| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08219215B2 |
Electronic device properties control
A device with controllable mechanical characteristics makes available a list of controllable characteristics for use by a controller or host computer. The list may include not only controllable characteristics but also the available range for each control, the impact of each adjustment, or both. The host computer can evaluate an operating state of the computer or electronic device and determine how best to set the device for compatible operation with the operating state. When controllable characteristics have multiple effects and/or interact with other controllable characteristics, macros may be developed to perform multiple settings as a group to achieve the desired outcome. The list may also be downloaded from a web service. |
| US08219213B2 |
Active fixation cardiac vein medical lead
An implantable medical lead configured for active fixation in the vasculature of a patient includes an elongated lead body having a central lumen and a distal tip. Disposed within the central lumen are a fixation helix and an elongated member, such as a lead coil, coupled to the fixation helix. The elongated member is adapted to rotate the fixation helix, thereby causing it to advance or retract within the central lumen of the lead body. The lead body includes a window along a portion of its length through which the fixation helix may be affixed to a blood vessel of the patient's vasculature. |
| US08219211B2 |
Insulating member for a medical electrical lead and method for assembly
A medical electrical lead that includes a lead body having a lead body lumen, an electrode head assembly fixedly engaged with the lead body and having an electrode head assembly lumen communicating with the lead body lumen, and a conductor extending within the lead body lumen and the electrode head assembly lumen. An insulating member extends through the electrode head assembly lumen and the lead body lumen to electrically isolate the conductor. |
| US08219210B2 |
Method and apparatus for identification of ischemic/infarcted regions and therapy optimization
A method and apparatus is described for detecting and localizing areas of myocardial infarction or ischemia. By pacing sites in proximity to the infarcted or ischemic region with appropriately timed pacing pulses, the region is pre-excited in a manner that lessens the mechanical stress to which it is subjected, thus reducing the metabolic demand of the region and the stimulus for remodeling. |
| US08219203B2 |
Cochlear implant utilizing multiple-resolution current sources and flexible data encoding
A programmable cochlear implant system utilizes multiple-resolution current sources and flexible data-encoding scheme for transcutaneous transmission. In certain embodiments, the number of current sources may be equal to or greater than 2, but equal or less than N−1, where N is the number of electrodes. The multi-resolution current source may introduce offset currents to achieve perceptually-based multiple resolutions with high resolution at low amplitudes and low resolution at high amplitudes. The flexible data-encoding scheme may allow arbitrary waveforms in terms of phase polarity, phase duration, pseudo-analog-waveform, while producing high-rate and high-temporal-precision stimulation. In one embodiment, a 2-current-source system may support simultaneous and non-simultaneous stimulation as well as monopolar, bipolar, pseudo-tripolar, and tripolar electrode configurations. |
| US08219202B2 |
Electrical stimulation of ilioinguinal nerve to alleviate chronic pelvic pain
The disclosure describes a method and system for applying electrical stimulation to an ilioinguinal nerve of a patient. The system includes electrical stimulators that apply electrical stimulation for alleviation of pelvic pain. The system may apply electrical stimulation for pelvic pain in men or women. The electrical stimulators may comprise various types of electrodes such as cuff electrodes, electrode leads, and microstimulators implanted at various locations proximate to a single or both ilioinguinal nerves of a patient. In particular, the electrode may be implanted proximate or adjacent to a region of the ilioinguinal nerve above or below the inguinal canal. |
| US08219201B2 |
Smooth muscle controller for controlling the level of a chemical in the blood stream
An apparatus that comprises at least one electrode adapted to be placed adjacent to a portion of smooth muscle (200) and a controller for electrifying the electrode with a non-excitatory electric field (210) which does not generate excitation of the smooth muscle. The non-excitatory electric field affects the activity of the smooth muscle in a manner that controls a level of a chemical in the blood stream. |
| US08219195B2 |
Method and apparatus for automatic determination of hemodynamically optimal cardiac pacing parameter values
For cardiac rhythm management, a combination of cardiac pacing and a noninvasive heart monitoring is proposed for the determination of a set of programmable pacing parameters hemodynamically beneficial to the patient. The apparatus incorporates a cardiac pacemaker and a thoracic electrical bioimpedance (TEB) heart monitor. This combination allows the creation of a closed-loop system that obtains pacing parameter settings providing hemodynamically beneficial pacing therapy to the patient as determined by measuring and recording of stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO), and other indices of ventricular performance by the heart monitor during an optimization cycle automatically employing different permutations of values of pacing parameters such as atrioventricular delays, inter-atrial delay, inter-ventricular delay, or heart rate, that are sequentially programmed to the pacemaker. The hemodynamically beneficial permutation of pacing parameter values is determined from all recordings and programmed to the pacemaker for permanent or temporary pacing therapy. |
| US08219192B2 |
Method and apparatus for transcutaneous cardioprotective pacing
A transcutaneous cardiac stimulation system delivers pacing pulses according to a cardioprotective pacing protocol. The pacing pulses are delivered through body-surface electrodes attached onto a patient. The cardioprotective pacing protocol specifies pacing parameters selected to augment cardiac stress on the patient's myocardium to a level effecting cardioprotection against ischemic and reperfusion injuries. |
| US08219189B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving renal function
A method for improving renal function includes placing an electrode on a dorsal spinal cord within a central nervous system and applying an electrical current to the electrode. The electrode is positioned, and the electrical current is configured, to stimulate an afferent neuron without stimulating an efferent neuron, thereby causing an increase in renal excretion of sodium and water while having an insubstantial affect on a sympathetic nervous system. |
| US08219187B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing improved assessment of a physiological condition of a patient
In a method and apparatus for providing an indication suitable for assessing a physiological condition of a patient, at least two biosignals are obtained from the patient. The biosignals contain at least one common physiological data component, such as an EEG or EMG component. An analysis of each of the biosignals is carried out to obtain a complexity value for each of the biosignals. Or, the biosignals may be divided into their components and a complexity value is obtained for the biosignal components. Thereafter and on the basis of the complexity values, a complexity value indicative of at least one physiological data component present in the biosignals is selected and utilized to provide the physiological condition assessment indication of the patient. |
| US08219183B2 |
Apparatus for generating sectional images of tissue
A generation of sectional images of tissue is provided. In this arrangement a first light-conducting fiber of a device for generating sectional tissue images according to the optical coherence tomography principle, which light-conducting fiber is rotatably accommodated within a catheter tube, is additionally connected to a device for generating light in a further wavelength range and for detecting fluorescent light. With its use sectional tissue images produced according to the optical coherence tomography principle can be superimposed with fluorescent images. |
| US08219177B2 |
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. |
| US08219175B2 |
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. |
| US08219173B2 |
Optimizing analyte sensor calibration
Method and apparatus for optimizing analyte sensor calibration including receiving a current blood glucose measurement, retrieving a time information for an upcoming scheduled calibration event for calibrating an analyte sensor, determining temporal proximity between the current blood glucose measurement and the retrieved time information for the upcoming calibration event, initiating a calibration routine to calibrate the analyte sensor when the determined temporal proximity is within a predetermined time period, and overriding the upcoming scheduled calibration event using the current blood glucose measurement are provided. |
| US08219168B2 |
Article and method for applying a coupling agent for a non-invasive optical probe
This invention provides an article of manufacture and method for controlling the application of a coupling agent, such as a silicone oil or mineral oil, on a surface of a tissue prior to contacting the tissue with an apparatus for non-invasive optical measurement of the concentration of an analyte. The article ensures that a specific quantity of the coupling agent is deposited in a uniform layer over the entire target area of the tissue, thereby enhancing both the optical signal and the repeatability of thermal and optical coupling with the components of the apparatus. The article comprises a backing and a layer of coupling agent on at least one major surface of the backing. |
| US08219165B2 |
Radio communication apparatus
A challenge to be met by the present invention is to provide a radio communication apparatus that enables prevention of a drop in antenna gain, which would otherwise arise when an apparatus main body is placed on a metal plate, such as a metallic desk, at low cost. A second antenna element (3) is placed at such a position where resonance arises at a frequency band of a first antenna element (2) and connected to a ground pattern of a circuit board (10) by way of an antenna grounding unit (8) connected exclusively to a radio system unit (7). Further, a reactance unit (82) of the antenna grounding unit (8) performs regulation such that the second antenna element (3) is electromagnetically coupled with the metal plate, to thus cause resonance at a predetermined frequency, when the apparatus main body is placed on the metal plate and that the resonance frequency becomes a frequency band of the first antenna element (2). When the apparatus main body is placed on the metal plate while a radio signal is being transmitted at the frequency band of the first antenna element (2), the second antenna element (3) can thereby be used as a passive element, so that occurrence of a drop in gain of the first antenna element (2) can be prevented. |
| US08219155B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining whether a device is suitable for operating at an incidence location
A method and apparatus for determining whether a device is suitable for operating at an incidence location enables effective deployment of devices in a wireless communication network. The method includes identifying a location of the device in the wireless communication network. Next, a state of charge of a battery of the device is identified based on data received from the device. A preference value of the device is then determined relative to an incidence location in the wireless communication network. The preference value is a function of the state of charge of the device and a distance between the location of the device and the incidence location. Finally, using the preference value, it is determined whether the device is suitable for operating at the incidence location. |
| US08219154B2 |
Power transmission device, power transmission method, program, power receiving device and power transfer system
There is provided a power transmission device including a communication part that performs communication with an external power transmission device that transmits power, a power transmission part that transmits power to a power receiving device that receives the transmitted power in a non-contact manner, a determination part that determines whether power can be transmitted, based on external power transmission information received by the communication part indicating a start of power transmission by the external power transmission device, and a power transmission control part that controls the power transmission part to selectively transmit power based on a determination result from the determination part. |
| US08219137B2 |
Method for controlling interference generated by a mobile station on neighbor base stations
The present invention concerns a method for controlling the interference level generated by a mobile station comprising at least steps: selecting at least one neighbor base station; estimating a first attenuation value between the mobile station and a current base station, and at least a second attenuation value between the mobile station (MS) and the neighbor base station; estimating an interference level: I_level=BS0_RSS+L0−L wherein BS0_RSS is a first received signal strength at the base station, from the mobile station, L0 is the first attenuation value, and L is one second attenuation value estimated in preceding step, comparing the interference level to a reference interference level, and according to the result of the comparison, sending to the mobile station at least information relative to a maximum transmitted signal strength. |
| US08219132B2 |
Communication system, base station apparatus and communication method
A communication method, for use in a communication system that performs radio communication between a number of vehicle-mounted terminal devices and a base station device, includes transmitting, by each of the vehicle-mounted terminal devices, vehicle-mounted device information thereof, and lastly-accessed identification information indicating a base station device that was in the radio communication with a vehicle-mounted terminal device just before when the communications therewith is cut off and authenticating, by the base station device, when there is a match between the transmitted lastly-accessed identification information and the identification information of the base station device stored in the base station device, based on the vehicle-mounted device information of the vehicle-mounted terminal devices stored in the base station device not entirely but partially, and the vehicle-mounted device information transmitted by each of the vehicle-mounted terminal devices. |
| US08219131B2 |
Cognitive wireless communication system
To prevent a hung-up of communications due to changes in a radio wave condition resulting from frequent displacement of the terminals and changes in a number of the terminals, and to realize switching of the radio systems adapting to the radio condition. A radio communication system comprising: a base station for providing a plurality of radio systems, and terminals for communicating with the base station through the plurality of radio systems. The base station decides a priority of the radio system on which the each terminal will communicate thereafter and transmits paging signals of one of the plurality of radio systems which includes information on the decided priority to the each terminal. |
| US08219130B2 |
Estimating time delays in a simulcast communication system
A method for facilitating an equalization of a simulcast signal comprising: (a) receiving a simulcast signal comprising known data simulcast from at least two different sites; (b) generating a number of simulated simulcast signals, each simulated simulcast signal being based on at least two sites transmitting said known data with a presumed time delay, each simulated simulcast signal having a different presumed time delay; (c) determining which of said simulated simulcast signals is an optimum simulated simulcast signal that correlates most closely to said simulcast signal; and (d) providing time delay data of said optimum simulated simulcast signal for use in equalization of said simulcast signal. |
| US08219126B2 |
Provisioning my status information to others in my social network
A device, system, and method are directed towards sending a status of a user in a social network to a recipient. A status of the user is received over a channel. The recipient is selected based on a membership in the social network, a preference of the recipient, or a type of the status. Another channel is selected based on information about a mode of communication between the recipient and the user and/or another member related to the user in the social network. The status may be modified from one type to another type based on the recipient. The status is forwarded to the recipient over the other channel. Forwarding may comprise unicasting, multicasting, and/or delaying sending the status until the other channel is available. A channel may include an application protocol. |
| US08219125B2 |
System and method for enhanced message addressing
Coincident with the evolution, maturation, etc. of wireless messaging ecosystems, today and in the future the addressing of a message needs to include—and all of the different entities that process messages (e.g., Wireless Carriers, intermediaries, enterprises, Content Providers, Service Providers, etc.) need to support—additional (i.e., enhanced, flexible, extensible, etc.) message addressing capabilities. The present invention provides an infrastructure that supports such additional (i.e., enhanced, flexible, extensible, etc.) message addressing capabilities through, among other things, the availability of Dynamic Tags (DynaTags). The infrastructure may optionally leverage the capabilities of a centrally-located Messaging Inter-Carrier Vendor. |
| US08219121B2 |
Broadcast data and event triggers over a digital cellular network
A system and method for enabling a service provider to select one or more digital cellular markets to receive a broadcast page, wherein each digital cellular market provides wireless communication services to a geographic region. The service provider to generate a broadcast page indicating a Virtual Device Identifier, the Virtual Device Identifier associated with a plurality of remote devices in each of the digital cellular markets selected, and wherein each of the remote devices includes a Primary Device Identifier uniquely identifying the remote device within the digital cellular markets, and wherein each of the remote devices further includes the Virtual Device Identifier associated with the plurality of remote devices. The service provider to further send the broadcast page to each digital cellular market selected, for transmission to the remote devices to send a message to remote devices having the Virtual Device Identifier. |
| US08219112B1 |
Accuracy analysis of wireless base station location
A method and system for accuracy analysis of wireless base station location is provided. In one embodiment, data from a set of mobile devices using a wireless base station is collected. A location of a wireless base station is estimated based on locations of the mobile devices (i.e. points) in the collected set. To provide a more accurate location estimation for the wireless base station, the estimated location is analyzed for accuracy based on the collected data. A confidence score is calculated using a weight function with weights for the collected data based on factors, such as, collection size, platform types of the mobile devices, quality, temporal diversity and/or spatial diversity of points corresponding to the mobile devices, etc. An estimated location of the wireless base station may be adjusted based on the calculated confidence score. An estimated coverage region of the wireless base station may be also estimated and adjusted. |
| US08219111B2 |
Method for an improved linear least squares estimation of a mobile terminal's location under LOS and NLOS conditions and using map information
A linear least squares (LLS) estimator provides a low complexity estimation of the location of a mobile terminal (MT), using one of the fixed terminals (FTs) as a reference FT to derive a linear model. A method for selecting a reference FT is disclosed, which improves the location accuracy relative to an arbitrary approach to selecting the reference FT. In addition, a covariance-matrix based LLS estimator is proposed in line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) environments to further provide accuracy, taking advantage of the correlation of the observations. Different techniques for selecting the reference FT under non-LOS (NLOS) conditions are disclosed. A map-based two-stage LLS estimator assists in selecting the reference FT under NLOS conditions. |
| US08219107B2 |
Method and system for improving quality of service over a fixed network
The amount of data that is transmitted over a cellular network is reduced thereby providing an improvement in the quality of service. The data reduction is obtained by intercepting data units transferred over a bearer between two nodes, such as a BTS and BSC. The current load for a bearer is determined and based on the current load, the source of the data is requested to change the bit rate of subsequent data units. Thus, the bit rate of data that is transmitted toward two intermediate nodes is changed in order to control the load over a bearer that connects the two intermediate nodes. |
| US08219104B2 |
Radio resource allocation which optimizes system throughput using a small amount of computation
A radio resource allocation method is provided wherein one of a plurality of mobile stations is allocated to one or each of a plurality of frequency blocks. The method comprises: (a) calculating allocation index representing transmission quality of each of said mobile stations in said each of frequency blocks; extracting for said each of frequency blocks, a mobile station having a largest allocation index as a candidate mobile station; (c) extracting a mobile station having a largest allocation index in all of said frequency blocks, as a target mobile station for allocation; and (d) extracting, from among said frequency blocks, frequency block(s) for which said candidate mobile station matches said target mobile station, as candidate frequency block(s). |
| US08219103B2 |
Communication unit and method for frequency synchronising in a cellular communication network
A communication unit is capable of communicating in a wireless communication network. The communication unit comprises a receiver for receiving timing signals from a plurality of serving wireless communication units; a frequency synchronizing circuit operably coupled to the receiver for synchronizing an operating frequency of the communication unit to a serving wireless communication unit of the plurality of serving wireless communication units Control logic is capable of controlling the frequency synchronizing circuit to adjust an operating frequency of the communication unit. The control logic is arranged to distinguish between macro cell transmissions and femto cell transmissions and in response thereto selectively use or reject timing signals from the plurality of serving wireless communication units in adjusting the operating frequency of the wireless communication unit. |
| US08219101B2 |
Cell management method and mobile telecommunication system for the same
A method of managing cells of base stations (BSs) and a mobile telecommunication system for the same, capable of allowing a user equipment (UE), which had not been permitted, to access the CSG BS if the UE meets an access condition, are disclosed. In accordance with the method and the system, an outdoor BS, manages a list of indoor BSs of a CCSG selected among indoor BSs of the CSG. The indoor BSs of the CCSG allow the UE to access the indoor BSs of the CCSG when the UE meets an access condition. The outdoor BS broadcasts a reporting criteria and reporting information, receives measurement values that meet the reporting criteria and an identity of the indoor BS as the reporting information from the UE, recognizes the environment of the UE based on the measurement value, checks the identity of the indoor base station in the list of the CCSG and allows the UE to access the indoor base station based on a check result. |
| US08219100B2 |
Active service redirection for a private femto cell
A femto cell at a customer premises, such as an IP-based femto Base Transceiver System (IP-BTS), can be configured as a “private access” node intended to service a limited set of mobile stations. However, mobile stations not associated with the private femto cell may acquire and lock onto the femto BTS. To avoid service blockages in such cases, the private femto BTS will allow call access attempts by, and call deliveries to, a non-associated mobile station, despite the “private access” configuration. However, upon completion of call set-up, the non-associated mobile station is directed to initiate handoff, from the private femto cell coverage provided by the femto BTS into a cell coverage of a base station of the macro network, to conserve femto cell resources for use in servicing calls of the associated mobile station(s). |
| US08219099B2 |
Methods and apparatus for subscriber station-based admission selection in a wireless communication system
A subscriber station may identify base stations that have sufficiently strong signal strength so that the base stations are candidates to be used for network entry. The subscriber station may determine which of the candidate base stations is least utilized. The subscriber station may select the least utilized base station for network entry. |
| US08219089B1 |
Method and system for managing call authorizations for prepaid wireless service
A prepaid service platform monitors a prepaid balance for a mobile station that operates in accordance with a prepaid wireless service plan. When the prepaid balance reaches a predetermined value, such as zero, the prepaid service platform signals to the mobile station's home location register (HLR). In response, the HLR changes at least one call authorization in an HLR profile for the mobile station and also signals to the serving system currently serving the mobile station. The serving system responsively changes at least one call authorization in a serving-system profile for the mobile station. As a result of these changes to the mobile station's call authorizations, the mobile station may be prevented from making and/or receiving chargeable calls. |
| US08219084B2 |
Method of roaming in broadcast service and system and terminal thereof
A method, system, and terminal for handling or processing roaming errors between networks that can support broadcast services. When a roaming service between networks is requested, if a user authentication request is unsuccessful due to non-matching identification information between the networks, a corresponding error message is delivered to the subscriber terminal and network information that has been recently updated using various methods is provided such that repetitive requests and responses for authentication can be avoided when the subscriber requests a roaming service, and thus a roaming service between networks can be quickly provided without delays. |
| US08219082B2 |
Roaming communication method, apparatus, and system
A roaming communication method in the field of communication technologies includes: obtaining a location update reject message sent by a Home Location Register (HLR) of a subscriber to a Visitor Location Register (VLR) of the subscriber; obtaining subscriber data from account information of the subscriber, where the subscriber data includes a local number and subscription information of the subscriber; and simulating the HLR to send the subscriber data to the VLR of the subscriber so that the subscriber can communicate in the visited network. The embodiments of the present invention also provide a roaming communication apparatus and system. The present invention enables a roaming subscriber to enjoy the communication service in a roaming network where no roaming agreement is signed without changing a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM). The solution is easy and convenient and saves expenses of the subscriber. At the same time, this attracts subscribers without roaming authority to use the network of an operator, thereby increasing the revenue of the operator. |
| US08219081B2 |
In-vehicle wireless communication device, roaming list updating system, and method for updating roaming list
A wireless communication unit performs wireless communication with a network of a carrier and receives a roaming list transmitted from the network. A control unit causes a storing unit to store the transmitted roaming list. The control unit sets the stored roaming list to be workable when completing updating of the roaming list and traces a communicable wireless communication system using the workable roaming list. The control unit causes the wireless communication unit to transmit an update request to the network when reception of the transmitted latest roaming list is unsuccessful in the course of the reception and when a predetermined condition is satisfied. The network transmits a latest roaming list to the wireless communication unit in response to reception of the update request. |
| US08219079B2 |
System and method for microwave traffic routing
A radio communication system has a primary communication pathway and a secondary communication pathway. When the primary communication pathway is implemented by a microwave radio link, it is susceptible to poor performance under adverse weather conditions. A system evaluates the available data bandwidth under adverse conditions and provides control instructions to a data switch to reduce the data flow to the primary communication pathway. In addition, the data switch may receive priority control data to prioritize data queues to the primary communication pathway and the secondary communication pathway in accordance with the received instructions. |
| US08219076B2 |
CDMA probe for self-testing base station receivers
An access probe existing and generated within a base station to simulate a mobile terminal for the purpose of testing base station receive functionality within a communications system. The access probe data is injected at baseband rather than at RF to eliminate the need for analog/RF circuitry. The access probe performs injection at the front end of the base station receiver to exercise as much receive data path as possible. A unique ID is embedded in the access probes so that the communications system is aware which probes within a sequence were received successfully and at what power level. Within in-field applications, the unique ID allows the communications system to distinguish simulated access probes from those corresponding to real mobiles. |
| US08219067B1 |
Delayed display of message
A system, method, and computer-readable media are described for allowing a user to specify a desired time of delivery for a message (e.g., MMS message, SMS message). In one embodiment, a user interface is provided that allows the user to set a desired time of delivery while composing the message. The desired time of delivery is then included in the message. The recipient device places the message in a hidden folder until the desired time of delivery. Also, a messaging center may wait to deliver a messaging-waiting notification to the recipient until a low network usage period. |
| US08219066B2 |
Recording apparatus for communicating with a plurality of communication apparatuses, control method therefor, and program
This invention can reduce the load on a recording apparatus, efficiently design the overall system, and accurately calculate a data amount recordable on a recording unit in accordance with setting change of each communication apparatus or the like. A portable remote storage transmits information on a data amount storable in the portable remote storage to digital cameras. The information on the data amount storable in the portable remote storage is based on the remaining area of a shared storage area commonly available for the digital cameras except for an exclusive storage area assigned to each digital camera. |
| US08219065B2 |
Management of CDMA credentials on a smart card
A method is performed by a user device and a smart card inserted into the user device. The method includes storing, in the smart card, information to permit the user device to communicate with a particular network; identifying a first smart card identifier associated with the smart card; identifying a second smart card identifier associated with a previous smart card inserted into the user device; comparing the first smart card identifier and the second smart card identifier to generate a first comparison result; pushing, by the smart card and to the user device, the information when the first comparison result indicates that the first smart card identifier matches the second smart card identifier; and obtaining, by the user device, access to the particular network using the information received from the smart card. |
| US08219061B1 |
Method and system for obtaining emergency caller location
Methods and systems for obtaining the location of a caller during an emergency or other telephone call. Before or during a call, a phone system can obtain from one or more sources a subscriber access line identity associated with a subscriber location record that includes a subscriber access line identity attribute and a subscriber location attribute. A phone system can send a query that includes the subscriber access line identity to a subscriber location query system that returns a subscriber location record or a subscriber location to the phone system. The phone system can then display the caller location information to a phone system, an agent or operator so that emergency services can be quickly and accurately dispatched. Using similar procedure and a memory, phone systems can also determine if a subscriber phone has or is changing location. Methods for testing the emergency call capabilities of a subscriber access line. |
| US08219060B2 |
Dual inductor circuit for multi-band wireless communication device
This disclosure describes a dual inductor circuit, which may be particularly useful in a mixer of a wireless communication device to allow the mixer to operate for two different frequency bands or in a multi-differential branch low noise amplifier wherein each of the differential branches possess a different set of gain and linearity characteristics for a signal operating at the same frequency. The dual inductor circuit comprises an inductor-within-inductor design in which a small inductor is disposed within a large inductor. The two inductors may share a ground terminal, but are otherwise physically separated and independent from one another. Terminals of the inner inductor, for example, are not tapped from the outer inductor, which can reduce parasitic effects and electromagnetic interference relative to tapped inductor designs. The independence of the inductors also allows the different inductors to define different resonance frequencies or gain and linearity characteristics, which is desirable. |
| US08219059B2 |
Adjacent channel optimized receiver
The present invention offers significant improvements in the performance of a radio receiver operating in an environment with high desired band interference. The present invention comprises a high selectivity RF circuit that is located between the antenna and the radio receiver, and utilizes superheterodyne technology to filter adjacent channel interference in the desired band frequency spectrum. This type of interference is problematic for IEEE 802.11 radio receivers that are implemented with the popular direct conversion radio receiver architectures. The present invention may be utilized in many types of radio receivers. The high selectivity RF circuit comprises channel select filters, a down-converter, an up-converter and a programmable local oscillator. The radio receiver provides control signals to the high selectivity RF circuit that permits the selection of an appropriate channel select filter and permits the generation of a local oscillator that subsequently generates the proper intermediate frequency in a mixer. |
| US08219057B2 |
Active antenna system and method for operation of an active antenna array
The application relates to a method for operation of an active antenna array and to an active antenna system. The active antenna system has a signal processing unit and an active antenna array adapted to be operated with a main antenna pattern correlated to a main receive beam and with at least one test antenna pattern correlated to a test receive beam having an orientation different from the main receive beam. A main radio frequency signal is received based on the main antenna pattern and a test radio frequency signal is received based on the test antenna pattern. The main radio frequency signal comprises communications traffic. Performance of the main receive beam is assessed based on the main radio frequency signal and performance of the test receive beam is assessed based on the test radio frequency signal. The main antenna pattern is adjusted based on a comparison of the performance of the main receive beam and test receive beam. |
| US08219055B2 |
Method for tuning an RF base-band circuit of a receiver
A tuner for a wireless receiver is provided, which may include an input interface that is adapted to receive wireless signals, a mixer that is adapted to select a specific frequency from signals received at the input interface, and a controllable switch that is adapted to lead an output from the mixer towards a base-band unit of the receiver and to disconnect the output. The tuner may further include a controller which may be adapted to operate the controllable switch to disconnect the output of the mixer when the controller studies characteristics of the tuner and to reconnect the output of the mixer at other times. The studied characteristics may be associated with parasitic direct current voltages in the tuner, which may be associated with a low noise amplifier of the tuner, or programmable gain amplifier of the tuner or with both amplifiers. The controller may cause a compensation direct current voltage to be generated and applied to the mixer's output based on the ratio between programmed gain and actual/measured gain of the programmable gain amplifier. |
| US08219045B2 |
Method and system for controlling transmitter power using variable feedback transmitter parameters
A system (100) and method (300) of feedback transmitter power control can include a transmitter temperature detector such as a thermistor based temperature detector (118), a detector for detecting forward and reflected transmitter power (113 and 115), and a voltage controlled attenuator (120) placed in a radio frequency power control feedback path for modifying transmitter power based on a detected transmitter temperature and a detected forward and reflected transmitter power. The system can further include a logarithmic amplifier controller (122) in the feedback path coupled to the voltage controlled attenuator as well as a power amplifier (112) coupled to the voltage controlled attenuator. The system can operate in both analog and time division multiple access modes. The system can be active in real time throughout a push-to-talk session. |
| US08219043B2 |
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. |
| US08219037B2 |
Baseband processor apparatus and method for monitoring a wireless communication network
A baseband processor of a distributed architecture for monitoring mobile communication in a wireless communication network is claimed. Systems and methods enable receiving reporting data related to events that occur in a wireless network from the perspective of the wireless device. The data management system is capable of generating a data reporting profile and communicating with a wireless device. The application processor is capable of monitoring and reporting a plurality of conditions within the wireless device and sending and receiving communications from the data management system. The baseband processor is capable of monitoring and reporting plurality of conditions on the wireless network and sending and receiving communications with the application processor. Both the application processor and the baseband processor monitor and report the conditions of the device and the network by applying a series of logical rules found within the data reporting profile. |
| US08219034B2 |
Method for detection of radar signals
A method provides for identifying short radar signals in presence of interfering signals from various sources applicable to U-NII devices. The method includes collecting a set of information about received interfering signals until the End-Of-Burst (EOB) condition is identified. When the EOB is identified, the set information about the received train of interfering signals is processed. The algorithm selects the time interval between two pulses as a possible Pulse Repetition Interval (PRI) and checks if the same time interval or a multiple of it can be found between other pulses in the collected set, with some small acceptable error. Pulses matching the criteria are considered as potential radar pulses. When at least one pulse has been identified as a potential radar pulse for a number of times larger than a predefined limit, it is concluded that that pulse has been generated by a radar installation. |
| US08219030B2 |
Adaptive distributed frequency planning
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate employing distributed frequency planning and reuse factor optimization based upon forward link and/or reverse link interference management techniques. An optimal reuse factor for a base station can be determined based upon a metric that evaluates levels of service associated with neighboring base stations. Moreover, a subset of available resource sets can be selected for use by the base station; thus, a base station specific collection of resource sets can be formed through such selection. Further, mappings of each resource set to a set of physical resources can be disseminated in a network or portion thereof. According to another example, frequency hopping can be constrained to use of resources within a resource set (rather than across more than one resource set) as provided in a base station specific hopping pattern. |
| US08219022B2 |
Communication method, communication system and communication device
The present invention relates to a data communication method, a data communication system and a communication device. In particular, the present invention relates to a wireless communication device, wherein a broadband internet connection between said communication device and a data network is used. Said broadband internet connection has a high security between said wireless communication device and a data network by the usage of a unique port secured access by means of public known keys. |
| US08219017B2 |
Image forming apparatus and process cartridge
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image, a protective layer forming device configured to apply a protective agent to a surface of the image bearing member with a brush-shaped protective agent applicator, and a surface roughness maintainer configured to maintain a surface roughness Ry of a contact surface of the protective agent with the brush-shaped protective agent applicator at 500 μm or less. The protective agent is a solid material in which a granular material comprising a fatty acid metallic salt is compressed. |
| US08219015B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same which includes a plate spring to press a low-friction sheet
In a fixing device, a fixed member is provided inside a loop formed by a belt member, and is pressed against a rotary member via the belt member to form a nip portion between the rotary member and the belt member through which a recording medium bearing a toner image passes. In the fixed member, a low-friction sheet member is wrapped around a body in a sliding direction of the belt member in which the belt member slides over the fixed member in such a manner that the low-friction sheet member covers a surface of the body opposing the nip portion. At least one plate spring presses the low-friction sheet member against the body to apply a predetermined tension to the low-friction sheet member. |
| US08219012B2 |
Retraction mechanism for a toner image transfer apparatus
A toner image transfer apparatus in a printer is provided. The toner image transfer apparatus comprises a transfer belt structure, a rotatable transfer rod and a transfer roll retraction mechanism. The transfer belt structure comprises a driven toner image transfer belt and a rotatable backup roll engaging an inner surface of the transfer belt. The rotatable transfer roll is adapted to define a nip with the belt and backup roll. The transfer roll retraction mechanism comprises motion transfer structure coupled to the transfer roll and drive apparatus associated with the motion transfer structure. |
| US08219001B2 |
Image forming apparatus provided with transfer and separation device
An image forming apparatus includes: a drum-shaped image carrier; a transfer and separation device which includes a conveyor belt for conveying a transfer material, a transfer roller for supporting the conveyor belt, and a nip regulating roller that is disposed downstream of the transfer roller in a conveyance direction of the transfer material; a transfer region changing section adapted to change a downstream end of the transfer region in a conveyance direction of the transfer material by changing a position of the nip regulating roller; and a transfer pressure changing section which changes a transfer pressure that corresponds to a pressure by the transfer roller against the image carrier, wherein the transfer pressure changing section changes the transfer pressure in correspondence with the change of the downstream end of the transfer region by the transfer region changing section. |
| US08219000B2 |
Image forming apparatus capable of effectively performing a maintenance operation
A roller device that can be exchangeably used in an image forming apparatus includes a roller, a shaft, and two grip members. The roller is configured to cover the shaft along the rotation axis and have two roller ends from which the two shaft end portions of the shaft are projected outwardly along the rotation axis. A shaft is configured to have a rotation axis at a center thereof and have two shaft end portions. The two grip members are each configured to be rotatably disposed to a respective shaft end portion of the two shaft end portions. |
| US08218999B2 |
Winding member, cartridge, and cartridge assembling method
A winding member winds a seal member that seals an opening of a developer storage unit. The winding member includes a first holding portion having a first engaging portion, and a second holding portion having a second engaging portion to be engaged with the first engaging portion, configured to hold the sealing member between the first and second holding portions, wherein an end of the first holding portion and an end of the second holding portion are connected, so that the first holding portion and the second holding portion are relatively movable, and wherein the first engaging portion is engaged with the second engaging portion while the sealing member is held between the first holding portion and the second holding portion. |
| US08218997B2 |
Cleaning member, charging device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus
A cleaning member includes a core bar, an elastic coating layer, and high-friction coefficient parts provided on both ends of the cleaning member. The high-friction coefficient parts include an elastic material. Outer peripheries of the high-friction coefficient parts are inclined with respect to an axial direction of the core bar. The cleaning member is roller-shaped and is configured to clean a surface of a roller member to be cleaned in contact therewith. A charging device and a process cartridge also include the cleaning member. |
| US08218995B2 |
Power supply device and image forming apparatus having the same
A power supply includes a transformer to transform an input voltage into an output driving voltage for one of a plurality of components of an image forming apparatus, and an output converter to detect the driving voltage being output from the transformer, to amplify the detected driving voltage according to a power control signal, and to output the amplified driving voltage to at least one remaining component in the plurality of components of the image forming apparatus. The power supply can not only control high voltage outputs individually, but also reduces the number of switching transformers being used, as it uses at least one shared switching transformer. |
| US08218993B2 |
Belt conveyance apparatus and image heating apparatus
The image heating apparatus has a plurality of heat generators which are capable of forming a plurality of heat generating distributions in the longitudinal direction for supplying heat to a heating member. Unevenness in temperature is decreased by changing the heat generating distribution when cooling by a fan for the heating member starts. The heat generating distribution is changed so that heat generating amount at an area in the longitudinal direction corresponding to the cooling area cooled by the fan is to be larger than the heat generating amount before starting the cooling. |
| US08218990B2 |
Image formation system, image formation method, and image quality improvement method twice heating and pressing a toner image on a recording material
An image formation system includes an image forming apparatus for forming different color toner images on a recording material having a toner reception layer, a first heater for heating and pressing the toner image on the recording material, and a heater for heating and pressing the toner image on the recording material having been heated and pressed by the first heater. The first heater is operable so as to provide a granularity R of the toner image satisfying 0.5≦R≦4.0 and a glossiness G of the toner image satisfying 5≦G≦40, the second heater being operable so as to provide a granularity R of the toner image that is not more than 4.0 and a glossiness G of the toner image that is not less than 60. |
| US08218987B2 |
Systems and methods for tandem printing and print job scheduling
According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided a printing system that includes first and second marking devices for applying images to print media. A first fusing module associated with the first marking device for applying a primary fusing treatment to the images applied to print media by the first marking device. A second fusing module which receives printed media from the first and second marking devices, the secondary fusing module including a fusing device that applies a fusing treatment to the images applied to the printed media. A printing controller having a scheduler for processing print jobs in the first and second marking devices based on fusing requirements of the print media. |
| US08218984B2 |
Temperature controlling method of fixing device
In a fixing device, when sheets of small width size are continuously passed and temperature rises in both side parts, a temperature control unit stops print control of an auxiliary lamp. When the temperature rise in both side parts continues after that, a drive control unit shifts the fixing device to a wait mode and pre-runs the fixing device. Moreover, in a low-temperature environment, when temperature rises in both side parts when sheets Ps of small width size are continuously passed, the temperature control unit switches temperature control of the fixing device to three-stage control. |
| US08218982B2 |
Image forming device having a trickle developing apparatus
The developing apparatus, having stirring members for conveying and stirring developer-tank-contained developer and a developer holder, comprises a developer replenishing tank; a magnetic-type toner concentration detecting sensor; a trickle-type discharging mechanism; conveying state switching device for temporarily blocking the flow of the developer-tank-contained developer and for temporarily switching the circulating state of the developer-tank-contained developer to the staying state thereof; and a controller for controlling replenishment operation for replenishing the toner and the carrier for replenishment to the developer tank when the toner concentration is lower than a predetermined reference toner concentration, wherein the controller determines the amounts of the toner and the carrier to be replenished on the basis of the calculated toner concentration and the estimated amount of the developer. |
| US08218978B2 |
Maximum likelihood sequence estimation in optical fibre communication systems
A method of and a receiver(20) for detection of a received signal in an optical fiber communication system using Viterbi algorithm methodology in which branch metrics are obtained using approximated expressions to calculate the branch metrics. Use of the expressions results in practically the same performance as a receiver based on exact metrics. |
| US08218977B2 |
Integrated equalizer and Michelson interferometer structure for inter-symbol interference-suppressed colorless DPSK demodulation
An optical device includes an interferometer for a received optical differential phase shift keying DPSK signal, and an equalizer integrated with the interferometer in a manner for reducing from optical filtering effects an interference by signal bits of the DPSK signal with signal bits of a contiguous DPSK signal. The interferometer is a Michelson delay interferometer type, but can also be a Mach-Zehnder delay interferometer type on fiber, waveguide or other optical structure. The equalizer is a Fabry-Perot type equalizer, but can be a ring resonator type or a fiber based equalizer. |
| US08218975B2 |
Free-space DQPSK demodulator
A demodulator comprises an input splitter, optical device sets, and couplers. The input splitter splits an input signal comprising symbols to yield a number of signals. A first optical device set directs a signal of along a first path. A second optical device set directs another signal along a second path to yield a delayed signal. At least a portion of the second path is in free space. A path length difference between the first path and the second path introduces a delay between the first signal and the second signal. A coupler receives a portion of the signal and a portion of the delayed signal to generate interference, where the interference indicates a phase shift between a phase corresponding to a symbol and a successive phase corresponding to a successive symbol. |
| US08218974B2 |
Optical transmitter and optical transmission method
An optical transmitter and an optical transmission method includes a plurality of light-emitting elements, a plurality of light-receiving elements for monitoring optical outputs from the light-emitting elements, a linear operation circuit for calculating optical output monitor signals by removing crosstalk parts from a plurality of photoelectric conversion currents outputted from the light-receiving elements, and a drive circuit for driving individually currents to apply to the light-emitting elements based on the optical output monitor signals. |
| US08218965B1 |
Optical failover routing
Apparatuses, systems, and methods of routing data through an optical network are disclosed. One such method includes transmitting optical data via a first fiber optic network from an originating node on a first level to a second level, receiving the optical data at a destination node on a third level from the second level via a second fiber optic network, wherein the second level, connected to the first fiber optic network and the second fiber optic network, includes a first intermediate node as a primary route on the second level for transmitting the optical data from the originating node to the destination node, and a second intermediate node as an alternate route on the second level for transmitting the optical data from the originating node to the destination node when the first intermediate node fails. |
| US08218962B2 |
Image-capturing apparatus
An image-capturing apparatus includes an image-capturing optical system; a sensor unit having line sensors that receive light fluxes of an object, which have been transmitted through a pair of partial areas in an exit pupil of the image-capturing optical system; image-capturing elements having a pixel arrangement capable of generating an image signal and a focus detection pixel sequence, in which two or more pairs of pixels that receive the light fluxes of an object, are arranged in a predetermined direction; a continuous image-capturing unit configured to perform continuous image capturing of actually exposing the image-capturing elements; a signal generation unit configured to perform another exposure for the sensor unit; a first focus detection unit configured to perform focus detection of a phase-difference detection method; a second focus detection unit configured to perform focus detection; and a focus adjustment unit configured to perform focus adjustment. |
| US08218958B2 |
Optical apparatus including an image stabilizing apparatus
An image stabilizer includes: an optical system movable in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis (“orthogonal plane”) and correcting image blur; a movable member holding the optical system and movable relative to a fixed member in an orthogonal plane; a guide guiding the movable member while preventing from rotating in an orthogonal plane; three first balls rollably interposed between the fixed and guide members; two second balls rollably interposed between the guide and movable members; one third ball rollably interposed between the fixed and movable members; a biasing unit biasing the movable member toward the fixed member; and a drive unit driving the movable member relative to the fixed member in two directions perpendicular to the optical axis, wherein in an orthogonal plane, two of the first balls are rollable only in first direction; the second balls are rollable only in second direction different from the first direction. |
| US08218957B2 |
Image stabilizer
An image stabilizer is provided, which compensates for an external turbulence caused by hand-shake by moving an imaging unit. The image stabilizer includes a first yoke, a second yoke, and a driving frame interposed between the first yoke and the second yoke and movable in a vertical direction, a horizontal direction, and a rotation direction with respect to an optical axis. The imaging unit is mounted in a center of the driving frame. The image stabilizer also includes a coil plate connected to a surface of the driving frame facing the first yoke and having a plurality of pattern coils arranged at locations corresponding to a plurality of magnets of the second yoke. The image stabilizer further includes a support unit disposed on a surface of the driving frame facing the second yoke and supporting the driving frame in pitch, yaw and roll directions with respect to the second yoke. |
| US08218956B2 |
Driving system and hand tremor compensating apparatus adopting the same
A driving system is provided. The driving system includes a fixed substrate, a coil unit which generates an electromagnetic force if an electric current applied, a magnet unit formed on the fixed substrate to face the coil unit, and a plurality of driving units which are interconnected with each other on the fixed substrate, and which are moved respectively in parallel direction with respect to a surface of the fixed substrate in accordance with an interaction between the electromagnetic force and a magnetic force of the magnet unit, if the electric current is applied. As a result, a non-contact driving is provided. |
| US08218955B2 |
Method and system for reducing response time in booster water heating applications
An exemplary embodiment includes a booster water heater for fluids, e.g., water, that has a reservoir for the fluids, at least one electrical heating element extending into the reservoir and a control system for applying an overload voltage to the heating element. In a more preferred embodiment, the booster water heater is used to preheat water in commercial dishwashing applications. |
| US08218947B2 |
Video data recording apparatus and method, and video data reproducing apparatus and method
Video data is divided into portions which are sequentially recorded on recording mediums respectively. IDs of the respective recording mediums are set. IDs of the respective video data portions are set. Items are recoded on first one among the recording mediums. These items are the ID of the first recording medium, the ID of first one among the video data portions, the ID of second one among the recording mediums which follows the first recording medium, and the ID of second one among the video data portions. Items are recorded on last one among the recording mediums. These items are the ID of the last recording medium, the ID of last one among the video data portions, the ID of second last one among the recording mediums which precedes the last recording medium, and the ID of second last one among the video data portions. |
| US08218944B2 |
Recording/reproduction device
A recording/reproduction device that prevents content and related content from being reproduced simultaneously. The recording/reproducing device (110) includes a recording area (115), a communication processing unit (119) outputting the related content having details identical to details of the content recorded onto the recording area (115) into an external recording medium (160), and an encoding/decoding processing unit (117) obtaining unique information of the external recording medium (160). The encoding/decoding processing unit (117) changes a state of content recorded in the recording area (115) into an irreproducible state unless the unique information of the content is used, when the related content is outputted to the external recording medium (160), and then reproduces the content recorded in the recording area (115) using the unique information, when the encoding/decoding processing unit (117) obtains the unique information. |
| US08218942B2 |
Recording apparatus optical disk and computer-readable recording medium
Data management information includes recording time zone information (REC_TM_ZONE) at a time of recoding the data, indicating a time difference between the world standard time (Greenwich Mean Time) and a standard time in a location where the data has been recorded; and data recording time information (REC_TM) indicating a recording time when the data has been recorded, in accordance with the standard time indicated by the time zone information (TM_ZONE) wherein the reproduction apparatus includes means for reproducing the data; and specifying means for specifying a local recording time in a location where the data has been recorded, and wherein the specifying means calculates the local recording time in the location where the data has been recorded, by (REC_TM)−(TM_ZONE)+(REC_TM_ZONE) where (REC_TM) is the data recording time information, (TM_ZONE) is the time zone information, and (REC_TM_ZONE) is the recording time zone information. |
| US08218941B1 |
Method and system to transfer video from a video source to optical media
A method and system to control at least one audio/video recording system. A first embodiment is a method to control at least one audio/video recording system. The method includes receiving audio/video stream, storing the audio/video stream in a storage module, and synchronizing the recording of the one or more audio/video files by a media burner module on recording media, such as a DVD, flash memory, or an equivalent non-volatile recording medium. A second embodiment is a system having modules for the acquisition of audio/video signal, modules for storing the audio/video files in a storage module, and a module for synchronizing the recording of the audio/video files by a media burner module on recording media. These embodiments can be applied in several wired and wireless communication applications, even combinations of wired and wireless technologies including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.16 wireless applications. |
| US08218932B2 |
Polarization independent optical device
An optical device includes a core sandwiched between two clads. The core includes a planar waveguide layer with ridges protruding into one of the clads, forming a ridge waveguide structure that guides the propagation of light in the core. The core dimensions satisfy the following conditions: the ridge width is less than the total core height; the ridge height is less than the ridge width; the thickness of the planar waveguide layer is equal to or less than one-fourth of the total core height. Dimensions satisfying these conditions can be selected to provide polarization independent operation. The ridges may be arranged to define a pair of optical waveguides forming a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, an optical wavelength filter, or various other optical devices. |
| US08218929B2 |
Large effective area low attenuation optical fiber
Optical waveguide fiber that has large effective area and low loss characteristics, such as low attenuation and low bend loss. The optical waveguide fiber includes a dual trench design wherein an annular region closer to the core is preferably doped with at least one downdopant such as fluorine, which annular region is surrounded by another annular region that preferably includes closed, randomly dispersed voids. |
| US08218924B1 |
Fiber optic cable with a plurality of optical events to define a signature specific to the fiber optic cable
A fiber optic cable is described that includes a core, a cladding over the core, and a plurality of optical events on at least one of the core and cladding. The plurality of optical events are constructed and arranged to alter a signal transmitted through the cable, where the plurality of optical events define a signature key of the cable. The signature key can be used in various electronic devices and systems, such that a mode of operation is disabled or enabled based on whether the correct fiber optic cable is installed. |
| US08218922B2 |
Channelized dispersion compensation module
There is disclosed an optical device for dispersion compensation of channels within a predetermined wavelength band, comprising: a waveguiding structure; and a grating structure formed in said waveguiding structure; characterized in that said grating structure has a Bragg frequency profile that is divided into contiguous periods, wherein the Bragg frequencies within each period vary between a lower Bragg frequency and an upper Bragg frequency, said lower and upper Bragg frequencies for each period both corresponding to wavelengths outside of said predetermined wavelength band. |
| US08218919B2 |
Method and device for providing electronic circuitry on a backplate
A MEMS-based display device is described, wherein an array of interferometric modulators are configured to reflect light through a transparent substrate. The transparent substrate is sealed to a backplate and the backplate may contain electronic circuitry fabricated on the backplane. The electronic circuitry is placed in electrical communication with the array of interferometric modulators and is configured to control the state of the array of interferometric modulators. |
| US08218917B2 |
Package manufacturing method, package, optical module and die for integral molding
An integrally molding die for manufacturing a package includes a supporting portion for supporting at least one end including an incident/exit port of a light signal in a light transmission path, and a lead frame for mounting an optical element. The integrally molding die includes a recess for forming the supporting portion, a first projection, which comes into contact with an optical element mounting surface of the lead frame, and a second projection, which comes into contact with a back surface of the optical element mounting surface. |
| US08218916B2 |
Fiber optic temperature and pressure sensor and system incorporating same
A sensing system including a sensor having an enclosure that defines a chamber, a fiber optic segment extending from outside the enclosure into the chamber, and a sequence of optical processing elements within the chamber. The elements include a fiber Bragg grating, a polarizer, a side hole fiber, and a mirror. A light source is arranged to direct light to the sensor(s). A spectral analyzer is arranged to detect light reflected back from the sensor(s). The fiber Bragg grating substantially reflects a first spectral envelope while transmitting the remainder of the optical spectrum to the polarizer and side hole fiber. The polarizer, side hole fiber, and mirror cooperate to return an optical signal within a second spectral envelope. The characteristic wavelength of a peak in the first spectral envelope is highly sensitive to temperature and relatively weakly sensitive to pressure. The period of the optical signal within the second spectral envelope is highly sensitive to pressure and relatively weakly sensitive to temperature. The spectral analyzer measures these spectral components to simultaneously derive a measure of temperature and pressure that effectively compensates for temperature-pressure cross-sensitivity of the sensor(s). |
| US08218914B2 |
Electro-optic device
The present invention provides an electro-optic device comprising three or more radio-frequency (RF) signal electrodes, which each include an input segment. The input segments of the three or more RF-signal electrodes are arranged in a fractal pattern followed in an RF-signal transit direction by a parallel-bend pattern. Advantageously, this arrangement allows matching of RF-signal transit times of the input segments and near matching of RF-signal losses of the input segments. |
| US08218913B1 |
Identifying a front page in media material
The present invention relates to systems and methods for identifying front pages from images representing media. In an embodiment, a system for identifying at least one front page within an image representing media is provided. The system includes a matcher, an aggregator and a reviewer. In another embodiment, a method for identifying at least one front page within an image representing media is provided. The method includes comparing each page to matching criteria to produce a matching confidence score. The method also includes aggregating, as front page candidates, each page having a matching confidence score that exceeds a matching confidence score threshold. The method further includes receiving decision information and identifying front pages from front page candidates based upon the decision information. According to another embodiment, the matching criteria may comprise at least one local, affine invariant feature point. |
| US08218912B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting errors in electronically processed images
A method of detecting one or more errors in a series of electronically processed, multi-pixel images, the pixels of which correspond from one image to the next, the method including monitoring the reflectance of one or more of the corresponding pixels during sequential processing of each image of the series and, if the reflectance value of a pixel is invariant or substantially invariant in more than a predetermined number of consecutive said images, and identifying an error. |
| US08218907B2 |
Method for prior image constrained progressive image reconstruction
A method for reconstructing a high quality image from undersampled image data is provided. The image reconstruction method is applicable to a number of different imaging modalities. Specifically, the present invention provides an image reconstruction method that incorporates an appropriate prior image into an iterative image reconstruction process as well as utilizing an image frame from a previous time frame to constrain the reconstruction of a current image frame. |
| US08218904B2 |
Method and system for circular to horizontal transposition of an image
A system and method for automatically transposing an image from a circular image space to another image space, for example, horizontal. Examples of applications include a mail piece a roundel on a mail piece. On a mail piece, company name, city and state, or zip code information can be contained in the roundel instead of, for example, in the permit block. The system implements the methods electronically. Control and data information is electronically executed and stored on computer-readable media. |
| US08218902B1 |
Portable electronic device position sensing circuit
An electronic device includes a position sensing circuit that receives a tone from an audio signal output, modifies the tone, and returns the modified tone to audio signal input. The device's processor implements instructions to compare one or more characteristics of the modified signal to those of one or more reference signals to determine a pan/tilt measurement or other angular position of the device. |
| US08218898B2 |
Method and apparatus providing noise reduction while preserving edges for imagers
A method of reducing noise in an image including steps for obtaining a first value for a target pixel, obtaining a respective second value for each neighboring pixel surrounding the target pixel and having the same color as the target pixel, for each neighboring pixel, comparing a difference between said first value and said second value to a threshold value, and replacing the first value with an average value obtained from the first value and at all second values from the neighboring pixels which have an associated difference which is less than or equal to the threshold value based on a result of the comparing step. |
| US08218893B2 |
Image inpainting method and apparatus based on viewpoint change
Provided is a method and apparatus for inpainting a depth image and a color image seen from one viewpoint by using a depth image and a color image inpainted from another viewpoint. The method includes detecting an edge on the basis of a difference between depth values of pixels in a first image seen from a view viewpoint and inpainting depth values of pixels in an occlusion region that is shown in a second image seen from a second viewpoint but not shown in the first image, in a direction from pixels in a region having high depth values among regions forming the edge to pixels in a region having low depth values. |
| US08218891B2 |
Filtering circuit, filter processing method, image pickup element circuit and camera
A filtering circuit which filters an image picked up by an image pickup element arranged in a two dimensional array. The filtering circuit includes a plurality of filtering units and a selecting unit. The plurality of filtering units locally filter a plurality of pixels forming the image, and the selecting unit selects one or more pixels to be filtered by one of the filtering units and selects another pixel to be filtered by another one of filtering units. The selected one or more pixels filtered by the one filtering unit and the selected another pixel filtered by another one of the filtering units belong to a same column in the two dimensional array. |
| US08218890B2 |
Method and apparatus for cropping images
The boundaries of a scanned digital document are determined by identifying the largest connected component in the received digital document and assigning the boundaries of the largest connected component as the boundaries of the received digital document or by using a row by row and column by column analysis of the received digital document to identify horizontal and vertical bands in the digital image having pixels with a value opposite to the value of pixels of a background of the received digital document and assigning the horizontal and vertical bands to be the boundaries of the received digital document. These processes may be performed in series or parallel by a processor associated with a scanner that creates the digital document. |
| US08218887B2 |
Enhanced method of multilayer compression of PDF (image) files using OCR systems
In one embodiment, the invention discloses, a method for processing a document image. The method comprises segmenting the document image into a picture component and a non-picture component; compressing the non-picture component; and saving the uncompressed picture component and the compressed non-picture component in memory so that the document image may be recomposed to form a recomposed image based on the uncompressed picture component and the compressed non-picture component. |
| US08218884B2 |
Image compression apparatus and image expansion apparatus
An image compression apparatus includes: a dividing section for dividing an image to be compressed into blocks, each of which has a predetermined number of pixels having respective gradation values; a determining section for determining whether the block is a first kind block, in which a number of kinds of gradation values of the predetermined number of pixels belonging to the block is not greater than N (where N is an integer which is equal to 2 or greater) for each block divided and obtained by the dividing section; and a normalizing section which generates one of a first kind compressed data and a second kind of compressed data depending on the result of the determination. |
| US08218879B2 |
System and method for shutter detection
A method for removing shutter areas in an image, in particular an x-ray image is provided. Edges are examined in a multi-resolution image pyramid and evaluated to determine potential shutter blade candidates defining the shutter areas. Heuristic rules and/or an automatic classifier such as a Neuronal Network, are applied to distinguish true shutter blades from false positives. The rule set and the classifier are based on a set of features extracted from the potential shutter blade candidates as well as predetermined knowledge of the expected placement of the shutter, human anatomy. Up to four shutter blades are expected to be detected and based on these blades, the bright areas in the image that occur due to the shutters are removed. |
| US08218876B2 |
Information processing apparatus and control method
An information processing apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store dictionary data in which a locus and one or more pieces of content are registered in association with one another, an input unit configured to input a locus in association with content, a comparison unit configured to compare the locus input by the input unit and a locus registered in the dictionary data, and an addition unit configured to add data to the dictionary data stored in the storage unit based on a comparison result generated by the comparison unit. |
| US08218874B2 |
Object information derived from object images
Search terms are derived automatically from images captured by a camera equipped cell phone, PDA, or other image capturing device, submitted to a search engine to obtain information of interest, and at least a portion of the resulting information is transmitted back locally to, or nearby, the device that captured the image. |
| US08218872B2 |
Computer-readable medium storing information processing program, information processing method and information processing system
An information processing system includes an image output unit, an image reception unit, and a determination unit. The image output unit outputs an image to a document to include first and second images. The first image includes at least one of a character and a symbol which represent at least part of a pair of an attribute name and an attribute value which are included in electronic data. The second image includes a first information image representing at least part of the attribute value, or a second information image representing a storage location of the electronic data. The image reception unit receives the output image of the document and an image of a paper document. The determination unit determines as to whether or not allowing the image of the paper document to be registered. |
| US08218868B2 |
Method and apparatus for enhancing images
A method and an apparatus for enhancing images are provided. An input image generated by an imaging device, such as a short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) camera, sensor, or any other imaging device, is processed to produce an input histogram representing the distribution of pixel intensities in the input image. Histogram start and end points are determined, and a variable plateau profile is calculated depending upon the type of enhancement desired. The plateau profile could take on any desired shape or size, and two or more plateau regions could be included in the profile. The input histogram is clipped along the variable plateau profile. A cumulative histogram is constructed from the clipped histogram, and is normalized. The input image is then transformed into an enhanced output image using the normalized cumulative histogram as a look-up table. |
| US08218864B2 |
Method and device for maintaining image background by multiple Gaussian models
A method maintaining an image background by multiple Gaussian models utilized to a device includes the following steps. First, the device captures an image frame having pixels to obtain background information, and then calculates the background information to establish a primary Gaussian model. Next, the device captures continuous image frames in a time period to obtain and calculate graphic information for establishing a secondary Gaussian model, and then repeates the steps to establish multiple secondary Gaussian models. Finally, the device compares two secondary Gaussian models, and then updates learning for the primary Gaussian model by the secondary Gaussian model if the graphic information of the secondary Gaussian models are attributable to the background information, or maintains the background information of the primary Gaussian model without updating the learning if anyone of the graphic information of the two secondary Gaussian models is unattributable to the background information. |
| US08218862B2 |
Automatic mask design and registration and feature detection for computer-aided skin analysis
Methods and systems for automatically generating a mask delineating a region of interest (ROI) within an image containing skin are disclosed. The image may be of an anatomical area containing skin, such as the face, neck, chest, shoulders, arms or hands, among others, or may be of portions of such areas, such as the cheek, forehead, or nose, among others. The mask that is generated is based on the locations of anatomical features or landmarks in the image, such as the eyes, nose, eyebrows and lips, which can vary from subject to subject and image to image. As such, masks can be adapted to individual subjects and to different images of the same subjects, while delineating anatomically standardized ROIs, thereby facilitating standardized, reproducible skin analysis over multiple subjects and/or over multiple images of each subject. Moreover, the masks can be limited to skin regions that include uniformly illuminated portions of skin while excluding skin regions in shadow or hot-spot areas that would otherwise provide erroneous feature analysis results. Methods and systems are also disclosed for automatically registering a skin mask delineating a skin ROI in a first image captured in one imaging modality (e.g., standard white light, UV light, polarized light, multi-spectral absorption or fluorescence imaging, etc.) onto a second image of the ROI captured in the same or another imaging modality. Such registration can be done using linear as well as non-linear spatial transformation techniques. |
| US08218860B1 |
Method and system for replacing color ranges in an image
An image-editing application may be configured to transform a color hue value range in an image to a replacement color hue value range. The image-editing application may create a hue histogram of the image. The hue histogram may include tabulated frequencies of color hue values included in the image. The image-editing application may search for prominent peaks in the histogram. For a prominent peak, the image-editing application may determine a corresponding range of color hue values. Subsequently, the image-editing application may determine a range of replacement color hue values. The image-editing application may replace the prominent color hue values with the replacement color hue values. When the image is displayed on a display device, the pixels associated with the prominent color hue values will display the replacement color values. |
| US08218858B2 |
Enhanced object reconstruction
Processing images includes projecting an infra-red pattern onto a three-dimensional object and producing a first image, a second image, and a third image of the three-dimensional object while the pattern is projected on the three-dimensional object. The first image and the second image include the three-dimensional object and the pattern. The first image and the second image are produced by capturing at a first camera and a second camera, respectively, light filtered through an infra-red filter. The third image includes the three-dimensional object but not the pattern. Processing the images also includes establishing a first-pair correspondence between a portion of pixels in the first image and a portion of pixels in the second image. Processing the images further includes constructing, based on the first-pair correspondence and the third image, a two-dimensional image that depicts a three-dimensional construction of the three-dimensional object. |
| US08218856B2 |
Information presentation system, information presentation apparatus, information presentation method, program, and recording medium on which such program is recorded
Disclosed is an information presentation system that includes a plurality of information presentation apparatuses movable and displaying images of a plurality of objects, and a control apparatus outputting control signals for controlling the information presentation apparatuses. Each information presentation apparatus includes a display unit, a moving unit, a driving unit, a position sensor, a first communication unit, and a control unit. The control apparatus includes an object position information obtaining unit, a second communication unit, and a control unit. The control unit of the information presentation apparatus control to display an image of the object, for which position information has been obtained by the object position information obtaining unit of the control apparatus, on the display unit and control to drive the driving unit based on the control signal received by the first communication unit. |
| US08218854B2 |
Method for synthesizing image with multi-view images
A method for synthesizing an image with multi-view images includes inputting multiple images, wherein each of the reference images is corresponding to a reference viewing-angle for photographing; synthesizing an image corresponding to a viewpoint and an intended viewing-angle; segmenting the intended synthesized image to obtain a plurality of meshes and a plurality of vertices of the meshes. Each of the vertices and the viewpoint respectively establish a viewing-angle, and the method further includes searching a plurality of neighboring images among the reference images referring to the viewing-angle. If at least one of the neighboring images falls within an adjacent region of the vertex, a first mode is adopted without interpolation to synthesize the intended synthesized image; when none of the neighboring images falls within the adjacent region of the vertex, a second mode is adopted, where a weighting-based interpolation mechanism is used for synthesizing the intended synthesized image. |
| US08218844B2 |
Method for generating analytical tool for analyzing abnormalities in human organs
A method for providing a tool for analyzing an abnormality affixed to a human organ. The method includes: obtaining an image of the organ with the abnormality; separating the image of the abnormality from the image of the organ with the abnormality; mapping a surface of the separated image of the abnormality onto a homeomorphic equivalent template, such template being topologically equivalent to the surface. In one embodiment, the mapping is a continuous, bijective, mapping having a continuous inverse mapping characteristic. |
| US08218841B2 |
Rotate and slant projector for fast fully-3D iterative tomographic reconstruction
Disclosed herein are embodiments of a rotate-and-slant projector that takes advantage of symmetries in the geometry to compute truly volumetric projections to multiple oblique sinograms in a computationally efficient manner. It is based upon the 2D rotation-based projector using the fast three-pass method of shears, and it conserves the 2D rotator computations for multiple projections to each oblique sinogram set. The projector is equally applicable to both conventional evenly-spaced projections and unevenly-spaced line-of-response (LOR) data (where the arc correction is modeled within the projector). The LOR-based version models the exact location of the direct and oblique LORs, and provides an ordinary Poisson reconstruction framework. Speed optimizations of various embodiments of the projector include advantageously utilizing data symmetries such as the vertical symmetry of the oblique projection process, a coarse-depth compression, and array indexing schemes which maximize serial memory access. |
| US08218837B2 |
Material composition detection from effective atomic number computation
A technique is provided for computing an atomic number of materials forming an object imaged by a radiological modality. The method includes accessing a first monochromatic image and a second monochromatic image of the object, the first monochromatic image acquired at a first energy level and the second monochromatic image acquired at a second energy level. A ratio of the mass attenuation coefficients between the first monochromatic image and the second monochromatic image may be obtained. The atomic number for a material of the object may be computed based upon the ratio of mass attenuation coefficients. |
| US08218829B2 |
System and method for using biometrics technology in conferencing
A system and method are provided which utilize biometrics technology in a conference environment. A biometrics engine detects facial images of a user, generates biometrics of the detected facial images, and compares the generated biometrics with biometrics information of authorized users. If a match is found, then the user is authorized and is automatically logged into the conference network. Once logged in, conferences may be automatically established, the user may be tracked by at least one video sensor, user preferences may be automatically set, and/or conference content may be easily accessed and shared with remote conference participants. |
| US08218828B2 |
Systems and methods for biometric information automation
A method identifies persons based on biometric information. The method includes providing a cache of biometric templates. The cache stores segments of the biometric templates associated with biometric features contained in the segments. The method also includes receiving a sample biometric template to be identified; dividing the sample biometric template into jobs based on the biometric features contained in the sample biometric template; comparing the jobs to the segments corresponding to the biometric features of the sample biometric template to determine candidate biometric templates associated with the segments that match the jobs; and generating a candidates list identifying the candidate biometric templates and entities related to the candidate biometric templates. |
| US08218823B2 |
Determining main objects using range information
A system and method for identifying a main object in a digital image using range information includes receiving the digital image representing a scene; identifying range information associated with the digital image and including distances of pixels in the scene from a known reference location; identifying the main object in the digital image based at least upon an analysis of the range information and the digital image; and storing an indication of the identified main object in a processor-accessible memory system. |
| US08218818B2 |
Foreground object tracking
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 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. |
| US08218817B2 |
Online articulate object tracking with appearance and shape
A visual tracker tracks an object in a sequence of input images. A tracking module detects a location of the object based on a set of weighted blocks representing the object's shape. The tracking module then refines a segmentation of the object from the background image at the detected location. Based on the refined segmentation, the set of weighted blocks are updated. By adaptively encoding appearance and shape into the block configuration, the present invention is able to efficiently and accurately track an object even in the presence of rapid motion that causes large variations in appearance and shape of the object. |
| US08218813B2 |
Method for double feed detection
This invention relates to a method of detecting double-feed of email items (10,12) that allows difficult mail types to be processed correctly, wherein simultaneous views are taking of both the sides and bottom of mail items and these views are processed to determine whether or not double feed has occurred. This can be achieved using either two cameras or a single camera (16,2) with additional optics. |
| US08218811B2 |
Method and system for video interaction based on motion swarms
A system and method for generating a video display suitable for interaction with a public audience or group. The system comprises one or more video capture devices for capturing a scene, a module configured to extract one or parameters that describe a field of motion in the scene, and a module configured to generate a plurality of particles or a swarm of particles that are responsive or react to the motion field. |
| US08218807B1 |
Portable microphone extender and associated method
An apparatus that allows a standard straight microphone stand to be used as a boom-style microphone stand is herein disclosed comprising an extender having a tapered cylindrical section that essentially converts the standard straight microphone stand to a boom-type stand. In use, a person would insert the standard microphone into the tapered cylindrical extender while routing the microphone cable through the slot running the length of the cylinder. Next, the small tapered end is then secured to a standard microphone stand using a friction fit to keep it in place. The device therefore provides a useable microphone extension without the possibility of tipping the stand over. The device is to be provided in various lengths suitable to various microphone applications. |
| US08218805B2 |
Wireless speaker system for use with ceiling fans
A multi-channel wireless speaker system to be used with ceiling fans wherein the audio source generator can be one of many medias, not limited by the following: television, stereophonic, monophonic, video game, home theater, public address system or security system. The audio source generator sends an audio signal to the transmitter that in turn relays the audio signal to the wireless receiver located in the ceiling fan housing member. The ceiling fan housing member includes speakers, and a light source if desired. The speakers produce an omni directional sound due to their unique positioning within the ceiling fan. The wireless speaker system is powered by the existing voltage available to the ceiling fan, so no new wiring is required to install the speaker system. The speaker settings are manipulated via a remote control. |
| US08218799B2 |
Non-occluding audio headset positioned in the ear canal
A compact audio speaker assembly that fits into the ear canal without occluding the ear canal, thus allowing ambient sounds to be heard along with the audio source. The ear speaker is secured in the ear canal by a ribbon or wire like spring structure anchoring the speaker to the concha portion of the outer ear and typically pushing the speaker up against the top side of the ear canal, leaving a space for external sounds to bypass the speaker to the eardrum. The speaker may further include a connecting signal cable that passes over the ear and behind the ear to provide additional support for the speaker and strain relief for the signal cable. One embodiment may include a shell over the speaker connected to the wire like spring anchor and may include an ear wax screen. Two speakers may be configured for stereo listening. |
| US08218792B2 |
Autonomous mixer for devices capable of storing and playing audio signals
An apparatus and method for autonomously mixing multiple devices capable of storing and playing audio signals is provided. Multiple devices can be mixed into one standard stereo signal that can then be played on any sort of powered speakers or amplifier. The apparatus is capable of receiving multiple audio inputs and can combine multiple iPods®, iPhones®, MP3 devices, or other devices capable of storing and playing audio signals, such that more than one device can be played at one time. No human intervention is required to control the device when the device is in autonomous mode. The autonomous mode can include random song playback using multiple devices. |
| US08218788B2 |
Anti-feedback device and anti-feedback method
An anti-feedback device includes an anti-feedback filter provided in a closed loop. The anti-feedback device down-samples a signal of specific band selected from an output signal of an adaptive target signal transfer system and a signal of the same band selected from an input signal of the transfer system, and a filtering coefficient of the adaptive filter is updated by use of the down-sampled signals. The filter controller controls a filtering characteristic of the anti-feedback filter so that a peak gain of a frequency of an amplitude characteristic within a specific band of a closed loop determined from the filtering coefficient of the adaptive filter is suppressed. Moreover, the filter controller estimates a gain of the closed loop outside the specific band from the amplitude characteristic in the specific band and controls the amount of suppression of the anti-feedback filter outside the band in accordance with a result of estimation. |
| US08218781B1 |
Audible fan noise cancellation
The present examples provide for the cancellation, or substantial reduction, of fan noise typically encountered in equipment cooling applications. Local audio nulls may be created by adjusting fan velocity and/or phase to cancel the fan noise near an operator. In a first example, phase and velocity of the fan may be controlled by feedback techniques. This technique utilizes feedback provided by a microphone located in the proximity of the operator to create an area of audio nulling of the fan noise. Local audio nulls may also be created by manipulating fan, phase and velocity by a controller that implements a process to create local audio nulls using the fixed position of equipment and the operator in the determination. |
| US08218773B2 |
Systems and methods to securely generate shared keys
A method for secure bidirectional communication between two systems is described. A first key pair and a second key pair are generated, the latter including a second public key that is generated based upon a shared secret. First and second public keys are sent to a second system, and third and fourth public keys are received from the second system. The fourth public key is generated based upon the shared secret. A master key for encrypting messages is calculated based upon a first private key, a second private key, the third public key and the fourth public key. For re-keying, a new second key pair having a new second public key and a new second private key is generated, and a new fourth public key is received. A new master key is calculated using elliptic curve calculations using the new second private key and the new fourth public key. |
| US08218772B2 |
Secure multicast content delivery
In one embodiment, a method for establishing a secure multicast channel between a service provider and a terminal is provided. A request is received from the service provider for a configuration of the terminal. A configuration of the terminal at a first time is sent to the service provider. A security key is obtained, wherein the security is bound to the configuration of the terminal at the first time. Then the security key is decrypted using a configuration of the terminal at a second time, wherein the decryption fails if the configuration of the terminal at the second time is not identical to the configuration of the terminal at the first time. A secure multicast channel is then established with the service provider using the security key. |
| US08218771B2 |
Information processing apparatus and computer readable medium
An information processing apparatus includes: an acceptance unit that accepts formed information to be formed on a medium and target information to be recorded as an information image together with an image based on the formed information; a specification acceptance unit that accepts specification of the accepted formed information or information concerning the formation result of information image on the medium; an encryption key acquisition unit that acquires an encryption key based on the specified information; an information image generation unit that encrypts the target information using the acquired encryption key, and that generates the information image based on the encrypted target information; and an output unit that outputs a command for forming the information image on the medium together with the image to be formed. |
| US08218770B2 |
Method and apparatus for secure key management and protection
Described embodiments provide a server for transferring data packets of streaming data sessions between devices. The server includes an accelerator that, for received data packets, i) extracts header fields of the packets, ii) determines, based on the header fields, a destination for the packets, and iii) provides the packets to the destination. For data to be transmitted, the accelerator i) groups the data into packets, ii) generates header fields for the packets, and iii) provides the packets to the network. A memory arbiter manages accesses to memory that buffers data and stores keys corresponding to the data sessions. A storage medium stores media files corresponding to the data sessions. A key manager includes i) a first memory for storing a master key of the server, ii) a second memory for storing one or more keys corresponding to the data sessions, and iii) a processor to encrypt and decrypt data. |
| US08218752B1 |
On-demand call blocking service
In a telecommunication system configured to provide a connection between a caller and a callee via a telephone network, wherein the telephone network is configured to connect the caller and the callee, a method for allowing the callee to prevent the caller from establishing the connection with the callee. The method includes receiving an instruction from the callee to prevent the caller from establishing the connection with the callee and identifying a first telephone number associated with the caller. The method also includes preventing one or more phone calls from the first telephone number from being forwarded to a second telephone number associated with the callee. |
| US08218749B2 |
Enabling multi-party call in telephone system
An apparatus includes a base unit and cordless handsets configured to establish a call with a communication apparatus, and a storage unit configured to store information corresponding to the communication apparatus indicating whether a multi-party call among the communication apparatus and at least two of the base unit and the cordless handsets is permitted. Also, a processing unit is configured to determine whether to enable a multi-party call among one communication apparatus, and at least two of the base unit and the cordless handsets based on the information. A method for use with the apparatus can include, in response to receiving a call from one communication apparatus, determining whether to enable a multi-party call to be established among the one communication apparatus and at least two of the base unit and the cordless handsets based on the information. |
| US08218748B2 |
Telephone call chaining
A telephone system connects a user to a plurality of telephone call participants in a sequence of calls referred to as a “call chain.” Features of each call in the chain, such as the telephone number(s) of the participant(s) to be called and the scheduled duration of the call, may be stored in a computer-readable record. A first telephone call is established between the user and the first participant in the call chain. The first telephone call may be terminated automatically by the system upon expiration of a predetermined maximum duration or when the first participant hangs up the telephone. Upon termination of the first telephone call, a second telephone call is established between the user and the second participant in the call chain. A third and subsequent telephone calls may be established between the user and the subsequent participants in the call chain in the same manner. |
| US08218747B2 |
Telephone device
A telephone device may be provided with a status storage device, a call request receiving device, a selectable information sending device, a selected result information receiving device, a first notice instruction sending device, a receiver device specifying device, and a second notice instruction sending device. The status storage device may be configured to store a status of each of a plurality of receiver devices. The call request receiving device may be configured to receive a call request. The selectable information sending device may be configured to send selectable information for selecting one type of call request from among a plurality of types of call requests to a source of the call request. The selected result information receiving device may be configured to receive selected result information sent from the source. The first notice instruction sending device may be configured to send a call request notice instruction to all of the plurality of receiver devices when the selected result information is a first type of call request. The receiver device specifying device may be configured to specify a receiver device having an idle status based on the stored contents of the status storage device when the selected result information is a second type of call request. The second notice instruction sending device may be configured to send the call request notice instruction to the receiver device specified by the receiver device specifying device. |
| US08218745B2 |
Method for selection and routing of an outbound voice call to an appropriate network for completion
A method of initiating a call includes receiving an identifier associated with a called party, the identifier being generated by a telephone handset. The method further includes determining a network category associated with the called party and generating an instruction to initiate a call by the telephone handset on one of at least two networks accessible for communication by the telephone handset. The one of at least two networks is selected by the instruction in response to the determined network category associated with the called party. |
| US08218744B2 |
Method for indicating the context of a call to a called party
In embodiments of the disclosed technology, a plurality of ratings of websites is received, wherein each rating is associated with a category and a rater and each rater is associated with at least one group. A selection of a category is received from the user, wherein the user is associated with at least one group. One website location (or a plurality of website locations) is provided in the category to the user based on at least one rating of the plurality of ratings provided by at least one of the raters, wherein at least one group associated with the rater and at least one the group associated with the user are the same group. |
| US08218743B2 |
Method and apparatus for connecting a caller previously diverted to voicemail
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for enabling communication between a first party and a second party. The method and apparatus determine that the second party is calling the first party while the first party is leaving a message on the voicemail of the second party. The message is then aborted and the first party is connected to the second party. |
| US08218742B2 |
Method of correlating charging data records within an offline charging system
In an example method of correlating charging data records within an offline charging system, each of a plurality of sources selects a same one of a plurality of charging functions in which to route charging information associated with a given call session or event. In an example, the plurality of sources corresponds to either a plurality of network elements or a plurality of charging data functions. In another example, the plurality of charging functions corresponds to either a plurality of charging data functions or a plurality of charging gateway functions. At the selected charging function, the routed charging information is correlated. |
| US08218735B2 |
Messaging advise in presence-aware networks
A presence aware communications system that includes a messaging system configured to perform one or more of provide a subscriber's communication device with information regarding an incoming contact during a messaging session between the subscriber's communication device and the messaging system, provide the subscriber's communication device with a text message containing information regarding one or more messages when a notification is received that the subscriber's communication device is available, provide the subscriber's communication device with a text message relating to a voice message from a different first party received by the messaging system, in response to the subscriber's communication device requesting a connection with at least one of an inputted telephone number and address, provide the subscriber's communication device with a notification respecting at least one eligible message from a second party associated with the at least one of an inputted telephone number and address, while a contact between the subscriber and a different third party is in progress, provide the subscriber's communication device with information respecting the at least one eligible message from the third party, transform an audio messaging session between the messaging system and the communication device of a contacting party into a graphical user interface-based audio sessions, and transform the audio messaging session into a session having a video channel or both audio and video channels. |
| US08218734B2 |
Messaging with a locked communication device
A communication device supports leaving a message using a communication device input interface when the device is in a locked state. The communication device may be a network telephone having a display interface and a user input interface. The communication device may be configured to transition to a locked state, store a message based on input received at the locked communication device, and present the message to an intended recipient. The message may be presented to the intended recipient upon unlocking the device (e.g., stored locally and presented when the phone is unlocked), presented to the intended recipient in accordance with communication settings (e.g., delivered to an email account, cell phone, etc.), or otherwise delivered. |
| US08218731B2 |
Filtering of a source of pulsed radiation
A source of pulsed radiation is coupled to a positionable filter. The positionable filter includes an element that produces an indication of a position of the filter. The source is configured to receive the indication of the position of the filter, and to regulate emission of a pulse of radiation based on the indication. A device includes an area including a material that alters a parameter of a beam of radiation that interacts with the material. The device is configured to move relative to a source of pulsed radiation. An element provides a signal to the source of pulsed radiation that indicates a position of the area relative to the source. The signal causes the source to trigger emission of a pulse at a time such that the emitted pulse is incident upon a portion of the area. |
| US08218730B2 |
Mechanism and X-ray tube apparatus
A mechanism to which a liquid-repellent structure hard to be exfoliated is applied.The tip of each of microprojections has a generally spherical surface. When a liquid metal (8) comes into contact with such a surface, the liquid metal (8) cannot enter the spaces among microprojections and is supported by the surfaces of the tips only with point contact.Therefore, the liquid metal (8) neither wets the surface of the base material nor spread over the surface.The liquid-repellent surface (11) has a structure such that the liquid metal (8) is supported by point contact of the many microprojections and repelled by the surface (11), and does not wet the surface (11). |
| US08218729B2 |
Control apparatus and control method
A control apparatus for controlling an X-ray irradiation area, in which an acquisition circuit acquires information relating to an effective area of a sensor, and a control circuit controls the X-ray irradiation area based on the information relating to the effective area. |
| US08218721B2 |
X-ray beam modifying diaphragm and diaphragm device
A diaphragm and diaphragm device for the specific manipulation of x-ray radiation that emanates from an x-ray focus of a CT apparatus and serves for scanning an examination subject, wherein the x-ray focus and the diaphragm arranged relatively near to the focus can be rotated together around a system axis (z-axis), and the diaphragm has movable diaphragm elements that dynamically adjust a diaphragm aperture (and therefore the spatial divergence of the x-rays passing through the diaphragm aperture). The diaphragm elements have a transmission factor for x-ray radiation that is different than zero. With such a diaphragm or diaphragm device the acquisition of the projection data necessary for the reconstruction of an artifact-free image of a region of interest (ROI) is possible with lower radiation exposure of the examination subject. |
| US08218720B2 |
Method and apparatus to facilitate reconstructing an image using fan-beam data
One provides (101) fan-beam data via a translate-rotate computed tomography acquisition process and then reconstructs (102) an image from this data without resampling any pixel positions other than to optionally resample pixel positions to compensate for non-uniform translation intervals. These embodiments also provide for reconstructing this image from this data without interpolating any pixel positions other than to optionally interpolate pixel positions as again may be useful to compensate for non-uniform translation intervals. |
| US08218719B2 |
Computerized method and processor for selecting acquisition configurations to obtain X-ray computed tomography data
In a method to assist in the selection of an acquisition configuration from a set of adjustable acquisition configurations for the acquisition of x-ray projections of the heart of a patient with a computed tomography apparatus to examine the heart of the patient, the which method is based on an examination type to be specified. At least two acquisition configurations for the specified examination type (which acquisition configurations can be adjusted at the computed tomography apparatus) are considered for which at least one probability density function is respectively kept ready that was determined for the respective acquisition configuration for a specific variable pertaining to a person and/or for the x-ray dose to be applied to the person. Using the at least two probability density functions, the acquisition configuration that is best suited for the examination of the heart of the patient according to the specified examination type is determined from the at least two adjustable acquisition configurations under consideration, based on at least one determined variable to be specified and pertaining to the current patient to be examined and/or based on a value pertaining to the applied x-ray dose. The invention also concerns a computed tomography apparatus operable according to such a method and a storage medium encoded with programming instructions for implementing such a method. |
| US08218718B1 |
Radiotherapy and imaging methods and apparatus
The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for reconstructing images from data acquired during radiotherapy. The approach is based on summing the imaging data acquired while both therapeutic and imaging source are active, with that acquired when only the therapeutic source is active. Further correction of the summed data can lead to reconstructed images of excellent quality. |
| US08218717B2 |
Reconstruction of 3D image datasets from x-ray and cone-beam data
A method for producing a 3D image dataset of an object with an imaging system having an x-ray source and an x-ray detector is provided. A series of two-dimensional arrays of cone beam data from the detector is acquired while the source moves along a substantially planar trajectory around the object. The trajectory is described by a series of source points serially numbered by a counter parameter. The cone beam data is differentiated with respect to the counter parameter at a fixed ray direction to produce a derivative of the cone beam data. The derivative is filtered with a Hilbert-like filter to produce filtered cone beam data. The acquired or the filtered cone beam data is multiplied with a redundancy weighting function. The cone beam data is back-projected to reconstruct a 3D image dataset. |
| US08218716B2 |
Radiation tomography method
A radiation tomography method of the present invention includes: calculating a radiating timing, with reference to imaging timing correction data relating a plurality of gantry angles to a plurality of imaging timing correction amounts, on the basis of an imaging timing at which a radiation source supported by a rotating traveling gantry is arranged at a predetermined imaging angle and an imaging timing correction amount, of the plurality of imaging timing correction amounts, related to a gantry angle at which the traveling gantry is arranged at the imaging timing; and calculating, on the basis of an X-ray image imaged with a radiation radiated from the radiation source at the radiating timing, three-dimensional data of the X-ray image of a subject. According to the radiation tomography method, the X-ray image imaged with the further accurately arranged radiation can be obtained even in a case where the traveling gantry deflects depending on the gantry angle at which the traveling gantry is arranged, and thus the three-dimensional data can be obtained more accurately. |
| US08218715B2 |
Methods and systems to facilitate correcting gain fluctuations in iterative image reconstruction
Methods and systems for reconstructing an image are provided. The method includes performing a tomographic image reconstruction using a joint estimation of at least one of a gain parameter and an offset parameter, and an estimation of the reconstructed image. |
| US08218714B2 |
Neuron MOS transistor based multi-digit multi-valued counter
The present invention discloses a neuron MOS based multi-valued counter unit. The counter unit includes a neuron MOS source follower and at least a control gate connected the neuron MOS source follower. The control gate includes a first dual-value D flip-flop, a second dual-value D flip-flop, an AND gate, and an OR gate. The present invention utilizes the neuron MOS to replace the complicated threshold value operations of the multi-value logic. The current invention implements the true multi-value logic and a multi-base multi-value counter by increasing the number of the dual-value D flip-flop, and connecting the dual-value D flip-flop to the input control gate of the neuron MOS follower. Comparing to the conventional multi-value counter, the present invention reduces the necessary components in constructing the counter, and it also reduces the cost and power consumption. The present invention applies the asynchronous carry-over concept to implement the multi-digit multi-value counter, and it also has been verified by the simulation of P Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE). |
| US08218713B2 |
Bi-directional shift register
A shift register of an LCD device includes a plurality of shift register units coupled in series. Each shift register unit includes an input circuit and a pull-down circuit having symmetric structures which enable the LCD device to function in a forward-scan mode and a reverse-scan mode. |
| US08218712B1 |
Method and apparatus for dividing clock frequencies
A method and apparatus for dividing clock frequencies are disclosed. For example, a circuit according to one embodiment of includes a high-speed divider and a plurality of programmable dividers cascading with the high-speed divider, wherein the plurality of programmable dividers are of a lower speed than the high-speed divider. |
| US08218709B2 |
Nuclear plant and method for the pressure relief in a nuclear plant
A nuclear installation has a reactor containment which is connected to a pressure relief line. A Venturi scrubber, which is arranged in a vessel containing a washing liquid, and a throttle device are connected in series in the pressure relief line. The novel system restrains, with particularly high reliability, fine air-transported activities or aerosols during decompression such that release thereof into the environment is practically impossible. The Venturi scrubber and the throttle device are dimensioned in such a way that, in the case of a critical drop in pressure of an air-vapor mixture flowing in the decompression line, a flow speed of said air-vapor mixture of more than 150 m/s, preferably more than 200 m/s, can be adjusted with respect to the throttle device in the Venturi scrubber. |
| US08218706B2 |
Communication system, receiving apparatus, and receiving method
A communication system includes a transmission apparatus for transmitting a plurality of serial data signals that are synchronized in phase with one another and a clock signal that is synchronized in frequency with the serial data signals; and a receiving apparatus for receiving a plurality of serial data signals and the clock signal transmitted from the transmission apparatus. The receiving apparatus includes a phase synchronization circuit configured to roughly adjust the frequency in accordance with the received clock signal and then generate a reproduction clock that is synchronized in phase with one serial data signal among the plurality of serial data signals, and a phase shifter configured to shift the phase from the reproduction clock and lock the phase to another serial signal. |
| US08218702B2 |
System and method of adapting precursor tap coefficient
A system and methods for recovering data from an input data signal are disclosed. The system includes a transmitter for conveying a data signal filtered by a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to a receiver via a channel. The receiver uses an adaptive algorithm to determine update signals for a pre-cursor tap coefficient of the FIR based on samples taken from the received data signal and conveys the update signals to the FIR. To generate update signals, the receiver samples the data signal at a phase estimated to correspond to a peak amplitude of a pulse response of the channel. The phase is based on a clock recovered from the data signal. The update signals increase or decrease a pre-cursor tap coefficient setting in response to determining that the phase corresponds to a point earlier or later, respectively, than the peak amplitude of the channel's pulse response. |
| US08218700B2 |
Method for synchronisation and control in wireless communication systems
Method and device making it possible to synchronize a master station and one or more subscriber stations in a wireless communications network, comprising at least one processor disposed at the level of each of the subscriber stations and suitable for calculating each subscriber's transmit time adjustment by taking account of the rate of variation of the satellite-subscriber path, a master station side processor suitable for measuring the loop error and a processor suitable for comparing the value of the error with a threshold value and as soon as the loop error value for a subscriber station is less than or equal to the threshold value, for giving said subscriber station permission to send its traffic. |
| US08218698B2 |
Method for frequency offset estimation and automatic frequency control for filtered signal with destroyed phase information and signal transceiver
The invention provides a method for frequency offset estimation according to a filtered signal with destroyed phase information. In one embodiment, a filter filters an original signal according to a series of first filter coefficients to obtain a first-channel component of the filtered signal, and filters the original signal according to a series of second filter coefficients to obtain a second-channel component of the filtered signal. A series of third filter coefficients are first derived from the first filter coefficients. The original signal is then filtered according to the third filter coefficients to obtain a reference signal. A first frequency offset value is estimated according to the first-channel component of the filtered signal and the reference signal, wherein the first-channel component of the filtered signal is a first-channel component of an artificial signal, and the reference signal is a second-channel component of the artificial signal. |
| US08218697B2 |
Iterative interference cancellation for MIMO-OFDM receivers
An OFDMA-MIMO receiver performs a recursive interference cancellation across several correlated subbands and several receive antenna elements to demodulate complex source symbols for several users that have been coded across several subbands and transmit antennas. The iterative parallel interference canceller (PIC) is configured to work in the presence of both spatial and frequency structure introduced by the transmitter space-frequency mapping and the actual frequency selective wireless channel. The interference canceller uses mixed decisions, confidence weights, and stabilizing step sizes in a PIC receiver, which may be used with a successive decoding architecture in a receiver that employs a combination of modulation level interference cancellation with successive decoding. |
| US08218694B2 |
Method for transmitting a digital signal, method for receiving a digital signal, transmitter and receiver
A transmitter (106) for transmitting a signal, the signal comprising a plurality of signal values, the signal values being grouped to at least one signal value block. The transmitter comprises a pre-transformation unit (101) adapted to process each signal value block by a pre-transformation to produce a block of modulation symbols, wherein the pre-transformation comprises a phase rotation of the signal block values, which corresponds to the multiplication of the signal value block with a phase rotation matrix. The transmitter also comprises a modulation unit (102) adapted to modulate at least one carrier signal based on the modulation symbols and a sending unit (104) adapted to send the modulated carrier signal. |
| US08218689B2 |
Wireless communication device and mobile station
The occurrence of reception errors due to failure to discriminate between a new transmission and a retransmission is reduced by a wireless communication comprising a storage unit operable to store received data; and a decoding unit operable to obtain a first decoding result by decoding new received data, which is not combined with the stored received data, and which obtains a second decoding result by decoding the new received data, which is combined with the stored received data. |
| US08218688B2 |
Quadrature demodulator and interrogator
A quadrature demodulator generates an I-signal from a modulated reception signal and a local signal, generates a Q-signal from the local signal and the local signal having a phase shifted through 90 degrees. Capacitors remove DC components from the I- and Q-signals. Low-pass filters remove frequency components higher than the frequencies of the I- and Q-signals. An I-signal squaring section squares the I-signal having passed through the low-pass filters. A Q-signal squaring section squares the Q-signal having passed through the low-pass filters. An adding section adds the squared I-signal and the squared Q-signal together. A comparator then compares the level of an S1 signal resulting from the addition with a threshold to obtain an S2 signal. A data generating section of a digital signal processing section executes a process of inverting the signal level of the S2 signal at every rising edge of the S2 signal to demodulate reception data. |
| US08218686B1 |
Circuit and method for DC offset compensation
An apparatus has front end circuitry to demodulate a radio frequency signal and to produce a baseband signal, the radio frequency signal being periodic and having a predetermined period. An analog-to-digital converter converts the baseband signal into a digital signal, the digital signal being periodic and having the predetermined period. A DC offset adjustment circuit includes a filter for estimating a DC offset contained in the digital signal based only on digital samples in a sample period having a length equal to the predetermined period. An adder removes the estimated DC offset from the digital signal. A method of operating such an apparatus is also disclosed. |
| US08218681B2 |
OFDM transmitter and OFDM receiver
An OFDM transmitter and receiver realizing high-speed cell search and having a reducible circuit scale. An OFDM transmitter includes an SCH inserting section for constructing a frame where a synchronization sequence in a predetermined position from the head of a first sub-frame is arranged and a synchronization sequence composed of the symbols of the former synchronization sequence and the symbols whose I, Q components are interchanged is arranged in a predetermined position from the head of a second sub-frame adjacent in the time-axis direction to the former sub-frame, an IFFT section, a P-SCH conversion section, and an RF transmitting section for transmitting this frame. Thus, the receiving end of the frame can locate the position of either synchronization sequence and determine the frame timing from that position, thereby increasing the speed of the cell search. |
| US08218680B2 |
Radio communication apparatus capable of switching modulation schemes
A transmitting apparatus includes a modulation signal generating section that generates a modulation signal by modulating transmission data using one of a plurality of modulation schemes. The plurality of modulation schemes include a first modulation scheme, a second modulation scheme, and a third modulation scheme, where the first modulation scheme has maximum m-ary modulation value, the second modulation scheme has a lower m-ary modulation value than the first modulation scheme, and the third modulation scheme has a lower m-ary modulation value than the second modulation scheme. The transmitting apparatus also includes a pilot signal generating section that generates a pilot signal having one of a plurality of amplitudes, the pilot signal having a lower amplitude than a maximum amplitude of the first modulation scheme. The transmitting apparatus further includes a selection section that selects the modulation signal or the pilot signal according to a frame timing signal and generates a transmission quadrature baseband signal, a radio section that converts the transmission quadrature baseband signal to a radio signal, an amplifying section that amplifies the radio signal, and an antenna section that transmits the amplified radio signal. |
| US08218676B2 |
System and method for training pre-inverse of nonlinear system
A circuit for use with an amplification circuit having a predistortion datapath portion, a power amplifier portion and a gain portion. The predistortion datapath portion can output a predistorted signal based on the input signal. The power amplifier portion can output an amplified signal based on the predistorted signal. The gain portion can output a gain output signal based on the amplified signal. The circuit comprises a digital predistortion adaptation portion and a combiner. The digital predistortion adaptation portion can output a predistortion adaptation portion output signal. The combiner can output an error signal. The predistortion adaptation portion output signal is based on the input signal, the gain output signal and the error signal. The error signal is based on the difference between the predistorted signal and the predistortion adaptation portion output signal. |
| US08218674B2 |
OFDM transmitter with adaptive bit interleaver for adaptive bit loading and method for OFDM communications
A multi-antenna transmitter includes an adaptive bit interleaver for orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communications. The adaptive bit interleaver permutes a variable number of coded bits per OFDM symbol (Ncbps). The variable number of coded bits is calculated based on individual subcarrier modulation assignments for orthogonal subcarriers. The interleaver matrix size may be based on the variable number of coded bits per OFDM symbol and the number of subchannels. The interleaver may add padding bits to the interleaver matrix to fill any remaining positions, and after performing an interleaving operation, the interleaver may prune the padding bits to provide a sequence of interleaved bits for subsequent modulation on the orthogonal subcarriers and transmission by more than one antenna. The transmitter may transmit the OFDM symbol in accordance with an IEEE 802.16 standard. |
| US08218673B2 |
Method and system for providing a dual-channel beacon signal in a wireless network
A method for providing a dual-channel beacon signal to protect a low-power device in a wireless network is provided. The method includes generating a beacon message in a first logical channel and generating a detection signal in a second logical channel. The first logical channel and the second logical channel are mapped into a first physical channel and a second physical channel. The second physical channel is orthogonal to the first physical channel. The dual-channel beacon signal is transmitted by simultaneously transmitting the beacon message and the detection signal in the first physical channel and the second physical channel. |
| US08218672B2 |
Differential data transceiver and method with reversed-wire immunity
A polarity independent differential data transceiver receives a differential voltage signal and outputs a first logic state when the differential voltage signal is in a positive voltage differential range and/or when the differential voltage signal is in a corresponding negative differential voltage range. The differential data transceiver will output a second logic state in response to receiving a voltage differential signal that is in an intermediate differential voltage range near zero between the positive differential voltage range and the corresponding negative differential voltage range. |
| US08218670B2 |
Method of space time coding with low papr for multiple antenna communication system of the UWB pulse type
A method of space time coding for UWB transmission system including a plurality of radiative elements, the method coding a block of information symbols S=(σ1, σ2, . . . , σP) belonging to a M-PPM-M′-PAM modulation alphabet, as a sequence of vectors obtained from elements of the matrix: C = ( σ 1 σ 2 … σ P Ωσ P σ 1 ⋱ ⋮ ⋮ ⋱ ⋱ σ 2 Ωσ 2 … Ωσ P σ 1 ) a row of the matrix corresponding to a use of the transmission channel and a column of the matrix corresponding to a radiative element, the matrix C being defined to within a permutation of its rows and/or its columns and Ω being defined as the combination of a permutation (ω) of the modulation positions of the M-PPM alphabet and a symmetry operation (π) of the M′-PAM modulation alphabet for one of the modulation positions (m±). |
| US08218668B2 |
Multi-user MIMO method, apparatus and communication system for transmitting signal
A multi-user multi-input multi-output (MIMO) method for transmitting signal with a includes: performing a Tomlinson-Harashima pre-coding (THP) on raw data; decomposing a channel matrix to a product of a block triangular matrix and a unitary matrix, and generating a signal to be transmitted by performing a forward filtering on the THP coded data by using the unitary matrix. A multi-user MIMO apparatus for transmitting signal includes an interference pre-eliminating unit, a modulo unit, a forward filtering unit, and a channel matrix decomposing unit. A multi-user MIMO communication system is further provided. |
| US08218667B2 |
Data transmission method using dirty paper coding in MIMO system
A data transmission method for multiple users having multiple receive antennas is provided. The method includes selecting a receive antenna among the multiple receive antennas for each user, performing DPC (Dirty Paper Coding) from the multiple transmit antennas to the receive antenna and transmitting a transmission signal on which the DPC is performed. Since DPC is implemented through a receive antenna selected among multiple receive antennas, complexity is not much increased although the DPC is applied to a MIMO system. |
| US08218665B2 |
Symbol time synchronization method for OFDM systems
A symbol time synchronization method for OFDM systems is disclosed. The invention presents a joint maximum-likelihood (ML) synchronization method for symbol time offset (STO) in OFDM systems. The method is developed in frequency domain under time-variant multipath channels. By analyzing the received frequency-domain data, a mathematical model for the joint effects of symbol time offset (STO), carrier frequency offset (CFO) and sampling clock frequency offset (SCFO) is derived. The results are used to formulate a log-likelihood function of two consecutive symbols. The joint estimation's method is robust, because it exhibits high performances in high mobility and time-variant multipath fading channels. |
| US08218663B2 |
Reference signal resource allocation for single user MIMO
Transmission with multiple antennas in a wireless network is performed by transmitting a plurality of reference sequences (RS) from a UE. A first RS s1[k] is produced using a first cyclic shift and a base sequence s0[k], wherein k={1, 2 . . . K} is an element index. A second RS s2[k] is produced using a second cyclic shift and s0[k]. A first symbol sequence x1[k] is produced using at least s1[k] and s2[k], for at least one k. A second symbol sequence x2[k] is produced using at least s1[k] and s2[k], for at least one k. x1[k] is transmitted using a first transmit antenna and x2[k] is transmitted using a second transmit antenna. |
| US08218661B2 |
OFDMA based medium access control and frame structure design for industrial applications
A network includes a master and a set of slaves that communicate orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and time division multiple access (TDMA) symbols on sub-carriers. A master broadcasts to the set of slaves using downlinks and all of the sub-carriers, a broadcast polling packet including data packets for each slave and sub-carrier assignments for the slaves. Each slave, in response to receiving the downlink polling packet, transmits simultaneously a response packet to the master using uplinks and the assigned sub-carriers. The master then transmits to the set of slave using the downlinks and all of the sub-carriers, a group acknowledgement packet, wherein the broadcast polling packet, the response packet, and the group acknowledgement packet comprise one superframe in one communication cycle, and wherein the broadcasting on the downlinks and the transmitting on the uplinks are disjoint in time. |
| US08218660B2 |
Receiver
In a receiver to process a received signal including one or more carrier signals, an FFT processing section executes FFT processing on the received signal to obtain FFT processing results at, for example, four points. On the basis of the FFT processing results from the FFT processing section, a selecting section selects one point from a plurality of, e.g., four points. An FFT processing result corresponding to the point selected by the selecting section is used for demodulation processing. |
| US08218652B2 |
Image encoder, image decoder, and image encoding system
An image coding system includes an image encoder and a predictive image decoder. The image encoder encodes an input image to obtain encoded data, compares the input image with a reference image, generates error information identifying parts of the input image that are changed with respect to the reference image, and outputs the encoded data and the error information. The predictive image decoder predicts the image, using a simplified prediction method for parts of the image identified by the error information as not being changed, and decodes the encoded data and the predicted data to obtain decoded image data. Use of the simplified prediction method in unchanged parts of the image reduces the prediction processing load without significant loss of prediction accuracy. |
| US08218648B2 |
Image encoding apparatus and control method thereof
This invention enables to generate encoded data without noticeable image quality degradation when reproducing an image at a lower resolution not to mention the original resolution. To accomplish this, when setting is done to transmit an image captured by a digital camera to a network, code stream forming information CF is set to “2” to arrange the encoded data of each tile in a resolution order. To suppress image quality degradation when reproducing at an intermediate resolution, stream conversion information SC is set to “2”. When encoding image data in compression processing, block overlap processing of suppressing discontinuity of data at the boundary between adjacent blocks is executed as many times as the count set in the stream conversion information. The obtained encoded data is arranged in accordance with the code stream forming information CF and output. |
| US08218647B2 |
Method and system to improve the transport of compressed video data
A method comprises determining a plurality of time intervals Tp and Tn within a variable bit rate (VBR) representation of an image sequence. The time intervals Tp are those in which a number of blocks of information per unit time is greater than a baseline value. The time intervals Tn are those in which a number of blocks of information per unit time is less than the baseline value. A second representation of the image sequence is created in which some blocks of information Bp are removed from the time intervals Tp and interlaced with blocks of information Bn in the time intervals Tn to reduce a variation in a number of blocks of information per unit time between the time intervals Tp and Tn. |
| US08218644B1 |
System for compressing and de-compressing data used in video processing
Disclosed are systems and methods used in motion estimation and particularly for data compression. Embodiments of the invention may store and operate on an n-bit value in less than n bits. In one embodiment, if the multi-bit value is less than a threshold, then the multi-bit value is stored in the reduced-bit storage directly, with no loss of precision. If the multi-bit value is greater than the threshold, then the Most Significant Bits (MSBs) of the multi-bit value are shifted into the reduced-bit storage, and a compression flag set. To decompress, if the compression flag was not set, the bits stored in the reduced-bit storage are merely copied back into the multi-bit value directly. If the compression flag was set, then the bits stored in the reduced-bit storage are shifted (left) by the same amount they were shifted (right) during compression, and an error-minimizing value is added. |
| US08218643B2 |
Low-power and high-performance video coding method for performing motion estimation
A method for performing motion estimation is provided. The method includes the following steps: selecting a current block in a current frame; comparing the current block with an initial reference block in a reference frame to obtain an initial comparison parameter, wherein position of the initial reference block in the reference frame is corresponding to position of the current block in the current frame; determining a predicted search window corresponding to the current block based on the initial comparison parameter; and comparing the current block with reference blocks in the predicted search window to obtain comparison parameters respectively, whereby a best-match reference block in the predicted search window is determined. |
| US08218636B2 |
Motion refinement engine with a plurality of cost calculation methods for use in video encoding and methods for use therewith
A motion compensation module can be used in a video encoder for encoding a video input signal that includes a sequence of images that are segmented into a plurality of macroblocks. The motion compensation module includes a motion search module, that generates a motion search motion vector for a plurality of subblocks for a plurality of partitionings of a macroblock of a plurality of macroblocks based on a sum of accumulated differences (SAD) cost. A motion refinement module, when enabled, generates a refined motion vector for the plurality of subblocks for the plurality of partitionings of the macroblock of the plurality of macroblocks, based on the motion search motion vector for each of the plurality of subblocks of the macroblock of the plurality of macroblocks and based on a sum of accumulated transform differences (SATD) cost. A mode decision module operates on either SAD costs or SATD costs, based on whether the refinement module is enabled or disabled. |
| US08218635B2 |
Systolic-array based systems and methods for performing block matching in motion compensation
Systolic array-based systems and methods for performing block matching in motion compensation. A target pixel block is loaded into a systolic array. A matching sized block of a reference search space is loaded into the array, row by row. A sum of absolute difference (SOAD) is computed for each row and stored. After each row has been loaded, the reference space is incremented to the next column. After the entire reference space has been searched, the reference block with the smallest SOAD is taken as the motion vector for the target pixel block. |
| US08218628B2 |
Apparatus and method for generating a coded video sequence and for decoding a coded video sequence by using an intermediate layer residual value prediction
A video coder performs a motion-compensated prediction both in the base layer and in an enhancement layer to determine motion data of the enhancement layer by using the motion data from the base layer and/or to predict sequences of residual error pictures after the motion-compensated prediction in the enhancement layer by using sequences of residual error pictures from the base layer via an intermediate layer predictor. On the decoder side, an intermediate layer combiner is used for canceling this intermediate layer prediction. Thereby, the data rate is improved compared to scalability schemes without intermediate layer prediction with the same picture quality. |
| US08218623B2 |
Moving picture coding method and moving picture decoding method
A moving picture coding apparatus 1 includes: a quantization matrix holding unit (112) that holds a quantization matrix (WM) which has already been transmitted in a parameter set and a matrix ID for identifying the quantization matrix (WM), which are associated with each other; and a variable length coding unit (111) that obtains the matrix ID corresponding to the quantization matrix (WM) used for quantization from the quantization matrix holding unit (112) and places the matrix ID in a coded stream Str. |
| US08218621B2 |
Data-mapping method and cache system for use in a motion compensation system
Frame data stored in an external memory is partitioned into a plurality of macroblocks, and a plurality of access units each comprising at least one macroblock are provided. A plurality of frames are fetched from the external memory by loading the plurality of access units in a predetermined sequence. A current data for decoding a macroblock of the first access unit and a reference data for decoding a macroblock of the second access unit are loaded from the first access unit, and respectively mapped to a first memory group and a second memory group of a circular cache according to the frame width. |
| US08218619B2 |
Transcoding apparatus and method between two codecs each including a deblocking filter
Disclosed are a transcoding apparatus and method between two codecs each including a deblocking filter. The transcoding method between first and second codecs each including a deblocking filter, may include decoding input data encoded according to the first codec, according to the first codec so as to generate decoded data; and encoding the decoded data according to the second codec. The decoded data may include data on which deblocking filtering is not performed by the first codec, or data on which deblocking filtering is adaptively performed by the first codec. The decoded data may further include data on which deblocking filtering is performed by the first codec. The decoded data may be used as input data when the second codec performs encoding and/or when the second codec performs motion estimation. |
| US08218618B2 |
Method and device for lossy coding of a digital signal
Lossy coding of a digital signal for transmission over a communication system, involving determination of at least one coding parameter reducing the distortion due to the coding under a rate constraint by taking account of the possible variations over time of several parameters of the communication system among the bandwidth, the filling ratio, the processing load and the delay between the coding and the decoding. |
| US08218616B2 |
Method and system for addition of video thumbnail
Provided is a method and system to generate a static or an animated thumbnail for a digital video on a handheld device, in which a first frame of the video is displayed as the static thumbnail and certain periodic frames of the digital video are displayed as the animated thumbnail. |
| US08218613B2 |
Channel estimator and channel estimation method
The invention discloses a double-estimation channel estimator for calculating a plurality of accurate channel responses from a plurality of synchronization signals. The channel estimator includes a first channel estimator, a second channel estimator, a first equalizer, and a calculation module. The first channel estimator calculates first channel responses according to a plurality of pilot signals and the synchronization signals. The first equalizer calculates first equalization signals according to the first channel responses and the synchronization signals. The second channel estimator calculates second responses according to the first equalization signals and the synchronization signals. Then the calculation module calculates third channel responses according to the first channel responses and the second channel responses. |
| US08218611B2 |
Signal generator providing ISI scaling to touchstone files
A device and method for producing Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) scaling of S-Parameter Touchstone files for the generation of ISI scaling effects on serial data patterns by direct digital synthesis is described. The features of the present invention allow user to set parameters such as data rate, voltage amplitude, encoding scheme etc. as per requirements for the serial data patterns. An ISI scaling value is selected and applied to an S-Parameter Touchstone file representing transmission path effects. The serial data pattern parameters and the ISI scaling value used with the S-Parameter Touchstone file are compiled to generate a digital data waveform record file. The digital waveform record file is applied to a waveform generation circuit for converting the digital data into an analog serial data pattern with ISI scaling effects. |
| US08218609B2 |
Closed-loop rate control for a multi-channel communication system
Closed-loop rate control for data transmission on multiple parallel channels is provided. An inner loop estimates the channel conditions for a communication link and selects a suitable data rate for each of the multiple parallel channels based on the channel estimates. For each parallel channel, a received SNR is computed based on the channel estimates, an operating SNR is computed based on the received SNR and an SNR offset for the parallel channel, and the data rate is selected based on the operating SNR for the parallel channel and a set of required SNRs for a set of data rates supported by the system. An outer loop estimates the quality of data transmissions received on the multiple parallel channels and adjusts the operation of the inner loop. For example, the SNR offset for each parallel channel is adjusted based on the status of packets received on that parallel channel. |
| US08218607B2 |
Data detection for codes with non-uniform spreading factors
A plurality of communication signals is received. Each communication signal has an associated code. At least two of the communication signals has a different spreading factor. The associated codes have a scrambling code period. A total system response matrix has blocks. Each block has one dimension of a length M and another dimension of a length based on in part M and the spreading factor of each communication. M is based on the scrambling code period. Data of the received plurality of communication signals is received using the constructed system response matrix. |
| US08218603B2 |
Simple and robust digital code tracking loop for wireless communication systems
A simple and robust CTL is used for time tracking of multipath components of a spread spectrum signal transmitted over a wireless multipath fading channel. A digital code-tracking loop includes the implementations of despreading early and late data samples by use of a pseudonoise sequence, an error signal output generated by the despreading, and adjustment for a plurality of on-time, early and late samples, a data rate of a control signal provided as a fractional proportion of a data rate of error signals. |
| US08218602B2 |
Method and apparatus for selectively applying interference cancellation in spread spectrum systems
The present invention is directed to the selective provision of interference canceled signal streams to demodulating fingers in a communication receiver. According to the present invention, potential interferer signal paths are identified. Signal streams having one or more potential interferer signals removed or canceled are created, and a correlation is performed to determine whether the strength of a desired signal path increased as a result. If the correlation indicates that the strength of a desired signal path was increased by the signal cancellation, the interference canceled signal stream is provided to the demodulation finger assigned to track the desired signal path. If the correlation determines that the strength of the desired signal path did not increase as a result of performing interference cancellation, the raw or a different interference canceled signal stream is provided to the demodulation finger. |
| US08218600B2 |
Frequency hopping network with a guaranteed handoff delay
A system and method for operating a communications system network, the method including operating an access point (AP) acting as a network controller in a frequency hopping network, the AP communicating with other communication devices of the network over m number of frequencies using a hopping sequence of at least some of the m number of frequencies and a dwell time d for the plurality of frequencies; and operating a communication device seeking to establish synchronized communication with other communication devices of the frequency hopping network without any cross-AP coordination, the communication device scanning all of the m number of frequencies using a scanning time s for each of the m number of frequencies; and, wherein the scanning time s is no greater than 1/m of the AP dwell time d. |
| US08218596B2 |
Vertical cavity surface emitting laser and method of manufacturing the same
A Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser capable of decreasing the lowering of the yield due to displacement and separation of a pedestal without enormous increase of the threshold value and more difficult manufacturing process is provided. A base of a mesa spreads over the top face of a lower DBR layer. The base is a non-flat face in which end faces of a plurality of layers are exposed. The non-flat face is generated due to etching unevenness in forming the mesa, and is in a state of a step in which end faces of a low-refractive index layer and a high-refractive index layer included in the lower DBR layer are alternatively exposed. At least one of the layers exposed in the non-flat face in the plurality of low-refractive index layers included in the lower DBR layer is an oxidation inhibition layer. |
| US08218594B2 |
Vertical cavity surface emitting laser
The present invention provides a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser including: a first multilayer film reflector; an active layer having a light emission region; a second multilayer film reflector; and a reflectance adjustment layer in this order on a substrate side. The first multilayer film reflector and the second multilayer film reflector have a laminated structure in which reflectance of oscillation wavelength λx is almost constant without depending on temperature change. The active layer is made of a material with which a maximum gain is obtained at temperature higher than ambient temperature. The reflectance adjustment layer has a laminated structure in which difference ΔR(=Rx−Ry) between reflectance Rx of a region opposed to a central region of the light emission region and reflectance Ry of a region opposed to an outer edge region of the light emission region is increased associated with temperature increase from ambient temperature to high temperature. |
| US08218593B2 |
Optical devices comprising doped glass materials, laser systems including such optical devices, and methods of forming such optical devices and laser systems
Optical devices include a doped glass material in which the dopant facilitates the transmission of energy out from the glass material. The doped glass may not significantly absorb a selected wavelength of laser radiation to be manipulated by the optical devices. The dopant may comprise one or more of a transition metal element, an actinide element, and a lanthanide element. Laser systems include at least one such optical device and a laser device configured to emit a beam to be manipulated by the optical device. Methods for forming optical devices and laser systems including such optical devices include dispersing a dopant within a glass material to form, and forming the glass material into a body having a size and shape configured to manipulate a beam of radiation emitted by a laser device. The dopant is selected to comprise a material that facilitates the transmission of energy out from the glass material. |
| US08218589B1 |
High-energy laser atmospheric compensation and aimpoint maintenance
A high-energy laser weapon system in which the high-energy laser beam itself is used to correct for atmospheric fluctuations thereby replacing a separate beacon illuminator system. The high-energy laser is turned off (negative pulse) periodically for a very short period giving a wavefront sensor an opportunity to measure the return of the high-energy laser beam from the target. A wavefront sensor drives a deformable mirror based on this return signal avoiding wavelength anisoplanatism. In addition, the high-energy laser weapon can be snapped ahead of the path of the target during the negative pulse to avoid tilt anisoplanitism. |
| US08218586B2 |
Littman configured frequency stepped laser
A wavelength tunable system including a laser having a lasing cavity and an external cavity, the cavities having a common optical axis; a reflective grating fixed in the external cavity; a collimating lens between the lasing cavity and the reflective grating; and an adjustable reflective mirror defining one end of the external cavity and optically coupled to the fixed reflective grating, the adjustable reflective mirror pivots about the fixed reflective grating, and a method of use as defined herein. |
| US08218583B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating information signal to be recorded
A compressively-encoding-resultant video signal resulting from compressively encoding a video signal, a first compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal resulting from compressively encoding a first audio signal having a synchronized relation with the video signal, a reference clock information signal relating to synchronization between the compressively-encoding-resultant video signal and the first compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal, and an indication timing information signal designating an indication timing of the video signal are multiplexed to get an AV multiplexing-resultant signal. A second audio signal is compressively encoded to get a second compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal. A sound-production-timing information signal is added to the second compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal to get a substitution playback audio signal. During playback, the substitution playback audio signal can be reproduced instead of the first audio signal while being synchronous with the video signal. The sound-production-timing information signal responds to the reference clock information signal, and relates to synchronization with the video signal. |
| US08218578B2 |
Broadcast receiving apparatus
Disclosed is a broadcast receiving apparatus including an analog time information extracting member to extract time information included in an analog broadcast signal; a digital time information extracting member to extract time information included in a digital broadcast signal; a time setting member to automatically set time of the clock in accordance with time information; a display control member to output and display a setting screen to set a channel for time setting, the setting screen being used to set which broadcast channel is selected, the channel including time information which is used by the time setting member to set time of the clock; and an operation input unit to input operation command from external. |
| US08218572B2 |
Network element connection management within a network management system
Preferred embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods to receive a logical command, the logical command being associated with a target identifier of a network element, determine connection parameters of the network element based on the target identifier, define a work flow based on the logical command, the work flow including a connection manager work unit, and execute the connection manager work unit to retrieve a connection from a connection pool based on the connection parameters. |
| US08218571B2 |
Fibre channel framing and signaling optional header for ethernet fabric configuration information
A Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) device obtains knowledge of the configuration of an attached Ethernet fabric from data fields within a frame header during a fabric initialization or login (FLOGI) process. FCoE N_Ports obtain similar information during the port initialization or login (PLOGI) process. The FCoE device may provide network management services to attached FCoE devices. Embodiments include a management module or processor within an FCoE N_Port. The management module or processor receives a frame having a header and validates and extracts information associated with an Ethernet fabric from the FCoE N_Ports and in order to provide management services based on the information associated with the Ethernet fabric. The FCoE N_Port communicatively couples to at least one additional FCoE N_Port through the Ethernet fabric. The FCoE N_Ports may be implemented within a disc storage drive, a host bus adapter, and/or an FCoE switch. The capability of an N_Port to obtain this information allows a management module or processor at the N_Port to manage the Ethernet fabric. |
| US08218570B2 |
Network element abstraction within a network management system
Preferred embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods to receive a logical command associated with a network management system to be executed on a network element, convert the logical command into a physical command associated with the network element, communicate the physical command to the network element. |
| US08218567B2 |
Method and system for reducing transceiver power via a variable signal constellation
Aspects of a method and system for reducing transceiver power via a variable signal constellation are provided. In this regard, an Ethernet PHY device may receive one or more signals indicative of a current state of an Ethernet link to which the PHY device is coupled and/or indicative of resources, such as power, available to the PHY device. Accordingly, a number of points comprising a signal constellation utilized to communicate data via the Ethernet link may vary based on the one or more signals. A current state of the link may comprise a bit error rate, a packet error rate, and/or utilization, in terms of bandwidth for example, of the link. Aspects of the invention may enable controlling, at least in part, power consumption of the PHY device may altering the number of points comprising the signal constellation. |
| US08218565B2 |
Alternating scheduling method for use in a mesh network
An alternating scheduling algorithm is useful in a mesh network. Transmissions are scheduled along a branch in a tree structure such that simultaneous transmissions occur only in non-adjacent layers along the branch. In a disclosed example, every other layer is grouped into a set of layers such that the sets are mutually exclusive and the sets only include non-adjacent layers. One example includes designating one set of layers as the even layers and another set as odd layers. A scheduler schedules transmissions on the layers such that simultaneous transmissions along a branch occur only on layers within one of the sets while transmissions on the other set along the same branch are prevented. The sets of layers selected for transmission are alternated each subsequent scheduling window or frame. |
| US08218562B2 |
Fast switching of forward link in wireless system
A technique for distributing channel allocation information in a demand access communication system. Multiple access codes are used that have a defined code repeat period or code epoch. For each such epoch duration, a schedule of assignment of traffic channels to active terminals for each epoch is determined. For each terminal designated as active during the epoch, a list of active channels for such terminal unit is assigned. Prior to the start of each epoch, a channel set up message is sent on one of the forward link channels, such as a paging channel, indicating the lists of active channels for epochs of the associated traffic channel(s) that are to follow. |
| US08218561B2 |
Flow redirection employing state information
In an example embodiment, there is disclosed an apparatus comprising a first interface configured to receive a packet from a client, a second interface configured to transmit the packet to a server, a third interface configured to communicate with at least one processing device, redirection module in communication with the first interface, the second interface and the third interface, and flow monitoring and state information module in communication with the first interface, the second interface, the third interface and the redirection module. Responsive to receipt of the packet on the first interface, the redirection module is operable to communicate with the flow monitoring and state information module whether state information exists for the packet, the state information comprising an address for a processing device. The redirection module is operable to route the packet to the processing device responsive to determining state information exists for the packet. |
| US08218557B2 |
Scalable distributed user plane partitioned two-stage forwarding information base lookup for subscriber internet protocol host routes
Communication sessions are each homed on one of a plurality of line cards in a network element. Packets received by the network element are processed on the home card before being transmitted to a subscriber device, such as a mobile phone or laptop computer. When a packet is received by the network element, it is not necessarily received by the line card that serves as a home card for the respective session. The packet is switched within the network element from the receiving line card, i.e., the trunk card, to the home card. The network element identifies the home card by performing a lookup in a table duplicated on all the line cards using the least significant bits of the IP address in the packet. Using these bits to organize the table limits the size of the table and balances load among the line cards. |
| US08218554B2 |
Generation and use of CRC in communications network
The CRC for the CPS Header of an ATM AAL2 cell is generated by a CRC generator which uses the 8 bits of the CID field to generate partial 5 bits CRCs which are loaded in a first table. The 6 bits LI field and 5 bits UUI field are added to the partial 5 bits CRC to form 16 bits. The CRC generator uses the 2.sup.16 bits to generate a second CRC table. The CRC for a particular CPS header is generated by correlating bits in the CID field, LI field and UUI field with the two tables. |
| US08218553B2 |
Load balancing network traffic on a label switched path using resource reservation protocol with traffic engineering
Techniques are describe for establishing an overall label switched path (LSP) for load balancing network traffic being sent across a network using the a resource reservation protocol such as Resource Reservation Protocol with Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE). The techniques include extensions to the RSVP-TE protocol that enable a router to send Path messages for establishing a tunnel that includes a plurality of sub-paths for the overall LSP. The tunnel may comprise a single RSVP-TE Label Switched Path (LSP) that is configured to load balance network traffic across different sub-paths of the RSVP-TE LSP over the network. |
| US08218552B2 |
Selective radio transmission of packets
A method of radio transmitting packets and transmitter. The packets are identified by at least one respective transmission criterion which is selected from either one or a combination of the following criteria: types of services classified in terms of reliability in transmission, bandwidth efficiency in transmission, drop ranking in transmission. The identified packet are assigned an indicator indicative of the selected transmission criterion and are transmitted according to the transmission criterion corresponding to the indicator assigned to the packet. |
| US08218545B2 |
Implementing multicasting
An arrangement and method for implementing multicasting in IP networks, in which multicast packets are transmitted along a multicast tree from one transmitter through several multicast controllers to several recipients is discussed. In the method at least one multicast tree intended for control messages is generated in the network from a network multicast controller to cell-level multicast controllers. The network multicast controller transmits along the multicast tree control messages to the cell-level multicast controllers. The control messages contain information on the network multicast and a command to connect to the network multicast tree intended for multicasts. |
| US08218544B2 |
Packet communicating apparatus
Bandwidth control over users accommodated under ONU in PON is achieved. BAS sets user bandwidth information obtained during user authorization in OLT. The OLT achieves bandwidth control on a user basis, using bandwidth information set from the BAS. The present invention enables bandwidth control over users under the ONUs. |
| US08218543B2 |
Method and apparatus for SIP message prioritization
The invention includes a method and apparatus for providing SIP message prioritization between network elements along at least a portion of an end-to-end path between a SIP client and a SIP server. The method includes determining a SIP message prioritization policy and distributing the SIP message prioritization policy toward a prioritizing network element adapted to assign message priority levels to respective received SIP messages using the SIP message prioritization policy, process the received SIP messages according to the respective assigned message priority levels, and transmit the prioritized SIP messages toward at least one network element in a manner for propagating the respective assigned message priority levels to the at least one network element. The prioritizing network elements include SIP network elements and non-SIP network elements. |
| US08218537B1 |
Dual signaling format switch fabric with multiplex capability
A serial channel switch circuit and modular packet switch using the serial channel switch circuits are disclosed. The serial channel switch circuit has a reconfigurable table for internal logical-to-physical channel switch translation. Depending on the slot in which a card containing such a serial channel switch circuit is inserted in the modular packet switch, its serial channel switch circuit may receive a different set of reconfigurable table values that are specific to that location. A global set of logical channel values can be applied to each card, which performs logical-to-physical channel mapping according to its location in the modular packet switch. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. |
| US08218533B2 |
Telephone recording and storing arbitrary keystrokes sequence with replay with a single stroke
A telephone is described that allows any arbitrary combination of key strokes, including numerical keys, extension keys, as well as function keys such as TRANSFER, CONFERENCE, etc., to be programmed such that the entire sequence of key strokes can be recalled with the touch of a single button. The phone can be programmed directly by operation of the telephone user interface on the phone (i.e., the keys, phone display, and speaker prompting the user) and a program button dedicated to the feature of programming a separate programmable button to map to the specified key sequence. The feature can be implemented in advanced telephones capable of voice over Internet Protocol networks, and supporting the Session Initiation Protocol. In these more advanced phones, the programming can be done by a system administrator or by the user of the phone via a computer with internet access. |
| US08218527B2 |
Personal IP toll-free number
In an internet telephony system, toll-free service and the calls that are accepted and paid for can be specified by the IP telephony system user to be limited according to the calling party's identity, time of day, day of week or other criteria. Data that is used to screen or filter incoming calls is programmed into a call manager by the IP telephone system user's broadband residential gateway. Using such a system the user can carefully screen calls that are paid for and more closely control telecommunications service costs. More generally, the user has the ability to store predefined call handling criteria, which may be executed by the broadband residential gateway and/or the call manager. |
| US08218525B2 |
Communication system
A communication system includes: a base station; and a mobile terminal for sequentially sending a plurality of data packets at a designated data transfer rate and information of velocity of the mobile terminal to the base station; the base station including: a receiver for receiving the data packet and the velocity information; a transmitter for transmitting a request to the mobile terminal to resend a data packet upon detection of an error in the data packet previously received; and a reply controller for setting number of requests to be repetitively sent in accordance with the velocity information and, after the number of requests have been sent, sending command to change the designated data transfer rate to the mobile terminal. |
| US08218524B2 |
Method for transmitting or receiving data unit using header field existence indicator
A method for transmitting and receiving data between a base station and a terminal in an E-UMTS (Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) or an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system is disclosed. A header overhead of data transmitted from a wireless end can be minimized by adding a header field existence indicator indicating presence or absence of a header in an upper data block to a data block of a lower layer, to thus effectively use radio resources. |
| US08218521B2 |
Signal generation device and signal generation method and program thereof in wireless transmission system
In a signal generation device in a wires transmission system, a calculation amount is greatly reduced compared with a convention FFT Pre-Processing method which performs oversampling, and peak power is reduced to substantially the same extent as in the convention method. A transmitter 100 includes a slope estimation unit 102 and a slope reference attenuation signal selection unit 103. The slope estimation unit 102 generates and outputs a slope estimation value indicating an inclination of a data signal waveform at a data signal point. The slope reference attenuation signal selection unit 103 estimates a data signal which may cause a peak after oversampling, based on an amplitude value of a data signal and a slope estimation value, and determines an attenuation amount for a selected data signal. The slope reference attenuation signal selection unit 103 generates information concerning a selection result and the determined attenuation amount, and outputs the information as a data attenuation coefficient. |
| US08218518B2 |
Interleaver interface for a software-defined radio system
A software-defined radio (SDR) system that operates under a plurality of wireless communication standards. The SDR system comprises a reconfigurable maximum aposteriori probability (MAP) decoder capable of being configured under software control to decode a received data block according to a select wireless communication standard and a reconfigurable interleaver associated with the reconfigurable MAP decoder. The reconfigurable interleaver comprises a reconfigurable interleaver core circuitry capable of being configured under software control to operate according to the selected wireless communication standard and a unified interleaver interface for coupling a defined set of control and bus signals from the reconfigurable MAP decoder to the reconfigurable interleaver core circuitry. |
| US08218512B2 |
Distribution of session keys to the selected multiple access points based on geo-location of APs
In the public WLAN systems, reliable user re-authentication for mobility support is an essential step. However, re-authentication during handoff procedures causes long handoff latency which deteriorates the quality of service specifically for real-time multimedia applications. One possible solution is to authenticate the Mobile Node (MN) in advance with all the neighboring Access Points (APs) and distribute the Session Keys to them. However, the key issue is how to optimally and efficiently select the neighboring APs. In the preferred embodiments, we propose a system that takes into account the user current “Geo-Location”, “Mobility Pattern” and “Application Running on MN”; estimates the “Expected Mobility Zone” (EMZ) and selects an appropriate set of candidate APs corresponding to the MN's geo-location. The EMZ may comprise of APs belonging to “Intra-domain”, “Inter-domain” or “Inter-technology Networks” (e.g., WLAN, WiMAX, and Cellular etc). The system assumes that not only the Mobile Nodes but also the Fixed Nodes (APs or Base Stations) are capable of knowing their Geo-Location Coordinates X, Y, Z. This capability may come either by integrating GPS receiver or through any other alternate, state of the art or future positioning technologies in the APs. |
| US08218510B2 |
Relay station and method of operating the same
A relay station and a method of operating a relay station are disclosed. The method includes decoding a received signal to restore the received signal into an information packet, and obtaining a first probability sequence representing probability information of respective information bits constituting the information packet, encoding the information packet to obtain a coded packet, and obtaining a second probability sequence representing probability information of respective coded bits constituting the coded packet by using the first probability sequence, and obtaining a modulated symbol by using the second probability sequence. |
| US08218509B2 |
Dynamic allocation of communication resources in a wireless system
A method of receiving information by a wireless communication device is provided. The method includes receiving a plurality of wireless subframes at a periodic interval, wherein an interval duration of the periodic interval is greater than a duration of each of the plurality of wireless subframes. The method further includes determining for each wireless subframe of the plurality whether the wireless subframe includes a grant resource that indicates that a resource unit pattern of a plurality of selectively assignable resource unit patterns of resource units of the subframe includes information for the communication device. A method of transmitting information by the wireless communication device is also provided. |
| US08218508B2 |
Random access channel preamble
One out of sixteen preamble signatures is selected. A code is produced based on the selected preamble signature. The produced code is phase rotated to produce a processed preamble signature signal. The processed preamble signature signal is used in processing the CDMA RACH signal and the CDMA RACH signal is used to access a CDMA system. |
| US08218503B2 |
Call setup procedure in an evolved third generation radio access network
A method and system for call setup in an evolved third generation (3G) radio access network are disclosed. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) sends its identity to a core network (CN) for call setup when the WTRU is in an RRC_disconnected state. The CN verifies the identity and sends an authentication vector to the WTRU. The WTRU sends a service access request message including an authentication response to the CN via a Node-B. The Node-B performs an admission control. The CN attaches the WTRU if the authentication response is same to an expected response. The Node-B then allocates radio resources to the WTRU. The Node-Bs may be directly connected, or may be connected to a control plane server which performs admission control. When the WTRU is transitioning from an RRC_idle state to an RRC_connected state, the WTRU may or may not need to re-authenticate again. |
| US08218491B2 |
Method of transmitting data in wireless communication system
A data transmission method includes receiving information about a plurality of shared control channels, selecting at least one of the plurality of shared control channels using a User Equipment (UE) identity, receiving a message indicating the use of a shared data channel through the selected shared control channel, and receiving data through the shared data channel according to the message. When receiving a RRC message, such as a RRC connection setup message, transmitted through a shared data channel, a user equipment can decide a shared control channel to be monitored. |
| US08218490B2 |
GGSN proxy for one tunnel solution
A method for roaming of a wireless mobile communication unit, a service support node and a proxy gateway support node for roaming between Public Land Mobile Networks, as well as a mobile communication infrastructure network arranged to handle roaming between different PLMN areas, where the support node is located in a current PLMN and arranged to send a context request to a first service support node in another PLMN for a user equipment, receive a context response from the first service support node, send a context acknowledgement to the first service support node, send an update location message to a home location register of the user equipment, receive a relocate PDP context response from the second proxy gateway support node and send a relocate PDP context request to a second proxy gateway support node in the current PLMN. |
| US08218489B2 |
Apparatus for scheduling transmission of data unit in base station
The present invention relates to a scheduling apparatus of a base station supporting Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) method. In particular, the present invention discloses scheduling a data unit transmitted to a mobile station from a base station providing ARQ method for correcting an error in wireless data communication and generating a high rate frame.According to the present invention, there is provided a transmission controlling apparatus comprising a receiver to receive mobile station status information from a mobile station connected with a base station, a schedule managing unit to determine transmission priority of a plurality of data units to be transmitted to the mobile station based on the received mobile station status information, and a transmitter to transmit the data units to the mobile station based on the determined transmission priority. |
| US08218488B2 |
Managing uplink resources in a cellular radio communications system
The technology in this application provides a method and apparatus for efficiently using common uplink radio resources, e.g. a common uplink enhanced-dedicated physical channel (E-DCH) resource. A UE releases a common E-DCH resource very quickly after a completed transmission. In addition or alternatively, a base station may release a common E-DCH resource configuration from the network side to free up common E-DCH resources for use by other UEs. A low overhead signaling scheme for quickly and effectively releasing of common E-DCH resources between a UE and a base station is also described. For example, existing signaling fields on protocol layer 2 (L2) or layer 1 (L1) may be used. In one preferred example embodiment, signaling fields already in use in a CELL_DCH service state are given a different meaning for UEs in a CELL_FACH service state so that common E-DCH resources are quickly and effectively released. |
| US08218486B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving packet in a mobile communication system
A method and apparatus are provided for receiving, by an access network (AN), reception strength of a forward pilot channel, measured and reported by each access terminal (AT), as forward data rate information, and transmitting packet data to each AT according to the forward data rate information. When the number of repeated transmission slots for packet data transmitted based on the forward data rate information is greater than or equal to two, the AN repeatedly transmits the packet data as many times as the number of slots, which is less than the number of repeated transmission slots, and transmits new packet data through the remaining slots. |
| US08218480B2 |
System and method for transmitting/receiving signal in communcation system
A system and method are disclosed for transmitting/receiving a signal in a communication system in which a first communication system and a second communication system coexist, the second communication system being evolved from the first communication system and being capable of using a control signal and a broadcast signal used in the first communication system. The method of transmitting a signal includes the steps of transmitting a first message including common control information and frame control information for the first communication system in a first frame, transmitting a second message including common control information and frame control information for the second communication system in a second frame, and signaling location information of the transmitted second message in the second frame. |
| US08218471B2 |
Apparatus, method and system for relaying calls
An apparatus connected to a communication terminal and for relaying a call between communication terminals. This apparatus includes a relay determiner, a priority determiner, and a relay controller. The relay determiner determines whether if a new call can be relayed based on the communication capacity, when there is a relaying request of a new call from a communication terminal or to a communication terminal. The priority determiner determines the priorities of a call that is being relayed and a new call based on the pre-configured policy. The relay controller may allow the relaying request of a new call by stopping the relaying of any existing call having a lower priority than the new call among the calls that are being relayed. |
| US08218470B2 |
Relay for detecting error in asynchronously received data and MAP information
A relay to transmit data received from a transmitter to a receiver includes a reception unit to receive a first data frame including first data and a second data frame including first MAP information transmitted from a transmitter, and a determination unit to determine whether the received first data and first MAP information correspond to each other, and to determine that the reception unit has failed to receive second MAP information corresponding to the first data and second data corresponding to the first MAP information when the received first data and the first MAP information do not correspond to each other. |
| US08218462B2 |
Mobile communication device receipt through second telecommunication network of call directed to registration in first telecommunication network
A network infrastructure device of an apparatus in one example comprises a first external interface and a second external interface. The network infrastructure device communicates with a first telecommunication network through the first external interface. The network infrastructure device communicates with a second telecommunication network through the second external interface. The network infrastructure device allows a mobile communication device that has a first registration in the first telecommunication network and a second registration in the second telecommunication network to receive, through the second telecommunication network, a call directed to the first registration. The first telecommunication network is unable to directly query the second telecommunication network for a status of the second registration. |
| US08218460B2 |
Network entity, method and computer program product for mixing signals during a conference session
A network entity, method and computer program product are provided for effectuating a conference session. The method may include receiving a plurality of signals representative of voice communication of the participants. In this regard, the signals may be received from a plurality of terminals of a respective plurality of participants at one of the locations, each of at least some of the terminals otherwise being configured for voice communication independent of at least some of the other terminals. The method of this aspect also includes classifying speech activity of the conference session according to a speech pause, or one or more actively-speaking participants, during the conference session. The signals of the respective participants may then be mixed into a at least one mixed signal for output to one or more other participants at one or more other locations, the signals being mixed based upon classification of the speech activity. |
| US08218458B2 |
Method and apparatus for voice conference monitoring
This method and apparatus is used to process call control protocol messages and quality of service media streams from an internet protocol conferencing session. The status and attributes processed from call control protocol messages are combined with the quality of service information for the parties connecting to a conferencing session for display to users in real-time. |
| US08218457B2 |
Apparatus and method for providing communication services using multiple signaling protocols
An apparatus includes a plurality of call controllers that are capable of establishing a plurality of communication sessions over a packet network using a plurality of signaling protocols. The apparatus also includes an application controller that is capable of supporting one or more supplementary services during each of the communication sessions. As particular examples, the application controller and at least one of the call controllers are capable of at least one of: placing at least one of the communication sessions on hold so a user may initiate another of the communication sessions, placing at least one of the communication sessions on hold so the user may accept another of the communication sessions, and establishing a conference using at least two of the communication sessions. The communication sessions may use a common signaling protocol or different signaling protocols. |
| US08218454B2 |
Methods and apparatus to implement scalable routing in network communication systems
Methods and apparatus to implement scalable routing in network communication systems are disclosed. A disclosed example method involves selecting a plurality of virtual private networks in a communication network and selecting a candidate hub router from a plurality of routers in the communication network. The example method also involves determining a plurality of least memory utilization costs associated with assigning different quantities of spoke routers to the candidate hub router. Each of the least memory utilization costs and corresponding quantity of spoke routers is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of virtual private networks. For each of the least memory utilization costs, a bandwidth usage of a corresponding one of the quantities of spoke routers is identified. The candidate hub router is selected to operate as a hub router for one of the quantities of spoke routers associated with a corresponding one of the bandwidth usages that does not exceed a bandwidth capacity of the candidate hub router. |
| US08218453B2 |
Network router and method of configuring a network router
Disclosed is a method of configuring routing information in a network router linked into a network. The network router has a forwarding table. The method comprises removing the forwarding table entries which are not used. A network router configured in accordance with the method has a forwarding table comprising only forwarding table entries that are used. |
| US08218452B2 |
Network detection of real-time applications using incremental linear regression
Method and apparatus using incremental linear regression to derive a traffic flow signature indicative of a particular application within a packet stream. |
| US08218445B2 |
Smart ethernet edge networking system
A system is provided for selecting connection paths in a telecommunications network having a multiplicity of nodes interconnected by a multiplicity of links. The system identifies multiple constraints for connection paths through the network between source and destination nodes, and identifies paths that satisfy all of the constraints for a connection path between a selected source node and a selected destination node. A system is also provided for optimizing utilization of the resources of such a telecommunications network by establishing connection paths through the network between selected source and destination nodes, the established connection paths satisfying the constraints; for each established connection path, determining whether other connection paths exist between the selected source and destination nodes, and that satisfy the constraints; and if at least one such other connection path exists, determining whether any such other connection path is more efficient than the established connection path and, if the answer is affirmative, switching the connection from the established connection path to the most efficient other connection path. |
| US08218444B2 |
System and method for data transfer in a peer-to-peer hybrid communication network
An improved system and method are disclosed for peer-to-peer communications. In one example, the method enables an endpoint to transfer data directly to another endpoint. |
| US08218437B2 |
Shared shaping of network traffic
A method for sharing an aggregate bandwidth among a group of traffic classes may include allocating a portion of the aggregate bandwidth to one of the group of traffic classes having a first priority associated therewith, where the allocated portion is referred to as a first bandwidth. The method may include allocating an unused portion of the aggregate bandwidth to a second one of the group of traffic classes having a second priority associated therewith in conjunction with a parameter associated with a downstream device. |
| US08218435B2 |
Resource identifier based access control in an enterprise network
An entry in an authentication database of an enterprise network is activated responsive to generation of an alarm by a corresponding product that is part of a set of internal resources of the enterprise network. A dynamic URL or other resource identifier based on the activated entry is supplied to an external service provider associated with the product. The external service provider is granted access to the product responsive to submission of the resource identifier by the service provider. |
| US08218427B2 |
Preamble configuring method in the wireless LAN system, and a method for a frame synchronization
A method of configuring a preamble of a downlink frame for synchronization in data frame transmission of a 60 GHz a wireless local area network system, the method comprising arranging a short preamble having a plurality of repetitive S symbols, and an IS symbol, and arranging a long preamble having a long cyclic prefix (CP) and a plurality of L symbols for frame synchronization and symbol timing by performing auto-correlation according to the length of window of the auto-correlation. |
| US08218418B2 |
Optical information medium measurement method, optical information medium, recording apparatus, and reproducing apparatus
An optical information medium measurement method, for measuring a degree of modulation in an optical information medium of a multilayered structure having a plurality of information layers, includes a first step of measuring a modulation degree of each layer of the optical information medium, and a second step of obtaining a thickness between layers of the optical information medium. Further, the method includes a third step of obtaining a reflectance of each layer of the optical information medium, and a fourth step of converting the modulation degree of each layer, as measured in the first step, into a modulation degree at a reference optical system differing from the measurement optical system, based on a value indicative of the thickness between layers, the thickness being obtained in the second step, and a value indicative of the reflectance of each layer, as obtained in the third step. |
| US08218411B2 |
Compact disc player and method for controlling ejection of a compact disc from the compact disc player
A compact disc player and a method and an article of manufacture for controlling ejection of a compact disc are provided. The compact disc player includes a temperature sensor configured to generate a signal indicative of a temperature of the compact disc player utilizing a temperature sensor. The compact disc player further includes a controller operably communicating with the temperature sensor. The controller is configured to determine an ejection time interval value based on the signal. The controller is further configured to energize a motor coupled to a drive mechanism for a time internal corresponding to the ejection time interval value to induce the drive mechanism to move a compact disc to a predetermined position outwardly from a housing. |
| US08218410B2 |
Method for managing defect of optical disc
Disclosed is a method for managing a defect of an optical disc. In the method, when a host requests data of an optical disc inserted into an optical disc drive (ODD) included in a device to be integrated with a solid state drive (SSD), an address of the requested data is compared with contents contained in defect management information managed within the SSD, and the requested data is read from the optical disc or from the defect management information according to a result of the comparing. The defect management information may include optical disc identification information, address information, defect type information and data of a corresponding address. When the optical disc is inserted into the ODD, defect management information regarding the optical disc may be generated and stored in the SSD. Accordingly, Read Delay or Read Fail, resulting from a defect of the optical disc, can be obviated. |
| US08218407B2 |
DVD replay device with incorporated hard disk
This DVD replay device with incorporated hard disk includes a DVD drive which reads data from a DVD, and a HDD which performs recording of data upon, and reading of data from, a HD which has a first storage region and a second storage region. Furthermore, this DVD replay device with incorporated hard disk includes a control means which, when dubbing of data is commanded, decides whether or not the data upon the DVD is recorded in the DVD-VIDEO format, and a selection means which receives a selection as to whether the speed of the dubbing should be a first speed or a second speed. And, if the data upon the DVD is recorded in the DVD-VIDEO format, if the second speed has been selected, the HDD records the data recorded upon the DVD into the first storage region of the HD just as it is in the DVD-VIDEO format. |
| US08218405B2 |
Head slider and disk drive
Embodiments of the present invention provide a technique for projecting both a write element portion in writing and a read element portion in reading, and controlling a projecting distance of each write element and read element. According to one embodiment, a light absorbing member and a thermally expanding member are formed near a read element, and light is irradiated to the light absorbing member, thereby a read element is projected. Alternatively, light absorbing members, which absorb light having different wavelengths from each other, and thermally expanding members are formed near a write element and near the read element respectively, and a wavelength or intensity of light to be irradiated is changed, thereby a projecting distance of each of the write element and the read element is individually optionally controlled. |
| US08218404B2 |
Apparatus and method for recording content information which satisfies a predetermined standard
A recording apparatus including: a receiving portion for receiving a content data sent using radio wave; a recording portion for recording the content data received by the receiving portion in a storage medium; a determining portion for determining whether or not a receiving status of the content data by the receiving portion satisfies a predetermined standard; and a control portion for when the determining portion determines that the standard is not satisfied, controlling the recording portion to stop recording of the content data to the storage medium. |
| US08218402B2 |
Multi device programmable cooking timer and method of use
A programable timer that simultaneously operates cooking stages made of a modulated power level and time interval to multiple cooking devices. The timer may be operated in a manual or automatic mode. The automatic mode cycles through a set of cooking stages set by a recipe stored in memory. When in the automatic mode, the timer may be put into override and the recipe's cooking stages adjusted to conform with the chef's desires. Pre generated recipes may be input from media transfer devices or programmed into the timer via an input interface device. An algorithm stored in memory adjusts the cooking stages of the various devices such that all foods are finished cooking at the same time if desired. |
| US08218401B2 |
Reminder device
A single use reminder device (100) has a tamperproof housing which contains a counter circuit and a power supply. The device includes a status indicator (106) for indicating when a date or time period has elapsed. The device also includes a button (104) can be depressed so as to activate the status indicator (106). A traffic light LED system is operated, whereby a red signal is shown by the status indicator (106) if the date or time has elapsed, and whereby an amber signal is shown if the elapse date or time is imminent. A similar device comprises a laminated card structure having a portion, which can be pressed to provide status information via an LCD. |
| US08218398B2 |
Omni-directional radiator for multi-transducer array
An omni-directional acoustic horn for applications in a liquid transmission medium deploys a plurality of transducers distributed along an interior face of the horn to radiate against an opposed surface. The arrangement mimics operation at a greater depth of submergence to depress development of acoustic cavitation bubbles. |
| US08218396B2 |
Torsional ultrasonic wave based level measurement system
A level measurement system suitable for use in a high temperature and pressure environment to measure the level of coolant fluid within the environment, the system including a volume of coolant fluid located in a coolant region of the high temperature and pressure environment and having a level therein; an ultrasonic waveguide blade that is positioned within the desired coolant region of the high temperature and pressure environment; a magnetostrictive electrical assembly located within the high temperature and pressure environment and configured to operate in the environment and cooperate with the waveguide blade to launch and receive ultrasonic waves; and an external signal processing system located outside of the high temperature and pressure environment and configured for communicating with the electrical assembly located within the high temperature and pressure environment. |
| US08218395B2 |
Moving object detecting apparatus
A moving object detecting apparatus includes: a transmitting/receiving unit for radiating an ultrasonic wave and receiving a reflective wave reflected from an object present in a monitoring space; a phase detection circuit for mixing reference signals with a reflective signal and obtaining a pair of Doppler signals each having an amplitude depending on a phase difference from the reference signal, each of the Doppler signals having a different phase from each other; a rotation angle calculation unit for calculating a rotation angle; a cumulative addition unit for accumulating the rotation angle; and a comparison unit for comparing the accumulated rotation angle with a threshold value. In the moving object detecting apparatus, a single ultrasonic vibrator is commonly used in the transmitting unit and the receiving unit. |
| US08218394B2 |
Method for imaging the earths subsurface using passive seismic interferometry and adaptive velocity filtering
A method of imaging the Earth's subsurface using passive seismic interferometry tomography includes detecting seismic signals from within the Earth's subsurface over a time period using an array of seismic sensors, the seismic signals being generated by seismic events within the Earth's subsurface. The method further includes adaptively velocity filtering the detected signals. The method further includes cross-correlating the velocity filtered seismic signals to obtain a reflectivity series at a position of each of the seismic sensors. |
| US08218391B2 |
Power control of an integrated circuit memory
An integrated circuit memory 10, 12 has clock control circuitry 36 responsive to a clock signal CLK and a chip enable signal CEN to generate control signals for controlling the integrated circuit memory 10 in response to the clock signal CLK when the chip enable signal CEN indicates that the integrated circuit memory 10, 12 is active. When the chip enable signal CEN indicates that the integrated circuit memory 10, 12 is disabled, then power control circuitry 38 serve to switch portions of the integrated circuit memory 10, 12, such as word line driver circuitry 24, sense amplifiers 22 and buffer circuitry 30, into a low power state from an operating state. When the chip enable signal CEN activates the integrated circuit memory 10, 12, the power control circuitry 38 switches these portions 24, 22, 30 which are in the low power state back to the operating state. |
| US08218389B2 |
Semiconductor storage device and control method of the same
A semiconductor storage device includes a timing allocation unit that sets refresh timing to preferentially perform a refresh operation for maintaining data and data access timing to preferentially perform a data access operation for reading or writing the data in accordance with a clock signal with respect to each memory bank including a plurality of memory cells, and a waiting unit that waits start of the data access operation until the data access timing is started in a case where a request for the data access operation is made during the refresh timing and waits start of the refresh operation until the refresh timing is started in a case where a request for the refresh operation is made during the data access timing. |
| US08218386B2 |
Embedded memory databus architecture
A dynamic random access memory (DRAM) having pairs of bitlines, each pair being connected to a first bit line sense amplifier, wordlines crossing the bitlines pairs forming an array, charge storage cells connected to the bitlines, each having an enable input connected to a wordline, the bit line sense amplifiers being connected in a two dimensional array, pairs of primary databuses being connected through first access transistors to plural corresponding bit line sense amplifiers in each row of the array, apparatus for enabling columns of the first access transistors, databus sense amplifiers each connected to a corresponding data bus pair, a secondary databus, the secondary databus being connected through second access transistors to the databus sense amplifiers, and apparatus for enabling the second access transistors, whereby each the primary databus pair may be shared by plural sense amplifiers in a corresponding row of the array and the secondary databus may be shared by plural primary databus pairs. |
| US08218385B2 |
Current mode data sensing and propagation using voltage amplifier
A method and a circuit for current mode data sensing and propagation by using voltage amplifier are provided. Example embodiments may include providing an output signal from a voltage amplifier in response to the voltage amplifier receiving an input signal. The method may include providing a current output signal from a voltage-to-current converter in response to the voltage-to-current converter receiving the output signal. The output signal may be used to drive a current sense amplifier. |
| US08218384B2 |
Sense amplifier for controlling flip error and driving method thereof
A sense amplifier and a driving method is described for resolving a flip failure occurrence where the voltage applied across the bit line is within an acceptable threshold range when the data is delivered to the data bus. The driving method includes disconnecting a bit line from a sense amplifying circuit according to a bit line select control signal after performing a read operation according to a read request. Then, connecting the sense amplifying circuit to a data bus according to a column select control signal after the bit line is disconnected from the sense amplifying circuit and deactivating an output terminal of the sense amplifier circuit that is disconnected from the bit line and connected to the data bus during a restore section synchronized to a command following the read command. Finally, delivering the data on the bit line to the output terminal of the sense amplifying circuit to update the output terminal of the sense amplifying circuit by connecting the sense amplifying circuit to the bit line according to the bit line select control signal. |
| US08218383B1 |
Memory repair system and method
Systems and methods for operating an integrated circuit. The method includes: storing data in one or more of a plurality of locations in a memory module, wherein each location in the memory module has a corresponding memory address; storing a memory address of each location in the memory module detected to be defective in a memory repair module; detecting one or more locations in the memory module that are defective, locating one or more redundant memory elements in the memory module, and storing information in the memory repair database, the information associating the memory address of each location in the memory detected to be defective with the redundant memory elements; and physically remapping the memory addresses to a corresponding redundant memory element. |
| US08218381B2 |
Programming memory with sensing-based bit line compensation to reduce channel-to-floating gate coupling
During programming of storage elements, channel-to-floating gate coupling effects are compensated to avoid increased programming speed and threshold voltage distribution widening. In connection with a programming iteration, unselected bit lines voltages are stepped up to induce coupling to selected bit lines, and the amount of coupling which is experienced by the selected bit lines is sensed. When a program pulse is applied, voltages of the selected bit lines are set based on the amount of coupling. The bit line voltage is set higher when more coupling is sensed. The amount of coupling experience by a given selected bit line is a function of its proximity to unselected bit lines. One or more coupling thresholds can be used to indicate that a given selected bit line has one or two adjacent unselected bit lines, respectively. |
| US08218378B2 |
Word-line level shift circuit
A dual word-line level shifter circuit and associated SRAM. A circuit is disclosed that includes a first transistor gated by a data input at the lower voltage, and a second transistor gated by a restore input at the higher voltage, wherein the first and second transistors are coupled along a series path to a source at the higher voltage; a control node along the series path; an output node coupled to the control node via a first pair of parallel transistors; and a feedback circuit having a second pair of parallel transistors and a feedback transistor, wherein the feedback transistor couples the second pair of parallel transistors to the control node and is gated by the output node. |
| US08218375B2 |
Oscillation circuits having temperature-dependent frequency generation and semiconductor memory devices having temperature-dependent self refresh rate
An oscillation circuit includes an internal voltage generator and an oscillator. The internal voltage generator receives an external voltage and generates an internal voltage based on the external voltage. The internal voltage varies in linearly with an operational temperature. The oscillator generates a variable oscillation signal based on the internal voltage. A period of the variable oscillation signal varies in linearly with the operational temperature. |
| US08218370B2 |
Memory array of floating gate-based non-volatile memory cells
A memory array comprises a plurality of memory cells organized in a matrix of rows and columns. Each of the memory cells includes a high voltage access transistor, a floating gate memory transistor electrically connected to the access transistor, and a coupling capacitor electrically connected to the memory transistor. A first set of word lines are each electrically connected to the capacitor in each of the memory cells in a respective row. A second set of word lines are each electrically connected to the access transistor in each of the memory cells in a respective row. A first set of bit lines are each electrically connected to the access transistor in each of the memory cells in a respective column. A second set of bit lines are each electrically connected to the memory transistor in each of the memory cells in a respective column. Various combinations of voltages can be applied to the word lines and bit lines in operations to program, erase, read, or inhibit a logic state stored by the memory transistor in one or more of the memory cells. |
| US08218366B2 |
Programming non-volatile storage including reducing impact from other memory cells
A system for programming non-volatile storage is proposed that reduces the impact of interference from the boosting of neighbors. Memory cells are divided into two or more groups. In one example, the memory cells are divided into odd and even memory cells; however, other groupings can also be used. Prior to a first trigger, a first group of memory cells are programmed together with a second group of memory cells using a programming signal that increases over time. Subsequent to the first trigger and prior to a second trigger, the first group of memory cells are programmed separately from the second group of memory cells using a programming signal that has been lowered in magnitude in response to the first trigger. Subsequent to the second trigger, the first group of memory cells are programmed together with the second group of memory cells with the programming signal being raised in response to the second trigger. Before and after both triggers, the first group of memory cells are verified together with the second group of memory cells. |
| US08218364B2 |
Operation methods for memory cell and array for reducing punch through leakage
An integrated circuit includes a memory array having a plurality of memory cells arranged in rows and columns, each memory cell including two doped regions and a channel region therebetween, each pair of adjacent memory cells sharing a common doped region, each memory cell having a charge storage member over the channel region and a control gate over the charge storage member. A first word line is coupled to the memory cells in the same row, each of the memory cells designated as the Nth memory cell. Each of a plurality of bit lines is designated as the Nth bit line, the Nth bit line coupled to a doped region shared by the Nth memory cell and the (N−1)th memory cell. The integrated circuit also has a plurality of global bit lines, each of which coupled to two of the bit lines via a switch. |
| US08218362B2 |
Magnetic random access memory devices, methods of driving the same and data writing and reading methods for the same
A magnetic memory device includes a lower structure or an antiferromagnetic layer, a pinned layer, an information storage layer, and a free layer formed on the lower structure or the antiferromagnetic layer. In a method of operating a magnetic memory device, information from the storage information layer is read or stored after setting the magnetization of the free layer in a first magnetization direction. The information is stored when the first magnetization direction is opposite to a magnetization direction of the pinned layer, but is read when the first magnetization direction is the same as the magnetization direction of the pinned layer. |
| US08218357B2 |
Spin torque transfer cell structure utilizing field-induced antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic coupling
A magnetic memory cell including a soft magnetic layer and a coupling layer, and methods of operating the memory cell are provided. The memory cell includes a stack with a free ferromagnetic layer and a pinned ferromagnetic layer, and a soft magnetic layer and a coupling layer may also be formed as layers in the stack. The coupling layer may cause antiferromagnetic coupling to induce the free ferromagnetic layer to be magnetized in a direction antiparallel to the magnetization of the soft magnetic layer, or the coupling layer may cause ferromagnetic coupling to induce the free ferromagnetic layer to be magnetized in a direction parallel to the magnetization of the soft magnetic layer. The coupling layer, through a coupling effect, reduces the critical switching current of the memory cell. |
| US08218355B2 |
Magnetoresistive element and magnetic memory
A magnetoresistive element includes an underlying layer having a cubic or tetragonal crystal structure oriented in a (001) plane, a first magnetic layer provided on the underlying layer, having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and having an fct structure oriented in a (001) plane, a non-magnetic layer provided on the first magnetic layer, and a second magnetic layer provided on the non-magnetic layer, and having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. An in-plane lattice constant a1 of the underlying layer and an in-plane lattice constant a2 of the first magnetic layer satisfy the following equation in which b is a magnitude of Burgers vector of the first magnetic layer, ν is an elastic modulus of the first magnetic layer, and hc is a thickness of the first magnetic layer. |√{square root over (2)}×a1/2−a2|/a2 |
| US08218353B1 |
Memory element circuitry with stressed transistors
Integrated circuits with memory elements are provided. The memory elements may be arranged in a memory block. The memory block may include cross-coupled inverters that store data. The stored data may be used to program pass transistors. Transistors in the memory block may be stressed. Depending on the type of stress-inducing layer used, a tensile stress or a compressive stress may be built in into the transistors. Stressed transistors may help improve the routing speed of the memory block. Stressed transistors may be implemented using dual gate-oxide process. |
| US08218352B2 |
Semiconductor device including memory having nodes connected with continuous diffusion layer but isolated from each other by transistor
A semiconductor device includes a memory cell which includes a first inverter and a second inverter, the first inverter includes a first drive transistor and a first load transistor, the second inverter includes a second drive transistor and a second load transistor, and an input terminal and an output terminal thereof, respectively, connected to an input terminal and an output terminal of the first inverter, a first transmission transistor provided between the output terminal of the first inverter and a line of a first bit line pair, a second transmission transistor provided between the output terminal of the second inverter and another line of the first bit line pair, a third transmission transistor provided between the output terminal of the first inverter and a line of a second bit line pair, a fourth transmission transistor provided between the output terminal of the second inverter and another line of the second bit line pair, and a first isolation transistor which isolates the second drive transistor and the first transmission transistor. A first active region in which the first transmission transistor, the second transmission transistor, the second drive transistor, and the first isolation transistor are formed, is formed in a continuous region. The first isolation transistor is provided between the second drive transistor and the first transmission transistor. |
| US08218351B2 |
Non-volatile electrochemical memory device
A non-volatile electrochemical memory cell formed of a stack of thin films comprising at least one first active layer, suited to releasing and accepting, in a reversible manner, at least one ion species, at least one second active layer, suited to releasing and accepting said ion species, in a reversible manner, the active layers being based on materials having different compositions and electrochemical potential profiles. |
| US08218348B2 |
Memory devices having strings of series-coupled memory cells selectively coupled to different bit lines
Memory devices where ends of series-coupled strings of memory cells are selectively coupled to different bit lines may facilitate increased memory densities, reduced fabrication steps and faster read operations when compared to traditional NAND memory array architectures. Programming and erasing of the memory cells can be accomplished in the same manner as a traditional NAND memory array. However, reading of the memory cells may be accomplished using charge sharing techniques similar to read operations in a DRAM device or by using one bit line as a ground node for sensing current flow through the strings. The use of bit lines for virtual grounding is further suitable to other array architectures. |
| US08218344B2 |
Bidirectional inverter for conversion between a direct current source and an alternating current grid
A bidirectional inverter is disclosed, the inverter including DC terminals and being connectable to a grid via grid AC terminals. The inverter includes a first subinverter and a second subinverter, both subinverters being connected in parallel to the DC terminals, and being connected in parallel to the grid AC terminals by subinverter AC terminals. Each subinverter includes a full bridge and a switchable freewheel path, both being configured to drive current between the grid AC terminals in a driving direction, and configured to block a current between the grid AC terminals in a blocking direction opposite the driving direction. The driving direction of the first subinverter is the blocking direction of the second subinverter. |
| US08218341B2 |
Integrated aircraft power conditioning unit
An integrated power conditioning unit includes a DC bus, a first terminal for connection to first AC equipment, a second terminal for connection to second AC equipment, a first inverter circuit providing bi-directional AC-DC conversion between a first AC power signal and a first DC power signal, and a converter assembly providing bi-directional AC-DC conversion between a second AC power signal and a second DC power signal. A control module controls the first inverter circuit such that the first DC power signal may flow from/to the DC bus and the first AC power signal may flow from/to the first terminal. The control module also controls the converter assembly such that the second AC signal power signal may flow from/to the second terminal and the second DC power signal may flow from/to the DC bus. |
| US08218340B2 |
Switching power supply apparatus and primary side control circuit
A synchronous rectification type DC-DC converter equipped with a burst mode prevents backward flows of currents on the secondary side thereof. The DC-DC converter turns off a control signal of a switching element on the primary side when the load thereof becomes light, and includes a voltage converting transformer, a first switching element connected to the primary side coil of the transformer, a primary side control circuit performing on-off control of the first switching element, a synchronously rectifying second switching element connected to the secondary side coil, and a secondary side control circuit performing on-off control of the second switching element. A pulse width ensuring circuit ensures that the pulse width of the control signal performing on-off control of the first switching element does not become equal to or less than the original width of a PWM pulse when entering the burst mode and when exiting the burst mode. |
| US08218336B2 |
Electrical module
The present invention relates to an electrical module for a system processing motor vehicle aerial signals, comprising a housing in which an electrical circuit is arranged and plug-in connectors that are provided on the housing and are connected to the circuit, wherein the module comprises on an end a spring strap for engaging in an opening of a carrier part of a vehicle and on an opposite end a fastening device with spreading elements. |
| US08218335B2 |
Spider clip for securing a circuit board within a communications module
A clip for securing a component, such as a circuit board, within a communications module is disclosed. The clip may include a flat base with legs extending therefrom and resilient springs disposed at terminal ends of each of the legs. The legs may be configured to frictionally secure the clip to the module. For instance, the legs may secure the clip to a top shell portion of the module. The springs may be configured to resiliently compress against corresponding contact zones on the circuit board when the top shell is mated with a bottom shell of the module such that the circuit board is secured in place within the module. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention enable the quick and simple assembly of modules without the need for fasteners and other time-consuming and/or labor-intensive solutions conventionally implemented to secure circuit boards and other components within the modules. |
| US08218332B2 |
Placement method of an electronic module on a substrate and device produced by said method
The aim the disclosed process is to ensure maximum precision both at the level of the manufacturing of an electronic assembly from a chip with small dimensions as well as the level of the placement of such an assembly on an insulating substrate. This aim is achieved by a placement process on a support, called substrate, of at least one electronic assembly consisting of a chip including at least one electric contact on one of its faces, said contact being connected to a segment of conductive track, and said placement being carried out by means of a placement device holding and positioning said assembly on the substrate, comprising the following steps: formation of a segment of conductive track having a predetermined outline, transfer of the track segment onto the placement device, seizing of the chip with the placement device carrying the track segment in such a way that said track segment is placed on at least one contact of the chip. placement of the electronic assembly consisting of the chip and the track segment at a predetermined position on the substrate, embedding of the chip and of the track segment into the substrate. A placement device used in the process and a portable object including an electronic assembly placed according to the process are also objects of the present invention. |
| US08218331B2 |
Electronic component module
In a DC-DC converter module, a first through-hole conductor provided in a substrate as a first lead for electrically connecting a terminal as a voltage output terminal of an IC and a first terminal of an inductor component to each other and a second through-hole conductor provided in the substrate as a second lead for electrically connecting a terminal as a switching terminal of the IC and a second terminal of the inductor component to each other oppose each other in a direction intersecting a direction in which the first and second terminals oppose each other in the inductor component (i.e., the longitudinal direction of the substrate and inductor component). |
| US08218328B2 |
Semiconductor device
To provide a technique that can improve the reliability of coupling between a package with a PA module and a mounting board in mounting the package over the mounting board. The width of a back conductor pattern is made smaller than the width of each of back terminals. Specifically, for example, the back terminals are arranged in the X direction. The back terminals arranged in parallel to the X direction are coupled together by the back conductor pattern. At this time, the coupling direction (coupling line direction) of the back conductor pattern is the X direction. Taking into consideration the Y direction orthogonal to (intersecting) the X direction, the width of the back conductor pattern in the Y direction is made smaller than the width of each of the back terminals in the Y direction. |
| US08218325B2 |
Chassis base and plasma display apparatus having the same
A plasma display apparatus includes a plasma display panel (PDP), a chassis base secured on a first side to the PDP and having a driving circuit board mounted on a second side, a tower-shaped fixing unit that protrudes above the second side of the chassis base, and a back cover secured to a tower unit of the tower-shaped fixing unit to cover the driving circuit board. |
| US08218324B2 |
Module for housing electronic components and method of manufacturing the same
A module includes an outer housing comprising an additive. A first holder is disposed so as to be in integral relationship the outer housing. A second holder is disposed so as to be in integral relationship with the outer housing. A first circuit board is in removable engagement with first holder and the first circuit board adapted to being held in place by the holder without the use of a fastener. A second circuit board is in removable engagement with the second holder, the second circuit board adapted to being held in place by the holder without the use of a fastener. At least one electrical trace element is disposed so as to be in integral relationship with the outer housing. A conductive portion of the trace element provides a first electrical pathway between the first circuit board and the second circuit board. The insulator material and the additive act to provide electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) shielding for electrical components disposed within the outer housing. |
| US08218320B2 |
Heat sinks with C-shaped manifolds and millichannel cooling
A heat sink for cooling at least one electronic device package includes a lower lid, an upper lid, and a body formed of at least one thermally conductive material. The body is disposed between and sealed to the lower and upper lids and defines a tapered inlet distribution chamber configured to receive a coolant, C-shaped inlet manifolds configured to receive the coolant from the tapered inlet distribution chamber, inverted C-shaped outlet manifolds configured to exhaust the coolant. The inlet and outlet manifolds are interleaved and disposed in a circular arrangement. The outlet manifolds extend around only a portion of the body and terminate adjacent to opposing sides of the inlet chamber. The body further defines a tapered outlet chamber configured to receive the coolant from the outlet manifolds, where the inlet manifolds extend around only a portion of the body and terminate adjacent to opposing sides of the tapered outlet chamber. Millichannels are formed in the body or are formed in at least one of the lids and are configured to receive the coolant from the inlet manifolds and to deliver the coolant to the outlet manifolds. The millichannels are disposed in a radial arrangement, and the millichannels and the inlet and outlet manifolds are further configured to cool one of the upper and lower contact surfaces of the electronic device package. A lidless heat sink is also provided. |
| US08218315B2 |
Mounting apparatus for storage device
A mounting apparatus for fixing a storage device to a chassis defining an opening includes two opposite fixing arms for supporting the storage device, a main body connecting the fixing arms, a latching member pivotably received in the main body, and an operating member slidably coupled to the main body. When the mounting apparatus is received in the chassis through the opening, and the operating member is pushed to drive the latching member to rotate, the latching portion protrudes outwardly from the main body and engages with an inside surface adjoining the opening of the chassis. |
| US08218313B2 |
Electronic device housing having a movable foot pad mechanism
An electronic device housing includes a housing body, a movable foot pad mechanism disposed in housing body, a ventilation grille, a fan, and a fan switch connected electrically to the fan. The movable foot pad mechanism includes a foot pad pivoted to a bottom wall of the housing body. The foot pad is turnable pivotally to prop up the housing body so as to increase a space below a bottom of housing body. When the foot pad is being turned pivotally to prop up the housing body, the ventilation grille is moved simultaneously so as to make the space inside the housing body open to the ambient environment, and the fan is activated for heat dissipation, thereby increasing the heat dissipation efficiency of the electronic device housing. |
| US08218312B2 |
Electronic apparatus
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a printed circuit board, a heat pipe, a fan unit and a fixing unit. The heat pipe has a first end physically fixed to and thermally connected to a first circuit component, and a second end opposite to the first end. The fan unit is provided in the vicinity of the second end of the heat pipe, and cools the second end. The fixing unit fixes the position of the heat pipe at a position different from the position of the first circuit component. |
| US08218308B2 |
Fastening mechanism for fastening an interface card and related computer device
A fastening mechanism includes a main body passing through an opening on a casing rotatably, and a fastening part connected to the main body. A slot is formed on the fastening part for fastening a board of an interface card when the main body rotates to a fastening position relative to the casing. The fastening mechanism further includes a fixing part connected to the main body for engaging with the casing when the main body rotates to the fastening position relative to the casing so as to fix the fastening part and the interface card, and an elastic cantilever connected to the fixing part for providing elastic force to the fixing part so as to engage the fixing part with the casing and for driving the fixing part so as to release engagement between the fixing part and the casing when being pressed downward. |
| US08218300B2 |
Electronic apparatus
A center section of the upper edge of the rotation member which is rotatable with friction with respect to a first housing in an arrow direction A-A by using, as a rotation shaft, a first shaft which forms a rotation shaft in parallel with a rear edge of the first housing, and a center section of a lower edge of a second housing which is openable and closable with respect to the first housing in the arrow direction A-A and which is rotatable in an arrow direction B-B in an opened state, are connected to each other rotatably in the arrow direction B-B a the second shaft which is perpendicular to the first shaft, and which, when the second housing is in a vertically opened state, is inclined at 45° in a direction in which the second shaft is tilted forward. |
| US08218294B2 |
Removable switchboard transformer
A removable transformer system is described. The system comprises a switchboard structure, a removable transformer moveable into and out of the switchboard structure, and a transformer mounting and supporting assembly for supporting the removable transformer. During operation of the system, the removable transformer is horizontally displaceable along the supporting. |
| US08218290B2 |
Solid electrolytic capacitor
Provided is a solid electrolytic capacitor with low ESR (equivalent series resistance) and excellent reliability during high-temperature storage. The solid electrolytic capacitor includes an anode formed of a valve metal, a dielectric film provided on the anode, a conducting polymer layer provided on the dielectric layer, and a cathode extraction layer provided on the conducting polymer layer. The conducting polymer layer contains a metal-based conductive filler in at least one of a flake form and a fiber form. |
| US08218287B2 |
Thin-film device
A thin-film device comprises a base electrode made of a metal, a first dielectric layer, a first inner electrode, a second dielectric layer, a second inner electrode, and a third dielectric layer. Letting T1 be the thickness of the lowermost first dielectric layer in contact with the base electrode in the plurality of dielectric layers, and Tmin be the thickness of the thinnest dielectric layer in the plurality of dielectric layers excluding the first dielectric layer, T1>Tmin. Making the first dielectric layer thicker than the thinnest, dielectric layer in the other dielectric layers can increase the distance between a metal part projecting from a metal surface because of the surface roughness of the base electrode and the inner electrode mounted on the lowermost dielectric layer, thereby reducing leakage currents. |
| US08218284B2 |
Apparatus for increasing electric conductivity to a semiconductor wafer substrate when exposure to electron beam
An apparatus for increasing electric conductivity to a wafer substrate when exposures to electron beam irradiation is disclosed. More specifically, a more free mechanical contact between a wafer and electric contact pins (within an electrostatic chuck) is provided to significantly reduce the scratch and damage on the wafer backside. |
| US08218282B2 |
Portable electronic device and method for using the same
A portable electronic device includes an audio file playing unit and a surge protector device connected to the audio file playing unit. The surge protector device includes a protector module connected to an audio file playing unit and a processor module connected to the protector module and the audio file playing unit. The processor module detects electric surges in the audio file playing unit and controls the protector module to filter the detected electric surges when the audio file playing unit plays audio files. |
| US08218281B2 |
Control circuit for controlling a semiconductor switch system
A power distribution system and method has a controller and at least one semiconductor switch. The power distribution system additionally has an on status detector which detects the status of the semiconductor switches, and an overcurrent status circuit which checks for overcurrent conditions. |
| US08218280B2 |
Secondary thermal sensor for primary conductors
A thermal sensing system for providing thermal protection to an electronic circuit breaker that does not require any additional components. The layout of the conductive traces on the printed circuit board are dimensioned and configured so that the ratio of primary current to primary conductor thermal mass heating is correlated with the ratio of secondary current to secondary thermal mass heating. A voltage at a semiconductor junction in the rectifier behind the secondary transformer is measured, and a temperature or heat is calculated based on the voltage. Because this temperature or heat calculation is correlated with the temperature or heat of the primary conductor, a trip routine can be added based on the measured voltage for thermal protection of the primary conductors. A thermal history of the ‘primary thermal mass’ is also provided for robust thermal protection of the circuit breaker load and primary conductors. |
| US08218279B2 |
Electronic device and method for dynamic USB power assignment
An electronic device assigns power to USB ports dynamically. A total current detection circuit transmits driving voltage signals to the USB ports, and detects whether a total current provided to the USB ports exceeds a rated total current and output a total current detection signal. A plurality of short-circuit detection circuits detects whether USB devices connected to the corresponding USB ports are shorted and to output a short-circuit detection signal. A plurality of relay circuits switch connection between the USB ports and the power circuit. A USB controller outputs a control signal according to the total current detection signal and the short-circuit detection signal and directs the relay circuits to switch connection between the corresponding USB ports and the power circuit on and off. |
| US08218277B2 |
Shared electrostatic discharge protection for integrated circuit output drivers
A system for protecting metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) output drivers within an integrated circuit (IC) from an electrostatic discharge (ESD) includes a first MOSFET output driver and a second MOSFET output driver positioned within a common IC diffusion material. The system includes a contact ring coupled to the common IC diffusion material and arranged along an outer edge of a perimeter surrounding the MOSFET output drivers. A centroid of each MOSFET output driver is common with a centroid of the perimeter surrounding both MOSFET output drivers. Each MOSFET output driver has a value of substrate resistance (Rsub) that initiates bipolar snapback in the MOSFET output driver at which an ESD event occurs. The value of Rsub depends upon a composite distance from the centroid of each MOSFET output driver to the contact ring. |
| US08218275B2 |
ESD protection for pass-transistors in a voltage regulator
Present invention relates to an electrostatic discharge protection circuit for a transistor circuit having electrostatic discharge protection circuits coupled to an input and to an output terminal. The protection circuits comprise delay means having a predetermined delay time and switchable connecting means connected between said input terminal and a control terminal of said transistor circuit. The delay means are configured for activating said switchable connecting means for said predetermined delay time in response to an electrostatic discharge at said input terminal. |
| US08218274B2 |
Direct current arc fault circuit interrupter, direct current arc fault detector, noise blanking circuit for a direct current arc fault circuit interrupter, and method of detecting arc faults
A direct current arc fault circuit interrupter includes separable contacts and a trip circuit to trip open the contacts. The trip circuit includes a number of alternating current sensors structured to sense a current flowing through the separable contacts, a number of filter circuits cooperating with the AC current sensors to output a number of AC signals, a number of peak detectors cooperating with the filter circuits to output a number of peak current signals, and a processor cooperating with at least the peak detectors. The processor inputs the number of peak current signals as a plurality of peak current signals or inputs the number of peak current signals and determines the plurality of peak current signals. The processor also determines if the peak current signals exceed corresponding predetermined thresholds for a predetermined time, and responsively causes the contacts to trip open. |
| US08218269B2 |
Gimbal mounted slider assembly with ramp limiter transverse bar
Gimbal designs are provided that minimize adverse dynamic performance of a HDD suspension, particularly subsequent to head-disk-interface (HDI) interactions. The improvement of operational performance can be seen in graphical representations of the vibrational modes of a gimbal mounted slider subsequent to such HDI interactions. Each gimbal design includes a ramp limiter formed as two separated arms connected by one or two transverse bars and a routing of conducting traces that relieves stress and minimally contacts these bars. |
| US08218261B1 |
Thermal solution for drive systems such as hard disk drives and digital versatile discs
A drive system including: a printed circuit board; a first integrated circuit mounted onto the printed circuit board; a drive assembly case that is connected to the printed circuit board; and a first thermal interface material thermally coupled between i) the printed circuit board and ii) the drive assembly case. Thermal energy generated by the first integrated circuit is dissipatable by the drive assembly case through the first interface material. |
| US08218258B1 |
DC-control for post processor
Systems and techniques relating to interpreting signals on a noisy channel. A direct current (DC) correction can be applied to an input of a post processor outside of a main read path that supplies data detector output to the post processor. A signal processor, such as a read channel transceiver device usable in a magnetic recording system, has a main read path including a signal equalizer and a data detector. A post processor is responsive to the output of the data detector, and a DC control unit applies a DC correction to an input of the post processor outside of the main read path. |
| US08218256B1 |
Disk spindle assembly cartridge
A disk spindle assembly cartridge is described. The disk spindle assembly cartridge includes a base, a spindle motor attached to the base, a disk seated on the spindle motor, a disk clamp attached to the spindle motor, wherein the disk clamp secures the disk to the spindle motor, and a cover attached to the base. The base is configured to detachably mount a head stack assembly cartridge, where the disk is accessible to a head stack assembly pivotally mounted in the head stack assembly cartridge via an opening defined by the base and the cover. |
| US08218253B2 |
Optical lens system for taking image
An optical lens system for taking image comprises: in order from the object side to the image side: an aperture stop; a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, a second lens element with negative refractive power; a third lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; a plastic fourth lens element with negative refractive power having a concave image-side surface, the object-side and the image-side surfaces of the fourth lens element being aspheric. A focal length of the optical lens system for taking image is f, a focal length of the first lens element and the second lens element combined is f12, and they satisfy the relation: 0.98 |
| US08218252B2 |
Projection lens
A projection lens disposed between an enlarged side and a reduced side and including a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, a third lens group having positive refractive power, and an optical element disposed between the second and the third lens groups is provided. The first lens group includes a first and a second lens sequentially arranged from the enlarged side to the reduced side and respectively having a positive and a negative refractive power. The second lens group between the first lens group and the reduced side includes a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth lens sequentially arranged from the enlarged side to the reduced side. The fifth and the sixth lens respectively have a positive refractive power. The third lens group disposed between the second lens group and the reduced side includes a seventh lens. |
| US08218249B2 |
Lens barrel and imaging apparatus
A lens barrel includes: a holding frame; a cam ring rotatable relative to the holding frame around a rotational axis substantially parallel to an optical axis of an imaging optical lens system; and a cam follower and a cam groove that engage with each other so that the holding frame and the cam ring move relative to each other along the optical axis when the holding frame and the cam ring are rotated relative to each other. |
| US08218247B2 |
Zoom lens and image pickup device
Disclosed herein is a zoom lens formed by arranging a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, and a third lens group having a positive refractive power in order from an object side to an image side, wherein at a time of varying power from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, the first lens group is moved and the second lens group is moved to the object side integrally with a diaphragm such that an air interval between the first lens group and the second lens group is decreased and such that an air interval between the second lens group and the third lens group is increased. |
| US08218244B2 |
Miniature zoom lens
A miniature zoom lens includes a first, a second and a third lens groups arranged along an optical axis and from an object side to an image side in sequence. The refractive powers of the three lens groups are negative, positive and positive, respectively. The first lens group is fixed at a predetermined position. The second lens group is movable along the optical axis in accordance with a change of magnification. The third lens group is movable along the optical axis for keeping an image plane fixed at an image sensor. The first lens group is in resting state and the second and the third lens groups are movable during zoom-in or zoom-out operation of the miniature zoom lens. In addition, the miniature zoom lens can be composed of at least seven pieces of lens, thus the cost is reduced, the manufacture is easy and the assembly is simple. |
| US08218243B2 |
Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus including the same
Provided is a zoom lens including, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens unit having a negative refractive power; a second lens unit having a positive refractive power; and a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, all the lens units moving during zooming; and a secondary aperture having a constant aperture diameter disposed on the image side of the second lens unit, in which the second lens unit includes lens components having a positive refractive powers disposed at a position closest to the object side and a position closest to the image side, and a distance (dd) on an optical axis between a lens surface closest to the image side in the second lens unit and the secondary aperture, and a focal length (fw) of the entire zoom lens at a wide angle end are appropriately set. |
| US08218240B2 |
Image presenting method, image presenting system and apparatus and computer program product
The invention discloses an image presenting method for generating an image to meet a lenticular sheet of a particular specification. The method includes the following steps: providing a database where at least one lenticular sheet data and at least one alignment pattern data are stored; reading out a lenticular sheet data and an alignment pattern data from the database; processing an image data and the alignment pattern data according to the lenticular sheet data; combining the image data and the alignment pattern data to generate a mixed image which meets the lenticular sheet of the particular specification; and outputting the mixed image. |
| US08218238B2 |
Zoom lens system and image taking apparatus including the same
Provided is a zoom lens system includes, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens unit having a positive refractive power; a second lens unit having a negative refractive power; a third lens unit having a positive refractive power; and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power, the second and fourth lens units move on an optical axis during zooming. The third lens unit includes, in order from the object side to the image side: a third A lens unit having a negative refractive power; and a third B lens unit having a positive refractive power, the third B lens unit including a positive lens and a negative lens being joined together. When curvature radii of surfaces of the cemented lens on the object side and the image side are R3A and R3B, respectively, the following condition is satisfied: 5<|(R3A+R3B)/(R3A−R3B)|<30. |
| US08218237B2 |
Rear-projection display
Various embodiments related to rear-projection image display are disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a projector for projecting an image and a screen configured to display the image. The screen comprises a filter layer having a light reception side and an image display side. The filter layer includes an array of trapezoidal transmissive elements and an array of trapezoidal absorption elements, where a wider base of each of the trapezoidal transmissive elements faces the light reception side of the filter layer, and where a wider base of each of the trapezoidal absorption elements faces the image display side of the filer layer. |
| US08218236B2 |
Projection screen and manufacturing method thereof
A projection screen includes a base sheet, a surface roughness structure, a reflective layer, and a light absorption layer. The base sheet has a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. A plurality of first surfaces and second surfaces are formed on the first side, each first surface faces an optical projection system, and each second surface is disposed between two adjacent first surfaces and forms an angle with respect to a neighboring first surface. The surface roughness structure is formed on at least the first surfaces and capable of diffusing a light beam to a limited extent. The reflective layer is formed on the surface roughness structure and capable of reflecting most of the light beam diffused by the surface roughness structure to a limited extent towards a limited viewing cone, and the light absorption layer is formed on the second surfaces. |
| US08218225B2 |
Electrolytes for electrochromic devices
An electrolyte for electrochromic devices is manufactured by mixing (210) a solvent, an ionisable substance and a solvated polymer. The solvent comprises a substance having an amide group and selected from a specified group of substances. The ionisable substance comprises an anion and a cation, where the cation preferably is selected among the alkaline ions. The anion is selected from simple anions, such as hydroxide ions, halide ions or more or less complex organic anions. The polymer is solvated in the mixture of the two other components. |
| US08218223B2 |
Process and apparatus for switching large-area electrochromic devices
A method is disclosed for controlling switching of an electrochromic device comprising at least the following components: a first and a second electrode layer, a first and a second layer in which ions can be reversibly intercalated, and a transparent ion-conducting layer. At least one of the layers in which ions may be reversibly inserted is electrochromic. The optical properties of the device are modified when a potential is applied between the electrode layers. The potential applied is limited such that the maximum generated potential difference never exceeds the safe redox limits, and that the current does not exceed some predetermined limit. Switching of electrochromic devices in this manner allows for maximum device lifetime, while simultaneously optimising switching speed and transmission homogeneity. The method is characterised in that the potential applied to the electrode layers is varied in the form of a stepped ramp, during which time the current is measured constantly. |
| US08218216B2 |
Image projector
An object of the present invention is to provide an image projector capable of projecting a high-quality image while realizing small size. In the image projector, a light flux is deflected two-dimensionally by turning a reflector for reflecting a light flux emitted from a light source around a second axis almost orthogonal to a first axis as a center by resonant drive while turning the reflector around the first axis as a center by non-resonant drive. Shape of one or more optical surfaces of a projection optical system for projecting an image onto a projection plane by guiding light onto the projection plane includes a shape for performing a correction for maintaining scanning speed of the light flux along one scan direction on the projection plane almost constant and a shape for performing a correction for suppressing a distortion in an image along the other scan direction almost orthogonal to the one scan direction on the projection plane. By controlling turn of the reflector, at least one of a correction for maintaining scanning speed of the light flux along the other scan direction on the projection plane almost constant and a correction for suppressing a distortion in an image along the one scan direction on the projection plane is performed. |
| US08218215B2 |
Transducer-mirror structure
An approach for obtaining a transducer mirror structure made from silicon. The structure may have a center portion and a perimeter portion that have an attachment between them which is made flexible after certain etching between the two portions. The attachment may be a web of links or legs. A force applied to the center portion at one end of the structure may cause the center portion to move relative to the perimeter portion. A piezo electric transducer or actuator may be attached to apply the force. An oxide layer, a thin layer of silicon and a mirror may be formed on the other end of the structure. The web of links or legs between the center and the perimeter portions may be established with an RIE etch of gaps through the structure to the oxide layer and an undercutting of the gaps with a KOH etch. |
| US08218205B2 |
Multi-functional device having scanner module and image scanning apparatus employing the scanner module
A multi-functional device comprising an image forming apparatus to form a printing image and a scanner module to scan an image in a first scanning direction. The scanner module includes an illuminator to illuminate a light to a document mount, a sensor unit to read an image information of an object placed on the document mount, and an imaging lens which is disposed between the document mount and the sensor unit and focuses the light reflected from the object onto the sensor unit. The illuminator includes a light source to emit light, a light guiding unit which is lengthened in a second scanning direction, faces the document mount and changes a traveling path of the light emitted from the light source to illuminate the document mount, and a guide holder which comprises an installation part where the light guiding unit is installed, and a mounting part where the light source holder is mounted to provide the light source at least one side of the light guiding unit. |
| US08218204B2 |
Image reading apparatus and image forming apparatus provided with such an image reading apparatus
An image reading apparatus is provided with a carriage accommodating an optical unit for image reading, a driving member for moving the carriage, a guide rail, a guide-rail engaging portion engaged with the guide rail, a holding portion for holding the driving member, a guide plate and a claw portion. The claw portion presses the guide-rail engaging portion against the guide rail by partially deforming the driving member to produce a tensile force in the driving member and causing the tensile force to act on the first end portion of the carriage, and produces such a rotation moment for biasing the first end portion of the carriage in a first direction parallel with a sub scanning direction and, on the other hand, biasing the second end portion of the carriage in a second direction opposite to the first direction and parallel with the sub scanning direction. |
| US08218200B2 |
Image processing system, image processing method, and storage medium
A color conversion is performed to convert a data of a pixel of black in an object as determined to be a mask into a pixel data of composite black, and convert a data of a pixel of black in an object as not determined to be any mask into a pixel data of composite black or real black, and a set of pixel data of an object as color-converted is operated and processed as a source. |
| US08218197B2 |
Image forming apparatus having interactive display that receives operation input for process conditions about a finishing process
When image data is obtained through a network from a document reading portion or a PC etc., a main control portion displays, through a display control portion, a document icon in a document icon area on a display portion. A user drags and drops the document icon on an output image operation area with a touch pen or the like, and the main control portion displays the specified document icon on the area. Moreover, when specification of a paper area, a position of a punch hole, a position of stapling, and the like is performed with the touch pen or the like, the main control portion determines whether or not setting is possible and outputs specified data to an image formation control portion and a post-process control portion. |
| US08218192B2 |
Printing process system, a printing control apparatus, a terminal apparatus, and printing process method
The printing process system for laying out and printing images for two pages on one side of each sheet for creating a booklet, comprises: a generating unit for generating, in order to cause a plurality of printing devices to print the images on the sheets to form a booklet, print sheet data and insertion sheet data intended for each of the printing devices; a calculating unit for calculating a shift amount of the image for each of the sheets referenced in the print sheet data based on the print sheet data and the insertion sheet data, the shift amount ensuring that the image gets closer to the center of the sheet as the sheet gets closer to the innermost of the booklet; and an instructing unit for instructing a relevant printing device to print the images on the sheets referenced in the print sheet data, based on the shift amount. |
| US08218190B2 |
Document processing apparatus and method
This invention relates to a document processing apparatus. The document processing apparatus capable of editing the output format of document data formed from a document page includes a page repeat layout setting save unit which saves page repeat layout setting information designated by the user, a document generator which, when a page repeat layout is set by the page repeat layout setting information, generates output document data containing a page repeat printing page prepared by laying out a basic page by a plurality of number of times on one print page in accordance with the page repeat layout setting information by defining as the basic page one print page used when no page repeat layout is set, and a display controller which displays the document data in a print form in a display window on the basis of the output document data. |
| US08218189B2 |
Image forming apparatus and method for erasing data thereof
In one embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the invention, an overwrite-block specifying device specifies equal size blocks so that a storage area in a data storage device is divided into consecutive equal size blocks to be overwritten with overwrite data. The data storage device includes an image data storage area configured to store encrypted image data on a page-by-page basis. An overwrite-data specifying device specifies the value of the overwrite-data whose size is smaller than that of the equal size block. A data erase control device overwrites the equal size blocks with the value of the overwrite-data, on a block-by-block basis. |
| US08218185B2 |
Information processing apparatus and information processing method
When a user selects an existing image forming apparatus and a virtual image forming apparatus, a job log acquisition unit acquires a job log from the selected existing image forming apparatus. A simulation unit calculates a processing speed of the existing image forming apparatus and a processing speed of the virtual image forming apparatus. The simulation unit performs job processing using the virtual image forming apparatus, and acquires a job log. The simulation unit compares the job log of the existing image forming apparatus and the job log of the virtual image forming apparatus, calculates a replacement effect, and outputs the replacement effect. |
| US08218181B2 |
Printing system
A printing system includes a printing device, and a printing data processing device. A status data generating unit generates status data indicating a status of the printing device. A storing unit stores status image data that graphically indicates a content of the status data. A text data generating unit generates status text data that explanatorily indicates a content of the status image data with words. A data editing unit edits the window data to include the status text data and the status image data. A display unit displays the window by using window data such that the window displays an image corresponding to the status image data and a text corresponding to the status text data. A specifying unit specifies the text on the window. A voicing unit voices the specified text based on the corresponding status text data. |
| US08218180B2 |
Image forming apparatus and method for inhibiting the transmission of document data
An image forming apparatus includes an image receiving unit configured to receive image data, a sender identifying unit configured to identify a sender of the received image data, a check unit configured to check whether the identified sender corresponds to a predetermined sender, a management information providing unit configured to provide management-purpose image data obtained by encoding management information for controlling at least one of a transmission operation for transmitting an image scanned from a printout and a copy operation for copying an image scanned from a printout, and a print unit configured to print the management-purpose image data together with the received image data in response to a check result by the check unit indicating that the identified sender corresponds to the predetermined sender. |
| US08218174B2 |
Interactive device capacity mimic and system override
Displays are provided for a graphical user interface including a device capacity mimic in a job manager in a system, such as a xerographic machine. The displays include a visual representation of the available capacity of each of a number of devices for the system, such as each output destination for a printer with multiple output destinations. The device capacity mimic shows the effect of jobs in progress on the available capacity, each job consuming a portion of the available capacity. Using this mimic, the user may, for example, revise the destination of jobs that have been planned but not yet started (e.g., by dragging the job). A mimic view of this information with a graphical user interface for managing the device assignments is provided. Thus, a user may not only view information about the device assignments for jobs, but also control or manage the device assignments for jobs. |
| US08218172B2 |
Method and apparatus for print error recovery
An information processing apparatus which generates print data includes a range setting module which sets the print range of each printer in order to distribute a print job to a plurality of printers and perform print processing, a recognition module which recognizes generation of an error in processing of each print range together with an error generation page within the print range when printing is performed in accordance with the set print range, a determination module which determines a re-print start page within the print range in accordance with the print attribute and error generation page of the print job within the print range that is interrupted by generation of the error, and a data transfer module which transfers print data of a re-print range specified by the determined re-print start page to a substitute printer which performs re-printing of the interrupted print range, and causes the substitute printer to execute re-printing. |
| US08218170B2 |
Multi-print stream processing module optimizer for document processing
Multiple print streams destined for individual print stream processing modules are optimized prior to printing. The process of optimizing includes receiving an input representing a plurality of documents to be printed and determining an attribute of each document of the plurality of documents represented by the input. The attribute relates to processing of the respective document through the document processing system. Optimization involves balancing an operation time of a first print stream processing module with an operation time of a second print stream processing module, by assigning each document to one of the print stream processing modules based on its determined attribute. |
| US08218167B2 |
Image output system, image forming apparatus, and image forming operation program for preventing output of a confidential document
An image output system includes a computer and a complex machine connected to the computer. A password generating section of the complex machine, in a case where a user ID transmitted from a transmitting section of the computer is stored in a HDD, generates a password which is different from the user ID, and the transmitting section transmits the password generated by the password generating section. A controller, in a case where the password received by a password receiving section and the password transmitted from the password transmitting section to the computer, controls an image forming section to output image data which is not combined with electronic watermark information by an electronic watermark information combining section. |
| US08218165B2 |
Interruption management method for an image forming apparatus
A user-interface unit receives a request from a user. A control unit performs an execution control in response to the request received by the user-interface unit, and during an execution process, performs an interruption process and an authentication process. An application-logic unit provides a plurality of functions related to an image forming process. A device-service unit provides a shared service for the application-logic unit. |
| US08218160B2 |
Adaptive automatic printing
Adaptive automatic printing methods and systems allow a user to modify print settings for an automatic print job after sending the job, after which the job is output under the modified print settings without any requirement to resend the job. Accordingly, if a user discovers after sending an automatic print job that an improper or suboptimal print setting has been used, the user can correct the problem without having to resend the job and, in some embodiments, without having to return to the client node. |
| US08218158B2 |
Sheet processing apparatus
A sheet processing apparatus includes a feeding portion that feeds an original or a recording medium, a reading portion that reads an original, and a recording portion that performs recording on a recording medium. The original or recording medium fed from the feeding portion can be selectively conveyed to the reading portion or the recording portion, thereby allowing for compactness of the apparatus as well as cost reduction. |
| US08218157B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a recording-medium stacking portion, a recording-medium ejection portion and a suctioning/exhausting unit. The recording-medium stacking portion is provided in a body portion or an upper portion of the image forming apparatus. The recording-medium stacking portion stacks recording media on which respective images are formed thereon. The recording-medium ejection portion ejects the recording medium in a recording-medium ejection direction to the recording-medium stacking portion. The suctioning/exhausting unit is located with respect to the recording-medium stacking portion in a direction, which is perpendicular to the recording-medium ejection direction and parallel to a surface of the recording medium stacked on the recording-medium stacking portion. The suctioning/exhausting unit suctions air emitted from the recording medium, which is ejected from the recording-medium ejection portion onto the recording-medium stacking portion. The suctioning/exhausting unit exhausts the suctioned air through a filter. |
| US08218154B2 |
System and a method of determining a position of a scattering/reflecting element on the surface of a radiation transmissive element
A system and a method of determining a position of a scattering/reflecting element on a surface of a radiation transmissive element adapted to transport scattered/reflected radiation toward one or more detectors. Radiation having different characteristics or properties is transmitted to different areas of the surface whereby the position of the touch may be determined from the radiation scattered/reflected. |
| US08218152B1 |
Group refractive index reconstruction with broadband interferometric confocal microscopy
A system and method for microscale measurement and imaging of the group refractive index of a sample. The method utilizes a broadband confocal high-numerical aperture microscope embedded into an interferometer and a spectrometric means, whereby spectral interferograms are analyzed to compute optical path delay of the beam traversing the sample as the sample is translated through the focus of an interrogating light beam. A determination of group refractive index may serve to disambiguate phase ambiguity in a measurement of refractive index at a specified wavelength. Spatial resolution of object characterization in three dimensions is achieved by imaging the object from multiple viewpoints. |
| US08218147B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for detecting engine fluid constituents
A system for detecting engine fluid constituents includes an engine having a sample channel having a conduit for a working engine fluid. The system includes an electromagnetic (EM) source that emits EM radiation through a first metal tube, where the EM radiation is EM energy at a wavelength of interest. The system further includes an EM detector that receives a remainder radiation through a second metal tube, the remainder radiation including the remaining EM radiation after passing through the sample channel. The system includes a controller that determines a composition indicator signal representative of an amount of a constituent in the working engine fluid in response to a strength of the remainder radiation, and determines a concentration of a component of interest according to the composition indicator signal. |
| US08218146B2 |
System and method for detecting a target substance
A system and a method for detecting the existence of a target substance, the system includes a laser with a broad spectral output and a detector for detecting an absorption spectrum of a laser beam from the laser. The method includes emitting a laser beam into the atmosphere using a laser light with a broad spectral output; measuring the absorption spectrum of said laser beam; comparing the absorption spectrum to known absorption spectrums for target substances using a detector; and detecting the existence of a target substance. |
| US08218143B2 |
Noninvasive detection of elements and/or chemicals in biological matter
A method of detecting oxygen and/or chemical content in a subject, comprising generating at least one spectral image of the subject; generating at least one spectral image of a reference object; comparing spectrum from the subject image to the reference image to thereby reveal the relative oxygen content of the subject. A system for determining the level of oxygenation of the blood of a subject body part comprising: a hyperspectral image generator for generating a plurality of spectral images; an image capture device for capturing the spectral images; a processor for generating hyperspectral image cubes such that the spectrum of the body part is extracted and normalized using the spectrum from the reference object to cancel out the spectral response of the light source and the imager; said processor comparing spectral from a subject image to reference images to thereby reveal the relative oxygen content of the subject. |
| US08218135B2 |
System and method for stereo photography
A system and method for stereo photography is provided. The system comprises a first light source, a second light source and a photodetector. The first light source is configured to illuminate one or more first non-white colors on an object. The second light source is configured to illuminate one or more second non-white colors that are different from the first non-white colors on the object. The photodetector is configured to detect a three dimensional representation of the object at a single moment in time in response to the first light source illuminating the first non-white colors and the second light source illuminating the second non-white colors on the object. |
| US08218124B2 |
Substrate processing apparatus with multi-speed drying having rinse liquid supplier that moves from center of rotated substrate to its periphery and stops temporarily so that a drying core can form
After a substrate is cleaned, a liquid supply nozzle moves outward from above the center of the substrate while discharging a rinse liquid with the substrate rotated. In this case, a drying region where no rinse liquid exists expands on the substrate. When the liquid supply nozzle moves to above a peripheral portion of the substrate, the rotational speed of the substrate is reduced. The movement speed of the liquid supply nozzle is maintained as it is. Thereafter, the discharge of the rinse liquid is stopped while the liquid supply nozzle moves outward from the substrate. Thus, the drying region spreads over the whole substrate so that the substrate is dried. |
| US08218123B2 |
Polarization converting system, method of manufacturing the same and liquid crystal display using the same
A polarization converting system and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The polarization converting system includes a polarization splitting unit splitting incident unpolarized light into two orthogonal polarizations and a polarization converting unit converting incident light into specific polarized light. The polarization converting unit has first and second regions that correspond to the polarization splitting unit and are different in a polarization converting extent from each other. |
| US08218117B2 |
Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same
An LCD is manufactured to provide a wide viewing angle device and may reduce manufacturing costs according to an embodiment. The LCD includes a substrate, a gate line disposed on the substrate, a gate insulating layer disposed on the gate line, a semiconductor layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, a data line contacting the semiconductor layer, a drain electrode contacting the semiconductor layer and separated from the data line, a pixel electrode contacting the drain electrode, a passivation layer disposed on the pixel electrode, and a common electrode disposed on the passivation layer and including a branch electrode overlapping the pixel electrode. In one embodiment, the pixel electrode contacts an end portion of a thin film transistor. The LCD manufacturing process may be shortened and may save manufacturing costs because the LCD process need not make contact holes to connect the pixel electrode and the TFT. |
| US08218115B2 |
Liquid crystal display device comprising a pixel electrode having a reverse taper shape with an edge portion that forms a transition nucleus in a liquid crystal layer
After supply of power, a liquid crystal display device performing transition from a first state to a second state different from the first state before a display operation is provided with a transition nucleus forming portion around a pixel electrode or inside. The transition nucleus forming portion performs transition to the second state prior to other portion during a transition drive period. The transition nucleus forming portion of the pixel electrode has an edge portion formed into a reverse taper shape decreasing in its thickness toward the tip end. Therefore, transition from a splay alignment to a bend alignment is performed with simple element and drive circuit configuration in all pixels. |
| US08218114B2 |
Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same
The invention relates to a vertical alignment type liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same and provides a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same which allow a reduction of manufacturing cost. A configuration is employed, which includes a pair of substrates provided opposite to each other, a liquid crystal sealed between the substrates, and a photo-curing material for controlling the alignment of the liquid crystal, the photo-curing material being formed in the vicinity of an interface between the liquid crystal and the pair of substrates as a result of polymerization of a polymerizable component mixed in the liquid crystal, the reaction being promoted by a photo-initiator including no chlorine atom. |
| US08218111B2 |
Display device and method for manufacturing the same
The present invention relates to a display device and a method for manufacturing the display device. The display device includes at least one partition formed on a lower display panel. A color filter may fill a region defined by the partitions. A first upper passivation layer is formed on the color filter, and a second upper passivation layer is formed on the first upper passivation layer and the partitions such that the LCD structure is planarized. In the display device, the height of the partition is sufficiently high to prevent mixing of the colors of neighboring pixel filters, and the process margin of the spacer and the light blocking member may be ensured. The partitions can be formed with multiple layers having different widths such that the mixture of colors between the neighboring pixels may be prevented, and the color reproducibility may be increased. |
| US08218110B2 |
Thin film transistor array panel and method of manufacturing the same
After increasing the thickness of a gate line and forming a barrier rib that is made of an organic material, a gate insulating layer is formed and then a color filter is formed with an Inkjet method using the barrier rib. By increasing a thickness of the gate line, even if the size of a substrate increases, problems due to signal delay are reduced, and by forming a barrier rib with an organic material, the height of the barrier rib increases, and a taper angle increases and thus a color filter is stably formed. |
| US08218107B2 |
Backlight unit and liquid crystal display device including the same
A lamp guide includes: a horizontal part; at least one supporting part extending from a front surface of the horizontal part and having a cone shape; a plurality of holding parts on the front surface of the horizontal part, each of the plurality of holding parts holding a lamp; at least one coupling part extending from a rear surface of the horizontal part and having a trident shape; and a plurality of ribs protruding from the rear surface of the horizontal part and corresponding to the plurality of holding parts. |
| US08218088B2 |
Video apparatus with a receiver and processing means
A video apparatus has a receiver for receiving and converting an RF signal into a video signal. The video signal is then processed (notably encoded) into an encoded digital stream by processing means. The processing means is adjusted based on an indicator of a characteristic of the RF signal. |
| US08218086B2 |
Flash detection
There is provided a method of pre-processing video data to detect flashes, comprising calculating a normalized difference index value for a Luminance [Y] component of the video data, calculating a normalized difference index value for Chrominance [U and V] components of the video data, calculating a normalized luminance [Y] mean gradient index for the video data, and providing an indication that a flash has been detected when all the following conditions are satisfied: the normalized difference index value for the Luminance [Y] component is greater than a first predetermined threshold (TY); the normalized difference index value for the Chrominance [U and V] components is less than a second predetermined threshold (TC); and a difference between the normalized difference index value for the Chrominance [U and V] components and the normalized luminance [Y] mean gradient index is less than or equal to a third pre-determined threshold (TF). |
| US08218084B2 |
Signal separator
A signal separator for separating luminance and color signals from a composite video signal includes: a first line delay element for delaying the composite video signal by one line period; a second line delay element for delaying the composite video signal by two line periods; an adder element for adding the first and second delay signals; a subtraction element for subtracting the second delay signal from the first delay signal; a control signal generator for passing a part of the addition signal within a predetermined frequency band therethrough; and a gain control element for reducing a level of the subtraction signal based on the control signal. |
| US08218083B2 |
Noise reducer, noise reducing method, and video signal display apparatus that distinguishes between motion and noise
A video noise reducer processes a frame difference signal equal to the difference between the video signal of the current frame and the video signal of the preceding frame or the difference between the video signal of the current frame and the noise-reduced video signal of the preceding frame to obtain a motion detection signal and a noise detection signal. The difference between the motion detection signal and the noise detection signal is then processed to obtain a recursion coefficient. The frame difference signal is multiplied by the recursion coefficient and the resulting product is additively combined with the video signal of the current frame to reduce noise without generating significant motion artifacts. |
| US08218082B2 |
Content adaptive noise reduction filtering for image signals
A method includes selecting a target pixel and comparing a value of the target pixel with a respective value of each of a plurality of pixels located in an area that includes the target pixel. Further, for each pixel of the plurality of pixels that has a value different by at least a threshold amount from the value of the target pixel, the value of such pixel is replaced by the value of the target pixel. A filter function is applied to a set of pixels which includes the value of the target pixel and current values, after the selective replacement step, of the plurality of pixels. |
| US08218080B2 |
Personal settings, parental control, and energy saving control of television with digital video camera
A digital system is provided that combines a digital video camera with television displays, and controlled by a controller module to enhance television performance according to personal television settings, parental controls and energy saving functions, achieved by utilizing the camera and face detection/recognition methods implemented in the controller module. |
| US08218078B2 |
Information storage medium containing subtitles and processing apparatus therefor
An information storage medium containing subtitles and a subtitle processing apparatus, where the information storage medium includes: audio-visual (AV) data; and subtitle data in which at least one subtitle text data and output style information designating an output form of the subtitle texts are stored with a text format. With this, output times of subtitle texts included in the text subtitle data can be overlapped, a subtitle file can be easily produced, and subtitles for an AV stream can be output with various forms. |
| US08218074B2 |
Remote inspection device
A remote inspection device is provided for inspecting visually obscured locations. The device is generally comprised of a imager housing and a display housing disposed on opposite ends of a modular, flexible cable. An imaging device is embedded in the end of the cylindrical imager housing, such that the imaging device is able to capture an image of a viewing area proximate to the distal end of the flexible cable. One or more light sources also protrude from the outwardly facing end of the cylindrical imager housing along a perimeter of the imaging device such that the imaging device is recessed between the light sources. A display housing is coupled to the other end of the flexible cable and configured to be grasped by a user of the device. A display device supported by the display housing receives a video signal from the imaging device and converts the video signal to a video image. |
| US08218072B2 |
Image pickup system
An image pickup system includes a base, a frame, an image pickup device, a receiving structure, a marking element and a switching element. The frame is connected to the base. The image pickup device is disposed on the frame. The receiving structure is disposed in the base. The frame is rotatable with respect to the base, so that the image pickup device is moved to an optimal shooting position. The marking element indicates that the image pickup device is at the optimal shooting position. When the switching element is triggered, the target object placed in the receiving structure will be shot by the image pickup device. |
| US08218070B2 |
Image pick-up apparatus and image pick-up system
An image pick-up apparatus comprising an area sensor in which detecting elements are two-dimensionally arranged on a substrate, and a reference supply circuit, for supplying a reference voltage to the detecting elements, which comprises a regulator for regulating the reference voltage. A low-pass filter is arranged between the regulator and the detecting elements. The reference voltage is supplied through the low-pass filter from the reference supply circuit. |
| US08218069B2 |
Camera body with which various flash devices can be interchangeably used
The camera body includes an imaging element, a hot shoe, an internal light source, and a camera controller. The imaging element is configured to convert an optical image of the subject into an electrical signal, and is configured to produce image data for the subject. The hot shoe allows the flash device to be mounted. The internal light source is arranged to shine light on the subject. The camera controller is configured to calculate an evaluation value on the basis of the image data produced by the imaging element, and is configured to perform video autofocusing on the basis of the evaluation value. The camera controller controls the imaging element and the internal light source so that when the camera controller decides that the auxiliary light is needed, and the camera controller decides that the flash device mounted to the hot shoe has an external auxiliary light source arranged to emit near infrared light, the internal light source emits light during the video autofocusing and the image data is acquired. |
| US08218065B2 |
Imaging device
An imaging device of the present invention includes a normal operation period and a focusing operation period and includes: a CCD (102) able to perform thinning processing on image signals of an imaging subject; an AFE (103) that converts the image signals into image data; a signal processing unit (104b) that converts the image data into display data; an LCD (107) that displays an image based on the display data; and a thinning control unit (104c) that that changes a read frame rate and thinning rate of the CCD (102). The thinning control unit (104c) performs control so that in the focusing operation period, image signals are read from the CCD (102) at a higher read frame rate than in the normal operation period, and so that in the focusing operation period and a frame immediately before the focusing operation period, image signals are read from the CCD (102) using a larger thinning rate than in the normal operation period. This structure enables providing an imaging device that can perform through-the-lens display in all areas of all frames in the focusing operation period. |
| US08218060B2 |
Imaging apparatus
An imaging apparatus includes: an image-forming element; an optical element including a light-transmitting portion disposed so as to face an image surface of the image-forming element; a vibration-application member arranged at a position other than a position of the light-transmitting portion of the optical element, for vibrating a surface of the optical element and inside of the optical element; and a vibration-absorption member arranged at a position opposed to the vibration-application member, for absorbing a part of vibration of the optical element in a predetermined cycle, wherein when a wavelength of vibration generated in the optical element by vibration of the vibration-application member is defined as λ, and an odd number as k, the vibration-application member and the vibration-absorption member are arranged separately from each other at positions on the optical element such that a distance between centers of the members is expressed by k×λ/4. |
| US08218057B2 |
Imaging apparatus, user interface, and associated methodology for a co-existent shooting and reproduction mode
A currently captured image R of an object is displayed nearly at a center portion of a display frame SC on a display screen ST1 that is a shooting mode. When a time dial 22 is rotated for one step in the counterclockwise direction, the currently captured image R is moved rightward. A reproduced image P1 captured before the currently captured image R is displayed on the left thereof. A reproduced image P2 captured before the reproduced image P1 is displayed on the left thereof. The currently captured image R and the reproduced images P1 and P2 are displayed at the same time on a display screen ST2 as a co-existent state of a shooting mode and a reproducing mode. When the time dial 22 is rotated for one step in the counterclockwise direction, only the reproduced images P1 to P4 are displayed on a display screen ST3 that is a reproducing mode. As a plurality of reproduced images, the reproduced images P1 to P4 are displayed along a time axis. |
| US08218053B2 |
Image display apparatus with holding member
An image display device includes an LCD panel 102, a BL unit 150 having a first contact plane to be in contact with a display plane of the LCD panel 102, and a LCD holding piece 101 having a second contact plane to be in contact with a plane of the LCD panel 102 opposed to the display plane, wherein the LCD holding piece 101 includes a biasing portion (an elastic support portion 101b and holding piece elastic arms 101i) biasing the BL unit 150, and the BL unit 150 is biased in a direction of the LCD holding piece 101 by the biasing portion. According to this configuration, an image display device can be provided in which foreign matter is suppressed from being generated by the contact between an EVF panel and a housing or foreign matter is suppressed from moving to an image display range during an assembly process. |
| US08218051B2 |
Low-power signal chain for image sensors
A signal chain for an image sensor is disclosed. The signal chain includes photo sensing elements, pixel readout circuits, and an amplifier. Each pixel readout circuit receives a charge-induced signal and a reset signal from one of the photo sensing elements. The readout circuit computes a difference signal between the charge-induced signal and said reset signal. The difference signal is measured with respect to a reference signal. The amplifier is coupled to the pixel readout circuits, and configured to supply the reference signal during computation of the difference signal. Further, the amplifier amplifies the difference signal when the computation is done. |
| US08218047B2 |
Solid state imaging device
A solid state imaging device 1 includes a photodetecting section 10, a signal readout section 20, a controlling section 30, and a correction processing section 40. In the photodetecting section 10, M×N pixel portions each including a photodiode which generates charges as much as an incident light intensity and a readout switch connected to the photodiode are two-dimensionally arrayed in M rows and N columns. Charges generated in each pixel portion Pm,n are input into an integration circuit Sn, through a readout wiring LO,n, and a voltage value output corresponding to the charge amount from the integration circuit Sn is output to an output wiring Lout through a holding circuit Hn. In the correction processing section 40, correction processing is performed for frame data repeatedly output from the signal readout section 20, and frame data after being subjected to the correction processing is output. |
| US08218045B2 |
Image sensor control method
A method for acquiring images using at least one CMOS-type sensor with four transistors including an acquisition node and a read node, where the read node can receive a compression signal, including a step of reading a reference state of the sensor; a reset step; an integration step, during which the sensor is exposed and during part of which the compression signal is applied to the read node; and a step of reading the data acquired during the integration step; the read node being, during the integration step, isolated from the acquisition node, except immediately before the application of the compression signal, at which time the acquisition node is connected to the read node long enough to enable a transfer of the charges present at the acquisition node to the read node. |
| US08218044B2 |
Solid-state imaging device
The objective of this invention is to provide a solid-state imaging device and drive method with which sampling before the output values from pixels have reached a constant value can be avoided. The solid-state imaging device comprises photosensitive pixels arranged in the form of an array on a photosensitive surface and that have a photodiode that generates and stores a photocharge, a transfer transistor that transfers the photocharge, a floating diffusion to which the photocharge is transferred, and an amplifying transistor that converts the photocharge into a voltage signal and that amplifies the signal; photosensitive-surface output line connected to the source/drain of one of the amplifying transistors; power source connected thereto; sampling circuit connected to the photosensitive-surface output line; and current source regulating circuit, which regulates the current source current, connected to the current source so that, for sampling of the output values, the sampling circuit samples the output values after the output values have essentially become constant by comparing the output values immediately after they are output to the photosensitive-surface output lines. |
| US08218042B2 |
Solid-state image-sensing device and camera provided therewith
By feeding an appropriate voltage as a signal φTX to a transfer gate TG, a MOS transistor T1 , is operated in a threshold region. A potential linearly or natural logarithmically converted by a buried photodiode PD is transferred to an N-type floating diffusion layer FD so as to be fed out, as an image signal, via MOS transistors T3 and T4. |
| US08218041B2 |
Aperture shading correction
In camera systems with more than one aperture plane, light from different object points can be shaded by either the lens' pupil, the system's aperture or both. depending on pupil and aperture diameters, separation and camera system field of view. In an aperture shading correction (ASC) algorithm, the shading that results from the convolution of the lens' pupil function and its aperture function is determined over the image plane for any given pupil and aperture diameter and separation. A shading correction function is then calculated, and/or its parameters are determined, that will undo the adverse relative illumination degradations that result from the tandem pupil and aperture. This can be done in separate color planes. This can be done in tandem with standard lens shading correction that must also be corrected for (i.e., the lens shading correction (LSC) can be performed in the sensor for the case of no aperture shading, then the ASC multiples the LSC during aperture shading). Aperture shading will also impact SNR and MTF, and as such the tuning of these parameters will also benefit from ASC knowledge. |
| US08218037B2 |
Techniques of modifying image field data by extrapolation
Techniques for modifying data of an image that can be implemented in a digital camera, video image capturing device and other optical systems are provided to correct for Image image shading variations appearing in data from a two-dimensional photo-sensor. These variations can be caused by imperfect lenses, non-uniform sensitivity across the photo-sensor, and internal reflections within a housing of the optical system, for example. In order to correct for these variations, a small amount of modification data is stored in a small memory within the camera or other optical system, preferably separate correction data for each primary color. Image data from individual pixels are corrected on the fly by interpolating individual pixel corrections from the stored modification data, at the same rate as the image data is being acquired, so that the correction takes place without slowing down data transfer of picture data from the image sensor. |
| US08218026B2 |
Imaging apparatus, imaging method, reproducing apparatus and reproducing method, and recording medium for associating sound data with image data
A sound is recorded when shooting a still image, an effect is applied on the still image in accordance with an analytical result of the recorded sound, and the sound and the effect-applied still image are recorded in association with each other, thereby allowing recording of the image having reality in addition to the sound. The still image and the sound are reproduced in association with each other, thereby allowing a viewer to feel an ambience and reality close to a memory that the photographer felt. Thus, image which easily reminds the situation and feeling during shooting can be recorded with a sound. |
| US08218024B2 |
Solid state camera and sensor system and method
The disclosed subject matter is directed to solid state cameras and sensor systems that include a pickup surface thereof with both a distance detecting area for measuring a distance from a moving object and a movement detecting area for detecting the object's movement. The device can also include an optical communication area for communicating with an outside communication device. Therefore, the device enables a single pickup surface to include at least the following three functions: distance measurement; movement detection; and optical communication. The above-described sensor systems can output a control signal for collision avoidance with stationary or moving obstacle(s) by using the solid state camera. Because the sensor system can be integrated as a single chip IC with a small size, the system is useful as a sensor device in a vehicle, a robot, and the like. |
| US08218023B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing continuous image data captured by digital image processor
Provided are a method and apparatus for processing continuous image data captured by a digital image processor which encodes/decodes a plurality of continuous images in a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) format. The apparatus includes a digital signal processing unit which compresses the continuous image data into video data in consideration of correlations between neighboring images, or converts the compressed video data into displayable data. |
| US08218019B2 |
Image shake correction apparatus and image pickup apparatus
An image shake correction apparatus, comprising: a correction optical system which corrects a camera shake; a moving member in which the correction optical system is provided; two first guide shafts by which the moving member is held so as to be movable in parallel with a first direction perpendicular to an optical axis; a first voice coil motor which is provided at the moving member and which moves the moving member in the first direction; a slider to which the two first guide shafts are fixed; two second guide shafts by which the slider is held so as to be movable in parallel with a second direction perpendicular to the optical axis and the first direction; and a second voice coil motor which is provided at the moving member and which moves the slider in the second direction, wherein the second voice coil motor is provided substantially on the extension line of at least one of the two first guide shafts. |
| US08218013B1 |
Star sensing for an earth imaging sensor
A star sensor includes (a) a scan mirror for scanning at least one star; (b) a detector array, coupled to the scan mirror, for detecting the one star; and (c) a processor, coupled to the detector array. The processor includes a first filter configured to reduce noise spikes in the detected one star, and provide a detection mask of filtered data. Also included is a second filter configured to reduce non-contiguous samples in the detection mask. A centroid calculator is included to determine a location of the one star, after the first and second filtering. The first filter includes a median filter, followed by an averaging filter, both configured to filter the one star in an along-scan direction of the scan mirror. The first filter includes another median filter, which is configured to filter the detected one star in the cross-scan direction of the scan mirror. An adder is included to subtract (a) output data from the other median filter from (b) output data from the averaging filter and provide filtered star data to the second filter. |
| US08218009B2 |
Detection and categorisation of points of light with a camera in a motor vehicle environment
A method for detecting and categorizing points of light for a motor vehicle with a camera sensor directed towards the motor vehicle environment is presented. Here, at least one first category for passive, illumined reflectors and at least one second category for self-radiating, moving lights, in particular motor vehicle lights, is provided. For this purpose, the time progression of the intensity of a point of light is analysed. On the basis of the intensity fluctuation, points of light are categorized as motor vehicle lights or as reflectors. |
| US08218001B2 |
Performing a process on a workpiece
Features such as holes in a component which may be an aerofoil component of a gas turbine engine are re-drilled after initial formation, for example to remove blockages created in a coating process. In order to ensure that re-drilling occurs at the precise location of the initial holes, a selected number of the holes are selected, and their exact positions identified, for example by camera imaging and image processing. The actual positions of the selected features are compared with the nominal positions, and an algorithm is generated and then used to calculate the actual positions of the non-selected holes of the array. |
| US08218000B2 |
Method and system for size calibration
A method and system for size calibration of an electronically generated image of a specimen that is generated by an optical instrument having a downstream digital camera operable in different reproduction modes is disclosed. In order to enhance image analysis reliability and decrease access times, it is proposed that firstly, for a specified reproduction mode of the camera, a reference calibration value indicating the ratio of a specimen dimension to an image dimension be determined and stored together with the specified reproduction mode; and that for size calibration, a correction factor regarding the reproduction mode be derived by comparing the stored reproduction mode to the reproduction mode of the camera currently in use, and from that correction factor, together with the stored reference calibration value, the current calibration value be calculated. |
| US08217999B2 |
Light source for vision measuring instrument and positioning system using the same
A light source is configured to be mounted to a vision measuring instrument that includes a primary image capture unit capturing an image of an object to be measured, and an auxiliary image capture unit providing a means to aim the primary image capture unit at a determined position. The light source includes a main body defining a through hole for receiving the primary image capture unit, and a mounting hole for readily mounting an auxiliary image capture unit. A luminescent surface is formed on an inner wall bounding the through hole of the main body. A number of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is disposed on the luminescent surface. |
| US08217997B2 |
Interactive display system
An interactive display system including a wireless pointing device including a camera or other video capture system. The pointing device captures images displayed by the computer, including one or more human-imperceptible positioning targets. The positioning targets are presented as patterned modulation of the intensity (e.g., variation in pixel intensity) in a display frame of the visual payload, followed by the opposite modulation in a successive frame. At least two captured image frames are subtracted from one another to recover the positioning target in the captured visual data and to remove the displayed image payload. The location, size, and orientation of the recovered positioning target identify the aiming point of the remote pointing device relative to the display. Another embodiment uses temporal sequencing of positioning targets (either human-perceptible or human-imperceptible) to position the pointing device. |
| US08217992B2 |
Microscopic imaging techniques
A method of performing 3D photoactivation microscope imaging includes providing a sample having a plurality of probes, each of the plurality of probes including a photo-activatable material. Probes from the plurality of probes are activated to form a sparse subset of probes, the sparse subset of probes having probes that are spatially separated by at least a microscope resolution. The sample is illuminated with a readout light source, and light emitted from activated probes is detected. Based on the light emission detected from the activated probes, localized three-dimensional positions of the activated probes are obtained. |
| US08217991B2 |
Method, device and program for processing stereoscopic images and recording medium storing the program
A stereoscopic image processing method capable of preventing occurrence of undesirable cutout of image when a stereoscopic combined image is printed out is provided.A stereoscopic combined image can be created and recorded using a digital still camera 1. This stereoscopic combined image is a single image formed by arranging a plurality of view-point images. At first, left view-point image data and right view-point image data are stored in a memory by performing photographing twice. Then, the data of the two images are arranged laterally into a single image. Through this processing, original stereoscopic combined image data is created. Padding areas (dummy areas) are added to the original stereoscopic combined image data at the upper and lower sides thereof. Namely, a processed image containing the original stereoscopic combined image is created. |
| US08217988B2 |
Method and apparatus to encode image, and method and apparatus to decode image data
A method and apparatus to encode an image and a method and apparatus to decode an image are provided. The apparatus to encode an image includes a first encoder to encode an omni-directional image to generate a first bitstream, a data communicator to transmit the first bitstream to a decoding apparatus and to receive position information of a region-of-interest selected from an image reconstructed based on the first bitstream from the decoding apparatus, and a second encoder to encode an image of the region-of-interest based on the position information to generate a second bitstream. |
| US08217987B2 |
Method for creating a videoconferencing displayed image
The present disclosure provides methods and systems of multipoint videoconferencing wherein layout description information is used to create videoconferencing displayed images of a composite video of one or more video images and one or more accessory elements. The layout description information is responsive to events in the videoconferencing session. Synchronization between the images of the composite video and the one or more accessory elements is done by using synchronization information that reflects the event. |
| US08217982B2 |
Liquid crystal display having two or more cameras that can capture a wide range of video
An exemplary liquid crystal display (2) includes a first camera (23) configured for capturing video from a first orientation, a second camera (24) configured for capturing video from a second orientation different from the first orientation, and a capture circuit (20) electrically connected to the first and the second cameras. The capture circuit is configured for controlling the first and the second cameras to capturing video asynchronously or simultaneously. |
| US08217981B2 |
Configuring videoconferencing systems to create video sessions with realistic presence
Methods and apparatuses for automating the interface of different videoconferencing systems are disclosed. In brief, according to one or more embodiments according to the invention, a first method comprises, upon connection of two videoconferencing systems, information containing the number and type of screens in each system is exchanged, and this information is used to set up custom camera and/or display settings in each local system. |
| US08217975B2 |
Apparatus for forming an image and corresponding methods
Disclosed are an apparatus, optical scanning device, and a corresponding method of forming images on a photosensitive surface. The apparatus includes a laser raster output scanner (ROS) including laser emitters arranged to simultaneously scan a plurality of laser beams across a single scan line of the photosensitive surface in response to received image data corresponding to pixels in an image to be reproduced, and a controller individually controlling each of the laser emitters to selectively apply one of a plurality of power levels to each of the laser beams based on the image data for each of the pixels, wherein a total power applied by the laser beams for each pixel is determined by a sum of the power levels applied by each of the laser beams. |
| US08217964B2 |
Information presentation based on display screen orientation
A handheld device presents information on a display screen in alternate formats. The device determines its orientation relative to a device user and selects a format based on that orientation. The displayed information may also be scrolled or zoomed based on a detected motion of the device. |
| US08217961B2 |
Method for estimating 3D pose of specular objects
A method estimates a 3D pose of a 3D specular object in an environment. In a preprocessing step, a set of pairs of 2D reference images are generated using a 3D model of the object, and a set of poses of the object, wherein each pair of reference images is associated with one of the poses. Then, a pair of 2D input images are acquired of the object. A rough 3D pose of the object is estimated by comparing features in the pair of 2D input images and the features in each pair of 2D reference images using a rough cost function. The rough estimate is refined using a fine cost function. |
| US08217958B1 |
Methods and apparatus for invising objects in computer animation
A method for invising objects includes receiving information indicating an intersection between a first object and a second object. Visibility of the first object is modified based on the amount of interpenetration between the first object and the second object. A predetermined threshold may be received. The visibility of the first object may be reduced while the amount of the interpenetration fails to exceed the predetermined threshold. The first object may be made invisible when the predetermined threshold is exceeded. |
| US08217956B1 |
Method and apparatus for rendering spherical panoramas
Method and apparatus for rendering panoramas under spherical projections. A set of component images and alignment parameters for the images are obtained. A rotation matrix for a component image is decomposed into three rotation matrices. An in-plane rotation of the image is performed to generate a rotated image. Once an in-plane rotation is performed, the rotated image is rendered first in one planar (x or y) dimension (whether columns or rows) to generate an intermediate image, and then the intermediate image is rendered in the other planar dimension to generate an output image. Decimation of the input rows and columns may be performed if necessary, and one-dimensional interpolation may be performed to generate pixel values in the output rows and columns from pixel values in the input rows and columns. The output image may be adjusted on the spherical projection by shifting the bounding box of the output image. |
| US08217954B2 |
Reconfigurable dual texture pipeline with shared texture cache
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide texture caches and related circuits that store and retrieve texels in an efficient manner. One such texture circuit can provide a configurable number of texel quads for a configurable number of pixels. For bilinear filtering, texels for a comparatively greater number of pixels can be retrieved. For trilinear filtering, texels in a first LOD are retrieved for a number of pixels during a first clock cycle, during a second clock cycle, texels in a second LOD are retrieved. When aniso filtering is needed, a greater number of texels can be retrieved for a comparatively lower number of pixels. |
| US08217951B2 |
Graphic data processing apparatus and method
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for processing graphic data. According to an embodiment, the graphic data processing apparatus includes a CPU having at least one core; a GPU configured to process graphic data; a usage level checking unit configured to check a usage level of the CPU and/or a usage level of the GPU; and a control unit configured to compare the checked usage level of the CPU with a usage level reference of the CPU and/or to compare the checked usage level of the GPU with a usage level reference of the GPU, to allow the graphic data to be processed in parallel by the CPU and the GPU or only by the GPU according to the comparison results. |
| US08217949B1 |
Hybrid analytic and sample-based rendering of motion blur in computer graphics
A contribution of a geometric element's attribute to a value of the image sample is determined analytically for an analytic dimension of evaluation and using sampling for a discrete dimension of evaluation. Motion blur effects are rendered by analytically determining the proportions of shutter time during which image samples are exposed to objects. Space-time projections are determined by the geometry edges' positions at the beginning and the end of the shutter time, which define surfaces of space-time projections. The times that the sample ray of an image sample enter and leave the space-time projections specify the proportions of the image sample's shutter time during which scene geometry is exposed to image sample points. The attribute value of an image sample point is determined from values of all of the scene geometry visible to the image sample point during the shutter time, each weighted by the time that it is visible. |
| US08217945B1 |
Social annotation of a single evolving visual representation of a changing dataset
Systems and methods of social annotation of a single evolving visual representation of a changing dataset are disclosed. In one or more embodiments, the method includes generating a visual representation of a dataset at an initial time and automatically updating the visual representation of the dataset to reflect the dataset at a changed time through an algorithm that applies changed values between the dataset at the initial time and the dataset at the changed time while maintaining a previous calculation of an unchanged portion of the dataset at the initial time. The method further includes generating an alert when the change status indicates that the underlying data has changed beyond the threshold tolerance range. The method further includes placing a note associated with a first user on the visual representation. |
| US08217944B1 |
Systems and methods for selecting variable transformations
A computer-assisted method of determining whether a set of data is to be graphically plotted in linear space or logarithmic space. The method includes receiving a set of data points to be plotted, classifying the data points, and computing a first entropy of a frequency of the data points. The method also includes computing a logarithmic transformation of each of the data points, classifying the logarithmically transformed data points, computing a second entropy of a frequency of the logarithmically transformed data points, and graphically plotting the data points in one of linear space and logarithmic space based on a comparison of the first entropy and the second entropy. |
| US08217942B2 |
Subdividing geometry images in graphics hardware
A system may include a graphics memory, a data bus, a processor, and a vertex shader. The data bus may be operatively connected to the graphics memory. The processor may send vertex data to the graphics memory via the data bus. The vertex shader may read the vertex data from the graphics memory and may subdivide the vertex data into subdivided vertex data. The vertex shader may also write the subdivided vertex data to the graphics memory. |
| US08217939B1 |
Method and system for calculating visually improved edge voxel normals when converting polygon data to voxel data
A method is provided for calculating edge normals when transforming 3D geometric data (e.g., polygon mesh data) to voxel data, which includes four steps. First, each geometric unit (e.g., each polygon) in the 3D geometric data is mapped to a voxel grid. Second, edge voxels are detected in the voxel grid. As used herein, an edge voxel means a voxel forming an edge of an object to be rendered. Third, for each edge voxel, one or more normals of the one or more geometric units that intersect with that edge voxel are calculated and stored. Fourth, for each edge voxel, an edge normal is obtained by combining (e.g., equal-weight-averaging) the one or more normals stored in association with that edge voxel. |
| US08217935B2 |
Apparatus and method for ray tracing with block floating point data
Systems and methods include high throughput and/or parallelized ray/geometric shape intersection testing using intersection testing resources accepting and operating with block floating point data. Block floating point data sacrifices precision of scene location in ways that maintain precision where more beneficial, and allow reduced precision where beneficial. In particular, rays, acceleration structures, and primitives can be represented in a variety of block floating point formats, such that storage requirements for storing such data can be reduced. Hardware accelerated intersection testing can be provided with reduced sized math units, with reduced routing requirements. A driver for hardware accelerators can maintain full-precision versions of rays and primitives to allow reduced communication requirements for high throughput intersection testing in loosely coupled systems. Embodiments also can include using BFP formatted data in programmable test cells or more general purpose processing elements. |
| US08217934B2 |
System and methods for rendering transparent surfaces in high depth complexity scenes using hybrid and coherent layer peeling
Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for rendering three-dimensional scenes including transparent surfaces are described, including two techniques for efficient rendering of transparent surfaces that exploit partial ordering in the scene geometry. The first (hybrid layer peeling) may combine unordered meshes with ordered meshes in an efficient way, and may be well suited for rendering scenes such as volumes with embedded transparent meshes. The second (coherent layer peeling) may efficiently detect and render correctly sorted fragment sequences for a given pixel in one iteration, allowing for a smaller number of passes than traditional depth peeling. Pre-sorting and/or periodic sorting of some or all of the surfaces in a scene may be performed, but perfect sorting may not be required. The methods may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof, such as by program instructions executable on one or more CPUs and/or GPUs. |
| US08217930B2 |
Fast transitions of large area cholesteric displays
A gray scale drive scheme for passive matrix displays, more specifically cholesteric liquid crystal displays. Prior to writing an image, the display can be given a black appearance by first driving the pixels to a homeotropic state, then driving the pixels to a focal conic state. The drive scheme then resets pixels by driving the selected pixels to a homeotropic state. Selecting and non-selecting row voltage signals are then used in combination with column voltage signals to write an image to the display. |
| US08217927B2 |
Display unit
The invention provides a display unit that has a display area and first and second photodetectors 10a and 10b on a substrate and outputs as a light intensity signal S a light intensity detected by the first and second photodetectors 10a and 10b. The first photodetector 10a includes a first photodetection circuit LS1 outputting a first output signal Sa to an ambient light photosensor reader 20, and the second photodetector 10b includes a light-reducing unit and a second photodetection circuit LS2 outputting a second output signal Sb to an ambient light photosensor reader 20. The ambient light photosensor reader 20 includes a photodegradation factor calculator 21 calculating a photodegradation reparation factor K, a photodegradation rate calculator 22 deriving a photodegradation rate D based on the photodegradation reparation factor K, and a light signal output unit 24 outputting a light intensity signal S based on the photodegradation rate D. |
| US08217926B2 |
Liquid crystal display having compensation circuit for reducing gate delay
An exemplary liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel, a gate driving circuit, a data driving circuit, and a compensation circuit. The liquid crystal panel includes gate lines and data lines intersecting the gate lines. The compensation circuit includes capacitors corresponding to the gate lines. The gate driving circuit is configured for providing scanning signals to the gate lines in sequence. The data driving circuit is configured for providing gray scale voltages to the data lines. The compensation circuit is configured for compensating the scanning signals. |
| US08217924B2 |
Display apparatus and method of driving the same
A display apparatus includes a display panel including gate and data lines disposed thereon, and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (“ICs”) on the display panel and electrically connected to data lines. Flexible printed circuit boards (“FPCBs”) are disposed on the display panel and a printed circuit board to apply the control signal and the image signal from the printed circuit board to the driver ICs. There are less FPCBs than driver ICs. The driver ICs are divided into first and second driver groups; the data lines are divided into first and second groups of data lines. Driver ICs of the first driver group are directly connected to corresponding FPCBs, and driver ICs of the second driver group are connected to adjacent driver ICs. Each driver integrated circuit of the first driver group outputs a first repair signal to repair a data line of the first group of data lines. |
| US08217922B2 |
Synchronized visual and audio apparatus and method
A method and apparatus for synchronizing sound with an illuminated animated image is provided. First and second image frames are defined on a planar surface using a plurality of light transmitting media. A plurality of light sources are positioned adjacent to the plurality of light transmitting media such that the first image frame and the second image frame are illuminated independently by selectively activating each light source in accordance with a pre-programmed illumination sequence. A speaker plays a first sound when the first image frame is illuminated and a second sound when the second image frame is illuminated. A driving device, coupled to the light sources and the speaker, is used to synchronize the illumination of the image frames with the sounds. |
| US08217920B2 |
Data-holding circuit and substrate for a display device
A display device has a data-holding circuit with a capacitance and a display portion with a plurality of pixel electrodes, formed on a first carrier substrate. In the display device, a second carrier substrate disposed opposite the first carrier substrate is placed above the display portion, but the opposing substrate is not present above the area in which the data-holding circuit is disposed. The parasitic capacitance of the data-holding circuit can thereby be reduced. Therefore, the capacitance in the data-holding circuit can be reduced and the area required can be reduced as well. The display data of all the pixels is sent serially to the liquid crystal module without high-speed transfer for each frame time interval, and size can be reduced because the controller IC and interface circuit are formed on the same substrate as the display device substrate. |
| US08217919B2 |
Stylus retaining and releasing mechanism
The stylus retaining and releasing mechanism includes a housing, a push button and an eject piece. The housing includes a first sidewall, a second sidewall connecting with the first sidewall and a stylus assembling portion disposed on the second sidewall. The first sidewall defines an assembling hole therethrough configured for inserting or removing the stylus. The second sidewall defines a button hole therethrough. The stylus assembling portion defines an axial receiving hole therethrough communicating and being coaxial with the assembling hole to receive the stylus therein. The push button is elastically assembled to the button hole of the second sidewall to releasably lock the stylus. The eject piece fixed to the second sidewall and configured to provide a elastic pushing force to eject the stylus out as the push button is pressed. |
| US08217918B2 |
Transparent digitiser
A digitizer for user interaction via an object with an electronically refreshable display screen, the digitizer comprising: a transparent sensing arrangement of detectors located at said electronically refreshable display screen for detecting an electric field of said object, said detectors having outputs, and an arrangement of differential amplifiers associated with said outputs, thereby to apply differential detection between said outputs. |
| US08217914B2 |
Information display apparatus with proximity detection performance and information display method using the same
An information display apparatus with proximity detection performance contains a display device that displays image information, a sensor constituted of plural detection electrodes, and an adjusting device of detection resolution that adjusts the detection resolution to be detected based on a distance between the sensor and an object that is contacted to any one of the detection electrodes. |
| US08217904B2 |
Mobile terminal and screen display method thereof
A mobile terminal and a screen display method of the mobile terminal are disclosed. The mobile terminal includes: a display that comprises a user interface display region and an information display region; and a controller that changes positions of display regions and displaying the changed positions on the display according to a user selection. |
| US08217896B2 |
Computer input device for automatically scrolling
A computer input device includes a body and a trace-detecting module coupled to the body. The body has a micro control unit (MCU), and the trace-detecting module has at least a light pervious area, and a trace-detecting unit. The trace-detecting unit further has at least a light source and a sensor. The sensor senses a reflected light beam caused by movement of a user's digit movement on the light pervious area at a velocity which can be sensed by the sensor. If the velocity exceeds a threshold stored in the MCU, the MCU executes automatically scrolling. |
| US08217887B2 |
System and method for backlight control for an electronic display
The present invention discloses apparatus and techniques relating to the intelligent control of a display's backlight LED strings. The present invention provides for controlling the display intensity on a region-by-region basis and for adjusting the intensity multiple times within the duration of a frame. The present invention also provides backlight adjustment in a manner that emphasizes certain colors and deemphasizes certain colors. The present invention also provides for adjustment of the backlight based on the ambient temperature. |
| US08217884B2 |
Digital image display
A digital image display capable of controlling an image signal output to a display screen portion, particularly capable of precisely controlling the phase of the image signal, regardless of provision/nonprovision of a function of communicating with an image signal output device is obtained. This digital image display includes an analog-to-digital conversion portion converting a received analog image signal to a digital image signal, a display screen portion displaying the digital image signal converted by the analog-to-digital conversion portion and a control portion controlling a clock value, a phase value, a horizontal position and vertical position of the digital image signal, while the control portion is so formed as to decide the optimum phase value on the basis of pixel data on the boundary between an image region having no image and another image region having an image in the digital image signal when controlling the phase value of the digital image signal. |
| US08217882B2 |
Liquid crystal display with data compensation function and method for compensating data utilizing isolated coupling lines
An liquid crystal display with data compensating function includes a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of first data lines, a plurality of second data lines, a pixel array, a first common end, a second common end, a plurality of first coupling lines, and a plurality of second coupling lines. The first coupling lines are disposed correspondingly near the first data lines, and are coupled to the first common end. The second coupling lines are disposed correspondingly near the second data lines, and are coupled to the second common end. The first common end carries voltages having same polarity as those of the first data lines for driving the first coupling lines. The second common end carries voltages having same polarity as those of the second data lines for driving the second coupling lines. The first common end is isolated from the second common end. |
| US08217879B2 |
Liquid crystal display and operation method thereof
A pixel unit in the present invention is divided into two sub-pixels. Each sub-pixel includes a thin film transistor, a liquid crystal capacitor and a storage capacitor. The two transistors respectively located in different sub-pixels are connected to different scan lines. One of the two transistors is connected to the data line through another transistor. Therefore, two different pixel voltages are formed in a pixel. |
| US08217874B2 |
Image projection apparatus
An image projection apparatus is disclosed which projects an image having a good color by reducing the influence of a lateral electric field in a liquid crystal display element (LCD). The apparatus includes three LCDs, each including two opposite electrodes. As the voltage applied to a liquid crystal layer is increased, retardation provided for light in each color band is increased. A controller controls an electrode application voltage in the first LCD such that, in a white display state, a liquid crystal application voltage (LCAV) in the first LCD is lower than the LCAVs in the second and third LCDs, and such that, in a black display state, the LCAV in the first LCD is higher than the LCAVs in the second and third LCDs and has a value from 1% to 30% of the LCAV in the first LCD in the white display state. |
| US08217870B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating gradation voltage for X-axis symmetric gamma inversion
A method and apparatus for generating gradation voltages are provided. Maximum and minimum reference voltages are selected from a distribution of voltages ranging from a first source voltage to a second source voltage. The maximum reference voltage is selected as a 1st gradation voltage and the minimum reference voltage is selected as an Nth gradation voltage, or vice versa, in response to an inversion control signal, where N is a natural number. First to Mth gamma voltages are selected from among a plurality of voltages generated by a voltage distribution between the 1st gradation voltage and the Nth gradation voltage. Second to (N−1)th gradation voltages are generated from a voltage distribution between the 1st gradation voltage and the Nth gradation voltage, using the 1st gamma voltage to the Mth gamma voltage, where M is a natural number. |
| US08217869B2 |
Flexible display system
The present exemplary embodiment relates to an improved flexible display system. One form of the display may use various types of switchable materials contained in micro cells formed from a fabric or mesh material. These cells may serve as a spacer between two opposing electrode sheets and may be individually sealed to the electrode sheets on each face. Moreover, the fabric may, in some forms, be implemented as an electrical grid for addressing the micro cells. |
| US08217866B2 |
Data driving circuit and driving method of light emitting display using the same
A data driving circuit capable of displaying images having uniform brightness. The present invention provides a data driving circuit of a display device having: at least one current sinking unit for controlling a predetermined current to flow in a data line; at least one voltage generating unit for resetting voltage values of enhancement voltages using a compensation voltage generated when the predetermined current flows; at least one digital-analog converter for selecting as a data signal one of the enhancement voltages to correspond to a digital value of externally supplied data; at least one boosting unit for boosting a voltage value of the data signal; and at least one switching unit for providing the data line with the boosted data signal. |
| US08217861B2 |
Driving circuit, and a pixel circuit incorporating the same
A driving circuit includes: a switch unit permitting transfer of a data signal when operating in an on state; a capacitor having a first end coupled to the switch unit, and a second end; a first transistor having a first terminal for coupling to a second voltage source, a second terminal coupled to the second end of the capacitor and to a load, and a control terminal coupled to the first end of the capacitor; and a second transistor having a first terminal coupled to the second end of the capacitor, a second terminal receiving a bias voltage, and a control terminal coupled to the first terminal of the second transistor. |
| US08217858B2 |
Image display apparatus
An image display apparatus includes a rear plate including electron emitting devices each including a pair of electrodes and an electron emitting unit, first wirings each interconnecting electrodes in one of the pair of electrodes of the electron emitting devices arrayed at the same row, second wirings each interconnecting electrodes in another of the pair of electrodes of the electron emitting devices arrayed at the same column and higher in resistance than the first wirings, an insulating layer covering the second wirings, and resistive films connected to the first wirings and partially overlapping with the second wirings to cover the insulating layer, and having surface resistance set to 108Ω/□ or more. The resistive films are connected to the first wirings at portions not overlapping with the second wirings, and a length L of the resistive film between a portion of the resistive film connected to the first wiring and a portion overlapping with the second wiring satisfies a relationship. |
| US08217856B1 |
Head-mounted display that displays a visual representation of physical interaction with an input interface located outside of the field of view
A head-mounted display (HMD) displays a visual representation of a physical interaction with an input interface that is located outside of the field of view. In one embodiment, the visual representation includes symbols that indicate when close proximity or physical contact is made with the input interface. In another embodiment, the visual representation is a simulation of the physical interaction with the input interface. The visual representation displayed by the HMD can beneficially enable the wearer to interact with the input interface more efficiently. |
| US08217855B2 |
System for generating a plurality of display signals
A system generates a plurality of display signals. The system includes a source of data representing a plurality of display images. A processor combines the data representing the plurality of display images into a single composite data matrix in which the data representing the plurality of display images are interleaved. A DVI signal generator produces a DVI signal representing the single composite data matrix. A splitter is responsive to the DVI signal representing the single composite data matrix. The splitter extracts the respective data representing the plurality of display images and generates corresponding DVI signals respectively representing the plurality of display images. |
| US08217854B2 |
Method and system for managing a multi-focus remote control session
A method and system for managing a multi-focus remote control session (RCS) within a computer system. A unique identifier (UserID) of each user and associated input devices are registered to the RCS. The users have shared concurrent control of a computer screen via the input devices. Responsive to selection of windows within the computer screen by the input devices, concurrently operative focus is provided to each selected window and is specific to the UserID associated with the input device that selected the window. Each selected window having focus may be accessed and manipulated by only the input devices associated with the UserID to which the focus provided to each selected window is specific. The selected windows to which focus has been provided are recording in a computer readable medium in association with the UserID specific to the selection of the windows. |
| US08217853B2 |
Electrical connector assembly with antenna function
An electrical connector assembly (100) with antenna function comprising: a PCB (50) comprising a feeding circuit and a grounding circuit; an electrical connector (20) installed on the PCB comprising a metal shell (21) electrically connecting to the grounding circuit; a metal patch (30) connecting to the metal shell comprising a radiating element (33) and a connecting element (31); the radiating element electrical connecting to the feeding circuit; the connecting element connecting the radiating element and the metal shell; the radiating element, the connecting element, and the metal shell forming an antenna that serves as a medium for transmission and reception of electromagnetic signals. |
| US08217848B2 |
Remote electrical tilt antenna with motor and clutch assembly
RET antenna with motor and clutch assembly that is operative to mechanically disengage the DC motor and drive unit (also called the gear-motor unit) from the phase shifter adjustment shaft during a manual tilt operation. Disengaging the gear-motor unit removes the drag of the motor and the high gear ratio gear box from the phase shifter control rod making it easier to manually turn the phase shifter control knob. In addition, the clutch disengages the gear-motor without disengaging the position detector from the phase shifter control rod so that position calibration is not lost during manual tilt adjustment. When the manual tilt operation is completed, the mechanical tilt clutch enables the gear-motor unit to be reliably re-engaged with the phase shifter control rod for motorized electrical tilt operation without having to re-calibrate the position detector. |
| US08217842B2 |
Electronic device with edge surface antenna elements and related methods
An electronic device may include a multilayer circuit board having opposing major surfaces and edge surfaces extending between the opposing major surfaces, wireless processing circuitry on at least one of the opposing major surfaces, and an antenna element on at least one of the edge surfaces. The multilayer circuit board may include a conductive trace coupling the antenna element to the wireless processing circuitry. |
| US08217834B2 |
System and method for beamforming in a wireless communication system
The method for beamforming in a wireless communication system comprises the steps of: receiving a sounding packet so as to estimate channel state information between a transmitter and a receiver; generating a beamforming matrix in accordance with the channel state information; generating a beamforming steering matrix by multiplying the beamforming matrix by a rotation matrix; and feeding back the beamforming steering matrix. |
| US08217833B2 |
GNSS superband ASIC with simultaneous multi-frequency down conversion
A multi-frequency down converter includes first and second signal paths. A common local oscillator/synthesizer drives both of the signal paths. Exemplary applications include GNSS systems operating across superbands. The down converter is adapted for use in a GNSS receiver system. |
| US08217832B2 |
Enhancing location accuracy using multiple satellite measurements based on environment
A system and method for determining a location of a wireless device in a communications network. A request for satellite assistance data may be received from a requesting entity, and a reference location determined as a function of the request. One or more characterizing attributes may be identified as a function of the reference location, and a set of satellites determined as a function of the reference location. It may also be determined whether more than one set of signal measurements should be acquired from one or more satellites in the set of satellites as a function of the identified one or more characterizing attributes. The one or more sets of signal measurements may be acquired, and a location of the wireless device determined from the acquired measurements. |
| US08217830B2 |
Forward facing sensing system for a vehicle
A forward facing sensing system comprises a windshield electronics module disposed in the interior cabin of a vehicle at and behind the windshield. A radar sensor device is disposed within the windshield electronics module and a forward facing image sensor is disposed within the windshield electronics module, and with both disposed behind or adjacent to an upper region of the windshield. A control comprising an image processor analyzes images captured by the forward facing image sensor in order to, at least in part, detect an object present forward of the vehicle in its direction of forward travel. The radar sensor device may utilize beam aiming or beam selection or may utilize digital beam forming or digital beam steering or may comprise an array antenna or a phased array antenna or the forward facing image sensor may comprise a pixelated imaging array sensor. The radar sensor device comprises a silicon germanium radar sensor. |
| US08217829B2 |
Apparatus and method for determining axis deviation of radar
A radar, mounted on a vehicle, emits electromagnetic waves to a side area of a vehicle and receives reflected electromagnetic waves to detect a distance and a bearing of a physical object. A speed of the vehicle is detected. When the vehicle speed is greater than a predetermined value, it is determined whether multiple reflection occurs based on at least distances detected by the radar. If it is determined that the multiple reflection occurs, an axis deviation of the radar is determined based on a difference between the detected bearing of the multiple reflection waves and a reference bearing. |
| US08217826B1 |
Genetic algorithm enhancement of radar system survivability
A process for enhancing radar system survivability against a threat includes the construction of multiple computational radar function chromosomes with each of the chromosomes having values for geometric configuration and operational parameters for at least one radar station emitter and at least one decoy. A genetic algorithm analysis is performed on a computer including a crossover operator and a mutation operator to determine a fitness value for multiple chromosomes against the threat. By configuring and operating the radar system based on a survivability value for the fitness value of the genetic algorithm analysis, radar system survivability against a threat is enhanced. A radar system employing genetic algorithm analysis is also provided. |
| US08217823B2 |
Method for converting analog data into digital data for analog input module
A method for converting analog data into digital data for analog input module is disclosed, wherein the analog input module adds at least one or more digital data determined at previous conversion periods (k−1th, . . . k−dth, said k and d being a natural number) to n numbers of digital data converted to the current conversion period (kth), and determines a value corresponding to a mean level in size among the digital data as a final digital conversion value of the current conversion period (kth), and outputs the value, and as a result, even if the n numbers of digital data converted to the current conversion period (kth) are greatly deviated from an original value by noise, a stable result having a minimum influence by the noise can be provided in industrial sites where many noises are introduced, by allowing a digital data value approximate to the original value to be outputted. |
| US08217822B2 |
Resolution enhancing analog-to-digital conversion
A resolution-enhancing analog-to-digital signal conversion circuit is provided. The circuit includes a plurality of analog-to-digital converters arranged in parallel. Each analog-to-digital converter of the plurality of analog-to-digital converters is configured to output a digital signal that identifies an analog signal input to that analog-to-digital converter. The circuit further includes an input regulation module configured to clip the analog signal input to any of the plurality of analog-to-digital converters to within the voltage range corresponding to that analog-to-digital converter if such an analog signal otherwise is outside of the voltage range. The circuit further includes a controller configured to receive the digital signal output from each analog-to-digital converter and output an encoded signal based on one or more such digital signal that is received from an unclipped analog-to-digital converter having a highest analog-to-digital conversion resolution. |
| US08217819B2 |
Multiplying DAC and a method thereof
The present invention is directed to a multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) and its method. First ends of capacitors are electrically coupled to an inverting input node of an amplifier, wherein two of the capacitors are alternatively configured as a feedback capacitor. Each capacitor is composed of at least two sub-capacitors. Second ends of capacitors are electrically coupled to an input signal via a number of sampling switches, and the second ends of the capacitors are electrically coupled to DAC voltages respectively via a number of amplifying switches. A sorting circuit is configured to sort the sub-capacitors, wherein the sorted sub-capacitors are then paired in a manner such that variance of mismatch among the sub-capacitors is thus averaged. |
| US08217817B2 |
Current switch circuit and D/A converter, semiconductor integrated circuit, and communication device using the same
[Means for Solving the Problem] In a current switch circuit A used for a current steering D/A converter, a current switch basic circuit 1 includes first and second transistors Tr121 and Tr122 included in a differential switch 12. A threshold voltage control circuit 5 has an output terminal Vbout controlling the substrate voltage to be outputted to the substrate terminal of each of the two transistors Tr121 and Tr122 included in the differential switch 12 for controlling the threshold voltage of the two transistors of the differential switch. Accordingly, the present invention improves the decrease in the dynamic range of the current switch basic circuit 1 dependent on the threshold of each of the two transistors in the differential switch 12 and realizes a wider output voltage range without causing deterioration in properties even in a case that the power voltage is reduced in the current switch basic circuit 1. |
| US08217816B2 |
Sigma-delta modulator
A Sigma-Delta Modulator (SDM) has a summing junction that receives an input signal and a feedback signal, a multi-level analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that receives the SDM input signal and generates an ADC output, a first analog switch that receives the ADC output and generates a plurality of reference voltages, a second analog switch generating the feedback signal, where the feedback signal is selected from one of the reference voltages. |
| US08217814B1 |
Low power serial to parallel converter
A serial-to-parallel converter includes a sampling unit that may, in response to a serial clock signal, sample a serial data stream and provide an even serial data stream, and an odd serial data stream. The serial-to-parallel converter also includes a strobe generator and a number of latches. The strobe generator generates a plurality of enable signals based upon the serial clock signal. The frequency of a given enable signal corresponds to a fractional multiple of a frequency of the serial clock signal. In response to a particular respective enable signal, each of a first portion of the latches may latch and output a particular respective even data bit. Each of a second portion of the latches may latch and output a particular respective odd data bit. The serial-to-parallel converter further includes a number of output flip-flops to output the data bits in parallel in response to an output clock signal. |
| US08217810B2 |
Memory management for prediction by partial matching context models
Techniques for resource management of a PPM context model are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to a sequence of symbols to be coded, contexts are allocated, each having multiple entries and each entry representing a symbol that the current context is able to encode, including a counter value representing a frequency of each entry being used. For each symbol coded by a context, a local counter value and a global counter value are maintained. The global counter value represents a total number of symbols that have been coded by the context model and the local counter value represents a number symbols that have been coded by the respective context. Thereafter, a resource management operation is performed for system resources associated with the plurality of contexts based on a global counter value and a local counter value associated with each of the plurality of contexts. |
| US08217808B2 |
Incremental coder and method for determining a value of variation of stable positions of the coder
An incremental coder in which stable positions of the coder are defined by multiples of an increment of the coder. The coder computes a difference between a binary word obtained for a current stable position and a binary word obtained for a previous stable position, and computes the value of variation of stable positions by determining the integer part of the division of the difference by the number of increments between two stable positions. |
| US08217804B2 |
High power AMR transmitter with data profiling for mobile networks
The invention provides a method and circuitry for transmitting signals in a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum, AMR network using mobile receivers operating at greater than 1 milliwatt and providing data profiling data to be read out through an I/O port or transmitted over the RF network, which may use one-way or two-way communication. |
| US08217799B2 |
System for monitoring the state of electrical power supply and mechanical tension in an overhead contact line
The system comprises a multiplicity of control and signaling devices (3), at least one for each line segment, each provided with a circuit able to detect the presence, in the segment of contact line (1), of the traction voltage and to signal its presence or absence locally. |
| US08217798B2 |
System, converter and method for wide area distribution of supervised emergency audio
A wide area fire safety and detection system is disclosed. The system includes a control node configured to execute a first detection routine, wherein the control node has a network interface, and an amplifier having an audio output, wherein the amplifier is configured to communicate the audio output to a plurality of fire safety nodes. The system further includes a remote node in communication with the control node, wherein the remote node has a network interface configured for communication with at least the network interface of the control node, and an audio converter configured to receive the audio output and generated a converted audio output, wherein the converted out is compatible with a microphone input. |
| US08217797B2 |
Posture training device
Sensory indication modules intimately associated with a surface for detection of angle relative to true vertical and acceleration, and include feedback indicators for communicating localized information in relation to the detected angle and acceleration. Further included is a control module for communicating command and control instructions with the sensory indication modules. |
| US08217793B2 |
Rogue RFID detector
A system, techniques, and apparatus for detecting rogue RFID readers are disclosed. The system detects unauthorized reader to tag communication, and with multiple detectors, provides location information concerning one or more unauthorized readers. The system can detect high power commands of an unauthorized reader(s) in predefined areas and be integrated with an article surveillance system. |
| US08217790B2 |
Portable motion detector and alarm system and method
A portable security alarm system including a movement detecting and signal transmitting member for mounting on or proximate to the object whose movement is to be detected, a signal receiving and alarm generating member for receiving a signal from the movement detecting and signal transmitting member and producing a security response, a remote control for actuating and deactuating the signal receiving and alarm generating member, an environmental monitoring member for sensing an environmental condition and providing a signal to the signal receiving and alarm generating member, a visual information gathering member for gathering visual information and providing a signal to the signal receiving and alarm generating member, an audio output member for receiving a signal from the signal receiving and alarm generating member and generating an audio output, and components for delivering a security notification to remote recipients. A security network that includes the alarm system is also disclosed. An inertial sensor for alarm system or for activating or deactivating a device is additionally disclosed. |
| US08217789B2 |
Portable motion detector and alarm system and method
A portable security alarm system including a movement detecting and signal transmitting member for mounting on or proximate to the object whose movement is to be detected, a signal receiving and alarm generating member for receiving a signal from the movement detecting and signal transmitting member and producing a security response, a remote control for actuating and deactuating the signal receiving and alarm generating member, an environmental monitoring member for sensing an environmental condition and providing a signal to the signal receiving and alarm generating member, a visual information gathering member for gathering visual information and providing a signal to the signal receiving and alarm generating member, an audio output member for receiving a signal from the signal receiving and alarm generating member and generating an audio output, and components for delivering a security notification to remote recipients. A security network that includes the alarm system is also disclosed. An inertial sensor for alarm system or for activating or deactivating a device is additionally disclosed. |
| US08217788B2 |
Shoe wear-out sensor, body-bar sensing system, unitless activity assessment and associated methods
A shoe wear out sensor includes at least one detector for sensing a physical metric that changes as a sole of a shoe wears out, a processor configured to process the physical metric over time to determine if the shoe is worn out, and an alarm for informing a user of the shoe when the sole is worn out. A body bar sensing system includes a housing with at least one detector for sensing a physical metric that indicates a repetition movement of the housing when attached to the body bar, a processor for processing the physical metric over time to determine repetitions thereof, and a display for informing a user of the repetitions. A system assesses activity and displays a unitless activity value. A detector senses activity of a user. A processor reads sensed activity data from the detector. A display displays the unitless activity value. An enclosure houses the detector and the processor. The processor periodically reads the sensed activity data from the detector and processes the data to generate an activity number, the number being used to generate the unitless activity value based upon a maximum number and a display range. |
| US08217774B2 |
Method for controlling a locking system of a motor vehicle and a motor vehicle
The invention relates to a method for controlling a locking system of a motor vehicle wherein, as the states of the locking system, there is an unlocked state, a locked state from which it is possible to switch to the unlocked state via at least a first operating element inside the vehicle, and a security state in which by simply activating a first operating element it is not possible to switch to the unlocked state. The aim of the invention is to propose a method that allows a person inside the motor vehicle to still leave the motor vehicle despite user activation of the security state without substantially easing the opening of the motor vehicle from the outside by an unauthorized third party. Four concepts are proposed that can all be implemented in combination to great benefit. They enable a person still inside the vehicle to leave the motor vehicle upon activation of the security state. |
| US08217773B2 |
Field watch apparatus
A field watch apparatus uses a storage unit to store detection data of a detected obstacle from an obstacle sensor that detects objects under control of a control unit, and the detection data accumulated in the storage unit over time is used to display a mark on a captured image that is captured by a camera and shown on a screen of a display unit. The mark size and other attributes of the mark in the image are controlled in a manner that enables a view to easily recognize an old mark from a new one, thereby providing an intuitive recognition of the obstacle movement in a certain direction in the captured image, when the mark is superposed in the captured image for multiple times based on the accumulated detection data in the storage unit. |
| US08217766B2 |
Vehicle presence notification apparatus
A vehicle presence notification apparatus uses several ultrasonic transducer devices to generate a notice sound by emitting an ultrasonic wave in mid air based on an ultrasonic signal modulated according to an audible sound. At least one of the speaker-use ultrasonic transducer devices is a two-way transducer device that is enabled to perform not only transmission but also reception of an ultrasonic wave. When a vehicle velocity is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the two-way transducer device is caused to function as an ultrasonic sensor. Thus, even when the generation of any notice sound is unnecessary due to the vehicle velocity being fast, the vehicle presence notification apparatus can be used as an ultrasonic sensor to measure a distance with an obstacle outside of the vehicle. |
| US08217762B2 |
Method for using a mobile control device
There is described method for using a mobile control device that serves for controlling a machine within an assigned effective range which is only partially delimited by one or more RFID transponders and has protective measures. Control commands of the control device are also executed when it does not receive any valid transponder data, but the controller has received a corresponding signal. |
| US08217761B2 |
Method for preventing reader collision, method for driving an RFID reader using the method and RFID reader for performing the method
A method for preventing reader collision, includes detecting the number of readable readers within a readable region of a target reader, calculating the number of peripheral readers within the readable region and a collision region of the target reader by using the number of the readable readers, forming one frame with time slots of which the number equals to the number of the peripheral readers, and setting a present time slot of the target reader to be one of the time slots, the one being selected randomly in the time slots. Therefore, a multiple-readers-to-tag interference which happens when more than one RFID reader tries to access to one tag and a reader-to-reader interference are prevented. |
| US08217759B2 |
Systems and methods for detecting activities
Exemplary embodiments provide systems and methods for detecting activities and determining information about the activities. Exemplary embodiments use one or more items of context information on one or more objects to detect an activity. Examples of context information include, but are not limited to, identities of objects, roles or activities associated with objects, locations/locales of objects, historical locations/locales of objects, associations between objects, duration of associations between objects, etc. Upon detecting an activity, exemplary embodiments also determine information about the detected activity. |
| US08217752B2 |
Remote monitoring system and method controlling the same
The present invention relates to a remote monitoring system and a method controlling the same, which can selectively monitor according to a condition of power and a control of devices including a washer and a dryer installed in a remote place. The remote monitoring system comprises a communication module provided in each device for transmitting monitoring information after identifying an operation condition of each device according to a user's demand; and a remote monitoring unit for selecting a device to be monitored based on a result after identifying a power condition of each device, as well as displaying an operation condition of each device based on the transmitted monitoring information and the control of each device. |
| US08217751B2 |
Electronic device and method
An article is provided that includes a plurality of layers. Each layer includes a sinterable mass having a sinter temperature that is less than about 1000 degrees Celsius, and an inner electrode proximate to the sinterable mass. The inner electrode includes a material having a melting point that is within a determined temperature range of about 10 degrees Celsius to about 200 degrees Celsius relative to the sintering temperature. A method to make the article is also provided. |
| US08217750B2 |
3-electrode surge protective device
The 3-electrode surge protective device includes: a surge protective device body including: an earth electrode; a ceramic cylinder; and a pair of line electrodes; and a fail-safe spring including: an elastic mount portion; and a short-circuit portion, a conductive material that is sandwiched between the fail-safe spring and the body; and a pair of first lead pins provided on the pair of line electrodes; a second lead pin provided on the earth electrode. In a normal state, the conductive material support the short-circuit portion at a separation position where the short-circuit portion is separated from the outer peripheral face of the body and the first lead pins. In case where the body is overheated and the conductive material is melted, the short-circuit portion is moved to a contact position where the short-circuit portion comes into contact with the second lead pin and the first lead pins. |
| US08217743B2 |
Magnetic locking system
Preferred embodiments of the present magnetic locking system can be used for releasably locking a first component to a second component. In one embodiment, the locking system includes a ferro-magnetic member associated with the first component, where the ferro-magnetic member is made of a ferro-magnetic material, and a housing attached to the second component and positioned adjacent to the ferro-magnetic member. Preferably, the housing includes first and second blocks that sandwich an intermediate block. Further, the first and second blocks are each preferably made of a ferro-magnetic material and the intermediate block is made of a non-ferro-magnetic material. Additionally, there is also an aperture formed within the housing, with a permanent magnet rotatably seated within the aperture. The magnetic locking system preferably includes a switch mechanism that is operatively connected to one of the permanent magnet and the housing, wherein the switch mechanism is configured and arranged to rotate the housing and the permanent magnet relative to each other between an “on” position and an “off” position. |
| US08217734B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for coupling a signal to and/or from a cable
Apparatuses and methods for coupling a signal to and from a twisted pair cable by non-contact coupling with twisted pairs in the twisted pair cable, such that the signal propagates along the cable between at least two of the twisted pairs. In particular, a coupling unit for coupling a voltage signal to and/or from such a cable, the coupling unit having a first electrode and a second electrode. The electrodes may be electrically isolated from a voltage signal generator and/or a voltage signal processor. |
| US08217729B2 |
Integrated circuits including an LC tank circuit and operating methods thereof
An integrated circuit includes an inductor-capacitor (LC) tank circuit coupled with a feedback loop. The LC tank circuit is configured to output an output signal having a peak voltage that is substantially equal to a direct current (DC) voltage level plus an amplitude. The feedback loop is capable of determining if the peak voltage of the output signal falls within a range between a first voltage level and a second voltage level for adjusting the amplitude of the output signal. |
| US08217728B2 |
LC voltage-controlled oscillator
An LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is provided. The LC VCO includes an LC resonant circuit including at least one inductor whose both terminals are connected to output nodes and at least one capacitor connected in parallel with the inductor, and an amplifier circuit including at least one pair of switching transistors. Here, drains of the pair of switching transistors are connected to the output nodes respectively, and gates of the switching transistors are connected with the drains through a variable capacitance block exhibiting different characteristics according to an input signal. |
| US08217726B2 |
Oscillator and input-output device and method of controlling the same
A semiconductor device according to an exemplary aspect of the invention is capable of being selectively switched between an oscillation circuit and a signal input-output circuit, and includes first and second external connecting terminals that are connectable to an oscillation device; an inverting amplifier an input side of which is electrically connected to the first external connecting terminal through a coupling capacitor and an output side of which is electrically connected to the second external connecting terminal; a feedback resistor connected to the input side and the output side of the inverting amplifier; a bias stabilization circuit that stabilizes a bias applied to the coupling capacitor; a first signal input-output portion connected to the first external connecting terminal; and a second signal input-output portion connected to the second external connecting terminal. |
| US08217724B2 |
Atomic clock
An atomic clock comprises endohedral fullerene systems which provide the standard frequency oscillations. A magnet device applies a magnetic field to the endohedral fullerenes. The applied magnetic field is adjustable. An excitation device both excites each endohedral fullerene system to cause it to undergo transitions which generate the time-keeping oscillations, and also probes the systems such that the oscillations can be measured and the device controlled. A detection device senses the response of the systems induced by the excitation device. The output of the detection device is fed to a controller. The controller produces the atomic clock output, which is the clock signal or frequency standard, and also controls the magnet device and the excitation device. The controller controls the magnetic field applied by the magnet device such that the energy difference of the time-keeping transition is insensitive to variations in magnetic field, thereby stabilizing the frequency of the oscillations and avoiding the effects of changes in external magnetic field. |
| US08217720B2 |
Variable-gain low noise amplifier
A highly linear variable-gain low noise amplifier is a cascode amplifier. The cascode amplifier includes a gain control circuit, a load circuit, a current steering circuit and an input circuit. The gain control circuit is used for receiving a gain adjusting voltage, thereby generating a resistance adjusting signal and a current steering control signal. The load circuit includes plural variable resistors. The resistances of the variable resistors are adjusted according to the resistance adjusting signal. The current steering circuit is connected to the load circuit through plural current paths for adjusting a current ratio between the plural current paths according to the current steering control signal. The current steering circuit has differential signal output terminals. The input circuit is connected to the current steering circuit. The input circuit has differential signal input terminals. |
| US08217716B2 |
Bias circuit, high-power amplifier, and portable information terminal
To provide a bias circuit for gain control that can reduce gain variation at low-power output, facilitate setting of output power, and is unlikely to be affected by variation in element values and variations among products. Use in an HPA having three bias circuits serially-connected is assumed. Current of the third bias circuit is varied with a square-law characteristic. The square-law characteristic is amplified by a buffer amplifier including a linear amplifier and a peripheral circuit thereof. Output current of the third bias circuit varies depending on a current drivability coefficient of the diode-connected FET branched from the connection point between a constant current source and the linear amplifier. The output current of the third bias circuit is controlled by providing a circuit that draws a certain amount of current from the current flowing in the FET. |
| US08217715B2 |
Active polyphase filter producing two difference outputs having phase difference of π/2 radians
An active poly-phase filter has a converting section and a filtering section having two first input terminals, two second input terminals and four output terminals. The converting section has first, second, fourth and fifth transistors forming a translinear circuit and a third transistor forming a current mirror circuit with the second transistor. The converting section converts unbalanced high-frequency power into a difference input between a collector current of the third transistor and a collector current of the first transistor having phase difference of π radians. The filtering section receives one collector current at the first input terminals and receives another collector current at the second input terminals and outputs a first difference output between outputs of two output terminals and a second difference output between outputs of other two output terminals such that the difference outputs has a phase difference of π/2 radians. |
| US08217706B2 |
Method for regulating temperature
A method and circuit for managing thermal performance of an integrated circuit. Temperature sensing circuits and a plurality of power FETs that are coupled together in parallel are manufactured from a semiconductor substrate. Each temperature sensing circuit monitors the temperature of the portion of the semiconductor substrate near or including a corresponding power FET. When the temperature of the semiconductor substrate near one or more of the power FETs reaches a predetermined value, the corresponding temperature sensing circuit reduces a voltage appearing on the gate of the power FET. The reduced voltage increases the on-resistance of the power FET and channels a portion of its current to others of the plurality of power FETs. The power FET continues operating but with a reduced current flow. When the temperature of the semiconductor substrate falls below the predetermined value, the gate voltage of the power FET is increased to its nominal value. |
| US08217702B2 |
Circuitry for processing signals from a higher voltage domain using devices designed to operate in a lower voltage domain
An apparatus is disclosed for receiving input signals in a first higher voltage domain and for generating and outputting signals in a second lower voltage domain, said apparatus comprising: an input pad; output circuitry, said output circuitry being configured to switch to output a first predetermined value in response to a rising input signal exceeding an upper threshold value and to switch to output a second predetermined value in response to a falling input signal falling below a lower threshold value; a first input path; a second input path; and a controllable connecting path between said first and second inputs. |
| US08217700B1 |
Multifunction input/output circuit
In one example, a chip includes integrated components configured to operate in the digital domain and the analog domain. An I/O pad located on the chip is configured to provide an external device access to the integrated components. A multifunction I/O interface cell between the I/O pad and the integrated components is configured to selectively connect different combinations of the components to the same I/O pad at different times. The multifunction I/O interface cell may include a first switching device connected to ground, a second switching device connected to a reference voltage, an analog input/output buffer, and a digital input/output buffer. |
| US08217695B2 |
Fast measurement initialization for memory
Systems and methods for synchronization of clock signals are disclosed. In a feedback system such as a delay-lock loop circuit, delays to be applied can be determined adaptively based on a phase difference between a reference signal and a clock signal being delayed. Such adaptive decisions can be made during each feedback cycle, thereby making it possible to achieve a phase lock faster and more efficiently. In some embodiments, such adaptive functionality can be incorporated into existing circuits with minimal impact. |
| US08217693B2 |
Charge pump with reduced current mismatch
Charge pump circuitry is provided that is insensitive to charge sharing and current mismatch effects. The charge pump circuitry has an output node at which a charge pump output voltage is provided. A first current source charges the output node to increase the output voltage or a second current source discharge the output node to decrease the output voltage. The charge pump circuitry uses a unit-gain op-amp circuit to prevent charge sharing effects from affecting the output voltage when switching between discharging and charging operations. A low-pass filter is used to reduce feedback noise on the output node. A replica feedback circuit prevents current mismatch between the currents produced by the first and second current sources. The first and second current sources may be formed using programmable transistors that are adjusted by static control signals provided by programmable elements to further minimize current mismatch. |
| US08217691B2 |
Low power clocking scheme for a pipelined ADC
Delay locked loops or DLLs are oftentimes employed in pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Conventional DLLs, though, can consume an excessive amount of power. Here, a DLL is provided with a modified charge pump that allows for reduced power consumption. |
| US08217686B2 |
Driver chip for driving an inductive load and module having a driver chip
A driver chip for driving an inductive load and a module having a driver chip are provided. The driver chip contains a first transistor for coupling a first potential to a first output and a second transistor for coupling a second potential to the first output. A first protection circuit reduces an increased voltage between a control terminal and a load junction terminal of the first transistor. The driver chip has a first state in which the second transistor is turned off and the first transistor can switch a passive inductive load connected to the output. In a second state, the first transistor and the second transistor can switch an external power transistor connected to the first output. A second output is connected to a load junction terminal of the external power transistor. A second protection circuit reduces an increased voltage between the first and second outputs. |
| US08217680B2 |
Method of operating inverter
A method of operating inverter may include providing a load transistor and a driving transistor connected to the load transistor wherein at least one of the load transistor and the driving transistor has a double gate structure, and varying a threshold voltage of the at least one of the load transistor and the driving transistor having the double gate structure. A threshold voltage of the load transistor or the driving transistor may be adjusted by the double gate structure, and accordingly, the inverter may be an enhancement/depletion (E/D) mode inverter. |
| US08217679B2 |
Method and system for determining power measurement inside a field programmable gate array without external components
A method of calculating total power usage of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) without external components generates at least one coefficient based on a power equation and a given FPGA logic design, wherein the power equation calculates FPGA power as a function of temperature and voltage. The at least one coefficient is applied to the power equation along with internally generated temperature and voltage measurement values. The temperature measurement and the voltage measurement values are applied to the power equation with the at least one coefficient applied to calculate a power measurement based on the temperature measurement value and the voltage measurement value. The at least one coefficient is generated by taking an FPGA design and iteratively simulating the design in a power estimation tool over a range of temperature and input voltage values. A characterization data set is generated and curve fitted to the power equation to produce the at least one coefficient. |
| US08217678B1 |
Fracturable lookup table and logic element
A logic element includes memory elements, multiplexers, and controls. The multiplexers are arranged in levels including a highest level of multiplexers with inputs connected to the memory elements and outputs connected to inputs of a next-to-highest level of multiplexers and a first level of multiplexers with inputs connected to outputs of a second level of multiplexers and at least one output. The controls are connected to the multiplexers. In a first operational mode the controls determine a first-mode output at the at least one output of the first level of multiplexers, and in a second operational mode the controls determine a plurality of second-mode outputs at selected outputs of multiplexers not at the first level of multiplexers. |
| US08217677B2 |
System and method for modulating a power supply in a relay test system
A system and method are provided for using a class H amplifier in a tester for testing protective relaying equipment, particularly useful in conducting end to end testing. The class H amplifier is configured to provide separation between the amplifier and the power supply of the tester using a DSP which also offers flexibility for programming algorithms to realize efficiencies in matching the waveform to the output rail. End to end testing is also improved by including expected results for the test case used by the tester to enable the tester to determine how close the results are to what is expected. This offers time savings and is less prone to error in that the expected results can be predetermined by a qualified/experienced professional. |
| US08217667B2 |
Method and apparatus for piezoelectric sensor status assessment
A method for assessing the status of a piezoelectric sensor of interest is disclosed. The sensor of interest is located adjacent a surface of a mattress supporting a person. In some instances, the sensor of interest may be coupled to a mattress or coupled to a bed frame that supports the mattress. The method involves analyzing the complex impedance of the excited sensor relative to a complex impedance profile. A system for implementing the method is also disclosed. |
| US08217666B2 |
Capacitance detection apparatus
Provided is a capacitance detection apparatus capable of effectively discriminating between an external factor due to e.g. water drops and a human-induced operation and allowing detection of occurrence of the human-induced operation with a simple arrangement. The apparatus alternately executes a first switching control process and a second switching control process, the first and second switching control processes executing a second switch operation with different charging periods from each other. In each of the first and second switching control processes, the number of repetition times of the second switch operation is counted until the potential of a terminal of a reference capacitance changes to a set potential. Based on the number of repetition times in at least one of the two switching control processes, presence/absence of change in determined capacitance (i.e. capacitance to be determined) is determined and based on the numbers of repetition times in the two control processes, it is determined whether the change in the determined capacitance is due to an event of detection interest or not. |
| US08217662B2 |
Testing device for USB I/O board
A testing device for a USB I/O board includes USB plugs connected to the USB I/O board, a connector connected to the USB I/O board, an indication module, and a testing module including data output terminals connected to the USB plugs, data reception terminals connected to the connector, and indication terminals connected to the indication module. The testing module sends a testing signal to the USB I/O board via the data output terminals, and receives the testing signal from the USB I/O board via the data reception terminals. The testing module compares the testing signal to a threshold signal stored in the testing module. If the testing signal and the threshold signal are not substantially the same, the testing module generates an alarm signal to drive the indication module via the indication terminal. The indication module indicates the USB I/O board is abnormal. |
| US08217660B2 |
Open terminal detection device and semiconductor device
An open terminal detection device that detects an open terminal, including: a transistor that is supplied with a base current from a current source in which an amount of current supply decreases corresponding to an increase in an external impedance of the terminal; a diode that limits discharge of a base charge of the transistor; and an output circuit that outputs an output signal in coordination with on/off switching of the transistor. |
| US08217657B2 |
Diplex filter and method to filter signals
A diplex filter is formed by two impedance-transforming filters with separate transmission frequency ranges and with separate cut-off frequency ranges and a connection node at which two series elements of the two filters are connected. These two series elements are each fashioned as a parallel oscillating circuit, each parallel oscillating circuit exhibiting a predetermined reactance in a midband of the respective transmission frequency range and a parallel resonance in a midband of the respective cut-off frequency range. The diplex filter can be realized in a simple and cost-effective manner without ferrite-containing special components, for instance inductively coupled coils or tapped coils thereby allowing use thereof in a magnetic resonance tomograph, for example. |
| US08217654B2 |
Magnetic resonance tomography device with localization system and method to localize a local coil
A magnetic resonance tomography device has a magnet system that generates a gradient field; with a local coil that receives a magnetic resonance signal; and with a localization system that is fashioned to locate the local coil. The localization system has a number of magnetic field sensors that are integrated with the local coil and fashioned to detect the gradient field. Such a device is used in a corresponding method for localization of a local coil in a magnetic resonance tomography device, and a local coil is fashioned so as to be suitable for this purpose. |
| US08217650B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging system and magnetic resonance imaging method
A magnetic resonance imaging system detects a magnetic resonance signal generated from a sample, repeatedly acquires data on the detected magnetic resonance signal in an imaging period and arranges the acquired data in k space. The data is acquired in one acquisition pattern of a plurality of different acquisition patterns, which are determined so that an acquisition frequency of data in some areas of k space is different from that in the other areas of k space. An image of the sample is repeatedly reconstructed based on the acquired data and arranged in the k space. The acquisition is controlled to change the acquisition pattern during the imaging period. |
| US08217641B2 |
Device and method for reading electric currents resulting from an electromagnetic signal detector
A device for reading electric currents including a capacitive element to integrate the current, the terminals of the capacitive element being connected to the mass and to an output branch of the device respectively, and a differential pair including: a first transistor mounted between the input branch of the input stage and the capacitive element, the transistor being controlled by a polarized impulse voltage, capable of putting the first transistor alternately into the off state and then into the on state; and a second transistor mounted between the input branch of the input stage and a potential other than that of the capacitive element, said transistor also being controlled by a polarized impulse voltage, capable of putting the second transistor alternately into the off state and then into the on state, wherein the second transistor is mounted in phase opposition relative to the first transistor. |
| US08217638B1 |
Linear regulation for use with electronic circuits
A linear regulator and methods of regulation are provided. In one implementation, a linear regulator is provided. The linear regulator can receive an input voltage, generate an internal bias voltage in response to the received input voltage. The linear regulator can determine if the input voltage meets one or more first criteria and second criteria, and adjust an output voltage based on the internal bias voltage if the input voltage meets the one or more first criteria. The linear regulator also can supply the input voltage directly to the load if the input voltage meets the one or more second criteria. In some implementations, the linear regulator can generate an internal bias voltage that is clamped within a desired operating range if the input voltage meets the one or more first criteria, and adjusts one or more electronic circuits using the internal bias voltage to provide the adjusted output voltage. |
| US08217637B2 |
Frequency compensation based on dual signal paths for voltage-mode switching regulators
A frequency compensation method for voltage-mode switching regulators is disclosed. A lowpass filter and a bandpass filter are employed in the two signal paths into the dual inputs of PWM comparators. In one embodiment, two zeros are generated to compensate for the L-C output filter poles. Stable operation, low output voltage ripple and fast load transient response are achieved; while the power consumption of error amplifier and the area for implementing on-chip passive components are greatly reduced. |
| US08217633B2 |
Voltage step-up/step-down switching regulator and control method thereof
A switching regulator is provided that includes a step-down circuit configured to output a voltage lower than an input voltage, a step-up circuit configured to output a voltage higher than the input voltage, and a control unit having a voltage detector configured to detect an output voltage and being configured to prohibit operation of the step-up circuit until the output voltage rises to a first voltage lower than the input voltage. |
| US08217631B2 |
ACG output voltage control
A system provides generator control for a power system within a vehicle. The system includes a battery, a generator that outputs power to charge the battery. A sensor detects a state of charge (SOC) value, a health value, a voltage, a current, a temperature, and a charging voltage of the battery. A controller controls a voltage output mode of the generator in response to at least one of a state of charge (SOC) value, a health value, a voltage, a current, a temperature, and a charging voltage of the battery detected by the sensor, the voltage output mode is in response to the SOC and the temperature of the battery. |