasing with the use of the main body mounted with the non-genuine product. |
| US08218971B2 |
Room association device conveying sector data for in-room position and facing determinations
A processor can determine a relative position within a room of a person wearing a force-on-force device based exclusively upon sensed optical signals detected by optical sensors connected to the force-on-force device. Each of the sensed optical signals is geographically focused within a spatially constrained zone. Each sensed optical signal can further include digitally encoded data indicating an optical source that emitted the sensed optical signal and a spatially constrained zone of the sensed optical signal. The relative position can be determined based on determining a grid within the room within which the person is located. The grid can be defined by overlapping ones of the spatially constrained zones of the sensed optical signals. |
| US08218969B2 |
OFDM transponder interface with variable bit transfer rate in optical communications systems
OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) has been proposed for processing signals over WDM channels in an optical network. The number of OFDM sub-carrier channels utilized in transmitting optical signals from a transmitting node to a remote is adapted to the quality of transmission in a WDM channel. Responsive to control signals from the remote node, the number of used sub-carrier channels is set to optimize optical performance of the WDM channel. |
| US08218968B2 |
System and method for discovering neighboring nodes
A method for discovering neighboring nodes includes establishing a first optical connection with a first node using a first link. The method also includes detecting a change in the first optical connection. The method further includes initiating a discovery process to detect whether the first node or a second node is using the first link. The method additionally includes, upon detecting a second node using the first link, disabling the first optical connection and establishing a second optical connection with the second node. |
| US08218961B2 |
Autofocus system
An autofocus system includes: an image pickup unit that takes a subject image formed by an optical system; a target subject detection unit that detects a target subject, which is previously registered as an autofocus target, in a photographing image taken by the image pickup unit; a lens-to-subject distance calculation unit that calculates a lens-to-subject distance to the target subject based on information on a photographing angle of view depending on a focal length of the optical system, a size of the target subject in the photographing image, and a size of the target subject in real space; and a rough AF unit that controls a focus of the optical system so as to bring into focus the subject which is located at the lens-to-subject distance calculated by the lens-to-subject distance calculation unit. |
| US08218960B2 |
Lens apparatus performing focusing according to zoom position
A lens apparatus includes an imaging optical system including a focus lens unit, a branching optical unit disposed at the image side of the focus lens unit, a focus-state detecting unit including a focus detecting element having a focus detection area that receives light beams from the branching optical unit, and detecting a focus state by using the focus detecting element, an actuator that drives the focus lens unit in an optical axis direction thereof, a controller that controls the actuator, in accordance with an output from the focus-state detecting unit, and a movable image-side optical unit disposed at the image side of the branching optical unit. The controller changes the size of the focus detection area of the focus detecting element within a range in accordance with the position of the image-side optical unit. |
| US08218959B2 |
Dual lens optical system and dual lens camera having the same
A dual lens optical system includes a first optical system and a second optical system selectively redirecting at least one of two lights of representing images of object from two incident lenses into a first optical axis of light toward an image sensor by at least one reflection member, wherein, at least one optical element is disposed between an image sensor and the reflection member. |
| US08218952B2 |
Content playback device and content playback method
According to one embodiment, a content playback device includes a receiving module which receives a plurality of channels including content, a selection module which selects a desired channel from a plurality of channels, a playback module which plays back a content item included in the selected channel, and a creation module which creates a special clock based on a playback time of a content item for the selected channel. |
| US08218951B2 |
Storage medium storing program management information, and reproducing method and apparatus
A storage medium storing program applications to provide additional functions using moving-images and management information needed to manage the program applications. The storage medium includes reproduction mode data reproducing moving-image data, program data including a plurality of program applications providing additional functions using the moving-image data, system data controlling the execution of the reproduction mode data and the program data, and management information managing the execution of the program applications in unit of title. The program applications providing additional functions can be managed in unit of title and loaded to a system memory in advance to be executed. |
| US08218950B2 |
Recording device and recording method
A recording device includes: a first irradiation unit that irradiates first light to an optical-recording-type display medium during a recording period on the basis of image data, the display medium being configured to display an image recorded in the display medium using light; and a second irradiation unit that irradiates second light having given energy to the display medium during the recording period. |
| US08218946B2 |
Method of storing data in mobile terminal having digital multimedia broadcasting function
A mobile terminal and a method for storing data in the mobile terminal including a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) function are provided. The method for storing data includes setting reservation information, when a reservation storage function is selected in a DMB mode, determining a program start time point and a channel according to the set reservation information through Electronic Program Guide (EPG) information and converting the DMB mode to a sleep mode, activating the DMB mode and identifying Event Information Table (EIT) information of currently received first data and a second data to be received, if a current time point is equal to the program start time point, storing the first data, if the EIT information of the first data is included in the reservation information, otherwise, determining whether the EIT information of the second data is included in the reservation information, and receiving and storing the second data. |
| US08218945B2 |
Motion picture recording/reproducing apparatus
A motion picture recording/reproducing apparatus for embodying the technique includes, at least, a motion picture data input unit which inputs the motion picture data, a storage unit which stores the motion picture data, a recording unit which stores the motion picture data in the storage unit, a feature generating unit which generates a feature of the motion picture data, a ranking generating unit which provides ranking of scenes in the motion picture data according to their importance levels, a reproduction scene deciding unit which decides a reproduction image for each of the scenes in the motion picture data, and a category acquiring unit which acquires the category of the motion picture data. The ranking generating unit provides ranking of the scenes in the input motion picture data on the basis of the acquired category. |
| US08218936B2 |
Device for receiving a subassembly assigned to an optical fiber cable and for fastening the same to a mounting
A device for receiving a fiber optic cable subassembly and fastening the subassembly to a mounting is disclosed. The device comprises a body having a front end, a rear end, a topside, and an underside. A rear anchor is formed on the underside at the rear end and is adapted to be introduced in a recess of the mounting. A u-shaped stop is formed on the underside at the front end. The u-shaped stop has a closed portion and a front anchor formed therein. The u-shape stop is adapted to be introduced in a recess of the mounting for fastening the subassembly received on the device to the mounting. When the u-shape stop is introduced in the recess of the mounting, the u-shaped stop deforms resulting in the body arching and thereby clamping the front anchor and the rear anchor in the recesses of the mounting. |
| US08218935B2 |
Universal bracket for mounting a drop terminal
The present disclosure relates to a drop terminal mounting system for use in a fiber optic network. The drop terminal mounting system includes a drop terminal having a drop terminal housing to which a plurality of fiber optic adapters are mounted. The fiber optic adapters have exterior ports that are accessible from an exterior of the drop terminal housing. The drop terminal mounting system also includes a bracket having a cradle for receiving the drop terminal. The bracket has features that facilitate mounting the bracket to different types of structures such as poles, strands, or to hand-holes. |
| US08218933B2 |
Method of fabricating a planar substrate having optical waveguides
A method of producing a planar substrate having waveguide channels, which method comprises: (i) providing a tube (6) of a substrate material; (ii) depositing silica layers (110) on the inside of the tube (6), the silica layers (110) being doped with a photosensitive material; (iii) drawing the tube (6) so that the cross-sectional size of the tube (109) is reduced; (iv) before or after the reducing of the cross-sectional size of the tube (6), causing the tube (6) to collapse into a flat shape by applying a low pressure to the tube, whereby the deposited silica layers together form a photosensitive silica layer (111); (v) cutting to required lengths the tube (6) which has been collapsed and reduced in cross-sectional size; and (vi) using laser writing to define waveguide channels in the cut lengths of the tube (6) and thereby to produce the planar substrate having the waveguide channels. |
| US08218931B2 |
D 1413 HT radiation curable coatings for optical fiber
A Radiation Curable Coating composition, which may be used as an inner primary coating, an outer primary coating, single coats, a matrix, or a buffer resin composition, comprising: A Radiation Curable Coating composition, which may be used as an inner primary coating, an outer primary coating, single coats, a matrix, or a buffer resin composition, comprising at least one radiation-curable oligomer wherein said at least one radiation curable oligomer is a fatty-acid modified epoxy acrylate; at least one ethylenenic unsaturated reactive diluent; wherein said oligomer(s) and diluent(s) are selected from the group that does not include moieties with Urethane chemistry. This composition, when tested, is found to have resistance to thermal degradation as measured by less than 10% weight loss after exposure of cured specimens in a natural convection furnace for 100 hours at 180° C. |
| US08218927B2 |
Optical catheter with rotary optical cap
A scanning optical head for a catheter is locally controlled by a motor at an insertion end of the catheter uses a hollow motor through which a longitudinal optical path of the catheter passes. This permits the motor to be positioned between a control base of the catheter and avoids rotating the whole fiber, and therefore makes the beam scanning stable and accurate. In addition, because there is no coupling component, it also eliminates the light reflection between additional surfaces as well as varying fiber birefringence, which becomes a cause of noise when imaging the deep structure. |
| US08218923B2 |
Optical waveguide substrate with optical fiber fixation groove, process for its production, stamps for use in this production process, and opto-electronic hybrid integrated module including said optical waveguide substrate
An optical waveguide substrate with an optical fiber fixation groove, including an optical waveguide which contains a lower cladding layer on a base substrate, wherein the lower cladding layer has an optical fiber fixation groove and a core groove, and a weir is provided between the optical fiber fixation groove and the core groove. The optical waveguide substrate with an optical fiber fixation groove is produced by forming a lower cladding layer on a base substrate using a male stamp produced from a female stamp and then successively forming a core layer and an upper cladding layer thereon. |
| US08218920B2 |
Optical microstructures for light extraction and control
The application of optical microstructures improve the quality of light available to the viewer of an optical display system, or any display which works on the concept of moving one surface into direct contact or close proximity of a light guide to extract light through frustrated total internal reflection. Certain ones of the microstructures can act to assist in overcoming stiction between the surface and the light guide. |
| US08218918B2 |
Optical fiber switch with movable lens
A scalable optical switch especially useful for switching multimode beams carried by optical fibers. Light from an input fiber is focused by a lens which is moved in an x-y direction perpendicular to the beam direction in order to switch the beam from one output fiber to a different fiber. In preferred embodiments the beam can be directed to any one of as many as 90 output fibers. Techniques for scaling the switch to produce N×N switches with N being large are described. Embodiments of the present invention can also be utilized to create more elaborate fiber optical switches such as an N×N switch and a N2×N switch. |
| US08218910B2 |
3D ball skinning using partial differential equations for generation of smooth tubular surfaces
A method of computing a continuous interpolation of a discrete set of three-dimensional (3D) balls, including generating an initial skin, wherein the initial skin is a surface comprised of splines and wherein the splines touch each ball along a circle that is tangent to the ball, solving a first differential equation to minimize the initial skin's surface area or solving a second differential equation to minimize a squared mean curvature of the initial skin's surface, wherein the result of solving the first or second differential equations is an updated skin; and repeating the steps of solving the first or second differential equations for the updated skin, and then, repeating the steps of solving the first or second differential equations for each subsequently updated skin until a desired skin is realized. |
| US08218905B2 |
Method, system and software product for providing efficient registration of 3D image data
The invention relates to a method, system and computer program product for registering 3D image data. It comprises (a) receiving a first 3D image and a second 3D image; (b) determining a rendering transform for applying to each of the first 3D image and the second 3D image; (c) applying the rendering transform to the first 3D image to provide a first 2D projection and to the second 3D image to provide a second 2D projection; and (d) determining an elastic registration for mapping locations of the first 2D projection to homologous locations in the second 2D projection. |
| US08218903B2 |
3D object scanning using video camera and TV monitor
A system creates three-dimensional computer models of physical objects by displaying illumination patterns on a display device to incidentally illuminate a physical object. A video camera acquires images of the object illuminated by the patterns. The patterns can include motion and multiple colors for acquiring images with large variations in surface shading of the object. Shading values from acquired images of the object are analyzed to determine the orientations of points on the object's surface. The system evaluates the quality of acquired images and selects patterns tailored to specific attributes of objects. The points' orientations are determined by comparing the points' shading values with an illumination model or shading values acquired from a calibration shading object. A model surface is fitted to the points' orientations. Applications may utilize the model for any purpose, including creating and exchanging customized virtual objects, enhanced object tracking, and videoconferencing applications. |
| US08218900B1 |
Non-linear image scaling with seam energy
A system and method for expansion and reduction of images uses a hybrid resizing technique that combines seam carving and image scaling techniques to reduce or expand an image. Seam carving techniques may be used to identify one or more low-cost seams of an input image, and these low-cost seams may be scaled up or down to expand or reduce the overall input image and produce a resized image. A different scaling factor may be applied to different ones of the low-cost seams, dependent on the average or total energy value of each of the seams. The scaling factor applied to each seam may be dependent on the number of low-cost seams identified for scaling, which may be configurable by a user. A configurable look-up table may map seam costs to scaling factors, and may be accessed to determine a respective scaling factor to be applied to each identified seam. |
| US08218896B2 |
Image display apparatus and method for correction chroma wrinkle
An image display apparatus and a color distortion compensation method are provided. The image display apparatus includes a detecting part which detects whether there is a color distortion in a block, using decoding information acquired from an incoming image and a pixel value of the incoming image, and a compensation part which compensates for the color distortion of the block when it is determined that the color distortion exists. Accordingly, it is possible to detect a color distortion in the block using the decoding information and pixel value acquired from the incoming image, and compensate for the color distortion of the block by performing pixel value adjustment and low pass filtering (LPF) when it is determined that the color distortion exists. |
| US08218895B1 |
Systems and methods for generating and displaying a warped image using fish eye warping
A retargeted image substantially retains the context of an original image while emphasizing the information content of a determined region of interest within the original image. Image regions surrounding the region of interest are warped without regard to preserving their information content and/or aspect ratios, while the region of interest is modified to preserve its aspect ratio and image content. The surrounding image regions can be warped to fit the resulting warped image regions into the available display space surrounding the unwarped region of interest. The surrounding image regions can be warped using one or more fisheye warping functions, which can be Cartesian or polar fisheye warping functions, and more specifically linear or linear-polynomial Cartesian fisheye warping functions, which are applied along each direction or axis of the region of interest. The image region on each side of the region of interest can be modified using one or more steps. |
| US08218892B2 |
Visual object detection
A method of representing an image comprises processing the image to produce a second image highlighting edges in the image (eg a intensity gradient image) and deriving a descriptor based on spatially integrated or rotationally invariant representations of regions of the second image. |
| US08218885B2 |
Apparatus and method for image data compression
There are provided an image processing section for carrying out processing to detect high frequency components of an image, a calculating section for calculating feature data representing distribution of frequency of appearances of high frequency components, a compression parameter setting section for setting compression parameters based on feature data, and a RAW compression processing section for carrying out RAW compression processing for image data based on compression parameters. Together with data size of lossless compression data, such as RAW data, not becoming large, the processing to do this is carried out in a short time. |
| US08218883B2 |
Image compression method, image compression device, and medical network system
Volume data (32) constituted of more than one slice image (30) shot with a CT scanner (12) is transferred to an image server (14). A CPU (40) of the image server (14) makes a site recognizing section (46) recognize a site of each slice image (30) included in the volume data (32). The recognized site is recorded in a tag area (36) of each slice image (30) as site information (36c). The CPU (40) refers to the site information (36c) of each slice image (30) and judges whether more than one site is included in the volume data (32) or not. When judging that more than one site is included in the volume data (32), an image compression section (47) selects a common compression mode and compresses each slice image (30) under a common compression format and a common compression ratio. |
| US08218882B2 |
Image coding method, image coding apparatus, image coding circuit, information recording medium, and computer program
An image coding method is disclosed by which plural code data sets each having a different code amount are generated from one image data set that includes a target code amount setting step for setting a different target code amount for each of the code data sets; an entropy code generation step for applying entropy coding processing to the image data set or data obtained by applying predetermined processing to the image data set so as to generate plural entropy codes; a code amount control step for specifying one of the entropy codes to be truncated so as to control a code amount for each different target code amount; and a code data generation step for truncating the one of the entropy codes specified in the code amount control step and generating the corresponding code data set. |
| US08218881B2 |
Clustering processing method, clustering processing apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable medium
A clustering processing method for dividing a samples into a plurality of clusters based on a feature amount of each sample, the plurality of clusters each belonging to one of a plurality of layers composed of M layers (M=2, . . . , K), the clustering processing method comprises a sample allocating step of allocating a sample targeted for processing to a cluster belonging to a first layer, based on a result of comparing the feature amount of the target sample with a representative feature amount of each of clusters belonging to the first layer; a determination step of determining whether to allocate a cluster belonging to an M−1th layer to an Mth layer; and a cluster allocating step of allocating a cluster belonging to the M−1th layer to the Mth layer, if it is determined in the determination step to allocate a cluster belonging to the M−1th layer to the Mth layer. |
| US08218880B2 |
Linear laplacian discrimination for feature extraction
An exemplary method for extracting discriminant feature of samples includes providing data for samples in a multidimensional space; based on the data, computing local similarities for the samples; mapping the local similarities to weights; based on the mapping, formulating an inter-class scatter matrix and an intra-class scatter matrix; and based on the matrices, maximizing the ratio of inter-class scatter to intra-class scatter for the samples to provide discriminate features of the samples. Such a method may be used for classifying samples, recognizing patterns, or other tasks. Various other methods, devices, system, etc., are also disclosed. |
| US08218878B2 |
Cumulative time-resolved emission two-dimensional gel electrophoresis
A new instrumental design is provided for in-gel detection and quantification of proteins. This new platform, called Cumulative Time-resolved Emission 2-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis, utilizes differences in fluorescent lifetime imaging to differentiate between fluorescence from specific protein labels and non-specific background fluorescence, resulting in a drastic improvement in both sensitivity and dynamic range compared to existing technology. The platform is primarily for image acquisition of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, but is also applicable to protein detection in one-dimensional gel systems as well as proteins electroblotted to e.g. PVDF membranes. Given the increase in sensitivity of detection and dynamic range of up to 5-6 orders of magnitude compared to existing approaches, the described invention represents a technological leap in the detection of low abundance cellular proteins, which is desperately needed in the field of biomarker discovery. |
| US08218877B2 |
Tracking vehicle method by using image processing
The invention relates to a method for image processing. First, establish the initial image background information. And retrieve the instant image information. Then calculate the initial image background information and color intensity information of the instant image. Furthermore, adjust the instant image information. Then calculate the moving-object information. Finally, track the moving-object information. It can improve the accuracy rate of detection without the influence of erected height. |
| US08218870B2 |
Method for segmenting images with intensity-based label propagation and probabilistic of level sets
A method exploits user labels in image segmentation. The user labels are propagated with respect to image intensity information. Propagated user labels are included in a cost function of level set evolution. The level set represents a probability of the object segment. |
| US08218867B2 |
Compensation method for removing image noise
A compensation method for removing an image noise is applicable to compensate for noises generated by Bayer pattern color interpolation. The compensation method includes the following steps selecting a partial region in the Bayer pattern to set a selection region; selecting a plurality of color units from the selection region one by one, in which each of the color units at least includes a green pixel, a red pixel, and a blue pixel; sequentially performing a color weight adjustment on the green pixel, the red pixel, and the blue pixel; and compensating for the pixel in the selection region according to each color weight, so as to generate a recovered pixel. |
| US08218863B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method and image processing means
An image processing apparatus which extracts, from image data, drawing-photograph pixels forming a drawing or a photograph, the image processing apparatus including a pixel value replacement unit configured to replace pixel values of image data with plural representative pixel values; a candidate region extraction unit configured to extract plural candidate regions; a feature value acquisition unit configured to acquire a feature value indicating a degree of contained symbol pixels forming symbols; a feature value determination units. |
| US08218861B2 |
Color quantization based on desired upper bound for relative quantization step
A computer system processes encoded digital data representing an image at image portions. The image at each portion has color coordinates S1, S2, S3 in a first color coordinate system (CCS), wherein S1√{square root over (T12+T22+T32)}, S2=T2/S1, S3=T3/S1, wherein T1, T2, T3 are color coordinates in a predefined 70%-orthonormal linear CCS. For each image portion whose color coordinate S1 is in a predefined range, the encoded digital data comprise color coordinates s1, s2, s3 such that: s1=kB·(ln(αS1)+β) rounded to an integer, where α and β are predefined constants, s2=kef·S2/S1 rounded to an integer, s3=kef·S3/S1 rounded to an integer, wherein kef is about 3—kB, or kef is equal to the smallest power of 2 which is greater than or equal to about 3·kB. The processing comprises using the encoded digital data to perform editing, and/or displaying, and/or decoding the encoded data. |
| US08218859B2 |
Transductive multi-label learning for video concept detection
This disclosure describes various exemplary method and computer program products for transductive multi-label classification in detecting video concepts for information retrieval. This disclosure describes utilizing a hidden Markov random field formulation to detect labels for concepts in a video content and modeling a multi-label interdependence between the labels by a pairwise Markov random field. The process groups the labels into several parts to speed up a labeling inference and calculates a conditional probability score for the labels, the conditional probability scores are ordered for ranking in a video retrieval evaluation. |
| US08218855B2 |
Method and apparatus for receiving multiview camera parameters for stereoscopic image, and method and apparatus for transmitting multiview camera parameters for stereoscopic image
Provided is a method of receiving multiview camera parameters for a stereoscopic image. The method includes: extracting multiview camera parameter information for a predetermined data section from a received stereoscopic image data stream; extracting matrix information including at least one of translation matrix information and rotation matrix information for the predetermined data section from the multiview camera parameter information; and restoring coordinate systems of multiview cameras by using the extracted matrix information. |
| US08218853B2 |
Change discrimination device, change discrimination method and change discrimination program
A change discrimination device capable of discriminating an alteration of a photographing target only from an aerial photograph or irrespectively of a difference in lighting conditions or photographing conditions at the time of taking a photo, and at minute distance intervals on a pixel basis, which receives input of a plurality of aerial image data at a new time point and an old time point, generates three-dimensional data (DSM) by subjecting the applied aerial image data to stereo-matching processing, generates ortho-image data and ortho-DSM data by normalizing the aerial image data and the generated DSM data, compares colors by using the generated ortho-image of the new time point and ortho-image of the old time point and compares heights by using the generated ortho-DSM data of the new time point and ortho-DSM data of the old time point to discriminate an alteration of a feature on the earth. |
| US08218852B2 |
System and method for repairing composite parts
A composite repair system and method for assisting in the repair of a cured composite part in which a damaged portion has been cut out and removed, exposing a plurality of composite plies and their corresponding composite ply edges. The composite repair system may comprise a light source to illuminate the ply edges, an image capturing device to obtain an image of the ply edges, and a computing device for processing the image of the ply edges and creating a map of the ply edges based on the image. The map may be used to manufacture filler plies having peripheral edges shaped to correspond with the composite ply edges for replacing the damaged portion of the composite part. |
| US08218850B2 |
Breast tissue density measure
A method of processing a mammogram image to derive a value for a parameter useful in detecting differences in breast tissue in subsequent images of the same breast or relative to a control group of such images, said derived parameter being an aggregate probability score reflecting the probability of the image being a member of a predefined class of mammogram images, comprises computing for each of a multitude of pixels within a large region of interest within the image a pixel probability score assigned by a trained statistical classifier according to the probability of said pixel belonging to an image belonging to said class, said pixel probability being calculated on the basis of a selected plurality of features of said pixels, and computing said parameter by aggregating the pixel probability scores over said region of interest. Said features may include the 3-jet of said pixels. |
| US08218846B2 |
Automatic pathway and waypoint generation and navigation method
A navigation system for use in a luminal network of a patient, such as the airways, that is able to analyze a three-dimensional model of the luminal network and automatically determine a pathway from an entry point to a designated target. The system further automatically assigns waypoints along the determined pathway in order to assist a physician in navigating a probe to the designated target. |
| US08218845B2 |
Dynamic pulmonary trunk modeling in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging based on the detection of bounding boxes, anatomical landmarks, and ribs of a pulmonary artery
A method and system for modeling the pulmonary trunk in 4D image data, such as 4D CT and MRI data, is disclosed. Bounding boxes are detected in frames of the 4D image data. Anatomic landmarks are detected in the frames of the 4D image data based on the bounding boxes. Ribs or centerlines of the pulmonary artery are detected in the frames of the 4D image data based on the anatomic landmarks, and a physiological pulmonary trunk model is fit the frames of the 4D image data based on the detected ribs and anatomic landmarks. The boundary of the pulmonary trunk is detected in order to refine the boundary of the pulmonary trunk model in the frames of the 4D image data, resulting in a dynamic model of the pulmonary trunk. The pulmonary trunk can be quantitatively evaluated using the dynamic model. |
| US08218843B2 |
Method for registering two-dimensional image data, computer program product, navigation method for navigating a treatment apparatus in the medical field, and computational device for registering two-dimensional image data
The present application relates to a method for registering two-dimensional image data, comprising the steps of: providing a registered three-dimensional image data set of an object under examination; providing a two-dimensional image data set of the object under examination which is to be registered; generating synthetic two-dimensional image data sets of the object under examination from the three-dimensional image data set, wherein the synthetic two-dimensional image data sets to be generated are parameterized with regard to parameters which describe the two-dimensional image data set to be registered; comparing the parameterized synthetic two-dimensional image data sets with the two-dimensional image data set to be registered, and finding the parameterized synthetic two-dimensional image data set having the greatest similarity to the two-dimensional image data set to be registered; on the basis of this, ascertaining the spatial relationship between the two-dimensional image data set to be registered and the registered three-dimensional image data set, and thus registering the two-dimensional image data set. |
| US08218842B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, image processing apparatus, and image processing method
In a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, an image storage unit correlates a reconstructed pre-correction image and a reconstructed post-correction image for each slice position and stores the correlated images. When a display condition related to a reconstructed image of one of either the reconstructed pre-correction image and the reconstructed post-correction image stored in the image storage unit is changed, the changed display condition is also applied to the other reconstructed image. |
| US08218839B2 |
Automatic localization of the left ventricle in cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging
A method for automatically localizing left ventricle in medical image data includes acquiring a sequence of three-dimensional medical images spanning a cardiac cycle. Each of the images includes a plurality of two-dimensional image slices, one of which is defined as a template slice. The template slice of each medical image of the sequence is automatically cropped to include the heart and a margin around the heart based on temporal variations between pixels of the template slice throughout the sequence of medical images. The template slice of each medical image of the sequence is automatically contoured to determine the endo-cardial and epi-cardial boundaries for at least the end-diastolic and end-systolic phases. Localization information is generated for the left ventricle based on the determined endo-cardial and epi-cardial boundaries for at least the end-diastolic and end-systolic phases. |
| US08218838B2 |
Method and system for assigning a confidence metric for automated determination of optic disc location
A method for assigning a confidence metric for automated determination of optic disc location that includes analyzing a retinal image and determining at least two sets of coordinates locating an optic disc in the retinal image. The sets of coordinates can be determined using first and second image analysis techniques that are different from one another. An accuracy parameter can be calculated and compared to a primary risk cut-off value. A high confidence level can be assigned to the retinal image if the accuracy parameter is less than the primary risk cut-off value and a low confidence level can be assigned to the retinal image if the accuracy parameter is greater than the primary risk cut-off value. The primary risk cut-off value being selected to represent an acceptable risk of misdiagnosis of a disease having retinal manifestations by the automated technique. |
| US08218833B2 |
Image capturing apparatus, method of determining presence or absence of image area, and recording medium
A detecting unit detects any image area corresponding to a subject from the first image which is reduced resolution of an image that captured by an image capturing unit. With no image area detected as corresponding to the subject, a first control unit deems that an image area corresponding to the subject is absent in the image that captured by the image capturing unit. On the other hand, when the detecting unit detects an image area corresponding to the subject, a first determining unit determines whether or not the image area that detected by the detecting unit is an image area corresponding to the subject. If the area is determined to correspond to the subject, a second control unit deems that an image area corresponding to the subject is present in the image that captured by the image capturing unit. |
| US08218831B2 |
Combined face detection and background registration
Techniques are provided to analyze video frames of a video signal in order to distinguish regions containing a face (and body torso) from regions that contain a relatively static background. The region containing the face is referred to as a foreground region. A current video frame is divided into a plurality of elements and the foreground regions and background regions are detected. The background regions of a subsequent video frame are detected/registered using the foreground regions of the current video frame. The foreground regions of the subsequent video frame are determined using the background regions of the current video frame as a temporal reference. |
| US08218830B2 |
Image editing system and method
An image editing system for use with a web-based video editing system is provided. The image editing system comprises: a detection system configured to receive image data; detect regions of the image representing faces; store the data representing the coordinates of the faces as points of interest; and receive user input adding additional points of interest, modifying the points of interest, or deleting the pre-selected points of interest; and a cropping subsystem configured to determine the portion of the image containing the maximum number of points of interest that will fit within the crop area; and crop the image. |
| US08218825B2 |
Capturing and processing facial motion data
Capturing and processing facial motion data includes: coupling a plurality of sensors to target points on a facial surface of an actor; capturing frame by frame images of the plurality of sensors disposed on the facial surface of the actor using at least one motion capture camera disposed on a head-mounted system; performing, in the head-mounted system, a tracking function on the frame by frame images of the plurality of sensors to accurately map the plurality of sensors for each frame; and generating, in the head-mounted system, a modeled surface representing the facial surface of the actor. |
| US08218824B2 |
Spatial information database generating device and spatial information database generating program
An orthographic projection creating unit creates an orthographic projection image from an optical image of an ground surface acquired by an optical camera, and a DSM generating unit generates a DSM from the orthographic projection image. A laser point group data generating unit generates three-dimensional point group data based on a laser measurement result of the ground surface by a laser measuring device. An object generating unit groups altitude data of the DSM and altitude data of the three-dimensional point group data for each of objects such as buildings. A synthesizing unit extracts the same objects from the grouped altitude data of the DSM and three-dimensional point group data, associates the objects with each other based on respective coordinate information thereof, and replaces altitude information of the optical image by high-accuracy altitude information of the three-dimensional point group data for each of the objects. |
| US08218822B2 |
Apparatus and method for recognizing the state of origin of a vehicle license plate
A system analyzes various design characteristics of a vehicle license plate, including character size, placement and color, to identify the state of issuance of the plate. In some embodiments, the system uses spectral properties of light reflected from a vehicle license plate to determine spectral frequency bands having the best contrast between characters on the plate and the background of the plate. For example, red characters against a white background exhibit high contrast levels at wavelengths of about 420 nm to about 595 nm. Green characters against a white background exhibit high contrast levels at wavelengths of about 600 nm to about 750 nm. Blue characters against a white background exhibit high contrast levels at wavelengths of about 550 nm to about 750 nm. Thus, spectral characteristics in combination with other design-related characteristics of a license plate may be used to identify the state of origin of the plate. Once the state of origin is identified, origin-specific syntax matching may be used to enhance optical character recognition routines. |
| US08218821B2 |
Video preprocessing of image information for character recognition
An apparatus processes video signals containing video information related to a scene which may contain a vehicle license plate. The apparatus includes a video camera having a video imaging device for viewing the scene and generating a first video signal. A character detector in the video camera processes the first video signal to detect a license plate within the scene and to generate location information indicating the location of the license plate. A line detector in the camera determines a particular video line of the first video signal into which the location information is to be embedded. An insertion circuit in the camera embeds the location information into the particular video line of the first video signal to form a second video signal. The apparatus may also include a video capture device for receiving the second video signal from the video camera and converting the second video signal into digital image data. A processor extracts the location information from the digital image data, determines the location of the license plate characters within the scene based on the location information, and processes the digital image data to read the license plate characters. |
| US08218819B2 |
Foreground object detection in a video surveillance system
Techniques are disclosed for detecting foreground objects in a scene captured by a surveillance system and tracking the detected foreground objects from frame to frame in real time. A motion flow field is used to validate foreground objects(s) that are extracted from the background model of a scene. Spurious foreground objects are filtered before the detected foreground objects are provided to the tracking stage. The motion flow field is also used by the tracking stage to improve the performance of the tracking as needed for real time surveillance applications. |
| US08218815B2 |
Image pick-up apparatus having a function of recognizing a face and method of controlling the apparatus
It is judged whether or not a human face detecting mode is set (S31). When it is determined that the human face detecting mode is set, a two-dimensional face detecting process is performed to detect a human face (S32). When it is determined that a human face has not been detected in the two-dimensional face detecting process, a third-dimensional face detecting process is performed to detect a human face (S35, S36). Meanwhile, an animal face detecting mode is set, a three-dimensional face detecting process is performed to detect a face of an animal corresponding to the set detecting mode (S36). Accuracy of recognizing a face is enhanced. |
| US08218814B2 |
Image data processing apparatus and method for object detection and judging suspicious objects
An image processing apparatus such as a monitor system for executing image processing to present a suspicious object effectively. An object detecting unit detects an object contained in an image, an associating unit associates a plurality of objects detected with the object detecting unit, with each other, and an evaluating unit evaluates (e.g., evaluation as being suspicious) an object detected by the object detecting unit, and an association evaluating unit evaluates another object associated by the associating unit with the object evaluated by the evaluating unit, in accordance with the evaluation made by the evaluating unit. |
| US08218812B2 |
Digital watermark embedding device and method, and digital watermark detection device and method
A digital watermark embedding device according to the present invention includes: a watermark pattern generation part (4) which generates a watermark pattern varying in a time direction based on embedding information to be embedded in an input image to be processed; a synchronization pattern generation part (3) which outputs a fixed pattern for detecting synchronization as a watermark pattern; a pattern switching part (5) which selects between the watermark pattern output by the synchronization pattern generation part (3) and the watermark pattern output by the watermark pattern generation part (4) based on the input image (7a); and an embedding processing part (6) which adds the selected watermark pattern to each pixel value of the input image (7a) to generate an embedded image (7c) having a digital watermark embedded therein. Consequently, phase shifting may be detected based on the fixed pattern for detecting synchronization, there by being capable of precisely detecting the digital watermark out of a recaptured image as well. |
| US08218808B2 |
Earphone capable of adapting to different audio output sockets
An earphone is configured to be coupled to a first audio output socket or a second audio output socket. The earphone includes a main body and a plug module. The main body includes a sleeve adapter, an earpiece, and a cable electrically connecting the sleeve adapter and the earpiece. The plug module includes a first end and a second end which are electrically connected to each other. The first end and the second end are of different diameters. In a first mode, the first end is plugged into the sleeve adapter, and the second end is capable of being coupled to the second audio output socket. In a second mode, the second end is plugged into the sleeve adapter, and the first end is capable of being coupled to the first audio output socket. |
| US08218806B2 |
Unidirectional condenser microphone unit
There is provided a unidirectional condenser microphone unit in which the shield performance of a rear acoustic terminal is assured by simple assembling work without an increase in cost. In a unidirectional condenser microphone unit in which an electrostatic acousto-electric converter is incorporated in a cylindrical, metallic unit case having a front acoustic terminal on the front surface thereof and a rear acoustic terminal on the side surface thereof, and a shielding member 40 for the rear acoustic terminal is provided in the unit case, as the shielding member 40, a shielding plate 42 consisting of a band-shaped and elastic porous metal plate, which has a length La longer than the inner periphery length of the unit case, and is provided with a plurality of tongue pieces 42R1 to 42R3 and 42L1 to 42L3 divided by slits 421 parallel with the lengthwise direction in both end parts 42R and 42L in the lengthwise direction, is used; and the shielding plate 42 is disposed in the unit case 10 in the state in which the shielding plate 42 is formed in a cylindrical shape by overlapping the tongue pieces 42R1 to 42R3 and 42L1 to 42L3 in both the end parts 42R and 42L alternately. |
| US08218803B2 |
Receiver facility with an elastically mounted receiver
In the case of a receiver facility to be fixed in the auditory canal, particularly for hearing devices with an external receiver, the receiver is to be mounted in the earmold in an acoustically advantageous fashion which guards against contaminations and is also easily exchangeable. Provision is thus made for a receiver facility with a longish receiver and a earmold, which has a borehole, into which the receiver is inserted. A tubular connector, which is more elastic than the receiver and the earmold, is used to accommodate for the most part the longitudinal extension of the receiver in a friction-locking fashion. The connector is for its part force-fitted into a borehole of the earmold in a friction-locking fashion. The receiver is thus elastically mounted and can be easily removed from the earmold together with the connector with the aid of a pin-like tool for replacement purposes. |
| US08218800B2 |
Method for setting a hearing system with a perceptive model for binaural hearing and corresponding hearing system
A hearing system is provided that includes a left device that supplies an electrical sound signal for supplying the left ear of the user, and a right device that supplies an electrical sound signal for supplying the right ear of the user. A perceptive model for binaural hearing is implemented at least in one of the two devices or a further device belonging to the hearing system, with which a left setting value for the left device and/or a right setting value for the right device can be determined on the basis of the two sound signals. The left device can then be set with the left setting value and/or the right device with the right setting value. The entire process of the binaural hearing and not only the monaural hearing is thus taken into consideration for the setting of the hearing system. |
| US08218789B2 |
Phase equalization for multi-channel loudspeaker-room responses
A system and method for minimizing the complex phase interaction between non-coincident subwoofer and satellite speakers for improved magnitude response control in a cross-over region. An all-pass filter is cascaded with bass-management filters in at least one filter channel, a[1d preferably all-pass filters are cascaded in each satellite speaker channel. Pole angles and magnitudes for the all-pass filters are recursively calculated to minimize phase incoherence. A step of selecting an optimal cross-over frequency may be performed in conjunction with the all-pass filtering, and is preferably used to select an optimal cross-over frequency prior to determining all-pass filter coefficients. |
| US08218787B2 |
Microphone array signal processing apparatus, microphone array signal processing method, and microphone array system
A microphone array signal processing apparatus which is capable of picking up sound in a low frequency band even with a compact microphone array. The microphone array signal processing apparatus is comprised of delay devices (411-1 to 411-M) that add delays to the respective ones of a plurality of sound signals output from the respective ones of a plurality of microphones constituting the microphone array, an adder (412) that sums the plurality of sound signals with the respective delays added thereto, a harmonic structure detecting section (421) that detects a harmonic structure of sound included in the sound signal, and a filtering processing section (422) that selectively passes predetermined frequency components based upon the detected harmonic structure. |
| US08218784B2 |
Digital audio processor device and method
An audio processor device and method is disclosed which measures and provides information relating to the audio level being applied to the ear of a user. The processor device uses a preset or calibrated sensitivity of the applied earphones in combination with an analysis of the audio stream to provide sound-pressure-level or time-weighted exposure information to the user or limit the output when preset levels have been achieved. Also disclosed is the use of microphones, internal or external, to combine an additional audio stream, typically the ambient environment, into the main audio channel. |
| US08218779B2 |
Portable communication device and a method of processing signals therein
A portable communication device is disclosed. The portable communication device comprises a speaker adapted to be held to an ear of a user for conveying sound to the user, at least one sensor for sensing sound emanating from said sound conveyed to the user, and a control unit. The control unit is adapted to estimate, based on an electrical input signal supplied to an input port of the speaker and an electrical output signal received from an output port of the at least one sensor, a transfer characteristic from the input port of the speaker to the output port of the sensor. Furthermore, the control unit is adapted to estimate, based on the estimated transfer characteristic, a degree of sound leakage from the user's ear. A corresponding method is also disclosed. |
| US08218777B2 |
Multipoint communication apparatus
According to an aspect of an embodiment, a multipoint communication apparatus comprises: a receiving unit for receiving a plurality of signals containing voice signal elements and noise signal elements from the plurality of other communication apparatuses, respectively; a noise estimating unit for estimating the plurality of noise signal elements in the plurality of received signals, respectively; a gain control unit for adjusting gains of the plurality of signals passing therethrough so as to equalize the levels of the plurality of noise signal elements outputted from the gain element on the basis of the estimated levels of the noise signal elements; a combining unit for combining the plurality of signals passed through the gain control unit; and an output unit for outputting a sound signal on the basis of the a combined signal by the combining unit. |
| US08218776B2 |
Surge protection circuit for audio output device
A surge protection circuit acquires a surge signal from a left channel (LC) signal line and a right channel (RC) signal line. After the surge signal being transmitted on the LC signal line and the RC signal line is removed, an audio signal outputted from a signal input device is transmitted to an audio output device via the LC signal line and the RC signal line. |
| US08218774B2 |
Apparatus and method for processing continuous wave fields propagated in a room
An apparatus for processing an input signal, wherein the input signal comprises a plurality of subsignals associated to discrete transmitters or receivers, wherein the discrete transmitters or receivers are disposed at predetermined geometrical positions with regard to a room, comprises a means for providing a plurality of wave-field components, wherein a superposition of the plurality of wave-field components results in a composite wave field, wherein the composite wave field can be propagated in the room, wherein the plurality of wave-field components are derived from the input signal by wave field decomposition based on orthogonal wave field base functions and the predetermined geometrical positions, a plurality of single filters, wherein a wave-field component of the plurality of wave-field components is associated to a single filter, wherein the single filter is formed to influence the associated wave-field component such that with regard to the plurality of single filters a plurality of filtered wave-field components representing a processed input signal are obtained on the output side. |
| US08218768B2 |
Cryptosync design for a wireless communication system
A cryptosync design comprising (1) a channel identifier indicative of a particular channel via which a data packet is sent, (2) an extended time stamp indicative of a time value associated with the data packet, and (3) a counter indicative of a packet count associated with the data packet. The lengths of the extended time stamp and counter fields and the time unit for the extended time stamp are parameters that may be configured for each channel. At the sender, the extended time stamp for the cryptosync may be obtained from the System Time maintained by the sender. The counter value for the cryptosync may be provided by a counter that is maintained for the channel by the sender. The sender may include a time stamp and/or the counter value, if they are needed to derive the cryptosync at the receiver, in a header of the data packet. |
| US08218766B2 |
Systems and methods for facilitating transactions in accordance with a region requirement
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate transactions or limit operations. According to one embodiment, region information is determined in accordance with information received by a user device from a local location device. A region requirement is also determined, and it is arranged for the user device to operate in accordance with the region information and the region requirement. |
| US08218762B2 |
Encrypting apparatus for common key cipher
The first route selection device re-arrays a plurality of extended key mask values at random according to the value of a random number generated by a random number generation device. An extended key operation device generates an exclusive logical OR of a plurality of the re-arrayed extended key mask values, a data string representing extended key and an input data string. The second route selection device re-arrays the data string of the exclusive logical OR by performing a re-array conversely with the first route selection device according to the value of the random number. A non-linear conversion device applies non-linear conversion to the re-arrayed data string and outputs a data string masked by a plurality of non-linear conversion mask values. The third route selection device re-arrays the masked data string by performing the same re-array as the first route selection device according to the value of the random number. |
| US08218759B2 |
System and method for encrypting data
A method for encrypting data includes receiving a block of plaintext for a data set at one or more computers, acquiring a cryptographic key for the data set, generating an initialization vector for the block of plaintext based on the block of plaintext, and encrypting the block of plaintext using the cryptographic key and the initialization vector. |
| US08218756B2 |
User-controllable equalization for telephony
A system, method and apparatus is described that permits a user to configure or select the manner in which an audio signal transmitted or received over a telephony system, such as a wideband telephony system, is shaped or equalized. An implementation of the present invention allows a user to configure or select equalization control parameters on a call-by-call basis. Furthermore, an implementation of the present invention allows a user to associate equalization control parameters with a party initiating a call and/or a party receiving the call, thereby facilitating automated equalizer adjustment at call connection based on an identification of the calling party and/or the called party. |
| US08218755B2 |
Access-frequency estimating apparatus and computer product
An access-frequency estimating apparatus includes a storage unit that stores hours outside operating hours and for which a second-degree derivative of access frequency distribution for contact centers whose business is similar to that of a contact center subject to estimation is nearly 0, and a coefficient indicating relation between access frequency during operating hours of the other contact centers and access frequency outside the operating hours; an acquiring unit that acquires past access frequencies for operating hours of the contact center; an extracting unit that extracts, from the storage unit, a coefficient expressing relation between the access frequencies for the operating hours and an arbitrary hour outside the operating hours; a first calculating unit that calculates an estimated access frequency for the arbitrary hour of the contact center, based on the past access frequencies acquired and the coefficient; and an output unit that outputs the estimated the access frequency calculated. |
| US08218753B2 |
Processing multi-party calls in a contact center
A data processing apparatus is configured for receiving a call comprising multiple callers who are identified in a multi-party caller identification value that is received with the call; retrieving from a database, based on the multi-party caller identification value, information about each of the multiple callers; based on the retrieved information and a collective importance algorithm, determining or selecting one or more call treatment attributes for the call; and processing the call using the one or more call treatment attributes that are determined or selected. For example, a contact center or call center can provide differentiated services based on collective attributes or profiles, or a weighted average priority, of multiple people who are calling together, rather than only taking into account information about a single calling party. Call processing attributes such as priority, queuing, routing, and screen pop-up content, may be selected based on collective data about multiple callers. |
| US08218751B2 |
Method and apparatus for identifying and eliminating the source of background noise in multi-party teleconferences
A mechanism is provided that allows participants on the conference call to identify, and then mute or filter, a participant(s) responsible for introducing the noise, regardless of whether the noise is caused by transmission impairments or by the participant(s) being in a noisy location. For example, individual users could be able to press a “test” button that could block each of the participants one at a time. This would allow the source of the noise to be identified. This “test button” could be one or more of provided at the endpoint(s), be enabled through a web interface or, for example, through a dedicated conference call interface at the endpoint(s) or at the conference bridge. The blocking of each participant could occur through interaction with the main PBX using, for example, in-band signaling to the PBX. Once the source(s) of the noise is identified, noise mitigation can be applied as needed. |
| US08218741B2 |
Telephone number-based advertising
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which a first telephone number is associated with a second telephone number, and a web-based advertisement is served for an advertiser that includes the first telephone number. A call placed to the first telephone number is received, and the call is routed to the second telephone number based on the association of the second telephone number with the first telephone number. A determination as to whether a call-through event in response to receiving the call placed to the first telephone number has occurred, and an advertiser associated with the second telephone number is charged a cost-per-call amount if the call-through event is determined to have occurred. |
| US08218740B2 |
Method for providing hysteresis to fluctuating signaling ink
A signaling node within a telecommunications network automatically detects that a signaling link is fluctuating in and out of service and provides hysteresis to the fluctuating signaling link. The signaling node includes a link controller that monitors the state(s) of the signaling link over a time period and a link blocking module that blocks the signaling link from carrying SS7 traffic when the signaling link fluctuates between a failed state and a stable state over the time period. |
| US08218728B2 |
Computed tomography scanner, in particular for performing a spiral scan, and a method for controlling a computed tomography scanner
A computed tomography scanner is disclosed for performing a spiral scan. In at least one embodiment, the computed tomography scanner includes a rotatable X-ray emitter for generating a beam fan and an X-ray detector, positioned diametrically opposite to the emitter, and an associated evaluation unit. In at least one embodiment, provision is made for an X-ray filter arranged downstream of the X-ray emitter, the position of the X-ray filter being correlated to that of the X-ray detector. Further, the X-ray filter is partly inserted into the beam fan only during operation for generating an unfiltered and, simultaneously, a filtered radiation component of the beam fan, wherein the radiation components have different X-ray spectra and wherein the evaluation unit is designed for separate evaluation of a measurement signal of the unfiltered radiation component and a measurement signal of the filtered radiation component, to obtain dual-energy images. |
| US08218726B2 |
Imaging tomography apparatus with built-in energy storage to cover high power operation
An imaging tomography apparatus has electronic components provided to operate the tomography apparatus, with at least one of the electronic components exhibiting a power consumption in high power operation that is significantly increased relative to power consumption in normal operation. The imaging tomography apparatus has an energy storage that, in high power operation, supplies the at least one electronic component with additional electrical energy to cover an energy demand due to the difference in power consumption between normal operation and high power operation. The provision of the additional electrical power in high power operation by means of the energy storage allows the modules that participate in the power supply of the at least one electronic component to be realized with lower cost. Such participating modules can be, for example: the mains connection, junction boxes with power switches (safeguards); a transformer, a rectifier, cables, slip ring brushes, slip ring tracks, etc. |
| US08218724B2 |
X-ray device
The object of the invention is therefore to provide an x-ray device that is simple to construct and can be inexpensively produced. This object is achieved by the proposed x-ray device for examining syringe caps having a cannula and having the features that is an x-ray source, an x-ray detector, and a holder. The x-ray device is characterized in that the syringe cap is arranged in the beam path so that its longitudinal axis coincides with the main axis of the beam path. The syringe cap is thus impinged from above and from below with x-rays, in order to examine the position of the cannula. |
| US08218723B2 |
Support system for breast irradiation
A support system for breast irradiation including a turntable for supporting and rotating a patient about a generally vertical rotational axis, a body-leaning support for supporting the patient leaning thereupon throughout rotation of the patient about the vertical rotational axis, and a radiation shield arranged for shielding non-breast anatomy of the patient from stray radiation, wherein the body-leaning support and the radiation shield are separated from each other by a gap in which breasts of the patient are placeable for irradiation by a horizontal radiation beam. |
| US08218711B2 |
Replaceable accessory for a small electrical appliance and method of monitoring the usage of the accessory
An accessory for a small electrical appliance, such as a brush attachment for an electric toothbrush or a shaving component for an electric shaving apparatus, including a data memory and a transponder. The accessory includes an electronic circuit that modifies a value stored in the data memory each time the electronic circuit receives a corresponding signal. Also described is a method of determining the end of the period of use of the accessory. |
| US08218708B2 |
Phase splitter using digital delay locked loops
A phase splitter uses digital delay locked loop (DLL) to receive complementary input clock signals to generate a plurality of output signals having different phase shifts. When the DLL is locked, the delay resolution of the phase splitter is equal to two delay stages of the DLL. |
| US08218707B2 |
Intialization circuit for delay locked loop
An initialization circuit in a delay locked loop ensures that after power up or other reset clock edges are received by a phase detector in the appropriate order for proper operation. After reset of the delay locked loop, the initialization circuit assures that at least one edge of a reference clock is received prior to enabling the phase detector to increase (or decrease) the delay in a delay line. After at least one edge of a feedback clock is received, the initialization circuit enables the phase detector to decrease (or increase) the delay in a delay line. |
| US08218705B2 |
Linear phase interpolator and phase detector
A novel interpolating phase detector for use in a multiphase PLL is described comprising an array of individual phase comparators, all operating at essentially the same operating point which permits the circuits to be designed simultaneously for high speed and for low power consumption. Two adjacent phase outputs of a multi-phase VCO may be selected and interpolated in between, by selectively attaching a variable number of phase comparators to each phase output and summing their phase error outputs. By varying the number of phase comparators attached to each phase output, interpolation can be achieved with high linearity. |
| US08218704B2 |
Demodulation method and demodulator of pulse-edge shifted pulse
A variable delay circuit delays a carrier signal having a predetermined frequency, and outputs a modulated signal. A delay setting unit sets a delay period for the variable delay circuit according to a data signal to be modulated. The delay setting unit assigns each symbol in the data signal to any one of positive edges and negative edges in the carrier signal, and sets a delay period for the variable delay circuit at the timing at which a positive edge in the carrier signal passes through the variable delay circuit, according to the symbol value in the data signal assigned to the positive edge. Furthermore, the delay setting unit sets a delay period for the variable delay circuit at the timing at which a negative edge in the carrier signal passes through the variable delay circuit, according to the symbol value in the data signal assigned to the negative edge. |
| US08218699B2 |
Channel impulse response estimate management
A method of steering a channel estimation search window, the method comprising providing a series of raw CIR tap values to span a channel estimation search window containing a sub-window whose contents are intended to be passed for further processing to produce a refined CIR estimate, determining, amongst a plurality of groups of continuous tap values within the window, the group containing the largest amount of signal energy and time-shifting the window as necessary to arrange that the group so determined occupies the sub-window. |
| US08218696B2 |
Receiving apparatus, receiving method, integrated circuit, digital television receiver, and program
In a receiving apparatus (100), a noise power estimation unit (107) estimates the noise power included in a received signal in the frequency domain. A channel characteristics calculation unit (105) estimates the channel characteristics in accordance with a reference signal included in the received signal. A tap coefficient calculation unit (108) calculates the tap coefficients for a filtering unit (109) in accordance with noise power included in the received signal and with an autocorrelation value for the channel characteristics. The filtering unit (109) calculates an estimated value for the channel characteristics via filtering processing on the channel characteristics in accordance with the tap coefficients. |
| US08218695B2 |
Wireless transmission system, receiver thereof, and method for removing inter-carrier interference thereof
A method for removing ICI for a received symbol is provided. Firstly, a transmitted symbol is received via a wireless channel within a symbol time so as to obtain the received symbol. The transmitted symbol includes P identical original partial data, wherein P is a positive integer larger than 1. The received symbol includes P received partial data corresponding to the original partial data, respectively. Next, on a time domain at least two of the P received partial data are copied so as to obtain at least two copied partial data. Each copied partial data includes P copies of its corresponding received partial data. After that, an estimated ICI of the time domain is determined according to the product of a predetermined constant array and the difference between the copied partial data. Afterwards, the estimated ICI is subtracted from the received symbol so as to obtain an output symbol. |
| US08218692B2 |
Signal separator
A device for separating uncoordinated co-channel signals including a symbol detector. |
| US08218690B1 |
Timing offset compensation for high throughput channel estimation
A mechanism for performing timing offset compensation for channel estimation in a receiver of a wireless device. A timing offset associated with a received RF signal is estimated based on an estimated carrier frequency offset for the received RF signal. An integer multiple of the estimated timing offset is applied to each of a plurality of high throughput long training field (HT-LTF) symbols associated with the received RF signal to compensate for the timing offset associated with the received RF signal. Channel estimation is performed using the plurality of HT-LTF symbols compensated for the timing offset associated with the received RF signal. |
| US08218685B2 |
Data slicer threshold adjustment for disparity controlled signals
A system and method are provided for using disparity measurements to control the adjustment of a data slicer threshold. The method receives a serial stream of pseudorandom digital data signals having an average DC value, and compares data signal amplitudes to a slicer threshold value. In response to the slicer threshold value comparison, data signal “1” and “0” values are determined. A first sum of determined “1” values is created, and a second sum of determined “0” values is created. The slicer threshold value is adjusted in response to the comparison of the first and second sums. More explicitly, the slicer threshold value is adjusted to make “1” values more likely in response to the second sum being larger than the first sum. Alternately, the slicer threshold value is adjusted to make “0” values more likely in response to the second sum being smaller than the first sum. |
| US08218684B2 |
Method and system for an adaptive automatic gain control (AGC) reference for HSDPA and WCDMA
In a method and system for an adaptive automatic gain control (AGC) reference for HSDPA and WCDMA, A RF receiver, comprising a RF front-end, may receive a signal comprising a pilot signal via WCDMA or HSDPA. The operation mode of the RF front-end of the RF receiver may be determined based on the received signal components such as a HS-PDCH, a HS-SCCH, and/or a CPICH. The received signal strength information (RSSI) of the received signal may be determined from the output of a matched filter within the RF receiver. A true RSSI, which may be indicated by the received signal code power (RSCP), may be determined based on the pilot symbols over the CPICH. The operation mode determined for the receiver's RF front-end, the determined RSSI, and the determined CPICH_RSCP, may be provided as inputs to an automatic-gain-control (AGC) loop or circuit within the receiver front-end. |
| US08218683B2 |
Method for compensation for any phase and/or amplitude error in a receiver
The invention relates to a method for compensation for any phase and/or amplitude error in a receiver having a complex processing branch and a complex-conjugate processing branch, wherein an error-compensated complex signal component is determined by subtraction of a complex-conjugate signal component and to which a correction parameter is applied, from a complex signal component. The correction parameter is determined on the basis of a function of a quotient of the complex signal component and the complex-conjugate signal component. |
| US08218682B2 |
Digital signal transmitting apparatus
A digital signal transmitting apparatus that prevents occurrences of highness and lowness in error tolerance due to bit positions without raising the redundancy and without retransmittal. In the digital signal transmitting apparatus, a bit interchanging part (103) uses rate match information (105) to interchange bit positions such that a bit inserted by a rate match part (102) is placed at the bit position of a low error tolerance in a single symbol to be multilevel modulated. Moreover, the bit interchanging part (103) also uses the rate match information (105) to interchange bit positions such that another encoded bit, in which the bit punctured by the rate match part (102) is the same as the bit prior to encoding thereof, is placed at a bit position of a high error tolerance in a single symbol to be multilevel modulated. |
| US08218679B2 |
Method and system for creating quadrature modulation signal constellations with arbitrary spectral efficiency
Methods, systems, transmitters, and receivers implement and use Quadrature Amplitude Modulation QAM2N modulation types and constellations, where N is a real number, e.g., 1.5; 1.33; 2.5; 3.5. The methods, systems, transmitters, and receivers use constellations with the number of points on the circle not equal to a power of two, sending QAM signals of zero power together with other QAM signals, and/or sending sequences of QAM signals of different types. |
| US08218678B2 |
Apparatus and method for digital pre-distortion, sharing feedback path in a multiple antenna wireless communication system
A multiple antenna wireless communication system using a DPD power amplifier and a method for controlling an amplitude of an input signal for a plurality of transmission paths of the DPD power amplifier are provided. The system includes a plurality of amplifiers, a plurality of couplers, a switch, a shared feedback path and a plurality of processors. The plurality of amplifiers amplifies an input signal directed to each of the transmission paths. The plurality of couplers couple amplified signals on respective transmission paths. The switch outputs at least one of the amplified signals coupled on the respective transmission paths. The shared feedback path provides the amplified signal output from the switch to a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors compare a feedback signal provided through the shared feedback path with the input signal and pre-distort the input signal such that the input signal and the amplified signal have a linear relation with each other. |
| US08218675B2 |
Digital broadcasting system and method of processing
A method and apparatus is provided for processing broadcast data in a digital broadcast transmitter. The method includes performing Reed-Solomon (RS) encoding and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) encoding on mobile service data to build an RS frame, dividing the RS frame into a plurality of portions, mapping one of the plurality of portions into a first data group that has a first region and a second region and adding known data sequences and place holders for MPEG header data to the first data group, deinterleaving data in the first data group to output a second data group, replacing the place holders for MPEG header data in the second data group with MPEG header data such that mobile service data packets are output and interleaving data in the mobile service data packets. |
| US08218664B2 |
Bit allocation among carriers in multicarrier communications
A technique is provided that may be employed in multicarrier communications to improve the efficiency of error correction using symbol-oriented error correction methodologies, by reducing the number of error correction code symbols (102, 104 . . . ) that are received in error that result from a single channel error. More specifically, in this technique, bits from the symbols are allocated among the channels in such a way as to minimize the number of respective channels that are allocated bits belonging to more that one respective symbol during a respective transmission period. |
| US08218662B2 |
Method for designing mini resource unit and transmission for a distributed resource unit in consideration of space frequency block code
A method and device for wirelessly communicating between a mobile communication terminal and a base station, including exchanging one or more resource units between the base station and the mobile communication terminal, each resource unit having 18 subcarriers by a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbols. The one or more resource units are permutated using X contiguous subcarriers as a permutation unit in each OFDMA symbol, wherein X is a positive integer that is a multiple of 2 as well as a divisor of 18. |
| US08218658B2 |
Method for OFDM and OFDMA channel estimation
This invention discloses a method for OFDM and OFDMA channel estimation via phase-rotated polynomial interpolation and extrapolation (inter/extra-polation). For complexity reason, polynomial inter/extra-polation is an often considered method for channel estimation in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, in which the simplest choice is linear inter/extra-polation. But the performance of this method depends on the accuracy of symbol timing estimation as well as the channel delay spread. The invention mitigates the problem by adding a linear phase factor to polynomial inter/extra-polation, which corresponds to adding a delay (also called delay shift) in the time domain. |
| US08218657B2 |
System and method for automatic adjustment of streaming video bit rate
A system and method for automatically sets the encoding bit-rate across a network. The method includes encoding an original media stream with an encoding bit rate having an adjustable rate, transmitting the encoded media stream to a receiver, monitoring a throughput of the encoded media stream, computing an adjustment to the encoding bit rate, and adjusting the encoder's encoding bit rate. A throughput monitor (which can be freestanding, part of the transmitter, or part of the receiver), is operable to monitor the encoded media stream, wherein the transmitter is operable to adjust the encoding bit rate using a result of the monitored throughput. The transmitter and receiver both contain a buffer, and respective buffer monitors. Conditions (e.g., overflow, full, empty) at the transmitter or receiver buffer are detected by the respective transmitter or receiver buffer monitor, where upon a repeated condition the encoded bit rate is adjusted higher or lower. |
| US08218656B2 |
Pulse generator for ultra-wide-band modulating systems and modulating systems using it
A pulse generator circuit is provided. The pulse generator circuit has an input adapted to receive an input electrical quantity and an output at which an output electrical quantity is made available. A transfer characteristic establishes a relationship between said input and said output electrical quantities. The pulse generator circuit is adapted to provide said output electrical quantity in the form of pulses having a predetermined shape, suitable to be used for UWB transmission. The transfer characteristic has substantially a same shape as that of said pulses. Moreover, a UWB modulating system exploiting the novel pulse generator is proposed. |
| US08218655B2 |
Method, system and device for improving video quality through in-loop temporal pre-filtering
A method, system and device are provided for pre-filtering device for filtering a video signal prior to digitally encoding. The method includes receiving at least one input picture and at least one reconstructed picture from an encoding process and performing an in-loop temporal filtering process using at least one input picture and at least one reconstructed picture from an encoding process to output a pre-filtered video signal for use in an encoding process. The result is enabling an encoding process to produce an output with increased temporal correlation between adjacent pictures regardless of the coding type, since the artifacts introduced by the encoding process are also considered by the process. |
| US08218653B2 |
Lossy frame memory compression using intra refresh
Pixel data is compressed using a combination of variable and fixed quantization for luminance data. The luminance is compared to the result of variable quantization and to the result of the fixed quantization to compute a variable noise and a fixed noise. The result of the variable quantization is selected if the variable noise is less than the fixed noise, otherwise the fixed quantization result is selected if the fixed noise is less than the variable noise. The selected result is transferred to a frame memory. In another aspect of the invention, an intra mode coding decision is forced if the noise corresponding to the selected result exceeds a threshold. |
| US08218651B1 |
System and method for splicing
A method for splicing a first data stream that conveys a first single program transport stream (SPTS) and a second data stream that conveys a second SPTS, the method includes: receiving first data stream metadata units representative of first data stream packets, second data stream metadata units representative of second data stream packets and a request to perform a splicing operation at a n′th splicing point; performing, in response to the splicing request, transport stream layer processing of the first data stream metadata units and of the second data stream metadata units such as to provide a control output stream; and transmitting an output stream in response to the control output stream. |
| US08218650B2 |
Context adaptive binary arithmetic decoding for high definition video
An apparatus comprising a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit may be configured to present a video signal and macroblock data in response to decoding one or more bins on a binary signal. The second circuit may be configured to, in parallel (i) generate the binary signal in response to a bitstream signal and an initial context information and (ii) calculate subsequent context information. |
| US08218649B2 |
Information processing apparatus and recovery processing method
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a recovery module which causes a decording module to decode supplementary slice data when it is determined that the value of the information indicating a position of processing target slice data in the image is inappropriate. The recovery module creates the supplementary slice data by editing slice data located upwardly adjacent to the processing target slice in such a manner that information indicating a position thereof in the image is edited into information for the processing target slice. |
| US08218646B2 |
Moving image encoding apparatus, moving image encoding method, and program
A moving image encoding apparatus includes a first-step encoding section for executing a plurality of times first-step encoding by use of different quantization control variables; a code-amount estimation section for estimating, for all the quantization control variables, an amount of codes generated for each frame by making use of a plurality of results of the encoding; a code-amount allocation section for allocating an amount of codes for each frame on the basis of results of the estimation; and a second-step encoding section for executing second-step encoding on the basis of the amount of codes allocated to each frame. The first-step encoding section changes the number of times of execution of the encoding in accordance with the attribute of each frame, and omits a portion of processes contained in the coding process in the second and subsequent executions of the encoding process. |
| US08218641B2 |
Picture encoding using same-picture reference for pixel reconstruction
Digital pictures may be encoded by padding all un-processed pixels within a currently processing picture with temporary pixel values; searching the picture for a matching section for use as a reference in pixel reconstruction of a section of the picture independent of whether the picture is intra-coded or inter-coded; and using the matching section to perform pixel prediction on the section to generate one or more predicted pixels for the section. |
| US08218637B2 |
Image processing apparatus and associated method
An image data processing method includes selecting a motion compensating vector of a noticed region based on additional information added to student data. The image data processing method also includes classifying the noticed region into one of a plurality of classes based on the motion compensating vector selected by the selecting. In addition, the image data processing method includes constructing a prediction tap of the noticed region based on the motion compensating vector selected by the selecting and learning a prediction coefficient based on the one of the plurality of classes using teacher data corresponding to the constructed prediction tap. The image data processing method additionally includes producing prediction coefficient data for each class, based on the prediction coefficient. The image data processing method further includes storing the prediction coefficient data in a coefficient memory based on a quantization scale and a bit rate. |
| US08218633B2 |
Bidirectionally decodable Wyner-Ziv video coding
Systems and methodologies for employing bidirectionally decodable Wyner-Ziv video coding (BDWZVC) are described herein. BDWZVC can be used to generate M-frames, which have multiple reference frames at an encoder and can be forward and backward decodable. For example, optimal Lagrangian multipliers for forward and backward motion estimation can be derived and/or utilized. The optimal Lagrangian multiplier for backward motion estimation can be approximately twice as large as the optimal Lagrangian multiplier for forward motion estimation. Further, an optimal P-frame/M-frame selection scheme can be employed to enhance rate-distortion performance when video is transmitted over an error prone channel. Accordingly, a first frame in a group of pictures (GOP) can be encoded as an I-frame, a next m−1 frames can be encoded as P-frames, and a remaining n−m frames can be encoded as M-frames, where n can be a length of the GOP and m can be optimally identified. |
| US08218632B2 |
Frame interpolation apparatus and frame interpolation method
A frame interpolation apparatus generates a pixel value at an interpolation position by examining pairs of pixel blocks, one from a preceding reference frame and one from a following reference frame, located in positions that are point-symmetric or nearly point-symmetric with respect to the interpolation position. The pair of pixel blocks showing the greatest mutual similarity is selected, the central pixels in the selected pair of pixel blocks are taken as reference pixels, and the interpolated pixel value is generated from the reference pixel values. By routinely examining a large number of pairs of pixel blocks for each interpolation position, the frame interpolation apparatus can detect image motion accurately and generate accurate interpolated values. |
| US08218630B2 |
Video frame encoding and decoding
A video frame arithmetical context adaptive encoding and decoding scheme is presented which is based on the finding, that, for sake of a better definition of neighborhood between blocks of picture samples, i.e. the neighboring block which the syntax element to be coded or decoded relates to and the current block based on the attribute of which the assignment of a context model is conducted, and when the neighboring block lies beyond the borders or circumference of the current macroblock containing the current block, it is important to make the determination of the macroblock containing the neighboring block dependent upon as to whether the current macroblock pair region containing the current block is of a first or a second distribution type, i.e., frame or field coded. |
| US08218627B2 |
Scalable MPEG video/macro block rate control
A scaleable macro block rate control method particularly well-suited for MPEG video. There is provided a method to easily derive a quantization parameter (QP) value using information such as bit usage, previous QP values and SAD values from the past encoded and future frames. The method utilizes quantization estimation techniques based on statistical relationships between different intensity measures, such as distortion intensity, absolute difference intensity and mean of absolute difference intensity. The method is well-suited to applications utilizing MPEG video such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, JVT/H.264 standards and so forth. |
| US08218626B2 |
Encoding control apparatus, encoding control method, and storage medium
An encoding control apparatus is disclosed that includes a variance calculation unit configured to calculate a variance of an encoding target macroblock; a sum-of-absolute-difference calculation unit configured to calculate a sum of absolute differences between the encoding target macroblock and a reference macroblock; a setting unit configured to set, based on the variance and the sum of absolute differences, a standard for determining whether to skip encoding of the encoding target macroblock; a prediction unit configured to perform motion compensation prediction on the encoding target macroblock to obtain a motion-compensated prediction value; and a determination unit configured to determine whether to skip encoding of the encoding target macroblock by comparing the motion-compensated prediction value with the standard. Related apparatuses and methods are also disclosed. |
| US08218620B2 |
Picture processing apparatus, index creating apparatus, imaging apparatus, index creating method, and program
Disclosed herein is a picture processing apparatus including: an attribute information detection section configured to detect attribute information about a plurality of pictures included in moving picture data; an index data creation section configured to create index data for indexing the attribute information to the positions in the moving picture data of those of the plurality of pictures which correspond to the attribute information; and a stream data creation section configured to create stream data including the moving picture data and the index data. |
| US08218614B2 |
Electronic equalization and electronic depolarization method, receiving end equipment, and communication system
Embodiments of the present invention disclose an electronic equalization and electronic depolarization method, a receiving end equipment, and a communication system. According to the embodiments of the present invention, parameters required by electronic equalization and electronic depolarization are calculated by detecting a Synchronization Sequence (SS) in a received signal, and then the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization are performed on the received signal in a frequency domain by utilizing the parameters, so as to solve a problem of the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization in a Polarization Division Multiplexing (PDM) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. Furthermore, the realization complexity of the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization performed in the frequency domain is greatly reduced relative to the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization performed in a time domain. |
| US08218610B2 |
System and method for descrambling the phase of carriers in a multicarrier communications system
A system and method that demodulates the phase characteristic of a carrier signal are described. The scrambling of the phase characteristic of each carrier signal includes associating a value with each carrier signal and computing a phase shift for each carrier signal based on the value associated with that carrier signal. The value is determined independently of any input bit value carried by that carrier signal. The phase shift computed for each carrier signal is combined with the phase characteristic of that carrier signal so as to substantially scramble the phase characteristic of the carrier signals. Bits of an input signal are modulated onto the carrier signals having the substantially scrambled phase characteristic to produce a transmission signal with a reduced PAR. |
| US08218608B2 |
Self-tuning transmitter
A self-tuning duplicating transceiver is provided. The transceiver includes a microprocessor, a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter includes an electrically tunable radio frequency oscillator, and the receiver includes a counter for determining an edge count associated with a received signal. The microprocessor is programmed to receive an unknown signal with the receiver and use the counter to determine the edge count thereof, and electrically tune the transmitter oscillator to a carrier frequency corresponding to the edge count for the unknown signal. |
| US08218606B2 |
Method and apparatus for direct estimation of impairment correlations for received signal processing
According to the teachings disclosed in this document, a receiver estimates impairment correlations for a received signal using received pilot values. This direct estimation of impairment correlations based on direct pilot observations, provides for a rich capture of all impairment sources bearing on the received signal. Advantageously, however, estimation noise is reduced by generating a structured covariance matrix from the measured covariance matrix, and carrying out structured filtering within the structured covariance matrix. Structured filtering involves averaging matrix elements that correspond to the same processing delay difference as used for measured impairment correlation estimation. In one or more embodiments, averaged net channel estimates are used to obtain a rank one matrix, which is used to convert a measured covariance matrix to a structured covariance matrix, for carrying out structured filtering. |
| US08218604B2 |
Interference canceling CDMA mobile station receiver
A receiver that provides interference cancellation in conjunction with RAKE processing. Signal parameters corresponding to each of a plurality of fingers corresponding to RAKE processing are maintained. Synthesized pilot signals are estimated using the signal parameters by interpolating waveforms for respective ones of the plurality of synthesized pilot signals to a common sampling lattice of the received set of data, and are then cancelled out. According to another aspect, a receiver ensures completion of a time-critical process such as signal demodulation and adaptively applies a non-time-critical process such as interference cancellation to the extent that computational resources become available subject to ensuring the completion of the time-critical process. |
| US08218599B2 |
Method and apparatus for multiple access over a communication channel
A communication technique based on direct sequence spread spectrum signaling employs, for all users sharing an access channel, a single spreading code that has a duration sufficiently longer than the symbol length that the likelihood of confusion between users is minimized if not eliminated. The length of the spreading code is sufficiently long that contention events can occur only when two bursts occur at the receiver within one chip time of one another. |
| US08218598B1 |
Method to program the starting phase of the spread spectrum
Disclosed is a circuit and method to program the starting phase of the spread spectrum of a clock output. The circuit includes a plurality of phase locked loop (PLL) circuits for generating a plurality of spread spectrum waveforms. The circuit also includes a spread control circuit for controlling each of the plurality of PLL circuits in accordance with a plurality of respective spread profiles. The spread profiles are configured to vary a starting phase of each spread spectrum waveform such that a total energy of each spread spectrum waveform is out of phase with other spread spectrum waveforms. |
| US08218595B2 |
Enhanced planarity in GaN edge emitting lasers
A GaN edge emitting laser is provided comprising a semi-polar GaN substrate, an active region, an N-side waveguiding layer, a P-side waveguiding layer, an N-type cladding layer, and a P-type cladding layer. The GaN substrate defines a 20 21 crystal growth plane and a glide plane. The N-side and P-side waveguiding layers comprise a GaInN/GaN or GaInN/GaInN superlattice (SL) waveguiding layers. The superlattice layers of the N-side and P-side SL waveguiding layers define respective layer thicknesses that are optimized for waveguide planarity, the layer thicknesses being between approximately 1 nm and approximately 5 nm. In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, planarization can be enhanced by ensuring that the N-side and P-side GaN-based waveguiding layers are grown at a growth rate that exceeds approximately 0.09 nm/s, regardless of whether the N-side and P-side GaN-based waveguiding layers are provided as a GaInN/GaN or GaInN/GaInN SL or as bulk waveguiding layers. In still further embodiments, planarization can be enhanced by selecting optimal SL layer thicknesses and growth rates. Additional embodiments are disclosed and claimed. |